Permitting myself some snob value, I must admit that being part of an ‘Invite only’ blogmeet has a certain elitist ring to it and I was over the moon to receive a special invite to participate in one. The fact that Indiblogger was behind it made it all the more special. My association with them over the years has been immensely rewarding for me in terms of learning about blogging nuances from professional bloggers, while also getting something to pamper the shopoholic in me with every time. 🙂

The biggest dream of any Mumbaikar is to have his own comfortable place he can call home. The next, more important, dream is to find a way to tastefully decorate it with the (assumingly) minimal budget left after spending a bomb on the house itself. Knowing this well, I was particularly interested in this blogmeet by Berger Paints  since in a couple of months we’ll be handed over the keys to our brand new home and we’ll be faced with the big question ‘Which paint to use, and why?’

Once we registered we were given a Twitter badge with the #BergerXp hashtag. The agenda for the day sounded fun and I entered the event with the hope of getting refreshingly enlightened about different colours, textures and any information that would help us make the right paint choice.

The blogmeet was held at Taj Vivanta, Cuffe Parade and was attended by a group of successful bloggers with an enviable social media presence. The meet began with a sumptuous lunch. On one side bloggers treated their taste buds with the finger-licking fare, while on the other everyone looked and posed their best with the Instagram placard and the Berger Paints backdrop. Conversations flowed galore and everyone had a wonderful time catching up with their blog friends.

As all bloggers settled at their tables post-lunch, the ever-affable Anoop took the stage and as always put us all through the routine of playing a game and unzombifying (not a word, I know!) us all after the hearty meal. This time it was a hilarious game of musical chairs where we had to do anything from Egyptian or self-invented freestyle dance and hopping on one leg when the music was on. Every table had one winner, so no one had a reason to complain. 🙂

Invigorated after this game, Chandranath Banerjee – Product Manager, Express Painting, joined us and began by sharing the interesting history of Berger Paints with us.

Only around 100 years old, they’ve managed to acquire second place in the paint market in India, behind only the market-leader Asian Paints. With consumer research and focus group discussions, they’ve constantly innovated painting methods and techniques in India.

Historically, painting is a dreaded affair for any family, since it is time-consuming and discomfiting, leaves layers of allergy-inducing dust in the house and has an unavoidable risk of a less-than-perfect finish. Keeping this in mind, Berger has created their mantra ‘Faster. Cleaner. Better.’ which they ensure attaining with the help of various innovative Home Painting Tools.

The Q&A session with Mr. Banerjee was fascinating. I was particularly impressed with how well-informed he was and handled all the questions with the flair of an expert.

Through various questions we realised that these tools were considerably noiseless and economical as per need.

After this was the time to get dirty, literally. We were made into teams and were given a painted piece of wood which we had to clean with the help of sandpaper. We called our female-dominated team of nine ‘#PaintYourImagination’ and completed this task in less than ten seconds wearing gloves and facemasks (I had a coughing fit after that, hmpf!). Too bad we never knew who won it though.

Next was the alluring activity of painting on a canvas on the theme given to the teams. We (and four others) chose ‘I Love Mumbai’. Before we began, Mr. Banerjee gave us a small tutorial to introduce us to the world of emulsions, thinners, stainers and how they were to be mixed for the desired shade and thickness and used in the palette. I was decidedly relieved that these were water colours and had no smell.

Even by the time others had started staining their canvases, our team was undecided on what to do with ours. Few disagreements later, two of us simply started on our own and others joined in quickly. Thankfully, too many talented painters didn’t spoil our canvas and we created what looked like a well thought-out professional painting. The cherry on the cake was that we won! Yay! Team #PaintYourImagination rocked! 😀

By the time we wrapped up it was early evening. By now I know that we never leave an Indiblogger meet empty-handed, and this time was no exception. We got this lovely goody bag as a takeaway, and boy, was I overjoyed! Been sifting through glossy magazines and websites, but these beautiful illusions and combinations rendered me speechless.

We bid adieu to all our old and new-found blogger friends, but not before ensuring we all had each other’s social media details. Such events allow us to meet and know the faces behind their blogs and are an absolute delight to be part of. Hope we get to meet each other again at some other meet, soon.

Indiblogger, are you listening? 😉