DocDivaTraveller: February 2017

Remember that episode in SATC, when Natasha leaves Mr Big, he paints his bedroom wall red? He does that to get over the divorce! Repainting walls promises a fresh start. Heartbroken? Get your walls painted. Want to improve your luck? Paint your bedroom walls in a certain colour. Blah Blah. We tend to modify our Karma by repainting walls. I wish painting our home was just like having a wardrobe makeover. Just by changing the wall colour can make your home brand new. But alas. Repainting your home is even more excruciating than getting your tooth extracted! The dirt, dust and the paint spillage everywhere has prevented me from repainting our home since the time we moved in (6 years). I know, its gross! But I was simply intimidated by all the hassles that come along with fresh walls....until.. this Saturday!

For the past 8 months, we Delhiites had been craving for an Indimeet. And our prayers were answered when we saw the Indiblogger homescreen flashing #BergerXP Indiblogger Meet! Berger Paints had been conducting meets in Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai; and it was high time that Delhi too got its share of colours. So a happy me, along with 67 other Delhi bloggers reached the venue with hues on their mind!

The meet was at Vivanta By Taj Hotel, Dwarka. A two hour metro ride from my place could not exhaust me even for a bit. Moreover a lavish, delectable lunch at the hotel, refueled me within no time. I was all set for the much awaited meet.

The afternoon started with our favourite Emcee Anoop with a rather hilarious game. He read out a couple of blogger introductions from their blogs' respective 'About Me' pages. Now while writing the description it may not feel bragging to us; but when read out loud, it sounded rather funny! So we all were given sealed envelopes which contained the descriptions of five bloggers. We were supposed to find the five names and whoever got the fastest five, won! Every Indiblogger Meet starts with 'Networking with Bloggers Round' but this was the most innovative way till now! And the time started! I got rather funny descriptions; like 'Blog dedicated to those who never had a girlfriend'. 'I do not serve fools,' etc 😁 The "No Girlfriend' description when read out loud had everyone in splits!

Unfortunately I was unable to find out all the five bloggers in my envelope. However my description was doing the rounds and I had fun clicking numerous selfies with them and signing my description. Manjulika got lucky when she got all her five correct.

After this hilarious round, we got back to our seats as Anoop handed over the mic to Mr Vinod Das of Berger Paints. This meet was mainly to enlighten us about hassle free painting. Yes, repainting our home can be done in a faster, cleaner and better way! Hello Berger Express Painting! Painting Ka T20!

Berger paints has come up with an innovative way that would make painting homes a breeze minus all the dirt, dust and paint spillage. A set of Home Painting Tools, trained painters and excellent quality of paints promises a superb look of your walls. We all were actually surprised by these amazing possibilities and bombarded Mr Das with questions which he elucidated happily.

Since Berger uses painting tools, it is 40% FASTER than traditional painting.

The Sanding Machine is cutting edge vacuum suction enabled for a dust free function. The painters are trained so that the painting is better and efficient.

There is a Multipurpose Mixer for mixing putty and texture. It enables quick and hassle free mixing at a regulated speed.

The Auto Roller is an adjusted roller which is for automatic paint pumping for a superior finish.

The Airless Paint Sprayer is for quick application and uniform finish.

The High Pressure Washer has nozzle adjustment and pressure regulator for high speed pressure wash.

Because of all these 'no mess' certified tools and trained workers, Berger guarantees better coverage, finish and smoothness every time. So you get superior quality finish minus all the dust, paint spillage and hassles. They have lever based furniture movers too!

Its a win win situation for both the consumer and the applicator. The consumer gets world class painting everytime while the applicator gets more business as the time required for each painting assignment is reduced.

The cherry on the cake? All this at NO EXTRA COST!

After we were fazed and determined to repaint our homes with Berger Express Painting,it was time to get our hands dirty! Yes, bloggers turned into painters!

We all were divided into teams of 7 or 8 and given one ply sheet to sand. There were six teams in total and I was in Team 5. We donned surgical masks, gloves and a head gear to get started. We started scrubbing the board with a sand paper like there was no tomorrow! There was dust everywhere! My black blazer turned white with dust! The fastest team won the maximum points which got carried over to the next round.

After this tiring round of sanding, it was time to unleash the artists within. All the teams were a assigned a theme on which we had to paint our imaginations. Before taking up the brush, we were given lessons on mixing ratios.

All the colours that were present on the table could be mixed with white in definite proportions to create more than 10,000 shades! Our team got 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' theme. We were given half an hour to transfer our thoughts to canvas.

Our painting did not turn out the way I wanted it to be. Paints dribbled, spoiling the entire picture. Anyway, we had super fun mixing colours and dabbing brushes on the canvas!

We got to narrate our creations. Though I think we scored a bit with the presentation, but the messiness of colours weighed us down.The team with 'Vlogging' theme won. It was the most beautiful piece undoubtedly!

So after five hours of craziness, colours, culinary delights and coffee, this vibrant afternoon came to an end. There were numerous prizes for Best Tweets, Best Pictures, Social pins, etc. We also got an Indiblogger tee, a Berger Paints mug, catalogues and endless memories as takeaways. A Saturday superbly spent!

P.S We are shifting to our very first home next month and I am going to try hassle free Berger Paints Express Painting!

Check out this cute TVC!

What I wore:

Blazer: H n M (Italy)

Top: Foerever 21

Pants: Globus

Necklace: Forever 21

Purse: Steve Madden

2/27/2017 18 comments

While planning our Italian trip, we were in a fix as to what all destinations to include. I had so many spots on my bucket list and we had only fourteen days. Commuting between two places also required time. We were particularly torn between Cinque Terre and Amalfi Coast. Hubs wanted Amalfi while I was adamant about Cinque Terre. Being a hard core fan of David Rocco I had seen a fair amount of Positano and Amalfi on television. No doubt it’s a picturesque territory. But I had seen and heard so much about Cinque Terre that I could not trade it with any other place in Italy. So after a lot of persuasion, Cinque Terre was final in our itinerary.

Cinque Terre is a group of five villages on hills dotted along the Ligurian Sea. Cinque means five. The five villages are Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.It a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Now the most vital question…where to stay in Cinque Terre?

In order to reach Cinque Terre, the nearest big town is La Spezia. La Spezia is a port town and is connected to the main railway line of Italy. Also it is connected to all the five towns of Cinque Terre by the Cinque Terre Express. In Fact La Spezia is the gateway to the Five Terre. So hubs did the most sane thing he could do..he booked a B n B in La Spezia! We took the Trenitalia from Rome to La Spezia. It was a three and a half hour train journey from Rome. The last evening in Rome was bad as we had a bitter fight. So there had not been much conversation between us during the train journey.

As soon as we stepped out of the train in La Spezia, we were engulfed by a cool, refreshing breeze. Even the railway station had an immense touristy flavor. The vibe was so breathtaking that we forgot all our grudges and realized that we had landed in paradise!

Right outside the window...
Like every other city in Italy, our B n B was at a walking distance from the station. We were supposed to use the train frequently: to go to the five villages on both the days and then board the early morning train to Firenze. So it was necessary that it was near. Our host Alex had left a message about the directions and I too had my personal GPS (hubs) with us. So it was a straight walk and then left to our Three Glam Rooms.

It was not a B n B in true sense. I mean when you stay with the host in their house, it’s a true B n B. This house had three rooms for rent. Our room was very prettily decorated. This room was probably the costliest accommodation among all our bookings in Italy. But its proximity to the station and our hosts were so sweet that we think it was worth every penny.

2/20/2017 12 comments

I think its very apparent from the title of my post that we just completed six years of marriage! Phew! Time really flies! I mean like it felt just like yesterday that we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in Dalhousie. When I look at our daughter, I feel like that it was just a few months back that I was staying awake for nights; trying to put her to sleep. Although I am yet to experience a night of undisturbed sleep, its still thousand times better now! I just wake up numerous times from her kicks on my face! Having said that, this tiny individual will turn three next month! Its so tough to keep track of time.

So just like that, another year rolled in and we completed six years of marriage. We had nine months of engagement; so in all we have been each others lives for seven years! A marriage is not about just rosy days, but its about surviving tough situations together and celebrating beautiful moments. Just like any other married couple, we too fight a lot. But at the end of the days, its with him I feel the safest and happiest.

This year we decided to break our five year old tradition. We did not go for a vacation! Actually the husband did not have enough leaves so a getaway was out of question. However, how could we NOT celebrate our anniversary? We decided to do something different. Something which we had never done before!

I had always read about staycations in blogs. However the trotter in us used to mock at those ideas. I mean we can't sleep beyond six when on a trip. How can we possibly just stay inside the hotel all day long? But it seems we were wrong, The pleasure of just lazying around is just unmatched!

So we decided to spend the weekend in Pullman Hotel in Aerocity Delhi. The hotel could not have been more perfect. It was impeccable and so was our staycation!

We woke up late for those two mornings, had a lavish, lazy breakfast and then spent hours at the pool. I know...swimming in February in Delhi? What can I do? I can't seem to keep away from water 😁

Our munchkin too wanted to swim. However the tiny pool was colder and the water in the bigger one was too cold for her. We just let her wet herself in the water and then dragged her out. I won't be able to narrate what happened therafter. Its beyond my capacity to narrate the hue and cry!

Our daughter seemed to enjoy more than us! She was tiny when she stayed at The Lalit Jaipur and was elated during her stay. Seems she has developed a penchant for luxury hotels! The husband was ecstatic in the fact that he could watch hours of endless cricket! I was so engrossed in enjoying the luxuries that I did not give a damn to what he was doing 😀

In a nutshell, it was the most relaxed weekend of my life! Thanks to the husband for giving us such a good life. Cheers to our cute little family!

Blazer: Fashionmia.com

Dress: Globus

Sunnies: Aldo

Purse: FURLA Candy

Lip Colour: MAC Girl About Town

2/13/2017 15 comments

I love roadtrips. But having said that does not mean that I go on one every now and then. In fact, our last roadtrip was the trip to Jaipur in December 2015. See what I meant? This trip was long awaited. There were two main reasons: first the inauguration of the 165.5 km long Yamuna Expressway. Secondly, since my cousin brother bought a new car, me and my mom had plans of going on a long drive in his car. Well both these two conditions never seemed to get materialised.

Last Saturday, we finally nailed the plan of going on this much awaited roadtrip. My mom had made a donation in Vrindavan in memory of my grandmother and she wanted to see that engraved stone first hand. Therefore we could not find a better excuse to make a quick trip to Vrindavan. Her nephew was too ready to oblige.

This year Delhi winters have not been that severe. Maybe its the effect of global warming. The fog and smog has been lesser too, thankfully. However we were totally unprepared for the weather on the Expressway.

Vrindavan is 140 kms from Noida on the Expressway; that means 25 kms before Agra. We had planned to leave at six in the morning but inevitably started at seven. Thank God. That one hour delay was a blessing in disguise. It was dark that time. By seven, dawn had broken and daylight had started peeping in. The sun was playing peek a boo with the clouds.

We crossed the city of Noida and within no time we were on the Expressway. The speed limit on the Expressway is 100 kmph but no one abides by that. People are usually speeding at 150 kmph. This Expressway is actually India's longest 6 lane (extendable to 8 lane) controlled access expressway stretch. It has 4 toll booths. So if you are going to Agra, you need to pay a toll of around 350 INR one way. Overspeeding has led to numerous cases of fatal pile ups and accidents on this expressway.

Initially there was not much fog. But as we went further, fog started becoming dense. All the vehicles which were swooshing past us started slowing down. Parking lights started flashing. Then a point came when visibility dipped to an absolute zero! I mean absolutely no visibility! When a car was nearby, only its parking lights could be seen. Otherwise it was dense dense fog. Although it was scary, it was really adventurous at the same time. So many cars were following ours and we too were doing the same. This continued for quite a while and then the fog became less dense for goodness sake.

Midway, we stopped our car to take a feel of the fresh air and have breakfast. For me it was the best part of the road trip. I mean living in midst of the city does not give me an option of breathing fresh air. Or opening my eyes to green fields. I loved every second of our break.

We reached Vrindavan rather quickly. On the way, there were stretches of beautiful yellow mustard fields. Of course I had to stop to take pictures; much to the annoyance of my Dad! Uff he will never change :D I had a splendid time on this roadtrip!

Can anyone recognise the pretty leaf in my hand?

Coming to the outfit, the jumpsuit and the blue tote both are from Zaful.com. Is not the red jumpsuit gorgeous? I love red and this this is a perfect outfit for Valentines Day. How cool is the cut out on the back? Since I have become a mom, I have been gravitating more towards jumpsuits. They are practical yet stylish!

For travelling purposes or whenever I need to carry more stuff (which I always need to) I prefer totes. And if it does not zip, its even better! I love this blue colour and the textured leather. It also has a tassel hanging. To make it richer, I also hanged my Pierre Cardin charm. Its large enough to fit all my essentials.

So what are you planning to wear this Valentines? Let me know!

Jumpsuit: Zaful.com

Purse: Zaful.com

Phone Cover: Bewakoof.com