#BergerXP it is!

IndiBlogger.in is close to my heart. Whether it's the competitions they host, the meets they organize, or the innovative thoughts of the organizers, I love being a part of it. When I received a special invite for the #BergerXP meet, I registered instantly, expecting the meet to be fun.

On Saturday, my wife Vidhya and I arrived at The Lalit Ashok Bangalore around 12 PM. Leo and Vidya were already there. It was great to see them again after almost six months. Soon, many other bloggers joined us - some familiar faces and some unfamiliar ones. Since I was wearing a mala for Sabarimala, I restrained myself from interacting with people. However, as more people arrived, I started chatting with them.

The meet began with a heavy lunch - I only had vegetarian options - followed by the registration process. Anoop greeted me with a huge smile and we hugged. Renie was looking for "Someone Special," also known as Sarav, and upon seeing me in my new avatar, he was surprised. It felt like being at home. Of course, for a blogger, IndiBlogger.in is like home.

My wife was a bit nervous because she was unable to register due to technical problems. Once Aaruhsi and Anoop helped us complete the registration process, she was happy.

Anoop, the man behind the microphone, invited Karthik to lead us in some exercises. It was fun and I captured a video of it. The balloon game was especially entertaining - Karthik, you are an awesome man with your moves.

When Chandra took over, he spoke about BergerXP, its tools, and innovations. Unlike other presentations where presenters focus only on the AIDA model, this was a refreshing change. He spoke about innovation, next-gen tools, and Express Painting. Faster. Cleaner. Better. It was fascinating and kept me engaged until the end. I tweeted some memorable one-liners during the meet and created a story using Moments...

⚡ #BergerXP Meet by @FewMileshttps://t.co/acyyE9kyCg

— Someone is Special (@FewMiles) December 13, 2016

If I miss to talk about the tools then it would be a crime. Let me first tell you the names and its features, followed by a TVC made by #BergerXP.

SANDING MACHINE: It is Faster and Cleaner with Dust-Free Vacuum Function.

MULTIPURPOSE MIXER: Quick & Hassle-free Mixing that can help you mix putty and texture of your choice.

AUTO ROLLER: Have you ever seen an adjustable roller with automatic paint pumping, giving a superior sexy finish? Watch it below…

HIGH PRESSURE WASHER: The difference between a worst experience and the best experience is when someone start cleaning the walls. And that’s what Berger has done. A Hi-speed Pressure wash with regulators addition to the nozzle adjustment. It’s just amazing!

AIRLESS PAINT SPRAYER: A sprayer that supports water-based paints and primer giving a classic touch. Experience Berger XP now… Check out latest TVC...

If you're planning to give your favorite home a makeover, use #BergerXP Express Painting. I'm saying this only after experiencing it. Actually, we were asked to team up to perform a couple of activities. Given the choice to select five people for my team as the lead, I spoke with Debolina and Nalini and they agreed to be a part of my team, and Leo and Vidhya were already on the team by default. Initially, we were given a challenge to smooth out a rough wall with putty. We did well. It was more of a test of our patience and to convey the hard work that painters put in. Think about how many times we've said, "What kind of work are these painters doing? They're not even doing their job properly." Trust me, it's hard work and these people do it with a real passion to give your wall the look you desire.

The second set of activities was to paint on a theme and then present it. Guess what, we found our new lead in Aakriti. Her enthusiasm for sketching is unmatched and I see a future IndiBlogger in her. I've always loved sketching and painting, but I never seem to give myself enough time to do either. This meet gave me the opportunity to paint, and along with my team, I was able to fulfill that desire. If I recall correctly, the last time I sketched was in 2013 for an IndiBlogger Character Contest. And this time, too, IB helped me paint once again. I wish I could paint more, but reading and writing give me a good work-life balance.

We then took the Mannqinn challenge and trust me, it was a lot of fun. Once it was over, we took a group photo and retired for the day after collecting the most precious t-shirt (thanks to the sponsors, who allowed IB to print it without their name) and a gift hamper from BergerXP. Since I forgot to bring my bag, I went back inside only to be video interviewed. Thank you, IB Team, for the opportunity.

It was a fun-filled day. Thanks to BergerXP and IndiBlogger for organizing such a wonderful meet instead of just boring talks. I'm really looking forward to meeting you all again. If I win a chance to have a wall painted by BergerXP, I'll write a detailed review about it. For more info visit www.bergerpaints.com and also watch Express Painting Success Journey

Thank you all!

I'm back!

It’s been three long years since I attended a blogger meet. Life in Germany kept me occupied enough to make sure that I cannot travel to India whenever there’s a blogger meet or the famous BNLF meet; I surely missed the fun, but not anymore. I’m back to India. And this time, when the IndiBlogger announced The Horlicks #Immunity4Growth Blogger Meet, I was about to travel to Chennai. I cancelled the trip to attend the meet along with my wife Vidhya. And I am super glad as I met my wonderful friends – CS, Leo, Anoop, Farida, Rizwan, Sarabjeet, Vidya Sury and many more.

Before I share my experience, I would like to apologies to my blog and my readers.

Dear Few Miles,
Apologies for leaving you untouched for five long months. I was occupied with other priority tasks and the relocation to India kept me busy. During the transit time, thanks to the wonderful Vodafone Team for keeping me disconnected with the virtual world.
I wrote offline. I wrote for a bigger dream – Coffee Date – soon to be published by a traditional publisher. That’s the reason I addressed to you and not to Isha. Because this is the longest break I’ve taken right from the inception of Few Miles. So I am really sorry. I promise not to leave you again even when I write my next book.
And yes, I’m back!
With Love,
Someone is Special.

And to my readers, sorry for keeping you wait for five long months. I was busy writing my first book for you. I will get it published soon.

Coming back to the meet, right from the registration to Goodbyes, we felt excited meeting so many wonderful bloggers and friends. As soon as we entered the hall we met Farida and Vidya. We exchanged greetings and whereabouts, after which we occupied the table just before the last one. CS and Leo, joined us shortly. I felt very happy!

The meet opened with Anoop as usual rocking the stage, followed by introduction of Super Moms and Super Dads. Once the introductory session was over, Jill Castle, nutrient, Horlicks Team, an active blogger from USA, spoke about the importance of immunity for growth, the role of nutrients, the category of children, types of deficiency and its effects on growth, and how to deal with these issues.

When Jill spoke about deficiency of Vitamin D in India more than in Western Countries, I could only disagree to the percentage shown in the PPT. I agree, deficiency is everywhere. But we have good Vitamin sources and practices. Unfortunately, the knowledge is not getting transferred between generations. That’s why we need good tasty supplements like Horlicks to enrich the nutrients and immunity and help Children grow taller, stronger and sharper. Because once you are strong inside, you can grow outside healthy.

Once the presentation was over, we had an interaction session between nutrients, doctors and Horlicks Team. It was a good enlightening session, though I do not want to press more on it as it would sound more like a promotional post rather than an experience. We had a quiz after the session which Saby’s team won. Our team got four or five points I guess.

What I missed or got changed in the meet was the interaction session between bloggers like it used to happen before years – where bloggers go around with a chart and pen, meet fellow new bloggers, share URL, twitter handle and other info. It certainly helped find new friends. What happened in this meet was an interaction session over dinner. Most of the bloggers, including me, was busy eating the delicious dinner served instead of moving around to meet and greet people. The best part of the meet was my conversation with CS on writing and books and with Leo on Haiku and SOL Launch. It’s such a pleasure to meet and thanks with them.

After the dinner we received gift hampers from Horlicks (a pack of two Horlicks Bottles). Thank you, Horlicks Team.

It was a good experience overall! #Immunity4Growth Meet Rocks! Thank you IB Team for making it happen. I am looking forward to meet bloggers again and this time, I wish we have a proper interaction session.

I am feeling good to publish a post after a long gap. See you all soon with another interesting post. Till then take care.

A day with Bikram…

Why I am so excited to meet my friend Bikram? I never can answer this but I am excited. I woke up early in the morning and started my journey to Birmingham. As soon as I reached the station, ‘Birmingham New Street’, I informed about my arrival to Bikram. He came to pick me up in his car, ‘Hey Hi....’ ‘Hi... This is Saravana’ and we started sharing about us. I never knew he was a cop in Birmingham and I was happy to hear, 'A COP... Wow...'

‘Where you wish to go?’
‘Well... I want to visit Balaji Temple’

So he took me to the temple and on the way he showed me the station he works, 10 year old McD (PS: It was constructed in less than 48 hours) I gone mad on hearing it. The temple looked very calm and I clicked few pics there.

On the way, back he took me to McD and we had a coffee there. Wow, the McD looks very cool but I still cannot believe it was built in less than 48 hours. He then took me to Chennai dosa, and my God the food was too tastier, we had a nice breakfast.

We then went to Birmingham, the ICC where iPhone was launched then to REP, convention centre, the man made canals, and to sea life... I was very very excited to see those huge buildings, well-furnished ones. And Sea Life is chanceless, it is too good, how many creatures, how unique they are, how cool they are... I just loved it... Bikram thank you so so much, because of you only I saw my first 4D movie, wow it was too good man and the splash of water, that too really was too good, I just loved it man..

We then went to many shops, purchased few things and later he took me to Edgbaston Cricket Club, I clicked few snaps of it. He then dropped me in the station back and left for the day...

I really want to thank Bikram for making me smile all throughout the day. Thank you so so much man... We will meet soon in London too.

Here are the pics taken...

A Day With Bikram Slideshow Credits: TripWow

PS: I will be publishing, “Searching her... in the streets of London #2 before EOD today” so stay glued..

Samsung IndiBlogger Meet !

Wow! What a day it was? I thank IndiBlogger and Samsung for arranging the meet. I felt like meeting my family members after a long time and it all started at 1:45 PM on Saturday. As soon as I reached the venue, I met Karthik, Syed and later my best buddy, Vinay (Leo) joined us. I should thank Syed for recording my first interview and I was very much happy to answer his questions as it was one of the memorable moments of my life. I also got a chance to experience the features of Samsung Galaxy Tab. I should say it is the one of the best tab in this world. I heartily thank Samsung for this opportunity.

Few minutes later, I met one of the celebrities, Rachana Shakyawar of Humming Today and I was very much happy meeting her because she was my inspiration to design the blog beautifully and to write mushy. I was introduced to Pankaj Gupta by Syed, Harsha by Leo. Nethra and her friend also joined us.

As always, IndiBlogger never fail to amaze me with innovation. This time they gave Samsung T-Shirts for bloggers based on random criteria. Sooner Samsung people unravelled the mysterious of Tab. It was exciting to learn all those features of Tab. Wow...

This time IndiBlogger reduced 60 seconds of fame to 49 seconds and it was exciting to learn about my fellow bloggers. However, to my surprise my name was listed there. Thank God, I did not go to jail because I completed my fame in less than 20 seconds. Followed by me was Vinay (Leo), Nethra, Harsha and celeb Rachana shared their fame. This helped me learn about Gyanban (Aayan) Sir, BeMoneyAware, Sangavi, Neeraj, Shruthi, Vinay, and many more. I missed TF, Muddassir and many more people.

Next was the most exciting part of the meet, lunch, Mmmm Leo, Nethra, LR, Rachana and Me enjoyed the lunch. ‘Behind the Back’, yet another time it was exciting as we shared our blog handle and twitter ID’s with fellow bloggers. In addition, I thank all of them for their wonderful comments. I love you all a lot. Here are those…

And lot more friends left their twitter handle and blog URL in my sheet but that are not clear for me to read. Sorry friends I love you all. Thanks for all the smiles and IndiBlogger Team thanks for this...

Well, I thought ‘Behind the Back’ would be most excited part of the day but Anwin and fellow bloggers made the debate ‘Corruption’ more interesting.

“Last but not the least – the T-shirt”, thanks IndiBlogger Team. Well this was one of the memorable meet as I met many friends in person. Wow, I thank once again IndiBlogger Team, ‘IndiMeet Rocks’ and special thanks to Samsung... You people are rocking! And... Thank you so much IndiBlogger for the Bluetooth Headset.

Love to meet and make more friends in future meets... Check out the photos clicked by IClickd here

Wow ! What a day !

Wow! What a day it was? It started when I met Balaganesh of Linger Print Expert and Aswin of The Utopian in IndiBus. Although we took the long route, we reached the venue before the meet actually started. Just an hour of travel but it was one of my memorable travel as I met one of my best friends in blogosphere, Leo of I Rhyme Without Reason. After reaching Iskon Temple, we were given a warm welcome by IndiBlogger team followed by the registration formalities and that is when Leo introduced Shravan Ragunath. As usual, I went to sit in the last bench but after seeing Leo went and sat in the middle rows. Suddenly I heard a voice that welcomed us and followed by a video about Akshaya Patra. I thought it would be some crap stories but the video made me realize what is Akshaya Patra, Hats off for the wonderful work done by Akshaya Patra, I love to call them of ‘Mother’ of ‘Mothers’. Wow! What a video? What a speech? Hats off once again Akshaya Patra...

I introduced myself with the blogging friends who sat nearby me, suddenly one of my best blogging buddies name popped up, Zainab Urooj of Scattered Thoughts and it was a memorable moment as this was the first time I met her. Based on the suggestion from Lakshmi Rajan of Ginger Chai about the one-minute intro, IndiBlogger Team surprised 60 lucky bloggers to spell out their fame. Although I was not lucky to be in the list my lucky blogging friend, Zainab made me fly with the sweet words about me in her intro. ‘He always supports and inspires me a lot. He writes at Few Miles’, Thanks Zainab for the sweet words, I never expected that. After the intro session, we had our lunch, Prasatham (Divine food by Akshaya Patra).

‘Behind the Back’, a lovely initiative by IndiBlogger that helped me to connect with as many blogging friends as possible and to know about them within the short span of time. In addition, I thank all of them for their wonderful comments. I love you all a lot. Here are some of the comments I loved...

‘Thank you so much for all your support’ – Zainab Urooj of Scattered Thoughts
‘Hope you get that someone special’ – Aswin of The Utopian
‘good to see someone’ – Shravan of The Graveyard of my own Thoughts.
‘Be a special person’ - @desibond of Bandla's Blog
‘Hi Enjoy’ - Thousif Raza of Soul Space
‘Happy Blogging’ - Sagar Shah
‘Nice to Meet ‘U’’ - Dipa Chakraborty of Compressed soliloquy
‘Happy Blogging’ – Senthil of Senthil's Blog
‘Nice to Meet ‘U’’ – Harsha Chittar of Voices in my Head
‘Wish you all the very best’ – Mil.. (PS: I couldn’t find your name)
‘all the best’ – http://www.yoursdigitalspace.com/
‘Nice to meet U’ – Anonymous
‘House-full?’ – Anonymous
‘Keep Blogging – Enjoy Blogging’ - Lakshmi Rajan of Ginger Chai
‘All the best! God Bless’ – Anonymous
‘Always be special’ – Vinki
‘Nice to meet ‘U’ – Arun of Trinities.info
‘Hello ! Nice to meet u ’ – Prathiba Mohanty
‘Always be good or I’ll put you in Jail’ Rashi of The Rocky Road
‘All the best! Publish a book of your someone special’ – Manish of Layers 7
‘Have fun Blogging’ – Anupama of I Think ...Therefore I Am
‘Thank you for Blogging’ – Anonymous
‘Happy Blogging’ - GTRICKS.COM
‘Keep Rocking’ – Vinutha N of My Goof Your Grain

And lot more friends left their twitter handle and blog URL in my sheet but that are not clear for me to read. Sorry friends I love you all. Thanks for all the smiles and IndiBlogger Team thanks for this...



Well, I thought ‘Behind the Back’ would be most excited part of the day but Anwin made the debate ‘Blogging – Social Communities – a complimentary or not?’ more interesting with live summary and points. Thanks for all of them who participated in. ‘I enjoyed it a lot’

“Last but not the least – the T-shirt”, nice feel good t-shirt thanks IndiBlogger Team. Well my first meet became the memorable meet. Thanks once again IndiBlogger Team, ‘IndiMeet Rocks’ and special thanks to Akshaya Patra.. You people are rocking !

Love to meet and make more friends in future...