Training with Berger Paints

Training with Berger Paints was a great experience,as the induction process was in Kolkata so I had to report on 14/06/10 at 9:00 AM at BPIL Head Office Kolkata. On 13/06/10 I reached Kolkata. This was my first experience of Air travel. “Jet Konnect’s” flight no 2279 landed safely at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBIA) Kolkata at 1 p.m. Well for me the first time of traveling by air is something beyond expectation. The speed at the time of take off and landing can drive you crazy or in other words one can feel the speed like a Formula1 driver feels……awesome I must say. One thing that I was more bothered about was the airhostesses………. many  friends of mine actually told me that Air hostess means sexy and hot girls on board, but I have not found any sexy or hot air hostess on flight no 2279, may be some friend of mine cursed on me,jealousy you know……

After reaching Kolkata I hired a taxi(In Kolkata you will find taxi’s in yellow color) for my destination i.e. Guest house of Berger Paints. The taxi was the iconic “Ambassador” ……..After one hour of journey I reached to the guest house, it was a traditional house with three rooms and a kitchen with light interior wall colors. I put my baggage in a room, the room was equipped with an A.C and a TV set with DTH connection. There I found six more guys which were also there for Berger Paints Induction programme, or in other words we can also say that they were also hired as SOT(Sales Officer Trainee) by Berger Paints. I interacted with them and the primary thing I figured out (like every Indian) was there name and domain. The details are as follows:-

· Rituraj (Jaipur) Room-3(My roomie)

· Roshan (Assam) Room-2

· Varun (Kanpur) Room-1

· Aditya (Lucknow) Room-1

· ChandraPrakash (Kanpur) Room-2

Freshers from good management school. Everybody was exited about the training. We talked about what the training is all about and what is going to happen with us in coming ten days. Well the day ended with a good dinner.

FIRST DAY OF TRAINING (14/06/10)

We woke up early in the morning in order to be on time because of the first day of training. Everybody was dressed like professionals, we had breakfast (pretty American style meal) together and left the house around 8:25 am. We reached Berger House(Head Office of Berger Paints) at 8:50 with lot of sweat.(due to extra Humidity in the environment of Kolkata). The conference hall was full with people in formal wears. Somebody told me that BP hired 24 SOT’s from northen States of India and from Kolkata.

The session begun with the welcome speech of Mr. Subir Bose(MD) followed by VP(Marketing & Sales) and other corporate managers of Berger Paints, everyone with slides and lots of experience . At 1:30 pm we had lunch.

Lunch for SOT’s consists of:

Veg: Daal,Mix veg,Rice ,Chapatti

Non veg: Chicken, Mutton, Fish 

With Pickels, salad and curd followed by a piece of sweet.

The session started again with slides and expert talks and ended up on 6:30 pm. We came back tired to our guest house and took some rest. Later we decided to go out for a walk,upto this time we have developed a comfort zone among us as we were together from past 36 hours. I was very comfortable with Varun and Roshan because of their happening and humorous nature. Three of us kept on doing “Bezatti” of each other and developed a light environment in the house. By this time I have renamed their name, and the new names were:

· Rituraj (Pehalvaan )

· Roshan (Roshni)

· Varun (Pakistani)

· Aditya (Sannata,James Bond)

· ChandraPrakash (Hippy)

*Varun was named Pakistani because his ancestors were from Sindh(which is in Pakistan now)

The training schedule was same for next three days and then on 18/06/10 our factory visit was scheduled. On 18^th we visited both the manufacturing units of BP in West Bengal.

· Howrah

· Rishra

First time in my life I witnessed the manufacturing process of different types of paints. We had a great time there.On 21^st the HR manager announced our job location,some were happy while some others were very much bothered about their location. In my group Varun had a problem with his location (as Mumbai was given to him) so he approached the HR manager and told about his problem and he (HR manager)assured him that if possible he will make a change in his location….everybody was busy talking about their locations. On 22^nd and 23^rd we visited the depots and dealers in order to understand the operations…..Two boring days I must say……..

PARTY

On 24/06/10 a farewell party was scheduled by the company for all SOT’s and Corporate heads. The party kicked off around 7:30 with a round of Drinks and snacks……… In Liquor we had:

Kingfisher Lager Beer

Antiquity Blue

Bacardi white rum

Smirnoff Vodka

SOT’s went Crazy when they found quality liquor and snacks….. Everybody was busy with their respective glasses……..some had whiskey while others had vodka or beer…….some experienced person took both (Beer+Whisky)…..Hippy (C.P) started his stupid talks in English with stupid moves after couple of drinks……Rituraaj and Roshan on the other hand were busy with Vodka. Varun and I had soft drinks followed by French fries and snacky samosa. Everyone out there was enjoying,people were interacting with each other as it was the last day of their training. Some were very happy because they were transferred to their home town while some others were really tensed about their locations(Far from home). In my group Varun had problem with his location as he was shifted to Mumbai and due to his father health issues he was not comfortable with his location……..but later the HR head resolved his problem by shifting him to Nasik. This makes him extremely happy. The corporate personnel also had chat with us and we shared some light moments, they wished “Best of Luck” to us for our future,and in reply some stupid drunk fellows insisted them to give the “Mantra of Success”(you know after drinking behavior). At this point of time I realized that “Drinking in the Head Office of a Co. with your bosses can turn you loyal towards the Company”

After another half an hour of cocktails the HR manager announce that, “the bar is closed for the day”. Now when you say this to a bunch of drunkers they will act weird for sure,the same thing happened with the HR manager,the demand was to reopen the bar for another 30 minutes. But he(HR manager) stick to his announcement and asked everyone to have dinner.And finally the cocktail party ended and people started eating dinner. We had dinner too (a typical Bengali dinner I must say) and left the house. We did our packing after reaching the guest house as we have to go home next day.

25/06/10

I left Berger House on 12:00 pm and hired a taxi to Dam dam airport. I reached airport on time and board  the flight with lots of expectation in mind. Expectation regarding the Airhostesses,but I  realized that my quest for quality airhostess was still unfulfilled,  and then I decided to write down the story of  past 10 days of my training with BP. 

This happens when Airlines do not provide quality staff on board, stupid people like me can turn into hopeless writers. ;)