Our Brick n Mortar Store

Sunday, July 11, 2010

A chandelier affair ... and a story to remember ... :)

 My Chandelier is up and all lit ....I wasn't quite sure how to react ... when my electrician came and did the final connecting of the chandelier ... oh! believe me ... between Sam and me ... we had assembled (it comes off in like a million pieces) and hung ... it all by our selves ... but there was some glitch somewhere ... so the electrician had to step in ...
You 'll ask me so what's the big deal about this piece ... honey, we've all seen one ... similar or prettier ... so what's the story ... :)

Well! the story is that ... at 26yrs ... just married ... and a first time home owner ... this was the biggest  (besides the house ofcourse) and the most expensive purchase of my life ... you know one of those things you do and it makes you feel all grown up  ... AN ADULT ... incharge of your own life ... like ...'look what I do with my life'... kind of purchase ... ;) Yep! exactly ... :)
The picture above was my apartment in Belmont,California ...  and a lot of my old readers might remember this picture from a feature I did ( read it here) about peach walls I painted in this ... my first home ... :)
And there ... the chandelier ... all hung ...lit and I was so madly in love with it ...

that's how it looks in my new 4 month old ... still figuring our things out home

And so madly did I love it that when I moved back home to India ... I
brought it with me ... never stopped to think if I'd run into any trouble lighting it in India ... aaaannnndddd ... weee ... I did ... like most NRI's returning home and blowing up there expensive gadgets ... ;) ... I thought I was a smartypoo ... I knew I needed it rewired to work in India ... what with diff. current (the AC..DC fundas) ...
.... aaaandddd ... haaahaaa ... lil' did missy know that ... that wasn't quite the end of the story and happily ever after ... you see the holders for the bulbs are much smaller in the US and Europe ... and here in India and south asia ... the are slightlybigger ... (that's all the deal with standard trade practices) ... yeah!whatever ...
Can you believe my luck I just walked into a light store (here in Gurgaon) and struck up such a lovely conversation with a very interesting gentleman (believe me he is soon going to have himself a feature here on my blog) ... and I was guided the right way ... with all the wiring to change...holders and ...BEEEP! ... next trouble ...

... now if the holders are changed the original tubes that you see above ... damn it don't fit on the new bigger size ... wowwee ... what am I to do ... does that mean that's the end of the road for my chandelier ... because even if I go buy a pipe of the right size ... I'll never get it to match the rest of the chandelier and look like the original  pipes  ...

... have you heard of angles in todays world ... Mr.Marwah ... is that for me ... for all the trouble he went through to help me out ...  just for goodness sake ... and not to stop just at him ... his son too got involved ... and now if  you ask ... do miracles happen in todays world ... when all hope is lost ... hell ! yes ... Mr.Marwah and his son ... got me exact ... infact better finished pipes ... all sand blasted ... and I don't even know what all the whole procedure was to give it the exact antique finish as the chandelier ... THEY DID IT ...
And nothing beats the last bit ... they delivered it at 3 in the afternoon ... because at 4 my container left with my stuff for Pune ... I was moving once again.A short notice of 3 days ... knowing I was leaving... and may be I 'd be gone for good ... they did it ... and its that nicest feeling ... knowing such people still are there among us ... for whom its not always about money ...


As luck would have it ... I moved back to Gurgaon ... had to go say hello to Mr.Marwah and remind him of what he and his son had done for me And that I never got the chance to open the package they packed  for me ... Thank God ! he remembered ... had to buy the bulbs from his store  ...
And now everytime I light it ... I do catch myself smiling ... its a very special story for me ... ")

25 comments:

Sakala said...

WOW, your house looks beautiful. And that chandelier, fits soo well with your house.

And she is back:))

Anonymous said...

It is a fantastic story and a great looking chandelier.i could not help notice the picture frames with pictures in interesting angles . very smart.

GB said...

Very pretty...and I'm hopping over to read about your home in CA....I wasn't into blogging then and had missed out on it... :)

RV said...

I love that chandelier.. It looks very artistic..

Anonymous said...

Its an awesome piece Rajee.. Your still figuring out home is coming up gorgeously... I've not even got anything on the wall as yet...

Loved the story.. and simply loved the pics of both your homes..

Sharon said...

Hey...lovely story but the one thing that's stuck in my head now is - you are moving to Pune????:) When?

Unknown said...

what a beautiful piece n a lovely story! Ur home is really coming along well! can't wait to see more of it!

Sanghamitra Bhattacherjee(Mukherjee) said...

Hi Rajee,
Simply loved the story and the chandelier :)
I miss Gurgaon very much :(
Have a nice day!

Regards
Sanghamitra.

Laksh said...

That was quite some ambitious project. I love the apartment and the new home you are doing up in equal measures :) maybe slightly biased towards the apartment for its minimalism.

Ritzy said...

You have such energy in your rendition..even a simple story of a chandelier is so delighful to read and ofcourse your home is so ooh lala elegant..

Priya said...

Oh..what a story! indeed some things are more close to the heart coz of the story attched to them!! Lovely chandelier :) Your home is so inviting!

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Anonymous,
THankyou and thankyou again... the picture frames as I told you on FB ... :) another fixer upper project waiting for me ... :)

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Sakala,
Thankyou and yes, I feel that yeeepy ... thingy too ... I love being here ... and that house is going to take me some years to have it the way I will love to enjoy it ... aahhh! or is it that I am going yo love the fact I have a hose permanently to keep fixing up ... ;)

Rajee Sood said...

Hi GB,
Hope you did enjoy the older story too ... lovely to hear from you as always ... :)

Rajee Sood said...

Hi RV,
Thankyou ... appreciate you taking the time to leave me your comment ... I do hope I enjoy this piece finally for some good no. of years ... :)

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Patricia,
Thankyou's for all the compliments ... and I'm sure doing up a house is a longterm project ...ah! sorry projects ... guess I picked this one first ... which all have picke dup so far ... how lovely ... swaping house updates ... :)

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Sharon,
Thankyou ... and no I am not moving to Pune again ... the mention is about the time I moved to Pune in 2007 ... sorry ... as much as I love my Pune ... I am here for now ... :)

Rekha said...

The chandelier is simply gorgeous, no wonder u carried it all the way home.

My Dream Canvas said...

prretty, pretty , pretty..hope to see it in person :-)

Nick said...

Rajee,

Congratulations on your very beautiful condo (or apartment?) in Gurgaon. I must say though, that while I admire all the photos, your writing makes me wince. Following written English is extremely hard when instead of proper punctuation, you use ellipses. If I may offer some constructive criticism - would you mind typing full sentences with punctuation, for your readers' sake? (And I'm sure your mother and your high school English teachers will be very happy too!)

Thanks, and once again, congratulations on your home.

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Rekha,
Lovely to hear from you ... :) ... yep crazy me ... ;) ... and I really am enjoying it ... :)

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Anu,
Will be be waitin' ...waitin' ... waitin' ... it will be awesome to have you over ... when you come to Gurgaon ... :)(Any plans ... so far)

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Nick,
:) ... my new apartment ! ... Ah! yes... thankyou sooooo ... much ... appreciate you writting in to congratulate me.
My sincere apologies ... for giving you all those frown lines (don't like the fact that I may be doing that to you)... ;)... in case you use a google translator ... OH! Dear I am sure it must come across as all messed up English ... 'APOLOGIES' again ... but if you do read it as English ... English ...what do I say ... Nick ... terribly sorry dear ... hope the pictures make up to you and you have more of laugh lines than the frown ones ...:)That's just my style of writing ... please don't get me wrong ... :)
I checked with my mum ... she says ... as long as I am happy she is happy for me and always proud of me ... no matter what( ah! mums you know) ... and my High school teacher ... I left her with a mix of shock and joy when I graduated with Honours in English at school ... I think she'll be fine ... knowing her sense of humour ... she'll probably laugh herself silly)... :)
Loved hearing from you and would hope to hear from you in future too whenever you enjoy my posts ... :)

Leigha said...

What a story! Off to peruse the rest of your blog...

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Leigha,
Hope you enjoy what you see ... :)

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