We found all three of them sitting at the on-site experience centre of Gems Bougainvillas, near Kolkata’s newly inaugurated Joka metro station. They had recently come across the news that Gems Bougainvillas, the first affordable bungalow project in south Kolkata, had been awarded ‘Best Ongoing Villa Project’ by Credai Bengal in 2022, apart from being a trailblazer bungalow project with 12 varieties of bungalows! The news provided the impetus for them to drive across to Joka.
Mrs. Haldar had silently nursed a desire to own a bungalow home of her own one day. It would be her tribute to her late husband, Dr. Tapan Kumar Haldar, a professor at IEST who had expressed this desire vehemently before his untimely death. It would be their ‘get-away resort’ home, he used to say!
Strangely enough, his words now echoed from the lips of his two children, Tarun, 14 and Esha, 16. Both of whom had even decided on a name for their stand-alone house, as and when they acquired it!
Now, all three were sitting engrossed. They had just finished the first phase of discovering all about bungalow living with 12 types of ‘loveable bungalows’ to choose from! It was still too early for them to decide on the one they most loved and could afford.
First of all, what was she to do if a tap popped a leak or an electrical line short-circuited? Who should she, the lady of the house, go to? What if they needed laundry assistance, a new cook or a doctor-on-call? All their familiar service staff was way back, in their old neighbourhood!
To their immense relief, the Haldar family was told that a host of maintenance service staff – plumber, gardener, carpenter, electrician, pest control, house-keeper, laundry and cook – were only a call away! Gems Bougainvillas had addressed the issue such that even a doctor & dietician, ambulance, pharmacy, nurse, physio and path lab were all available on call.
These apart, in-home conveniences, like DTH and intercom, standby generator and fire safety services would all be installed, ready-to-use from the day they entered, they were assured. For daily needs like banking and ATM, grocery and convenience stores as well as fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy products, Esha was happy to hear that she didn’t have to travel – they were all there, within the beautifully laid campus! Tarun was thrilled to learn that academic and extracurricular coaching were all at hand, thanks to the presence of the reputed Gems Akademia International School right inside the Gems City campus.
There even was a crèche for infants whose mothers went off to work. Purnima Haldar was enthralled how much ahead the builders, Gems Group, had thought of the project. Beyond brick-and-mortar they had foreseen the need for providing the best quality services-and-care. This must certainly be the place to call home, she concluded. Or, as late Professor Haldar would have loved to exclaim, “Our sweet get-away resort home!”
For Mrs. Haldar all that remained now was to choose a bungalow that the whole family would love to love. She was convinced that living in a bungalow township like Gems Bougainvillas as against the apartment building they stayed in was far better for the simple reason that it would provide the right mix of secured privacy and community living, alongside a host of lifestyle facilities and daily conveniences.
