Real Togetherness

In this digital age when everyone has so much information and entertainment available on their fingertips, it is actually making us isolated from the real world. You can find people looking at their smart phones or tablets while walking. If you fall on the road chances are that you will not get a hand for help as everyone will be busy on their gadgets and will not even notice you. In this digital world we are more connected to a Stranger sitting miles away than someone who is sitting just next to us.   

We had one meal together rule in our house and we used to love it. That used to be our time to catch up with each other. After marriage it was just 2 of us who used to eat one meal together every day. But In-between I happened to go for a long business trip and that was when my husband developed this habit of watching videos in his laptop while having dinner. He will have earphones on so he was totally disconnected from me. This was really bothering me. I even told him that it is bad manner to not talk to the person eating with you and only look at your laptop, but he had many excuses. Like he doesn’t get any time to watch his favourite series, this is an important episode and so on. Even on vacations we used to get more connected to outside world then each other, blame free wifi for that.

But then this onetime we went for holidaying in a jungle resort where there was no wifi. Even getting cellular network was difficult over there. We had no TV in room too, so only way of entertainment we had was each other’s company. I must say that the absence of all the digital connectivity actually helped us connect with each other better. We spent lots of time together on beach and did many fun activities. We had our dinner together on the beach below the sky full of stars. We shared out childhood memories, teenage gossips, dreams and goals with each other. And it actually helped us a lot to know each other even better. We were amazed that even after living together for 2 years we knew so less about each other. And getting off the digital connectivity gave us so much time to know each other so very well. We were so happy with this whole experience that we decided to go to that place again and do one jungle resort holiday each year, where we can be close to nature and each other.

Now that we have a baby, we would like to spend simile quality time with him too, So that we all connect better with each other. And to do that if we will have to be disconnected from the digital world for sometimes then why not, After all this real togetherness is actually worth it.  

The Fastest Network

In today’s world when all the information is just a click away from us having good Internet connectivity 24/7 is very important. Now the power of Internet is so much that be it knowledge, entertainment, shopping, or money matters each and everything is there on it. I am a big Internet buff myself, I search for anything to everything on Internet and it is the most trusting source of knowledge I have with me these days.

I am a new mom who is curious about everything related to her baby, during pregnancy and after it also I always turned to Internet to find answers for my questions. My mom was so jealous of it that on several occasions she told me to search the same on Internet if I don’t believe her. As much as I rely on Internet for knowledge that much my husband rely on it for entertainment. He is a big Hollywood movie buff and a big fan of many well-known series. He has a good collection of both and he keeps adding new one to his collection by downloading them from Internet. However he hates to download low quality prints and the good prints are bigger in size which takes longer to download and that makes him really restless. On the other hand I like to be connected on the go all the time, but my mobile data does not support the speed I want most of the time. If I have a question and I am not able to see the video related to that due to Internet slowness it irritates the hell out of me. 

 

So if we will get a 4G Internet connection which is super-fast, me and my husband will be super happy. I will be able to see and learn a lot of things from Internet be it backing a cake, making baby food, decorating his nursery or how to solve an issue with my laptop keyboard. I will be able to cook with the video running alongside, no more burnt food due to the long buffering time which leaves me clueless about the next step. And my husband will be able to download and watch new movies and series as soon as the good prints are available, no overnight weighting. Having the 4G speed connectivity in my phone will enable me to be able to browse from anywhere and I will be able to keep myself occupied and entertained even when I am stuck in bad  traffic :P

As we both are working professionals, who on most of the days bring work to home will also be benefited by fast network. We will be able to wrap up work quickly and will have more time to relax and unwind. Now we are so much dependent on Internet that having the faster network connectivity is the need of the hour. Just a faster speed connection can change our life so much for the better that I can't wait to try it on myself :) 

Nasta Kar ke Jana!!

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We should have breakfast like a king and dinner like a beggar but we mostly end up doing the opposite. We eat something not so nutritious and filling for breakfast mostly due to lack of time. Some people skip breakfast to lose weight, however it’s proven that having healthy breakfast everyday helps in reducing weight and stops us from over eating throughout the day.  I like continental breakfast, where I should have wide verity of fruits, cereals and juices to choose from. My husband likes Indian breakfast options like idly, poha, dhokla etc. When I used to stay with my parents my mom used to make sure that no one leaves home without having breakfast. But now being a working woman I don’t get time to cook breakfast every day. I know the importance of healthy breakfast but in the mad rush of reaching office on time we mostly end up skipping our breakfast. I know that cornflakes or any other cereals are a good option for quick and healthy breakfast, but eating the same type of cereal everyday is so boring. My husband specially hates cornflakes because he feels he cannot eat the same thing every day.

I delivered a baby 3 weeks back, and now I am a busy new mom. I am on my maternity leave so in a way I am not going to office and expectations are that I cook some nice breakfast for my husband every day. However things are totally different when you are a mother of a newborn, my baby takes all my time and attention and staying away from him for more than 10 minutes is not possible for me. That’s why I was looking for quick and easy breakfast options and whiling searching for same I met Gupta ji’s family, who is famous for their breakfast options. They eat healthy cornflakes for their breakfast every day, but with a yummy twist. Though the main ingredient is cereal but there is a delicious variation in their breakfast everyday, which makes each day’s breakfast special and different. They serve the same old cornflakes in many different variations like choco mint, banana cinnamon, strawberry etc. They also make tasty payasam, healthy salads and delicious shakes with cornflakes. Can you believe that the same old boring cornflakes can be served in so many different ways? This makes sure that you get the taste and verity in your breakfast everyday without compromising on the nutrition factor. After seeing the breakfast menu of Gupta ji’s family I certainly want to go to their home for breakfast J

Using the awesome recipes the Gupta’s have to share using the kellogg’s cornflakes, everyone can have healthy start for the day. Healthy start of the day with healthy breakfast will ensure a good energetic day throughout.

Together, I feel secure

Optimistic outlook to life is the best way to lead life, but staying optimistic all day everyday is a difficult task to do. We tend to feel negative, sad, and miserable about things at times. Sometimes we know that nothing can change that situation or we know how to fix the issue but we just want an assurance from our loved ones that they are there with us to get the energy to get going. I consider myself quite a practical person still sometimes I feel miserable about something and that is when I just need someone to listen to me and be empathetic to me. Before marriage I used to turn to my close friends and my mom for such things. But after marriage it’s mainly my husband whom I look up to for all the support and positivity.

It is very difficult for me to talk about just one incident when he supported me and gave me the positivity I needed to go through that situation. However one incident which I remember more clearly, was this one evening when I came back home crying from office, because of one colleague’s misbehavior. I have considered her more like a friend than a colleague but something which she spoke on my back was very hurtful for me. I get close to people very easily and once I consider someone my friend I be friends with them forever. So for me this came across like a shock. I came home and my husband opened the door for me, I just hugged him tight and started crying. He was furious and was asking me again and again the reason of such outburst, and when I told him the reason he consoled me and asked me to get ready to go out for coffee.

While walking out he talked to me about many other things which were not related to this colleague of mine so that he can divert my mind. And when I looked normal he told me something which I really liked and now I use always. He told me, where there is competition friendship or love cannot be there.  Workplace is a palace where everyone wants to give their best and be the best and then in the race of being the best sometimes people tend to do or say something which can be hurtful to other. May be they don’t mean to hurt you but you are hurt because you took it personally. So in the business world keep professional and personal things separate, when you mix these two you will have problems. I listened to him with open mind and felt how right he is. Even I knew these things but with mind filled with negativity I was not able to think straight. With his support I cleared my mind and then things looked better.  Even if we know what is right what is wrong we still can’t see it if mind is filled with negative thoughts. The positivity we get from our loved ones make us realize what is the right, it’s always their presence which makes all the difference and together we feel safe J

My Look Up Story

How we look at things defines what we see. A person with positive attitude will see things straight and one with negative will see things going wrong only. It’s our attitude which defines our altitude and its optimism which give us hope for better future. We often say that time has changed now, world is not a good place to live as it used to be. All these thoughts does nothing but fills us with negativity and takes our belief away from humanity, however optimism is the way of life which makes us hopeful for good. It brings back our belief in humanity and goodness.

Talking of such incidents from my life where optimism kept me going, I am going to share a recent one. Though I am quite a balanced person but when in pain like many of us I too tend to think negative. I have very low pain tolerance and I am very sacred of needles and everything which can hurt me. I always used to have this weird feeling that I will die while delivering my baby. When I got married I shared this feeling of mine with my husband and he just laughed at it and ignored the conversation. When I got pregnant like everyone else in the family I was extremely happy too but at the same time this fear of getting hurt while delivering the baby was there with me. I used to do self counselling and was motivating myself that I can do it. However when the day arrived I kept very strong face and tried baring the pain for very long but after being half way through when the pain increased a lot my positivity started to give up. I was constantly telling my husband to get Cesarean done for me, I was telling him that I can’t bare the pain anymore and I am going to die. But he stood by me firm and strong, he kept on motivating me, did everything to divert my mind from the pain. He kept on telling me that you can do it, just think about the cute little baby you will get to meet at the end of this pain. Somehow with his motivation and the help from the supportive staff at the hospital I went through the painful journey faster than expected by the doctors and at the end when I saw my son all my pain vanished. After that whatever needle and all the doctors were pocking me with, I felt no pain. My husband’s motivation and my son’s cute face made me optimistic about coming happy days and I bared the toughest pain on earth in better way than I expected. At the end doctors were really impressed by my will power and my husband’s supportive nature, and we two were super happy as new parents.

It was only my hope to see my cute little bundle of joy which kept me going through all this pain. It was only optimism which kept our belief firm on a better tomorrow and today we are really happy as 1 week old parents. Now looking at my son’s face when I think back of that painful day, it feels it was all worth it. 

New Life New Beginning

In this world only one thing is constant and that is change. Change brings new meaning, new dimensions to life. Like all of us I too have taken many chances in my life which bought changes in my life in many ways. And if I have to talk about one thing which bought the biggest and best change in my life then it would be moving away from my family for my first job.

After collage when I got placed in a start-up VLSI company in Bangalore, where as all my other friends were placed in well established software companies my parents (especially my dad) were a little worried. VLSI being an industry they did not knew much about, they though I will not have much career scope.  And the company I got placed in being a start-up was making them more scared. I was the only girl who got placed there from my collage so they had that other fear of me being alone in new city too. Everyday my dad used to tell me to not accept the offer letter and get some job in my hometown only. He also wanted me to peruse career in soft ware as most of the engineers do, but I was not interested in that. Somewhere my dad’s concern and fear made me stronger about taking up the job and accepting the challenge to do well in life in an unknown city all alone.

When it was time for me to join the company, my dad wanted to accompany me to Bangalore. However I wanted to come here alone as I was sure that if he will see that my company is so small he might not like it and might ask me to comeback with him. I decided to go to Bangalore alone, and assured him that I will take care of myself and will inform him immediately if there is any problem.

Luckily there were no issues I faced in this friendly city and I liked my work and company. Slowly and steadily I learnt more and did well in my work. After a year and half I switched to a well known company in VLSI domain and after taking an apartment on rent when I invited my parents to visit me, my dad was the happiest to see how confident and self depended I was. He was happy that I liked my job so much. And with my new pay, which was better than many of my friends working in soft ware giant’s I felt more successful in my career which made my parents feel proud of me. This was one of my decisions which brought a big change in my life. It made me confident, independent, and helped me win confidence of my parents in my abilities. To #StartANewLife one need to take chance, bigger the chance better the change it will bring.

Your Life Your Responsibility Your Decision

My Dad is a salaried employee and unlike few of my close relatives

who did very well in their business and have a good cash flow all the time he only
has a fix income every month. Still If I compare the lifestyle he has
provided to me and my siblings is nothing less than my well off cousins.Dad
and my mom together provided us the best things in life, be it cloths, food,
education, vacations or values. They have always encouraged us to do the right things,
and plan for things we want to do in long run.

The art of saving was taught to us in very young age by mom.
We used to have our own piggy banks and as teenagers we had our own savings
account in bank too. In my case I had my first bank account at the age of 13,
which I owned jointly with my mom, but I was the one supposed to maintain the
account. Whenever I saved 500 or 1000 rupees from my pocket money I used to
deposit that to my bank account. This way I not only learnt the bank related
work but also became confident about myself.

We are two sisters and one brother and we have just 2 to 3
years of age gap between us. During our school and college days there were
times when my parents had to pay 3 equally big tuition fees at one go and they
did it all quite smoothly. None of us had to go for education loan or anything
of that sort. For mine and my sister’s weddings the kind of arrangements my
parents did left many of our relatives surprised. They were not expecting my parents
to organize such lavish weddings one after another, but my parents did it as
that was their dream and they have planned for it in advance. They did not take
financial help from anyone and were able to do it all on their own. They were always
able to give the best to their children and it was the result their good financial planning.

By seeing them and with my mom’s motivation I also started
with financial planning and investment quite early in my career.  And luckily I am married to a man who too comes from quite similar background as mine and believes in planning and being
independent. We are working together towards our financial and personal goals
and I am sure we will also be able to give the best of best to our future kids :)

Being independent financially not only gives one confidence
to face the future but also makes the present more peaceful. You can live in
today completely only when your future worries are all taken care of. In today’s
fast lifestyle we cannot guaranty that everything will be good in future but
with planned finances we can be sure of a financially secured future, which for
sure will be better than an unplanned one.

Bedtime Rituals for your little one

Sleep is a beautiful thing, and only a sleep deprived mom can tell you the importance of same :)Sleep time is the time when our body gets to revive itself. For babies good sleep is even more important, as that is the time they grow more. I am not a mom yet but I am a mom to be very soon. Already in my 36^th week of pregnancy I am preparing to welcome our bundle of joy by buying all necessary items for him/her. I keep reading and collecting information through net and by talking to other moms to understand things I need to do for my baby's well being.

I have a sister who has a toddler and I have seen her first struggling with her small baby to make him sleep on time and stay asleep for long. But slowly she came up with some bed time rituals which helped her son sleep longer and better. I am sharing few of them here with you all:

1.       Relaxing massage: Massage helps even adults to relax and for babies also it does the same. Light massage with oil or baby lotion helps the baby relax before going to bed. If your baby is comfortable you can also give him quick bath in warm water before the massage. I have seen my sister doing this for her baby and that actually helps him sleep well. 

2.       Proper feeding before bed: Once the baby is 6 months old it can take some solid food too and then it does not need to wake up multiple times during the night for feeds. Make sure that the baby is fed well so that it does not wake up multiple times during night because of hunger. Giving warm milk before bed also helps.

3.       Reading a story: Reading a story or telling story to toddlers makes them fall asleep easily. Reading in soothing voice helps the baby calm down and slowly puts the baby to sleep. I have seen my sister telling stories to her 6 month old son, I thought that he is too young to understand the stories but then I saw him listening to her carefully and then falling asleep slowly. So even I am planning to learn some bedtime stories for my baby, which will help us connect more and will help my baby sleep. 

4.       Using good Diapers: Other then hunger wetness can also break your baby’s sleep multiple times at night. Using good diapers for your baby ensures that they are not wet at night. I have seen my sister using pampers for her baby from his very first month and she uses the same brand till now also. Her loyalty towards pampers made me decide that I too will use the diapers from same brand only. And guess what, I have already stocked some in new-born size for my baby :) 

Other then these few rituals we also have to create fix time and schedule for baby’s sleep, so that they start relating to the surrounding with their sleep time and get a sound and break free sleep throughout the night. This will make them wake up fresh and smiling every morning and will ensure that the parents also get sound sleep full night :)

Live The Life You Have Always Dreamed Of!

Life is a gift which god has given us, now what we do with it is up to us. From the time we are born our parents start dreaming about our bright future. As we grow up we see many dreams for our life. We set goals, aspirations, things we want to achieve in life and start working towards them. But as life progresses many of our dreams take the back seat. The daily grinding of life, responsibilities and liabilities start hold us back from running behind our dreams. We start following the regular path of life, the safe path which leaves us with no time to do things which we really want to do. And slowly things which we want to do but not able to do at that moment start going to our bucket list. Bucket list is a list which can have all the desires, aspirations, dreams of an individual which he/ she wants to achieve.

I too have a bucket list, but my responsibilities holds me back from ticking out things from that list. If given a chance to live a life with no responsibilities or constrain to hold me back, the top few things which I would like to empty from my bucket list first are:

1. Month long Trip to Europe: Europe has so many destinations to offer to tourists, it makes it difficult for me to decide which country to go to and which one to leave. So I want to cover as many places in Europe as I can. But at the same time I don’t want a trip with mad rush to just tick off the places from my list. I want to do a month long trip to Europe where I will get time to admire the beauty of various destinations and understand their culture like local.

2. Owning my dream Home: Owning a house is a social security and responsibility and by buying a good apartment at posh location in my city I have fulfilled that responsibility of mine.  This being my first home is very close to my heart, but I am still waiting to own my dream home. My dream home will not be an apartments, it will be an independent house with a big garden. A house with plenty of space for my family, friends and my passion. I want to make a home which has a big library in it with a very comfortable couch, where I can spend all my lazy afternoons. A big movie room with lots of recliners and a big screen where I can watch all the classic movies with my loved ones. A terrace garden where I can sip my morning coffee and a big specious kitchen where I can experiment with food I love.

3. Scuba Diving: I am ashamed to tell this but I must admit that I am one of the few people who don’t know swimming. But I have this fancy of doing scuba diving and experiencing the marine life closely.

4. Seeing the sunrise in Hot Air balloon: I have always had a fancy for hot air balloons, seeing them on TV or photos makes me want to be there myself. Recently when I went to the USA, I got chance to experience hot air balloon ride. But that time I left that chance as I wanted to experience this lovely thing with my husband. And then later we did not do it due to lack of time. So next whenever I get chance I would like to go up in the air and watch the sunrise, while being in my husband’s arm.  

5. Mystery of Egyptian Pyramid: The mystery Egyptian pyramids have always fascinated me. The concept of life after death which Egyptians believed on is exciting and scary at the same time. Getting to visit the pyramids and seeing it in person will give me chance to know and experience their mysterious culture more closely.

These are my top five items from my bucket list which I want to do as soon as I can. But to get such tension free life I will have to take some wise decisions now which can secure my future. And give me the freedom to live my life my way #BefikarUmarBhar.

#UnconditionalLove with the Zenfone

Love is a beautiful thing, and everyone should fall in love at least once in their life. In today’s world where everything comes with some “conditions applied” finding true unconditional love is a big challenge. Now our lives are so fast paced that we end up spending more time with our phones and other gadgets than our partners. This sometimes makes me feel that our smart phones are our real partners these days, without which we can’t even imagine our life. Now a person looks sadder when his/her phone crashes than when he/she is dumped by their girlfriend or boyfriend. When we are giving so much love, time and importance to our smart phones then we surly deserve to get back the same unconditional love from them.

Recently ASUS came up with their Zenfone range which promises to give unconditional love to its users. And five reasons which make me believe that this is my ideal Valentine are:

1.       Long-lasting togetherness:  With ultimate battery life of 12+ hours ASUS Zenfone makes sure to  be with me for hours without charging. It can stay with me like a true companion without giving me the headache of looking for charging stations after every few hours. And for someone like me who is lazy to charge my phone every day, this is a total bliss.

2.       Keeping me entertained: Like any other girl I like my partner to be entertaining. A boring companion is never fun to hangout with. With High resolution, big display it can bring life like experience to my favourite videos. The amazing sound quality can make me experience each and every beat of my favourite with clarity. And the awesome camera will let me capture each and every precious moment of my life on the go with ease.

3.       Touch of love: Now all the phones in market comes with touch screen but this one come with gorilla glass protection and has an anti fingerprint coating on screen. So I can touch it as much as I want and whenever I want without worrying about making the screen dirty. It has fast response time to the touch. So an impatient soul like me will always feel that someone is responding to my touch immediately.  

4.       Multitasking and high performance:  Every girl likes a smart companion, who can help her with in kitchen, and will help her with some office work too with the same ease. Same way this smart phone is such a multitasker that it lets you enjoy the music while checking your office emails or making presentations on the go.

5.       Being light on my pocket: it is not always true that only girlfriends are high maintenance, same is true with guys too. Even if your know someone who is scoring high on all your expectations as a partner but is out of your reach then there is no point in chasing them for years. Instead be with someone who you like and who can be yours. Available at great price point Zenfone is light on my pocket and is within my reach. It fulfils all my demands and puts no unwanted burden on my pocket. Total win-win!!

With these reasons the zenfone is surly a true companion for me, who can give me #UnconditionalLove this Valentine season. So if you are also looking for your share of #UnconditionalLove still then Zenfone is available here just for you :)

 

 

Get Quikr NXT!

In the corporate world we are taught to keep a backup of all the communication with customer in written format. Even though we conclude something with the customer or service provider over phone or in a face to face meeting still we send an email consolidating the details discussed in meeting so that if needed later this can work like a reference for both the parties. Recently many online buying/selling/renting sites have come up in India and they are doing very well. Having these sites saves lots of time and hassle for end users who want to buy or sell used goods. But it actually takes a toll on their privacy as one need to keep their contact details visible to all in order to attract more and more buyers. This is not only threat to one’s privacy but also getting calls from buyers at odd times irritates a lot.

I had a colleague who recently relocated, and that time he was selling lots of his household items on such buying/selling sites. He used to get so many calls in office hours and that was not only disturbing for him but it used to disturb us also. Every time he used to get call, he either used to go out of the office or sometimes if he need to refer to some specification of the appliance then he used to talk from his desk, that time we all used to hear his conversations. And believe me that was very uncomfortable for him and disturbing for us.

Recently, the leading buying/selling site Quikr came up with a new feature Quikr NXT which allows buyers and sellers to connect over chat. I personally  prefer chatting over a phone call and some of the reasons for my preference are:

1. Keeping track of the conversation: With the chat history I will get to keep track of all the discussions I had with buyer or seller. So later if any of us have any confusion or disagreement the chat history will work as the guideline. 

2. Connecting at my convenience: Even if a potential buyer or seller wants to chat with me when I am offline I will get a notification and then I can contact them at my convenient time, rather than attending multiple calls when I am busy with something else. I will also not lose on the potential buyers/sellers by missing to attend their phone call as with the chat option being available on smart phones too I can chat with them from anywhere anytime.

3. Privacy: Privacy of my contact number is another big advantage with the new chat option. I can buy and sell my used goods online without even sharing my contact number with everyone. This makes sure that my number is not misused by anyone for anything.

This new chat feature on Quikr gives more control to the end user without even compromising on their privacy. People like my husband who don’t use such sites only because he don’t like his contact details to go public will love this new chat feature on Quikr. So India get ready  to buy/sell used stuffs with Quikr Nxt without even making a single phone call :D No Fikar Chat Quikr !!

Asus IndiBlogger Meet 2015 #GoSleeekASUSexperience

As bloggers we get to connect with lots of people, be it fellow bloggers or readers or sponsors but we mostly meet them in virtual world. It is only the blogger’s meets when we get to meet our friends from the virtual world in reality. Therefore whenever I get change to attend indiblogger meets I try not to miss it. Few days back when I got invite for 2015’s first indiblogger meet I knew that I have to go there. Based on my previous experiences in past blogger meets these meets are a great way to network with fellow bloggers and are so much fun, this meet was no exception either.

This meet being on a working day made me leave from work early. The hash tag for this meet was the longest hash tag I have seen recently and the addition that extra “e” in sleek was also a mystery for me. The meet started with some high energy performance by the inditeam. It was first time for me to see Anoop playing guitar and Nandita sing. And I must say that the performance was amazing. Then in place of doing usual introduction session we were asked to go around meet bloggers and collect 1 personal item from each and people who collect most number of items will get to introduce their blog. This made sure that we move our butt from the comfortable seat and go around and meet more and more people.

 Then came the part which we all were waiting for, the sponsors of the meet Asus introduced us to their two new products which they recently launched in Indian market. The first one was the EeeBook X205, the super compact, low cost notebook. That was when we came to know the reason of having an extra “e” in the hash tag J This new notebook from Asus is very light weight (980gm) which makes it perfect gadget to be used on the go. It is also very slim and despite of being low priced i.e 14,999/- it looks and feel very solid and durable. After seeing its demo at the bloggers meet I am actually thinking of gifting one to my parents.

The second product in line was their new all in one PC ET2040. It’s a PC with 19.5 inch display, 1 hour’s battery backup and hands free gesture control. Which means it is a combination of PC, LAPTOP, TABLET all in one like a perfect entertainment unit in the living room. The gesture control works till 3 meters. So even when you are cooking in the kitchen and PC is there in leaving room you can still open or close web pages of your choice with just the gestures. This is again priced very affordable at 25,999/-

After getting lured by these two amazing new gadgets we finally ended up the session with a group game. Each team was given one theme and we were supposed to endorse blogging in our act while following those them. Bloggers from the other group were guessing the theme on twitter. The prices for best team act and fastest right theme guessing are yet to be given and I feel I was quite quick in guessing those, so fingers-crossed :D  After this we took a group picture and headed straight to the dinner counter. The dinner spared was indeed very yummy. So all in all the first Indiblogger meet of the year was a great combination of remarkable technology, awesome food and super fun. Indeed a very memorable meet to start the year with.

                  

Life is so Simple without Pimple

We all go through different phases in life and every phase has its own importance, fun and memories. Childhood is always considered the most carefree and memorable phase in everyone’s life. But I feel even teenage has as much importance in our life as childhood. This is the time we see lots of changes in us physically and mentally, which stays with us forever.  Like my childhood I have very fond memories of my teenage days too. We used to go for educational tours, NCC Camps, sports meets and life was so much fun with friends back then. But with all these good memories there are some bad ones too and the constant struggle with pimples was one of them for me.

I have oily skin, which used to be super oily in my teenage days. Especially the area around my nose was something which used to feel as greasy as mom’s made aalu ka paratha with extra ghee. I used to have at least two pimples always on my face and one of them will always be on my nose. I am not blessed with cute, small nose and these red bumps used to make my fat nose even bigger. I used to envy the girls with clear skin; I used to feel super happy on days when I used to wake up with no new pimple on my face. Somewhere deep down I got this feeling that I can be good in academics and extracurricular activities, or be favorite student for my teachers but I am not going to be the best looking girl in school and I will never ever be the most attractive girl for any boy . I started hating my face and specially my nose. All this was actually taking a toll on my self-esteem and confidence.

One day for some pity reason I had a fight with my younger sister. Being the elder one I won the fight and was happy about my victory until I found this note which she left on my mirror. It had a fat nose drawn on it with lots of big red dots on it and a message that read “Didi, this is how your nose looks like. Fat & Ugly!!”. I was deeply hurt, not because of my sister’s rude words but I was hurt because I knew that it is all true. I cried and went to my mom with that note. As a mother would do, she scolded my sister and tried hard to convince me that I am not ugly. These pimples are just part of the physical changes my body is going through and it will go off soon. However, I was not convinced and that was when mom decided to take me to a Dermatologist. The Doctor gave me some lotion, and wash. She asked me to keep my face clean, avoid oily food and apply the lotion daily. I started following this regime. On weekends my mom used to make Neem and turmeric face pack for me, which helped in pimple reduction. She used to boil Neem levees and I used to wash my face with that water as the antiseptic properties of Neem kills the pimple producing bacteria.  All this hard work by mom and my dedication paid off and soon the pimples reduced and my skin became clearer. But as you know all good things in life are never permanent.

I left home to make my career, and bad lifestyle and carelessness towards my skin brought back these red bumpy monsters in my life. Due to my busy schedule I had no time to take care of my skin as mom used to do at home. I started losing hope and confidence once again. I tried to cover the redness of pimples with makeup but those quick fixes actually worsened my skin. That was when I decided to go back to the goodness of Neem. I started looking for skincare products available in market with Neem in it. And after trying different creams and washes I finally tried my hands on Garnier pure active Neem face wash. Regular usage of that actually helped me get my clear skin back. With this face wash I also controlled my diet and all this actually paid me off very well. Clear, glowing skin was back and back was my self confidence and happiness.

Pimple might look like a small red painful bump to others but to people who get this it is nothing less than a disastrous situation and believe me I am not exaggerating this at all J Negative effects which pimple has on one’s self confidence and social life are really scary. I am happy that I survived this problem twice in my life and the goodness of Neem helped me both the times.  Now I always suggest these tried and tested ways of keeping pimples at bay to everyone. We already have so many problems in life then why add one more to the list. Follow healthy lifestyle, use good skin care products and say bye-bye to pimples. After all life without pimple isreally simple and more fun !!