Our Ideal Yatra

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page"

I am a true believer of this line. There are many trips I have taken till date, few were with friends, few with family, and few alone. But there is this one trip which is very close to my heart, which I and my husband took 2 years ago.

I was in the USA for a work assignment for 4 months, and our plan was to visit Dubai by end of my trip. However due to some last minute changes in my assignment our Dubai plans did not workout. I was very upset about it as I was really looking forward to my first international trip with my better half. Though when our plan failed, my husband came up with a new trip plan. He decided to come to the USA towards end of my assignment and have a road trip here.

Then began our search for cheap International Flights from India to San Francisco with shortest travel time. And finally on 13^th July he was there in the USA, I had lots of work on my plate but his presence gave me strength. As I had to go to office too, first few days we explored the down town and nearby food joints only, and decided to go to Las-Vegas on coming long weekend.

We drove a rented car from San Jose to Las Vegas. We did night drive, and reached Vegas after 6 to 7 hours of drive. We had booked our stay in casino Circus-Circus, but we reached earlier than the check-in time so we tried our luck in roulette. Lady luck was on our side that day and we ended the game after doubling our money. It was a nice start to our trip. At 11’o clock when we finally got our room we took some rest. After a good sleep we both got ready and went out to explore the Las Vegas strip.

The energy outside was amazing. There were many street artists out there and there were different shows happening from different casinos. We watched all the must watch shows and explored almost all the casinos on the Las Vegas strip. Around mid-night only we came back to our room, as next morning we had to drive to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon.

We started at 7 in the morning from Vegas to Grand Canyon and stopped by to see the Hoover Dam. Around 2 in afternoon we reached the Grand Canyon. We were mesmerized by the beauty and grandness of this place. By evening 6 we headed back from there to Las Vegas. Around 1 at night we reached back to our room in Circus-Circus and rested.

Next day again we explored the remaining casinos on the Las Vegas Strip and in evening we went to the famous Fremont street. That street has a digital ceiling with vibrant video playing on it with awesome music. It was one of its kind we have seen so far. We explored the city till late night and slept for some time so that we can drive back to San Jose the next day. In 3 days we drove around 3 states of the USA and created memories for life time.

After coming back to San Jose we visited Napa Valley and San Francisco too. Finally I was able to wrap up my assignment with a vacation which was so much fun. This vacation is very dear to me and my husband till date.

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.

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 !!

It's just Quikr in Bangalore!

Bangalore is the IT hub of India. Every year thousands of engineers or aspiring engineers come to the city to make a career in Information technology/ software. Also with the growing IT industry people tend to be moving to different cities in India and abroad for the projects. All this makes Bangalore a city which sees many people coming to the city or leavening the city for work related reasons. I came to Bangalore 6 years back to work. I landed here with just two bags full of cloths and books. And after renting the apartment the biggest challenge I had for me was to buy all the household items in the limited budget and time I had.

I remember that in my early days in Bangalore I wanted to buy a fridge for myself but I did not wanted to invest a lot of money in the new fridge as I was not sure if I will settle down in Bangalore or not. So I thought of buying a used fridge but my search was limited only in my friends circle and in friend’s friends circle.  This limited option made it very difficult for me to get a good condition fridge in the budget I had in mind in the given time I had. After trying for some days I ended up buying a new fridge which was heavy on my pocket, but that was the only option I had that time as no good online buying/selling website was available back then to make my life easy.

When I got married, I and my husband came together with our own set of household item. This meant there were few items which were double in number and there were few which we had to buy. Husband was all ready to give some of the stuffs of our maid or apartment guard as he did not wanted to get into the hassle of selling used stuffs. We actually ended up donating many items and spent money on buying new things for our household. I was not very happy with all this but again like my husband even I had no time or energy to sell our old stuffs. As four years back easy to use and trusted buying/selling sites were not around.

Now we will be moving to our new house soon and I am planning to buy many new appliances and furniture, so what I will do with my old stuff, will I donate them again? Hell no, they are all bought recently and are well maintained, I will for sure sell them this time. This will not only save me some money but will also save money and time to the thousands of people who relocate to Bangalore for studies or work. Until you are not sure that you will settle down in a city buying many-things makes no senses but things which are essential need to be bought in any case. For those items looking for used stuff is always a best option. And in city like Bangalore, where people move in and out frequently getting good deals on good condition stuffs is quite easy.

With new and more trusted buying/selling sites that we have these days, it is very easy to find the stuffs we need in nearby locality. Sites like Quikr, provides thousands of options for bike/car/furniture/home appliances in ones budget and in nearby locality, which means one don’t need to travel far to find what they want. And as most of the time the reason for people to sell stuff is relocation due to work, so you can be sure that things you buying are less used and in good condition. So if you are relocating to Bangalore, then don’t take tension about buying stuffs, just use Quikr and save your time and energy which you can use in exploring this beautiful garden city :D

Kitna Chain Hota Hai na Sachchai Mein

We are taught from childhood that honesty is the best policy. One who follows the path of truth is the strongest person. We have read these values, but in real life we tend to forget them at times and try to find the easier way out of our problems by lying. Still we all come across such moments in our life where lying is the easier way to get out of our problems however we choose to tell the truth, because the guilt of lying is much difficult to handle then handling the punishment for our mistake.

I have come across many such incidents in my life and one such incident which I am able to remember now is from my school days. My school was a girl’s only school and it was quite strict. I was in high school and newly learnt to whistle, I used to show-off that to all my friends. One day during assembly I told my bench-mate that I can whistle and she was eager to learn that from me. After the assembly we went inside our class and our class teacher came and started taking the attendance. I and my friend finished our attendance turn and I was telling her the technique of whistling, in that process of explaining her how to twist the tongue I ended up blowing air also and the whistle sound came out. Our class teacher was still taking the attendance and when he heard the whistle sound he stopped and asked who whistled. There was pin drop silence in the class.

He shouted again “Who whistled in my class?”. He looked very angry, I and my friend looked at each other, and we both were very terrified. Teacher looked restless now and said that if in next 2 minutes no one tells him who did this then he will punish the whole class. I was very scared as he looked very angry, I thought that I will keep quiet and will not tell him that it was my mistake.

By now my teacher was really angry and he asked the whole class to stand on the bench for the entire day. That was the moment when I felt really guilty. I felt that if I will not tell the truth now then I will be responsible for this punishment which my whole class has to go through. My guilt was so much strong now that I just raised my hand and told my teacher “Sir, It was me who whistled. I am very sorry Sir.”

He looked shocked, I was a good student and very good in extracurricular activities also which made me favourite of many teachers. He was not able to believe that this misbehaviour was done by me. He shook his head in disbelief and asked if I am sure that I did this and I am not taking someone else’s blame on me. I kept my head low and accepted my mistake again. My teacher gave me punishment to stand on the bench throughout the day, but when I climbed on the bench he asked me to stop. He said it’s okay, I forgive you this time, just don’t repeat it again.

I still remember that day, and how good I felt after telling the truth. The guilt of lying, and being the reason of pain for my friends vanished by telling just one truth. I totally agree that truth is very powerful and the purest thing in this world. Really “bahut chain hota hai sachchai mein.”

Teddy travelogues – Travel Fun with Kids

Some great man said that “The World is a book and people who do not travel read only one page” I find this line very appealing. Travelling is always a pleasant break from the daily grinding of life and it also gives us an opportunity to learn new things. We adults feel the need of a break from daily chore and travel comes as the best excuse. Similarly for kids also routine life tends to get boring and travel brings the much needed fun break. Be it your own kids or your nephew and nieces , travelling with kids always adds extra fun to the travel. Kids are always filled with a kind of raw energy which keeps everyone charged.  Their innocent questions and cute giggles can turn a boring long drive into a fun trip too. However planning a trip with kids is bit different then planning one without them. There are various things to be taken care of when we are travelling with kids.

First of all the travel destination should be chosen keeping kids in mind. This does not mean that with kids we only have to go to Disneyland each time, but we should try to find kids friendly places. Place where they can get lots of space to have fun, and where they can see something different then what they see in their day to day life.  Some place from where they can bring back some new learning and interesting stories to share with their friends. Also, there should be easy access to resting area and yummy food which they love. Taking care of hygiene is also very important when planning trip with kids.

As kid I used to like going to places about which I have read in my books. Going there used to give me a chance to connect things I see there with what I read, whereas my brother used to like going on nature trail and places where he can see animals closely.  My parents used to make sure that where ever we go we are eating hygienic food and have access to clean water. As kids tend to get very curious about things and have tendency to do risky things, my parents used to make sure that always one adult is there supervising all the kids on trip. By keeping these small things in mind my parents made all our travels fun and memorable.

Talking of these things, I feel while travelling with kids it’s always a good idea to select a new destination each time which is different than the one they have visited in past. And the stay should be booked in a resort kind of place, so that even on days you are not going out for sightseeing kids will still have lots of activities to do inside the resort itself. That will keep them busy and will give the parents some time to unwind J

Club Mahindra is a great example for same. They have thousands of resorts in India and abroad, which gives comfortable stay and the feel of that place even inside the resort also. So with them you and your kids get travel experience of different places with the same friendly comfortable feel each time. With so many destinations to choose from now we don’t need to get worried about having selective travel options for kids, just pack your bags and explore a new place each time with your kids :D

Rise Above Fear

Fear is always considered a negative feeling. Fear of someone or something always stops us from reaching out to things we actually want to do or get. Fear keeps us inside our limits and never lets us take challenges. And as we know until we take challenges and go out of our comfort zone we can never achieve or know our maximum capabilities. As gold has to go through fire to achieve its real value, we also need to rise above our fears to achieve more in life.

In everyone’s life one moment comes when we have chosen between fear or challenge and until we challenge our self we never know our true capabilities. Today I will share once such experience from my life. I have always been a studios kind of kid, who was favourite of all teachers and popular in her friend circle, but when it used to come to talking to new people I used to get scared. I had this fear of strangers; I used to hide myself behind my books whenever some guest used to come home. Similarly I was also scared of sports and outdoor activities, I used to change my way whenever I used to see my sports teacher, due to my good height she always wanted me to join school’s basketball team but I was scared to play. But then my NCC teacher got hold of me one day and asked me to join NCC, I tried giving her some vague reasons of why I cannot join NCC. She was not convinced and asked me to fill the form for joining the next camp which was happening after a week. I tried convincing her that I don’t want to go, but she did not agree. To keep her quite I took the form home and next day gave it back to the teacher and said my parents did not agree and they don’t want me to go for the camp. I was happy that I don’t have to go out of my comfort zone, and happily went back to my class. Later that day I got a call from principle, and when I went to her room I saw my Dad and the NCC teacher sitting there. NCC teacher was not convinced by my answer so she called my Dad to check why they don’t want me to go for the camp, and when Dad said he has no idea about all this they called him to school. I felt very embarrassed in front of my teachers and my parents, and so decided to go for the camp to see it myself if I can survive it or not.

I was 13 year old and that was first time in my life when I was away from family and all on my own. Getting up very early, intensive physical outdoor activities and strict discipline of the camp was making me miss my home even more. On the last day of that 2 week camp, I was happy that I will go back home, but I got selected for the next camp which was the republic day training camp. I called my mom thinking she will tell me that she is missing me and will ask me to come back, but she said that she is proud of me that I got selected and she wants me to do well in next camp. After that there was no looking back, I gave my 200% to every activity in the next camps. I cleared regional levels and got selected in the state team. I also got to represent my state in the best cadet competition. For this competition I was trained on many things like interpersonal skill, 0.22 rifle shooting, first-aids and so on.

 I finally went to the republic day camp in 2000, and I begged 1^st price in 0.22 rifle shooting and stood 3^rd in the Best cadet completion in National level.  That was a great achievement for me. My state team, my school, and my parents everyone was very proud of me. When I came back to my city I was treated like a celebrity. I was enjoying all the attention and compliments, and then when I went to meet my NCC teacher she asked me how you feel now, I said I feel more confident than ever, and then she said that is why you have to take challenges in life. Until you challenge your fear, you will never rise above it and find your real potential. She was so true; rising above my fear made me a better, confident person. Rising above my fear made me achieve something nice in life which I am proud of. It’s so true “Daar kea age Jeet hai”.

The Power of Voice to Clean India

How many times you have seen things which you did not like and raised your voice against it? We Indian’s are tough to mind our own business from childhood itself, and that’s the reason we never raise our voice against anything wrong until it directly affects us. But gone are the days when staying quite and ignoring things use to work, the new generation of India need to speak. We have to raise our voice to make our opinion getting hared. There is this campaign #AbMontuBolega which is going viral on social media. This is about raising our voice for right. As responsible citizen of this country it’s our right as well as duty to give our opinion for things which are not happening the right way. Be it about corruption, eve teasing, cleanliness, pollution or anything which need attention from citizens and authorities, we have to talk about it to create awareness.  

Today with #AbMontuBolega campaign I want to draw everyone’s attention towards the clean India of our dreams. I live in Bangalore, the technology hub of India. This is the place where one side of the road we see tall, shiny office spaces and on the other side of road we see these big heaps of garbage. To reach to our clean, air-conditioned offices we have to cross the dirty roads with pills of garbage on sides. The bad smell and mosquitoes which are caused due to this garbage creates many problems and health issue for us. The Authorities somehow have always kept their eyes closed towards this issue in Bangalore. People protest, complain for a day or two but after that they get busy with their daily life and start accepting this garbage crisis as a part of their city. We have to change this, we have to raise our voice against this. We have to stop just covering our nose with scarf while crossing the garbage heaps on road and silently blaming authorities and people. We instead have to educate ourselves and people around us about garbage segregation. We need to follow it strictly and have to make sure that authorities full fill their duties too. They should create proper garbage dumping areas and have to collect garbage every day. Proper waste management system has to be installed in the city.

And this is not the story of Bangalore alone; all the big and small cities in India are suffering with the same issue. We have to understand that it is our responsibility to not just clean our house everyday but also take care of our city’s and nations cleanliness. Clean India will be healthy India, Clean Indian will be beautiful India and Clean India will be the India of our dreams. If we remain silent then our dreams will never come true, we will have to work towards it and we will have to talk about it.

So next time when you see someone throwing garbage on road and not in the dustbin just tell them that what they did is wrong, don’t let it go silently. Next time when the city authorities do not clean the waste on time you complaint about it don’t just watch. Because when we will speak then only our problems will be heard and resolved. To get the clean India of my dream now I will also speak up. Kyuki Bin Bole Ab Nahi Chalega #AbMontuBolega.

PS: this post is written in support of the #AbMontuBolega campaign. You can support them on facebook and Twitter as well.

image courtesy: CNNIBN

A Healthy Child Makes a Happy Home

After a long tiring day at work when we come home and get a tight hug from our child it feels awesome and all the tiredness vanishes in no time. A house where there are no kids feels serious and boring but a house full of kids or even with one kid is always filled with energy and joy. Their giggle, pranks, and cute questions makes the kid the reason of happiness for the house.

Children’s are full of energy all the time and their energy makes the home lively. Recently my sister visited me with her toddler and the kind of energy and fun he bought to our home was something me and my husband has not experienced before. That week I was so eager to go back home after office that after 4 in evening I was not able to concentrate at work at all. All I wanted to do was go back and play with my nephew. When I shared my feeling with my husband he said even he felt the same, he too wanted to spend more time at home than at work. And when my nephew left all of a sudden our home felt so silent and lifeless. We both were missing his giggles, his playful talks so much.

Similar things I can remember from my own childhood too. My maternal grandparents used to live very close to my house and they always wanted me and my siblings to stay with them and play with them as that used to fill their house with fun and joy.  Our parents used to scold us when we used to do more masti but whenever I or my siblings used to look sad or silent my parent used to get worried. I remember on my parents 10^th wedding anniversary they were planning a big anniversary bash and just 3 days before their big day I fell very sick. I was down with jaundice, and my parents were busy talking care of me and visiting doctors. They considered cancelling the anniversary party but by then all the guests were already informed so cancelling it at last moment was not possible. They went ahead with the party but my dad and mom used to keep coming in my room to look after me in turns. There was party in the house but they did not look happy. And then when I finally recovered we went out and did an ice-cream party, and that day my parents looked way happier than they looked on their anniversary day.

So this is really true that a healthy child only makes a happy home. It’s our responsibility to keep our kids healthy, and to keep them healthy their immunity should be strong. Healthy diet and healthy habits like working out regularly, cleanliness, good sleep etc helps to improve immunity. With these things adding things like chyawanprash in our daily diet also helps improve immunity. As kids we used to have chyawanprash everyday in the winters to keep out immunity strong and to save ourselves from cold and flu. My mom used to say that chyawanprash was invented by an ancient Rishi Chyawan, it’s a mix of various herbs which keeps body’s immunity high and helps us stay healthy. In modern days there are many brands selling Chyawanprash and Dabur chyawanprash is my favorite in all of them. This is a trusted brand we have used from our childhood days. It claims to improve immunity by three times, and I feel it’s not just winters when we should eat chyawanprash Daily but we should eat chyawanprash everyday in every season to have good immunity. Immune kids are healthy kids and the house of healthy kids is a happy home J

PS: This article was written for contest organised by Indiblogger and Dabur Chyawanprash

Drink for your eyes!!

Its summer time and to keep our self hydrated its must to have lots of fluid intake. I have been very reluctant to drinking water from childhood itself. I hardly drink 2 glass of water in one full day. As a child I drink only 1/4^th glass of water with every meal, my concerned mom used to tell me the impotence of drinking adequate amount of water for human body. But for me the water always tasted so plan and boring I never felt like drinking it. So my mom came up with an idea, she stayed giving me all sort of fruit juices and flavored water to increase my fluid intake. This worked for sometime but once I got used to, I stopped drinking that too.

 Then My dad came up with a brilliant idea or getting me a nice bottle which was in shape of a bear, I stared drinking juices and water again because I was in love with my bottle. Any juice or drink filled in the transparent bottle used to look very lovely and appealing. There on I am a big fan of fancy looking glasses, bottles and tumblers. They actually make the drink look beautiful, just by looking at it you feel like drinking it.  

Just imagine your favorite mint lemonade is served to you in a steel glass, will you enjoy it as much as when its served in a crystal see-through glass? Seeing the pieces of mint leaves and ice in the glass with a ring on lemon on the glass rim improves your desire to have that lemonade and hence the same lemonade tastes better than the one in steel glass. Then it becomes not just a drink to quiche your thrust for you but beautiful feast for your eyes as well.

Tasty food is not always beautiful food, but beautiful food is mostly the tastiest food!!

P.S. - This post is written for the My Beautiful Food contest organized by Indiblogger andBorosil.

The Way to Man’s heart goes through his stomach but starts from his eyes!!

There are two types of people in this world, one who live to eat and others who eat to live. I fall in second category, I never cared about food. Anything which had proper salt as was available to me I ate. But I got married to someone who falls in a different category altogether. My husband is a foodie, who loves his food. He is someone who doesn’t believe in quantity but in quality of food.

After marriage the first and the biggest change happened in me was the improvement in my culinary skills. For his love for food, I stared reading food blogs and subscribed to many food channels to learn new recopies but I failed to get perfect 10 from him every time. I made his favourite breakfast Aloo poha, by following the same recipe which I learn from his mom. It tasted almost same, but he was not impressed. I made his favourite Daal tadka by following exactly same recipe from master chef Sanjeev Kapoor. It tasted good to me but he was not impressed. I went through tones of videos and made delicious Dum Biryani, he ate full plate but still did not praise my food. I was heartbroken and decided to give-up on cooking. I poured my heart to him and said I will not cook anymore, and he should better hire a cook. That was when he told me that he loves my cooking, my food tastes good and the effort put to learn all the dishes is something he adores but what my cooking lacks is the presentation skill.

I argued “Presentation skill?? I need to prepare a PPT for my food or what?”

He hugged me and said “Honey! As you see the cloth first and when you like the print on it then only you touch it and decided on buying it. Same way, when one sees the food it should be appealing, and then only one feels that desire to eat it.”

“What food should look appealing?” I jerked my shoulders

He came close to me and said “just close your eyes and imagine you have 2 plates of Aloo poha in front of you. One is just a plate full of pale Aloo poha and the other one is a steaming hot plate full of bright yellow Aloo poha, which is nicely garnished with fresh coriander leaves and deep fried green chillies with a piece of lemon on side. Which one will you pick?”

I opened my eyes “obviously the second one.” I said excitingly.

“You see, you tasted the food with your eyes and selected which one is worth getting tasted by your tongue.” he was smiling like a proud parent.

I got my most important lessen of cooking that day from my husband. I was already feeling hungry after talking of food and so I prepared Dum biryani that day. I served the steaming hot spicy Dum briyani nicely garnished with deep fried onion slices and mint leafs in a beautiful serving bowl. I served chilled Raita in a glass bowl with coriander leaves dressing on it and a plate full of nicely cut cucumber, onions and tomatoes followed it. My husband loved the way the food was presented and I felt proud of my cooking.

There on, I always try to present my food in an interesting and appealing way then just putting it as it is on table. Nice crockery is as important for a dish to look appealing as right amount of salt and spices for a dish to taste good. As the old saying goes that the way to man’s heart starts from his stomach, however for the modern cosmopolitan man the way to his heart goes through his stomach but it always starts from his eyes ;)

P.S. - This post is written for the My Beautiful Food contest organized by Indiblogger and Borosil.