Five Elements: Fantastico, Impact, Peppy, Music, Navigation

Post 2 for IndiMarathon-All the experiences I explored from this marathon

As I begin to discover about five different elements, which define the Zica-new car by Tata, I interestingly find a co-relation of the same with five elements of human body.

Okay, maybe that’s only me or someone else could relate it like this but imagine- Fantastico, Impact, Peppy, Music and Navigation are five things that make this car ready to offer you a remarkable driving experience every time you try it. Similarly, human body is made out of five elements-Water, Air, Fire, Earth and Void. With all of these present in one human body, excellent performance of the body is ensured.

Now that I have to weave my story around the five elements of ZICA and for that I have to use my body made out of FIVE distinct elements mentioned above, I would choose to go ahead with a strategy.

Since it is a blog marathon so there has to be a series of posts. But, I would like to create milestones on the blog marathon track and achieve them. Confused? Let me explain it better:

The Strategy

There are five elements- Fantastico, Impact, Peppy, Music, Navigation, so I will consider each of them as a milestone.

I will write 1 post each element and try and cover all the learning and experiences through the same.

To run and keep running without any fear of failure, without any pressure of success, you need to deal with certain things. I will be talking about all those things in my blog marathon posts. Here are some of the highlighted ones:

·         Fighting with fear

·         Dealing with doubts

·         Channelizing energies

·         Utilizing knowledge

·         Experiencing failure

·         Churning out creativity

·         Keeping up the motivation

Life is a marathon

For me, life is a marathon and at each pit-stop or at each milestone, you learn something. Why life is marathon? Why not a race or not a walk? Well, race is generally a rush to reach to the finishing line, walk is little too relax. Life has its own pace of introducing new things, new people and new situations to you; life just not examines you for your speed but also examines you for your stamina. Hence, it is a marathon.

You keep on running; you keep on crossing milestones, building your own milestones and keep learning. You may not reach to the finishing line or you may not succeed at every step, but at every step you learn. Therefore, I would be sharing what all I have learnt during my blog’s marathon for this exciting contest.  

The idea is to think beyond the given challenges, lay down my milestones and work on them. It’s a marathon, everlasting, never-ending!

Milestone 1 FANTASTICO

Milestone 2 IMPACT

Milestone 3 PEPPY

Milestone 4 MUSIC

Milestone 5 NAVIGATION

Here we go!

 This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Navigation: From Oblivion to IndiMarathon

Post 1 for IndiMarathon-All the experiences I explored from this marathon

Hi, I am Piyu and I am from oblivion.

Why oblivion?

Why oblivion, Umm because I always shuttle between office-home-office. Interestingly, I have joined a weekend study program, so weekends are eliminated from my life. 7 days a week, 365 days a year, I am at work. In short, there’s no time to ventilate my mind with the things I like doing. So, I call this situation-Oblivion. No, I am not sad. I am just buys. Too busy to be sad even! But wait, I think I am not the only one.

Wait! I am not the only one!

In today’s busy pace of life, we all live in our little oblivion. Some call it cellphone too. But, oblivion is that little space, that zoned-out zone, where we are always available. But, we are missing from all the other places. We are not in that fine corner of our room with your favorite book, we are not standing in the balcony looking at the sky, and we don’t pay attention to the sunrise and sunset. The road to routine-rat-race has become our little oblivion.

But we have to get out of here…

Isn’t it dangerous to be in such a place, where life is too predictable and lame? Same, old and mundane routine followed? Okay some people are lucky enough to have a weekend break but I have my classes every weekend and hence, no break.

May Routine:

Here’s my weekly routine looks like:

Monday: Wake up, Feel low on energy, Freshen up, Have Breakfast, Rush to office, Work, Come Back, Eat, Sleep…

Tuesday: Copy that

Wednesday: Copy that

Thursday: Copy that

Friday: Copy that

Saturday: Wake up, Feel low on energy, Freshen up, Have Breakfast, Rush to classes, Study, Come Back, Eat, Sleep…

Sunday: Copy that

What do I miss?

·         Morning exercise

·         Evening cycling

·         Swimming

·         Blogging

·         Travelling

·         Lying down on the terrace and looking at the stars

·         Listening to my favorite music with a glass of wine

·         Driving in the rain with my favorite music

How do I feel?

There is chaos in this oblivion, there is dead silence in this oblivion, but there is no harmony. I sometimes feel that I should quit the routine and experience a routine breakdown! But how? I need inspiration.

And I discover the Indimarathon!

One fine day, I managed to sneak out from my oblivion state and enter into my blog-sphere. A place, which I have not been able to visit for quite a long time! It was so good to see the blog-sphere as happening as I left it the last time! Ah! Beautiful!

Hey wait! Is that a new contest, an activity or a cause… Oh oh oh! It is something new and exciting. Its Blogathon- as in blog marathon…IndiMarathon…Uh, I have always loved this blogging network for bringing such OUT OF THE BOX ideas, which thrill you enough to get out of your dead-oblivion zone.

The Navigation

But hey, wait! It’s quite a challenging challenge and I am not even prepared. Wait, the time is also running out. Half of the sands from the timer have also fallen. Should I even do it?

Yes, I should! Let’s navigation from Oblivion to Indimarathon.

Let me reintroduce myself, I am Piyu and I have just navigated from Oblivion to Indimarathon, successfully.

 This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

No Crash Dieting: Eat Clean Train Mean

The idea of dieting needs to be healthy eating. It is all about eating right and eating clean. You need not to fall in the trap of the thing called Crash Dieting. It is not at all a good idea, neither for your body/skin, nor for your mind/soul.

Before you begin to think of the term dieting, you should be ready to read a lot about the nutrition methods and right kinds of food that you should eat. Human body is designed to consume healthy carbs, protein, minerals, vitamins and fat etc. You cannot deny anything to your body that it really deserves. However, balancing the portion aka amount of eating any of these components is your duty. You cannot end up eating carbs and fat loaded food all the day just because you like it. You need to have a balanced diet, which not only turns your body healthier than before, but also makes your skin glow. 

The perfect combo

The idea of perfect combination for leading a healthy lifestyle includes having a perfect mix of eating and workout in your routine life. If you do exercises without fail and eat healthy food then nothing can stop you from being healthy and leading a lifestyle, which you truly deserve. 

It has been proved and certified by health and nutrition experts that people, who do basic cardio, little bit of strength training and eat healthy and nutritious food then they definitely get strong muscles, better metabolism, sculpted body and younger looking skin. 

What exactly is eating right?

Okay! Okay! Yes, you have read the term Eating Right multiple times up there and now you really want to know that what exactly Eating Right means? Well, it is nothing but replacing the junk and unhealthy food with healthier, better and tastier options. How? Read below:

Replace Sugar with Honey. Yes body requires glucose, so give it only that it requires. Giving it extra sugar in the wake of making your tongue's taste better might cause you big harm. Unused sugar transforms into unhealthy or harmful compound for your body. Honey diet will add awesomeness to your life for sure

Replace junk with oats, fruits and salad: Junk food might sound interesting to the tongue but it causes a lot of trouble to your entire body. It is an unnecessary load for your digestion system and disturbs the entire setup of your body. 

Eat right food at the right time: Now that you know what is right food, you should choose the right time for eating too. If you want a healthy, fit and lean body, you cannot eat in the odd hours. Have your dinner before 8 or maximum 9. Stop mid night munching and yes never skip on the breakfast. Try to include healthier elements in your meals. Always have 4-5 meals in a Day, including Mid-day snacks and evening snacks. Hey, snacking doesn't mean the fried stuff or random junk. Choose healthy options and celebrate being fit. 

Say No No to Crash Dieting

If you think of getting fat free in few days and you begin to starve your body like anything, then it might help you in losing some pounds but that would definitely not the fat but the muscles. Losing the muscles is the most painful thing one can experience. It will make you look older and the charm of your skin will go away.

Still hungry? Get some healthy recipes here http://www.daburhoney.com/

Cheers Indiblogger

Switch before it sucks the hell out of you!

There were days, when we had the liberty to bunk school and tuition classes to catch up with the match, but nowadays, it is not possible. Sometimes, we are stuck with the traffic; sometimes other responsibilities make us sideline the plans of enjoying a match we used to do few years back. Golden Days they were.

But, now it seems that technology with all its powers have taken the responsibility to guide us back to those Golden Days or to be precise bring those Golden Days back in our hands. We can catch up with the favorite cricket match live online through our laptops, computers, mobile screens and tabs. If your eyes are busy, you can listen to the live commentary online or if not this than at least you can keep a check with the score updates and highlights. Wow, sounds amazing.  But wait; before we begin to enjoy the benefits of technology, you actually face the bumps on the road. Yes. The bumps! The speed breakers!

Internet Speed: Sucks!

Browser Compatibility: Sucks harder!

When the videos are buffering and pages are loading, it is a challenge to figure out that how to kill time. Staring at the screen could be one thing to do, but which is very lame and sounds unproductive. Therefore, smart people like me often choose to pass faulty comments on all the internet broadband services, the browser, the neighbors, the Government of the country, ex-boy friend/girlfriend or the friend, who ditched you and what not.

The idea is that when our internet or browser sucks, we are stuck with a situation, where we cannot do anything. ANYTHING but express the inner frustration through words. The frustration is at its highest when you are trying to watch a cricket match online and the buffering thing comes up. Imagine the chaos your body undergoes, when you choose to watch the match in bits and pieces.

Switch before it sucks the hell out of you!

Switch to a better internet connection but remember that will only solve half of the problem. You also need a browser with super speed to make sure that your videos run in real time, so no BUFFERING! And, upload and download your favorite stuff through the web, without facing any LOADING issues.

UC Browser is designed to deal with all the major problems you face while mingling your eyes with the most favorite cricket match live on the show. Fall in love with the idea of experiencing the new world of watching cricket matches online in real time without any buffering or loading. UCCricket is the dedicated feature designed for this browser. You can download it online for your computer and Smartphone having any of the major operating systems.

Curious to know more about UC Browser and UCCricket? Watch this video dude.

Hey Indiblogger, cheers dude :)

Co-incidences and beyond

What's the difference between 'co- incidence' and 'miracle'? May be a thin line of perception. How we see things and how we believe in them. As many authors and great people have firmly said in their writings and through other artistic & communicative works that 'only what you believe in, is true.'

Today I bring such an event from my life which happened few hours ago and it made me think that how should I take that particular episode just a random 'co- incidence' and 'miracle'? Though I am a person,  who likes to believe in miracles. But for this situation, I am too overwhelmed to decide on something!

One of my respected and finest gurus (teachers) yesterday handed over two books to me about photography. Since he understands my interest in photography and always wants me to learn more, he suggested me to go through the books precisely. I would like to take a moment and thank my life and its creator to bless me with such wonderful teachers.

I flipped through the book several time and the photograph that captured my maximum attention was a young girl running naked on the street...terrified,  followed by few armymen and other kids in the background.

The picture belonged to Vietnam war...I stared at it, found myself almost lost in the ashes of war history. When I was tired of flipping through the book I placed it aside with the firm idea to open it up next day. This all happened on 22 June 2015.

And on 23 June 2015, I discovered a news piece about a lady named Kim Phuc in 'Rewind-Where they are now' series by CNN. You can read the entire story here.

The news piece talks about a 52 year old lady Kim Phuc, who happens to be the naked girl in this picture. This picture is 43 years old and  get to discover it in a book given by teacher on the same day this story is published by CNN. I can't just name it plain co-incidence and walk away. Neither am I trying to name it a Miracle. I am rather concerned about knowing and exploring that why I encountered about this in such a way that I get maximum notice of this particular story. What's life planning for me?

Anyways, back to the picture and Kim Phuc. She survived the thrashes of was but scars are still imprinted on her body and soul. She says that those events of war still haunt her mind but her heart is healed and she has learned to forgive. She says, "I realized that if I couldn't escape that picture, I wanted to go back to work with that picture for peace. And that is my choice."

What a beautiful massage a war victim has given here. The idea is to call for peace and end the war. Kim now runs a foundation for victims of war and underprivileged children by the name Kim Foundation. She is also 

The photograph was taken by Nick Ut, who was a seasonal war photographer and the photograph managed to appear on the headlines of many newspapers in 1972. 

I don't know what is the purpose of me exploring all this. But, I am sure about one thing that this incidence has increased my curiosity about reading the book that Rajinder Sir gave me and of course more about Vietnam war. Cheers :)

Blah Therapy

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Dear forgotten friend

Dear forgotten friend,
Today I saw a girl like you.
For a moment I thought it was you.
I couldn't resist approaching her,
So I ignored the fact that we don't talk anymore!
I walked near her
Made her uncomfortable with my consistant stare...
I knew it wasn't you
But I wished it were you...
Not because I wanted to speak to you or fix what has been broken by us...
But just to say "hey! Long time" and hug you the way we used to do it every other day.
When she turned towards me, I couldn't figure out whether she looked like you or not.
What! Have I forgotten how you looked?
And I am afraid if you too feel the same way...
As the sands of time slip down, even memories don't stay...
So my friend, next time our paths cross,  we might not recognize each other.
But before I sign off I must tell you that the journey from 'knowing you' to 'being strangers again' has been memorable...

Why couldn't SHE hug her Dad

Today is father's day and I sit miles away from my Papa...writing this post in my mobile phone. I have been planning to write for this prompt since the day blogadda and vicks announced it but somehow couldn't do it...and now I feel good for not doing it because today feels the right day. I know every other day is my father's day but still writing about him on the day the entire world is celebrating it,  gives me immense happiness.

I saw the video by Vicks, very beautiful and emotionally moving indeed. The video talked about how we stop hugging our dads as we grow up. Very deep and subtle observation. But the visuals show only men. But as an observer what I have noticed around me is that its daughters who hesitate in hugging their daughters as they grow up. I have always seen my brother hugging my dad instantly as he touches his feet and I am lucky enough to never give up my habit of hugging him tight and swing over his shoulders even if I am a big, independent girl. But still, I would like to share my observations that might convey what I am trying to say and give vicks a reason to make another touching videos featuring beautiful daughters with their handsome dads.

I started studying in hostel when I was in eleventh standard. My dad used to visit me during weekends and I would run like crazy from the hostel till the visitors' room, where he would stand spreading his arms and smile for me. He would grab me in his arms and for that very moment, we the 'daddy-daughter duo' would steal the show. Other girls waiting for their dads or already sitting with them in the visitors' room would keep looking at us, with a spark full of questions in their eyes.

I couldn't understand what it was and what their eyes wanted to convey. But, I always assumed that there was admiration for us in those eyes.

But it was not plain admiration but a lot more than that which was unveiled when I with few of a girls from the hostels played 'truth & dare' and when the bottled refused to spin after pointing out its head towards me, I chose truth and they shot me the a question which rested their in their eyes along with that admiration. The question was:

"Don't you feel hesitant while hugging your dad"

I replied: "Not at all, why should I? And in fact why should anyone feel hesitant to hug his or her dad?"

"I feel hesitant...since I am a girl and I have grown up so I feel very awkward in hugging my dad. Every time I see you hugging your dad, I immediately recall my childhood days and I regret growing up." Said Anita-The girl with long hair I remember from my school days.

"I think you should never regret growing up, what you need to regret is drawing an unnecessary line between you and your dad." My reply was spontaneous.

She smiled and said, "that requires a lot of courage but I feel that he is hesitant too."

"I am sure if you try this hesitation will vanish one day...from both the sides"

A long chain of discussions and arguments followed that night. But the crux of the story can be summed up in two paragraphs:

Most of the girls believed that I was one of those luckiest girls to have the freedom to hug her dad.

&

When girls reach their adolescence, they too face different changes in their body like boys do and physically this phase is more stressful for female. They are not ready for such transformation and in order to adopt the changes, they often give up their natural sense of carelessness. This prevents them from being the chirpy and careless little girl having the freedom and courage to hug their dads just like that.

That night is imprinted fresh in my mind after all these years. Those midnight conversations introduced me to a rarely noticed aspect of a girl's life, which I was lucky enough to never experience myself.

I don't know whether Anita ever gathered  the courage to hug her dad but every time I hug my father, I think of her and many more girls who can never cross that imaginary line of age, growth and hesitation, preventing them to enjoy the bliss of hugging their dads and celebrating daughterhood-fatherhood.

“This father’s day, I am expressing my love towards my dad by participating in the #HugYourDad activity at BlogAdda in association with Vicks.” And here is the beautiful video that I was talking about. May be we'll see some beautiful videos for daughters hugging their dads :)

Missing Something? Money, Mobile Phones, Modern Day Parenting

As I explore Child & You section of Rewardme.in I can feel my heart aching a bit underneath my skin. Why? The articles talk about ways that help people to spend more time with their kids. But still my heart aches because of some observations that I encounter almost everyday. That's what makes me share my own views on modern day parenting. 

I am not a parent and I know nothing about parenting. But, still I choose to write about this category because I am an observer and my observations about modern day parenting frighten me at times.

What's there?

One of the most common things that I notice around me is ingestion of mobile phones as physical extension of human body. By physical extension here I mean that people feel handicapped when they don’t have their mobile phones in their hands. Impact of this conventional phenomenon is that I often see parent and child sitting next to each other and indulged in their smartphones.

Imagine a child less than of 5 Years age operating a smartphone, staring at SUPER AMOLED, LED or whatever touch screen which has vibrant colors and harmful rays of course! During my travels in metro I often notice that moms are too tired to indulge with their kids and therefore they hand them over a smartphone, most of the time it is a tablet, with wider screen. Child plays the game and mom continues to scroll through her whatsapp messages and smile. Her attention towards the child diverts only if the gadget falls off the kid’s hands. Most of the time she’s not bothered about the device because it is amongst the cheapest ones, bought precisely to keep the kid busy!

Wow! Isn’t that really disturbing when you see an educated and independent person doing this to her own child? Knowing the fact that how fragile a child’s organs are, how can we force the kid to glue his/her eyes all the time to the screens, which continuously emit harmful rays?

Interestingly, parents find themselves elated when they see their small kids using smartphones frequently as pros. 

That’s not it. Often parents practice their habit or should I say helplessness of watching television and kids sit by their side and stare at the screen. I have seen kids bitching about Big Boss's participants. Can you believe that? 

Since no one has the time to talk about this topic, so I sit in silence and talk to myself. Though, most of the time there is endless conflict but some conclusion does appear at some point.

Why people hand over mobile phones to their kids?

• May be they are too busy with their lives that they don’t want their kids to disturb them. As a result, they teach them to be busy the same way aka staring at mobile phones.
• There might be a case that they don’t have time…at all! Time to notice that their kid is losing his/her eyes by staring at useless screens.
• Modern parents seem to have forgotten their fun loaded childhood, where playing meant going out in the park, running around, cycling and doing several outdoor activities.
• May be they find it very enchanting and motivating that their 2 or 3 year old son or daughter can operate a smartphone. Precisely, if a next gen kid cannot operate a smartphone at the age of 2-3, he/she has a very dark future. Uff! What pressure current generation is going through! Thank God I was born long before than this millennium drama. 

What's missing?

If we look back in the blissful childhood we had, we would realize that a lot is missing from millennium generation's life. May be we did not have high tech gadgets but little blissful things were there, which defined childhood in its true sense. Let's recall what all those blissful things were:

• Swinging in the park with mommy and daddy.
• Playing cricket with Dad in the backyard.
• Learning to ride bicycle with Daddy
• Spending time with sibling.
• Sleeping to the lullabies sung by mom.
• Talking to mom & dad with their full attention on us.
• A lot more that didn't require any gadgets, but just time and attention of our parents. 

I wish the world grows for betterment, but we manage to uphold the good values and treasured ways of growing up. 

“I am participating in the ‘Ready For Rewards’ activity for Rewardme in association with BlogAdda.” What's your plan? 

Rewardme Helps Me to Deal with The Monsoon Mess

Before we go ahead, let me share why did I choose to write about what.

It was a sunny Saturday morning and I was caught up with my laptop’s repairing. I was supervising as the engineer from Dell was changing internal hard disk drive of my XPS15. It was a boring day and I almost felt like sitting in a hospital gallery, right in front of the ICU, waiting for my beloved computer to survive this critical operation. Suddenly, it was all black outside, sun was overtaken by powerful clouds and lightening started to clash through to the horrendous skies. First it was all about dark wind blows and then water drops followed. Yes! I was raining! All of a sudden! The trees started to sing along and groove with the winds. I couldn’t resist and jumped out to play with the dust & drops of first rain of the season.

Boy! It was a day!

But, the after effects were shocking. My hair had this uncontrollable frizz that was hard to handle. Being curly beauties, my locks are little too sensitive to anything other than purified water. But, I had presented them to the dirt, dust, smoke and any other impurities that come with first rain of the season. Hah!

Long story short, it took me days and days, spas and hair massages, steaming sessions and serums to bring my hair back to life again. This tragic tale always inspires me to read more and gain knowledge to deal with the MONSOON MESS!

So in Hair Care section of Rewardme.in, I found this dedicated article about 7 Hair Care Tips To Ensure Your TressesDon’t Just Survive But Thrive This Monsoon caught my eyes instantly.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this informative piece of information. You must be wonderful how and why? Read below to discover the answers:

Connects with the reading right from the first sentence

Whoever has written this article about Monsoon hair care tips, has detailed knowledge about the subject. He/she knows that what exactly bad monsoon hair sound like. The writer also knows that what all could be the possible concerns of people seeking help to prevent hair loss, frizzy hair and dandruff during rainy days.

Easy to read: Friendly language

The few flowing language makes it very easy to read. At times, it seems like the writer is directly talking to you. There is nothing like playing with the vocabulary unnecessarily. Hence, you can enjoy free flow reading and get the best solution in least possible time. 

Crisp and to the point

When I open a link that precisely says n-number of tips for hair care, skin care or nail care, anything, I just want it to be truly about those precise points. No elongated discussion, no beating around the bush. I guess many quick readers would agree with me. But, as tough luck has it, most of the time, we don’t find the links as crisp and informative as expected.

I found this article at Rewardme.in about hair care surprisingly meeting my expectations. Precise as it should be, clear and contains concrete information that I often search for about my hair care.

Short, constructive and informative 

In this article, the writer talks about the problem, its root cause, logic behind it and natural solutions to deal with the problem. In most of the cases, everything is described in one or two lines. Therefore, you need to invest less time in getting the desired information. 

Useful and authentic tips

The tips and instructions are simple, easy to follow and authentic. The intake of vitamins and cleaning of hair are the things, which you can use yourself, without requiring any prescription from the hair doctors. The tips are very easy to follow too.

Since the website has crisp and nicely written content about beauty, hair care, health and family etc. it turns out to be an interesting place to explore more about living a better and enriched life everyday. Cheers. 

“I am participating in the ‘Ready For Rewards’ activity for Rewardme in association with BlogAdda.” What's your plan?