A Letter to my (soon-to-be-ex) Smartphone

Dear (soon-to-be-ex) Smartphone,

I know you are wondering why I am erasing all the data from your memory. Unlike other times, when I used to create a backup, I have deleted everything. You must have guessed it by now. Our relationship is coming to an end.

You have been a faithful mate for years now. You were my best companion, my confidante. But as they say, every good thing should end one day. Don’t judge me. I have decided to replace you with a new, rather expensive but efficient newcomer.

Oh, I am surprised when you tell me that you were expecting this. You don’t begrudge my decision! So nice of you. As you say rightly, you were showing signs of old age. Hanging at odd times, taking ages to get charged, and losing it all in a flash. Your video and picture quality were tolerable but not extraordinary. You say it is time you went to that amazing place where old Smartphones go eventually. I am sure you will rule like a king there.

Before you go, let me introduce you to your nemesis. Okay, you prefer to call it your replacement. You are so magnanimous. I know you are concerned about me. But don’t worry, once you get to know who is taking your place, all your worries will vanish. I am getting the new #LGV20.

Image Source: LG

It has an Android v7.0 Nougat operating system with 2.15GHz + 1.6GHz Kryo Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor, Adreno 530 GPU, 4GB RAM, 64GB internal memory expandable up to 2TB and dual SIM (nano+nano) dual-standby (4G+4G).

I heard your whoop of delight. Yes, you now understand why I turned greedy and selfish. I confess I couldn’t resist the temptation.

Its sleek metal body and Si-PC material ensure durability. It has three high AOP (Acoustic Overload Point) mics, which would allow me to record loud scenes. Imagine being able to record sporting events without the disturbance created by cheering fans! There is also an option called Steady Record 2.0 that allows me to record even when I am on the move. It minimizes unintentional handshaking. Now my videos are going to be crisp and clear.

Did you know it has a wide-angle 5MP front camera? I can capture selfies with a wider background, which means I can include more friends or wider scenery. Isn’t that amazing? The back camera (16MP+8MP dual primary camera) comes with a wide-angle lens, an astonishing 135-degree, which would allow me to capture stunning landscapes or large group shots without much ado. It has the normal 75-degree angle option as well.

B&O PLAY collaboration tunes its audio and delivers it through its specially designed earphones making it perfect for a music lover like me.

I see you have turned dark green with envy. Okay, I will stop extolling the virtues of your nemesis.

But again, thank you for serving me even when you are going away. They inform me there is an upgrade option of up to Rs. 20,000 for a Smartphone exchange.

Image Source :LG

What! Now don’t die on me.

Let me rush you to the LG showroom before it is too late.

Rest in peace, dear.

Much Love,

Your ex-owner.

  

A Healthy Child Makes a Happy Home

My little darling when he was six months old!

When I was in college, my niece was born. Very soon, she won over us all and became the reigning queen in our house. The whole house would become a happy place when she was awake and smiles were dominant on every face.

While she was in her sixth month, she came down with chicken pox and the whole house was twenty-four hours on alert until she became alright. That was my first encounter when an unhealthy child turned the home atmosphere unhappy.

I remember how my father used to carry me around when I was down with fever when I was small. I was a normal healthy child and I didn’t have any chronic disease as many other children of my generation. My father was a doctor and he took good care of our health. Whenever an epidemic was spreading, he instructed us to take precautions and gave us preventive medicines.

Now I am a mother and every time my son becomes sick, my heart thuds like mad. I am the worrier and my husband calms me down. We hover over him like protective angels and until he recovers, every precaution is taken and medicines given as prescribed by the doctor. We browse online for foods to be avoided and food that can be given.

I keep a note on things that might make him sick. An ice-cream late at night surely invited a bout of cold and cough. If we sent him to school when he had not fully recovered from a minor illness, he would take more time to recover from it. So we never send him to school when he is having even a slight cold.

When he was two years old, he got chicken pox and that one month was like hell. Sleepless nights! Both my husband and I had to carry him around as he refused to sleep on bed. As it was April, we had a regular supply of watermelons, which luckily he liked and ate. He refused all other food. Only homoeo medicines were given to him. He recovered from it within two weeks and was back being the happy child that he normally is. Our home again became a happy place with his sound of laughter.

Only another mother can understand the tension when a mother finds that her kid has fallen sick. No matter how strained the relation, even after her kids grow up, a mother still sees the little kid of hers in the grown up person. I have seen my mother fussing over me and my mother in law fussing over my husband. A mother always remains a mother.

I can understand now why my mother used to get tense when any of us were down with any sickness. How the presence of a sick child at home made the whole house gloomy. I now understand how parents become super humans who don’t need sleep when their kids fall sick.

I now understand that more than those medicines that they give, it is their love that make their kids recover from any illness.

I now understand that healthy food and hygiene are the best doctors in the world. May all the children of the world lead a healthy life! May god give their parents a happy home!

A home that is brightened by the presence of their happy and healthy child.

Take a look at the following website of Dabur Chyawanprash that is a boon for today's kids.

https://www.liveveda.com/daburchyawanprash/




This post has been written for "A Healthy Child Makes A Happy Home" prompt for the contest by Dabur Chyawanprash in association with IndiBlogger.

Black is Beautiful

Black is beautiful in my opinion.

Black stands out as the most controversial and happening color in the history of humanity. It intrigued him, scared him, awed him and even made him feel good.

There were times in which he dreaded the color black. It was the color of mourning, of death, of sadness, of disease, of the dark and the evil.

At times it told stories when it represented the color of the written word. It made him laugh with the language of caricatures, cartoons and jokes. It portrayed beauty when artists of various eras used charcoal, graphite and coal to render the beauties that surrounded them.

It became the highest fashion statement, the sign of elegance starting from the early 14^th century. Nobles, diplomats and politicians began to adhere to the color black in their public appearances. Black was no more the colour of mourning.

It represented the color of the oppressed, of the slaves during the colonial conquests and slave trades. The black skinned people were abused and treated like untouchables for centuries in many American colonies. Four million slaves were freed after the American Civil War. But racial discrimination continues unabashedly in many of the European and American countries.

It was also associated with secrecy, the world wars and covert military operations.

It is also the color of protest.

It represents mystery quest as in the case of blackholes and black boxes of missing air planes.

In Hinduism, we have Kali-ma, the goddess of change and time whose name means –the one who is dark in color. Lord Krishna is said to have been black and yet is the most popular god among the Indian gods.

Many people still fear to wear black as they think it as a bad omen color. Black is just the absence of color. The color black absorbs all the seven colors into it and doesn't reflect back any of the colors of the spectrum of light. It doesn't harm the human aura. But doesn't benefit it also.

I prefer to buy accessories in black as they would go with any dress and gives less of a headache mixing and matching.

My wish list for five black things are:

1) A Dell Laptop

Dell Laptop

Reason: My laptop is beginning to show signs of having grown old and is begging for retirement.  Dell was the first laptop that I had called mine. So it is my first choice.Just look at the details of my choice.No one would ask for more reasons.

Source http://www.amazon.in/

2) A Wacom Graphic Tablet

Reason: I love creating digital portraits. I have been saving to buy a graphic tablet since long. It will help me to draw onscreen with the same use as using a pen or pencil and will save me a lot of time. Drawing onscreen with a mouse is a BIG headache and will take hours and hours together to complete a full portrait.  This Wacom tablet is hence second on my wishlist

3) Anarkali with Lace neck and Sleeves

Reason: This Anarkali blew me over with its elegant cut and beautiful lace work. A lady always feels best when she is dressed elegantly and comfortably. But who needs a reason to indulge oneself?

Pernia's Popup shop

4) Jimmy Choo pumps

Reason: Any women will find it hard to neglect her Jimmy Choos. They may even sell a part of their soul to own one. It makes her more poised and her posture more feminine and graceful. The comfort and standard of this brand is amazing.

Jimmy Choo

5) Louise Vuitton Handbag
Reason:  Again I go for elegance, use and brand value. This is a handbag I would love to own. One I can take to any party or even on a day out with friends.

Louise Vuitton Handbag

Let us glorify the color black by this beautiful song where the singer Christy Moore confesses what the color black is for him.

This post is a part of #WhatTheBlack activity at BlogAdda.com

A Rich Homemade Chocolate Cake with Love

For the longest time, Bangalore in my memories had an aroma. It had the alluring smell of rich hot chocolate cake.

My first visit to Bangalore was during one cold December, to the house of my mother’s friend. Having slept off in the bus en route, I had woken up hours later to the smell of baking cakes. We had reached Achamma aunty’s house.

Aunty was a good cook and an expert in making cakes. For the first time, I tasted hot, home baked chocolate cake. It was soft and warm and made my taste buds jump with joy. The cool Bangalore atmosphere, combined with hot chocolate cake. It was ethereal. Aunty indulged me and I hogged cake day and night, fighting tooth and nail with my siblings who demanded their share.

The visit colored the memories of a six-year-old girl about Bangalore, permanently with the aroma of hot chocolate cake.

Years later, my husband was transferred to Bangalore, and we came with our three-year-old son. This time my mind’s eye, partial to the flavor of chocolate, commanded that I experiment with baking. Off I went, and purchased a ready-to-bake chocolate mix from the near-by super market. The cake was ready soon.

My taste buds protested...NO...NO...Not anywhere close!!

My son declared..”Eee..it is tasteless”.

Sunshine came in the form of Achamma Aunty and she gave me the recipe for her famous chocolate cake.

“Use borosil bowls to bake. It will help keep the cake uniformly cooked and healthy,” she advised.

Eggs, curd, milk, cocoa powder, baking powder, butter, vanilla essence, flour…I had a host of things to purchase. Dropping my son at school, I rushed through the shopping and returned home to bake.

The whole procedure was a battle with the five senses, especially taste and sight. The ingredients well mixed and ready-to-bake tempted me. A war between my self-control and the dark –sweet-creamy- chocolaty batter with the faint whiff of vanilla essence began, the moment I poured it into the transparent borosil-mixing bowl. Only the glare of the light reflecting on the glass told me of the presence of a barrier to my 3-D temptation, making my stomach growl.

“Two or three spoons of cake batter is not going to do anything to your already damaged figure, lady..Come on..Try Me!” screamed the temptress.

I obeyed. No...I didn’t stop at two..Nor at three. I stopped after a few more spoons full, remembering the expectations of my toddler, who would arrive hungry. One who would howl like a baby monster if mummy monster didn't fulfill her promise of hot chocolate cake.

Keeping the bowl inside the pre-heated oven, I watched it turn. I too joined the jig, turning and swaying in glee. Setting the timer, I went to pick my son from school, which was just a stone’s throw away from our house.

Entering the house again, my heart flipped with happiness. In a blink, I went on a time travel down a cake scented memory lane. My house smelled like the Bangalore of my memories. The aroma of hot chocolate was wafting out from the kitchen.

“It smells yummy..Yay..chocolate,” chirped my happy son and together we waited for the oven to chime announcing that the cake was done. A toothpick inserted came out clean and taking the bowl out, we waited with our mouth open to allow the cake to cool down.

“Is it not cool yet..?” enquiries came every second from my son and my mind. I transferred the uniformly cooked cake into a transparent Borosil serving plate. Nothing should hinder the beauty of my dusky beauty.

We cut the cake together.

“Is it my birthday again?” he asked and I said ‘Yes Dear”

The warm inside of the chocolate cake when we cut into it, made me drool, tantalized me to touch and feel. The texture was just perfect. It was soft like silk.

We dug into it together. No..No..this time there was no need for mummy to feed him. He could eat it alone. After all, he was now three years old. Quite grown up, and smart enough to notice that mummy was eating more than he was. And to ban her from touching the plate again.

Sigh…

Don’t judge me people, if I confess that I sneaked off the best portion and hid it in a casserole, this time opaque, when he became engrossed in a problem Mickey mouse was trying to solve on television.

When my husband came home that day, the transparent serving plate from borosil was back on the dining table, inviting him, charming him, to taste the delicious, moist and rich chocolate cake, which oozed (*I insisted*) with my love for him.

 This post is written as part of My beautiful food, a contest organised my Indiblogger and myborosil.com

A Web Portal for Car Lovers

Trust Indiblogger to come up with innovative contests and introduce us to new websites and brands.

This time, they have introduced us to a unique website, which aims to bring together car lovers. Don’t we have at least one in each home, who wants to brag about his/her favorite companion, their cars?

I have many in my family, whose favorite time-pass is researching or browsing about their dream car. One very mad cousin has a huge poster of a Lamborghini pasted in his room that is the first thing he wants to see when he gets up. Forget about Deepika Padukone or any other hot female. Lamborghini is his femme fatale, who gives him adrenaline rush.

When I logged onto Carconnect.in with my facebook account, I found many such youngsters who had shared their car experiences and long drive memories. I knew then that I have to write about this unique website which aims to bring together car lovers and provide them a platform to share (brag) about their love for their four wheeler.

About Carconnect.in:

Carconnect.in is a portal that lets you enjoy the ultimate car experience. You can share your car experiences, compare the latest cars, find cars that fall right under your budget, become updated with the latest and changing trends of the global automobile industry and above all, interact with like-minded people who share a passion for cars just like you.

Unique Features:

·        Create your own profile page: You can create a profile page by logging in with Facebook. It takes just a few minutes to create your profile page. Once you create your profile, you get access to the other features of the site.

·        Find friends on the portal: If you have your friends registered on car connect, you can join them in sharing your long drive and car experiences. You can also compete with them to earn the badges. The below snippet explains how to earn badges and what each badge entitles you to receive.

·        Share Experiences: This tab allows you to submit your experiences. You have two options. You can enter your Car experience, where you describe your experience driving a car you own. You can write about Long drive experiences, where you get to describe a memorable long drive you made in a car where you may have been the driver or might have been a passenger. The posts undergo moderation and my posts were approved within a few minutes after my submission.

My long drive experience

·        Leaderboard: On the leaderboard, you can find all those who have earned the badges before you got your chance to join the battle for the badges.

·        Long Drive: This tab provides you the best long drive experiences explained by members tabulated under various destinations. When you click on a destination, a post, which gives a detailed explanation of the route of the journey and the experiences along the way, opens up.

·        Compare cars: Using this tab, you can avail the service of experts, who will send you a detailed pdf report of a comparative study of two cars you want to be compared, as an email within 48 hours.

·        Car news: This is another unique feature, which provides you with the latest car news from around the world, with focus on India.

·        New Launches: This feature announces the latest car launches in India with details about the on- road- price, launch date and the venue of the launch.

·        Chat Room: There is a chat room where you can join your friends and other members of the portal, to chat about cars, cars and more cars.

The portal is user-friendly and doesn’t make you scratch your head much to navigate about or find the various features. The layout is elegant and simple.

Suggestions I have are:

1.     They can make it a touch more colorful with Car photos and stuff on the home page.

2.      The layout of the experience column and the photos that are uploaded can be given a better layout. Now the photos are embedded at the end of the post, which makes the experiences long text columns. If they were interspersed with photos, the experience would be more expressive.

Sharing my experience on Car connect made me go down the memory lane on many nostalgic trips. Thank you Carconnect.in for the opportunity.

In this age when the cyber space rules our lives like the kings of a foregone era, Carconnect.in has enough material to make in-roads into the life of all car enthusiasts.

Check out their website here: http://www.carconnect.in/

This review is written for Indistuff, part of Indiblogger in association with Carconnect.in

The Unsuspecting Bride...

“When will I enjoy myself out here?!! “  I murmured to myself walking out of the grand ballroom of the star hotel I worked.

 Being in the house keeping section I got to see all the lavish settings of the hotel and all the grand arrangements for the parties that happened here every day. But we could never enjoy a party as we were the ones in-charge.

“Rhea… We have someone waiting at the reception for you,” said Mr. David who is the floor manager.

I head to the reception. A stylish girl dressed impeccably and with silky hair like a dream, comes to me and pulls me into a tight hug. I am confused as I can’t place her.

“Rhea..You idiot..You forgot me?!! How dare you?!!,” asks the girl and then punches me hard on my shoulders.

“Hey… Khushi..Oh my god!!..You have changed so much.  Where did all your chubbiness and that lice-infected-bushy-hair vanish?!!” I ask realization finally dawning on me.

Khushi was my best friend at the hotel management Institute. We were nicknamed 'Siamese twins' as we were together 24/7. After the course we had lost contact as I had moved back to Cochin and Khushi had gone to the US to pursue higher studies.

“Hahaha..Haven’t I become a babe?!!It is all thanks to Sunsilk. Can we talk?,” asks Khushi and we head to the visitors area to sit and talk leisurely; my afternoon break having begun.

“I am getting engaged next month right here, and you have to be with me throughout.I can’t handle my nerves alone. When I called your home, I found you work here. Lucky Me!! ,” says Khushi taking my hands into hers.

“Hey…Hey..Go slow..Tell me in detail. Who is the unlucky guy?” I tease Khushi.

“The very same…Tushar Khanna,” says Khushi with a wink and I remember how big a crush Khushi had on Tushar ,our senior by a year, while in college.

“Woww…I am so happy for you Khushi. Now out with the whole story,” I demand and she tells me how while studying in the US they had ended up being in love and how they are inseparable now.

After Khushi leaves, I sit rooted in the same place thinking fondly over the days past. The truth hits me hard then that I would look like a vagabond among Khushi’s and Tushar’s relatives, who belonged to the elite class of Delhi. I usually didn't care much about grooming other than what my duty demanded; which was a passable neat look.

I approach my friend who works at the reception to get some beauty tips and it is she who tells me the importance hair plays in completing one's look.

“Most people are mentally lazy when they size other people up. Hair grabs attentions the most after a pretty face. You have a very pretty face and also very good skin. A little effort on your hair can go a long way,” says Diana who can pass off as a Diva herself.

That is how I decide to go in for a hair spa with Sunsilk at the trendy saloon next door.

After a single session I can see the change in my hair and after two more sessions and a brilliant haircut by the Sunsilk hair experts, I cannot help but notice the admiring looks of passersby.

Two days before engagement Khushi drops in with her mother and takes me out shopping to a trendy boutique. She makes me model out many Ghagra cholis and then finalize on a silky orange Ghagra with green and gold embroidery.

“This is my gift for you Rhea..For all those days of happiness, to celebrate our friendship,” says Khushi and when I try to refuse she threatens me with murder.

On the day of the engagement, Khushi  and Tushar makes the loveliest couple I have ever seen.

 Little do I suspect then, observing the happy couple,that I had myself become an object of interest in someone else's eyes. Not until I catch Rohit Mehra, Tushar’s best friend, staring at me as if he was afflicted by tunnel vision and could see no one else.

I cannot help blushing as I  had always cherished a secret crush on him right from college. He had never even looked twice at me then.

 Rohit comes near me almost immediately and we spend the whole evening chatting with each other.  He comes to drop me at my room and before leaving makes me promise to meet him the next day.

That was how it all had begun two months before.

Today I am blissfully happy. After two months of dating, Rohit proposed marriage to me today. Quietly after a cozy dinner at our favorite restaurant he had surprised me with a proposal. And he had gone all out by going down on his knees for the entire restaurant to see. I had tears in my eyes when he had at last slipped the ring on to my fingers.

Source

My parents have always supported all my decisions and Rohit tells me fondly that his mother is equally keen to see us get married soon.

How just recharging my hair had recharged my entire life!!!

 Gone was that inconspicuous existence and here I was happily preparing to enter one of the richest families in Delhi as their daughter- in- law. I am loved beyond compare by Rohit and my secret crush had come back into my life as a forever love.

We are to be married on the 15th of next month at the Grand Ballroom of the hotel where I worked!!!

This post has been written as part of a contest in association with Indiblogger and Sunsilk.

https://www.facebook.com/sunsilkhairexperts