~ Way around ~

How much ever we intrude their space, Nature seems to have a way around everything! :)

Airtel 4G - to cruise the information highway!

Really gone are those days when people used a slow dial-up network via their landline phones to access the Internet. I still remember how it used to take forever to download a mere 2MB song during those times! Text chatting was the only option for voice chatting had worse latency period compared to STD line of those times. In fact, just half a decade ago I used to download all my favorite songs to my hard disk to listen continuously, as streaming was never a good option. Watching videos over the internet meant watching the annoying progress bar rotate more compared to the actual video, and that, required a lot of patience!

Today the world is moving in a hyper-fast information highway. No one has time or patience for anything that is slow! Also, the number of devices that connect to the Internet has increased manifold in a short period of time. The amount of information on the Internet is growing rapidly and there is a growing need for more speed to access such volume of information on the move.

Airtel as a telecom service provider has been a front-runner in this domain and has been providing great Internet connectivity over years. In the times when 2G network is no more 'satisfying' and 3G has been providing great connectivity and groundbreaking improvements in the way we connect and share information, Airtel has gone ahead of the lot to launch 4G services in the country! With the Internet speeds that are 10 times faster than 3G, now the world can access information at up to 12 Mbps speed while on the go!! This is unbelievable at a time when people are still using much slower Internet speeds via the broadband connection.

Access to such high-speed Internet will open up a lot of new avenues for accessing information on the go! As a traveler, I can do a lot of research on the places I travel right from my mobile! With pages loading instantly, I will have access to the data instantly. Accessing maps for direction will be faster and precise. No more carrying bulky books and tourist guides for this purpose. I don't have to think twice before uploading a bulk of my travel photographs to the cloud, worrying how much time it would take. With incredible speeds offered by 4G, it should complete ridiculously in no time. I will not download a song anymore to my hard disk for I can stream very high-quality songs without streaming woes. No more downloading a video or movie and painfully transferring that to a mobile for watching later during the commute. I can watch my favorite TV shows or movie as I like, at any time I want! I can stream the ones I want directly from the Internet in nothing less than HD quality and enjoy my commute happily! With more and more cloud-based services in operation today, I don't have to invest in more hard disk capacity. Rather I will put all my stuff on the cloud and access them anytime anywhere, as speed is not a concern anymore!

Thanks to such incredible speed that 4G offers, the world will now comfortably move towards accessing information anywhere anytime, instead of waiting in front of a loading page!

With Airtel offering the 4G data at the cost of 3G, there is absolutely no point thinking when to make the switch. After all nobody wants to lag behind when the world is moving ahead in the jet speed! I already got my invite to go the 4G way, did you? :)

Honey diet, healthy diet!

Health is wealth. We all have heard it right from our school days. That is right! A healthy body is 80% healthy food and 20% workout. Since the major portion of a healthy body is to do with having a healthy food, it is essential that we follow a proper meal plan.

Eating healthy food helps to keep out so many health problems. A well-balanced diet includes a meal for filling our body's nutritional needs like a variety of natural fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. There are also many benefits to having honey in the meal. Having a honey diet in our food can be a baby step towards a healthy body!

Consumption of regular healthy food in our diet has a lot of benefits like:

• It helps to stay healthy and fit - Eating good food along with regular exercise can help us avoid weight gain and leave us being fit and healthy.
• Makes us more energetic - When you eliminate processed and sugary foods from our diet and replace it with healthy food, we automatically tend to feel less lethargic and have more energy, confidence and enthusiasm to tackle our day!
• Boosts our metabolism - A combination of the healthy balanced meal along with the commitment to including physical activity in our lifestyle leads to improved digestion and our metabolism is certainly boosted.
• Best of all it helps to control unnecessary weight gain and keeps us away from many health complications!

Today's fast paced world makes us lead sedentary lifestyles. We are attracted towards anything that is fast and we are tempted towards fast results. We choose the fast food than cooking our own meal. We easily tend to skip meals due to work pressure and tend to hog on available food. During the month of summer, we love to have chilled soda than water! All these fast food are filled with processed sugars which can easily make us unhealthy. Constantly consuming these foods will lead to weight gain and unnecessary health issues. People then immediately look for crash diet for quick ways to lose the excessive weight. We all love finding shortcuts to success and are very much attracted towards these. But what we fail to realize is that these diets come along with so many disadvantages and health issues associated. Prolonged consumption of these diets is very dangerous for life. Some of the disadvantages of crash diet are:

• Deprives us of important nutrition
• These diets keep us restricted and we tend to crave for food all the time
• They offer fast results which are only temporary!
• It slows down our metabolism.
• It increases our stress levels
• Leave us with constant mood swings

Additionally there is much research proving to stay away from crash dieting and choose the healthy way for losing weight. 95% of people who start a crash diet end up gaining the weight back that they lost within two years. Instead of starting a diet or trying to starve oneself or thinking it's a temporary thing, we need to create healthy habits and make healthy eating a lifestyle change. So although it will take time and be hard, having a balanced diet is more beneficial than the compromises of having a crash diet!

Traditionally honey had been part of the meal in the olden days but these days we seem to be missing the point and fail to see its benefits big time! There are many honey based daily food that we can include in our meal for a healthy life. For more details, please check here - http://www.daburhoney.com/

Shake it for deals!

Being an Airtel postpaid and broadband customer for a long time now, I am absolutely excited about the new avatar of "My Airtel" App that is released now. In the era of mobile phones, it makes a lot of sense for having a good App that simplifies the tasks we do regularly. Since I have been using this App for some time, here are some key features that I benefit from this App in my day to day life!

Prior to having this App, few things needed specific workarounds. First of all handling payment due date reminders. I hate to miss payment deadlines and pay my dues with fines. So I have specifically set up monthly reminders in my Google Calendar to remind me of my landline and mobile bill payments. On the specific due date, I would promptly receive an email and SMS alert reminding me of my payment deadline. Now I don't need such workarounds anymore! "My Airtel" App does the job for me. With its push notifications, it promptly reminds me of my payment schedules, allowing me to pay my dues properly on time. No more missing schedules or paying fines! Such a handy little thing!

Paying mobile bills used to be such a key thing in my pre-travel checklist, especially when I know, I will not have access to a computer to clear my dues. After downloading this App, I don't have that tension anymore! With PCI-DSS certified gateway, this App guarantees safe, secure and faster mode of handling bill payments directly from the App instead of having to find a computer to access Airtel website and initiate the payments. In fact accessing the App is totally free of charge compared to accessing the web-based payment site that still accounts towards the data usage! Additionally with the new "I want to" feature, I have my frequently used features personalized and have it quickly available to me anytime I want to access them. Really serves the purpose of using an App and saves a lot of time in doing repetitive things!

Another cool feature I quite use is the real time bill tracking. Being a postpaid user, having a check on the bill is absolutely necessary. Earlier I had to go to the website every time to check my bills. Things are absolutely easy now with all my bill related information, past payment history, and data usage information accessible right from my pocket. These are the things I check the most and go to the website for. Now with information being accessible right from the mobile, it saves a lot of back and forth trips to the web site!

The new App also seems to offer a host of exciting deals specifically to the App users from time to time, by simply shaking the phone with the App window. This is definitely encouraging and a good reason for anybody to continue using the App! Though there are lot of deals presently for customers using prepaid network services, I hope things will extend for postpaid customers too in the future!!

So when things are made to make our life simple, why not? Did you download the App yet? :)

What the buzz?

The legendary Indian Cricketer Kapil Dev made a lot of news around Indian Cricket League but after his resigning from ICL in 2012, he kept it really low and there was absolutely no news from him. But as they say one cannot hide the sun with the palm, the star is back with a bang!! He recently joined the micro-blogging site Twitter and from then on he is making huge waves among people with a coded announcement about a new league which he terms '#EkNayiLeague'! The topic has been trending on Twitter of late with everyone trying to make guesses about what this league could be!! Of course, coming directly from the champ, curiosity among people is very much expected! Interestingly enough, there is also a website that has been launched for this campaign and is offering a prize money of one lakh for those guessing about it correctly! Now that's a lot of money and a lot of buzzing!!


From the videos posted on the website, Kapil seems to point out very clearly that it is not something to be played with the heart but with one's mind! It clearly indicates this is something to do with the intellect of the person and not playing blindly based on passion alone. Generally in any sport, one has to play with a lot of passion for winning it. But the way he clearly indicates to top people like Dhoni, Sania and Kapil, he clearly intends it takes a lot beyond passion but talent using one's mind to emerge as a winner in this league! Thinking of options, one such could be playing with money perhaps? Where people don't just go by their blind instincts or passion but really use their mind and invest a lot of time to understand things before investing. That way I think this league could be something to do with stock trading or playing with cash tools or investments!

It would be interesting if it is anything to do with trading like I guessed because this would be the first time there is a public call for playing with financial instruments. Not many are into stock trading or risk investments. Even people who earn a lot just resort to saving their money silently instead of getting into trading for its associated risks. But I am sure people would be interested if tricks of the trade are taught to people before getting on the ground to play.

And again since Kapil has involved victorious people from different platforms in his videos, it gives a sort of clue that this game is not involving a specific group of people but is going to be diversified with people from different platforms competing against each other using their knowledge in the field! Whatever be the case whether it is going to be a real-time financial quiz or playing with the real money to win more, it is definitely interesting and one of a kind to throw positive light on the trading market. After all, it is who risks more always wins more! What do you think about all this? :)

~ Into the Wild ~

Sometimes all you need is a relaxing walk into the wild ...

Nature trail at MacRitchie Reservoir Park, Singapore.

Click to view this photograph Large on Black canvas!

It's always food o'clock in Singapore!

Going from a country where we home cook fresh food three times a day, seven days a week, cook, cook and cook all 365 days in a year, it came as a big surprise when I landed in the island country and heard people don't cook food at home!! Even more surprising was the fact that people prefer to eat food outside all three times a day, throughout the year! Initially, I assumed it could be because of the cheap food available outside that they don't bother to cook food at home. But later realized this has to do with the cultural origin of the country. The country started with the immigrants who were not rich enough to own a set-up to cook food at home. So they preferred eating outside in the mini-stall setups called hawker centers. This socio-culture is followed by Singaporeans even to this date that hawker centers and food are a part and parcel of their daily life! Variety of cuisines and low-cost food are only a result of this cool food culture!

Singapore is a perfect "Rojak"! Different ethnic communities call it their land and live harmoniously celebrating each other cultures! This has given birth to a mix of a different kinds of food that one can savor in the country. With the mix of four different ethnic communities - Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan, there are more than a dozen national food that is available on an any given day for anyone to taste! There are different areas for each of these communities where one can deep dive into the respective cuisine and enjoy guaranteed authentic food. But for a traveler with constraints, any restaurant would happily serve all these cuisines under one roof. Singaporeans love to cook food and more so they take pride and love to serve their food with equal zeal!

Even after visiting Singapore twice and trying all possible cuisines that are available, I still crave for their awesome "Hokkien Mee"!

It first happened to me coincidentally when I was at China town one evening. I was very hungry and I landed at a random food stall that was along the street. All I knew at that time was "Noodles". I ordered "Plain Noodles" but the person who took my order patiently explained about this fried noodles called "Hokkien Mee". I got curious and ordered it without any expectations. But it really turned out to be one of the best noodles I have ever tasted in my entire life! The fried noodles with all the sauce, seasoning, vegetables etc was cooked to perfection. Having tasted only Indian preparation of Noodles before, it tasted very authentic Chinese preparation and I totally fell in love with it! I made sure to taste this preparation at various places during my second visit as well :)

That's not the end of it! I also love the Malaysian preparation called Nasi Lemak, a flavorful preparation of coconut steamed rice. I love Malay cuisine for their wonderful use of spices and herbs in all their preparation. It comes very close to the Indian cuisine as well! It will be unfair if I don't mention my love for the toast! During my recent trip, I made sure to have toast with kaya or peanut jam every day for my breakfast! And my day would compulsory start and end with a strong dose of Kopi ;)

Singapore has so much variety of food, all thanks to their different ethnic people! When such variety of Asian food is available under one roof, who wouldn't look for a good opportunity to Binge! :)

~ Mountain Dreams ~

When they call, one cannot stop dreaming about them! :)

This is a file picture from my last Himalayan trek in Uttarakhand, India. It was the last snow stretch before we descended down back to the civilization!

View this photograph Large on Black canvas.

When premium is affordable!

Looking back at my transition from purchasing my first highly-priced mobile phone to using a smartphone now, I am dazzled how the mobile phones have evolved drastically over a relatively quick span of a decade!

I still remember how excited I was when I went to buy my first mobile phone, with my very first pay cheque! Those days mobile phones were a priced possession and not everyone was lucky enough to hold one in their hands. A basic one with a colour screen and polyphonic ringtone support costed me a good ten thousand rupees! I still remember how having a mobile phone that sings a polyphonic ringtone was a zing thing those days! It stayed with me for quite long before someone decided to make it their's, costing my negligence a good 10K!

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Sadly I resorted to using a keypad-based non-smart phone all these days ...

Meanwhile, technology evolved and mobile phones too evolved rapidly. Smartphones made its quick presence in the market. Thankfully a few of them became affordable but majorly the ones with rich features and good looks were trickily labelled "premium" to sell at an equally premium price. They were portrayed as a symbol of luxury more than anything based on feature set. With such a market scene, I really commend the engineers behind Moto E for their path-breaking efforts to make a smartphone with rich features and premium experience available at an affordable price of today's standards!

Now for my first smartphone experience, I #ChooseToStart my smartphone journey with the all new Moto E for the premium feature set it proudly boasts at a non-premium price!!

If style and show-off are today's mobile mantra, then Moto E has it easily covered with it's stylish curved backs and colorful bands that add bling and character to the overall looks!

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If paying attention to details is called a premium feature that deems it expensive, then Moto E mocks at that very assumption by carrying a huge screen with qHD display fitted with Gorilla Glass, chrome finished textured buttons and elegant finish with minute details available for everyone to boast "those" premium looks!

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If the performance is the ruling authority these days, then the quad-core processor will rule and make the life simple for multi-tasking with the sharp smartness of not draining the battery in that process. Talk about the meaningful need of the hour!

If setting the trend is the attention winning factor, then the new nudge-to-display notification will happily do so by removing the need to unlock the phone every time to read the notifications!

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If going beyond the expectation is the key, then 4G network support will help accelerate the browsing experience way beyond the expectations to win the precious time!

If fitting the world in an ant hill is a wish, Moto E grants it effortlessly with its 32 GB expandable memory capacity :)

At this juncture where people are only keen on spending their time and money on expanding their expensive range for rich features, the engineers behind Moto E have to be really appreciated for understanding customers needs and putting their hard work to port the most sorted features of the expensive Moto X into the casually priced Moto E. Talk about the new sensor hub and dual accelerometers that play a huge role behind the innovative twist-twice-to-activate cameras for quick capture! For a photographer like me this is a huge plus that I can just twist my wrist twice to quickly activate my 5 MP camera and shoot the scene. Needless to talk about the selfie lovers who will go selfie-crazy with such a quirky feature at their disposal with the added VGA front camera! ;)

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Adding to all this, the icing on the cake being the fantastic Android 5.0 Lollipop OS that is quietly sitting behind the scenes and powering the soul behind this wonderful smartphone! What's more, when all the latest Google's feature are available a simple finger touch away?

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With the host of customizable functions and premium features ported down from the expensive Moto X at nearly half the price, Moto E easily wins my vote for an affordable smartphone that will make my first smartphone experience a very memorable one, without having to burn a hole in my pocket exclusively for this experience! ;)

Kellogg's Waale Nashta!

Being in the IT industry, I often work very late in the night and get up late. Because of this most often than not I skip my breakfast. Eat a heavy portion of lunch and literally hog during dinner. Very recently, when I happened to visit a nutritionist for a check-up, things dawned on me how bad a lifestyle I was leading! After starving the body from its nutrients the whole night, when I skip my breakfast in the morning, I am literally pushing my body it to its low. Without realizing, I was giving my body a dull start to the day when it was craving for food and over feeding it when it was least expecting it!

With so many things running through the mind in the morning, eating breakfast often takes a backseat. Even after realizing the importance of breaking the fast and having the first meal of the day, somehow other tasks gain priority over having that meal. So while thinking of ways to prioritize the breakfast, it became evident that I needed to find ways to make it interesting so that I automatically look forward to having my meal. Eating idly, dosa, poori every day makes it monotonous and boring over time that we often take it for granted when we have other priority items in hand. What if we make the regular items interesting in a way we rather crave for tasting it?! :)

While discussing this idea in the office, one of our colleague Shalu Gupta enlightened us with her fantastic breakfast ideas, all made with regular cornflakes! All suggestions given by her were so unique and I couldn't wait to taste them while she was only explaining the recipes. The session turned out to be exactly what I was looking for! Making the breakfast interesting enough so that I actually look forward to eating it instead of keeping it less prioritized.

Next day she brought some of her favorite breakfast items made with Kellogg's cornflakes for us to have for breakfast. We couldn't believe, there was this yummy coconut mixed cornflakes laddu which was unbelievable!! Beating the taste was this yummy cornflakes chivda! Properly roasted cornflakes  in the perfect mix of seasoning! WOW, such are the breakfast one would just wait to wake-up anyway. The fantastic part is these are not just tasty, they are also very nutritious for the basic ingredient is cornflakes! It was not the end of it. There was also this cornflakes recipe made out of chocolate and walnut! It just blew all our minds. That followed by a tea session made me completely energetic to face the day at work! That's when I realized the importance of having the first meal of the day and how easy it is to use a simple item like cornflakes to make such interesting items for breakfast!

After that wonderful breakfast session, all of us colleagues are only asking her to invite us to a full-fledged breakfast session at her place!! Why not? when the breakfast gets so interesting anybody would want to .... ;)

Written on the topic "Why I would want to invite myself for a Nashta at Guptaji's house", provided by Kellogs. Do check out their videos here.

What makes me happy!

There are many simple things in life that make me happy! Starting from the simplest of the simple thing like allowing me to sleep more :) It's good to be up early in the morning to lead a healthy life but getting up early every day is kind of boring and monotonous. Nothing like those days when no one is bothering me to get up and I could sleep peacefully until I want to get up on my own :)

I like the satisfaction and happiness after an hour of workout! While I keep giving reasons to save myself from shedding some sweat, when I really push beyond the laziness and hit the gym, the happiness that I get out of it is really beyond words. Just that initial laziness needs a kick to convert the potential energy!

What's life without spending some quality time with family and friends? People of these times find it happy to hang out with friends virtually but nothing like taking time out to spend some quality time with them in reality. All those simple time pass jokes and making fun of each other can be such stress reliever and would easily put happiness on my face. Add to it cooking favorite food or barbecue stuff together, life cannot get more blissful!

I love monsoon and more so when I get an opportunity to go on a long drive with the rain lashing on my car's windshield! It's pure fun experiencing and sharing such wonderful moments with Nature! Happiness is making the best out of simple things in life, isn't it? :)

When I get to do what I love to do, I get extremely happy. While nobody is restricting me from doing what I love to do, reality is not always on our side. So I make it a point to do my favorite things as and when possible! That way I love to do photography for its ability to make me think and see this world in a totally different and creative perspective. With my camera in hand, I tend to stop more and observe things more closely. I pay attention to simplest of things which I may easily miss otherwise in this busy walk of life. Such times make me really happy for I am not racing with anyone and more importantly enjoying this vast beautiful world at my own pace!

Adventure is another thing that brings a lot of happiness to me. Experiencing the adrenaline kick is something beyond words and only those who experience it really know why people are going for the adventure! Once in a year I make it a point to go on a week-long hike in the Himalayas. To spend time in those blissful mountains and experiencing the true self is an amazing feeling. If happiness is a measure of how satisfied one is, I am extremely satisfied while on the mountains!

Last but not the least I am very happy while volunteering for social causes. Around the year, we get so many things from the society but we never give back anything in return. So whenever an opportunity comes my way to serve the society, I get very happy to experience the satisfaction of giving back to the society! :)

Written about the simple things in life that make me happy, a topic given by Coca-Cola on the International Day of Happiness :)

Together in every adventure!

In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back

~ Charlie Brown

Life is a wonderful adventure which is better shared and experienced with an equally wonderful company! There are many memorable days from my numerous outdoor trips together with my wife. We have wandered out with no fixed itinerary, explored places together and definitely had many a memorable experience. The most recent memorable day was our adventurous trip to one of the islands in Thailand. We had booked it specifically to experience scuba diving in the turquoise green waters of Indian Ocean and to do some trekking in the remote part of the island!

Out of the two, Scuba diving was on her bucket list and island trekking on mine. Since the trip conveniently combined both our bucket list activity, we were very excited to complete them both. The only catch was I don't know swimming and she has not done any remote exploration before. But we were daring to face the adventure, one step at a time!

The day started with a bad weather. Bad weather means rough sea. Rough sea can make diving difficult. But then the organizers were quite confident that the weather would improve over the day. We boarded our speedboat and headed directly towards the island. First things first, sun came out slowly making things hopeful. Next the turquoise green waters of Indian Ocean started to shimmer in the daylight, taking our excitement to next level. We could spot a lot of colorful fishes swimming alongside our boat. Since I was not comfortable swimming, the organizers first took us to a place where I could practice diving in the shallow waters. We were given a short training on how to use the diving equipment and most importantly how to breathe underwater. Then we were asked to go slightly deep to spot the fishes. Since I had absolutely no knowledge of swimming, I was initially scared a bit to go deep. But my wife who knows swimming gave me my much-needed confidence at that point! We both walked a bit and suddenly we were at neck deep water. I then slowly immersed my head into the water to spot the fishes. I cannot explain in words how beautiful the underwater world looked! Holding her hands, I comfortably spent some time underwater to spot various colorful fishes. For a person who thought the turquoise green water itself is beautiful, the colorful world underneath took the experience to whole new level. Then we headed to a slightly deeper place with more underwater activity. Again with the confidence given by the organizers and wife by my side, I really enjoyed my first scuba diving activity! I can't forget how beautiful the underwater world looked and to experience it in real!!

Next we headed straight to the island to do some remote exploration. The activity involved trekking to the remote corner of the island, venturing into dark caves and climbing some limestone sections. We were prepared to face it all and had all gear handy. This time my wife totally relied on my trekking experience to give her safe company. We trekked slowly and steadily climbing to the highest section visible from the ocean and then turned right to head deep. The trek was getting tougher and tougher but then I kept to her speed and helped her do it comfortably. Later we ventured into caves, did some cave exploration and later even climbed a limestone section using ropes. Even though my wife had no prior experience doing such exploration, she totally cooperated and patiently followed all the instructions to complete all the adventure!

We enjoyed each other's company throughout the day and learned a lot about adjusting each other as and when situation demanded. We tackled different adventures using each other's experience and managed to derive a lot of fun out of it! The trip was a memorable experience and more so doubled as a beautiful guide to deal with our strengths and optimism #together!

Post written on the topic "Together" provided by Housing.com.

Leave the mundane behind ...

Almost a decade ago, I was this boring 'all-work-and-no-fun' kinda person. All I would do was to get up and go to the office; code, code, and code until my eyes droop and the keyboard craves for rest. Things were never different. Every day looked the same. Weekends were spent only in front of the TV. Simply saying, mundane was ruling all over my life!

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Among all this, the only thing I did refreshing was to follow newsletters from different mailing lists within the company. One of them was travelers group. A group of young professionals in the office who were interested in traveling and exploring new places around the country. I joined the mailing list only to see photographs at times and set them as my desktop wallpaper. Seriously!

I still remember, one-day someone proposed an idea of trekking in the nearby hill, spend some time and return by the evening. Many welcomed the idea and the plan was quickly finalized. One of my friends who was following the DL wanted to go for the trek. Since it was over the weekend, he also invited me to join. Being not-so-outdoor person at that time, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go. But then I eventually agreed boldly. Not sure what made me agree and how I agreed, but I think that's one of the best decisions of my life which changed my life all over!

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Though I was an absolute beginner I was not worried because there were many in the group who had  never trekked before. With so many people for company, all the efforts looked simple. Everyone motivated each other and helped one another to reach the top. It was a great fun evening. I met so many wonderful people with fantastic ideas about life and amazing zeal for travel & adventure. Their experiences in life inspired people to travel, do adventure and have fun in life. That evening was a real eye-opener. I realized how life is not just meant to be sitting in the corner cubicle and coding but to travel places and experience new things.

In the following weeks, I signed up for various trips with them. I went to various places, met different kinds of people and had a fantastic experience in every place I went. Every trip was an eye-opener in terms of my knowledge about the world. My horizon slowly expanded and I started growing interest for traveling. My weekends were slowly getting blocked for exploring new places and making new friends. Things never looked the same after that!

Very soon, I also got opportunities to try out different adventure sports like paragliding, bungee jumping, trekking in Himalayas etc.. Every trip and every adventure I undertook taught me wonderful lessons about life and also added fantastic friends for life. Amidst all this, I even picked up Photography as a means to document my travels. Currently, it is one of my favorite hobbies that I am quite serious about!

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Today having traveled to most places in India and exploring different adventure sports, I can safely say, that one moment of saying yes to the local trekking activity changed my perspective about life and provided a perfect platform to explore a new life! I am really glad I took that first bold step at some point in my life to kill the mundane and experience new things in life!

Written on the topic "Start A New Life" provided by Housing.com.

Check out their amazing video! They are all set and certain to change the way we live our life! :)

~ Vasudevs of Pandharpur ~

Portrait of Vasudevs during Pandharpur Yatra, Maharashtra, India.

Click to view it Large on Black canvas.

Dry baby, happy baby!

Boys are boys even if they are babies! Well, yes, that's what we concluded looking at all the mischiefs of my cousin's baby boy. He is super active, a mega-pack of energy in a tiny packet! He just cannot stop crawling from one end of the house to the other. He doesn't like anything being organized or sane at home. He cannot take anything else in the house grabbing his limelight. He should be the ONE that everyone focuses on, day in and day out!

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There are a few things that make him really happy! Get him CARS, colorful little cars! How does it sound for a toddler? Put all of them in front of him and he will live in his own 'sporty' world. He will lick them, he will drag them all around the house. He will even talk to them! Who knows, they might be talking back too, in a secret language that only both of them understand! Such a close connection! My cousin can easily feed him, divert him and give him a bath, just by showing him all those colorful cars! Beat that!

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Next of his favorite activity is to watch Bollywood numbers! God knows what he can connect or what he can get out of it. But oh boy! As soon as the peppy numbers start playing, he will present himself in front of the TV, the very next minute! Things doesn't end just watching those songs. He gets grooving with that cute little booty shake and laughter! One should watch his dance for Honey Singh's 'Sunny Sunny' song. Boy, Yo Yo really has some serious fan following there!

Only thing that can divert him from dancing to Bollywood numbers is 'Peekaboo'. He loves playing that game anytime! Why not? He is the one being 'most-wanted!' and he enjoys all the personal limelight he is craving all the time! He will crawl, sneak and hide himself in spaces where one will hardly expect someone to be hiding. Yes, he becomes doubly energetic and crazily happy when it comes to this game!

All this is only possible when he is tummy happy! If he is hungry, the only thing that happens is crying, hysteric crying! That's a clear signal to my cousin that his tummy isn't happy! Colorful cars or playing Bollywood peppy numbers will do the simple trick to feed him! He isn't cranky and will happily consume the food to revitalize himself for action all over again! Food is something that makes him really happy as he knows it keeps his tummy quiet and gives him power to crawl around the house without getting tired.

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Last but not the least, being DRY!! This is MUST when it comes to him. He can bear with water when he is taking bath. His cars talk to him and make him understand that he is becoming clean by taking bath. But he just cannot take it when his nappy is wet. Still he hasn't learned to give clear signals when he wants to free his tummy. He will make his tummy free silently, as and when it wants to be free. Be it living room or kitchen, just doesn't matter! All signals start after things are silently done under the covers. All activity slowly draws to a close. Energy goes down. Cars don't look attractive. Bollywood songs aren't attractive anymore. My cousin has slowly learned to read these 'post-signs' and change the diaper to get him back into action! In fact, these days she uses Pampers Baby Dry Pants on him to keep him dry from inside even when he silently does his 'job'. Dryness keeps him active with his usual energy. After all why compromise on his happiness just for being wet? Now even if he does his job, his cute booty dance continues and he is at his energetic best! When baby is happy, parents are definitely happy!


This post is a part of IndiBlogger Happy Hours topic "Dry baby, happy baby" by Pampers.

~ Happy Holi ~

Wishing all my friends a very happy and colorful Holi! :)

A file picture of kids celebrating Holi in the streets of Hyderabad, India.

To view Large on Black canvas!

That Magical Moment!

Being an adventurer, there are many a times during my expeditions, situation has gone really worse without any hope for betterment. But miracles did happen at times. There were these golden moments when all of a sudden bright light would stream in to drive the darkness away and fill all our lives with optimism and hope. Sometimes it is Nature and sometimes it is human effort  that act as a angel. Having been on the receiving end many a times, I can definitely say those were the magical moments of my life!

There was this time a couple of year's ago when I was all set to trek in the Himalayas, to cross a high altitude pass at 16,000 ft. It was the time of peak monsoon in Himachal. Firstly, no one was available to drive us from Simla all the way to the last village of Himachal from where our trek would begin. The drive was rough. We lost way many a times, tires got stuck in mud and slush. But we braved all these impediments and finally reached the base village in the evening.

Next morning we started our trek in the pouring rain. Just 10 minutes into the trail, we noticed a group of foreigners with high-end trekking and camping equipments returning back to the base village. When we inquired they said the trail is made impossible by the rain and it became impossible for them to cross a overflowing waterfall that is almost midway on the trail. After camping near the waterfall and waiting patiently for a couple of days they gave up due to bad weather. Hearing their story, few members of our team immediately backed off not willing to risk their life for the sake of adventure!

Only five of us dared to move ahead, trusting the capabilities of our team and the leader, who is a trained high-altitude trekker. After trekking in heavy rains for 3 days, we reached the base of the overflowing waterfall. As mentioned by the returning trekkers, the current of the water was very heavy to cross. We explored all nearby places to see possible locations from where we could cross the stream, but nothing looked feasible. Rain was getting worse at the same time. Higher camps looked dangerously pale, covered in snow. But our team was determined. We camped near the waterfalls for the day to see if the situation improves the next day. But sadly the rain did not stop and the situation looked grim. Our confidence was suddenly falling low. Even though no one wanted to abandon the trek at that point, Nature was literally forcing the situation upon us.

Suddenly a miracle happened. A porter employed in our team found a place little downstream where there was a rock in the middle of the stream. He suggested if someone could jump to the rock carefully and then jump over to the other side, then entire team can be transferred to the other side via ropes. Idea looked brilliant but then everyone was reluctant to make that jump, braving the gushing waters. Then that moment came!! The porter who gave the brilliant suggestion suddenly jumped to the middle and immediately made a jump to the other side!! We were all dumbstruck with mouth wide-open! Luckily I had my camera ready to capture that precious moment that changed it all! Suddenly there was a light of hope on everyone's face. Optimistic talks resumed. Everyone stood up to appreciate the efforts of that porter.

In no time, ropes were thrown to the other side and everyone was made to cross the river using ropes. In spite of rains, we trekked with full enthusiasm and reached higher camp by that evening. That evening saw a heavy snowstorm and we had a terrible night spent in the higher camp. But the motivation levels were high. We accelerated our pace next morning and managed to cross the pass by that afternoon. Even though blizzard continued on that day, we cared less and pushed forward. Next day we reached the other side of Himachal without any problems!

It was quite an adventure completing the trek and returning back to civilization. Everything was made possible only due to trust in the leader who promised to get us safe to the other side and the unimaginable effort by the porter who jumped risking his life. That moment is still in front of my eyes and I can very well say that was the magical moment that filled us all with optimism and hope to progress!

In the interesting turn of events, after a week of returning back home we came to know from other trekkers that they suffered a lot after quitting the trek in the middle. They had no transport to return back home and they had to walk over a hundred kilometers braving rain, landslide and overflowing rivers to get to a nearby highway. They managed to return safely to the plains almost a week after we reached home! In a way even they had quite an adventure story to share!

This post is a part of IndiBlogger Happy Hours topic "Look Up Stories" for Housing!