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? :)

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.

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! :)

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.

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!

Apno Ko Apne Dum Pe Jeena Sikhao

Even up to the end of my college days, I was a day scholar. Being a day scholar has its own set of privileges that hostelers don't get to enjoy. Apart from apparent benefits of staying with family members, eating home cooked food and having a own room for myself, I enjoyed the special privilege of not having to tackle the headache of personal finances. Yes, If I think of it today, that indeed is the best privilege I've ever had in my life. Finance was smoothly taken care off by my parents. All I had to take care was spending the pocket money that my mother used to give every day for college commute and lunch! What a bliss. But on the contrary I missed out on learning the importance of managing personal finances and feeling independent at that age, which every hosteler learned the tough way slowly and steadily!

Suddenly times changed. I had to move out of home comfort for job reasons. Completely new place, new people and new priorities in life. Before I could realize properly, I fetched my first salary in hand. Having only seen limited money in hand in the name of pocket money, I had absolutely no idea what to do with or how to spend my salary! Since my parents were financially independent themselves, there was no requirement for me to even send money back home. Which simply means all the money was spent for my needs and the remaining little-unused money was simply lying in my account. There was no financial knowledge, planning or set goals.

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Things were simply moving one day at a time. One fine day I got a call from my mother when she reluctantly inquired about my salary and what I do with all the money I earn. It was a simple answer for me that I spend all my money on movies, restaurants, gaming and shopping online. Nearly all of it that I earned. My mother was really concerned hearing that. It was then when my parents advised at length about the importance of spending carefully and to understand the fundamentals of personal finance. They even made me realize that working in the private sector, I will have to plan in advance to secure my finances for post retirement. That is when it dawned on me that spending just because one earns is a big mistake and how savings should be integral part of my life!

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That was a beginning of a phase in my life when I started looking into managing my money independently. It was very tough in the beginning understanding the fundamentals of saving money and to restrain from unwanted expenditures in parallel. But it happened slowly and steadily. I started allocating my funds carefully for my regular expenditure, partly towards investment and partly towards savings. I focussed on understanding nuances of saving tax and started setting my financial goals accordingly.

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Today, I am confident about my savings and the investments that I do. While I don't restrict myself from traveling or satisfying my interests, I am also careful that I don't get into debts without proper planning. Encouraging advice from my parents in a right way at the right time changed my insight about money and the way I handle it. It goes a long way in making myself a better independent individual and a self-reliant person!

This post is a part of IndiBlogger Happy Hours topic "Apno Ko Apne Dum Pe Jeena Sikhao", an initiative by HDFC Standard Life Insurance. Watch this meaningful advertisement that shows the importance of teaching your family member the importance of being self-reliant!

Upgrading Car with Quikr NXT!

The new Quikr NXT feature from Quikr is really efficient and does wonders by instantly connecting buyers and sellers! In my earlier blog post about Quikr NXT, I wrote about how the new chat feature is better in terms of security and easy to deal with for both buyers and sellers. In this blog post, I detail about how I went about upgrading my old car with choices from market using the power of Quikr NXT!


First things first, I owned a hatchback which I bought nearly 5 years ago! It was perfectly fine for my needs as a bachelor. But now I found its space very limiting and also doesn't cope up well for my current needs to go on long trips. So the thought of upgrading my car was in my mind for a while. To start the process, I had to create an advertisement to sell off my current car. Generally this is where people get stuck because identifying a good price to sell a car is often a big problem but this is where Quikr's Free MSP calculator came in real handy for me to get a rough quote for my old car!

Once I got a rough idea of how much to quote for my old car, I confidently created an advertisement using Quikr! Within no time I started getting pings via Quikr NXT chat asking more details about the car. Some even asked for posting specific photographs showing backseat leg room and outside views to see the extent of dents etc. But the best part is I was not pressurized by someone standing on top of my head via phone call to get these details immediately. I could get these photographs taken and send it to them at my convenient timings. Since individual chat conversations were recorded, I could easily keep track of individual queries and the quoted discounted prices I quoted for those who showed genuine interest in buying!

Soon I managed to sell off my car for a satisfying price with which I know I don't have to put a lot of money from my hand to go for my upgrade. So with my reserve money in hand, I started looking for second hand sedan models that was under my budget in Quikr. It was such a pleasure browsing through various models at the comfort of my mobile phone rather than painfully visiting re-sellers and having trust issues with their stories.

Using Quikr NXT, I contacted a few individual sellers whose advertisement really matched my requirement. Over the day I started getting good responses for my queries. In fact I even asked a few sellers to send specific photographs for my needs for which they kindly obliged. In no time I was able to pinpoint the one which I genuinely wanted to go for. Since every chat conversation was conveniently recorded, it was very easy to go back and refer to any information that I wanted at any point of time all through out the process. It came in very handy especially during negotiations. Finally I negotiated my deal over the chat and confirmed it when the seller agreed to quote a price which was satisfactory for both. The entire process was so easy for both parties and required no multiple visits to the seller's place or repeated phone calls asking queries. We smoothly concluded the deal with one visit to the seller's place to test drive the car and handover the cheque before picking it up! Quikr NXT has made the entire process of upgrading my car look ridiculously simple!

This post is a part of IndiBlogger Happy Hours topic "Upgrade your Car with Quikr NXT!"

Bedtime Rituals

It is a nightmare for all parents and that too pretty much at the end of a tiring day to put their little ones to sleep in the night! After taking a good afternoon nap, babies are very energetic in the evening and as the day draws close to the end they somehow derive magical energy and curiosity to be active, thus putting the whole experience of putting them to sleep a big stressful evening ritual. Every parent at one time or the other will look forward to develop a set of bedtime rituals to set the right mood and ambiance for their little ones to prepare their mind to call it a day and put those active little brains smoothly into slumber!

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Instead of following a random, unpredictable set of practices every night, it is wise to follow an easy and fun set of predictable bedtime rituals that will keep them entertained, relaxed, and most importantly give them enough clues saying 'Yo! It's sleepy time. Keeping all this in mind, it becomes very important to plan a set of fun and interactive bedtime activities that is guaranteed to work on a consistent basis to make it all soothing. This blog post is all about my idea of fun bedtime rituals to put the baby to sleep in a most relaxed and comforting way for a good peaceful night's sleep!

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The foremost important step in all this would be to set a fixed time to sleep and that should not be compromised for any reason. The entire process of bedtime activities should start approximately one hour before the actual time we intend them to go to sleep. For this, the first ritual is to gently distract them from their active source of entertainment like Television, Computer or Video games and get them involved in a much relaxed no brainer sort of entertainment. The cues should be strong enough for them to realize it is going to be fun even when they are away from their most lovable entertainment systems. One can just start with a quiet and easy game like peekaboo to distract them initially and get them to the bedroom.

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Then silently hide a toy or an object in the bedroom for them to hunt around. This activity will make them forget what they were doing earlier and let them concentrate on only one thing i.e to find that object! Later when they manage to find the object, raise their curiosity immensely by promising them an interesting story involving that object if they cooperate for a brushing session! Silently sneak in the activity of brushing their teeth, which is very important for their health reasons. Along with it complete their potty time for a stress free night and dress them up in a comfortable pajama to prepare for the night. The best part about each of these activities is that it is slowing sending them signals to go to bed even while they are eagerly awaiting that 'interesting bedtime story' without actually getting diverted by other entertainment around.

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Once they get to the bed and willing to listen, build an interesting story around the object to drive their imaginations to a faraway fairyland. Involve them as a character so they can associate things personally in the story in a much interactive way. This activity will slowly develop their concentration skills and can also double as a base for their dream for that night. Slowly as they grow many knowledgeable stories can be fed into their brains smoothly this way. When their imaginations are already diverted to the fancy land, they are perfectly relaxed and more than ready to hit the bed and sleep!

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Following such fun bedtime rituals on a consistent basis will slowly develop discipline in them to peacefully prepare for the night and also develop many healthy practices without them actually realizing it in a much stressful way!

This post is a part of IndiBlogger Happy Hours topic "Bedtime Rituals", an initiative by Pampers. Check out more information about Pampers and their initiative here. Also check out this video -

If my life is BefikarUmarBhar!

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If there is one quote that perfectly reflect my mindset at any given point, then it is this one by Saint Augustine. I always think this life is too precious to be spent at one place, tied up strongly between four walls of the house, a corner cubicle at work and known set of people. It is not meant to be tortured only by the maniacal urge only to earn more and just settle down with huge debt. This life is meant to be set free. Free of tension and worries that strangle our neck everyday like an invisible pair of devilish hands. One should feel free to dream big and set a lot of Bucket List. Travel far and wide. Experience cultures, meet different kinds of people and fill our minds with beautiful experiences and warm stories that make us feel at the end - YES, I lived a life that is definitely worthwhile! I know this is very subjective. For some, buying a costly flat, a luxury car, paying all that hefty debt and settling down comfortably is all that makes their life meaningful. But such people should make a very careful planning so that their life does not end with an empty bucket list, rather a bucket load of tension!

That said, when I came across this topic about the top 5 things on my Bucket List that I would do if I were #BefikarUmarBhar, I thought of jotting down my top 5 Bucket List items in this blog post. Whether or not I get to complete all of them in my lifetime, even If I manage to complete a few of them in parts, I would definitely consider my life worthwhile! So the grand list goes like this ...

1. Summiting Seven Summits - This first one is for my crazy love for trekking and to quench my thirst to stand on top of the highest point each time to experience that 'top of the world' feeling! This would mean climbing Aconcagua in South America, Everest in Asia, McKinley in North America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Europe, Vinson in Antarctica and Kosciuszko in Australia! Undeniably a grand list to complete in this lifetime!

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2. Visiting architectural wonders of the world -  This is to satisfy the insatiable traveler in me. Each wonder of the world depicts unique culture and history of the part of the world it belongs to. That way, I would like to visit Great Wall of China in China, Petra in Jordan, Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Brazil, Chichen Itza in Mexico, Colosseum in Italy, Taj Mahal (this of course I've checked off my bucket list) and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt!

3. Visiting all natural wonders of the world - This is to satisfy the photographer in me and for my infinite love towards Nature! Being a product of Nature, if we don't see and appreciate the natural beauty of this world, it is a life lead meaningless. For this, I would want to visit the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, scale Mount Everest in Nepal; which will be inevitably covered with my first bucket list, Grand Canyon in USA (I managed to check this off my bucket list already), the mesmerizing Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, watching the spectacular Auroral display in Antarctica, have a swim at Devil's Pool at Victoria Falls and the majestic cornfield Parícutin volcano in Mexico. Sounds fascinating isn't it?

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4. Try adventure sports that involves jumping - This is to satisfy the adrenaline junkie that I am. Even though standing atop a summit gives me the adrenaline kick, there are few other adventure sports that involves jumping from the top to push the adrenaline rush to next level! Having tried simple paragliding by jumping off a cliff in Himalayas, I so want to try my hands on winged suite base jumping off a Himalayan peak and Bungee jumping in Grand Canyon!

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5. Backpack across India - Last but not the least this one is totally for my love being Indian! I so want to backpack and travel length & breadth of this country to experience its diverse landscape, people, culture, our roots, food, celebrations and everything that is so unique about this country!

I understand reality is different and often pressing. But thankfully I am different and I am willing to face it. I strongly aspire to fulfill my bucket list as and when my life permits. For, I love to plan and dare to dream big, big enough to push myself from my comfort zone and experience the unknown!

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So are you ready to live your life #BefikarUmarBhar? Do check out this video ...


This post is a part of IndiBlogger Happy Hours topic "Befikar Umar Bhar"

Time to go smart and sleek with ASUS!

With technology improving by the day, it is totally unimaginable the power of electronic devices that are coming out in the market these days. I was a proud owner of a bulky assembled PC just a decade ago. It costed me a bomb but had a measly 512 MB hard disk drive with 256 MB RAM, which was too good a configuration at that time that I used to wonder why would anybody want anything more than that!! I recollect how it had a bulky tower CPU and a separate CRT monitor, both so huge that it occupied a entire computer table at that time. Add to it a keyboard, there was hardly any space left on the table even to keep my hand and work! But yes, good old times, they retired!!

Thanks to ever evolving electronics industry, times have changed within a decade! Now we have the most powerful and sleekest of products at an affordable budget price. I happened to come across two such products today - ASUS EeeBook X205TA and the Ultra-Portable ASUS All In One PC ET2040. When I bought my Google Nexus 7 tablet from ASUS last year, I was totally impressed by the build quality of the product and the power that is packed into that small unit. From that day, I added ASUS to my watch-list for new electronic gadgets in the market! Today when I saw ASUS All In One Desktop PC ET2040 product listing in the Amazon's page, I knew it's time to retire my three year old PC finally!!


Being a freelance travel photo/videographer, I shoot for a lot of photography assignments and individual projects. My workflow typically involves transferring GBs of images and videos into hard disk, first to process them on Photoshop before finalizing them and delivering it to my clients. Currently my PC with its 1 GB RAM totally struggles even while copying the image files and with limited hard disk capacity, I can't even copy all the files locally to edit. Then to load the Photoshop takes its own sweet time rest alone editing a bulk of them!! Of late I was looking for a good desktop alternative in the market and today when I saw the specifications of this ultra-portable desktop I am again impressed with ASUS. Apart from the obvious fact that it is very slim and does not occupy much space at all, there are many useful features that make everyday use of a desktop a pleasure but I am listing below some of my favorite features that is well suited for my lifestyle!

As a photographer, my eyes are always drawn on the display characteristics of the monitor I use. With it's crisp 19.5-inch HD widescreen display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, ET2040 scores very well for my needs to edit photographs and videos. Widescreen display is a sure boost for editing landscape format photographs and LED backlight technology is guaranteed to produce amazing brightness, contrast and colors to the photographs. I am sure it will be a treat to watch the final edited cut directly on the monitor!

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With latest and greatest Intel processor (Quad Core J2900) with super-fast graphics (Intel HD), it will be effortless to run even a memory hogging editing software like Photoshop. With 2 GB RAM, I can effortlessly edit bulk of my photographs and videos at ease!

Another common problem in India is the power-cut. Nothing can be irritating like that unexpected power-cut coming your way while you are editing a photograph! All the work gone the drain completely. Thanks to the savior one hour smart backup that keeps things going even in case of a power-cut! Really really useful I say!

Next impressive thing is the availability of built-in HDMI-out port! I can now directly connect my HDTV to the PC to check out the final edited videos and watch it live! Talk about all the time consuming job of copying the edited version to a separate HDD and connecting that to the HDTV to watch the cut. Again doing modifications and repeating the same task all over again! This is such a blessing, definitely!

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With the availability of super-speed USB 3.0 ports, connecting my camera or my external hard disk drive and transferring images will be such a pleasure. Don't have to make a cup of coffee and wait for the transfer to complete slowly! These USB 3.0 ports can also doubly serve the purpose of charging the smartphones and tablets. I love it when multiple things can be done at a breeze.

Last but not the least hands free entertainment is another big big plus! With advanced Hand-Gesture Recognition Software (HGRS) that uses the built-in camera to accurately interpret movements, I can zoom and rotate photos from a distance, without even touching a screen, keyboard or mouse. I say it's a big plus because while watching the final cut, it will be very quick to zoom and check specific portions of the photograph to finalize it!

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By checking out all my list, this PC looks like tailor made for a serious photographer like me. But yes this is just touching the tip of the iceberg, features that are very much suitable for my needs. For more features about this desktop, click here.

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