No Fikar, Chat Quikr

Image Courtesy : www.indiblogger.in

Almost a fortnight back Quikr launched its newest product innovation - Quikr Nxt, an instant messaging service which is being called as the world’s first instant messenger in the online classifieds space and that has potential to take India’s online classifieds market a notch higher. Before this, a user had to list their numbers on the site in order to receive calls from buyers and negotiate and complete the transaction over phone calls, thus facing a lot of inconvenience in the process. 

Here are 3 reasons why I would prefer a buyer-seller chat over a phone call - 

1. Privacy – Privacy matters the most. A seller often faces fake buyer calls because of their number being listed on the online classified sites. Imagine a situation when you receive a prank call from a person who makes you believe that he is going to buy your phone, only to deceive you, get your hopes up and then disappointing you by never turning up. With Quickr Nxt, one can choose to make their listing private, thus hiding their email id and phone numbers on the site and their only point of reference is their Quikr ID. It ensures that there is no misuse of the private information provided on the site.

2. Convenience – Next advantage is convenience. Imagine missing a buyer call while you are in a meeting or heading to the loo. There is no way that you can tell a buyer what time is convenient calling time for you and what is inconvenient. Since you cannot predict a day’s event in advance, mentioning your inconvenient hours in your Ad is also not possible. That was about missed calls, what if you are getting bombarded with buyer calls while you are on a date or with a business client. Neither your date nor your client will be impressed with the number of interruptions that’s happening. Quikr Nxt lets its users chat as per their convenience and instantly. It does not hamper your schedule or makes you miss a potential buyer, nor does it make you lose a client or get you angry stares from your boss or result in break-up with your girlfriend. Convenient, isn’t it?

3. Tracking – Whether you are a buyer or seller, when you are negotiating a transaction over a call, it is difficult to keep track of the conversation and the price quoted, especially if you are selling and have been talking to a lot of buyers. When you do this over a call, you end up writing the details somewhere, but may lose it or even forget where you wrote it (happens with people like me). And when next time the guy calls up, you end up wondering what the negotiation that has happened previously was? With Quikr Nxt the negotiation is happening real time and you can keep track of multiple buyer-seller conversations with the saved chat histories.

With the launch of Quikr Nxt, the entire gamut of buyer-seller transaction have changed. And the tagline says it all - 'No Fikar, Chat Quikr'!

Cupid Games 2015 - The Aphrodisiac Proposal

#CupidGames 2015 - The Foody Fiesta

Using aphrodisiac food to send my crush a yummy Valentine’s Day proposal - A #Closeup Cupid Game challenge in association with #Indiblogger. 

(Music Courtesy - Into the open air (Julie Fowlis) - Brave Soundtrack)

The Proposal

I guess I am one of those few women who can proudly say that they have taken the first step at least once in life. Well, I have taken it twice. Umm, may be thrice. Or was it four times? 

Though it is another story whether those proposal were ever accepted or not, but confessing your feelings always gives a feel good effect. Because life is too short to live in regret. 

My current crush lives in Goa (Damn! Did I just tell you that?). It's a great state to travel to, and greater if you have a proposal in mind. Romantically, yes, but more so because your knees won't hurt on the sand! 

Valentine's Day - 14th February 2015 - Midnight

Now, imagine this setting - Full moon night (Imagine I said!), moonlight reflecting on the sea and making it shimmer with a silver glow, a beach shack pub at Palolem beach, young people partying, some flying sky lanterns and a dozen sky lanterns in the night sky.

(Pictures from my last trip to Goa)

There is always something about Goa. 50% of your work is already done with this kind of a setting. 

As the night rolls by, the moon starts to dip towards the sea. If you have ever spent an entire night on the beach and witnessed this, you know what I am talking about and how romantic it feels then. Somewhere close to the horizon, the moon disappears as the light of dawn starts to spread. It's that hour between night and day, when it is neither night nor day. That's my cue card!

"Let's go kayaking!", I said, batting my eyelids flirtatiously.

A man would ideally never say 'No' to a cute woman trying to pull him away from the crowd. And getting hold of a kayak boat on a Goa beach is no big deal, whatever time of the day it is. 

So we fit into a kayak and row into the sea. We row in silence, listening to the sound of the waves, as we move further and further into the sea. At one point, I suggest rowing into the cove towards Butterfly Island. 

As we take the complete turn into the cove, he is suddenly surprised to see a yacht anchored there. 

"That's weird", He says, "Was a private party going over here all night?"

"Or may be a party is just about to begin!" I said with a wink.

What follows is popping of a champagne bottle on the yacht as the sun rises and a proposal that he would never forget in his life. And of course, I assume he would say yes, as it is hard to say no to such a lovely proposal, in such a romantic setting, to such an amazing girl. ;-)

**********************************************************************************************************
This post has been written for Indiblogger Happy Hour Campaign Closeup Cupid Games 2015. 

P.S. I do have a crush on Goa, but not on a Goan. (FYI Mom & Dad) :D

On-The-Go Sleek

ASUS EeeBook X205TA (Image Courtesy : www.asus.com)

ASUS All In One PC ET2040 (Image Courtesy : www.asus.com)

To start with, it's funny because just yesterday I was checking out the ASUS EeeBook X205TA on Flipkart and today I am writing a feature on it. So before we venture into which one I would prefer between the sleek and powerful ASUS EeeBook X205TA or the ultra-portable and perpetually connected ASUS All In One PC ET2040, let's take a look on their features -

Specifications	ASUS EeeBook X205TA	ASUS All In One PC ET2040
Processor	Quad-core 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3735F	Intel® Pentium® J2900 Processor
RAM	2GB	2 GB Up to 4 GB
Size (Dimensions)	286x193.3x17.5mm	489.4 x 307.15 x 14
Weight	980g	3.4 kg
Screen Size	11.6"	19.5"
Graphics adaptor	Integrated Intel HD Graphics	NVIDIA® GeForce 820M 1GB
Total Storage	32 GB eMMC	500GB Up to 1TB Hard Drive
OS	Windows 8.1 with Bing	Windows 8.1
Camera	VGA Web Camera	1 M

In the first glance, you would always feel ASUS ET2040 is the better and more powerful choice. If somebody wants a Windows desktop PC, ET2040 would probably be the best choice as it is the perfect family computer - slim, stylish and space saving, with a maximum of 4GB RAM and hard drive up to 1 TB. It is more apt for gamers and designers or anybody who is more likely to sit at home and work, or play, or watch a movie in HD with family.

But with the change of lifestyles, desktops have gone out of many people's life, including mine. There is this new generation who prefer the wireless mobility. But in addition to that, the traveler in me will also prefer something compact which -

1. I can easily pack into my bag or backpack and carry along.

2. Does not add much weight to my luggage.

3. Does not eat up much space. 

And ASUS EeeBook X205TA is exactly that - It is compact and with a space saving design, as it is ultra thin. It is also light weight, weighing less than a kg. 

Here are some more features that help me choose the former - 

1. Price - It is priced at Rs. 14,999 on Flipkart. Not just sleek in style, but even sleek in price! It is the perfect portable option that fits my budget. And from the perspective of blogging, it is any day better than Tabs.

2. Battery Life - It allows me to surf the net for up to 12 hrs on full battery. This feature is important for a travel blogger as it is not always possible for us to find a charging point while updating those travel stories and pictures on social networking sites.

3. Microsoft Office 365 included!!! - Could I have asked for more? I am excited about it because Microsoft Office is not always included and if it is not, we purchase it, as many of us need it for everyday work. So no extra money spent in this case!

The 32 GB space is not much of an issue for me as I always carry my 1 TB hard drive with me wherever I go. 

So with all these above features, you know why the ASUS EeeBook X205TA suites my lifestyle and needs as a traveler. And I am sure, most travel bloggers would say 'Ay!'

**********************************************************************************

This post has been written for the Indiblogger Happy Hour campaign "Go Sleek", in association with Asus. 

How I ruined my cousin's date

To Err is Human. And sometimes to hide this errr... we lie. Because the truth can get us into trouble.

But "There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right." Very rightly said by Martin Luther King Jr. Our conscience is the voice of our soul and very few have the courage to listen to this voice and do as it says.

I live with a chatterbox of a conscience. I left home in 2003 and like any other Indian parents, my parents worry every minute for me. But they know they can always trust me, because I (mostly) never lie about my plans or whereabouts or late night parties or the company I'm out with. But the incident I'm going to narrate is not about them.

Back in 2007, when I was in my Engineering final year in Chennai, a cousin had joined the same college as mine. Let's call her Rhika (Name changed for privacy). I was like an elder sister to her in that new city that she had just moved to. And being from a small town, she wanted to experience a discotheque.

The problem was that the closest good disc allowed only couples. I had a friend to go with, but she didn't. It was semester break time for college and only very few final year students were in the city who were doing their internship in Chennai. In the end, we requested a batchmate of ours to accompany the three of us, in spite of knowing that the guy holds the reputation of a playboy. We never gave it much thought as the plan was only for few hours. And of course, we warned Rhika about him. What harm could have come of it?

So we entered the disc without any hassle as two couples, spent good time there, had a few drinks, danced and left as planned. There was no Whatsapp in those days. So the mishap happened over text messages during the next 24 hours. To cut the long story short, Mr. Playboy proposed to Rhika before sun rose the next day. She had probably fallen for his charms and was naive enough to accept it. And then he told her, he would like to take her to Pondicherry next weekend. 

Tell me if I am wrong, but I do not believe that love happens overnight. What happens that fast is lust. And when a love-lorn Rhika told me about this getaway plan, I freaked out - out of care for her. So I gave a call to an elder cousin of ours and narrated her the incident of the past 24 hours, hoping she would talk Rhika out of it. Instead, she went hyper and told everything to Rhika's family. 

Result was that we both got verbal bashings over the phone - from her family and our dear broadcaster cousin. Yes, I got it too, as I was blamed for taking her out to party and introducing her to that guy. Rhika was angry on me for outing her. It was like hell breaking loose. In the end to avoid further shit, I vouched to her family that she broke up (even before they had started). 

Surprisingly, my parents weren't angry on me even after knowing about the incident. The habit of 'not hiding' had saved me, as they knew I was partying that night with friends and was taking Rhika along. And the trust factor that had grown between me and my parents, made them believe me when I told them that I was not at fault here.

That affair went on for 3 months in a hushed up way, until the day the boy left Rhika for another girl!!! A heartbroken Rhika often says, "I wish I had listened to you and not wasted those 3 months!"

May be things could have turned out better for them, proving me wrong and making her live happily ever after with him. But back then, my conscience told me that telling the truth was the right thing to do, though I had to later lie to everyone to save my relationship with her.

Till date I have not asked her whether she went to Pondicherry or not :D. I keep the 'telling the truth' practice restricted to my life. Others can decide what is right or wrong for them by themselves. If they make a mistake, they'll learn from it. We all do.

********************************************************************************

This post has been written for Kinley, in association with Indiblogger. Watch this video and you'll thank me for the happy tear you might shed.

Review of Lucky 6 - A game by Fat Cat Gaming

(Image Courtesy : www.indiblogger.in)

Lottery without a lottery ticket! I thought, "Seriously?"

Logo of Fat Cat (Image Courtesy : http://fatcatgaming.com/)

So there is this brand new mobile app called Lucky 6, launched by Fat Cat Gaming , a British crowdfunded campaign by SHM Entertainment Ltd., which is an innovative lottery style game app. 

How to download Lucky 6?

The game is not available on Google Play or App Store. Here is how to download it -

1. Go to www.fatcatgaming.com. You'll see this screen -

(Image Courtesy : www.fatcatgaming.com)

2. Depending on whether you have an iOS or Android, download the .apk file.
3. Run the .apk file to complete installation.
4. In case, you get a notification saying only Google Play apps are permitted, go to Security settings and check the "Unknown sources" box and press Ok. Then run the .apk file to download the game.

(Alternatively, you can download the .apk file to your PC and then transfer it to your phone, like I did.)

How to play Lucky 6?

Once the Lucky 6 app is downloaded and you have registered, all you need to do is select 6 brands from the list. When you select 6 brands and confirm, a ticket for that entry is created. If the brands you selected match the top 6 brands on the Game day, you win. How they decide which the top 6 brands are? Stock market gains of course!

Prizes - 

The prize is a jackpot of Rs.25 Lakh for the winner.
If there is more than one winner, the jackpot will be shared.
If there is no winner, the top scorer gets an all expense paid holiday trip (for two) to an exotic location.
If a player you introduced wins the jackpot, you get a bonus of Rs.6.25 Lakh.

Review of Lucky 6 game - 

Cons (Let’s start with areas of improvement…) - 

1. Platform issues - It is only for iOS and Android users – what about Windows and Blackberry users?

2. Download issues - It is not available on Google Play and that makes the download process a little confusing.

3. Betting on Brands - For those not aware about stock market movements, it can get a little tricky.

4. Some brands listed are actually sub-brands belonging to a parent brand, e.g. Chevrolet of GM, Goldflake of ITC, Kitkat of Nestle, etc.

5. Bug issues - The game logs me out every time my screen gets locked.

Pros –

1. Fast download! You’ll say - just now I said it’s confusing to download. Well partly yes, because Google Play doesn’t allow reward based games. But once you have figured out that all you have to do is download the .apk file through your browser and install it, it’s a pretty fast process.

2. It is free to play. Yes you heard it right – Free!!!

3. It is a simple and user-friendly game.

4. Fast winner declaration – Announced within 2 hours of the end of contest on Game Day.

5. You win cash! Not coupons! Not vouchers! Hard Cash it is!

6. Sharing is Caring – You can share your score with your friends on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc. and challenge them to compete.

7. Luck hierarchy – If the friend you shared with get’s lucky, you get double lucky and win bonus cash. So if you read about 'Lucky 6' on my blog, please mention referrer name as 'Sanghita'. 

8. Last but not the least – this is E-lottery. Gone are the days of buying lottery tickets. All you need to do is download and play and get Lucky.

As it is obvious, that the Pros beat the Cons, this game has potential to create a storm in India. If it’s shared well through social media among gamers, it will capture the market like no other game has ever done before. I can already imagine people ‘brand betting’ throughout the day. 

Now this is what I would call as intelligent gaming. Nothing ever came out of crushing candies right?
******************************************************

I'm saying it again in case you missed it, please mention referrer name as 'Sanghita' if you read about 'Lucky 6' by Fat Cat Gaming on this blog :) Thank you!

Sweet my child, I live for thee

Home they brought her warrior dead:

She nor swoon'd nor utter'd cry:

All her maidens, watching, said,

"She must weep or she will die."

Then they praised him, soft and low,

Call'd him worthy to be loved,

Truest friend and noblest foe;

Yet she neither spoke nor moved.

Stole a maiden from her place,

Lightly to the warrior stepped,

Took the face-cloth from the face;

Yet she neither moved nor wept.

Rose a nurse of ninety years,

Set his child upon her knee—

Like summer tempest came her tears—

"Sweet my child, I live for thee."

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

************************************************************

A child has a special way of adding joy to a family. The same child also instills a healthy fear in the parents - a fear born out of realizing that the new life is fragile. Even when the parents hold their baby for the first time, they do so with trembling hands, scared that they might hurt the baby if they are not careful enough. Though this healthy fear never dies out throughout the years, it is at its most when the child is young.

"A healthy child makes a happy home". Everything seems to be perfect till the day that child falls sick. That's when all hell breaks loose. Caring for a sick child doesn't only cause physical stress to both the parents, it also affects their mental health. This mental stress is not only due to their nagging fear about their child's condition, it is also because when a child falls sick, it disrupts the family's regular routine. They are more likely to miss their work. They are less likely to sleep at night. They are likely to even skip their meals during the day. The child's deteriorating health in turn affects the parents' normal functioning and lifestyle. I have seen similar effects in my own family when me or my sister had fallen sick. It had caused turmoils in my parents life.

All said and done, what I said above is the most obvious inference that we can draw from the one liner "A healthy child makes a happy home". But when I had a conversation with a cousin last night regarding this, she made me look at it from a different angle. Here you go -

One fine day a girl child is born and over the years she matures into a woman. But that woman is reborn as a mother only when a baby is born to her. 

It is said that a woman-turned-mother loves her child more than she loves her better half. Once she becomes a mother, she lives more for her child than for her husband (No offence meant men!). It's the glow on her child's face, that makes her happy and proud. A child has the power to instigate myriads of emotion in the mother, like in the poem at the beginning of the blog where the woman is able to cry over the dead body of her husband, only when her child is placed on her lap. 

A healthy child is a happy child. A happy child means a happy mother. But if her child is sick, under no circumstance would she be able stay happy. A woman - wife or mother - holds the family together. She is like the pillar of the family. If the woman of the family is not happy, it would have a devastating affect on the entire family. In such a situation, how do we expect the entire family to be happy or healthy? It's like a vicious cycle.

But when the child is hale and hearty, the mother can put all such worries on the back burner. The family life runs smooth, without any hitches.

I though personally don't know what being a mother feels like, but I totally believe any woman who says it was her happiest day in life when she held her child in her arms for the first time and said 'Sweet my child, I live for thee.'

*************************************************************

This post is written for Dabur India for 'A HEALTHY CHILD MAKES A HAPPY HOME' campaign, in association with IndiBlogger. Click here to know more - https://www.liveveda.com/daburchyawanprash/

The Sweet Sixteen Misadventure

Silly crimes you say?? Eh... 

Well, out of all the silly crimes committed, this one dumb act has a special place in my heart. So dumb, that I just can't forget it... Gawd!!! Where is the confession box?? 

Introducing the two partners in crime (and keeping my fingers crossed that our parents don't end up reading this post) -

Keeping the font color as fuchsia to get you into the school-girly mood, let's rewind to January 9th, 2002. 

It was Arpita's 16th birthday. Sweet Sixteen they call it... And like most girls, Arpita wanted to do something SPECIAL on this day. 

Arpita and Jas were staying away from their parents in my hometown Silchar, where they were attending high school with me. So, they didn't have a supervising authority and I mostly took the advantage of the trust that my parents had on them .

Silchar, 12 years back, hardly had any form of entertainment like big cities. The only form of entertainment was a cinema hall called Devdoot, which occasionally played some good movies. And it didn't play several shows like multiplex theaters do. There were just 3 shows - Morning, Matinee and Evening. So, on her birthday we decided to go for a movie show, followed by lunch at a good restaurant. See... Innocent enough?? 

But it was a Wednesday and there was no way my parents would have allowed me to bunk school. So we hatched a plan and according to that, the previous day I smuggled some casual wear and passed it to Arpita in school.

On THE day, we boarded the school bus, but soon got off after 2-3 stops. It was our senior year and no one questioned us when we did so. We took a rickshaw to Jas and Arpita's apartment and changed into casuals for our Girls Day Out... 

We were on 16th heaven!!! 

Both the matinee and evening shows were out of scope, since the school bus dropped us back home at 4:00 p.m. everyday. So the most feasible plan was - 

1. Morning show of Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum (or whichever movie was playing) at Devdoot. 
2. Followed by some junk food lunch.
3. Back to Arpita-Jas's place for changing back to school uniform.
4. Back home from school by 4 p.m. like the good girl I am. 

We reached Devdoot by 9 a.m. When it came to booking movie tickets, all three of us were novices. From the banner, we could guess that it was indeed K3G that was playing. So we went ahead and told the man at the counter that we wanted to buy 3 tickets for the 'morning show'. He gave us a dirty look while giving us the tickets. We didn't pay much attention to his reaction. We were extremely proud of our escapade and nothing could deter our enthusiasm at that moment.

There was still an hour to go before the show, so we passed time around the theater having fuchka (Pani Puri) and checking out fashion accessories at a nearby market. We were back at the theater entrance 10 minutes before the show. 

Here we again started getting glances from other men who had come for the show; so much that it was making us feel uncomfortable standing there. Yes, it was unlikely for young girls of that small town to come for movies in a theater without parents. But we were three and we thought, there was nothing wrong in watching a movie, c'mon!!!

When we were almost about to enter the hall, a man came forward and asked us if we were waiting for the 'morning show', to which we said 'Yes'. Then he asked - "Do you know which movie is playing??" Nonchalantly and in unison, we replied - 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum'. And that's when he dropped the Bomb! He said - "They only play adult movies during the morning show. You can come back at Matinee for the movie you wanted to watch..."

I can't explain the expression that was on our faces when he said that to us. But that did explain the expression on the faces of all the men who had come for an adult movie and found three young girls there as accompaniment.

We left the theater in a very calm and composed manner - as if nothing had happened. As soon as we were out of their sight, we burst out laughing . Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Ghum indeed... It would have been the best 'Coming of Age' surprise for Arpita had that man not revealed the secret.

We spent the time buying nail polishes and lipsticks. Dove had recently launched a new deodorant line and the Dove Nutrium soap. But at that age, that was luxurious buy and we could only sigh... Then, we had pizza at one of the junk food joint, followed by ice creams. By 2 p.m. we were back at their apartment - still laughing on our misadventure. We made the birthday girl cut the birthday cake, smeared her with the icing and wished we had a camera to capture the moment. By 4 p.m., I was back home, innocently dressed up in my school uniform. For an entire week, my parents kept wondering about my occasional feats of laughter.

It's almost 12 years since that day. I don't use fuchsia font color any more. School uniforms have changed to corporate formals. Nail polish, lipsticks, soaps and Dove deodorants are more necessities than luxuries. We give a 100 calorie-conscious-thoughts before having a pizza or an ice cream. I do own a big camera now. And to speak about my parents - these days they wonder more about when I'm going to get married...

But even today, we thank that good man from the bottom of our still-innocent-hearts. If not for him, we would have witnessed a real 'Dirty Picture' even before Vidya Balan acted in one . 

The LinkedIn Proposal

On Friday June 7, 2013 I suddenly decided to pay a visit to my LinkedIn account after almost one and a half year. I'm a really lazy person. So when I got into a comfort zone (read Job), I decided to stick there (so far). Then one day, out of sheer instinct and boredom, I decided to update my profile and accept the 200+ connection requests that had been lying pending. Let me describe what followed via a timeline. So here goes - 

8:28 AM: I boarded my usual Thane starting local onward to CST and started accepting the connection requests. Most were from people from reputed organization – some known, some unknown. But as it was LinkedIn where the purpose is to make professional connection, I never gave a ‘careful’ thought as we give before accepting friend requests on other social networking sites. 

(In a way, it’s a lot like Indiblogger where you hardly know anyone personally, still there is a mutual trust based on professionalism and the common passion for writing.)

8:58 AM: The train reached Dadar and by that time I had finished accepting all the connections.

9:06 AM: Right after passing Byculla, I got this mail from a guy from a reputed IT firm of Pune (Since I have nothing against the Company, I prefer not to reveal its name) –

My eyebrows started rising as I passed from the 2^nd to the 3^rd line, and by the time I had finished reading the small yet insolent proposal, I was fuming. Had it been on Facebook or the once-upon-a-time Orkut, I would have just ignored it. On LinkedIn – I just couldn’t. It had been just 8-10 minutes since I had accepted his connection and there he was proposing to me, quite probably because we shared the same surname.

9:12 AM: I reached CST with a determination to get back at this unwanted and unprofessional Ashiq. How dare he misuse a professional network??!!

My attention span to my regular work at office was highly disrupted that day.  As Facebook-worms we are, the screenshot of the mail was uploaded on FB before midday. Friends reacted - some found this hilariously ‘epic’, whereas others felt outraged.

5:00 PM: I finally replied to him. Again, since it was LinkedIn, I tried to be as much polite to him as possible. This is a screenshot of the FB post -

10:00 PM: I got a reply from this guy saying "Expression can be done anywhere if felt from heart". Ignoring his poor usage of English, I thought of asking him if his heartfelt expressions are automatically generated by just seeing a girl's profile pic; or by knowing that the girl has the same surname. If that be the case, you can easily assume how many Bengali/Nandi girls he would have tried his luck on, before me. Man! He is an insult to my Nandi clan and I feel so damn ashamed of him.

But this time I decided to ignore the message as I wasn't interested in a conversation with him; or rather I was afraid I will lose my sarcastic demeanor and start abusing him. So I removed him from my connection and decided to forget the issue.

Sunday, June 9, 2013, Post Midnight: The comments were flooding by now and some friends even shared the post, determined to find this guy.

2:00 AM: I was contacted by a friend of mine saying he found this guy on FB. Bingo!  My friend had messaged this guy on FB asking if he had proposed someone on LinkedIn (Ouch! Wrong Move). And he told him - If that was him, he wouldn't be surprised if the rejection to his proposal lands up on his wall within few days. Now, I don't know if there was anything more in their conversation, but shortly afterwards, Mr. Now-Infamous-Nandi deleted/deactivated his FB profile. Quite simultaneously he sent me another mail on LinkedIn saying "It was mistake to add u in my friend list. Try to give value to person".

1. First and foremost it reminded me of a good old saying - "Ulta Chor Kotwal ko daatein"...Who does not have the basic values - was it me or him?
2. No one gets such 'Free ka Publicity' for such an Ill-English-Proposal. Show some gratitude Dude! :P
3. LinkedIn - as I have been repeating throughout - is a professional network. It does not have 'friend list'. If anyone thinks they are making 'friends' by adding LinkedIn connections, they are hugely mistaken. And even if you consider them 'friends', do maintain the professionalism.
4. Well, sometimes we got to tell such coward guys - "Wrong Girl this time..."

P.S. No, I haven't abused him back yet. 

The Real Beauty - A Beautiful Life...

Two days back, I was just back from a road trip across Meghalaya when I saw the mail from IndiBlogger asking 'What does real beauty mean to you?' - The Yahoo Dove Real Beauty Contest. After such a trip what instantly came to my mind is the pristine beauty of the nature that has kept me in a dazed and enchanted state even 48 hours after it was over.

But on second thoughts, I think beauty can be found in many things. Beauty can be a red rose on the snow or a baby's giggly laughter or the bond of love between a dog and its master or in the tears of a woman bidding her lover goodbye or some dried flowers on a dear one's grave or praying to a god whose existence has no certain proof or.... If I go on, I can enlist many such beauties, but I'm going to write about what my heart thinks are the real beauties in this world.

When a mother sees her baby for the first time, after waiting for months, she wants to hold her baby. She does so with her trembling hands, scared that she might hurt the baby if she is not careful. She looks at her baby and smiles, while a single drop of happy tear runs down her cheek - That is real beauty to me...

Not only the mother teaches the child about life, but also the child teaches the woman to be a 'mother'. When the toddler takes the first step or says 'maa' or 'paa' for the first time, the happiness and excitement on the parents' faces - That is real beauty to me...

The mother, in her soothing voice, tells the child bedtime stories that mostly start with 'Once upon a time' and always have happy endings or comforts the child when he or she is scared at the middle of the night from the imaginary bogeyman or the monster in the closet - That is real beauty to me...

The child grows up, passing through adolescence and experiencing hundreds of new emotions and changes. The surprise of puberty, the change of feelings for a childhood friend, the first love, the first romance or the first kiss to the person we love - That is real beauty to me...

Slowly, we enter adulthood and choose our field of study and then one day, our profession too. Whenever we achieve something, small or big, or the day we get our first salary, we can see the pride clearly visible on our parents' faces - That is real beauty to me...

Some years later, finally the day comes when we have to sacrifice everything we love to start a new life with a person who is supposedly going to be our life-partner. The bride walking down the aisle holding her father's hand, who had once taught her how to walk - That is real beauty to me...

The vows a couple takes on the alter while promising to love, comfort and honor each other as long as they both will live; or a Hindu bride taking the Saat Phere with trembling feet, apprehensive of the new life that awaits her; or the shyness of the Muslim bride as her lips tremble while she utters 'Qubul hai' - That is real beauty to me...

The happiness of an expectant mother, the glow on her face, the way she takes care of herself like she has done never before and when one day, she suddenly exclaims to her husband - "Oh! The baby just kicked!!' and the husband tries to hear his baby's heartbeats putting his ears on his wife's belly - That is real beauty to me...

Back to the beginning, when after nine gruelling months, the mother gets to see, hold, kiss and feed her new born and we can see the maternal love in her eyes as she caresses the baby... That again, is a real beauty to me...

In the end, one day her beloved leaves her. Broken-hearted, she mourns at his grave. The sadness and tears, partially seen through her black veil as she lights a candle and puts flowers on the grave, is too painfully beautiful to me... 

Real Beauty is our own Cycle of Life. I am a real beauty and so are you! We are the most beautiful creation of God and with a beautiful heart, we can turn our lives into a real beauty till it lasts.
******************************************************************************************************************************************
Click on the badge to visit the Yahoo Dove Real Beauty webpage -

If you like my post, please vote for it by visiting this link - http://www.indiblogger.in/indipost.php?post=59623 and click on the 'FB like' button provided on the page.

If you are an IndiBlogger, please help me in promoting my post.