Life seems so Much Lodgykal!

While the world was busy with the talks of #MaggiBan, #DelhiMinisters, #FallingSensex, I was having a tiring May in Office this year and thanks to the sleepless nights (or if I put it better, ‘nights with less sleep’), I am planning to go on a vacation.

The traveler in me has been on a hibernation mode, since last time I had a break-from-work vacation was in December 2013 in the north-eastern parts of the country. Travelling is always fun when the things that make you happy are with you. First and foremost thing for me while planning for a vacation is getting the plans of our gang of friends. 

Gang of Friends

No vacation is good unless you have the crazy friends by your side. It generally gets difficult to get the plans of 4 friends, working in different companies, in sync but as they say where there’s a will, there’s a way. 

Simar 'the Photographer'

Also, the photographer Simar refuses to take a backseat whenever I am on vacation mode. I often prefer spending time in the lap of nature and no wonder, photography comes naturally in the natural atmosphere. So, a DSLR camera to capture the cherishable moments is a must in my luggage bag.

Further, whenever into a long vacation, I need to have my laptop with me, and no, not for any official reasons, but since I need it to vacate the space in DSLR’s memory card and to share the pictures.

As opposed to my friends, I am an early riser and hence, a pair of running/ jogging shoes is what I require to go for jog in the morning. I like talking to the nature and morning is the best time for the conversation.  

Staple Food on Vacation - Maggi

Whenever going on any trip, one thing Punjabis can never forget about is the food for the journey. Whether it is a 2-3 hours journey or it is a day long road trip, we carry loads of matthi achaar, namkeen, fruits etc. Whatever be the apetite of the fellow travelers, he food we carry always wins the competition on what lasts longer. Earlier, our staple food, Maggi used to top the charts for the journey food, but thanks to the Ban now, you are bound to miss it.

All this makes my vacation packing complete and one thing I figure out now is that my luggage is heavy to the core now. However, one more thing that is certainly true in majority of cases is that while we love planning and packing, we really hate to pick our heavy bags in the excitement of the enjoying the place. But while I was searching for a nice getaway to spend some leisure time, I came across Renault Lodgy, a perfect fit into my travel plans. 

It has a comfortable 7-8 seat configuration which perfectly suits our gang of four. Further, since every seat seems to offer similar comfort and legspace, we won’t have to fight within ourselves for our preferable seats. An open storage above the glove box and conveniently placed cup holders and flight trays take care of enabling us to enjoy our journey food. It also offers me a 12V charging socket in all the rows and am never away from twitter and FB owing to low battery.

And to top it up, it has a mediaNAV console with chrome surround which allows me to play my fav songs from the USB drive all the way. The journey never gets dull, even when you are waiting in a queue on a Toll plaza. 

So, before my vacation plan finalizes, my partner in the vacation seems already finalized. And with so many features to flaunt with, life seems so much Lodgykal with Renault Lodgy.

I’m participating in the #LiveLodgycal contest with Renault in association with BlogAdda to get a chance to be a part of the #LiveLodgycal Drive in Goa.

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Wildlife Never Seemed So Close

Book Review of ‘Capturing Wildlife Moments in India’ by Ashok Mahindra

Publisher – Oxford University Press(OUP) & Bombay Natural History Society(BNHS)

Genre – Adventure

One sentence for the book

Wildlife seems too close with some awesome photography in the book.  

About the Author

A Chartered Accountant by qualification, Ashok Mahindra retired in 2008 after a career spanning nearly 40 years. As a former Treasurer and Vice-President of WWF India, he got aware of the need for the preservation of wildlife in India which eventually led him to becoming a wildlife photographer. He has travelled widely in India to numerous national parks and sanctuaries in the pursuit of his hobby. Enriched with his vast experience of being so close to the wildlife, here is his first coffee table photo book.

Book Cover

Book cover has been designed quite interestingly showing Royal Bengal Tiger in his complete royalty having some relaxing time in the pond at Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan. With a great shot captured in the cover, the book gets you curious about what more it has in store for you.

About the Book

A small book of 85 pages with some 100+ pictures showcases the wildlife diversity in India. The book highlights the rich range of wildlife and its habitats in India. The book also indicates the continuing threat to wildlife in India and sets out how it could be more effectively preserved. The book lists the National Parks and Sanctuaries visited (over 30), the Wildlife Hotspots and interesting places to stay. However, besides giving a small intro about the wildlife specie in the different photographs, the book certainly makes you excited enough to have a more closer look at the wildlife in the country.

Sh. Ashok Mahindra states at one place:

"The power of photography to provide a platform to document threatened landscapes and species cannot be underestimated. At present,the entire ecological system is being seriously threatened. My endeavour as a photographer is to encourage people to care for all threatened species - from the smallest insects to the biggest cats - before it is too late." This one of a kind book bringing you more close to the nature will certainly interest you.

Thumbs Up

The photographs used in the book seem to have been shot with so much sincerity that the images seem so real. While I had visited Ranthmabhore National park in February this year, I have already got excited to get closer to the nature once more, this time, the destination might be the home of the Asiatic Lion, Gir National Park in Gujarat.

Thumbs Down

The photographs give you so much excitement and a sense of adventure just from the still images that once you close the book, it will certainly make you craving for an adventure visit sooner. Otherwise, the only thing I felt was that for an adventure enthusiast, the book might be exciting but the same may not be of interest for all kinds of readers.

Rating

4.5/5

A half point deducted only for the fact that the book is priced little bit aggressively. A lighter book would have helped a little as well.

This post is a part of the book review program of at Saevus Wildlife India in association with The Hemchand Mahindra Foundation for the book Capturing Wildlife Moments in IndiaBook Review of ‘Capturing Wildlife Moments in India’ by Ashok Mahindra

Publisher – Oxford University Press(OUP) & Bombay Natural History Society(BNHS)

Genre – Adventure

One sentence for the book

Wildlife seems too close with some awesome photography in the book.  

About the Author

A Chartered Accountant by qualification, Ashok Mahindra retired in 2008 after a career spanning nearly 40 years. As a former Treasurer and Vice-President of WWF India, he got aware of the need for the preservation of wildlife in India which eventually led him to becoming a wildlife photographer. He has travelled widely in India to numerous national parks and sanctuaries in the pursuit of his hobby. Enriched with his vast experience of being so close to the wildlife, here is his first coffee table photo book.

Book Cover

Book cover has been designed quite interestingly showing Royal Bengal Tiger in his complete royalty having some relaxing time in the pond at Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan. With a great shot captured in the cover, the book gets you curious about what more it has in store for you.

About the Book

A small book of 85 pages with some 100+ pictures showcases the wildlife diversity in India. The book highlights the rich range of wildlife and its habitats in India. The book also indicates the continuing threat to wildlife in India and sets out how it could be more effectively preserved. The book lists the National Parks and Sanctuaries visited (over 30), the Wildlife Hotspots and interesting places to stay. However, besides giving a small intro about the wildlife specie in the different photographs, the book certainly makes you excited enough to have a more closer look at the wildlife in the country.

Sh. Ashok Mahindra states at one place:

"The power of photography to provide a platform to document threatened landscapes and species cannot be underestimated. At present,the entire ecological system is being seriously threatened. My endeavour as a photographer is to encourage people to care for all threatened species - from the smallest insects to the biggest cats - before it is too late." This one of a kind book bringing you more close to the nature will certainly interest you.

Thumbs Up

The photographs used in the book seem to have been shot with so much sincerity that the images seem so real. While I had visited Ranthmabhore National park in February this year, I have already got excited to get closer to the nature once more, this time, the destination might be the home of the Asiatic Lion, Gir National Park in Gujarat.

Thumbs Down

The photographs give you so much excitement and a sense of adventure just from the still images that once you close the book, it will certainly make you craving for an adventure visit sooner. Otherwise, the only thing I felt was that for an adventure enthusiast, the book might be exciting but the same may not be of interest for all kinds of readers.

Rating

4.5/5

A half point deducted only for the fact that the book is priced little bit aggressively. A lighter book by weight and on the pocket would have helped a little as well.

This post is a part of the book review program of at Saevus Wildlife India in association with The Hemchand Mahindra Foundation for the book Capturing Wildlife Moments in India

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Be Happy Singh!

We live in a world today which waits for Valentine’s Day to express our love for our beloved and Mother’s Day to extend our affection towards our mother. We are generally always on a lookout for ‘false’ reasons which denote happiness. We keep running after the worldly pleasures considering they are the sole means to the eternal happiness. But the truth remains that even in a 100-room villa, one needs just a single bedroom to sleep. The true happiness comes from enjoying each and every moment you live on this planet. One must do what he likes, or start liking whatever he is doing.

Here are my simple fundas to be Happy Singh:

Stop Thinking what Others Think of You

Thinking what others might think of any of our actions is simply getting into somebody else’s shoes. If we even think about what others think of us, then what job do we leave for others to do. As a hindi quote goes, “Duniya ka sabse bada rog, kya kahenge log!”, get free from this highly infectious disease about what people think about you.

One should do things not to please others but to please the inner self. It’s certainly fine to be stupid, childish at moments.

Smile

Laughing Budha brings Luck, Smiling Sardar spreads Smiles!

When feeling stressed out or when your mood is low, just SMILE, yes smile, because the brain often gets fooled and ends in making one HAPPY. Smile is a simple curve that gets many thing straight. You might not notice how the life is happy and cheerful, when you are smiling, simply because you spread an aroma of positivity and optimism to your surrounding environment, and that is what majority of the world needs these days being stressed out between striking a good balance between personal and professional lives.

Practice a Hobby

Don't Move, else I will Shoot You!

An empty mind is said to be devil’s workshop. A vacant mind houses all the evil actions. Its good to keep the mind occupied in something one can feel happy about. So, here’s how your hobby can be a tenant in your empty mind. Do something that makes one feel good. It may not always earn you more money, but will render a sense of fulfillment and achievement. For me, it’s either photography or writing my blog. Life gives you many reasons to smile, writing my blog gives me one more. :)

Expect Less

Being a finance professional, I tend to convert the routines into mathematical expressions and here is the simplest formula to be happy in life. Happiness from any event is just the difference between the actual outcome of the event and our expectations before the outcome happened.

Happiness = Actual Outcome – Expectations

So, in order to increase our happiness quotient, either the outcome should be higher than usual or what we expect from the event should be the minimum. While generally the outcome is dependent on several other factors than just our actions, what we can do is keeping our expectations low. If we can minimize our expectations, even the minutest thing occurring in our life will make us happy. Further, by practicing to keep our expectations low, we tend to relieve pressure from others as well, which makes them happy and that will make you happier as well.

However, there are always some exceptions to the general rule. Once you have checked out Ivy Estate by Kolte Developers Private Limited in the video for which I am also sharing the link below, it is tough to keep the expectations low but the video also assures me of a great outcome, certainly one more reason to be happy. :)

#CelebrateLifeAtIvy by owning a dream home at Ivy estate, an 85 acre estate with 34 acres of greenery and open spaces. Join the 1600 happy families already living here. Check out this walkthrough video and decide for yourself.

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A Sneak Peak into Mythology - ‘Ramayana - The Game of Life : The Shattered Dreams’

Book Review of ‘Ramayana - The Game of Life : The Shattered Dreams’

Author : Shubha Vilas

Publisher – Jaico Publishing House

Genre – History/ Mythology

One sentence for the book

The author tries to narrate and portray the Ayodhaya scene and beyond revolving around Rama’s exile, and moves on to connect the centuries-old tales to the modern day relationships.

About the Author

Shubha Vilas, a spiritual seeker and a motivational speaker, holds a degree in engineering and law with specialization in Patent Law. His leadership seminars are popular with top-level management in corporate houses. He also helps individuals deal with modern-life situations by applying the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana and other dharmic traditions.

Author’s Writing Style

I have not read Shubha Vilas earlier, but this book’s narratives were not what I will really forward for in my next book.

The Title and Book Cover

The book cover is eye catching and shows Rama sleeping with a troubled yet so soothing expression. The chariot with Dashratha is shown in the background, but with a donkey in place of horse driving the chariot. Based on the historical facts, one can indeed guess what it can expect out of the story.

The title indeed is interesting and already being aware of the Ramayana story, it surely helped me connect with the book even before I read it.

About the Book

This one is the sequel to the national bestseller, Rise of the Sun Prince, in the new spiritual and motivational series - Ramayana - The Game of Life. Even though I have not read Part 1, yet I was able to catch on with the sequel and there were hardly any missing gaps. The story captured in this part is the time after Rama’s marriage with Sita, Dashratha’s tough decision to send Rama on exile and the time thereafter. However, a particular thing which I really liked about the book was the way Keikeyi and Bharatha have been portrayed. Keikeyi is often considered to be the bad queen but Rama has been portrayed to be the loved one for her as well apart from for the whole kingdom.

The way practicalities of life have been threaded along with the story of Ramayana is what stands out to be the best part of the book. There is lot to learn in the book, provided you are ready to willing to.

Thumbs Up

While the history is very much known to us, what I really liked about the book was the words of wisdom in the footnotes. It really changes the way you approach the book being read. The reader not just ‘reads’, but learns through the book.

Thumbs Down

Book has portrayed the mythological characters at some place in a drastically different manner in how we perceive the main characters of Rama and Laxman. Rama is portrayed to be content and enjoying the exile while Laxman gets portrayed as someone with no regard from Rama and Sita. One who does not know Ramayana history out of this book will have a completely different perception of the Ramayana.

Rating

3.5/5

History, being a subject of the past, does not leave much scope for creativity for the author, still linking it up with modern day lives was what kept me hooked up but at times, it got me into the ‘bored’ mode.

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books.

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An Experiment can Change your Life!

Life gives you many reasons to smile, writing my blog post gives me one more. :)

Sometimes in life, we feel like experimenting with ourselves. I too got this thought once around 10 years back. And that’s when I ventured to fill an application for a National Level science show 'Hum Honge Kamyaab'. Though this might not sound an experiment at first instance, it definitely was, for me who was pursuing Commerce stream. I got called up by my principal who asked me to attempt to clear the prelims for the national level science competition. It had already been a year for me in Commerce and I was surprised why I was being asked to go for the competition when the bright lot in Science stream was also available. However, notwithstanding my initial reluctance, I along with one of my friends in Medical stream, filled up the form. However, once the form was sent, we both really forgot about it.

However, after exactly a month of sending, in the first of March, 2005, I received a call from the organisers that me and my friends’ name had been shortlisted among 200 students across the country and we were now to appear in a written test which will enable the organisers to select the 36 students who will finally compete in the national completion. We both accompanied by his grandfather went to New Delhi to appear for the test. It was an exciting journey for me, as the sense of thrill was biting me. What if I get selected? How will I even make my participation felt, considering I was from non-science stream. Still, there was something within which kept me pushing.

A week after the test, it was a moment of happiness when I received a call from New Delhi informing me that I was one among 36 students selected across the country. But yes, I was told to bring a team mate with me to participate in the competition which will happen in a week long camp in New Delhi. I approached my friend from Medical stream which expressed his inability to come with me, since he would have to sacrifice his classes for that duration. I was in a fix now since I had to go with a team mate and I was required to intimate the organisers at the earliest. And then one of my seniors came across my mind. I conveyed him the idea and yippee, he agreed to accompany me. The best thing about this was that he also had his Commerce stream and we were now a team of Commerce students in a national level Science competition.

It was a week long camp and our team was there in New Delhi with my elder brother as our team’s guardian. As we reached the camp, we also got to know that the competition will be shot with one celebrity anchor and would later be telecast on DD National Channel. So, we were going to get on the ‘idiot box’. We were handed out the scheme of events and honestly speaking, those eight days were amongst the best days I had. We were given the task of creating a keyless door and when the judgement was going on for our model, one of the judges also made a remark that we were close enough to the victory. However, after knowing that our team was a purely Commerce team, he was surprised that how could we manage to come so far. And yes, that simple expression has made me believe that anything is possible with sheer determination and belief in self.

Gaurav Gera, our anchor for the Show

The day of our Shoot

This one experiment surely did change my attitude towards life, and I started believing more in myself. The interaction that happened in the camp with other students, the organizing team and the team behind the production of the show was really something that has brought a drastic change in me. My school friends who left the school in 10^th also tell me the same that the ‘Simardeep’ we know was a quiet studious guy and the one who we see now is a different one altogether.

The day I am writing this post marks exactly 10 years of the day I got back from the camp. But with pride I say, I am still in touch with most of the friends I made there.

This experiment filled me with optimism and taught me to always look up. Housing.com’s latest ad campaign reminds me of the all those glorious days since it always wants me to look up and look optimistic.

Let’s Look Up Together with Housing.com.

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A Day when we Re-United!!

We realize the importance of the school life, generally only after we have passed out of that phase. It is the time when we generally do lots of stupid stuff and still have no regrets about it.

It has now been 8 years since we left that phase and entered the college life. We school friends were not that much in touch for almost 4-5 years and then thanks to Facebook and Facebook, we were back in touch. Finally, we thought to plan a day to School at a time when 20+ friends were back in Amritsar, while generally they were dispersed in different cities. So, after lots of WhatApp group chat, we got our plans right and finalized a day. We were so very excited about meeting the old friends and also meeting our guides/ teachers. And the day arrived but the weather God was not with us that day. It was raining like there was no tomorrow. Still, we decided to go ahead with our plan since the next time we would be together, it would be another year. One of my friends picked me up from home and it was lots of chit-chaat still being in car and enjoying the weather outside.

When we reached School, the friends gang was already waiting for us at the gates to enter together. As we were entering the lane, a nostalgic feeling started getting over me. We were all just talking about how much we wanted to get out of these lanes each day in school and now we were so excited to enter those lanes. The rain had got transformed into a drizzle now.

As we entered into the School, since it was still some time for the final bell of the school to ring, we thought it better to first meet our teachers and then hang out in the empty classrooms and remember those lovely days. It was a great experience when few teachers still recognized us, few could recognize with little hints and the rest of which who could not recognize were the ones who joined the school later than we left. We also noticed that the school had recognized our contributions and there were life-size photos of each batch since we had left. It felt great seeing that picture. We felt quite proud within ourselves when a couple of our teachers introduced us to the ongoing class as the ‘honhaar bache’ who are now settled into their lives.

But the real time for us began when we lived that life again after the school time had got over, as the classrooms were all for us now. We sat on the wooden benches, chatted about how our lives have changed, used the blackboards to write our heart out and lot many other things. And yes, not to forget the times we used to really desire all the days during school, the sports period, we relived that as well. We played basketball, volleyball amidst the drizzle and it was great fun. The day brought back so many loving memories for me and I really wish we do have another re-union at School. Leaving you with a couple of pictures of the day for you.

Sitting on Wooden Benches was Fun!

A Groupie with Teachers

Sprawling Sports Ground in a Lovely Rainy Weather

Yaar Anmulle - Re-United Friends

That day definitely made me more closer to the glorious days of my life, my school life. But not forgetting about the past time, we should always look up to our high ambitions and make our guides and teachers more proud of us.

Let’s Look Up Together with Housing.com.

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Eliminating Classroom Hunger

Blogger in me loves doing different things, loves experimenting with different topics and what better do you want than knowing that a blog post will make a difference to someone. That’s exactly what it would.

From little Satish who throws the newspaper to my balcony to the tiny chhotu who serves me hot tea in office, we all come across a number of little kids who cannot go to school, just because they need to work to earn a bread for themselves and their families. That is what you call ‘classroom hunger’, a typical scenario we often notice in our daily lives but still choose to ignore, probably since it is not within our own lives. With God’s grace, we have been lucky enough to have an availability of basic facilities in our lives.

While I write these lines, I would like to share with you an incident which made me ponder over the topic I am discussing with you. A couple of years back, I was in Mumbai with 2 of my friends. We were enjoying the serene atmosphere and having fun at the Marine Drive. It would be around 9.45-10 when three kids came to us and started selling some children books. While the books seemed of no interest, we still got involved in asking rates of various books just to pass time. But at one moment, while one of the kids was telling us the rate of Nursery rhyme book, the other chhotu started singing those nursery rhyme. This indeed touched us, since they were selling those books to collect some money to get into a mid-day school itself so that they could learn. They told that they learned whatever their customers taught them through their own books and they were very eager to learn more. But they could not since they have a family to support and they are the ones who are feeding them. Their dedication to education was what inspired us to purchase few books from them, just because we wanted to help them but they refused to have anything in charity. Another thing that touched us was that while they seemed so helpless to us since they could not even learn, they had learned the art of being happy. I also clicked a pic of them to inspire me to be happy unconditionally.

Lets Learn to be Unconditionally Happy!

However. this incident also brings me face-to-face with a reality that many kids suffer from ‘classroom hunger’ and there is a great need to eliminate this classroom hunger. Children in poor families are often made to work to act as a helping hand to the main bread-earning member of the family. Lesser do they realize that educating the children will sow more sweet fruits in the future.  These days, a new serial is also featuring on Colors TV titled ‘Udaan’ which also highlights the need of education to the poverty-ridden families and shows the transformation in the life of a village girl and her family after she is exposed to formal education system. So, the need of the hour is spreading awareness about the importance of education and discouraging the child labour practices in the country.

So, lets eliminate classroom hunger and instead let’s join hands to see in them ‘hunger to learn’. Proud to be associated with Bloggers’ Social Responsibility Initiative.

I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda.

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Lucky 6 – Its not all about Being Lucky

www.fatcatgaming.com has come up with an innovative gaming app called Lucky 6. The app has not yet been launched commercially or over Google Play Store. However, I got an exclusive chance to preview the app before it goes live and well, I was pretty much impressed with the concept of the game.

As the name goes, Lucky 6, its about choosing 6 brands for a day. Was it too short? Let's go a bit in detail. The game is basically a simplified version of a virtual stock market game. All a player has to do is choose six brands from a big list of brands. The brands are listed not only from Indian markets but several other markets as well. Hence, one can also invest in US and other international brands. Further, the difference between a virtual stock market game and Lucky 6 is that in this game, the player does not have to perform complicated calculations to construct a portfolio of stocks. The value of stocks/ brands does not matter in this game and only thing that matters is the performance of the brand on that day in real stock markets.

If the bands/ stocks chosen for the day perform the best, the player wins. Prizes also range from cash to luxury holidays which are surely catchy enough to put our mind and brain into choosing our 6 brands. The name 'Lucky 6' might indicate to you that it is just about choosing a random 6 brands and then waiting if they emerge as the winning bets. But the game is surely more about that, you need to calculate and anticipate which stocks will be the best performing on that particular day and then you select the brands.

The app has also impressed me with the ease and convenience of using the app and moving from one option to the other. The registration process is a simple one page form. Once the user is activated through the link, the user can simply move on to select his 6 brands for the next day's game. A timer in the app shows the countdown to the start of the next round. And if you are facing a dilemma of choices between different brands, the app has a solution for that as well. A user can select three different sets of brands as his three entries for the day.

Further, unlike other referral scheme, where the referrer gets a one-time referral bonus, this game has a unique referral reward scheme wherein if my referred player strikes the jackpot, the referrer also gets 25% of it.

As I am writing this blog post, I am already playing my first round of the game. Fingers Crossed for the results. 

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