i-Genius Young Singing Stars Season II -#YSS2 Finale

All my regular reader knows that I use to cover various events in Mumbai, apart from regular blogging. If You remember last year in December month I covered a musical show "i-Genius Young Singing Stars". Folks after the grand success of season 1, I am back with the coverage of Season 2 of  iGenius Young Singing Stars powered by MaxLife insurance one of the leading life Insurers in India & Music Label "Universal Music India".

The Grand Finale of Season 2 was held at the "Taj Vivanta Hotel" at Mumbai. The show witnessed some outstanding performance from top 10 finalists chosen by a jury including music director Salim Merchant & You tube sensation shraddha sharma., from the over one lakh entries received from across the India. The i genius programme has become a huge success and has attracted more than 2.5 lakh participants in last 2 years. The whole season ran in four phases. Started from phase 1 - Online registration, followed by a one-minute audio submission via IVR. In the next phase, Digital auditions were held in selected cities through video conferencing. In phase 3, shortlisted kids were mentored by brand ambassador's. Final phase was the grand finale. After the training from the mentor , all kids performed at finale event where two winners from the junior and senior categories Tannishtha Puri & Maithili Thakur respectively have won an opportunity to record the music album with Universal Music group.

Winners of Junior and senior categories Tannishtha Puri & Maithili Thakur 

The show witnessed official of Max life insurance & UMG. Commenting on the occasion, Devraj Sanyal, MD-UMG & EMI south Asia said,  "The amazing response to the Max Life i-genius Young Singing Stars continues in Season 2. Yet again we have seen the entries surpassing the figure of 1 lakh. What makes this season special is the quality of talent, which has surpassed that of Season 1 by miles and is unparalleled to any other singing platform that I have seen in this age group."

Finalists of  i-Genius Young Singing Stars Season II

The event also witnessed few live performances from Jury & brand ambassador Salim merchant. Over all the event has received the great enthusiasm from all kids & parents who were part of the journey of season 2. The Media & blogger enjoyed the musical night with kids from across the country.

I will be back next year with coverage of season3 . Till than keep reading & enjoy my blog.

“I am blogging to share my experience of the #YSS2 i-genius Young Singing Stars Season II in association with BlogAdda”  

My Lake City Bhopal #Madeofgreat

I was born in a small city of north India. My father was in the army, which gave me enough chance to explore  various great places, cultures & heritage across India. I have always been fascinated by the diversity in culture & number of states in our country India. Being a huge country in terms of population, this is something unique in India that we have the endless variety of regional languages, religions & cultures which keeps on changing as you move from East to West or North to South.

Recently bloggers across India have been invited by a well-established brand in India as well as globally -Tata Motors, to participate in #Madeofgreat Zonal War where each blogger has to write about his favourite city in India with respect to these key features- Drive, Design, Connect. I decided to play with my native zone- North Zone. This blog post is in context with my experience with one of the best cities of the  Northern part of India & capital of Indian state MadhyaPradesh, also known a "Lake City"- Bhopal.  So let's get started.

I moved to Bhopal after my high school for my engineering. The first time when I entered the city I saw one board on the  highway  which says "Welcome to Lake City Bhopal". Trust me, guys, you will find the small & big lakes within the various part of this city. In terms of roads & infrastructure, the city has evolved drastically. I have seen a lot of changes in  last 5-10 years. Bhopal has Indias longest BRTS(Bus Rapid Transit System), which help the citizens to move with a pace across the roads & have a high-class transport system. The kind of greenery you will find in this city is sufficient to qualify it as one of the greenest cities in India.

In terms of design, the city is well planned especially the new city called Habib ganj is well planned besides the NH 12- Hoshangbad highway. The city consists of various monuments & heritage places to visit. The famous Taj-ul-Masjid is one of the biggest mosques in Asia. The design & architecture has a strong resemblance to Badshahi mosque of  Lahore with amazing design, marble flooring & a huge hallway. There is a local saying in Bhopal" Masjid mein masjid, Taj-ul-Masjid". Everyone is allowed here to visit. 

In terms of connect, the city has next huge population of Muslims in Bhopal, next to Hyderabad. But you will not identify this fact by  looking at the people of this city. The Hindu & Muslim lives here in peace & commonly known with Demonym "Bhopali". You all must have heard of the famous character of "Surma Bhopali" from superhit Bollywood movie "Sholay". There are lots of other travel destinations for history lovers like Bhimbetka rock shelters, Manuahbhan Tekri, Bhojpur temple, Sanchi etc.

In terms of Infrastructure & development city has grown rapidly & is in the race of becoming a metro city in future. Currently, I am working in Mumbai, but I always miss my college days & the time I spent in Bhopal. I support my city & hope to see it growing by the time. Feel free to share your experience if you had visited Bhopal in recent time.

Sugar Free Sweet Potato Halva -Dessert Challenge

To live healthy, we need healthy food. Irrespective of what we eat in our life, we need to make sure we have balance in a number of calories & sugar we consume in our daily food routine. 

"Food is essential to life, therefore, Make it good". People who love to eat are always the best people. What do you think guys? We all need healthy food with a fantastic taste. As an explorer of good food, I always search for something healthy to eat. Recently I gained the lots of fat & my nutritionist suggested  me to focus on my diet. These days lots of people suffer from various issues due to improper diet, over-consumption of sugar calories resulting into diseases like Diabetes, obesity etc. 

A most common dessert which every Indian loves is "Halva", whether it is of  rava, gajar or loki. In today's post, I will share a healthy dessert recipe -Sugar-Free Sweet Potato Halva. It can be useful for sugar patients or diabetics & for those who are facing issues with sugar level or doctors have  especially restricted them from consuming more sugar in their food & drinks.

So let's get started. Before I start I will share the Mantra or Key Ingredient of the dessert is "Sugar-Free Natura" a low-calorie sugar substitute which contain zero calories sucralose made from sugar. Don't worry It will taste the same, but it will be more healthy to eat.


Dessert Recipe:  -Sugar-Free Sweet Potato Halva

Recipe Types:  Dessert, Sweets

Star of the Recipe

Cusines: Indian
Serves: 1-2
Preparation Time: 30 mins

INGREDIENTS:

Sweet Potato: 4 medium size
Sugar-Free Powder: 15-20 gm
Ghee:  2-3 Tablespoons
Cardamon Powder:1 teaspoon

FOR GARNISHING:

Almonds-               4-5
Cashews-               4-5
Black Dry Grape-  4-5

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Start with Boiling sweet potatoes with 3 to 4 cups of water in cooker. Wait till 2 Whistles.
2. Take out the sweet potatoes in warm water, peel off the skin and mash them.
3. Now take one frying pan & heat the ghee.
4. First fry the cashews & Almonds for 3 mins( don't over fry) and keep aside.
5. In the same pan, add the mashed sweet potatoes.
6. Saute well and cook for 7-8 mins.
7. Now add sugar-free natura powder & whisk properly.
8. Add cardamon powder & whisk.
9. Keep on cooking till ghee starts to leave the sides of halva. This will take approx 18-20 minutes on a low to medium flame.
10. At the end chop the dry fruit into small pieces and add to halva to garnish properly.
11. Turn  off the flame and serve hot.

Discover the Joy of Real Togetherness

We all know if someone suffers in our family, we all suffers. The only way to overcome this is Togetherness. It gives us strength & courage to handle all kind of worse situations or problems in our life.But do you think, In today's digital Era we are cultivating the habit of Real togetherness. Do we really spend time with our family and loved one's? It's hard to believe, but various surveys confirm that people are spending more time on internet & social media either on their smartphone or PC. The youth is more indulge on chatting platform rather than interacting with family & friends. Kids prefer playing videos games on Xbox rather than playing any outdoor game or other sports activity.

Those days are gone when we used to  spend our whole day with our quirky friend or siblings. Nowadays people prefer to chat on their smartphone with some lame stranger or a girl rather than interacting with the person sitting next to him. Our society is moving in the direction of a virtual world where there will be no space for real feelings & togetherness. People will prefer social media over the real society. It may be possible we will be together in the digital world & will know everything about the person in some other country, but might be missing what is happening in our neighbourhood.

In my view, it's high time to break the shackles of this virtual digital world & get down to roots of our culture of being human & start connecting to the real world, connect in person, by feeling and sharing real emotions in the real world.

Image credit: www.kissanpur.com

I believe in nature's power of creativity & we all are part of this natural ecosystem. Human beings are cutting  this ecosystem by falling into the trap of Digital world. The only thing which can now break the shackles of Digital world & save us is our own nature. We need to open our arms & embrace the nature. To discover the nature we can start with plantation, cultivating green farms full of vegetables and fruits. Bird watching, a trip to forest & activities related to Green plantation will surely bring us together in the valley of nature, where we will feel the real togetherness. We can start this journey of real togetherness with our Freinds, family & neighbours and discover the beauty of real world & wriggle out of the clutches of our smartphones & other gadgets and revive the joy of real togetherness.

Recently I saw an Initiative by Kissan "Welcome to Kissanpur". This campaign provides us an opportunity to embrace the nature by planting veggies and little tomatoes. How tiny tomato seeds grow to become juicy tomatoes, provide tips & tricks to grow tomatoes. So please register your society & invite your friends to discover the joy of real togetherness.

Evolution of #StandUpComedyinStyle

In words of an American comedian & actor Jerry Seinfeld  “There are  Four Levels of Comedy: Make your friends laugh, Make strangers laugh, Get paid to make strangers laugh and Make people talk like you because it's so much fun”.  This quote pretty much sums up what these standup comedians do to amuse our senses. The famous AIB Roast is an example of what these stand-up comedians can do in recent times. These youngsters from AIB have shown the courage to go off the beaten track to pursuit a career in stand-up  comedy. The main challenge why it’s is still in exploring phase. Standup comedy in India has never been taken seriously. Did you ever hear from anybody that I want to become a comedian? You can take a wild guess, earlier we used to have a specialist comedian in our Bollywood movies like Asrani, Johnny walker, Kadar khan, Johnny lever & lot of others. But nowadays the hero or villain himself plays a role of the comedian. This display the lack of recognition for good comedians in our industry.

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Recently to promote the Stand-Up comedy & restore it’s charisma, one of the most popular & fastest growing properties on internet- Liveinstyle.com which provides latest news on all cool things including films, music, celebrity’s party, fashion, travel, food & lots of stuff related to lifestyle has started a section on Stand-Up Comedy.

According to Liveinstyle.com, Stand-Up comedy is about finding the bravery to step up & withstand every muscle in your body screaming for you to stop what you’re doing & run. It is about facing those first few sets with nobody laughing and convincing yourself that you good enough to get on stage again.

This website serves all cool stuff on a single platter. In Stand-up comedy section, you will find everything about comedy. Ranging from Stand-up comedy videos, bio’s of popular standup comedians to exciting posts & blogs on standup comedians including lots of information on comedy across the world. This section also features one of the most popular contests on Youtube also known as a fight for the funniest " COMEDY HUNT".

This E- platform is promoting Stand-up comedy in an interesting way. It is now part of mainstream entertainment. Peoples are exploring opportunities in this form of art. You will find these standup comedians everywhere whether it’s a live event, a popular Nightclub/ Pub/Bar or product launch etc. The youth likes this new form of comedy & LIS is helping them to understand, discover & enjoy Stand-Up comedy. If you are ready to take the bold move to become a Stand-Up comedian, you can visit Liveinstyle.com to learn more about this art.

Do share your experiences on Stand-up comedy in the comment section. Keep reading & Keep laughing.

#Airtel 4G- The Fastest Network Ever

The Internet is the backbone for all those who work remotely from home or  while traveling. I have been working from home occasionally, sometimes it is short-term, but I do work for the long term as well. My main concern was always my internet connectivity while working from home. I was always looking for fantastic speed internet with reasonable price.Like me, Are you also looking for a faster internet connection.  

Recently India’s fastest growing Telecommunication & Internet service provider Airtel has launched the Airtel 4G (4^th generation network- the fastest network ever) in 296 cities in India.  It’s the first operator in India to roll out 4G services in India. The most amazing part is that all 4G services & data pack are available at your existing 3G connection, if you are a 3G user you can simply get the 4G without paying a single penny & browse the 4G internet within 3G plan. This is fantastic guys.

How to Get an Airtel 4G connection:

If you need to upgrade your existing 3G Airtel connection or get a new 4G connection.  Believe me my friends your 4G SIM is just a tweet away. You simply need to login to your twitter account & tweet with hashtag #GetAirtel4G. After that, you will get a reply from @AirtelIndia with a link where you fill up the form to get a free home delivery of 4G SIM.

You can read my post on step to step process for getting the airtel 4G SIM:

4G SIM is Tweet Away: #GetAirtel4G

What I will Do with my 4G speed Internet:

Below are the few things that I would love to do with my truly faster speed of Airtel 4G

1. Enjoy downloading my Favorite application & games in few minutes.
2. Enjoy lag-free video calls with 4G with more picture & voice clarity
3. Download latest movies in 10min
4. Download Email attachments in seconds.
5. Enjoy smoother blogging experience with 4G speed.
6. Listen & download my favorite music on the go without any hassle.
7. Watch Youtube videos without any buffering or delay.
8. Enjoy Online banking & financial transaction with secure & faster connection without worrying about failed or in completed transaction because of slow speed or network issue.
9. Enjoy my favorite TV show or cricket match without worrying about the speed or buffering. 
10. I would be using my navigation apps & maps while driving to reach my destination in a hassle free manner.
11. I would use my 4G connection for all social media activities including twitter, facebook, Whatsapp, Pinterest.
12. I would be using it for  my video conferencing & Lync call while working from home.
13. I would be sharing my internet with my family & friends without worrying about lowered speed or bandwidth.
14. I would be using my 4G for uploading or downloading from my Onedrive.
    
    
    This list has no end. So if you want to enjoy all of the above at your fingertip. Get you 4G connection from Airtel.
    Do share in the comment section what you will be doing with your 4G connection.

Del Monte Spirali Green Pasta Salad with French Bean

As a working Professional & a bachelor, I have been cooking from a long time now. I always prefer instant cooking, which seems to be obvious looking at the time I have apart from the office hours. 

It's always difficult to get up & prepare breakfast before leaving to the work or while returning from the office, after a whole day of chaos &  hard work, I always look for something energetic to eat which take less time to cook. Salads are my all time favorite. If you are looking for a healthy meal and instant breakfast. You can prefer my own recipe of  Pasta salad with lots of nutritious green vegetable beans. Do give a try if you love Pastas, Here I am with my  Del Monte  pasta  recipe :

                       

                          Ingredients:                                

Del Monte Spirali Pasta  150 gms

French Beans

Wall beans

Spring Onion (40 gm)

Olive oil

Garlic 4 pcs

Ginger (10 gms)

Roasted Peanuts (30 gms)

Jeera ( 1 tsp)

Carrom Seeds(Ajwain -1 tsp) -Secret of dish

Time to cook : 15 mins

Serves 1-2 

Method (Step to Step preparation)

1. First of all take Del Monte pasta in a pan and add some water & salt. Then boil lightly to gain little tenderness for 10-15 mins.
2. While you wait, in between chop the vegetables , you can trim the green beans by removing the stems on each end & slice them into half pieces
3. Once your pasta is boiled, drain the water from it & add some oil so that pasta doesn't stick  to each other & leave it aside.
4. Take another pan, add 3 big spoons of olive oil & let it heat, after that add ajwain garlic & ginger fry till it become  pink.
5. Then add jeera and green chilly after 30 sec add all beans and stir fry them.
6. When you found all veggies are perfectly stir-fried, add salt to taste, pasta and peanuts mix all of them and let it cook for 2mins.
7. Finally add spring onion on top and turn the heat off.
8. For garnishing, decorate with same cucumber, green chilly & spring onion.
9. You can also add a splash of lemon juice for twisting the taste.

Your  Del Monte  Spirali  Green Pasta  Salad with French Bean is ready to eat.

  

Enjoy healthy & delicious vegetables with pasta salad.

4G SIM is a Tweet Away: #GetAirtel4G

We all have heard this new whole exhilaration about next generation 4G network.  Some people still wonder what difference could a 4G connection will make to their daily life. Actually this 4G technology allows Internet browsing on LTE-enabled devices at faster speeds than 3G or 2G networks. Some people still wonder how to get this technology.   Do you really know it has already entered the Indian market with Airtel launching its 4G services commercially across India in more than 294 cities.

I have been using 3G network from last few years, but still I am struggling in terms of speed when it comes to Video conferencing or  using a heavyweight application. Sometimes I have to work from home & attend Skype/Lync meetings from home itself.  I didn’t have an occasion where I hadn’t lost the connectivity. It gets very humiliating sometimes in front of the client when  I get disconnected from the meeting while presenting something.

I can say that 4G is a solution to all of my problems, But there is a challenge to existing customers how to get the 4G connection. Do we need to take a new connection? How to get the 3G sim replaced? What will be the new charges? But hold on guys I have got the solution to your problems. If I say that your 4G sim is just a tweet away.

You will think that I am joking. But trust folks this is now possible in India with Airtel sim-swap services available on twitter. In which Airtel offers a  unique 4G SIM delivery service, wherein any Airtel user with a 4G handset can tweet using  #GetAirtel4G to get a 4G SIM delivered to their home for free. Post your tweet you get a reply from @AirtelIndia handle directing you  to a link where a user needs to enter his details for SIM delivery. Exciting Isn't  it, Just open your twitter account & get your 3G sim swapped with a 4G Sim.

Also, The best thing is that you will get faster speeds at the rate of 3G packs.  So no need to worry about high tariffs  & data charges.So you might have used Airtel Broadband, 3G or a data card. But this 4G connection has no comparison in terms of  speed & connectivity. So get ready guys, your one tweet can get you the most powerfull internet speed available in India.

PS :This is a sponsored post , but views are mine. I have been using airtel postpaid from past 5 years.

ITIL Basic Concepts - What is ITIL?​

I have been working in IT Service management industry from last 6 years as a Consultant. In this post today I would like to introduce some basic concept of  widely used ITIL framework for service management in IT industry. The main idea behind this post is to give all new freshers who are interested in service management industry & looking from where to start. This can be your starting  point.

ITIL : The Information Technology Infrastructure Library(ITIL) is a set of best practises for IT service management(ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of the  business.

• ITIL is most widely accepted approach to IT service management in the world.
• ITIL provides a cohesive set of best practices, drawn from the public and private sectors internationally.

Are you planning to take your first step to a successful & rewarding career in IT Service management industry, with an ITIL Foundation Certification, where you will join millions of successful ITSM consultants who are already enjoying the benefits of an ITIL Qualification.

Photo Credit: Axelos.com

ITIL LifeCycle Overview :

ITIL Modules & Process:

ITIL Interactions & Relationship:

All above infographics are used by me in various workshop & training, I have conducted during my tenure as ITSM Professional. 

So Stay tuned for my next post on ITIL Process management.

Stay Fit, Feel Young - FITNESS TIPS

Sound Mind in a sound body is what we all are hearing since our childhood, But what is the formula for being fit and healthy. Especially for working professionals, they rarely get any time for exercise or gym to maintain the natural fitness. Some of the office going professionals are either overweight or moderate obese. The next phase will be obesity which is main cause of various diseases like diabetes, heart-related diseases etc. We need to identify the correct method to maintain our body fitness by following a healthy eating & diet. This combo can do wonders in terms of fitness. Some people think that crash diet can do miracles over the night, eventually which is  not the truth. An individual should have a healthy diet for a perfectly toned body and fitness.

What we can do to Stay Fit:

People usually ask what is the best approach to stay fit. Some people get tired of putting efforts in gym and not getting results. Instead of constant hard work & determination they are unable to reach goals. Some people prefer professional advice in the form of a personal trainer or joining a health club. but if you chooses to do it alone, I am here with some INSIGHTFUL TIPS & STRATEGIES

• Healthy Eating & Diet: Key to a perfect body is healthy diet & food. By following a balanced diet one can easily achieve it's goal. but remember the difference between it & a crash diet which can result into a nutritional compromise for an individual.

• 5 Mins Health & fitness Workout: 5 minutes fitness regime can create miracles for your fitness.If you take 5 mins out of your busy schedule for these exercises at any time, it will help you to stay fit. Stationary Jogging, Skipping, Climbing stairs, dancing, Sit ups are few of the easiest workout for instant energy within few minutes.

• Cardio- Vascular Exercise: This is a compulsory format for better body toning & increased cardio- vascular strength. Crunches & Sit-ups are the best way for cardio at home & give the similar effect of half an hour of running.

• Muscle Building: Those who are overweight can initially skip this part, but those who want to increase their weight can do muscle building by increasing their calorie intake & taking extra proteins.

Dabur Honey

• Honey Diet : Following a honey diet can be jackpot for your health & fitness. As peoples are switching to healthier lifestyle it's evident that honey is helpful in staying fit & look great. It helps in weight management, cough & cold, digestion & act as vitalizer for beautiful skin. I have been using Dabur honey from quite a long time now.

At the end, I will suggest my readers to keep yourself away from Carb factor and learn to control your Carbohydrate intake as it's the main cause for body fat. Try to burn fat more & more, if you are overweight or obese. It will help you to gain the regular fitness. It's a big challenge we all know, but worth taking for our fitness & life.

So keep reading and Stay Fit & Feel Young

For expert Advice on Fitness  or 3 Step diet planner please click here

‘Khuljaye Bachpan’- MY STORY

In this world we all look for love care and guidance. Everyone  need at least one or all of these at certain point of their life. But the most obvious source of love, care and guidance is our parents.

All parents gives values to their children and they inculcate them and forward them to new generation. But the key factor in this process or you can say the mantra behind a successful parenting is quite complex. Almost 50% to 60% parents think parenting as instructive job, where they need to give orders and instruction to their kid which he/she has to follow, but it is believed that buddy parents view it as a more interacting way of guiding or teaching kids without getting authoritative.

Recently India's popular cornflake brand Kellogg's Chocos has articulated this whole concept of buddy parenting as a campaign called "Khuljaye Bachpan".This campaign promote and help in creating "Khushi Ke Pal" between parent and child. It supports empowerment of children's by allowing them to be completely honest with their parents simultaneously bringing healthy bonding which consist of fun, love and learning.

I got an opportunity to participate in this campaign. In which bloggers have been asked to share their "Khushi Ke Pal" . I was excited to be pat of it. To start with my Khushi Ke Pal , let me tell you something about my family. I belong to a semi-modern family. My father is an Ex-army personal and my mom is a housewife. I remember one incident of my childhood memories, I used to be so invasive and always get indulged to atrocious stuff. One day I had a fight with my classmate who's father was also in the same battalion of army in which my father was posted. My teacher asked me to bring my parents for a meeting next day. I was so feared. I didn't showed my notebook to dad. After one week on a Sunday morning my father asked me if I can join him for his morning routine training at his army ground. I hesitated, then I agreed to join him. We reached the army ground , It was a huge ground with full of training stuff. All military personnel were in a same uniform and they were doing march past in a disciplined manner. I asked my dad, why everyone is wearing a same uniform. He said , son this uniform is the symbol of integrity and it brings unity and discipline within peoples. After some I saw my classmate coming with his dad. I was so clueless what is happening. His father and my dad shaken hand and smiled at each other. Now my dad looked at me with a direct instruction which I understood immediately. He was asking to me to greet and shake hand with my classmate. Later he told me that I had already met your class teacher last week. I was feeling so bad about my lie, and I was about to cry, as my dad was now aware of all my mischievous activities at school. I was so frightened. That day my dad had told me that you need not to lie about anything with your parent's. Also you need not to fight with your friends and classmate's. You need to learn from these all "Fauzi uncle". How they work together , learn together and then they fight together for our country. They fight for the pride of our country. You will only fight for the same. This whole incident inculcated the feeling of uniformity, integrity and discipline inside that naughty kid who thought hiding the truth will save him from punishment."

This is my story on "Khuljaye Bachpan" . After that day I had never lied to my parents and that precious day brought happiness & pride in my life.