Power of Being #together with Family

I think the togetherness is very important ingredient of our life. In one of my recent post, I mentioned about the power of optimism and its importance in our life. It's always difficult to be optimistic all day, everyday and sometimes we need a little motivation, strength and a spirit of togetherness to get back on track. Togetherness brings happiness in our life, whether it comes from the family, best friends or our love. It brings positive thoughts within us to cheer a joyful life with lots of fun, emotion, caring & sharing.

Since my childhood, I always preferred to be with my family, my mother, father, brothers & sisters. We all love to live with our parents, but it's not always possible. We need to move out, to explore the world & learn new lessons in life. Similarly, I left my family & home for further studies after my schooling. It was the first time I was leaving my home, my family, after getting admission in engineering college, I decided to stay in the college hostel for accommodation as it was safe and was within the university campus. I still remember the first night in my hostel room away from family, I was very depressed & feeling alone. That one night made me realized the importance of being with your family & togetherness. Later first semester started, I got busy with studies, exams, daily tests, but somewhere inside I was waiting for the semester end, so that I can get back to my native town, spent lots of time with family and parents. I had already booked the tickets in advance. I was counting each day, after finishing my semester exams. I packed my bag & rushed to the railway station. While travelling I was thinking about the happy faces of my parents, when they will see me after such a long period. As it was difficult for me to live away from them, I understood, It was also not so simple for them. The next day I reached home, & I hugged my mom, she started crying & my eyes were also full of tears. I saw the happiness on fathers face, her eyes were full of joy & excitement. My brother embraced me too & told me that how much he was missing me. We spent the whole day talking about my college life, my studies & my life away from home. I was relaxed, I was calm, I was feeling the power of togetherness. It proved the fact that, family makes us strong & is one of the best gifts of god. That day I decided, no matter what, I will always stay together with my family & cherish the gift of togetherness with my loved ones.

I would mention a quote, which I have read recently somewhere in social media " Love, family, togetherness, making happy memories are the most important things to make a top priority in life".

The power in togetherness,  gives us the strength and motivation we needed to go on with optimism & lookup.

This post is inspired from Housing.com, for peoples who believe in the power of optimism & togetherness.

Start A New Life - My Story

It's amazing how life changes quickly by the time. In past few years, I have undergone various changes in my life. Certainly all changes have some sort of impact good or bad on our life. But we all know some changes create key milestones in our life journey. As we grow, we realize  how life changes and we learn how to be more open and adaptive to what is around us.

Let me share the story of a key change in my  life which gave me an opportunity to start a new life.

I moved to the capital of my state to study after my schooling with eyes full of dreams to become a software engineer. This sudden change of  leaving home & family brought lots of changes in my life. I was  not happy about the fact that I have to live away from my family. But destiny had decided something else for me. After four years of engineering in computer science, I was so unlucky that my graduation year was the peak of a recession in the IT sector. The complete market was down there were no jobs in IT, MNC's stopped campus recruitment at various engineering institute due to lack of new projects in the market. Even if they were conducting campus placements, it was open & competition was so high that they were selecting only 50-100 students out of 2000-3000 engineering graduates. I finished my engineering with 7.5 CGPA out of 10, still without any job offers in hand. I was feeling so low, during that phase of my life. I was not certain where life will take me, what twists & turn will happen. some well wishers suggested, to go for public sector & bank jobs. 
Lack of opportunities in IT pushed me to give a try for bank & PSU jobs. I started applying for entrances & banking jobs. One day I got an interview letter from BEL( A public sector unit under Indian government). It was scheduled in Mumbai head office. Next day I planned everything for my visit to Mumbai & decided to stay at one of the relatives in Mumbai. I left my city in the hope of a bright future. The judgment day arrived, I had given the technical round & cleared it. They had asked me to wait for another personal interview round. after 3 hours of  wait, I had given the next round. After that HR told me to leave for the day, saying that they will announce the result after 2 days & will give a confirmation call if selected. I was confident about my selection as interview went well. Two days went no call, no mail I was shocked & started to loose the hope again. While I was sad & gloomy, I got an interview call from HR of one of the top MNC in world for the post of an Associate software engineer. I agreed to attend the walk-In & somewhere in my heart I was happy about the fact that, the job is in the IT industry. I never thought this unplanned job interview will change the course of my life. Next day I had given the interview and guess what was immediately given the offer letter with CTC of 2.5 lakh, with salary account  details & debit card. I was feeling top of the world, Ohh god life changes faster than you think. A day before I was unemployed, struggling for a job & next day I became an associate software engineer in world's leading IT company.

It was a new start of my life & changed my world completely. Now after five years, I am a successful IT Consultant. Going on my past journey, I would say we need to flow with life as it changes its direction no matter what we need to adapt  to #StartANewLife

My Family My Pride - Sar Utha ke Jiyo !

I belong to a middle-class family & son of an Ex-Army personnel. Being military personnel, you need to do many social sacrifices, I have seen my father doing the same. He taught me how to handle the situations & create balance between social life and profession. Sometimes my father was in such places like Assam or somewhere near  border were army person don't prefer to bring their family. We used to live away from him. During this time, my mother managed everything on her own. It always gave pride to us that our father is at border saving our country from terror and we all are safe in our society because our army is guarding us against all kinds of danger. It has always encouraged me to do something for our society & our country. My father is an inspiration to me, whenever he used to return from border on holidays, I always asked him, why don't you stay with us, he always replied with the same answer "Son, you need to learn, how to live independently and also need to take care of your mother as well, look I am working for the pride of our country, so you need to grow up and take care of your family at least!! His answer always instilled a habit of independence and self-pride within me.

We all know, that the right direction makes things easy. As the time passed, I completed my schooling, later got admission in engineering college away from home, during this period my father got retired from Army & he did everything to get me into a good engineering institute. I would always thank him for his all sacrifices, he did for my studies, my tuition fees, exam fees & monthly expenses.

As someone said, "A hand that leads you through the path of life, will always lead you to your ultimate destination". Same happened with me after the engineering degree, I got selected for a multi-national company, despite recession period in the IT sector in 2009 (The year I completed my graduation). Now I am working as an IT Consultant for a French firm in Mumbai, having more than 5 year of experience. Now I am living independently, supporting my family in all manners.

I can correlate my story with one of the latest campaign of HDFC Life, which is active in social media & television recently which says, "Apno Ko Apne Dum Pe Jeena Sikhao" & popular on twitter with hashtag #MyFamilyMyPride. It's really heart touching & truly inspiring.

We all have someone in our family who we are proud of & find him as a mentor for whole life. This ad film portrays the father-daughter relationship beautifully. The encouraging father instills a habit of independence in her for her live performance in spite of having one prosthetic leg, she can survive whole live independently. A true message for all of us to learn.

Lifesurance Whole Life #BefikarUmarBhar - My Bucket List

I always wonder what we can do to live a life we always dreamed of! How we can make sure that our family members and loved ones are covered in case of any tragedy. How we can live a life #BefikarUmarBhar. How we can have a piece of mind for years to come. Consider there is an instrument, which can allow you to live disruptive-free life  & you don't have to worry about the consequences of  the worst case scenario in your life. In a way, it will allow you to do the things which you actually want to do in your life without worrying about family protection and savings for future. Based on experiences as a working professional getting a Life Insurance can be that instrument, which will certainly help you to live #BefikarUmarBhar. To get a better insight first view the below advert of IDBI federal Life Insurance.

Hope you can correlate the importance of life Insurance to be #BefikarUmarBhar with this video commercial. What you would like to do if you get the opportunity to live a life without any constraint. In this post, I will share my 5 major dreams I want to fulfill & life experiences I desire to experience before I die. So let's start with my bucket list:

1)Driving my own Jaguar:  Having a car is everyone's dream, but my dream car is the Jaguar XJ(A flagship sedan  from Jaguar), I know you will laugh to hear that how come a normal IT Professional can buy a premium car which costs around 1 Cr. But Yes, it's on my bucket list and if at all I got the freedom to live "Befikar" and nothing to hold me back, my first move will be to drive my own Jaguar.

2)Own a Condo /Apartment  in NewYork City: Everyone has a dream of having their own house, a place where we can cherish the precious moments our life with our family & proudly call it as our home. Similarly, I want to own a condo or a small apartment in my favourite city NewYork so that I can enjoy my stay  whenever I am travelling to the United States. NY is the global city which has a significant impact on finance, media, fashion, research & technology across the globe.  I would love to spend  few years of my life in financial capital of the world.

3)Travel all around the world especially Europe: I love travelling, but due to busy the schedule of  my routine job and extra burden of responsibilities I hardly got a chance to explore the world. If I get the opportunity, financial freedom and a life without any constraint I would love to explore the European part of our globe.

PS: I am working for a  European client in a french organization & still waiting for my first on-site chance!!

4)Open an engineering college: During my engineering I dreamed of having my own engineering college which consist of world class facility's for poor students with no donations. Admission process will not  involve any race of cracking a competition or entrance exam.  As an engineering graduate, I have seen the students who don't get admission to premium colleges due to lack of money instead of having lots of talent & knowledge. I wish one day I can contribute to my society in this way. 

5)Pursue my passion for Blogging: I am a full-time working professional in a private MNC, but my inner passion is for Blogging. I want to be a Professional blogger & don't want to depend on my job. I want to be my boss, not any manager or someone else driving my thoughts & knowledge. So, given a chance & financial freedom, I would love to continue with Blogging as a full-time profession.

So it's time to take your first decisions this year to look at Life Insurance as a first step to becoming #BefikarUmarBhar & explore the correct one which can provide you a better coverage. You can check for IDBI Life Insurance. For more details visit at http://bit.ly/BefikarUmarBhar

    

Do You Love your Clear & Pure Skin

I wonder sometimes how we can protect our body and skin from pollution,dust & germs we face while commuting in our environment on a daily basis. As a working professional we always travel day and night to work by using different modes of transportation, few uses public transport like local trains, metro, buses, taxis or auto rickshaws whereas some prefer travelling by personal vehicles like car's, bike or office bus, etc. But irrespective of the commutation mode you choose you will get affected by  pollution and dust in roads. The direct contact with pollution, dirt & germs present in polluted air causes skin problems, Pimple, Acne & oil secretion which you will face on a day to day basis.

I have oily skin which is too prone to pimples or acne and attracts dust a lot. When I was in school, I didn't bother about the pimples so much. When I relocated to Mumbai after my engineering degree. It became a usual problem for me. Because of pollution and my unhealthy diet, which is common for bachelor IT professionals, fighting from pimples became a full time challenge for me. My face was full of black marks left by old pimples and new one were always ready to take place of old pimples. But it was enough for me to wake up and I started searching for remedies and one day I saw a television commercial of Garnier pure active Neem face wash to cure pimples. We all know face is a very important part of our body. I didn't waste a single moment and went almost running to the nearest supermarket to buy Garnier pure active Neem face wash.

We all know Neem is a well known for its antibacterial attributes, helps in reducing pimples and acne, and their re-occurrence. Its herbal ingredients eliminate pimple causing bacteria and purifies our skin and helps to cure and occurring of pimples.

Garnier Pure Active Neem Face Wash - My Review

This face wash is priced at Rs 75 for 100 GM and is specially designed for pimple prone skin like mine. Its application required a very small amount, hence value for money and last for almost a month if you use it on a daily basis, but I will recommend to use it twice a day for better result. Its texture is Jelly and doesn't appear to contain soap, though it foam well upon application and removes excess oil and pimple causing bacteria. Upon application you will feel the essence of neem and tea tree oil with nice fragrance. You will feel skin soft and clean.

I also observed it may cause dryness in winter, especially to those who have dry skin types, its but perfect for oily skin and give better results.

Image credit :http://www.garnier.in/

This post is part of a contest at Indiblogger in association with Garnier India 

ASUS Eeebook Vs All In One PC -In search of Incredible

As an IT Consultant and blogger my love for gadgets and computer is obvious. Since my college days I used to be a guy with lots of affection towards tablets, laptops/notebooks and personal computers. I used to explore lots of tech forums, blogs and digital magazines in search of an innovating gadget and machines.

We live in a world of an innovative digital era where we get lots of products launched on a daily basis with various productive and advance features. Recently I have been planning to add a net-book and a compact PC in lieu of replacing my current desktop which covers almost 80 percent of my computer table. With respect to net-book actually I was looking  for a sleek device apart from regular oversized professional laptops in my gadget list, which can serve better for my blogging activities while travelling and then I came across ASUS combo of sleek net book ASUS EeeBook X205TA and  ASUS all In One PC  ET2040.  This combo made my search complete and now I am expecting them soon to be part of my gadget list.

My Verdict

To understand how these gadgets perfectly fit in my lifestyle, lets explore the features of both these machines one-by-one :

ASUS EeBook X205TA (Sleek On Design, Sleek in price)

A Netbook that is sleek in two dimensions, one in its design and another dimension is important in terms of money which you put on such add-on devices, its Price only Rs 14999 /-. Its affordable price makes your decision even stronger. It is  available online on flipkart and other leading online stores. Moving on to the configuration part, this sleek beauty run on Windows 8.1 operating system with an Intel trademark Atom processor of 1.85 GHz Quad core with 2 GB internal memory. Apart from its sleek design it's really light (weighs one kg). I can keep this in a small carry bag while travelling and store, capture, write any time without bothering about the load of carrying a heavy regular laptop's. It will add wings to my blogging fortune. The available colors (Dark Blue, Red, gold, White) will serve you better, if you're really looking to match it to existing wardrobe of your devices. I liked the blue one, as its my favourite. Overall a must have frequent traveller since it will provide you a high-level mobility with design and features.

ASUS All-in-One PC ET040 (Simple Versatile & Powerful)

Sometime I really get frustrated while seeing no place on my computer table. If I need to put few extra device like Hard disk, DVD's or external SATA to connect with my PC, I really struggle to arrange some. This ASUS All-in- one PC is capable of providing most immersive  user experience with its innovating space saving design and gesture control, it's perfect for working professional like me.

Generally I use my desktop for Programming and sometime to play or watch movies. This machine comes with capability of serving all your needs starting from running heavy application programme, high quality games with intense graphics or watching HD movies for entertainment. Its space saving design makes it perfect for me. It comes with lots of Built-In apps like Photo editor, Music maker jam, Asus Webstorage etc., Its specification includes Intel Pentium processor with 2 GB internal memory and 500 GB SATA hard disk which can full fill my storage needs without thinking about remaining space on my hard disk.

Overall these two devices are perfect for me, and I can recommend them to any working professional who loves to hang around gadgets and computers.

IMAGE CREDIT: AMAZON.IN & ASUS.COM

This post is part of  Happy hour activity at Indiblogger in association with Asus India

Love Declaration of an IT Professional

I know you all will be looking forward to 14 Feb this year as a day to celebrate your romantic love; I am also in the same boat, eagerly waiting for this V day. I understand you people are keen to know my love declaration, but before that I would like to share a brief conversation which I had with my colleague at office last Friday.

Me: Happy Valentine's Day!! 

Colleague: Are you serious, we haven't even celebrated republic day, what are you saying!!

Me: I am planning an open love declaration for soniya!!

Colleague: Are you crazy?? What if her family gets to know and what about your ex-gf .

Me: Forget Ex, I don't care about her anymore.

Colleague: What about soniya's family.

Me: Hope they will understand ...

Colleague: What's your plan this time, don't do anything stupid.

Me: Don't worry you will know about it on 14 Feb!!

A sneak peak of  my love declaration 

To give a little background on my crush and my plans for this Valentine's Day, let me tell you about my personality and current status in relationship. I am an IT geek with little experience in field of love and very reluctant to girls, I think hundred times before approaching to any girl. So you can, say I am a person with no characteristic of a normal lover boy or a boyfriend. I have a so-called girlfriend of mine which I have never proposed in 2 years of relationship. She is kind of fling in our relationship, but I am serious from last one year and in complete love with her. Sometimes I feel she loves me too, but she didn't give any open indication in this direction. 

I have been planning to propose her since a very long time, but when I plan to do this my heart comes to my mouth. My colleagues and friends suggested that, take a bold move and propose to her. So I thought, this Valentine's Day I stand a chance to do this and with little bit of courage I have decided to give my love declaration to not only to her, but to the whole world. For some people face-to -face love disclosure is very simple, but for me it's not an easy job. I want her to feel little special and extraordinary when I propose to her so I am announcing it on all my social media accounts in which we both are on. With all my cover pages, profile pictures displaying my declaration of love with some lovely tweets for her about my feelings. I am going to use hash tag #SnazzyawiProposes, don't blame me if it's in list of trending topics on 14 Feb this time. 

Whoa I am getting excited while writing it here. Does it seem like I am crossing my limits. Yes I am, but this is what I want, I want her to know that how much I love her & I don't have any fear in accepting this in front of anyone. I know her family might get freak and react unusual, but I am ready for it. I am gonna ask her openly that "Will you be my Valentine for this life"

I am waiting for this Valentine's Day!! Will Cupid's arrow is going to hit me this time, stay tuned for my upcoming Video blog on this theme. Till then you can also plan a #cupid game for your crush.

Happy Valentine's Day in advance and best of luck ....

Gravity of Truth in our Life

In words  of Thomas Hardy "If an offense come out of the truth, better is it that the offense come than the truth be concealed ".

When we are kids we all have a natural tendency of telling the truth, later when we grow up, we observe that people around us our peers, friends and relatives  they aren't always telling the truth. We get confused why everybody is hiding the truth and manipulating things in their own way. That's the time when we learned how creative people get rid of various offenses by hiding the truth. When we hide the truth within us it creates some stress & internal conflicts in our minds.

Hiding the truth or twisting it for our own interest, is it correct? To understand this, let me share an incident of my life where I had a huge dilemma whether to tell the truth or hide it and what would be the right thing to do?

During the second year of my computer engineering, I needed a laptop for my minor project. I asked my father that it's very important for my studies and I need to buy one at the earliest. He agreed to give money for a laptop, I bought one in the next two days and was so excited about my new laptop. I used to carry it, to my college for presentations. One day in college while the presentation my laptop fell incidentally & got damaged. When I checked the display it was completely broken, I immediately took it to service center where they said the new screen  and repairing will cost around 15 thousand. I was shocked, what I will tell to my father it was only 15 day's since I purchased it. I got so stressed and   worried about  my final presentation in coming month. Fear of telling the truth and not completing the minor project on time was causing so much internal trauma. Finally, I decided to lie about my broken laptop and asked my father to give 15 thousand for campus placement coaching which I was never going to attend. This was the biggest lie, I have ever told to my parents. My father was happy to see my concern towards campus placement and next day he deposited the money. Within one week of time I got my laptop repaired, next month minor project presentation also went well, but still there was some regret and mental stress within me which was making me unhappy about everything. One day my father called me and asked about how my campus coaching and preparations are going on, I got voiceless, I had no answer to his questions, suddenly guilt of dishonesty and lie made me burst and I told him the truth about my damage laptop, I told him about my fear, initially he got angry and hung up the phone, later he called me and said, "It's OK son ,no need to worry". I felt so relaxed and realized, "Kitna chain hota hai na sachhai mein". I thanked my dad and promised  that I will never lie to him.

"Sometimes when telling the truth could get us into trouble, we tend to lie or omit details to avoid it. Although this seems like a great temporary solution, it weighs on our conscience "

 

This post is inspired from Kinley  TVC & part of  Happy hour contest at  Indiblogger

#RiseAboveFear -Courage is what it takes !!

 To Rise above fear is to be sure about what you are doing are going to make some difference.Some times in our life we feel stupid about our karma because we might have made various mistakes in the past,but moving on after a certain incorrect act or mistakes can eliminate fear from our lives. Fear come with setbacks,but faith gives us audacity and tenacity to achieve success most of the time,if  I have to say above lines in one quote,I will use words of  Ambrose Redmoon "Courage is not the absence of fear,but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear"

To understand above thoughts in practical life,let me tell you about one crucial risk I took in my life and how it  helped me to overcome my fear and achieve success.

Decision to take one year drop for preparation for engineering entrance exams :

After my schooling it was time to choose my career path,I was on the urge of deciding which stream to choose.Some told me to go for MBBS and become doctor,few told me to prepare for Indian civil services,but in my mind I had to decide whether to go for my dream to join top engineering institute in computer engineering or to do what others are saying.I was so worried and at that time getting to a top college was seems to be a pie in the sky .Looking at the competition level for pre-engineering entrance exams,I was anxious to take any decision on my next step,all my teachers and mentors suggested to join leading coaching institute for exam preparation,for which I need to take one year drop from my regular studies & gave a huge fee of 40-50 K approximately apart from other miscellaneous expanses of accommodation food etc,total  cost was around  1 lakh.I was so afraid ,if I take 1 year gap for preparation and doesn't qualify with top rank my whole year and my fathers hard money will go on vein.Also no need to mention about peer pressure and social trauma in such situation .For me it was time to show some courage And confidence  to take final call for my career,in spite of  fear & anxiety,I went ahead and decided to take drop for engineering exam and went to Indore for preparation.There I joined a leading coaching institute.During my preparation I continuously learned to rise above my fear of not cracking the exam had faith in myself that I will be in toppers list of qualifying students.Finally it was the day of pre-engineering exam.In spite of nervousness I wrote the exam with confidence to crack the exam & finally the day of result came,Guys you will be surprised ,I got 25th state rank,I was sure about getting in top 100 but getting 25 Rank is all because of faith and can-do-attitude to rise above fear of failing the exam.

You must have seen the advertisement of popular PepsiCo's drink Mountain dew which Say's "Darr ke Aage Jeet hai" and follow the philosophy of  "Who Dares,Wins".I must say it's true I always feel the same and salute the spirit of those who rise above fear. Recently Mountain Dew brand has launched #RiseAboveFear campaign for theme based TVC  which show how two actors (Arya & Akhil) overcome their personal mountain of fears, Its clear from video that team had to #RiseAboveFear to shoot it and make the Film reality.

 

Carry your Childhood with you

"If you carry your Childhood with you ,you  never become old " .
As the quote suggest ,what we learn from our childhood memories always remain throughout  our life.The truth is we only get one childhood in whole life,but moral values learned & memories earned can stay in our mind forever and can be used at any stage of life.

We all know many nursery rhymes ,phonics & songs are innocent stories, some contain morals values and others have  political underlying meanings.
Two poems of my preschool had  always enlightened my mind . 

Twinkle Twinkle little Star a Nursery rhyme :

Twinkle Twinkle little Star ,How I wonder what you are .........
This was my favourite one ,we used to do this song in group and also performed this one on stage with some dancing steps .Rhymes consist of words about many kind of activities a children can learn and take up in daily life like dancing , colouring , drawing ,running and many more fun stuff which help a kid in learning new things .

.
 

Johny Johny yes Papa a Nursery rhyme :

This one is also close to my heart .This rhyme is basically remind me of my naughty kid inside me.
I used to be very stubborn & trouble my parents by my funny mistakes .

Telling lie No papa .....this line reminds me of all the lies which had told to my parents ..lol !!

Nursery rhymes, pre-school songs and children's poems will always remain the same as there are. There's always going to be new children in our world who will start learning through the means of these songs.






Parents, teachers and children have kept passing on these lovely traditions and heritage over centuries, allowing us to build a strong foundation for the future generations to able to benefit from our rich history.

Its better to carry your childhood inside  you .....

This post is a part of Kids Hut activity at BlogAdda.com