Lapland Mail - A Gift from Santa

Christmas is a festival of Love and here in India, we celebrate Christmas with lights lit up in the house and decorations all over. Giving gifts to our loves ones is considered a tradition which is passed on from one generation to another. Today when everything is done via the internet and using computers, we still send Christmas letters and cards to our loved ones as it represents our care and feelings for them that cannot be replaced via a e-cards/email. Lapland has helped me this Christmas to gift my loved one a beautiful letter, a certificate and an activity sheet.

Lapland Mailroom is website that lets users order Christmas letters for their kids that can be personalized with messages for their loved ones. 

You can choose to order the following:

1.      Only a letter

2.      A letter along with an activity pack

3.      Baby’s 1^st Christmas package

You get a FREE Nice Child certificate with all orders placed on the website worth £2.95 as it is running a magical offer currently.

You can choose from the following 4 letters:

Letter 1

Letter 2

Letter 3

Baby's First Christmas:

And customize any letter by entering your details as shown below:

There are 2 mail package offers you can choose from:

Here is the package I received from Lapland Mailroom in exchange for an honest review. It included the letter with an activity pack worth £8.95.

When I placed an order on the website, I received a notification via email that they’ll inform me when the order will be ready for dispatch and asked me to check the postal dates on the website. The website has all the required details and they deliver the package within 3 days after you place the order. The delivery is Worldwide and I received the package within 2 weeks of the date of dispatch.

I really liked the package I received from Lapland mail room and kids too would love their parents to gift them a cool activity pack that they can color on and a letter that will be memories for them (especially because this letter is written by Santa Claus). The Certificate is a nice gesture for our kids that they will love to own with their name printed on it. The prices too are pretty affordable and the shipping process is simple and fast.

LGV20 - Searching my Identity

It’s hazy out here. Can’t see anything clearly. Why am I feeling so weak? Am not even able to move my body and stand still. Wait a sec! Where am I?

Ouch! My head hurts badly. Blood? I can see blood on my fingers when I touch my neck. This means someone hit me and brought me here to die? Who was that? And when did this happen? Why can’t I remember anything? I was not here all my life and I must have been somewhere else. But where? And why can’t I remember my name? What’s my name? Have I lost my memory?

1 hour passes…

I look around and find myself in no-man’s land. How did I reach here? Why is there no human being to be seen for miles? Am I alone on this island? Just water, sand, trees and me? How will I manage to come out from this place and reach my home?

I sense something in my clothes and I remove the thing that has been vibrating for a long time. I notice it’s a #LGV20 mobile and since my clothes are completely wet, the mobile too is drained completely. It must be off but let me try switching it ON. I touch the screen and notice that it’s still ON. That’s great! After remaining for a long time in water, still this phone is working perfectly. The brand is LG V20. Great phone!

So now that the phone is active, let me find out details about myself as there is no ID proof nor any information that can identify me in my clothes. No wallet and no ID proof. This phone must have skipped those kidnappers’ eyes as it was deep inside my pockets. Don’t know how I will manage doing this but there will be some information about me on this phone. Oh Damn! It’s locked. How will I access it? Wait! It asks for my finger prints. I touch the sensor and hey, my phone is now unlocked. Yippy! Thankfully it did not have a code as when I can’t remember my name, how can I remember my code. Haha!

Damn! There’s no signal here which is why I can’t even dial any number nor use the internet. Now let’s check the folder. There are so many folders here and hence let’s check the personal folder. I can see that there are many pictures and selfies. OMG! I don’t know how do I look to find myself in these pictures. So let’s click a picture. Snap! The picture has come out so beautiful and clear with the focus on me.

It gives me a geo-tagging option too. So that means the pictures too which have been clicked earlier are geo-tagged. Yes, they are. Uff! Finally some clue. Thanks to #LGV20. It tells me that the location in mainly South Mumbai and most of the pictures are tagged in one location. May be that’s my home. Zooming further I can see myself standing in front of few shops. Thanks to the clarity that I can see the name of the shop and its address so clearly.

I keep moving and checking other folders and signal reception. There are so many audio and video files too which means that its storage capacity is really good.

Hearing some of these audio and video files, the voices are so clear. I can even hear the background noises clearly. I keep hearing the bus noise from the audios and videos which means that these files have been recorded mostly in this area.

I keep moving and checking other folders and signal reception. But damn! The battery is getting over. What will I do now? It asks me to swap the batteries and I does as the instructions say. Oh wow! The battery is removable too and now again I can use the phone as before as it has a complete charge.

With the help of the compass sensor, I manage to walk further in the direction of the main road and here I have reached the highway.

On asking some people about the locations shown in the mobile, I finally manage to reach my house and get my real identity. It’s amazing that with the help of this mobile, I learned the way back home and saved my life. Thanks #LGV20.

Image credit: http://www.dlbgadget.com/lg-v20-price-specification.html

You can checkout the features and specs here: http://www.lg.com/in/v20

Or buy it here: http://www.amazon.in/LG-LGH990DS-V20-Silver/dp/B01MZXEACC

Questions and Answers #DearZindagi

Dear Zindagi,

                        I owe you a lot of things as you have made me what I am today and today as I look back the past memories, I’ve noticed you have been with me through such a long journey and we have together faced so many ups and downs during this journey where sometimes you felt weak and sometimes I felt weak. However, there have been many times I’ve tried to ask you questions and complaints and since you’ve never answered me, I’ve found those answers on my own. Here they are:

1.      Why are you so short?

From the time you’ve come into my life till this day, everytime I’ve only noticed that you’re moving too fast and before I can catch you, I fear that you will slip away. My childhood days have passed long ago and it’s been such a short duration that I can barely remember. I many a times feel that I could have had a longer childhood but those days can never come back ever and that’s why I have this complaint.

On asking myself, here I found an answer to my question. Life is not short but we ourselves do not respect the time we have in hand. We ourselves spend time in doing things that are not so relevant and hence feel that our life is short. We cannot change our past but those days too were in our hand where we could make it different and consider each day as a gift of God. We could spend each day to the fullest and give it the importance it deserves. This way, we wouldn’t consider life short if it had to be utilized fully.

2.      Why do we face so many challenges?     

In our day to day life, we constantly face challenges whether it’s from work or from our personal problems and these challenges keep us so busy and tired that we forget how days pass and instead we want the low period to get over as soon as possible. Why can’t life be easy that we can live happily and not face so many problems?

The answer that I got from my subconscious mind was: Life is not easy or same for one and all where there are rich and poor people but everyone does face challenges in their life to keep their life stable. If there are no problems, one wouldn’t realize that importance of happy moments and take life for granted. We can live a happy life but we should also learn how to overcome these challenging moments to become a better person.

3.      Can we ever change your duration?

I’ve seen people who don’t even get a chance to live and the others, who survive, die so fast. It makes me lose trust in you sometimes as I don’t know how long will you be with me and I keep asking myself the duration so that I know how many days I have left. I’ve been also told that we can increase your duration by praying or believing in human Gods. Is it true?

The answer that I got was: There have been many human Gods who claim to increase your life duration with the help of different mantras but ultimately, they are not sure about their own life duration. The one who comes into this world has to go away as life is limited and the only thing we can change is our destiny so that we can make our life memorable. Destiny is in our hands and there’s a dialogue that I recollect here: Zindagi lambi nahi honi chahiye, sirf badi honi chahiye (life shouldn’t be long but instead it should be big).

Love you Zindagi,

Regards,

Erika

I am writing a letter to life for the #DearZindagi activity at BlogAdda

Thank you Dear Zindagi

Dear Zindagi,


There have been so many things that I've wanted to tell you before but today I got a chance to express my feelings to you and communicate with you. There have so many times when I've opened my eyes in the morning and thanked you that you are still present in me and with your help, I am able to spend the rest of my day happily. Today, I want to thank you for the following reasons:

For giving me such beautiful parents:

Zindagi, you've been here only because of my parents and my parents have been here, because of you. You came to me as a gift from them and how much ever I give them in life, I can never give them back the same or something more meaningful than you are. Life is something that's precious and that's what my parents have taught me always. Life is the biggest gift that we get from our parents and then give our children and it’s now in our hands to make it better and become an independent human being for our parents.


For giving me a good health:

Zindagi, there have been many times when I've fallen ill and have been thinking that you may come to an end. It happens especially when I'm not able to move and when I've been in the hospital but you've never given up on me and hence I'm here today with no sicknesses and illnesses. I’ve realized that many a times it has been my mistake that I’ve fallen ill and since then I’ve been taking utmost care of myself to keep you healthy and long. I've been having a healthy lifestyle and this would not be possible without your support.

For giving me a good financial status:

Zindagi, it’s only because of my good health that I’ve managed to get a proper education and a good job for my financial security that has helped me to keep you going well too. I have always been working for my life and it wouldn’t have been possible to come so far and lead a healthy lifestyle without you, my Zindagi. Money is in my hands but my life is not and hence I keep praying for a long life to maintain this security always as had you not been in my destiny, I wouldn't have been able to do anything for myself and my family.

For all the beautiful moments:

Zindagi, there has been many a times that I’ve shared such beautiful moments with my friends and family and you’ve always helped me in capturing them so beautifully that they will be taken with me when you come to an end. These moments wouldn’t have been possible without you and right from my childhood till my youth and now, you’ve always helped me and brought me moments that I can cherish forever. I cannot change my past nor can I predict the future, but I promise Zindagi that I'll try my best to lead a meaningful and fruitful zindagi and store in more moments with my family if you keep your love, faith and support with me.

Love,
Erika

I am writing a letter to life for the #DearZindagi activity at BlogAdda

Apps to check your heart health

I've already mentioned my daily routine in the previous post and here I would like to talk about the methods that motivate me to stay active, eat better and stay happy.

What motivates me to stay active!

1) Nestle Choose Wellness: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nestle.choosewellness&hl=en

I feel that even though I may exercise during weekends and have a healthy diet, it is important to even track your health using apps and enter your daily routine from time-to-time.

I downloaded this app few months back. The app is a great way to make a person more active and at the same time one gets rewarded for his/her achievements. The Nestle Choose Wellness app makes you do special tasks like:

 a. Take the stairs instead of using a lift and take 2 steps at once (Reward: 2 points)
 b. Replace full fat yogurt with low fat (Reward: 2 points)
 c. Share your achievements (rewards) on Facebook, Twitter (Reward: 5 points)

After performing the tasks, one gets a total score (rewards called Wellness Boosts) which motivates the person to do better and Nestle everyday adds new fun tasks which help the person to be healthy and active and these tasks are really simple to complete.

The interface is very easy to operate and one just has to click the "Fin out how" option and get started by signing in with Twitter or Facebook. It helps in achieving the goals by giving simple tasks which help you exercise and at the same time to follow a healthy diet. I use this app on a daily basis as it would benefit me to earn maximum reward points means I would become more active and thus healthy as well.

What motivates me to eat better!

Calorie counter - MyFitnessPal: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.myfitnesspal.android&hl=en

This app helps me to keep track of my calories without the need to count them manually. It lets me enter food items from anywhere by just using its barcode scanner and it uses its own database to calculate the calories which is just amazing. I can enter my own recipes and feed it in the app at anytime. It's exercise tracker counts how many calories I've burned during the day and it keeps an account of what meals do I consume regularly. This app is the best app I've had till date as it helps me add food products with just a click and it's more than fun to use this app and maintain a balanced diet. Eating was never fun until I downloaded this app.

What motivates me to be happy!

Perfect Piano: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gamestar.perfectpiano&hl=en

I love playing the piano and guitar when at home and if I don't get time to play these instruments, I try this online app that helps me create new tunes or listen to old songs via the app wherein I can either buy new tunes or set my created tunes as a ringtone. It's my most favorite app that keeps me happy and connected with my instruments and as I hail from a family whose ancestors were all musicians, it is the perfect feeling and way to keep myself happy.

I am joining the Saffolalife #ChhoteKadam initiative in association withBlogAdda and follow these small steps for a healthy heart.

My Daily Routine - #ChhoteKadam initiative

During a week, I just get 2 days for myself when I can maintain a good diet chart and follow a schedule that can keep me healthy and fit. My routine is quite different from the routines I follow from Monday-Friday due to my work and this schedule is fixed for every Saturday and Sunday (unless I've planned something else). Here are ways in which I stay active, eat better and be happy.

My Activity Schedule:

6:00 a.m. - 6:15 a.m.: I wake up at 6:00 a.m. and avoid having any breakfast as I go for jogging. Jogging is very good for health and the best time is from 5-6 as I get to inhale fresh air and my entire day goes nicely due to the 15-20 minutes that I spend in jogging. I don't have any park nearby which is a big minus point for me else jogging in a garden is preferable.


7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m: I leave for the gym and I practise weight lifting and run on the treadmill for 15 minutes each. I also follow the diet chart given by my gym as a diet plan. It's necessary to visit a gym and workout atleast once a week for a better body and metabolism that in turn helps you to have a healthy heart and improves your health.


2:00p.m. - 3:00 p.m.: I go out for a walk to digest my food at around 2:00 p.m. and also climb stairs as a part of an exercise.

5:40 p.m. - 6:40 p.m.: I workout during this time and practise yoga asanas as well as work on the treadmill to stay fit and healthy.

9:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.: I practise shavasana (sleeping or corpse pose) that helps in relaxing the body muscles and decreases blood pressure. I practise this asana just before going to sleep as it helps to comfort the body and get a good beauty sleep.

My Food Schedule:

6:20 a.m. - 6:30 a.m. I reach home and sit for breakfast. My breakfast includes a bowl of oats, 2 fried eggs with 2 slices of bread and a cup of hot chocolate milkshake. I usually drink coffee during weekdays to keep awake while working but on weekends, I only have chocolate milkshake to stay healthy and it's tasty too. To add to it, I have a bowl of sprouts that mainly includes either grams or moong.

8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.: I drink an energy drink after leaving the gym which contains proteins and vitamin C that's very good for the health. Sometimes when I don't want to consume an energy drink, I choose a glass of orange juice as it's the best substitute.


12:30 p.m.,- 1:30 p.m.: I have my meals. The food prepared every weekend contains chicken, fish and salad. Fish is rich in omega-3 and helps in reducing cholesterol while chicken contains proteins, vitamins and minerals that helps blood pressure problems. Salad can be a mix of fruits like bananas, apple and oranges or vegetable salad that contains cucumber, tomatoes and onions.


8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.: A healthy dinner includes either chicken or fish curry, fried rice and palak soup as it contains nutrients that help the heart and in healthy development of the bones.


My Entertainment Schedule:

6:30 a.m. - 7:00 a.m.: I rest for about 30 minutes and either spend time reading the newspaper or watching news on television. This is the most relaxing time as having a healthy breakfast after jogging is the most relaxing thing to do and I give my body a break before a hectic workout schedule.

9:00 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.: I again rest for about 3.5 hours after a heavy workout and drinks. This is the time I spend with my family, we share some jokes, some fun moments and also share the plans we have for the week. If it's a Saturday, we either plan to go for a movie the next day or a picnic as we barely get time to entertain ourselves.

3:00 p.m. - 5:00p.m.: I go to sleep for 2 hours as it's the best way to make the body rest and gain energy for another workout.

6:40 p.m.-8:30 p.m.: This is the time we either switch to Zee Cinema or any other movie channel and watch a movie. I get relief from my day's workout and just stay happy watching an entertaining movie.

I am joining the Saffolalife #ChhoteKadam initiative in association withBlogAdda and follow these small steps for a healthy heart.

A day at SMWMumbai - Hyatt

I attended the SMWMumbai event held on 16th September at Hyatt Regency and had a great time attending the sessions and getting a lot of details and information about social media.


First session with Satya Raghavan:

The first session started with Satya Raghavan who explained about various ways of monitizing digital content. Since I have a YouTube channel, this information helped me a lot as he said that each and every video that I create can earn me income if I let ads be placed along with my video and I can earn money from the first view onwards. Content sharing is a very good method of monitization and he explained that we need to choose ads as per their creativity and genre and he explained this by showing us an Ambuja cement ad thta has been getting maximum views from users.

Second session with Prahlad Kakar

Third session with Prahlad Kakarwas enjoyable as he kept showing us ads of Cadbury, Ericsson and other ads that made us think about what ads catch the attention of the users and which ads make them think. He explained that ads should be such that the audience can relate to them and with the Cadbury ad, he explained that women used to feel that the girl shown in the ad lives in the heart while now it's become a reality. It was interesting to hear how well he explained the way ads try to connect with the audience and promote their product.


Third session with Heidi Hattenbach, Priya Naik and Sonal Zaveri

This session was the best one for me as it spoke how social media and technology can help during natural calamaties. The speakers explained the ways how they have 5 important phases while helping the victims of natural calamaties like the Government, Ericcson who is their technology partner and gets a network established in the areas affected, a protocol they need to follow, media who helps the news get to the world and donors who help the victims.

Fourth session with Karishma Mehta

This session with Karishma was quite informative as she explained how she started her journey by connecting to people whom she did not know in person but this became a method of communication for her and she went on to meet people from the streets and writing posts about them on facebook, thus creating her own community.

Fifth session with Anand Desai, Atul Kasbekar and Lavin Mirchandani

The speaker Atul spoke about content management and he explained how people brand themselves and connect with a social media platform to promote themselves and their brand. He spoke about his movie Neerja and Pink and also how these movies left an impact on the audience. He said that celebrities influence social media and that products matter first.


Sixth session with Gopa Kumar, Adarsh Munjal, Pankaj Parihar, Rohit Raj and Sanjay Vasudeva

This was a very active session where the speakers like Adarsh and Rohit Raj spoke about infleuncer marketing and Adarsh made us understand who are influencers and what do influencers need. He said that influencers need an interest of passion, knowledge and an opportunity. He said that brands need brands need brand ambassadors and Rohit said influencers need to know about interest, knowlegde and research and then adapt themselves.


Seventh session with Krishna Dorai
Krishna gave an interesting insight to the concept of being a True Wanderer and he speaks about the spirits of wrangler and the journey of a wrangler in India. He said that he has been running 'Search for True Wanderers' since 2012. A biker, Gaurav Siddharth, was awarded a prize as well during this session.


Eigth session with Aadil Bandukwala

Aadil spoke basically about twitter and how we have engaging tweets that keep us active and how brands tweet about a thought that make us think and react. He gave examples of CIA and said that we remember these tweets as they stand out for us.


Ninth session with KV Sridhar
Sridhar explained how brands need to behave as people behave in order to connect and make people relate to them. He also mentioned that data today needs to be observed and adopted and there is a lot of change how we can articulate an idea today compared to 20 years back which is all because of media.


Tenth session with Varun Joshua, Karthik Nagarajan and Nikhil Tiwari
This session made me aware of artificial intellingence that I had learnt during my college days and how we can use AI in today's time. The speakers explained how AI changes the game of recruiting and enabled communitty engagement. Varun gave an example of communicating online and its uses.

Eleventh session with Rajat Mehta, Namrita Mahindro, Prabhakaran and Dr Kushal Sanghvi

Rajat spoke about 5 lac people participating in a short film contest with Yes Bank and how Yes Bank is the most followed bank on twitter. It made users engage with the brand and amateur short film makers were helped with funds. A short film was played during this session making us realize that dreams have no age barrier.

Twelvth session with Hema Sardesai, Soumini Sridhara Paul, Faridoon Shahryar and Amit Yadav
Coming towards the second last session, Hema explained how artists connect with social media and fans are bought on Twitter that reduces the credibility. It was interesting to hear the Q&A session that revealed the importance of content a blogger can give and his credibility is assessed based on the content. Hema sang a song from her latest album based on Ganesh Chaturthi and made the audience sing along with her that was fun to watch.


Thirteenth session with Mahesh Murthy

This was the last session with Mahesh Murthy who said that optimizing data is a method for influencers and we all require a social inbox wherein we have contacts to share our data with. He also mentioned that social media helps everyone irrespective of their culture.


The 13 sessions that I witnessed at SMWMumbai made me get a bank of information about social media and I am very happy to be a part of such insightful and knowledgeable session. It was a great experience I shared.

Masterclass at SMWMumbai with Blogadda

Mr. Kavi started his session by mentioning his Twitter ID which is '_Kavi' and he spoke about how he went about choosing this username that became his recognition later on. He said that he tried to search a username that's close to him and the underscore was one he was familiar with and ever since he had this Twitter ID, it became his name and that's what he referred to as personal branding.

He described 4 types of users:

1. Prisoners - People who remain focused.
2. Holiday - People who don't have a fixed time to write.
3. Experts - People who are experts in their field.
4. Explorers - People who are interested in learning and working.

Mr. Kavi also explained ways we can brand ourselves through self expression as there are many people these days who ask others to get information about themselves via the internet (like Google them) or people mainly interact via Youtube channels and videos and that's the way we interact virtually with people. He explained how we need to choose a topic that can represent us and then blog about the same and share them online to get more customers. We need to be programmed and even choose a color that can represent ourselves. This way, we keep ourselves focused on a particular subject that we consider as ourselves and that's how we can brand ourselves.

Kavi also explained how people can choose from all the platforms available like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google + and Youtube and then consider one platform as the way to promote their brand or that's close to them and their brand and then remain focused on the output.It was interesting to note how we can brand ourselves and associate ourselves with a platform to make us be known with the help of a platform.

He also explained about the 1:9:90 percent wherein 90 percent people consume, 9 curate and 1 create and we should recognize where we stand and how do we define ourselves.

The session ended with Mr. Kavi explaining us who we should be connect with and how our users are also connecting with people and these may be people who can be domain experts, people who share, people who respond and that's when we start personal branding.

Lloyd Summit 2016

The Lloyd Summit 2016 event with Blogadda was a great opportunity for women professionals, business women, entrepreneurs and those working in the corporate world to know that nothing is impossible for women. There were many sessions where I got to hear about many experiences from CEOs, Writers, Singers, Professionals, Comedians and people from different fields explaining how a woman is not less than a man when it comes to any field.

1. The Opening Chat with Apurva, Urjita and Bhawna made me aware of the issues and household problems when it comes to women writing about sex erotica novels and how they are frowned upon by their family members. Urjita and Bhawna gave their experiences when their family supported them and how there were 18 writers for their novel 18+ wherein the main focus was on sex humor and the stories about these 18 personalities coming together and making their book a combination of humor and boldness. These novels were also being sold at the event and Apurva and other writers were signing the book for the attendees.

2. The CXO Panel with Nipun, Shijini and Reena were quite open about the issues that women face in today's world. Shijini spoke about her inspiration when she saw women from Delhi working late nights and not fearing despite Delhi being an unsafe place while Reena said that her father wanted her to work and be independent as she needed to stand on her feet even after getting married. Nipun said that he introduced unisex machines to appeal to both genders and he also added his own experience where a customer was cheated with regards to the after sales service by a repairer. Reena sais that the meaning of beauty means celebrating oneself and Nykaa being a brand wherein women can easily access the app and also read articles about tips on enhancing their beauty.

3. The Dare to Be with Neeti and Sonam who came individually was more appealing due to the experiences that were shared by Sonam and Neeti who belong to the entertainment field. Sonam's session was pretty short and she showed us a video of her song while Neeti was fun to watch where she said that she has received assignments wherein the sponsors spoke about women empowerment but asked her about charging high fees. She also laughed at the fact that she was referred to as "Dear Sir" in written applications. I had a blast hearing her humorous experiences and how she faced the gender biased world when it comes to comedy.

4. The Future of Work with Sonali, Rega, Deepali and Neha was more informative wherein Deepali mentioned that one should consider their career not as a 100-meter race but as a marathon. She being an experienced advisor was more brief about women taking maternity leaves and being considered non-working after their delivery. She also says that women should spend the money to have maids and a driver so that they can concentrate on their work and it helps them in the long run. Rega talks about her training session where she allows her employees to learn on their own and guides them at times. It was interesting to hear these women entrepreneurs share their experience and talk about different working experiences.

5. The Fireside Chat with Venky was the most entertaining one where the host introduced him with cheers and he representing the KKR team made the crowd even more lively. He spoke about how Jai Mehta asked him to join the team and he became the CEO without having to give any interview. He also said that one should be honest and confront the people openly (as he spoke about how he had to inform Saurav Ganguly about the team change) instead of avoiding any confrontation. It was interesting to hear how he planned a strategy during the bidding sessions and the marketing team was managed by him to give the exposure to all the sponsors of KKR.

6. The Good Girls Show with Varun was entertaining where he spoke about his early childhood and school days where his friends had a different idea about children being born and how he was made to leave while the Pyar Hua Ikrar Hua song was played. He said that feminism is not about equality but about one gender oppressing the other and I completely agree with him on that as feminism these days is misunderstood.

7. The Lightening Pitches introduced 3 entrepreneurial women who were from different fields and they spoke about their websites they plan to launch soon and how they will be a tough competition to the already famous brands like Amazon and Flipkart.

Bollywood Then and Now

Whenever I watch Bollywood movies nowadays, I just cannot fail to compare the olden days to these days and here are some instances, wherein the fair comparison was established:

1. Mother and son bonding: We have seen so many movies where the son used to share a great bond of love and where we remember Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor in Deewaar fighting for the love of their mother.

Then we had movies like Karan Arjun where the twins Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan too was shown to be so in love with their mother and buy her bangles and dance with her.

Now we have Brothers and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo where each brother is born from a different mother. Imagine how tough it would be for these brothers to have a bond with their step mom. I can't even imagine as who is the legal child is a question with no answer.

With regards to the songs as well, we can see a huge difference:

Mothers used to sings songs like Bada Natkhat Hai Yeh, Krishan Kanhaiya as the son used to irritate the mothers a lot but in a mischievous manner.

Now, mothers sing Maa Da Laadla Bigad Gaya because the mothers aren't sure about their DIL or SIL.

2. Heroines Being Introduced: We used to often see heroines being introduced with a song where they used to express their desires, talk about their costumes and dance along the roads while reaching home. These songs can include "Hawa mein udta jaye, mera laal dupatta..." and "Sapne suhane ladakpan ke"


However, with times, girls have stopped having dupattas and the all they want to sing is "Chittiyan kalaiyan ve, ho meri chiitiyan kalaiyan ve" while in some movies, the heroine is introduced with short pants or skirts and seen smoking and drinking like Katrina Kaif in "Mere Brother ki Dulhan" singing "Dunki dhunki dhunki lage"



3.  Hero impressing the Heroine: Olden days, the hero used to stalk the heroines by singing songs like "Yeh Chand Sa Roshan Chehra, Zulfon Ka Rang Sunhera...."

But nowdays, we have songs like "Ladki beautiful kar gayi Chull" and "Baby ko Bass Pasand Hai" where the boys feel that the girls will be impressed if they know their likings and talk about a beautiful making the boy Chull. Still don't get the meaning of the Chull word but anyways...

Earlier, the boys needed to impress the heroine with a set of flowers and by standing outside their windows to get the girl come running out of their homes and hug them.

While these days, girls are quite tough to impress and need the boy to go through agni-pariksha before falling for them. Example: In Sultan, Anuska was impressed with Sultan after he won a wrestling competition. Here it was still a wrestling competition while some times the boy needs to lie or disguise himself as another person to impress the girl. Example: In Tamasha, Ranbir hid his identity and in Rab Ne Banadi Jodi, Shahrukh Khan had to disguise himself (although he looked the same but Anushka couldn't recognize him). How tough it's become today for the heroes.

4. Love Triangles: These were common in olden times where we had one heroine and two heroes mostly like Sangam where both the heroes were in love with the heroine and she loved only one till the end.

Now, times have changed, preferences have changed and the girl who has two lovers also gets confused about whom to choose and whom not to. Like Student of the Year where Alia loves both the leads and in the end gets confused. She tries to impress her boyfriend by flirting with the second one but instead falls for the second one when her first one loves her and sings "Ishq wala love". Oh Gosh! I'm myself confused. BTW, what's the difference between Ishq and Love? Nevermind.

There are also other love triangles where the two leads struggle a lot for their love but in the end, the heroine is taken away by a third person. Example: Dostana where Bobby manages to get Priyanka and John and Abhishek are left to kiss each other...Just feel so bad for both of them.

5. Hero and Villain tashan scenes: Movies like Sholey are remembered for the great action sequences and the hero being a little comical by saying "Chakki pising pising and pising" and when Dharmendra gets into the angry mood, he says "Mein tera khoon pee jaunga"


Gone are the days where the hero used to think about drinking the bood of the villain. Nowdays, we have Dabbang where Salman is shown saying "Mein tum mein itne chedd kar dunga ki confuse ho jaoge ki saas kahan se le and ...." Oh my, really meanings also have changed.

6. Periodic and Historical movies: Movies like Devdas and Mughal-e-azam were remembered for their great war scenes, action sequences and love stories. The hero used to meet the heroine in hidden places that were away from the eyes of the public and their parents. Movies like Devdas showed the two heroines never meeting each other. The heroes were never seen dancing as well.


Now we have movies like Devdas and Bajirao Mastani where the two heroines not only meet each other but also dance to songs like Dola re Dola and Pinga ga pori pinga. It's quite cool, I must say. And then again we have Mohenjo Daro where the couple can meet anywhere without the fear of the public or her father. The heroes dance at Malhari and Mohen-jo-daro and their steps are way too modern. May be we don't know how modern and how fast they were in the BC era.

7. Horror and Suspense movies: Movies like Bees Saal Baad, Gumnaam, Woh Kaun Thi and songs like Kahi deep jale kahi dil and Gumnaam Hai Koi used to make horror movies seem way too scary and creepy. There were no graphics used then but the music used to give goose bumps where it was mainly a female walking in a white sari and holding a candle in her hand that was considered to be scary. I still don't get why white sari and a candle is considered scary and why did they consider females singing in a sad tone scary with the BG music as "aaa...aa....aaa."

Horror these days doesn't need a heroine walking with a white candle but we can see flies and animals taking their place. Like we have Khamoshiyan where a butterfly was shown to be possesed and Phoonk where the crow was the lead aka the horror element of the movie. No need of corpses when birds, insects and animals can be so scary.


8. Hero fighting with Villains: Earlier, the hero used to have a very tough time beating up the villains and they had to use all their body parts to defeat them. Climb on them, smash their heads, kick them and so on. If the villains have too many goons, the hero sheds his blood to fight them all.

Now why do we need the heroes doing all the hard work when technology is so advanced. In Dabanng and Rowdy Rathore, we can see that the hero just flies in the air and kicks almost 10-20 men in the air before he lands to the ground. His shirt just flies away and the villain starts trembling. This is super cool.

We don't even need villains these days where the heroes themselves do all the things needed by a villain. May it be Baazigar or Dhoom, the hero himself kills the good people and robs banks and then either dies in the end or redeems himself. Sometimes, viewers sympathize with the heroes as afterall they are the leads and look so handsome to be hated.

9. Love stories: The love stories in earlier days used to be emotional and sad most of the times and when we reached 1980s to 1990s, we had happy endings where the leads used to unite after fighting with their opposers, villains and parents. Movies were also named Daag: A Poem of Love and Ek Duuje Ke Liye. How romantic!


Now we have happy endings with movies but the stories are completely different. They mainly fight among themselves or not realizing they love each other and then finally unite. Parents permission is not even required as most movies don't even have the leads having any family. Example, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and Jab We Met. Also, movies these days have different names like Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. What has a toilet to do with a love story? May be they can show a love story with toilet paper rolls and the pot. Nobody knows.



So here I've listed the difference between the Bollywood then and now. You can also check the Seven Memorable On-Screen Brother Sister Jodis

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Goa - My Birthplace #WOW

Planning a trip 

I had never been to Goa until 2011 when I visited this beautiful state despite it being my birthplace. It was when me and my family were planning a trip and we had just 4 days that we could spend. I decided to visit Shimla but my mother said that we should visit our hometown, Goa. I was stunned at first but later I agreed to visit Goa and spend sometime. The fact that was making me unsure of my visit to Goa was the fact that it was summer and the heat in Goa would be a torture for us. Also, this state is polluted that was a matter of concern for me. It took us 2 weeks to decide on the hotel and the places we need to visit in Goa and when everything was finalized, we left for this state the next day.

The first step in Goa

The travel time was 14 hours and we finally had reached Goa via a private bus and the entire travel time was a pain wherein we had to sit in just one position and the seats too were uncomfortable. The hotel in Mapusa that we booked was away from the place the bus dropped us that made it even worse for me to like Goa. We checked in and the food served to us was Goan food but I kept comparing the taste to the taste of the food we get in Mumbai and my mother scolded me for being so nasty about everything in Goa.

Sea waves calling me

We went out in the morning the next day and I watched the city from my balcony and heard the sound of the silent sea communicating with me in its own way saying "Why Erika?...Why have you been away from me since all these years?...Why have you never even thought about seeing how I have been in the hope of seeing you one day?...Was it me being just an ordinary state or was I in no way appealing to you? You ancestors have lived a happy life here and have had a great respect for me, then what's stopping you, Erika? Did you never think about me at all?" Hearing these words brought tears to my eyes as I've been very rude to my own native place. How could I not even think about visiting my homeland? I was truly being heartless and that's what I realized when I came here. I was guilty and hence was taking out my frustration on everything and everybody who was near me.

This is the Photo that captured me which I clicked in Mapusa:

Watching Goa smile and hug me in its arms

It was similar to what I see in Mumbai but it was the first time I felt connected to this state, Goa. I don't know what was this feeling like but I just remembered how my grandparents and great-grandparents lived in this place all their life and were born and brought up in this land. This state is not just a piece of land for me but it's the land that's a part of me and it was calling me all these years whose voice I refused to hear. My hometown, my native place Goa wanted to make me a part of it and it kept reminding me that my ancestors have lived here and hence I need to respect that fact and visit this place to see how beautiful it is.

Watching my ancestor's house in ruins

The same day, we visited the place Assagao where my grand father owned a house but the house was nowhere to be seen. It had been ages since my parents visited this place and hence the house was in ruins with no trace at all. That made me really cry a lot and it hurt me that I never ever even tried to see the house of my grand-father and this factor would pinch me all my life.

The Goa market made me connect to myself as a Goan

We then checked the Goa market wherein people spoke to us in Konkani. It was so musical to my ears to hear so many people being able to speak my mother-tongue and it felt as it they were a part of my family. That's the magic of visiting a native place is what I told myself. As I kept checking out the market, all the sweets like bowl and bowlinia reminded me of how I used to grab these sweets when my mom used to bring with her from Goa when I was a kid. Gosh! I had missed so many things in my life and I just wished I had been there that time.

End of our trip

We kept visiting beaches in Goa and the last beach we visited was Calangute whose fresh air hugged me deeply into my thoughts and wrapped me around itself. The people, the atmosphere and the food that made me experience myself, talk in my mother tongue, make me eat pure Goan food and walk on a land that represents me, all made me feel so special and so proud of being a Goan and finally visiting Goa.


This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.