#TalesOf2015 - As it comes to an end...

2015 was a very special year for me and I would like to describe it in 3 phases and highlight the few facts that changed my life through the phases.

First Phase (January - April):

This phase was pleasant and fresh as the start of the year for me always comes up with new challenges and tasks but 2015 was the start to many new things in my life. During this phase, I celebrated my grand aunt's birthday who turned 91 and she is the senior most member of our family.

This was the time when we celebrated Easter at our place and it was a great moment as our family members visited our place after years as they live abroad and we rarely meet each other. This was the most special moment of 2015 and we spent lots of happy and emotional moments with each other.

Second Phase (May-August):




This was the phase of new things as during this phase, I got a new job and received  a new iPhone as well. This was the most exciting phase of my life as it came as a surprise and new challenges. I was excited to join my new company and meet new people. It did take time for me to settle but I did it quite easily and got along with all my colleagues. My new iPhone too was a gift I received and it was the first ever Apple product I owned and had always been dreaming about owning one. I still use this device and I am craving for new Apple devices after using their iPhone.

Third Phase (September - December):






The last and the best phase of my life. During this phase, my cousin gave birth to a new baby and the small child brought in a new life in the family. With this, I attended Win15 and had a great experience meeting stars like Mandira Bedi and Tara Sharma at the event and I met new bloggers too who shared their blogs and areas of interest with me. Since it was my first ever visit to Marriot, I had a lot of fun attending the event. The speaker was quite funny and sportive and I will always cherish the memories I spent with the Blogadda team. Towards the end of the year, I got a bonus from my job and had a great time shopping and checking out the latest devices launched in the tech world.



I’m sharing my #TalesOf2015 with BlogAdda.

I support #KnowYourRights initiative....Do you?

Moving ahead and after discussing points like awareness, prevention and punishment, I would like to highlight few more facts that are either ignored or not given much importance when it comes to the safety of women. Here in this post I would throw light on the main reasons as to why should women come ahead and report these crimes. They should know that it's their right and not be afraid of the society.

Laws can be strengthened: By reporting the cases of sexual violence, women can actually help other women from getting targeted and assaulted. By reporting such cases, the laws can be rethought upon and by raising their voice and being vocal about their experience, the necessary steps can be taken to reduce these crimes from taking place again. When such cases are reported, they do get the necessary media attention and the Government is forced to implement the necessary steps and be more concerned about women protection. If we take an example of the Nirbhaya case, it spread more awareness and got attention due to which there were many sections that were added for women safety and the fast track courts made this case get a verdict in a short time. Laws need to change and only reporting these cases would bring in a strong impact in our legal system else keeping quite would make the ongoing cases more weaker.

To reduce your fear: When the cases of sexual violence are reported, it helps the victim to have some faith and fight for her right against the criminal. The more these incidents are reported, the more criminals would think before attempting such a cruel thing. It will indeed improve the conditions and safety for women and make them get rid of their fear. Since there are many working women who travel late at night, the more these incidents come are spoken about, the more working women can be alert and learn about their vicinity. If such crimes are reported, they can learn what steps they need to take while traveling and what they need to avoid while working late night or in the day.


People work together: Reporting crimes against women would bring in a safer environment for women and make people work together and try to prevent such incidents from taking place. People would try to find reasons for these crimes and then educate the males in their homes and teach them to respect every women. The more this word spreads, the more people would be careful in life and protect themselves. People would take the reported cases as an example and learn what they should do to stop these incidents from repeating. It alarms the people and tells them the reality of their place which makes them take even more care in future.

I’m writing this blog post to support Amnesty International’s#KnowYourRights campaign at BlogAdda. You can also contribute to the cause by donating or spreading the word.

Stop Violence....Stand for yourself

Violence against women has been a major concerning issue in India and its been alarming everyone. Not only women but even men are concerned for the women in their family and they want to know ways to stop these incidents from taking place. So many people are still hesitant to report these incidents due to the society but I have always been supportive of reporting these crimes are keeping quite indirectly favors these incidents and saves the culprit. Here are my reasons for reporting incidents of sexual violence.

1. Prevent these incidents: By reporting the incidents of sexual violence, these incidents can be atleast prevented (if not stopped in future). These incidents keep taking place as the culprits feel that the girl may not report it due to the fear of her name being leaked but this makes the culprit keep repeating his crime and escaping from the punishment. These incidents are on a rise today as almost 70% incidents aren't reported unless they happen in public or they are big incidents. Due to this, villages are more prone to these crimes as they aren't reported but if one person comes out and reports the incident, others too would follow the same and these incidents can be prevented.

2. Criminal should be punished: Often people think that they might have done wrong and hence they were a victim to such incidents. The society also use to blame the victims instead and hence the criminals used to be able to roam freely. Today the society also has changed their views and criminals are punished severely for these crimes. By reporting them, there is a chance that they will get punished and other girls will be saved. If one criminal gets punished, the others who dare to do such shameless and sinful acts would restrict themselves and be afraid of the punishment, with the end result being that these crimes would reduce.

3. Awareness: The more these incidents are reported, the more people will be aware that these incidents can take place with anyone and can happen everywhere. More precautions can be taken and people will realize that sexual assault isn't a shameful thing for the girl but it's a shameful thing for the male who commit such crimes. The women will be aware that they need to step forward and defend themselves and hence reporting these issues will spread awareness and make people be more careful with the males in their surroundings.

I am really proud to write this blogpost and I salute Blogadda for taking this initiative and bringing it to the notice that these crimes should never be hidden but should be reported as we need to protect the females of our country and make them proud of being a WOMAN.

I’m writing this blog post to support Amnesty International’s#KnowYourRights campaign at BlogAdda. You can also contribute to the cause by donating or spreading the word.

Review of Oriflame's Wellness App

I logged on to the app once today. I first checked the overall look and features of this application. After installing the app, I created a new account by entering my email ID and password and logged into my account. I found three tabs at the top: (1) Day, (2) Week and (3) Month and 5 tabs at the bottom: (1) Home, (2) Social, (3) Add (Exercise, Wellbeing, Nutrition, Supplements, (4) Trophies and (5) Settings. It was easy to navigate through the app and familiarize with the features. I read the About Wellnesslife+ page which gave me the complete information I was looking out for. I first added my exercise details: walking and I earned 25 points. I published the details. I added my Wellbeing by clicking the Happiness, Sleep Status and Stress Level options and saved my entry for the day. It earned me 19 points. I added the food I ate during the day like less fatty food and less oily food and I earned 19 points for the same. I was not sure as to what to enter in the Supplement option as I am not using any pack. I earned a total of 63 points.


Walking set to 45 minutes, Cycling, Ball sports?

The pros of the app:

1. The app was easy to browse and I could understand the features as well.
2. The app lets a person login through their facebook account as well.
3. I am able to add people from my Friends list of FB via the Social tab.


The cons of the app:

1. I could not get the options mentioned on the Supplement page.
2. In the Leaderboard tab, only my entry was visible. I am not sure if the app can show me results of others as well who have earned more points than I have.
3. The app lets me like my own entry and comment on it which is not appropriate. The option should be disabled for the same user.
4. The options available in the Wellbeing tab do not mention the percentage of Happiness selected.
5. There are very few options given in the Exercise tab. For example, cycling is not given as an option and there is an option Ball Sports which many do not practise. It would be better if one could add their own exercise and assign points to it. Also, walking option has self assigned 45 minutes while I walked only for 30 minutes. There can be a certain number of points assigned to a person who has walked for lesser time.
6. Details about nutrional food is mentioned in the Nutrition tab. It would be better if the option would mention as to what food contains how many calories and connect with the internet if a person choses a food item not mentioned in the database of the app and self enter the number of calories. For example, if a person enters fish, the app would research via the internet and enter 5 calories and so on.
7. The app crashed twice after 30 minutes of using the same.


Suggestions:

1. The app has a great design but it could be more colorful when it comes to one adding the Exercise as an entry.
2. Each option like Walking, Running, etc. could be assigned a different and unique color.
3. Images of food products could be used in the Nutrional tab. The Home page as well can be customized for users.

A dream app - Google Salong Kart

This is my dream app:


Google would introduce an online beauty application which can be made available via the Google Play store. The beauty products would be having the Google prefix like Google gloss (lipgloss), Google varnish (nail varnish), Google eyecare (eye cream), and so on. This application will have payment options like Google wallet, Payback, PayPal, Net banking and COD.

The experience would be like purchasing any product from an online shopping portal and since Google is a trusted and royal brand, the products would have a branded mark and have a quality assurance. They would provide with 24/7 customer service and the shipment would be fast to ensure quick delivery and customer satisfaction.

Other beauty products offer similar services while Google has been offering play store applications and this application would be having the Google mark over it which makes it more reliable and trusted. Google is the most popular brand all over so purchasing a product with the Google trademark gives an assurance that the product is worth the price.

Things to avoid #SoftestForBabySkin

After giving few tips on how to keep the baby's skin soft and healthy, I will be listing few facts that should be taken care of while taking care of a baby. Here are those facts:

1. Do not use talcum powder: It is often shown in ads that parents should apply talcum powder on the skin of the baby to keep it smooth and make the baby smell fresh. However, the baby's skin doesn't need powdering at all. The reason is that the skin of the baby is too tender and soft that it just needs to be oiled and parents can apply cream on the skin to keep it soft and smooth while powder can be inhaled by the baby and it can cause harm to the health of the baby which is dangerous.

2. Avoid the sun: Babies often feel cranky when they are exposed to the sun or the sun rays hit their skin. It is advised to not make the baby come indirect contact of the heat and sun rays as it may cause sun burns on the tender skin of the baby. Even if the baby is protected with the help of an umbrella or hat, the baby can still be affected by the sun rays and hence it is better to not make the baby come in contact with the sun for atleast 6-7 months.

3. Bathe the baby for only 5 minutes: It does happen that when parents bathe the baby, they tend to keep the baby's skin exposed to water for a long time which can harm the baby's skin and this fact is not commonly known. The skin of the baby is very soft and sensitive and if the skin is exposed to soap water for a long time, it can cause an irritation on the skin which is a matter of concern. Hence after 5 minutes pass by, wash the baby's body clean and apply a moisturizer or cream to make the baby's skin remain soft and unaffected by the soap.

4. Take care while massaging: Sometimes parents may be a bit too fast while massaging the baby or may apply oil on one side of the baby's skin to make the skin soft but it can instead cause an irritation on the skin which needs to be avoided. Massaging should be done equally in all directions so that the skin remains tender and soft.

5. Sunscreen: It is necessary to apply sunscreen to those parts of the baby's body that are not covered by the clothes. Applying a lot of cream can cause rashes and when the baby is taken out during sunny hours, make sure the baby's eyes don't come in contact with the sun as the eyes can be affected too.



Pampers brings you the softest ever Pampers Premium Care Pants. Its cotton-like softness is #SoftestForBabySkin and allows it to breathe, thus keeping baby’s skin soft and healthy, and your baby happy. 

Tips for keeping the baby's skin soft #SoftestForBabySkin

Tips to keep the baby's skin soft:

1. Keep the baby's skin hydrated: When a baby is small, the skin is very sensitive, delicate and soft due to which it needs to get proper hydration. It is necessary to bathe the baby with warm water only as cold water can cause an irritation and most baby's do not like cold water for bath. It is necessary to check the temperature and then bathe the baby for about 5 minutes and then wipe the baby clean with a soft towel to keep the baby's skin hydrated.

2. Oiling the baby: The tender skin of the baby needs to get the proper nutrition so that it remains soft and healthy. For this, it is necessary to oil the baby so that its skin remains soft and nourishment. The skin of babies is very tender and delicate and for proper blood circulation, it is necessary to massage the baby with baby oil atleast once in 2-3 days.

3. Use soft cloth/material: Sometimes parents tend to use rough cloths while wiping the baby or use a material to cover the baby that causes skin rashes or irritates the baby making it cry often. It is necessary to choose a material that is extremely soft or if rashes are caused in spite of using a soft material, it is better to apply cream that can cure the rashes and consult the doctor if it happens often.

4. Diapers: It is necessary to use diapers that are very soft on the skin of the baby. Usually parents use cloth diapers as they believe that the diapers soak well and make the baby feel comfortable but the cloth diapers can cause rashes on the skin and make the baby feel cranky at times. Applying lotion on the skin often doesn't help as the skin become dry and it loses its tenderness. It is necessary to use diapers that are soft and have a good absorption capacity so that the skin of the baby remains dry and healthy for hours.


5. Detergent to wash clothes: This fact is often skipped as parents usually use the detergents that they use to wash other clothes as well but it is very important that the detergent used to wash baby clothes should be selected carefully. Whether it is the blanket, bedsheet or pillow case of the baby, every cloth needs to be washed well with a detergent that does not make it lose the softness and the baby's skin doesn't get affected by the cloth.

Pampers brings you the softest ever Pampers Premium Care Pants. Its cotton-like softness is #SoftestForBabySkin and allows it to breathe, thus keeping baby’s skin soft and healthy, and your baby happy.