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.