Bright 'n Shiny- The Write Way!

Help me win a Nexus 7! :D

2013-08-01T21:27:00.001+05:30

Title: Enter Brand New Google Nexus 7 16GB Giveaway

This is your chance to enter to win one of the brand new Google Nexus 7 (16GB) tablets that was just announced on July 24th and they began taking orders on July 30th. This tablet which has the best specs currently on the tablet market includes a 7.02” screen which has a 1920x1200 HD resolution which is an incredible 323 PPI.

Dual cameras now with a 1.2MP front facing and 5MP rear facing camera, the new Google Nexus 7 boasts up to 9 hours of active use battery life with it’s 3950mAh battery. It also has Qi compatible wireless charging built in.

Audio on the new Google Nexus 7 includes stereo speakers with surround sound, powered by Fraunhofer. The dual band Wi-Fi supports Wireless a/b/g/n but I would have loved to see Wireless a/c support which exists in the newest routers but client devices are still slow to support.

You also get:

microUSB
SlimPort™ enabled
3.5mm audio
Microphone
Power and Volume buttons

GPS
Gyroscope
Accelerometer
Compass
Ambient Light

The New Google Nexus 7 in spec is better than the iPad mini in nearly every way including double the pixel resolution, equal in camera quality, 4x as much built in memory and a vastly superior processor. At a price that is still $100 cheaper than the iPad mini.

Enter Now for your Chance to Win a Google Nexus 7

Thanks to the following sponsors Dragon Blogger, SBABZY, TechWalls, CravingTech, Techetron and The Game Technician we are able to co-host this giveaway and one lucky entrant will get a brand new Google Nexus 7 Tablet 16GB.

Win the Brand New Google Nexus 7 16GB

You can increase your odds of winning by sharing your custom link in the PromoSimple giveaway and convincing others to sign up with your referral link, up to 250 bonus entries can be gained this way. Also it is setup so you can tweet from the widget 1x per day so you can get 30 extra entries if you come back and tweet everyday from the widget (bookmark this site). Remember to do all of the entries, thank our sponsors and if you do write a blog post and become a co-host remember to leave the post URL as your entry validation. As an additional benefit if you choose to become a co-host you can win $50 cash for hosting the winning entry even if you don’t win (or that in addition if you do win).

This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere over the age of 18 where rules and restrictions apply. See contest rules for details, but if you live outside the U.S. you have a few options, one you can receive $229 cash via Paypal instead of the Google Nexus 7 due to the costs in shipping and limitations in shipping Internationally directly from Google’s site, you could gift it to someone else in the U.S. or if you are willing to pay for shipping I will order the Nexus 7 delivered to me and then ship the device Internationally to you as long as you are covering shipping costs. This will add time to the delivery as it has to ship to me and then ship overseas to you however.

Spring Cleaning: Letting go

2012-05-06T13:41:00.000+05:30

This is probably an extension of the previous post. Borders on the same subject.

In the quest for self definition, everything you think about, say, feel and want suddenly becomes super important. And you also learn that everything you're feeling is for a reason, and those reasons must be understood and not just shoved into the 'wrong' box.

This post is about letting go. Which is something I have great difficulty doing. I'm a hoarder and a clinger. I have the toughest time letting go of places, people and things. I have closets and drawers filled with things that I never use or even see for months but invariably have some inane emotional story that grants me the right to keep them. My Dad always makes fun of my 'emotional attachment' to things, inanimate as they may be. Our VCR, for example, which was the source of all the Disney magic that filled my childhood, is still given the respect of being kept right under the TV in the TV cabinet. As are all of our VHS tapes.

Coming to the reason I'm writing today. Letting go is sometimes equated with 'giving up' or not trying hard enough or just not caring enough. And these equations have led me to believe that letting go isn't something good friends, good owners, good sons and daughters do. I have no idea how and when these notions were planted in my head and, hence, have no reason to continue believing them today.

Ergo, I call for once-in-a-lifetime summer life cleaning. Starting now, I shall attempt to throw out all of the:
unsubstantiated reasoning, unnecessary emotional attachments, impractical theories and, last but in no way the least, drawer crap.

To letting go. Salute! (Cheers!)

Loyalty

2012-05-06T01:35:00.001+05:30

I've always been a fiercely loyal person. Like annoyingly stuck, almost. To relationships, brands, stores, people (i.e. those who may not have any relationship with me whatsoever), my country, offices I've worked in and basically anything that I can call my own. That's where it comes from too, I think. When you're an only child, claiming things and calling them you're own becomes a sort of a habit. Like hoarding And then everything else just comes in the packaged deal. Being over-possessive about friends, having ugly debates about your country and how awesome it is despite everything, defending your favourite brand even though you know that there is better stuff in the world.

Coming back to the point. This insane need to be loyal, I've realised, has caused me lots of unhappiness (not to mention the embarrassment it's caused those around me). I almost cried when I had to give up the object of my affection and the great source of pride that was my last Nokia. For the uninitiated (I love saying that like everything I feel is supposed to be some known Wiki concept!) I've been a Nokia fan and loyalist for as long as I can remember and there came a time when their phones just became irrelevant. (I may have moved on to an Android but a Nokia fan, I shall remain for ever.) Anyway, now that I'm almost 24 (oh dear God!), I think it's time to shake things up.

I consider loyalty to be an essential virtue. It shows character, strength to commit and dependability. But I've also come to realise that if it holds you back from being happy, it isn't loyalty. It's just you being stubborn and clingy, really. And hence, it is time. Time to change, to put logic before antiquated sentiment and let faith and the hope for happiness conquer the fear of loss.

.....Just keep swimming (With a little help from my friends!)

2012-04-03T22:16:00.000+05:30

I like to call myself an optimist. And mostly succeed in justifying the title. 'Glass half full, better luck next time, everything happens for a reason, just listen to a great song, but it smells great!' and many, many more are phrases you'll hear coming from me very often. And I do, really, truly believe in all of it! People who know me not so closely will always know me as 'that girl who's always smiling' but the ones closer are those who've seen the dark side. It does exist, yes.

I've recently discovered, in the past year or so, that with optimism comes a certain sense of impracticality and recklessness which I'd learnt to accept about myself over the years. I mean who can be a realist and love the rains? Especially if you live in Delhi, there's more to hate about the season than there is to love. Coming back to the point, (*goes back up the paragraph to remind forgetful self*) I've always been slightly impractical and stuck to the belief that there is something good hidden in everything that happens to you. But this past year has brought days and even weeks of me finding it tough to stick to my guns. Like I said, only the poor, really close friends and family get to experience the ugliness of the dark side and are bombarded with depressing e-mails and texts, are subjected to phones not being answered and mostly are forced to spend time with (if they wish to) a terribly mopey, glum person. And nothing anyone says could get me out of those days, obviously, cos I'm usually the person saying those very things. I'm a really fun person when I'm happy. I bake, bring good music and awesome technology to people's lives and am just, in general, chirpy. (humility is obviously not one of my best virtues) Which is why most people around me are in a total mud-puddle when I'm bummed.

The reason I'm writing all of this random gyaan about myself, is because I'm a) trying to cheer myself up b) attempting to rekindle my love for blogging c) just need to vent to nobody and d) THERE IS AN UPSIDE! So, what I realized, 5 minutes ago, is that within this entire process I've also been able to sift my awesome, super-close, must-hold-on-to-till-life-ends friends from the friends-till-I'm-chirpy category. And that is a major upside for a person whose everyday happiness depends mostly on the people around her.

And so, this is a shout-out (I don't usually like saying that but it is what it is) to my friends who called frantically, bombarded me with weirdo smileys, created pep-talks that would get through my thick head, were the calming voice on the phone, asked me to listen to 'raindrops keep falling on my head', sent me inspiring links, humored my randomness and just plain stuck around. I promise to send each one of you awesome cupcakes as soon as things get better, which I'm sure they will. (If you received a link to this blog in any form, congratulations! You will be invited to my wedding and be part of all of the good lists in my life.)

As for the rest, I have lists. And I keep grudges. Just you wait :P

Being a grown up.

2011-06-06T18:12:00.000+05:30

I've been surprising myself this past month. I've realized a lot of new things about myself just by spending so much time with, well, myself. And it's quite fun, honestly. I'm an out-and-out people's person and whenever I meet someone, I want to know everything about them and I put a lot of time and effort and getting to know people and figuring out what they're about. And I really enjoy the process! So this month, was about meeting 22-year old me.

Embarrassing as it may be, one of the things I realized were that my optimism tends to border on sillyness and impracticality. My restaurant plans, for example, have been deferred to 5 or maybe even 10 years from now and resilience demands that I make my peace with that and I have. The cooking and baking, however, shan't stop even though only friends and family may be subjected to it. So, just to let everyone know, the restaurant isn't happening yet and I'm fine :)

To justify the title of the post, this whole process of putting my dream on hold and making decisions that were tough, to say the least, has made me re-prioritize and really think about what I want and what path I've been on all my life.

My idea of growing up, however, isn't the conventional definition. Like a friend recently said, 'growing up is over-rated'. I agree. And which is why I suggest none of us take it as seriously as we do. I have a life plan. A picture of how I see myself 5-6 years from now, and every decision I make today and in the near future, should logically lead me to that picture. That's where the grown-up-ness ends. Growing up doesn't mean not having fun, not taking risks, not being who we really are. One of my closest friends in the world keeps telling me, 'you can't plan out your whole life on paper', and it's true. There is such a thing as destiny, luck and things being 'meant to be'.

Anyhow, the point of this post was to try to pen (or type) down my mental-state which is clearly super muddle-headed. But I shall soon emerge with some clarity. Till then, I'm really enjoying this phase.

I have a dream

2011-05-09T13:11:00.000+05:30

You know how when you really, really want something, it seems that the entire universe is sending you signals that it's gonna happen? I've always wanted a restaurant/cafe of my own and it was a dream that I'd postponed, even for consideration, to 10ish years from now. And then the universe (or the optimist inside me) worked its magic!

I graduated from college (PG, not grad), and had some time on my hands and everyone around me suddenly seemed to be talking about businesses all the time. One of my best friends is reading 'The Secret' and is sure that if you keep believing that your dream will come true and keep saying it out loud- the universe will hear your prayers. She sends me a quote from the book everyday and they totally make sense! It's like horoscopes in the papers, it feels like the quote is about me, about my issues and about what was bothering me on that day. The book also says “The law of attraction says like attracts like. ... The law of attraction is giving you what you are thinking about. It is working all the time. What we do is we attract into our lives the things we want, and that is based on what we’re thinking and feeling.” It's a really simple, sweet thought and easy to implement, too.

Then, another really close friend sent me this:

Again, it felt like this was ABOUT my dilemma.I had to do something about this. So, I started a facebook page and have only received words of encouragement, as of now.

Then, there were ads about SME loans on TV, success and not-so-success stories about cafes showing up randomly on my Google searches, and just a lot of 'signs' that I thought the universe was sending me.

So, now, I've decided to prepone my dream. I don't have a business plan, a place, a chef or a bank account filled with money but I do really want to do this. And even though I know that businesses shouldn't be started out of love, but I'm not going to stop wishin' and hopin'. I'm trying to work out the logistics, and will hopefully see them through. My best friend, who lives in Bombay, and has always been the force of practicality and logic in my life, has decided to take on the tough role of the 'skeptic' and honestly, it feels like we've got it all covered.

With dreams in my eyes, shiny-ness in my heart, lots and lots of fear in my mind and the will to work really hard on this, I've decided to give this a real shot.

To everyone who's reading this, if there's any way you can help or if there are any suggestions that you have, please let me know.

23 Things to Do Before 23

2011-04-09T14:43:00.000+05:30

I've recently been hearing, thinking and talking (A LOT!) about how I don't act my age. I'm 22 and don't really do the run-of-the-mill crazy things that others my age do. Some like to kid, that I was born a 35 year old. The issue is not that I regret being like this, it actually, really doesn't bother me. I like it this way :)

So, I'm turning 23 in 4 months and 10 days, and 23 is quite grown up! To make it a more fruitful birthday, than others (even though I love birthdays and the celebration(s) really need no substantiation) I've decided to make a list of things that I want to get done before my birthday. A list of 23, to be precise. They may not be your everyday, regular 22-yr old's resolutions. But, like I said, I'm not a regular 22-year old, hence the difference in priorities and modes of fun. Suggestions welcome, though :)

23 THINGS TO DO BEFORE 23

1. Visit a gorgeous beach

2. Read at least 10-15 books [that I've never read before]

3. Take lots of gorgeous pictures, and start a photo-blog.

4. Put my love for fashion, to use.

5. Start REALLY working out and lose weight by then.

6. Do a photo shoot with friends

7. Do something that is outside of my comfort zone.

8. Learn how to play the guitar

9. Start a scrapbook for my restaurant and have a tentative POA

10. Start investing

11. Give mom and dad at least 3 reasons to be super proud.

12. Pay more attention to myself

13. Hug my parents 1,000 times

14. Buy more pretty dresses and bags.

15. Watch classics (viz. The Godfather Movies)

16. Learn how to cook more stuff

17. Volunteer at People for Animals

18. Dance A LOT

19. Start playing a sport

20. Have an awesome party (pre-birthday)

21. Make everyone I love, feel loved.

22. Go back to being an impractical present-giver

23. Dance and laugh. Everyday.

BlogLovin'

2011-04-08T18:47:00.001+05:30

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Cricket ka jod hai, tootega nahi!

2011-04-03T14:43:00.000+05:30

Last night was an epic bright and shiny moment. For every single Indian, in every corner of the world. It was a celebration like no other, and one that bound us all together, into one huge ecstatic, delirious, hysterically happy bunch of people. Every time our national anthem is sung before a match, the country stands up in respect, and hope for a win. The hearts and souls of the country's men, women and children, are temporarily transferred into the bodies of those 11 men in the stadium. Cricket brings our country together, like nothing else can, or ever will.

I remember feeling super-patriotic, in tears really, while watching the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games last year. After all the scams, and mishaps, it was a proud, proud moment to be part of a country that put forward such a brilliant show. But this is just a whole new feeling. We live in epic times, a friend said. We do. April 2, 2011, will be one of those days we talk to our grandkids about.' Those were the days, people danced on streets, celebrities came out, and cricket wasn't just a sport', we'll say.

Someone tweeted, all of this started when a bengali man took his shirt off and waved at from the pavilion at Lords. That IS when it started. It's been a journey, that we're all so, so lucky to have been a part of. I spoke to cousins in London, who wanted to burst crackers but didn't have any, while experiencing a heart-felt Diwali, one with so much more spirit, passion and just pure happiness than the original festival. Spoke to friends who were in the middle of traffic jams in Bombay, and so, so, so happy to be.

I write this today, so that years later, I can relive this feeling that I'm dreading will go away soon, once Monday blues and Tuesday woes get the best of us. And I urge everyone who's reading this, to keep the love for the country, and that fire in our bellies alive so that we become capable of, if not recreating, trying to live a life that doesn't just make us, our families and friends proud but the country that we love and adore, proud too.

The Return of the Cynic

2011-03-26T22:36:00.000+05:30

So I'm an out-and-out optimist, and have always opposed the forces of the-'the world's ending in 2010', 'what's the point, we'll all die anyway', 'there's no such thing as love', type of conversation. I like to look at the up-side, it helps keep me going. What struck me today was, that even though we're evolving to become a world that's super-connected, solution-oriented and mostly sorted (at least at the surface), pop-culture (only talking about films today) suggests that we're becoming more and more cynical by the day.

Bollywood, is a perfect example of our mammoth cynicism. For example, Biwi No. 1 (1999) was a movie about infidelity. For the uninitiated (shameful!) Salman Khan plays the role of an unfaithful husband who has an affair with a supermodel (Sushmita Sen) because his wife (Karisma Kapoo/ur) is too involved with the family. Cut to 7 years later, and there's Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, another film about infidelity. I'd rather not explain the plot of the film, because even though it was a realistic movie, and was equally loved and hated, it was just so NOT what Bollywood is supposed to be. Family dramas, another beloved genre that has seen amazing successes like Hum Apke Hain Kaun and even K3G, have now become non-existent. Karan Johar has moved from happy-soppy (Kuch Kuch, K3G) to bummed-dumbed (We are Family (PUKE!), MNIK). The ugliness-spear didn't spare love stories either. Gone are the days when the girl's father, religion or another suitor played villians, it's all about confusion, identity crises (suicidal couples, even), and independence, now. Cases in point- Break Ke Baad, I Hate Luv Storys (that was not easy to type), Anjaana Anjaani and the likes.

Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against realistic cinema. I'm all for it, really! I love a good, serious, meaningful film. Chak De, Swades, Rang De Basanti- all brilliant films. The idea is to take the audience to a different world, involve them in the character's problems and the solution and end with an ending that leaves them happy, optimistic, and somewhat inspired. There's enough sadness and ugliness in the world as it is. I prefer the Maine Pyar Kiya to the sequel with the 'kyun' in the middle. Also, I'm not a big slapstick comedy fan, either. I can't stand Akshay Kumar and don't even get me started on those 'multi-starrers'.

I'm a strong believer that it's the entertainment industry's responsibility to blind the sadness with the bright and shininess that only comes from dreamy, happy endings with gorgeous people. I would go into TV (from Hum Log to Hum Paanch to Balika Vadhu), but this may just get a little too long/dull/boringgg,

Some would argue that the industry gives people what they want. Maybe. But then Dabangg was the highest grosser last year, and was loved by people from all kinds of social strata and varied tastes in films. 3 Idiots, the second highest grosser, was also one of those inspiring, follow your own path-type movie. Why did people (I) love Band, Baaja, Baraat? 'Cos the thought of weddings and young kids following their dream and falling in love, automatically take you to another world. A happy, disconnected place where everything is new. (even though I was so happy that Ankushka didn't get pregnant after all the love-making. Some changes are good!) This movie deserves a separate post, though. So more on that later. The key point here being, people are looking for happiness, there just isn't enough of it available. And the bad stuff, is easier to spot and absorb.

The world's getting scarier, darker and more and more cynical everyday. If all of us take a pledge to blind the darkness, intimidate the scary and kill the cynic, I just think it'll make life simpler for everyone (no matter how little of 'life' we have left).

Realm of Reality- Bubbles

2011-03-17T18:17:00.000+05:30

My favorite thing to write and think about are these little, odd, patterns that I come across everyday- in the behavior of people around me, in the way I prioritize things in auto-pilot, etc. What came to my mind today, while sitting in a class about De Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats', was how we create these invisible bubbles around us for comfort, comprehension and sometimes just by default when we're in a 'phase'.

For example, babies have basic needs and their bubbles are tiny. Them and food, them and their toy, them and their pretty little bed. When we reach school and have crushes, our bubble exists around us and the 'crushed'. The rest of the world just doesn't exist. There is no bigger picture. All that matters is the two of you. Wherever in class he/she is sitting, is where all your concentration is focussed at.

Once you grow up, the bubble gets bigger, and bigger and bigger. Friends and family enter, society enters, work enters and then comes life and all its glorious mini-bubbles. The second we leave school, things just go on getting macro-er. Today, I found my mind wandering, thinking of relationships, my career, the way I think, the way businessed function, countries are governed and so on, when the professor spoke of the various kind of hats. I'm pretty sure, if this was school, or if I had a crush on someone in class, all the hats and everything they stood for, would relate back to that person and my relationship with him, or even if in college (graduation, that is) it would've made me think of my friends or how we function as a group or maybe even life after college- still super micro.

The key idea being, that as we grow up, our bubbles should naturally get larger so that we can make decisions keeping EVERYTHING in mind. This may make life more complex but such is evolution. If the bubble isn't growing, there's something wrong.If you can't relate to a hat, if your thoughts don't come in the way of 'important' stuff, if your mind doesn't wander, if you aren't constantly realizing something new about yourself, be it good or bad, you need to blow some air into your bubble.

I'm optimistic, yellow hat-ted, consistent, indecisive, attached, averse to loneliness and drastic change, treasure relationships.. and the list gets longer every single day. My bubble is an okay size, I feel. Not as big as some people around me, but big enough for me and my thoughts. Even though, some of my friends dream of changing the world, and I look up to them, I only dream of changing my own and making it bright and shiny :)

Pretty Words

2011-02-26T22:12:00.000+05:30

This is is just something I read while looking for options for a name for a Boutique Hotel that we needed to create for a Marketing assignment in college. It's just so pretty, I couldn't resist but share.

I love smooth words, like gold-enamelled fish
 Which circle slowly with a silken swish,
 And tender ones, like downy-feathered birds:
 Words shy and dappled, deep-eyed deer in herds,
 Come to my hand, and playful if I wish,
 Or purring softly at a silver dish,
 Blue Persian kittens fed on cream and curds.
 
 I love bright words, words up and singing early;
 Words that are luminous in the dark, and sing;
 Warm lazy words, white cattle under trees;
 I love words opalescent, cool, and pearly,
 Like midsummer moths, and honied words like bees,
 Gilded and sticky, with a little sting.
 
- Elinor Wylie

My time of the day

2011-02-14T19:32:00.000+05:30

No matter what kind of a day it's been, when the sun starts setting, the sky becomes an odd orange-ish blue and the sun becomes this odd flood light hitting everything at this odd angle- it always makes me smile.

It happens around 4-5ish everyday (depending on which part of the year it is) and I've always wondered why, just looking at everything around me- the trees, cars, people, dogs on the street, everything- gives me this funny, happy feeling that only brilliant rom-coms, Bublè/Legend music, or a super-mush book is capable of. The songs on the radio become background music to the rush of over-optimistic, almost movie-like thoughts in my mind. The photographer inside me comes alive, and I wish my eyes were fitted with a DSLR, or that I could just jump out of my car and walk. Smile, sing, and walk.

I've never understood why just the way the sun hits things around me, can make me so purely happy. Maybe it's because the time of the day reminds of the days in school when 4 o'clock used to be time to go out and play. Maybe it's about how picturesque everything looks. Or maybe just because that's usually how it looks when the heroine, in most rom-coms, has realized what the right thing to do is/who her dream man is/she's in LOVE and walks smiling away to glory on a sidewalk. I'm yet to figure out what exactly it is, but who minds random spurts of caramel-y happiness :)

The World and Mine.

2010-03-23T16:46:00.000+05:30

We measure the world with co-ordinates. These are basically a horizontal and vertical line intersecting at a point- our destination. Our world, or at least mine, reads co-ordinates as people. And the expanse of my world is measured as the distance between me and 'my people'. You can look at it as this invisible blanket almost (not necessarily square) with every edge being stuck to a person's head, in some corner of the world.

It's kinda sad, when friends and family live far away from each other, but it's also a gift, if you're the glass half full kinds. It forces you to move out of your comfortable little city, and become aware about the weather, the politics, the hang outs and the air fare (to and fro) of various places around the country, and world. That's just it. We aren't far away from each other, the world has just become a little bigger. So relatively, the distance increases.

This isn't an out of the blue observation of an idle mind. One of my people is moving to Bombay, and I'm forced, for the sake of my absolutely-can't-live-without class of a relationship, to be all logic supported optimistic about this. This person used to be my neighbor AND we were in the same college for three years, so yea, distance doesn't really come naturally to us. Coming back to the point, I wonder if this holds true for everyone. Or am I over-obsessive? Would you really care about a fire in Bangalore, if your cousin didn't live there?

It's been a while since I've written, and this is probably only making sense to me, considering where it's being written (my head and my office being cases in point). Glad have re-started :)