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Monday, June 30, 2014

The innocent gurus

For my next post on Parentous, I came up with this topic "Infinite Infant wisdom". I just started to write how kids are more intelligent than adults and I ended with a whole list of surprising ten points. By the end of my writing streak, I realized how much enlightened I am, all because of my daughter. Here is a short snippet from the article:


It is an interesting topic. Please visit the page here, if you want to know how you can learn from infants :)





Saturday, June 28, 2014

A long way to go...

Here are 2 versions of my free verse, I wrote for my
dear uncle on the occasion of his retirement. Living life-King size is his mantra of life and I feel these lines befit him well.

Good Luck Chacha, as you unveil a new chapter in your life!


Friday, June 20, 2014

Precious Reminders - Chronicles of an IT Momma

"Is this to remind yourself that you have to go home early?", my teammate asked me pointing to the wallpaper on my desktop. I have set a cute picture of Pihu as my wallpaper. In a team of around 20 people, only I have the unique role of being an IT mother. In fact, we are just 2 mothers in our Indian Department. There are many fathers, though.

The other day I told Mr. H that while I am at office doing work I often think about Pihu. I often wonder whether she's sleeping now or playing, whether she has done her breakfast or lunch, or whether she's missing me. Though I know she's with the best people in the world still sometimes it gives me guilt of leaving her for so many hours in her toddling years. I asked him if he gets the same thoughts. Mr. H responded saying 'No'. He went ahead advising me to concentrate on work and not to worry about her during office hours. It is not that he's not as concerned for Pihu as me. He cares for her a lot and is the best father any kid can have. If he comes to know while in office that she needs him he'll rush back to her in no time. Hence, I realized fathers and mothers have different sort of association with babies. Both care for their children but with different tendency. I can describe it for mothers, being one. The 9 months of carrying someone in womb definitely leaves deeper connection.

I explained Mr. H that though I do concentrate on work but it is next to impossible for me to forget about her. She is always there in my thoughts no matter how busy I am. Being the only mother in my team, my mind works differently than others. So there is this constant juggle. I feel like saving time wherever I can so that I can finish my days task and rush back to be with her. I value my time more than others because it is very precious. But I cannot go ahead every time telling hey, let’s finish our tasks in 9 hours, let’s be efficient and not waste time during team meetings, or sessions as I have a daughter. People understand when I tell them if I have some urgency. But not every day!

"No, this is not to remind myself", I told my colleague. "This picture is to remind people around me that I have a bigger duty to fulfill apart from the work here - to be with her in time".



Sunday, June 15, 2014

My Jabong.com Experience

With a full day job @ office and being a mommy keeps me on my toes 24/7. Shortage of time has led me to be an avid fan of optimal usage of resources. Since I live in the IT capital of India, work in an IT company and married to an internet junkie, I have always been familiar with internet shopping. However being the lazy bum I am, and having a full time accomplice who takes care of mundane and important things like bill payment, grocery, banking, etc, I never bothered myself with internet shopping. I could definitely see the convenience and time saved when loads of groceries used to arrive at the doorstep, or when stuff for my darling daughter used to be delivered from time to time, courtesy Mr. H's online shopping spree. In my opinion, packaged things which do not require stuff to be "experienced" or "felt" were the right things to be bought online. For everything else, while I was aware there were multiple options available, I was not sure if it made sense to buy online. So even for urgent shopping I would make time-consuming trips to the mall.

To Mr. H dismay, my online endeavors were primarily restricted to social media excursions and my venture in writing (this blog). So when I got an invite from Jabong to do a site review, I was pleasantly surprised. And I said to myself, why not! I conveyed back to them that my review will purely be based on my experience which was never a problem for Jabong!

Also, Mr. H did have a previous experience with Jabong in their infancy days which was certainly an interesting one (what he bought could not be delivered, but Jabong compensated for that very well  with Jabong coupon code and an apology gift - but that story is for some other day).

Anyways, so name Jabong was not unfamiliar to me with this previous experience and their catchy ads. So here was the first step in the process staring at me -

"What to buy"
When I accepted the review request, I thought I would pick a piece of clothing randomly and see how it goes. With this intent when I visited Jabong, boy I was in for a surprise. Jabong homepage is unassuming. Simple menu navigation with well defined categories, but without all that jazz which will dazzle your eyes. While my intent was to look for a top for myself, I could not resist every women's temptation to have a glance at their shoe collection. :)

"Navigation"
Good sub-menus made it easy to navigate and I liked their feature of saving items (which works even without logging). The perpetual scroll which avoids having to click on page links was also a good experience. What I particularly liked was how the site was organized in helping the user pick a thing s/he likes.

"Offerings"
After a good amount of time spent in lusting over many shoes, an amused Mr. H brought me back to senses by asking if I decided what to buy. Well I said, yes and no. Yes that I liked many options, but no, my shoe browsing had made me thirsty to explore other offerings - apparel, jewellery and accessories.

"Performance"
Next hour was spent in browsing, filtering and checking their cloths collection. I liked that product page had category bread crumbs to help me jump back to any parent category. The reviews, size chart, shipping info - all were in the right place. However, I felt that they still needed to improve their video buffering and availability of video for all the products. I like the idea, but video was slow to load and was not available on all products. Further, it launched at full volume which was not good as I was browsing while my daughter was sleeping in the same room! I tried 2 videos, both did not run properly the first time. Also I felt that site was more responsive when I was scrolling down to see more products, but the individual product page was relatively slow to load.

Realizing (like he always does) that I will not be able to make up my mind, Mr H suggested me why don't I buy something for our daughter. I instantly jumped at the idea and decided to buy a top or two for her. He also suggested me to choose few daily wear items rather than 1 costly dress as it will be easier to compare with other similar stuff we buy from other stores.

"Shopping"
So here I went to kids clothing category. With easy navigation and handy sorting feature, I was able to pick few items. I showed them to Mr. H and we made our final choices. Stock alert that one of our item was low on stock with only 1 piece helped us to choose rather quickly :) Adding to cart was super easy. What I liked even more that I was not required to create an account to place the order. Standard address and payment steps put me through no surprise and my order was placed.


"Wait"
I ordered late in the night, and can you beat it - the order was shipped by morning! It arrived in due time with nice packaging. Here is the pic of packet -


And here are the items we ordered.

 

Exactly as in the online catalog! Needless to say, I loved these and cannot wait to try them on my daughter.

"Notifications"
I must admire the professional way Jabong notifies its customers via emails as well as SMS. I liked instant SMS confirmation for my order. They even sent me an email after the delivery for any question or feedback I had.

"Summary"
I liked my overall experience of shopping at Jabong. They have vast collection of various items and anyone can find something or the other which they would like. It offers more variety than visiting a mall, all in the comfort of home. Added convenience of prompt delivery and benefits like reward points and coupons make the overall experience fulfilling. While I think they should make their site more responsive and some performance especially around video playback can be improved, still their choice of simple layout and menu is good aid in navigation. Navigation assists in your moving around, without being in the way. And yes, now I think you can buy everything including apparel and shoes too online!

Since I am posting this on Father's Day, it is appropriate that I do mention about their Father's Day Gifts collection. Watches, apparel, bags, sun-glasses, perfumes, wallets - these are just some of the vast collection on sale for Father's Day!

I guess I will definitely come back to Jabong for my next online shopping spree, how about you!

In the interest of full disclosure, the shopping was sponsored, but the review is unbiased.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Contributing @Parentous



Nothing gives as much pleasure as to get recognized for your efforts. Ever since I have become active again on my blog and started exploring the community, I am getting so many goodwill gestures by fellow bloggers that it fills my day with happiness. It works as such a stress buster in the most dynamic phase of my life.

Also, being published is same for a writer as getting high for an addict. Lol. It leaves you desiring for more and acts like a kick. As I get time I am looking for more such opportunity but it is important to me that I get accepted for my honest writing. I can’t sponsor anything that I am not familiar with, just for the sake of getting published. That makes getting circulated a little tricky for me.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of opportunities for writers like me and I am exploring all those as and when I get time out of my busy schedule. I am happy to share that parentous, an initiative by BlogAdda, has accepted my request and they will publish my articles twice a month. I loved their site and the articles shared by wonderful parents. Its a one stop point where we can share our ideas, experiences, problems related to our kids. I am thrilled to get this assignment and looks like my dream to become a full-time freelancer is not far.

For my first article I have chosen a little personal subject that explains my belief in Joint family system for better upbringing of children. Please read my views here at Why I prefer Joint Family and do comment if you like my thoughts.

I hope to get more such opportunities in this world brimming with such interesting creativeness.



Friday, June 6, 2014

Me 2.0

A girl from small town who has always been an underdog throughout her life, I have come a long way. Although, I traveled to different parts of country for getting meaningful education and a fulfilling job, but my ultimate dream was still to settle with the right guy. I did find the right guy, and married him too. When we were blessed with our daughter, and I started living the dream life of a homemaker while raising my little girl, I realized that I actually liked to work. Staying full-time at home was not my cup of tea. For an introvert and silent person like me, going to office was a necessity to remain socially active. It kept me efficient and helped me to keep myself updated. 

But my biggest concern was my daughter. I didn't want to compromise on her upbringing and didn't want to do injustice to my professional assignment either. It was a dilemma for me. Should I work or shouldn't? My biggest support, my husband understood my confusion and decided that for me it was #TimeToTransform! He convinced me to get a smart phone. Until now I was having a very basic model mobile phone as I hated having other advanced features. Being old-fashioned, I believed a phone should strictly be limited to its original function i.e. to make and receive calls.

My husband cleared my unfounded doubts and gave me a windows phone. Boy, it was my first expensive gadget! I had never spent so much money on technology. For a simple girl like me it was just a materialistic thirst which never gets quenched. You get one and then after few days it becomes obsolete and then you want the newer version. But now since I had it, I started using it. I hesitantly configured my mail, social site ids, whatsapp and other apps. Soon, the world was on my fingertips. I was constantly in touch of everything and everyone. Somehow, I started liking the dynamic tiles. I kept all important stuff  like important numbers, mail, chats on the home screen. Within days, I became lively and aware of happenings in the world. I obtained a nice job and being connected all the time helped me to manage work-life balance. All these changes made me to appreciate technology and I rekindled my blog too which was lifeless for a long time. I now realize that my thoughts are more streamlined than before and this gives me inner peace. Having an active life made me a confident woman, mother and person. I hope to be as vigorous as present throughout my lifetime so that I can be a role model to my daughter. I still hold on to my values but technology has taught me not to be rigid and prejudiced towards anything.

I use smart phone, drive to office, and earn my bread – all this apart from being the regular Indian woman - a wife, a mother.  I often think about that girl from small town who was never sure of herself. That girl was scared to even ride a bicycle. For that girl I have surely come a long way. I am like the new, updated version of my older self. And who says there is limit to life or technology, I now believe I can fly :)


Note: This post is an entry to 'Time to Transform' contest sponsored by Asus on Indiblogger.in. Please click on http://asusindia.co.in/T100/ to know more about asus


Thursday, June 5, 2014

Thank you IndiBlogger!


I started my blog in 2007. It is almost like a manifestation of my soul for me. It has given me the biggest gift of my life- my husband. He decided to marry me after reading my thoughts here. But there was a problem. I was unable to share it with people and this highly demotivated me. Hence, there were long intervals between my consecutive posts. 

As I entered marital bliss and subsequently motherhood, I could sense that still something was missing. Although, I had many tasks in hand at a time- I have a toddler to take care of, a decent IT job to perform but the urge to understand the higher purpose of my life grew. I started writing actively again but being poor in networking with people my dear blog was still lying unknown in the vast virtual space. As Thomas Gray has put:
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Still, my frustrations were growing when my husband pitched in to help me and told me about IndiBlogger. I instantly loved the site. I found its UI interesting and simple. Since I have become a member my posts are much regular. I have made so many friends and found so many amazing bloggers here. My blog was reborn. Getting comments on my posts is no more just a dream. I have joined many other blogging groups and sites but IndiBlogger is my favorite of all. I might not log in to those sometime but I am regular on IndiBlogger as and when my schedule permits. And today, lo, and behold- I am finally on the home page of IndiBlogger courtesy my IndiSpire post:
 

My next goal which is eluding me for a long time is to have my posts among the Top IndiBlogger posts of the day. I am not going to give up on this how much my hectic routine comes my way and I trust my friends will definitely help me to achieve this feat :)


Who is Richer?

Today we got a notification that we have water crisis in our area and so water rationing is the only solution. Already there is no tap water in our area and we manage to buy water from water tankers. We'll have water supply cut from 10 am to 5 pm. And this is when we stay in Sobha apartment which is one of the best apartment in Bangalore. Now what's the use of earning in lac and having good living standard when we don't have the amenities nature provides for free. Imagine the wife of a president of a multinational company can't use her well maintained washroom after 10 am. While her maid who lives near a lake have 24 hr of water supply. Who is richer?

And on top of that today is World Environment Day!


I wrote a poem in hindi instantly when I read that notice. Here are the lines I wrote:

Image source
Chalo sab himalaya...
jharne ke paas ghar banayenge..
chulhe pe roti pakayenge aur mast thandi hawa khayenge...
na traffic ka rona na paani ki killat...
na pocket mein koi hole, arre na hi kisi pocket ki fikar..
roz hogi pihu ki nahai nahai..
vadiyon mein gunjegi uski kilkai...
kudrat ki god mein
hum sab jeevan bitayenge
chalo ab to chalo
jharne ke paas ghar banayenge..


hahahahahahaha
isse kehte hain 'inspired by crisis...'

PS: This post was not intended for indiblogger indispire Rich theme. But as the post progressed it went to that direction. :)

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

The Minion fantasy

My dear blog,

How much I try to be regular with you, I fail. I know I disappoint you every time. I promised you 2 weeks ago that I will post every weekend. Still last weekend I failed miserably. But you know my reasons. My platter is full of so many dishes. And on top of that I am a woman in love. As you must understand a woman in love is always in some other world. No surprise then that when Mr. H asked me whether I will paint a poster for his office I could not say no. Though I had to copy and paint some cartoons called 'Minions' still my love for colors forced me to make the commitment.

After the hectic weekend chores and outings, when I had time to breathe and when I could have written something for you, I instead sat to paint. Mr. H suggested I should just stick to painting one minion.


But as I knew it was for his team, I could not resist painting like this:


We started at 10 pm and needless to say that Mr. H is very supportive and helped me with whatever little painting techniques he knows. But since the banner was in satin blue and having no experience of painting on Satin, the yellow paint was not coming proper. We sulked thinking it was a bad decision. By 1 am we could just finish half and slept. Early morning I woke up to find Mr. H doing the base color for rest half. I felt like a professional painter having an assistant :) I took up the work and finished painting the remaining half and left it to dry. It looked better and the artist in me knew I can do it. Meanwhile, Mr. H diligently took care of our little artist who was roaming everywhere carrying a sketch pen and calling "colol colol". He made her bath, dressed her while I got ready for my office. 

Mr. H complained that Minions were looking sad unlike the crazy smiling ones. I said, "Just wait and watch". Lastly, I did the outlining with a black marker and our minions were fine.


I hope the smiles of these little minions will calm down your anger as I promise I will definitely post on time next weekend :)


Roohi