Tina Basu's Blog, page 5

100 Word Story - Journey is not Over

I am going back and forth with a lot of topics. Sometimes I want to a fiction and sometimes something else. Anyways when I checked my inbox today I saw a lot of prompts awaiting my attention. Thus I thought of combining all of it together and pen down type down something.  

I'll be combining three prompt's today for a little 100 word story. Let's get started with the story and I'll reveal the prompts later. 
Journey is not Over


He gave his whole life to the factory – working on holidays, afterhours and night shifts. But the management didn’t think twice before laying off people. How will they feed their family? Who will employ them at this age?
He sat aloof in a subway pass, worry smeared across his face. All he needed was a temporary job to pay his bills, to feed his family.
He had wished for a peaceful retirement but here he was looking for a job. Wise men had said – Life is a journey, not a destination. And his journey was far away from the destination.
Photo Prompt (C) Stephen Baum Word Count - 100

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  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Post Written for
1. Photo Prompt at Friday Fictioneer2. Three Word Wednesday - Words Prompt - Temporary, Aloof, Whole3. A Prompt Each day - Quote Prompt - Life is a journey, not a destination.
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Linking this post to  Ultimate Blog Challenge July ,  NabLoPoMo July , and  Ultra Blog Challenge July .   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              

Think before you start your next crash diet

We all have enjoyed our great winter feasts, haven’t we? The December parties and after parties, loads of meat roasts and overdose of cakes and pastries. And it of course has shown up on our bodies. But it was still okay because you could experiment with blazers, jumpers and so on. But just after the cozy winter months we have been greeted with the heat wave across northern and eastern India. It has been such a tormenting time for people in these parts of the country.
The summers ensure you are wearing the thinnest fabric and shortest dresses. The most common trend I have seen in people right after the festival season is to go on a crash diet to lose the added pounds. People surviving on soups and liquid diet, having only salads or even only cereals! But have we given a thought if it’s worth it? Does it help in the long run? Of course having salad is good for health – but surviving only on salads for months – is that what your body wants?No. Not giving your body enough nutrition is a sin and the body will curse you in the long run. It will mess up with your body’s metabolism system and you will end up having acidity and other gastric problem. Wanting to lose weight is a novel idea but starving yourself to achieve your desired weight is being harsh on your body. When people go on crash diet they lose water and later on muscle. What is actually required is to burn the calories and burn the fat deposits under your skin. A balanced nutritious diet is what you need along with proper exercise and physical activity to achieve that.
Few things that one can do is check what is going in your mouth and what amount of physical activity you are doing to burn off the calories. You must ensure you are giving back your body as much calories as you are burning. Check out the ‘3 click Diet Plan ’ by Dabur Honey . It is a very simple process to check where your fitness and nutrition level is and you can customize your diet plan according to it. Enter your age, BMI, preference of Diet, daily calorie intake and they will dole out your personalized and customized diet plan. Isn’t that really convenient?
Are you a sugar person? Do you end up mixing spoonful of sugar with your morning ‘nimboo pani’ or with your daily dose of skimmed milk? Then you are reversing all the goodness of these helpful ingredients. Change to using honey instead of sugar. Honey is natural and is a good source of energy. It not only aids in digestion but helps in weight management too. Check out the Honey Diet which will ensure you have a good metabolism. A teaspoon of honey mixed with lukewarm water in the morning is the best way you can start your day.

Check out the healthy honeyrecipes tossed out by celebrity chef Vikas Khanna and add a healthy nutritious touch to your life. 
Source

For more information on the Honey Diet visit http://www.daburhoney.com/ 

UC Cricket - Stay connected with your favorite Sport!

We all love cricket, don’t we? Cricket is our second religion and yes I worship The God – Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. No one ever can fill the void in the Indian team. I remember following cricket from 1992 when I was about five or six year old. It was the 1992 World Cup being played in Australia.
Every member of my family used to be up in the wee hours of the morning and sit in front of the television. That time we didn’t have TV sets in each room, the living room used to be happening place in house. Thus my introduction to cricket has been like getting up early and watching the match with family.
Since then I have been an avid follower of cricket. I remember carrying a walk-man to school to listen to commentary. I think I was in class six or seven that time – and it was no age of smart phones or any hand phones. And I was caught too and my walkman was confiscated!
Cricket and following cricket has changed considerably from that time. We have come a long way specially with the popularity of internet and now smartphones. There were times when I have skipped lunch functions, get together only to watch cricket. Who wants to be happy with highlights only?
But now when you have work and professional commitments you face the real challenge. Half the sites that you refer to are blocked. Such sadist these corporates can become! But with technology soaring high we have methods to outsmart a lot of people – read HR!
I have tried various sites and apps in the recent past. Some take ages to load and some has so many options that it confuses you. For me the best way to be connected all time with my favorite sport is through the latest UC Browser. It is superfast and super efficient. It is simple hassle free and doesn’t take ages to load. So far it has given the fastest browsing experience.
The best part of it is their new section for cricket enthusiasts – UC Cricket. You can stay connected with live updates, analysis, live streaming and much more. What else do you need when you are not being able to watch it live on the field or on the screen of your TV? 
So next time when you find all your favorite sites blocked or even the live updates in news sites blocked you know where to log on. Live streaming, live update, match score, ball by ball commentary all at a single tap in your phone! You can definitely give that smirk to your HR policies!
So surf it all and surf it fast! Never miss anything that’s happening on the field. I am sure you’ll like the UCB surfing experience.
Have a look at the video below. Visit http://www.ucweb.com/ for more informations.



       

The Versatile Blogger Award - Thanks Rashmi

It's always nice when you get something which you were not expecting. And after a pretty hectic day when I checked my inbox I had a cute little mail waiting for me. Rashmi from Whispers of Hope has been kind enough to tag me for The Versatile Blogger Award.
This is my third blogger nominated award and I always feel special when a fellow blogger recognizes and appreciates your work. So a big hug Rashmi .


Now it's Joy of Giving Time.
Rules of The Versatile Blogger Award
1. Display it on your blog
2. Thank the person who nominated you. - Thank you, Rashmi
3. Share 7 Facts about yourself4. Nominate up to 15 bloggers. Link them in your blog and let them know. 
So here we go:
7 Facts About Me
1. I consider myself little bipolar sometimes - I can be active like bee and some moments later I can be as lazy as a sloth. I become very lazy over the weekends!
2. Many of you don't know but I have been a Katthak (Indian Classical Dance) performer in my younger days (till college). I have performed at national level and in many dance festivals. I remember the times I used to travel with our troupe for different performances across the country. And I had won my first dance competition at the age of 5! 
Now with time and with all other commitments all that has come to a halt - I'll be delighted to get back to it some day.
3. I have learnt oil painting for few months after my tenth board exams. I always liked sketching but this was one step ahead. I have painted some portraits and thematics which now adorn the walls of the living room of my parent's house and one of my aunt's house. And sometimes I feel embarrassed when people ask about the artist and praise the paintings. I like the answer my dad gives - 'the artist's autograph is there at the bottom'. And after that I like watching the expression on their face!
4. I am a big foodie - though that is a newly acquired taste. When I was young my mom used to fight with me for feeding me. I used to run away from food. Only thing i liked was ice creams! I was some 42-43 kgs all along my 10th to college life. It's only when i moved to Bangalore for my post graduation that I relied on junk foods and became a big foodie. Eating out almost every other day. 
That definitely affected on the denim size. But on the better side I also picked up my cooking skills. Because after two years of eating out I was practically bored with junk food.
5. I used to sing quite well when I was a kid. We cousins used to have musical sessions at home and we used to record our songs and music on blank cassettes (that's what was available then). Impressed by all that my dad had got a music teacher to teach me classical music. And the first day that teacher said - no ice cream, no cold water, no panipuri (because they has sour tamarind)! And in a week I said no music classes!
6. I love to travel. If travelling was free I would simply pack and set off just about everywhere.

7. I'm still crazy about soft toys and am always drooling for them. I still need a bear hug from my teddy to sleep at night!

And now it's time to spread some love. Tagging 15 blogger friends who inspire me and I read their work often.       
1. Preethi Venugopala
2. Anmol Rawat
3. Soumyaa Verma
4. Sibichen Mathew
5. Francene Stanley
6. Laurel Regan
7. Corinne Rodrigues
8. Sacha 
9. Vidya Sury
10. Nabanita Dhar
11. Vishal Bheeroo
12. Lata Subramanian
13. Sheetal Susan Jacob
14. Simran Kaur
15. Usha Menon

So people go ahead and spread some LOVE. 

Message in cookies or on paper?

I am on a surfing spree this evening and read a lot of different stuff. As you all know I am in Kolkata temporarily and my better half is in Bangalore. Yes I miss him, and hate it that we have to be apart for some time. But you know we all have our professional and personal commitments.
I came across this cool post on RewardMe which says about personalized messages for your husband. But I liked the novelty of the idea on how you send across the message. Check out the post here , and I’m sure you are going to love it.
Personalized messages on cookies!
Source
Isn’t that a great idea? Both of us are foodies and I love baking. I am sure he will devour them with glee.
I make sure we FaceTime everyday and most of the time we are on Viber despite our schedules. It’s almost two and a half months that we are not together. This isn’t the first time that we are apart for work, I keep travelling for my work and he for his commitments. But this is going to be the longest stint apart. Okay I’ll write about that later sometime.
But you still long for that smile on each other’s face when you are together. It’s nice to be romantic and feel romantic. And small things like these make it nice. And I like giving surprises. [I like getting them too!]
Now we have exchanged loads of emails and texts but still you want to do something special.
So I have decided I am going to bake some cookies with messages. I found it really cute. And guess what there is a recipe too in the post!
I have heart shaped cookie cutters here so it won’t be a problem, just not sure how I am going to manage the letters on the cookies. I don’t want to use Royal Icing.  Maybe I can use a knife to carve out tiny message, what do you suggest?
May be I can present him when he is visiting Kol, he said he will sometime next month. I am sure he would like the cookies.
Well I am also getting an idea of making a jar of wishes!
That would be even easier. How about making a jar full of hearts with some messages – one heart each day, for a year!  I think that would be nice too. Only he needs to remember to open one and read! But I guess he can manage that much for me.

I already am feeling excited for it! Let’s see what I manage to do. I’ll keep you guys posted on it.  
I am participating in the ‘Ready For Rewards’ activity for Rewardme in association with BlogAdda.

6 Online Shopping Tips - Don't miss 'em

SourceAre you one who has been hit by the online shopping bug? I definitely am one. I find it easy, convenient and stress free. In fact shopping is a stress buster for me. Period. I like going through the stuffs and checking few things out, that gives me immense pleasure. But you know how it is when you have the dreaded four letters up in the stores – SALE! You have half the population of your city in the stores hovering over every damn item. You don’t get your size or the color that you are looking for nor do you get a space in the trial room and forget about the queue at billing! That is where all the stress is.
So I have conveniently shifted to online shopping – gives me a lot of freedom to choose size, no hassle of billing line or spending your weekend at the store. In Bangalore you almost get anything and everything through online shopping – your groceries, fresh vegetables, clothes, jewelry, makeup, cakes, sweets and even coffee – delivered at your door step! Isn’t that really great? I have thus become an avid online shopper. It saves me a whole lot of time and energy.
Now if you are one like me hope you are taking care of a few things specially when you shop online very frequently. I recently came across a nice article on the RewardMe site about some useful tips on online shopping. You can read that here.
So I thought about sharing my own tips on online shopping with you guys.
1. Try and Use Cash on Delivery Option
I always prefer the COD method. I find it a little safer than paying upfront. Specially these days when you read people receiving mangoes and stones instead of their ordered phones and laptops! You at least can check what you are getting before paying. It’s a little difficult when you are buying expensive stuffs like an iPhone or a laptop but still I would prefer COD. But these days they accept credit/debit card as COD so it helps. I have bought a lot of stuff using this method.
2. Insist on checking the item before you pay
If you have chosen to pay by COD always insist on checking the product before you make the payment. This will only safeguard you from being duped by either the merchant or the courier guy. Normally a lot of these e-tailers doesn’t allow it, they insist you make payment before you receive the package. But even if you have to fight with the delivery guy do that – so that you can check you are getting mangoes instead of your phone.
And if you are one who buys vegetables and fruits online insist on returning the damaged ones right away and don’t pay for that item. I follow this religiously, it’s better that way than getting money back from the site.
3. Check for deals without Delivery Charges
There are lot of websites who charge delivery charges for your shipment. Now I understand these if it’s coming from another city or a country. But when you buy things like consumer goods, furniture, groceries I do not expect them to take delivery charges for that. Specially for groceries I keep adding things in the cart and save that shopping, even if it’s for two days in a row. You always have something or the other to order. And once I hit the minimum order amount which allows free delivery I hit the buy button.
I end up buying most of my bulk groceries this way. I am not the one who buys once a month and manage with that. I can’t somehow manage to figure how much I might need in a month. Sometimes I need more sometimes less.
4. Never save your credit card details 
Even if it sounds tempting and saves on time, do not save your card or bank details in the websites. Specially if you do not have a good anti virus in your computer or phone. There is no dearth of people waiting to dupe you or collect your card details and use them for their gain. At all time you need to safeguard your security. I prefer spending two more minutes to put in an OTP (One Time Password) or the security questions than crying later on when account balance has vanished all of a sudden.
5. Check for Sales and Deals
This is probably the best feature of online shopping. You have a sale almost all round the year. Specially on apparels and household products. You can compare prices and deals among different sites and choose what fits you best.     
Recently I bought a luxury pen for gifting and got almost a 43% discount on one site. This I would probably not get if I had been to the store of the brand, or a showroom at a mall.
6. Write a Review and earn points
This is another great feature of online shopping. Some websites have this shop & review program where you can earn points by reviewing products that you have bought. And later on you can redeem those points in your next buys. Isn’t that really great.
You can check sites like RewardMe, Amazon, Nykaa who have such programs.
Source
So here are my quick six tips on online shopping that I follow. Do you follow something which is really nice? Let me know your own tips too.      
You can read more great articles on Family & Life here


I am participating in the 'Ready For Rewards' activity for Rewardme in association with BlogAdda.

Five Sentence Fiction - The Thief

I am trying to catch up with a lot of back log that i allowed over the weekend. I am generally too lazy over weekends to sit down and write something. And when I need to post I like doing that from the laptop than the iPhone or iPad. I hate the formatting trouble that your phone or tablet gives. Wonder why Blogger doesn't optimize their iOS app?? 
Anyways today it's time for tiny little Five Sentence Fiction. Let's get into it directly.
The Thief
He looked dapper in his denims, linen shirt and black leather jacket.
All eyes were on him at the night club… he was well aware of the charm he had on people.
But his eyes were fixed at her, the ravishing beauty in the LBD waiting at the bar…
When their eyes met there were instant sparks, there was magic - for this beauty was only his.
“I have stolen the best… I am a shameless thief”, she said giving a warm hug to her handsome husband.
Source

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Post written for  Five Sentence Fiction  for the prompt - Thief.
Linking this post to  Ultimate Blog Challenge July ,  NabLoPoMo July , and  Ultra Blog Challenge July .   
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The Travel Bug - #MondayMusings

SourceEveryone loves to travel – yes or no? If you say no it’ll be a shocker for me. I simply love to travel – just about anywhere. I don’t have a preference of beaches or hill stations. I am quite content even if it’s a long drive to a non descriptive place, uninhabited place or even a small little village. I believe every place on earth has to offer something to satiate your travel hunger.
When you are tied up with your professional career and family that hunger sometimes gets lost under the layers of stress, tension and other commitments. When I was young my dad made sure we took at least a single vacation every year if not two. 

My mum says she has been travelling with me when I was just about 4 months old!
Now today I’m not going to talk about my travel diaries nor is it going to be about any travel destination. I’ll tell you about few people I know – close friends and relatives who are people who travel to live! There’s this uncle who’s crazy about travelling and travelling to exotic locations. He had retired as the chief editor of a popular English daily and was obviously very excited to see the world that he had missed during his youth due to professional commitments.
Whenever I heard about their next travel destination I used to think – they are either crazy or they want don’t want to leave any place! And mind you they were quite aged when they visited these places – around 80 to be precise. When I heard they were travelling to Antarctica and South Pole I was left like this :O… yes – who on earth visits South Pole when you are eighty???
Once this couple had visited a tiny place called Haiti and the uncle had caught malaria, unfortunately. The local hospitals were not even equipped to deal with it. They were in fact very surprised to get Indian tourist! Finally he got help from The Red Cross!
Probably the only places left in their list was North Korea or Afghanistan!! I am not sure. I used to tell my dad probably they used to spin a globe and stick their finger on one place – whichever place came they used to visit that! The uncle is no more with us now but his travel diaries are truly special.
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We have another close relative, my husband’s grandfather – who is equally enthusiastic about traveling and age is just a number for him. His recent escapades were cruising in Arctic Circle, Iceland, Alaska, Venezuela, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Antarctica and what not!
I sometimes wonder where do they get all this energy from? But isn’t the answer quite clear – when you love to travel you seek to go to places which pulls you. You don’t think about too many things – whether the facilities will be good, whether the food will be fine – you know you need to see, absorb and learn.
Seriously if travelling was free and I had a lot of time on hand I would pack my bags and leave – go to just about anywhere and try and learn a new culture, try new cuisines, meet new people make many friends.
Someone has truly said – The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page!
What do you think? Do you feel like going backpacking around the world, even if it’s a tiny non descriptive place?
    source

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Linking this post to  Write Tribe #MondayMusings ,  Ultimate Blog Challenge July ,  NabLoPoMo July , and  Ultra Blog Challenge July . 
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Poem - The Flower

The Flower
Life was once good.
Fearless, secured and full of joy.
There was mommy, there was dad.
The house brimmed with laughter, joy and all that jazz.
Daddy said I was his little princess,
I was precious as a flower.
But all that was taken away from me.
Left in this world alone, from one foster home to another.
I grew wild, feral and full of anger,

But I was still innocent as a flower.
Source
If you like my blog and posts that I write CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA and never miss a post. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This post is written for the word prompt Innocent at A Prompt Each Day.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Linking this post to  Ultimate Blog Challenge July ,  NabLoPoMo July , and  Ultra Blog Challenge July .
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Blogging Advice from the Humble Adviser - #100WordsonSaturday

So it’s Saturday and I have a prompt waiting in my inbox from Write Tribe for the #100WordsonSaturday. 

Good enough because I was thinking what to write. And specially with blogging everyday sometimes I don’t know what to write and sometimes I can’t choose what not to write! Over active mind!
Anyways the prompt today is not about writing any fiction or other stuff. Prompt is to write about a time when I gave some good advice about writing or blogging. And if you know me I am good at advises! Both giving and taking, mind you!100 Words from your Adviser
I started my first blog while in college and I helped some of my classmates on their blogs. In fact I had taught them writing meaningful content rather than a diary entry.
I have always maintained content is the master of your blog. Its better you write on your niche. I, however, didn’t stick to a single topic. I write on – literature, fiction, book reviews, social topics and some more.
For my recipes I made another blog – Twinkling Tina Cooks - I didn’t want to crowd here.

There are some useful links to websites for bloggers that I had shared some time back. 
Hope you enjoyed the 100 words today. 
If you like my blog and posts that I write CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA and never miss a post. 


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This post is written for #100WordsonSaturday at Write Tribe

Linking this post to  Ultimate Blog Challenge July ,  NabLoPoMo July , and  Ultra Blog Challenge July .

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