Shubham Choudhary's Blog, page 4

Getting rid of pimples, the simple way.

As soon as you hit the age of 13, you become a teenager and with that begins a never ending war between your age and your mind. As we grow up, in that phase of age there are multiple challenges that we face, the most common one being��� board exams! I know, but here I am going to talk about something less difficult and more annoying; Pimples. They���re very common in that age and mostly go away with time, but sometimes when they don���t, they can be a real pain.

I remember how much pain my sister had to go through to get rid of the pimples. That constant pain, going to different doctors, trying hell knows how many home remedies, Ayurveda, Homeopathy and what not! It was like a maze with apparently no exit door. I was a kid when she went through all of that, so I couldn���t appreciate her efforts in that, but soon when I had to go through it myself, I could imagine how difficult it would have been on her.

Pimples just change your looks a bit, or at least that���s what it looks like, but to think about it, they can put down someone���s confidence and bring about a change in personality. Pimples, aren���t just spots on your face, they can also be painful and can sometimes make your life really hard. There���s so many remedies available that people on the internet won���t stop bragging about, Apricots, orange peels, Aloevera, wheat grass juice and thousands of different kinds of Facepacks and lotions��� In my experience, or more correctly, in my sister���s experience, they all need something else with them to work, and that is strength. No orange peel or fruit is going to get them out overnight, what you need is a determination that will get you through that face and a will to do it yourself. I do remember seeing her prepare the different solutions and try those on her face, and jump happily when the marks got even a bit lighter. (I may be exaggerating a bit here, I am almost double that age now, can���t help it!)

The point here is, she managed to win it. So did many others. But I am sure they wish they had a better way of doing it which didn���t involve so much of work. Well, I can���t say I���ve used it myself, but from what I���ve heard from the one experienced person at my home, the Garnier Pure Active Neem Face wash seems to do it. The word pure neem reminds me of my own experience with these real life antagonists known as pimples. I was around 16 when I got a lot of them. Before they could become a permanent decoration of my face, my sister warned me to take care of them. But I couldn���t do all that she did! Not that I couldn���t handle it, I was just lazy. So my mom told me that Neem leaves are very good for blood purification, which is basically what we need to cure pimples. I didn���t think twice and started eating fresh neem leaves every morning. Yep! When every other 16 year old was having bed tea, I started my mornings with 5-10 bitter neem leaves. The surprising part is that went on for over a month till my pimples were almost gone (I don���t know that happened because of the leaves or with time, but I like to believe it was the leaves.), and I didn���t mind eating those; which also gave my parents a reason to believe that I was the soul of a devil.

Erm��� coming back to the point, I���d not be endorsing something if I had a slight doubt that it wouldn���t be something right. But after listening to so many, I can safely say that this is definitely right. If you too have Pimples, you don���t need to make your face an experimental site or start your morning on a bitter note, just use Garnier Pure Active and you���ll be fine.

�� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� Credits to AnimationExpress for the pic. Sunny paji for the win!

Also, check out this amazing blog where you get to know many things about skincare. Being a lazy ass that I am, I am not sure if I���ll be able to follow the workouts part, but knowing the female readers of the blog, I���m sure they���ll love that: bit.ly/GarnierPureActiveNeemWebsite ( bit.ly/GPABlogLinkIndiBloggerActivity )

Do tell me if you had any of such troublesome experiences, maybe we���ll complain about it together in the next post. And also, tell me your experience with Garnier Pure Active too if you���ve used it! :D

Tagged: garnier pure active, indiblogger, pimples, problems

Get.Set.Bolt!

She was there in my hometown, but she went away before I could see her. I went after her to Pune, but alas, I was too late to track her down. But then, finally, it was Mumbai where we met. I am talking about the latest Tata Bolt in case you thought it was something else. I met her in the Bolt arena in Phoenix Mall, Mumbai. And you can���t blame me, when a car looks like that, you’ve got to see it up close!

Coming to the point, I am not what you may call a car fanatic, but I do have my fair share of watching top gear and writing car reviews every now and then. So needless to mention, when Blogadda gave me a chance to check out the all new Bolt, I couldn���t let it go!

With a 1.2 litre turbocharged MPFi petrol engine, speed sensing autolocks, dual airbags, fully automatic AC with touchscreen, extra cabin space, geo responders, amazing finish, masculine rugged looks, amazing connectivity features and superb range of colors, this is just the car a person like me dreams of.

I went to the bolt arena with my friends and the people there were supportive enough to explain us the features, although in no way we looked like in a condition to buy this thing of beauty, I���d definitely not mind winning one though!

Here���s a pic of my friend Sagar with the Bolt.

Let mine remain secret for a while ;)

Here���s another one with the less enthusiastic Nitesh, he was probably mesmerized by the features I told him before we reached the arena.

So as I already gave a small preview of what features are packed in the all new Bolt, what stole my heart is yet to be told. So here���s the top 5 reasons I loved the bolt.

First and the foremost is the connectivity. When you start looking at it, Bolt is literally packed with everything you could ask for when it comes to the connectivity.

There is a CONNECTNEXT TOUCHSCREEN INFOTAINMENT BY HARMAN��� which already puts it ahead of the league, but just to make it beat the crap out of all others, Tata gave this one an advanced voice command recognition to make calls, change tracks, and control the AC. Just imagine, you could practically spend the whole journey talking to your car! A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

There���s a lot of other connectivity features too, not on my list but others will definitely like the video playback and touchscreen options!

Second on my list was the safety. Driving on the Indian roads, you need to make sure you���re prepared for all kinds of situations. And bolt gives you Dual airbags and speed sensing autolocks on all doors.

There���s also a rear wiper, to make sure you don���t lose visibility on those foggy days.

Next up or third is performance. Yes, I agree that this would be number one for most people, but given that if I ever get this car I���ll be driving this in heavy traffic conditions, a powerful engines isn���t a big part of my priority list. But still, it is there. And in the bolt, it is hands down the most distinguishing feature.

The revotron 1.2T engine is something that��� well��� I can���t fully explain. So I���ll the website do this job.

The powerful Revotron 1.2T delivers the best-in-class** power of 90 PS and torque of 140 Nm between 1500-4000 RPM. The built in MULTI-DRIVE feature lets you switch between three different driving modes: Sport, Eco and City, giving you the power of 3 engines in 1.

Fourth on my list comes the price. Being a hardcore Baniya, this totally could have been first for me, but I secretly wouldn���t care about the price if a car is this good (and I have that much money! ). Plus price isn���t really a car���s feature, except when it is this low! Read on:

Different versions of Bolt are there starting from a price of 4,65,000 to 7,40,000. When I first took a good look at all the features, I was expecting this to be beyond my scope, over a million bucks or something. But at this price, it is definitely a steal deal. Go baniyas!

Before I tell you about the fifth feature that I liked the most, Let me tell you that I am 6���2��� tall and the length of my legs are the reason most of my friends throw me out of their cars. Erm��� moving on��� the Bolt has such a cabin space that this would never be a problem. According to most review websites, Bolt offers the class leading cabin space which means it is the best in its category. ��(http://www.carwale.com/tata-cars/bolt/expert-reviews-16877/ )

We���re done with the 5 things I like about the bolt, I am sure by now you���re in love with it too. Tell me your favorite features, check this out : http://bolt.tatamotors.com/

Also, you should already be knowing that This post is a part of the��Get. Set. Bolt.��activity at��BlogAdda. :)

Tagged: blogadda, car, tata bolt

Making the bold move.

Before I begin, let me wish all the readers out there a very happy girl child day. Thanks to many people���s wondrous habit of female foeticide, we don���t have a lot of women in our country compared to the male population, respecting them shouldn���t be a big deal, right? Just think about it, while I talk about the subject this post is about. So the Valentines week is near. People fall in and out of love and spend a good amount of time desperately trying to get into and then maintaining relationships every day, this is the week where we kind of get a license to do it. Now that line might have made it look like I hate this whole concept��� but I don���t. I just had to say something offensive in the beginning, I learned that in the writing class I���ve been taking. Remind me to ask for my money back.

Although being an engineer, talking about love doesn���t really suit me, but the readers of this blog would know, that is pretty much all I had when I started. Love has multiple stages from the time it begins to the time it grows full-fledged inside you��� kind of like cancer��� just that the latter might have a cure we���re yet to find. If you have passed out of college, you probably have already experienced those thoughts about your crush that take you to an entirely different world��� that one look that gives you the chills and a touch that puts butterflies in your stomach. The first time you dare to ask him/her out and every moment till you get the answer seems like a thousand years. It has happened to almost every one of us. Many succeed and many don���t, it���s like the circle of life. So, what exactly should one do? Close up, the well-known brand put many people to this task where they have to explain how they would propose their crush on the Valentine���s Day. And here I am, sharing my thoughts on this.

Since we live in a tech savvy world, getting someone���s number is not a big deal anymore. And so isn���t proposing someone on phone. And just to be clear, my earlier post 5 ways to ask her out was a joke post, so please don���t try chasing her with a dog, using cow tails or anything like that as well. Here���s what I think I���d do.

First logical step would be to get a hint, at least be half sure that she���ll like you back. This goes for girls too, although there���s barely any chance a guy would say no if you showed enough courage of asking him out, a girl making the first move, that���s pure gold! Next step is to start on the right foot, figuratively. If you���re already in good terms with here, go out for a movie, probably the one you know she���ll like for sure, like any Leo Dicaprio movie. If you don���t know her very well, I���d still suggest the movie, just let her choose. In my view, Coffee is too obvious, Malls are too full and Parks are too cheesy, hence the movie. Once you���re out of the movie you could go for a coffee, or a pizza, yes, pizza!! Erm��� back to normal��� What happens after that is probably what will be the decisive factor. Insist on taking a walk, maybe a short one, but do it. Here comes the important part, depending on how bold you can get. There could be a thousand things one can do at this moment.

Walking her through a road where you���ve already put sign boards asking her out, this time as your date��� Getting a card delivered that contains your proposal, when the waiter brings the bill, seeing her expressions reading the card could be the finest moments of your life till that time��� If you don���t mind involving people, making a toast also sounds like a great idea, of course you have to be an avid risk taker for that, but hey, high risk, high returns! One way that I really like is this��� it���s not too bold, involves a backpack and a lot of flowers. You need to make sure that you got her favorite flowers. Now on the walk that you���re taking, make up an excuse to give her the first flower��� as you continue walking, take out the second��� and after a few steps, the third��� Sounds creepy but after the second flower it starts becoming fun��� After a number of flowers, say 10, give the eleventh one with the question that you���ve been dying to ask. There���s a very good chance it will be a yes, and with her hands filled with flowers, you at least won���t get slapped even if that���s a no! It will be even better if flowers are combined with her favorite chocolates.

Hands down, this has to be the cheesiest post ever on the blog. I can already see the female following of the blog running away. As much as I made sure that at no point I involve my personal relationship status or my history of crushes interfere with the ideas in the post, the last one would be my way of doing it. Not to mention that this will just be a beginning ;)

Do check out close up���s cupid games��(http://cupidgames.closeup.in/) for more such styles and ideas, go ahead, propose your crush this valentine. Be bold!

Close Up Cupid Games.

PS: Check out your very own Kanan Gill taking this challenge:

Tagged: close up, cupid games, indiblogger, love, valentine's day

Being a litterbug.

If there was ever a Nobel Prize given for extraordinary contribution to the field of littering and garbage mismanagement, it can be safely assumed that we Indians will win it��� every year��� till the doomsday (Which will probably happen after an epidemic that spread due to unmanaged waste in our country!). Don���t get me wrong, I am not writing this to blame anyone. Neither is this a complain post or something that tells you ten ways to manage waste. This time I am doing the opposite; I am going to tell you the best ways to become the Great Indian Litterbug! We always have the Clean India Campaign to tell people otherwise, right?

So starting with the obvious question, who is the Great Indian Litterbug? And what can I do to become one?

Well, to answer what you can do, I���ll just say ���Continue.��� Yes! Just keep doing what you do. Some garbage here, some spitting there, a little pee on the wall and a lot of plastic bags that aren���t too small. Just spread it like a wildfire. To answer who is the Litterbug, I believe this video will do a better job.

A litterbug is no special man. It doesn���t take a rocket scientist to become the litterbug. All you need is perseverance and that ���never say yes��� attitude. Did you somehow feel like throwing that banana peel in the dustbin? NO! Is there a public toilet nearby that you could use? Hell no! What about the germs? Go ahead and do it against the wall. It is open air��� there can never be too many germs in there.

So how can you, yes you��� become the litterbug? The answer lies somewhere in the following steps of what I call ���The game theory of Littering���. Follow them and spread the dirt��� I mean word.

Point and shoot.

Just the way Abhinav Bindra did it when he won the gold for India. The only difference is, you���re pointing the whole world except the dustbin. Play it your way, the whole city is your arena, literally!! Got an empty pack of chips? Or maybe an ice cream stick��� Just think of it as a game. You miss the dustbin, you get 10 points. Plus there���s just so much trouble in finding the dustbin and walking towards it that you won���t have to take now.
Paint it red.

Are you a regular tobacco user? Bingo! I knew you were the one. No worries if you���re not, I���m sure you know at least one person who is; pass the baton. Even relays get you golds. Now imagine you���re in the Tomatino festival. Now get the Sexy Katerina Kaif out of your mind and imagine a shirtless Abhay Deol doing it just that instead of Tomatoes, he���s spitting tobacco to paint it red. And instead of a handful of people, you���ve got like a million walls to paint. Go ahead, leave no wall unstained as that may make people think of you as a person worth talking to. We simply cannot let that happen.
Innovate.

The most important part of any sport is innovation. How much a player is able to create the situations in mind and figure out new ideas to handle them is what separates him from others. Same goes for the Great Indian Litterbug. Innovate your way into the waste. If your friend simply throws the empty polybags on road, you play it one step ahead, you throw it on empty roads where nobody threw it before. Start marking your territories and find new places to mess up. I���d also recommend making your own taglines. So many companies are already supporting the littering campaign. While Mcdonalds says ���I���m lovin it���, Nike is asking to ���Just do it.���
Take the leap.

You know how they have the concept of Bonus line in Kabaddi; Unless you take the leap, you won’t get there! So go ahead, dive in. Make at least 5 people spread the mess and make sure they spread it like a wildfire. Make some posters. Use brand new sheets and even if you make a tiny mistake, throw that sheet away on the road, not in the dustbin. Stick those posters on city walls, specially where it says that sticking posters is prohibited. Let the law pay for your deeds, who cares about the rules anyway.

If you closely follow everything that I’ve said above, no one can stop you from being the biggest messmaker around. You’ll be the Great Indian Litterbug. Your name will be written with sewage waste in the history books. You’ll be the mark of smell and your sayings will appear in every hospital out there! Be the one, our country needs you.

PS: This post was a work of satire, in case that wasn’t pretty clear already. We all know how important cleanliness is, specially when it comes to the masses. To know more about the Great Indian Litterbug, check this out��http://greatindian.timesofindia.com.

Tagged: india, indiblogger, the great indian litterbug, the times of india

Pre marital sex, right or wrong? India wants to know!!

Sex! Saying the word alone is enough to make half of us Indians look here and there to make sure no one heard it. From our childhood we’re taught thousands of moral values and sciences and what not. But no one tells us anything about the one that shall not be named until we reach class 10 to study that infamous chapter on reproduction. While we have people who advocate sex education in schools, we also have people (and in a greater amount) who think about it as something wrong against our culture. They probably forget that it was us Indians who wrote the Kamasutra.

You must be wondering why all of a sudden the bug is talking about this. Should I stop reading this blog at work or at least tag it NSFW! Well, at least a few of you must’ve wondered. And that’s exactly what’s wrong with the way we grow up. Something so casual becomes such a big taboo. Don’t worry, the bug is safe, in fact I’d say you recommend this to your manager too. No? Well it was worth a try.

Coming back to what I was saying. How many of you think Pre Marital sex is okay? In my experience, 50 percent girls, 10 percent guys and 110 percent parents think it is absolutely wrong. Since I first heard someone saying that it was wrong, I’ve been wondering why. Does it cause some king of abnormality within us that post marriage sex won���t? As much as I know, being a virgin is not an eligibility criteria for any kind of government or private job, neither does it disqualify anyone from playing any sport. So why is it so hyped? Why in so many societies pre-marital sex is considered a crime! I���ve heard different opinions on this, ranging from valid to utter senseless.

As an example, few of the reasons given by girls who think pre-marital sex is wrong referred to the emotional attachment. According to them, once you���ve done it, you get emotionally attached to the other person in a stronger way. Considering myself a zero on ten in understanding female psychology, I���ll say this reason might hold. But I believe that sex isn���t something that you need to be attached so strongly to someone. It is definitely an important part of that relationship but withholding it just because you don���t want a stronger attachment fearing you might get ditched, what does that tell you about the relationship? One more reason, and the most common one was, saving myself for someone special. I only have one question for people with this reason. What if you have to take a divorce and the next person you meet is actually ���the one���? Surprisingly, I also have known some guys who don���t think pre-marital sex is okay. Which is weird because males, in general, are emotionally less complex and they find it easy to keep the physical and emotional part separate. And also we���re desperate and as they say, we just want one thing. Well��� they say it! Generally the reason guys don���t find it okay is either they see others doing it but not themselves, or they���re still living in that patriarchal world where males rule and having a virgin wife is like a right for them.

Personally, I don���t get it. I could never understand the reasoning when someone a) takes an interest in anyone else���s personal life and judges them on the basis of who they have sex with and when! And b) thinks that getting involved physically with someone will change anything post marriage. In the second case, maybe it will, you two will be more comfortable with each other and chances of the marriage going all the way will be more. Taking the Indian parents��� logic in loop and then thinking of the same, which one do you think is better? 1. Sleeping after marriage with someone you just met or 2. Sleeping before marriage with someone you love/like/find it okay to be involved with.

This is something that could go for pages and we can���t reach a hardcoded conclusion. There���s always fors and againsts. But if you see the scale, I guess the logic in fors surely outweighs the againsts. I can only say that one shouldn���t force his/her opinion on someone. Even if that someone is your own son/daughter. The world is evolving. Sex isn���t a taboo anymore. There���s billions of people in the world and that gives you a billion reasons to why people do it. For me, pre-marital sex is just as normal and just as okay as post marriage. As long as you have your partner���s comfort and consent and it isn���t forced. I can���t stress enough on the last line folks, keep it in your pants.

Now here���s something for you guys, the awesome writer Poonam Uppal���s book, a passionate gospel of true love is now available on Flipkart. You shouldn���t be waiting if you liked what I wrote above. Check it out: http://www.flipkart.com/passionaate-gospel-true-love-mystical-story-english/p/itmd9ybcf9qm7sca?pid=9788192105109&ref=665a3878-5c80-4a50-b0a3-c20af207cfd7&srno=t_1&otracker=from-search&query=poonaam+uppal+

Tagged: indiblogger, poonaam uppal, premarital sex, sex

Teddy travelogues, defining a holiday for the little ones.

Before I begin this post, I want you to take a look at this picture.

It fills my heart with joy to see a 9 year old writing this well. But apart from that, what I could see in this little note is how happy she was. And why wouldn���t she be? She���s having a time of her life with her family. These are the things she���ll cherish when she���s a grown up and get happy looking at what a lovely childhood she had. You see, that���s how much effect a few good holidays can have on the children.

Have you looked at what kind of a society we have become? The one where a kid getting 89% is looked down upon because his classmate got 90, the one where we discourage playing football because we don���t see a good future in our country for that field, the one where kids are loaded with heavy bags and lengthy courses to be carried round the year��� don���t you think after going through so much, our kids need a break? As much as I hate little kids who cry throughout a movie or a flight spoiling it for others, I strongly advocate that parents should take their kids out for holidays. In the busy life like we have, parents don���t get to spend enough time with their kids, resulting in distances and communication gaps. Holidays can be an amazing way to mend those gaps and fill your little ones with creativity, not to mention have a timeout yourself.

Now I am not in a position to give any parenting advice but as you can see, what I said above is as simple as two plus two��� everyone knows that���s five��� or four? Well, I am not very good at math. I wish I had many holidays when I was a child! The best part of being a writer is, you can appreciate the power of imagination. For instance, I can already imagine how a holiday of me with my kids will look like. A city filled with beaches and a week of absolute fun. A package full of learning, fun and bonding. A time when they���ll get to see new things, explore new places and meet new people. Then maybe another holiday in a city like Paris. Watching the beautiful Eifel Tower up close and looking at the amazing skyline of one of the most beautiful cities ever! Already imagining, are you? Take a look at this, these are all real experiences. Looking at what these kids have written, I can see that there is hope after all. http://membership.clubmahindra.com/TeddyTravelogues/index.html.

Teddy Travelogues is a really cool portal where you can see the first hand experiences of the kids in their holidays. Reading a few, I felt like going back to my childhood!

Before I go, here’s one more.

Thank you Indiblogger for this opportunity. It���s amazing how these little experiences can be life changing. If you have a kid, I���d definitely recommend taking a look at these travelogues and planning a holiday. Life is all about having fun, right?

Tagged: childhood, club mahindra, holidays, indiblogger, kids

Nissan, your Road to safety.

This is something that happened a few days back. I was walking and a guy came from the opposite side, on his bike and almost ran into me. A few things where I can definitely say he was wrong was that he was driving above the said speed limit, he was driving on the wrong side and more importantly, he was driving on the footpath. Now this isn���t something very strange or new, this happens every day in the busy and populated cities like Pune and Bangalore.

Road accidents are a primary cause of deaths in our country. Every day thousands of people become the victims of someone road rage and stupidity. What we fail to understand in our over-confidence that we���re smart enough not to die, someone else may not be that smart, and that if we make a mistake, someone else might have to pay for it. And this is just a beginning to what we can say is one of the most haunting sides of our country. Road safety, something we learn when we���re kids and conveniently forget as we grow up. I remember asking a very simple question to a group of my friends once, ���Which side of the road should we walk?���. Now those of you who said left, are definitely not right. Sadly, more than 80% of my friends gave a wrong response.

This post is dedicated to The Nissan Safety Driving Forum., and the amazing job these guys are doing to promote road safety in India, something we desperately need. There���s definitely a lot of scope when it comes to improvement in safety standards and security measures we can take on roads. Here are a few things I think are really needed to improve road safety.

First, a little something about NSDF in their own words:

The Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., conducts the Nissan Safety Driving Forum (NSDF) in India as part of its safety driving promotion activities. The program began as an annual activity in 2012. In its initial phase it covered three main Indian cities ��� New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai ��� and since then has gradually expanded to several additional cities across India.

This year, NSDF would reach 8 new cities ��� Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Vadodara, Nagpur, Chennai, Mangalore and Kochi. The overall reach and engagement levels have phenomenally grown and NSDF has effectively reached close to 2 lakh citizens. It continues to stay committed to its core objective of promoting safe driving behaviour in India.

I believe in the concept Nissan very ardently promotes, Safety begins with me. So I���ll keep my points strictly to what you and I can do as individuals to improve road safety.

To begin with, follow the three simple rules, or what I call them, Lifelines.

A. The audience poll: You know what the audience says? Never cross a red light. NEVER!! You know why? Because more than yourself, you���re causing a trouble for the audience, i.e., the other people on the road. Once you break a signal, other may follow suit, you will disrupt the traffic and create a havoc. Sometimes, even a single speeding vehicle on the green light will hit you hard enough to switch off all the lights!

B. The Phone-a-friend: Simple, never phone-a-friend when you drive. Nopes, not even the hands-free. When you talk, you tend to concentrate on the subject instead of the road causing abnormal speed changes and disturbing other drivers. And same goes for drinking. If you call any friend right now and ask him what���s the one thing he���s seriously consider before letting you drive, I can bet his answer would be to see if you���re drunk or not. Trust me, DO NOT drink before/while you drive. Nothing good can come out of it. I know you���re the experienced legend who won���t make a mistake but even a slight delay in applying breaks may become fatal for some poor innocent soul out there. You may not care about your life, but you also have no right to take someone else���s, right?

C. The expert advice: Every expert, yes, every single one of them, has this to say, ���If you don���t wear a helmet/seatbelt, your chances of receiving a serious injury practically multiply. Imagine hammering a coconut with all your strength. Now imagine the same but this time the coconut is in a safe-box. I guess I conjured a decent imagery right there for you.

People can only choose to be that stupid. Pic credits: http://indonesiaexpat.biz/other/comedy/ten-traffic-rules-for-school-kids-2012-style/

Once you���re up to mark with the three rules, one thing is for sure, you���re almost 70% safer than an average driver in our country. Most of them fail to do the basic things like following the rules! I know I made that number up but to think about it, I might only have under estimated it. So what next? Well, get yourself acquainted with the rules. At least the important ones, unless you���re a professional driver in which case ALL of them! Here are the important ones: http://www.delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/doit_transport/Transport/Home/Traffic+Rules+And+Regulations/Rules+of+the+Road
Did you know that every vehicle has an optimum speed limit with which you can save almost 30% fuel and drive safely? Sure you did! The point is, why you still didn���t follow it? I���d never understand what difference would driving at 80 kmph make in a 16 km ride when you could drive at 48 kmph and reach in 6-7 minutes more, considering the traffic. It���s basic math. Are you bad at math? Being a professional, I can say that in most jobs, 6 minutes don���t make that much a difference. And it���s definitely better than never reaching.

Credits: Wikihow.

Now getting to the innovative part. We could all preach on how to do what and how everyone should follow rules. That���s not it. A major part of our responsibility is to make sure others do that too. Spread the word. Use the social media. There is a good chance that your friend who is browsing twitter while driving will stop doing that once he sees your tweet. Jokes apart, I personally think that people these days read more Facebook than newspapers. Probably you could teach them a thing or two there.
Innovating part version two. Helping the government. Many people may find it surprising but there���s always a feedback box in Government websites. Use it. Tell your state traffic administrators what they could do better. Talk to the traffic police. Be an aware citizen. You get where I am going with this, right? Shelling out 200 Rs. to save yourself the calamities of wearing a helmet is plain stupid. You���re spreading corruption and stupidity both at the same time. Get a proper freaking receipt, it won���t cost you as much as you think.
Last, but not the least, drive safe vehicles. Don���t just research the mileage and cost, check your car properly before buying. Make sure it is perfect according to the safety standards. Check out the Nissan Quality, https://www.nissan.in/innovation/nissan-quality.html and see how every vehicle they make is custom made for your safety.

Making the roads safer for you, Nissan.

Now that I am making it too long, I should end it. But with a simple message. I won���t tell you your life is important. You know it better. But mine is. And I���d hate it if someday I or someone like me dies because someone else was driving recklessly. So for my sake, for your friends��� sake, drive safely. Have a good safe day! :)

Tagged: indiblogger, nissan, roads, safety

The reply.

���How many times should I apologize for what happened? Don���t you see any other way?���

���I am afraid not.���

���Well��� try to, I beg you! I���ll confess everything, I���ll go to jail! You���ve got to trust me over this.���

���Sorry, I don���t have time for all that.���

���I���ll give you money, whatever amount you say. We can make this work, think about it rationally!���

���No.���

���Can you at least speak more!? Tell me what I can do��� Is there anything else in your mind apart from a no?���

���I thought me not speaking up was the thing you liked the most about me, what happened now?���

���Listen, I am sorry, I know I was cruel and what I did was wrong, disgusting, and heinous��� but how is this going to solve anything?���

���Funny you should ask that. Because for me, that���s the only solution.��� Her grip on the gun got tighter, she took her hand towards the trigger and pulled it. He had only raped her, it was the world that killed her soul. This, was her reply.

Tagged: Fiction, issues, life, very short stories

Facing your fears.

Fear, the dictionary defines it as ���An emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight)��� and technically, that sounds complete. But there will be a thousand more definitions coming out for it if you ask that to people around you. What is fear? Is it the same feeling that you have when you���re about to cheat in a test? Or the one when a barking dog looks towards you in a dark street. Is it what you feel when you���re about to propose a girl way out of your league or is it that look on your face when you see 23 missed calls from your parents? Just like love, fear too has different shades. It���s a cocktail of nervousness, ecstasy, pressure and self-consciousness, and only when you feel it, you know the importance of the event you���re about to face.

Fear is like a necessary evil, you need it to win it and only when you win your fear, you can win in anything else. Have you ever seen an athlete nervously shaking right before he���s about to take off in a 100m sprint? I guess no, that���s because he won his fear when he practiced that thing day and night. And this is what it takes, to face it and tell it that I am not scared. People have different kinds of phobias, mental situations where one has a fear of something, from an imaginary ghost to a simple notebook, anything can trigger a fear. Sometimes the fear is purely irrational, while sometimes it is things that normal people can���t even imagine. I, for an example, cannot even imagine jumping off of a mountain like the guys in this video. And the thing is, even they couldn���t, until they faced their fear, laughed at it and went for it.

People who don���t understand Tamil, I am sure you will know the very famous line ���Darr ke aage jeet hai���, that���s like an anthem for most of us. I am the kind of person who likes to face his fears, may it be anything that I have to do, just the fact that I am afraid it may hurt me won���t stop me from doing it. Of course it is easy to say when it���s someone like me who lives a pretty normal life and doesn���t have to face any challenges regularly, but I believe we all have our little challenges in life. My biggest fear is water. Well, I am not hydrophobic but I do get scared thinking about seas or the fact that at some point in life, I may need to swim into that! When I was 13, my father (who happens to be a good swimmer himself) wanted me to take swimming lessons. The first day I went near the pool, I am pretty sure my heart skipped a beat. And that is when it was barely 4 feet deep. As the coach said, ���Only the low self-esteem fishes would swim in such shallow waters. What are you afraid of?��� Well��� Drowning, slipping, not being able to come out, choking and did I mention drowning? I wanted to say all of that��� But I asked myself, what if there���s a flood and I have to swim my out to life. Would I use these excuses then? Now as much as the chances of a flood in Jaipur were close to zero, it worked for a 13 year old shit scared mind. I entered the water and what hurt the most was its coolness, not the depth. I soon learned the basics of swimming and entered the deeper pools. I am not really proud of my swimming skills but I suppose I can be proud of the fact that water doesn���t scare me anymore. Since that day I���ve been to so many beaches and did banana boating in the Arabian Sea too! My next target is scuba diving, or at least put an Instagram pic in the suit��� erm��� well, I didn���t say I am more mature now! I wouldn���t say I emerged victorious against my fear, but I did beat it in the first bout.

In closing, I���d just say that fear is nothing but our own mind wanting to continue with its inertia of rest. Unless you apply the external force of your self-confidence, it will stay like that. I am not making that up, this is all science, right?

Thanks to people at Indiblogger for the chance :) Now go like the mountain dew page, you already know those guys are awesome! :)https://www.facebook.com/mountaindewindia

Tagged: fear, mountain dew, swimming, water

The challenge for a happier India.

1,200,000,000. Those of you who didn���t get confused while counting the number of zeros might have guessed, the number I just gave is the approximate population of our country. When we say that India is developing, we look at the 50 million people who are well to do and can live a good life, but to think about it, the 50 million, as big a number as it sounds, is just a small fraction of our population. What about the rest of us? There are people who can���t afford a car, then there are people who can���t afford any vehicle, then we have people who struggle to manage the basic necessities like food-shelter-clothing and then we have people who can only dream of having 2 meals a day. The sheer numbers of the children who sleep every night without a proper meal are disturbing. The only time they see a plate full of rice is their dreams. And that makes me think, what are we doing wrong? What is something we can do, given the oh-so-busy life we all have, to make sure that the kid you just imagined, would get to eat enough so that he can be the future our country dreams of.

I come across many organizations that do various things for kids to make sure they get to study and live a healthy life. And that, in my opinion, is one of the most important things that need even more serious attention from our government, right in line with stricter safety measures and well��� lesser scams. Akshaypatra is one such organization, the name of which I am pretty sure most of the readers have heard. Their aim for an India where no child goes hungry and every child is educated. Tough nut to crack, I know, but I also know that with a support of 1200 million people, nothing is impossible. And who wouldn���t support this cause? Imagine a hunger free India, where every child is well fed and gets to learn just like a normal child from a well to do family would. What changes do you think there will be? No child labor, every kid able to read and write and demand his rights, no child sex abuse, a tending to zero crime rate in child trafficking, an aware India, a better India��� sounds like I am advertising for a 3 BHK plot in heaven, I know, but it is achievable.

Long back, our first prime minister said that kids are the future of this country. He wasn���t wrong. But apparently there were more hungry kids back then, therefore their future became this kind of present where we still struggle with so many problems. I honestly believe that if we come together and take the matter into our hands, it is a matter of days when this problem is gone. I am writing this post to feed a child. This is just a beginning, a micro one at that. We can do more��� a lot more. For starters, we could reach out to the government schools near our location and see if such cases are there. I am sure there are many who can spare a few thousand bucks and maybe shop one time less… trust me, that’s all it would take for you to sponsor a child’s meal for a full month. Doesn’t sound a like a bad investment, right? There are organizations ready to do the job for you, they just need your support. Physically, monetarily, with ideas, or with a combination of those, you could be the torch bearer to the change our country needs.

Here���s a video that ought to make you think deeply about this.

And oh, one more :)

I am going to #BlogToFeedAChild with Akshaya Patra and BlogAdda. Are you ready to do this?

Tagged: akshaypatra, blogadda, childhood, issues