Happiness lies in simplicity

Simple things are subtle yet they make us feel contented. It is that satisfaction which brings happiness. It is an eternal happiness which is remembered forever by us. They can be the smallest possible things but they leave a great impact on us and also with whom we share the happiness. Happiness is not always about self. It is also about seeing others happy. It was my birthday yesterday. I was very happy and feeling contented with the surprise celebration that my husband had planned. I had a very lively feeling already seeing the surprises unfold slowly. No matter how old you grow birthday celebrations are always fun. They are probably a reason to celebrate our living.  My husband had arranged a wonderful cake with strawberry toppings for me. It was as yummy as it looked. I had this habit of giving cake to my office colleagues after my birthday celebration at home. This time I chose to do something different. I celebrated my birthday in the morning with my maid’s children. I wanted to make them feel special. The first thing in the morning on my list was to call them home and share my birthday cake and sweets with them. It was a joyous feeling. They were shy yet very excited to have a wonderful cake. Probably they would have never got a chance to celebrate something like this and also eat such a wonderful cake. There were many friends and relatives who called me and wished me on my birthday but when they came home, shook hands and wished me happy birthday with excitement, happiness, anxiousness to know what more was coming from my side, my day was made. I saw a gleam in their eyes. They thoroughly enjoyed it and also the sweets. I sat with them and enjoyed a piece of cake myself. I had bought them small return gifts also which I was planning to give them. There were some sweets, pencils, notebooks, erasers, sharpeners, drawing notebooks which I had packed using a gift wrapper. These wonderful bright kids had never been given something special this way. They also didn't have such a privilege to celebrate their own in this way.  My husband and I went along with them in the evening to an ice cream parlour where we bought them ice creams of their choice. They laughed, licked their ice-creams happily and came home with us. We also bought them some games from a nearby flea market. I had made special sambhar (South Indian dish) for my birthday which I shared with their family. I wanted them to feel as much special as I was feeling that day.  That's when I felt my birthday was complete. This was a small gesture but it made me mentally very satisfied. It made my day. I felt happy.

This post has been written for  Coca-Cola International Day of Happiness. 
 Check out their video here. http://CokeURL.com/96jnc.

A heartfelt conversation

I have been married for almost a year and half now. They say that post marriage many things change and so do our priorities. I am very lucky that I have got an awesome husband who encourages me and keeps me happy never making me realize that I am part of a different family now. I never felt that transition affect me during this entire time. Hoping it remains like that forever. There are moments when I miss home and being with parents but in this modern day world with a good husband and his support life seems to be easy going . So far I have been able to juggle between both families as well as personal life even though I was not taking out too much time for myself for almost a year.

My husband kept complaining to me that I was not pursuing my passion as much as I was doing it before marriage. I kept telling him to give me some time to settle in married life and adjust to changes that have occurred. He never bothered me after that. One our first anniversary we sat together and discussed all that had happened in our lives together in the past one year. That's when my husband pointed out in a rude, reprimanding way, “What have you achieved in the last one year of our marriage apart from just cooking, working in office, taking care of the house and managing a family?"

I felt hurt hearing those words but I knew deep within that I was not following my passion much. I used to love creativity so much and now I was hardly giving time to it. That very day I sat with him and discussed out all those shortcomings that I needed to fulfill, not for him or the family but for myself. It was a casual post dinner talk when all this happened. I sat close to him, holding his hand, keeping my head close to his chest and hearing his heartbeat.  He was 100% true.  I slowly started writing my diary which had been untouched from the past 1 year. That was something I always loved to do but I never got the heart and time to pull out a pen and start writing.  I wrote our 1 year experience in a week’s time and presented it to him as a secret gift. That day was an eye opener for me. That's when IndiBlogger - Happy Hours started. I started writing more. My blogging frequency increased. I started taking interest in reading good novels and writing for myself which I had stopped. I was learning to balance my family and personal life. Of course, I had full support from my partner. I started doing things that were creative and made me use my skills in a better way. I was too frustrated at times. That's when my husband encouraged me to take up Yoga. Practicing yoga for 3 months continuously did change my life. I am totally a different person today. It was that one year when I also was not concentrating on my physical activity much. One question from my husband that night jostled my mind. I had suddenly contracted severe heel pain, what doctor's called - Athlete's foot. I was not even an athlete, how could I get something like this?????

I was totally shattered. I had just started becoming my normal self when all this happened. I took it up in good spirit. I was put on some vitamin supplements and slowly recovery happened. I was doubtful whether I would be pain free. That’s when I got this extreme motivation from my hubby dearest. I could participate in a 5K (5Km) run and complete it in one hour. That was the power of a 1 hour motivational talk. I would rather call it as a forceful retrospection. My husband's words were harsh then but they were true and that's what made me get back my confident self again. 

This post has been written for Housing-com- https://housing.com/. 

Learning to let go #StartANewLife

I have been a very emotional person from childhood days and over the course of time my EQ( Emotional Quotient) has  increased. Anyone whom I meet becomes close and also becomes very dear to me in a short span. Be it school friends or any relatives. I never realized that in the course of being so close I was being possessive also about them at the same time. It seems so childish to even remember the time when I never allowed my best friend at school to have lunch or tiffin with anyone else. If she was my best friend she should always be with me. My thoughts were immature. Slowly, we all grew up and everyone moved to different places. Nowthe situation  is such that I don't even remember that she was once so close to me. Everyone has to move on in life with time. Time is the best healer. 

Though with age, I have become mature in thoughts, but I still held people close to me very important. In fact anything that was mine had to be mine. It can even be a pencil. When I was in college I had many friends instead of just one. I felt that I was improving slowly. I never allowed myself to get attached to anyone so much and later feel bad when they move away. But, innate feelings will never change. I had one such friend who over the course of my college days had become  a great buddy. I used to hang out with him often and we would also discuss a lot of each other's personal life. In this way one year flew by. It was difficult to pass a day without meeting him and telling about my classes( since he was from a different stream), telling him about family, talking about his life, hearing about his girlfriend and his future. We both had different career goals so it was interesting to know new things. As time passed even he was really very habituated meeting me and discussing with me. We were not lovers, but best of friends, which we had been very clear from day one. There was a time when we all had to leave college after graduating. I remember, I cried profusely during our farewell. It was a feeling that I was never going to meet any of my friends again and also him. He showed no emotions when we parted. It did hurt me initially, but I tried overcoming it. There were months left for us to decide to either take up a job or go for a post graduation course. I chose to study further. The others chose to work. He was also going to work soon. 

I went home and started preparing for my college admissions. I was trying very hard. There were lots of things that were making me miss hostel and college days. We used to talk to each other, but all friends knew that we will be in different places from now on. Everyone had different career aspirations and goals. Slowly things were better as the results of our graduation came. Sometimes I used to miss this friend of my mine, but he never spoke to me after leaving college. We used to discuss so much about our career, I used to talk about my interest in a post graduation course with him and now the same person was not even available to take calls or messages. If I sent any messages to him, he wouldn't respond. He just informed me that he and his girlfriend were having a very tough time so he was not in a great mood. I was very dejected. I had such a good friend but when I was going through a phase of my life which was important to choose my future education, he was not even there to know about my thoughts. It hurt me. 

I questioned him about this sudden change in his behaviour but he didn't choose to answer. I became over emotional at one point and decided never to approach or talk to him again and also cut off our friendship. I was being rude for no reason. Probably being childish again. One fine day he called me, when I blurted out everything that was in my mind. He heard me out patiently, explained things to me and also discussed everything about the daily whereabouts. After listening to me, he only told few things which I remember even today. 

He said," Learn to be dependent on yourself, rather than others. Only your parents and your future partner would be close to you. Rest all will come and go. Never allow yourself to be dependent on anyone for even your emotional needs. Finally, learn to let go."

Those words still ring in my ears. I never called him or messaged him from then. Though we still talk, but I am not the same as before. I made more friends, but I never got close to anyone. The only person I became very close to was my husband, whom I could trust for life. But, I am not too emotionally dependent on him. We both give free space to each other and are each other's support when it comes to handling emotions.

This post has been written for https://housing.com/ #StartANewLife.

Believing in love

I always was of this belief that in reality, love stories don't have a happy ending for everyone. Those were only possible in novels and movies. I had this habit of listening to others love stories and find out how everyone has tried their best to make their relationship work and reach to a stage of marriage. I never believed in love and never understood love until I really met the man who made me believe that love is nothing but a feeling of goodness. The moment you feel good about being with a person of the opposite sex and feel secure, that's when you feel you have found the right one. Everything doesn't click between two individuals of the opposite sex. They certainly are from two different worlds. There was a moment when I spotted similarities between the love of my life even among those differences between us. Those moments when I felt that our similarities could over power our differences, I saw a ray of optimism. 

The love of my life, (my husband now) and I were in a long distance relationship for a very long time. I was doing my post graduation while he was working and earning pretty well. I had a sense of fear when I even thought of proceeding in this relationship. We became great friends first. Thanks to technology, we could keep talking to each other and getting to know more through chats, calls, messages and e-mails. Unfortunately there was no Whats App then. We failed to express a lot of emotions that went hidden behind those emoticons. We could only be sad, happy, angry, laughing out loud or making fun of each other. We hardly met. He was so concerned about me that he always wanted me to concentrate on my studies. We spoke only when we both were free. That's when we started finding out new things about each other. We got to know facts, talked about childhood memories, talked about friends, about the world, our dreams and aspirations. This continued for almost a year when we got a chance to meet. We met for few hours before I could leave for home. I met him for the first time and I felt that this person can only be a good friend to me. Sometimes first impression is never the last impression. In my case, that's how it seemed. After meeting each other we did not develop liking for each other but kept increasing the bond of our friendship. Long distance still remained. I could meet him only during my college breaks, probably for a few hours. Almost 2 years passed by like this. He was a part of my entire post graduation tenure. I still relate to a few chapters of my curriculum with the beautiful memories I have shared with him probably while studying those chapters. After this long, finally we decided to spend a little more time with each other by watching movies, by hanging out for lunch and coffee. 

When both of us were back home after this small outing we felt a difference in our feelings towards each other. May be it was not just friendship anymore. It was more of care, concern, little bit of possessiveness and also a feeling of security that we had someone to look up to in bad times. Distance was the only concern. We tried meeting little more often. Thanks to those two semesters breaks that I got towards my final year. We bonded better when we met. One fine day out of the blue while sitting in the library, I started thinking about him. Something was urging me to call him and tell him right away but I never had the courage to call him. Finally, when we met for an entire day we both took the first step in acknowledging that fact that we did like each other and our relationship was growing beyond friendship. Distance was always a concern. When there is love and distance there are bound to be misunderstandings and arguments. We did have those. There were sleepless nights. There were sessions of continued arguments, then days of silence when we never wanted to even message each other. Despite all this there was a surreal feeling. A feeling of confidence that probably when we are closer we would be better. My course was close to getting over. We pulled through this phase too. I say, “We" because he was entirely there, just as a family supporting me from far to come off with flying colours. Soon my parents and his wishes came true. I decided then to take things seriously and start looking for a job. 

No matter how good a girl is, in this age if she is not educated well and doesn't have a job, she can go nowhere. I was at home, discussing about him with my parents. They were not happy with all this but when I got a job in a city where he stayed their fears multiplied. Destiny played with us. Living in the same city we couldn't meet each other often. We stayed 30 km far from each other's place. Our frequency of meeting did increase and also did the level of misunderstandings. There were fears; there were nightmares whether after all this we will be able to culminate this relationship into marriage. We hardly had been with each other to judge as to how we would be together. Things progressed slowly but seemed steady. We did manage to overcome small hurdles with the trust and positive attitude we had towards each other. Seeing this, our parents also got optimistic about our relationship. That's when they gave us a chance to proceed with this officially. They decided to get us engaged. 

Post engagement and pre- marriage also was long distance for us as I was away from him to be with my parents. We managed through that too as we had the confidence that we will be together. We met after 6 months, only on the day of marriage. That's when we felt that surge of happiness. Our positive energy was reflecting on our faces. The moment we tied the knot, we congratulated each other for surviving the distance. 

Post marriage was also not easy; we had to get used to being with each other and managing with each one's likes and dislikes and living habits. Nonetheless, we were triumphant in our initial hurdles only because we were positive towards our love and our relationship. We still are trying to be optimistic and move forward to live a life of togetherness till eternity. 

Thanks to IndiBlogger and Look up- Housing for giving me a chance to write this post. Do check their website. They have got amazing solutions. https://housing.com/lookup.

Sleep well my baby!

"Oh God! It is 4 :00 AM and my baby still refuses to sleep," cried an anxious Reena. She is a recently turned mother of a six month old baby boy. Too inexperienced to manage this problem she consulted a pediatrician who looked through the entire routine she follows for her infant right from feeding the baby to putting him to sleep. Finally after a lot of discussion the doctor advised her few changes in the routine and slowly her baby started co-operating. Gone were those days when Reena used to have sleepless nights with the baby waking up crying at the break of dawn. She had found out the reason finally.

The doctor had told her that despite her feeding the baby on time,  giving the baby a nice oil massage, giving the baby nice warm sponge bath, playing with the baby she was missing out on the fact that the diaper she was using was irritating the baby at night once it was wet. Though the bedsheet would not get wet but the baby would still feel wet and irritated inside. The first change that Reena made was that she started using Pampers Baby Dry Pants especially at night when the baby was trying to sleep peacefully. She too wanted a peaceful sleep for herself and her husband. Reena started seeing those changes soon. This diaper unlike the other ones was keeping the baby dry from inside as it had special absorbing property without making the baby feel wet and itchy.

Reena always made sure that she would start preparing her baby for sleep two hours before they could start falling asleep. Only then did he fall asleep after playing for few hours. He used to get very active only at night so she made sure she could utilize it in the best way. She used to feed him some time before he started becoming more active in order to avoid the regurgitation of milk. She took him for a short night walk in the terrace so that he relaxes a bit. Post her dinner she made sure she changed his clothes if they were wet and also put a Pampers diaper. She keep his pillow and bed cover fresh and warm so that he has a peaceful sleep. She used to keep a warm yellow bedside lamp so that it is easy for him to fall asleep. She tried not to watch television or listen to loud music before he started falling asleep, in order to keep his mind calm.

She usually washed him up and wipe him with a warm towel before putting the diaper and also added some Johnson's baby powder around to avoid any rashes to occur and irritate him while sleeping.

She used to recite sweet and short lullabies to him and make him fall asleep on her lap. Even after that if he didn't fall asleep she kept some toys around on the bed for him to play with. She made sure she made it a routine for him to sleep by the same time daily. It was the most difficult task for a mother but she was slowly managing it. It seemed helpful to her over the course of few weeks once she started getting him used to this routine.

She made sure there are no mosquitoes so that the baby doesn't have any disturbance while sleeping. Slowly her baby fell asleep when he got tired of playing. The atmosphere around was so conducive to sleep that he got habituated to this timings. One some extremely active days he used to be wide awake but those occurrences were becoming rare. 

Check out Pampers website( http://www.rewardme.in/tag/Pampers)to know how you can give a good night's sleep to your baby. 

My dreams shall come true - I will live Befikar UmarBhar

Recently a friend of mine went on a world tour with her husband. The moment I heard it I felt a voice calling out inside me," I wish I could go too. “I realized that it was not with me only but every second person I speak to, always has something or the other that is left incomplete for them to experience or acquire. We all have hopes and dreams. Though we have got everything that we could get with a great education and career, our needs keep increasing. Human beings that we are! - We always want something more. Our heart and mind is never satisfied. We slog hard attempting to fulfil those dreams. 

Wish we could all be #BefikarUmarBhar as shown here: http://bit.ly/BefikarUmarBhar.

There are many such wishes that I hope get fulfilled over the course of time  but to list out , I have a few as top five in my list. 

1. I want to stop paying for my health insurance policies and utilize that money for my savings which could be used for something better. I wish to have a healthy lifestyle and have lot of endurance and strength and time so that I can be #BefikarUmarBhar without having to run to the doctor or hospital. I want a disease free life. I want lot of time to take care of my health and do all kinds of physical activity, eat the right thing and also save a lot of money. 

2. I want to complete my PhD in Neurochemistry as soon as possible without worrying about money and time. I want to be free of tensions and duration to complete my doctorate degree. I don't want to worry about getting old which could prevent me from pursuing my research. I want to serve poor patients with my research and breakthrough work and ideas. I want to work for the Ministry of Health care with my degree.

3. I want to travel around the world without having to worry about money, holidays at work or any family tensions. I want to go around with my husband and know about different cultures and the people, visit attractive travel destinations, participate in adventure sports and do everything possible because it is just one life and I want to do everything that is possible. While all this keeps happening, I want money to keep flowing and also have a job that offers me to take breaks like these without any pressure. 

4. I want to buy a Royal Enfield of my own and take training at an all-woman driving institute and do a backpack solo travel in and around Goa. Currently I don't have the monetary means, courage and experience to do all this. I want to be a #befikar nomadic woman. I want to travel safe everywhere. I wish to eradicate the reason for women in this world to feel unsafe. I want to be a carefree bird who doesn't have to bother about anything. 

5. I want to publish a romantic novel. I want to be a scientist as well as a romance writer. My dream is to become the top writer under the Harlequin publishing brand. 

There are so many wants like these and the list is never ending. I want all the means like, money, health, time, energy, happiness and love. I want be like a superwoman and do everything possible under the sun. I want to be able to multitask, be a great daughter, wife, daughter-in-law, a super mom, a great friend and above all a great human being. 

Whatever wishes I have, I thank those lucky stars and the almighty for keeping me #BefikarUmarBhar.

 

My Valentine this year- Asus Zenfone 5 A501CG

Valentine's Day doesn't really mean we really need to hang out with someone of the opposite sex only. One can celebrate Valentine's Day with family, friends or also enjoy alone.  All we need is a good company. I was not too lucky to have a Valentine even this year so I thought of treating myself to an awesome Italian dinner and celebrate the entire day out. Since it was a Saturday, it was easy for me relax and plan a day out with myself. I took out my car, looked my best and started on a long drive. Well, I was bored after driving for some time because I needed some interaction. I realized that I was not the type to be cut off from the world. To my  rescue came my Asus Zenfone 5 A501CG  which I had bought three days before Valentine's Day from Flipkart - http://www.flipkart.com/asus. Valentine always keeps the other one happy. If a phone keeps one happy and gives great company then it can be the best Valentine. 

I was using a Gionee G3 before this. I loved that phone too but I lost it while travelling in a bus. I wanted to buy something that could give me a good feel just as my Gionee G3. I am not someone who is into technology so I looked through Flipkart's reviews and checked all the specifications of the Asus Zen phones there. Asus has got a wide range in Zenphone model. They are of different price range too.

The first thing that attracted me was the varied price range. I could pick any one of my choice based on my budget. The one I chose had white and black as the colour options. I chose Black.  I wanted this more because of the Long Battery life. This could help me in my long journey. I wouldn't have to use my car battery also much for charging. This feature will help mainly when we need to use phone for a long time continuously. This  is because of the Intel® Atom™ Processor. I could use it for 18 hours at a stretch. This would help me especially when I go to remote places where there are not many charging points available. 

I can store many favourite songs because of the 16 GB expandable memory space. This could be a nice way to enjoy a beautiful ride with my favourite numbers. I don't have to depend on Radio coverage always. 

I can't even think of travelling out on a solo trip without the help of google maps and internet. These phones provide good internet connectivity as well as speed in accessing the web pages.  This is due to the  Intel® Atom™ Processor and  Intel® hyper -Threading technology1 .

How I can travel and not be able to take good pictures for storing those beautiful memories ?? I needed a good camera. I didn't have a budget to buy a DSLR so I thought the 13 megapixel HD camera with 6" HD display. It would help me to watch videos/ movies and also see my stored photos. All Zenphones have good camera and great picture quality because of Pixel Master which is a unique ASUS-developed technology that combines software, hardware and optical design to deliver incredible image quality. We will be able to get high-quality photos. It is high quality 5 element optical camera. We get to capture all the moments with a high quality picture. 

I love reading e-books. I use Flipkart eBook app to read books. Because of the excellent 6" HD display and a wide screen I can read my books easily without causing any difficulty to my eyes. 

The upgraded Android version v4.4 (KitKat) would help me get closer and better with faster and latest technology. This will help me perform multiple tasks have as many apps as I can. I was restricted earlier in downloading many apps.  

I can also use both my office number and my personal number because of the dual SIM option. The ZenUI intelligent technology here makes me mobile friendly as I will not have difficulty in using the complicated technology. I wanted something simple without any confusion. 

The varied colour option present in their cases/ covers is an advantage as I can choose the colour I like. I can also put it in a case where it can be protected from knocks or falls preventing cracks and scratches. The touch is sensitive as well as smooth to use. Easy access. The extended warranty gives me an advantage to get any servicing done easily. There are also many ASUS service centres coming up to help us in managing the applications during problems in a better way. 

It is a beauty in all ways. I don't need anything more than this for a great day. A valentine gives happiness in all ways. If this phone gives me all that I need I really don't need a valentine.