Bose & me

My relationship with Music begin with Bose earplugs that I had purchased in my college days. What can i say, the technology has come so far now to - Bose Quiet comfort headset. Listening to music on Bose gives a very different vibe all together. I always had an eye on Bose Quiet comfort headsets and finally I get that as a gift from my workplace. Yes, after a product launch all of our team was awarded with Bose Quiet comfort noise cancelling headsets. Needless to say this is one asset I always carry along with my laptop. Let me list the top features that makes me to like this headset and add more details about the latest work they have done.




As a software engineer, our job becomes very mundane at some point and the sheer beats of music can lighten up the moment. The noise cancelling feature of BOSE comes handy when there is a big group discussion that happens around you when you are seriously focusing on writing an important email to company's customer or debugging a serious issue. With Acoustic noise cancelling technology, it continuously measures, compares and reacts to outside noise and cancels it with the opposite signal. In 1995, noise cancelling headphones made a bang in the technical world when Bose's acoustic noise cancellation headphone was named product of the year. Noise cancelling is adapted by many companies around the world but it has become a mission statement for BOSE. Apart from it's use in offices, home and surroundings, it is successfully utilized in the loud environment of military aircraft cabins. Noise cancelling headphones replace irritating environmental noise by producing calming white noise. Sound cancels sound and that's the logic behind this technology.

Life is full of noises - and I want to eliminate them all !!

With Quiet Comfort 35, you can adjust the level of noise cancellation now between three levels to suit to the current environment. I like to wear it in my workplace even if i am not listening to anything. Noise cancellation is truly amazing! Sometimes you feel like getting disconnected to this world when you are at work place or focusing on something very important. The sound of the music is crystal clear even if you are walking on a busy street. There is zero distortion and I can vouch for this quality in BOSE.



Bose allows to connect to two devices at the same time. So, you can keep listening to the music on your laptop and don't have to miss important calls from your cellphone. Such a brilliant feature for techies like us. Now, with the google assistant inbuilt it will do much more justice to your day today activities. Now all this task can be managed with a voice command. The headband of the device is state of the art. It is built to survive most rugged conditions and we can take them almost anywhere and everywhere. The over the ear cushions are extremely soft and we can instantly forget that we are wearing something.

The other feature that I would die for is the battery life. It is amazing that once i charge the headphone I don't have to worry about it for about 2-3 days even after using it for 10-12hours per day. After turning on the headphone, it speaks the battery percentage which I think is supercool and helps me in planning the headphone usage for that day. Apart from this, voice prompts are very helpful during pairing of the headset and other stuff. The headphones have built in microphone and sync via bluetooth.

If you like music and want to carry it everywhere you go and expect to get the same sound quality like you hear in the cinema theatres?? The answer is get a BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 35.

I am ready for an upgrade. Are you ? Noise cancelling headphones are expensive, but they are worth what you pay for.

Check this out for the details.

My fight with Pimples

Ever heard of any girl fine with having pimples on face? Argghhh.. No way ! So, the story is same for me. As a teenager, when I first spotted a pimple on my face and I was quite amazed. I tried to touch it and press it so that it merges with the skin surface, but sadly no luck. It hurt a little though but wasn't so bad. After the initial meeting with the pimple, thoughts run around your mind to get rid of those. But its not so easy in teenage specially when you have the rush of new hormones. After you get older having pimples is no fun.



First step is to run by the nearby beauty supply store and buy a product to get rid of them. But the problem is which one to pick? Lucky people get help from any suitable brand but unfortunately that doesn't work with all skin types. So, now go back to the old advice that drink more water, don't eat anything spicy and wash your face often to get rid of any excess oil. But after couple of days I don't see any improvement and in fact there is an increase in number.

Stage 2 - Raging war.

Generally when we enter stage 2, we become so desperate to go for high end acne solutions which is filled with lot of chemicals that usually make our skin more dry or we loose luster. Sometimes even if these work on our skin, they leave behind a scar or spot that reminds us of these pimples. The main reason for this is that these chemicals rip off the natural oils, which could initially improve the acne. But later our skin reacts to this and it could cause dry skin or make acne more worse. Because of which sometimes we get aggressive and try to explode the pimple which might still give us those scars. This happens because for people on whom these solutions don't work become fragile about this. For me, it was utterly important to get rid of them now as I had to meet someone for my marriage alliance. I never wanted to present myself with either acne or scars. I thought I have few days left to treat this. So, I went for the natural remedy that was present in Garnier Pure active neem.

Acne is not an incurable disease but taking right care could help to control their growth and frequent appearance on our skin. Garnier pure active has neem and tea tree oil extracts which are known in Ayurveda for controlling acne. Neem is a powerful anti bacterial herb that helps to fight the stubborn acne. Apart from controlling acne neem is good for normal skin nourishment too. Tea tree oil is another great component in this facewash that helps to fight acne. It has unique disinfecting and soothing properties which won't strip off natural oils from our skin causing further damage. With the combination of both of these ingredients we have a powerful way to combat with the acne.

Cleansing the acne prone area is usually the most overlooked crucial step for controlling acne. With this gentle face wash apply strokes on your face and try to gently scrub the area where acne is present. If we don't cleanse our skin properly then most of the acne product would make it worse if left it on the skin.

I am glad to have made a choice of having a neem and tea tree based face wash for treating pimples. I included Garnier pure active neem in my daily skin care routine and it surely gives a good result. After washing my face, I apply neem oil to condition my acne area and that benefits my skin care routine too. Aptly mentioned in the garnier website: NO PIMPLES NO MARKS !


Website to get more info on this product: bit.ly/GarnierPureActiveNeemWebsite
For indiblogger article; bit.ly/GPABlogLinkIndiBloggerActivity

The great american roadtrip

A road trip with family or friends is always so fun. It is a great way to tell our own story. After all it is much more fun to read rather than a typical autobiography. Recently after seeing the bollywood movie "yeh jawani hai deewani" i remember a dialogue.

Deepika - "tum apni life se kya chate ho bunny"
Ranbir - "Raftaar..."

So, I want to narrate one of my upcoming picturesque tale of the journey across the country that I am awaiting to take! After hearing and reading about lot of cross country road trip experiences me and my husband decided to take the great america road trip. America is a huge country divided into 4 parts: West coast, east coast, Midwest and south. There are around 50 states that constitutes united states. The blessing of staying in America is that anyone with a car can go out anywhere. A driver's licence is the country's main identity. While in India I remember having PAN card or ration card to be the main identity. This is the country with major freeways, rest areas and services to support road trips. We have been hearing about people traveling from east coast to west coast in a span of 15 days. So, when we got jobs in the west coast we thought why not make this move interesting and memorable !

Traveling is mostly about dreams - dreaming of mountains, valleys, landscapes, animals. This made me to imagine myself in those locations. My dream involved driving miles of journey with smile. It involved the comfort, luxury, holding hands of my husband, imagining myself in the midst of the grand canyons, or caught in the forest of yellowstone ! The day when I had entered united states I had made up my mind to visit as many states as possible and collect the memoir from that place. I also had this crazy idea to stand in front of the welcome signs of different states in USA. Everything was going to come true. I want to keep a journal with me all the time to write down the most amazing things that I experienced in that particular city/town.

So, I started to map out all the interesting  places to visit from Minneapolis to San Francisco. This is a pretty long road trip and I want to cover as many states as possible. After living here for sometime I am used to the lush greenery this state has and also Minnesota is known as land of 10,000 lakes. So, we start out from here and travel to the beautiful California.

As you can see in the maps I altered the distance and now the distance is around 3000 miles. So, for travelling such a long distance we surely need a comfortable car. After doing some research we decided to travel on an SUV. We will a Ford explorer which is the best car for trips like this. To top it off, all our person stuff was to be moved at our company expense. Plus, not to mention the perks of relocation, I can stay in whatever hotel I want and all my expenses are paid by the company. So, the journey will begin with a bigggggggggg smile.

First destination that we though is Mt. Rushmore, which is in south Dakota. I have been studying about presidents of United states and it would be an amazing experience to actually see them carved on a mountain. The distance from Minneapolis to mt. Rushmore is around 600 miles so this would be just endless driving on the roads. It is located in the black hills of south Dakota. This was the idea of Doane Robinson to draw people from all over the country to his place. It is one of the famous national monument of the united states. Four presidents who are carved on the mountain are George washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It took 14 years to complete mount rushmore.

Our next destination would be the famous "Yellow stone national park". We definitely have to spend around 2 days to check this place out. This is one of the breath taking places in this country. Also, this is the country's first national park. This park was formed in 1872. The parks's size and its diverse national offerings would set it off from any other place in the world. Yellowstone's iconic geysers and bubbling pools of deep blue water constantly remind that the park sits on a super volcano who had massive eruptions. Park size is around 2.2 million acres, spread over northwestern Wyoming, parts of Idaho and Montana. I can only try to imagine how beautiful the scenery would be. Places like this are must visit if you live in USA. I am sure with heavy heart we need to move on with our trip.

Next stop is Denver, Colorado. The home of famous Indian actress Madhuri Dixit. I always wanted to visit Denver for the Rocky mountains. I have been studying and mapping the mountain on the chart during my school days and finally I would be visiting the place. Rocky mountains features majestic views of the hills, lakes and wild life. We have so many resources online to check the must visit places in here and not to mention we would love to see the downtown in Denver. Some funny facts about Denver is that it is the second most educated city in united states. There are around 200 mountain peaks visible from Denver. The panoramic picture would be a memorable one !

Moving on to next destination is the Arches national park. I have heard and read about this national park a lot. There are very nice hiking destinations. This national park is situated in Utah and has around 2000 natural sandstone arches. We would be very much excited to do hiking and little bit of rock climbing over here. I believe every picture taken in this place would be an eye catching one. Such is the beauty of this place. I am sure we would encounter some hiccups while hiking since during this activity we don't have any other form of entertainment than gossiping or fighting on unwanted stuff. But I would want to play some childhood games like Antakshari or screaming on top of my voice. There is abundance of wildlife in Arches and would love to take picture of the deers, mules.. but I hope not to meet Tiger or Lion. Then it would be "fun trip gone bad"

Next destination would be my favorite Grand Canyon. It has a vast history. Grand canyons are part of colorado river basins which has developed 40 million years ago. The natural curves that are seen on these mountains are formed by colorado river. Isn't it amazing to see a place which is that old. My itinerary for this place is amazing. I am planning to take an aerial tour of the Grand canyon. Since it is divided in three important rims. The northern rim, southern rim, western rim. My first destination is southern rim and with aerial tour I will be covering the northern rim as well. I am sure I will capture some breath taking pictures while flying. So, for now I am just attaching the google picture. I have plans to go for moderate hiking on the canyons. One such scenic hiking is Bright Angel trail. This is one of the steep trails in grand canyon but i am sure it would be an amazing experience. The website www.nps.gov gives complete information about any national park in the united states. So, all the database is enclosed ! The other nice trails are the grand rim trail, horse shoe trail etc.

Even if i leave grand canyon the journey is still incomplete. We will drive to grand canyon west and experience the skywalk. There is a rich cultural heritage in this western rim. For thousands of years this area has been inhabited by Hualapai tribals and other native americans who made many caves in midst of this giant rock formation. There are some bus tours that take close to these tribal living. The roads condition while driving in grand canyon is not that great. This is where we would feel happy for having a great SUV to drive on. Plus the fresh air because of the scent inside the car will bring us more close to the wilderness. Grand canyons is located in Arizona and from Minneapolis to here there will be a drastic climate condition change. This is what I like about traveling in united states. Each state is different in its own way ! Plus there is a time zone change from central time it will be the mountain time.

Winner winner, chicken dinner !

This is a line from the famous gambling movie 21. Yes, finally I will be visiting the fabulous Las vegas. From the mountains and natural beauty to the man made creations. Las Vegas represents the fulfillment of all our hidden fantasies - easy money, risk, entertaining shows, drinking on the road etc. You can be who you want to be when you are in Vegas. Also, one more quote is "What you do in Vegas, stays in Vegas". The city scape would be mesmerizing with tall and world class hotels. Slow moving trucks with billboards that advertise girls for hire, restaurants, bars and nightlife. This city is sure going to dazzle me, until my eyes would believe. For all those natural creations, we have a man made version here. If you haven't seen Eiffel tower, now is the chance to see in front of hotel Paris. Not seen the egyptian pyramids and sphynx, you didn't loose much. You can see this in front of Luxor hotel. There are so many free shows in front of these hotels and one is the musical entertainer of Mirage by our own Zakir hussain. This is a city without limits. We too plan to gamble for some amount and try our luck here.

Last but not the least, famous Los Angeles whose name I heard since my childhood. There are so many beaches here and the famous Hollywood studious. After living in the fantasy world, its time to travel back to our destination San francisco. Home of giants (baseball team). City where the famous golden gate is situated.

I hope my wish comes true and I actually enjoy my journey as described in this post.

P.S. Images are taken from google.com since I haven't visited these places yet!

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Love or arranged ... who cares??

Love is the word that excites anybody and specially if its a first love. Yes, I too have a love story which I never knew that it would turn up in this way. I was getting ready for my wedding. I was looking pretty as my Mom said, everyone was waiting for the Baraat to arrive. It was such a happy occasion for everyone ! Yes... everyone except for the Bride to be..

Flash back to few years when I was a teenage girl. I was 18, barely knew the meaning of love. There I first time saw Ashok. He was an electrician who came to repair wiring problem detected in my room. Because of this fan and tubelights were not working and that was hampering me to prepare for my 11th exams. He looked like a fresh flower blooming amidst rain drops, I felt like violins were playing around me just like they showed in SRK's film Main Hoon na. He looked at me and gave a cute smile. He kept on staring at me and repairing fan and the tubelights. I understood his silent stare and next day I found him following me in the street.

"What is all this? Why are u following me?" I asked him.

"Madam ji, what is this? I thought you were looking at me with intentions of getting closer." he said.

"What do you mean? Should I complain to my mom?" I pretended to shout at him. He got scared and I started laughing "You really felt scared??". He held my hand and proposed to me. I was up in the sky. First time someone proposed to me and I admit he was good looking. Later we exchanged our cellphone numbers and started late night text messaging. He was not much educated so I used boost around him with my fluent English and general knowledge. I started dreaming about our wedding and how I would convince and break the jinx about love marriages. Slowly, he started coming to my house on the pretext of checking light bulbs and we played silent love tunes in broad day light and in my home.

After few days he called me in the park where he proposed and he said he wants to take this relationship forward. My eyes sparkled and I asked him if he wants to suggest for marriage. He subdued and said he doesn't have proper work and can't go and ask my parents my hand. But he slowly started touching me and holding my waist. I refused this gesture and told him that I will not allow all this before marriage. He forced to kiss me to which I didn't say anything. I was truly in love with him. Slowly, our love was becoming popular in the neighborhood and one day my brother caught me red handed.

Slap! Slap! I felt like someon's slapping me so hard when I faced this humiliation in my family. "Why on this earth you found this only lonely soul for falling in love??" my mother grieved over my choice. Before I could speak in my defense my brother shouted "She won't listen to us, now we have to ground her at home and not allow her to go anywhere without our permission". My father was feeling very bad since I had ruined his reputation in the neighborhood. But our love wouldn't have stopped for anyone. I told my father "Dad, I really love Ashok. He is right now an electrician but he is going to have his own electrical shop. We will work hard and attain a status.". "But Beta, he is not even from our caste forget about the economical status" he cried. "We don't believe in morally low things like caste etc.. "

I started speaking but I was stopped immediately by my brother. He force-ably took me to my room and locked me. This brought a wave of rage inside me. I immediately took my duppatta and got it on the fan blades and tried to commit suicide. Unfortunately, the fan couldn't take my weight and it fell down with a thud. Now enraged by this my family members came inside and called up a doctor.

"We need to get her married off to someone" my mom said. "Yes dad, we have no other alternative. Please talk to Jagdish kaka ( astrologer) and get her married" They all discussed without knowing what I wanted with my life. "She needs a psychiatrist." doctor said. "She is mentally very weak and you should understand her at this time." he pleaded them. But my family went to the police station and issued a summon against Ashok that he should be around 50meters distance of where I am staying. He called me up on the phone "Suman, are you mad. You tried to kill yourself!" he asked me. "Don't you dare ask me this question you fool. I love you madly. I want to marry you." I started crying. "How can I ask you to marry me? I don't have any money or business." he said. "I don't know what you are thinking but come here and rescue me. They want me to marry someone in this month." I told him.

Finally, bringing back the flash back to this day. I said yes to Akash when he came to meet me. He is an extremely brilliant guy. He has his own computer business and he is just 25yrs old. He loves me alot. The moment he met me, he fell in love with me. That's how he said yes to this arranged marriage. Now you might be wondering why I said yes to him. Because I didn't had a choice. We got married and went to Kanpur. That's where he is settled.

After two months of our marriage, he was going to Mumbai. "I wish Suman you could come with me. I will show you the Mumbai city. We will travel in local trains and enjoy mumbai rain. It will be so romantic." He told me. "I don't believe in romance. I don't like Mumbai. You can go wherever you want, but you can't take me along with you like a goat!" I gave him a sharp response. "Suman, I always treated you well. I am not subject to this kind of discrimination. I love you dear. Even though its an arranged marriage, you know how much I care for your opinion. I never had my first night with you since you were not mentally ready for this marriage. I am giving enough time to settle down and be friendly and close with me." He broke down calmly. But I don't want to give in to any emotions.

"Its very unfateful that you got married to me." I replied to him. He lost his patience and he forced me out of his house. I got my bag and hurriedly went to the railway station. I called up Ashok when I reached Delhi. I told him that we can go to a temple and secretly get married.

Ashok took me to his one room house and asked me to stay with him for couple of days until he makes arrangements. He came back only in the night and he was fully drunk. He brought a sindoor packet with him, he said that he loves me and put sindoor on my forehead. At last, my dream of love marriage came true, I was so happy but I wanted a traditional wedding with Ashok. "I want a traditional wedding, in a temple. You can call up your friends, your family. We will get married like I did last month." I told him.

"I waited for you so much Suman. You never allowed me to touch you. Now come here, you are my wife." his alcohol started speaking. "What are you saying Ashok?" I said. "You bitch, you never allowed me to touch you or kiss you. Now you want to marry me! I wanted to sleep with you and stopped myself so many times in my attempts to rape you. Now you are mine and you have to do what I say" he said. There it was, my dream crashed into million pieces. His words tore me apart. What did I do with my life? Where am I in the cross roads of my life? I left my family behind me which consisted of my parents, my brother who took care of me like a princess and got me married off to a rich and sensible guy who could have made my life heaven. But here I am ending up my life with a stupid guy who doesn't understand what love and sacrifice is and who just thinks loving a girl is getting licence for sexual assaulting her.

I wanted to find a way out of this. To my luck I saw that Ashok's main door was broken by the police and saw my hero Akash over there. "Akashhhhhhh" I ran towards him and started crying. "Look what did I do to you. I don't deserve you. I am such an idiot." I started cursing myself so bad that in that I didn't even dare to see his face. But he hugged me tightly and said "Suman, all I have is you. The day I took the 7 holy steps around the fire, I vowed myself I will protect you from all kind of people. I will love you till the end of my life. You are my queen and I don't like to see tears in your eyes." He wiped down my tears and took me away from the hell. "How did you find me?" I asked him. "Well you left your email open and I read all about you and Ashok in the email. I smelled something fishy in his replies which you never caught and tracked you here to rescue you." I found my soul back with this reply. He will be always there to protect me no matter what!

To my knowledge, marriage is an institution where you learn making sacrifices for each other, loving each other unconditionally. Who cares if its an arranged marriage or love?? Since once you marry your partner the most important thing is to hold on to each other unconditionally.

This story is written as a part of Indibloggers "Love marriage or Arranged marriage" debate. You can follow the facebook page here.

P.S. Images taken from google.

Has Anna lost his magical touch??

Anna Hazare, a name that came in association with 'LokPal bill' last year. Team Anna has been fighting against the UPA government and had promised the nation a corruption free environment. But it seems like this is little hard to achieve even after doing several indefinite fasts. Yes, the main question of this article is : Has Anna lost his magical touch? The support for team anna has diminished considerably from the last year. Anna began his fifth hunger strike but failed to draw the massive crowds that marked the start of his campaign. This time in 2012 crowd was very less as compared to 2011 in Ram lila maidan and jantar mantar. Just an year ago, ten thousands of people had supported him fighting against rain and sweltering sun and pledged for Anna Hazare's support. Have we moved on and accepted corruption as a part of our daily routine while team Anna is still fighting for it?

We all know how much Anna and his team are fighting against current UPA government members. Why should we support him or Jan Lokpal...the answer is simple: it will support you. But this time when he went on indefinite fast, the enthusiam from the public seems to be missing. Its not just the number of people who had come there and taken part but also about people who talk about supporting his movements are diminishing. While team Anna members deny from this fact and say that media has not given enough coverage for the movement and also claim that number of people attending it is not important but number of minds thinking and doing something about Jan Lokpal is important to them.

This time team Anna is demanding that there should be a panel of supreme court judges who should probe corruption allegations against 15 UPA ministers and that includes our PM Manmohan singh. While some ministers believe that Anna is just a creation of media and they have given enough highlight to him last year when government had to bend their head and said that they will consider Jan Lokpal. When will this Jan Lokpal bill will be passed? With the creation of Jan Lokpal there will be an independent body that would fight against corruption in the country and protect whistle blowers who have lost their lives for the nation. In 2011, during parliament's winter session Lokpal was passed in LokSabha but was turned down in Rajya sabha. The war against corruption is a long and time taking process and we all should stand together as a citizen of India to fight against it. Last year's agitation had attracted lot of youths to come forward and support Anna in his anti corruption movements. What happened now? Why are we slowing down? Is it the feeling that nothing can shake this government and that includes Anna's team?? This is because of loss of novelty and hope that nation can see Jan lokpal being part of Indian government. It might just be possible that last year Anna Hazare was a new face to the public who was putting his feet to remove corruption and also India had witnessed several big corruption cases like 2G scam, common wealth games scam etc. Also, the methods of non violence and indefinite fast was new to the public and it might have just attracted the crowd who were already suffering from corruption within their minds. People had a hope that Anna can change the government and force lokpal by winter session in Lok sabha. A sense of hope was engineered into people's mind. Anna has now become a routine for people and when they hear about his indefinite fast the reaction is " Oh one more fast...". So, Anna should take care not to appear again and again in the public for same cause and movement. This could make them believe that "If he cannot do it, even we cannot do it".

But the failure of addition of lokpal in december 2011 has also failed team Anna to revive this anti corruption movement. Now people are not getting that hope that this agitation might succeed. This is the fourth time he is on a movement but Anna's movements are becoming predictable. Government has shut its ear to his movements and are paying very less heed to the demands. They know that if they bring lokpal, directly country's PM is under investigation and that can be very demeaning. Looks like all the parties have come together unanimously and standing against Lokpal! Anna should know how to mobilize the momentum and shouldn't allow the protest to loose its edge. The media needs to give more coverage to his movements now when it is required more. We know the power of media can force the government to take serious steps.

Human trafficking - 3rd illicit trade

Human trafficking is the third biggest profitable illicit trade happening in this world. According to UNFPA estimate, around 1.3 million people are trafficked throughout the world every year. Thousands of children and women are being affected with this trade. India, a country that stands 2nd in terms of world population is also a worst hit. According to UNICEF around 3 lakhs children, mostly girls are trafficked and most of them are pushed into prostitution. People are convinced, threatened, abducted or cheated and are pushed into this flesh market that has no mercy for the victims. It is one of the worst forms of modern day exploitation. It violates all the human right laws. Do you ever wonder how this human trafficking takes place, how many people and families get hit by this? In this post I want to highlight some of the real life cases and show how this trade takes place and what change is necessary from us as a human being in this society.

Poverty is the root cause for this trafficking. The victims families are usually poor and they are lured by good job offer or sometimes blackmailed to force them to sell their daughter or son. Teenage girls from poor families are the worst victims for the prostitution trade. They are either offered a job of house keeper or something else and then taken to big cities like Mumbai, kolkatta and are pushed into this trade. Innocent girls don't know what they are getting into and once they are sold to these pimps they are beaten, tortured or threatened for doing this illicit job. Their life is made miserable and they are forced to do what they shouldn't have. They are subjected to in human conditions and illicit flesh trade. There is small or big racket in every city and girls are supplied to international levels. At the time of common wealth games, this business bloomed due to lot of visitors. It is now time to stop this crime and take some strong action.

Secondly the innocent kids who are below 5 years are being sold for all different purposes. Boys of this age are sold to the Arab countries so that they become camel jockeys for the annual race. They are subjected to very brutal living conditions that can scare a street dog! Imagine those poor innocent kids are taught to ride a camel and make a balance in the race, what if they couldn't! There is no second chance, they are killed by the camel stampede. This is another form of human trafficking. In last few months, there was a case of 'Baby Falak' that was in the news for long time. If you go through the case, it is a case of human trafficking for the whole family. Her mother after being abandoned by her husband was forced to prostitution. When she strongly refused that, she was deceived into the flesh market by marrying her off to a guy who promised to take care of her children as well. She was subjected to physical assault and resold to another person. In this way, uneducated woman are deceived and lured in the flesh trade. More information about the case you can go through these links.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/baby-falak-case-five-new-developments-174081

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Baby-Falak-case-Police-arrest-prime-accused-Rajkumar/Article1-809831.aspx

Human trafficking is increasing a lot in India and mostly due to the need of money and exploitation of the poor. We are heading towards 21st century with all these back logs. Where are we heading to? What about the future of these innocent kids who are pulled in this black market? They don't deserve to live a life like this because of their parent's mistakes or greed.

As a responsible human being lets contribute to this society by showing more awareness and being vigilant regarding these things and report to the police immediately when we see such cases being happening around us. There has been an establishment of 'Integrated Anti human trafficking unit' and police officers are being trained regarding this human trafficking. Apart from that awareness should be spread in our community and villages about how human trafficking can take place with any of us. This awareness can be in form of a theater play, in the form of writing or by public awareness campaigns. This human trafficking should be explained to the children in schools and by parents and they should also be taught what they should do if they find themselves trapped in it. Also, the affected victims should be rehabilitated and should be employed to do some basic community service work according to their caliber.

P.S : This post is written as a part of Indiblogger 'Time to Change' contest.

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Speed and the thrill

We all go for many journeys in our lifetime, but there are few that remains in our memory forever because of good or bad experience. I want to narrate one of my road trip to Tirupati.

I had never visited Tirupati in my lifetime until last year when I went to India for a month. I requested my husband to arrange for the trip as soon as he can. I personally don't prefer long road trips in India, one because I don't feel its as safe as taking road trips in USA and secondly since I want to relax when I am in India, I didn't wanted me or my husband to take the pain and drive all the way. After a day of hassle and discussion, my husband somehow stuck to the idea of taking a road trip. Along with we both, one of our cousin joined our trip. I was not so comfortable with the idea since I knew that he drives like crazy but my father in law had given instructions to him to drive safely.

So, finally we started for the trip. My nephew was crying to join us but since he was just 3yrs old I thought I might not be able to handle him all alone. But I felt bad to leave the poor boy. We brought some chips, coke and water and started from Hyderabad. Initially the road was good but because of traffic we couldn't cover much distance. After travelling for 100 kms we decided to take a break and switch driving. Now, my cousin started to drive and I was very cautious. He started driving at the speed of around 120kmph and that alarmed me somehow since I saw few auto rickshaws on the highway and few times he had to literally stop because of the signs.

We were driving on NH-44 and somehow we missed the route and instead of going towards Bangalore we continued on NH-40. We started at 10am and it was around 5pm and we had just reached Kadapa. My father in law was calling so many times and taking tension. Since, we wanted to reach Tirupati before it gets dark since now we had to cross the ghat roads and that would have been scary. For some reason while we were talking to our father in law, my cousin sped off and he over looked a bump because of which our car literally flew. He was driving at 120 kmph and on top of that there was an auto rickshaw driving in front of us. Our car dashed into the auto rickshaw. I don't know if it was god's grace or my cousin somehow managed this crisis, nobody got hurt except the car. I could see the smoke from the radiator and the car stopped with a thud sound. After this massive incident, the auto driver came out to fight with my cousin and they started arguments. Slowly, it converted to a fight and my husband and my cousin started fighting with him. Looking at this local people surrounded them and I got so scared. It is believed in my family that Tirupati journey is never easy for us. My mother in law had already warned me before heading for the trip. I don't know why but I started crying and came out of the car and shouted " Please go away, no body is hurt here.. stop this fight"

After few mins, everybody dispersed and when my husband started the car it somehow started but the wheels were shaky. On top of this, it started raining heavily. We were just 10kms away from Kadapa district. The wheel alignment had got disturbed and the headlight had broken. We found one auto repairing shop in the town and it was getting dark and rain was making it more worse. To top all these, electricity had gone off in the town and mechanic had somehow managed to align the wheels but he couldn't set the headlight properly. My head was already spinning with what was happening since morning and I felt miserable. So, finally I collapsed in the back seat but couldn't sleep. I was somehow sensing that something bad is going to happen so I requested my husband to find a hotel in the town and we can drive to Tirupati in the morning since we were just 120kms away. It was night 8pm and we had to take a pick. Since I was sleeping after enquiring few people they both came to know that the place is not safe and the hotels nearby were not that good. They made up their mind to drive on the ghat roads. I protested but since rain stopped they thought it would be better if we continue the journey and reach there.

I slept hoping that we would somehow reach our destination without any hassle. But our journey was filled with many hardships as my mother in law had told us. The headlights were not properly placed and that made it difficult to clearly see the pits and holes on the ghat road. After driving for an hour it again started raining and we were driving on ghat roads. I woke up from my sleep with a big thud sound again. My heart started pounding since I didn't wanted any other trouble. This time since my husband couldn't see the road properly and he was sleepy he couldn't see a manhole. The wheel balance again got disturbed and that got me on to my nerves. I started praying god and asking for forgiving any past misdeeds we had done. We took a break at a local dhaba that was open at 10.30pm. After having food, I asked my husband to take a break since food somehow induces sleep. But who listens to me??

After driving for some more time, I woke up with another shock. While driving on the road my husband closed his eyes, thanks to my cousin that he was awake and saw that my husband was driving on right hand side. He forgot unconciously that he was driving in India and not in USA and there was a truck honking at him from a distance. My cousin suddenly turned the car to the left side and thank god my husband woke up and applied the brakes else that would have been our last road trip ever on this earth! I can still get scared remembering this incident. We were some centimeters close to death. At last after fighting with our fate, we somehow reached Tirupati at around 2.30am.

At that moment I was so happy to not bring my nephew. Poor kid would have got scared by all this and what if something were to happen on that night! With all these scary thoughts I finally fell asleep that night.This was a scariest road trip of my life.

We learnt a lesson that speed and thrill definitely kills! I can never forget this trip in my life.

This story is a part of Mahindra XUV500 "Incredible Stories" contest!

The butterfly catchers

Childhood memories are always so much refreshing. Sometimes I sit and ponder how beautiful my childhood days were. No tension and absolute fun. I am going to share one of my fun childhood experience cum hobby in this post.

I lived in the city of Hyderabad with all my relatives and fun neighbors around. We had a mini garden in front of our home which had lemon tree, curry leaves tree, mango tree and many assorted flower trees like Marigold, Jasmine, Rose etc. I was very fond of flowers including my friend Shalu. We used to walk in the garden and water the trees more than they required! This made my grandmother to always keep an eye on us. I think I was in 3rd standard at that time when I first time noticed so many lovely butterflies hovering on the flowers. I got excited and called up my friend Shalu.

We got mesmerized with the beautiful wings of butterfly and we tried to catch butterflies but they used to fly away. Later slowly we learnt the technique to hold a butterfly by using its two wings gently. We carefully observed their colors. That was a wonderful experience. We used to think how God has created these creatures beautifully and gave them the best colors of this world. It became our hobby to catch butterflies and show it to everyone in our family their colour and texture.

I remember how my grandmother was the only one who took interest in our hobby but advice us to be very gentle in holding them. Since the little creatures were so soft and delicate that we could have killed the nature's beauty by not holding them correctly. Inspite of being extra careful, once I tried to catch hold of a butterfly and accidently damaged one of its wings slightly. I started crying so much as if I got hurt and I showed it to my grandmother. She asked me not to panic and leave the little creature on the flower. I left it there but to my horror, a grasshopper or some kind of flying insect gobbled the butterfly in one shot and there went my little princess to abode!

This was one of the horrifying experience for me at that age and I vowed not to hurt any butterfly by silly habit of mine. Instead, I learnt one another technique from my sister. I learnt how to make colourful butterflies using Origami technique. Believe me I enjoyed doing that so much. Me and my friend Shalu, decorated our rooms with full of colorful butterflies and plants all over. There was a mini garden in our room now :).

P.S. This post is written as a part of indiblogger's Kissan 100% Real blogger contest

Switch to Diesel -- Life's so easier !

Buying a car could be very painful process. All sorts of ideas run through your mind like reliability, performance, price and reviews. The secret for choosing the right car is to find a balance between these requirements. But most people should consider one more choice - Petrol or Diesel ??

We all know that in few decades petrol reserves would be extinct. Every year we see a hike in petrol prices in every country. We all heard about rabbit and tortoise story. Petrol reserves are like rabbit, who ran faster in the race but at one point they will be resting forever i.e. they will be extinct. However, diesel is like a tortoise who is walking slow and steadily in the race. But people notice tortoise only after rabbit fells asleep. Similarly, today people are actually considering switching to diesel instead of petrol when its reserves are diminishing. Its never too late !

Lets see some technical aspects that makes diesel cars to stand out in this race. Diesel and petrol are both products from oil. Gasoline (or Petrol) is a volatile liquid, extremely flammable and can be lit by a spark. However, diesel is a heavier liquid. Because of this there is drastic difference in the way they ignite the fuel. In petrol engine fuel vapor is ignited at the precise moment by a spark. While in diesel engine, fuel is ignited by combination of pressure and temperature, hence spark is not needed. So, diesel engines are simple and there is no need for complex electronics needed for the ignition system. Diesel engines tend to be heavier since they have to withstand greater forces. Apart from these technical aspects if we see the longevity of these engines then petrol engines are considered worn out after they cross 100,000 miles but diesel engines on the other hand are considered warmed up after 100k miles.

But if we see other aspects then petrol is not safe for the environment. There is lot of pollution nowadays because of this. But when clean diesel fuel is combined with modern diesel engines, it almost has no emissions. There is much better fuel economy, longer life and diesel engines are better deal for the environment than the petrol engines. Diesel engine cars would be expensive to buy but definitely its not that bad deal after knowing all this.

These engines are extensible as well. We all know that when Rudolph diesel invented diesel engine, he actually used peanut oil. First diesel engines ran on vegetable oil. Converting diesel cars into vehicles that can be fueled with vegetable oil can be an intriguing idea for the coming decades. In few countries the conversion kits are also available using which we can actually use vegetable oil to power the engine. The current fuel crisis have made people to search for other alternatives and shifting towards recycled vegetable oil goes beyond today's economic realities. There is a growing movement towards the use of renewable and recyclable sources of fuel.

Hence, I would say shift to diesel and make your present and future life easier ! There are many upcoming models of modern diesel cars in India and other countries. In India, Fiat has launched "Fiat Punto 90 HP" which has fiat multijet diesel technology at the price of a petrol car ! It has a superior fuel efficiency of 20km/l ! The cool Italian design and dynamics of the car is excellent. Fiat is delivering cars with both personality and real-world practicality and combining these attributes with engines that put our economy and environment at the forefront of our thinking !

P.S. This post is published as a part of "Indiblogger - switch to diesel" contest. For more information about Fiat Punto and Linea visit the link Fiat India.

Cruising away to Bahamas......!!

We often like to visit different places and countries. Sometimes because we are bored with our sedentary life, sometimes out of curiosity and mostly we travel because of some occasion. In any case, we keep some hopes in our mind to make this trip unforgettable. Some times we visit some exotic and different place and end up having long lasting memories related to that place. Such place in my life is - The Islands of Bahamas ! Even today when I close my eyes for few minutes I could see the clear blue water of the ocean, pleasant sound of the waves and nothing but just water surrounding the small islands.

On our honeymoon, we planned to go to couple of islands in Bahamas. We decided to take a fabulous cruise trip for that. This was the first time I ever went on a cruise and it was simply mind blowing. The cruise had 11 floors and each of them is like a different world. Part of the floor is divided for the rooms where we all stayed and the rest half was either a recreation point, swimming pool with beach chairs and musicians, night club or live entertainment. I really felt that we should be on a cruise at least once in a lifetime. The atlantic ocean was not too calm. There were some incidents on the ship where due to big waves the ship was swaying away. But it was for a short time!

Next morning when I opened my eyes, I looked outside and found that we reached Bahamas. We got ready and went out for the adventure. My first reaction after getting out of the ship was " Wow.. is this for real? or I am dreaming??" Bahamas indeed is the place where you won't notice the difference between reality and a dream. These are the islands of Bahamas, a place which is so beautiful that I can't even describe it with words. Bahamas, is an archipelago that consists of around 700 small islands. The biggest one is Nassau. The water is the clearest in the planet. I stepped into the water, it was warm. My gaze could actually meet my tow when i looked inside the water. This was the first time I was seeing a clear ocean water. So I got super excited.

We decided to take an arial view of Nassau and Paradise Island. We got bit crazier and went on a biplane. It was a fun and scary ride. We hooked ourselves with the belt and it was a 2 passenger biplane. The pilot was sitting in front of us and he demonstrated some of the stunts while we were on a biplane that made the ride CRAZIER than we thought. Even though we saw just couple of the islands, beauty of each island extends far beyond the natural scenarios. I felt like I have stepped on an extraordinary flight that has taken me to heaven! The crystal blue water, trees and the islands are simple breath taking. After the ride we went to the paradise island and saw the 'Atlantis' which is an amazing place to visit. The another Atlantis is in Dubai. It had largest open air marine habitat. We then went near the beach and did some shopping too.

Somewhere deep down my heart I have captured the amazing images of this island which I can't forget. Whenever I close my eyes and try to go to some place where I can find peace and tranquility, I end up in Bahamas. The sky, the ocean, the moving shadows of palm trees near the shores - My memory is locked there. I can still feel the sand on my feet and the warm breeze blowing near the ocean. I can hear the horn of the cruise ships docked near the island, bringing thousands of tourists to this wonderful place.

This place is a true Xanadu by any means to me!

This post is written for Indiblogger - Cleartrip 'My Purpose' contest.

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