Few days of bliss and peace without a phone and internet!

I was on a vacation after like, months of waiting. The vacation was meant to be peaceful and devoid of unwanted calls and work. I couldn’t manage that. No. I was carrying work to be finished and to be submitted on the scheduled deadline. The mother and the family was annoyed. Why wouldn’t they? Even I was. How could I just not say No to them? But I had reasons. The most valid one being responsibility of getting the work done.

But the phone just didn’t stop ringing. And when I didn’t want to reply, they would simply drop in a message at every hour or minute. Even when I was out meeting my relatives and friends, the phone would simply make a sound that said, hey another notification! Read the message and get back to work. All I wanted to do was relax and sleep, read books, laugh my lungs out when I meet my cousins and friends. But no. It wasn’t simply happening. Ma got worried as the dark circles on this face started becoming the highlight and I looked eternally sick and tired. Even if I wanted, I didn’t have the courage to switch off the phone, it wasn’t an option even!

But I guess God had different plans to bail me out of this situation. Something amazing happened. We had planned a short trip to Maldah, West Bengal on the occasion of a puja that is held annually held. While packing the bags, I was warned that we would attend a puja and not office or work calls, or sit there with a laptop and dongle to complete work. Then, it struck me that overstressing myself wouldn’t do any good to me. I gave a call to the concerned people informing them about the status of the work and that I needed to travel with family. I cannot work for the coming 3-4 days and if they wish, I can take up work after I am back. Thankfully, they agreed and let me go.

And I was on my way to Maldah without a laptop, internet, and the smartphone. I switched it off and kept it in the cupboard. I told Ma that I would be using her phone in case I needed to make calls but that would be a very rare case. It did feel weird to carry just a bag full of clothes and a book after a long time but the next 3-4 days just did wonders for me. I was there in a peaceful environment attending the rituals, being part of the meditation sessions, sit and talk to people whom I hadn’t met for years and simply relax. I enjoyed my sound sleep without nightmares and panic attacks about work, not having to wake up by the phone alarm but the ringing of the temple bells. I even went out for walks with my uncle during the morning hours before the puja rituals started.

Surprisingly, I didn’t feel incomplete without the smartphone and the internet. The only thing I knew was that I should be enjoying my moments of bliss and peace now, sitting aloof from the part of the world with whom I interact throughout. I can do without them for a few days and let my mind breathe in some fresh air. 

Her optimism and prayers gave her sister hope to live once more

“Have patience with all things, but, first of all with yourself.” But she was losing all of it. The pain was getting unbearable. Nothing was working out for me at that time. Taking even a step to get down from bed to walk up to the washroom seemed extremely difficult. Diya had no idea what had gone wrong and why was she made to suffer.

Year 2010. She was now travelling in the Mumbai local trains again to work after spending a couple of years travelling in the BEST bus every day to complete her MBA. It was raining that time. Her ill fate probably started with buying a pair of BATA shoes which the shopkeepers told her were made for the rainy season. The shoes were not too comfortable to wear and the plastic hurt. She wore it only a couple of times and stopped. But by then, the damage would’ve occurred. Her feet started hurting, so much so that it was difficult to wear a normal slipper as well. The visit to the doctor and the tests didn’t reveal anything and she was asked to do physiotherapy to make my condition better. Unfortunately it didn’t help much.

The pain went on increasing, making her life as miserable as it could get. None of her doctors found any solution to the problem and was put on strong medicines to keep the pain in control. She was working in a MNC and couldn’t afford to leave her job within months of joining. The HR team and her manager ensured that she gets all the comfort at work and given flexible timings to report to work. Months passed by but nothing seemed to improve. She was tested for all kinds of disorders but every time, the results were negative. Nothing came out.

Her parents were clueless as to what they could do further to reduce this pain. They went to doctors and temples, both. Nothing helped except that they were told to have patience. She’s going to come out of this pain very soon. She spent several months now. Her continuous prayers seemed to be going in vain as she was now getting bed-ridden. No one could suggest a way out for her, to get rid of the pain, her sufferings.

Her only ray of hope was her little sister, Pia. Every evening, she would walk up to the temple and pray for her elder sister’s quick recovery, and come back and whisper in her ears, “You’ll be fine within no time. I have prayed for you.” Her smile made everyone in the house believe in the power of praying and being optimistic about living life again. Her faith in God increased as she looked into Pia’s eyes every time.

It took almost a year for Diya to recover from the pain and stand on her feet again without any help. She was able to report to work on time and even travel in Mumbai locals again. She walked, jogged and even resumed playing badminton again.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope, said Helen Keller. Absolutely true. There’s nothing more powerful than being hopeful about having a life without difficulties and having the power to overcome them, even if there are any. And optimism comes from the people who live with you, your pain and happiness. Consider yourself lucky and the happiest if you have such a loving family and a house that breathes optimism every moment.

If you are looking for a house where you all can stay happy, check out https://housing.com/lookup. It’s now your chance to build one. 

Night night, Baby G!

Last evening Ma and I were discussing how people sleep on their beds. Although it sounds like a weird topic to discuss but it isn’t, the reason being me sleeping with at least five to six books by my side and not having a proper posture while sleeping. So I ended up asking, how did I sleep as a child? Like when I was a baby or a toddler or when grown up? Her reply was simple. I hated books because they were related to studies and reading a story book was a luxury.

Sleep should always be peaceful, without disturbances. And when people say, they sleep like a baby, I, for a second, doubt their statement. Do babies really sleep peacefully or let others sleep peacefully? This time, during my visit back home, I met all my cousins and nephews and niece. And one of the funniest discussions that we had was how each of us sleep. While some complained the other snores (there are interesting sound variations), some others said, now that their babies are grown up, they can now manage a few good hours of sleep. In the midst of this discussion, my cousin pointed out something interesting!

Baby G, my youngest nephew, is only 8 months old and boy, his mom sounds like the happiest person to us. When we were pondering our questions on whether Baby G sleeps peacefully, if he wakes up in the middles and keeps her awake, how much effort does she need to put to get him to sleep, her answer was simple. She uses her magic trick that Baby G sleeps like a baby should. Her trick is nothing but a filling her baby’s stomach full and making him wear a diaper that keeps him dry throughout the night. She says, “In the initial months, we were asked not to use diapers to avoid skin rashes. However, now the doctor only suggested that we use diapers that promises dryness on the inside too because that will ensure that he gets his full sleep and wake up only when he’s hungry.” But does the trick really work?

Apparently it does. There’s some kind of unusual pleasure in sleeping next to a baby. In the course of attending a cousin sister’s wedding, we all were staying together at a rented house and I decided to sleep the night with both of them. So, when it was time for Baby G to go off to sleep, my cousin makes him wear a Pampers Baby Dry Pants and starts talking to him in his language.  Actually we both start doing that and watch him play and quietly doze off to sleep. At this time, my cousin and aunt walk into our room and say, wish we had diapers in your time and had the pleasure of putting you off to a peaceful sleep.

Baby G reminded me of Adi. Both these nephews of mine are real sweethearts and opposites of each other. While Adi knew the tricks of staying awake and keeping us awake till the late hours of night despite wearing the diaper, Baby G is a quieter version. Or maybe he’s just learning and mugging up the tricks from Adi. ;)

So in case you have baby at your place and still trying to find the way to put him/her to a peaceful sleep, try out Pampers Baby Dry Pants or find out more information at https://www.rewardme.in/tag/Pampers

A tiny little truth and lesson for life!

After having read the blog post brief provided by #IndiBlogger for Kinley’s Kitna chain hota hai na sachchai mein #HappyHours campaign, I kept on wondering what exactly should I write. I am no saint and there have been instances in life where I have chosen to lie instead of revealing the truth to my parents or others, with the intention of keeping situations under control. But they have not been such that harms anybody. Today, I chose to write about an incident that became a life lesson for me way back in my early childhood.

I love food and the excitement of eating out never really dies in my case. While in school, Ma would pack some usual tiffin for me that would look and sound boring. Of course, it would’ve been impossible for her to make different types of snacks and meals every day but then, having the same old food never satisfied my hunger. At my school, Gokhale Memorial Girls’ School, students were allowed to buy food from the canteen from Std. II and that meant, we were allowed to carry money with us. While for most of us, it was more about the jhaal-muri and aloo kabli that mattered most than the food prepared at the canteen. When I had informed my parents about this deal in Std. II, I was first asked to get the rate card of the food items that were usually sold. They would vary from Rs. 3, 5 or maximum 10. I was allowed to carry Rs. 5 on the days I wanted to eat from the canteen.

Well, I did start having food from the canteen initially, but felt the need to save the money in the next few days. I would take money from Ma or Baba but never really used that money to buy food, neither at the canteen nor from the food stalls outside the school. I kept collecting and saving that money in a tiny purse that I had got as a gift. This went on for about a month or so until one fine day, Ma found out about the entire thing.

I was not able to find a classwork copy in my bag and like all other child, asked Ma to find it for me. I was pretty sure that her expert eyes will not skip the copy. While she rummaged through my bag, she, instead of the copy, found the purse and the money inside. I had, actually kudos to me, saved about Rs. 50 by then, which in any case was a big amount. She wasn’t sure about how I ended up with so much money and just asked me about it. With a very scared look on my face and fearing a big scolding on my way, I chose to gulp down the truth. For the initial five to seven minutes, I heard her scolding me and threatening me about how Baba will scold me. While I chose to keep quiet till Baba would come and hear me out, the fear and guilt of hiding this truth kept creeping me out. Baba reached home and we started the case. Ma explained the entire scenario and I was asked to speak up. Not having the courage and strength to hold it back anymore, I spoke. The truth. “This is the money that I have been keeping in my purse for the past one month. The same money that you give me for eating at the canteen and also jhal muri. I just didn’t eat but thought of saving the money because I heard you that we need to save money for emergency situations and that wasting money is not good.” 

They obviously didn’t know what to say but I knew, this wasn’t the statement that they were expecting from me. They both replied, “It is our responsibility to save money and not yours, at least at the moment. We gave you money to eat because you wanted but that doesn’t mean that you put it in the bag and don’t use it. This is neither saving nor proper utilization of the money. We could have used this money in some other cases. If you don’t want to eat out, then don’t take the money on that day. And if you wish to save, we have the Mickey House where we drop coins and rupee notes to save for emergency situations. We appreciate how you thought about the entire thing but did you realize, if you got caught by your teacher, what would’ve happened?”

Yes, I realised. Now, why I call this tiny incident in my life as a life lesson is because, my parents cleared my misconceptions. The very importance of understanding what people mean when they say something is important. And Baba taught me about the importance of saving and proper utilization of resources. This, now, sounds like a petty situation but at that moment, telling them the truth definitely felt like the right thing to do.

While watching this advertisement by Kinley, many of such incidents stirred up in my mind and I kept on reminiscing about them. There have been situations where I have told myself to speak up the truth to avoid any further deterioration of the situations and went ahead to tell my parents about it. It definitely felt the right thing to do. 

He quit smoking, finally!

As a kid, I always wondered why is Baba carrying a box filled with white sticks in his pocket and occasionally will light these sticks up and put them in his mouth. Not knowing what exactly these apparent sticks were, I was more interested in how smoke keep coming out of his mouth every time he repeated the act. Not only he but his friends and many other relatives did the same thing. Well, when I actually understood what Baba used to smoke, he had already quit after being told by the doctor. But the others didn’t. One of them being a very close relative whose life would come to a standstill if he didn’t smoke for a while.

I am allergic to the smell of cigarette smoking and hence, keep myself away from the people smoking as much as possible. I make sure that they understand it’s disturbing and suffocating by using my facial antics and expressions. Sometimes it work and sometimes it doesn’t. More than they moving away from me, they ask me to move to a smoke-free place and wait until they finish. This leaves me insulted and ignored at times. With this particular relative of mine, I used to feel the same way until his wife came over one day and asked me to move away to the corner near the window.

Because of the disliking that I have for smoking and having already been told that it is harmful to your health, I really wanted to ask him, why don’t you quit smoking? How does smoking help you anyway? He replied, “I started smoking in my 20s to be part of the elite group and be part of the trendsetters and socialise. But it soon became a habit and now, an addiction. It is very difficult to move away or rather quit smoking for me. I don’t think I will survive even for a minute.” Well, it sounded like he had made up his mind not to quit.

Things, however, changed with time. I was visiting them on a weekend at the time when I had started working for the first time. I was writing for a healthcare knowledge processing company and had to read extensively on health issues. We had worked on a campaign against smoking and I had already mugged up the reasons why one should quit smoking. While I spoke elaborately on each of the reasons, he had his own reason to counter them. Say for instance:

1. You smell like smoke: Oh! Doesn’t matter. There are mouth sprays, chewing gums and perfumes to cover for me.
2. Your sense of taste and smell is go! : No. This doesn’t happen in literal terms. I make sure I do not smoke more than one ciggie before having food. And when you’re smoking for more than 45 years at a stretch, it seriously does not count.
3. You age pre-maturely and get wrinkles on your face: (chuckles) Well, I am happily married for the past 40 years. Does it really matter now?
4. People are now very conscious about second-hand smoking too. They will not even invite you for their social gatherings: Well, my buddies smoke and we are happy with each other.
5. You are exposed to infections of all kinds: There are ways to fight them back.
6. You are a danger for others around you: That’s why I have started smoking near the window or in the balcony where nobody is there to feel at danger.
7. Your physical fitness will go for a toss: I still go for morning walks every day and I am as fit as you think of.
8. You save so much money: I have earned enough to spend on this luxury.

Well, I wasn’t in the mood for a debate with him and chose to stay out of the conversation for some time. Although it was irritating and annoying to debate with him, the feeling of having failed to convince him to quit smoking was way more frustrating. I just kept asking myself, why can’t one quit smoking? What is that thing that stops them from quitting? How can they ignore the message “Smoking is injurious to health” written on the box so confidently? Why don’t they take the message seriously instead of being oblivion about it?

Photo courtesy: http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/VC/Views/Exhibit/visuals/antismoking.html

The next time I visited him, I felt some change in the house and him. Auntie looked at me and told me that he has something to tell me. I looked at him while he pointed to a cigarette box with 6 cigarettes in it kept on the showcase in their cabinet. I gave a questioning look, wondering what the message could be. It was, miracle has happened. He had quit smoking, FINALLY! And it was on the insistence of his daughter who gave him an ultimatum that either he chooses his life or meeting her and the grandkids.  His doctor had told him about the possible complications of having severe bronchitis if he didn’t quit smoking with immediate effect and face the adverse effects. He chose his daughter and the kids for good.

PS: It’s been already four years since he quit smoking and the box is kept intact as a memento. Now, that’s a unique one to cherish. He has less signs of Bronchitis and is fitter than ever compared to people of his age. 

#AbMontuBolega and I will too!

A few days back, at a corporate training program at my workplace, I was asked some questions unexpectedly. The Leadership Training Program was designed to understand the capabilities and aptitudes of the upcoming leaders in the organization and to check whether we are ready to take up new roles. Each of us was asked to fill up a questionnaire that had questions related to our thoughts over leadership.

One of the questions that struck me personally was whether I voice my opinion strongly whenever we are in a meeting or when our suggestions are discussed in an open platform. I asked myself, and the answer was 'No'. While I do voice my opinion and suggestions, they are sadly not strong enough to be taken seriously. Isn’t it the same that is happening with our country right now? We all have opinions about what to do and how it should be done. But do our opinion reach the right platform?

India, with its newly formed government, is wishing and working towards bringing about a change in the outlook of the country. That we can and we will. But how? For me personally, turning India into Swachh Bharat is not only the government’s responsibility. It is our responsibility as well. Clean India is not about only clean roads and alleys or putting up dustbins all across. It is also about voicing your opinion about something that requires immediate attention, and that for me is the safety of women and children. It becomes difficult to travel at late nights for women, even if accompanied by family or friends. Whether it is when you are coming back from work in a public transport or from another place, the fear of facing unexpected and difficult situations is always there. Why can’t we have police patrolling on the streets on the weekdays as well? Why can’t we have a female police accompanying us? Why can’t we have the lights on at the bus stops to check if any person is already there?

Probably we can now - with the new campaign from Strepsils. Strepsils is the world’s leading sore throat lozenge which fights both bacterial and viral throat infections and gives soothing and long-lasting relief. With Strepsils, you can get a healthy voice to express yourself completely.

#AbMontuBolega campaign or The Power of Voice to Clean India, organized by Strepsils has been designed to encourage the people to raise their voices, share their opinion and to stop being a silent spectator. Raising their voices against all that is dirty in India is the most significant power that they have. Exercising this power will help in taking a step towards cleaning those places and addressing those issues that deserve immediate attention and the authorities managing them require to hear them out. This is how we can achieve a Swach Bharat. That is why, they say Kyunki Bin Bole Ab Nahi Chalega #AbMontuBolega. The campaign details and updates can be accessed on Strepsils Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/StrepsilsIndia) and Twitter (@StrepsilsIndia). For further details and to listen to Montu, visit http://www.abmontubolega.com/

And like Montu, I am raising my voice and opinion, with a clear throat to address this issue.

PS: I am going to apply the same in my office as well. Because, it’s time to speak up and speak right.

Time for some action, let’s build a #ToiletForBabli

When you have loads of grannies, aunts and uncles, your conversations with your mother will never have a dull moment. For she always has tons of stories and circumstances to tell you to help you relate with your current situation. Yes, this is exactly what happens when I am chatting with Ma.

This time, we were discussing about one of my grannies and Ma’s aunt. One of the prettiest sisters who grew up in a posh locality in Kolkata was married off to a Zamindar family still living in a village, looking after their family business of farms, etc. Visiting them in their village used to be once in a while affair on occasions such as weddings or festivals. For me, rural areas seemed a distant reality and used to be a place that will be exactly like I had seen in my books or painted in my classes. After growing up in an urban setup, relating to most of the things in that village seemed difficult. I was about seven or eight years old that time and followed Ma for everything. But what was most shocking was the arrangement of toilets and bathing there.

Since they were Zamindars, they had a bathroom in their palatial house but the others, I found, had been defecating in the open in the nearby areas. Not knowing how to react, I asked my Dad about it. He replied that these places are still not developed enough to have bathrooms in each of the houses. It sounded unbelievable and disheartening to see many of the kids of my age going beyond the bushes or in the open field to defecate. The children and the parents, especially the mothers looked pale and sick. And I was only helpless, not knowing how and what to do for them.

But now I do. I know the importance of practicing hygiene and having proper sanitation facilities in your house and I have realized that it is now time to take a step forward, even if a tiny one, to eliminate this problem. #ToiletForBabli is an initiative launched by Domex, Hindustan Unilever Limited’s flagship sanitation brand that aims to make a major contribution towards solving the problem of more than 597 million people defecating in the open, still.

The Domex Toilet Academy programme was launched on November 19, 2013, with an aim of becoming a sustainable and long-term solution of providing sanitation facilities that will benefit the local community and in turn help in stimulating the local economy. This academy makes toilets that are easily accessible and affordable, and promote the benefits of using clean toilets and good hygiene. Their efforts have resulted in bringing about a change in the villages of Maharashtra and Orissa and in the coming time by 2015, their aim is to build 24,000 toilets in the rural areas that still deal with the problem of open defecation.

So, are you game for making a start to address this issue? All you need to do is, visit http://www.domex.in/ and participate in the “You Click Domex Contributes” and show your support for this Domex initiative. Simply “click” on the “Contribute” Tab on the site and on your behalf, Domex will contribute Rs. 5 to help in their plan of eradication of open defecation, thereby, will help many kids like Babli to live a dignified life.

I have done my bit. Now, it’s your turn. Go ahead and give the women and the children chances to live a healthy and a happy life.

Workaholic, are you?

There is something special about being a workaholic, I believed in my childhood. People somehow respected the person than an average person who would slog equally but was there to have fun, spend time with his or her family and pursue interests. So, I wanted to earn that respect of a workaholic, not knowing what this life holds for me.

When I joined my first workplace, I was the junior most member and needed to work as much as I could to prove my worth in the company. I had no idea about a deadline because it was completely different from the ones that were given in the University. Daily assignments and meeting deadlines were becoming a pain in my life. But it could never overshadow the power of getting appreciated for the good work that I did. I started overlooking the work pressure, stress and body ache completely. I spent more time at work than at home. This followed at every workplace where I have worked so far. I will reach early and leave late. There will be never ending work on my list even if it is not a priority. And this leads me to become a certified workaholic, going by the definition of the same.

By the time I realised what being workaholic holds for you, it got a little late. I was already having health problems, would stay tired and exhausted mentally and physically, the pretty face of mine started having puffed eyes and dark circles and a permanent fixture of sadness on my face. Was I working too much than I am expected to, or rather needed to? I needed to find out, seriously.

Workaholism usually refers to extreme behaviours such as working late at night in the office when everyone has left so that one can get peace and sort out the tasks for the next day, typically leading a life that is out of balance. The problem seems to get worse if not addressed at the right time. To make you workaholic, you have your smartphone with a messaging and mailing facility, a tablet to do all your work even when you are travelling or simply sitting back, and an annoying calendar to remind you of your meetings and updating you with your schedule. I do use a smartphone and it has a calendar as well. Just that I don’t own a tablet and work on the go.

May be I haven’t become a workaholic to the extreme that one of my fellow office colleague has become. He reports to work as early as 6 am on the rare days and by 7:30-8:00 am on regular days. I also come early and we usually bump into each other. On this particular day, while we were discussing something completely irrelevant, I find him taking out something from his bag pack. I was completely taken aback when I found him brushing his teeth at his desk using his tooth brush and paste from the travel kit which is kept in his bag. Upon asking him, he replied that he forgot or didn’t have time in the morning. It’s normal, he said.

No it wasn’t, and it should never be. Is working day in and out the only thing in our lives left to be done? What happens to the parents, the friends, the fun and frolic, the hobbies and personal satisfaction from things that we love doing? Job satisfaction should be there but we must also realise that work must not become an addiction. Your health will deteriorate and so will your mind. Negative thinking, frustrated and unsatisfied outlook toward everything that we do, and most important, incompleteness.

I wanted to become workaholic to earn respect. That’s a dream I lived. Now, it’s the other way round. I want to earn respect by leading a balanced life. With going for a morning walk with a free mind, walking into office at the designated time and leaving when I am done with my work, paint, knit, cook, watch a movie, read and write at my convenience. And sleep peacefully with the alarm not set at midnight for me to wake up at the wee hours to finish off my work.

So the next time when someone asks me, do you work hard or do you hardly work, I will answer, I do both!

Triple times the immunity, triple times the naughtiness!

I am often accused of being the partner in crime with my nephew. Since the time he was born, started crawling, walking, running, screaming, hiding stuff and happily yapping on his own. My sister often told me, it looks like we have two kids at home, one who is genuinely a kid and the other one, just enjoys being one. Grow up!

I would reason myself saying that when you have a tiny little kid at home, what more do you expect me to do? That takes care of the situation slightly and gets followed up by scolding. But I know for sure, she enjoys every bit of the naughtiness that we do. Well, I only supervise, he does the execution part. The house remains filled with laughter and joy and there’s always a fun moment in everything that he does. But when he falls sick, none of us could find the energy to do anything except for care for him as much as we can. Especially me. I just need him to get back on his feet, running around with the toys following me and Didi around, occasionally seeking help from my brother-in-law to help him catch these two women in the house.

I still remember one incident when Adi had fallen sick just after returning from school. I was in office when Didi called and asked me to bring a thermometer. Adi had high fever and our thermometer wasn’t working properly. I came out of work as early as I could, bought a thermometer from the medical store and ran home. His doctor diagnosed the fever as a seasonal viral fever and suggested that he must be taken care well because his immunity system is still weak. We needed him to recover and stay healthy. Every one of us in the house went berserk to figure out what to do to make his immunity system strong so that he doesn’t get prone to falling sick every now and then. Suggestions poured in from everywhere, and each had their own reasons. Someone, at that point of time, suggested Dabur Chyawanprash, a time tested formulation that we as children ate and loved too. For us, it was just a black colour formulation that tasted very different from what we ate or any medications that we took during fever. Dad made it a point to bring a bottle and had to be shared amongst the sisters every morning. This time, both of us, thought of understanding why is it important and why should we give it Adi. We scanned through https://www.liveveda.com/daburchyawanprash/ for more information.

Dabur Chyawanprash contains a number of herbs including Amla (one of the best antioxidants), Giloy (also known as Guduchi which has some of the best immune-modulatory properties) and 40 other natural ingredients. The anti-oxidant properties of Dabur Chwayanprash helps in strengthening the body’s internal defence mechanism or the immunity system as we know it. This helps in protecting us from infections and cough and cold. Dabur Chwayanprash helps in stimulating the natural killer cells in our bodies and assist in fighting with virus and bacteria in the body. Its anti-allergic potential has also been proved.

Didi got a small bottle for him and started feeding him every morning one spoon of it. Initially, he started making faces because of the taste that was so new for him but gradually, he started eating as a compulsory food as part of his breakfast. It worked wonders on him. Within no time, after he recovered from his fever, he showed signs of improved immunity with less bouts of cough and cold and no running nose. He was back on his feet running around the house, cycling in the park and giggling at everything he saw. His smile and laughter replaced the crankiness that he was having for the past few days.

And when he’s back on his feet, I was back. So was Didi. Scolding us for running around and troubling her! J

How this simple story of Ogilvy’s new advertisement melted my heart and left me misty eyed

Ghar ka khana, ghar ka khana hota hai (Home cooked food is home cooked food after all)! A scroll down my Facebook news feed one day caught my attention on a post that said, Ogilvy & Mather's new advertisement is bit long but you wouldn't regret watching it. The brand is Fortune Oil, this time.

I love advertisements. Totally. So, out of curiosity about the interesting story line and love for advertisements, I watched the 4 minutes 38 seconds ad. It has a Grandma visiting his grandson in a hospital who is not allowed to have any food that is cooked outside. Daadiji takes effort to walk up to her grandson everyday with the help of a walking stick, asking the attending nurse to let her feed him the home cooked daal (lentils). Priya, the nurse refuses her every time Daadiji requests her to feed only do chammach daal (two spoonfuls of daal) because it is not bahar ka khana (outside food) but cooked at home. Daadiji keeps insisting in various ways, either by saying that her grandson used to drink bowls of daal after he used to come back from his evening games, playfully saying I love you to Priya so that she melts but her efforts continue to go in vain. Priya does not comply and keeps rejecting until one day, she finds herself eating Daadi's cooked food on the occasion of her grandson's birthday. The next day, when Daadi comes with the same tiffin box containing daal, Priya is seen greeting the old lady with warmth, leaving her surprised. Daadi, on seeing Priya about to feed her grandson the same hospital cooked daal, makes another attempt to request her to feed him the two spoonful of daal. Her voice sounding choked now. Priya initially hesitates but goes ahead to close the door and asks Daadi to feed that ghar ka bana daal that her grandson has been longing to have. Daadi is overjoyed on hearing the same and wastes no time in quickly opening the tiffin box and feeds her son the home cooked daal. He also reaches out with shaking hands and drinks straight from the box after the two spoons are fed. The film ends showing Fortune Oil's new brand statement, ghar ka khana, ghar ka khana hota hai.

In the words of Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman and Creative Director, Ogilvy South Asia, "I believe it is one of the finest pieces of work that I have written. It has to be a very brave client with a very big heart to make a commercial of this kind. I salute the entire marketing team at Fortune for making this happen. I am also hugely grateful to Vivek Kakkad and my own partner Sukesh Nayak, for bringing this story alive. Enjoy, and have some home cooked food!"

Yes, my eyes were moist when the film ended. My voice choked for a few seconds. My heart was filled with the warmth and love that all of us long for from our loved ones, especially when it comes to home cooked food. Daadi's adamant nature of convincing Priya to let her feed her grandson showed how important are these relations in your life. No matter how much you try, the love that you get from your parents and grandparents is irreplaceable. In my case, I still regard my grandmas’ cooked food the best in the world, and claim that not even my mom can beat them. Their food had more love and warmth and they can soothe your depressed and anxious heart and mind in seconds.

O&M’s advertisements always have a charm in them and they are pleasant to watch always. Their storylines, concepts and visualization with the perfect actors make it appear magical on screen. This particular one will always stay amongst the top few advertisements that I like and will enjoy for a long time.

Credits:

Brand: Fortune Edible Oil & foods

Client: Adani Wilmar

Chief Operative Officer: Angshu Maik

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather India

Chairman: Piyush Pandey

Group Creative Director: Sukesh Nayak

Vice President: Saji Mathews

Production House: Curious Films

Director (film): Vivek Kakkad

Producer: Shahzad Bhagwagar

You can watch the advertisement here.

Content Source: Campaign India

Healthcare Communications

In some of my earlier posts, you must’ve noticed that I have mentioned my career details. I have a Master’s Degree in Communication and Journalism from one of India’s most reputed universities and have been working in the same field till date. I started my career was a writer for an online portal that specialized in healthcare, followed by authoring editorials for a reputed business magazine on retail industry for a leading business magazine group. The third stop of my career was at a reputed healthcare provider company to manage their external and internal communications and now, my role is that of a communications manager for a leading MNC’s healthcare vertical.

Yes. By far, I have mostly worked in the sphere of healthcare and occasionally dabbling in other zones with additional assignments. Although as a child I wanted to become a doctor mainly for the respect that they get for treating people, the same never materialized professionally. But somehow, the urge to work for the healthcare remained within and the secret desire got its approval from God, I guess. Starting from the first job till the one that I am doing now, my involvement with healthcare has been through knowledge sharing.

Initially, reading and writing about healthcare seemed tough and definitely scary. Diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol, calorie management, everything took a toll on my mind and I suddenly started linking everything with healthcare. Of course, my clients were my mom and the entire elderly generation at home and their only response used to be, you are going crazy! For heaven’s sake, don’t take your work so seriously that you end up being crazy. After a stint of one and half years, I took a detour and wrote on retail industry and business. It was then that I realized, whatever I read and learnt in my first job had increased my knowledge on healthcare, made me sane and helped me take informed decisions.

Healthcare communications is a niche genre. It is not only about what or when to eat, how much to exercise or how to avoid getting sick. It is about sharing the core and basic information and logic behind each and every action regarding your health. It is an absolute necessity that we understand our body type and what works on it the best. It is a fact that our health is the most ignored thing and it certainly deserves to be taken care of properly.

Keeping in mind the evolution in the mind-set of the people today, messages regarding healthcare are not communicated in a difficult and scary way. The content today is more reader friendly with information shared in customized manner. There are dedicated web portals for pregnant ladies, new mothers and toddlers, heart or diabetes. You can look for information that you need and stay aware.

If you haven’t started bothering about your health and do not realize the importance of taking care of it, it is high time now. For health is truly the most precious wealth that one can possess.

I am linking this post to A to Z Challenge #Day 8 for alphabet H.

Cooking is therapeutic!

Ahh! The third post and another aspect of me!

You know, I have been pampered as a child mainly because of few good reasons: I am second youngest in the huge family in my generation, a daughter and a sister who was not allowed or asked to help in household work unless the situation demanded and given the independent life that they believed I deserved. Now, when your elders say, ‘it’s ok, we’ll manage the kitchen’, you really don’t want to hurt their feelings and stay away from cooking. So it happened in my case. I was only allowed to make tea, instant noodles or sandwiches and not beyond that. It was alright till the time I was at home or was staying with my sister but regretted getting pampered in this case when I moved to Bangalore and started surviving on my own.

One of the very first things that you realise is important when you stay independent is cost cutting and saving. So I decided to cook for myself and in the process, learn the art of cooking. Unending telephonic consultations with the mother about ingredients, basics and survival food recipes continued for about two months. While the curry and vegetables would turn black without telling me, the rotis or wheat flat breads were of different shapes and crisp as biscuits, milk loved to overflow and get spilled and colors of the cooked food never matched the ones I grew up eating. Nonetheless, it was the taste and the desire to cook better that kept me going. I started looking forward to making my own food and improve with each effort. I even took advantage of the discounts that were gifted to me by a popular bookstore on my birthday and ended up buying cook books by Nita Mehta, Sanjeev Kapoor and others. I became a regular visitor to the cookery blogs and magazines and noted down recipes that I found easy to make.

And now, well, I cook them perfect. The salt, the colour, the taste are in place except for the rotis who are soft and nice but definitely not round! Cooking worked like a therapy for me when I was trying to adjust to the sudden new development of staying alone in a new city. Buying vegetables, negotiating with the vendors, picking up spices and sauces, spatulas and bowls, measuring spoons and just the ingredients that the recipe demanded—all became fun activities!  And yes, the mother now boasts about her daughter’s culinary skills and share tips and recipes that are in the range of medium to difficult.

Paneer Bhurji

Egg Bhurji

Matar (peas) Pulao

Flavored Rice

Orange Kheer

Few things that I cooked!

And as a follow up thing, my next effort will be to start a food blog soon!

So, that’s me and how cooking brought about peace and change in my life!

I am linking my post to the A to Z Challenge for #Day 3 alphabet C.

Have faith and smile, is what my Granny told me!

When I saw the subject for this week’s #IndiSpire, it got me thinking. There are like so many stories that I can remember my granny telling me that it would be difficult to write all of them. But I chose the following one, a real life incident that she experienced and changed her life.

After her first pregnancy, my granny was detected with DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis), a disorder that was very rare that time. It limited her movements, made her suffer from high fever for more than a month and left her unconscious most of the time. The doctors then had little knowledge of the disease and its treatment method and usually would give up hope. However, it was only one person’s faith that she will get better and lead a healthy life ahead did not let the hopes die. His only words were, let her live through this pain. This pain will not come back to her in future. A couple of months passed and she started getting better and went on have a healthy life later. Her disorder was completely cured and she was back on her feet. This was her life changing story and a new beginning of having unending faith in the Almighty. Her faith in her Gurudev, Shri Naresh Brahmachari Ji and the Almighty that she will get back on her feet and will take care of her family and children never died even when the doctors gave up hopes.

As grandchildren, we were told this story whenever we felt down or troubled due to the minor mishaps that kept happening in our lives. This story always inspired us to have faith during difficult times and have an optimistic attitude at all times. According to her, it’s only a phase that will pass. Brightness or the ray of hope always finds its way to enter into darkness. You just need to have patience and faith to survive through it. Her words and her story continue to remain my life’s inspiration.

If you have set yourself a goal and want to achieve the same, have faith in your goal and yourself. It might take a bit of extra time, but you will achieve it for sure. Never let your faith in yourself and your inspiration bow down to difficulties. Put up a smile, stay positive and win the world! J

Why we should be on a break at times?

Titled as Vacation vs Work: Why Indians prefer to work than take leaves, The Economic Times had released an interesting report. As the title suggests, it is all about our preferring to work more than taking a holiday or getting busy with work over the weekends rather than catching up on a movie or even just taking a stroll in the park with a friend or family member or even your pet. Not exaggerating any bit, I had the same outlook at the very onset of my career. The reason could be either because I was fresh out of college where studying during weekends was more normal that watching a movie or because, I was more enthusiastic about working and finishing assignments and be the good employee that my seniors would praise. Luckily, I am not the same anymore. I do work at home over the weekends at times, but haven’t made it a normal phenomenon of life.

Photo credit: www.forbes.com

I had recently been on a vacation back home after a year. It took a year for me to visit home for an obvious reason, work commitments and not being able to plan a proper and timely holiday for myself. Although going back home for a couple of weeks isn’t quite a vacation, however, it is nothing less. I tend to behave like a tourist and ask my mom to accompany for shopping and visit places. This is only for a couple of days and then, I am back to being normal! Staying put in a different city due to work doesn’t really leave anyone with time to enjoy vacations and weekend gateways are very rare.

The hypothesis that the study, 2013 Vacation Deprivation conducted by Expedia revealed looked and sounded true in many ways: a lot of Indians prefer to work, putting off or cancelling their holidays. According to the study report:

a.       63% Indians feel that they are deprived of vacations and holidays. India, in fact, has been ranked as the 10^th most vacation-starved country in 2013, a deep slide from its earlier of 4^th in 2012.

b.      38% Indians are known to work at least 41-50 hours per week, way more compared to other countries. And what has been worse is the fact that about 74% have cancelled or postponed their vacations due to work commitments.

c.       Another interesting fact is that about 37% of employees in our country prefer earning money in exchange of the unused holidays, a figure that is the highest in the world.

d.      46% of the countrymen have been found to save their vacations so that they can avail it at some future date. India, in this case, ranks third following Malaysia and Singapore.

e.       59% Indians have responded in affirmative when asked whether planning their vacations depend on their work or not. This figure is, again, the highest among the other surveyed countries.

Photo credit: www.joshdesha.com

The study has undoubtedly got some very interesting findings but those are not very encouraging to me. For all workaholics, this is their life story and they are the people who believe in planning vacations once they retire. For others, it’s either the passion to visit new places and take a refreshing break from the monotony of work life, or it’s about just about spending good time with family and friends and come back with a fresh outlook towards life and work. Vacations act as important healers for a stressed mind that helps you calm down mentally and relax your physical body.

Not exactly a resolution, but taking a break from work and keeping myself away from stress is part of my big list of promise to myself. While stress is inevitable and unavoidable, breaking up with it isn’t a bad and a stressful idea!

Counting the Years Back!

Read this interesting piece of news. Indians will now have a clue to assess their longevity and their pace of ageing.

The test will be made available in the country from this year onwards and will measure Telomeres (protective caps at the end of chromosomes that are best indicators of biological age as against chronological age). Read here to learn more about the test. Various factors contribute towards reducing the length of the Telomeres and thus, decrease the life span of a person.

The idea of sharing this piece of news is to check about people's popular perception towards this. How will it help the normal human being if he gets to know through an actual medical test (and not the popular Facebook app that calculate your death date and year as well as its cause)? Will each one of us create our bucket list more seriously and try to fulfill them according to the time left? Will you work harder and earn more money if your only dream is a world tour (because that costs a hell lot of money) or will you simply try to lead a healthier life in an attempt to increase your lifespan by adding a few years?

I do not know if people would actually pay to check how many years are left to be in this world or prefer a FB app to learn that he or she may die in some 2050+ due to laughing out loud and choking to death or may be due to falling from the bed and breaking the neck.

But definitely cheers to this interesting piece of news!!