Millennials - The Global Citizens of Today!

"If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney

Millenials today bring what is most needed to this world - Positivity! They have grown up in a time of rapid change and have seen dreams turn to reality - from the telephone to the smartphone, internet to 4G, from domestic travel to the opening up of international air travel, from chequebooks to ATM cards and so much more. They have seen the September 11 attacks, to the financial bust to the Gulf War. They have seen gay marriage come into play and healthcare that can baffle anyone. All of these have made all these Millennials born between 1981 and 1997, far more open and accepting to what life throws at them and they have accepted it with Positivity to move forward to build a better world. These are the people who think, live and breathe as global citizens and have the most unique experiences to share. I am one such Millennial!

The Netflix Stream Team Life! #StreamTeam

We've all heard about Netflix, the world's leading internet entertainment service with over 117 million members in over 190 countries enjoying more than 125 million hours of TV shows and movies per day, including original series, documentaries and feature films. Well this global giant has a secret army of some of the most amazing storytellers in the world, to be precise 15 people in every country that they provide their services. It's called the Stream Team, and I used to always think how lucky the people were to be a part of this exclusive collaboration - some of whom I followed for their recommendations. Until one day when I opened my emails in the morning, and I saw an email from the Netflix Team. For a minute I thought it was one of their monthly emailers, until I reread the subject line - "Netflix Stream Team 2017: You In Ritcha?", and then I realized that it was an invite to be a part of the exclusive Stream Team that they were now creating in India. I was being invited to be a part of it along with my family because the stories I tell and the way I tell them had caught their eye! Definitely one of the best moments in my blogging career!

Ice Creams vs Frozen Desserts

It's the time of the year which we call legitimately call 'Ice Cream Season'! I mean with the summers already on a roll and going well into 40 degrees, ice cream is the one thing constantly on my mind to cool me down. While juices, smoothies, gelatos, and shakes are also what I indulge in to beat the heat, I can't deny that ice cream has always taken position 1 on the podium in terms of preference. However, this year I have been indulging in frozen desserts consciously than in ice creams. Now what is that you may ask and how is it different? Well that was exactly my question when I first came to know that frozen desserts and ice creams are different, and this post will tell you all about it.

The Vivo V5Plus Limited Edition - Celebration of 10 glorious years of IPL in India

Cricket as a sport is dear to every Indian's heart and I am pretty sure that even though you may not be an avid follower of cricket, you have definitely watched at least one India-Pakistan match with enthusiasm. The world of cricket has seen great evolution, with the IPL being one of the unique concepts, especially for those who are mad about cricket. Time has flown and it has been 10 glorious years since the IPL began, and even now the excitement and eagerness for the next season is the same each year. To celebrate the 10th year of IPL, Vivo has launched the Vivo V5Plus in a limited edition, that has the VIVOIPL logo engraved on the back. A matte finish black Vivo V5Plus with the logo engraved in golden color looks extremely chic and classy.

Scuba Diving in the Andamans at Havelock Island - Dream Come True!

Scuba Diving at Havelock Island, Andaman was one of the most surreal experiences of my life! Quite proud of myself to have beaten my fear of the deep sea and done this for myself! My partner in crime was my younger brother, who motivates me to try out all these challenges along with him, and I am so thankful for that. The sounds you hear in the sea are just like what you can hear in the video below and I felt like I was in a dream!

5 Amazing Ideas For My Dream Home!

Everyone has their own version of a dream home. Some would love to live in a luxurious apartment, some would want a row house and some would like to have a villa. Mine would be a modern villa by the beach or really close to the sea! Well not just that, my dream home will have my home design fantasies come to life as much as possible. My fantasies are inspired by what I see on my travels, in movies, in books and of course on the internet, especially Pinterest. I have putting together my ideas and documenting them for a while now, so that when I finally have the resources to have my dream home, it is nothing less than perfect!

The VLCC Coolsculpt! #VLCCStyleStatements

A woman goes through a lot in her life, be it pregnancy or hormonal changes with changing age, that make us put on weight. Due to the constant pressure of being on top of things at home and office, we are more than often left with no time for ourselves, especially during those years when you have a baby or small child at home. Sadly, exercise and hitting the gym is not a privilege a lot of us get and eventually the fat cells stay in our body and we develop bulging tummies and love-handles that don't look good at all. Becoming a mommy is one of the busiest jobs in the world as you are constantly running behind the kids to feed them, clean them, play with them and help them learn new stuff. Before Aryaa was born I would regularly go to the gym to be in shape, but after her birth, my days are spent in working and spending time with her and I am left with no time to go to the gym. I did join martial arts classes a few months back, but couldn't continue going to the class because of time constraints.

Your Farm to Fork Heaven - The Saboro Lounge By Mahindra

I believe in the power of food grown locally and the farm to fork concept. Farmers markets though rare in Mumbai, help me satiate that craving of getting not only fresher and more seasonal produce but also more nutrients in my food, due to the shorter time between harvest time and my table. It also helps the local farmers to put back into their business and maintain the farmland and green spaces around the region. Not to mention the benefits of a shorter food supply source - less contamination, less chemical preservatives and at times better pricing. Now while this farm to fork concept is what I indulge in for home food, the existence of restaurants and cafes promoting this concept is a rarity. Talking about rarity, the players are few but I am glad to see homegrown companies like the Mahindra Group take up the initiative to bring such concepts to the market. As an extension of their Agri business, they launched their first Saboro Lounge in Mumbai last year that serves innovative fresh food designed in partnership with leading chefs and nutritionists, prepared using the freshest fruits, vegetables and dairy-based products, procured directly from farmers and brought to your table, so that your experience involves indulgence without compromising on the health factor.

Vaya Tyffyn - Your stylish lunch companion

Despite being a foodie, I always have advocated the benefits of eating home cooked meals rather than eating out, especially because they are complete meals in terms of nutrition and quantum. During my office days, whether before or after marriage, I would carry my lunch box from home but would land up eating cold food for lunch. Not because my office did not have a microwave, but because I do not like to use a microwave regularly as radiation can be harmful to one's health. I detested the cold food, but the health benefits kept me going. After marriage I made sure PS too would take home cooked food for lunch at work and not hog on junk everyday. However he is very particular about eating hot food and being an auditor, he didn't always get to heat his food at different client offices. So eventually he stopped taking lunch from home because he was not comfortable eating cold food as it would take away the taste that he could have relished if it was hot. Being a part of the technology driven generation, I am so happy to have now found a solution to that problem for him. The answer to my prayers comes in the form of this new age lunch box called the Vaya Tyffyn which has the technology to keep your meal warm for 5-6 hours.

My favourite moments from Valentine's Day!

Love is not about that one day in the year and one person only, it is about daily acts of caring, sharing and warmth with people that matter to you. Hence I do not believe in the commercial concept of Valentine’s Day, but the actual concept that it is the day of love. So while PS and I don't need that one day in a year to display our affection for each other for everyone to see, it is a day that we try to spend quality time together as a family and with people that we love. Aryaa has become a part of our lives for the last couple of years and in our own ways we are trying to get her to understand what love's all about!

Capturing the spirit of Republic Day!

I remember my school days when I would be part of the march past squad for Republic day and Independence day. On those two days, we would have the flag hoisting session, where we would wear the Indian flag instead of our badges and salute the flag by singing the national anthem. History books were always there to tell us about the freedom struggle that India as a nation faced to acquire the Independence from the British, and how Republic Day is a tribute to the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect as the governing document of India. It was always a proud moment to salute the Indian flag and be a part of the parade at school and those memories are priceless. The euphoria of these days seem to have reduced somehow and it is difficult to spot as many celebrations and similar enthusiasm as I used to see as a kid. One really has to look out for any parades or flag hoisting or even find stalls or sellers with flags and other trinkets. With Aryaa now growing up, I want to pass on the stories and learning to her, and I want to make sure that she does her bit for the nation even though it may be on a smaller scale. Now that she is communicating clearer and understanding most of the things we tell her, PS and I decided to step out on Republic Day and put in efforts to locate whatever that we could, so that she could start to experience the magic of what we did as kids.

Godrej Aer Twist - A Happy Car Story!

I am sure we all love walking into a nice smelling space. In fact it does enhance our moods in most cases and on stressful or bad days especially, it definitely makes a huge difference. So since I can forever remember, I have been using different ways to keep my spaces be it home or office smelling good using air fresheners, candles, potpourri, scented aromatherapy oils and sprays. However I never used car air fresheners till 2 years ago because I loved rolling down my windows and taking in a bit of fresh air, where ever possible that is in a city like Mumbai ;-). My actual need has only come about lately after Aryaa's birth, for 2 reasons - one that we don't really roll down the windows anymore and two because Aryaa likes eating in the car while watching the world outside from the window. While we do clean up, there have been times when we have opened the car the next day and there is an unpleasant odour, which would just spoil everyone's mood. That was when I started using car fresheners. After having tried, tested and discarded various brands, I eventually got my hands on the new Godrej Aer Twist - Car Freshener in the variant Cool Surf Blue that not only smells great but also looks good!

 

Vivo V5 - Redefining the new selfie trend!

Change is the law of life and we have to keep adapting to change. When blogging went the professional route, I remember there used to be professional photographers at events who were specially appointed by the event organizers to make sure we got good pictures to post on our social platforms. With evolving times, a lot has changed in terms of technology as well as the trends. Now we are responsible for getting most of our pictures, so nearly everybody has an advanced phone with really good camera specifications, and with the new craze of selfies taking over, selfies have become mandatory. Since I attend a lot of events, sometimes the light setup at events is not phone camera friendly. At times, when we have to do live updates from the events it gets difficult to get a clear and well lit picture. But as I said earlier, change is constant and today where everyone is coming up with new solutions to make life more technologically advanced and easy, I realized that this problem of mine has already been solved. With every new phone launched in the market, the camera specifications are getting better and better to give us the professional picture look via the phone camera itself. To my rescue, came the Vivo V5 perfect selfie phone, which is the first ever phone to have a 20 Megapixel front camera with the Moonlight Feature. 

Poetry by Love and Cheesecake

All those of you who have a sweet tooth and live in Mumbai, surely must have visited the Love and Cheesecake outlets in the city to gorge on their premium range of desserts! If you haven't then you have missed out on heavenly stuff, out of which the Nutella Cold Cheesecake is my absolute favourite. And on that note you have more reason to rejoice, because on 15th July they opened doors of their newest venture, Poetry by Love and Cheesecake where they launched a brand new desserts menu, and a curated food and beverage experience which we would recommend to you as well. Located at Shop no 6, Pali Darshan, Junction of 16th & 33rd Road, Bandra (W), Poetry by Love and Cheesecake is a delicate, romantic cafe that offers desserts, garden-fresh salads, sandwiches, entrées and beverages with the finest ingredients that will satiate your wholesome food cravings. 

Get your home Raksha Bandhan ready! #BergerColourLog

Some of my most precious memories from my childhood are the birth of my brother and the priceless moments I have spent with him. Siblings are the best friends that God and our parents can give us and it’s one of the most beautiful bonds in our lives. Raksha Bandhan is a festival where you get to celebrate your beautiful relationship with your siblings. Since it is a time for celebration, you too can add a colourful and festive vibe to your homes and get it ready for Raksha Bandhan.

The benefits of drinking WATER & how to figure how much your body needs!

With the water shortage that has hit the city of Mumbai, we suddenly seem to have woken up to the importance of water in our lives which we never really give a second thought to in our day to day lives. Conserving water has become the need of the day and everyone seems to be waiting for the rains to hit the city so that we can do away with the issue. Bottled water companies have benefited a lot from this because drinking water is something that we need come what may. However coming to my point of this article, have you ever bothered to find out how much water do you need to drink every day and whether you are drinking enough? Well it sounds like a simple enough question to answer but despite years of research by subject experts, the question hasn’t yet received a convincing, unanimous answer and that is because each one of us is unique, lives in different places, is a different body type, performs different physical activities and has a different lifestyle from the other.

Fire up with the Asus Zenfone Max! #LiveUnplugged

When Asus sent me their new Zenfone Max to review, little did I expect that my patience too would be tested to the MAX in return ;-) It came to me on 19th May in this box with a numerical lock, whose code would be revealed to us only on the 23rd of May and so I had to keep waitingggggg! But finally on the 23rd when I unboxed it, it definitely was a product worth the wait. :-)

Asian Paints offers movies-inspired ideas this #WorldInteriorsDay with Film Production Designer Shruti Gupte

Having a dream home decorated by ourselves is something that all of us want. With changing trends, many of us have started decorating our interiors based on themes or various combinations of colors that denote our style of living and personality. In this era movies also play a huge role in influencing and widening our thought process. Many of us come back from movies inspired by the decor of the film we have gone to watch and want to recreate them for our own dream home but are quite clueless how to do it and can't afford to hire pricey interior architects. So to bring us closer to our dreams, Asian Paints #ColourStoreBandra conducted a workshop based on movies-inspired ideas for our homes. The theme of the workshop was ‘Intelligent & Inspirational Interiors, from Silver Screens to Your Home’, where they had renowned Film Production Designer, Shruti Gupte speaking to us about her experiences while creating homes for movies and how we too can create movie inspired designs for our homes and office spaces.

The spotlight is on Fun with Vodafone U! #FunWithU

Kids of this new generation are absolute digital addicts. Their solution to every situation lies on the internet. They want to share every minute of their life either over some social media channel or with friends over a chatting app. Fun via the world of internet, voice, music is an integral part of their lives and the need to stay connected for the smallest thing is what is becoming the DNA of the youth today. All this means a lot more data consumption but are the mobile networks providing pocket friendly solutions to them?  In this rapid growing demand of technology, people are constantly looking for deals that will cost them cheaper but provide more benefits and here is where Vodafone brings a first of its kind, Lifestyle Proposition for the youth - Vodafone U.

#StatementFurniture with Asian Paints Woodtech Studio

Home is where the heart is! It's that one place in the whole wide world which is your own space shared with the people you love or in a lot cases just you living alone, characterized by your own personal touches and memories thus making it home. Since I live in a rented house, I don't spend a lot in getting interiors done, but I spend on key pieces that will fit into any house that I move into, as they are a part of a larger setup that fit in together. Some of these key pieces like my furniture have now become over 5 years old and are in need of a revamp, as I have new ideas to redecorate my place with maximum spends being budgeted to revamp these pieces. This involves checking out decor stores across the city but the process has been super slow because work keeps me super busy. So event invites to decor stores are a total boon right now. I've been to Hill road in Bandra multiple times for street shopping and I've passed the Asian Paints Colour Store as many number of times, but I've to confess that I'd never gone inside until last week when I was invited for the blogger meet to experience the Asian Paints Woodtech Studio.