Wake up to a Gold morning

#Colgate360GoldMornings
Honestly, I was never a morning type of person during my growing up years. I would stay up late into the night studying and so would wake up late in the morning. The alarm clock would ring but I would often drift back to sleep for a little more time. Thankfully I had my mother to wake me up on days when I had morning classes. However I would feel very groggy. Also I would always be in a hurry. So my mornings were far from being "good mornings"!

The transformation of being a night owl to becoming an early riser came about when I entered my college life and started living in a PG, away from my family. So I was on my own, there was no one to wake me up if I was getting late for my class. That's when I cultivated waking up early as a habit and its benefits followed. I realised that I had been following a faulty routine all the while. As I started waking up early, I got enough time for doing exercises or to enjoy the peaceful, quiet time during dawn, or to enjoy my breakfast instead of hurrying through it.

Since then I have been following the same routine. So my mantra to turn good mornings into gold mornings is quite simple:
1. I go to bed early after having a light dinner so that I get a good eight hours of sleep and wake up feeling fresh in the morning.
2. I make sure that I am feeling relaxed and am not stressed about any work-related problems or otherwise, before hitting the bed at night, so that I sleep well.
3. Upon waking up, the first thing that I do is to drink a glass of lukewarm water. It helps in clearing the toxins from the body. So upon coming out of the washroom, I feel light and fresh.
4. The next most important step involves brushing my teeth and cleaning the tongue before having my breakfast. Not only does it minimises the odds of developing gum diseases like cavities or tooth decay but also makes me feel fresh. Both my toothpaste as well as my brush (Colgate 360 Charcoal Gold toothbrush) come from Colgate; me and my family have trusted Colgate products since the time we were small kids.

[caption id="attachment_492" align="alignnone" width="569"] Colgate 360 Charcoal Gold Toothbrush[/caption]

5. Then I go for a light jog in the nearby park followed by some stretching exercises, I feel energised. Upon returning home, I have a nutritious breakfast accompanied by a cup of green tea. Then I get myself readied up for my office. By then I would be feeling super active.

Thus my good mornings turn into gold mornings :)

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My Favourite city - Hyderabad aka Cyberabad

Yesterday I came to know about this contest organised by Tata Motors where one had to write about his favourite Indian city as per design, drive and connectivity of the place. Since the last four years, ever since I was transferred from Hyderabad, I have been living here Bangalore. Having lived in both the cities for a fair amount of time, it didn't take me much time to decide which city I loved more. Both cities are quite similar in many ways and would fare very well in my opinion if a survey was done about most liveable cities in India. Some people would have probably chosen Bangalore over Hyderabad for its climate, because the two cities are otherwise similar in various aspects. But for me, Hyderabad fares a bit better if these three parameters are the sole criteria - design, drive and connectivity.

What I like most about Hyderabad is the harmonious existence of the old traditions and modernity and its cosmopolitan way of life. The city is quite old, almost 400 years old and has a rich cultural heritage. Both the old city and the new city co-exist side by side. Even in the old times, the city used to be an important centre for trade and commerce in India. During the period when the Nizams ruled it, Hyderabad used to be the largest state in India. But after India's Independence when Andhra Pradesh was created on linguistic basis, Hyderabad was made its capital. Like Chandigarh, today Hyderabad is the joint capital of the two states simultaneously - that of Telangana as well as of Andhra Pradesh.

Then in the late nineties and early 2000s, during the tenure of Chandrababu Naidu, who had envisioned Hyderabad becoming the Silicon Valley of India, the city gallopped its way towards realising that dream. During that period, several global IT firms set up their branches in Hyderabad. Since then, along with Bangalore, Hyderabad has come to be dubbed as the IT capitals of India. Not just the IT companies, but today Hyderabad is home to many international MNCs like Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Oracle and Deloitte, research and development institutes and defense establishments. The city has seen unprecedented growth and developments in the areas of IT, Biotechnology, Construction, Pharmaceuticals and Tourism in the recent times. Thus Hyderabad is seen as a promising first tier city with immense business opportunities. It is one of the primary destinations in India for FDI (foreign direct investments). Thus the city that was once known for its minarets and domes and as a pearl and diamond trading centre, is now an important IT destination in India and is called "Cyberabad".

If we look at the city's design, one will find several mesmerising heritage structures that were constructed during the period of Qutb Shahi and Nizam rulers which showcase Indo-Islamic architecture (a style influenced by the Indian medieval architectural style, that of the Mughals and also of the Europeans). The new city has been very well-planned and several parks, upscale residential and commercial buildings like shopping malls, and recreational centres like multiplexes or Ramoji Film city dot its landscape. The industrial areas are located in the northern end. Then there is the "Cyberabad" area that is spread across a sprawling area housing many IT and bio-pharmaceutical companies.

Hyderabad is nicely connected to all parts of the country by railways, roadways and airways too. Several domestic airlines fly from the city to other places in the country and one will easily get a domestic flight to travel to any major city in India from Hyderabad. The city is also well connected to all neighbouring towns and cites by many express trains. One will also find regular bus services available to nearby major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Nagpur or Chennai. Additionally it also boasts of a well-maintained intercity bus service. Bus services as well as motor rickshaws and taxis are available to all corners of the city from Hyderabad.

(This has been written for “Made of Great zonal wars” sponsored by Tata Motors. Visit the website http://madeofgreat.tatamotors.com/ if you wish to know what it is all about)

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Besan Ka Halwa (Gram Flour Halwa)

Today happens to be my mother's birthday and I wanted to make her day extra-special. To be honest, I am an introvert and I'm not that good with expressing feelings. So even though I love mummy very much but I hadn't really gone out of the way to express my affection for her before. But the last few days, I don't know why, I was feeling really emotional about my mother and today I wanted to surprise her by preparing the breakfast myself, that too a dessert because she has got a sweet tooth. Though I am not that good a cook and except for the occasional noodles or egg omelettes or tea and coffee, I have seldom spent much time in the kitchen (unless of course when mummy needs some help) but today being such a special occasion, I wanted to give her a sweet beginning to the day. I wanted to make her feel special.

Since the last week or so, I had been planning for this day, how I would wake up early and finish up all the kitchen chores like washing up the previous night's utensils and also cleaning up the kitchen counter-top before she woke up. That is exactly what I did this morning. I wanted to give her a break from the morning chores. But the real surprise for her was going to be the dessert that I was planning to make for her. I took the help of internet and browsed through quite a few delectable dessert recipes. Some of them looked really good and enticing but I feared about whether I would be able to make them successfully. Being a total novice, I didn't want to take a chance with a complicated recipe, had my attempt failed, it would have spoiled the occasion. So after much brain-storming and going through several you-tube tutorials and recipes, I finally settled on preparing Besan Ka Halwa for the day and for that I followed Masterchef Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe. Not only is the dessert fairly easy to cook but it also tastes wonderfully well, and on top of that, it brings back my childhood memories -- how I used to relish eating the sweet dish whenever mummy prepared it. I knew that I wouldn't be able to replicate the same taste of the halwa like mummy used to make, but I wanted to give a good try. So I got down to work.

But since mummy has diabetes, so I couldn't have used the normal sugar. Therefore I decided to substitute it with Sugar Free Natura. Sugar Free Natura contains Sucralose - a sugar derivative that gives the same sweetness of sugar but without that many calories. Thus it is an ideal sugar substitute for the diabetics and all those who are conscious about their weight and fitness. 

Additionally I also made a little modification to the original halwa recipe -- since mummy used to love eating chocolates before diabetes, so I added a little cocoa powder too to the halwa to give a chocolaty taste. This is how I prepared Besan Ka Halwa, the recipe is very simple.

Ingredients that are needed:
Gram flour (or Besan) 2 cups
Desi Ghee (clarified butter) 1/2 cup
Sugar Free Natura 1/2 cup (had it been normal sugar, 1 cup would have been used)
Cocoa Powder 2 tbps
Milk 2 cups
Raisins about 2 tbspns
Cashewnuts about 10-12, chopped
Almonds about 8-10, chopped
Green cardamom powder 1/2 tsp

How to prepare Besan Ka Halwa:

My mother tells me that halwas are best cooked in thick bottommed pans. I used a kadhai (or wok) for the purpose. After heating it up for a minute or so, I added the gram flour and dry roasted it on low flame for about eight to ten minutes, stirring continuously. A distinct smell starts coming out as you dry roast the gram flour.

Then I added the desi ghee to the roasted gram flour and mixing them nicely, I continued to stir. This needs to be done for another four to five minutes until the gram flour turns slightly golden brown.

Now was the turn to add milk to the mixture. Even as I was adding the milk slowly, I was also simultaneously stirring the gram flour mixture so that no lumps were formed.

After a few minutes, when the milk almost got absorbed, I added 1 cup of Sugar Free Natura, the cocoa powder and also the green cardamon powder and mixed them up nicely. I also added the raisins, the crushed cashewnuts and three-fourths of the chopped almonds. Turning the mixture up and down with the spatula, I let the halwa mixture to cook for a couple of more minutes.

Now it was ready to be served. By this time, mummy had woken up and was taken by surprise on finding me cooking in the kitchen, that too so early in the morning. Adding the remain of the crushed almonds over the halwa, I took the bowl to her and wished her Happy Birthday. She had tears in her eyes and hugged me tightly and blessed me so much. When I told her that since I had used Sugar Free Natura, so she could eat the halwa as much as she wanted to, she was so happy. 

The icing on the cake was that the taste had actually come out really well. For a moment, I couldn't believe that it was me who had prepared it. Mummy loved every bit of the Besan Ka Halwa and that made my day. :)

 

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Rahasya - A review

After a long time, I came across a murder mystery that gripped me for the better part of the movie. It was certainly helped by some superb acting performances by the starcast, especially Kay Kay Menon who plays the role of a CBI officer to perfection (notwithstanding his walnut munching mannerisms), and the taut screenplay. With a starcast comprising of some brilliant and seasoned actors like Kay Kay Menon, Tisca Chopra, Ashish Vidyarthi, Mita Vashisht, Ashwini Kalsekar, one could expect that. But the climax sort of botched up everything and the edn result became only a better version of a CID episode.

The first time that I saw the trailers of "Rahasya", I had thought it to be inspired by the Aarushi murder case because one could co-relate so many similarities - a teenager girl getting murdered who has doctor parents and the case getting handed over to the CBI. But actually this movie is no where close to that murder case, the director for some reason has steered clear of that incident.

The story is about the Mahajan family and starts with a murder - that of the teenaged daughter of Dr. Sachin Mahajan (played by Ashish Vidyarthi) who gets killed in her own house. The case is handed over to the CBI and as they try to trail the murder, they keep coming across newer and newer suspects. But even as they are busy solving the case, assuming it to be a revenge murder by a jilted lover, another murder takes place in the same house and thus their assumptions go awry. It could be someone from the family itself, so they think.

For me, the two standout performers were Kay Kay Menon and Ashish Vidyarthi, who I thought, was admirably good as Dr. Mahajan. But sadly though being such a talented actress, Tisca Chopra, I felt was disappointing as the doctor's wife, she seemed too meek.

The movie could have been a superb thriller had there been a better climax. Because the script had definitely managed to grip my attention. The screenplay too was crisp and the background music added to the charm. But the editing could have been done better because at certain points I felt the scenes ended abruptly. Though it was an average story but still with some better editing and direction, it could have been executed in a better way.

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The Next Three Days - A review

This jailbreak movie, “The Next Three Days”, is a taut thriller and is apparently inspired by a little known French movie, “Anything for Her”, that had got released in 2008. I wonder how I had never come across this movie earlier! I must thank my good friend Niraj who suggested me this movie a few days back, while I was looking for a good thriller. Well, being a Paul Haggis directed movie, one could expect some class. Didn't he give us a classic in "Crash" a few years back? The lead actor, Russell Crowe, who plays the role of the desperate husband, too puts up a really solid performance and keeps the viewers hooked.

He plays the role of John Brennan, a junior college teacher (English) in the movie and has a happy family comprising of his wife and their young son. But their life suddenly takes a serious turn when after returning home from a dinner party with friends, the next morning the police storms into their house and arrests his wife (played by Elizabeth Banks). She gets convicted of murdering her boss in a parking garage! Though she keeps pleading that she didn't kill her boss and her husband, Crowe too believes in her wife's innocence but the police have some compelling evidence - she had a terrible argument with her boss and thus she had a motive and most importantly, the blood stains that were found on her Bank's coat matches that of her boss.

John now has the responsibility of not only managing the house all by himself but also has to raise up his young son. So he continues with his teaching job but doesn't give up hopes of seeing her wife getting freed from the jail-sentence. So he keeps appealing in the higher courts against the jail sentence but fails each time. At last even their attorney gives up. But determined to bring his wife out of the jail, he plans to break her out of it where she is held. He even gets ready to sell off his belongings so that he could arrange enough money to buy things that he would need for the jail-break mission. The internet helps him in plotting about the jail-escape plan. He keeps searching through the net for valuable tricks, he even meets a former convict (Liam Neeson) and solicits advice from him because he had broken out of a lot of prisons. John doesn't even hesitate to contact the drug dealers to obtain a gun. Meanwhile with each passing day spent in the jail, his wife, Elizabeth Banks, begins to despair and almost gives up all hopes that she would ever come out of the jail or her husband would ever be able to make her a free person. Thus she remains in depression. But her husband eventually succeeds in carrying out the jail escape plan and together with his wife and their kid, they manage to fly away out of the country. Speaking of performances, Russell Crowe with his terrific acting, kept me involved in the story all throughout. Elizabeth Banks too played her part quite convincingly, but she had not much of a role actually. Direction too is top-class, though the movie, I felt, could have been shortened up a bit in length.

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Perfect Stranger - A review

"Perfect Stranger" could have been a perfect thriller had the loose ends been taken care of and the story had been better executed. Using the Internet and the ugly side of human nature as the backdrop and thus weaving the elements of media-spying, hacking, obsessive stalking, blackmail and murder into the story, the scriptwriter though has written a nice intriguing plot wherein every character is a devious go-getter and has got some dark secrets to hide. But there were too many loopholes in the story. The director James Foley surely surprises the viewers when a very dark secret is revealed about the lead character, right at the end of the movie. But still it fails to strike the chords.

Halle Berry plays the lead character in the movie and is Rowena Price, an investigative journalist working for The New York Courier. Using a male pseudonym, she keeps on investigating the backgrounds of the high and mighty and making sensational exposes of their dark secrets. Thus she always remains in pursuit of dirt and dark secrets of the corporate honchos. The movie opens with her visit to the office of a married politician who was standing in the next election for mayorship. But things become awkward for him when Rowena confronts him with photo evidences of his sexual relationships with some of his male interns. Scared of getting his image tarnished, the politician tries to buy her silence but she refuses. Instead taking the help of his colleague Miles Haley, she records his voice while he was offering her money and was about to publish the news in her next article. That's when the politician pulls the strings with Rowena's superiors, using his sources and succeeds in burying the sensational revelation that was about to come. This angers Rowena and she quits her job.

But an accidental meeting with her childhood friend, Grace, in the subway gives her the next assignment, when she hands over to Rowena a file that contained all chat records of their intimate conversations that Garce had with a certain Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis). He was the owner of a famous advertising company but was also a womaniser, inspite of being married. According to Grace, she had an affair with Hill for a few weeks but then he abruptly ended the affair and suddenly stopped responding to her calls or messages. Grace felt cheated and being used, and so she started to blackmail him and threatened hime that she would go and tell his wife all about their affair. Grace wanted Rowena to follow the lead and publish an article about their affair. But within days of their meeting, Grace is found dead. She had been poisoned and her body is recovered from a lake. Rowena suspects that it is Harrison Hill who had killed her childhood friend Grace.

So taking the help of Miles, her colleague, who also happens to be an expert hacker, she takes two identities, that of Katherine Pogue and takes up a temporary job at Harrison’s ad agency and also as Veronica, who tempts Harrison into an online sexual affair in the chat room. Even as Katherine, she at once manages to catch Harrison's attention and thus starts a dangerous game of flirtation. Though the cover of Rowena gets blown away when Harrison comes across a message on her phone, but she still gets him arrested on the charges of murder of his friend Grace. However from a viewer's point of view, the evidences that Rowena collects against Harrison were hardly convincing enough. The movie ends when another secret of Rowena is revealed by her friend Miles and so to silence him forever, she murders him as well. I felt the characters , especially that of Mr. Bruce Willis, could have been written better.

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Experience Super Fast Internet with Airtel 4G

The world has changed a lot in the past two decades and so has the Internet! It has evolved so much now. There was a time when all we had as an option for connecting to the Internet was a dial-up connection (and even that would get disconnected every second minute or so). When I was in College, I too had taken a dial-up connection for accessing internet at my PG hostel but I could not continue with it even for a full month, I got completely fed up with it because of its connectivity issues. It used to be such a hard struggle for me trying to connect through the dialer, it was very frustrating and I would lose my cool every time I would try to login. If that was not enough, even if when I managed to connect (those days used to be very rare), the download speed used to be pathetically slow. I remember how I used to regret and would kick myself for having chosen a dial-up connection instead of going for a broadband connection. Having said that, those days broadband internet connections weren't any cheap either. Most of us could only opt for the "night only" packages.

I too surrendered my dial-up connection and instead took a "night only" package of Broadband connection from a local cable service provider a month later, because that was all I could afford. Thus I would often stay awake all night long to browse through the net, for emailing or downloading books, movies or music files. Or else I would add the movie links onto a download manager before going to sleep. Such were the internet speeds those days that even after waking up the next morning, I would still find the movie downloading and not complete. With download speeds of 20-30 kbps, it used to take more than 20 hours to complete a download of a movie of 700 MB size.

Gradually as years passed on, with the technological advancements, the internet packages (with faster speeds) too started becoming cheaper. First came 2G (I thought that was fast. What a fool I was!) and a couple of years back came 3G. 3G is however still in use and gives a net user really fast download and upload speeds. With a 3G connection, even a website containing high resolution photos opens up in seconds. Large video files too get downloaded in a matter of few minutes.

Now imagine, since 4G is a step ahead of 3G, how much more faster and powerful will this 4G connection be? Ah, we have come a long way now, the days of 2G and even 3G are almost over, now that Airtel has rolled out its 4G services in 296 cities across India. Browsing through the web pages will be super fast and an enjoyable experience. With the lightning speeds that it promises to give, we will now be able to download even huge files in seconds. As the largest and the leading telecom firm in India, Airtel has always been on the forefront in providing innovative and better services, and has made a name for itself by delivering quality services and as a satisfied customer since 2006, I can vouch for their efficiency and reliability. Also given its extensive network coverage, one can always trust Airtel for delivering the fastest 4G experience one could have ever imagined.

With its 4G connection that promises to give a user speeds of up to 100Mbps, watching HD Videos streaming on popular video websites like Youtube or Daily Motion will be a smooth affair now. There will be no buffering anymore. Downloads too will complete in a flash. What's more, one won't have to shell out more money for upgrading from 3G to 4G! Yeah, you read it correctly, Airtel's 4G can be availed at an unbelievable price of 3G packages.

Airtel is also providing 4G SIM for free. We just have to send a tweet to @airtelindia asking for a 4G SIM using the hashtag #GetAirtel4G. A new Airtel 4G SIM will be delivered at our doorstep for free.

Well done Airtel. Way to go.

P.S. - Photo Source - www.tricksworldzz.in

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpHZ3sXY6B8]

(This has been written for “Airtel 4G". With Airtel 4G, one can now download heavy files in seconds and can also watch videos without any lag. Visit the Airtel website http://www.airtel.in/4g/ to know more about various 4G plans)

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