DEAR ZINDAGI - Wish to live in the present without worrying and expectation.

DEAR ZINDAGI - Wish to live in the present without worrying and expectation.

I would like to write a letter to DEAR ZINDAGI on two things they are Expectation and Living life in the present without worrying.

Mandy Hale, the famous writer in her book, The Single Woman: Life, Love, and a Dash of Sass wrote 

“Dance. Smile. Giggle. Marvel. TRUST. HOPE. LOVE. WISH. BELIEVE. Most of all, enjoy every moment of the journey, and appreciate where you are at this moment instead of always focusing on how far you have to go.”

We always dreamt and worry about what we dont have. Instead of living life in the present and enjoying every moment we focus on the future. there is 
there is a beautiful song by DORIS DAY - Enjoy Yourself , It's Later Than You Think. It has some beautiful lyrics that emphasizes on living and enjoying your life in stead of worrying  about the weather or about becoming a millionaire or  which are as follows 

Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself
It's later than you think.

You work and work for years and years
You're always on the go
Never take a minute off
To busy makin' dough
Some day, you say, you'll have your fun
When you're a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you'll have
In your old rockin' chair

You worry when the weather's cold
You worry when it's hot
You worry when you're doing well
You worry when you're not
It's worry worry all the time
You don't know how to laugh
They'll think of something funny when
They write your epitaph

You work and work for years and years
You're always on the go
Never take a minute off
To busy makin' dough
Some day, you say, you'll have your fun
When you're a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you'll have
In your old rockin' chair

Enjoy yourself it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself while you're still in the pink
The years go by as quickly as a wink
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy yourself
It's later than you think.
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy yourself it's later than you think

Alexander Pope once said “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”  In life we expect from everyone from our spouse, from our parents, from our office/boss from the friends even the 4th seat in the packed local from 3 strangers. But when we do not get it from them we get disappointed, disheartened. This disappointment take away the beauty and charm from the present


I will try not to worry about what I dont have and expectations from other rather focus on living the life in the present and enjoying the moments with love, kindness, humbleness & happiness. And try to remember Van Morrison's famous song which read as My mama says, There will be days like this.

DEAR ZINDAGI, THANK YOU
For everything in life.

Love You Zindagi

“I am writing a letter to life for the #DearZindagi activity at BlogAdda“

The World Smart City Awards at FIRA Barcelona. Spain.

The World Smart City Awards at FIRA Barcelona. Spain.

This year a new category has been introduced, which is INNOVATIVE GLOBAL SOUTH AWARD FINALISTS,
The new award this year looks at innovative ideas that address pressing global challenges located in the Global South (Asia, Africa and Latin America).

Two of India's cities are in the INNOVATIVE GLOBAL SOUTH AWARD FINALISTS They are Bhubaneswar from Odisha and Chennai from Tamilnadu.


The six finalists are

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. Bhubaneswar- INDIA
MicroClinic Technologies. Nairobi- KENYA
Transparencia Mexicana. Mexico City - MEXICO
Kabadiwalla Connect. Chennai – INDIA
Socièté d'aménagement Zenata (SAZ). Mohammedia – MOROCCO
VM9. Nova Friburgo - BRAZIL




Smart City Bhubaneswar: Achieving Social Equity through New Urbanism in Action

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. Bhubaneswar- INDIA
Bhubaneswar's Smart City proposal focuses on developing a model for achieving social equity by placing children at the center of its transformation building upon the New Urban Agenda's three-legged approach- local fiscal systems, urban planning, and basic services and infrastructure.

Kabadiwalla Connect. Chennai – INDIA

Kabadiwalla Connect is an award winning urban waste management solutions provider in Chennai, India. Through technology, we leverage the circuits of the existing informal waste ecosystem to help send less recyclable waste to the landfill.

Also in  CITY AWARD category Pune city from Maharashtra is in the finalist. Thiscategory is Awarding Cities that demonstrate strategies, initiatives and policies that are established and have been developed for their citizens.

Reimagining Puneto become India's most livable city

Pune Municipal Corporation. Pune – INDIA

Detailed city profile of Pune and largest ever citizen engagement in India formed the basis of the proposal. Pan city solutions were developedfor maximum impact and local area solutions were designed for replicability. Puneranked 2nd in India's Smart Cities Challenge to winfunding of Rs. 1000 crs.

Image courtesy facebook page of  (http://www.smartcityexpo.com/awards)


http://www.smartcityexpo.com/awards

Vigilance awareness week Pledge and MTNL Mumbai.

Vigilance awareness week is observed by Central Vigilance Commission every year in India. The observance of the week creates awareness among Government Departments, Institutions and people to check corruption at every level. It inspires the system to implement preventive measures effectively, so that transparency and accountability can be maintained in the governance. The basic motto of this week to create a corruption free society.

This year the Vigilance week was a little different from the previous years. CVC initiated a concept of integrity pledge where citizens and organisations can take the integrity pledge. For this an website was created where individuals and organisations can take e pledge.

                                               http://pledge.cvc.nic.in/

The site is as follows

Lots of citizens and organisation took the pledge. Also people shared the certificate in their social media like facebook page, twitter page etc. So those of you who have not got their certificate about vigilance awareness can get by clicking the link.

MTNL The Navratna telecom PSU observed, Vigilance awareness week from 31. October 2016 to 05. November 2016. For this  Essay competition for students during Vigilance Awareness Week  at  Bhavans college.

Release of  Vigilance Information booklet by ED, MTNL, Mumbai. Shri Pravin Punj. GM Vigilance, MTNL Mumbai Shri P.K. Adhikari, DGM Vigilance Shri T  N SATHYAMOORTHY and other officials were present in the Release of the booklet.

Vigilance Awareness week inaugural function by ED, MTNL, Mumbai

MTNL Swachhta Abhiyan at Gateway of India

MTNL Swachhta Abhiyan at Gateway of India

MTNL carried out Cleanliness Drive at Gateway of India, Mumbai today. Shri G.K.Upadhyay, Member (Technology), Department of Telecommunications, New Delhi and Shri Pravin Punj, Executive Director, MTNL Mumbai, Senior Officers and about 100 MTNL employees in uniform picked up rags and cleaned the precincts of Gateway of India. Posters, Banners and Placards were also displayed to create awareness about Cleanliness and its necessity. The cleanliness drive brought forth participation from general public and tourists as well.

Shri G.K.Upadhyay, Member (Technology), Department of Telecommunications leading from front and cleaning the adjacent garden to Gateway of India.

 Shri Pravin Punj, Executive Director, MTNL Mumbai, also cleaning the adjacent garden.

 Shri G.K.Upadhyay,  Shri Pravin Punj,  along with senior officers of MTNL Mumbai.

MTNL employees cleaning the surroundings.

MTNL employees along with the banners and slogans about cleanliness.


This was the beginning of “Swachhta Pakhwara” being celebrated from 1 st to 15 th November in MTNL Mumbai. During this period all the employees have been requested to ensure cleanliness in Offices and Telephone Exchanges as well as in campus and their surroundings. A pledge was administered to all the officers and employees to devote at least 2 hours time every week towards the activity of cleanliness, besides creating awareness in this regard.

Sania Mirza- Sanjay Manjrekar tweet and the troll.

Twitter is increasingly becoming a hater's paradise and trollers heaven (especially in India). I would not be surprises if very soon most of the brands as well as celebrities, sportsperson, thinkers etc.

Just see a sample tweet e.g.

Here you can see that Indian Tennis player Sania Mirza tweeted that 


Sania Mirza

Verified account@MirzaSania

Today I complete 80 consecutive weeks as the number 1 player in d worldits been an amazing journey and just inspires me to work harder @WTA

Just to correct him ex-cricketer and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar corrected that No. 1 doubles player

Verified account‏@sanjaymanjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar Retweeted Sania Mirza

No 1 doubles player you mean. Congrats!

Seems like a genuine reply/correction and and a wish.

But the trollers had a fun day see these tweets

Sanjay Sawant ‏@Sanjay_Uvacha 6 hours ago

@sanjaymanjrekar Do you always need to nitpick?

Sachin Khurana ‏@Sachinkhurana06  

4 hours ago

@Sanjay_Uvacha @sanjaymanjrekar old habits die hard.... the most irritating person on TV. Sudhar ja bhai mere @sanjaymanjrekar

Ashay Sahasrabuddhe ‏@iashay  6 hours ago

@sanjaymanjrekar this is typical Konkani खवचटपणा. आवडलंय. @MirzaSania congrats.

IamArien ‏@dubaidreamscity  10 minutes ago

@sanjaymanjrekar @MirzaSania boring as his commentary.... he always wanted to be @sachin_rt but end up becoming an average commentator..

Dr.Arshad Mir ‏@Drmirarshad  40m40 minutes ago

@sanjaymanjrekar @MirzaSania @WTA medicore cricketer, medicore commentator, medicore tweet....#SanajyMedicorekar

And there were many more, from his commentary to cricketing skill to regionalism the trollers started trolling him for all the reason. Recently Pritish Nandy also in his article wrote how Twitter is having a slow death.

Pen Pineapple Apple Pen, Another BRAINWASH song!!

Pen Pineapple Apple Pen (PPAP)

Another BRAINWASH song!!

In a week there are about 45 million views

Watch it here

Uber moves Shalini and Dharam (Pros & Cons)

Uber has started its new campaign on the theme, Uber moves Shalini and Dharam.


Like most of the mother Shalini's mother also looking for a suitable match for her. While commuting through UBERPool She is showing in various options which Shalini is rejecting. and Dharam has also booked the pool to whom Shalini's mother is asking various questions and his visiting card. When Dharam's destination arrives he says instead of you if Shalini calls me it would be better...and the advertisements ends with a beautiful smile.

Life is full of surprises - and you never know who you'll meet next! On your next uberPOOL ride - you could bump into your next boss, your next investor, or even your new best friend.

But In the youtube video there is a comment which reads as What if Dharam turns out to be a stalker and troubles Shalini's life instead? :D
And another comment reads as Agar agle 2 ride me meri girlfriend nahi bani to uber driver aur uber ki *** *****.

Although the ad honestly tries to capitalise on the strangers and surprises but there are some nasty surprises also.

Wild Tales (2014) Relatos salvajes (original title) Review.

Wild Tales (2014)  Relatos salvajes (original title)

This film is about Six short stories  "Pasternak" "The Rats" "The Strongest" "Little Bomb" "The Proposal" "Until Death Do Us Apart The wedding" that explore the extremities of human behavior involving people in a difficult situation. Some parts are short while others are a little long but each and every part will keep you curious and excited throughout the movie.

The starting part starts the tone for the movie in an airplane where a model & music critic kind of flirt with each other and while doing so they found out that they know a person named Pasternak both. The model's ex-lover and the critics who skrewed his work. Also others join in who have been associated with Pasternak in the past, his school teacher, friends who bullied him, his friend who stole his girlfriend etc. What will happen ?

This is the start of the movie, Welcome to Wild Tales.

The other parts The rats set up in a cafe will showcase the reaction of an old woman. A girl whose family has been harassed by the loan shark. The loan shark visits the cafe in am rainy afternoon and Wild Tales. What Will happen ? Welcome to Wild Tales.

The Strongest will showcase an incident of roadrage and both the drivers reaction to it. What Will happen ? Welcome to Wild Tales.

Little Bomb is my favourite in the Wild tales saga. How an ordinary citizen rises above the harassment done by civic authorities and will he be able to take revenge ?  Welcome to Wild Tales.

The proposal is also well made showcasing the greed of human when one person is in distress. Will the rich man succumbs to the greed of the police and lawyer ?  Welcome to Wild Tales.

The last part is the longest with some excitement one can imagine. In a big fat wedding the brie finds that the groom has cheated with her ? And the girl is a guest in the wedding. What will the bride do ? will she break the marriage off ?
What Will happen ? Welcome to Wild Tales.

Director:  Damián Szifrón

My ratings 8.2 out of 10

Tokyo Story (1953) Review.

Tokyo Story (1953) Tôkyô monogatari (original title)

Director: Yasujirô Ozu

Stars
Chishû Ryû as Shukichi Hirayama
Chieko Higashiyama as Tomi Hirayama
Setsuko Hara as Noriko Hirayama


An old couple visit their children in Tokyo to have some moments of togetherness. Will their children welcome them with open heart and take care of as it should be ? Sometimes. As every village folks The Hirayama wants to visit Tokyo where his Doctor Son, Stylist Daughter and widow daughter in law lives/work. But after reaching they show the bustling, crowded and polluted Tokyo the biggest surprise was that his own children and grandchildren dont have time for them. on the other hand the widow daughter in law with her meagre income and tight schedule tries to her best for the old couple. The children books a cheap hotel with hot spring bath for their parents, but due to high music, booze and young crowd this also went horrible for the Hirayamas, so much so that they plan to return to their village. What happen in the last ? watch the movie to find out. One thing I like about the Hirayamas that the oold couple always had the jolly face even if they have nowhere to go, both were a pillar of strength and support for each other,

Some movies are so hard hitting that they force you to think. Well Tokyo Story is one such movie, It makes you to sit and think what you are doing for your parents ? is it enough ?

Or as Noriko put it out "as children get older, they drift away from their parents"

Just think and watch the masterpiece by Yasujirô Ozu

My Score- 9 out of 10

Chhote Kadam for a healthy heart.

India has one of the highest number of heart patients in the world and the number is keeping increasing with time. The main reason behind this increasing number is hectic schedules in the workplace, commuting and sedentary lifestyles due to resulting time crunch. India has a whopping 30 Million heart patients, Of the 30 million heart patients, 14 million reside in urban areas and 16 million in rural areas. Although the ration of urban population to rural population is 1 :2, but when it comes to heart disease the ratio surprisingly becomes 1:2.
So from this very simple ratio we may attribute the heart problems to urban areas than the rural areas. As said earlier the urban life has its own challenges which comes along with the amenities. The open space problem, the green cover problem, the polluted air all add to the problem. Coupled with the hectic schedules and sedentary lifestyles act as the straw that broke the camels back.

So how to overcome these problems for a better & healthy heart ? There are somethings which are under our control and there are some factor which are not. Its our #ChhoteKadam, like  Staying Active, Eating Better and Being Happy.

Staying Active- Technology no doubt has made our life much easier, most of our requirements are just a click away. In a decade back for those requirements we had to put up an physical effort, like going from shop to shop carrying the groceries, visiting etc. which involved a physical effort. But now the smart technology has enabled us not to do those tasks also, we can get even vegetables and fruits bu some clicks. A healthy active lifestyle will results in a healthy heart. So we should start playing some games like badminton, cycling, or walking daily. These small steps or  #ChhoteKadam will results in a healthy heart.

Image Source (healthy.com)

Eating Better- Again in the busy schedules and deadlines we mostly ignore a good balanced diet. And rely on fast food, oily foods etc for mitigating the hunger. The gap between meals, and oily and fatty foods add extra pressure on our hearts.Your #ChhoteKadam to Replacing bad fats (saturated and trans) with healthier fats (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated) is better for your heart. So you can smartly choose oil which is less in bad fats like Saffola.

Being Happy- Most importantly how you feel shows both externally and internally. If you are happy you will feel good both internally and externally. So try to be happy dont take pressure and tension whenever any contingency came.

These  #ChhoteKadam will help you in keeping your heart healthy.

“I am joining the Saffolalife #ChhoteKadam initiative in association withBlogAdda and follow these small steps for a healthy heart.”

Indian Olympics team and #PlayBold

Watched a beautiful ad while Youtubing.

There is a raging controversy after Sobha De's tweet where she tweeted 

Shobhaa De ‏@DeShobhaa  Aug 8

Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao. Selfies lo. Khaali haat wapas aao. What a waste of money and opportunity.

On the other hand brands like Royal Challenge created a beautiful campaign with the theme #PLAYBOLD featuring Virat Kohli where the voiceover has beautifully described the hard work and dreams of our athletes where they competing with the best in the world stage. Have a look at the video.

Miruthan Film , Disclaimers And Swiss audience

Anurag Kashyap: Audience laughed disclaimers in Miruthan film

Miruthan is a 2016 Indian Tamil zombie thriller film written and directed by Shakti Soundar Rajan and starring Jayam Ravi and Lakshmi Menon in the leading roles. The film, which became the first Indian Tamil film in the zombie genre, was released on 19 February 2016. This Tamil zombie thriller Miruthan was screened at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland.

Interestingly Anurag Kashyap was present during the screening of the film in Switzerland. He tweeted that Audience laughed while smoking and other disclaimers in Miruthan film

Sobhita Dhulipala & Raman Raghav 2.0

Sobhita Dhulipala is the lead actress in Raman Raghav 2.0. A dark film directed by. He acting and expression all have been standing out in the dark film where Nawazuddin and Vicky have dominated the screen.

Casting couch and Ollywood

We all have heard casting Couch. But what does it mean ? 

Casting-couch mentality is the trading of sexual favors by an aspirant, apprentice employee, or subordinate to a superior in return for entry into an occupation, or for other career advancement (wikipedia)

Today the glamour world looks so glitz from outside it also offers a money in a time period which hardly an other industry can give. An actor getting 10 crores for a film excites lots of youngsters. There are genuine casting company who wants talent for their coming projects but also there are touts and agencies and sometime actors who want to get the fun part by trapping them. 

One such recent case came In Ollywood where a Odia Comedian Tatwa Prakash Satpathy aka Papu Pom Pom did this sexual harassment of a minor girl on the pretext of giving her a break in films. 

The minor girl complained to Police and he has been arrested b police and his political career also comes to a difficult situation with the expulsion. Hopefull this will stop others from harassing others in the pretext of giving them work

Next generation And Social Prejudice. #ShareTheLoad

Robert James "Bob" Keeshan the American television producer and actor, once said that  "Parents are the ultimate role models for children. Every word, movement and action has an effect. No other person or outside force has a greater influence on a child than the parent." 

More recently Malala Yousafzai  told the whole world that "Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world." 

As a parent or elder or teacher it is our responsibility to teach the next generation the right values for a better home, a better society and a better world. Today’s world faces various challenges Be it alarming climate change through damage to environment or extreme terrorism or the old societal norm of gender prejudice. While there are substantial education and awareness being created to face external threats nobody really cares for the gender equality. Gender prejudice is a tradition for many in India. It is a lifestyle for a lot. Women are supposed to do all the household chores, be it cleaning, washing, cooking, taking care of whole family as a sister, mother, wife and daughter. Even when the women starts working like the male member still she is supposed to all the household chores.

So how to change the mentality ?

So how to stop this prejudice ?

If we try to educate the people who have grown be seeing that their mother or sister have done all the household work it would be a rather difficult activity or task.

Christopher Moore once said that “Children see magic because they look for it.” 

Our next generation is going to bring the changes for a better society and a better world. The younger generation with their huge numbers may play a great role in bringing that change. If the children sees that in their home their papa and mummy sharing the household chores. The female members are not the only one who are always doing the household works it has a strong impact on the young mind.

Ariel recently did a beautiful campaign Laundry Goes Odd Even. #LaundryGoesOddEven. This activity urged the male members to share the Load of laundry between the opposite sexes and there have a quite good response to this appeal and a lot of young couples helped each other, brothers helped their sister in the household chores and most importantly all of them enjoyed doing this. These small baby steps will teach the next generation the value of sharing and caring in the family and society. Let our home the first place where the next generation learns this and our society will be freed from this prejudice in the near future.

 “I am taking part in the #ShareTheLoad Challenge with Ariel and Akshara at BlogAdda.”

Watch the beautiful ad by Ariel how to stop this prejudice.