Impact of social media as a blessing

1st of April 2004. I still remember that day. Not because its April Fools day. But because it was the day that I created my first email account. Yes. My first email account with Yahoo. Having a social media presence was like owing a smartphone. It was not at all a must have to live but was a must have to survive. To survive among your friends and society. And that my dear friends was the first step of my journey into the gigantic world of social media. 

Right from Yahoo chat, to Orkut, to Facebook and now Twitter and Instagram and what not...The list is endless. New trends in the social media keep coming and change with time. What first started for me as a way to share my updates with friends shaped into way of keeping in touch with them. More so that these days I hardly check my Orkut or Facebook accounts.

What changed the most for me was the online contests held by many companies through social media. As a medium for promoting their brands, it gives an opportunity for amateur photographers like me to participate and showcase our talent. It gives me immense adrenaline rush to participate in these contests than mindlessly browse through news feed.

Slowly my focus shifted to searching for online contests in social media and participating in them. Through this I came to know about many brands and my general knowledge also increased. Initially I found a few contests in Facebook and kept myself busy with them. With so many medium these days, my hands are full of dates with photography contest deadlines. Slowly and steadily I started winning these contests. My sense of confidence improved and my passion for photography increased.

My most memorable contest was a photography contest with Woodland which I found in Twitter. I won first prize in that contest and they sent me to an all expense paid 7 day trip to Kenya. Imagine winning an all paid trip to an international country. It was like dream come true. 

It still amazes my parents because during their times television and Radio was the only way they get to know about updates. The awareness that social media brings across these days is simply tremendous. Isn't that a great way to stay updated with latest trends and current affairs. To me social media is simply a blessing in disguise. I am so thankful to all those companies who spend so much time in promotion so that their product is popular among consumers. Who would have imagined that a way to keep in touch with friends would now turn into my source of living. I may be very active in social media for checking contests but completely out of the league of commenting on photos. It was very easy to get lost in commenting on pics and stalking people.  But if we find our focus, we can turn anything to what we set our mind to. 

#TataZicaMarathon
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

How healthy lifestyle can impact life

Adopting a healthy lifestyle, will not only make you look and feel better, but you also get to experience a plethora of other healthy benefits. Living in a healthy lifestyle, requires that you devote to making healthy choices, follow them regularly and stick with them.You can start with the changes today that can impact your overall health and wellness positively.

Eating a balanced diet –
The way to a healthy and balanced diet is having the right quantity of food that will help to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. A healthy diet is as good for your taste buds as it is for your heart. Including fresh fruits, vegetables, proteins, and whole grains in your diet will give your body the energy and nutrients it needs to function properly and maintain overall health. 

Regular Physical activity
The benefits of regular physical activity and exercise are abundant. We all know simple activities like running, cycling, and swimming are good for you. It helps prevent many chronic diseases and improves digestion. In short, your overall quality of life gets better. 

Weight Control
A healthy lifestyle also helps you keep up with a healthy weight. This helps improves your appearance, your mood and your confidence. Controlling your weight reduces the risk of developing stroke, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and different types of cancer. By incorporating healthy balanced food and cutting down your intake of beverages and processed foods that are generally high in calories,  and sugar you positively impact your weight and overall good health.

Improved Confidence and Mood 
Physical activity helps in the release of brain chemicals that can make you feel happier. This emotional boost can help reduce your stress level and improve your self-confidence. In addition, the chemicals to enhance your mood that are released by physical activity can help you face a stressful day with a calmer mindset. 

Increased Energy Level
Exercising regularly improves your power to withstand stress and makes your body stronger. It also works on your cardiovascular system, which keep your muscles more energetic by delivering oxygen more effectively. Due to this you will have more energy to do everyday tasks. 

Improved Brain Health
A healthy lifestyle can increase your health of your brain. A balanced diet, regular exercise and good sleep can change your brain heath and mental functions. Basic exercise like walking, swimming is good for your brain. It regulates blood circulation and increases the amount of oxygen that reaches your brain thereby helping you to think more clearly. 

Improved Appearance
A healthy lifestyle can not only help you lose weight and look more youthful, but it is more than that. For example, staying hydrated by drinking enough water and getting sufficient sleep can reduce the visibility of under-eye bags. Cutting down on alcohol and tobacco intake reduces its aging effects on your skin and eyes.

Keep Up the Heart-Smart Lifestyle
Its one thing to know about what needs to be done for a healthy lifestyle and another thing to actually follow it. By following a healthy lifestyle you cannot always see the results of your hard work, but there are numerous impacts and every healthy choice you make does take you one step closer to a healthier lifestyle.

#TataZicaMarathon

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Airtel 4G Rocks !

Good news for all you high speed internet lovers.With India’s major telecom Bharti Airtel Ltd rolling out its 4G services, you are going to love the lightning fast internet speeds on the go. Gone are the days when you will have to spend time waiting for movie downloads. 

With Airtel 4G being the first telecom operator rolling out 4G services, it is now available nationwide across 296 cities. One good news is that we just pay the price of 3G for 4G. Another good news is that by just tweeting #GetAirtel4G, they are giving a free 4G SIM and Airtel provides free home delivery of 4G SIM. 

I am already going crazy thinking of all the things i could do with this unbelievable speed offered. It will be fantastic to stream videos so fast. By downloading apps for shopping like Flipkart and Amazon, I could do my shopping really quick with 4G speed.

For someone like me, who loves to keep her playlist updated earlier i had to face the trouble in streaming videos and wasting time to download songs. I had to set the downloads to happen overnight so that it would get completed by morning which was really waste of time and electricity. But now I could download my favorite songs within seconds. 

Whenever friends drop-in at our place, we always end up watching movies along with partying. Now I could  download my favorite movies without worrying about slow speed. Previous seasons of reality shows and finale of The Bachelorette could now be seen without streaming issues. 

It normally takes me about 1 hour to commute to my office. The only fruitful task I do then is browse through social media and stay connected with friends. With 4G network, it could now make it easier to access social media. I could now maybe write my blog during the commute which could save me lot of time when i reach home and make life easy. On days when I need to book a cab online, it would be really convenient using Airtel4G and make the cab booking process quick and hassle-free.

And how do we forget the chat with our family and loved ones. I would definitely not like any kind of delays during our chats. So our Whatsapp and Skype conversations could be smooth without any interruptions. Any time I would want to do a video call, due to slow internet problems I could only hear their voice and not see them. This would be really disheartening because the whole purpose of having video calls to see your loved ones was lost. But with 4G, experience in video calling would also be amazing.

On the whole, I am already loving thinking how great life will be with 4G and I would like to thank Airtel for coming up with Airtel 4G and making our lives easier.

For more details on Airtel 4G, please check here -
http://www.airtel.in/4g/

Eat healthy stay healthy !

The greatest wealth lies in our health. A healthy outside starts from the inside! That is right. A fit and healthy body is the product of 80% healthy food and 20% activity. Thus it is very important to follow a proper meal plan. Eating clean and healthy food offers numerous benefits that help you stay fit both mentally and physically.

Eating well helps in the prevention of so many diseases and health problems. It also helps to have a healthy body weight, and gives you more energy promoting a general feeling of well-being. A well balanced diet will require eating a variety of foods like whole grains, vegetables and fruits along with a smaller portions of dairy and meat products to meet the body's nutritional needs.Research shows a lot of benefits of honey and having a honey diet or replacing sugar with honey in your food can be a small step towards a healthy diet.

One of the most visible benefits of a balanced diet is energy. Fueling with the right portions of vitamins, minerals and nutrients will give you the energy to make the most of your day.

Some of the benefits of having a balanced healthy diet are:

It helps you to stay healthy and fit.
It helps you to have more energy and reduce stress.
It gives you more mental clarity.
It helps boost your metabolism.
It helps you tackle your day with enthusiasm.
It improves your self confidence.

In today's highly competitive world, we lead sedentary lifestyles which leaves us sitting a lot on our desk at work, in our cars and people have forgotten the importance of physical activity. We choose to prefer the fast food that is easily available than spending time cooking our meal. How many times have you seen people choosing coke over water during summers. These junk food only makes you unhealthy and piles on your weight. People prefer crash diet to lose this weight quickly! This is a very popular trend these days. How many times have we seen places promoting weight loss like - Lose 3Kgs in 1 week else money back!! Seriously?? Why would anyone want to go for this crash diet which makes you restrict yourself. Well people love shortcuts for success and even though that means restricting from eating good food. It seems like a shortcut to success but has a hell lot of disadvantages and health hazards associated with it. Continuing in the long term is simply dangerous to say the least. A few disadvantages of this crash diet being:

Balanced nutritional food are completely deprived. 
These offer quick temporary results which may not last long
It can lead to starvation many times
It can cause weakness in the body.
It can make you stressed out very fast.
It reduces your energy and causes mood swings

Plus there are so many research and theories proving that crash dieting should never be followed for losing weight.So it is very essential to stay active and having a balanced healthy food to stay fit and healthy. 

Concept of honey based diet is getting popular these days. Fore more details, please check here -

http://www.daburhoney.com/

UC Cricket - for cricket fans to love !

Gone are the days of basic mobile phones. With technology advancements, these days there has been a tremendous influence and need for a smartphone in our daily lives. Many of our activities can be synched with a smartphone. We can stay in touch with our friends and loved ones with several apps which are freely accessible. With more operators having offers for 3G services, we have even started browsing the internet and posting selfies on the go. It definitely helps when having fun and gaining knowledge all at the same time. Imagine what would happen if we did not have a proper browser in place for all this? Yes imagine you are watching a video and the browser is slow. What would happen to the video? It would take a lot of time to load and play. This in turn would require a lot patience from your side. So its very important that we have a  well designed browser to access internet in a proper manner on our mobile devices. Now this does not meant that we would need some fancy or an expensive browser. When I heard about UC browser, it seemed to immediately answer all my questions on what would make our surfing experience easier, faster and economical.

UC Browser is extremely fast and the works seamlessly in 2G network too. The moment we begin to browse any site, it instantly loads the pages. What is more special is that UC browser has recently launched an all-in-one cricket application called as ‘UC-Cricket’. This app can be easily downloaded from homepage of UC Browser for Android.Now this is definitely a blessing for a nation with innumerable Cricket lovers.

UC Cricket provides a feasible solution for people who do not have the convenience of watching every ball to ball every time a match is in progress. These days with work and other commitments we hardly get time to sit and watch hours of cricket being in front of the TV. Right from things like timings of the match conflicting with our schedules to other personal commitments, i remember there were very few matches which I would ever get to watch fully. Although I have missed watching many matches, I would always get curious and try to get an update of the match. Earlier the solution to this was the continuous commentaries we get to hear in radio. Later that evolved to live score updates which we get by refreshing sites like cricinfo. But now UC Cricket takes it to next level by displaying all the details of the current match like its status, scores, individual performances of all players and wickets. The details have been excellently presented and visual display is quite commendable. I could not believe my eyes when I get every ball by ball update at that same instant without any delays. Simply WOW !! If this is going to be the features, never would you ever miss a single match. So much that with every ball towards the last overs, your excitement rushes over to your mobile.

This is definitely the perfect integration to UC Browser. For Cricket fans it is perfect blessing. Watching cricket is now at our fingertips. Right from live matches it has so many useful features and services that cricket fans across the world are sure to fall in love with.

For more information, please check details here -
http://www.ucweb.com/
http://www.ucweb.com/English/UCbrowser/cricket.html

My Airtel App !

When it comes to Mobile Network, it has always been Airtel for me. It all started when my dad got his first mobile with Airtel network back in 2003. Since we have the benefit of low call charges by having same network, whenever anyone in my family got a phone the default choice was Airtel network. Now this has only improved so much that right from mobile phone, we have broadband and DTH services of Airtel running at my place. 

Recently Airtel has launched the MyAirtelApp to offer the convenience of all its services to mobile subscribers. Earlier whenever I had to check various features of my account, I had to go through the annoying process of Dial #121 and something else. So I was really excited when I heard about this latest feature and immediately downloaded MyAirtelApp to check its features. It turned out pretty impressive and had some cool features. Here are top three key features about the app that was perfect with my fast paced crazy lifestyle.

Firstly it is very convenient to have all the details related to your Airtel account in your smartphone.Although the website shows related details, I always had trouble logging in to the website and keeping track of my bills and payment dates. In this app, clicking on the option to my bill shows my current dues, bill date, bill plan, pay history and bill summary and other un-billed usage related to the current cycle. Payment History instantly gives details of your past payments. This is definitely an awesome way to keep track previous payments. Earlier I would take screenshots of my payment success in case required but now I can check that from my phone itself. I can access my bill summary and also email the bill if required. The option to bill plan allows you to view your current plan. As all of these features are available in the app, its quick and is a great time saver. 

Second feature which I loved is the ability to recharge prepaid numbers from this app by just entering a couple of details like the number and amount. When I previously had prepaid number, it was really frustrating to recharge because I had to login into my laptop, connect to internet depending on availability and go through the slow process of online prepaid recharge. That is definitely saved now. With this app, I can recharge any Airtel number easily and without much trouble! Not only my mobile but I can also access my broadband accounts using this app at just one place. This is really very useful feature and gives us a lot of convenience. .

Last feature which I definitely loved is the new way to get exclusive offers on your Airtel number. For someone like me who is always on the lookout for new updates or offers this is definitely a bonus. Previously I would be calling the customer care every month to check on new offers but now this is easily accessible to me on my phone. Checkout more details here and view the latest advertisement for this feature on YouTube here.

With such amazing features, this is definitely a great way to great offers and a perfect experience with your Airtel connection!

Work hard, Dream Big !

Radical thoughts and ideas are definitely inspiring! Mr. Kapil Dev, has been an icon with his excellence in sports and cricket to the country. He recently started to promote an idea of #EkNayiLeague through Social media. Through this he plans to make everyone brainstorm and provide their feeling about what the message of #EkNayiLeague can be. According to him, it does not require the doing things with the heart. In fact he says you would fail if you played from your heart. He suggests taking a different attribute of optimism which can revolutionize the spirit in individuals to win and make them successful !

So, what this #EkNayiLeague could be?

After going through all his videos, I think that #EkNayiLeague is an interesting thought of dreaming big and trying to pushing to fulfill it. If we can put our mind to work, we can definitely dream big and push past the obstacles that may come on our way.We can then be strong enough to have the courage and strength to overcome them. It all begins with us. If we have belief in ourselves, our capabilities, commit to making the change and be consistent then we can definitely achieve anything.

He shares a few examples to share this thought. We are aware about Yuvraj Singh, the cricketer who was diagnosed with cancer some years back. In spite of that, he definitely showed great will to fight through the illness. He did not allow it to be as an obstacle for him to return back to cricket. He definitely showed a great determination and strength. This shows how he did not let his illness as serious as cancer stop him from his big dreams from coming true and we all can now see how successful he is today! 

He also talks about world famous tennis player Sania Mirza. She is currently the top tennis player in women’s doubles. She has represented India in many places and made us all very proud. She is clearly a true  example of women power, strength and independence. She is an icon of excellence for the Indian women. With her never dying spirits, she continues to spread the message for other Indian women that we do not need to be conservative but can be independent and self-sustaining if we believe in our dreams. We need to master the courage to not only dream big but also fight for our dreams because it is never an easy road. We can definitely achieve anything that we put our mind to. She dreamed big and achieved it.

I think that the #EkNayiLeague campaign, which Mr. Kapil Dev speaks about could be about dreaming big, setting goals, overcoming any hurdles that may come and punching them  in order to achieve success. As the famous saying goes, success happens when your dreams get bigger than your excuses. I feel that when we dream big and have that passion to achieve our goals, we can definitely achieve any level of success. I support Mr. Kapil Dev in his attempt and see this as a good way to achieve our dreams.

Think big, Dream big, believe big and your results will definitely be big !!

For more details on Ek Nayi League check here - http://www.eknayileague.com/