The Canvas Platter

The other day I got the advertisement about Saal Digital on facebook. After a bit of apprehension that is reserved for the facebook ads, I decided to check their services out.

Have you heard about Saal Digital?
They had received a lot of good comments, after going through the facebook feed, I realized a lot of people appreciated the quality of a photo book that was created. As every year, I wanted to create a photo book for the paintings I created this year and I decided to check them out.

Past year has been a revelation for me as an artist. I have explored my own limits and more into subjects that I would not normally choose and techniques that I had not known before. The paintings that were thus created are rich in details and diverse in mediums. That was the reason I wanted a good quality photo book that could do justice to my art. A photo book that would help me create a portfolio that would enhance the showcase.

With that intention in mind, I visited the homepage at http://www.saal-digital.co.uk. They have different categories like photo books, photo booklets, photo prints, Cards, Posters and Wall decors among other things.

For my requirement, I chose a photo book that was closer to my heart. My requirement was simple, the photo book creator should be Easy to use, Low cost, it should give me the professional quality output. Saal digital outperformed all my expectations. The editor was so easy that a layman could use and the final product? Mesmerizing.



The printing quality was high, I paid using Paypal but they accept credit cards too. The delivery was quick and hassle free. What I liked most was, by the time I finalized my design, they let me chose the different formats, different finishes, and quality of paper. Each modification clearly mentioned the prize difference in the product helping me design the photo book of my dreams in my budget.


Although, my experience was hassle-free and with no followups. I submitted a design and received the book, it was as simple as that. They do however have a good support where you can get in touch in case you have any doubts.




From my end, Saal Digital has given me an excellent portfolio of my paintings.
What souvenir are you going to create with them?

After struggling for six months and the UK embassy refusing the visa twice, I finally got it stamped. As I was waiting outside the flight terminal, I felt a sigh of relief. The feeling you get when you enjoy a steam in a spa after a heavy workout. This was the peak of my happiness, after six months of separation in ten years, I was going to meet my hubby. This was a dream come true. 




The twelve hours journey through the cloud was amazing. I kept looking outside the window, impatient when the plane will touch-down. I was relishing the moment with a scotch in my hand and watching movies. While watching the movie - 'The Fault in Your stars', I kept thinking about accomplishing your dreams and pursuit of happiness. My journey was even more fun because I was reaching London during the Christmas eve. The festival season was around the whole city would be lit up. I went to take a nap imagining the fun I'll have once I land.

My nap was disturbed by a dream of me missing London, two hours before the plane reached London. Since there was still time to land, I decided to turn on the entertainment system and watch some hindi movies. Soon the pilot announced that plane will start descending and London has arrived. He mentioned that the time difference was four hours and thirty minutes, that meant I was feeling the jet lag.

After an hour passing through the immigration and security, I turn on the international roaming on my phone as planned. But as luck would have it, the service would not turn on. I decided to get out of the line and try the luck again once I am outside.
But the moment I stepped out, there he was standing at the gate with a big smile and flower bouquet. We rush towards each other and the heard fills with joy on seeing him. We hug each other tightly and he hands over the bouquet of flowers and welcomes to the London. We both knew, he is not good at picking up right flowers but we laugh. We were meeting up after six months and he brings up a box of favourite chocolates.

The time of separation was over. After six months of long-distance, we were together hugging it out. He called out a taxi near the airport and we stepped out in the queue waiting for our black cab. He had warned me of the cold but I had never realized the magnitude of the temperature until I stepped outside. Smartly, he had brought an extra jacket with him. The taxi was very different from what we are used to in India. There was an amble room for passengers and a wall of partition between the driver and passenger. We could speak to the driver via speakers. It was dark as I had arrived in the evening, so I could not see a lot of things outside on the highway.

Finally, we reach our new home in London. He welcomed me home and it felt like a cosy hotel room. We sat on the couch and started talking about it. There was a glass of whisky and Chicken biryani waiting for me as welcome dinner.

My blogging journey started when my husband showed me how to blog, but the last year due to one reason or another I could not complete it. I would like to thank my Pooja Bhabhi who asked me to write the blog about London Experience.

I had arrived in London just around the time for Christmas. The next two weeks, me and my husband had a gala time enjoying the holidays, coming up next. Keep your comments flowing as that encourages me to write more.


Photo by: Rob Bye

During the marriage of my close relative, as I walked upstairs the narrow staircase I realized something was seriously wrong. A crowd had gathered talking in miffed voices. The source of the bottleneck was not visible from behind the crowd and hence I had to step up on my toe to peek. I was not surprised to see Khanna Didi standing on the topmost landing, hands folding behind a bunch of giggling girls looking very serious. After overhearing some gossip I realized, the groom and the bride had arrived home after a tiring day spend in their marriage. While the groom was looking very curious about the night to follow, the bride just wanted to rest due to pain in her back from touching the feet of countless relatives.

But their anxiety was to overcome the barrier called Khanna Didi, who stood guard at the gates of their solace. She wanted to take some cash reward from the groom as it was the family ritual after every marriage. Poor groom, his wallet was buried somewhere beneath the clothes and mess of the house but Khanna Didi won't listen. After all for her a ritual was a ritual and she was its lone guardian.

Khanna Didi is a public character. Very few people know of her origins or her life but you will often see her around sometimes talking in loud voices or scolding someone or 'suggesting' someone how to behave properly. Once in a while she builds the family tree and then it is her job to talk to the younger people on whom to respect in the family tree.

"But i am your distant sister," she announced last Sunday on her surprise visit. Surprisingly, her surprise visits were not any surprising anymore. Ever since she moved in the neighbourhood she would delicately give surprise visits to our house every Saturdays and some Sunday's. These visits were not only visits but every week she would expect her to be treated like a royalty. "I am your distant your sister and this my right to demand anything from my brothers. Now treat me and my kids pizza for dinner."

Khanna didi is a cultural masterpiece. She is a walking talking 'Indian culture for dummies' handbook. She by hearted the entire existing and non existing cultural rituals. "What are you wearing!" she exclaimed as I stepped out in my cargo's, "in our culture married women do not wear such clothes. And why have you cut your hair so short. Married women in our culture tie long plates. Where is your sindoor, I don't even feel you are married". After series of one sided questions cum allegations like Arnab Goswami  she turned to my mother without waiting for me to reply,"See i had told you, you should have not let your only daughter wear jeans like boys in college. In our culture girls should not go to college in the first place. That's where you went wrong."

Khanna Didi takes her unappointed job very seriously.  She invites herself to dinner just to inspect if every happens according to the culture. A small deviation from the culture can result in a massive avalanche of questions, suggestion and sometimes, without provocation, scoldings. But when her culture comes to throttle her down or when she misses something mentioned in the culture, all she does is giggle upon the mistake and moves on sneakily without anyone noticing.

This lone guardian of culture is sometimes laughed upon behind her back, her suggestions lie undusted hanging in the air and her recommendations are trampled upon by passerby everyday but she still gives a fight nonetheless because giving up is not part of Indian culture.

This is my Khanna Didi whose #ConditionSeriousHai. Post written for Indiblogger and Cadbury 5 Star.

As an Artist your work begins with a plain canvas and a box of colors. While the world sees a blank page, you see an image full of possibilities. While the world is still wondering what comes next, you have to imagine how it ends. You want to imagine the bigger picture, that is larger than life! But then it is too big to imagine and you begin small. You start with a splash on a canvas and work with different colors, one by one.

Similarly you start with a blank canvas and imagination of the bigger picture in life. You make life larger by starting small but by making things count. For me winning means something like this - you are content in doing small things with vision for the bigger picture.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, " Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony." When we were small we use to sing the nursery rhymes, remembering the prose word by word. We used to feel very happy whenever someone appreciated our efforts. As we grew older we started thinking a lot, we learned many things and we learnt to multitask  but we forgot to be happy like we were in our childhood. Because somewhere while growing up, we learnt to think something, we spoke something different and we do not practice what we preach.

We try to achieve a lot of things in a very less time like the Hare who tried to race a Tortoise. We forgot that in the end it is not the fastest but the patient who wins the race. The Tortoise beats the Hare in his own game.

Life is all about chasing your passion and being steady and consistent in your work. When was the last time you learned a new language? When was the last time you dodged a basket ball? When was the last time you did something outside your normal routine? We see nowadays schools have started teaching activities like Skating, playing Basketball, Swimming etc.  We were not so privileged to get these hobby activities. But then how many of these kids will continue to learn new things as they grow up?

Everyone is running a race, a rat race, defeating each other. But remember even if you win a rat race, you are a still a rat. As Rajesh Khanna says in film Anand, "Babu Mushoy, life should be big ... not long." There is no time limit to make your life interesting. Me and my partner started to learn Salsa, Scuba Diving and bag-packed across cities. We took our journey to meet new people to understand their culture and to try out new cuisines. For me these small things matter most.

"Life is all about story to be told and adventure to be lived not a check box making it a rat race." You don't have to spend a lot to win this way. You can start small, by treating every person with respect. Treat everyone you meet with kindness and goodwill. Strip down your ego and start small. Because every person you meet has some value towards your destiny.

The smaller things you accomplish the more closer you are to make your life large, to winning. All great leaders do the similar thing.  Our education system does not produce leaders. It just trains mindless population that know how to mug, memorize and repeat efficiently. But we forget that there is no rank after the 1st. You diminish your own self by comparing with others.

The world needs poets, thinkers, writers and leaders today. So take the winning in right spirit. Start something small today and maintain it at the tortoise pace. Slowly, steadily make your way towards the winning line, don't rush, enjoy the journey and appreciate everyone you meet on the way. 

After all a master piece does not paint by itself. An Artist somewhere is giving small brush strokes to complete the bigger picture.

Winning is all about that!

This post is written for the "Winning! #Conclave14" by Indiblogger and India Today Conclave.

How high can you go to have a classic fine dining experience? How high can you get to enjoy the sunset and how high can you go to watch the glorious view of Namma Bengaluru? You may not have answer to these question but High Ultra Lounge by Brigade Hospitality can show you the height of fine dining experience.

Spread lavishly across 10,000 square feet, on the roof top of the World Trade Center, with seating for 220 covers at a height of 421 feet - High Ultra Lounge is a modern Asian bar and restaurant. With beautiful scenic outdoor and indoor seating, High Ultra Lounge boast of a top of the world experience for its patrons.

The total area of High is divided into four separate sections with very unique seating and exclusive options to suit your mood.

High View offers a panoramic view of Namma Bengaluru under the clear blue skies of Bangalore. Spread across 3600 sq ft of area, High View has welcoming sunbeds for those who want to have a lazy evening sipping on sangria.

What better way to enjoy fine dining experience under the clear blue skies surrounded by water bodies and elements? High Dine offers pan-Asian cuisine with dishes from Japanese, Korean, Thai and Chinese. The well prepared meal offers some unique innovations and modern twist to the exotic dishes. Zhang Hao, the executive chef at High, believes in created a Wow experience in dishes, be it in terms of flavor or the presentation. During the pre-launch event we were offered a unique Cheese roll mixed with strawberry essence that created unique flavor for us.



Accepts Credit Card: Yes | Average Meal for two:  ₹3500/-
Address: High Ultra Lounge, Roof Top, World Trade Centre, Brigade Gateway Campus, 26/1 Dr. Rajkumar Road, Malleswaram West, Bangalore | Telephone: 080 4567 4567

There was a time when love stories meant prolong exchange of letters (some using pigeons just to add glamor) and running around the trees. Love inspired movies would not reach the part of bedroom till the very end and sometimes not even beyond that. Not with Sid and Rhea, whose love is served fast food style. When new joinee Sid and Rhea go on a date 'fixed' by the common friend they end up in a one night stand.

Adhir Bhat and Bobby Nagra are clever writers who go into the history of what happened a week before their fateful night. Rhea definition of an ideal man is "neither a rapist, nor a serial killer and definitely not a boy from Delhi". Sid always wonders, "Why are girls always like this". Directed by the rom-com director Adhaar Khurana, and adopted from the scottish play 'My Romantic History' by Daniel C Jackson, Internal affairs brings you the confusion, characterization and charisma of the modern youth and the modern work on weekdays, party on weekends attitude.

Two seasoned actor Hussain Dala and Shiksha Talsania (Lakshmi from Wake up Sid) support the lead actors with their versatile, witty and clever punches throughout the play. The lead protagonist played by Priyanshu Patel (Sid) and Shriya Pilgaonkar (Rhea) bring the joy of office affairs very beautifully on stage.

It is a must watch and a welcome break for audience who get dragged into the mindless parade of senseless stories people like to call the cinema.

Where: Canvas Laugh Factory: Palladium Mall
When: Feb 15-16
Tickets: BookMyShow

Rating:4/5

While the Nizam's city is very close to Bangalore, there is one place where you can go inside the busy life in Bangalore to step back into the mughal era. Jalsa restaurant situated near Outer Ring Road, Doddenakundi Village near Marathalli offers you a ambiance taken out of the bygone mughal era.

The restaurant famously known for its Khusboo (aroma), Khubsurti (Decoration) and Swaad (Taste) offers authentic north indian and nizami dishes creatively named with the theme. Would you be craving for Sharmilee, a cocktail made with a orange twist or perhaps Jam-e-mohabat, smiroff and strawberries to tingle your taste buds or maybe Nazuk kali? and so on.

The food items are laced with delights for north-indians who live in Bangalore and they get it right. Unfortunately for me, when I reached the place for a review they were out of murgh dum biryani (since it was a Sunday evening) but I could try out the other dishes.
The dishes offer nothing special in variety and taste exactly the way it should be (which should be considered a blessing in this curd rice obsessed region). The killer part of the whole restaurant is its ambiance that offers a romantic getaway for twosome in the traffic laden life of Bangalore. On special request you get to wear the turbans (mughal hats), just ask your server for that.

Jalsa offers a good theme dining if that is your thing and a good breakaway from the normal restaurants that are lined up in Bangalore.

Go for: The ambiance and the north Indian food.
Where: Near Grand Mall, Doddanekkundi, No.25, Outer Ring Road, Bangalore, Karnataka 560037
098 86 657788
Rating: 3.5/5

Once upon a time in a land far far away, lived a princess sleeping in deep slumber. The sad story of princess began during her childhood, when she went to a birthday party of her friend who lived with seven other men.

In her forest the Princess accidentally bumped into the freshly bathed fairy,

"You have disturbed my peaceful bathing time," shouted the fairy, "I curse you that you will not get any peace from now onwards."

The princess begged, "Forgive me oh noble fairy and I will give you a royal bath in a royal garden where no one will disturb your peace ever again."

The fairy decided to accept the offer, "But my fair child, a curse once given cannot be taken back. I give you a counter curse. You will sleep from now till the purest kiss from the freshly bathed prince comes to wake you up from your restless nightmares."

Thus is the sad story of the restless sleeping princess. There are stories about princes who took bath in valley of scents and even bio-hazard showers to try their luck but none succeed.

When the nanny of prince charming heard this story, she called the prince and sent for the royal barber, "Fool they were for going for extravagant means of bathing. Those men do not understand the mind of a woman. Shave his beard and clean his face," she ordered the barber.

Indeed the wise nanny was right for an unshaven man is an unbathen man. The prince woke up the princess with a rosy clean kiss.

And as it always happens, they lived happily ever after.

This post is a part of the Protest Against Smelly Stubble Activity in association with BlogAdda
I am tagging Siddhesh Kabe +Nimisha Shirodkar +Nethra A  for this post.

In the recent years Bollywood is obsessed with this over the top violence and English with heavy accent dialogue delivery. In this 'confuzing' times Bullet raja brings to table the same old dish with a brand new recipe.

Meet Raja Mishra (Saif Ali Khan), a Brahmin born middle class unemployed youth who gets into bad side of the bad guys by complete coincidence and what was apparently during a monsoon wedding (why I am still clueless). He is joined by Rudra Tripathi (Jimmy 'Why-was-he-not-in-the-promos' Sherill). Together they kick ass, Sholay style with big rifles, sharp shooting and rib-ticking chemistry. The villains are there but only in cameos and guest appearance starting from Chunkey Pandey (reminding of Surma Bhopali) to Ravi Kishan (With his Radha act to avoid the heat) to Gulshan Grover. Together the pair of Raja and Ravi reminds us of the chemistry between Jay and Veeru from Sholay. They are promoted as the muscle power in the political area of UP and act as political commandos.
      

Director Tigmanshu Dhulia does a splendid job of portraying the underbelly of caste-divide politics in UP. The browmance between Saif Ali Khan and Jimmy Shergill reminds us of Shloay. Jimmy is given the tough task of becoming the Bacchan in the duo. He takes center-stage and overshadows Khan with his simple yet powerful acting. The director however does wastes a lot of villain energy in the film. With Gulshan Grover at his disposal, his skills are hardly utilized. We find mention of Paan Singh Tomar in a witty one liner (which was hilarious)

We also find our own Bollywood martial arts master Vidyut Jamwal, who takes down an entire Chammbal ka Bagi down with sprinting and jumping around, but fails to put a bullet in the heros head. With so much muscle power and fight sequences, we find his mention in the trailer very less. While Tigmanshu Dhulia has mastered the art of story telling, he should definitely take a lesson or two from the marketing. The trailer does not give justification to the movie at all.

The treatment of woman in the film was sadly non-existence. Why was there an out of place item number at the beginning of the movie. Sonakshi Sinha is just present with a few Bengali lines and no substance or even character in her role at all.

The songs are grossly misplaced, remove the songs and you will find Tarantino style revenge raga.
This movie may not be a pulp fiction but it is welcome change in times of no-brainers and gravity defining films of-late. 

My Rating:
3 1/2 out of 5. One Star is reduced for the poor portrayal of women.

I am participating in the Seeking Smart Suraksha contest at BlogAdda.com in association with Smart Suraksha App.

My Doodle recipe is a part of Easy Doodle Recipe contest at BlogAdda.com in association with TastyKhana.com
 

I am attending the Aircel-Micromax Press launch today, those who cannot join us, can watch it online below. Will share the details later.

Today we all are contented and happy after listening to verdict of the case about Nirbhaya. The court has finally announced that the rapist be hang. Today at the eve of this verdict, I wish to bring attention to few question that come in my mind.

How safe are girls in our country is the question hovering in our minds. In todays modern world  girls and boys are considers to be equal, girls are competing against boys and winning in almost all fields.
Today when time and again girls have proven to be no less than anyone in 21st century, where most of the time freedom is given to do what is right.

But in spite of being in the 67th year of Independence, we are in this modern world only for its namesake. Still the cowards in our country think weird about women here. We get reports of girls getting raped of all age groups, ethnicity, caste and cities everyday.

I used to work in a BPO and in nights shifts. Those days we heard many cases of rapes in offices and on the road while commuting. Had the government hanged few rapist back them, the cases would not have increased so much. Our parents tell us to be confident and bold in our life, but is this enough to make this society a better place? Isn't it every persons responsibility to spread the awareness? The change will start when every house hold stops looking at daughters and sisters as paraya dhan and give them the respect they deserve. It will start when we stop looking at woman as some object to be protected by some and to be used by others.

Why is it that even today many restrictions are laid on the girls? Why do boys get away with everything? Why can't we enjoy our life and wear whatever we feel is comfortable? Every person I know or do not know has an advise on what I should do and wear. Isn't it funny the girl who is working and confident and self dependent has to consult everyone she shares oxygen with when it comes to take small decisions in her life?

How free are we girls after the freedom of our nation, that we are still open about the idea of girl roaming all alone. And the worst if she is found hanging out with her boyfriend the question its raised on her character!!!

Why are we still uncomfortable of people staying in a living-in relationship? In the family we are not comfortable talking and watching adult issues. There so many things that family feels embarrassed on such bold issues. Still in the society there are things which are not open and don't let girls to speak on this.

Today let us take a stand to eradicate the old cultures, traditions, superstitions and low minded people and be more open towards the though about freedom of girls and treat them with the respect they deserve as humans. Trust them to take the right decisions and not be judgmental about everything they do.

If we do this now, the future will be bright and happy or we are pushing this world into darker age and maybe that time to save this world would be over.

Childhood always holds special place in our memories. As raksha bandhan came around the block, my old childhood memory came flashing back. After marriage I stay in a complete different city and my relationship with my brothers turned into a long distance. I have two elder brothers and since childhood we played together. I used to defeat them in cricket, carom and other outdoor activities. We used to fight together and in the next moment patch up and play.

The only person who was troubled from the fights was our mother who tried to break the fight and then the next moment we would be playing together. One of the prominent memory for those days was waiting for raksha bandhan and mostly because of surprised gifts. I used to wait in anticipation for days of what my brothers would get for me as a gift. There was a funny tradition between us that the gift my brothers would choose, I would like to have exactly opposite of that. I never complained, but it was just that our choices never matched.

As time passed and we grew older and slowly parted from each other.

It was again the Raksha Bandhan that got us together. I traveled back to my city and to my house. This time the anticipation was greater, did I brother chose the right gift? Will it be of wrong size? What if they got a color wrong? Well, my brothers were notorious for picking the exact wrong thing that I never expected.

When I tied rakhi to the brother, he told me he had gotten an e-gift for me. It was a voucher from Jabong.com. He asked me to choose any gift of my choice. I was surprised and impressed, my stupid brother had become smart to do a thing like this. I immediately rushed on to Jabong.com and saw the variety of options I had.


There were different categories like accessories, shoes, bags etc. My preference will always be clothes. Jabong.com has a wide range of clothes to chose from. You can shop by category, shop by brands or even shop by collection. The best feature of the site is to filter out according to your preferences. The clothes can be filtered based on prize range, size, color, brand, discount and again categories.

I had just explored hundreds of option at the comfort of my house. I chose a printed leggings and ordered it using the gift card. To my surprise the dress was delivered in just two days. The size, fitting and quality was excellent. Jabong.com had made my Raksha Bandhan very special.

Jabong.com is a new trend of shopping that allows you to shop at the comfort of your home. Its very fast and smart with a large variety. What is more, my husband was happy that he will no longer be dragged across multiple shops in multiple malls choosing one dress.

There is a level of detail in choosing every dress, Jabong.com is on its way to become a girls best friend.

You can check out their ossum rakshabandhan collection before its over

A girl in her life cares and loves her hair like anything. Her whole life she looks after her hair and keeps it neat and tidy.

She learns to take care of hair from others and the habit continues life long. This is one habit that women won't change ever. As she grows she loves getting appreciation from others for her beautiful hair. It takes years to make it look great. A lot of effort is taken for hair care. She spends a lot on products, spa, salon and so on. But all this is worth if her partner is happy.

The story of my hair is - I had short blunt haircut in my childhood. By the time I grew up I had fantasy to grow long and thick hair. I started applying hair oil and desi home made herbs to make it grow. Thanks to my mom who helped me do so. But by the time I reached graduation, I had cut my hair till shoulder level. It was straight and silky and I liked it, it impressed by boyfriend too.

Boyfriend turned into husband and it was my 1st Anniversary. I was bored of same hairstyle. To make it more interesting you need to change your style. So when I went on a vacation on a island in Pataya, I tried a new 'tedha hair par mera hair style'.



The most benefit I found of this hair stlye was: it saves you from hotness and lets air in between your hair, giving you great relief. And this unbelievable hairstyle lasted a week to a month, truly unbelievable, but true.

You do not have to comb your hair again and again. Just imagine a girl takes so much time to dress herself, then comes makeup, and finally a hairstyle. I just saved so much time on hairstyle. And looks ossum all the time. You can wash your hair with water and shampoo on it and dry towel. And your hair is perfect.

The colorful beads gives great emphasis to your hair looks.

This was my amazing hairstyle. My gorgeous friend who was much more manageable than ever before. What was yours?

This hairstyle was possible due to confidence using Tresemme Shampoo.