British Airways, Fuelled By Love.

Regardless of the current turmoil that India is going through, regardless of how much criticism the country is garnering by its own people on social media, there are no second thoughts about the culture we nurture – diverse, beautiful, inclusive, heartwarming and woven in the threads of deep bonds of emotions. Something about India makes it home. 

British Airways, a carrier airline that took off in India in 1924, gives one of the most beautiful odes to the country in a new advertisement. Named ‘Fuelled by love’, the advertisement has been inspired by a real story.

“The real-life experiences of British Airways’ cabin crew reveal that whilst service is driven by purpose and efficiency, true care is ‘fuelled by love'”,the company’s official statement said.

The ad, based on a true story of a UK-based cabin crew member, features an old grandmother, Anandi, who is flying back to India and gels with the crew member during the flight back. Helena, the crew member, helps Anandi with her seat belt and even wearing socks, while the older woman helps Helena styling her hair. Helena is seen comforting Anandi when she is upset because she’s missing her son. The crew,  who is visiting India for the first time is spellbound by the love she receives from the grandmother who invited her over by the end of the flight.

The crew member, after her beautiful experience with Indian culture, describes India as a place that ‘the more she discovers, the more she falls in love with’.

The touching long-form advertisement beautifully strikes a chord with the culture of India, giving a message of selflessly loving back.

Get hold of some tissues wipes as this beautiful advertisement trails you back in your childhood days when grandmother’s love was much more than few pennies and late-night stories.

The ad certainly reinstates on how yesteryear has short, flashy, disoriented set of pictures become in the world of advertising and how we are back to in the generation where content is certainly the king. Didn’t you feel so while seeing the ad?

Would love to know your views on the advertisement. Do share in the comment section below. 🙂

Morning routine for maximum productivity

For almost last 22 years of my existence, I’ve never made it to the prestigious yet boring category of “morning person.” I’ve always been a night owl – late night working, night outs with friends, Netflix, etc. have so far done a pretty decent job at keeping me up.

Working on my own business idea – Chaaipani spoilt me even more. I would wake up at convenience, work at convenience and sleep whenever I wanted to. Apart from ruining my body cycle, I ensured how my lifestyle was actively contributing in making me unproductive as well. And then is when my father came into picture.

“If you don’t treat your company like a company, no one else will. And it will not grow like a company should”

And that pinched me. I figured how not having a good morning routine and feeling disorganised were interrelated. And that’s when I decided to turn my Good Morning to Gold Morning.

The decision was made and so far I’ve been maintaining it for last one month. I will share some of the key changes I made to my morning routine and how I’ve been measuring my efficiency growth since then.

I have come to realise that the first 60 minutes of the day are THE GAME CHANGER. They can either make your day or break your day. And this is how they look:

1. Wake up and drink a big glass of chilled water

You’r body is deprived of any liquid for some 6-7 hours and it is important to rehydrate it as soon as one wakes up. A glass of chilled water is a great way to kickstart your metabolism.

2. Stretching exercise.

Ever seen a dog wake up? The first thing they do is – STRETCH. Stretching is unarguably the best thing one can do to get rid of laziness and get ready for the day ahead. I use the 7 minute workout app.

3. Take a shower in cold water (4-5 minutes)

I will not lie – It sucks, however, only for those first 30 seconds. I can bet on the insane energy power house you will become after you are out of the bathroom! Try it and let me know 😉

4. Brush teeth and clean my mouth – 5 minutes.

My tryst with early morning came around the time I received goodies from #Colgate360GoldMorning and with that, I got my calling – Start by cleaning your mouth. The goodie bag turned out to be a good motivation!

5. Meditate – 10 minutes.

This is the most essential part of my routine. It makes me gain clarity about the rest of my day and makes me spend some time with me.

6. Reading (20 mins)

Nothing gets my creative juices flowing more than this!

Disclaimer: I read only positive, inspiring and intellectually stimulating content on portals like Chaaipani, Brainpickings, Better India, etc.

8. Writing (15–20 mins)

I’ve just begun this and this is unbelievably therapeutic. This isn’t blogging, journaling or anything I will publish to the public. This is the time to get my thoughts out of my system on a paper – business idea, feelings, decisions I have to make, etc. It gives me immense clarity of thoughts and a shape to my day ahead.

9. Day plan – 10 minutes.

Here’s when I get hold of my tab and schedule my day in 30 minutes sections. I use Flow for it and it has been working pretty good.

The rule: Have only 3 things on priority lists. If you have more, none of them is a priority.

And then, I am out in the world to work – Have breakfast, go to the gym and get on the grind!

When a Woman Shops, why stereotype?

She went to buy a pair of shoes, but she liked a handbag so she brought diamond earrings.

Deja vu? Certainly you would received a message like this on your whatsapp, somewhere on your timeline or cracked by a friend in a social gathering. And let’s accept it, you would have laughed a little too.

Women and their shopping habits dates back to centuries! While we were non-civilised humans, men would go out, set a goal, hunt and get back asap before it got dark. While women, the gatherers, would go out with their female friends to find the BEST of fruits, vegetables and other raw material to cook food.

Stereotypes about women and jokes on their shopping habits aren’t new either. Google ‘Women shopping jokes’ and the result is..

Yes, 2,06,00,000 jokes on women shopping.

Women love shopping. Some of them don’t.

While some studies sort of support the stereotype that women do more shopping than males, it is vital to know that they are not just shopping makeup, fashion wear and accessories. Women usually end up shopping more because of typical gender roles in the society that comes with a certain set of responsibilities. Whether a wife or a single woman, woman usually are the domestic care takers and is called to the store for a quiet a few needs. And because of the responsibility to ensure comfort for everyone in the house, a woman shops in very many places to satiate everybody’s need in her home. 

At my home, even today, my father hardly buys anything. Why? Because my mother does it for him. Whenever we have to head out to a function, clothes and other essentials for my dad and me are on the top priority list for my mother. It is only once our checklist in struck, comes her turn.

I recently came across the video by Amazon, that endeavours to break the myth about women shopping. Have a look at the video below:

Get what I meant to say? Women shop for you and then for themselves.

Because #WhenAWomanShops, she shops because she cares. She shops because she loves 🙂

Latest News Updates from the World of Smartphones

Thanks to the increasing number of #Technocrats around us, we’ve been getting messages and suggestions to make the website relevant for Smartphone users who want to keep updated with news related to the world of smartphones. We bring here our exclusively curated fake take right out of the closet of smartphones.

Good news arrives for iPhone family.

The news has been confirmed by our trusted sources from Palika Bazaar and Khan Market.

Smartphones to automatically disconnect calls at reception of “Aur Batao”from either of the calling parties.

In an attempt to make smartphones smarter, major smartphone manufacturers have added some common sense to their product.

“Use of Aur batao in a conversation usually means that both the parties are now running out of topics to discuss, yet none wants to take the responsibility to accept the awkwardness of ending the call. Our new feature will take the aur batao bullshit not more than thrice and automatically cut the call”, said Micromax India head while announcing the new update as ‘Micromax samajhdaar’

 

Samsung unveils Parivar ; app that locates family members  found within 1 meter.

In its historic invention, tech giant Samsung has unveiled a new app that sends alerts to a user’s phone if any of their family members are found within 1 m area. This is a revolutionary step towards fostering human relations among humans who typically spend more than 23 hours a day with their phones.

“I tried the app and it was truly fascinating!  Though the app didn’t work smoothly till I updated to Android M, but after that, it works like magic! It alerted me when my wife was around. We’ve added each other in our social media networks, however, we are taking things slow. We plan to meet for a 6 minute date this weekend so we can know each other. Am really excited”, said Bill, one of the few beta customers of the app.

Bill’s wife is too excited about the meeting.
“I have scheduled an appointment at the nearest parlour. I think it is important to look good on a date so that we can have a nicer selfie”, she says.

The company has announce Alok Nath as the brand ambassador of the application’s branding campaign.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone in a fix; experts believe frequent toggle between flight mode on/off to be the reason

Going with the reports from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, Mr. Modi’s phone has abruptly stopped functioning. The phone was purchased just recently. The phone is loaded with latest 4G technology, an octa core processor and high resolution selfie camera. (Not a bad choice, Mr. Modi)

Speculations are made that the reason behind phone’s non-functioning can be attributed to frequent shifts in airplane mode and reception of different network providers in different countries, keeping PM’s travelling frenzy in mind. Sources also point to Mr. Modi’s dissatisfaction with the phone’s battery life.

“We do not believe our phone has a bad battery, however, too much use of camera may drain one’s phone’s battery faster than the usual”, said Mr. Vanshi, CEO of said phone company.

Have some fascinating news from the Smartphone world? Share with us in the comment box below!

Unplug.

We are connected. So much that we’ve opened up doors & windows to allow anyone to interrupt our lives anytime by being so connected. But wait, what life are we even talking about?

Right now, I am at Cafe Coffee Day. As I type this on my laptop, sipping over a cup of espresso, I am going to look around to notice people for 2 minutes.

After 2 minutes. 

I am back. I noticed as much as I could. There are CCD walls painted with pretty conversation boxes with ‘Great conversations happen over a coffee’ written all around. And then there are some people, approximately 20-25. The cafe is quiet, with slow music humming in the background. I am sitting alone, glued to my computer. There are 3 men in crisp formal wear working over something, glaring at the screen of one mac book which is kept in the center of the table. Three coffees aren’t releasing any vapor now. Is it upset as well for being dejected?

Then there is a couple, they look like one. Both are showing something to each other on their mobile phones and giggling. There are two coffees glasses – Frappe and Iced Eskimo. The water droplets have begun to develop on the outside of the glass.

There is a boy in his 20s. With 3 more boys in their 20s. They have their headphones plugged in. May be they don’t like CCD’s playlist. 

The cafe of 25 people is quiet. With music humming in the background. No conversations, no connect.

By the time I finished the above line, a girl next to my table just called out to the waiter to help her with setting up WiFi on her laptop. She is accompanied with one more girl, almost her age. I am not even making this up.

It was yesterday that I came across Kissan‘s advertisement and would love to share with you.

Isn’t this a beautiful depiction of a society we live in? In the above words, I’ve just tried to portray what I just looked around and saw. Nothing made-up.

A few studies have revealed how people aren’t yet able to break-free from technology, despite being aware of its negative consequences and the benefits they’d have once they get rid off this addiction. Deep down, we are all aware about how disconnecting would be great. One would be more patient. I am currently dealing with a client who pings me 3 times a day asking about progress with his work, a deadline for which is 30th October. It just makes me want to ‘turn off’ chat for him. People have just become impatient! True that they are just worried about their work, but one must give it a break at least somewhere! One would have more time, more attention span and lesser stress. I am a testimony to side-effects of this syndrome.

I’ve decided a few things to get rid of this addiction:

1. Not checking phone first thing in the morning after I wake up. Not checking it for at least next one hour after waking up.
2. Not using mobile phone while talking to someone.
3. Not rushing to reply to any message.
4. A dedicated 2 hours of the day when I would  – blog and do whatever I want to on my social media. There is always Buffer and Hootsuite to take care of scheduled posts!
5. Spend at least 1 hour in the park or by Sabarmati river everyday without headphones plugged in, or mobile phone in pocket. Just not acceptable.
6. Spend time with family, friends and people around me. Without being aided by technology.

I am adamant to follow this and hopefully soon I will disconnect from technology and reconnect with real humans. Because I believe this is what is real togetherness 🙂