WHAT MAKES BNLF AWESOME?

So, I have said it before and I will repeat again, I love lists. It might just stem from an education system which encouraged us to list down important points for answers. Remember questions like- write 5 properties of igneous rocks, or list 5 disadvantages of deforestation? Well, I am getting a little off track here. This article isn’t about why I love lists. It’s why I think BNLF is awesome, and what better way to illustration that than by, you got it, listing down all the cool things about it.

So, here it goes-

What’s In a Name- Well, apparently a lot! The name pretty much sets the pace of the entire package! And BNLF is pretty much awesome! Think of all the conferences that you have been to- the International Blah Blah Blah Conference on La di Dadada, remember? Well, ever been to conference without the word “conference” or “Symposium” in it? Ever even heard of one before? I haven’t! And Blog Now, Live Forever gets brownie points for being narcissistic in the sweetest way possible! If you don’t love blogging enough to believe it has the power to make you immortal, you might as well not register for it at all!

Every Note is a Keynote- Another amazing USP! I finished my M.Sc. a couple of months ago, and let me assure you that I have been to my fair share of conference. One uniform feature of most of them is that the keynote seems to be the more interesting, and the rest, well, not so much! The keynote speakers are also one of the most eminent personalities, and so most people turn up to talk to hear them speak. But at BNLF all the speakers are keynote, which essentially means, everyone is at par. And if you just look at the line-up, you would know exactly what I mean. Which brings me to my third point in the list-

THE Speakers- These people are some of the best in the field! I have admired Anshul for years now for what he does not only with Youth Ki Awaaz, but also for the awesome campaigns that he is associated with, and his advocacy of youth journalism. I could go on and on about most of the speakers who are scheduled for this seminar, and then some more!

The Venue-The Lalit, Mumbai. Enough said.

If you don’t believe me, look at the picture below, and you would know what I am talking about.

Source The Lalit

The Date- Although I am sure there are quite a few of us who would have loved to bunk work (or school/college) to attend BNLF, for the majority of us, skipping work seems to be a bit of a trouble. Fret not! Indiblogger has us covered there too.

For the Bloggers, by the Bloggers, of the Bloggers- The second day of the conference is exclusively for people who have been stalwarts of blogging. Not only does that mean you get to hear about real, get your hands dirty approach to blogging, but also the fact the wonderful people who have spent years honing their knowledge of creating content and blogging are acknowledged in an international platform. And that is a feat in itself.

If you want to know more, go have a look at their page.

Mona Lisa Smile

3 A.M. Musings

I am just finishing up with my post graduate. Well, technically, I have a little more than 2 weeks of being a student of M.Sc. yet. And tonight, while going through the hard disk of a fellow movie buff, I came across Mona Lisa Smile. I had seen this movie a long time ago. And more than a couple of times, to be honest.

I remember the good ol' days when Star Movies did not have compulsory subtitles, and they played such awesome movies in the afternoon, and I would either delay lunch or beg my mother to let me eat in front of the television, instead of in the dining hall just to watch these amazing movies.

And every single I watched this movie I would wonder how awesome it would be to have a teacher who compels you to change the way you think and open your eyes to look at things a different way.

So, tonight, when I found the movie I thought I would just go through a few of my favorite scenes and then call it a day. That was 2 hours ago. I finished the entire movie, and surprisingly, this time around I didn't wonder how awesome it would be to have a professor like Miss Watson. This time around, I realized I was fortunate enough to have such a radical teacher who introduced me to the concepts of ecological economics and degrowth theory.

I do not wish to go into the technical aspects of the theories and ideas that inspired me, but what it was is exactly what Mona Lisa Smile showed- a new way to look at things by challenging what we have known to be right for so long.

And it is not everyday that you watch a movie and realize that you have been through it in your life, and when it does happen it is an amazing feeling.

I am too brain tired right now to think of other examples, but I will try to think of more movies that I can relate to very soon.

Also, watch Mona Lisa Smile. And Julia Roberts is the ultimate thing. Period. 

The New My Airtel App

We are a tech savvy lot. Everything needs to be in our fingertips nowadays. It wasn't too long ago that we had to frequent neighborhood shops to buy recharge vouchers, which we then scratched with a coin, messaged a 16 digit number and got new talk time. Soon that changed into the shopkeeper using his phone to directly send money into our phones, which eventually turned into us being able to do it from the comforts of our homes using our personal computers.

The latest in the field of easy recharging are the mobile applications. All you need is a credit/debit card and an internet connection, and you are good to go.

The new My Airtel App is one such fascinating application, which can be downloaded in both the Android as well as Windows phone, and comes with a range of cool features.

Mentioned below are three of the features I like best about this app-

1. The One-Stop-Shop for all your Airtel goodies

So, of late, Airtel has its fingers in too many pies, which means everything from your phone bill, both mobile and landline, to broadband connection to your digital TV is more likely than not managed by Airtel. Now, I am a self professed mall fan, because you get everything you need under one roof!
The New Airtel App does exactly the same thing for all your airtel products. It smartly manages your prepaid as well as postpaid mobile connections, your landline phone, your broadband services along with your digital TV subscription.
Not only can you manage and recharge them here, you are also given regular reminders and can look up the history of recharges including past favorite discounts at the press of a button, err touchscreen.

2. Airtel Money

Another amazing feature to dig is the airtel money that allows me to shop online and buy tickets among other things, without having to remember specific credit/debit card details. I always find the whole process of feeding in the card details while shopping very tedious, and this cool feature of the app completely solves it!

3. Showering Offers

All you have to do is shake that phone, and you will get awesome offers which will spoil you for choice, be it food, movie, clothing or accessories. There is an unending list to choose from and there is always something that is just right for you!
Not just that, you also have amazing offers in terms of recharges and talk-times for all your phone connections, as well as television and internet services. I find the discounts to be really useful for a person living off a student budget! Offers on full talk time as well as a range of validity to choose from is super cool too.

All in all, if you love to have everything organized in your smartphone and do not wish to be bothered about paying bills via a bunch of different avenues, and at the same time get great discounts and special deals exclusively for you, this is the go-to app for you.

So, what are you waiting for? Check it out yourselves at http://www.airtel.in/myairtel and have fun exploring!

Because Mamma Knows Best

I haven't been home for either my mother's birthday or celebrating mother's day for close to 5 years now. I send her gifts and letters, and have long telephonic conversations, but it doesn't really match up to the experience of waking your mom up for a surprise birthday breakfast, or spending days on planning a perfect Mother's day for her, full of things she enjoys.

And as the Jessie J song "Mamma Knows Best", which doesn't say much about mom, but sure is helping me with the writing process today, blares in my earphones, I sit down to write about the most incredible woman in my life- My Mother.

Yet another Mother's Day passed by, and I am some 1200 kms away from home, working on my thesis. 

Mom and Me in Ladakh, the summer of '05

I had the luxury of a stay-at-home mother, and so, all throughout my childhood, she was an integral part of my non-school hours. And for reasons I still quite haven't been able to figure out, she always knew when something was wrong after I returned from school each day. Be it anything, from scoring low in a test to having a fight with a friend, she would always know that something was up even before I had taken off my shoes and socks. 

Initially I used to be very fascinated by her "abilities" but as I started growing up, and reached my teens, it started becoming a bother. You don't want your mom to figure out everything, right? And I started overlooking her advice, and sometimes downright disobeying her during my teenage rebellion years and would always invariably find out the best course of action would have been to listen to her.

I remember asking her once, with awe, how exactly does she figure out that I am worried or pissed, and she told me with a straight face that mom's have a third eye, that tell me what is wrong with their kids. It's invisible, but that doesn't mean you should discard it. I was about 11 years old, too old to believe in such silly things, but her statement remained with me.

I have so many little beautiful memories with her that it is hard to describe them. 

Starting from running with my tricycle till I could balance myself, to making mock question papers before exams to taking me for music classes and cooking lip smacking dishes whenever I asked for them, now that I am grown up enough, I realize what a warm home I had. 

Right after leaving home, I realized I should have appreciated her more. And over these few years, the distance, and maybe even a bit of maturity has led me to realize that moms really are the in-house experts of everything that actually matters.

She might not know anything about economics (my subject) but she has enough valuable life lessons to impart. She has taught me everything from patience and perseverance to cooking the perfect plate of chilly chicken. She has taught me how to let go of things and people that hurt too much, and move on in life. 

You can't really express true emotions with words. But I am still going to try and say that I am who I am because of my parents. And my mother is the epitome of beauty, grace and compassion. She held my hands when I needed support the most, and let go when it was time to grow wings and fly. But no matter where I go, I will always return to the nest, to my mother. Because at the end of the day, she is the one with the unbiased advice, and hard hitting truths.

This post is written for the Godrej Expert #MYFIRSTEXPERT event. Check out the following link to know more about it.
http://godrejexpert.com/single_used_pack.php

LET THE MAY BEGIN!

So, it's that time of the year again!
It's summer! It's the season of all my favorite fruits, long lazy days and the birthday month of a few of my favorite people.
And this video is for one of those crazy, perfect ones.

Of Superheroes Movies, Comics, And All Things Fantastical. Almost.

My room mate is a huge comic books fan. Actually, she is a comic books, superhero movies and manga fan, to be precise. And so today, sometime during the noon she calls me up from the library asking if I wanted to go for the new Avengers movie. Me being me, just spoiling for a chance to leave the university campus, I agreed immediately and we booked the 4:30 show.

The movie was pretty amazing! I had a fun time.

But, once I left the theater, or maybe while even inside, I kept thinking how I really don't get superhero movies. Don't get me wrong, I have seen quite a few of those. I love a lot of those characters too. But today, while sitting in the hall, and afterwards, I just realized how pointless it all was.

The last movie before today was Fast  and Furious 7, and although the ending dedication to Walker was beautiful, the rest of it hardly made sense! Come to think of it, the couple of movies I saw before that- Happy New Year and Bang Bang were just as bad. So, there is a possibility that it is the cumulative effect of all of these bad movies put together.

However, at the end of the day, I realized what really bothered me is that there isn't much of an actual storyline; just a lot of really cool special effects that shows people destroying other people and/or machines. And I just can't seem to muster enough enthusiasm for that anymore. Maybe, I am getting old. Or maybe I still wish for a little more emotions and human drama in general.

That being said, I do not condone fiction or fantasy. I love the world of wizardry and witchcraft created by Rowling. I am hooked to the Game of Thrones currently being played in the Seven Kingdoms. And upon contemplation, I think the reason is because they have strong characters with basic human emotions and flaws, and a strong plot.

But, I couldn't feel the excitement that comes with the cool gadgets of Tony Stark, or the super cool killing abilities of the Black Widow. And it bums me out a little. I had always been a self proclaimed I was a Nerd Queen.

Then again, I can't wait for the new Stars Wars movie releasing this Christmas. So, maybe not all is lost yet.

   

Asus Zenfone 2 - The New Boss In Town

In a very short span of time, Asus with its many awesome varieties of Zenphone has pretty easily captured the Indian smartphone market. Although, I don't own one of these, I have had the chance to tinker with the Zenphones that my friends have, and am psyched to go to the launch of the new Zenphone 2 next week in Gurgaon. The mobile industry is a fickle one, and it is really hard to stay on top for long, but the new range of Asus smart phones seem to be the thing to make the Zenphone stay on for a long time to come.

Here are five awesome reasons for you to choose Zenphone 2 as your next smart phone. Read on and be amazed!

1. MORE MEMORY
The Zenphone 2 is the world's first smartphone with a 4 GB RAM. Yes, you heard it right! 4GB. I am sure all you tech savvy people are thinking of all the amazing things you can do with your phone with this kind of an incredible specs.

2. SUPER FAST CHARGING
We all hate how power hungry our smartphones are and need to constantly be on the look out for charging points, right? Well, Zenphone 2 is the answer to all your prayers. The Zenphone 2 with its Asus- exclusive technology charges way more faster than its counterparts. Infact, you can charge upto 60% in less than 40 minutes time! How cool is that?

3. CAMERA HAPPY PHONE
We all love to update photos on the go, be it on SnapChat, or Instagram, or just sharing photo updates with our friends. The Zenphone 2 with its 2 PixelMaster camera which captures high resolution photos with zero shutter lag will make your camera experience a delight. Its unique low light mode which employs pixel-merging technologies which can capture 400% brighter photos at night will let you take that photo of the full moon that you have always with ease.

4. BEAUTIFUL CHIC DESIGN
I am a girly girl, and I love my colors and designs. And the Zenphone 2 doesn't disappoint in the style department. I am especially in love with the red body, and the sharp angles of the phone. The phone has a very cosmopolitan look, and looks good in a boardroom as well as a nightclub!

5. ASUS ZEN UI EXPERIENCE
Not only that, the new phone comes with a host of features, which will be revealed very soon to provide you the perfect phone which will have answers for all your smart phone desires.

So, if you are tired of your old handset and wish to switch to a superior handset which keeps in mind all your needs, and makes you feel like the king of the world, have a look at the Zenphone 2 by clicking on the following link.
 http://www.asus.com/Phones/ZenFone_2_ZE551ML/ 

What are you waiting for? Go check out the new boss of smart phones and be prepared to be mesmerized!