Gratitude list - Sep 2015

I am loving this post and waiting to write my gratitude list every month :-)
So, getting habituated to recognize every small thing in my life that I am grateful for.

Quickly going to my gratitude list.. It's a small list.

1. Happy for being a mother. I realized, we shouldn't take anything for granted and I feel grateful to God to be blessed with healthy, happy kids who make my life bright and worth living.

2. Contributed one article for the great initiative by Vidya Suri for 'Collecting smiles' ebook. Yet to be launched in amazon.com.. waiting :-)

3. I am better balanced this month and learned to leave tension and stop worrying about past/ future. #Lifemantra for this month is Enjoy present :-)

4. Back to book reviews after some gap and could review 3 books this month.

5. Could spend some good amount of time with my son on crafts and other fun. We both enjoyed for sure..

6. Hey! this is the last day of September challenge. How fun it was! I published a post on every weekday, visited many blogs, read and commented on many blogs and learned a lot from blogger friends :-)

Until next time,

Linking this post to Gratitude circle hosted by Corinne and Vidya Suri.
Image courtesy: Creative commerce license image flickr search. 

Devilish laugh in the night

Shruthi slept quickly after finishing her favourite novel. She is habituated to live alone in her 2 bedroom flat after she got a job and moved to her dream city.

Exactly at 2 a.m she woke up suddenly by the devilish laugh. She tiptoed to every room switching on each light and searching for the source of that haunting voice. That sound stopped suddenly. She couldn't sleep for an hour being afraid.

When she is thinking about it deeply in the morning, her maid was leaving after cleaning the house.
Again that devilish laugh reverberated in the room from the kitchen and maid was relieved while leaving the house, "Amma, forgot my mobile yesterday in the kitchen and was worrying if I lost it!"

Shruthi is now scolding herself for her fear last night, thinking of the horrible ringtone of her maid's mobile.

Until next time,

An inspiring quote

This is one of the best quotes that inspire me.

It happens many times that we know we are on right track, but unsure on how our family members or society around us might react to that. We are afraid that no one stands up for us if we take that right direction which majority doesn't support.

But, there is something called intuition and conscience. It says loud and clear if we are right or not. I prefer listening to that.

Whenever people take decisions on their academics, job, marriage or their hobbies, they might get conflicting opinions from friends, family and others. It is very good to listen to all the opinions before taking a decision. But, we should take a decision on our own assessing the impact and we should own the responsibility too. No one is perfect in this world and these decisions might prove us wrong in future. But, taking responsibility on failure, learning from it and correcting is the best course of action one can do, instead of blaming people who helped in taking the decision.

So my #LifeMantra is doing what I feel right, even if I have to stand alone because of it. I want to take responsibility of my success and failures equally.

What is your opinion on doing it right when no one supports you?
I will be happy to know your opinion :-)

Until nest time,

Vinayaka Chavithi festival

Today is Vinayaka Chavithi and it is an important festival in our household where the whole family contributes to the puja and participates in the celebration.

Vinayaka is considered to be a God who will remove all obstacles. Ganesh is another name to him and he uses a mouse as a vehicle. He is depicted as a person with the head of an elephant in mythology.

From childhood, this festival has a special place in our hearts and my sister and myself used to eagerly wait for this festival. Purchasing a new dress is kind of a madatory. We used to purchase different types of fruits, flowers, different types of leaves (patri) and an idol of Ganesh made from mud. We take head bath on Ganesh Chathurdhi wearing new dresses, decorate our homes with flower garlands at the entrance with mango leaves bunch. We clean our pooja area, place the mud Ganesh idol on a stand, tie palavalli(a wooden construction to tie fruits) above the idol. We prepare special dishes to offer to Ganesha like undrallu, talukalu (jaggery sweet with rice powder), panakam (drink with water, jaggery and pepper powder), vadapappu (soaked moong daal), chalividi (sweet with jaggery and rice powder) before pooja. Children place their books before pooja with a swasthik marked with turmeric paste and pray to God to make them study well without any failures and obstacles.We all do pooja and read a story about Ganesha and give haarathi (camphor light).

This Ganesha idol will be kept at home for 1 or 3 or 5 or 7 or 9 or 11 days and then will be merged in any lake(nimajjanam). This festival is very famous and celebrated well especially in Hyderabad and Mumbai. Very large Ganesha idols are prepared for the occasion and large processions will be held before merging them in a lake, which is called nimajjanam.

So, that's about the festival and its importance in our culture. Look at these photos from my archive of Vinayaka Chavithi Pooja.

Happy Ganesh Chathurdi to all :-) May God bless you all with happiness and good health on this occasion.

Until next time,

Where is she going?

She is feeling excited to pick a flight today
to participate in a Fashion week in New york
to compete with international fashion designers
and prove herself to the world..

It would be the beginning of a bright future
leaving behind her abusive relationship and past
realizing her life's dreams..



My 50 words post on the prompt, 'Where is she going?' hosted by Vashelle and Mia on Write or Die Wednesdays.

#SeptemberChallenge

Until next time,

Scarlet Envy by Ann McGinnis - Book Spot Light

For a change, today's book spot light is on a #Mystery and #Thriller novel.  We are done with many #Romance novels recently.

This is the book 2 of suspense series by Ann McGinnis. I hope, you will like it :-)

It's Friday, I wish you all a happy weekend ahead.

Go to Book No. 84

Check all the Books Here 

Name of the Book: SCARLET ENVY

Author: Ann McGinnis



Read some reviews:



1. Charles Ray 

2. Kay Wilson 



The Story:

FBI Analyst Caycee Scarlet is back on the trail of another ruthless serial killer, and doing it the wrong way – her way.

Bombing suspect Carl Hicks continues to evade the FBI, but his interest in Caycee heats up. He sends her a love letter, prompting the FBI to place her into protective custody and use an agent as a double to draw Hicks out. The bomber isn’t fooled.

Hating being sidelined, Caycee realizes Hicks may not be a threat when he finds her safe house and reveals his ulterior motive. He’s on a mission – to save Caycee from his dangerous ex-wife Siobhan – who is killing her bloodline to eliminate the Killer Gene. Unbeknownst to everyone but Siobhan’s twisted mind, Caycee holds the key to finding the source of the gene. And the source has a deadly legacy – it’s the notorious Zodiac Killer.

The clever FBI Analyst wants back in the game but her boss, and lover, Agent Gil Graham, is reluctant to expose her to the evil of two serial killers. After all, Caycee’s an analyst not an agent! It causes her to rely more on Hicks, and question which man is her true soul mate – the protector or the trickster? The answer lies somewhere along the trail of iconic 40-year-old murders, and Caycee’s ability to uncover the truth. If she fails, she’ll be the Zodiac Killer’s latest victim.

You can also buy @

About The Author 

Ann McGinnis 

Ann McGinnis writes about characters that let their egos and sense of justice rule their lives, while they protect the public from serial killers and unthinkable crimes. Of course, Ann's characters always find a way to blow off steam -- romantically!



As a writer, Ann comes from the world of action/thrillers and screenwriting. She has two scripts currently in development. A third script, about a spunky FBI analyst, is the basis of "Scarlet Revenge" and the main character Caycee Scarlet. "Scarlet Envy" is the second book in the Scarlet Suspense Series.

Stalk her @

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Go to Book No. 86 

Now for the Rafflecopter: Gather as many points as you want to. The more points you get, the more you have a chance to win it all. Show your love for books.. Tweet, Like and Spread the Word... Thank you for being a Reader... You keep the Authors motivated... This is our way of saying a Thank you :) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway





#TornadoGiveaway is an initiative of The Book Club. Click on the icon to go to the event page of the Tornado .. Lots of fun awaits you :)

Until next time,

A day with Flintobox

Do you have a child between 3 to 7 years old? then, it would be helpful to know about http://flintobox.com/.

What's a Flintobox?

Every parent wants to teach science and maths concepts to children in an easy way so that they will remember them and not mug up without understanding. We want to know an easy interactive way to teach children. Flintobox is one such kit which contains 4 -5 projects that promote child's early development. On subscribing to it from the site, different flintoboxes with different projects will be delivered monthly to home. These projects are designed by experts and child psychologists, so you shouldn't have any doubt that your child might not like.

Received a Flinto Box for some blogging contest recently and I started exploring with my 4-year-old kid. Flintobox that I received is about 'Lights and Shadows'. Let me tell you about one project:

This project contains:
A pen with invisible ink
Special torch to view writings of an invisible pen
A score card
star stickers
mat
paper

Activity: When 2 players are playing the game, one is supposed to write slowly on paper with an invisible ink pen so that other player can guess the letter or word that player 1 is writing and say it. If player 2 can guess that right, he gets a point. A shining star to be stuck below his name on a score card. If he couldn't guess correctly, Player 1 gets the point and shining star under his name. Whoever gets more score after 10 mins, will win the game. After the answer is revealed, we can confirm the answer by lighting special torch to view writing of invisible ink. Interesting?

There is another project to prepare a projector screen and see images of some pretty objects and understand the concept of light and shadow. Another project is like a craft activity where we prepared a bed lamp with the objects given.

Try it, if you want to engage kids and teach them some science concepts. Check here for flintoboxes with different concepts. Each box costs around Rs.1095/- and one year subscription costs around Rs. 795/- per box. I feel, it's worth the cost.

Until next time,

This is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to share this great site with an intention to educate children in an interactive way.

Fun and cool - Bhale Bhale Magadivoy - Telugu Movie

Bhale Bhale Magadivoy is a Telugu film directed by Maruthi, starring Nani and Lavanya as hero and heroines. If you have watched the trailer, you will know it's a comedy movie.

Plot:
Hero Lucky has a memory problem and he forgets everything quickly when diverted by something else. He is studying medicine and often forgets the way to reach hospital also if he is stopped by someone in the middle of the way. He loves Nandhana. Fortunately, things work well and he covers up cleverly before her without mentioning his problem. They both fell in love with each other. But, the truth has to be revealed some day. When it comes out, his lover sees him as a cheater for not mentioning about his problem before hand and telling many lies.

How he could prove that he really loved her is the remaining part of the story. At one point, Nani says - problem is with his brain and not with his heart.Cute little message by the end of the movie is - Love can be a strength to overcome some weaknesses in life.

What is great?

• Nani's performance and of course other actors performance too which is overshadowed by nani's :-)
• Comedy, which is not forced but situational
• Nice dialogues
• A good movie to watch with family
• Good combination of humour+romance+performance

My rating: 4/5

So, go and watch if you can!

PS: I am not good at reviewing movies. You can read a detailed review on this movie from my friend here (it's in Telugu).

My entry for today for #SeptemberChallenge hosted by Corinne.

Add your posts to the linky if you are joining the challenge. Visit this link for more details on September Challenge.

Until next time,

An InLinkz Link-up

Image courtesy: Google images