Evade Subramanyam [Telugu movie review] - An enchanting experience

This is the first Telugu movie that I am watching after a long gap. It might be 10 months ago or more when I watched a movie in theatre. 

Evade Subramanyam movie has a thought provoking message. Movie is fun throughout to watch and leaves you with a strong message at the end. I have become a fan of Nani from "Ashta chamma" itself and this is one of the reasons I felt it is worth watching :-)

*** Spoiler alert*** 

Plot is about how Nani, a to be partner of a big company who is always money minded from childhood turns out to be a new person with humanity and good moral values after an unexpected travel to Dhoodh kasi in Himalayas. Subramanyam(Nani) thinks, he has everything in his life and future is bright with awaiting promotion to be a partner of a company and marriage with boss's daughter and super model Ria. Life seems cool with everything he aspired for from childhood. Unexpectedly, his childhood best friend Rishi enters his life. Rishi loves to enjoy every minute of his life. He doesn't want to work for money and doesn't have any ambition to settle in his life. He is sensitive to people's problems and sufferings and always gives his helping hand. They meet a girl Anandi and become friends. Subramanyam maintains friendship with Anandi to get some important shares from her which help him in his business. When Subramanyam and Rishi couldn't save a child who met with an accident, Rishi takes it up to the heart that they could have saved a life if some one would have taken to doctor just 10 mins before. It kills Rishi to see the insensitivity of people on the road when some one meets with an accident. When he expresses his feelings, Subramnayam doesn't agree with him and he sends him out from his house after a fight. 

Rishi dies in an accident after this incident and story takes a new turn when Anandi decides to take Rishi's ashes to Dhudhkasi as Rishi always dreamed of going there with Subramanyam. She somehow convinces Subramanyam to accompany her, considering the trip as Rishi's last wish. Subramanyam realizes the value of humanity, the beauty of nature, happiness in living for others or happiness in giving etc., It was like a caterpillar changing to a butterfly and flying freely. He realizes that, having one person loving you is the most fortunate thing and helping others gives a wonderful feeling than earning millions. 

Veteran actor Krishnam raju played an important role and it is definitely a plus for the movie. The beauty of Himalayas mesmerise us in the second half. Though movie seems to be dragging at some places, it won't make you bored. There are few drawbacks too. We cannot understand how a couple can go for such an adventurous and dangerous trip without much planning - like food, clothing, money etc., Trekking in Himalayas is not easy for a normal person without being trained to bear such dangerous weather conditions. 

Overall rating: 4/5

Loved the movie for Nani's acting, story, direction, photography and last but not the least, the virtual tour of Himalayas :-)

Until next time,

Family time - happy time

Happy moments depend on good company that we have. Time spent with family or best friends will give us more energy and happiness. Do you know why? We will be ourselves with our family or best friends. We show our emotions to them be it love or hatred  without inhibition. Our family or best friends know exactly how to make us happy and what we enjoy doing - travelling or book reading or watching movie together or chit chatting or cooking or any thing else ☺

Beautiful sunset from our hotel

I love travelling and I love it with the company of good friends and my family. Coorg was a such a trip that I planned in last November. Travel rejuvenates me and helps me destress myself from work pressure. I have  planned that trip in the middle of my busy work schedule but still I loved the experience. Before deciding on Coorg, I was thinking of other options like travelling to Lonavala by train from Hyderabad or Goa trip by flight or Coorg or Udupi trip by car. Budget and time were the main constraints as we were also planning this trip with another couple who are friends. We have zeroed in on a car trip to Coorg, as my husband loves driving and it gives more freedom for us to stop by wherever we want and enjoy nature. Since we planned it very late, I enquired about 8 to 10 good home stay options for accommodation and couldn't get any. At last, I could find KSTDC accommodation which was comfortable and economical and also close to the tourist spots. 

A cloudy day

We had many funny and happy moments to cherish in the trip. One of them was using GPS in remote villages of Karnataka. Instead of taking a high way route to Coorg, we followed a short cut and lost our way in the middle. Our GPS misled and we lost our way completely. We drove long distances in the small villages where population density is very less. But, this was a good memory as we enjoyed driving on country side bumpy roads without actually knowing where that road leads to :-) Somehow, we reached Coorg. 

We enjoyed our experiments on different hotels which were good looking from outside and serving pathetic food inside :-) We had adventurous drives on steep unknown roads and peaceful walks in the nights. We enjoyed listening to lovely songs throughout the drive and discussing and debating on various topics starting from politics, education to movies. Watching beautiful sunset from our hotel while eating hot pakoras made those days more memorable. Our friends brought their new DSLR camera and reading the manual and experimenting on different settings was also fun. Giving poses to the camera was never boring though :-)

Every travel is unique and the company of family and friends makes it more memorable. This trip gave me new energy, motivation and optimism in my life. Though I went to the office tired on next Monday, I had that happy satisfied smile on my face :-)

This post is written for housing.com about my most memorable time spent with my family. That's the power of being together. You too share your story.  #Together.
Read more detailed travelogue here - part 1, 2 and 3.

Until next time,

An important decision for a new begining

This post is written for housing.com about a bold step that i have taken which gave a new beginning to my life.

Not a difficult topic right? We face many challenges day by day, especially after college. School days are fun as our decisions are taken by our parents like which course is good, which hobby they can encourage in our free time etc., When we come to college, choosing a course is a main issue for many people as it decides their future. Then, getting a nice job is in our agenda. Sometimes, salary might not be the only criteria. There are many things to be considered - future growth prospects, technology that we are going to work on, career flexibility, work life balance, good environment to support etc.,I too struggled in these phases of my life to take right decision and chose bright path for my future.

After completing engineering, I had to decide whether to continue higher studies or join job. It was a difficult decision, Isn't it? After my engineering, i got admission in a good college for M tech and also an admission for a specialized study on VLSI designing. Yes, I loved all these options, but I was sure that I want to work and not study more. There were many reasons to it, be it personal or financial. But, now I know I did the right thing.

Searching for jobs is tough initially as we have to cross different stages, compete with lakhs of graduates from different places of country. But, later it became easy. Every company used to follow the same formula in 2005. A written test which tests the ability of student in English, aptitude and logical skills, One or two technical interviews which mostly concentrate on project done in the college, basic programming language skills and logical skills and a HR interview which tests our patience, mindset and stress levels. So, after few months of searching, it became easy to get selected into many of the companies. Then, comes the dilemma, which one to choose.

I chose a small scale organization with around 250 employees. This is one of the important steps that I took for a new beginning and I am very happy for it :-) It gave me opportunity to work on different stages of software life cycle, enabled me to improve my technical skills on my own and provided me enough confidence to work on difficult assignments. Small companies might not have a formal training for new hires, which is a golden opportunity for freshers, Learning on the job is good and learning something on our own is better as we learn lessons from our mistakes. Fortunately, my employer is an employee friendly organization and so I could maintain work life balance and enjoy my life too. 

Did you ever take a step that changed your life for a new beginning? 
Share your story :-)

 #StartANewLife
Check this lovely ad too from housing.com..



Until next time,

Optimism in Life?

This post is written for Happy hours organized by Indiblogger and Housing.com. https://housing.com/lookup.

Theme is to write a lookup story that fills you with optimism.
Optimism is a ray of hope that everything is going to be fine in future. 

There are times when I felt depressed and exhausted with my toddler at home and pressure at office. It was very difficult to come home and play with kid or paint with him with a smile on face, when you have deadlines to meet at office or client calls to take from home. You cannot keep your kid away who has waited whole day for your presence and attention and take client call. Sometimes, this pressure hits a working woman and make her guilty for not being a good mother. Who doesn't want to spend whole day playing with kid reading stories and jumping with him/ her? Whoever has told not to bring work to home are true. But, in this contemporary world where work form home option is available, people tend to over use it. Work form office and also work from home :-) Isn't it? Double work. Even weekends, you are available for any urgent office work, that's the strategy of employers. Since flexibility has both benefits and issues, we have to live with it.

When we are nearing any milestone release, there used to be pressure on understanding requirements from onsite people who are available only after 6pm our time and finish work quick after discussing with them. So, all our client calls are usually after 8pm or around that and i have to take them from home as my care taker used to leave at 6pm. It was like walking on a double edged sword maintaining balance. 

Fortunately, I have a supporting family and system around me to beat this exhaustion and pressure. Else, it would have been impossible and it would have impacted my health, me and eventually my family.

My only motivation is to see a smiling kid after coming to home. It is so pleasant. The love that I get from my family is the only reason for being optimistic. I see a ray of hope when my kid tells me all his day's events at school, good or bad, silly fights, new learnings etc., I am always amazed when he learns something new - a new word, a new game,a new habit, a new hobby or anything. Every milestone that my kid makes is important, however small it is. 

I am optimistic about their future. Giving them a security in life and good education is a priority. This keeps me going everyday and alleviates my pressure slowly. 
By the way, what keeps you going in life and be optimistic? Do, let me know in comments :)

Until next time,

Indian passport for infants

Hello all...
After a long gap at last, I could write on my blog today. Hurray :-)
I have been going through an important phase in my life, which is taking care of my new born son. He is keeping me busy away from books and blogs.

Recently, I have applied Indian passport for my 5 month old son through tatkal scheme. Wanted to share my experience as it might help someone else.

Documents  required:
For an infant, proof of age and address are required. Also, an affidavit - annexure H is needed with the signature of both the parents.

We used the following documents:
1. Age proof - date of birth certificate
2. Address proof - original passports of both the parents (if address in parent's passport matches their current address). Else, additional address proof like voter id card of either of the parents or gas connection bill  is needed.
3. Annexure H signed by both the parents
4. 2 passport size photographs of kid

Application process:

• Browse Indian passport website www.passport.gov.in, select respective passport office, download the application form which will be a zip file.
• You should have adobe in your laptop to fill the application form. After filling in the application, it can be saved only in xml format which needs to be uploaded in passport website.
• You should have a profile created on the site to upload passport application. So, register in the site before submission. Infant passport can be applied from parent's profile.
• Filling the application is very simple except for a few tricky ones. All infants come under non ECR category. Select kid's date of birth in 'residing since' field. Everything else is straight forward.

Submission of application and appointment booking :

• As mentioned earlier, register in the site by creating profile, log in and upload the completely filled in application form in xml format. 
• After successful submission of application, site gives an option of booking an appointment to visit passport office for document verification. Take a printout of filled in application form also. Please note that kid's thumb impression is required in the application form. You can paste kid's passport photo in the application,if not, anyway passport office will ask for another photo.
• We can only select the date and passport office while booking appointment, but appointment time will be automatically allocated by the system,
• Print the appointment form after the payment of Rs.1000/- as fee through online. This payment is mandatory for appointment booking. Remaining fee required should be paid at passport office on appointment day.

Appointment:

• Reach passport office at least 15 - 20 mins before appointment time. 
• Carry appointment letter, application form with 2 passport photos and thumb impression of kid, original birth certificate, original passports of both the parents and annexure H signed by both. 
• If current residence address is different, you also need to carry another address proof like voter ID or gas connection bill. For any special case like one parent not present in India, there is another form to be signed and sent by the absent parent. Please contact passport help line for these kind of special cases.
• PSK (Passport seva kendra) will allow 2 people with kid. Don't forget to carry necessary feeding bottles, hot water, formula powder, diapers etc.,
• PSK allows mobile phones, but they need to be switched off.
• In the first counter, officers will verify original documents, take kid's photo from us, take xerox copies of each and arrange them in a file. They also assign a token number.
• After proceeding to 'B' counters after our token is called in, all details mentioned in the application are verified by the officer. They take thumb impression of kid and scan all the proofs that we provide for verification. We have to pay remaining fee (if any) at this counter.
• In counter 'C', another verification of original documents takes place and In counter 'A', final verification will be done. For Tatkal scheme, your token comes quicker than others. For me, it took around 30 mins to go through A,B and C counters.
• We have to collect an acknowledgement in the last counter before leaving the office. This is important to track the status of our application later.
• For Tatkal scheme, it takes around 3 working days for the passport to be delivered. For normal, it might take 15 to 20 days. 
• If you want to get alerts on the status of passport application, you can register for updates to mobile phone while booking appointment itself. PSK will charge around Rs.35/- for the same.

We got appointment on Saturday and passport is delivered on immediate Monday. PSK person told me that if I can go through A,B and C counters before 12 PM on that day, passport will be delivered on Monday. Else, it will come on Tuesday. So, lucky we are :)

So, that's the story. Hope this helps someone who need information on applying Indian passport for infants.

Until next time,

Kurukshetra by Krishna Udayasankar - [Book Review]

Book details:
Title - The Aryavartha Chronicles book 3 - Kurukshetra
Author - Krishna Udayasankar
Genre - fiction, mythology
No. Of pages - 436
Publishers - Hachette India
Source: A free review copy from blogadda book review program

My first thoughts: I love reading mythology. I already knew every small story of the epic Mahabharatha. Heard those from my father in childhood. So, iam not reading this book to know story. Kurukshetra war is the result of many politics, it is very interesting to know how people from same lineage fought for power, how alliances formed, what strategies are used, how betrayals happened and at last, how dharma won.

Author's first note clearly says he is not retelling the epic but telling the story imagining every character as human with emotions. I liked this perspective. When we consider Sri krishna as God and read the story we believe everything he has done is right and good for the society. But, if we imagine him as a human being, we understand the reasoning behind each decision he took and his emotions. So, this epic can be read in a complete different perspective.

I felt, font size is very small and hard on eyes. Even for an avid reader like me completing 436 page book with this font is intimidating. :-)

Even though each character's name is explained just before the starting of the story, it was really confusing for me to follow for sometime. I got comfortable after reading a few pages. Matching the names that we now and the name they gave in the book is slightly time taking. I am reading part 3 book of chronicle directly without reading earlier parts, so it was difficult for me to understand terminology like 'Firewrights'. 

Plot: This starts from Krishna (Govinda Shauri, as mentioned in book) going to Kaurava court as mediator to negotiate on necessity of war. Since war became imminent, it becomes interesting how Kaurava and pandavas form alliances with other kings and make strategies for the war.

What I liked?
The episode of Shikandi, his feelings of hatred on his own father, his revenge to Bhishma explained well. I don't know much about Uttara, Abhimanyu's wife until I read this book. She is shown as independent woman who thinks she is equally good as her husband. The final fight between Bhim and Suyodhana also explained well.

I liked the book because it is not a retelling of the epic and it is interesting to imagine all Mahabharata characters as mortals. Author's knowledge, research and her interpretation should be appreciated for sure. 

What I didn't like?
Font size is a put down. Names of characters are slightly confusing. I felt, it would have been easy if I read earlier parts of this chronicle, before reading this one. I didn't feel it very easy to understand. 

One more thing, book might be boring for a few, as main focus is on war and planning for it. So, description of war, weapons, strategies, revenge and violence might not be a good time pass read. Pick the book only if you want to know more about Kurukshetra imagining every character as mortal. 

My overall rating: 3/5

Until next time,

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

Teaching good manners to kids

Teaching good manners to kids is not an easy task. We have to show them examples and make them understand - what is right and what is wrong. As we all know, we cannot be right always it's a bit difficult right? Sometimes, we can be right, but majority might follow the wrong path. Then, comes the dilemma for the kid, which one to follow. 

India has many paradoxes. We make it a point to clean our homes for every festival but, don't care on spreading litter outside our houses. We teach our kids not to spread litter but we ourselves throw things on the road from car. 

There are many historic places in Hyderabad which are stained with pan marks. Throwing litter and spitting everywhere has become common. Actually, if we see, problem is not with the government or policies, but, with the people and society. If we care for our country, our environment, we don't spread litter and teach the same to kids by example. right?

*************************************************************
My 3 year old and me are coming up in lift in our apartments and he asked me about the red design on lift walls.
What can I say? It's a design made by someone spitting pan on the wall :-o
I told the same and told it's not good to spit on the wall. But, if he sees many people spitting in public, how does he get my words into his brain? By the way, it's very common in Hyderabad to spit on roads.

***************************************************************
Whenever I pick my kid from his school back to home, I ask him to go for loo and start :-). 
You guessed it right :-), I don't want him to pee on road on the way.
One day, he didn't go for loo before starting and he pestered me to stop the car in the middle. When I told him ok, he got down and said 'gandhaa' (dirty in hindi) and told he wont pee on the roadside. Thank God! Whatever may be the reason, Iam happy that he decided not to pee on the road :-)

****************************************************************
My kid loves travelling by train. We usually pack our dinner for evening and night travels. Whenever  there is some garbage left after our dinner, I tell him to throw in the dust bin provided in the train and not outside. But, Is it always possible? Most of the trains have dust bins in AC coaches, Iam not very sure of non-AC coaches.

****************************************************************

Now, our PM has come up with a campaign on Swacha Bharath and he included celebrities too. Inclusion of celebrities should surely improve the impact. Let's see. Let's change for good. Let us hope that our next generation doesn't feel bad while teaching good manners. 

This post is inspired by this video from http://greatindian.timesofindia.com/... 
The Great Indian Litterbug in a humorous way :)





Until next time,

When she smiled by Ritoban Chakrabarty - [Book Review]

Hello everyone! My first book review of the year 2015 :) This is a teenage love story in the backdrop of beautiful Shivalik hills of Shimla.

Book Details:
Title - When she smiled
Author - Ritoban Chakrabarthy
Genre - Teenage love, fiction
No. of pages - 212
Source - A free special review copy from author

 Plot (Spoiler alert!): 
This is the story of a 15year old boy Mrityunjoy - his school days, his first love, love failure and how he has come out of the heartbreak etc., Not a very long story with twists and turns. Mrityunjoy joins back his old school DAV after leaving Sainik school due to injuries and wanted to start a fresh year by meeting his old friends. He meets a beautiful girl in his class whose name is Akanksha and completely bitten by her gorgeous looks on first sight itself. He continues friendship and meets her in Physics tuition class. They become close very soon, start sharing their family details and have fun time walking down to home from their tution. Everyone in the class envy Mrityunjoy for winning her love but their love breaks due to some small misunderstandings. When Akanksha starts friendship with Neeraj and enjoys his company in dance classes, Mrityunjoy cannot accept the situation and still hopes to be with her. Atlast, how he comes out of depression and takes a decision to leave his first love and moves to some other town concentrating on his career forms the climax. 

What I liked?
I have been to Shimla in childhood and knew Ritz , mall road , kalika temple and scenic beauty of that place. It's refreshing to feel the scenic beauty and first snow in Shimla from the book, it's written very well. Flow of the story is good, though sometimes it's a bit slow. Characterization is good. Especially, Mrityunjoy's parents - how they fight for silly reasons, how they don't appreciate each other's talents and how Mrityunjoy's father doesn't show any emotions and prefers only education and doesn't allows kids to participate in annual events. They are all realistic for that generation. I feel, this generation parents are not like this. 

First love, first feelings, Mrityunjoy's excitement to talk to Akanksha, his prepaeration for the walks from dressing style to talking manners - everything is very good to read and it might remind you your teenage days. 

What I didn't like?
Basically, this novel is not a strong story based but an emotional one. There are no twists and turns in the story. I didn't like the reasoning behind their breakup and explanation that Akansha gave in the climax. I felt, their relationship or friendship is not that weak to fail for some rumours and silly misunderstandings. There are one or two grammar mistakes, editing might have been better. Being a woman, I couldn't actually understand the heart break men go through from love failure that is explained in this book :) 

Tidbits:

1. Liked this line from the book:
"Time heals all wounds. The scars remain but you can always live with them."

2. It reminded me the softy cone ice cream in Ritz road.. I love it sooo much :-)

3. Loved those rhyming poems Mrityunjoy writes.

4. Good for a time pass read during travels, not recommended for readers who love thrill and stories with twists and turns.

My rating; 3/5

Until next time,

Use Your AND - No compromise :-)

We all know, women are playing many roles - cooking, taking care of kids, working in office/ running business these days. It's fortunate that society is also changing accordingly to support working women. Men of these days are helping their spouses in household chores, discussing expenditures and budget with them and contributing in taking care of kids, which is a welcome change. Family members - both parents and in laws are stepping forward to help them to take care of their kids and encouraging them. Without this support and change in society's ideology, we cannot see more successful women high in corporate ladders. Still, we also know that this kind of fortunate women are very less. I strongly believe, even though married women have a strong ambition and right skills, they cannot always succeed without family's support. Here is a story of Asha and her journey from 'OR' to 'AND'.

Asha is very bright kid from childhood, topped always in class. She always wished to become a pilot. Her parents encouraged her even though relatives dismissed her ambitions saying it's very difficult to find a right guy in arranged marriage market if Asha chooses that job. After her graduation, she studied hard, cracked the AFCAT(Air force common admission test). She got selected in women special entry scheme and very happy. 

She got married to her colleague in IAF, everything is well until she delivered a baby boy. After her maternity leave, she is in a confused state, whether to appoint a care taker for her kid and continue her job OR to resign. Her parents and in laws came forward to help her in taking care of the kid for sometime. She could continue her career with the help of supporting husband and family.  She chose her career but that doesn't mean she ignored her kid. She spent more time with kid at home in her day offs. 

As per a research that i read on Internet, working women get attached to kids more emotionally than a stay at home mom. I am not sure if it is true. But, this might be because of the guilt that many working women have to leave their kid and go to office. They want to spend each and every minute in the evenings after returning home to compensate on what they miss for whole day.

We need to take critical decisions sometimes - this OR that. That decision might change our life forever. It's not always impossible to take care of family AND also follow your heart.  What do you say?

Until next time,

“This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus“. Written for the following theme:
 Journey from ‘OR’ to ‘AND’
A story of how a woman took charge of life and made a choice, not a compromise. She followed her heart.

#UseYourAnd

Mansi AND her story

Mansi is born in a middle class family. Mansi's father ensured that she completed her academics in best schools and colleges. She also proved her mettle by topping in academics every year and making her father proud.

She is jack of all trades. A true enthusiast  of every art. She learnt dance from childhood, learnt singing, enjoyed paintings, participated in skits for youth festivals in college. She wants to try everything new and is not afraid of failure. She is very optimistic in life and learns from mistakes. She loves travelling and travelled to a lot of places alone and also enjoyed planning tours with family. 

For Mansi, life is meant to be enjoyed. After her marriage, being a wife, working woman and mother she never left her hobbies. She is crazy about travelling and reading books. So, she also started maintaining a blog to share her travelogues and give opinion on the books that she read. People would envy her asking how she could manage time for her hobbies like singing, dancing; painting and reading. But her reply is always same -

Life is meant to be enjoyed.
We can add more ANDs to our life with supporting family and our own enthusiasm.
Life is short and there many things yet to be explored.
There is no limit for creativity in this world.

So, that's the story of Mansi. She can't be restricted by one label. She added many ANDs to her life and she loves wearing all those different hats :) A jack of all trades and master of none! I hope you would have come across many such women in your lives. Please do share in comments  :-)

PS: By the way, this story is not completely fiction. I would be boasting myself if i say, Mansi very much resonates with my interests :)

Until next time,

“This post is a part of #UseYourAnd activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette Venus“.
#UseyYourAND
Written for the initiative by Gillette Venus for the theme #Things that define me.

Christmas - Childhood memories

I have many childhood memories associated with Christmas. Did you study in any Christian missionary school? I did. Whoever has studied in a missionary school can relate well to this post. Christmas reminds me of the following:

1. Christmas Carols:
The word Carol means 'dance to something'. Our music teacher used to teach these songs from November itself. We have a tradition to sing a song after our daily morning prayer in the school. We used to sing these carols during morning prayer and even in the church behind our school.

2. Christmas tree and star:
As per the tradition, Christians bring decorated Spruce/pine/fir tree to home to celebrate Christmas. They decorate it with edibles like apples, nuts or candy canes and with specific ornaments like balls and illuminate it with candles. 
As per the history, Christmas star is placed outside households to commemorate star of Bethlehem which revealed the birth of Jesus.

On the way from our home to school, we used to count number of stars decorated outside the houses and used to discuss which one is good. There used to be a Christmas tree decorated in school too. We have an arts and crafts class which targets on preparing crafts from waste. Our arts and crafts teacher used to teach on preparing simple crafts to decorate Christmas tree.

3. Santa Claus:
Saint Nicholas, a 4th century Bishop has a habit to gift to children. In US, People called him Santa clause. So, this tradition of gifting started from there.

Now, comes the favourite part of Christmas :) Our head mistress or any other senior teacher used to come as Santa Clause before Christmas with 'jingle bells' playing in the background and used to distribute chocolates in the morning prayer. 

4. Chrisma Chrischild game: 
It's also known as Secret Santa. It shows children the importance of kindness or giving. Teacher used to distribute one chit to each student on which some other student's name would be written. We will become Secret Santa / Chrismom for the student on our chit and he/she will become our Chris child. There used to be a Christmas tree or gift stand kept outside the corridor of the school, where Secret Santa should can place their gift to Chris child without revealing their identity. It's a fun experience to play this game altogether :) Sometimes, our Secret Santa can also assign some simple tasks to chris child in return to the gift like singing a multi lingual song in each class, reading weather reports, coming to school dressed in ethnic wear etc., So, December month used to be funny throughout :)

I had fun time with this game both in school days and also after I joined office. 

So, these were few things that i remember from my childhood days about Christmas. 
There is a blog hop #ChristmasBonanza happening in this month with around 20+ blogger publishing a blog post per day throughout the month. So, enjoy the posts :)

Until next time,

Image courtesy: www.freeimages.com

Come join a set of fabulous bloggers sharing their Christmas moments - Easy Holiday Crafts, DIY ideas, Recipes , Decor ideas and book recommendations with you .

Starting from today till Christmas and beyond, each one of us will be writing a post related to Christmas.

Participating blogs

ArtsyCraftsyMom - munniofalltrades - hfareensspace - roohiscollections - hellomommyhood - attachedmoms - totschooltotallyawesome - Themomviews - bumpsnbaby.com -

rugsoflife - oneandahalfminutes - shishuworld - ruskandtea - aspoonfullofideas - orangekitchens - obsessivemom - rachnaparmar - parentingmantras -

onboardthemommyship - kwikdekoblog - thekeybunch - momzspace - whatscookingmom - coloursdekor - happypeopleevents





So sit back, relax and check out all the fabulous Christmas Bonanza posts from our participating blogs in the linky. Support us by sharing our posts using the hash tag #ChristmasBonanza





This Linky is for participating blogs only, but We would love to see your Christmas Crafts too. Come and link up your Christmas post at ArtsyCraftsyMom.com

An InLinkz Link-up

Best books I read in 2014

New year is coming! Count down started :-)
It's time to remember good and bad things happened. Enjoy and reminisce good memories and learn from mistakes. Right? 

Since mine is a book blog, I want to list my best reads of 2014.
Even though I didn't get time to review many books in my blog, I have got chance to read a variety of books this year.  Read the famous Shiva Trilogy books by Amish Tripathy this year, which was pending from long time in my wish list. FYI, Shiva trilogy has 3 books in the series - The immortals of Meluha, The secret of Nagas and The oath of Vayuputras.
Got a chance to complete 2 books in Taj trilogy written by Indu Sundaresan - The Twentieth Wife and The feast of Roses. Both have been a fantastic read. I have also read some light hearted practical stories this year like Lucifier's Lungi, Ri, The Little hearts etc.,

So, here goes the best books that I have read this year:

1. The Twentieth Wife
This book is first in the series of Taj Trilogy. If you want to know more about each and every detail of Mughal empire, traditions in their time and importance of women, this is for you. I enjoyed reading this as I love history. Here is my review. 

2. The Secret of Nagas
This is the second book in Shiva trilogy series. All three books are fine, but this book in trilogy is better. I liked the way Amish Tripathy created the characters of this mythological fantasy novel. It's interesting to know and relate things related to our ancient India like Saraswati river, preparation of amrutham which gives immortality etc., Even though there are many myths in this fantasy novel, I liked the research behind the story and gained some knowledge on ancient India. 

3. Lucifier's Lungi
Whle the books above are on serious note, this book is a light hearted read. A very short book which I enjoyed it every bit. This book talks about the protagonist of novel being modern and not believing in any myths and legends, travelling to a small village. His mind set completely changes after his funny experience in the village. Here is my review. 

4. Ramayana - The Game of life : Rise of Sun Prince
This first book of Ramayana in the series of books by Shubha Vilas covers Ramayana from the birth of Lord Rama till his marriage. Book has extra information on importance of each incidence in Ramayana and characters are explained in very detail. Overall, it's enjoyable and knowledgeable read. Here is my review. 

5. God is a gamer
This is one of my favourite genre. It's a thriller and I learnt many new things about gaming industry and term 'bit coin'. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this and cannot put the book aside until I finished it. Here is my review. 

I wish, I read more interesting and variety of books in the coming year and review them in my blog. 

Until next time,

Image courtesy: goodreads.com

God is a gamer by Ravi Subramanian - [Book Review]

Book Details:

Title: God is a gamer
Author: Ravi Subramanian
Publishers: Penguin books
Genre: Fiction
No. of pages: 310

This book is an engaging thriller. Author introduces us to many threads like murder of Senator in US - Gillian Tan, ATM heists in New York, transfer of huge amounts of money of NYIB bank customers to anonymous accounts, cases of explosion of Dell laptops across the world etc., All are connected to a single reason, which is being investigated by Agent Scott in US. This novel also explains the virtual currency 'bit coins' and introduces us to the gaming industry. 

Story:
Story starts with the murder of US senator Gillian Tan. Then, it moves to India. An online fraud which results in transfer of funds of NYIB bank customers takes place and retail banking head Swami, Malavika and Matt enter the story. While this investigation is going on, Malavika is murdered and her affair with finance minister and her influence on some major bank transactions to fraud companies come into light. Since Swamy finds out all these, he will also be murdered. Aditya, head of number one gaming company Indiscape is close friend to Sundeep, head of an outsourcing company eTIOS and Swamy.  Aditya unexpectedly invites his son Varun to his life after many years and Varun takes over the responsibility of Indiscape and proves his ability. Varun loves Tanya who is Malavika's daughter. Due to ATM hiests in New york, eTIOS face a huge loss as it is an outsourcing company for several banks. FBI in New york also receives a case about investigating the explosion of DELL laptops in different parts of the world and transfer of bitcoins to an anonymous account. Thus story takes many twists and turns. How the author connects all these dots and who is behind all these murders form the climax.

What I liked?
This is the first book I am reading from this author 'Ravi Subramanian' and I have become a fan of him. Will surely read his other book 'The Bankster' soon. Book is very engaging till the end. Couldn't put it aside for a minute. Even though many threads are running simultaneously, we don't feel lost or confused. Author is successful in making the reader enjoy the flow without much confusion. Writing style is easy to understand and interesting. I am happy to learn some new concepts like bit coins and understand the details of gaming industry. It is interesting to know how a collaboration between a gaming company and Facebook yields better results than a direct gaming web site. 

What I didn't like?
There is a good explanation on bit coins, their history and usage, but not much details are given on bit coin mining. How is it created, converted from cash to virtual currency? At one point in the story, many dell laptops across the world get burnt in sleep mode and their bitcoins will be transferred to an anonymous bit coin wallet. This doesn't seem very convincing. I didn't see any other negative points..

Overall:
A very good read and engaging thriller. I would rate it 4.5/5.
Buy it in flipkart from here. 

Until next time,

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