My Honey Diet

I have always been a moderately good eater ever since I can remember. I never used to shy away from eating pretty much anything that was vegetarian and edible; in fact, the tastier and sweeter the dish, the more helpings I have. However, the fact that I was reasonably active throughout my school and college life meant that I never had to worry about putting on weight or being obese at any point in time till I was around 20 yrs old. A healthy dose of physical activities in the form of outdoor sports, the occasional exercise routine and some walking/running meant that I kept my weight and my tummy in check. I guess all that physical activity also meant that my metabolism also kept the calories from being accumulated.

And then graduation happened, and I stepped into the corporate world; a desk job meant that I was well into my journey to a sedentary lifestyle. Most of my waking hours were spent either commuting to and from work or behind desks in front of a computer tinkering around with word documents and spreadsheets. This automatically put me on a sticky wicket as far as my metabolism went. Coupled with the untimely meals and constantly eating out this meant that my fitness levels gradually started going down south and the kilos just kept adding on.

As if the sedentary lifestyle weren’t bad enough, since I strictly believed in working hard and partying even harder, I soon began guzzling down beer by the gallon. Although I developed a taste for the fizzy beverage somewhat late when compared to my peers, I would like to believe I more than made up for the delay in terms of guzzling down quantities like there was no tomorrow. All that aerated water went ahead and added up bang in my mid-section with the result that today it looks I have a Formula One tyre instead of a midriff.

While this by itself is not a cause for grave concern, the fact is that I am on the wrong side of the thirties and it is high time that I took corrective action to get back in shape and get back to my fitness levels of yore. And it is in this context that I am strongly contemplating beginning a Honey Diet. And what better source of information and readymade tips than Dabur Honey’s website http://www.daburhoney.com/.

The website is a veritable treasure trove of information on all the relevant topics for me such as Fitness Tips, Knowing all there is to know about honey, Expert Advice and the icing on the cake, some really easy to cook and yummy to eat recipes by none other than Chef Vikas Khanna.

While the Fitness Tips section has small instructional videos of some easy, quick, but effective exercises to stay fit, the 3 Click Fitness Test has an option where the website provides you with a relatively customized diet plan based on some simple parameters you have to input. In a nutshell, this website truly is your one stop fitness shop and is a boon for all of you who are looking to get healthier.

The All About Honey portion of the website very clearly brings out reasons as to why honey is better than sugar and as to how honey forms probably the best substitute to sugar in our daily lives. And as mentioned before, some lip-smacking honey based recipes from Chef Vikas Khanna truly adds honey to the cake (notice how I say honey instead of cake).

So then, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start your own customized Honey Diet at http://www.daburhoney.com/

Cricket Information – At the speed of light

I still remember the days when my grandfather used to rely on his trusted Philips transistor radio and tune into either BBC or Ceylon Radio to get live commentary of the test matches happening in those days. For him cricketing legends like Gavaskar, Sobers, Gundappa Vishwanath and Vivian Richards were just names and faces from newspaper clippings.

My father though had the fortune of actually following cricket in an era when televisions slowly started making their way into our homes. In fact, the first tournament he saw on TV was the Prudential World Cup of 1983 when Kapil’s Devils beat the mighty Windies to bring the cup home.

As for me, I have been brought up on a healthy diet of cricket on TV and a major part of the last decade has been an explosion of sorts in terms of the sheer volume of cricket being broadcast on TV screens. But for the generation after mine, this simply is not enough. TV simply is not enough for them.

This truly is the day and age when cricket lovers can breathe a sigh of relief as they can easily follow the fortunes of their favorite cricket teams and players with just the swiping of a few fingers on their smart phones.

And this is where the free UC Browser (http://www.ucweb.com/) with its special focus on cricket (http://www.ucweb.com/English/UCbrowser/cricket.html) is a godsend opportunity for cricket fans to have the latest cricket related information at their fingertips (quite literally). It not only has the latest live scores of all international matches with live ball by ball commentary, but also a historical database of results, scores, scorecards and other statistics related to all matches. As if this weren’t enough, it also has the latest news regarding cricket, teams playing the game and all other people involved with the same, either as players, or as administrators or commentators or in any other capacity. In a nutshell, UC Cricket is the cricket lovers’ one stop shop for all information related to cricket, in what is probably the most easy to use interface as well.

It goes without saying that we all live in an era where information is king, and more importantly the speed at which relevant information is delivered to us is probably the only condition based on which we choose our sources of information. And it is in this regard that the UC Browser and UC Cricket in particular score really high. Gone are the days when we had to stare at our phone screens and see the ‘buffering circle’ spinning round and round. With its proprietary cutting edge technology working at the back-end, the UC Browser and UC Cricket ensure that all cricket related information is delivered to us almost immediately after each ball is bowled.

In case you are still not convinced, go ahead and watch this video, which will make a convert out of you for sure. I mean, it has none other Yuvraj Singh (yes, you heard me right, Yuvraj Singh) endorsing UC Browser and UC Cricket!!!

Kapil Dev ki ek nayi league

Not too many cricket fans from the 1980s can forget the sight of a fully charged up ‘Haryana Hurricane’ Kapil Dev charging in through his run up to the popping crease and delivering that beautifully orchestrated outswinger. It could be argued that he was among the best, if not ‘the best’ all-rounder of his era with Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and a few others making up the rest of the group. One thing is for sure, the passion with which Kapil Dev represented India and the competitive spirit with which he played his sport was second to none.

And therefore, in the Ek Nayi League teaser promo videos (http://www.eknayileague.com) that are doing the rounds nowadays, when he mentions that something new is coming up which will probably involve leading sportspersons and other celebrities competing with something more than just passion, then it really does give food for thought.

Here are my guesses at what the Nayi League might be about.

A celebrity golf league

Given Kapil’s penchant for the sport post his retirement (if I am not mistaken he even played a couple of competitive seasons in the Indian golf circuits), it could very well be possible that he intends to promote a new celebrity golf league. As it is the sport attracts more than its fair share of prize money worldwide and enough blue chip brands already flock to sponsor golf tournaments around the globe, and it would therefore be a no-brainer that a celebrity golf league would surely attract more than its fair share of eyeballs in the country.

And the fact that Kapil keeps mentioning agar dil se kheloge toh hit wicket ho jaaoge makes me doubly sure that he is indeed talking about the sport of golf, where each competitor basically plays against himself and his own best scores rather than competing with each other.

A celebrity quiz competition

I have been a quizzer during my school and college days and know for a fact that quizzing as a competitive sport is anything but dil se. It is purely a dimaag only type of endeavor and requires competitors to be at their sharpest bit throughout the competition. Kapil’s frequent dil se mat khelo makes me suspect that his new league might even be something of this sort.

All said and done, the fact remains that Kapil Dev’s open invitation to MSD, Yuvi, Sania Mirza, Kapil Sharma (of Comedy Nights fame) to wait and watch as to what his nayi league is all about surely builds up enough and more anticipation for all sports fans across the country. And given that it is Kapil Dev who is promoting the same means that much more to all of us who have respected the passion and competitive spirit with which he represented the country.

So here’s wishing for a dhuaan dhaar nayi league from Kapil Paaji.

Dry Days

Given that my little one is three years old and has been toilet trained now gone are the days when I had to rely on diapers to prevent any ‘bathroom disasters’ either at home or outside. And given the number of places that we took her out to almost since she was around 4 months old meant that diapers were God’s own gift to ‘outward bound’ parents like us.

And when one says the word ‘diapers’ in India it almost automatically refers to Pampers. Just like the term Xerox copies has replaced photocopies, Diary Milk has replaced milk chocolates, Pampers, the brand has clearly overtaken the generic category to which it belongs to and has replaced the word diapers in consumer minds and popular lingo. In fact I still remember the days when I had to visit the closest pharmacy or general store to buy diapers and the shopkeepers wouldn’t quite understand what I was looking for until I said the magic word – Pampers.

In any case, this post is not about how big the brand is and how it has taken over consumer mindshare like no other brand has, which is the truth and nothing but the truth! This post is about how diapers as a concept and more importantly Active Pants as a product have drastically transformed parents’ and children’s lives in India.

Although I don’t quite remember my ‘diaper days’ so to say, I have heard enough anecdotes from my parents about that phase of my life. Growing up in the 80s in India meant that the markets here still had not heard of diapers at all, and they had to rely on carefully stitched square pieces of cloth and large safety pins to keep toilet disasters from occurring. In fact, they not only regale me but also my daughter with stories of how on many occasions I have run around the entire house with my dripping cloth diapers, playing with my toys, without a care in the world. It was only when the diaper rashes attacked that I would feel uncomfortable and start whining and crying. And given the wet Bangalore monsoons and cold Bangalore winters back then, almost 8 odd months of the year would be spent in them liberally applying diaper rash cream on my private parts. I can only imagine how uncomfortable I would have felt back then, especially considering that I was quite an active child back then with my fair share of running and tumbling around type activities.

And it is in this context that Pampers Baby Dry Pants has proven to be a blessing to me as a parent in bringing up my daughter. As is the wont these days, my little one is more than active and cannot spend a single moment sitting down and relaxing except when she is asleep for her afternoon nap and night sleep. The fact that these diapers are easy to put on, just like her underpants, and easier to remove with the tearable straps down both sides mean that they can be put on and removed in ten seconds flat, talk about speed!

And what is even better is that with the Magic Gel (which was already ‘magical’ and has gotten even better in its latest avatar) inside which not only locks the wetness and moisture inside but keeps it locked no matter what, means that my little one could be as active as she wanted without her experiencing any kind of discomfort at all. And as parents, these Active Pants also meant that we could dress her up in the loveliest of dresses and take her out to all the places we went to, parks, malls, social gatherings, restaurants and even amusement parks without having to worry about putting others around to any kind of inconvenience due to her toilet disasters.

To make things easier than they already are, the wonderful folks at P&G have started this portal [Link to portal] not only to purchase these lovely Active Pants online but also for parents to be educated and enlightened about various aspects regarding their children’s hygiene.

And if this post doesn’t convince you enough to switch to Pampers Baby Dry Pants, here’s a small ad of theirs from YouTube to help you make up your mind.

———————-

This post has been written for the Dry Baby, Happy Baby campaign from Pampers being conducted in collaboration with Indiblogger.

A good morning indeed

It was a pleasant sunny morning, just like Bangalore mornings are wont to be during the early days of summer in the first week of March. There I was, taking my usual brisk morning walk on the jogging track of the integrated township I stayed in absorbing the usual morning sights and sounds which comprised mostly of well-groomed canine friends being walked by their masters, the regular joggers with their iPod earplugs and workout music, the elderly couples (and a few solitary old men and women with lazy spouses who didn’t join them) and the overweight couples who lived an otherwise sedentary lifestyle due to their ‘desk jobs’.

And then, I noticed her, right near the entry gate of the township. A little girl, Tanya, not more than 8 yrs old, walking briskly towards the gate with what looked like a thermos flask and a few plastic cups. I remembered having seen this girl when her parents introduced themselves to me a few days ago, when they newly moved into the apartment opposite mine. If memory served me right, both her parents Raghav and Indira had recently moved to Bangalore, both of them having taken a transfer in their respective jobs, and accompanied by Raghav’s old father, Venu.

Tanya reached the gate accompanied by her grandfather Venu, and immediately set down at least three separate cups on the footpath just outside the entry gate. She then went on to carefully pour out milk from the thermos flask into the cups. And as if by magic, three cute little puppies appeared from behind the large plastic waste disposal container kept outside the gate. The puppies, hungry as they were, immediately started lapping up the milk that Tanya had poured out. She then went on to put her hand into the small jute bag that her grandfather had carried, took out one of the few biscuit packets in there, opened up one of them and started lining up the biscuits on the footpath for the puppies.

In this day and age, where most of us don’t even have time to even absorb, let alone enjoy the sights and sounds of nature around us, this small gesture of the little girl warmed my heart quite a bit. Venu, who noticed me taking in this entire scene soon greeted me and came up to me. ‘Good morning!’ he said cheerfully.

Wishing him back, I expressed my appreciation at what Tanya was doing. Proud of his grand-daughter, Venu said, ‘Oh, this is nothing. You should see the smiles on the faces of Tanya’s young students after their English classes.’

‘English classes!’ But then, she is hardly eight years old. Who does she take classes for?’ I asked.

Venu smiled ‘Oh, her mother Indira managed to convince the domestic help and the some of the housekeeping and security personnel to send their kids for basic English classes conducted by Tanya. She doesn’t teach them much, other than just the alphabets and basic spoken English.’

Impressed by the initiative, I asked him, ‘Wow, that is something! At her age, I was busy running around open grounds, playing with my friends and busy reading comics.’

‘She does all that and more. It’s just that she makes it a point to spend at least two hours of her free time every day to help out others in some small way or the other. In fact, this whole milk and biscuit routine for the puppies started only yesterday when she noticed the puppies squealing in hunger when her school bus stopped outside the gates to drop her off’ he said.

‘I guess all the values that my wife and me imbibed in Raghav when he was young, and all the good work that Indira’s parents put into her upbringing have been hard-wired into little Tanya. Genetics and DNA do have their benefits, as she is displaying right now’ he proudly said.

‘Come Tanya, we have to get back home. Your school bus will be here in 45 minutes and you still have to bathe and have your breakfast’ he called out to her.

‘Sure grandpa! Now that these puppies have had their breakfast and milk, I can have mine as well’ Tanya jumped up and came running to her grandpa.

Walking back, I was left thinking if only more grandparents and parents nowadays spent more time teaching their young ones to be as considerate of other humans and all living beings in general, the world and its future would be that much more happier and secure.

It truly was a good morning!

———————————

This post has been written for the Housing.Com blog campaign conducted in association with IndiBlogger.