We've Moved. Again.

The last month or so since I disappeared from the blog, life has been quite the Tora Tora (Tora Tora's that ride at the amusement park that looks like a twirling girls skirt and goes around and up and down at the same time.) - all topsy turvy and just plain crazy but yeah it's been fun too. :D

So here's my long explanation for the disappearance. :P

We'd moved house in December 2013 and I was hoping to stay put for a bit but five months later just as we were settling down into a rhythm in May, circumstances changed and forced us to move. Actually it wasn't forced but it worked out for the best.

The owners of the previous house had issues crop up in their life in Goa and they were forced to move back. They were nice people so they didn't ask us to leave but rather worked out a way so we could all live together. We on the ground floor and them on the first, but 8 dogs in the house had Che and me scratching our heads and wondering how we would survive.

We also knew that they had brought us some time, but a move in December 2014 was guaranteed, so we started putting the word out to friends that we were looking for a house that would accommodate 5 dogs with lots of space for them, far from people so, complains about their noise would be minimal and life in general would be fun.

As things turned out, a friend got in touch almost immediately saying he had heard of a house that might suit us in Hennur. It was the absolute other end of the city, from extreme South to extreme North. We decided to check it out and met Chaitanya and Anitra, (friends of our friend) who also had two dogs. The house they led us to in their layout had us bowled over at first glance. It had a lot of garden space in front of the house, only one immediate neighbour, three bedrooms and loos, two floors,... We loved it.

Going back after the first visit we talked and then talked some more after reaching home. The gist of all that talking was that moving was going to be painful whenever we did it. And if that was going to be so, why wait until December, we might as well move now when we found a house that seemed like it would work well for us.

Well, next thing you know, we had packed the basics, organised the logistics of moving five dogs, booked packers and movers and moved. I can never be thankful enough for my friends and family coz they are just amazing. They jumped in with all enthusiasm and helped us shift, five dogs and all.

The dogs love the place and space. Cuckoo, my jumping queen seems to have so much space now, that the 5 foot boundary wall doesn't seem enticing enough to jump over. Even her jumping to greet people has reduced with the distractions that the space provides. And the garden provides all of them ample space to dig and get messy while we chase about telling them off and trying to refill the holes. It seems like a losing battle. :D

We now also have a guest bedroom on the first floor for family and friends [just in case you decide to visit :D] where they can take a few calming breaths away from the dogs and don't have to worry about waking up to Senti's licking or Max's farts. :P

It's been almost two months and a lot has happened. One post isn't enough to write it all so I'll split it but for now I can tell you we are all having a ball - learning new things, settling into a new rhythm, sleeping out in the sun, scampering when it rains and other such fun stuff.

Settling in is a pain and will take a while but I am hopeful that this time we won't move again, at least not soon. ;)

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Website Review: CarConnect.in

I've received so many email reminders from IndiBlogger about the CarConnect.in contest that I finally decided to check it out. Well, the content would do my blog some good and if I won one of those vouchers they keep shouting about I'd be happy. Who wouldn't when the first prize is a Rs.50,000 voucher, second is 2 Rs.25,000 vouchers and then there also are 80 Rs.1,000 vouchers; I'd have preferred cash though :D

Disclaimer: This is a long post. If you want the quick and dirty, scroll right to the end now. :P

Ok, onto checking out the site... Here's what the home page looks like...

Positives:
The layout looks clean and fairly simple with enough social proof on the right to get me interested.

Negatives:
The only way to login is Facebook. Personally I don't like that, I prefer to keep facebook out of other sites I use. Logging in with facebook requires me to be very careful about permissions, one mistake and the site will be plastering their info all over my facebook stream. There is also the fact that Facebook is not forever, so what happens to my CarConnect login if facebook disappears tomorrow? I would have liked to see another login option apart from Facebook.

Apart from the forced Facebook login, without giving CarConnect.in access to my Facebook details by logging in, I cannot see or do anything on the site. Every click only brings up one prompt.

"Please Login with Facebook to proceed..."

Oops, Wait a moment... All links at the bottom of the site work without login. :D So, you can check out the site's About Us (which has some errors in language), How to Earn Badges, etc. without a Facebook login. But the one that caught my eye was the Contact Us.

The page is just like any other contact us page except for the 200 character limitation. Hey CarConnect.in, this isn't a twitter status message. If you expect a more than 200 word review of your site, wouldn't I be entitled to more than 200 characters in a complaint?

Positives:
This pops up when you hit the 'Login with Facebook' button, which isn't so bad since the fine print at the bottom says, CarConnect.in cannot post on my behalf.

Positives:
After login completes the Profile page loads with all *fields populated from Facebook (these are editable though). There is not much information being asked for and I like the fact that I didn't have to fill a lengthy form about myself.

My profile created and saved, I clicked on view profile to see what it looked like. The my profile page is simple and short with a note in bold asking you to share your experiences. So that's where I headed next.

The Share Experience page gives you two options at the start. Car Experience and Long Drive Experience. This choice doesn't change much on the page except for giving you car selection options or destination options.
Once past this selection I filled in the other details - caption, description, keywords/tags. I didn't have any images or video so I skipped those fields.

Positives:
Simple and user friendly to fill up with the right fields and choices being given.
Options for Photos and Videos make for a nice touch.

Negatives:
The start point and destination drop-downs have very few options. I'd have liked to see more here. As of now there are just the metros, major cities and common holiday destinations.

Clicking the submit option brings up the above message. Moderation of posts isn't bad and will help make sure random nonsense does not get added to the site, but I would have liked to know what parameters would be used for moderation, 'appropriate' isn't enough to describe it.

Now that all login essentials are done, here's what the Home Page looks like -

The home page now shows Top Car and Long Drive Experiences and all tags in the clouds lead to pages with more entries from users.

That concluded the login process I guess but before I wind up lets look at the various options in the main menu of CarConnect.in.

'Home' is as above, 'My Profile' we talked about earlier, 'My Friends' as expected is blank right now for me, and 'Share Experience' takes me back to the form for travel details.

Then, there is a 'Leaderboard' which gives badges and ratings of users. 'Car News' which gives news from the automobile industry and 'New Launches' which I assume gives info on new car launches.

Aside from all these, there is a 'Long Drive' option. The page asks you to select start point to see all route options. At first glance I thought this was a cool system for mapping. What it actually is, is a another tag cloud. A click on the city will take you to entries made by users starting from that city, not a map or route options.

Lastly there is the 'Compare Cars' option. This also sounds cool but when you get to the page you realise it isn't real-time. Results will be emailed, now that just makes for more waiting and processing. There are other sites that do this real-time and would be so much better to use for this feature than what CarConnect.in has to offer.

Overall Thoughts -

Positives:
Most of the site is user friendly and straight forward.

Negatives:
My over all experience was marred by a few things like the Facebook login being the only option, the site layout being too rudimentary (more bells and whistles would have been nice), the reading experience of write-ups and news being more easy on the eye (at the moment it reminds me of Orkut), and other things where they have said one thing and delivered another like in the Long Drive section.

CarConnect.in as a concept is pretty cool since India is right now bursting at the seams with cars. (No point in arguing about there being no road space for these cars in this post) With the right incentives and a lot of clean up, the site would definitely gather more users.

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Four Years and Counting

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Che and me on 24th May 2014 :D"][/caption]

Che and I completed four years of marriage last Saturday. We've been together 6 years now and I can't believe it, someday's it feels like it all happened yesterday and someday's, like it's been eternity. But all said and done my last six years have been tremendous fun.

Cuckoo came into our lives about six months before we formalised things and Senti soon after her. And the two of them brought so much with them - routine, discipline, processes and schedules, all enveloped in love. They gave Che and me, the wanderer spirits that we are, a grounding.

Oh, and anyone who has met Cuckoo and Senti will tell you that they are fun beings. Life just becomes fun and funny sometimes with them around. And if that fun wasn't enough over the years three more joined the fun panel.

The dogs have been around so long that sometimes I feel we hardly travel but in the last six years Che and I have traveled a fair bit together. We've travelled by bike, bus, train and plane across India. We've even managed to do that in Thailand. And separately we've traveled a lot too, Che maybe much more than me but then he travels on work and I on holiday. :D

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="On the Move, In the Train"][/caption]

Che quit his corporate job 20 days before we got married, what that means is that we have actually spent most of four years together. As freelancers both of us work from home, we are around each other almost 24/7. And how that makes the fireworks fly. We fight, oh man do we fight. I think our neighbours and the dogs will attest to that and yet I enjoy being around him, the house feels empty when he's not around (even with 5 dogs).

Che is a fun guy, he will find things to do on a dull day, he will make the mundane, super cool. He will find that must watch movie, he'll give you the scoop in news, he introduces me to music I hadn't paid attention to before, he'll have the latest Sherlock Holmes ready to watch almost as soon as it airs in UK, he'll suggest scrabble on a rainy day, he makes even a trip to the grocery store an adventure and above all else he talks books.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Che also makes me look good in pictures :)"][/caption]

There have been times when people have asked me why I love Che and I'm tongue tied. [Not so tongue tied when I have to list what I don't like :D ] But the above's why I love him, it's difficult to explain why in words. :P

On our anniversary we had a very 'Che day', we celebrated. Che made this lovely Aloo, Mutton Aur Mutter Curry for our special anniversary lunch while I made the papads to go with it. :D We caught up with a couple of old friends after ages and went out with them to dinner. And this was no usual dinner, we started with Davangere Benne Dosa's at DVG Road before heading to V.V.Puram Food Street for some sinful obuttu and Bowring badam kulfi. And all of it wrapped up nicely with a visit from my brother just before the day completed at twelve. We had a full, fun, day.

And to complete this post, here are some quotes I found that are apt to us...
You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore... but let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
- Kahlil Gibran

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the wedding cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.
- Ogden Nash

A married couple are well suited when both partners usually feel the need for a quarrel at the same time.
- Jean Rostand

Whatever you may look like, marry a man your own age -- as your beauty fades, so will his eyesight.
- Phyllis Diller

;-)

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Book Review: The Bad Touch by Payal Shah Karwa

Title: The Bad Touch
Author: Payal Shah Karwa
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Hay House Publishers (2014)
Genre: Non-Fiction
Read: Paperback
Stars: ****/5
Buy On: Amazon | FlipKart

Summary: (Goodreads)
Real-life stories of victims of child sex abuse who emerged victorious!

Harish Iyer is a survivor nay he is a thriver of child sex abuse. He is an award winning social activist who first shared his disturbing story of his sexual abuse on the television show Satyamev Jayate and who gave voice to the issue when most would be silent.

There are others: noted film director Anurag Khashyap, a victim of incest and sexual abuse, not once but many times over; Jai, living in a Mumbai high rise suffers abuse and a now 34 year old mother who suffered sexual abuse as a 12 year old.

The stories in The Bad Touch will shock, horrify, sadden, repulse and numb the reader. But underlying them is the small ray of hope that if the immediate family is sensitive enough to the signals a child may send out, he or she may be rescued from being victimized.

This book is a mission: to help ebb the trauma of survivors and inspire them with stories like Harishs and to create awareness of the issue of child sex abuse amongst parents/guardians.

My Review:

Note: Thanks Payal Shah Karwa for offering me your book to read and review :)



Cover: The background image has a blue tinge and is not clear. But the name pops out!

Paper and font: Paper and font is good.

Readability, language: Simple language.

Why did I choose this book: Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is an issue close to my heart. I was abused as a child and I know the trauma first hand. So, when I heard from Karwa's team to review the book, there's no way I'd say no.

'The Bad Touch' is a book packed with information. The backbone of the book is the story of Harish Iyer, who was brutally abused as a child. It is a hard hitting story of how cruel and traumatic CSA can be on a child.

Harish Iyer's childhood is gruesome (it made me squirm) but he has survived his ordeal and is now a social activist. Through Harish's story Karwa lays the foundations of what is CSA and it's brutality.

There are further stories of both men and women who have been abused as children. Most of them are aliases but one noted name is Anurag Kyashap.

The stories are all varied and chilling but the common thread through them all is that these are the stories of people who have gotten over their pasts and are thriving today.

Reading these stories makes you realise that there are so many untold stories in the world of people who lost the fight or are still struggling with their pasts.

Child Sex Abuse can happen to any child, it doesn't matter how much care the parents take. The more sure method of preventing it is educating your child and building a bond of trust with your child, so the child tells you when it happens.

Apart from the stories 'The Bad Touch' gives insight into the trauma of victims, what they thought and felt as children and the various healing processes they followed.

It also has information about organisations working in the CSA space, how to deal with Child Sexual Abuse, tips for parents, how abusers work, and more. Karwa also gives a history and explains The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act of 2012 in detail.

Karwa has done a good job with incorporating all the various aspects of Child Sexual Abuse in 'The Bad Touch'. This is a book I'd recommend to all parents, not just to read but to keep handy, just in case.

About the Author:
After 6 years in marketing communications Payal Shah Karwa is now a content writer pursuing her mission of being actively involved in social causes through her writing. She can be found on Twitter at @payalshahkarwa

Buy On: Amazon | FlipKart

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The A to Z Challenge in Review

Phew! I'm finally done with the A to Z Challenge. And I was so happy about that yesterday that, when Che asked me to take the day off and chill with him, I did, forgetting all about my post. Freya, bad girl! :D

When I started out on 14th April it felt like it would never finish the challenge, I'd never get 26 posts done. But here I am 26 posts later and it feels good to have completed my challenge.

Wasn't a clear win, and there were many hiccups. Days when I couldn't sit down to write, the words just wouldn't come, I couldn't find the right word; it took me 34 days to get 26 posts done and that's one too many a holiday in-between posts.

But anyway all that aside, this challenge was a learning experience at various levels.

I learned some new words and their etymology in the whole exercise. Days where I couldn't find a word I learned to use Google better :D, I thought out of the box for some letters, reached into my heart for some and even my past for some. In some cases I learned something new and amazing like about Rastafarian or that the SCUBA we use today was first co-developed by Cousteau in 1943.

There were days when I had so much to do but I was confident I would find the time to write everyday. And some days I did, I wrote a fair number of posts on the mobile phone when I couldn't sit down at a computer. Writing, editing and publishing through the mobile phone was a first for me. Need to learn how to do this better though, since I couldn't figure out how to add images to my post on the mobile.

The other thing I learned is not to take for granted that I will find the time to write everyday. I have to learn to write ahead of time and schedule the post. [Crack that whip, I need to get my act together! :D]

The most important lesson though I think was that when I make up my mind I can do things. I wrote posts on days when I though it would just not be possible to do it. I relearned will-power and determination, and the possibilities it opens up.

This challenge had me push my limits and helped me find a little bit of me again. I found writing and it's joy again. So here's to me being more active on my blog. Cheers!

Here's my 26 posts and words for 2014 -

A for Alpha, A for Aspire
B for Bravo, B for Balance
C for Charlie, C for Celebration
D for Delta, D for Determination

E for Echo, E for Explore
F for Foxtrot, F for Friends
G for Golf, G for Gratitude
H for Hotel, H for Hope

I for India, I for I
J for Juliet, J for Josh
K for Kilo, K for Kismet
L for Lima, L for Labour

M for Mike, M for More, Maza
N for November, N for Nature
O for Oscar, O for Orgasmic
P for Papa, P for Positive

Q for Quebec, Q for Quirky
R for Romeo, R for Rastafarian
S for Sierra, S for Silence
T for Tango, T for Time-out

U for Uniform, U for Unique
V for Victory, V for Vitality
W for Whiskey, W for Wisdom

X for X-ray, X for X-factor
Y for Yankee, Y for Yummy
Z for Zulu, Z for Zero

I last used the phonetic alphabet over 8 years ago while I still worked in a BPO, though the A to Z I tested my memory and I managed to get 24 out of 26 correct. Not a bad show, eh?

Have you done an A to Z challenge? Did you enjoy it? What did you learn from it?

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Z for Zulu, Z for Zero

"Along life's journey,
May it ever be your goal,
To keep your eyes on the doughnut,
And not upon the hole."

The first time I came across these lines was in my 2nd PU (12th) scrapbook. Those days scrapbooks with questions and layouts were a rage and I'd been so proud to get one. Anyway, over the years the book has gotten buried somewhere but these lines have remained with me. It's become one of my favourite life advises.

And that's where zero comes in. Zero by itself isn't much or rather is nothing, but put it along with another number and things dramatically change. And with each addition of a zero, the number increases by leaps and bounds. There's more to a zero then it's zilch.

To me zero is also a number with negative connotations, so I wondered do a lot of people choose zero as their favourite number? A little bit of searching and reading let me to Alex Bellos, a mathematics blogger for The Guardian. A few years back Alex setup a site favouritenumber.net and asked people what was their favourite number and why.

After surveying over 30,000 people from across the world, the results are in and here's what he has to say about zero.

"If you like the number 0, join the smart aleck club. More than any other number, people seemed to pick 0 because they thought it was a clever thing to do."

If you are wondering about the results of the survey, 7 ranked highest followed by 3 and 8. As for zero, it isn't the least favourite but it isn't in the top 20 either.

So coming back to point, zero is an interesting number, it's a clever number. Inert by itself but capable of causing positive, drastic and big changes when put in with another.

These would be nice qualities to have no? I'd like to be more of a zero this year. :D

What do you think of zero? What's your favourite number?

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Y for Yankee, Y for Yummy

I am almost at the end of my A to Z Challenge with just 'Y' and 'Z' left now. And Y and Z fall into the 'difficult to find words, wait for divine inspiration' category. So I duly waited for that stroke of enlightenment, that spotlight of sunshine.

The hunt for words with Y brought up some interesting finds -

yaff - to bark like a snarling dog
yager - nineteenth-century rifle
yashmak - double Muslim veil leaving only eyes uncovered
yegg - a burglar of safes
yerk - to draw tight; to bind
yappy - talkative, loquacious
yodel - sing with abrupt alternating changes between the normal voice and falsetto
yeuk - to itch
yex - to hiccup, belch or spit

And then, as I ate lunch yesterday, in marched the word 'Yummy' into my mind, and got reinforced with dinner.

This whole gassy situation has cramped my eating style. Gone are the days of eating irregularly and mindlessly. I now have to make sure my stomach doesn't stay empty for long and that I eat healthy.

Considering my culinary skills and enthusiasm in the kitchen this was an uphill task. Something that boggled my mind so much that if asked 'What shall we eat?', my standard reply was curd rice (not that I'm a taair-sadam fan).

And that's where the hero makes entry, he swaggers in and sweeps the damsel off her feet. :D Che did just that, he took it on and found the infamous khichidi, which in the last couple of weeks he has perfected. If it wasn't as good as it is, I would have gotten bored of it much earlier.

But yeah, I've been getting bored, slowly and steadily my perkiness to the word 'lunch' has waned and my beeline to the kitchen has become a crawl.

So what does the hero do? He flicks his wand and finds new dishes I can eat. Yeah, you could say Che must have been bored too, but I like seeing him as hero. :P

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="350" caption="Photo Credit: Chenthil"][/caption]

Yesterday he made avial for lunch and adai for dinner. Ohh and did I enjoy it. They were both yum. Avial is one of my favourite veggie dishes, it not only has coconut milk but also tons of veggies. I could eat a bowlful just like that!

Adai, I don't think I have ever eaten this before but I really liked it. Simple to make once the batter was given to me, it was a wholesome filling meal. And with the amount of ghee I was instructed to put, fattening too!

This post isn't about me really, it's about this man I married who does such an awesome job in the kitchen that I sometimes think I should just keep him there, if only he cleaned up as well as he cooked I might have. :D Che is so the opposite of me; I find cooking stressful and a chore but to him it's therapeutic and fun.

Tasty is an important word to me, when it comes to food. I love eating different types of food but making it all, just isn't my thing. Left to myself I'll crib, curse, mop and then eat dal rice or curd rice rather then make something elaborate.

So, here's my official thank you to Che for making my year 'yummy'. :P

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