Blogging

Three years of Amazing Awesomeness

/ Aditya Bhasin / 12 Comments

I said “I wish I could do something legendary”

Meenakshi Said “Why don’ you start a blog”

I said “Yeah, I mean let’s see. No Plans yet.”

50 minutes down the line http://www.ispeakadityabhasin.blogspot.com was live!

AT THAT VERY moment started a traipse which was not only incredible but life changing too. Since then three years have passed but they seem like three minutes only. It is like I was having this conversation with Minx few minutes ago only.

My blog has turned three today. Having said that I must make a promise to you that I would also make sure that one day I would write a post “Thirty years of Amazing Awesomeness”.

My blog has certainly given my life a different meaning. OR maybe I can say it has become more significant. Life was a little dull before blogging came to my rescue. Blogging not only gave me a different prospective to look at things but also made me capable of penning down my ideas and thoughts in a much better way; something which was liked by many.

I also must agree that in recent times the frequency of my blog posts have turned down. Sometimes few friends said that I lost interest but, that has never been a reason. In past few months, my laptop just did not agree to work- which was the sole reason for me to not been able to write anything. And today when my laptop is gracious enough to work well, I am writing this and around another ten blog posts.


easel.ly

Another great thing that my blog did to me was to be open to criticism. Though, I was open to it always but till then it was just a mindset. When I first wrote one not so likable blog post and people started sending me hate emails and posted abusive comments it was then I realized what criticism is actually. Having read those emails and comments made me angry but, then I said to myself that maybe THIS is the very moment when your writing have started to make a difference. Everybody can write for everyone, but you are writing for yourself, for your own sense of satisfaction. It was at that very moment that I realized that yes I am now open to criticism. I started taking every hate email and comment as a word of appreciation. I learned so much new from these emails and comments.

Another awesome thing that happened this year were my blog T-Shirts. 🙂 I am proud about them, I have two of them printed and I wear them to bloggers meet. I can still remember that first time I wore it on a blogger’s meet, everybody liked it and appreciated the idea.

And while I close this post, I must thank each one of YOU . If there would not have been YOU there wouldn’t have been this blog. Well, THIS AWESOME blog.


easel.ly

My thanks go to Priyanshi and Meenakshi for proof reading my blogs. Bigger thanks to Rekha didi who always extends here honest opinion on my blog and guide me in a better way. To Mani and Karan who never forgets to read my blogs and mention their comments. To IndiBlogger and Google for driving maximum traffic to my blog.

My goal for this blog is now to write at least another 15 posts before we welcome 2014.

Once again, Thank YOU FOLKS 🙂

Microsoft #MeetOffice365 Blogger’s meet ! with IndiBlogger.in

/ Aditya Bhasin / 5 Comments

Yeah ! Yeah ! That’s exactly what I shouted when I saw that there was yet another blogger meet in Delhi. The excitement was more high when I found out that Microsoft was the lead partner for this meet. I was there at the meet with my friends Ankita and Shivani. And was counting to meet Arvind sir, Arvind Mohan, Prateek Sir and many other fellow bloggers. The first thing that welcomed us at the meet was that big smiles from IndiTeam at registration tables and that “Hey Buddy” hug from Vineet. First thing that was noticed by Vineet sir and Prateek sir was my T-Shirt, yes I have now got a personalized T-Shirt with my blog name on it. 🙂 Vinnet sir asked me that I should wear the IndiBlogger-Microsoft T-Shirt, to which I said NO ! not today 😉

https://www.facebook.com/indipage

The two most important motives of this meet was to bring the 300 finest bloggers of Delhi together and talk about Microsoft Office 365. We all have used Microsoft Office, but, did you ever thought of streaming your Office on just any device in world? Yeah, stream like a YouTube video. Well, that’s exactly what Office 365 does for you. Perfectly. The idea of brining everything onto one screen is what I liked most. For an example, if I would have been writing this blog post on Office 365 or Office 2013 I would not have to switch screens to search more about Office 2013 on Bing. I would have done that by simply staying on this screen and see Office does all the good work for me. Same goes for the other apps that are inbuilt in office that makes me do a word-meaning search on W-M.com again without moving an inch from my MS Word screen. The collaboration feature is yet another killer thing about Office 365, I can invite people directly from my document where they can edit and view the document, The information about these people is once again available to me on same screen with a single click and no hassle. And even after so much onto a single screen, the interface looks clean and clutter free and that’s one thing I like THE most.

Prateek Sir

Prateek Sir

The ’30 seconds of fame’ is what I enjoyed most like always, thankfully, I was among those who got an opportunity to speak. The good part was I felt no need of saying my name this time. I was confident that most of the people present there would know my name already. 🙂 I did not prepare in advance what I wanted to speak so I managed to talk a little about what I blog and also made sure that everyone notices my T-Shirt. On the other hand I so wanted Shivani to speak while 30 seconds of fame, she was so scared of it and I was so happy seeing her like that. I wish next time she does get that opportunity. The fun activities we had this time were taken to another level. As a token of appreciation we had T-Shirts, mouse and cash along with stones been given away. Really. Cash and stones were given away. And must not miss out to mention that I won myself two T-Shirts and a Microsoft Arc Mouse. As I am now using the mouse, I can tell it works perfect, even across the walls. Thumbs up it ! [FYI: This is the first time I am using a wireless mouse] For me the importance of these T-Shirts is greater than anything. It makes me feel proud. The first T-Shirt I got was at HP meet followed by Spice and two of them today. I have always cherished them and take my words, kind of happiness wearing these T-Shirts gives me is greater than even stepping on moon. These T-Shirts make feel so proud.

Boss of winning contests and flaunting his camera. ;)

Boss of winning contests and flaunting his camera. 😉

What Office 365 brings for bloggers like me is the in-built WordPress and other blogging site integration. So next time when I blog I do not have to login to WP.com. I can simply write my post, click on publish and hurray its done ! The instant messaging app inbuilt in Office 365 is what makes the package more exiting. I can use Lync to integrate my contacts across all the devices and also know the current status of what other folks are doing. For an example : In my office, If I plan to extend by lunch, I can simply keep a track of my boss’s lync status from my phone. So that I know I am safe till the time the status says “In a meeting or on a conference call” 🙂 Not forget that you have an option of Video chat too.

www.fb.com/indipage

Completely Boss
Office 365 adds more power to the Office you already know and use by making it easier to communicate and collaborate with others. It gives you virtually anywhere access to the Microsoft Office tools you know and rely on, plus business-class IT services that are easy to administer. All of this allows teams to work in a new way, and owners to transform how they run their business. Completely connected. Completely synchronized. Completely Boss.

 

We all enjoyed our ‘Indiblogger-Anthem’ ” We are D.N.T.” “D.N.T.” “We are Dynamites” the lines are so powerful. After all it is the blogging that gives us the power of a dynamite. And the “Hur-Hur” game is another thing we all enjoyed. The level of enthusiasm was far more than any other meet, I don’t know why that might be ! may be the ambience and the place was one reason. But, whatever it be, it was all for good. Our yogest blogger Piyush did match the steps with IndiTeam. The luckiest person in the lot today was Anukriti . She won herself a Nokia Lumia phone for the tweet embedded below. Congratulations to her. There was one guy who won Five-thousand bucks ! Lucky man ! Microsoft team was way too generous today, which makes me mention that they also gave away cash prizes for doing push-ups and drinking beer. The day ended with group photos and happy faces, alot of them actually. As a matter of fact I did not wanted to leave from that place, it was Shivani and Ankita who actually forced me to leave. But before that we had a pretty nice discussion with Arvind sir and Sangeeta ma’m. These guys are a gem to speak to you. Polite and humble. Respect for the couple.

www.fb.com/indipage

Another thing that makes me more happy is that for the first time IndiTeam was generous enough to click my photos, they never do that. 😦 But this time they did and they did that in pretty decent number. I can see alot of myself on their Facebook page. 🙂 *happy-child I am *. Also, the number of people I connected at this meet was highest ever, I may not have met them all personally but, yes we were able to connect On Facebook, Twitter, Blog after the meet. And I am sure we all shall meet each other in-person at next meet. Till then we are all in cloud.
The venue was BlueFrog, I liked the place, especially because it was different, way too different from our previous meets. They had enough beer for everyone, and less soft-drinks for folks like myself. On food platter they had few things but, could have been better. Especially because most of the items were non-vegetarian.

From a great place to great people to a great product this meet had it all. And it would not be an under statement if I say that this was one of the most awesome meet IndiBlogger ever organized.

www.fb.com/indipage

Hats off to IndiBlogger team. Anoop, you always rock man! Vineet, keep up the enthusiasm always ! Rennie, its high time you come in lam light 🙂 and to that cute lady who take photographs at all IndiBlogger meets, ma’m you are beautiful. *shy*. For the Microsoft folks, guys thanks for the day. Microsoft has been an eternal part of our lives for ages and it continues to be. There is no doubt that Office 365 – ‘on the clouds’ makes me a more loyal customer. (Confession : The day I buy a MacBook, Windows 8 and Office 2013 is what I am going to use on it. Its just the hardware part I love about Mac 🙂 ) Keep on calling us for these amazing meets and we would keep on spreading the love and the word about how awesome Microsoft makes your life ‘in the cloud’. Kudos.

www.fb.com/indipage

Complety Boss

Complety Boss

2012 in review

/ Aditya Bhasin / 2 Comments

Wooooooo ! Seems like a dream come true. Many thanks to all out there. It is YOU, my readers who have made this blog such a super-successful achievement of my life. I really cannot thank you guys more. I mean 29000 views ! the figure makes me feel amazing.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 29,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 7 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

FYI:  This post is been posted on a Mac, my dream machine. Thank you to one of my senior here at office. He is still standing on my head to see if I treat his Mac with respect. 😉

Two-years of Super-Awesomeness

/ Aditya Bhasin / 8 Comments

Ammm… finally! Today is the 731st day of my blog. In simple numbers it counts to be two-years. And I fell more than what a proud-father can feel. My baby has turned 2 yrs old. It has been an extraordinary journey till now and it continues to be one.

As I am about to enter 3rd year of blogging I think it has now became the ‘most-important’ aspect of my personal and professional life. My friends now know me as ‘blogger’ and so does my office mates. They sometime even address me as ‘Mr. Blogger’ and I feel happy about it; happy for a soul reason that I am now being known for my work.

Over last two-years I have achieved many milestones. And I cherish them all. Every new blog that I posted was a bigger milestone than previous one and every blog that I now post motives me more to write another post.

The best thing that blogging did to me is improve my language skills. Just before I started this blog, I used to think that I am good with English and within days of blogging and feedback from friends and well-wishers I came out from hallucination that my English language skills are good. Believe me they were pathetic. Even today when I read some of my previous post I feel pity on myself. I mean what shit I used to write. No grammar, no punctuation marks, no tenses and to top it all NOTHING.

It was then I started working on those utmost important things. I asked for constant feedback, I worked upon those feedback’s. I asked people to criticize me; tell me what how bad I am as a writer. And thankfully people did that to me.With every post that I then wrote things became much more flowery for me. I improved on my writing and my speaking skills. And even when I write this I am improving. I still don’t say that I have great English language skills; I don’t even say I have good language skills. All I say is ‘I Am improving’.

Another very important thing that blogging did to me is made me an ambivert from an introvert.

Few months back I also took up the idea of ‘revising’ all my blog post. I actually pulled up each of my post and corrected them in the possible manners- grammar, spelling and all what was needed. Though, I still have many posts left and they still are in pathetic shape.

With this post I would also like to thank those people who always told me that ‘kitna vella ha na tu’ (Such a bore person you’re). These were the people who thought that writing on blogs is a job of an unemployed individual who also does not have a social life.Guys believe me your mere saying that I don’t have a life motivated me more to write and may be that’s why I thought to give you some space here.

A big thank you goes to IndiBlogger. They were with me through out this journey and continue to be. The contest, the blogging meets and just everything thing they did motivated me to write.

Another awesome-thank you goes to Meenakshi, for making me start this blog; and also for proof-reading all my blogs. Meenakshi’s sister Ms. Maheshwari also deserves a thank you; she also proof-reads my blog and sometime also give me personal feedback.

Thank you to Priyanshi Gulati and Bhawna for making sure that my writing is good..

And for those who still think that I should stop blogging and do something more constrictive, here is my answer: Blogging for me is food-for-soul.

Love,

Aditya Bhasin

About Aditya Bhasin

Aditya Bhasin hails from India, Delhi-an avid reader, who enjoys his cup of tea over it, a racist in purest form as he hates chocolate and coffee. He does not like traveling much, but, if he gets an opportunity to travel he chooses to do that by a train instead of a car or a plane. He is an ambivert person and is happy that way.
Fb.com + About.me + Twitter.com + StumbleUpon.com + LinkedIn.com+ FourSquare.com + Pinterest.com + Digg.com + Reddit.com = /meadityabhasin
Email: adityabhasin81 (at) (gmail) (.com)

The Magical Charm of an Arranged Marriage

/ Aditya Bhasin / 17 Comments

Things would have been different If I was single, I would have loved to settle down in an arranged marriage. But, because I am already into a super-awesome relationship for almost seven-years now, I really cannot think of experiencing the magical charm of getting married to a stranger. Though, I still have my own set of beliefs and views to share about the idea of arranged marriage.

Mere thinking of settling down in an arranged marriage gives me goose-bumps. I think it is the most divine form of a relationship. The beauty of an arranged marriage starts from the day you and your families decide that yes he/she can be your only soul-mate. From that day onward, things between would-be husband-wife are like those teenage love stories, where everything is beautiful, the girl finds her would be husband the most handsome man in this world and the man sees her would-be wife as the sweetest and the most adorable lady he could have ever met.

First they would meet at a coffee-shop, they would talk nothing. Not even take a single sip of the coffee they ordered for. The boy would keep looking at everything around him and would constantly skip a moment to look at his would-be wife. The lady on the other hand would be sitting in all expectations that the man of her life would start the conversation.

Things move on, and the couple starts growing with each other. Every moment that passes seems like a never ending journey they are on to. Soon the day comes when they are on their marriage-stage. They both look beautiful. They both steal a moment to look at each other, in that single moment of looking at each other, all they convey to each other is “hey..you look beautiful”.

The would-be husband wanted to say “Baby, you look beautiful” but he does not do that. He thinks that it is way too fast. He is not sure if his would-be wife would be comfortable on hearing the affectionate word ‘baby’ or not. The beautiful lady thinks all what her would-be husband thinks about her. They both are talking to each other with their eyes. The boy is somewhat getting intoxicated looking at her would-be beautiful wife.[one] All he thinks to do is to describe her beauty, better than how Geoffrey Chaucer did to Alison in Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale. Sitting there, he is reading these lines to himself, thinking that he is doing it to his would-be wife.

“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.”
(2. 2. 4-8) ~ Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

While they both sit on the dinner table, all they think is of how they would make each other eat. It is a new experience for both of them. They are not sure who is supposed to start first. In midst of everything around, boy keeps his hand over his would-be wife’s hand. She is stranded for a second. She does not realize what just happened. She blushes and takes away her hand. Everyone around is smiling, and the beautiful lady of the day is feeling shy. She does not know what her would be husband likes to eat. She gives a childlike look to her would-be husband, and in a moment, he understands what she is trying to say; things are now becoming clear between them. All he says is ‘whatever you like’. Somewhere deep down in there mind, they both think about how an arranged marriage takes place. They are happy….

As the time is coming close for them to be husband-wife instead of would-be husband wife their excitement, and anxiety is also increasing. Looking at how nervous his would-be wife is like the husband now offers a supporting hand to his wife. She feels reveled. The ‘magic-touch’ seems to work now. For a moment, they look into each others’ eyes and smile; smile for the first time in last five hrs. Seeing that nobody is around, girl asks her would-be husband ‘ how do I look ?’ The would-be husband simply wants to kiss her hand and tell how beautiful she is , but is unable to do that. All he said says is ‘Angel’. The girl thinks why her would-be husband is not saying something else or more. She then realizes that maybe this is the real beauty of an arranged marriage. You never say anything to each other- you only feel.

Finally the moment comes when they are husband-and-wife. All the rituals are now over. They are now sitting and waiting to enter a new world. The girl is now crying. She has already started missing her family. This time instead of holding her mom’s hand, she looks for her husbands’ warm-and-cozy hand.[two] She takes hold of it; tightly. The husband is now a supporting hand to his wife. The lady of the evening now relies on her husband and not her first-family. Somebody from the boy’s family makes a witty comment on something. The couple shares a good-laugh – for the first time together. They come close to each other. This time they are less uncomfortable. After all they are husband-and wife; that too through the most sacred ritual of our world- arranged marriage.

Then comes the most precious time of their lives. The girl waits for her husband on ‘their’ bed. She is nervous. She is almost sweating. She sits there like a statue; waiting to be crafted by the only craftsman of her life. In her mind she thinks about all the fantasies she has ever had about her marriage’s first night. As her husband moves closer to her, she starts feeling more shy. She never allowed any man to come that close to her in her life. She only lets her husband be that close. She thinks that first-night in an arranged marriage is more beautiful than a love marriage. She thinks she is going to give herself to her husband; whom she knows very little of. May be that is the magic of an arranged marriage- she says to herself.

The husband is now sitting next to his wife. He is not sure of what to say and what to do. He is equally shy-and-nervous of things going with him. He has had so much to say and do, but none turns out. He thinks – how to go forward? He was not aware that things could be so difficult. For a second he thinks he should have had a love-marriage, so that he would have known his wife better- already. The very next second he looks at his wife and the thought of love-marriage skips his mind. He takes hold of her hand. He kisses her hand. For the first time a man was touching her, the girl thinks. With that kiss the husband says “You look beautiful, my angel.” She blushes and hugs her husband. [three] They sit there and talk, talk about everything they have had in their mind. The girl while playing with her words tell her husband that she was not yet ready for taking this first-night further. Husband is amazed to hear that. He was not expecting this. For some minutes they only look into each others’ eyes, while they play with each others hands. Husband smiles and says “even I am not yet ready”.

It is a moment of relief for the girl. They both smile at their own childish-yet-mature- than ever relationship. Suddenly they both ask each other something that makes them both feel dumb-stuck: “is this how an arrange marriage works?” They laugh and hug each other. And while they are talking to each other, girl falls asleep. The girl is in her husband’s arms and has her head resting on his shoulder. All what the boy does is look at her in amaze

Their arranged marriage evolves day-by-day. On the second-day of their marriage, they say to each other the three magical words “I love you”. It is then they make love with each other. To them nothing seems more divine than what they are into, at that moment. The next morning, while they have their early morning love-bird talks, all they say to each other is that “I could not have loved you more if it were a love marriage.”

Image One Photo credit Jitender Kashmira

“The boy is somewhat going intoxicated looking at her would-be beautiful wife.”

Image Two Photo credit Aditya Singh

“This time instead of holding her mom’s hand, she looks for her husbands’ warm-and-cozy hand.”

“She blushes and hugs her husband.”

I know you must be wondering that why didn’t I posted pictures with the text. So to answer that, I want to tell you folks that I orignally wanted my readers to imagine those pictures. Yes, imagine as they read the text. I am sure you were able to feel exactly the way I expected.

This post is for IndiBlogger’s contest  Love Marriage or Arranged Marriage. Please follow them on their Facebook page for constant updates.

About Aditya Bhasin

Aditya Bhasin hails from India, Delhi-an avid reader, who enjoys his cup of tea over it, a racist in purest form as he hates chocolate and coffee. He does not like traveling much, but, if he gets an opportunity to travel he chooses to do that by a train instead of a car or a plane. He is an introvert person who is trying to be an extrovert by all possible means.

Fb.com + About.me + Twitter.com + StumbleUpon.com + LinkedIn.com+ FourSquare.com + Pinterest.com + Digg.com + Reddit.com = /meadityabhasin

Email: adityabhasin81 (at) (gmail) (.com)

..And That Was The End of My Hair Problem

/ Aditya Bhasin / 11 Comments

It was no less than a doom,
When I was sitting in the classroom,
Everybody was responding to their roll call,
Only I was lost in that hall,
My teacher called my name twice,
But I was sitting their like a silent mice,
He was around fifty,
His haircut was still nifty,
I was sitting on the last bench,
He was busy teaching us French,
All I could see,
Was number of heads in front of me,
Black hair were shining,
My own hair were declining,
A girl was sitting on upper stairs,
Moving her fingers in her hair,
A boy was having hair curly and wavy,
I don’t have those jumping hair, I savvy.
The bell rang,
All stood up with a bang.
The environment of the class was joyous,
Everybody sang there in chorus,
‘Nice dresses we wore,
Our lovely hair, we adore.’
No single hair on my head, I was ashamed,
I was also singing, I feigned.
A girl came to me with a smiling face,
I was feeling out of race.
I tried to escape in a hurry,
She asked me not to worry.
Hair fall is the common problem, she said,
I walked with her in a room, she lead.
The room was full of shampoo and oil,
Inside, I was feeling like a burning coil.
She picked one bottle and gave it to me,
Like a desperate kid I started to see.
‘Dove Hair fall Therapy Shampoo’ it says,
The room got filled up with shining rays.
Just apply it every fort-night,
You will turn again twenty from thirty nine.
I had no words to say her,
But only a big thanks that’s all I could give her.
She moved her hands on my head, I wriggled,
I could see she silently giggled.
After applying it as instructed, my hairs grew well,
And that was the end of my hair problem.

Here is the link to DOVE HAIR-AWARE APP. It helps you find perfect hair problem solution.

Click here to read ‘They Came From Mars’

About Aditya Bhasin

Aditya Bhasin hails fromIndia,Delhi-an avid reader, who enjoys his cup of tea over it, a racist in purest form as he hates chocolate and coffee. He does not like traveling much, but, if he gets an opportunity to travel he chooses to do that by a train instead of a car or a plane. He is an introvert person who is trying to be an extrovert by all possible means.

Fb.com + About.me + Twitter.com + StumbleUpon.com + LinkedIn.com+ FourSquare.com + Pinterest.com + Digg.com + Reddit.com = /meadityabhasin

Email: adityabhasin81 (at) (gmail) (.com)