Happy Women's Day

Rocket science or recipes they manage each with expertise. They run proficiently marathons or countries. Ingenious, artistic, intuitive, creative at dinner tables or boardrooms, they bring fresh perspectives. They are empathetic and kind, they can read between the lines. They are beautiful inherently, they nurture unconditionally. Mothers, partners, professionals, friends they play multiple roles successfully With their strong sense of ethics, they enrich the social fabric.

Source: jaltembabaylife.com

Despite infinite qualities, they are often under-estimated taken for granted, discriminated objectified, abused, battered, bruised. But they never give up the fight for fairness and equal rights. In the face of challenges, they are resilient and relentless. Let us join their struggles, share their pain fight inequities, inspire change. On International Women's Day let us resolve to make a difference.  Our worlds revolve around them..

Let us celebrate women…

Dhoom:3 Movie Review: Watchable once

I am one of those very few people who liked the movie! The auto-rickshaw stunt, amir’s tap dance, bike turning into jet-ski, too many slow motion shots and un-revealed process of robbery, all contribute to the downsides of Dhoom:3 movie. Not to forget the Dhoom: 3 songs – incredibly boring.

Source: ibtimes.co.in

Needless to mention, Dhoom 3 cast has Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Uday Chopra, Jackie Shroff, Tabret Bethell as Victoria – the Bipasha this time for Uday Chopra, Siddharth Nigam – the young Amir and the list goes on….

Here's the meaning of the anthem of Dhoom:3...
Bande hain hum uske, humpe kiska zor - We are His men & only He can control us
Umeedon ke sooraj, nikle chaaron or - Rays of hope is rising all around us
Iraade hain fauladi, himmati har kadam - Our determination is strong & every step is courageous
Apne haathon kismat likhne, aaj chale hain hum - We start today to write our fate with our own hands

Source:afternoonvoice.com

 With the long list of flaws in the movie, here is something that the movie caught correctly.. action and suspense. Well if you know the complete story (with complete, I mean the 2nd half of the movie), do not watch it all, you’ll weep from start to end. But with the suspense and base story created from the start of the movie, you’ll enjoy it without losing interest for the entire 172 minutes movie duration. The only point that earlier 2 Dhoom movies lacked was the base story. This movie has that. I wish one more thing was added in the movie - some high heels for Amir. They usually do that, here was it because they didn’t want it to be fake? Well, an addition to the long faking list wouldn’t have harmed the movie.

Few days before the movie release, a message was wandering around creating rumors. This is how it went: “Amir Khan dies in the starting of Dhoom:3 that only Uday Chopra knows, then he makes the master plan by teaming up with Kamaal Hassan and remaining robbery is done by Kamaal Hassan wearing Amir ‘s mask who reveals himself at the end of the movie”. Forget about Amir’s mask and Kamaal Hassan. Uday Chopra makes the master plan? Of all Uday Choppraa?? – the item boy of Dhoom series??

Source: mixupmania.com

The auto-rickshaw stunt, although insensible, but was an entertaining one and Thank God, the 3-wheeler broke after few mind-boggling stunts, else audience would be found breaking their chair within the first 30 minutes of the movie.

Amir is known for the awesome messages he conveys from his movies. May be in this one, nobody heard his thoughts during the making of the movie. Let aside the logic, songs, Katrina's tiny role. One very wrong message shown in the movie is "When you fail, end your life". Rather it should have been Suicide is not the last option, it's never an option.

In short, the movie doesn’t need any logic to be applied, Watch it for the suspense, action and few circus stunts and of course if you are a fan of Amir Khan as I am or if you drool for Ms. Kaif.

Dhoom:3 review: Watchable once.

Tips for Online Shopping

With the emerging use of e-commerce websites in India, people tend to buy products online. From clothes to home appliances, from grocery to eye wears, everything has an online destination. The e-commerce websites are also coping up with the requirement of their customers.

As buyers often prefer buying products only after viewing and trying them, ecommerce websites introduced the try before buy option. Buyers do not wish to disclose their debit or credit card information to any website, so online buying websites have the Cash-on-Delivery option. Buyers are most of the time unsure about a product before buying as they haven’t physically seen or touched the product. So ecommerce websites have return policy. Shipping duration is another issue faced by the customers. But the online shopping portals now offer next day delivery too.

And the list goes on.. The websites have tried solving every problem of buyers to introduce this online buying technology in India.

But.. Are you still doubtful about this approach of buying products online? Here are few tips for online shopping:

• Secured checkout page: Ensure the checkout page, payment gateway page or the page where you insert your credit card/bank account details are secured. This can check with the URL. The URL should start with “https://” and not “http://” - ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’. There should be a lock sign near the URL.


• Return policy: There are high chances of you returning a product when it arrives at your home. The reason could be anything – wrong size, wrongly delivered product, damaged product etc. So always check the return policy of the website before hitting the Buy button.


• Hunt for discounts: Ecommerce websites are known for discounts. No matter how hard it is, the least discount you will find is 5%. So do not skip the deals and coupons websites. There are websites which will even give you the lowest price for the product you require.


• Shipping charges: Almost every ecommerce websites now charge for shipping the product. To elemiate it you can go for bulk purchase. The minimum buying amount to waive off the shipping charges can be found on the FAQs page of the ecommerce website.


• Lookup for reviews of the website: Before buying the product, no matter how low the cost is, always check reviews of the website. Often, there are websites which do not deliver the products due to lack of inventory, poor management of orders etc. Any issue of the website will be visible easily with a few searches on the web.


• Keep a note of purchases: If you have bought multiple products through multiple online shopping portals and waiting for their delivery, do keep a record of them. So that even if the ecommerce website has neglected your purchase, you can remind them in case the product is not delivered within the specified period.


• Keep the bill and box safely: After we receive the delivery, we tend to tear the box and packing in an ill-mannered way! To minimize the losses, retain the box even after opening the package and safely remove the bill while tearing off the wraps.

Do drop your line in the comments below if you have opted for online shopping and things you do before and after your buy a product.

Happy shopping!

Get prepared for Mumbai Marathon 2014

Finishing a marathon is an accomplishment that less than 1% of people in Mumbai will achieve. If you have registered, be proud to be one of them.

Source: theguardian.com

If you have went through the upcoming Mumbai Marathon 2014 registration, then you have certainly thought of preparing for it. Because be it half marathon, full marathon or dream run, preparation is a must. Even a 6 km walk needs some effort for a person who workout regularly, although the homework required for them would be lesser. So if your schedule is set for early morning or during sunset hours, you have to follow few healthy guidelines to move in the proper direction for getting ready for the marathon rather than getting yourself injured just enough to skip the great event. Oh! by the way, Mumbai Marathon 2014 date is 19th January.

Here are a few tips which you shouldn’t miss:

• Ensure your stomach is not full before you go for the walk/jog
• To avoid injury, increase your time and distance gradually. Walking for 10km on day 1 is not an achievement.
• When you are not in mood/too busy/very sleepy etc etc, take a small step and cut short your training time but avoid skipping it completely.
• If at all you have missed out a day or two of workout, do not cover up for it. Instead go a level back and get your body prepared again for the workout.
• Choose a good jogging track or smooth road with least people on your path, so that you can look straight while you walk/jog and go on in a regular speed without dashing others and without hurting your foot. Being a Mumbaikar, it’s difficult to avoid but try to go for roads with least potholes.
• Do not walk to look good, walk for the goal with your own comfort.
• Wear a comfortable outfit so that you concentrate on your workout and not on what you are wearing.
• Breathe as deeply as possible while you are on your feet
• Let your hands be empty while you workout
• Have a short warmup exercise before and after the walk/jog. This relaxes your muscles.

How to save paper?

Source:rlandkabaena.blogspot.com 

Did you know that 17 trees make 1 ton of paper? So saving paper ultimately helps in saving trees. But do we really do our bit to save the green creatures in our environment? It would be easier by simply following 2 steps: Recycling and Using paper only if required.

Recycling is a small way for us to show to our world and community that we care. Recycling helps us give back to nature what we take from it. Did you know that up to 80% of waste generated in your workplace is recyclable paper? If not disposed correctly this paper is wasted and cannot be recycled. Proper segregation is the answer to ensuring this does not happen.

Ensure when you dispose waste paper you dispose it in the correct manner. This not only helps in keeping your environment clean and tidy but also reduces your carbon footprint, decreases pollution and also decreases the load on landfills.

Landfills are an increasingly pressing problem. Less and less land is available to deposit waste, but the volume of waste is forever increasing. As a result, segregating waste is not just of environmental importance, but of economic concern, too. Use the dedicated waste paper disposal units and increase the recovery of waste paper and reduce associated carbon emissions.

Use paper only if really required. Here’s how:

• Opt for electronic options for you telephone bills, credit cards and bank statements, invoices etc.

• Use the back of paper by making a notepad out of such papers which have empty backside.

Source:flickr.com/photos/amitvermaseo/7095470301/

• Go for free paper saving software like Printfriendly, PrintEco etc. These softwares makes it easier for you to remove unwanted content before printing your document. Also, before printing you could preview the document and optimize the font size to reduce the paper being used for printing.

• Adjust your printer settings such that it gets printed on both sides of the paper.

Source: thinkbeforeprinting.org

Update your email signature and include a note to remind your email receivers to not print your email unless it’s extremely necessary. In addition to preventing the email receiver from printing it, this signature might even bring in a realization to the email readers that paper wastage is an issue to be looked upon.

• School students need to use a lot of paper. So why not buy recycled paper for your school going kids.
• The least an organization can do to save paper is by emailing the payslips in PDF format to it’s employees, instead of printing them and distributing it.

Fixing street lights near Haji Ali Dargah

Setting up street lights on Lala Lajpatrai Marg, Worli
[Photo credits: Prashant Karkera]

Yes, we'll reach there...

Yeah, going in the right direction...

Just a bit closer...

Almost there...

Ohh the cables and wires...

Lets lift a bit...

And we are done :)

Adlabs Imagica Theme Park - Must go

When we checked the cost of tickets for Imagica, our answer was an immediate NO. But there was something that made us rethink on our decision – it’s an international standard theme park. Here comes my review for Adlabs Imagica - The Imagica experience is indeed for lifetime. Although the cost is shooted up and located quite far away from the city, but once you visit the amusement park, the money will all be worth the experience.

Imagica ticket bookings:
We booked our tickets on their website 1 day prior to our trip. Before booking the tickets we had done all the enquiry about the park and terms and conditions to visit the park. We also went through Adlabs Imagica reviews before shedding our pockets. Ticket booking can be done by phone or website. While booking tickets on the website, payment had to be done online. The cost was Rs. 1500 per person for the weekend and Rs. 1200 for weekdays.

Mumbai to Imagica
Being located in Khopoli, we had 2 options to reach there: By Neeta Bus and By CST to Khopoli Train. CST to Khopoli trains do not really have good frequency. There was just this 7am train which would reach Khopoli at around 10am. Wondering how to reach Imagica from Khopoli station? Well, Imagica provides free shuttle service from Khopoli station to Imagica at around 10.15am.

The 2nd option was much more luxurious and we opted for it i.e. air-conditioned Neeta bus. It has many pick-up points across Mumbai. We opted for the closest one. Imagica has partnered with Neeta Bus for travel. So travel tickets had to be booked while ticket booking. Pickup+Drop costs Rs. 500 per person. But Neeta bus also gave the option to book tickets at their office.

We reached our pickup point at 7.30am. The bus was to arrive at 7.40am. But the bus arrived at 8.45am. We expected huge traffic on our journey. And that’s exactly what happened. We reached Imagica at 12.30pm!

 Finally reached Adlabs Imagica:
Our 1-2 hours being wasted because of Neeta Bus, after entering the park, we immediately rushed towards washrooms to freshen up and then head towards the rides. At the entrance there were a few checks and we were given the map for the park and a yellow wrist band to wear. We don’t actually need to take the map as Imagica has offered a choice to save paper by creating an android app for Imagica. This android app provides the map.

Bandits of Robin Hood & Scream Machine
The 1st ride we opted was Bandits of Robin Hood. It was a simple roller coaster-like ride. It didn’t really amaze us much. This gave us the confidence to go for scream machine. This one looked quite exciting. The speed in which it rolls us is worth experiencing. Scream Machine Imagica was indeed of international standard and cannot be missed. We screamed till our throat actually stopped responding. Here are few photos of Scream machine: 

Scream Machine, Imagica

Swinging around

Legs wide open

Wohoo

Gold Rush Express

Gold Rush express & Dare to Drop
After the exciting scream machine, we went for gold rush express. Being a theme park, almost every ride here was based on a theme. Gold rush express was about the cowboys and pistols. Although this was just a theme, the ride experience was quite different. It drops you from the height of 66 feet and takes you speeding throughout the ride. 

 

  

Dare to Drop

The next one came D2D - Dare to Drop. This one is again a must try ride. We went for it twice. And both the experiences were surpising as you do not know when you would fall staright down. My heart almost popped out! 

I for India, Mr India, Wrath of the Gods & Cinema 360
After D2D we walked towards some theme rides which would not need much physical strain.. I for India, Mr. India, Wrath of the Gods were few of them. In I for India, you are taken for a tour of different places in India in a 4D theatre. The places were captured in a camera while travelling in a helicopter, so while viewing the movie, you actually feel like you are travelling in it. It added to our list of great experience. Some of the places toured in I for India are Ladakh, Kerala, Mumbai, Rajasthan & many more. Wrath of the Gods is another attraction where the importance of air, water and fire are illustrated in an amazing way. Mr India is adopted from the favorite-of-all movie of Anil Kapoor & Sridevi. It is shown in a 5D theatre - another experience not to be missed. Cinema 360 - Prince of dark water is a dome theatre with the story of a mermaid and a prince. The dome gives a 3D experience. 

Curse of Salimgarh
This one is the so called Bhoot Bangla - a seriously haunted ride. A man with blood on his face appears and then comes a lady with white face, black lips, red eyes, scattered hair and stares closely. Here, we are not scared by statues and skeletons, but by real people wearing masks. We screamed hoping the ghosts will runaway. But they seemed to enjoy! And scared us even more. A weak heart person is not advised to step in! 

Rajasauras River Adventure and Deep Space
Rajasauras River Adventure is another ride with roller coaster, Dinosaur and water. There would be dinosaurs coming your way and you’ll somehow escape from them and get wet towards the end of the ride. Deep space is a huge ride in the dark with roller coaster in an enclosed place. You will be turned upside down in the dark. 

Nitro
There was a huge roller coaster ride under test named Nitro. When we visited Imagica Nito was being tested. On enquiring about it we were told that it will take another month to get fully operational. And we sighed to have missed the chance :( 

Nitro

Nitro again..

Red Bonnet American Diner

Restaurants
We had our lunch at Roberto’s Food Coaster. It offered Chinese, Italian, Mexican and Indian. We opted for Indian Non-veg Thali. The food was not worth praising but enough to help us regain our energy we lost in the rides. In the evening we went for snacks at Red Bonnet American Diner. The burger, Coke, French fries were filling but again not worth praising. 

Back to Mumbai from Adlabs Imagica
While coming back we didn’t experience any difficulty. Neeta travels took us back to Mumbai with ease. We left the park at 8.30pm and reached Mumbai at 11.30pm. If you are looking for Adlabs Imagica reviews and yet to decide whether to visit, then just stop there and books your tickets for the park. 

Here a few more pics of the park...
 

Alibaba & 40 thieves

The View

Imagica capital

Another View

Mr India - Mogambo Khush Hua

View from the top

Yet another View

Panaromic View

Hmmm.. View :D

And the sun sets

Wow..

Colors of Imagica

The lights

Red Bonnet Tomato Sauce

I liked the girl in the frame, so clicked :D

What we liked the most about Adlabs Imagica is that after every round of ride, the ride operators clap for the people who enjoyed the ride and bid a good bye with "Hope you enjoyed the ride" :)
Do leave your comment if you have visited Imagica or planning to visit...