Things To Do in Last Week of December!!

So here we are in the very last week of the year 2014. A lot of us are on vacation spending their time at home with friends and family and may only resume their work/school in January. So I decided to pen down few fun things that all of us can do to spend this last week from Christmas to New Years Eve to the best of its capacity and enter 2015 with the truly awesome memories. Lets look at the 11 things we can all do during the holidays, Shall we?

• Get cozy and watch a classic holiday movie.  

It’s A Wonderful Life, The Santa Claus, Miracle on 34^th Street, Elf, The Holiday…you've got to watch one of these in this festive week. For serious movie buffs just create a queue for yourself and watch them all on the internet.

Watch them Now!

• Drive around and look at Christmas lights.  

Perfect for a (free!) romantic date.  Enjoy how beautiful your neighborhood looks all lit up at night, and argue about whether white lights or colored bulbs are prettier.  For the record – colored lights totally win, if you ask me! 

Visit IC Colony or Bandra Lanes in Mumbai

• Visit Santa at the mall.  

Yeah, all of the parents waiting with their toddlers will be glaring at you – but so what?  The pictures will be priceless, you’ll get to feel like a kid again, and you can make lots of awkward sexual jokes about sitting on Santa’s lap. *wink*

• Do a Secret Santa exchange with friends.  

Grab a big group of friends, pick names out of a hat, and stick with a manageable price limit.  Depending on your friends, you could stick with gifts that are sweet and sentimental, or you could be a little wild – everybody buying silly, useless knick-knacks, or “adult” gifts like alcohol (if you’re 21) or condoms (stay safe!).

Secret Santa Rules

• Go shopping – for yourself!  

Around the holiday season, our shopping lists can be out of control and money can be tight.  But make it a point to show yourself some love when you’re hitting the stores – girls can buy a fab outfit for New Year’s Eve and guys can go for swanky sweaters or jackets.  You don’t even have to splurge many malls/outlets have racks full of holiday glitz at insanely low prices.

• Send cards to friends and family.  

Have a friend or a relative staying in a different city? Instead of calling them or texting them for the festive session, why not send them a card? Everyone loves holiday greetings, so spread the cheer!  Don’t feel like you have to buy cards from the store – make cards out of construction paper and post it across.   It’s much cheaper and more personal – and your friends and relatives will hang on to them forever! 

Holiday Cards

• Channel your inner Cook.

Use your time at home to get more comfortable in the kitchen.  Offer to help make traditional holiday dinners – you’ll probably want to know how to make your favorites when you’re on your own. Try your hands at making holiday cakes, cookies, marzipans and not to forget those delicious rum chocolates. 

Marzipans

• Give back to the community.  

The holidays are the best time to remember those who need our help.  Volunteer at the local church, give some change to those poor at the traffic signals, or buy some gifts for a family that can’t afford a Christmas.  You’ll be glad you did.  For local volunteer opportunities ask around at your old school or place of worship.

• Have a dinner party with your friends.  

With all of the family events that come with the holiday season, it can be nice to enjoy a low-key dinner party with your friends.  Make it a potluck, show off that family recipe you mastered, and swap holiday stories with two (or twenty) of your closest friends.

Life without FRIENDS?

• Go to the movies.  

Is it just me, or do the best movies of the year come out around the Christmas?  Spend an afternoon at your local movie theater and check out potential blockbusters with a huge bucket of popcorn and a slurpy can of icy Coke. 

• Spend time with the people that you love.  

Help your dad put the lights on or just chat with your mom and look at the Christmas tree lit up in the dark. Spending quality time with your friends and family is really what makes the holiday season so magical, and you’ll make memories that you’ll cherish for the rest of your life.

Have a crazy family? We all do! 

Have you checked off any of these activities already?  Do you have any holiday traditions that you look forward to every year?  Tell me all about it in the comments section, and have a wonderful holiday season!

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Lease of Life – Condoms

As a style statement a large number of youth in India embrace various reckless behaviors. One with an alarming increase is smoking Tabaco. While Indian Government has increased the taxes impaired on Tabaco and Tabaco related products, which make them more expensive to acquire, the move has not helped in reducing the use of the same.

While youth is okay to spend a cool Rs100 on a packet of cigarette what makes me wonder is why is there an apprehension on spending a mere Rs25 on a packet of Condoms?

With 1.2 billion people, India’s barely a nation that can afford to be lax about contraception but according to the health ministry, condom usage has dropped by 38%. To find out what exactly is causing this decline we need to take a look at some of these factors.

1.       Scarcity and Lack of Awareness

With a huge population like India, it is difficult to educate the entire society about safe sex. Therefore a large section of rural India remains aloof from the whole idea of using a condom not just as an contraceptive but also to avoid major STI’s. Non availability of free condoms and lack of awareness is major reason that is causing the dip in its usage.

2.       Morality

In every society, people have their own moral, religious and ethnic doctrines that have not only reinforced their social fabrics but, due to prolonged observance in the community, also have pervaded the psychosocial environment of the individual. Obviously, an intervention (condom use) altering their age-old natural reproductive practices may be opposed or rejected by the individual or the community though people deeply feel the need of resolving socio-economic constraints associated with the explosive growth of the population.

3.       Religion

With a country like India where we have a large bouquet of religions, they tend to interfere and influence the sexual practices that we follow. Many religions prescribe the use of condom as against the law of the creator. As these religious beliefs are strongly embedded in our mental system all the other hazards of not using a protective barrier while have sexual intercourse is forgotten and perhaps ignored.

4.       Social Stigma

This again is associated with lack of awareness and care for one’s health. Men find it awkward to walk up to a pharmacy to ask for a packet of condom. The uneasy look that the man behind the counter gives scares the sh*t out of the guy who probably is doing it for the first time. Social discouragement given once to this youngster, he will never walk up to that pharmacy again.

5.       Partner Characteristics

In our country polygamy is not a widespread culture. Heterosexual couples restrict to just a few partners as compared to the couples in the west. Therefore the comfort level that develops between the participating individuals that the need to use the protection dies eventually. Having blind trust on your partner can push someone down the hill inching towards any dangerous STI. Although with homosexual couples polygamy is rampant. Trust or no trust using a condom should be imperative.

6.       Personal Factors

Individual perception, notion and constraint is likely to influence condom use. Many youngsters report that non-use of a condom because they did not think either they or their partner had an infection, and a similar proportion did not use a condom because they applied other contraceptive measures. ‘I do not have the AIDS virus’ and ‘I thought I was safe’, apparently indicating their low perceived susceptibility behind avoidance of condom use. Thus, individual perception of risk or pleasure often affects condom use.

7.       Condom – As contraceptive

Many couples just consider condom as a contraceptive. Pregnancy is considered to be the only outcome of having sexual intercourse. So they refrain from using a condom as they find many other ways to avoid a possible chance of pregnancy. They forget that many other STI’s including HIV and AIDS can be avoided by using a condom.

8.       Psychological Factors

Severe depressive symptoms affecting adolescent males are significantly predictive in non-usage of condoms. Social anxiety among gay and bisexual youths is found to be associated with unprotected anal intercourse. A depressed mood, female gender and unemployment increased the likelihood of engaging in unprotected sex among young people.

9.       Substance Abuse

Acute alcohol consumption by college students significantly predicted their perceived likelihood that they would have sexual intercourse without a condom. A feeling of emotional closeness has often been reported to be associated with the consumption of the drug Ecstasy (methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine; MDMA); some have also mentioned an increased sexual arousal and some, in particular gay and bisexual men, have used MDMA specifically for sexual enhancement. The sexual risk taking behavior –having multiple sexual partners and engaging in sex without a condom- was prevalent among persons having sex during MDMA episode.

1.      Issues with Condom use

Many couples stay away from condom because of the discomfort they experience while using them. Lack of sensation, vaginal irritation, and condom slippage are some excuses. Finding the right condom for some people has been very difficult even when condom manufacturers have introduced many variants like flavors, dots and lubrications.

While there can be no reason to take risk with your own life, using a simple condom can just give you another lease of life.

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The Do It Yourself List

Do It Yourself!

We all are living this crazy fast lives, where each one of wants to grow up and get to business. Not being in sync with oneself results in failed careers and more importantly failed relationships. Therefore before you are ready to welcome someone in your life(again!) do these following things all by yourself. They will give you an opportunity to realize many things about yourself and help you introspect. Go ahead, give it a read! :)  

Prepare a Meal, Just for Yourself!

Pick up the craziest meticulous recipe from a cookbook or the internet and explore your cooking skills. It could be a 3 course meal with wine or just a chicken cheese burger. Cherry on the top is that you don’t even have to share it with anyone and you can enjoy it to its last bite sitting on your couch, without pants! Who cares? :P

Explore a new place.

Head for a place you have never been to and prefer a place where even the local language is alien to you. Stepping out of your home, all by yourself will make you feel powerful. The thrill and experience of getting lost and walk around in circles. Knowing that you can get lost and then find your way back home is extremely validating than finding directions on Google Maps.

Sleep naked.

Before you meet your Mr. /Ms. Right, sneak up in your bed wearing nothing!! :D You will sleep better and will make you feel sensual almost instantly. Great way to be one with yourself. Imagine taking it all off to sleep it off! *SIGH*

Stay in Bed, Eat in Bed.

Let’s not confuse ourselves with lazing in your bed all day with lying there wallowing in self-pity. Great way to recharge your mind, body and soul. Also, you can skip your all protein diet one day and take a guilt trip to eating chocolate cakes, French fries or extra cheese pizza washed down with a big glass of icy cold cola.

Making your own touch perfect!!

Let’s get one thing straight: There is nothing more important than the relationship you have with yourself. Learning how you want things done — and how to do them right — not only makes you a better partner and lover, but it puts you more in tune with your own physical needs. And let’s be honest, nine times out of 10, it’s just more fun to take care of business on your own.

Buy something EXPENSIVE!

Save your money and buy something expensive, have ownership over something. Buy a new car, a house, a pet or just extremely expensive pair of shoes. Having the ownership right over something, no matter what, is an automatic visa into adulthood.

Go on a dinner date, ALONE.

Ever see those people dining by themselves and wonder if they feel lonely or sad? Here’s a tip: They don’t. If you’re not totally sold on the idea of dining by your lonesome (which isn’t the same as dining by your lonely), bring along a book, a magazine or a Sudoku puzzle that you’re working on. 

Stare at yourself naked.

We all are born equal. Earth is same to all mankind in general. Accept your body the way it is, it’s a maze of beauty, curves and folds. Look at your stark body and fall in love with the way you are shaped. Appreciate yourself before you give away the chance to someone else.

Pay your own bills.

Take care of your own funds before you manage someone else’s budget. Paying your own bills may sound not so good at first but being on top of it always is rewarding in its own way. Doing so you know that all your payments are made and now you can make a budget to fulfill your other needs. Learn to keep your spending in line before you have someone else in your life. This helps you save and keep you both from overspending. 

Wake up and watch the sunrise

Wake up early one morning and witness the sunrise. Sunrise signifies a new day, a new beginning, an opportunity to do things in different way, and it reaffirms that you are still alive. It’s a reminder that you are good, you are whole and, most importantly, and that you are here.

In moments like these, being alone isn’t just everything. It’s the only thing. And it’s beautiful.

The Outsider

Say No to Prejudice

We all are very proud to be Indians. Our patriotism is showcased in various forms when instigated by a certain mega achievement by some Indian. For example, Indian cricket team wins the world cup, Handful gold medals at some international sports meet, some space mission or just Shahrukh Khan receiving an honorary award from the French government. That’s it. We all are proud to be Indians only then and rest of the times we treat one another just like an Outsider!!

We all know this fact but strangely shy away from that racism, prejudice and xenophobia are rampant in India. It’s a strange mixture of prejudice, ignorance and centuries-old discriminatory practices, when communities keep to themselves and there are dining taboos based on caste. Even today you cannot eat with people not of your caste or marry into their communities.

We are a huge nation with diverse cultures and heritage and as our pledge says ‘I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage’. We are a nation where culture and habits change every 10kms, spoken language and staple diet changes with them too. And that is when the problem starts. Each state is like a different country with diverse languages, cuisines, clothes, customs, and climate. Punjabis are closer in terms of their food and language to Pakistanis than to Tamils. 

All these differences make people fairly suspicious of those who are not like them. And ‘people like us’ close ranks and bond. These closed communities are naturally full of prejudices towards the other, the outsider.  Every state considers itself superior. We stereotype each other mercilessly and there are jokes galore about food, clothes and accents (how residents of each state speak English, actually!).

There’s a huge North-South divide too. Yet, in pre-colonial times, India was a haven for persecuted people. We gave refuge to Jewish people, Parsis from Persia, Armenians and later Chinese who ran away from the Revolution, and Tibetans who fled the Chinese. These people kept their distinct, separate identities but they prospered and loved India.

There’s another side to us though. As migration takes place, across state borders within India, a kind of xenophobia begins. In Mumbai in the 1960s, Maharashtrians were incited by politicians to drive out south Indians, Madrasis, they called them who were stealing their jobs. Sounds familiar? Recently, the same paranoid party called for North Indians to be thrown out. Many poor, migrant Biharis were beaten up, attacked and threatened as they went about their daily grind, often working for a pittance. In Bangalore too, there are rumblings of resentment over north Indian techies who have flooded the city with their loud, noisy, in-your-face manners. South Indians are relatively quiet, stand in queues and can’t understand the chaos of a northern railway station. Students from North East India are mostly dubbed ‘chinky’. People ask them if they are Japanese, Chinese or Korean. There is total ignorance amongst us in most parts of India about the culture, indeed about anything North Eastern.

That’s not it, we stereotype women very easily too. We rarely perceive beauty in black or far-eastern women. In fact, most of us look for pale-skinned brides to get married to. Bridal ads ask for ‘fair skinned’ girls. So skin color is important and you can’t be beautiful if you are not fair. Prospective bride seekers swarm into the girl’s house to ‘see the bride’. They have no compunction about passing their comments, in front of the bride and her family. Sensitivity, tact or even basic good manners are not common among average Indian families.

Now a little reminder from our National Pledge that we recited like parrots at school assembly.

India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters.

I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage.

I shall always strive to be worthy of it.

I shall give my parents, teachers and all elders respect and treat everyone with courtesy.

To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion. In their well-being and prosperity alone lies my happiness.

 Where is this compassion that we promised towards each other? Why are we so intolerant about our own brothers and sisters? We want to fight rape, crime, terrorism, poverty and so many other issues but fail to remember that all of us are sons and daughters of the same soil. All these issues will be self-eradicated from the moment we stop the hardwired mentality of plain worthless prejudice towards one another and stop treating others like ‘The Outsider’! 

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Kiss Of Love

Kiss Of Love

I’m sure by now you must have read somewhere on the news or internet or the social media about people talking in pro or against the whole ‘Kiss of Love’ issue.

To throw some light on what is this ‘Kiss of Love’

‘Kiss of Love’ is a non-violent protest staged by the youth of Kerala against the so called moral policing that the right wing extremist groups have been imposing in the state from time to time. The situation of moral policing and social bullying of the youth displaying acts of affection towards each other in public have gone from bad to worse in the last few years.

More background…

The youth in Kerala were brewing anger since a 26 yr old was killed in Kodiyathur, Kerala by a mob for loving a married woman followed by a few more episodes of similar cruelty for being open and liberal about ones way to express love. The last blow to the nail in the coffin came in when a café in Kozhikode was vandalized for allowing a couple to hug and kiss in their premise. The right wing extremists terms it as ‘immoral activity and attacked the café.

The Outcry

To protest against this moral policing a group took the matter on social media and soon attracted support from all across Kerala and also from other parts of the nation. A non-violent movement was called on 2^nd Nov 2014 near Ernakulam Law College campus and proceed towards Marine Drive in Kochi.

What really happened…?

The police lathi charged at the group gathered for the march resulting in arresting 50 protestors and injuring more than a 100 of them in the tussle. The members of the right wing parties who were also present at the venue to prevent the movement also got along with the police in the violence. None of the party member was arrested.

My Questions is…

What the f**k is the problem with people expressing their affection towards each other? Don’t we accept the western culture directly or indirectly in so many ways that we don’t even realize it? We should just stop being a hypocritical society and accept each other the way we are. Who are these so called right wing activists? Why don’t they get upset with rising number of rapes with women in our country? Why doesn't the scaring number of feticide worry them? I think these men and women of the right wing are just like those bullies in school who have heavy biceps but very little mass in their brains!!

So the Prime Minister appeals to the nation to embrace as much as new technology and implement them in our lives. But for his party workers to think beyond vandalism and moral fascism is impossible. We tolerate men shamelessly urinating in public, we tolerate dirt and garbage dumped on roadsides, we tolerate illegal migrants living on money of the taxpayers, and we tolerate our future generation dying of malnutrition or begging at the signals, we tolerate our mothers and sisters getting raped and killed and the common man even tolerates the rising inflation. But what we cannot tolerate is the freedom to love or express love towards each other in public.

Missing the POINT!

Unfortunately a whole lot of right wing supporters think that the protest was to get freedom to get into a sexual act in public. That’s where they are wrong. The whole point is, the moral police harassment has been experienced even by those who were just sitting with friends of opposite sex in public. Can casual hugging and holding hands be tagged sexual?  Expressing love to your dear ones need not be construed as a sexual act all the time.

I say it is time we STOP being cynical about being open and receptive to the idea of just being ourselves. It’s time we reclaim space for love and sexuality.     

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Happy Clicking!!

Happy Clicking!

Lately, some things on my social profiles on Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere have given me a stark realization. Suddenly I noticed that most of my friends are ‘Professional Photographers’.

So it made me think a bit more as to what is the reason people are drawn towards either getting clicked or clicking these ‘professional pictures’. I got onto thinking and tried to dig deep in quest of reaching the actual root of the situation. So let’s get started with my observations, shall we?

·         Profile pictures on social sites need to garner certain level of attention from friends. Unless there are couple of hundred likes and few 10’s of comments it’s totally not worth it!

·         Phones have become Mini-DSLRS. Phones these days come with 2^10 MP cameras in built that they actually shame the DSLRS.

·         Now that we have established that use of phones have bottle necked to clicking pictures alone, these phones have reached even the most common man of the country giving birth the selfie frenzy generation.

·         The App market are loaded with free picture correcting software’s. These apps are capable of even changing the skin tone to discarding deepest of scars of your face. Not surprised with mosaic like skin tones on your pics anymore!

·         Monkey see monkey do. If he can, why can’t I? After all my father’s hard earned money is totally worth spending on an expensive DSLR camera which I barely know how to use, but its automatic mode will do the job for me and I need to show the rubbish around my city which everybody else see every day BUT they haven’t seen it through my lens yet!

·         All of sudden a few pictures clicked, photoshoped with watermark of your name and a new FB page and BOOM you are now a ‘Professional Photographer’

·         Oh Food! Oh Mountain! Oh beach! Oh a bird! Oh my shoes! Oh my biceps! Oh what the crap! These sentiments have graduated to become life like pictures. They MUST be clicked and posted.

·         If I don’t click and post pictures online = OUTCAST!

Well, I’m no alien to this trend. I am a part of this gang way too. We are all in that time where we just cannot resist flipping our phones out and clicking a picture on doing something new, and that’s not it; just clicking and not posting it on FB or Instagram is a CRIME. Therefore the #Post #Online #With #Annoying #Hashtags is totally compulsory. ;)

So on this note, I would say keep clicking and keep posting because a lot of Mobile brands, Camera brands and the whole of Social Media would crash if we don’t! :)

Happy Clicking!!

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Second Nature - Sarcasm

Are you the one?

Do you have problems with keeping up a nice simple conversation without poking some sarcastic statement? Read more and see if you suffer from any of the following symptoms of Sarcasm! :P

• Appropriateness is a big challenge for you- being cynical and snarky is your forte. It’s an internal struggle to hold a proper conversation without being snippy about it.
• Finding a compatible date is another challenge you face. Most of the people you meet don’t either understand your humor nor your way to express your actual feelings. You are misunderstood almost every time.
• Family affairs and gatherings annoy you. In such social arrangements you are forced to like your annoying relatives and irritating kids. You be like ‘How about I smack the poop out of you’ LoL
• "Can’t you be serious for once?" This is one of the most heard statements from your friends.
• You find it extremely difficult if you get stuck in an emotional or sentimental moment. You get uncomfortable and squirmy with the overflowing emotions and feel like puking immediately. 
• Posting a comment on Social Media for you means getting misunderstood all over again because you’d like to say something poking fun at particular posts but fear that others will take you seriously and think you’re unintelligent or rude.
• You don’t feel the need to slap someone in their faces, you can do it very well by giving them a verbal lashing via Sarcasm.
• People misinterpret a good amount of your texts because it’s an impersonal means of communication that makes sarcasm even more difficult to distinguish.
• As much of a struggle as performing satire via text can be, Emojis have come a long way and are a necessary accessory in all of your conversations.
• When it’s accessible, writing in Italics does you a ton of favors as far as getting your point and humor across.
• Battles of wits with people who meet sarcasm with sarcasm instead of being offended are your favorite hobby
• You are too careless to conclude the equation Insults equals Warmth & Kindness
• The times when you actually do want to be taken seriously are difficult because everyone who knows you is anticipating jokes. You make a statement, they chuckle – it’s second nature. You’ve built a reputation as a not serious person and now you have to go the extra mile to not be brushed off.

Well, you do suffer from extreme case of being sarcastic if you faced any of the symptoms above. Hope you had a good laugh or atleast put a smile on your face while you read this. Subscribe to my blog if you are the sarcastic one and Like it on Facebook if it reminded of someone you know! *wink*

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Over - Exposed?

OverExposed?

With the rapid growth and remarkable adoption rate of social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, we are now more concerned with the growing risks associated with social networks that implicitly give rise to exposure of one’s identity and privacy. The intent of exposing our identity and connecting publicly, at times makes us ignorant of the fact that we are at the risk of breaching the privacy and security of almost all our personally identifiable information. According to a survey, social networking risks and concerns may be identified as four categories

Identity Theft

This is the main concern on social media sites. When creating an account, users give as much information about themselves as they can. This is to make it easy for their friends to identify them easily. The flip side is that this information can be used by identity thieves. With the date of birth on their hands, the identity thieves can easily estimate the social security number of a person. The thief can then personify a car accident attorney in order to rip you off. It is recommended to change your account settings so that only your trusted friends are able to view your personal information. You should also leave your date of birth out.

Sex Predation

Stalking is common. There have been cases of people establishing relationships with social media users with negative intents. Once the stalkers get the phone number of the user, they start preying on them. This may subsequently result in sexual crimes. The key is to never give your personal information to someone you have never met. Additionally, if you must meet for a date, it is vital that you seek the company of your best friend and make sure you meet in a public place.

Unintentional Fame

On the social media, people have the freedom of uploading their photos and videos. Opportunists may take your online content and use it for the wrong thing. For example, your videos may be uploaded to video sites or your photos edited to depict something unethical. The key to avoiding these incidents is limiting access to your social network page. You do not want your photo to be used as an expert who helps reclaim PPI whereas you are a stay-at-home mom.

Employment

Due to the popularity social networks have amassed, employers are using information on social sites to conduct background checks. If your social page is polluted with negative information, chances are you might end up missing the opportunity. The same applies when you are employed and stalkers post uncouth information on your page. This information may easily cause you to lose your job.

However, the challenge here is to fully understand the risks associated with social networks because you never know what information are customers requesting through social media? One of several such concerns related to social network was discovered when Facebook inadvertently exposed millions of users’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses to unauthorized viewers over years that began in 2012. The major reason for causing such breaches in social network security and privacy emerges from the massive amount of information that these sites process every day, making it much easier to exploit even if there is a minute defect in the system.

Moreover, social networking is now no longer restricted to just your PC -- the technology is available on smartphones, tablets, and just about anything that is connected to the Internet. The whole phenomenon has opened new avenues for malware transmission, bringing concerns about information theft and security lapses. Social engineering is another significant concern, alluring privacy, identity theft and treachery concerns. There is no doubt about the benefits of operating business in social environments such as the propaganda of intense correspondence, mass communication, effective marketing and reaching extended networking opportunities. However, with the mushrooming of social networks and its associated risks and concerns, we cannot completely ignore the threat it imposes on our identity and privacy. 

With every piece of information that we store online, we are more exposed to threats that may be used against us in a variety of ways. What is required is balancing between the identity and privacy. So should you still blindly jump into the race of socializing or rather implement stringent solutions that balance both our identity and privacy to help mitigate the risks and concerns? The choice is yours!

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— Pratik Deshpande (@PratikD88) October 28, 2014

Four Candles

In a quiet room of a small house, there were four candles which lit the room every day from dusk till dawn. The family which lived there had a small boy. Just like any other day the four candles were doing their job when the boy came in the room and started to stare at the four flames.

The boy was amazed as to how much light just 4 candles could spread. Suddenly a strong breeze blew and the candles struggled to sustain their flames, that's when one of the candles spoke to him: “I’m tired of the hatred and violence in this world, nobody wants to live together and nobody cares about me anymore. There is negativity everywhere and I feel suffocated living in such a world and so I would prefer to die instead”. Saying this, the candle’s flame was lost. This candle's name was ‘PEACE’.

The boy now a bit saddened looked at the other three trying to hold on, when another candle gives up saying, “People have become very selfish and mean. I see betrayal and mean behavior everywhere. Most of all I am no longer indispensable, so it does not make any sense that I stay lit any longer.” The breeze then put it off. Her name was ‘FAITH’

“I have lost all the strength and aspiration to stay alive either. People put me aside and don’t understand my importance. They even forget to love those who are nearest to them.” And waiting no longer it goes out. She was ‘LOVE’

Seeing the three candles go off the little boy starts weeping and asks, “Aren’t you guys supposed to stay lit right till the end?” That’s when he hears a soft voice from the fourth candle which was still burning. She said, “While I’m still burning you don’t have to be afraid. We can still re-light the other candles using my flame”. That candle was ‘HOPE’

With beaming eyes, the candle lit all three candles with the candle of Hope.

Hope never abandons you. You abandon hope. Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.

-                                                                                                                                                                                                               --Author Unknown

I wish all my readers lots of Love and Hope on the occasion of Diwali. Let us all work towards keeping the flame of Peace, Faith , Love and Hope alive in each on of us.

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Minority – Real or Reel?

Over the weekend 2 major issues were talked about in the entire nation; Maharashtra and Haryana State elections and LGBT acceptance episode on Satyamev Jayate. Both these events made news headlines and had people storming their views on Twitter and Facebook. Even when both these issues are tails apart from each other they had one big factor associated with them – Minority.

When political parties talk about vote banks they are actually talking about Minority vote banks Eg: Muslim Vote bank, Dalit Vote bank, Jaat Vote bank etc. Political parties thrive on these vote banks to gain votes and win seats. They play with the sentiments of the common man belonging to a certain community which could be a regional or religious community and influence them to agree with their dubious agenda. My question is, do we really have anything called Minority for real or is it just a hypothetical misconceptions that these political parties have created for their gains? When we say we all are Indians, how does it matter which religion I follow or which color is my skin or whether I’m Brahmin or Dalit?

For me, when I look around the streets of Mumbai, I cannot identify who is who, all I see are people trying to work hard and earn a living and survive. When I travel in trains I don’t see a compartment which says ‘For Muslims’ Or ‘For Dalits’ its simply says ‘Gents’ and ‘Ladies’. Likewise during festivals, people of all religions come together and celebrate no matter of which religion the festival belongs to. I can state umpteen examples supporting this fact.

Similarly, when the SC tags the LGBT community as minuscule minority and takes away their basic human rights of loving the person of their choice they are not just making an impact on the LGBT alone but also the entire population of India at large.

Both these instances are a result of the political bureaucrats who have taken us for granted and divided all of us and tagged us as a part of some or the other minority group. But the main problem isn't this. If we go down to root level no one can tag you as LGBT Minority or Muslim Minority or any other minority unless we as individuals allow them to do so. Yes, that is the unfortunate truth and that is where all the problem lies. We ourselves need to change our thinking and broaden our horizons to accept every human being as an individual first and what amazing things he or she can offer rather than focusing on which religion one follows or whether he is a man who loves another man or he belongs to the third gender.

Once we all have accepted this fact first, only then no SC or no political party would be able to divide us and exploit our rights, be it our voting rights or basic human rights.

So now, it is for each one us to think is Minority for real or a reel just created by a handful of political leeches and by default hammered into our heads since birth?

*PS – These are my personal views and are not with an intention to offend anyone.

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Ain't I Social

                         

So this is my first attempt at writing a blog, and the first thing which came to my mind was how can I make my blog more appealing than many others already in the blog space.

Therefore, to keep all the various moods and likes and dislikes of the readers around I finally decided that my blog would be dedicated to various social matters, news, reviews and at times satires on various issues.

That gave birth to the name 'Ain't I Social'. 

To start with I have committed myself to post twice every week Monday and Thursday.So stick around and keep shuffling for something I promise would be worth a read! 

So, i would appreciate honest comments, feedback and suggestions on what you would like to read about.

Here's hoping for a fun and entertaining time for all of us at blogging.

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Follow @PratikD88