A National Change Via Apps: Vote India!

With 2014 General Elections knocking the door, I feel as an Indian citizen, it is our individual responsibility to spread the awareness, inspire and motivate people specially the youth, who constitute the majority of the population of the country and is about to become the youngest country by 2020, to vote.

Amid the changes in the attitudes of the people and the record 66 per cent of around 1.2 crore voters exercising their voting grants in the Delhi assembly election it gave the Delhiiets the mega change in the capital. This has fueled the hopes of the change we Indians have been craving for that we have the power to choose our people to govern the state and the nation to serve the citizens and make the country a better one.

Now on an individual level our access to reach a large number of people in today's time is through internet and mobile apps. even to ask others to turn up for an event its the fastest way to reach people. Given that out of there are 51 million smartphone users in urban India today with the young generation using smartphones and its various apps more than the rest of the population.

First we need to understand why people do not vote. There are many reasons: lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of elections, apathy towards the entire procedure and worse they prefer enjoying the off day. 

Here the the mobile chat apps, like we-chat, can be used to encourage the youth and make them motivate others, even the elder generations who by now have somewhere given up on the system or do not understand its significance.

I have decided to create a page on Facebook listing out the basics of voting and Election Commission rules and share it with my contacts on my mobile apps. The page will talk about the rules attached to voting for example the 49-O rule.

“Rule 49-O is a rule in The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961[1] of India, which governs elections in the country. It describes the procedure to be followed when a valid voter decides not to cast his vote, and decides to record this fact. The apparent purpose of this section is to prevent the election fraud or the misuse of votes.”

-[source-Wikipedia.]

I'll be updating my contacts with news related to EC through the various sharing options on the chat apps, like the one I'm already sharing; Indian Election Commission has tied up with Google where the later will tender EC its resources like search engines to enable voters to check with their enrollment statuses online and also to locate the polling stations through Google maps.  

Conducting various discussions and debates over politics, government, parties, the candidates and the needs of people and the nation would be a good motivating factor. And invitation to these events will be sent through the mobile apps. The videos of these discussions can be later shared with others through the smartphone apps and let it go viral. I am already listing the topics to discuss and I have many friends contributing. 

Sharing various photos and videos, through these mobile apps, that motivate to vote can boost up the level of enthusiasm of the youth to get what they want by casting votes. I am collecting such photographs and videos and also making one of my own where I will have some young volunteers prompting India to wake up and make the desired transformation. A month before the elections I’ll begin with my sharing.

On the week of election till the D-day of it, my status on the apps will be “Election Week; # of day/s to go”. This will act as a reminder to all of my contacts of the day they will contribute to the change and
not to take the Election Day as a holiday to chill but to get up, walk into the polling stations and cast their votes to the candidate they feel is apt to win. This will ensure that they can chill after the right government is in power. 

It's our duty and its up to us to make India the country we want to live and to let Her set as an example to the world as a great country to look up to and with the right use of these latest technology, the mobile apps, we can bring in the CHANGE.  

 

This post has been written for the motivating contest held by We-Chat and Indiblogger; "Indian General Elections 2014 with social mobile apps".  

*****

Acknowledgements: The Times of India and Wikipedia.
Illustration: By Namrota (Me, the author of CoffeeBeans).

Chanakya's Chant: A Review.

Author:      Ashivin Sanghi
Publisher:  Westland Ltd.
Pages:        448
Price:         INR 250
Genre:       Historical-Thriller
Rating:       2.5/5

Ashivin Sanghi's best-seller Chanakya's Chant is two analogous stories with a lean thematic connection in one book. One story acquaints you with the historical Chanakya's legend and the other Chanakya's contemporary avatar, Gangasagar.

Though the book has an interesting concept and could have made an incredible read, but due to some hiccups it loses its prospective. 

The novel falls flat as the characters of the fictional narrative has nothing much to offer. I wanted to loath a few characters because that is why they were built to, but, I couldn't. The characters were not much explored. 

I wanted to skip to the historical narration many times, as I felt I was better off not reading the present one. The past gripped my interest, and often I just flew to the chapters of the history and read and reread them.

Furthermore, as the contemporary narrative begins to progress, it loses its tightness. Even in the Historical narration, the dialogues are too contemporary. It's weird to imagine people from that era specially a learned scholar uttering words (particularly abuses) that we hear from the current generation. 

Moreover too many quotes uttered by both the protagonist, cripple the story further. 

I will read this book many times only for the chapters that begin with the title "About 2300 years ago".
I'll take off a few stars from this book for making the half of the narration a tiresome read and giving a few stars for igniting my interest in Chanakya and Chandragupta Maurya again.

*****

This is a part of a review program by MysmartPrice/books 

Apologies, Forgiveness, Gratitude and Wishes…!!

  

In the past year, I may have uttered ice-cold words that must have pierced your hearts …many of my actions or thoughts may have jabbed you like toxic arrows… I may have done things I shouldn't have… I tonight, ask for forgiveness for not being at my best of behavior, at times, in 2013 – I am sorry. (Believe me it was all unintentional)

And I forgive them who have intentionally put me in a situation to not to trust them anymore. Don't break anyone's trust; it's earned, not gifted.

I am not only lucky but I am blessed. My parents, friends, relatives, colleagues, neighbors, my readers everyone who is part of my life in some or the other way, even the existence with no life like my books, my pc, my cell, my desk, my house, the water I drink, the food I eat, the clothes I wear… etc. are just so divinely wonderful. I am full of gratitude for them. Thank you for being a part of my life. And I am also thankful to all those people and things who/that are on their way into my life in future.

   

Moreover now that we are about to be in a fresh year- 2014, I have loads of wishes for all of you. Have a wonderful, prosperous new year, full of love and health. Be good... be smart … be compassionate.

 ***HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! ***

Dove-licious Best Friends Forever!

The Beginning: They were eight year old girls when they first met. The shorter one was the new girl in the class with shy eyes and an unsure walk. The taller one smiled and slid at the corner of the wooden bench offering the new girl the seat beside her. The new girl smiled back and introduced herself while getting comfortable on the seat which was now going to be hers for the rest of the year. The names were exchanged and both were thrilled to know that they lived in the same area.
“Friends?” one asked, “Friends” the other said. The two eight year olds were unknown of the fact that and it was the beginning of a forever-soul mate friendship. 

The little girls were Namrota (yours truly) and Shruti.

Since that day, we are glued to each other. Inspiring, conspiring, laughing, crying, gossiping… together. We went to school together and the walk back to home meant savoring colorful ice-candies; experimenting different colors every day. Weekends for us were fun-filled with our mock tea parties, little picnic at the local parks and executing our plans to irritate her brothers.  

Class-room Angels: We always sat on the hind side of the classroom as we were amongst the taller pupils. That was a blessing for us. We kept ourselves active and entertained when teachers bored us with the text books and lessons. And an absence of a teacher was ticket to be the queens of the class-room. The black board used to turn into our beloved canvas, pages from the rough book converted into paper-planes, the writing tables became sitting tables. Yes, a walk to the Headmistress’s office followed every time we were caught. 

Bubble-gum Belles: One of our favorite angelic activities, as kids, was to keep blowing bubble gums at public places. The synchronized punctured noises of the ballooned gums were a melodious composition for us. Though, others always misjudged it as devilish activity. *sad face*  

First time Hostesses: We took up our first event management project; her brothers’ birthday party. The twins had turned 10 and we planned an extravagant party for the young guys. We shopped for the party supplies, organized the menu, ordered the most delicious twin cake. Of course bill was paid by Shruti's father, who took the oath of never handing over parties to us again without the supervision of an adult.

But did we have fun? Oh yeah, we did. The party was a super success.

And we still organize surprise birthday parties for the boys every year, which eventually is no longer a surprise.

Kitchen Debut: Sanjeev Kapoor was our kitchen-idol and we wanted to have our own cooking show someday. To rehearse our future show episodes, one fine Sunday we entered the kitchen for the first time to stir up some delicious dishes. Our debut, to everyone's surprise including us, was a box office Rs. 200 crore hit. Although the kitchen looked like an unattractive pantry-car.

Curls and Straights: Hers are curly locks, mine are straight tresses. And as we were too young to experiment with our hair, we were not allowed to use straighteners or curlers (not even safe rollers).
We tried our best to get our preferred results, with our own DIYs. I twirled my hair around my finger to get the curls and she stretched hers from root to tip to straighten them; none of which ever worked. Hence, we wished to exchange our manes. But gods had some other plans for us. He didn't listen to us until we were old enough to fashion our hair just the way we like, using all sorts of hair gadgets and products. 

Slumber Party with Teddy: Shruti and I had some of the best moments whenever we had our wonderful slumber parties. The fun lied when in frightening her with ghost stories. I never failed to tell a ghost story despite that she threatened me of severe consequences. Ergo, she always slept with her teddy to keep away the evil that presumably lived outside the window. And as I write this post, the teddy sits still in her cupboard, though bit severed at a few places and a scratched eye. 

Same Team: One of our loved outdoor sports was tennis and we both were terrible at it. We practiced it often to hone our skills to beat the neighborhood girls, but we played on the same side of the net as we couldn't play against each other. People laughed at us, but it meant the world to us and we stuck to it till we gave up on the sport itself. 

Living Room Ramp: The Oh-so beautiful Sushmita Sen walked the ramp and won the Ms. Universe contest. We both were mesmerized by her and wanted to walk like her, talk like her, look like her. So, Shruti's living room became our own stylish ramp and we made her brothers judges asking us questions and we mocked a fashion show followed by a beauty contest between just the two of us. The success of which led to future fashion shows that included other girls from our class.

Diva-liciously Us: We were fourteen and we knew we had to doll up ourselves like the beauties in the movies. Just kohl and lipsticks won't suffice. Again, our mothers were clear that college was our time for such treats and not school. Ergo, with we saved our pocket money and bought face-packs, face scrubs, toners and hair removal cream...we couldn't muster the courage of going for waxing. Saturdays were our days to pamper ourselves. And as her parents were out on job, her house used to be our beauty abode. Nowadays we exchange home-remedies to beautify ourselves. Mission is same, approach is different.

Wine-y Glasses: Invitation to our first teenage party hosted by our seniors from school, who were now in college was first of its kind. We both had turned 18 a few months back and were legally allowed to consume alcohol. She bonded well with wine, in fact it was love at first taste for her but, for me the drink and I couldn't get along well. However, to fit in it with the crowd which was guzzling down the fermented grape juice, Shruti poured a soft drink in my now empty wine glass. The camouflage worked wonders. Our relation with alcohol still remains the same, though I don't need to pretend anymore. 

Shoppers' Stop: College was our getaway for so many things we craved to do during school. One such activity was shopping by ourselves. Our first shopping experience together was at Fashion Street, and no other girls from our group had yet ventured there. It was a matter of pride for us. We talked about it to others as if we shopped at Versace or Gucci. Girls envied us for some time till they too shopped there.

Very Car-ing: After she failed the driving test for the second time, we had an idea to make her feel good; ye we both came up with it. She sat on the wheels of a fancy car, which, belonged to her neighbor's boyfriend, pretending she was driving it. The day was beautiful and Chowpatty beach looked nothing less than the Miami beach and Shruti didn't talk about her driving test for the next two weeks. 

Pouty Click: Our antics still continue till date and this is how we showed our love for the beauty-licious Dove Test that we took. Just couldn't resist from having a cheek to cheek moment.

  

Shruti and I 

Thats us for you guys, I, my Best Friend and our memories, and we are still to make new ones for us in coming years. I always thank my eight year old self for offering her the seat that day. 

*A Toast to our friendship*

This Post is written exclusively for the Dove Guessing Game With My Friend contest powered by Indiblogger.

**Note: Illustrations are borrowed from Inmagine.com and the last photo is my property and is copyrighted, using it in any way without my my knowledge is not permissble.**

Baby, I'm Back!

Image: Inmagine

I took a sabbatical from blogging not writing for a few weeks. Reason is unknown to me. I just didn't feel like feeding my Coffee Beans...ah! That makes me such a bad mother. To add to my badness I favored my personal journal, which had the fortune of receiving words from me on regular basis. I read religiously and indulged in Facebook-ing too. Watched several remarkable movies including "The Help".

And my baby, Coffee Beans sat quietly having occasional views by some readers and daily visits by me. Yes, I stopped over daily.  

I am sure my baby would forgive me because she knows how much I love her and that I can never abandon her for she is an integral part of me. I am so proud of her. My Coffee Beans has evolved from being a naïve blog to a more sophisticated one. Of course, she has a long way to go and there is so much to learn and absorb and create. The never ending learning process smiles and waits with her arms wide open welcoming us, like always.

Drum rolls… here we are to conquer the world of words, thoughts and readers.