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Thankful ThursdaysLife, Musing & Anecdotes

One Thing I Love About Myself – #ThankfulThursdays Week 41

by tinabasu October 26, 2017
written by tinabasu

Which is the one thing love about Myself? IDK may be! But is that so?

When I sat down to write this post I was thinking what to write – rather which is that one thing that I like the most about myself? I am no saint, I do have flaws (e.g. I am a master procrastinator) so I love bits and pieces of me and also have many things that I don’t like (and I am not working on changing them either!)

love about myself

How am I as a Person?

People who know me, knows me as a dynamic person who’s upto something or the other because I can’t keep my mind free! I don’t know what is it to sit idle (other than the occasional lazing around). I have most of the traits of being a Scorpio – I love to love people, I am friendly, I am social and have my loyalties in right place. But is that all that I like about myself?

NO.

I remember an incident of my childhood when we had gone for an outing and I wanted to swim. We were having breakfast by the pool and I saw kids almost my age jumping in the pool and swimming like pros. I was 5 or 6 that time. My mom had already dressed me up in a swimming costume, though I didn’t know swimming that time! So I thought all I needed t do for swimming was get up from my chair and jump in the blue waters and it’s all sorted. And I did just that! Few seconds later I was under the water with a burning nose and throat! In a few seconds two hands had fished me out and I looked like a wet damp cat! Next was one tight slap from my mom once I was placed on the sides by the trainer!

That was the day that started my water phobia! I hated to be in the water though I love water. Some years later my dad took me to a local swimming club and enrolled me for swimming classes. I swear I didn’t get in the pool for two days. I was sitting on the stairs with tears in my eyes. Dad sat me down by the side of the pool and said a few things which sounded like punishment. He asked why was I so scared? Did I feel I’ll die inside the pool?

You have to be brave. You have to conquer your fear. No one will help you in this. You have to do it yourself. – My Dad

One thing that I love about Myself

I was swimming well in a few weeks and then in the lake in a few months! These words have guided me through my life. Life is never a bed of roses, it throws you challenges. I have been relatively good at handling those. I am not fearful, nor do I live in fear – unless it’s a flying cockroach! Whether it’s coming to a new city and getting admitted in a college all by myself, or tricking the thief, living on my own and learning life skills, taking friends to ER I have done a few crazy things.

The decision to quit my career in FMCG and starting on my own was big decision. Everyone needs to manage their finances and when you have bought an apartment recently you are neck deep in debt. A large chuck of the fund goes in EMI. In that situation managing the courage to quit a monthly salary yet not losing financial freedom completely is a big step. I did have the confidence in myself that I will be able to manage that part so I took the plunge. I try to help the man as much to relieve him of financial stress yet give ample time to the little man.

I know in future, even if I have a crisis in front of me, I’ll face it and overcome it. Because I know no one can help me but myself!

#ThankfulThursday Week 41 Prompt

This week we ask you to share with us one thing that you love about yourself. Write on a blog post or FB post or Instagram post and link up with us here.

love about myself

How to Participate in #ThankfulThursdays?

  1. Follow @twinklingtina  & @misra_amrita on Twitter
  2. Prompts will be announced every Wed 20:00 hrs IST
  3. Write the post and Link Up with Tina or Amrita
  4. Read, comment, share on host and co-hosts posts and at least two more posts linked in the party Pro Tip – Networking and commenting is good for your blog’s health and ranks.
  5. Use #ThankfulThursday in your post and share in social media using the same hashtag.
  6. Every week we will have one featured blogger who is the best reflection of this community spirit
  7. Please keep your posts and engagement civil. Adult content or hatred towards any religion/comunity is strictly prohibited.

Grab The Badge

Tina Basu

October 26, 2017 4 comments
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internet fads
LifestyleLife & Style

Of internet Fads and people going Crazy

by tinabasu October 23, 2017
written by tinabasu

Remember the time when people were busy pouring a bucket of ice on their heads! Or the games that had taken the internet by storm. Some Internet Fads that went viral riled me up. My Facebook Timeline not long ago was filled with random screengrabs of weird looking cartoon monsters and it seriously bored me off to sleep.

We are living in the times of bubble. The Internet – I can never stop thanking it – is also the primary fuel for these fads. Because we are living in a transactional world today where Knowledge Transfer is primarily machine to human these fads go viral within hours and people go crazy emulating the same. I, for an instance, have been guilty of many of such gaming fads! Farmville, Candy Crush, Temple Run, to name a few. I have spent wasted many human hours behind these and frankly, I don’t know why I did them then!

Some Internet Fads have helped people largely. The point in question is the ALS Ice- Bucket Challenge. Originally this challenge was meant for fundraising for ALS Association, an American non-profit organization that promotes awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In this challenge, people were to tag three people on Social Media to donate $100 to ALS Association or douse themselves with a bucket of ice-cold water. It became viral on social media and many celebrities were tagged into it. Within 2 months the ALS Association had received $41.8 million as donation!

But some internet fads have completely failed me. I have no idea why on earth were they started and then followed by thousands across geographical locations! Let’s have a look at the weird Internet Fads that had taken the Internet by Storm.

Internet Fads that took Internet by Storm

internet fads

A4 Waist Challenge

internet fads - A4 Waist Challenge

Credit: IMAGINECHINA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

The #A4Waist Challenge – in which women compare the size of their waists to the width of a standard A4 sheet of paper – emerged in China in Feb-March 2016 and took Instagram by storm. It’s a ‘win’ if your waist is as thin as 21cm or 8.3 inches across. If not, you can’t show it off! But hey, wasn’t that largely aimed at body shaming? It, of course, invited a huge backlash but not before the Internet was flooded with images of girls holding a piece of A4 Sheet to flaunt their skinny waist size.

My question – Is being skinny now considered as fit?

Duck Manicure Pedicure or Duck Mani-pedi

internet fads - Duck Manicure

Instagram | @thecottoncandyprincess

This beauty trend from 2012 is perhaps one of the most horrible internet fad you can find. The flared nail trend – aimed to resemble a duck-feet- was extremely popular amongst beauty bloggers and beauty enthusiasts.

My Question – how on earth will you type/eat/or fit your foot in a shoe with such weird looking nails? In one word – Ugly!

The Panty Challenge

internet fads - Panty Challenge

Instagram | Funnyassjoe

Britanny Hunter from Georgia , US started this bizarre trend in July 2016 where she shared a photo of her underwear and claimed women were jealous of her unstained underwear that she had wore for 24 hours!!! Yes Gross I know. It went viral and soon started trending on Twitter with women across the world started sharing their underwear photos and showing how they were clean and unstained!!

My Question – isn’t vaginal discharge natural and important! Why try to body shame all the time?

Read: Twitter – Social Media Channel I’m Thankful for

The Dress

internet fads - the dress

Credit: Tumblr| Swiked

If you have not seen some 100 posts on your social media about #thedress and its color then you have been living under a rock! Like how people always have to jump bandwagon, no one was left in giving their opinion about this viral photo of a dress – whether it’s Blue and black or White and Gold! It questioned peoples color vision.

My Question – So what if its blue, black, pink, orange whatever! Seriously do you have such free time for this?

Prisma

 

Prismatistic #prisma #mommasboy #mommyandson

A post shared by Tina Basu (@twinklingtina) on Jul 14, 2016 at 6:04am PDT

If you have not used the photo editing app Prisma in your life, even once – you are awesome! As usual everyone on social media was busy rendering artistic effects on their selfies. Yours truly was also guilty of it! But how much of it can you take? I am sure not a single person on iOS at that time on my TL had escaped it!

Pokemon Go

internet fads - pokemon go

Source: Pixabay

What exactly was this? How on earth people can be so crazy for a game that they forget everything and start visiting places to catch a rare Pokemon! It completely fails me. I thankfully had not jumped the rat race of catching Pokemons!

Which of these internet fads were you part of? Or were you the wiser one to not fall prey to them.

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Problogger October 2017 Blogging Challenge

Linking this post to #MondayMusing  #Mg Microblog Mondays

 

October 23, 2017 12 comments
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fiction writing vchallenge #FridayFotoFIction prompt
#FridayFotoFictionFiction & Writing

The Demon – Fiction Writing Challenge – #FridayFotoFiction Oct 20-25

by tinabasu October 20, 2017
written by tinabasu

Friday Foto Fiction is a weekly fiction writing challenge where we give you a photo prompt and ask you to write a 100-150 word flash fiction about it.

Hello, beautiful people, are you having a great Diwali? How was your Diwali? Did you burst loads of crackers? There’s always time for #FridayFotoFiction and fiction writing challenge if you are bored of the celebrations anytime! Fiction Writing Challenge always helps. So let’s go to prompt right away.

Fiction Writing Challenge – #FridayFotoFiction Oct20-25 Prompt

fiction writing vchallenge #FridayFotoFIction prompt
Did you Know? This was the Top Post on Indiblogger on Oct25th and trending on homepage!
Top post on IndiBlogger, the biggest community of Indian Bloggers

The Demon – Fiction Writing Challenge – #FridayFotoFiction

She can breathe now. She was free.

Free from the clutches of the demon.

Years of agony had made her a stone.

If they want to take me away – so be it. If they hang me now – so be it. I have nothing to lose anymore. She thought as she sat amidst the ruins.

When he entered the room tonight, drunk, she knew she could do it today. All she needed was the lighter! She was lucky he was completely sloshed today while he forced himself on her, yet again.

For a minute she managed to gather enough strength to strangle him with her shackles. As he burnt in the fire, she let out a scream. She had finally defeated the demon, the demon who was her father. The demon who kept her alive in restraints in the cellar for seven years! Seven years that ruined her life forever.

©Tina Basu

Word Count – 150

#FridayFotoFiction Featured Blogger Oct 13-18

Last week we had 11 wonderful stories in the #FridayFotoFiction Fiction Writing Challenge. We, without a doubt love reading through them. But we do pick up a featured blogger every week.

The featured blogger for Oct- 13-18 is Monika from AluBhujia. Like her wonderful blog’s name, she has been sending us spicy fiction pieces almost every week.

Monika is a teacher, homemaker and a mom. She loves writing amidst the daily routine work. And we already love her blog! Read her featured post Car Parking.

Congratulations Monika.

How to participate in #FridayFotoFiction Flash Fiction Writing Challenge

  1. Follow @twinklingtina & @Mayuri6 , your hosts for #FridayFotofiction, on Twitter.
  2. Every Thursday evening Tina and Mayuri will share a Photo Prompt with you on Twitter and on their respective blogs.
  3. Write a 100-150 Word story based on or relevant to the given Photo Prompt.
  4. Use the #FridayFotoFiction badge at the end of your posts.
  5. Link up with Tina or Mayuri
  6. Read, comment, share on the host and co-hosts posts and at least two more posts linked in the party.
    Pro Tip – Networking and commenting are good for your blog’s health and ranks.
  7. Use #FridayFotoFiction in your post and share in on social media using the same hashtag.
  8. Every week Tina and Mayuri will pick one featured blogger whose post impressed them the most.
  9. Every month one winner will be picked from the participants. This winner will be picked on the basis of regular participation through the month and will win a cash voucher from Amazon.
  10. Keep your fictions and engagement civil. Adult content/ affiliated links/ derogatory remarks/ hatred towards any religion is not allowed.

Grab the Badge

Tina Basu
   
October 20, 2017 18 comments
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LifestyleHome & GardenLife & Style

6 Useful Diwali Gift Ideas all under Rs. 1000

by tinabasu October 16, 2017
written by tinabasu

Diwali is just round the corner and it’s the time for gifting. Here are 6 Useful Diwali Gift Ideas for people bored of the regular dry fruits platter and sweet boxes. These Diwali Gift Ideas are utilitarian and will be enjoyed by family and friends.

The #PhatakaBlogTrain is back on my blog. The firecracker train has moved from Snigdha’s Blog to my lifestyle blog today! Snigdha is the beautiful girl behind Beauty Obsessions a popular fashion, beauty, and makeup blog. She is a mom and loves fashion, beauty, and makeup. Follow her blog for tutorials.   Thanks Snigdha for visiting my blog with the happening blog train.


Top post on IndiBlogger, the biggest community of Indian Bloggers

When was the last time you got a platter of almonds, pistachio, raisins, cashews during Diwali and you really really loved it? If you ask me, the answer is NEVER. Getting these dry fruits and sweets for Diwali is as boring as flying New York to Delhi! When you gift someone, the receiver should have a smile on her face and not think internally – Oh no not again! These Useful Diwali Gift Ideas are not your regular gift ideas, all of them have some utility for the receiver and will be loved by them.

Useful Diwali Gift Ideas

useful diwali gift ideas

Multiple Frame Wall Painting and Wall Decal

Wall paintings and wall decals are a rage these days with everyone wanting to make at least one feature wall in their house. Gift your family and friends the perfect festive multiple frame wall painting or wall decal to jazz up their house. These come in Full HD printing which gives a vivid appearance – enough to captivate everyone with the beauty.

Price: 499/- INR for 10 x 20 inches Frame

Check it out here

Body and Lip Sugar Scrubs

useful diwali gift ideas

Everyone needs to pamper their skin, don’t they. This Diwali gift your BFFs some sugar scrubs for body and lip love. Sugar scrubs are all organic and help in exfoliating skin. You can also go the DIY way and create a batch of sugar scrubs. Here’s a quick recipe for it.

You will need

  1. Granulated Sugar – 1 cup
  2. Coconut Oil – 4 tablespoon
  3. Essential oils – lavender/ lemon/ peppermint – 10-15 drops
  4. Food coloring – 5 drops (color depending on the essential oil you are using)

How to Make DIY Sugar scrub?

Mix sugar and coconut oil in a bowl.

Add essential oil and food coloring and mix well

Transfer in small jars and cover with tight lid.

Tie a ribbon or a name tag on the jar and write the name or a Diwali Greeting.

Get cute looking jars for gifting your handmade scrub, you could also add a little handmade tag to personalize the gift.

Cost – Less than 100/- INR for the ingredients for 1 batch.

Cute Journals

useful diwali gift ideas

Do your friends have a habit of writing? Are they closet poets or doodlers? Gift them a cute journal this Diwali. Journals are a writer’s best friend. You always don’t have to gift a leather embossed journal. Get a journal with fabric cover in festive designs or motifs.

Price: 814/- INR for 8” x 5.5” journal with handmade paper

Check it out here.

Cake Stand

useful diwali gift ideas

Do you visit this friend for her lip-smacking cakes and pastries? Is she The Baker in your friend’s circle? Does she love baking cakes and cupcakes? This is one of the best Useful Diwali Gift Ideas tailor-made for your baker friend. Gift a cake stand with a server or a revolving cake turntable that they can use while decorating and serving cakes for their parties!

Cost – Cake Stand with server – 550/- INR

Revolving Cake Turn Table – 333/- INR

Tea Light Holder

useful diwali gift ideas

Diwali is a festival of lights. Keeping our Make in India in mind, more and more people are choosing handmade dias and candles for decoration over the Chinese decorative lights. Gift your friend a wall mounted tea light holder to bring that festive mood in.

Cost – 699/- INR for a set of two

Check it out here

Diwali Cupcakes

useful diwali gift ideas

Move over the traditional sweets this year. Everyone will be bringing them anyone. Get Diwali cupcakes instead. Bakers across India are getting creative and making cupcakes in flavors that you have seldom come across in baking. You can find bakeries making Diwali themed cupcakes during this time with festive cupcake toppers or Indian flavors like rabdi, motichoor, kaju – pista etc.

Cost – 250/- for 6 cupcakes

Aren’t these all super cute? These 6 Useful Diwali Gift Ideas are going to make you popular this Diwali. So don’t you give it a try? Let me know.

Hope you enjoyed these useful Diwali gift ideas. There’s going to a lot of fun in October when the Blog Train #PhatakaBlogTrain visits stations!

So don’t miss out, next station is Shalini’s beautiful blog Something’s Cooking. Shalini is a very popular food and lifestyle blogger. She is also an army wife who collects her travel anecdotes in her beautiful blogs.

I am onboard on #PhatakaBlogtrain in association with Moshank Relia, Bouteilles Up  & Satthwa

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Problogger October 2017 Blogging Challenge

October 16, 2017 14 comments
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Fiction & Writing#FridayFotoFiction100 Word Fiction

The Party – Fiction writing challenge – #FridayFotoFiction Oct 13-18

by tinabasu October 13, 2017
written by tinabasu

Friday Foto Fiction is a weekly fiction writing challenge where we give you a photo prompt and ask you to write a 100-150 word flash fiction about it.

Hello, beautiful people, are you having a great Friday? How was your first week in October?. There’s always time for #FridayFotoFiction and fiction writing challenge if you are bored! So let’s go to prompt right away.

#FridayFotoFiction Oct 13-18 Photo Prompt

The Party – Fiction writing challenge – #FridayFotoFicion Oct 13-18

It was dark.

She could see nothing, but heard everything.

The van came to a screeching halt. Then there was complete silence.

All she heard was her heart pounding against the walls of her chest.

She heard the door slammed shut shaking the van from its impact.

Where is this? God help me.

“Come on now, behave. No point in screaming” he barked.

She adjusted her eyes as her hood was taken off. The rear door of the van opened to a vast space. No one was around.

The dagger shined bright like silver as he approached her.

“Please…”

All she saw was the wicked smile on the man’s face.

Time was blurred, the body started rejecting the pain of the torture. As she laid bleeding in the rear of the van in this deserted parking lot, she had just one thought – why did I go to this rave party?

©Tina Basu

Word Count – 150

#FridayFotoFiction Oct 6-11 Featured Blogger

We are loving all these beautiful entries for the photo prompts on #FridayFotoFiction. Last week there were 15 beautiful stories which had such different colors. Our featured blogger for Oct 6-11 is Rashi from Live It Young Rashi has been a content writer for six years, she likes reading, driving, and writing. Read her featured post here.

Congratulations Rashi

fiction writing challenge

How to participate in #FridayFotoFiction Flash Fiction Writing Challenge

  1. Follow @twinklingtina & @Mayuri6 , your hosts for #FridayFotofiction, on Twitter.
  2. Every Thursday evening Tina and Mayuri will share a Photo Prompt with you on Twitter and on their respective blogs.
  3. Write a 100-150 Word story based on or relevant to the given Photo Prompt.
  4. Use the #FridayFotoFiction badge at the end of your posts.
  5. Link up with Tina or Mayuri
  6. Read, comment, share on the host and co-hosts posts and at least two more posts linked in the party.
    Pro Tip – Networking and commenting are good for your blog’s health and ranks.
  7. Use #FridayFotoFiction in your post and share in on social media using the same hashtag.
  8. Every week Tina and Mayuri will pick one featured blogger whose post impressed them the most.
  9. Every month one winner will be picked from the participants. This winner will be picked on the basis of regular participation through the month and will win a cash voucher from Amazon.

Grab the Badge

 

Tina Basu

 

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Problogger October 2017 Blogging Challenge

 

October 13, 2017 11 comments
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social media platform twitter
Thankful ThursdaysBlogging Tips & Tutorials

Twitter – Social Media Platform I am Thankful for #ThankfulThursday Week 41

by tinabasu October 13, 2017
written by tinabasu

Microblogging site Twitter is one of the most popular social media platform that can be used to market your business. Short and tidy Twitter brings the world closer.

social media platform twitter

Twitter had taken the internet by storm ever since it was released in July 2006. There’s hardly anyone today who is not aware of Twitter and its reach. If you think you are important – you should be on Twitter! Twitter is not for keeping a tab on your friends life – it can be used for far engagement for your business.

I am on Twitter since Jan 2009 and have spent a considerable amount of time understanding the platform and it’s dynamics. For me Twitter is the most efficient and transparent social media platform. It is much more than a platform to drop your blog links randomly!

How to Use Twitter for your business – A social Media Platform for your business

social media platform twitter

Bio

Write a proper bio of your business showcasing your brand and what you stand for. Add your location and links to your website / blog.

Get Followers

This can be a slow process because people need to know your brand and feel the need to follow your content. But a decent amount of follower is required to get your content across your audience.

Share Content

People follow you for your content. Share content that is relevant to your niche. Your Twitter Timeline should be a mix of your own content and by others. Unless you are a huge brand and it is a brand handle you should have a mixed content.

ReTweet!

IF you don’t know what to tweet, start retweeting relevant content in your niche, or something that interests you. It creates an honest profile.

Participate in Twitter Chat and Twitter Parties

Twitter chats and Twitter parties are a good way to advertise your brand/ twitter handle. If you are a mid-sized business host Twitter Contests and giveaways. This will bring you followers and will be a good advertisement for your brand.

Use Hashtags

Twitter is a no-nonsense social media platform – it asks you to be smart and as articulate as you can. All

you have is 140 characters! Use hashtags well. You don’t have to go berserk and use hashtags like how you do in Instagram but use at least one or two relevant hashtags on your tweets. Or create a new customized hashtag.

Image

Any social media platform today is a visual medium. A picture speaks a thousand words. Use customized images on Twitter. Post the update lately, Twitter doesn’t count the characters of image links. So you have a little breather. Use images in the correct dimension customized for Twitter. For an expanded view the ideal image dimension is 1024 x 512 pixels which in stream comes at a collapsed dimension of 506×253 pixels.

Schedule Content

You can’t be online 24×7 but your feed needs to keep working. Use content scheduling sites and apps like Buffer, HootSuite, Recurpost where you can schedule tweets with date and time.

Why am I Thankful for Twitter?

I use Twitter extensively and two or three tabs of Twitter are always open on my laptop. I keep checking the feed at every 10-15 minutes interval. For me Twitter is news! I track trending hashtags, participate in twitter chats. I have my own #ThankfulThursday chats and #FridayFotoFiction Twitter Party weekly.

Twitter takes me closer to my audience. You also have a direct reach to any other brand you want to collaborate with. Twitter is one of the best Traffic sources for me.

#ThankfulThursday Week 40 Prompt

This week we ask you to share with us one social media channel that you are Thankful for.

social media platform twitter

#ThankfulThursday Week 39 Featured Blogger

ThankfulThursdays Featured blogger this week is Gayatri. Congratulations Girl.

She tells us about how Home is where the heart is.Read her heartwarming post here.

How to Participate in #ThankfulThursdays?

  1. Follow @twinklingtina  & @misra_amrita on Twitter
  2. Prompts will be announced every Wed 20:00 hrs IST
  3. Write the post and Link Up with Tina or Amrita
  4. Read, comment, share on host and co-hosts posts and at least two more posts linked in the party Pro Tip – Networking and commenting is good for your blog’s health and ranks.
  5. Use #ThankfulThursday in your post and share in social media using the same hashtag.
  6. Every week we will have one featured blogger who is the best reflection of this community spirit

Grab The Badge

Tina Basu - Being Real Not Perfect

Join the #ThankfulThursdays BlogHop

October 13, 2017 5 comments
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Welcome! I’m Tina Basu, a parenting author and lifestyle blogger dedicated to making family life simpler, healthier, and more creative. Dive in for practical parenting guides, self-care routines, and fun DIY inspiration. Let's make everyday life beautiful - click my photo to learn more!

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