https://tinabasu.com
being real, not perfect
  • About
  • Parenting
    • Mommy & Parenting
    • For New Moms
  • Lifestyle
    • Life & Style
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
  • Beauty
  • Let’s Collaborate
  • Parenting

  • Lifestyle

  • Beauty

SponsoredMommy & ParentingParenting

The Storyteller – Colgate Magical Stories

by tinabasu July 31, 2016
written by tinabasu

Children are better story tellers than adults, aren’t they? Colgate’s new pack has everything to create the Colgate magical stories – run their imagination. The little fiction mentioned below is a snippet of magical stories that a child can come up with.

Reyansh was back from his school. He was more excited than usual. Nani, had promised to finish the story she started last night. He’s always fascinated how she knows so many stories – kings, demons, ghosts, princess stories there’s never a shortage of anything.

“What happened to the little girl, nani?” He asked.

By the time nani finished the story he was fast asleep with a head full of imagination.

One day, he discovered the new Colgate pack which said it had sea creatures inside. He soon took out his craft scissors and got onto work. He had got a mermaid, shark, crab, a treasure map and a sea castle. He soon ran to his grand mom to show the pictures.

colgate-magical-stories

“Nani, look here, see what I found here!”

“What is it Rey?”

“A treasure map! The bad king has made the mermaid a prisoner and has hid her somewhere in the castle along with the treasure. Do you think I can save her?”

“Why not Rey, but how will you go there?”

“Look, I found the crab, he can show me the direction. I am going to ask the shark to give me a ride. I am going to follow the map and with the help of the crab I am going to save the mermaid and get my hands on the treasure.

The fish king is a bad king, the fishes in the ocean are not happy with him. I’ll give the treasure to them instead.

Will they all like that, nani?”

“Of course they’ll like it, you are a brave hero Rey”.

Within a few days Reyansh had collected all the magical sea creatures he could find in the other Colgate packs. There were pirate ships, dolphins, swordfishes. He was very excited to collect them all. He placed them on his study table.

colgate-magical-stories

“Nani, do you who I met today?”

“Who, beta?”

“Captain Blackbeard had come to me for help along with his parrot. His parrot speaks and told me ‘Hello Rey’! The lion fish had attacked their ship and had stung Saddie. You know what I did, nani?”

“What did you do, my brave boy?”

“I gave Saddie some water and medicine and took out my scissors and chopped the lion fish’s fin rays. Now he cannot sting any one!”

“So is Saddie better now, Rey”

“Yes, she is fine and the Captain is happy.”

“Did you meet the Octopus also?”

colgate-magical-stories

“Yes, you know it was coming to grab me and said will take my nani, away. But I didn’t get scared. I sprayed toothpaste on its eyes. You know what happened then, he was so scared that he was trying to run on his tentacles but couldn’t see where he was going. He bumped into the dolphin and the pufferfish and they started laughing at him”. Reyansh and his grand ma laughed away with his little stories.

colgate-magical-stories

colgate-magical-stories

***

Children are better story tellers than adults, aren’t they? Their heads are full of imagination. They can create so many stories out of thin air. I hope my son, who turned 1 two days back, grows up to be an imaginative uninhibited human in life.

This is a sponsored post

July 31, 2016 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ReviewsBook Review

Book Review – Secretly Yours by Vikrant Khanna

by tinabasu July 30, 2016
written by tinabasu

book-review-secretly-yours

Vikrant Khanna’s Secretly Yours promises mystery, secrets, thrill and romance. I was looking forward to it since the blurb of the book was pretty promising. Here’s the complete book review.

Book Blurb

Orphaned at birth, seventeen year old Sahil has always blamed himself for his parent’s death. He has little interest in life until he meets the enigmatic Anya in a chance encounter during the Shimla fest. He soon falls head over heels in love with her, but Anya doesn’t reciprocate his feelings.

An accident leaves Sahil in a coma, and when he wakes up, he makes a startling discovery – he can read minds! Now he can find out what goes on in Anya’s head and maybe, just maybe, make her fall in love with him. But is Anya all that she seems? Or is she hiding something?

Deliciously plotted, full of morbid secrets and startling revelations, Secretly Yours will make you question what you see and who you trust.

Plot

Sahil is a regular teenager with troubled childhood. He is accused by his grandmother for his dad’s death – when he commits suicide after his wife dies while giving birth to Sahil. He takes to self- harm, smoking, alcohol, flirting with random girls to keep him occupied and momentary relief. He has trouble in socializing with family and focuses on music, reading and is in love with the new girl, Anya, in his music academy. However, Anya rejects his proposal leading Sahil to writing and he manages to get halfway through his barely written book.

There are bizarre events happening around him. He encounters a freak accident, slips into coma and wakes up with a new found talent – he starts mind reading. (Remember Twilight?)

My Thoughts

Narrative: I found the narrative pretty disjointed and slow. When you have ‘From the Best Selling Author’ on the cover of the book, you naturally start to expect a good read. There are murders happening but you never get to know the story. The blurb is misleading and so are the chapter names. It seems two different people have written the story and the chapter names!

Sometimes the author gets into minute details, unnecessarily – it only made the read long. The end is pretty predictable. The story goes haywire midway and you have no idea what are you actually reading – mind reading or murders or something else.

The novel talks about social issues of rape, suicide, Indian Judicial system which is good but somehow the read didn’t excite me much.

Character Development: The characters are very loosely developed. Where you can sympathize with the troubled teenager initially you can never understand the characters of the grandmother or Sahil’s friends. The girl keeps disappearing, there’s a serial killer on loose – in short you never know which way the story is going!

Editing: You don’t expect a poorly edited book from Penguin Books Ltd. But sadly it is in this case.

About the Author – Vikrant Khanna

vikrant_khanna

Vikrant Khanna is a captain in the merchant navy. His first book When Life Tricked Me (2011) is a National Bestseller and was liked by the young readers. You can read about him at his site .

My Rating

1.5 out of 5. It was a disappointing read – didn’t give me any thrill, I didn’t find it romantic. And where was the mind reading anyway?

Book Details

Secretly-Yours-by-Vikrant-Khanna

Paperback: 280 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books Limited (16 June 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143425919
ISBN-13: 978-0143425915

This review is a part of the biggest Book Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

July 30, 2016 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
storytelling, kids story
LifestyleMommy & ParentingParenting

Storytelling – a child’s play

by tinabasu July 22, 2016
written by tinabasu

storytelling, kids story

Storytelling is an art. We all have grown up on stories – haven’t we? The stories that your grandma used to tell, the kings and demon stories that you heard from your mum or the endless hours of cartoon networks that you watched – those were the staples of your childhood, isn’t it?

My mum tells me I was quite at story telling myself. I still remember few incidents. I was probably in the second standard when I was very fascinated with dimples, because one of my friends at school had dimples and I didn’t! I would constantly pester my grandma on – why on earth I didn’t have a dimple! She had said sometime ‘you need to ask a fairy’.

For two nights after dinner I escaped into our terrace watching up the moonlit sky waiting for the fairy! One fine day I asked my mum if she could see the dimple on my cheeks that I could now see. When she replied in the negative – I narrated how the fairy had come down one night and pinched my cheeks and said now I am going to have dimples! So how on earth she couldn’t see them?

That’s how children are – master storytellers. Their innocence and inquisitive mind are the perfect ingredients for this skill.

I am trying to instill life skills into my son – who is going to turn one next week. I like reading to him, I sing for him, make faces for him right since he was two months old. That time he used to sleep faster with all the Rock a By Baby and Hush Little Baby. And now at 12 months we are quite a pro at making faces, making sounds, cooing, laughing, giggling and doing a lot of naughtiness.

I want to give him all the freedom that he needs to be a kid. As a parent I want him to have a free mind and make mistakes. It’s only by making mistakes he’ll learn what’s right, what’s wrong. I want him to run wild with imagination. Isn’t it great that we give our children the power to think and imagine whatever they want? I want him to come up share crazy stories with me. His stories on becoming an astronomer or may be Iron Man! (By the way he’s keeping himself busy in the kitchen, smashing things up – I won’t be surprised if he wants to become HULK!)

POWER OF IMAGINATION

The other day I was listening to a kid in the elevator who couldn’t stop describing about some sea world and creatures. I love how they express themselves – without any inhibition, so much of expression and such integrity.

I think it’s not long, before Bluey, my son, would be rushing towards me with some stories of castles, sea world, super heroes or god knows what. I guess I’ll enjoy them. Isn’t it good that their day to day stuffs help them to go wild with imagination? Colgate these days come with packs with interesting sea creatures and trivia about them. Kids can cut out the shapes and play and come up with interesting stories themselves. Imagine opening a pack of toothpaste and getting a shark inside! Boosting them to create their own #colgatemagicalstories.

brandcover

Listen to some wonderful stories by kids.

July 22, 2016 0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
New Mom LifeParenting

The Post-Partum Pandemonium

by tinabasu July 18, 2016
written by tinabasu

image 001_6

Your life changes after having a baby – that’s a known fact. There’s a new being – in my case a hyperactive and always charged being – in your life. So you can’t think straight ever about just yourself, you always have a tail. Now I am not going to rant today about weight issues, stretch marks etc but the other significant changes that have been brought upon me – much against my wishes. No I am not having PPD (Post-partum Depression).

Patience is a Virtue!

2d81f3d361aa8c2b752b0207f77c9828

Whoever coined that phrase must be a mommy. I used to think I am a patient per
son, a good listener and quite a calm person. I used to counsel my friends in my PG and listen quite patiently about their problems – yeah love and relationship problems. But I never knew all that would be put to test once a little 75 cm tall man will enter my life. Much against my wishes, much against my nature towards anyone –for that matter- I find myself screaming at my kid!!! Okay don’t judge me, I love him, but I lose it sometimes. I am doing the 10-1 countdown every time I am on the verge of losing it. But I am a human after all – and might not be the perfect mom!

The Tress Mess

I have had long hair almost all through my youth. I used to take some sort of a pride (if I may) in my naturally straight waist length hair. All through the pregnancy I had great bouncy hair and glowing skin and even after delivery and hormonal changes the hair fall was okayish. But ever since the little hulk turned 6 months I am literally counting the leftovers! More than the hormonal hair fall I am a victim of hair being pulled out. Bluey takes great pleasure in pulling my hair with all his strength. He thinks it is some sort of a play! No amount of scolding, screaming, yelling, crying, pleading, begging has worked out till now. I don’t know if there will be any hair strands left by the time he is a little older to understand these things! I am too embarrassed to photograph the fallen hair every time I put my hand on my hair!

Hair-Loss-Problems-in-College-Goers

Emotional Fool

Pregnancy hormone does this to you, I have read. But even after one year of giving birth??? There was a time when I used to think – or rather was – a strong girl emotionally. So things like friend problems, break ups, family problems, work related problems never got me so worked up. I knew it, it’s not the end of the world and nothing could make me shed a tear. But lately, I have become an emotional box of tissues! I have cried lately while watching movies, reading books, thinking about my son’s teething issues, and even when the maids didn’t turn up!!! That is so not me – but yeah that is me now! If you are not emotional all the time after becoming a mom, there’s something not normal!

Screen-Shot-2013-10-16-at-7.26.36-AM

Okay, let me not tell you anymore and make this a rant post! I am getting emotional thinking about Mr. Darcy currently – how bad he would have felt being rejected by Elizabeth in the first place. Just finished re-reading Pride & Prejudice and am into Darcy world currently – now that’s not normal right? But that’s what the pandemonium is – nothing is normal after having a child I guess!

If you are a new mom you can’t escape this pandemonium – it might be different for you, but you will see some change. Or is it different for you? Share your experiences with me ladies. Have you come across the parenting community Confused Parents? I did recently and sounds like fun with expert opinions, scores of real mommies and many interesting topics.

Posting for #MondayMusing at Write Tribe.

July 18, 2016 2 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
books, reading update
Lifestyle

5 Romance Fictions I am reading this July

by tinabasu July 15, 2016
written by tinabasu

books, reading update

Let me give you my July reading update. Lately I have turned into a romance junkie and am like reading romance fiction like a crazy person. Normally, I am the one to enjoy thrillers, murder and crime kind of stuff, but I guess such shift keeps happening!

Last month I read the entire Crossfire series by Sylvia Day, maybe I’ll do a review post of the entire series sometime in next week. July started with Me Before You by Jojo Moyes which I have already reviewed. I got some kindle credits with which I purchased several books, many of them were on sale and got them pretty cheap, so there’s a lot to read.

Pride & Prejudice

pride and prejudice

I did a post earlier Top 5 Romance Novels Worth Re-reading and Pride & Prejudice was on top of it.

Somehow I am very fascinated with Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and I am re-reading it for the fourth time I guess.

Jane Austen is like the queen of romance and wit!

After You

after you

After reading Me Before You I was so emotional that I just didn’t want to continue reading the sequel.

That’s why I went over to Pride & prejudice for some feel-good factor.

But my friend Preethi says I must read After You and I would like it and it wouldn’t be as I am thinking. So this is up next.

The Girl Who Loved A Pirate (Andy Karan series Book 2)51OJEFNR43L._SX316_BO1,204,203,200_

This is the second book in the Andy Karan series, written by Kulpreet Yadav. I had read and reviewed Catching the Departed earlier so I am looking forward to reading the second book.

The Bestseller She Wrote 

26802440

This is in the romance genre by Ravi Subramanian.

I have enjoyed his earlier works The God is a Gamer and The Bankster both of which were thrillers.

This would be the first romance work I’ll read by him, I am not sure if he has written many romance stuff.

Eleanor & Park

15745753

I have been reading lot of positive reviews about this one.

It’s a romance fiction again, about two misfits. This is a high school kind of set up – young teen romance.

I am pretty much looking forward to it.

Over next few weeks, these on my tab are going to be my friends. My son is extremely jealous of books and laptop, so I had to switch over to reading e-books. Somehow he’s ok with it because he doesn’t find the black and white screen of the reader enthralling!

[color-box]Have you read any of these books? If you have you can let me know your experiences. And if you can, recommend me some good romance fiction please – the feel good ones. What are in your reading list BTW?[/color-box]

July 15, 2016 9 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
ReviewsMovie Review

Movie Review Dear John starring Channing Tatum & Amanda Seyfried 

by tinabasu July 14, 2016
written by tinabasu

dear john, nicholas sparks, channing tatum

Dear John, directed by Lasse Hallstorm is an adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel by the same name. This 2010 romance drama is a movie about a young soldier and his girl finding love on a summer break but they fail to find happiness together. Their romance is sweet, their love is passionate but fate has a play in it, as always.

The Story

John Tyree (Channing Tatum), the US Army Special Forces specialist is back home at Charleston, South Carolina, on a two week break. He meets the young and beautiful college girl Savannah played by Amanda Seyfried while her purse falls in the sea. John dives in the sea to get her purse and as a gesture of thanks is invited at the BBQ party. They spend these two weeks in each other’s company and are in love – like crazy.

John’s father is a quiet man, who has an interest in coins and has a massive collection. He has difficulty in having any meaningful conversation with his son, or anyone for that matter. His house is in perfect order – with the couch wrapped in plastic, dinner plates displayed perfectly in the crockery unit. He cooks meat loafs on every Saturday and Lasagna on Sundays. When Savannah meets him, she realizes John’s father is mildly autistic.

Her confrontation with John on this matter doesn’t go well. John had never thought about autism or any serious condition but believed his dad was just quiet. He has to join back his team and they decide to write letters to each other so that they know what is happening in each other’s life. Over the course of 12 months several letters are sent and received through air mail. But 9/11 changes everything and after spending two days break with Savannah, John decides to re-enlist.

For nearly, two months he doesn’t receive a letter till the final ‘Dear John’ reaches him. Savannah, being the nice, compassionate girl she is marries Tim, because he needed her. John keeps re-enlisting himself to stay away from everything and let the war work as a drug. When he meets her after several years he learns about Tim’s cancer but also learns that Savannah has always loved him in spite of her decision to marry Tim or taking care of his autistic son.

John and Savannah are not together, yet they are in love with each other and there is a sense of commitment.

My Thoughts

Channing Tatum as the young soldier is HOT. He’s hot while surfing, he’s hot while just sitting around the beach, is hot while reading the letters in the Army aircraft and is hot while putting bullets onto the enemies. Amanda Seyfried is cute, but let’s stick to Tatum for a while. He brings love, care, concern on screen effortlessly. But he could have been so much more! Hallstorm’s direction was a letdown for me, like song with good lyrics but not-so-good music!

Channing Tatum

Hot enough?

While coming to lyrics – if you are to blame anyone for a bigger let down you should be asking Mr. Sparks. That he doesn’t want his characters to be happy or can’t do without killing someone is a universal truth now. But Dear John doesn’t tell you where they stand finally – distant lovers, acquaintances, social friends or what? I guess Sparks gets some sort of a high to get that sad smile on his reader’s face!

channing tatum

I like that look

This is not a sob story thankfully. Dear John which started as a charming story lost it somewhere in between.

My Verdict

If you want to watch it do that for Channing because he’s cute (no I am not biased). This is a 2010 movie so you can Youtube or Netflix it easily. I’ll give it probably a 2 and a half. Umm, 2 for Channing and ½ for everything else. Yeah that should be fine.

P.S. This post is not for Channing Tatum, if you really want to believe me!

July 14, 2016 4 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Newer Posts
Older Posts

About Me

About Me

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!

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
english moral stories for kids

Archives

Tina Basu

Explore

Work With Me

Connect

Writer, mother, and creative professional working across content, design, and SEO. This space brings together thoughtful living and meaningful work.

Parenting

Lifestyle

Beauty

Latest Posts

About Me

Content Writing

Content Creation

Branding & Graphic Design 

SEO Consulting

 

Contact Me

Work With Me 

Instagram 
Email

https://tinabasu.com
  • About
  • Parenting
    • Mommy & Parenting
    • For New Moms
  • Lifestyle
    • Life & Style
    • Health & Wellness
    • Home & Garden
  • Beauty
  • Let’s Collaborate