Twenty- five Seven

Personally speaking

Recent Posts

  • A different kind of Winter #SuperBloggerChallenge#instacuppa

    You know a Mumbai Winter

    Many years ago, on a warm summer’s day in Warsaw, the chambermaid of the hotel we were staying in was horrified when she saw me zipping up my baby pink windcheater.

    Not only was this NOT the height of chic, but I was also the only one so ‘fashionably’ dressed.  All those around me, including the chambermaid, was stripped down to their tank tops and shorts!

    The chambermaid couldn’t contain herself and asked me where I came from.

    When I told her that a hot summer day ( 25 ° C  that day) in Warsaw was probably the coldest day in Mumbai, she rolled her eyes in disbelief.

    I realised then, that we in Mumbai are truly blessed when it comes to cold weather. It’s not really cold to those who’ve experienced cold, but it’s cold enough for you to want to stand in the sun

    You know it’s winter in Mumbai when

    • It’s pitch dark outside when you get up at  6.00 a.m.
    • You have an evening walk at 4 because it gets dark by 6.
    • The smog outside dims the lights of the Queen’s Necklace.
    • Hordes of Tibetan sweater sellers take up half the pavement in Nana’s Chowk.
    • The grannies in the building bundle up in assorted shawls.
    • Traffic light vendors shove boxes of strawberries under your nose by while you wait for the light to turn green.
    • The carrots get redder and peas soft and sweet.
    • You put away the remote for the AC and pull out those blankets kept mothballed away
    • You prefer wearing silks and long sleeved T’s.
    • When friends and family are busy with their friends and family who’ve descended on them from colder climes
    • When songs by Jim Reeves  play on radio waves
    • When cotton wool snow and tinsel and red make up decorations in shops and hotels

    A different kind of Winter

    A different Mumbai Winter

    But this Winter, Mumbai has been different. Indeed, it has been quite cold in most parts of India.

    • For one, winter has extended its stay. Normally by mid-February we have put away our blankets and woollies.
    • The temperatures are colder than normal. This year the temperatures have even dipped to 22° C as they did last night.
    • The Tibetan Sweater sellers have disappeared this year. More people are wearing stylish winter wear and Mumbaikars are actually adopting more stylish Winter wear.
    • The grannies in our building have stopped coming to the garden. They prefer chilling in their warm homes instead.  And if they  dare come down, they look like Little Red Riding Hoods, all wrapped up in red scarves and shawls to match
    • I haven’t opened up my windows for almost two months now.
    • I’m still using my razai in February.

    There’s a nip in the air these past few days and most of us are nursing sore throats and wiping noses that drip. But even though I’m harboring cold germs that threaten to sneeze, I enjoy watching the sunset with a cup of hot tea and a stiff ocean breeze.

    [bctt tweet=”As a matter of fact, Mumbai’s extended Winter makes it perfect to sip green tea all day long, keeping me warm and toasty and contain my expanding waistline!  ” username=”]
    Before the winter really leaves us, I should use this opportunity to use up all the exotic green teas that Hubby Dear got back from China.

    “Note: This article is written as part of SuperBloggerChallenge conducted by HealthWealthBridge.com and Allaboutthewoman.com and should not be repurposed, republished or used otherwise. The content herein is owned by the blogger. SuperBloggerChallenge is not responsible for any kind of infringement caused.”

    Ciao

    Image of Bellybytes

  • Why I signed up for the Super Blogger Challenge #SuperBloggerChallenge #instacuppa

    The Challenge of a challenge?

    I am one of those suckers for challenges. Especially, blogging challenges.  I love participating even if I know I’m stretching myself. Besides, the name SuperBloggerChallenge is very intriguing. Will this really take my blog to another level?  Apart from this passion to jump into challenges, there are three reasons why I signed up for the SuperBloggerChallenge.

    Working with structure, working towards a goal

    Quite simply because I am one of those people who needs  a structure to work with. I like to write but I sometimes get stuck. What do I write about? Am I really an expert at anything?

    • [bctt tweet=”As a Jack of all Trades and Master of none, a challenge gets my writing mojo going, hence I signed up for the Super Blogger Challenge 2019″ username=”viaunishta”]

    Working towards a goal is always more inspiring and motivating than just working aimlessly. While all writers write for themselves, they also want to be read and appreciated. So when I work on a platform like a blogging challenge, I know that at least for as long as the challenge lasts, I will have readers reading what I write.

    Life is life long learning

    As a full time Stay At Home Mom, I recently discovered my Ikigai: helping others. But in the course of this journey, I also discovered that all women need to have an identity separate from their family. To this end,  I have made sure that both my girls grew up to be successful professionals.

    Women who work outside are like superwomen. After all, all women have to multi-task and to work outside the house is doubling the work. And  working  women who blog? Having a full time job, a fulltime household to run, other activities to deal with like shopping , cleaning, socialisng etc and still have time to blog? Wow! Those women must be superwomen.

    Anna Shetty, my younger daughter is a doctor and I know how busy she is. In fact, I play a major role in baby sitting her kids so that she can attend to her patients. Which is why I know how hard it is for doctors to find time to do anything that demands more of their time.

    So when I find dedicated bloggers like Dr. Amrita and Dr. Bushra ( I first came upon their blogs when I did the A to Z Challenge) my jaw just drops!

    These are two super busy professionals who still find time to blog and time to coach other bloggers too. Most blogger gurus who give advice give it for a price. And very often the blog advice is just re-hashed old posts. Byt this blogging challenge is offering FREE advice. Can it get any better?

    • So part of the reason for joining this  blogging challenge is to learn something from the tips that they give during this challenge.

    Never leave a job half done

    Last year I signed up for this challenge largely because I was intrigued by this challenge (as indeed I am curious about all challenges).  Sadly, I had to give it up even before it began because the grandbabies were a whole year younger. I was travelling overseas and found it difficult to blog on mobile. And lastly, there were some family health issues at the same time.

    So this year round, I decided to actually participate in the challenge and see if I can really do it.

    Image of SuperBloggerChallenge

    So this is my first post and I do hope dear Doctors that I’ve got it right!

    “Note: This article is written as part of SuperBloggerChallenge conducted by HealthWealthBridge.com and Allaboutthewoman.com and should not be repurposed, republished or used otherwise. The content herein is owned by the blogger. SuperBloggerChallenge is not responsible for any kind of infringement caused.”

    Ciao

    Image of Bellybytes

     

  • What to do when you are battling the flu #MondayMusings


    Featured post on IndiBlogger, the biggest community of Indian Bloggers

    Battling the ‘flu

    January has been a cold month even for us lucky folks in Mumbai. The cold weather which alternates with hot, however, is great for ‘flu germs that are just waiting to attack. The first week it was sniffles for me. Then it was a stomach ‘flu for Wow Dinga and Little Po. And in the last week of January, the germs got hold of me again.

    For a while, I thought I’d battled it successfully as I still managed to have a busy and social January.

    But I was wrong.

    After a hectic weekend, I woke up to the realisation that the ugly flu bug that I’d suppressed last week, reared its head once more. Yes, despite all the doses of Cheston, all the hot toddies, the flu came back with renewed vigour.

    I woke up this morning with a heavy head, an itchy throat and a general feeling of malaise.

    Preparing myself for a boring afternoon of enforced rest, I began reading my backlog of blogs and came upon this delightful post ” I Write Like Me  ….or Do I? ” by Holly Jehangir who always comes up with a Different Perspective.  

    Write Like a Man

    In her post, Holly  analysed her writing styles by feeding in various bits of text to I write Like and got fascinating results. This site compares your writing style with that of the greats.

    So I decided to try out the tests myself.

    When I fed in Unpacking January , The Union Budget and the Banana Graph, and an earlier post of a decade ago Shopping in the time of chaos, the result was hardly flattering:

    All these analyses revealed that I wrote like

    Dear Liar, written at a time of great emotional upheaval in my life revealed that I wrote like :
    Leo Tolstoy

    Oh no! Leo Tolstoy was a boring old fart ( according to me). How on earth could I sound like a man ?

    So I tried one last time and filled in a poem Rush Hour Morning and another post Finally a New Look Blog my writing was comparable to
    Cory Doctorow

    Flattering though the comparisons may be, I was shattered!

    OMG ! Did I really write like a man?

    This was disheartening to say the least.

    So I decided to analyze my Twitter feed through Personality Insights and this is the report.

    Image for Twitter Personality analysis

    Image for Twitter personality analysis

    Image for sunburst visualisation

     

    While the Sunburst visualisation made a pretty picture, the outcome was not.  It was yet more proof that the Internet considered my writing very masculine.

    The nail on the coffin was, however, the following result from Hacker Factor Gender Guesser

    Image for Gender Guesser

     

    Alas ! That possibly explained why my distinctly gender biased grandsons accept me as one of them…..and allow me to drink and drive ( not in that order of course ) because according to them these activities are only for BOYS.

    It also explains why I am not getting my target audience of older, mature women. Perhaps I should now change my style to something more flowery, more feminine and softer.

    The upside to all this is that this,however, is that I learnt to use the snipping tool and take screenshots on a PC! Look out for a post on this soon.

    Also, it was a great way to drive away the boredom while the ‘flu germs were at work.

    Linking this up with Corinne’s #MondayMusings

    Image for Mondaymusings

    P.s Do try out these tests. They are a lot of fun if not very accurate or favourable.

    And Holly , thanks a ton for the idea….

    Ciao

    Image of Bellybytes

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started