Life without the Internet would be dull and boring # WOW

January 31, 2016
When I get up in the morning I look at my phone for any messages that may have come in the night ( I have friends and family in different time zones if not physically, at least mentally)

I also look at my phone the last thing at night.

In fact, before the Internet, I never looked at my phone – I didn’t even have a mobile phone. Today, thanks to the Internet and even smarter phone, I am ashamed to say that I spend a lot more time with my phone.

Thanks to the Internet, I could help conduct a business overseas and currently manage my content writing, editing and other jobs that I do without so much as moving out of my house.

My children are convinced that the Internet is my first true love because when the net is down my life is blue.

So perhaps they are not wrong.

When I first got my computer way back when the only computers available were the 486 desktops with a hard disk tower that needed a separate trolley and a monitor that was a mini-TV, I wanted a computer only to type my big, fat, Indian, novel.

Since then, I discovered the joys of the Internet which I use for
- writing
- researching
- communicating- sending messages via What’sApp, SMS and Mail
- booking holidays, and tickets for movies and the train
- venting – on Social Media via Twitter, Instagram and WordPress
- storing my personal information
- creating graphics, pictures etc with all the free software available
- shopping for groceries, books, pampers and more
So without the internet my life would be dull and boring. Life without the internet would be unimaginable. I don’t even want to think about it!

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.
My Life As A Pie #WYHO

January 31, 2016
Two days ago I read a very interesting post on Corinne’s Blog which inspired me to write this post. For those of you who are following her blogs regularly, this was the second in her series where she inspires you to find your ‘write’ voice.

So I decided to follow one of the exercises she had suggested this week which was to map out your life as a pie and find which areas need working on.

Life Pie
Divide a circle into six parts. Label them – spirituality, exercise, romance, play, work, friends and family.
Place a dot in each section at the level to which you are fulfilled in that area — out on the rim if you’re very pleased with that part of your life, toward the center if you are less fulfilled. Connect the dots. You will soon see the areas that need focus. Choose one and work on it this week.

This very interesting exercise helped me in more ways than just one
1. It helped me understand how to work with Piktochart. This in fact is my very first Infographic. I’ve been trying to work with Infographics but have not really bothered to pursue them simply because I didn’t know what to do? What Information can I show graphically?
2. This activity also helped me make my blog post different from what it is. all blog advisers say that in order a blog remains interesting and engaging, you should vary the content. So hopefully with this first infographic, I will have varied the format from the usual text and photo which I am so familiar with.
3. With this post taking up more time than usual. it has helped me fulfil coming closer to one of my goals of being ME ( paint on Sundays). While a infographic doesn’t exactly qualify as a Sunday painting, graphic designing is a form of creativity that is artistic and challenging.
4. Finally, having put things down as a pie chart, I can see how exactly my life is divvied up.
Obviously, the most part of my day is taken up by my work, the next part with my friends and family ( F & F). Now for those who haven’t figured it out, I am a SAHM and my work involves my friends and family.

Spirituality and Play take 2 % which is frankly OK with me as I’m not very spiritually inclined (I don’t even take more than a drink a month at best!) and play? Well most of my work is play as I spend a large part of my day with my three grandchildren so I don’t really need to spend any more time “playing” do I?

Which brings me to the last part Exercise. Bringing up babies is hard work – bending over, lifting them, bathing them, looking under beds for toys that can’t be found, horsing around with them and even pushing them around in a pram for a half hour can get you a bad back, a tennis elbow and a sticky knee which professional athletes spend hours acquiring. To avoid all these injuries that sportsmen are prone to, I try and fix in some Yoga.

Which brings me to the conclusion

I AM DOING EXACTLY WHAT I WANT.

However, following the prompt for this week’s #WYHO

What do you need to allow to take more time or space in your life?

I, perhaps, need to find time to have more play – more time to read, more time to be creative and more time to relax and more time to be inspired.

Work is a given . We need some meaningful activity and gainful employment to feel a sense of worth. Yet it should not consume us. We all need to find a few moments of quietude in our busy days to take some time off to smell the coffee and savour its flavour ; time to take a deep breath and feel the moment.

I’d like to end with the more famous lines of WH Davies that I’ve quoted from allpoetry.com

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Hope you get time to smell the coffee!

I’m linking this to #WYHO

Sky with the Setting Moon and Rising Sun

January 29, 2016

Very rarely can one see the sun rising and the sun setting in the very same sky from the very same spot at the very same time. I know this happens every day, but it’s not often that I’m awake and free to capture this phenomenon .

This Saturday past (23rd) we had a full moon. I looked up eastwards in the morning sky and captured the orange orb lighting up a golden sky.

On the other side of the house, the sky was different – pink an blue with the full moon saying good bye .

That night I captured the full moon staring at the city lights below

Now wasn’t that a glorious sight to wish the world a very good night?

Yesterday we had the most horrific haze enveloping our city in its deathly embrace. The unusual cold weather and the increasing levels of pollution made Mumbai’s air quality the 2nd worst in the world. This is what SAFAR, the Ministry of Earth Science’s System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research has to say :

Air Quality Forecast (1-3 days): Levels in µgm-3

MUMBAI

Pollutants	Today	Advisory	Tomorrow’s Forecast	Advisory	After 3 days	Advisory
PM10 (µgm-3)	217.8	Moderate	213.9	Moderate	212.85	Moderate
PM2.5 (µgm-3)	153.1	Very Poor	152.5	Very Poor	151.5	Very Poor

We only have our politicians to thank for this sorry state of affairs. And of course the activists who don’t want to change a thing and the builders who want to grab land and the auto manufacturers who want to sell more.

It’s not EARTH that’s suffering but US, the regular man on the street who is slowly choking in the mess he helped create .

I am linking this to SKYWATCH FRIDAY which you should visit for more cheery pictures of skies from around the world.

Also posting this to Blog Commenting Tribe hosted by Corinne.

Happy Weekend all! May you enjoy two days of well deserved relaxation and peace.

Life without the Internet would be dull and boring # WOW

My Life As A Pie #WYHO

What do you need to allow to take more time or space in your life?

Leisure

Sky with the Setting Moon and Rising Sun