Crossing Boundaries To Enter Digital Zone

#DigitalIndia

It was a welcome news to me to learn that one of the worlds largest and highest valued semiconductor chip makers, Intel, supports the Digital India Vision. It is heartening to know that Google, Nokia, Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft are just few of the big companies supporting the vision of Digital Vision vigorously promoted by our PM.

I personally know the value and need of Digital world which gives wings to your dreams. I am quite sure through its ‘Digital Skills for India’ and ‘Innovate for India’ initiatives, Intel along with the supportive government will succeed in nurturing and promoting technology as the enabler for creating a digitized India.

Long before Modi Government decided to take the initiative of Digital India, I had chosen to take a digital initiative to change my own life. I have to confess that I messed up with few decisions, ‘very important decisions’ of my life. Few years ago, I found myself in a very sticky situation that did not make me feel happy about myself. That is when digital media came to my rescue like a knight in shining armor.

There came a time in my life when I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I have not done anything much in my life. I had given up on my studies without pursuing graduation, did not have a stable job or financial independence to start anything anew. Moreover, I had to take care of a special needs child, which restricted my activities outdoors. It was very difficult to step the first step towards progress from where I stood at that stage.

When at loss as to how to go about making a difference to my life, I discovered computers and internet. From a tiny village called Byndoor, I started my journey which literally took me around the globe to USA. Things did not work out just at a click of a button, when I logged on to internet. It all happened one step at a time, but miles were covered in no time.

The first step for me was make sure I existed with my own identity. When women get married and move away from their home, somewhere down the lane that identity of who you are can be lost. For me it was more of self-assurance than proving my existence to someone else. That is when I decided to blog about my cancer experience, my life experiences and writing skills in a personal blog I created on Blogger. My whole life underwent a huge change with blogging.

My first major encouragement and sense of accomplishment came by when I won a cash prize of 50,000 INR in a blogging contest. That was my first achievement in quite some years. That gave me enough momentum to pick up the strands and weave a beautiful dream for future. In later months there came along many more blogging contests prizes including the first prize of Dell Inspiron from Intel for their "My Favorite PC App" contest.

Today, with the help of digital media I have a steady flow of income which has given me complete financial independence as a freelance content writer for websites. I could complete my post-graduation, since studying was easy with information available on internet. YouTube, interactive media and other study aids are way ahead of the lectures I had to sit through in my college days.

My son and daughter have both equally benefited from the digital media. My son Rayyan pursues his animation career in Digital Juice Animations as an animator, a career he desired and loved. It is amazing what you can create with computers for entertainment with some effort. My special needs daughter takes her iPad as a window through which she looks at the world. She surfs on net, goes online window shopping (which turns into shopping at times) and keeps in touch with friends through internet. With introduction to digital world, she found a way to keep herself entertained. Working online, I look forward to high speed internet availability in India. It will make a huge difference to the output of my work. Secretly, I also yearn for the entertainment options it would open for us, because we depend on internet for TV programs viewing. With the help of internet and digital media, you can reach for the skies if you have enough drive.

That is just a few things about how digital world made a change in our lives. If this can happen to a family, imagine the impact digital vision would have on a country like India, which has un-trapped potentials hidden underground everywhere.

Today India is divided into two halves of digital know-all’s and digital illiterates. When the bridge between these two sections is created, the country can see tremendous progress in short period. The main aim of Digital India is to reach out to the poor and underprivileged, who at present do not have right access to digital world.

When e-governance, e-commerce and e-health initiative will reach the rural India, we will see an emergence of modernity in our country. Tackling corruption is also going to be a lot easier with rise of Digital India. The transformation will require more than the estimated just the Rs 1,13,000 crores as projected by the government of India. It will require the cooperation of Indian citizens, both the digital literates and illiterates to bring about the change. 

It is going to be possible only when all Indians work as single Pentium chip set to make our society a digital empowered in par with any developed nation of the world. The state governments which are constantly at loggerheads with the center, for once will have to move in tandem if the change is to take place.

I am glad today that instead of arguing whether we should call it Digital India Vision or Digital Bharat Vision or Digital Hindustan Vision, the government is moving forward with the plan. That itself is a great progress for our country. Someday, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) will join the huge group of deities in India, bringing in another holiday on our calendar. That will be one holiday I will celebrate and look forward to. Like Douglas Engelbart said, “The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing”. Let the revolution begin in India!

Our Digital Planet

Thank you animator Rayyan for creating amazing images for my blog

The Joy Of Lollipop – New Moto E Smart Phone, Smart Choice

There's no denying that candy is comfort food and it's affordable.

Dylan Lauren

Fortunately for me, today Lollipop is an innovative comfort which is affordable within my budget. Nearing my 50s I do enjoy Lollipop, including breaking the ones in Candy Crush game. But here I am talking about Android Lollipop which comes with innovative advantage that will allow me to play Asphalt Airborne 8 without wearing down my phone battery. Though named lollipop, the technology comes with a major difference from its sibling KitKat (another candy). Google is a well-established platform with its own credibility, and here we see with Lollipop it moves several steps ahead. You will be amazed to see the difference of Google on mobile platform. It comes with a refined look supported by great back-end tools and protocols that makes your mobile experience quite sweet. The experience is just like sucking on your favorite lollipop candy. Comforting, soothing and joyous. You don’t have to wait for updates anymore either.

Android Lollipop is a great customize-able  platform which is damn easy to understand and use, especially if you are an android user like me. I can easily transfer all my games and apps without any hassle to my new Moto-E  from my old android phone. I can further customize Moto-E to fit my lifestyle needs from simply altering the size of my phone icons and keyboard to the complicated games and practically functional apps on my home screen.

My work is unpredictable as I am freelancer. I am always running towards the deadlines. Nothing can be worse than having your laptop with all the training program of the day soaked in the highly unpredictable rains that lash out on Bangalore anytime. From the days of making fun about weather reports, today I keep checking on Google weather to know whether I can take out my two-wheeler for the day or not. I don’t have to worry about the phone anymore since it comes with water-repellent coating and Corning Gorilla Glass protect.

People who know me, even know the ugly truth about me that I love to talk. Now with the help of new generation of smart phone, I can use my voice to get things done. Wow! All I have to do is say “OK Google” to ask a question, send a text, set a reminder, and get directions or whatever I need to do for the day. I wish people around me were as smart as these smart phones and listen to me as well.

The design of new Moto E is soft on your eyes. The curved design is gives you an easy and comfortable grip on the phone, especially when someone you called for a tiny information doesn’t give that particular information you need but continues talking about everything else. That is the time when you hold your phone tightly and realize the soft curved edge helps.

Music is a stress buster and Linkin Park can chase away stress, especially if the music is streaming from excellent front speakers of Moto E.

Somehow, I have slipped down from high-end expensive phones to appreciate the latest budget phones which come with amazing features and cost you quite less. You will not even see the shopping reflecting in your bank balance. Look at the latest New Moto-E. Priced below 7000/- on Flipkart, this amazing smart phone has every feature I would require for my daily personal and professional use. The legendary phones are climbing up the price ladder every now and then, making me lose my interest in them.

Check out these amazing feature of New Moto –E 

·         4.5-inch TFT LCD Touchscreen which allows me to read emergency work related notes

·         Dual Sim helps me manage the my personal and professional life on single phone

·         1.2 GHz Quad Core Processor enough to run most of the applications, slide shares and games

·         Wi-Fi Enabled for broadband internet speed

·         Android v5.0 (Lollipop) OS, the latest operative system that updates without delay

·         0.3 MP Secondary Camera for skyping or video conferencing

·         5 MP Primary Camera off course we need that for special photos

·         Expandable Storage Capacity of 32 GB which gets full quite fast nowadays

I cannot convince myself to spend 10 times extra money on a phone when the budget phone gives me all the practical and necessary use of phone. I #ChooseToStart making new smart choices of savings with the new Moto E phone. It is all new sweet and smart experience that comes with using a smart phone which fits in like a glove to both my professional and personal lifestyle.

Being Lazy and Cooking Easy

We all have dual personalities like Dr. Jekyll and Hyde, not to that extreme though. Don’t you see students who hate studying whole the year (Hyde) turning suddenly drowning in books (Dr. Jekyll) just prior to exams? An employee who hates office, showing enthusiasm for work in the beginning of month. A nagging wife going all romantic when she carries a shopping list in her hand. The examples would be unending.

I tend to the Hyde part of me when I have to cook breakfast, only to turn into Dr. Jekyll when I am preparing dinner for my family. I love to start my days by playing games, catching up with facebook posts (which I can’t do anymore), checking out my plans for the day, getting ready for work and reading news rather than spending my time in kitchen cooking food. In the evening when I am done with most of my work, I love to spend time whipping out a grand feast for my family (especially my two children who love any food I prepare for them).

Happy with Mom's food

I know how unhealthy it is for people to follow a pattern of eating no breakfast, medium lunch and heavy dinner. Being a loving mom, I see to it that my children get good breakfast, good lunch and good dinner without compromising on my own lifestyle. I often keep things ready to fix a quick breakfast before hitting the bed. That makes preparation of breakfast easy for me in the morning. I never run out of eggs, fruits, milk, bread and Kellogg at home. I usually cook something along with the dinner that can be had for lunch the next day as well, because there are times when I am working away from home, and cannot be there to cook lunch.

Rayyan loves Kellogg whereas Farheena loves eggs for breakfast. When I have to pack lunch for Farheena, I do get up very early in the morning and cook a good lunch for her which leaves me free in the afternoon. By hook or crook, I get the best of both worlds. Somehow both my children gain weight differently. Farheena, who doesn’t love chocolates, ice-creams or cakes is heavy whereas I don’t understand why all those weight gaining food doesn’t affect Rayyan. But they both have good immunity and seldom fall sick. They are strong and healthy. That assures me they are getting proper nourishment.

If you ask me why I would go Gupta’s home for a breakfast, I would say simply because I am lazy to cook my own breakfast. Any easy way out is always welcome for me, and off course there is the mouthwatering temptation of innovative recipes which I would love to taste. I do love any food that is easy to cook, healthy and tasty as well. I know it is too much to ask for, but Kellogg makes sure that it is not impossible.

After Death, Do We Part?

I have always wondered over the phrase, “Till death do us part”. Do we really part ways with our loved ones when death strikes? We cannot define parting ways until we can clearly define what being together means.

Behind Every Successful Mother Is A Supportive Child

How much of challenges can a person handle? How much can a 4.8 year old child handle? Answering that question was tough on me when I was going through cancer. All the hush hush talk about my surgery was making my 4.8 year old son very nervous. He knew something was wrong with his Maa and that something was not good. We did not have heart to let him know that his Maa was suffering from cancer which was a life threatening illness. Also, I had no clue how to explain the mastectomy surgery to him.

Giving Yourself A Second Chance

Some of my best memories from childhood are from my primary school. My teachers were loving and affectionate towards me, though I was a bit of rebellious and naughty girl. I think I made up for that part by being extremely studious, up to date with my work and also the teacher’s chamcha. I always wanted to study and become a professional, which was a scary thought for my mom, who never stepped in school. She always worried about me losing my head by reading too much. I was seldom seen without a book in my hand, which was not appreciated by my mother.

Are Our Mobile Phones Replacing Other Gadgets?

                                             

Remember the days when 3-in-1 meant a cassette player, radio and cassette recorder all rolled in one? The younger generation would not even know about them because soon CDs replaced the cassettes and we had the cassette players combined with CD players in coming years.

Head Over Heels

All Images are ©  SpikyEye & Animator Rayyan

 #MyAsusZenFone 

Nova - Bangalore IVF Baby Meet

Dad - A Tough Role To Play

It is much easier to become a father than to be one.

Kent Nerburn

Fatherhood is not a relationship that comes naturally as motherhood. I know you are already disagreeing with me and getting ready to argue. I feel that way because in most of the animal kingdom, including our own so called ancestors – I do not see any special bond between the father and child. It is the mother who nurtures the baby and makes them to be independent.