Saturday 24 January 2015

Going Sleek With Incredible ASUS!

As a travel blogger who is constantly on the move and has an innate need to capture all big and small travel stories in photos and words, I often find my enthusiasm marred by lack of effective gadgets that are easy to carry around. More importantly my laptop – it’s a bulky piece and more often than not, I prefer leaving it at home rather than lugging it all around in my backpack that any-ways remains stuffed with other sundry travel requirements. My laptop is not just bulky but has battery issues too. So rather than carrying a burden of a laptop on my back, I prefer to come back from the travels and then transfer all the data on it once I am back. This of course, takes the surprise elements out because by the time I am back home after days of travel, old photographs begin gathering the proverbial dust and the old fun stories too have lost their charm.

It's because of these sad after-stories that I am almost always on the lookout for news of newer and better gadgets and computer devices. And today when a tech-savvy friend introduced me to a couple of ASUS netbooks, my curiosity got piqued - for they indeed look like what I have been looking for! I have specially been taken in by the charms of the sleek and powerful ASUS EeeBook X205TA, the stylish and lightweight, netbook, perfect for someone who's always on the move and needs a powerful portable computer device. 



The ASUS EeeBook X205TA is not just compact and elegant, but also boasts of an great tech specs, has Windows 8.1 OS, comes with 11.6 inch screen, and is super lightweight - weighs less that 1Kg! And since battery life in current laptop is my particular concern, I looked up the battery details on this one and found that X205 comes with a 2-cell battery that is equipped to provide up-to 12 hours of battery life. Also the ASUS WebStorage allows a user to sync all personal files between the personal devices, making file accessing and sharing easier.

Another ASUS product that has got me tempted is the ASUS All In One PCET2040. The brand is promoting it as a simple, versatile and powerful personal computer, and from the looks of it, this device indeed looks like a must have for people like me, who want their gadgets to be simple and easy to use and yet be super efficient and savvy.



Here's a look at it's technical specs -

  • Intel Pentium Quad Core J2900 Processor
  • 2.41 GHz with Turbo Boost upto 2.66 GHz
  • 2GB RAM
  • 500GB Hard Drive
  • 19.5'' HD 1366x768 LED-backlit Non-Touch
  • Windows 8.1 BING 64-Bit Operating System
  • Intel HD Graphics
  • 1 x 3-in-1 card reader
  • 1 x audio jet
  • 65W Adapter


Besides the fact that ASUS All In One PCET2040 is an incredibly fast and powerful device, the innovative Gesture Control feature too has got me excited about this one! One can control the multimedia players or even browse the internet from up to five meters away from the computer. Now that would be fun!

So battery eating, bulky laptops - your time is up! Make way for the incredibly sleek, powerful, versatile and fun ASUS instead! Way to go!

How Do I Love Thee?

How Do I Love Thee? Let me count the ways
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace!

Ah, I know I know, I have borrowed Ms Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous sonnet for expressing my love for that special someone I have a huge crush on, but, but, but...fret not, for plagiarism is not my way, and this beautiful sonnet is just my primer, helping me channelize my deep emotions and sometime soon I intend to use this love and energy to put together and magnum opus of my own...one on love and his myriad ways...one in which I will pour my heart and emotions out and propose to the crush of my life. 


But the till the time inspiration strikes and I sit down to put my thoughts on love together, I have been inspired to try some fun ways to propose too. You see since Valentine's Day is just the corner, the move messenger Cupid is working over-time to inspire people to make 'The' move, ahem, ahem...and your truly too has been a victim of his arrow too. And spicing things up is Close Up's fun Cupid Games campaign! Check out this hilarious video to see what the campaign is all about -


Hmmm...you got it right, alright! It's all about taking the dare to propose to your crush! And you see, besides the cupid's vicious arrow, it is this video that has inspired me to get going! So how I am going to propose to my crush! See, I have got it all figured out (wink! wink!), and here's what I will do! 

Put it out in the newspaper!
A full page proposal in the newspaper would be daring, quirky and lots of crazy fun! I can already imagine him breaking into a beautiful smile and nodding in appreciation!

Record it for the Radio!
So 'he' is tuned in to to his favourite FM show featuring retro hits, Kishore Kumar singing...O mere dil ke chaine, chain aaye mere dil ko...and the music fades and there I come on-air...doling out all my love for him! Oopsie, doopsie, it's got me blushing already! Do-able! Very do-able! 

During a trekking expedition!
So we are on an arduous trek, and summit the mighty peak together and there I go, all ready flaunting a proposal flag at him.  Something like - Let's trek through the life together! Hmm...serious, but bold.

Bless the Cupid Games campaign to fill me up with these fun and unique proposal ideas. Trust me they are so much better and energizing than your mundane - Will you marry me? And now they, they have got me in the mood, let me think of some more daring and quirky proposal ideas and zero in on one.

What? The Magnum Opus? Well, it can wait!! :)


This post is a part of Close Up's Cupid Game 2015 campaign, in association with Indiblogger.
Photo courtesy: Love in India

Thursday 22 January 2015

The Curious Case of the Great Indian Litterbug

The Great Indian Litterbug,
he amuses me much.
His curious case befuddles me too,
the country is in his clutch!

Ah, that was a pathetic rhyme I know, but I guess not as bad as the state of our streets and roads oozing with the love constantly being left behind by the Indian Litterbug. Ah, before you wonder who this seemingly larger-than-life sounding gentleman is and try to put two and two together, let me do the honours - here's a video introducing him.


So you see, here he is, THE OMNIPRESENT, OMNIPOTENT - the Great Indian Litterbug, forever armed with powerful gears to litter the road. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan be damned, he says, for no abhiyaan or mission can come in his way to keep our oh-so great country littered and teeming with filth.

But despite his myriad ways to keep his surroundings God-awful, the Great Indian Litterbug is beyond my comprehension. For the life of me, I fail to understand this man and how his mind works and what keeps him going!  He uses the roads as his spittoon,  the pavements and the roadside walls as his urinal, and the streets at large as his garbage bin! Sigh. No pleadings, no threats, no sarcasm works on him. No mocking either - you write on a wall

Gadhe ke poot,
Yahaan mat moot

but no, he has to moot (pee :D) right on that wall, right under those words berating him. He's an idiot, assh*le aright, for all he cares. When a man has to go, a man has to go, you see. When the nature calls, the call must be answered right away, that's his logic and you dare not defy that. Cleanliness is next to Godliness bullshit be damned too, such preachings are for the books, and of course the phoren countries, he argues, and not for the desis like us. Duh, sir.

Do get to know more about the Great Indian Litterbug and his many shenanigans, you can check out this quirky website - The Great Indian - but readers, I plead you, yes I plead you, do not, I repeat do not, in any way be influenced by the Great Indian Litterbug's reckless abandon. Do not be taken in by his filthy ways. For you see , he is 'like that only' - and you are not him, and he is not you. (I assume, I hope!) You know better, no? On that note, let's all come together to decipher the curious case of the Great Indian Litterbug, and pledge to be  part of our Prime Minister's Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan, for his clarion call for cleanliness is addressed to every single one of us.  

This post is a part of the Great Indian Litterbug campaign by The Times of India, in association with Indiblogger.