Gifts I Would Gift Thee

Dear Rehaan

What gifts do I give thee?
A cupboard
full of books
or a hundred
seas to see?
Or do you want something
that excites you more
Dora's company
and a new world to explore!

My nephew Rehaan is a curious little boy of four. As a toddler he developed a liking for books, thanks to the many bed-time stories that his mother read out to him, night after night. As he grew older, the love for books too grew and soon enough he was taking unsteady steps towards his book shelf to pull out random books and browse through the pages. Many a times, thrilled by the big colourful pictures, he would bring back the book to whoever was sitting close enough and would make them read out the stories therein.

Now as he is getting older, his interests are getting diverse and much more amusing. From dismantling his little bicycle to joining track after tricky tracks of his toy train set, he enjoys it all. Then there is his ever increasing love for story books. Besides the many books he keep getting as gifts, he also enjoys the company of Peppa Pig and Dora the Explorer, popular kid characters from the world of cartoons. 

For long  I have wanted to gift him something special and often wonder - what should I gift a young boy of four? Toys, toys and some more toys? Box-full of favourite animation series? Chocolates galore? No, if I am his Santa, I'd rather give him something else. Something more lasting than a toy or chocolate hamper.

1. Gift of Healthy Body, Mind and Spirit

Oh this sounds pretty philosophical, right? But wouldn't these make just the perfect gift for a child! Body, mind and spirit, all healthy and in sync with each other. Since childhood we have been fed on the adage - 'Health is Wealth', and yes it indeed is. All our worldly riches and material possessions are pointless if our fragile health does not permit us to enjoy them. So as Santa, I would want to bestow my little Rehaan with good health, and with it a healthy mind and a positive and happy outlook towards life, that is, a positive spirit - for this triumvirate indeed holds the key to lead a happy and harmonious life.

2. Gift of Good Conscience

This might start sounding like a moral science lesson now! Preachers say conscience is a gift of God, and by default it guides as to do good and avoid all that is evil. But as we grow older and the material world starts manifesting itself on us in its myriad ways, many a times the conscience finds it difficult to have a stronger say during moments of evil temptations. Gift of good conscience will ensure that while ambling along in the journey of life he sticks to the road of goodness. The gift will stand him in good stead when faced with treacherousness choices between what is good and what is just seemingly good.

3. Gift of a Strong Spine

No, no - I am not talking abut some magical relief for back pains here! Rehaan has none and I thank God for that! I want him to be someone who is not afraid to take a stand. Some one who is not weak-willed or 'spineless' so to say. As Santa, I would gift him with the gift of a strong spine, to ensure that he grows up to be a brave young man, someone who has a good mind of his own and who knows to stand for what is right.

4. Gift of Good Humour

Gift of laughter and the ability to make others laugh - this would make for a wonderful gift for anyone. In recent times good sense of humour is slowly turning into something of a rarity. Sarcastic jokes, racial slurs and jokes replete with innuendos often pass off as humour. No, none of these for Rehaan. The gift of good humour would ensure that he brings cheerfulness and gives out positive ibes wherever he goes. This special gift would not just help him make light of life's difficult phases but would also help him cheer up others too.

5. Gift of a Deep Piggy Bank

Since childhood we were taught or rather preached about not attaching much significance to money. 'Money cannot buy you happiness', was every elder's constant refrain. But the way things are in the present scenario, it seems money, even if not the only means of happiness, sure is a deciding factor in sizing up your happiness quotient. The new mantra people are debating now is whether or not money makes the world go round. Well I have my opinion reserved on this, but yes, one must add here that with the inflation rate skyrocketing, I would most definitely gift a deep piggy bank to Rehaan to inculcate the habit of saving from an early age. The piggy bank would ensure that he not just learns the importance of saving but also the importance of spending money wisely.

 So these are the 5 gifts I would gift my baby nephew Rehaan. Of course this is not a definitive list and there's so much more to add here - the good values of honesty and integrity, good education and of course sound and secure insurance and investment plans. By and by these would be joining the gift list too. For now let me watch him practice being an elf for the his school Christmas play!

Alice(s) in Wonderland

While growing up in the far-flung areas of our country, I never really had a best friend. Best friend in the sense many speak of the word - one friend that you have grown up with, that one friend you went to school with, the one who knows you inside out. This lack of a best friend was one of the many pitfalls of being born to parents with transferable jobs. Nonetheless, though I did not have a best friend so to say, I did have lots of good friends - friends from all across the country.

It was only when I started college and shifted into a hostel that I met the girl who was to turn into my proverbial best friend. Our friendship started with random hi, hellos, graduating to exchange of class notes and in no time we were bonding over endless chat sessions about latest political updates, the exhaustive books collection in the college library and the current affairs - yes, you read that right - as mass communication students, these topics were the things that kept as pre-occupied! 

Fun for us was doing all quirky things! Getting up at 6 in the morning to check-out our favourite News anchors, watching movies all night long, buying matching stuff from the stores and threatening auto-drivers with dire consequences if he did not abide by the traffic rules!

When it came to girly things like make-up and fashion, we were like Alice(s) in Wonderland! We would wonder with amazement at every little thing we would discover in our friends' make-up boxes! And on the make-up counters at the malls! Stuff that was fancier than your regular kohl pencil, eye-liner, and lipstick!  There were hundred different brushes to put the make up on, there were exotic concealers to hide marks and blemishes on your face, eye-shadows, blush-ons and what not! An array of products to turn you from a plain Jane into a glowing princess in no time - provided one knew what to apply and where! 

So Alices(s) in Wonderland we were, wearing down the sales-girls at different brand counters with our nincompoop queries about some product or the other! More often than not, we did not buy the products despite our incessant questions, for we knew we will not use them after all. And the rare occasions when we let our minds and hearts be convinced about a product, all sorts of experiments would start once we reached our hostel rooms, and these experiments would then soon turn into laugh riots! 

Once we got this fancy face-pack from some cosmetics shop and it promised super glowing skin within minutes of applying and lo and behold, as soon as we reached our room, we were all set to put it on! But once we had applied it on our scrubbed faces we forgot about the goodness of the product or wondering whether it will actually work wonders on our skin like it promised, our new experiment was to see who looked more ghastly or rather GHOSTLY with the face pack on! In a while friends from adjoining rooms too joined us in our experiment and one ghostly sight we all made with this black mud pack on our faces!

And now when I see this beautiful Dove soap hamper, I know how this new experiment is going to turn out! My best friend is again going to be the guinea pig for this experiment! As my partner in crime in many offbeat experiments, she will be game for this one too! Anything for good, glowing skin, and quirky photographs! 

For Love

So there was this time when I was reading a lot of Vikram Seth - more poetry than prose - and got so influenced by his crisp thought-flow, that I would try and pen down verses in his style. Here's one such example. Have written a few more, will share by and by.

For love, a few hugs

and a little kiss,

I let him

Like me.

Heart rose to the occasion, indeed,

And so I liked him,

For love, a few hugs

And a little kiss.

I Err, I Learn

Ah, speech time. I will try and keep this short. And simple. I say simple because many a times in the maze of fancy words, the essence of what you really want to express gets lost.

It gives me immense happiness to win this blogging award, though a part of me - that always keeps nagging with its incessant questions - is also wondering if I really deserve this one. But now that I have actually won the award, for a while I have all the authority to ask that incessantly blabbering part to shut up and let me enjoy my five minutes of fame.

I cannot thank BlogAdda enough for acknowledging my blogs and my intermittent efforts at penning down all my big and small, random and concrete musings therein. I created my first blog way back in 2007, when almost every other person around me was creating a blog to show off their extensive grasp about every topic under the sun. But my blog was primarily to vent and ramble, for I had no expertise on any subject that I could show off. And this remains the case even today. I remember, the first labels I used for my posts were ‘random’ and ‘musings’, for that’s what they were - random observations about this and that.

I was never a very focussed blogger, abandoning quite a few blogs before finally creating one that I decided to stick to. And the good people at various blogging forums ensured that I kept scribbling regularly there – through their various writing prompts and blogging drives. A great high was when I won the blogging competition to be a part of the MTV travel show - Nano Drive with MTV Season 2, and got to represent BlogAdda on the incredible 21-day trip across India. The memories of that beautiful journey, I will cherish forever. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity I was bestowed with.

I am not the brightest of bloggers around but I am happy that whatever little I write and share is coherent enough for readers to read and appreciate. I err too but then I look around and learn from fellow bloggers and from concerned readers. Whenever I have doubts, they are addressed pronto by the good people here. Thank you Team BlogAdda for driving all bloggers to write more and write better. Blogging is one of the best medium for self expression, and it’s humbling, rewarding and motivating to see your efforts getting rewarded. Thank you BlogAdda. Keep motivating us all. 

This would be My Winning Speech on being rewarded the BlogAdda Blog Award!

Till Death Do Us Apart

A walk down the mountain trail,
with the sun shining bright,
the squirrels playing peek-a-boo
flock of birds in flight.

The twinkle of the little stream
running down the vale
patterns of our shadows,
telling many a mushy tale.

Tea by that quaint shack
resting against a tree
manned by that old couple
warm and full of glee.

The day spent traversing,
many a mountains wide
talking of this and that
letting the time glide.

Love, let us celebrate love,
with nature in our hearts,
hand in hand in the mountains,
Till death do us apart.

Those who seek love, find love. Though true love can seem elusive to many, but it does find us all seekers nonetheless. So eventually when it does discover me, I want my platinum day of love to be spent in the bosom of nature, for nature is eternal - it's bounties are infinite. How beautiful it would be to sit by a mountain brook, hear the birds sing and watch the world go by. 

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations; it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart. 

 -- Honore de Balzac

Our Hearts Will Go And On

I write this
to thank thee
for the selfless love and care,
I never said
I love you,
But you never seemed to care.

The tantrums,
the silly jibes
never perturbed thee
the affection was showered
forever,
and with glee.

My mood swings
come and go
leaving me unsure
wish I could
love you more
wish there was some cure.

Sad to bid
goodbye to thee
but the time has now come
Do miss me
a little
And I will miss you some.

This spirit is
immortal,
we keep reading on
It’s the body
that lets go
Our hearts will go on.

So my heart
will go on,
to thee I now proclaim,
I will not be
here again
But I will love you
all the same.

Love begets love, they say. They, the enlightened ones. No feeling in this world can be as fulfilling, as the feeling of being loved, being cherished by that someone special. And trust me, you are one of the luckiest people on this earth if you have found love. Wo kehtein hain na... har kisi ko nahi milta yahaan pyaar zindagi mein...sahi kehtein hain.

So if you have found the love of your life, celebrate that. Express your love, cherish your love for there's nothing as pure and as powerful as true love. Express your love before it is too late. Express your love for that is a beautiful thing to do. 

Let the Love Last

Love embraces me today -

eternal, strong and pure, 

spring in my steps can vouch

I have never been so sure.

Sticks of Bougainvillea, 

hanging big and bright

Jasmines in full bloom, 

This never felt so right.

My man standing thrilled here

has given me this ring,

the proposal of lifelong love,

has made me dance and sing!

The platinum in my finger

enduring is its cast,

We will not last forever, love

Let’s let the love last.

My Delhi, My Manifesto

Delhi, a city that has been my makaan for the past 5 years now. I say makaan and not ghar because there are times when I don't take pride in the fact that I live in Delhi. When some random relative or distance acquaintance says - 'So you have settled in Delhi?', I am quick to defend -'No, no. I just work there.' Ah. 

And then there are times when I find this city so beautiful and inviting.  Its lush gardens, tree lined boulevards, the history, the monuments, its aesthetic sense, it's affinity to culture. So in a sense there's always this turmoil going on inside - live in Delhi, or not? What paradox, isn't it?

If given a chance, what would I change in Delhi, I sit back and reflect. 

Safer Delhi

Quite rhetoric this is. But yes, like every Indian, I want to push for a safer Delhi. Like every Indian  I want to take pride in the capital of my country. And if that has to happen, there's a need to ensure that it's big and small streets are safe - not just for women, but for every common citizen. Much has been written about Nirbhaya and her unfortunate death. But there are so many Nirbhayaas that go unreported, there are so many girls who live in perpetual fear of becoming another Nirbhaya. We need to change this. And yes, the onus is on us too. We too have to become more aware, more self reliant rather than always expecting the government to ensure our safety. 

Greener Delhi

South Delhi is beautiful. Tree lined boulevards, spaced out roads, well planned housing societies, lush gardens and greenery everywhere. Why can't the rest of Delhi be as green, or may be even more, why not. My manifesto for the city would push for a greener Delhi, not just on paper, but on the grounds too. Tree plantation drives, big and small parks depending on the area available and awareness campaigns to make people more tree friendly.

Roads or Spittoons?

This one tops the list of the my pet peeves. No matter how many instructions you put up saying 'Yahaan thookna mana hai', your average dilliwaallah will not budge. Not at all. Drive in an auto, and at every traffic stop, the first thing he is likely to do is spit his paan out, or probably cough out a deluge of snot. People please the roads are us to walk/drive on, it's not your spittoon! How unsightly (oh, of course, obviously)! 

Pissing in Public! Why?

'Yahaan peshaab karna mana hai'. Walls lined with tiles of sundry gods and goddess. Lines full of profanity, warning you to not to piss on a particular wall. But nothing works. Nothing really works for the Delhi man. If he wants to relieve himself, he will do it wherever he wants. Despite the many sulabh shochalayas, his favourite haunt is a wall.  The wall is his bathroom. No amount of admonishing can refrain him from spraying his bladder out on a wall. My manifesto for Delhi will push for strict fines and punishments for those found pissing in public. Unless and until there's no strict stand taken on this, bringing a change in this attitude of everything goes would remain a challenge.

Beggars and Buggers

Stop at a traffic signal and you will be accosted by not just beggars asking for alms, but also buggers bugging you to buy anything from a pirated copy of a best seller novel to a cheap perfume bottle. Then there would be those perpetually pregnant women asking for money to help with the delivery expenses, little kids doing random entertainments acts, and those amputees with fake blood oozing out of their wounds. I am afraid I might be sounding insensitive here, but these scenes experienced on a daily basis have stubbed out my sensitive nerve. Most of the beggars are a part of gangs - they do not want paltry amount of  10 bucks, and moreover if you refuse to offer help, they are quick to hurl abuses. Yes sir. My Delhi manifesto will ensure that they go off the roads soon. Enough of this menace.

This is just the first draft of my manifesto, a basic outline of the changes I would love to bring about. There are many other issues too - honour killings, encroachment, littering, neglect of many a historical monuments, traffic violations  - let me delve into these issues some other time. For now, I will be happy if these basic grouses are dealt with and addressed in an effective manner

This is My Delhi Manifesto in association with BlogAdda.com.

Let There Be Light

Till about early evening there was indifference. And then this happened. 

Came across this little girl at Katha. Her face is magical - eyes so bright, smile so pure.

Come on India, Let's Dance It Out!

I cannot dance. Ill-equipped with the proverbial two left feet, dancing for me essentially is bashfully swaying for a few seconds with insistent friends at parties, and with very pushy relatives at sundry wedding functions. Nothing more, nothing less. No matter how hard I try, the music and my body are never in sync with each other. So much so that even my Punjabi blood doesn't spring in action at the briefest or faintest sound of a dhol or nagaada.

But the Dance India Dance Indiblogger Meet organised last week has somewhat changed my equation with dancing. We are not indifferent to each other anymore. (What a relief!)

But before I go into details about how this change of heart came about, let me share some tidbit about the awesome IndiMeet. The DID Indiblogger Meet was organised to give Delhi bloggers an opportunity to get jiggy with Zee TV's 'Dance, India Dance' judges! Yes! You read that right! An evening of fun, food and lots of dancing with the affable judges of Dance India Dance.

We are all aware about the huge popularity of Zee TV's show Dance India Dance! Considered India's number 1 dance reality show, it has set a standard for being a show where the judges do not just judge the contestants but also mentor them and guide them to be better dancers. In season 4 of this dance reality show, ZEE TV has roped in three new mentors to judge the contestants, and these awesome mentors are - Feroz Khan, Mudassar Khan and Shruti Merchant - three young and dynamic choreographers who have extensive experience in choreographing not just for Bollywood blockbusters, but also several prestigious non-filmy projects in India and abroad.

New mentors on the show

Besides the fresh faces in the judging panel, Season 4 of Dance India Dance is in news for another reason, and that is it's special theme - Dance It Out! Yes, with this new season, these judges are out with a mission - the mission to create a dance movement and inspire people to Dance It Out! Dance It Out is the slogan and theme of the show - and it aims at motivating people to vent out their feelings through dance. Happy? Dance! Sad? Dance! Depressed? Dance! Angry? Dance! The crux is - do not keep any feeling bottled up inside you, rather, express it through dance. And you do not have to be an accomplished dancer to that - go with the flow, dance it out.

Needless to say, this idea somewhere touched a chord with the non-dancer me. And the icing on this idea cake was the concept of Dance for a Cause, adopted for the DID IndiMeet. To put the concept into action, bloggers were asked to form groups and give a performance supporting a cause close to their heart. While there are many causes that are close to my heart and can any day push me to shake an non-synchronized leg for them, in this meet I got to be a part of the group championing the cause of female foeticide.

'Dance It Out' for a cause

Highlighting female foeticide

And this experience of being a part of a dance drama highlighting a social issue was indeed very liberating! It has given me the energy and enthusiasm to let go of my inhibitions, and dance despite my inadequacies. And if at all my dancing can make any difference, here are some of the top causes I will dance for.

COMMUNAL HARMONY

Time and again, the issue of communal harmony has been discussed as one of the major challenges to India's cohesiveness. Just when we think that we are well on the road of assimilation, a Muzaffarnagar happens and triggers fresh debates about communal-ism.  We fail to understand that with communal tension, we do not just harm each other, but also put our country's internal security as risk. There are so many urgent issues and causes we can devote our energies to, rather than throwing it all away in the name of Allah and Bhagwan. So, this would be the first cause that will prompt me to overcome my fear of two left feet. I will dance it out to spread communal harmony, to spread the message of love and peaceful co-existence.

SAFE STREETS & GENDER EQUALITY

We all know how India was in the spotlight the world over on account of the horrific bus rape incident that happened in New Delhi. The furor condemning it lasted a couple of months, there were all kinds of protests condemning the incident , the outrage was immense, following which the parliament passed a bill recommending harsher punishments for rapists. But this has hardly brought about any significant change at the ground level. Every single day, there are reports of molestation, kidnapping, harassment and the new menace, acid attacks. So I will dance it out to not just vent out my frustration against crime against women and gender equality, but to also raise awareness among those around me.

CLEAN AND GREEN ENVIRONMENT

How I wish to see our country spanking clean, its streets and roads litter-free and flanked by big beautiful trees, its many roundabouts dotted with fountains and its towns and cities boasting of lovely gardens. And like the other causes I have put here, this too is one where the efforts of every single citizen matters. Like charity, cleanliness too begins at home! Keep your house and its surroundings clean, keep your housing society clean, keep you town/city clean....and this chain can go and on. Let us all make more efforts towards recycling and reusing stuff, let us all plant more trees, let us contribute towards reducing our carbon footprint in whatever small or big way we can.

Dance reality shows are all about fun, entertainment and search for exceptional dancing talents. All three seasons of Dance India Dance have been high on quality entertainment and have sort of set a benchmark in promoting new dance forms. It's great to see that DID Season 4 is not just about dance, but also about causes.  So come on India, dance it out for the causes close to your heart! Vent it out, express it out - give way to all your happy, sad, funny, angry thoughts and opinions. Dance!

For updates about Dance India Dance Season 4 and Zee TV's other programmes, please check here.
Image Courtesy : Google Images.

Update : This post, judged by Dance India Dance team won a Logitech Boombox on IndiBlogger.

How I Wish She Had Smart Suraksha

Much has been said and written about Nirbhaya, the brave Delhi girl who lost her life fighting her molesters.
Post that unfortunate incident, there have been protests and debates galore about how unsafe Delhi is. Unsafe, not just for the Nirbhayas, but for the many Nirbhays too. You can be a victim of a road rage, you can be mugged or killed over any minor dispute. Any vindictive mind can take you down for any reason that justifies his criminal mind.

There is absolutely no sense of safety at all. Even the sense od women empowerment is such a fickle one, more so when I recall the news of the murder of my then colleague Soumya Vishwanathan. The year was 2009, the month, September. As I walked up to the lift to get to my office, another colleague joined me, looking unusually serious. There were no pleasantries exchanged as we stood there, waiting for the lift. And then after he could take it no longer, he uttered, ' Do you know about Soumya?'

The question was framed in such manner, that the first instinctive reaction in the mind was - God, something bad has happened! And with great effort all I could utter was - 'What happened?'

'Shot dead last night.' A statement uttered with no emotions at all, very matter-of-factly. My heart skipped a bit. Did I hear that right? Soumya? Murdered? That smiling face that I saw in office everyday, she's no more? What kind of joke is this? My mind and heart were not in sync. Just these questions in a loop and nothing more. But who makes such jokes. Who am I fooling. I asked no more.

Inside the office, everybody I came across seemed to be dealing with the loss in their own ways. The details trickled in. Returning home from an afternoon shift that was extended due to some emergency at work, she was shot dead in the wee hours, shot dead by unknown assailants. So this was no bad dream. This was a cold fact now.

As I think about that day and and reflect upon the agony of her family and friends, how I wish she had the Smart Suraksha app on her phone. How I wish she had some means to alert her family about the ghastly situation she was stuck in. 

As much as I want to forget about this incident I am dusting the file so that it brings to light the fact that something as unfortunate as this can happen to any of us.  Let's better be safe than sorry. I mentioned about the Smart Suraksha app, here's how it works -

Smart Suraksha, is a mobile application, that can track your whereabouts and at a single touch will send an sms to the pre-listed 5 simultaneously and also the police. An additional feature of this app, is that if you are in a situation where you are able to give details of the would-be offender, you can even record info like model of the car or clothes he is wearing, in your sms.Yes, use this app as a weapon that can prevent you from becoming an unfortunate victim. Stay safe with Smart Suraksha.

I am participating in the Seeking Smart Suraksha contest at BlogAdda.com in association with Smart Suraksha App

Masquerade

She preens and pouts
And pretends too -
Of being oblivious to how she is viewed
Her black curls let loose
Dabbed with perfume,
She sets out – with all fanfare
To woo those

Who do not seem to care.

She learns the tricks,
And wily traps -
Coy smiles and hearty laughs,
Some mad giggles help her too
In her many random rendezvous -
To win those
That she sets out to woo.

But then, there are times
When the winds blow too hard,
and take away her wild facade,
It’s then that her melancholy eyes
Give her masquerade away,
The farce too tumbles down
and the pretensions go astray.

Note: This poem was in response to a painting prompt on some forum and was written sometime in 2012. The painting, from what I vaguely remember, was of a beautiful woman dressed up in a flowing red gown, getting ready to go out.

Visiting the Mall Museums : Story Behind the Deserted Shopping Malls

Malcom MacGonal, a history professor at  Stonewell University was his usual pepped-up self, as he got ready for the day ahead, though today the reason behind his upbeat mood was different. It was his son Calvin's 10th birthday. Exactly 10 years ago, on the 14th of September, 2020, God had blessed him with this beautiful gift and with each passing day, he and his wife had cherished this gift more than ever. Today being Calvin's birthday, he had taken a day off from work and had plans to spend the entire day with his son, while Calvin's mother stayed at home, decking up the house for a surprise kiddies party planned for the evening . Day's itinerary included a leisurely tour around Funland Children's Park and then the kiddies' party in the evening with all of Calvin's friends in attendance. 

Just as he stepped out of the house, with Calvin holding his hand, his phone beeped. 'Oh no, hope it's not someone from the University looking for me,' he uttered, mentally scanning the faces of all the curious students of his modern history class. Owing to his interactive teaching sessions, he was one of the professors who was always being sought by students passionate about all things historical. He checked the phone and was visibly relieved to see that message was not from a student but from Clarks & Sponsors, his favourite departmental store. The message read: Dear Mr.MacGonal, you shopped for undergarments from us on this date, a year back. You must be in need of replacements now. Here's your personalized catalogue to help you with the choices. Have a good day.

Oh yes, indeed. He needed replacements. As he sat in the bus headed towards the children's park, he typed in the requisite details and ordered for new stock of undergarments. It was as simple as that. Fill in your order form, key in the payment and bang, whatever you wanted would be delivered at your doorstep in no time. He knew that by the time he got home, his order would have been delivered.

Mobile-Commerce : Shopping on the go!

Shopping was all about a smartphone and a good internet connection now. And of course money too. But from paper money to plastic money, it was now all about mobile money - for all the monetary transactions now happened on the smartphone!

How different this was from the days of yore, he tried to recall. How the concept of shopping has changed over the decades. Take the fridge for example! Now one does not have to go the grocery store to trudge home carton full of stuff. As the stock goes down, the in-built memory chip updates the registered grocer's data and lo and behold, fresh supplies arrive. Milk, eggs, veggies...everything is on weight mode and the moment the quantity goes below what's required, the stock is replenished from the grocer's.

Down & out, well almost

In business again!

Of course technological innovation and cut throat competition in the e-commerce domain has worked out best for us shoppers, he thought.  'I am hundred percent sure of the things I buy online, so much so that I can even have a feel of the things I shop for, all thanks to the 3D imaging of the products, my needs and probable shopping list is personalized and above everything I have the liberty to walk around virtual stores without the palpable embarrassment of walking out without making a purchase.' he smiled inwardly at his own musings.

Of course he was right, the meteoric advancement in the field of e-commerce had made shopping such a comfortable and convenient experience. For all his needs, he had his favourite websites bookmarked on his smartphone, and that gave him the power to shop from anywhere at anytime. A single click of his phone and there was a personalized virtual store right in front of his, a virtual store that did not close in on him and that catered to his demands and accorded personal assistance 24/7.

Personalized catalogue

Not just a personal assistant, the high flying customer savvy e-stores also see to it that they keep registered customers up to date about the things they might be interested in. If you browsed through one SLR camera section, within minutes you will have a neat collection of cameras matching the specifications you are looking for. Likewise for a million other things. 

And to top it all, a single point payment partner across websites too took care of the woes online shoppers had decades ago. Just one payment partner now ensures that a buyer does have to share his bank or credit details with every Tom, Dick and Harry on the internet. Plus, this single point collector also guarantees your purchase, in case of any disputes that a buyer may later have regarding the transaction or the quality of the product.

One payment partner across websites

These technological advancement in online shopping again got Malcolm recalling his shopping plights in the past. Ah, those were the days, when shoppers would crowd the shopping centres and the many malls to buy big and small things. What a pointless waste of time it was - trudging from shop to shop, trying to find that perfect fit, that perfect colour, scanning the numerous shelves in the endless stores! And then came mobile commerce and changed everything! Mobile commerce that made museums of the the shopping malls!

Suddenly an idea crossed his mind. Why not take Calvin to a tour of the deserted malls instead! The malls that were once thriving and crowded with shoppers, but were now deserted, some converted into museums, standing as a relic to the era gone by, while some standing as anonymous markers of the past.

A deserted mall 

Another casualty of M-Commerce - empty stores

And Calvin, being his father's son, agreed! So off to the museum he went, hand in hand with his father, curious and contemplating what a shopping mall was.

This futuristic post has been written for eBay's Future of Shopping drive in association with IndiBlogger. To make your online shopping experience more satisfying and secure, you can install the official eBay India Google Chrome extension, called eBay Check. This extension helps you keep updated about the best prices on eBay.in for any products that you may be looking up.

A Sniff Down Memory Lane

My father was born and brought up in a small nondescript village in Punjab. I say nondescript because compared to the fancy houses and Scorpio/Bolero/Tata Safari flaunting villages of today, Punjabi villages around 60 years back (I have been told) were more about seemingly endless expanse of farmlands with clusters of houses doting them. Most of the houses had cattle-sheds for the cows and buffaloes they reared and all sorts of smells wafted from those kucha-pucca houses - smoke bellowing from the open chulhaas, smell of tandoori rotis, corn being roasted somewhere, all these mixed with the pungent smell of cowdung and drying cowdung cakes.

Father spent first sixteen years of his life in one such village, before moving out to the city to pursue higher studies. Today, after all these years of living in small, big and metropolitan cities, every time he smells a tandoor being set up, or smells the powdery smell of freshly ground atta (wheat flour) or the smell from a cow-shed, he says that it reminds him of his home, his village. I cannot agree more. Research says smells have an almost mystical ability to bring back memories even with their slightest whiff. Nothing elicits memories with the same emotional punch as odor, opine experts.

Villages have their own smell

Now as I sit and reminiscence about all the smells that instantly take me home, so many smells are suddenly wafting all around me...creating a haze of smells, if something like that is possible. I can smell Rasna's orange flavour, take in the sweet aroma of Roofafza, the heavy smell of ripe guavas....the halwa poori on Durga Ashtami...the smell of kerosene oil...Ah! Like father has the smells of village to transport him back to his childhood, I have all these smells to take me back to the times when I was growing up. And now the big and small whiffs of these smells are taking me along them..to a ride down memory lane, each smell bringing back fond recollections of the time went by.

Rasna, Roof Afza and Spiderman

Every time I see a kid sipping on Rasna, specially the orange flavour Rasna, it's tangy smell takes me back to my school days and the strictly regimented routine at home. School or no school, vacation or no vacation, summer months schedule strictly included an afternoon siesta. No protest or excuse could have let me and my brother escape the punishment/compulsion that this siesta was. Sleeping in the afternoon, something that I am sure can rightly be called a luxury in today's hectic schedule was nothing less than a pointless waste of time for us. Why waste time sleeping, when you can go out and catch dragonflies,  climb up the guava tree, chase crows and other birds off the branches, call on the neighbour's door and plan revenge against that neighbourhood bully...but no, all these adventures were sacrificed at the alter of afternoon siesta.  And the sacrifices were later rewarded with glasses of Rasna in the evening! More often than not, it was the orange flavor, for mother believed that orange flavoured one had all the vitamins necessary for growing school kids. 

Occasionally, the Rasna was replaced by the more mature but interesting looking Roof Afza! The dark pink liquid in big transparent glasses! It looked so grown up! And this was enjoyed with the recorded adventures of either Tom & Jerry or Spiderman playing on the VCR! What bliss it was , to relish cool and colourful drinks while watching your favourite superhero thrash the villians! May be it's the hangover of the days of yore, but even today every time I drink Roof Afza, it's exotic taste and the sophisticated dark pink colour brings alive the memories from childhood summers.

Maggie Noodles and Baloo, the Papa Bear

Maggie noodles with Disney cartoons

I believe every one of us (well almost) has a Maggie story to share. This 2-minute noodle has been such a big part of our growing up years. Smell of maggie brings back memories of Sundays at home! For Sunday breakfast for us kids was special, a Sunday treat - maggie topped with loads of peas, onion and tomatoes. The slurrp sound it made as we tried sucking the noodle in through the fork never failed to thrill me and my brother. 

And this memory also brings Baloo 'the Papa Bear' along. Glued to the TV sets we would eat bowl full of maggie as the bush pilot Baloo, also referred to as Papa Bear, from the Disney series Talespin, would go about his adventures!

New Books and freshly sharpened pencils

Experts so rightly say that smell can call up memories. Every time I smell a new book, it takes me back to the start of new sessions at school, when everything would be new - new books, new notebooks, new bag, new tiffin box, covering sheets, name tags..and this in turn brings in more smells and memories - chart papers, smell of freshly sharpened pencils, ink-pots, perfumed erasers! 

Smell of new books & new pencils!

Another smell that reminds me of home and childhood is the smell of kersene oil and the soot that blackens the lanterns! Electricity would be a whimsical thing in those days, and as the sun went down, lanterns would be handy in every room - one constantly lit on our study table as we went about playing pranks under its flickering flame. And more often than not, the pranks centred around ghosts and spirits!

Smell of kerosene oil too brings back happy memories!

Oh, what an incredible sniff down memory lane this has turned into! Our noses really have a way at sniffing out nostalgia. And this beautiful ride has now sparked a flurry of emotional memories! So more on smells later!