Together in Russia

When my sister and I were in school, my family would frequently go on trips to various places in India. Those were the days I dearly missed when I went to college and then started working. We, as family, stopped going out together. We got so busy with our own stuff that we never found the time to share the company of just the four of us - my parents, my sister and me.

And then this month, everything magically changed. I won a couple of return tickets to Moscow, and my sister and I decided to make that trip together. When I broke this idea to my dad, he suggested we all go. I couldn't believe my ears! All the four of us were going to be #together in a foreign country again after thirteen long years! :-)

I am writing this post sitting in our room in central Moscow. And yesterday was our first day here. It was a little difficult to find our hotel and communicate with the locals who only speak Russian. But after the long flight and car ride, we finally found the place. And the people all around us have been really kind. The locals go out of their to help you, and even find people who will speak a little English so they can translate for us. Another nice thing here is that everyone is really willing to help and speak to you. We mostly try translating using Google Translate. I have been talking to our hosts by typing out the English stuff. The host then reads the Russian translation and types back the reply, which I read in English again.

But honestly, the best thing has been being together with my family. Last day was one of the most memorable I had. We walked about the famous Red Square in Moscow. We took hundreds of pictures and ate a lot of delicious Russian food. We are vegetarians, and most people back home told us we would hardly get any veg food in Russia. Our delight knew no bounds when we had an array of veg dishes to choose from. We gorged on kartoshka (potatoes drizzled in olive oil), pumpkin salad, an exotic beetroot preparation with lemon flavours, champignon with buckwheat, pirozhki ( a soft stuffed bread) and sauerkraut. We also drank some kalka vodka and, a berry-jelly drink.

Yesterday was not just a day of exploration, but also one of optimism. We had faith in the fact that we would certainly have a great time despite not knowing any Russian. We did try on our part and learn the Cyrillic alphabet. And that has been helping us immensely! We also believed that we would find great vegetarian food in a country that loves meat. With my family by my side, I know I will always have the strength to find ways to make the best of every moment I have. I will stay optimistic and #lookup.

Daddy takes the #WashBucketChallenge

This post is part of the #WashBucketChallenge activity at BlogAdda.com in association with Ariel India.

Last Sunday, we celebrated Women's Day to generate awareness of the issues that women face, and also to improve gender equity. Ironically, many advertisements today still propagate a stereotypical view of women and men. Take, for example, ads for washing powders. How many ads show a man cleaning clothes? It is always a woman who worries about getting the dirt off her husband or kids' clothes.

However, all is not lost. I just came across the #WashBucketChallenge which beckons all males to show their manliness by cleaning clothes for a change. This piqued my interest and I decided to nominate my dad for the challenge. Now, my father is a great sport and firm believer in equality of the genders. He promptly agreed to do the day's washing by using the Ariel Matic washing machine-friendly detergent that I handed him.

He operated the washing machine with ease and also hung out the clothes to dry. The new washing powder was quite gentle on the clothes. I had forgotten that I had put a delicate top on the dirty-linen pile. My mum always warns us against using the washing machine for delicates. Those are best washed by hand. But Ariel Matic saved my day! Also, my dad was very careful with the top once I told him about my mistake. He took that garment out of the machine after the first wash. I'm proud of my dad! :-) He actually walks the talk. He helps mum whenever he's around. My parents spend their weekends cooking together. And it's my dad who irons the clothes and does the grocery shopping for the week.

I'm very lucky to have parents who shoulder their responsibilities equally. I know, I too will treat my better half as an equal. Our kids won't witness any gender-stereotyping at home!

This review is part of the biggest Sponsored Review Program for Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free Products!

My Favourite Singaporean Food

I just finished my lunch and will have my evening snacks in some time, but I just can't stop thinking about what to munch in between! Yes, I'm the queen of all foodies! I eat like there is no tomorrow. When I'm not actually eating, I'm always dreaming about yummy dishes.

For a food lover like me, Singapore is one of the best destinations to travel. This island country is home to myriad cuisines from all over the world. The most popular dishes draw their flavours from Malaysia, Thailand, India, China and Europe.

I was in Singapore over a decade back in 2002, when I was still in school. I have fond memories of eating icecream on a street corner and spicy chinese noodles in China Town. There is just so much food there! Even for vegetarians like me.

My favourite Singaporean food happens to be "chai tow kway", which is also called "char kway". It is basically a type of radish cake which can have very interesting flavours depending on the sauce that is used. Yes, cakes also have sauces in them! ;-) If you want a sweet char kway, they'll add sweet dark soy sauce. Otherwise, a white sauce is added. If you can't resist spicy food, you are in luck, because this cake can also be ordered with chilli paste on the side.

Have you ever tasted the food in Singapore? How was your experience? Let me know!!

Oindrila's 5 Mantras to De-Stress

I have to catch a late night flight to Moscow tomorrow, and guess what! I am down with cold and breathlessness. :-( This is what stress does to me. My mum keeps scolding me for my erratic schedule and lack of sleep. I am always just working or traveling or writing. And she is right about the harm that stress is causing in my life.

The good news is...  I am not always this stressed. And I have some fantastic ways to beat stress, which I use frequently and from which I benefit tremendously. So, presenting my 5 Mantras to De-Stress:-

1. A good night's sleep:
   
   
   Sleep is one of the most underrated antidotes to stress. Many of us actually think sleeping is akin to wasting time! This cannot be further from the truth. Research shows that sleeping brings your body temperature down and lowers the secretion of stress hormones such as adrenalin and ghrelin. If you get sweet dreams, then even better! That will ensure you have a good supply of endorphins and serotonin (the feel-good hormones). Make sure you keep the room completely dark when you sleep in the night. Darkness regulates the release of melatonin, the hormone that improves sleep and increases immunity. They say, people grow taller if they sleep well as rest is what helps your proteins repair and build the body. Good sleep also reduces the chances of overeating as you feel satiated.
   
2. A relaxing weekend trip:
   
   The travel blogger in me will always tell you to travel if you want to bust stress. Make sure you keep your trip relaxing. Don't try to cram in too many activities. Watch the sunset, walk on soft sands, breathe in the mountain air. All of this will surely make you forget your stress.
   
3. A good body massage:
   
   Physical stress can best be cured with a good, long massage. Splurge on a spa weekend and get that exotic Swedish massage to soothe your tense muscles. You don't always need to spend so much, actually. Get your partner to join a massage class, and you'll get free professional massages for life! ;-)
   
4. Listening to soothing music:
   
   There are few things that music cannot melt. Stress is the first thing to buckle under the influence of powerful music. Instrumental tunes, especially classical ones, can relive your stress in just ten minutes.
   
5. Curling up with a nice book:
   
   If you are a bibliophile like I, you will know the comfort that envelops you as you lose yourself in a happy-themed novel. Make sure you have some milk and cookies to go with your long read.

These five ways will make sure you slow down in your life when it all becomes too much for you to handle. I am going to try a new quick way to De-stress & #SlowDownZindagi using Parachute Advansed Aromatherapy Oil in association with BlogAdda. Watch this video to see how:-

Contest Alert!!!

I'm sure you too have interesting ways to remain stress-free. I would love to hear how you relieve stress. Leave your answers as comments below and the best comment shall win a voucher! :-)

ThoughtBuzz - Application Review

I have something new on my blog for you today. I am checking out Thoughtbuzz as part of an activity at BlogAdda. ThoughtBuzz is a new platform that lets you integrate various social media accounts and analyze their performance on a variety of parameters.

I began by integrating my Twitter account and Facebook Page on ThoughtBuzz. The app has a very neat display that lets you monitor all your social accounts from one page. You can view multiple feeds from multiple social media platforms. Currently, ThoughtBuzz lets you add accounts for Facebook (page only), Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. You can also add a public page with its URL.

The application has a simple and clear layout and is fairly easy to use. There are six tabs at the top menu bar which let you operate ThoughtBuzz. The question mark button on the extreme left shows you what each option is for. ThoughtBuzz lets you take the following actions:-

1. See notifications from your social media accounts
2. Operate your accounts without actually logging into them
3. Import subscribers and followers from various platforms
4. View analytics of your social media accounts' performance
5. Manage accounts

The first tab (Notifications) has three sub-tabs:-

1. Trends: You can view trending posts and topics on Twitter, Youtube and Instagram. Currently, ThoughBuzz supports Global Trends for Instagram, and Global, Country and City trends for both Twitter and Youtube.
2. Notifications: You can get all your notifications for the integrated accounts at one place. You may also sort the notifications by social media platforms.
3. Top Fans: This tab lets you view your tops fans account-wise. For Twitter it is supposed to show top fans by retweets or mentions, and for Facebook, by likes, comments or shares. Unfortunately, this feature does not work for me. This could be a bug for the ThoughtBuzz team to look at.

The next tab lets you access your feeds - your updates, tweets, mentions and timelines. If you have a paid membership, you can also access your inbox. Another feature on this tab is the ability to compose and share updates and tweets. You can either post immediately or schedule it for sometime in the future. The interface lets you attach files / pictures to your posts. You can also view your past updates and scheduled ones.

The third tab is for importing your followers and fans from all platforms. This lets you track your most engaged and active audience and switch between social platforms. For Facebook, this showed me the number of shares, likes and comments by the top followers and allowed me to sort accordingly. For Twitter, this should ideally show me the ranks as per retweets and mentions, but it only shows 0 against each Twitter follower I have. So, here's another bug for you! One more thing I would like here is to see the number of "favourites" on Twitter. One nice thing on this page is the search functionality which dynamically searches for the names of people as you type. The best thing, though, is the fact that you can export the entire list of fans as a CSV file! You are free to do your own analysis there.

The next tab is for sundry analytics. If you select Twitter, you can see a graph of your daily follower-count, bars of your top 5 retweets with the actual tweet showing when you hover your cursor over a bar, top 5 user locations and top sources of Twitter client. You can also restrict the analysis to a specific period of time. For Facebook, the engagement analysis is mostly what you would get on your own Facebook page-membership.

The last two tabs are for integrating more social media accounts or deactivating them and logging off.

Verdict:

I like the concept and the usefulness of the analytics modules. Perhaps the premium versions have more features that are useful. However, ThoughtBuzz needs to fix a few bugs and do thorough testing before marketing this app to all. Another thing I'd like is to be able to integrate more accounts such as Google Plus and Pinterest.