Celebrations :)

Yesss, this is my moment of glory. My first 50 followers here on this blogging platform. Never scored that much ever in cricket :)

Three years ago in Sept 2016 when I published my first blog, I had never imagined I will be writing this long.

Initially, I used to write on and off but even those on and off writings were appreciated and maybe that kept me going. The knowing that yes even if not many but at least there are some who are reading my post regularly.

I enjoyed writing and for me, this served as a way of connecting with my inner self as in meditation. Yes, writing gives me that feeling of meditation where once I start writing all my energies get streamlined in one direction, and thoughts are just poured out without much thinking.

The momentum picked up since June 2019 and the frequency of writing and publishing my blog posts increased gradually. Also reading other blogs especially those from the long term and consistent bloggers motivated me.

Reading blogs of these bloggers gave me a sense of direction and it dawned on me that if I have to be here for long I needed to be consistent. So now I try to post at least two blogs in a week.

When I looked back today after seeing this badge (50 followers) I found that I have written and published 38 posts in just 3 months. My total published post count is 76 out of which one is a reblog of a fellow blogger and one of my earlier post so that actually comes to 74 posts.

From 74 posts in about three years to 38 posts in just three months is a major leap for me and this alone is enough of a reason for me to celebrate, 50 Followers badge is like a cherry on the cake :)

I take this opportunity to thank all you amazing people across all the blogging communities and platforms who took out time to read, like and share comments on my blog posts. Your support, feedback, and suggestions and encouragement has helped me come this far.

On this note, I remember the famous lines from one of the greatest poets of our Indian film industry Majrooh Sultanpuri Sahab...

"Main Akela Hi Chala Tha

Janib-e-Manzil Magar

Log Saath Aate Gaye

Aur Caravan BantaGaya"

Humbled

Love and Gratitude

Nilesh Sharma

I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 organized by #BlogChatter as #nilesharmaawrites :)

Patience and Persistence Pays :)

I love all seasons and I have my reasons for liking them all.

Monsoon is also special in a way, not only because it brings relief from the blistering heat but also washes away the layer of dust on the tree leaves and thus magnifies the greenery all around us.

I wait all year for the show of Lightning and thunderstorms that come with monsoons. This year too I got to see this mystical magic of divine nature and also got the opportunity to capture it on my smartphone :)

After a long wait with the smartphone in my hands, I managed to capture that striking ray of light two times in the span of eleven minutes or so. The video is of more than eleven minutes but what I wanted to capture lasted for only microseconds.

Of course, all the while flashes and flickering in the skies were happening and drizzling of rain could be heard in the backdrop with whams of loud and spine chilling thunderstorms. It was such an amazing feeling that I cannot define in words.

This was last week but then as I was thinking about the whole experience it also dawned on me that as in this video which was of about eleven minutes or so, the most enticing sight lasted for just a fraction of second. More than 660 seconds of patience and persistence lead to the phenomena which came in flash will stay with me for my entire lifetime.

Isn't it the same with life. All those years of hard work with absolute focus and consistent efforts lead to achieving excellence in whatever one wishes to achieve. Stories of all the great achievers such as Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachan, Steve Jobs, Sachin Tendulkar, Sonu Nigam, Sania Mirza, Pandit Ravi Shankar and so many more excelled in their fields only because of this simple mantra. Patience and persistence with absolute focus and dedication to their craft.

To see the results of my not so long journey but even those of few minutes which will last for a lifetime, please watch the below visible youtube link:

P.S: I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyfriendAlexa Season 4 organized by #BlogChatter as #nilesharmaawrites

From My Diary- Choices I made ~ #5

In this series, I am sharing the choices I made as far as my professional life goes.

Why I took up my 1st job at the age of 17 is answered in my earlier post  "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #1" and then why I moved on to my 2nd one and why I left that can be read here >>. "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #2" 

My journey onto becoming Self-employed could be read here "From My Diary - The Choices I made ~ #3" and From My Diary- Choices I made ~ #4

2009 was the times of turbulence and because of the troubles at my personal front, I was finding it hard to concentrate on my work. As a financial advisor especially as a planner concentration and focus is very imperative. And this is where I was having difficulties.

No amount of talking or discussing was helping me and eventually, after trying hard overcoming it, I decided to take a sabbatical from financial planning.

I went to all my then clients and expressed my incapability of managing their portfolio at least till the time I recover from what I was going through.

Many of my clients told me that this is my biggest mistake and that it will be too late if I do not change my decision. I had an idea what I was about to lose, yet I found it to give in to something for which my heart did not allow.

Very few understood me and pledged their support and stood with me. I told them that I may not be able to advise them on any new investments but I will service whatever I have done till now. They said okay and remained with me.

Now that I was no more advising and had lost a good chunk of my clientele income needed to be compensated.

In my working with clients in financial planning, I had helped a few with buying and investing in real estate. Because of my people's skill, I had also managed to stay in touch with few brokers. After some thinking, I ventured into real estate. My work helped me see most of Thane so I had a good idea about localities and the price range for most of them.

The most important factor being there was no long term commitment. Once a deal is done very little was left to do. Slowly and steadily I learned the finer details of this new business and was doing okay. Because of good work I started getting referrals and there was no looking back :)

Even today I do real estate business but now it is very exclusive. I only take an assignment if it comes with a recommendation. I have helped my clients buy properties in as far areas as Bangalore, Pune, and Hyderabad.

The most cherished client of mine is Mr. Amitava Banerjee. He was referred to me by his colleague when he first time-shifted to Mumbai. I helped him find exactly what he was looking for. He liked me so much so that when he was transferred to Pune he insisted that I find property for him in Pune. I did not disappoint him even this time. Now he is again in Mumbai and this new property is again something which I helped him with :)

He has already told me that he wishes to buy a house here within the next two years and I have to help him with that too :)

Such good clients and referrals coming my way I am the most happiest person :)

My sabbatical from financial planning lasted for about 4 years. Now I am back into financial planning and all my clients who stood with me in my turbulent times are still with me and most them say we knew you would come back :)

Financial planning is your forte and you are good at it, you should have never left it. All I can say is each phase comes with its blessings. The lessons I learned passing through that phase taught me one of the most important lessons.

What was that lesson and what price I paid to learn that is something which I will share soon. Stay tuned for one more post on this series "From My Diary - Choices I made #6"

"From My Diary - Choices I made #6" I will share about various other short term jobs I did and what each of it taught me.
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my story. If you have something similar experience and wish to share your story with me do write to me at "nilesharma@gmail.com" I will be happy to read and respond to it.

Happy Day :)

With this post, I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 as #nilesharmaawrites for #BlogChatter

Ever-expanding horizons

I started blogging in September 2016, and then I had no idea what to expect. But then I also live by the philosophy of doing things without expectations. And as always the rewards I reaped were beyond imagination.

My journey to blogging started with blogger (blog-spot). I used to write posts as and when I felt like and that's it. I hardly read posts from any other bloggers. This continued for a long time. Writing brought a sense of fulfillment to me and so I focussed more on it. But then as they say to be a good writer you first have to be a good reader. So I started exploring the web to find other bloggers and what they write.

It was then that I came across IndiBlogger. I found that this is where most of the bloggers upload their content. I registered my self on IndiBlogger and started submitting my posts here. My blog's viewership reached out to more people. They read my posts and shared their thoughts. This gave me the opportunity to visit their sites and read their content.

I discovered that many of them used WordPress instead of blog-spot. I created my account on WordPress and did some experimenting before I migrated from blog-spot to WordPress.
The transition was good and more rewarding. With Indiblogger I could only read Indian bloggers content but WordPress gave me exposure to the global audience :)

Add caption

As reading increased newer discoveries came along and one such was BlogChatter. BlogChatter became my platform for Book Reviews. I have written two book reviews so far and this led to the addition of one more category to my blog "Reviews".

Here is the link to the Book Reviews I have written for BlogChatter "Book Review Program"

Book Review~ Missing Presumed Dead (Kiran Manral)

Book Review~ NOBODY'S CHILD (Kanchana Banerjee)

One of my well-wishers asked if I would be interested in participating in #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 campaign. I asked what it is all about and she explained to me all about it. I enrolled for the campaign and voila am I happy :)

Source~ Google Images

Why???

In addition to the blogs I follow now I am also able to read at least 8 more new blogs about which I had no idea. So yes I am now reading much more than I used to do earlier. Making news friends sharing notes and suggestions. This community has given me so much more and is helping me learn more and know more about so many things.

My gratitude and thanks to all of you who have supported and motivated me to write more. Special thanks to all who have helped me improvise my writing skills and language and for suggesting tools to keep in check grammatical mistakes. Aesthetics of this blog site could also be enhanced only because of keen observation and constructive feedback from one fellow blogger and for this, I will ever remain grateful.

Blogging has not only helped me share my experience but has also enriched me from the collective experience of all the fellow bloggers who share their stories and work.

I intend to take my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 organized by #BlogChatter

Book Review- NOBODY'S CHILD (Kanchana Banerjee)

Give me a book and I am sorted, but when you get the opportunity to write about it that's even better.

NOBODY'S CHILD by KANCHANA BANERJEE came as part of Book Review Program from BlogChatter and I must say what a delight reading it was!!!

The book runs as a monologue from two characters "Avniel" and "Kamini" and flashes between 2016, 2018 and 2019

The main protagonist is Asavari around whom these monologues take place.

Asavari a small-town girl wins the prestigious singing contest "Indian Koel" despite all odds. Without any formal training and no one by her side to support she wins the contest.

The runner un Tanya Pratap Singh is the daughter of rich and famous Pratap Singh and Kamini Pratap Singh. Pratap is dead but Kamini takes over the reins of his business and is now carving her path into active politics. She is a woman with a dark past and has made her journey all the way up from gully's in Varanasi to being Heiress of 2000 crore business empire (left behind by her loving husband Pratap Singh).

Avniel is a small-time journalist with  Filmfare who loses his chance after an episode of drinking and misbehaving with a famous film actress in one of the parties. He now is desperate to find a story, his only salvation to make it big.

Luck comes knocking on his door as he bumps into Asavari one of the contestants who came to Mumbai for audition of "Indian Koel"

As Avniel hears Asavari sing he has but no doubt that she stands a very good chance to win the contest. He sees a story in her (a bestseller) and wants to cash it before anyone else can. With his charm and easy-going mannerism, he befriends Asavari.

Asavari wins the contest and this does not go down well with Kamini, runner up Tanya's mother. She had big plans and Asavari has just ruined everything.

But she won't sit quiet, what follows is something nobody had anticipated. With the help of Dheeraj (right-hand man of Kamini), she devises a plan to get Asavari out of her way so that her political aspirations are fulfilled.

Asavari meets with an accident month after her winning the contest and the news of her death takes the entire nation by surprise, This happened in the year 2016.

Avniel, writes a book on Asavari's life and publishes it within two months of her death. The book as he envisioned becomes a best seller and he becomes famous out of the blues.

But everything changes when Asavari suddenly reappears after two years mysteriously in 2018, with bruises all over her body and scars on her face. She was found by one of the journalists outside the Churchgate station and thus starts the mayhem.

A series of questions are raised, Avniel and Kamini are both shocked to find Asavari alive and walking out of the dead. What is it which they are hiding?

The book takes you through roller-coaster ride and you can't wait to find out what happened to Asavari in these two years. Where was she? How she survived? Who helped her? Who was behind her accident? What dark secrets lie in the closet of the past? and many more.

All and all the book will keep you hooked as the monologues progress.

The characters are very well sketched and the story moves in smooth progression with Love, deceit, trauma, emotional turmoil and hunger for power and success being the main elements of the story.

A terrific work of fiction by Kanchana Banerjee all packed in just 327 crisp pages which comes from the publication house of Harper Black (An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers) for you all to read and immerse in.

My rating for the book is good 3.5 out of 5, and I highly recommend it if you love suspense and drama. There is not a single dull moment as you flip pages and without even you knowing it the story reaches the end or is it the new beginning ;)

So what are you waiting for? Grab your copy now by clicking any one of the links below:

Buy Online here >>>> Harper Collins India or Amazon India

Learn more about the author "Kanchana Banerjee" >>>> 'Tap me'

P.S: This Book Review is part of #BlogChatter "BookReview Program" 

I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 courtesy #BlogChatter as #nilesharmaawrites

Teacher's day Special

Source~ Google Images

Today on this special day I wish to share with you all various teachers who taught me one thing or the other, and touched and transformed me to become what I am as of today.

First and foremost is without saying my Parents, who were instrumental in bringing me into this beautiful world. The value systems they passed on to us (me and my siblings) we are now passing on to ours. The love and respect towards each being is something which forms the core of their teachings.

Teachers from school and colleges had their own role to play.

The most I learned in my former years of career is from is my Boss Mr. Kailash Nath Sharma, he taught me things very invaluable which helps me even today, and helped me survive in toughest of times.

Through my childhood friend I learned the most important and the most difficult lesson that which most find difficult even today to implement and practice and that is "LET GO"

From my dearest and best friend, I learned the art of not giving in to temptations.

My ex was instrumental (indirectly though) in teaching me the importance of compartmentalization in my case keeping personal and professional life totally separate, irrespective of whatever the circumstance and challenges life throws at me.

Positive and long term benefits of the ethics and principles in business came from the insights of my ex- LIC mentor Mr. Deepak D Sawant.

The true meaning of the phrase 'Knowledge is Wealth", 'I think therefore I am", "Its never too late", "There is no age to learning" and many more was shared to me by my dear friend, guide, philosopher, mentor, Guru, Mr. Krishnan Raman Vedant. We met in 2001 for the first time and even to this very day he enriches me with his wisdom and knowledge.

These as mentioned above are some of the most important people in my life who played a very significant role in my life and shaped me into the person that I am now.

Then there are so many more with whom I crossed the path and they either learned something from me or managed to teach me a few things.

Then there are few lessons which no one can teach us but only comes from the mistakes we commit and these my friends is something worth living and cherishing all our lives.

Time as they say teaches us all that we need and being in tune with mother nature only adds to the learning. 

I think of me as a humble "Student of Life' and today by way of this post on this special day I am paying my tribute and gratitude to all who touched and shaped me in this life journey so far.

Thank you all for being a part of me and my journey.

I am taking my blog to the next level with #MyFriendAlexa Season 4 a campaign organized by #BlogChatter as #nilesharmaawrites

Until then...

Let days of togetherness

And all the beautiful moments

Once you shared

Serve as fond memories

From what you had.

And the pain and heartache

They gifted you

Be the learning lessons

From the journey

In your search ahead.

Let no amount of setbacks

Crush your dream of love

Love will come finding you,

The one you truly deserve,

If and only if

“YOU”

Believe in Love.

Until then

Just hang in there

"May ALL have"

Today I had a meeting with one of my recently acquired client. As we were discussing and working on our agenda she received an important phone call which she had to attend to.

Since the call was taking long, I started looking at the kind of books she read, and it was then that I saw a frame in one of the corner racks just behind the Ganesh Idol. On a deeper observation I realized that their were some words, she had got framed and kept there.

It was at some distance so I could not read clearly (or may be my eye sight is getting weak), so as soon as she finished her call, I asked her if I can see that frame closely. She turned her office chair around reached out to the frame and handed it to me.

I read the whole thing and found some greatly profound words. I could not stop myself from asking a copy of it. She gladly obliged. I asked her if they were her own words, to which she said NO, she got her copy from her boss for whom she used to work in the early days of her career. So I could not find who wrote these words :(

If any of you have any idea , kindly share with me in the comments section or on my social media account.

Sharing with you all the "GOLDEN" words, copy of which I acquired from my client and she from her boss.

It is only because someone cared to share it at some point of time  with somebody and the circle grew. Since my client cared to share with me this today, I am just continuing the tradition.

I take this great opportunity to share if further with you all. If you resonate the same feeling, then my humble request to you is this >>> please play your part and let the circle of sharing grow and  go on and on, forever and ever.

The copy I received was a black and white print, so I tried my bit to enhance it further by adding colors which came to my imagination with every sentence I read.

I love sharing, do you too ?

Happy Life !!!

I always wanted to do this.... Did you too?

One of my favorite activity is to watch an eagle flying.

I am so blessed that I am staying in a house with a great view and a balcony to sit and or stand in :)

From here I everyday I adore the view of eagles flying high up in the sky and the mere vision makes me so blissful.

You might think what is so blissful about it?

Actually there is, but I am not sharing it now. That I have kept for my "My story" series which I am already writing and have already published 4 posts on the same on my blog-site. 

I always wanted to capture the sight of an eagle flying on my smartphone and its been more than four years now that I have been wanting that and guess what ? Today I got one. :)

As I stepped out in my balcony I saw one of the eagle flying at a very close range, taking circles. Luckily my smartphone was close by and I immediately grabbed it. I unlocked the phone, touched the camera icon and switched on to video mode. And VOILA !!!

This is what I managed to shoot. Please click the link below to the see the action of this magnificent bird and its swift and carefree flying.

I hope you enjoyed this post and the video.

Happy Day :)

I did not know this until now... Did you?

Source- Google Images

Learning something new is always such a fun :)

Today I learned  something new and found it very amusing .

[ I can add one more title to myself and it would be that of a "FOOL" :))) ]

Yes I love being foolish, why ?

[ I will share my reasons for that in my upcoming blog post series on famous Quotes.]

Yes very soon I will be starting this series on my blog-site, wherein I will write about my experiences and how the quotes seemed so appropriate.

For now, I wish to share what I discovered today.

I read other bloggers blogs and often write back to them if I find their email's on their site, if not then I drop comments on their blog posts. It's a great way of connecting with them and exchanging notes and learning's. I have met some amazing people this way and it is such a nice experience.

I read this beautiful post on parenting  and wanted to share it. So I clicked the 'twitter' button to share it on my twitter handle and 'facebook' button for sharing it on my facebook page.

I also saw "'re-blog" button so clicked that too :)

Until then I did not knew how re-blogging works, but soon I discovered the answer when I saw the 'like' notification on my "wordpress" account. As I opened it I found out that the like was for the re-blog I did, and that the post appeared on my blogging site.

Thus I learned that rather than sharing it individually of various social media sites, I can simply click re-blog button and the post will be automatically be posted not only on my blog-site but on all the social media sites as well to which I have connected my blog.

You all might have known this, but I just found it out today, so yes you may think of me as a fool, and may smile :)

Did you discover anything randomly, just the way I did ?

If yes please share your stories, I would love to read them.

Happy day :)

Nature's Jewels- The Orchid flower

As you all know I have a love for photography too. Although not with a professional camera but every now and then when I see something pleasing which makes me happy and smile I capture them on my smart phone camera.

I love nature and have shared some snaps from nature in my earlier posts. If you have missed them below is the list and links for my earlier posts on nature photography:

Sun Soaked Leaf

Amazingly Beautiful Skyline

Rain 'N" Clouds

On A Rainy Day Along The Creek

Invisible Butterfly

Today I am sharing with you the pic of an orchid flower from the gardens of one of my family friends with whom I stayed for two days during my road trip. They live at Pallakad in Kerala, India.

Orchid Flower

Isn't it a lovely and beautiful sight? Something that brings smile on your face :)

The Green stem is the slender body and the arms adorns the white flower signifying purity, and the buds represent a new life in progression. The subtle pink shade giving the impression that having known that I was admiring its beauty the flower seemed blushing, aware of the fact that there before her is someone who admires beauty. 

Yes or no?

If not let this pic and post be your reason to smile and acknowledge yourself for being the beautiful person you all are.

Beauty is all around us be it in stars, or in skies, flowers or birds, oceans and waterfall, people and their souls. Just put on the lens and look for the miracles unraveling itself everywhere.

Happy Day :)

Don't loose yourself, while pleasing others

Relationships are meant to help us grow and enjoy the company of the person with whom we are. The one where the involved person's are in a happy space and look forward to spend good time together. Isn't it?

And here I am not referring to any one particular sort of a relationship, I am talking about all kinds of them, that as a couple, or  friends, with siblings, and parents, your clients, colleagues etc...

Well it does not always happen that way, right?

Generally I am a happy go lucky person and believe in having meaningful and long term relationships and associations, yet their were instances where I had to turn harsh to the extent of being rude and let go of the person I once liked and was fond of.

Why I am writing about this ?

Well because often I see people doing more harm to themselves, trying to be nice and pleasing when they are suffering and in immense pain inside.

And why so ? So that they are looked upon as being a good person who care.

It makes no sense to be in such a relationship which is only doing more harm to you then good.

Source- Google Images

 I remember cutting myself loose of some people whom I had known for some time and even several years, one to the extent of almost 35 years of my life.

The person in question was someone I had known all my life and although she never did or intended to do any harm to me, but her pessimism and negativity was taking toll on my emotional well being.

I always patiently listened to her problems whenever she discussed it with me, and gave her solutions as to how she can do certain things in order to overcome them. I constantly tried to motivate and inspire her by citing examples of other people in similar or worst situations, but then came a time when all she wanted to see and talk about was negativity.

Finally one day I told her on her face, your negative approach towards life is not going to help you, but you comparing our situations ( I was also going through some tough times myself then) and blaming destiny and all is affecting me and I do not want to be party to this any more. If you can not stop doing that I will have no option but to tell this that "Please do not call me ever again"

It was that day and till this day,  I never heard from her nor did I called or asked about her to the people known to us.

Source- Google Images

Yes, it is not good to break any relation but if it becomes a threat to our sanity and leads you to depression and becomes an emotional burden then its always better to drop the baggage and walk off.

I never thought ill of the people with whom I cut off and I will never ever do that, its just that now I will never go back to them and its better this way.

If you have something similar to share please write to me I would love to read your stories.

Of Skies and My Eyes

Source- Google Images

As I was looking out on to the skies

I saw these two clouds running by

One chasing the other as if to hold thy

What I saw next was a vision, that got me all smile

They fused in unison as if longing of desire

Both becoming one as they moved by

And they flew together clearing the sky

The skies were all shining its radiance so bright

And the Moon came out shimmering in full glory

As if to testify the great union of clouds

That just happened in the sky

The great spectacle to which witness were my eyes

Invisble Butterfly

Those of you who read my blogs regularly already know about my trip to Uttarakhand.

I had shared my experience of White water river rafting in my earlier blog post. If you have missed it, read  it by clicking here >>> "River Rafting @Rishikesh"

While on this trip when we went to Mussorie, we friends decided to take a walk from Library bazar in Mussourie to Park House, Sir George Everest's House. Although the place is in ruins now, but the walk there and the scenic view from their was worth the efforts.

What made this walk much worthy was this pic as can be seen below:

Transparent Butterfly

It was my friends nephew who noticed it first and then brought to our attention. As you can see the wings of the butterfly is almost transparent, which can be  mistaken for invisibility. 

The butterflies are very swift and fly away at the slightest movement. I wanted to capture her presence and so with absolute still movements and lightness of feather I managed to take out my smart phone from my jeans back pocket and manged to click some pics of this divine beauty. Isn't she Pretty and Cute ?

One of the pleasure of walking is , you never know when you will come across such amazing natures treasures

Have you seen something like this before? Why not share with us all ?

Thank you for dropping by

Happy Day :)

Awareness Drive: "MY LEFT IS MY RIGHT"

Today I had to go to CSMT (Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus) for some work of one of my NRI client. Usually I try to avoid coming to this side of town, especially by car, for following reasons :

1. Car parking is a big issue
2. Ongoing Metro project work
3. Travel time by car from my place takes lot of time
4. And in this season (monsoon) driving pleasure goes for a toss because of the potholes on roads all over :(

So today I decided to take the local train instead.

While going I found everything usual (as those accustomed to Mumbai life knows), but while returning after completing my work to CSMT station I noticed something.

Between Mumbai mains and Mumbai Mail/ Express platforms corridor there was a gathering of crowd. I normally do not pay much heed, but then I heard some voice coming from a loudspeaker.
The voice quality was not very good, as from those high quality speakers which we are used to listen to now, so I paid some attention.

As I approached the commotion, I saw five uniformed men (with placards around their neck) and two Police personnel on either side of them  standing in a row. The one in the center was speaking through the mic.

Spreading Awareness over Public Address system at busy CSMT Station- Mumbai

I was surprised by what I heard. These group of men were asking people to walk the right (proper) way.

"KEEP LEFT" is the signage we all have seen at Railway station FOB (Foot Over Bridge), isn't it?

So what made them do this I wondered. One answer which came to me was that not every body is literate so they might not be able to read the signage.

But then what about those who can read? Are they following the instructions on signage?

Probably not, may be that is why these gentleman have to come out and say it loud right in the middle of the crowded station where most of  the people passing through this place can hear and at-least then walk on the proper side of the walk-way.

The giveaway they were distributing

I felt very bad for what they were doing. Not because they were spreading awareness, but because of the bitter fact that we as citizens have become so careless and irresponsible that even the basic social etiquette such as this is something which needs to be reminded to us.

Mission Swatch Bharat was something our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modiji had started and fruits of which can be seen now. Though there is still way to go but at least people have become aware and are contributing in keeping their surroundings clean.

This  seems to be the new mission for Central Railways (Mumbai Division) who with support of Railway Police Force (RPF) has been assigned this task of spreading the 'walking awareness'

Are other Railways (North, West, South, East etc) also have been commissioned for this kind of awareness drive?

We often blame government for not doing this and not doing that, but then are we as citizens acting responsibly?

If yes, then what was the  need for 'Swatch Bharat Mission' , "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao", "Ghar Ghar Toilet", "Save Water, Save Trees", and several such other missions and initiatives ?

Any thoughts???

Happy Friendship Day

Source - Google Images

We are all busy with so much in life that seldom do we find time to unwind or connect with our friends.

My close friends are from my college and school days. Few I made in the course of time while working. Most of them are married and are working 6 days a week. And since we all stay at different locations within the same city, so coming together makes it all the more difficult.

But then these are also the kind of friends who have seen me and been with me for most part of my life, so even if we rarely talk or might meet only occasionally it does not make much of a difference.
What remains important is that when we connect, we start from where we left and the time lapse just vanishes.

Today on this special day, I  called most of them to wish them "Happy Friendship Day" either over phone or text message and email :)

Did you wish 'Happy Friendship Day"?

Book Review: "Missing, Presumed Dead" by Kiran Manral

Book Review by Nilesh Sharma

As much as I love reading books, there are some books which leave an impression and even when the read is over the mind still stays glued to it, and the characters within the story.

Kiran Manral's book "Missing, Presumed Dead" is one such book, which left me thinking for a long time. It's a Mystery thriller, categorized as "Fiction" series and is published by "Amaryllis" (An imprint of Manjul Publishing House Pvt. Ltd)

To begin with, the 'Cover page' of the book itself is quite interesting. A female face revealing only the lips and nose overshadowed by the valley and trees. It gives the hint that the story is about a female who probably lives in fear and isolation.

The book is written in two parts :
"Book 1" reveals the story of "Aisha" the mentally disturbed mother and a wife who has suicidal tendencies.
"Book 2" gives way to  her husband "Prithvi" who is an academician working on a private project for a US based organization who has opted to stay in small Himalayan town away from city hustle bustle.

Aisha and Prithvi were in love who gets married and have two kids, elder daughter "Maya" and a younger son "Aryan"

The trouble starts in their marriage more after the birth of Aryan and this makes the plot of this Novel.

The distance between them grows to an extent that their relationship has come to a stage where Aisha wants to flee with her children to some far off place where she could not be found. Prithvi too is sick of Aisha and wants to get rid of her.

"Heer" Aisha's half sister (her father's illegitimate daughter) whom she had never seen before, arrives one day all of a sudden at her house, which is located far from town in isolation.
It was raining and the weather too bad, but Aisha needs to go to town to collect her package. Road leading to town is closed and she can go no further unless she march on foot.

"Daljeet" who is in the town for work sees Aisha and offers help by driving her to town in his SUV.
The weather makes it impossible for Aisha to return home, and she stays with Daljeet in his summer home which is a closely guarded mansion.

Daljeet is a divorcee and Aisha a vulnerable woman, two broken hearts reach out to each other. A perfect setting for two strangers who will never see each other again, leads to series of steaming sex.
But little did Aisha knew what she was getting into, until the day she found herself confined to a dark and isolated out house.

Heer in Aisha's absence takes charge of the house, and kids and most importantly Prithvi.
From the time Prithvi lay her eyes on Heer he wanted her. Aisha's absence made it all the more easier for him.

A local shepherd finds Aisha's wallet lying on the road where the bridge was broken, with a suicide note in it and hands it over to the Police. Inspector SD Pant calls Prithvi enquiring about Aisha.
The story takes a new turn, now that Aisha is declared "Missing, Presumed Dead" by the police.
There is an ancestral Kothi and other properties which belonged to Aisha. Prithvi wanted to sell it earlier but Aisha was against the idea.

The plot gets so intriguing that as I kept reading further and as new facts revealed themselves I kept wondering, and tried fitting the pieces together ( in my mind) as in jigsaw puzzle and kept asking myself, what next? The characters and their behavior is very unpredictable, and kept me hooked to the book. I finished book in one go with little breaks.

Only when you will read the book will you unfold the mystery which will keep you spell bound in a way you won't even imagine...What was Heer's motive, why did she come all of a sudden to Aisha's house? Why Prithvi kept his family out of town? What happened to Aisha? Was she really dead or managed to put her plan into action? Why was Daljeet in town, and was it just a coincidence or a well laid plan to bump into Aisha? 

Kiran Manral's book will keep you hooked till the last page, the suspense keeps building as you progress reading to find out more. Well defined characters, with intricate details of their surroundings and locations and a gripping story, is what you will come across.

The writing is elegant (with some heavy words) and I enjoyed reading this riveting book thoroughly (all 260 pages of it)

My rating for the book is good 4/5 and I strongly recommend that you read this book.

Order your copy now at Amazon and do share your reading experience. 

P.S: This book review was part of "Blogchatter" 'Book Review Program' 

From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #4

In this series I am sharing the choices I made as far as my professional life goes.

Why I took up my 1st job at the age of 17 is answered in my earlier post  "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #1 and then why I moved on to my 2nd one and why I left that can be read here >>. "From My Diary - Choices I made ~ #2 

My journey onto becoming Self-employed could be read here "From My Diary - The Choices I made ~ #3"

Yes, I did stop working as an LIC agent but that did not mean I left all my clients. I just up-scaled my scope of work.

How??? please continue reading to find out.

As I already mentioned in my earlier post I constantly learned and upgraded myself, so as I progressed on my journey as an agent, I realized that I now have gained enough knowledge of the financial products that I was offering that it's time to become a Fee based adviser rather than selling.

By this time (2007) I have had a client base of over 900 plus. Moving onto fee based advisory meant letting go some :(

But then I knew this was necessary if I want to take up Fee based advisory model. The choice was made so the next step was to meet all the existing clients and convey to them what I wished to do and how it will help them, should they continue with me as their adviser.

Most of the clients refused to continue since they could not digest the idea of paying fees for financial advisory service. I merrily let them go with a promise that even if I won't advise them going forward but then since they already were my client for whatever product they bought from me earlier, I will continue to offer servicing for them.

Now was the time to devise strategy for my new role as a Fee based adviser.  I worked out a strategy based on my working experience in financial service sector and the kind of income I was looking to generate.

It came down to having 96 clients max in my portfolio and that's it, I will be good :)

Since some of my existing clients accepted me in my new role, it was not difficult to gather more, as they offered references and thus the work was getting better for me.

Just the way I did annual review for my clients, I did my annual review and realized that managing 96 clients will be difficult so I reworked on my strategy and brought down my target number of clients to 72.

It was 2009 and I was doing pretty okay, I had already had about 55 clients  and the way  things were going in another two years or so I would have had another seventeen clients, and that was my target.
But life had something else in store to offer me, and things changed, this time it was something which I had never imagined or ever dreamed of.

What happened, that change the course of my life? What did I do? What choices I made then? To find out, stay tuned for my next blog-post of the series "From My Diary - The Choices I Made"

Have you read my earlier posts on this series? Is there something you wish to share with me or want to ask? I will answer to your email that is for sure, write to me at "nilesharma@gmail.com"

Thank you so much for dropping by and reading my post.

Stay Happy :)

Simple joys of life...

Today as I was having my morning cuppa tea and looked out of my balcony, what I saw was simply beautiful.

Clear blue sky, with white patches here and there, a mountain showcasing its green blanket, with shades of green some dark and some bright green, and some laced with pristine sunshine, I knew I want to capture this and so did I. Although I could not get the scene as it is since it was shot on my smart phone, and at moments such as this, I always feel, the tinge on not having a DSLR camera :( 

Nevertheless since the pic was good and I wanted to share it with you all, I did some  some cropping of a long shot and tried to give you all a peek into what I saw and captured.

Beautiful Sky

I was happy :)

One of the luxuries of life which I am enjoying as for now is the flat in which I live. It offers both, best of the views (scenic and surroundings) and the breeze which comes in, I never felt the need for an air conditioner.

After soaking in the feeling of liveliness and this beautiful moment, I went on with my usual work. Nowadays it is mostly reading blogs of my fellow bloggers , and replying to comments and emails that I receive.

Around evening I ventured out with my family (brother, mom and aunty). My brother is considering changing his car so as soon as he spotted "Cars24" outlet he stopped by for a quick valuation for his car.

He went in and returned within few minutes only to inform us that it would take about an hour to get the valuations, since they need to inspect the car and take a test drive. With time in hand and nothing much to do me my mom and my aunt decided to take some walk.

The area we were in was a green patch and so walking around turned out to be a pleasant experience.

There I spotted this massive banyan tree in its full glory.

 Its roots hanging downwards all around the tree.

The view was breathtaking and once I again I took out my smart phone to capture the vastness of this banyan tree, which had one of the widest trunk I had not seen in a long time.

It was getting a little warm and my mom looking at the dark and cloudy sky said it seems heavy rain is about to pour in, and within 15 minutes it did.

As much as I love rains and every year in monsoon I want to get drenched in the them, it did not happen for couple of years. Now that I recollect it must have been more than 4 years since I went out and got wet in rains.

I guess it was because either I was indoors and too lazy to get into the elevator, climb down 18 floors and then come back all wet inside the lift, or was it because I am in the car (and I hate to even image sitting all wet inside the car) or out of fear of my mobile phone and wallet getting exposed to rain water was not something I seeked or wanted to do. 

But today none of these mattered, why???

Because my mom and aunt were with me and we were out walking and it was my brothers car which at that moment he was getting valued at Cars24 outlet :)))

So as soon heavy downpour started it gave me the perfect opportunity to have my fun moment. I handed over my wallet and mobile phone to my mom and bid them good bye. I took to walking the road and on the way informed my brother that I will meet them all at home.

Walking in the rain today was such a fun, heavy rain hitting me face, water draining don my forehand and face and then passing by my long unkempt beard and even longer tresses.

I must have walked more than seven kilometers enjoying myself passing by flowing water at some places while through flooded waters here and there. Most of the people were under some sort of shade to avoid getting wet.

I saw only two others enjoying the rains like me on that entire stretch of my walk in the rains today.
Who else they could have been but kids :)

Yes I saw these two friends returning from school all wet and when they looked at me and our eyes met we saw that naughty twinkling shine and we smiled and crossed the path.

It was a lovely day I have had in a long time, how was your day? Did you went out in the rains or there was something more magical happening to you? Do write to me and I would love to read all about it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Happy day :)

To each his own...

Have you ever been in a situation where you have been advised not to do a particular thing and yet you ended up doing just the opposite?

I bet we all have, Isn't it?

Wisdom of knowledge is all around us and has been passed onto us from centuries to centuries, generations to generations, and yet seldom do we take it.

At least I have not taken them at their face value, but had to conclude at some point or other and agree to the wise words only when it passed through my personnel experience.

There have been so many instances where-in, either I have advised some and then there were times when I received some.

Over a period of time I have realized that it's best not to offer any advise (even if asked), instead be there as a support for the person who entrusted you with their concern.

I have come across very few people who are wise enough to not commit any mistakes, they believe in learning from others.

But then these same people have missed out on the experience which otherwise could have changed the course of direction of their life.

For instance, I know of this one person who never entered into any relationship neither did he marry, all because he has seen too many unhappy couples either suffering in their respective marriages or had decided to stay separated or got divorced.

Agreed there is no sure shot chances that all the relationships, be a marriage or live-in or the one in the making  will end up as an ideal one, the one which can be referred to as "Marriages made in Heaven!! 

We all wish to live a Happy, joyful and fulfilling life full of smiles, but then how will one know Happiness without experiencing the pain.

Pain and pleasure are like two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other.

[caption id="attachment_398" align="alignnone" width="960"] Image Source - Pixabay[/caption]

We humans as creations, have been blessed with the sensibilities to feel  different kinds of emotions. The experience of all of them is vital for our growth and thus in bringing balance in our life. Isn't that what all the great saints, and yogis and enlightened ones have devoted there whole life to teach us.

But then again, as the title goes "To each his/her Own"...

You need to be an experiencer, only then will you fathom the crux of what our predecessors had passed on to us. Such is the circle of life, it goes on and on...

I am playing my part and doing my bit

I would love to read your comments and thoughts, please write to  me or email me at "nilesharma@gmail.com" and I surely will reply

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Happy Day, Happy Life:)