Pocketful of Sunshine

Aniesha and I were talking on Saturday and we were both cribbing about how busy I've gotten lately and how the mess at her university (she studies at Jadavpur ) wasn't getting any better. We decided to meet and crib some more over breakfast. So, we met this Monday at Park Street's Au Bon Pain (I highly recommend this place if you haven't been there...the quirky decor, super comfy seats and delicious orangeade shouldn't be missed). While the two of us sat there munching on our delicious egg and pesto croissants and yapping at the same time, I spotted these kids running around with a tray.

I pointed to this bunch of three six-or-so year olds who by the appearance looked like they had dressed for Eid. Aniesha giggled and remarked how excited kids get when they find food, a lot of it.
"The poor parents must be going crazy trying to control them". We continued talking when my eyes wandered to another counter where I spotted the three carrying this tray with one Onion and Garlic Bagel on it. I overheard one of them say "Ye wala le le...30 hai (take this one...it costs 30) " and I poked Aniesha saying , "They aren't here with their parents!! ". I could see that she looked really worried and started scanning the place trying to find them. "Oh there they are", she said pointing to the cash counter. We saw the three hand over one ten rupees note each to the guy at the counter who looked really amused. "Bhaiya, 30 huye na? (it is 30 bucks right?) ". What they didn't notice was that the bill was not 30 but 35 rupees with the added tax. The guy at the counter was really kind and nodded his head in affirmative and took the 30 rupees handed to him.

These three then clambered into the seats right behind ours. One of them divided this one bagel into three parts as the other two slathered ketchup all over it. The two of us watched them highly amused as they laughed and nibbled the bread. I nudged Aniesha to go and ask them if we could take a picture of them. And guess what? These three not just said a yes with big grins but one of them smartypants flashed a "V for Victory" when Aniesha clicked the picture.

Aniesha and I wanted to buy them muffins but they sped the moment they finished their bagel. Kids these days are way smarter, I swear. I'm pretty sure I would have never had the courage to go to a place located on such a busy street all alone!!

Do you have a similar story to tell? Share it with us in the comments

Till next,

Sponsored Video: Help a Child Reach Five

In an exclusive video for Lifebuoy, Bollywood actress and mother, Kajol shares her opinion about a video featuring Gondappa which has gone viral. She explains how as a mother, she constantly worries about the health of her children and how a minor things like a cold or a cut can make her extremely worried about her child.

Gondappa's story is a heart breaking one. He walks the entire way from his house to the village temple on his hands on a hot summer noon, never putting his feet down before he reaches the deity's shrine. He does all of this to thank the gods for his child has turned five. His actions might seem bizarre at first but when we realize that Gondappa is one of those few unfortunate parents who has lost his children to diarrhea, his actions don't seem misplaced. This is his first child to have survived.

As a parent, one's child's health is the prime priority and as Kajol mentions even a sneeze and bruise can get mothers worrying about their child's health. And to imagine having to lose one's infant is unimaginable.
You might like to watch the original video about Gondappa where he tells his story. See it HERE.

" Every year two million (2000000) children under the age of five die of infections like diarrhea and pneumonia."

The most surprising aspect is the fact that these diseases which take such a huge toll of lives every year are diseases which can be very easily prevented. The only basic requirements of personal hygiene can keep these fatal diseases at bay. Washing one's hands before and after eating, after using the toilet, before cooking and handling food, and keeping the house clean are the basic few requirements which can help in prevention of the disease. Unfortunately, a large majority of parents are completely oblivious of these.

Lifebuoy as one of India's leading brands has come forward with the Help a Child Reach Five campaign to spread the importance of personal hygiene to the remote rural areas of India. They have set to focus on Thesgora, a village in India with one of the highest rates of diarrhea and have started to spread the awareness regarding the need for basic personal hygiene and bringing in real change to help prevent a large number of infectious diseases leading to child deaths. For every share of the video, Lifebuoy has promised to pay Re.1 towards the campaign.

Join Lifebuoy's campaign on their Facebook page, their Youtube stream and on their website to help reduce the number of child deaths in India due to diarrhea. Share Gondappa's story and if possible, donate to the campaign if you can and spread the word so that no parent has to go through the horror of losing their beloved child.

This post is sponsored by Lifebuoy but all opinions are my own.

Magic!!

Hello Friends,

If you ask me to pen down my five fave moments and choices I made last year, saying yes to reviewing Aniesha's debut book would definitely be on the list. Saying yes to it not just got me a pretty book to read but was the beginning of a friendship, a bond and a sisterhood which is very rare to find. We started chatting before I received her book and now after some odd 7-8 months, I can happily state that she is one of the most treasured friends I have. Her story's title aptly describes our story of friendship from being virtual friends to real life friends. She is our guest today and this is a story she had written for little kids. I hope you all like it as much I did.

This is what she has to say-

Magic! was written as an exercise for a creative writing workshop I had been a part of. The deal was my prompts were: scientist, library, cigarette and fantasy... I hope you guys like what I came up with! Enjoy. And thanks for letting me guest post on your blog, Swarnali!!!  

MAGIC!

Fantasy is necessary ingredient in living; it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.

- Dr. Seuss

“Damn kids and their stupid world of make belief!” swore Tanmay Sarkar, pulling on his pair of socks and cramming his feet into his large leather shoes.

His feet hurt when he stood up. He could swear his shoes had shrunk an inch, since the last time he wore them. But he knew all too well that was impossible. He was, after all, a scientist and everything in his world revolved around reason and rationality. There was no way in the world that his shoes could’ve just shrunk of their own accord. He half-hopped, and half-winced his way out of his dingy bachelor apartment.

He had to go to the library immediately to get his hands on Descartes’ Principles of Philosophy. He woke up that morning from an inspired dream and he felt it in his bones, that Descartes could guide him to an answer. As he struggled his way to the library, his heart sank when he remembered he’d been banned from entering his beloved shrine as and when he pleased.

Tanmay still maintained that it wasn’t his fault, and things wouldn’t have gotten as much out of hand as it had, had the lady reading J.M. Barrie’s novel not provoked him. He couldn’t understand what joy the children sitting around the lady, reading aloud in the library, could derive from hearing about Peter Pan and his adventures in Neverland. After all, Tanmay reasoned, it was made up place. No such magical places could exist. And he knew Science could prove that. He’d told the lady so.

She had scowled at him, and gathering the children about her said, calmly, “Could you please keep your views to yourself, Mr. Sarkar? You’re disturbing the children.”

A small boy piped up, “Does that mean there’s no Santa Claus either?”

“Or the tooth fairy?” the girl sitting next to her asked, her eyes as round as saucers.

Tanmay laughed at their silly questions and said with scorn, “Of course there isn’t. Those are all made up stories to get children to bed on time.”

“That’s not true,” said another little boy. He was sitting on the lady’s lap, carefully looking at the illustrations in the book, “Some of it is true. There’s magic in this world.”

Tanmay threw back his head and laughed harder when he heard that. He’d meant to interrupt the children’s story telling session that day but on his way to check out a book, he’d overheard Peter Pan being read out. He’d snorted for the lady had been reading out the part about Tinker Bell, the fairy, helping Peter Pan.

He had never believed in fairies, and his rude snort had made the lady look up from the book. When she asked him what the matter was, he’d told her. In the process, the small children who’d believed every word they’d ever been read out began crying and wailing. The manager had to rush to the small reading circle, and pacify the children. When he realized it was one of Tanmay Sarkar’s tongue-in-cheek comments which made the children so restless, he became so furious, he banned Tanmay from coming to the library as when he pleased. He allotted Tanmay specific timings to come to checkout and return the books.

Now, Tanmay rushed in his too tight shoes, towards the library. He checked his watch and saw he only had ten more minutes of his precious library time. He wondered if he could bribe the security guard into letting him enter for just five minutes. Acting on the impulse, he went inside the first shop that came on his way and went straight to the tobacco counter. He couldn’t help but notice that there were several dolls and stuffed animals decorating the little shop. He wondered vaguely what purpose those could possibly serve a store which sold tobacco and chocolates.

He purchased a pack of cigarettes. The woman behind the billing counter seemed oddly familiar to him.

“Hi, I’ll take the pack of cigarettes, please,” he said, reaching into his pocket for his purse.

The woman raised an eyebrow at him and said, “Are you sure you want just a packet of cigarette?”

“Of course,” he replied, “What else would I possibly want?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she hissed, “Maybe the chocolate bars in your other pocket?”

“I did not take any -” began Tanmay indignantly, reaching into his other pocket. He stopped abruptly, when he felt two chocolate bars in it. He pulled them out, completely bewildered. “How on earth did that happen?”

“I’m sure you have an answer for that, Mr. Scientist,” replied the lady, acidly.

It was then that Tanmay realized who the shop assistant was. She was the same lady he’d unwittingly picked a fight with, so many days ago in the library. Her sarcastic comment had jolted his memory. He blinked twice and said, “I have no freaking idea.”

“Why?” she asked, “Is science letting you down? The same way your shoes are?”

“How do you even know about that?” he asked, taken aback. Indeed, his ever shrinking shoes were beginning to give him blisters now. He had tried to take them off. But they clung to his feet indignantly.

“Oh you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” the lady replied, smiling at him, “But I still have some scores to settle with you.”

“Huh?” Tanmay couldn’t have been more surprised, “What did I ever do to you?”

“As if you don’t know,” she hissed, her eyes narrowed into slits, “My little son no longer believes in magic and fairy tales thanks to you.”

“That’s common sense,” muttered Tanmay. Immediately, he got smacked across his face by an invisible hand. “Hey!” he screamed, indignantly.

“Does liking science make you such a big non believer,” the lady wanted to know.

“Reason cannot support magic,” replied Tanmay. He ignored the invisible hand which tweaked his ear next, “But I’ll say your son has decided to become wise.”

“My son believed in Peter Pan before you came along and forced him to grow up,” the lady accused Tanmay, “And I’ll give you a choice, Mr. Scientist. Either you make my son believe in magic again or I’ll report your little shoplifting spree to the police.”

“What nonsense!” thundered Tanmay, “How am I supposed to do that? And I am not fond of children either.”

Someone pulled his trousers and looking down, Tanmay saw a teddy bear was trying to get his attention. His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, when he realized that all the inanimate objects in the whole shop had come alive. The rows of miniature stuffed dinosaurs kept on the shelf behind the counter were performing a ballet. The candy bars were performing their own jig on the counter. And though science could never prove it, Tanmay could swear he saw fairies flying around above his head. The door at the other end of the shop opened, and the little boy from that day long ago, entered the shop.

“What’s going on?” he asked. He didn’t seem to mind the shop being so alit with life.

Tanmay stared at him. A sharper tug at his trousers made him look down at the teddy bear and ask, “What?”

“You have to tell the boy there’s magic in everything,” the teddy bear said.

Tanmay, a firm believer of science, could hardly believe his eyes or ears. All his life he’d rejected everything out of the ordinary. Yet today, he was standing in a shop, where everything was coming to life, performing their acts or advising him to believe in magic. A line of patchwork dolls decided to show off their catwalk skills on the counter. But the best part was a miniature winged creature fluttering in front of Tanmay’s nose and settling on it, decidedly.

“Fairy?” he breathed, amazed.

“Duh!” the fairy replied.

Tanmay got down on one knee, and when he was at eye level with the boy, he smiled at the boy. He’d forgotten his childhood and he’d forgotten how it used to feel to go off into another world through the books he’d read. He took the boy’s hands in his and looking at him squarely in the eye said, “I was wrong. Please forgive me.”

“Wrong about what?” asked the boy, surprised.

“That I said there’s no such thing as magic,” Tanmay replied, “There always is. We just don’t see it anymore.”

The boy smiled back at him and said, “I’m glad to hear that. I’ll be sure to tell the Lost Boys, when I see them again.”

Before the words of what the boy had said could sink into his mind completely, Tanmay found his surrounding dissolving around him. He barely heard the lady say, that since he’d fixed the problem he’d created, she was sending him to the library. When his eyes got focused again, he saw that he’d arrived in front of the library. He ran up the flight of stairs, desperate now, more than ever to get hold of the damn book of Descartes. He had had to double check his theory. The images from that morning were also fresh in his mind. He just knew he needed that book to hit the jackpot.

He checked his watch, as he approached the librarian, armed with the Principles of Philosophy he’d been wanting since the morning. The librarian took the book and his card and then scowled. He looked up from the card and said in a flat voice, “I’m sorry, Sir. Your card expired today.”

********

Till next,

Games Review- 'Antakshari' and 'The Bakwaas Game' by MadRat Games

Hello World !!

How have all of you been?
This is the first time I am reviewing something like this on the blog. I was sent two very different board games from MadRat Games.
Here is what I thought of them-

A few things you need to know about MadRat Games-

• Award of Excellence - App4India, TechSparks 2011
• Winner IIM Calcutta Biz Plan Competition - "Ideas to Implementation 2009"
• Creators of Aksharit-The World's First Hindi Word Building Board game. Aksharit now has a mobile and computer version too.

The first game I received is the classic game of Antakshari that every Indian has played sometime or the other in their life. 

Priced at- 125 INR

Contents- The pack comes with an instruction sheet and a pack of 60 cards with different types of topics on them. 

 Number of players - Unlimited

 Age - No bar. Anybody can play.

rule sheet

 Time - No time limit.

The pretty cards

 How to play-

• Each player or team gets to pick one card from a random arrangement.
• Sing a song accordingly. for example, if your card has "Kajol+ Shah Rukh Khan" written on it, you have to sing a song which features these two actors. Or if your card has the picture of eyes (ankhein) ,heart (dil) and bangles (choodi or kangna), you can pick any one of them and sing a song that has the word in the first few lines.
• Each correct song would fetch the marks written on the card.
• The person / team with the highest score at the end of the game (which should be 4-5 rounds) is the winner.

Pros-

• This is a multi-player game and a lot of people can play at the same time.
• A lot many options and variety (the pack has 60 cards) like - songs with a particular letter, dumb charade cards with movie names, actor couples, particular scenes and many more.
• Needs nothing more than just the pack of cards to play. No special skills required apart from some basic knowledge about Bollywood songs (which am pretty sure everybody has ).
• No age bar. everybody can play.

 Cons-

None I could find.

This game is a great idea for passing away your idle time during long distance train journeys and during picnic gatherings. I had a great time playing this with my classmates during a long break between our classes at the university.

The second game I received is a completely new one. It is called The Bakwaas Game (or the nonsense game)

 Priced at-  225 INR

Contents- One pack of 55 cards, a set of letter tokens, 4 pencils, one minute sand timer, rules sheets and the letter pad for keeping record of the marks.

 Age - 10+ years

Number of players- 2 to 8

That little blue white thing you see is the one minute sand timer. that is my personal favorite item from the box. 

How to play-

• The topic cards each have two topics on them. The letter tokens are to be put int a bag.
• Shuffle the cards and pick any topic card.
• Similarly pick a random letter from the token bag.
• Select the combination which is agreed by all. For example the card says "Things to do when you turn 18/ Things to find in a canteen" and the first option is selected from the two unanimously. The letter token lets suppose is "G". Start the sand timer when everyone is ready.
• Now write as many one or two worded examples of the topics you chose. For example for the above combination you could write GET MARRIED, GET DRIVING LICENCE , GET HIGH and so on and so forth. These are the logical examples I could think of. You can make up any inane bakwaas. The more unbelievable and out of the box the idea is, the better.
• Stop scribbling when the time runs out and all the sand is settled on one side of the timer.
• You get points for every unique bakwaas example you wrote. That is if any other player wrote exactly the same example as yours, it gets struck off. Nobody scores for that idea. You get 10 points for just the unique ones.
• The scoring is the best part. For getting a score for each bakwaas example you wrote, you have to convince your opponents of its validity. Like you could say 18 is the legal age to consume alcohol. So I might as well decide to get high and, hence, the bakwaas is valid. If everyone agrees, you score, else not.
• The person with the highest score at the end of 5-7 rounds wins.

Pros-

• A very innovative idea. It is like a punch of poker and that childhood game almost everybody played where we had to list names, places, things, animals and birds with a particular letter.
• A great way to make kids think out of the box and learn new words.
• A lot of variations possible. It is almost an infinite combination. There are 55 cards/110 topics and 26 alphabets. Yeah, you can permute to get the number of variations possible. Am too lazy to do that for you. 
• The box comes with pencils, timer and scoring and writing pads. So, you don't have to run to get stationery for everyone while playing.

Cons-

• The only con I think is that the rules can be a little too complicated for kids. I had a hard time trying to explain it to my niece and my neighbor's kids. Well, you could also say that I'm really bad at explaining things out to kids. 

Learning words was never more fun. If you have a kiddo's birthday in line and are clueless what to gift them, this is your best bet. Forget the old school cars and doll sets and give them something more substantial from the MadRat Games indoor games galore.

Overall experience- MadRat Games have come up with these amazing array of games for people of all ages. the games are very innovative and highly enjoyable. A must try for all indoor games lovers.

You can buy the two games and many other amazing games from MadRat Games on Flipkart, Shopo and Hoopos. These games are also available at retail stores across the country.
You can also know more about their games from their website and join their Facebook page for more updates from them.

P.S.- Apologies to the entire MadRat Games team for the delay in posting the review and thanks a lot for the patience regarding the same.