Online Content Writing - Quality Vs. Quantity

I wanted to post this a month ago but could not do it due to urgent works that took time to complete.

November month is something special to me. No, I have not born in this month or my dear ones have born either. This is the month in which I took a crucial decision about my career and jumped in to something else, till then, was known to me as a 'passion'. Well, I am talking about my content writing stint which was adopted as a full time profession.

I am not sure which is the right word between "metamorphosis" and "evolution" that best describes my migration from a property management profession to content writing. 

Now, having backed by an experience for about 12 months in online content/copy writing, I felt an urge to scribble something about it.

Online Writing as a full time occupation

As Profession

As a profession I love the avatar of Content Writer.

In this role, I am on my own, setting up the goals, devising the road maps, striving forward to take rapid steps and busy in bargaining. It is indeed a good choice for those who have flair for writing and having abundant of creativity stacked in the top floor of the body!

As a revenue source

I understood that the writing skills alone will not suffice to make money in this profession. One should have good negotiation skills, patience to listen to the clients and most importantly the best time management abilities. If these traits are aplenty in you, sky would be the limit. Everyday would keep you busy with treasure hunting. 

It is really exciting to go after a hidden treasure. Is it not?

Lessons that I learnt

At the beginning, I was clueless about Google Keyword Tool, Keyword density etc. I was aware of "Search Engine Optimization" or SEO as part of general knowledge but without any concrete idea. 

Initially, creativity and writing skills alone were my ammunition to hit the target. In the first month I was bit disdained at the lack of SEO knowledge. Many bids were summarily dismissed and few were returned with 'regret string' attached. I kept uttering "Prayatnam Eva Agrajam" i.e. effort is supreme to myself and continued the bidding.

After a month's effort, I could capture one contract from a Chennai based SEO company. It must be a divine intervention that on day one, I got a detailed brief from the client about SEO and keyword usage. So, there I am, in the beginner's class with beginner's luck. 

Later I started reading online articles on SEO techniques and have broadened my horizon. In the 3rd month, I have come across with a retired Charted Accountant (A babu moshai from Kolkota) who gave the second contract. In the same month, I got my 3rd & 4th contracts. Now, I am on the fast track as I could present more proofs for my content writing skills.

Important Insights

Like how all the fingers are not similar, each client was different. Their needs were different. Their approaches were different. Their payment methods were different. But strikingly, all of them were behind one objective i.e. "SEO". I was wonder-struck at this unique yet diversified topic called SEO.

One client wanted a plain article without much fuss on keywords. Another client wanted at least one keyword stuffed anywhere in the article. Yet another client wished to have 2-3 keywords 'inserted' at specific places within an article. Another client wanted to have the same keyword repeated in the ratio of 2% of the total word count i.e. if the article is 1,000 words length then the keyword must be used only twice. Likewise, I have to calculate the no. of keywords vis-a-vis the total word count of each assignment.

Insight 1

I own a website albeit in Telugu (Southern India's largest spoken language) and have worked on "Telugu meta words" which could help the website to climb up the ladder in Google search (Telugu). 

But I never worked as hard as my clients to have such calibrated SEO articles on my website. My approach was totally opposite to the struggles shown by my clients. 

I understand that English is the language of their websites/blogs and there is a huge competition out there on Search Engines for this language. But I was trying to benchmark the "average competition" and tried to measure the success ratio. My study was to understand "quality" vs. "quantity" of an article and keyword respectively.

Insight 2

To my astonishment, I found that the keywords hardly play the crucial role. Yes, this is true. Believe me that the "quality" of an article supersedes the "quantity" of keywords. 

I don't think that the online readers want to 'read' a heap of 'keywords'. On the other hand, a good engaging article rekindles the reading habit of a serious reader to revisit the website and read that worthy article for one more time. These repetitive visits will directly influence the search engines' crawling of that particular webpage. Many such worthy webpages can make the website 'search engine worthy.' A healthy, qualitatively improvised 'search worthiness' of a website results in to the organic growth of the page rank and indexing by search engines.

Insight 3

Creativity is at the bottom of online success and not just statistics or ratio of keywords. I think this generalisation applies even to the product descriptions and reviews. When the articles, reviews, descriptions et al are filled with creative presentation with a crispy language and crystal clear thought process, Google (or any search engine) shall follow it.

So, believe in quality than quantity or statistics or engine's algorithms. 

"It is quality rather than quantity that matters" - Seneca - Roman Philosopher, Statesman

A Story Called My Life - An Ordinary Beginning

A Story Called My Life

Frequently, I pester my mother to narrate me the first day of my life. She would answer me "What would you get from knowing it?". I don't have an answer for that but should we have reasons for everything?

Today, sitting next to the window and watching drizzles that are trickling down the length of the window's grills, I simply slipped into my inner vision and tried to visualize the day for myself.

Join me, if you wish, into my imagination..... 

An Ordinary Beginning

I was born as a normal, usual looking baby boy. No miracles have happened either in the world or in the little town where I had taken my birth. A mediocre looking doctor and hospital staff did their job, took their money and went homes except for one hefty looking staff nurse who was cheering me up as in my first appearance in that hospital room I was louder than a horrified duck whose life is at risk.

Once I am out, mother heaved a sigh of relief which is quite obvious and father came the next day morning to see me. He came late not because I was too ordinary but he was too far away on a business tour. Maternal grandma was the only person that was too excited to see her only daughter giving birth to lonely loon like me!

She was all over me on day one of my entry on this word’s stage. Holding, caressing, cajoling, singing and of course examining me for any kind of deformity or abnormality. Because I was pretty ordinary and normal, she could find none of the known deformities. I suspect till to this minute that my grandma, owing to her lady James Bond attitude, would have concluded her investigation in just one day? That is highly Impossible but the investigation would have gone for several weeks. Any ways, she was the only person who saw me as a little bundle of miracle and continued with that myth till her last breath. I owe to her a Himalayan gratitude for this adoration.

My father, who came on the next day, had a glance at me, touched my cheeks, giggled and chuckled for an hour or so and vanished for the rest of the day and I could see him on next day only. He is medium built with broad chest and powerful arms. When he lifted me I felt dizzy as he was too quick in doing that act. My eye brows were twitched and lips were curved awkwardly. I heard mother screaming “Careful” and grandma murmuring “Oh! Boy! That was dangerous.” But I could see no change in him. On day three too he has lifted me like a jug pulled from a water filled bucket. Surprisingly, neither the mother nor the grandmother screamed or murmured and insanely I did not felt the same dizziness that had me on the previous day. There was little…very little amount of frown on my face which no one could really watch out. How did I become habituated to this power lifting in less than twenty four hours?

As I told that I was pretty ordinary and hence the delivery was formal normal with no C-section performed, I and mother were taken home from hospital on day three of my entry into this world.

Good God!

Maternal grandparents were not living in any palace but at a not-so-attractive house. It was pale, plain and stinking! Hey, it was not the stink that I got accustomed to in hospital but it was something different. I heard mother putting my doubt into a question. Grandma was telling “Dear, it is the aroma of incense sticks that were lit a while before by your father.” That is how I made my grand entry. Good riddance, even today I get the same ‘stinking’ feeling when an incense stick is lit. Oldest habits are the easily digested ones, I believe!

For the first time I saw my maternal grandfather. He was awfully short, lean and toothless. He welcomed the daughter, son-in-law, spouse and the ordinary ME. His joyous excitement was filled in every wrinkle of his face. They were stretched beyond their limits but filled with gleams of happiness. Within minutes I was transferred in to his bony arms. Auch! I needed some cushion, soft padding or some sort of that and could not be there in those bony arms for long. I spoke my mind out but the sound came out like one big, huge, overtly loud cry. Everyone was up on their toes and I was back into mother’s lap. I looked at grandpa and he was perplexed but smiling meekly. I doubt whether I was awake after this small sheepish crying incident.

When I woke-up, I found some new type of brightness in the room where I was put-up with mother. It was not as bright and warm as the light that was there in the room during the first part of the day. This was utterly dull and uncaring.  One fat, oval shaped, ugly looking thing was seen in the middle of the room and was hanging right on top of my head. It was ablaze incandescently and terribly swinging back and forth. “I woke up to see another freak show!” I thought and instantaneously my mouth got wide opened, lungs were filled with air and there came out my unhappiness in the form of a cry. Mother was asleep, I feel, but got her senses back with my steam kettle’s noise…slow but loud, steady and rising.

I could see the horrific look on mother’s face but was helpless as my glances were thrown back at that scary hanging burning thing. The more it stared at me, louder was my scream and caused huge confusion in my mother. This show went on for long but how long I don’t remember and later I saw grandma making an entry in to the room. I felt relieved a bit as my eyes were drifted from the freak thing to something I knew better. Within a minute, I was in the soft hands of grandma and was out of that scary room. She took me in to another comparatively bigger room where I could not see much light and purportedly sans that hanging burning thing. Just to keep up the pressure, I was crying for few extra minutes but as the fear factor died down, I lost the inspiration to cry further. I sobbed for a while and was back in to the sweet sleepy mode.

Days were rolling with little or no changes but I must admit that too many folks were flocking my room. I liked some faces and did not like some. Some days were much brighter and crowded than other days. 

On one fine day, I heard father saying something in my tiny ears secretively. I read his lips saying “Raghu”. What was that? Why he is not speaking as loudly as he usually does? Is he scared of some freaky thing that frightened me? The first seed of doubt was sowed in me!

I heard the same word now coming from mother. She was cheerful and brave to utter that word loudly. “Ahaa! Raghu! My boy! My cutie! Look at me! Look at me! Oh , my darling Raghu!” Though I liked her boldness to utter “Raghu”, I was not too happy with those many exclamatory marks used by her. The first seed of dislike is being sowed in to me.

There came a pair of elderly people and both were trying to embrace me almost together. “Hey, who are you people?” I shouted but am being a normal human my shout came out like a cry. I saw my father handing me over to the elderly lady by calling her “Here he comes, mother!” Now I realized that she was my paternal grandma. I started liking this lady with the same quantum of love that I have for maternal grandma. My paternal grandma was wheat coloured with pleasant looking face. Her eyes were very bright and when she kissed on my dimple cheeks, I felt new kind of warmth. Later I was picked up by the elderly man who must be my paternal grandfather. He too was lean like maternal grandpa but taller than everybody. His graceful disposition was overwhelmingly felt by a tiny fellow like me too. He looked straight in to my eyes and said “Become a knowledgeable fellow, my tiny tot. God bless you.” For the first time I heard a new type of phrase. The first seed of inquiry was sowed in to me.

There were many people on that day in my maternal grandpa’s house. Everyone were looking happy, healthy, cheerful and gleaming. At the end of the day I was given to the understanding that I was the chief motivator of their joyful extravaganza. The first seed of egotism was sowed in me.

Funny but Real Experience at a Radio Station

I do not remember the exact date but it was in 1991 when I got the call letter from the All India Radio's local FM station in Tirupati. I had sent my Telugu poems and the same was accepted by the radio station.

AIR was not new to me and neither my name was unknown to Tirupati FM station. I used to write letters almost regularly to the Station Director on various programs that were broadcast from the station, Many of those letters were being read and answered by the station authorities. Likewise my name was pretty much known to the staff and listeners.

But the twist in the story is that no staff had seen my face till I was called for the maiden recording. Amongst all the AIR staff of that time, Malladi Chandrasekhar was the most creative announcer. He was hosting a talk show called "Mano Ranjani" wherein the short poems or poetic prose sent by the listeners were read by him and a suitable film song was played along. Here too,my poems were being read many a time by Malladi.

It was in one rainy afternoon that my first AIR recording was scheduled. I was sitting in the lounge like frightened duck. My fear was not because of my first appearance but because of sitting alone in that vast room where the tiny humming of centralized AC was the only noise to be heard of. I sat for more than 30 minutes before being finally called in to the studio.

During those 30 heavy minutes, an young guy in his late twenties was saw by me coming in and going out of that big lounge. At every entry and exit by him, there was a stare or glance towards me but he never gave a chance or took one to speak to me.

Now, I am inside the chilly and quiet studio. I was welcomed by an young guy who introduced himself as the Sound Engineer and he said "Take your seat there and recite your writings. Someone would come for the recording."

As there was no need for me to recite or rehearse my own poems, I was simply gazing at the acoustic walls and ceilings. This time, the presence of couple of mikes, big and round table, cushion chairs etc. have put me in a comfort zone. I liked the quietness of the studio room than the lounge's weary, dreary silence.

Then came the same young man whom I had seen many a time doing thoroughfare in the lounge. He quickly got into the anti-room of the studio, switched on the lights and stood before a mike and was looking at a piece of paper laid on the table.

He smiled at me through the glass wall that bifurcated the studio room and the recording room. Suddenly a speaker came to life by carrying his voice "Are you Mr. Raghothama Rao?". Now I got to know who that guy is. My dear Malladi Chandrasekhar!

I smiled and said "Yes Mr. Malladi."

In next minute Malladi was in studio room shaking my hands and donning a wide and wild grin on his face. He said "Oh! Are you really Raghothama Rao? I thought that Mr. Raghothama Rao must be an old, person. All these days I was visualizing you to be grey haired or bald headed, retired government employee. But you turned out to be much younger. How old are you?"

"19 years....." I answered him sheepishly.

"Oh my God! Then I am the oldest fox. I am 27. Why did your parents gave you such an ancient name?" he enquired further.

I just shook my shoulders and kept smiling.

What followed next does not matter much as it was a regular thing that happens in every radio station. But this unique experience remains fresh in mind and would revisit me every now and then.

Personality of Couples & Personalities of Individuals - Are They Similar or Dissimilar

Of late, I was consistently pondering over the subject of understanding the personality of couples vis-a-vis that of individuals. As I started probing deeper in to this subject, the sojourn was something like 'when going gets tough - tough gets going.'

I was finding lot of difficulty to benchmark the differentiators between a couple and two individuals. This is due to my resolution to not to seek or approach external resources to fathom it out. I wanted to drill down to the center of the topic lonely but logically. My mental faculties were pressed hard and were driven with maximum speed. After spending more than three days on this topic, I could figure out certain things which would be described in the following paragraphs.

Couple Vs. Individuals

I feel that Couple signify a combined persona while an Individual represents his or her own self. The subtle difference between these two is like water in a goblet and the water in a pond. The "shift of life" is not that easy for a Couple to tackle with while it would relatively easier for an individual.

Couple cannot deviate from the "blueprint" of lifestyle because the said blueprint would have taken sometime for them to draw, revise and finalize. Whereas an individual could modify overnight.

Likewise, you can keep adding the diffrentiators that could be drawn between Couple and Individual.

Coping Up With The Vulnerabilities of Relationship

Well, there is no SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) to describe how to cope-up with the vulnerabilities that cause cracks in relationships of couples. There could be plenty of reasons, both petty and worthy, for couple to call off the day. It all would start from stop talking to each other with affection. Intimacy would become formality and the bed can become desolate. Each of the couple would start looking for alternative methods to kill their time and thus allow the gap to widen. They would start finding "faults" in each other. And this would be the unwanted and dangerous phase of relationship.

How To Resolve The Relationship Crisis

Again, there is no operational manual to dictate "how-to-do" the resolution of relationships that are falling apart. But there are ways to reconcile the differences like identifying the primal fires of egos, interpersonal complexities, identifying the areas that need mutual cooperation, eliminating the blind spots etc.

Conclusion

Couple is sum of two persons, multiplication of happiness and subtraction of sorrows and division of responsibilities.

This mathematics is not that hard nut to crack, if the simple and basic logic is understood by the couple.

Story of Prince Dhruva - Symbolic Meanings of the Characters

Sometime back I wrote a small, brief account of Prince Dhruva's life and achievements. Click here to read the article.

Today, I was going through the keywords analysis of my websites & blogs and have come across with a peculiar search phrase " describe uttanapada in hindu mythology". This is a rare search and has prompted me to write this article as I felt that the visitor would have been disappointed by not finding the decription of Uttanapada on this blog.

Without much time being spent on the prelogue, let us get into the thick action and let us decipher the symbolic meanings of the few important characters in the story of Dhruva.

Meanings Of the Characters

Uttana = Upright; Paada = Leg(s)

So, Uttanapada means 'the one who kept legs upright." This disposition can be dubbed as "laid back". Like how we use in the phrase 'laid back attitude'. Similar to this, the word Uttanapada denotes the most common trait of us i.e. laid back attitude. Hence Uttanapada is none other than we!

Such Uttanapada aka laid-back-attitude has got two wives. Here 'wife' means companion. We, as Uttanapada, have got two companions. What are they? Let us extrapolate...

Elder one is Suneeti and the younger one is Suruchi. Let us see what these two names denote:

Su = Correct or Proper; Neeti = Prudence or Morality
Su = Very or Quickly; Ruchi = Interest or Desire

From the above we can understand that the we (Uttanapada) are married to Morality and Desire. In the story, Uttanapada was loving his second wife more than the first one. It is true in our lives too that the attraction of desire is stronger than morality.

Uttanapada begot Dhruva from Suneeti and Uttama from Suruchi. An apt progeny!

Dhruva = Stables, eternal, unchangeable, firm etc.

Uttama = Best, elevated, greatest, chief etc.

When the morality prevails, we shall become 'stable' if not 'great'. But when desire drives us, we would reach the exalted or pivotal position in life but may not remain 'stable' or 'firm' over there and may stumble down any moment.

At the end of the story we witness that it is Dhruva the Stable, Eternal and Firm character which has prevailed over Uttama the Best, Elevated and Greatest. It is Suneeti who exhibited her undeterred character as against an impulsive Suruchi.

Thus, we the stereo-type Uttanapada must embrace 'morality' even at the fag end of the life to gain the most desirous status of 'stability' and that firmness alone can make us to 'shine forever' even our body departs from this world!

The story of Dhruva is not 'myth' as conceived by many but an on-going story in every community, every family and in every person. Such is the greatness of Hindu Puranas. There is no humbug or gossip or heap of impossible miracles but a true, real and practical knowledge of human psyche.

||Shantihi||

 

Online Earning Opportunities And My Experiences With Them

Well, it is all about living and to live we need to have some earnings too.

God has made everything for us. Food, water, air, trees, mountains - He made all these and kept ready for us to use them. It appears for me that He is telling all of us - "I shall give you what you need, but you shall strive to 'earn' them". And that is how earning has become part of our lives. But today we struggle to earn money and not His mercy. This might sound too philosophical for you and might confuse you a lot with the lead title of this article! So, let us rest the God and philosophy here and shall proceed to see how do we earn through online means.

Life catches us off-the-guard and throws us in to the dust. But that should not deter the undiminishing craving of us to 'earn'. When I was out of my lucrative job for certain obvious personal and professional reasons, I lurked for almost a month without knowing what to be done next!

One day, I was sitting with the laptop in my lap and was punching through MS Word file. I was typing out my second novel (Yes. I do have flair for writing since my childhood!). I was narrating an episode wherein one female character tries to inspire her dejected spouse by citing certain odd scenarios from her past life. Finally she becomes successful to drive her spouse towards positive thinking.

When I am done with that episode, it really donned to me "Hey, why am I sulking on what do to next? How to earn to live? Is my life doomed for ever?". I was staring into my laptop and the last sentense spoken by my female character - "Don't just lead life but design it." For the first time in my life, I was inspired by an non-existing personality. Instantaneously and instintively too, I have googled the net for keywords like "online earning opportunities", "online writing opportunities", "content writing assignments" etc.

Google was yelling at me with 30 million & odd results. I became nervous, impatient and dumb. I have resumed my mental faculties and have started browsing through the links. Finally I stumbled up on a good websites called Freelancer.com.


Freelancer gave me the first breakthrough as a SEO & Copywriting expert. Here I have the highest chances to showcase my writing skills and brand myself as prolific writer. My exprience with Freelancer.in is intriguing and interesting.

 

Life is time and time is life

"Life is time and time is life." When I ponder over this statement I remember the three day break – Oh! What a great thing to happen – the 'Thank-God-Its' Friday, Saturday and Sunday!!

 

Thursday evening is one that everyone is looking forward to. It is for those with 5 day week it matters much as Good Friday does not make much difference in the lives of those with 6 day week.  Three days pass on just like that. This is how everyone feels. Why time flies away during holidays and why not during working days, why it runs slow? 

 

The pace at which the time passes is eternally unchanged.  The feeling of its pace is relative to individuals. It looks like the more the individual is joyful, faster the pace of time. The more the individual is worried about anything, slower the pace of time. Or is this just a halucination? We all would have undergone at different times and under different cicumstances but we all feel the same way. Why do we do this? 

 

When the time fills our life we feel it long – meaning when we wait for an event that we do not like to participate in it, the time passes at a slower pace. Each moment that we wait for some unpleasant meeting/event kills all our energies, hopes, dreams and aspirations for the future.  This is time filling our lives.  When we fill the time with our actions we feel it short – in other words we wish to have long hours of chat with our loved ones but we feel that the time is flying. The mornings, afternoons, evenings, nights get passed quickly. We in fact wish to fill the time with our joy but time allows us to do so within its natural pace only.

 

We all cherish certain wonderful moments in our lives, particularly those that happened during mornings or evenings. The beauty of time adds more significance to the moments that we like when they happen in mornings and evenings. When it rains, irrespective of the time, it adds beauty to the events that we like. Time in its original form is like God. In its relative form it appears to us as having different paces. 

 

Our mind, in fact, has got these paces. It works at different paces depending upon its likes and dislikes.  We attribute our pace of mind to the time and got into the practice of blaming the time.  The time is just a witness to our mental activities.  There is nothing called a bad time or a good time.  The time, like the God, is neutral to all our attributes.  Harrison Owen’s experiment with the Open Space Technology which revolves around the four principles namely:

 

1)Whoever comes is the right people – whomsoever we meet, work with, associate, seek help from, help and guide are the right people.  So why do we need to worry about them?

 

2)Whatever happens is the only thing that could have – the feeling of I should have done this, they could have done this, the could-have-beens, should-have-beens or might-have-beens are the only stuff for worrying about. Therefore accept the things as they happen because they are beyond your control.

 

3)Whenever it starts is the right time – the right and auspicious time are constructs of the pure minds. When things happen suddenly, we must know that they happen for the good of us.

 

4) Lastly When it’s over it’s over. In a word, don’t waste time. Do what you have to do, and when its done, move on to something more useful.

 

I suppose these four principles, if applied in right earnest, would take away the pain and remove the feeling of slow paced are fast paced time in our lives. Many would agree with me that we all trying to enjoy our the time we have – the present moment.  Because the present moment presents us a present too!!

 

State Of Mind

It is about a day on which spirits are very high. I feel very secured. World around me looks so beautiful. This season appears as if it was showing its best colours. Life is full of hope and happiness. The next day when my boss who the is significant one in my employment felt that he was unhappy with my work, approach, speed, etc.  I felt as if the ground below me is shaking or even began to sink.  The pain of being unemployed, the absence of continuous flow in to my bank account, the bills that I need to pay, the EMI and all the needs of my family that I shall meet appear as haunting images in my mind.  I questioned my ability to go along without a job, the answer is a big NO.  I looked at my property and it smiled at me.  It restored the peace in my mind.  I can sell it off and live on the interest of the money that I get from the sale proceeds.  Oh what a relief.  I felt really relieved of all the inconvenience. 

Next day, my Boss approved my draft, listened to my articulations and yet advised me to speed up.  He gave a kind of comfort and I am happy.  As I reached home, I wondered as to who is controlling my life.  I understood that I am not controlling my life.  I read the books that I passionately bought to read, I got answers.  I listened to the discourses that I downloaded, I again got the answers.  But these answers are not so easy to digest.  They appear so simple but when I inserted them them into my mind as my answers they become complicated. But they sent out a ray of hope that they are the real answers and I am on the right path. 

An outsider came and challenged me in an intellectual manner. Demanded me to work 24x7 like a mad man!!  Again I got disturbed.  In the meeting that I had with him I  remembered the answers that I inserted that I only can control my life none other and I shall give my best and do not worry about the results.  I told him I shall do my best.  I got a peculiar courage to face this obnoxious, malicious, vexatious and non-nonsensically commercial fellow!!  I found that life poses new threats, challenges, fears and faces that we do not like to look at. All that I need to do is to recall the answers.  But when some utters at myself unpleasant words these answers get engulfed by my emotions.  To retrieve these answers I take so much time. 

I experienced the facts like a situation where I felt secured became suddenly unsecured.  I believed that something is assured but suddenly it became very doubtful.  I encountered situations where a wise decision taken by another laughed at my inaction!  I found some one with a similar financial status   became so comfortable because he took a right decision when I rationalized it with many things.  Even now I rationalize my loss in many words and this  causes many times confusion.   Yet my answers that I can control my life and I need to give only my best became my only friends in need.
 

Writing Nightmares

For me, writing is sacred.

Each alphabet appears to be His form. I feel that the He is speaking to me through the words. I could visualize His multifarious appearance unfolding through sentences. What to say about the literature on whole? It is a wondrous multitude of Him that can be felt right in front of my eyes, could hear through my mortal ears and can understand with little and illogical brain. Finally, I could see far beyond the literal meanings as if He is whispering some sacred hymn.

But I heart loses its synchronic act when some piece of writeup full of grammatical errors stares at me. I feel pained to see the disrespect shown by the writer to the sacred language. I am stunned to witness the reckless attitudes nakedly exhibited in spelling mistakes and mispronunciations. Ah! Why such nightmarish things do happen more often than not!

Close scrutiny of horrible writing habits do tell me that lack of sensitivity is the root cause of all evils in this society. When people can kill a fellow being and get along without feeling the pain of the sin, does it really matter to them on merciless massacre of language and grammar? I don’t think so. Sensitivity is something that must prevail all through the life and in every single aspect of life. It is not a mechanical switch to on and off at someone’s will. After all, sensitivity is synonymous to God!

Through this articles, I can only pray to Him to prevail over, as usually done by Him, when I write. This is the least effort I could put up at least in upholding the sanctity of writing.

Commitment Always Pays - Story of Dhruva the young prince

There is a beautiful story in Hindu mythology. It is a story of a five year old prince called Dhruva. Many Indian parents tell this story to the kids to tell them as to how a great commitment to achieve the goal always pays for self improvement.

Story in nutshell

Uttanapada is the father of Dhruva who is ruling over a vast kingdom. Uttanapada is married to two wives. Elder wife's name is Suneeti which means one who possess righteous knowledge and the younger wife's name is Suruchi which means one who got great taste (in either wordly matters or spirituality). Uttanapada begot one son each from his wifes. Elder son's name was Dhruva (eternally stable one) and the younger one is named as Uttama (the best one).

One day, when Uttanapada is enticing his younger son Uttama by keeping him on his lap, Dhruva enters the room and tries to sit on the lap. But his step mother (Suruchi) drags him away from the father and says "If you have to enjoy the bliss of sitting on father's lap, you should have born to me!".

The tender heart of Dhruva is severely pained to listen to this blabber but he leaves the room without uttering a word against father or mother and goes to his mother Suneeti. After hearing the incident from her son, Suneeti tells Dhruva that it is the God Almighty who can help the unloved ones.

The boy was so inspired with these words of the mother. He knows that mother always tells the truth. After seeking mother's blessings Dhruva sets out to forest to do penance so that the Lord would present Himself before him.

On his way to the forest, Dhruva meets up with the heavenly sage by name Narada who enquires as to why such an young boy is wondering in the forest. Sage Narada is the son of Lord Brahma, the creator of the universe, and can travel between the worlds. When such a great soul is present before his eyes, Dhruva prostrated before the sage and told about his motto. Sage Narada tries to deter the boy by describing the horrific scenes of a thick forest. He says the boy that the beats are merciless, creatures are blood thirsty. But Dhruva stands tall and undeterred and requests the sage to tell him the ways to realize the God.

Sage Narada who is much pleased with the commitment of the boy gives him a powerful mantra which can help him in calling the God. Thus Dhruva does the great penance shunning food and water for five months. Lord Narayana, the supreme godhead, appears before the boy and bestowed him with a mighty boon that he would rule the kingdom for sixty thousand years and later will be given with a celestial abode and Dhruva would be shining as a great star. This is the star that we see every day in the sky called as "the north star".

Meanwhile, the Sage Narada traveled to the palace of King Uttanapada as he knew that the king might be repenting his carelessness shown towards Dhruva. Up on seeing the divine sage king pours out his emotions. Sage Narada consoles him and tells him that Dhruva is not an ordinary boy and tells him that the boy would be returning soon with the blessings of God Almighty.

When Dhruva returns to the kingdom, he founds that a great gathering is waiting near the border. By coming close he sees his father, mothers, brother and many courteriers and people. King Uttanapada coronates Dhruva as the next king. As told by the Supreme Godhead, Dhruva rules the kingdom for sixty thousand years and becomes the bright star of the northern sky.

Moral of the story:

Is it not a fantastic story? A small boy becomes a big, shiny star with undeterred commitment and sheer prudence of patience!

Mothers are the first teachers and they can instill inspiration in the tender minds of the kids and inspire them to be positive in life.

There Is No Secret Ingredient To Patch-up With Ex

There Is No Secret Ingredient To Patch-up With Ex

Have you seen ‘Kung Fu Panda’? If NO, please watch it now. If seen, please recollect what father told Po about his secret soup.

“Po, I think it’s time I told you something I should have told you a long time ago. The secret ingredient of my secret ingredient soup…the secret ingredient is…Nothing.”

The father duck tells his panda son to believe in himself than anything else. Oogway, the wise tortoise warrior, knows that the magic scroll alone does not make the ‘dragon warrior’ and hence he selects the fat and dull witted panda. Oogway has seen the burning desire in Po though the bear is gawky and overtly stupid.

Likewise, there are no secret ingredients for 'get-back-the-ex' recipe. Be a Po to make the impossible as possible. Rekindle your willingness to make corrections. Get burnt with desire and ignite your ex too. You must believe in yourself to accept the transformation. Reverse the heart-wrenching situation into a happy one. Wholehearted approach to erase the warn-out bad memories and age old differences is what needed for both of you. Once again listen to Po and his father:

“Wait, wait, it’s just plain old Noodle Soup? You don’t add some kind of special sauce or something?”

 “Don’t have to. To make something special, you just have to believe it’s special.”

That’s the recipe you need.

Physical Exercise Tips For Housewives

Physical Exercise Tips For Housewives

 

 

Housewives are the busiest persons in society. They work for almost 16 to 18 hours a day and cater to unimaginable demands from other family members. Housewives are keys to the happiness. If the key is lost due to ill health or physical fatigue then the whole family would plunge into sorrow. So how the housewives can be kept fit and fine physically?

Let us explore!

1.      Develop Good Food Habits:

Homemakers’ first priority is food. Sufficient intake of food must be there to generate enough energy to handle the regular household chores. The food should be nutritious and should supply enough calories. Junk food is not the choice for housewives who work under demanding situations. How distasteful might be the healthy food, they must consume it.

2.      Avoid Excess Sitting:

As a homemaker got some amount of leisure time, spending it by watching TV shows or favorite movies is a welcome event to bust the stress. But excessive sitting must be avoided as it can lead to obesity. Taking periodical rest can be clubbed with little physical exercises like stretching or breathing. Thus, the housewives can convert their couch as a gym.

3. Sleep Well & Soundly:

Improper sleeping will surely affect the health. Most of the housewives think that an afternoon nap is the best relief but it is not true. Experts say that afternoon sleeping causes overweight. So, housewives can inculcate certain pass time activities and keep them busy to avoid the afternoon drowsiness.

4. Do It Yourself:

One nutritionist once told that the ladies in the past centuries were slim and yet healthy as they were completely involved household works throughout the day and thus the physical activities were enough burn the excessive calories that were accumulated in the body. Now-a-day women are accustomed to use several machines to done away with regular activities like cloth or dish washing etc. So, those housewives who wish to be physically fit without going to gym can make use of this regular housework to burn excessive calories.

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In a nutshell, though house is the heaven, for women who act like homemakers it can be the gym as well to keep them fit, healthy and fine for life long.