Why you should join Art Of Living Course ?

Hello Bloggers !


Its been quite a few days that I havent blogged ! Well, I was busy pursuing the Art Of Living Course ( World famous course for Spiritual Awakeing and Medidation led by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) here in Mumbai, India.

This course is practised by over 20 million people around more than 132 countries worldwide.

As the title of this post suggests- "Why you should join Art of living course?" - I will talk about my experience and other people experience who completed
this course in my batch.


The course I am talking about is Art Of Living - Part 1 Course. I had been thinking for a long time to join a course which may give me more control over my
own life. So in this quest, I landed up with this course. The course started on 14 Apr 2008 and ended on 20 Apr 2008. This one week has been a kind of self
dicovery for me and many things which I didnt knew about myself- I came to know due to this course.

On the first day, we were told that for one week, we are not supposed to touch Tea, Coffee, Alcohol, Cigarrettes. Now I am the kind of person who takes almost 5-6 Tea Cups in a day. And I thought this is just ridiculous, but now its been over a week and I havent even taken half a cup of Tea. This is just one example of my self control which I was not aware of before attending this course.


On the first day, it seemed tiresome and questionable - will we be able to take out 3 hrs per day for continuous 6 days? Well, I feel this course of 22-23 hrs ( spanned over 6 days) has been a great investment by me for me !!


Coming to what the teachers teach you ? Apart for various Asanas, Pranayam, Sudarshan Kriya, and Fun filled activities, the teachers gave us some great knowledge points and they kept repeating those for all 6 days.



Here are few of the knowledge points we gained.

1. Accept People and Situations as they are.


2. Give your 100% in whatever you do.


3. Dont be a football of other people opinion. ( Meaning- Listen to everyone, but take your own decision)


4. Dont look for intention behind other people's mistakes.


5. Opposite values are complimentary ( Meaning- If good times never last, so will be the bad times which will end one day)
These are just a few points that we would always keep in our mind.

Sunday, 20 Apr 2008 was a day of celebration for all of us. We had successfully completed our course. Each participant brought delicious food from home and we had a great breakfast together sharing food with each other. Imagine how much variety we had, as we were 42 participants and everyone bought something or other from their home.

As a Guru Dakshina( Teacher's Gift), the Teachers asked us to practice the exercises daily for 40 days. So today is my 3rd day after the course. And its a long journey. Lets see how it goes...

Feel free to ask me any questions you may have. I will surely reply :)

If you loved reading this post, then do attend their course, and hey, pls subscribe to my blog.

For more information about Art of living: please visit : http://www.artofliving.org/in-en/overview

Top Indian Bloggers gather at Bar Camp 3 Mumbai

Hello Gang ! Today I had a great experience at BarCamp3 held at Mumbai, India. I just came to know about it yesterday, so am sorry I couldnt post about it earlier !

So people, here I share my experiences about this awesome unconference @ BarCamp3 Mumbai:

I reached at S.J. School of Management ( SJSOM) at 10.00 am today morning. There was a huge gathering, almost 350+ people attending the same.

It all started with a brief introduction about what everyone was going to present over the next couple of hours.

As the people were giving brief intros, I met Mani and his friend Ashwin who came all the way from Chennai to attend this bar camp at Mumbai.

There were different threads( presentations) going in parallel. I would share my experiences about the threads that i attended..

The first session that i joined was on blogging by renowned indian blogger Rashmi Bansal, who talked about how she enjoyed blogging and how her hobby has made her famous in indian blogging arena !
Here i met Dhawal Shah who is coming up with his own starup Franchise2Win.

Next was the presentation by Ankesh. His was a fabulous presentation and he provided some great examples on how multiple authors can be good for a blog, about Seth Godin marketing strategies and about how he was working with 2 other guys and working on their 15th site !

Time to go for lunch people ! Its already 1.30 pm now ! Well the food was pretty good. We enjoyed it and hurried back to attend some startup demos.
It al started at around 1.45 with Burrp tv. Their idea was very innovative and presentation too good !
Next in pipeline was a presentation by Sheldon from Tasty Khana. He talked about how people can book their meal and table directly from his site and place an order as per their requirement to variuos restaurants. Well, i would say, it was a great concept and a tasty presentation on his behalf !

Aditya Mishra ( he seems multitalented ! After all he was one of the Planners) gave a presentation about how the Startup saturdays are coming along in Bangalore and how the same are being planned for Mumbai !

I also met Prabal Aggarwal who is a final yr MBA student and also blogs at Blog O Mania, Rohan Dighe from Social Web Factory which was launched a month back and had a talk about how his site is coming along.

I also met Sandeep Shetty from Directi ( Hey, thanks Directi for sponsoring barcamp !! ). He talked to me about how he is following Social Media Marketing, Web 2.0 and internet marketing !

Lastly I met a 2 cute looking gals: Meetu who writes reviews about latest movies on her blog and IdeaSmith from The Idea Smithy.

Finally, we wrapped up at 5.30 with the planners asking for feedback and how we felt being at barcamp.

I would without doubt say that these planners are doing an awesome job ! They are providing all bloggers a platform to connect and get involved in various activities like blogging, social networking, technology, startups et al ! Kudos to BarCamp Planners !!

Well, for those who have no clue about what BarCamp3 Mumbai was all about- do check out their website.

Overall it was a great time being at BarCamp3 Mumbai. Hope everyone enjoyed as much as I did ! Looking forward to next bar camp..

To end this post, I would ask: Did you attended the BarCamp3 ? If yes, How was your experience ? What did you took away from Barcamp ( apart from Freebies :) If you were among Presenters, what challenges did you faced, and if you were among presenters, what all did you learned ?

By the way, if you enjoyed reading me, make sure you always keep enjoying by subscribing me :))

How to access internet on laptop using GPRS enabled handset ?

Rightly said, "Adversity leads to oppurtunity !!"

And this fits very well in my case also. Recently I moved to an area where I couldnt get broadband internet connection. I talked to my sister and she said she knows someone who was using internet on a desktop computer using nothing but a GPRS enabled handset. I thought this sounds exciting, so why not give it a try. And guess what, I am publishing this post via my laptop which is connected to web through my GPRS enabled handset.

Now, you folks must be thinking how this works?

Here is what I did and you can do the same:

1. Get a GPRS enabled handset and get the internet connection activated on your handset.

2. Connect your mobile to your laptop using a data cable OR a bluetooth connection ( anything is fine. I am using a data cable, by the way)

3. Establish a dial up connection on your laptop/desktop computer. Now it will ask you to select a modem.Select the one which represents your handset modem. In my case, I have a SONY ERICCSON W580i handset, So I selected the same modem when I saw the options.

4. Once this is done, you can open the connection. Leave the username & Password fields blank. You need not put anything in these two fields.

5. Lastly, the dialup number- This proved challenging to me people !I was using the number *99# which didnt worked. I researched on internet and found another number *99***1# which also didnt worked for me. Lastly, I found one more number *99***2# and guess what- I was more than happy !!!I could see myself connected with internet using just my GPRS enabled mobile handset !!

Guys, believe me, it took me almost two days in this research, but it was worth it !
And guess how- Firstly I could get an internet connection, which seemed impossible initially and Secondly, Well I learned something new and which you will definitely find useful !!

So people, follow these steps and remain connected with web while moving, or while in traffic. And dont forget to ask your mobile service provider about the rates of using internet !!

How to write an interesting blog post ?

So people !! Here are 5 ways that you can use to write your Blog Post that will entice ( aah.. sounds great ) your reader's imagination and will make them peep inside the depth of your content.

1. Asking a Question :
Opening your blog post with a question creates curiosity and makes your reader thinking. Thinking leads to active engagement with your writing, thereby making your post interesting !!

2. Share some anecdote or cite a quote :
Anecdotes are quick stories that can make people laugh or immediately establish the main point of your post. A nice quote from a recognizable authority or famous person can also work wonders when holding attention in those crucial opening seconds.

3. Invoke the Mind’s Eye :
Producing a mental image in a reader’s mind is one of the most powerful things you can ever do as a writer, so expressly engaging the imagination is a powerful opening technique. Activate the mind’s eye of the reader by using words like “imagine,” “picture this,” “do you remember when,” etc.

4. Use an Analogy, Metaphor or Simile :
Analogies, metaphors and similes are some of the most powerful devices available when it comes to telling a story in a single sentence. This is a great way to capture a reader’s attention and also acts to provoke mental imagery that allows readers to tell a story to themselves.

5. Show a rocking, i mean Shocking Statistic :
Starting off with an interesting factoid is also a great technique. People love being provided with interesting data, but only if it is unique, startling, or even shocking. The statistic should also be directly relevant to the point of your post as well.

Oh ! Did i forgot to tell you the most important part of your blog post. Well its the closing. A great way to close is to tie back into your opening.

So, which of the 5 techniques did I NOT use in the opening to this post and What do you think you can do to make an interesting post ??

FREE blog review for my readers- Part 1

Hello dear readers, As promised, here i am with my FREE review for two of the blogs. For rest I will provide the review in my next posts.

In this post, I have provided review of two blogs of 'Steve' and another one of 'The Judge'

Steve's Blog- My review
http://stopbreathingnow.org/

Layout/Design:
His is an aqua theme with three columns with content in middle. The header is for this site only but looks as if its a Banner !! I would suggest to use a header that goes along with Aqua theme. On left bar, we see blog search and on right Google search- i feel you can combine these two and better provide only 'Search' option instead of these two.

Content:
The site has pretty interesting things to read. Also, I noticed that there are very less comments left on this site. Now for this, he can end his post in such a way as to prompt the reader to comment him. That would make his blog more interesting :)

Advertisements:
Google Ads on right seem good, but i would say better blend these with your template. I mean change the background colour of your Ads to blend it with Aqua theme. Rest looks fine. Also I would advice you to remove Alexa rating as it displays 'No data'



The Judge Blog- My review
http://mediamorgue.blogspot.com/

Layout/Design:
The header seems very different showing foot ( goes very well with the name- media morgue). The gray and black colour scheme really looks fabulous. One thing i feel is you need to scroll down too much on the home page itself, so it would be great if you keep just 6-7 posts on main page.

Content:
Content is always the king and i feel this blog has pretty good and interesting posts related to media. To take an example, this post looks funny http://mediamorgue.blogspot.com/2008/01/meet-spartans-or-not-preferably-not.html
Now to make it more interesting, it could have ended like "So shall we meet the spartans ? Well see the clip and tell me what you think ? "

Advertisements:
I feel Google Ads can be taken advantage of and some ads on right hand side can be reduced.
Though Google Ads are present in posts but they are not noticeable. you can consider a 160X600 vertical banner on right side, which i feel would be a good use of google Ads.


So people, here I end my post with the review of two blogs. Please comment on how I did this review and if you would like to add some points for both these Guys, feel free to comments here. Thanks !!!

Get FREE blog review by giving your Advice

Hi Bloggers !!

I need your advice. Just spare a few minutes and comment below on my new template that I am planning to change to.


Here is the screen shot of how this blog will look like:

To get the complete look, here is the link:

http://ankitstheatreworld.blogspot.com/

Please comment below and advice me if this New template looks good OR my old one is better that this one.

I am quite skeptical about changing my template.

The whole idea is that i want to move from my current template to a more professional one where i can put all advertisements on right hand side and all content on left side.

Also, If you know a similar template that would look better than my new template, please give me its link.

Thanks !!! I will change my template probably by 20 Jan ( still to decide), so please spare some time if you read this.

( Depending on how many people give me comments/advice here, I will try to give a brief review about each of your blog/site, and i will give a blog review of atleast 5 blogs, so please leave your email/blog address while writing the comment )

I am done with FREE review and will be giving review for all those who left me their advice in my upcoming post. No FREE reviews after 21 jan 2008

World's Cheapest Car Launched in India !!

Tata Motors unvieled the cheapest car in the world priced at $ 2500.

The car has been named as "Tata Nano"

People in India have reacted with delight with the launch of the cheapest car in the world !

Its really a People's Car !!

And with all the safety measures being taken care of, along with a big internal space, its a great buy at such a low price !!

For more information, visit:

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2008/jan/10tatacar.htm