#YouMakeMeWin

I am a member of 'By Lines' the winning team of Game of blogs. Our story is getting published. As a writer it has been the best thing happened to me till date. I remember when game of blogs was announced I was going outstation for training. Hence I was not able to register it on time. By the time I registered for game of blogs I all the teams were finalised but I was desperately wanted to play that game. Luckily I was alloted the team 'By Lines' as one of their members was not an active blogger. I was desperate to play that game because I knew that I was going to learn something at the end. I never thought of winning it. I was just there to get something from fellow bloggers. We gelled up well and won it in the end. It was a great team effort by an awesome team. 'By Lines' consists of Anmol, Ashutosh, Prerna, Preethi, Tina, Ram, Soumya and Me. All of them are great bloggers. I am not an avid reader but their blogs made me read more and more. I learnt from all of them but three of them influenced me the most not just by their writing but by their other qualities as well.

Anmol Rawat

Anmol was the first person to contact me during game of blogs. Anmol don't do anything else than reading and writing and he is earning good amount of money out of it which according to me is incredible. He used to be pro active during game of blogs. There is no doubt that he is better writer than me. Apart from that he is a good editor as well. He used to give his nights in editing our posts. He taught me how to commercialize my writing. Whenever I needed any advice regarding any campaign on different blogging sites I asked him. When I had to put advertisement on my blog, again he shown me the right way in that matter.

Anmol blogs at : http://anmolrawat.blogspot.in/?m=1

Preethi Venugopal

Preethi, chief editor of 'The Awakening' title of the winning story of game of blogs. Her book Without you's cover is out and her book will be out soon (most probably). She is busy in its promotion. She is a fab writer and editor. Most of the chapters of our team has been edited by her. She worked so hard on this story that she forgot her ill health, her anniversary etc etc. She gave more than 100% of her to our story. She was the one to give the alien way to our story. So along with the editor in chief she was also our creative head. She influenced me to give my everything in my each and every post. She taught me that when you love what you do then ill health and all are just excuses.

Preethi blogs at : http://tulipsandme.blogspot.in/?m=0

Tina Basu

Tina is a marketing officer in Britannia. She mixed her work and writing so well that after completing her chapter she used to edit our chapters during game of blogs. She always used to be on time while submitting her chapter. Apart from that she was my saviour during game of blogs. I used to write my chapters from my mobile as I was attending the training. So she and Preethi used to edit and Tina used to post it in my place. I made her admin of my blog during that period. From her I learnt to manage my work with writing. Seeing her editing and writing while working. I started writing while travelling in the local train. It was difficult at the beginning but now I have made it a habit. These days while travelling in train I write most of the time. Moreover I also find time to write while working.

Tina blogs at : http://twinklingtinawrites.blogspot.in

People always remember first winners of the game. So team 'By Lines' (we) will always be remembered as the first winners of game of blogs.

I’m blogging for #YouMakeMeWIN to honour a blogger who has influenced me and deserves to be nominated at WIN15.

You made me blog.

In 2010 I signed up on twitter to follow my favourite cricketers and film stars. It all started with 140 characters. I loved tweeting. It was a challenge to write a message in 140 characters. I was enjoying being on twitter. As I started tweeting I got a mention from Gaurav Kapur which is very exciting for a cricket lover. It was a good start. One day Rahul my school mate sent me a link on twitter. It was a link of his blog post. At that time for me Blog was a space where people write and put theirs views on different things. At that time I used to read Amitabh Bachchan's blog. My first thoughts on blog after reading that were it is not about 140 characters or a post on facebook. It is about expressing yourself through it.

It was an awesome post by Rahul. He is damn good at writing. He used to write for Mtv as well. After reading that post I thought I should give it a try. I asked Rahul what is the process to sign up on blogger. I signed up immediately and named my blog 'PG'. First blog post I wrote was on corruption. I wrote 4-5 blogposts that year. As the time passed by I started enjoying it. I became a regular by 2013 and I started exploring the fields and topics I am good at. From PG I expanded to four Blogs. Cricketology, Freelancing and My interviews are the other three blogs. In Cricketology I write about cricket like what I feel about the game, what I understand about the game, my analysis of different matches and tournaments etc. In Freelancing I write marketing stuff for various companies. In my interviews I write what I have gone through during 50+ interviews I have given. Lastly PG becomes my personal blog by default.

Today I am mainting three blogs out of four. My interviews has been sidelined by me. Blogadda was the first blogging site on which I registered my blogs. Through Blogadda my journey of becoming a freelance writer began. Today I have become a freelance writer from a mere blogger. Last year Blogadda organised game of blogs and in that too my team won and I became an author. It has been a great journey so far. I hope to go much ahead in writing. It all began with a guy pushing me to try my hand at blogging. It was Rahul's blogpost which inspired me to blogging and helped me find my love for writing. Unfortunately he stopped writing after that as he got busy in his family business.

Rahul used to blog at: http://resultofboredom-blogjob.blogspot.in/?m=1.

I’m blogging for #YouMakeMeWIN to honour a blogger who has influenced me and deserves to be nominated at WIN15.

An App way approach

When it comes to online purchase among all the products, customers has highest satisfaction purchasing fashionable products. Since last one year or so I am buying my clothes and footwear online and that too from my mobile only. I buy everything online through the mobile apps. It is good to know that myntra has gone app way through #ItsPersonal campaign. I think it is a great move from myntra to go app way. Most of the people do online shopping through apps only.

I feel app is only way to deliver true fashion experience. There are still some people who wander in malls to buy clothes, footwear and accessories. While there are some people who shop online but don't go the app way as they feel they don't get the complete idea of the thing on small screen. To sell myntra app to those people who are already shop online is easy. More discounts, extra cash back, exclusive designs etc are enough to bring them on app.

Now to sell the myntra app to those who wander in mall to buy clothes and all, I would organise an event at city's shopping malls over the weekends. Moreover to attract the audience at the mall I would invite celebrities to host that event and to explain people why app is the only way to deliver true fashion experience. In this country people follow celebrities blindly. So if they are shown that their favourite celeb is buying clothes through myntra's mobile app then they will also start using myntra app and will do shopping online. We need to bring these kind of people on our mobile app and that celeb's act or performance endorsing our app will do it for us. In this way we will be able to bring those people on our app who haven't joined the bandwagon yet.

My First Expert

God cannot be everywhere so he sent Moms on earth. My mom is everything to me. I can't even imagine my life without her. She is the one who has made me what I am today. She knows everything about me. She knows how to handle me when I am sad, angry and frustrated. She has been my protector, my teacher & my secret keeper. She is my go to person for anything and everything. It is not possible for me to appreciate all of her roles in one post. Hence I am going to talk about Mom the protector in this post.

I used to be a notorious child in school. I always used to do masti with my friends in on going periods. I used to bully and tease them in the periods. Some teachers tolerated that graciously while some didn't. There was one teacher who didn't even liked my face. In first standard she was my class teacher and was strict as hell. She used to beat me like anything if I do something during her period. As she was the class teacher so all the other teachers used to complain her only. In short I was like a punching bag to her. One day she came frustrated from home in the morning and was checking our homeworks and all. I was talking to my friends until my number was called. My number came and I showed my notebook to her.

She saw my notebook and my writing was not good. There she got the reason to beat me. She started slapping on my face while talking something. She didn't see anything she was just slapping me. Another teacher came at that time and she complained her about me. My cheeks turned red and I started crying but that complain allowed her to beat me more. I hid my face to stop her but she didn't stop. At the end blood came out my nose due to her slaps and that bleeding finally stopped her from slapping me. I was sent home due to bleeding. I went home crying and told mom I won't go to school from tomorrow. I was so scared from her. I saw a monster in her that day. My mother took me back to school within half an hour and fought with the principal. She stood by me like a rock. She told the principal that "you treat children like this? He is just seven years old and look how you teacher has beaten him. I want transfer certificate now. My child is in danger at your school."

Principal calmed my mother down and assured my safety at school. The impact of my mother was such that principal changed my class teacher and she was alloted other subjects to teach. 7 years later in 8th standard she became my sanskrit teacher. At that time she didn't remember anyone in the class but me. In 8th standard I was quiet in her class for eight months but then one day she caught me talking during her period. At that time she didn't beat me but she called my parents. My mother was dying to meet her as she didn't get the chance to meet her when I was in first standard. Thus my mom and dad both came to school to meet her.

"This guy hasn't changed at all in last 7 years. He is still that mischievous and under performer as he was in first standard." That sanskrit teacher told to my parents pointing at me. My mom was listening to her calmly.

"I was listening to you silently till now because there is a mistake of my son and I think he has already apologised to you for that. You are talking about my son. Have you changed yourself in last 7 years? You know really well how treated him 7 years back. He was just 7 year old kid at that stage. You talk about his under performance na? Have you seen his results? He has scored more than 80% marks in all the exams of your subject. If this is under performance then what you call a performance? 100% result?" My mom said it to that sasnkrit teacher in very quiet manner. She had no replies to it and meeting ended. I was smiling.

There is one thing about moms that they can not listen anything against their children. That instance assured me that my mom will always be there in my proctection.

To know more about this campaign. Click here

An evening in Kolkata

I went to Kolkata last month for training. I work in a general insurance company. Company introduced some new reports in the system. Hence to brief us (employees) about them they held training in Kolkata. I had never been to Kolkata before so it was going to be tough job to find a cab or auto after getting down there at Kolakata station. Hence I booked a cab online before I reached Kolkata. As I reached there the cab was waiting for me and it dropped me at hotel within half an hour. On the way I was wondering how good our company is in selling car insurance in Kolkata? I decided to check it during training.

Training center was few kilometers away from the hotel and company provided me and my colleague a car for pick up and drop from and to the hotel and for roaming around the city. Next morning training started and that morning we started getting along with that man. By the evening we came to know that he bought a new car some time back and started his work as a cab with it. With the help of hotel's management he got this opportunity of working as a cab of the company. After training I reached hotel, got refreshed and was ready to roam around the city. While my colleague was boring so he decided to stay in hotel only.

All roads were heading towards eden garden that evening as Kolkata Knight Riders were palying there. I wanted to go and watch the match but I didn't had tickets then also I told that cab driver to head towards eden garden. I asked him in the way whether it is possible to get tickets now but he denied. On the way he started asking me about car insurance as he didn't had any knowledge about it. It's amazing people buy insurance without knowing about the cover that policy is going to provide them. People come to know about the coverage when they claim for damages.

I asked him about how they buy the car insurance in Kolkata? Whether they buy it while buying a new car or they buy it after that. He answered innocently that dealers offer them insurance when people buy new car in Kolkata. So it was same here in Kolkata as well that most of the people buy insurance through auto tie up only. By the time I enquired that, we reached eden garden. I didn't had ticket and was unable to even arrange one. I went there not to see a match but to see India's one of the oldest cricket stadium. I was walking around it in all the excitement and rush. After walking around and checking that stadium from outside for half an hour I told that cab driver to head back towards the hotel.

While going back I asked that when his car's insurance policy is going to expire? He showed me policy copy which was kept in car. It was about to expire in two months. Seeing that I showed him how to check coverage of insurance policy on net. Not only that I gave him a whole demo that what he has to keep in mind while renewing insurance policy of his car. I showed him how to compare the policies of different companies. I helped him to know how he can get the deals while renewing his insurance. I instructed him to renew his insurance only after comparing the policies, deals and offers on the net. Moreover I also helped him to get the numbers and addresses of different insurance company's branches in Kolkata. He was a net savvy person so he picked up everything quickly. After getting all the information he was happy that he got some knowledge about insurance.

While coming back to the hotel he showed me the house of Dada (Saurav Ganguly) as by that time he knew that I am cricket fanatic and I am more interested in seeing such places. Overall it was good evening in Kolkata. I visited the historic eden garden there then I stoped by my favourite captain's house. I couldn't have asked for more. Then I came back watched the match and slept after celebrating KKR's victory.

A sound that suits your car.

Couple of years back I went to pick up the delivery of my car. In warehouse executive was fitting the accessories at that moment. As it was my first car I went and stood next to him to check whether he is doing it properly or not. I knew it was his regular job but it was my first car. So it was really special for me. After getting assured about that I went in to finish the paper work. I went in the accessories' division first to check out other accessories. There I was checking different car sound systems. I decided to fit it from outside as I was getting a wide range in car sound system in Ahmedabad's local markets.

Manager noticed that and he started convincing me to buy the sound system. He was so good at marketing that he almost convinced me to buy the sound system from him. I would have said yes to him but Mama called me at the right time. My mama deals in electronic appliances. He has a shop at relief road in Ahmedabad. There is a biggest market of electronic and electrical appliances at relief road in Ahmedabad. Mama instructed me to choose the model of sound system online. He told me that he will get me the chosen model from the market at much cheaper rate. I did as he said. First I came out of that accessories division after denying the manager there.

I finished the paper work and waited outside till accessories job was over. Then I took my car home. While driving my car home I realized that car without sound system is like having lemonade without lemon. I straight away googled car sound system in Ahmedabad after getting home. I checked lot of sound systems of Sony and Pioneer. In the beginning I was getting mixed models of both Pioneer and Sony then I realized that Pioneer's sound system are better that Sony's. Hence I googled pioneer car audio in Ahmedabad. On net I didn't only got the phone numbers and addresses of the sound system sellers but there were some amazing lucrative deals available on different websites.

I shortlisted few models of pioneer sound systems and went through their specifications. I read reviews and feedback of all of them. Then I chose one model which I thought will suit my car best. It was an informed decision. It was great advice from Mama to check the models online as it helped me to take informed decision. If Mama wouldn't have got me that system at cheaper rate then I would have bought online. In this way world wide web helped me to buy that sound system which suited my car best.

#EkNayiLeague

Today in India almost every sport has its own league. Seeing the success of IPL, investors and corporates started investing in other sports too and they were successful in attracting audience for each and every league. Credit has to be given to IPL. IPL has taken Indian sports to a different level. Now for a success of any league you need glamour along with investors and if there is any other sport than cricket then you need cricketers too to make it a success. In India cricketers and actors are worshipped. So if they come together for anything it is going to be a huge success.

Now the cricket legend Kapil Dev is coming up with another league in India and he has created a buzz around it. If you see its videos on #EkNayiLeague website it will leave you in eagerness to know more about it. It means their marketing team has been successful to create the buzz. In each of those videos Kapil sir is talking about the league which can not be played with heart. He is talking to different celebrities saying that 'agar dil se khela toh gaye.' Hence this league is all about mind games or is to be played with mind. What this league is all about which is to be played with mind?

Here two things are possible that either this league is related to sport in which only mind is used or it is something related to business. First let us go with sport when I think of a sport which is played only with mind, the only image comes into my mind is of chess board. I think Kapil sir is going to launch the league of chess. According to me In this league of chess all those celebs about whom Kapil sir is talking about in those videos are going to play chess with chess players. The format of it will be something like that. The reason behind my thought of it being a chess league is that next league in this country is going to be launched in chess and it is the only sport which is played with mind and there is no place of heart in it.

Now what if this league is not about chess. If this league is not about chess then there is only one thing in this world in which there is no place of heart and that thing is business. In business too it can be a league of trading in securities, commodities, mutual funds, shares etc. Hence these are the two possibilities of this league in which there is no place of heart. If heart plays a part in any of these things then you are going loose big time. Let's see what this league is all about. There is surety one thing that it is going to be exciting.