Water Dowsing – Magnetism in Humans

While on a visit to a family friend, I was told by the most senior person in the hosting family about his capability for water dowsing. He said he helped many families to locate water by directing them to the spots in their homesteads where they could possibly find underground water if dug a few meters. According to him, he had a special gift which helped him to locate the presence of ground water following this method.

A drawing of water dowser

This method is popularly called water dowsing, apart from other names like water divining, water witching, or simply water finding. This is a widely used method of finding the location for water-wells. In our place, there were special persons who were known for their ability to use a ‘Y’ shaped water-dowsing rod coupled with the magnetism in their bodies, to locate the presence of water underground.

Science calls this method fake, and classify it under Pseudoscience. But we can’t treat everything baseless; due to the inability of the scientific methods to give an explanation for a certain phenomenon. I hope science would at least in a later period find a reason for this particular magnetic capability of a few of selected human beings.

Coming back to the respectable and elderly person who told me about this particular ability – in his lifetime, he had used this method around thousand times to trace water. Not a single suggestion from him went futile, as per his claim. This person is a school teacher, so there rests a certain amount of credibility in what he says. He also said he could not use this method more than three to four times a day, as excessive use of this would affect his heart.

Water dowsing rod. Courtesy

The water dowsing method includes the use of a dowsing rod, which is Y-shaped as written above. The two branches of the rod are held using the thumbs of both the hands by keeping the tail branch of the rod parallel to the ground. By maintaining the stature, the dowser (he is also called a diviner as he uses the divining rod) walks along the homestead. It is said that when the dowser’s magnetic capacity traces the proximity of groundwater, the tail branch of the dowsing rod would move towards that location. Taking clue of the rod’s movement, the dowser moves to the location where he can feel the vibration of the rod in the maximum. This final location is where the water can most easily be found. The water divination works this way.

Apart from the direct, face-to-face account by the aforementioned elderly person about his talent, I also had happened to hear third-party narratives about persons with same water witching abilities. As I heard, when asked about the source of their talent, they all attributed their special gift to the effects of magnetism. Moreover, in all cases, the dowser has to employ an apparatus either in a rod shape or in other shapes like the pendulum to make use of their bodily magnetism.

Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street | Review

Private Detective Sherlock Holmes – from my humble point of view – has been the most influential fictional character among all I read, and everything I watched. Unless I read him, I suspect if I would have attempted even blogging. I am unable to put in words the mystic feeling that such a little coinage like ‘221B Baker Street’ brings to my mind. I used to often hear or read from Sherlock buffs that the apartment where he and Dr John H Watson supposedly lived actually exists there and the same address receives a lot of letters from potential customers on a daily basis. By these specific reasons, 221B Baker Street remained on top of my must-see destination list.

A Sherlock Holmes Silhouette painting
available for sale

After moving to Dublin from India, I got the opportunity to actualize my long time wish. I visited United Kingdom twice. I went to see Baker Street in London city during the first trip and 221B during the second. A casual walk through the Baker Street alone was enough to satiate my wish as I believed a visit to the 221B apartment was not going to create a greater impression in mind than what I had in mind through reading the Sherlock books. But still, a wish is a wish! So, I decided to spend 15 British Pounds to make a physical visit to the 221B Baker Street museum.

The apartment is four-storied. It has been designed based on the details provided in the Canon of Sherlock Holmes. On the ground floor, there is a store from where we get tickets to the Sherlock Holmes museum.  You can buy souvenirs from there ranging from books, Sherlock paintings, deerstalker hats, visiting cards, to film DVDs, and everything is hugely prized. I think the chest badge I bought for 2 Pounds is the cheapest one. This floor has an underground section where toilet facilities for visitors are provided.

The souvenir I bought from the shop

The entrance to the upper floors is guarded by a sentry in Victorian uniforms. Every staff in the museum is clad in the attire that reminds us of the Victorian times. Going up on the first floor, we are taken to the living room of Mrs Hudson, who was the landlady of Holmes and Watson according to the stories. There are places where we can sit and take photographs while holding a typical smoking pipe and wearing a Deerstalker hat, which were famously used by the fictional detective. A visitors’ book is available there on the table where we can put our signs, and guess what? I was the only visitor from India who signed on the page which was open.

The Blogger at the 221B living room
donning the Deerstalker hat

Going up on the second floor, we see Sherlock Holmes’s bed room and living hall. Every floor has a bedroom and a living room, and every room is comparatively very small. A bust of Sherlock Holmes as described in ‘The Adventure of the Empty House’ is placed near to a window memorizing the events in the story. There are several of such replicas everywhere, Holmes’s violin, books read by Watson, and many. Replica of the characters and instances of the books are portrayed in the living room of the third floor. Characters in ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’ ‘The Disappearances of Lady Frances Carfax’, ‘The Speckled Band’, and some more are portrayed in the third floor in life-like sizes. Close to the third floor living room you can see Watson’s bed room. A little above the third floor, there is a toilet which is not for the public use. There is an attic on top of the toilet area, which is forbidden from accessing.

The blogger's name in the visitors book

The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street is a good place to visit, and there are a lot of visitors. It is run by the Sherlock Holmes Society, and above all there is a blue plaque for Holmes on the outer walls of the building. Although their effort is worthy of applause, I felt that some part of the layout of the building bears less resemblance with the depiction of the 221B building in the narrative. I could be wrong as well!

Note: You might have noticed that I nearly missed mentioning Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Why blame me? Such gigantic is the impression of his creation, needless to say!

Trivia 1: During the time of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, street numbers in Baker Street did not go as high as 221, which might be the reason why Conan Doyle chose a higher street number, to prevent the address from matching any actual person’s residence.

Trivia 2: As per the naming convention of the buildings in Baker Street, the actual house number of the Sherlock Holmes museum should be 239 Baker Street. There was some controversy associated with renaming 239 into 221B when the museum was opened in 1990.

The blue plaque, they are rarely given to fictional characters	The Man with the Twisted Lip	The Scotland Yard wanted help from Sherlock
The Deerstalker hat, gun, pipe, binocular, and measurement tape	An exterior view of the Baker Street.  The Sherlock Holmes Museum is seen at the right side.	A statue of Irene Adler, Holmes's love interest
A view of the Sherlock Holmes Museum and 221B Baker Street	The famous bust of Sherlock, from The Empty House	Supposed handwriting of Sherlock Holmes
A portrayal from The Solitary Cyclist	Holmes is portrayed in the stories as a music enthusiast, a violinist	Hats of Holmes and Watson, magnifying glass and pipe

Silence in Alfred Hitchcock films as a device for suspense

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it."

              -Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock may be likened to Agatha Christie when their works in film and literature respectively are considered. The ‘Master of Suspense’ was as prolific as the ‘Queen of Crime Fiction’, and their similarity is not confined to the quantity of produced works alone, but both were equally successful in creating works of superior quality in a continuous manner for longer periods of time.

Our today’s topic of discussion is not the writings by Christie, but the films of Hitchcock. As everyone knows, suspense was the primary forte of the man of multiple cameos, and he was greatly successful in that genre. My true intention is to point out a technique that I noticed which Hitchcock employed to create a collective feeling of terror, anticipation, and excitement in his films; and the technique is – silence. A filmmaker who started his career in the silent era, who produced one of the first successful sound films in the form of Blackmail (1929) had every opportunity to be grown up as a moviemaker who knows how to use sound perfectly in his film.

Alfred Hitchcock 'Hitch'  (1899-1980)

While watching many of Hitchcock films I have noticed that he had the tenacity to add dead silence in places where it was least expected. It is striking to note that a film director, who was keen on generously filling many of the film portions, especially the beginning and end with flamboyant background music, chose to resort on total silence in some of the suspenseful key sequences. Critics many times mentioned the silence in the murder scene in ‘Blackmail’ movie in related discussions.

Another example of such voluntary silence is the gruesome murder scene in his later year success ‘Torn Curtain’. In a violent scene of this 1966 movie, Hitchcock stayed silent while a German guide was being murdered inside a seedy and solitary farmhouse.  The guide’s head was pushed by the slayers into a gas oven and what we can hear is just the controlled noise of the struggle.

But these two scenes have given us a horror or sad feeling rather than Hitchcock’s trademark suspense. I have noticed two scenes in two different films which were remarkable for the controlled use of sound where suspense was at its peak. The scenes featured no background score but very limited ambience. Since he believed in the anticipation of sound as a key of suspense rather than the sound itself, (as per the quote in the beginning of this article), we have every reason to believe that his intention was to create a multiplied mood of suspense in the spectators minds by simply keeping them wait for an unexpected sound. Have a look at the two scenes below:

The Theft Scene in Marnie (1964)

Marnie saw the last collaboration between Hitchcock and the beautiful Tippi Hedren, and also in this film we witnessed the latter pairing with the iconic James Bond actor, Sean Connery. Tippi was recently in the news when she repeated her former allegation against ‘Hitch’, how the master director sexually assaulted her during the shooting of this film. As a matter of fact, the blond Tippi was in the league of the perfect 'Hitchcockian' heroines in every manner. Let us leave these things aside. The psychological thriller Marnie featured Tippi Hedren in the avatar of a kleptomaniac in its title role. Hitchcock takes us to the peak of excitement with the careful use of sound in this film’s office theft scene. We are part of an office burglary 44 minutes into the film. When Marnie stealthily conducts the theft, even the clanking of the keys or a slight change in room tone is capable enough to scare us. See the scene below:




The Crop Duster Scene in North by NorthWest (1959)

This scene is famous for its intriguing visual presentation and a mysterious charm brought by suddenly shifting the area of action from an urban area to a totally rural dry farm land. Such a sudden jump catches our sense since it alienates us quickly from a locale which was familiar so far. Hitchcock’s most famous leading man Cary Grant (only after James Stewart in my viewpoint) is seen here waiting for a person where there is nobody. Only the occasional passing of vehicles and the chopper’s distant noise bring auditory relief to the spectators’ minds. Watch the scene below:



Tail-end: The Birds (1963) also has a sequence where the sound is greatly suppressed and silence is enhanced. But I find the above two sequences surpass the Birds scene in terms of the amount of anticipation.

RF Resonant Cavity Thruster (EmDrive) - Is it Impossible still?

The human is confined to the earth. The blue marble is his natural habitat, away from which, he has no destiny. Separation from consumable energy sources and close contact with strange atmosphere make the earthly life forms incapable of survival in space.

But the human is genetically adventurous. So they attempted space travel. The ancient and intrinsic humane curiosity about the celestial bodies gave way for his hunt to find similar planets that can sustain life forms. The adventure that started as a quick visit to the upper orbit levels eventually led him to land on earth’s natural satellite, the Moon. And now, he is on the lookout of possible other worlds where he can survive in an earth-like atmosphere before the earth becomes inhabitable anymore.

The Blue Marble, Earth's famous photograph taken by the crew of Apollo 17.
Courtesy: NASA

Leave that story aside. Let’s now think about the historical evolution of human’s travel modes. The man who wandered completely unclothed around the forests reached an evolutionary landmark when he invented the wheel.  He ultimately learned to travel via the land, the water and the air using vehicles. The history says us that there were certain inventions which acted as the milestones of the growth of the human transport. The invention of the steam engine might be one such. The recently developed Hyperloop technology may be another one, which is another story. When humans developed rocket propulsion technology, it helped him to travel out of earth’s protective environment.

If the man is continuing his space expeditions, the existing rocket-propelled methods would become unreliable very soon, due to the cost involved. Factors to be considered here include the amount of fuel required for the initial launch from the earth and the cost for refuelling in case the plan is for an interplanetary travel (interstellar may be in the far future). Spacecraft once used is totally or partially unusable for a second expedition, which is another important factor in this regard. I am not ignoring the fact that we are planning a manned launch to the Mars with the existing rocket-propelled methods, but for how long we can rely on such costly methods? If an intelligent alien species is furtively watching our space expeditions, we are being constantly pooh-poohed by them for still depending on such age-old methods. I don’t believe in intelligent extra-terrestrials (aliens) by the way; my points regarding this are another topic, about which I might write later.

At this point, we have the concept of EmDrive or RF Resonant Cavity Thruster. The Emdrive (pronounced M-drive) is a device for transportation which requires no propellants. It is currently being built using a hypothetical method of converting microwave energy into thrust inside a closed chamber. Imagine a spacecraft that goes up effortlessly without any blast or cloud of smoke, and goes beyond the pull of earth’s attraction in a comparatively shorter span of time! That marvellous achievement will be the result of Em Drive’s successful construction. If you have seen movies about aliens, you might have noticed that in many cases the vehicles used by them are launched without any apparent thrust.

The man behind Em-Drive is Roger Shawyer. You can see here a video in which he explains his concept. I am just an amateur Physics enthusiast, sadly not an expert to understand fully what he details in the video.

Full interview: Roger Shawyer, Creator of EmDrive

There were many predecessors of EmDrive, one of them was called Cannae Drive (formerly Q-drive), and there were also some other claimed anti-gravity drives. Some of such devices are either under development or were stopped when found futile. Roger Shawyer’s Em Drive is operated by a thrust, which is the result of the reaction between the end plates of the waveguide used in it, and the electromagnetic wave propagated within it (and thus the name, Em Drive, which may be called Electromagnetic Drive).

EmDrive's Sample Flight Thruster. Courtesy: www.emdrive.com

Now, the sad part! The scientific world is mostly against this concept. They think this device will not work as it violates Newton’s Third Law, (which deals with the reaction that follows every action), and the theory of Conservation of Momentum. But, somehow, NASA takes Roger Shawyer seriously and they now seem to follow every development of EmDrive, though in a sceptic manner. A recent article which appeared in SPACE website also says this device might work, which is a lot of encouragement for the space enthusiasts. You may read the article in the below link:
http://www.space.com/34672-impossible-space-engine-emdrive-test.html

The EmDrive may or may not work. But as a layman, I feel that it is high time that a revolution in space travel took place. As I had heard in somewhere before, the best shape that a spacecraft is to be built is that of a circular disc, as it is the best shape to skip through different atmospheres of varying gravity and pressure. (That’s why the UFOs always had a disc or circular shape?) If not EmDrive, probably a different device might soon be invented that would make the human species a spacefaring one, let us hope.

(Disclaimer: This is not a scientific article. The opinions in the article are the author's own.)

Will my Ireland travel video make me a videographer in Dublin?

From the time I started to live in Dublin, the capital city of the Republic of Ireland, I found my new environment as soothing and scenic. Nature is green and colourful everywhere, especially in summer and in autumn. The autumn, which falls in August, September and October months, may be the most beautiful season of all, and the following three months, November, December and January are part of the winter season as per the Irish Calendar (Gaelic Calendar).

Apart from the nature, Ireland is also home to several Victorian constructions and buildings, all remind us of the majesty of Gothic architecture. During my stay here, I could travel to several destinations in and around Dublin. Ireland’s second city Cork, Waterford, Swords (the place I live), Malahide, Howth Harbour, are some of the places I visited.

Wherever I travelled, I carried my small camera along with me and took pictures and videos. I edited the videos into a single video, and posted on my YouTube channel with the name ‘Dublin Delights – in a cut N’ Paste Nutshell’. Apart from the above destination clips, the parade took place as part of Irish National festival St Patrick’s Day Celebrations in a small town called Cappoquin, and the events held in connection with Ireland’s 100 years of Independence (RTE – Reflecting the Rising), are also given a place in the video. The short video mostly covers winter sights.

Dublin Delights – in a cut N’ Paste Nutshell




I happened to notice that Dublin is home to several small companies that offer videography and photography services. There are many production companies in Dublin, with skilled photographers and videographers. Many of such corporate video production companies might be offering wedding videos and photographs as a parallel service. So, I am repeating what I told in the beginning of this article, in a rather sceptic tone, will my Ireland travel video make me a videographer in Dublin?

My false memory associated with ten-pin bowling games

You might have heard the term ‘confabulation’ or ‘false memory’ if you are someone who takes an interest in psychological studies and topics related to mental conditions. I am not a professional in these disciplines, but my amateur interest in learning more about subjects that lack strong scientific support (Pseudo-sciences), have made me occasionally browse through internet grazing related knowledge.

False Memory (Confabulation), representational image

False memory is an occurrence when someone recalls an event which actually did not happen in their life, or when they recollect it in a false manner. Such disturbed memory is called Confabulation in medical terms, which require treatment in case it occurs in an individual more frequently.

That’s some technical and complex data I have given in the above two paragraphs; so let’s keep them aside, and be ready to listen to a story from my repository of personal memories. That means I wish to share a false memory example from my life, though it may not be quite the case.

Kerala’s golden city Kochi (Cochin) is now in a booming state, economically and in terms of infrastructure. More and more industrial hubs, big shopping malls (Lulu, Gold Souk, Central Mall, Nucleus Mall, and much more), and advanced travel options facilitated by metro rail project are now coming to Ernakulam. The shopping malls offer a great variety of opportunities to spend time and money lavishly.

Once I went to a shopping mall in Kochi. My memory does not say which mall was it, but I have a faint idea that I was accompanied by friends. While walking through luxurious corridors, I happened to notice a game zone, where different play areas were set with appropriate utilities. Some of the games featured virtual reality, mainly for kids to do a bike ride through untraveled scenarios and terrains using joysticks and video walls. There was a different area for bowling alley game, especially for the youngsters and adults to indulge in some physically engaging act.

This bowling game, which is also called the Ten-pin bowling, is a game in which the player throws, or rather rolls a bowling ball through a lane towards ten pins positioned at the end of the lane. I am not explaining the rules of the game here because you can see the bowling videos by simply googling. Probably, you may also be able to play free bowling games online, if you have a curious penchant for virtual games.

Bowling Alley Game

Seeing the bowling alley setup, I immediately jumped on to the bowling platform. Getting hold of the mighty balls, I started bowling aiming the ten targets those were automatically placed by the bowling game machine. My memory says, I enjoyed the game, and I left the area with my friends only after getting exhausted totally.

I have a slightly altered version of the above incident. If you have time enough, I suggest you better read the altered version also, since I need to do justice to the topic of this post as suggested in its title.

The incident on which the memory is routed is a few years old. It was very recently the memory of my bowling game experience stuck my conscience so sudden as if in the manner of lighting. Though my false memory says I played the bowling game, my intelligence says that the chance for the occurrence of my ten-pin bowling game experience is little. Especially since I am public shy, I might not have attempted anything that would have brought me attention in a crowded gaming zone of a shopping mall in Kochi.

Ten-pin Bowling (Skittles)

I immersed into my thoughts again, and I went through the hidden dark corners of my memories, taking deep breaths, I swam through the whirl of obsolete remembrances, and saw a faint impression of the bowling event, somewhere in the uncared and cobwebbed corners of my subconscious. I saw in the bowling alley area two or three young smart boys playing the game very actively and energetically. They threw the ball, rolled the ball through the bowling lane; they played the game one by one, by altering chances, until they fully capture the ten pins. Some of them achieved the ten pins in a single chance, and some of them took three or more chances to be successful, whereas one boy or two wasn’t successful at the end.

 I can’t still say this is the correct version of the event. But still, my practical intelligence says, this could be the probable one, especially since you needed to pay a certain amount to participate in games in the gaming zone. I might have stood there watching the boys playing the ten-pin bowling game. Years later, when I tried to recall this incident, my game watching experience coupled with my desire to play the game might have created a false memory in which I played the game.

Yesterday I dreamt a Black Hole!

Scientists speculated about the existence of black holes over a century ago. Nowadays it is commonly accepted that every galaxy in the universe has a black hole at its centre. And what is a black hole? A black hole is a region in the universe with gargantuan mass and high gravitational pull. The mass and gravity of such area exceed several times that of a common star like the Sun. Due its gravity, nothing can escape from a black hole, even the light rays, once they are caught inside by its borderline, called the event horizon. Since no light rays can come out of it, black holes always appear blank. They are invisible black areas in the universe which can be detected only by its interaction with nearby space, time and other matter in the vicinity.

A common visual representation of a black hole

Imagine a black hole as something like a water-well on our earth. Assume that, the well has some sort of magnetic capacity which will attract everything that goes above. If you try to peep into it, you are definitely pulled in, even if you are standing a bit away from its edge. And you can never ever escape. Whatever kinds of rescue devices are brought to this place, and whichever human of Supermanic abilities offered help, the recovery is impossible. Any such retrieval measures is suicidal; they will be killing themselves. The fate of something that goes into the well is uncertain, as nobody has so far returned, once went into the well…

…that was how a black hole appeared in my last night’s dream!

In the dream, I and my friend wished to go to someplace, and we had to go through the dreadful place where this well-like black hole existed. My friend was in haste, so he left first, and I agreed to go after him. I never imagined that my friend would have shown that condemnable courage to offer a furtive look into the black hole. But, fatal things happen sans any procrastination, though happiness always comes delayed.

Water well

That was shocking! I never guessed my friend would have even dared to go close to the well. How could he act so stupidly? So what I do next? I have another friend, a trusted one. I can rely on him, though I am unsure about his capabilities. We both decided to go to the black hole for a sneaky inspection. We found the black hole has a circular sidewall apart from the concrete bar overhead supported on two vertical columns.

Though we both were hesitant a bit to approach the black hole, we decided to offer a cautious glance, doing away with our fear. We went close and tried to look into the well, by clutching firmly on the sidewalls. Everything is dark inside the wall. Darkness gushes upwards in a continuous manner from the depth of the well and comes to a halt at the edges of the sidewalls. Is there something attracting us smoothly? We leant a little more towards the mouth of the water well. And yeah, that is true! There is a sort of magnetic pull coming from the depth of the chasm. We withdrew ourselves back. So, it is true! Our friend has done what he shouldn’t have attempted.

A problem! My friend couldn’t have gone inside by simply looking into it. Because as we experienced, the magnetic attraction was not so great that it did not pull us while standing close to it. My reliable friend came with a solution. As we are close to the black hole, we could have controlled the time. Yes, the time! According to Physics, the time in the surroundings of a black hole runs slower than on earth due to gravity. By the way, do you remember Interstellar (2014), the film by Christopher Nolan? We can’t be sure if my friend is completely lost forever in space-time, or whether he is experiencing the pleasant state of timelessness in the web of the black hole.

My reliable friend tried to do something that I couldn’t have done. He manipulated the time, and we both went back to a time phase in the past. We found ourselves exactly a few hours back from the present. We saw my former friend standing at the tip of the black hole. What is he doing there?

We saw him climbing on a nearby tree, and jumping down in such a way that he would not have fallen directly into the well. I understood! He is testing the magnetic power of the well. Would he be pulled in by the black hole, if he let him fall from the tree above, by narrowly missing the mouth of the well? That’s what he is testing. Having such an idiotic curiosity is surely poisonous. We saw him falling straightly into the black hole while jumping down from the tree slightly allowing his body parts to be at the magnetic field of the black hole that extends infinitely upwards. Having witnessed the mishap, my reliable friend brought both of us back to the present time.

After waking up from the dream, I soon recollected that all the history of the entire universe is recorded in a mixed language of English and Mathematics on the inner walls of the well. The inner walls were imprinted by amber coloured digital figures all the way from the top, and that writings extended infinitesimally towards a bottom that existed somewhere in the far ends of the universe. 

It seems that reading hypothetical scenarios in Quora makes me watch such weird dreams nowadays.

Kashmiri Dolls - A Whodunnit Short Film

Many of my long time readers might remember the advances I made in writing fiction related to the genres like suspense thriller, horror, and detective in this blog. As part of my stints in short film making, a work dealing with detective fiction was made in 2014 and was circulated via YouTube, apart from screening in some reputed festivals in Kerala.

The short film is titled 'Kashmiri Dolls'. But ironically it has nothing to with Kashmir, but it is related to dolls a lot. As we know, kids love dolls. In this story there are plenty of dolls in a house, and the kid in the house likes to play with them. But, what if she notices something irregular in the dolls? She will be worried right? In our short film, everyone in the family rather got scared.

I am not spoiling the suspense of the story, I suggest you watch it yourself, and let me know your comments. Apart from handling the story, screenplay, and direction departments, I have done the lead role, that is of a brainy but lazy character. I think I have done justice to the character in portraying him as an amateur detective, to a certain favorable extent. Up to you.

Top 5 Websites to buy Women Shapewear in India

Women and fashion go hand in hand. No-one in this world is unfamiliar with the fact that women are the biggest fashion freaks. All they are concerned about is their looks, the clothes that they are wearing, the accessories they are carrying, the shoes and all that relates to their looks. To enhance the look, it is imperative for every woman to wear best of the innerwear. The lingerie that a girl wears makes her more confident and she is able to carry her earnestly. Shapewear is among the most essential lingerie product that is mandatory to be worn, if you wish to look perfect in your dress. Shapewear keeps the body in perfect shape and enhance the look of every dress. There are many sites that offer some of the finest shape-wears online in India, take a look:

Zivame.com: Zimave.com has captivated interest of many women as it is the best lingerie brand online. Site is associated with some of the top brands in lingerie such as Penny, Amante, Hanes, Plie, Lovable, Triumph, Curvy Kate. You can find best shape-wear in all the leading brands at highly economical prices. Zivame has made a bright mark in offering best of the lingerie to all the women in India. Zivame has listed 50+ brands at the site. You can also get the discount from zivame by using coupon codes. For more offer and deal visit CouponzGuru.com.

PrettySecrets.com: Pretty-Secret is a famed name that deals in all kind of lingerie. It is a brand and they have their own factory outlet where all their articles are produced. It is very popular among all the women and the range that they offer is quite pricey. You can find some of the finest shape-wear here and that too in excellent designs and easy to buy prices. Beside shapewears, there are all other products in lingerie that you can buy at most cost effective prices.

Bwitch.com: Among the classiest brands in lingerie, Bwitch holds an important position. The kind of collection that you can find at the site is hard to find anywhere else. Bwitch has got number of land stores in every corner of town and also you can find the products at huge malls etc. Coming to shapewears, the shapewears at Bwitch are the priciest and imperial brand as the prices for all the products are beyond the range of average earning women.

Jabong.com: Talking about the fashion and personal accessories, Jabong is the only name that will come to any mind. Jabong houses ideal collection in women shape-wear. The associated brands are Monomer, Hanes, Jockey, Bwitch and Avirate. The range begins from 800 and goes up to 3000. Shapewears are available in different styles and colors.

Myntra.com: Myntra deals in all kind lingerie products. If you want to save maximum money on such products then myntra is the right place for you. You can find brands such as Triumph, Jockey, Swee Shapewear, Prettysecrets and avirate etc. You can grab most resourceful discounts at myntra.com.

Announcement for all the ladies! Visit to the above mentioned sites and shop the best range in shapewears and lingerie online. Happy Shopping!

The Deal is On, at Zoutons!

Buying and selling online is the in-thing now. In an era, when living online is the trend, trading through the same way would naturally be the most followed style. Online market places like Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra, Snapdeal, Amazon, and many others are helpful in this regard to browse through the products put in display in their respective online stores, and get them for normal prizes. Sometimes, these sites also offer virtual discount coupons, using which we can purchase items with a subsidized and enticing prize. 

Very accidentally, I happened to hear about Zoutons.com, which is a deal website. And what is a deal website? A deal website gathers details about discount coupons from all online market stores, and supplies them to shopaholics. Zoutons is such a website, very useful one. Users can have access to crucial information

on discount coupons, closing sales, promo codes etc. from all the leading merchandisers of the Indian retail industry, through the Zoutons web window. As a person, who has a very active virtual life, and who has resorted to the service of online stores several times for buying things, especially clothing items and apparels, Zoutons will be a great promise.

The Loot is on, so runs its tagline in its Facebook page. That’s a very self-explanatory tagline. The company was launched only in 2013, and how curious, within a few months, it has grown to include all web stores in its network. 

The website is very creatively designed, so that you will never require anyone’s guidance to navigate through its windows. The home page itself displays latest coupons, popular coupons, and most popular stores, in different categories. There are also sub sections which allow newbies to learn on how to use a coupon, and for marketers on how to submit a coupon, if they have any new deal. 

There are windows for electronic coupons, travel coupons, and recharge coupons, prominently. Coupons are also offered in other departments like appliances, automobile parts, baby products, beverages, books, clothing & accessories, collectibles, computer accessories, confectionary & beverages, cosmetics, delivery, eyewear, fitness & health, food delivery, footwear, gifts, home appliances, home décor, internet, movies, personal care, pets, and stationery.

Special windows are there for Stores, which includes prominent stores like Amazon. And there are active windows for featured brands. Top brands are listed with individual coupons, which include Adidas, Apple, HTC, Reebok, Micromax, RayBan, HP, Lenovo, and many others. There is a banking section which helps you to pay the processing charge using any of the banks listed in the website, either through net-banking, or credit/debit card payment gateways.  

  

So, why is the wait? Jump in! The loot has just started!

Interview: Satisfashion and its Girls

Today, I would like to introduce an interesting website run by a group of young people from Brazil. The website is called Satisfashion, which is primarily available in Portuguese language. This blog has French and English versions, which are also simultaneously running, making it an interesting and successful entrepreneurship. Let’s meet today the three Brazilian belles who are behind this work. They are Roberta Valadão(27), Kamila Frutuoso(23), and Babi Bernardo(25), editors of the blog. 

Girls, welcome to Vanity Moments. 

Tomz: About your venture, Satisfashion Brazil, what does it mainly deal with?

Roberta: Satisfashion is a very different website, because it is one of the few bilingual websites here in Brazil dealing with fashion, beauty, culture, and lifestyle.

Tomz: How did you come to the idea of starting a blog for Brazilian fashion? Is it about only the fashion industry in Brazil? Or does it cover world fashion too? 

Roberta Valadão

Roberta:  The blog “was born” after a brainstorm session with Babi. We wanted a place to share our ideas and everything that we believe as cool on internet. Satisfashion was released in February this year.

Satisfashion is not just a fashion blog, because we speak about different issues, like the upcoming movies, art expositions, books, etc. But when it comes to fashion, we have a concern of speaking about the fashion all around the world, not only from Brazil. Thus, we really like to introduce new designers and brands to our readers; one of them is Bonita Cor from the fashion designer, Márcia Braga. 

Tomz: How did you bump into the curious title, Satisfashion? What does it mean? 

Babi: The name was inspired from the song Satisfaction, by the British group The Rolling Stones.

I was singing and playing with the word Satisfaction. Suddenly, I thought that the word Satisfashion would sound very nice for a fashion blog. I personally interpret the beginning part Sati as encompassing of all kind of topics that make us happy!

Tomz: Is Blogging a mainstream career in Brazil? Are the bloggers in Brazil well accepted? 

Kamila: Yes, here in Brazil it is very common to be a blogger and the career is growing more and more every day. But still, there are many people who do not consider blogging as a job, but overall we are well accepted here. 

Tomz: For Vanity Moments readers, could you please share a few of your nice memories and bad experiences as a Blogger? 

Kamila Frutuoso

Kamila: I encounter pleasant moments daily. We can see the appreciation from the readers through their comments. I feel really touched when the readers comment that they enjoyed our posts, or when they reply to our posts that they now know an issue because of our website, which they were previously unaware of.

We had one bad memory also, which happened due to misunderstanding, during the beginning of our blog. That time, we had just started the business. But now everything goes perfect. We are learning a lot daily. 

Tomz: Do you have any hobbies? Tell me about your pastime activities. 

Kamila: I do not have a specific hobby, but I usually go out with friends, watch movies and walk along the beach. I like skating, and I hope to soon get into a roller derby league 4!

Roberta: Reading, and watching TV shows!

Babi: Reading, going to the movies with my fiancé Thadeu Rodrigues, and hanging out with friends.

Tomz: You have lots of fans, friends and followers from India (I am also one of them). How did you start to connect with your Indian friends? 

Babi: I started interacting with my foreigner friends through Orkut (May rest in peace). I really love all of them. They were always very supportive and caring and now they extend that support to Satisfashion also :)

We have a huge audience in India!

Babi Bernardo

Tomz: As a fashion blogger, what do you feel about Indian traditional costumes? If you feature any costumes from Indian fashion world, what would be it? 

Babi: Sari, no doubt! I love this Indian dress! It’s so mysterious! 

Tomz: Can you share a few details about the film industry in Brazil? Do you think your fashion blog can do something for Brazilian film industry? 

Babi: The film industry here in Brazil needs attention. We have been producing many good stories for the big screen but we have some cultural problems, because our people prefer American movies to our native ones. I think it’s important to share and support our native productions. Nowadays, Satisfashion commented about an upcoming an independent production called Me + You. All the money for the movie has been raised through the crowd funding.

Apart from Roberta, Camila and Babi, a few more youngsters are part of the venture, including Babi’s fiance Thadeu.

Members of Satisfashion:

Thadeu Rodrigues – Financial Director; 23 years old

Lívia Araújo -  Books Columnist; 21 years old

Jefferson Alves – Music Columnist; 20 years old

Bruna Andrade – Humor Columnist; 21 years old

Vanity Moments wishes good future to Satisfashion Brazil!

Chat with Shetall Ramsinghani

I happened to meet Shetall Ramsinghani a few months back through social media. Shetall is a Delhi based blogger and a writer, who has published two books, “Love beyond Veils”, and “The Golden Hour”.

Shetall’s writings appear to me as ‘a soothing, and silent celebration of solitude’!

It’s surprising to see her thoughts mix melancholy with romance; and sometimes with an additional tinge of fantasy. On certain writings, I found her thoughts courting with the nature. Her writings very unexpectedly take us from present to past in a very swift shift through the memory lane.

Here she is talking about her latest work, “The Golden Hour”.

VM: Who is the author “behind” the book?

Shetall: Hi, I am Shetall Ramsinghani born and bought up in New Delhi and presently working for a Diplomatic Mission i.e. for a foreign government for their office in India. I have completed my graduation in Bachelor of Arts from Delhi University. My first book Love beyond Veils was a book of poems which was created with my thoughts and with the guidance of my higher self.

Shetall Ramsinghani

Later on I started participating in various competitions also and won U.K pet poetry competition in 2013.

VM: Do you have any particular literary influences that have helped you develop in your genre, subject and style?

Shetall: No, I write my heart out 

VM: Please briefly describe your book. 

Shetall: The Golden Hour is my second book which was released on 06th June, 2014 by Partridge India publication. It has short imaginary stories of what I have seen and observed in my daily life. The Golden Hour is a varied and exciting collection of short stories with situations we face in our daily lives in cities. Some have the irony of life and some give you the strength and positive energy to move ahead no matter how life treats you. I have dedicated this book to my late grandfather Shri Gopal Das Ramsinghani, who passed away in August, 2013. The one who taught me how to live life with morals.

VM: What inspired you to write your book and how long did it take you to finish it? 

Shetall: My grandfather was very fond of reading short stories and he enjoyed reciting them to me every evening after I returned home from work. After I lost him in August 2013, I recalled how he used to divert my mind from daily humdrum with the stories he used to read during the day after retirement. It  took me an year to finish this book as I am a working woman and when priorities gets mixed with passion it does take time.

VM: What is the one message you would like to convey to your readers about your book?

Shetall: Logic can take you from A to B but imaginations can take you anywhere and everywhere. Come join my imaginations while reading my stories and for a while live in your own world. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

VM: Are you working on a sequel to your book? 

The Golden Hour Cover

Shetall: No, I would be working on a different project now. It would be a totally different experience for me and of course a new era with learning for me and the readers

VM: Are there any events, marketing ideas or promotions planned for your book?

Shetall: I have been promoting my book through social media and recently got my book reviewed by a journalist also. Please find the link here.

VM: What advice would you give to aspiring authors? 

Shetall: Live your passion, you have only one life 

Thank you Shetall for the time spent with Vanity Moments.

A Trip to Mars

An exciting film always remains in my mind for a long period. It usually evokes creative thoughts in my mind, and sometimes causes wonderful dreams. Inception was an example for this. The crux of the film remained in my thought process very long time. Watching dreams with dream itself as the main theme was usual thing for me during the Inception era. I had written even a post with the same substance.

Recently another film also made me watch related dreams. The film was Gravity. I watched it twice, and it was such an awe inspiring spectacle. In the ending scenes, the scientist played by Sandra Bullock landed on earth in a circular shaped container. My dream went like this.

A space ship is travelling from the Earth aiming Mars, and I am one of the travelers in it. The ship is similar to the one we see in the end portion of Gravity. A spherical one, dark coloured, providing movability. It is completely sheltered from objects in the space, not even a meteor could have broken it.

Gravity (2013) Film Poster

After several months long travel, we finally landed on the Mars. At first we couldn't say where was we landed. From the floating motion of the space ship, we could gather that we were landed on something liquid like. If we open the door of the shelter, we could straightly stepped into the liquid. What if the liquid was too deep? We were not able to deduce the properties of the planet Mars. Whether it is hot, humid? What if the liquid we landed on was boiling like hell? What if we all would be boiled in that hot water?

If we need to return to earth, first the space ship had to be placed on a strong terrain, not on something liquid like. So, without being not able to open the door, or not able to return, we all trapped in the planet mars.
After I woke up from the dream, still I felt that we were all living on planet Mars in limbo state.

Murphy’s Law

Happy Christmas and New Year wishes to all!

Today I want to write about Murphy ’s Law! What is Murphy’s Law? It is an adage or witty saying that people usually take as true as they have seen its application in their own lives in one way or the other. If giving a definition is necessary, the Murphy’s Law has been stated as 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!'

'Anything that can wrong, will go wrong'? What is that? Well, I was expecting that question. I first happened to hear about this curious law some years back, even before I started blogging. That time, the person who initiated me into blogging had written a post with the same title, and then I also thought it was true, especially since I am a pessimist, yes! I also believe, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, especially when we madly need a situation in which everything comes right.

I can just cite an example to explain this theory. Suppose you go to college (or office) everyday by your scooter. You daily start your journey from home at a routine time. Your scooter is your best trustworthy companion, it never puts you in trouble, and you had never faced a situation in which you are stuck at road side because of any malfunction from your scooter. But this evening your professor asked you to come class the next morning one hour earlier, as he had to complete his portions a bit faster since semester is coming to an end. The professor had already noted you, since you had failed many times in that subject. So, in case you do not attend his class, you will be facing some earthquakes.

But, you are not worried, you plan to be awake in the morning one hour earlier and set alarm accordingly. But alas! the next morning the alarm failed to ring you on time, and you have only a few minutes to get prepared. You complete your bathroom affairs in haste, skip your breakfast and jump upon your scooter just like a warrior on horseback, and kick on kicker, but, there is no response. The scooter is not working, may be due to empty fuel tank or any other technical problem. May be due to an unknown wire in its complicated mechanism that lost its joint. But you have no time to waste! You run to the nearby bus stop. You know a bus that goes through your college door, which has a stopover in front of your house. You look at the watch, which shows 8:37am, yes the bus will be there in five minutes. You wait and wait, but no buses come. You don’t know what went wrong. After fifteen minutes waiting, you plan to go a pinion ride by requesting someone coming that way on a two wheeler. No one responds to your waving arm. At last you get someone’s lift, and it is the noisy scooter of the fish merchant. You travel with him, and he drops you at a point where you need to walk five minutes to reach your college. 

You practically run, and reach your class room.  The class has already begun, and the Professor looks at you with his furious eyes. You apologise and enter the class room. Everyone’s is preying eyes fall on you with an impish smile. The professor comes close and asks you to show him the last days note. You search in the bag; all books are there, except the one your teacher has asked. 

I can see you everyone is smiling. Yes this is a typical example for Murphy’s Law. Now you all are agreeing with me that you also have faced the same situation many often. 

By the way, in my last post, I told you about the the CouponDunia offers as part of Google's Great Online Shopping Festival. Now, CouponDunia has expanded its operation to Brazil and is growing really fast there. Check out the Brazilian homepage of CupomWorld for more info. In Brazil, it is called World, not Dunia, you know! It is part of familiarizing with the local market. You can get some offers from their page for cupom desconto submarino. Check it out! And tell me if you face any trouble in accessing it.

Last week, when I was spending some moments with my friend, I mentioned Murphy’s Law. My smart phone has trouble in displaying the messages. When I touch on the message option, it appears and closes automatically in one or two seconds. I said my friend that I have this issue, and touched on the message button for a demonstration. The messaging option opened and we waited for some moments to see it automatically closes. But nothing happened, it didn’t close. That’s why I say, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

I said about Murphy’s Law to some of the artists at my third short films location (yes, currently it is happening). When I explained it with the help of the aforementioned examples, everyone was smiling and nodding in an approving manner, admitting they too had faced it many times. By the way,have you seen the space film Gravity? Yes,they say Gravity has some application of this wretched theory.

A Confession

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything about my past days. I think you know how much eloquent is me when my topic of writing is about the early days those were at the brink of forgetfulness.  But, I think at least through this useless chronicling of my mesmerizing olden times, I can keep my fading memories alive.

This time the story is about a person whom I met when I was in Trivadrum during my initial days there. He was very funny, and dominating with some leadership qualities. I think I have told you about my admiration for taller persons, germinated during my growing ages when I was treated by others as a short guy. We both became befriended very easily and smoothly, and at the end of everyday, we used to have our evening jaunts together through the city in the process of acquainting with its many newly found curiosities.

Before narrating the story, let me tell you something about my commercial partner CouponDunia. I know many of you have already come to know about Google’s Great Online Shopping festival. Yes, the CouponDunia will be running a GOSF campaign in December with some of the best offers of the year. So, do check out their GOSF Coupons. By the way, they recently opened up in Brazil too. Appreciable right? Check out their Brazilian site for Cupom de Desconto Efacil (Efacil Coupons).

Let me come back to the story. After our months long staying together, we both parted, but the contact was active. We used to meet each other, whenever he came to the city, and at one time, he had forcefully got me out for a ride during my office time, while he was on his occasional city visit. That time his purpose was to buy a cute little puppy from a pet shop located at some distance.

By that time he got married, and our attachment was getting faded. Our calls became very rare and less frequent. However we were connected through occasional mails, and seemingly meaningless activities through social networking sites.

On one night, when I was fast asleep, I was woken up by my cell phone ring. I had developed a habit of waking in the early morning, when my hostel mates were sleeping, in order to go on with my routine gymnasium visits. So, early to bed, and early to rise had somehow become my life policy, (though I rarely follow that policy nowadays).

I stretched my arms to get the cell phone in my half sleep state, might be the Non-REM state, I think I might have been sleeping without seeing any dream. Seeing my friend’s name on the cell phone, I attended the call, thinking what hell had made him dial my number at that unnatural hour. The time was between 1 and 2AM, so you can imagine what a sleep loving young man might be thinking at that time.

I could hear him breathing heavily, but I failed to identify whether it was because of tension or happiness.

“Why brother? What happened at this hour?” I asked without hiding my irritation.

“Boy, I have become a father. My wife has just given birth to a baby girl. Oh she is so cute little one”, he said while struggling to get breath.

“So? So what? Is it the time to call me to tell such simple matters? You call me at this hour to say such silly things?” My voice was very rude, though I didn’t realize it.

“Yeah man, you are the first one I call up to share my joy. Only your face came to my mind”, he said apologetically.

I doubt whether I had congratulated him. But that call didn’t last long. I cut the call, and returned to get back my lost sleep. Only the next morning I realized the serious mistake I made while treating my friend. It took a lot of time for me to realize how valuable my friendship was for him.

My friend, I don’t know whether you remember this. My deed was indeed beyond forgiveness. But, still I am wholeheartedly apologizing for the mistake that I committed. Please forgive me! Won’t you?

Adieu Sachin!

Today, the Indian sports icon Sachin Tendulkar retires from International cricket. It makes me sad, just like every Indian and many other cricket lovers around the world. Though his retirement was inevitable, I am sure everyone will be missing the cricket legend as we know that Sachin will not bat for India anymore as he has been doing till today.

I was a boy when I happened to notice the name Sachin frequently appearing in the sports columns of newspapers during the 90s. Being a person with no affinities towards sports, initially I failed to recognize the charm that every Indian perceives behind the name Sachin.  Cricket was just a meaningless act for me, but it was Sachin who diverted my attention towards the game, towards the excitement and unpredictability hid behind each ball that was thrown to the batsman at crease by a bowler at the other end.

Sachin Tendulkar

Later, I too started to watch cricket, not for watching the game, but just to see Sachin playing it. When he was at the crease, it was a relief for us. All Indians put the burdens of high expectations on Sachin’s shoulders. And he many times, single-handedly carried those burdens and lead India to victory in a great chunk of first class cricket matches.

I had noticed my pulse was beating terrifically while watching a game. I counted and found it was nearing hundred. The occasion was when Sachin and Australian fast bowler Glen McGrath came face to face for the second time. When they encountered for the first time, it was McGrath who claimed the victory. He dismissed Sachin when he was yet to take his first run in the match. So, the second time, they met, expectations and curiosity were at high rise. But as a person, who disliked the dominance of any bowler on him, Sachin punished McGrath in the first ball itself for a gigantic sixer. Though he could take only 21 runs or something in that match, the vigor Sachin displayed was enough to overcome the dominance of McGrath.   

I know we might not be seeing him playing again in the international games. No chance to see the shots that dispelled to the boundaries through his marvelous ground shots. I loved the way he hit fours rather than his sixes. Those terrific shots were magical. I was lucky to see him getting the first ever double century in one day matches. Back then I was a journalist, was watching the game in TV live in order to update the live scores in the web news portal for which I was working. Don’t remember how many times I cursed MS Dhoni(a great player, of course) for not giving him the strike to complete the double century, when India was at the winning side. But, the caption I prepared was ready in the heading section, and I needed just a single click to publish it.

Now, I don’t watch cricket much. Being not an ardent admirer of cricket, watching the game on TV never had given me pleasure even in the winning matches. But I remember, whenever I enter a place where TV was switched on with live cricket streaming, be it a coffee shop, a bar, my home, or a friend’s home, I used to ask, Has Sachin bat, how much he scored? I know everyone would have asked the same question on many instances. After this, we will not be asking this question. But I doubt without remembering Sachin, or making a brief mention about him, whether I would be able to pass any game after this.

Attached below is a collage I made using my pictures and Sachin's. I know it is a stupid comparison, but still..

Thank You Sachin for enriching my boyhood days and youth with your mesmerizing shots, sportsmanship and personal charisma displayed when you were at the crease. Thank You for being the emotion of millions of Indians.