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Main News • Persona

Now is the time to realize your dreams

September 6, 2020

Shivani always anticipated a normal life just like any other girl hailing from Delhi. She never had very high aspirations or life-sized dreams. She even got what she ever hoped for; a quality education, a promising career, a lovely married life as a working woman as well as a homemaker and two wonderful kids. But then life does not always work the way you expect it to. It has its own ups and downs. It sometimes shatters you completely from inside with a cruel blow and then uplifts your spirits with a truly amazing and unexpected gift, reviving you with the strength to move on.
That’s the story of Shivani Saxena, a 43-year-old wife, mother, lecturer, homemaker, fitness enthusiast and model. Shivani did her schooling from DAV model school and her Graduation from Delhi University. She also did Teacher’s Training and a Fashion Designing & Merchandising course besides accomplishing her Post Graduation in Textile Science.
Shivani has been married to Saket Anand for 22 years who is a working professional with an MNC. Apart from being a caring and loving spouse, Saketisalso a doting father. Shivani and Saket were blessed with a son, Vedant and a daughter, Saanvi. Just when life seemed perfect and Shivani considered herself fortunate enough to have such a wonderful family, fate had something terrible in store for them. Two years back, seventeen-year-old Vedant was snatched away from them by the cruel hands of destiny in a road accident. Shivani’s world fell apart and she felt as if she will never be able to overcome her grief. But thankfully with the support of her loving husband and her in-laws, she conjured up the strength to fight her anguish and managed to get back on her feet again.
Despite of her attractive looks and pleasing personality, the thought of modelling or participating in a Beauty Pageant never crossed Shivani’s mind until she turned forty. But as someone has very rightly said; it’s never too late to start dreaming. Shivani came to know about the ‘Mrs Delhi NCR’ beauty pageant on social network. She enrolled and was not merely shortlisted to participate but ended up winning the title of “GOODWILL AMBASSADOR Mrs Delhi NCR 2019”.
“I always kept myself well-groomed and fit but it was only after forty that I seriously considered pursuing modelling.  Participating in the pageant was my first step in this direction and since then I have done various fashion shows & photo shoots for magazines, clothing brands and jewellery.”, replied Shivani when asked about her new-found passion.
Shivani gives the credit of her success to her husband and her in-laws, especially her mother-in-law who stood by her for every career choice she made. She says when her kids were young, she took a break from her career to focus on her children but as they grew up, she decided to concentrate on her career again and pursue her own interests. This decision of hers was also supported by her family.
When we asked Shivani to share the secret of her everlasting beauty and fitness, she had the following pearls of wisdom to share, “I have always taken pride in following a healthy lifestyle, I stay away from Junk food and enjoy simple home cooked food. I drink lots of water, I believe in the practice of sleeping early and waking up early. I do Yoga and Aerobics at least 5 days a week, which improves my metabolism and keeps a check on my weight.”
Shivani Saxena stands today amongst us as an embodiment of the quintessential woman whose unyielding and undying spirit motivates us to bounce back no matter how rough life treats us. She is a true inspiration and a living example for our those readers who dream of becoming something in life but either think that it’s too late to realize their dreams or are too bogged down by the tribulations of life. KUDOS SHIVANI!!

Main News • Wellness

Fitness – A Sign of Self-love

August 14, 2020

Fatness to Fitness is the most debated topic in today’s world. Most of the teens and young adults are influenced by movie stars and models who keep their bodies fit and healthy. The misconception of the youth is to reduce weight and look beautiful rather than staying fit and healthy. Men want to look hefty whereas women want to look slim and glam. As a result of consciousness of the outer appearance, people forget how they torment their body by taking steroids that damages the organs. Care for one’s body, the attention they give to the looks is appreciable but often people forgets to understand the primary goal of staying healthy and fit which helps us glow from the inside.
Fitness – A Sign of Self-love
A healthy life keeps an individual happy and cheerful. Spreading love to the world happens, when it overflows from within. Love and care that we give to ourselves help to create energy and a positive vibe around us. The first step towards self-love is being happy about how you look and feel great for the way you are. Taking a lot of inputs or comments from others about one’s appearance ruins their confidence and satisfying other ruins their happiness. Both aspects affect your health internally and externally. Fitness is not working hard in the gym or doing heavy workouts and torturing your body. It’s as simple as bringing small changes in the lifestyle like changing preference of taking stairs or taking a walk to the nearby store. Fitness is not only about the looks, it a way of pampering that you give to yourself. When you give up on something that you love to maintain your physical appearance is not self-love. It’s a way of punishing yourself; it’s an act of being unkind to oneself. Strict diets may look as if you look healthy but it’s more like injecting an adulterate a healthy vegetable or fruit to make it look fresh and attractive. Intake of all kinds of food helps an individual healthier and happier from inside and exercising helps an individual to energize and stays active all day.
Exercises – Power bank of the day
Everyone knows that exercising is good for health; keep us fresh the entire day and it is an important part of our daily lifestyle. But it looks like a herculean task that is ready to swallow us when we starting doing exercises. Most of us would have gone through this before. Have you ever thought why exercising or the workouts are so hard and painful? It’s because we fail to enjoy doing workouts. There are no ground rules for exercising. The ultimate aim of exercising is to stay fit and active. But not all of us understand that rather we are either concentrate on looks or calculating the calories that we had burnt on that day. Say, for instance, practicing for the cultural events at school or college always excited us. We never bothered about the amount of energy that we spend while dancing or enacting a play. Playing with children at home gives us so much happiness and joy; calories are burnt even in that process. Every individual is unique and their way of functioning of the body and mind is also different. It is important to identify your exercise routine to keep yourself healthy and happy.
Benefits of staying fit and healthy

Reduces health problems
Improvise mental health
Create rapid connections between the brain tissues
Strengthens the confidence
Trains to lead a systematic lifestyle
Exercises help us to move out of the comfort zone that opens the opportunity to new challenges in life
Gives more time and space for self-love and love others

Stay healthy and spread love!!!

By Akshaya Jayakumar

Main News • Wellness

Interesting ayurvedic and yoga tips for a healthy body amidst corona outbreak!

August 6, 2020

Ayurveda is the soul of India dating back to history’s older centuries when it was part of everyone’s daily routine. It is an ancient form of science since time immemorial. Ayurveda along with Yoga balances the body, mind and soul. Ayurveda is a medicinal form of intake whereas Yoga is a spiritual form related to soul including mental, emotional and physical fitness. Both of these lifestyle regimens help in the maintenance of health, promotion of good well being and prevention from diseases. Here are some tips to keep you healthy in this corona outbreak:
By Shivani Shukla
Pranayam (Breathing Exercises) Bunch of breathing techniques helps to detoxify body mind and soul. There are 7 techniques in all. The easiest one is Anulom Vilom or inhales and exhale technique. In this, you have to cover your left nostril and inhale from the right then cover your right nostril and exhale from left. Then do the opposite and keep on repeating this for 5 minutes at least. It boosts immunity, calms the nervous system and improves concentration.
Along with this eat ayurvedic food like moong daal to keep your body healthy. Usage of whole wheat flour (without sieving) must be done for preparing roti. Roti made out of jowar, bajra, ragi, maize (macca) are also having high fibre content. The use of white bread, nan, roomali roti and other maida preparations should be limited.
Put two drops of sesame oil/ mustard oil/ghee or Anu Talia (An Ayurvedic medicine if available)- It prevents premature greying of hair, baldness and ensures good sleep.
Fill mouth with Triphala decoction or other medicated oils – It prevents excess thirst, improves taste and maintains oral hygiene. It is also useful in managing the mouth ulcers and dryness commonly seen in Diabetes patients.
Application of oil daily e.g. Tila Taila (Seasame oil) – Keeps skin soft, improves blood circulation and removes waste. This helps in prevention of numbness of extremities due to Diabetes. Apply Tila (Seasame) oil or any suitable oil on head in sufficient quantity which enhances the strength of head and forehead and makes hair black, long and deep-rooted.
Not only this add some Yoga poses to your daily routine will rejuvenate you from inside out. Here are some easy to use yoga poses on a daily basis:
Tadasana (Mountain Pose):
In this yoga pose stand straight with ankles apart hanging your arms behind your torso. Land your ankles on the floor while balancing  your body weight and raising your ankles. Release your shoulder blades away from your head while inhaling. This is the beginning pose for most of the asanas.
Kursi Asana (Chair Pose):
Stretch your arms above your head and move your legs slightly apart from each other.Push your pelvis as if you are sitting on a chair bend your knees and inhale. Come back slowly as you exhale. This energises both the body and the mind.
Vrikshasana (Tree Pose):
It begins with putting your right leg up high on your left thigh. Join your palms above your head inhale slowly and maintain balance. This strengthens the feet and back.
Sukhasana (Easy Pose):
This is the simplest one to do. It begins with sitting cross legged. Keep your hands on your knees by joining your index finger with your thumb while keeping your spine straight. This is also a meditation pose. It related the whole body.
Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend)
Sit with your toes pointed outwards and your back straight. Breathe in while stretching your hands upwards and try to touch your toes while exhaling. Sit in this position as long as you are comfortable. Don’t do forcefully any asanas. It should come naturally and slowly. This asana strengthens the spine and pelvis.
Make a promise to yourself for better health care. Include these ayurvedic and yogic remedies in your daily life for overall fitness. These easy to do list will enhance your standard of living and will protect you from all the diseases. This will take just 10 mins of your daily routine. So don’t miss out on a healthy lifestyle.

Life Style • Main News

A suspicion of life and the consequence

July 30, 2020

Man has been survived today and the same man is being departed on the other day. Subsequently, from being birth till death, man has been enduring in this world under the name called “life”. As has been imagined by many people, everyone starves to dwell their lives with happiness, prosperity and pleasure, should this certainly be true? Maybe not, prosperity and pleasure have been discerned in an awry implication by many, despite the fact may prevail contrary.
Contrary in the sense means to be residing for others satisfaction and their dignity. Man breathes for himself, his family and his friends in the form of love, rather throbs others feelings and underestimating other people’s dignity in order to formulate himself and his own people delighted; Should this dwelling of happiness formulates his gratification life long? Maybe not, Man resides himself and his beings and disappeared one day, this may creak quite bad to the humans. And so it is necessary to abide for others lives and also being an assisting hand to them while they are about to recede in their lives without any help. This sort of satisfaction and prosperity is being existed until the world exists.
Success, fame and money have been playing a significant role in each and everyone’s life, although the major significance is being accomplished while the man stands a reason behind one’s smile. It may be interpreted like that is impossible to formulate a smirk of a smile on everyone’s face, although one man may strive to evolve a motive for at least one’s smile, maybe it’s possible.
Sometimes people uttered a sentence called, “Life is a game, life is a race, try to conquer first otherwise this life whacks you bad”. Should this sort of sentence be necessary for the people? This sentence may be discerned by the meaning of the anxiety about one’s forthcoming future, either if one’s journey of race is being dropped off, then his or her life may be disappeared somewhere in the distress of his or her deliberation about their past. In spite to date, neither has been witnessed the future not had been rewinding our past. Life seems to be unpredictable, maybe it is, despite the fact about life may be a question mark to everyone, even though all the compassionate lives in this world may obtain an answer to the question of life.
By Lakshmi Prabha Swaminathan

Art & Culture • Main News

THE RAPE TRIAL BY BIDISHA GHOSAL

July 28, 2020

“Rape is a heinous crime”. What do you do when the rapist is someone you know?
One night while Rhea, Hitashi, and Amruta were spending some quality time together, they came across a clip in a television channel which displayed the sting operation of Rahul Satyabaghi where he was bragging about how he raped Avni Rambha, bested her in court and gone on to become a men’s right activist. Looking at this clip, the rage within Rhea and her friends ignited as Avni was their childhood friend. Witnessing this whole incident Rhea goes in the flashback to the darkest part of her childhood which turned her heart pound faster.
Furthermore, DC Virendra Dixit was among those who’d believe that Rambha rape case has been a false ‘false allegation’ but now, the sting tape brings him to a case that promises to be a turning point in his career. Rhea along with her friends decides to carve out a path to change the fate of the victims. What will they do? Will their path cross with DC Dixit? What will happen to the rapist?
Now, I will love to share a few lines from the book which I loved the most:
It’s her fault, so she should never
Ask for justice.
It’s her fault, so she should never Speak up
It’s her fault, so should no longer
Live.
You, who teaches the daughter it’s feminine to cover up,
Cover her knees, Her shoulders, Her armpits.
That it’s feminine to be modest, lower eyes, lower voice,
Stretch the lips and smile, smile Be nice!
That boys will always Be boys.
Enough of women who let a man decide. We decree that he can no longer
Lech us Catcall us Follow us
Touch us.
Shout abuse to us.
Shout what he insists are compliments to us. Assault us.
Rape us Enough.
Now talking about the book, this book portrays a very unique and intriguing plot that is capable enough to put a question mark on the judicial system of our Country. Not only this, it also displays what happens when women takes justice in their own hand.
First thing first, the storyline is truly enthralling, thought provoking and heart stirring. The narration was blindingly well polished. The reader can actually feel the scene played with the characters around them. The characterization was well developed.
The title of this book is absolutely apt to the storyline. The cover of the book looks beautiful. The language was easily understandable.
I would like to appreciate the author for picking up this topic and crafting the plot brilliantly with lots of twists and turns which will definitely keep the readers glued to the book.
What I find unique about this book is that this book not only inscribes a gruesome crime but it also shows the true picture of our judiciary system where the rapist can easily get acquitted using his power while the victim either remains silent or gets tired of running around on the court trial for justice.
If ever I get a chance to recommend any crime thriller that can be adapted as a movie/web series then, I will definitely recommend “The rape trial”.
If you are a crime thriller hunter alike me then, just grab this book from Notion Press website. Here is the link:
 
My rating: 4.5/5

Life Style • Main News • Wellness

Yoga practice makes person healthy & fit

July 14, 2020

Staying healthy is not easy but very important, there are many benefits to being healthy. Regular Exercising coupled with healthy and balanced diet goes a long way in keeping us energetic and healthy. It is essential to find some time to devote to one’s health, no matter how busy we are and whatever is our age.
Shivani Saxena

Exercising doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to enroll in a gym, one can work out from home also. For starters, one such exercise is Surya Namaskar. It has many benefits like.

Improved Better digestive system.
Maintaining blood sugar level.
Reduces anxiety.
Helps the body to detox.
Improves Sleep

Another variation of Surya Namaskar, ie doing it at a very fast pace is a good alternate of Cardio Exercises one can do in the Gym.
As the country battles the Covid’19 pandemic, yoga has been rediscovered as a mean to boost immunity, improve overall health and wellbeing. Lack of proper sleep, poor nutrition and stressful life all lead to a weakened immune system and leaves us vulnerable to sickness. Unfortunately many such bad habits have creeped in our lifestyle and we need to make a conscious effort to make the necessary changes in our lifestyle. Practising Yoga regularly and consistently is one such good habit we can adopt.
We should also not undermine the benefit of drinking lots of water, it keeps us well hydrated and helps the body perform better.
Stay healthy, stay safe.

Life Style

Life in lockdown and beyond!!

June 4, 2020

Every once in a while, life gives you an opportunity to slow down and reflect back on where have you reached and what have you achieved so far. That’s exactly what happened with most of us during the nationwide lockdown. These tough times gave us a perspective to unwind and declutter not just the physical space around us, but also our mental states. And while we are in phase 1 of unlocking, we have already started missing our so to say quarantine life. So here’s a look back at how last 2.5 months have been.
While some of us decided to reenergize and reboot ourselves, some discovered and kindled our inner talents by surpassing our own expectations. If I were to categorize myself in these two buckets, I would say I fall under both to some extent. Let me give you a sneak peak into my life during lockdown. My quarantine days began with a high note of energy and enthusiasm to make a positive change in my lifestyle, be more self-caring and focusing on channelizing my strengths while continuing to work from home.
I set up a small home office in the corner of my room to work from. I became a regular in my yoga and exercise sessions which helped to refresh myself and stay fit and healthy. I took more time to introspect and be thankful to the almightly for blessing me with a wonderful life, a great family, parents and the most loving life partner. Seeing the challenges being faced by the less privileged in such challenging times, me and my husband decided to help as many lifes as we can touch around us.
I started enjoying the sound of birds chirping, wind blowing while I enjoyed my cup of coffee sitting in the balcony listening to my favourite songs. I even started experimenting with food and prepared almost everything we generally like to order from outside (needless to mention cooking some lip smacking momos has been the most favourite and fulfilling part of my cooking dairies).
I would not deny that a significant part of my day (or Should I Say nights) went into watching movies, TV series, documentaries as well. But I also made it a point to take up a new habit. Reading is something which is not my cup of tea, however, one day I just happened to pick up my I pad and download kindle on it. The next thing I found myself doing was taking a subscription of Kindle unlimited on amazon which gave me access to a wide range on books to ponder upon and since then there has been no looking back. I now enjoy reading so much so that I like spending all my time reading rather than the usual Netflix and chill. After all, breaking the monotony is also important right. I wish to continue doing the same in times to come and make each day count.
I understand that life beyond this lockdown will never be the same. We will all have to embrace these changes in our lifestyles, adapt to the ‘new normal’ and make peace with it. This reminds me of a great learning I came across while watching the movie ‘Founder’ recently which describes the story of how a person named Ray Croc became to be known as the Founder of Mc Donalds. He says- “Persistence. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent won’t. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius won’t. Unrewarded genius is practically a cliché. Education won’t. The world is full of educated fools. Persistence and determination alone are all powerful. Show that you don’t have to be defeated by anything. That you can have peace of mind, improved health and a never ceasing flow of energy. If you attempt each and every day to achieve these things, the results will make themselves obvious to you. While it may sound like a magical notion, it is in you to create your own future. The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. Or as Ralph Waldo Emerson declared, A man is what he thinks about all day long.”
On this note, let’s keep spreading positive vibes and never lose hope. We are all in this together and we will get through this by changing our attitudes. Good things are on their way.

Beauty • Main News

Lockdown: Perfect time to care your skin

May 30, 2020

Here are a few summer skincare routine that be effective in keeping your face clean and radiant. The scorching heat can take away your natural glow and make your skin look dull. In normal situation, you could have headed towards a parlour to get a nice facial done. But in lockdown, you need to take care of your skin on your own.

In summer, you must look for a face wash that can remove the excess oil from the skin. Also in case you have dry skin, choose a non-foaming cleanser.
Exfoliating skin helps in removing the dead cells from the pores so that your skin can breathe. It can also rejuvenate your skin and keep it healthy. To exfoliate, you can use a nice face scrub available in the market.
In summer the scorching heat opens up your skin pores and that leads to clogging of these pores by dirt and oil. By using a toner, you can close the skin pores and prevent acne.

I hope you all like the tips.
(Sapanpreet Adlakha | Passionate Makeup Lover, Motivational speaker & Model)

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