Welcome to Sarath Babu's Lifestyle Blog

While everyone has been using eCommerce sites and Digital Wallets, I decided to do it differently. Why not try to live a day without cash? I knew for sure that it is possible with the advent of digital wallets and introduction of debit and credit cards but not all the time you would be carrying your card but for sure, you would have your mobile phone with you at any given point of time. Hence I decided to use my PayTM wallet. The end result was really surprising. Take a look at hos my day unfolded. Some sentences may have been dramatised to give that feel and appeal to you(readers). I began my day by buying couple of kilos of rice from a Rice Merchant. So, as mentioned above, my house had enough stock of other materials like oil, vegetables etc and rice was cooked since this is our staple food. I then went on to buy a footwear(Since I have forgotten to capture it, I am not sharing the SS here). Dad had to get his blood sugar check up done. Do I need to say that I u...

Title - Aliens in Delhi Author - Sami Ahmad Khan Genre - Sci-Fi Publisher - Niyogi Books ISBN - 978-93-85285-71-4 If you are a Sci-Fi lover, I am sure that you would love this novel. When I was reading it, I could relate this book to few Hollywood movies like Species, Independence Day, Men In Black(MIB) and Aliens to name a few which means, this book is not based on any one of the above but has some resemblance from all the movies combined which makes this story, unique. You would be entertained from the beginning till the end since the story has some unexpected twists which would take the readers by surprise. What I liked the most was portraying one of the dreaded terrorists which the world has ever seen, as an Alien.  The story can be said in a single line but having said that, it is really difficult to elaborate it to such an extent keeping that one line as a base. Interestingly, at least to me, I found that there is no protagonist who can be singled ou...

Title - Harappa - Curse of the Blood River Author - Vineet Bajpai Genre - Fiction Publisher - Vinnet Bajpai ISBN - 978-93-5268-548-6 A gripping novel from the beginning till the end! Well, I wouldn't say it is an end because the novel does not end with this book as it continues in the next part as   Pralay - The Great Deluge . A perfect combination of the past and the present, where the story goes all the way back to Harappan Civilisation and comes to the present one. Author has also asserted that he has used some of the historic references to make the story interesting and it is a pure fiction. He has also mentioned that he respects all the religion, though the novel has touched upon few others in the story. What happens when a person who is a Half Human and Half God when he tries to stop something inevitable? Well, this is what the actual story line is but the secret does not end here. It is much bigger, wherein the characters were used very intricat...

Title - The Three Psychos Author - Yash Pawaskar Genre - Fiction Publisher - Dimple Publication ISBN - 978-93-86469-04-5 A novel attempt by the author where in he has penned a story which comprises of three characters. While the first character Alexander Silva gets stuck inside somewhere which says DE22912 and he tries his level best to understand what it is all about and where and how he got struck. It gets decoded in the end for him and that is where the real suspense is. The second story was where Amol aka Patient No.9 gets stuck in a hospital where he keeps meeting a secret creature from the other planet. He finally gets an hint as to what that is. Did he manage to save the earth from the brink of extinction? The third one is about Aakash getting a gun fully loaded(6 bullets) as soon as he turns 16 and what he does with that becomes a nightmare.  As I mentioned earlier, this is a very good attempt of portraying three different characters in a compl...

Title - Love Buddy - Is Love Worth The Wait Author - Zahir Chauhan Genre - Fiction Publisher - StoryMirror ISBN - 978-93-86305-27-5 Zahir has penned a story which is so compelling. I am also very much sure that many of us would have been in the dilemma or the situation that was portrayed in the story in such an effective way. I can confidently say that this is my story, this is your story or rather, this is our story. We all would have had an experience of first time love or would have at least been a witness of someone falling into it. The experience can be correlated only by those who had felt this feeling and for those who haven't, fret not, this novel can sill make you understand that. The story begins with bunch of friends Samar,Anika, Nijo, Rajat and last but not the least, the protagonists Kabir Shroff and Kashish Khan. While these friends come together after a while for the engagement of Samar and Anika, things start turning against them. They face...

Title - Her Wounds Hurt Him Author - Aiman Parween Genre - Fiction Publisher - BlueRose publishers ISBN - 978-1-64008-870-2 A simple story with a powerful message. I wouldn't mention anything about it because it would turn to be a definite spoiler. I liked the way, the story was written but the editing bit could have been better. Having said that, I always give weightage to the story line and not to the language as long as I grasp the content. This story is about how a chirpy girl Dhani's life turns into nightmare and how she faces it bravely. The story is a common scenario in India which either gets neglected or made mockery of which should be addressed on priority so that occurrence of such unfortunate events can be avoided. After all, we Indians love our Mother Country and give due respect to women. The book is available on Amazon .

Have you ever thought of something which has given an unbelievable returns but still was not as risky as its peers. I can hear your mindset where it says "I know you are going to talk yet again about a chit fund company which conned us a decade ago or about an MLM company". All I can say in one word is a big NO!! I am not going to speak about any of the above aspects. Having been in the banking field for close to a decade with a accounts degree, I have had the privilege to work as an unpaid Financial Planning Manager(FPM) for my colleagues back in my previous company thereby saving few thousands of rupees as taxes for them. I never had thought about hiring a chartered accountant to plan my finances since I was salaried back then and with limited resources, I planned my finances carefully and ensured that I paid minimum taxes as mandated by the Law. Having switched my profession now from being an employee to a self employed consultant in the professional capacity...

We come across many campaigns day in and day out. They differ from one another in terms of ideas and execution. We would have donated to few of them without even knowing whether it is solving the purpose or reaching the real beneficiaries. However we do this on goodwill and as a good samaritan, we have all the rights to get to know as to where exactly our money goes or being spent. Campaigns related to hunger, floods and other natural calamities are a common one in our country but have you ever thought about bringing smiles in the face of kids? While there are few which is related to kids are found online, they do not deal with enhancing the kid's knowledge but mainly to address their basic education and food(hunger) in most of the cases. Here, I present to you a campaign which is making waves. The campaign has been started by QtPi Robotics which is a Bengaluru based company. More about the company and its functions can be found at the bottom end of this post. They ca...

Title - Harp Author - Nidhi Dalmia Genre - Fiction Publisher - Authors Upfront ISBN - 978-9-38443-989-7 A romantic fiction that was set in the 1960's which would make you go back to those days and people like me who were not even born by then have had the chance to get to know the first hand information of hos the world was back then - especially the Europe.  Author has meticulously penned the story including most of the intricate information pertaining to love clubbing with the lifestyle of Europe. The story revolves around 3 characters but predominantly on the protagonist Ashok. The other two being Lauren and Aparna. Ashok was born in a industrial family and leaves to Europe for higher studies, mostly to implement the learning in his dairy company. He goes across various countries and cities which includes Paris, Wroclaw, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway and UK among others. He ends up meeting different women across these places which includes Nicole, Bar...

Title - Kansa Author - Prassant Kevin Genre - Thriller Publisher - Inked Company Publishing ISBN - 978-819-324-0571 A perfect novel that would keep you on the edge of the seat from the beginning till the end. The twists that comes up in the tad end of the novel when you have thought that you have found the real killer is just amazing. Professor Black ho himself has had a dark history gets roped in to find the serial killer Kansa. He joins with ACP Saargi Desai who initially though Professor Black was a ruthless and psychopathic person but he turned to be a real pro and a gentleman. The start to investigate the case with a person who has escaped the killer and professor stumbles upon a vital clue which leads them to a person. However things takes a different turn and the killing continues. This makes our protagonist to work even more harder and he does finally entangle all the knots to reveal the real identity of the killer which would take you all by surprise....

Title - 13 Steps To Bloody Good Marks Authors - Ashwin Sanghi & Ashok Rajani Genre - Self Help / Motivational Publisher - Westland Books ISBN - 978-93-86224-76-7 This is the third book in 13 Steps Series - the other two being 13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck and 13 Steps to Bloody Good Wealth(both have been reviewed by me). This book is yet again an exceptional outlay pertaining to the subject which was kept as the title. We never had understood the smaller things what we did as a kid has in fact helped us greatly. This includes reading in a sitting posture or walking while reading. We have also avoided television (most of the times) and there are so many which we did but had eventually forgotten and when it comes to our own kids, we tend to adopt an approach which is been followed presently which is incorrect. What has worked for you can be tried and replicated with your kid as well. The last minute rush in reading(not revising), discussing with the other students o...

Title - Syncfluence Author - Yaagneshwaran Ganesh Genre - Marketing Publiher - Notion Press ISBN - 978-1-947586-86-4 This is Yaagneshwaran's second book. The first one being " Is your marketing in Sync or Sinking? "  which was well received by the readers. This book " Syncfluence " talks about a different strategy in marketing. With the increase in online marketing brands which has slowly started capturing the huge untapped demand across every nook and corner, the need to learn about the strategies when it comes to online marketing which is way different from the traditional marketing becomes a quintessential one. There are many books available out there but this one talks about the perspective on S ync with your Influence which is way better than any other marketing strategy/methods. Not all of us would know everything around us. There is some kind of information or other which is available with each one of us. Though I am in the online...

Well, we all would have come across some inspiring story or the other. It would have inspired you for various reasons. I too have an inspirational story which is a real life incident that was shared with me by the person concerned himself. I am not naming the person for privacy reasons. He was invited to give a motivational talk when I was preparing for the civil services preliminary exams. Though I did not clear it since I had a single attempt, the talk that was given by this person has inspired me the most making me to take a vow that I too would accomplish something in my life. It was a jam packed session as usual since the place where I studied gave free coaching for the UPSC aspirants. The person made a sudden appearance. He started talking in a casual way saying that he too was just like us few years back. He hailed from a rural area and kept attempting to clear the civil services. He then went to Delhi as it was well regarded for better coaching and higher chances of c...

Well, we all are now accustomed paying the convenience charges for anything and everything. While the charges seems to be on the higher side especially when it comes to the entertainment, we let it go since we do not have the time to stand(just fr few minutes) in the queue to book the tickets. The GST did not exempt even this Convenience Charges since the charges now stand at Rs.38.40 with www.pvrcinemas.com  While I am not sure about the legality of the charges which runs as high as 25% of the actual ticket charge as there are no legal binding and strict rules on this so called "Convenience Charges", I faced an extreme inconvenience. Remember, this is not the first time I faced it with PVR. It happened last year when I booked the ticket for Bahubali and I along with friend was asked to leave the show despite having the online ticket where we were given a reason of system error as our tickets were not registered on the system and they issued a manual ticket for some...

L to R: Jayraj Salgaokar, Mr. Devendra Fadnavis and Amit Chatterjee The Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Devendra Fadnavis, unveiled an academic textbook 'Communication & Civilization’ authored by Mr. Jayraj Salgaokar and Mr. Amit Chatterjee. The book release function was held at Varsha, the Chief Minister’s official residence Mumbai. The Chief Minister, who is well acquainted with both the authors, appreciated the years of efforts that went into the creation of this book.  The book describes human race’s hunger for knowledge and the journey of  communication from stone tablets to phone tablets and beyond. The book aims to provide layered information & analysis in a simplified manner for students in the field of media and communication. The book has been jointly authored by Mr. Jayraj Salgaokar, an economist and the co-founder, Editor & Publisher of the popular publication 'Kalnirnay'. The other author, Mr. Amit Chatterjee has extensi...

The club meeting conducted today decided to conduct Installation and Induction meeting. The President is Authorised to see the various possibilities at minimum cost. The President will get back in a few days.  The President in his address dealt on the various projects done in the month of July. He also  informed the members that two accounts have been opened. Henceforth, members can give cheques in the name of these accounts.   An Estimate of revenue collection and expected expenses was submitted.   All the members are requested to give the subscription amount of Rs.7000  immediately as international dues and District dues are to be paid.   The President also explained the thrust areas of Service of the International and the District.   Those who like to contribute 20, 50, 100 dollars to LCI Foundation are free to contribute. One can opt for MJF Award too for which there is 50% discount offered by the District. The Pre...

With festive season coming up soon where we would witness lot of offers across various sectors, Autoportal which is one of the leading eCommerce sites when it comes to booking a 2/4 wheeler, has also announced some amazing offers. While you need not have to rush up to avail the offer since it is available for the next 27 days, I would suggest you not to wait until the end since the response is overwhelming. Though the offer is named Independence Day Offer, it goes all the way till 31st August.  Many of us would always want to but the vehicle on special occasion like Ganesh Chathurthi or Janmashtami and this is just the right time for you to make the best use of the offer. There are many advantages whilst booking via #Autoportal . You can not only save time but also some money since you would be given the best offers that is available across various dealers. Before we could go ahead to see how it works, do have a look at the prizes. As you could see from the abo...