A Week Without Social Media

This is my second post for this week as promised in this post. I did not post anything on my blog last week as I was off social media for a week (which I had planned the week before). I have an account on most social media platforms but I am most active on Facebook, followed by Instagram, Pinterest, WhatsApp and Telegram. 

I have a pattern of activity on social media platforms. There are periods of great activity, followed by a silent period. We are so used to social media these days that we, well at least I, have forgotten what life was without it. Online social media was non-existent growing up but, it at this day and age, it feels like it has been around for ever. 

So, What did I exclude during my week-off social media?

- Facebook

- Instagram

- Twitter (I barely look at it usually, still....)

- WhatsApp (do not look at it often anyway)

- Facebook Messenger

- Telegram (hardly on it these days)

- YouTube

- Pinterest

- GTalk

- Personal Skype

- Podcasts

- Blogger

What I included in my week-off social media?

- Work email and instant messaging during office hours (I really cannot get rid of these at work, can I? )

- Personal email (because....need to pay bills etc. :-))

What was my experience like?

Before I took the decision: I was looking forward to it. I was not sure if I had it in me. I was inspired by something I read, not sure who wrote it, but it made complete sense to me. Before the advent of social media platforms, people spent time reading or watching TV but these media came with an end to it and were structured, but with social media, things have become unstructured and bottomless and nothing ever seems to end. The mind is constantly active, always looking for more information or data and is not satiated no matter how much we feed into it. This actually made me look at giving up social media for a week as a detox and inspired me to do it.

During the week off social media: I really did not miss it much, though, I must admit, I sub consciously did reach out to the YouTube app on phone just to listen to music on day one during my commute, but checked myself just in time. It gave me a lot of time to read, write and also sleep and wake up early. I also found some time for myself. I kept myself busy with some activity all the time and did not realise how time flew. To my amusement, I found that apps like Facebook missed me more. I remember receiving an email asking if I have any problems logging in and was just emailing me about all the great things I might be missing out on. I also noticed that nobody really noticed me out of action. Just goes to show that we do become self-absorbed while we mindlessly browse through social media. I did not read and clean up my mailbox on my personal email. I just read the most critical ones based on the sender and the topic. 

Name has been redacted

Name has been redacted

After the week off: When I logged into these apps, I was left with a lot of notifications and to be honest, I just ignored them all. I had 200 odd new conversations on WhatsApp and there was a couple of conversations where I have over 700 unread messages, which again, I did not read. I am not very crazy about WhatsApp anyway. I have over 7500 emails (yes it definitely has a lot of promotional stuff), which I still have to clean up.

As an outcome of this experience, I have scheduled social media time for myself. I know I might miss out on some important updates but I think I should be able to deal with it.  

You Will Be Missed Sridevi

RIP- Sridevi. Image Source: gaana.com

This morning, like most people in India, I woke up to the shocking and sad news of the sudden demise of the legendary and iconic actor- Sridevi. To be honest, I am still struggling to process the fact that this has happened. I had originally planned for something else to post today but that can definitely wait.

In the late 80s and an early 90s, India knew of no other established female actor of Sridevi's calibre (there was of course Juhi Chawla and Madhuri Dixit rising in the period) in Bollywood. She represented beauty, style, class and grace at the time. She was truly a multifaceted actress and excelled in all forms of acting, be it a patient of retrograde amnesia in Sadma, a dual role of an introvert and aggressive extrovert in Chaalbaaz, a dual role in Lamhe as mother and daughter with different personalities and the most recent movie of hers that I watched- English Vinglish where she plays an enterprising house-wife who feels handicapped due to her lack of knowledge of English and how she overcomes it.

Apart from her acting, her performances as a dancer are unforgettable with several iconic dance numbers and signature steps. Her dances to foot-tapping numbers such as Nainon mein Sapna, Morni baga ma, Kaate nahin kat-thein, Hawa-hawai, Mein teri dushman, Jaipur se nikli gaadi, Mere haathon mein nau nau choodiyan, Meri bindiya, Na jaane kahan se aayi hai, Rang bhare baadal se  are memorable and all the songs and dances caught the nation's imagination at the time. 

My favourite movies of Sridevi are:

- Lamhe

- Chaalbaaz

- English Vinglish

- Nagina

- Judaai

Sridevi also acted in several Telugu movies. My husband's favourite Telugu movie of Sridevi is Kshana Kshanam and his all time favourite Telugu song is Jamu Rathiri.

Her untimely demise signifies the end of an era. I am really at a loss of words to express my sadness and shock- words fail me. May her should rest in peace and may God give her family all the strength to bear and overcome grief at such a time.

You can check out this nice blog put up by her fan- click here.

My Collection of Favourite Childhood Shows

I loved several TV shows growing up. While cable TV was on the rise in the 90s, most of the country watched the same shows on the only options that they had- DD1 and DD2 (DD Metro). Also since, the sources of inexpensive entertainment was limited in the 90s and some parents thought that cable TV would be a bad influence on their children and would hamper their studies, most households according to me, had just the 2 options. We also prayed hard for long lives of our politicians back then, as otherwise, there would be only mourning shown on TV for days together.

Those days, we watched anything and everything on TV. Be it comedy, tragedy, action etc. On Sundays there would be regional language movies shown and whether we understood the language or not, we still watched it. I still remember very vividly when the old Mahabharat was aired, it was a routine in my family to finish with our breakfast, bath etc and sit in a row on our sofa to watch Mahabharat. The benefit of having limited channels was also that the country would come to a standstill. The roads would be deserted, without any traffic jams. If people had to step out for some reason, they would ensure that Mahabharat was recorded on their VCRs.


I have built a small collection of my favourite shows. I have other favourites too but do not possess a copy of them as they are not easy to find or are available for free on YouTube. When I bought these, none of the shows were on YouTube, so, the only source was DVDs/VCDs.

Malgudi Days:

I enjoy watching this show as much as I did as a child. Amongst all of them, my favourite is the Swami series and also the Hoard. I do not know why, but this show reminds me of my vacations spent at Grandma's in Mangalore. I bought this at Reliance Timeout.

Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi:

I am not sure if I was born when this was first aired, or, maybe I was too little to understand. I used to hear a lot about this comedy show from my family and when I found a DVD for one of the season's in Reliance Timeout, I bought it immediately and enjoyed it thoroughly. My favourite episode is the one where a thief loves Gulab Jamun. I ended up purchasing all the seasons. Some episodes (not all) are present in YouTube as well.

Flop Show:

The entire nation loved Jaspal Bhatti's comedy series. It still has me in splits to this day. My favourite episodes are the one about how meetings happen and the one where Jaspal Bhatti poses as a patient to make a fraudulent insurance claim- hilarious!! I ordered this on Flipkart if I am not mistaken.

Kabhi Yeh Kabhi Woh:

This show was initially quite boring but got interesting with passing of time. Later, the also introduced a Bollywood  music count-down as a part of it. However, the DVDs do not have the count-down bit. This was again a comedy but not many people remember it well anymore. I ordered this on Flipkart- I think..

Vikram aur Betaal:

I remember this show being aired every Saturday in the afternoon. They had a set of reruns of the show as well. I watched the reruns as well. Every episode had a different story. My favourite was the one with 3 princesses and a prince having to choose the right bride for himself amongst those. I bought this at Sapna bookstore.

Dekh Bhai Dekh:

I think every kid in the 90s in India, watched this show.  I remember it being aired on Thursday nights. It was a terrific comedy show. I have so many favourite episodes, it is hard for me to pick one. I bought this series online. They also have several episodes on YouTube.

Zabaan Sambhalke:

This Indian rendition of Mind Your Language was aired right after Dekh Bhai Dekh on Thursdays. It was great fun to watch these shows one after another. I got this series as presents from different friends. My favourite episode, was the one based on Michael Jackson's arrival in India.

Tenali Rama:

Currently a show by the same name is being aired on TV.  The one I have is the older series. It was quite well made back then as well. The quality of the screenplay, is quite similar to that of a feature film. My favourite episode is one of the first ones where Rama challenges a courtsman to do something with his eyes open while Rama does it with shut eyes.  Really witty. I bought this at Sapna Bookstore as well.

Akbar Birbal:

All points except the one about the favourite episode that I mentioned for Tenali Rama also holds true for this show as well. I do not have a particular favourite episode as such.

Tehkikaat:

It was a fun detective TV show built loosely on the Holmes and Watson. Everyone loved Sam D'Silva and Gopi. I still remember that I missed the last episode and watched it maybe 20 years later when I bought the CD. I bought this online but not sure which one- either Amazon or Flipkart. My favourite episode is the very first one.

The Adventures of TinTin:

This is my all time favourite comic and cartoon. The animated TV show is made very well. It feels like the comic book has come to life. My favourite episode is the Castafiore Emerald. I got this as a present but it seems to be pirated.

Pride and Prejudice:

Though I watched this show as an adult, it was made at a time when I was in school ;-)). Anyway, several people have tried to make movies out of the book or TV series but none of them even come close to this one. It is the best cinematic rendition of the book. I bought this on Amazon.

Some of my other favourites but I do not have CDs for:

- Mr. Yogi
- Mungerilaal ke haseen sapne
- Hum panchee ek chawl ke
- Nukkad
- Stone Boy
- Sea Hawks
- Talaash
- Circus
- Zamana Badal Gaya
- Antakshari
- Banegi Apni Baat
- Campus
- Need
- Hip Hip Hurray
- Wagle ki Duniya
- Gul Gulshan Gulfaam
- Kile ka Rahasya
- Byomkesh Bakshi
- Surabhi
- PC 1008
- Gayab aaya

There are some others as well but I am unable to recall all of them. Many of the above mentioned shows can be found on YouTube.

Some great English/Dubbed in English shows mainly from DD Metro that are my favourite:

- Old Fox
- Derrick
- Didi's Comedy Show
- Street Hawk
- Poirot
- Murder, she wrote
- Miss Marple
- Flinstones
- Tom and Jerry
- Pound Puppies
- Silver Spoons
- Different Strokes
- Small Wonder
- The Brady Bunch
- Bewitched
- Happy Days
- Three's Company
- Fawlty Towers
- Tandoori Nights- A Jewel in the Crown
- Mr. Bean

There might be more shows, but currently, they seem to be blocked in some corner of my brain.

P.S: I will not be posting anything next week but will be posting 2 posts the week after.  You will know why when I write about it in a couple of weeks.

Japan Habba-2018

Japan Habba or Japan Festival is an annual event that takes place in Bangalore. To be honest, I never heard of it before. Thanks to Facebook, I came to know about it this year and was fortunate enough to attend it. My husband and I are quite fond of Japan. We were engaged in binge watching about Japan in 2016 and early 2017 through an amazing TV show called Japanology. The series picked up one aspect of Japanese culture or lifestyle and made documentaries about that aspect in an episode and created several videos on different things about Japan. You can find these on YouTube by simply searching for Japanology. There are some other great series about foreigners living in Japan on Youtube such as Sharla in Japan, Sharmander, Kyde and Eric, Life where I'm from etc. These are just my favourite channels out of the several that I have watched. Apart from this, there are a couple of videos from Rickshawali where she quizzes the Japanese on Rajnikanth and Priyanka Chopra and also makes Japanese people try Indian food, which I like as well. My first touch point with anything Japanese though, dates way back in the 90s when I was a great fan of the TV show Oshin. The series is on and off on YouTube maybe due to copyright issues but is worth watching. I also enjoyed a lot of anime growing up.

Today was a great experience at Japan Habba. The theme was Aomori Prefecture. The event was held in IISc and was mainly a cultural exchange programme between India and Japan. The entry is free and there are a few freebies as well.

There were several stalls put up at the place:

- Japanese Language learning programmes
- Studying in Japan
- Working in Japan
- How to apply for different visas for Japan
- Japanese tourism
- Japanese books and magazines
- Popular video games in Japan
- Japanese toys
- Art work (all kinds not restricted to just paintings) from Japan and India
- Food from both countries

My favourite stalls were Ikebana, where the artists displayed several beautiful flower arrangement creations; FOOD- being the foodie that I am, this was hard to miss and dislike; Origami- the display was beautiful and colourful; Paper cutting art- loved the precision in the art.

Some of the several Ikebana on display:

Some of the Several Origami that were on display:

Some of the Paper Cutting Art:

This was made of Paper. There were several different types of faces put up and these were considered the faces of Gods. There was one which resembled Lord Ganesh. Due to the crowd, I am sorry, could not read the name of that God.

There were also performances such Tea Ceremony, Shamisen and traditional Japanese dances. They also gave people an opportunity to try the traditional Yukata which is a cotton Kimono worn in summers. I could not resist and tried on one myself. There were also several people who engaged in Cosplay and they probably did a great job at that but unfortunately, I was not able to recognise any of the characters.

Me in a Yukata

Unfortunately due to other appointments, I could not attend the Shamisen and the Japanese dances but I was fortunate enough to have witnessed the Japanese Tea Ceremony and also having been served tea as a part of the ceremony. I have filmed the video until the point I was served tea but was not sure if I could post it here, so have left it out. They made a few changes due the venue and the number of times they had to do it (I think they might have repeated the performance about 50 to 75 times easily). One of the changes was, not using the tatami for the seating and of course the related sequences. It was all done meticulously and gracefully. It was a really nice experience. All the performances did not require tickets and were free of charge.

My husband and I got our names written in Hiragana and Kenji- There was a display of Japanese Calligraphy too. This was free as well.

Our names in Kanji..I think...

At several stalls, we picked up different brochures (I must add the quality of the brochures is amazing, both in terms of the content and the quality of paper used). Though they call them brochures, these are actually similar to books like Lonely Planet- just more colourful. Some samples shown below. My favourite is the one on Vegetarian Restaurants in Japan.

This was the brochure about the event.

This was about different aspects of Japan. It covered topics from places to see, food, art, Japanese geography etc.

One of the favourite topics in the book- Food!

My favourite.. Not only does it guide us to these restaurants but also make recommendations on the dishes to taste.

A page from the above book on Kyoto Restaurants

What I shopped for- Only Food! Since, I said shopping, of course it is in exchange of money. Except for 2 items which were complimentary at a stall.

I call it the Doraemon sweet as the person selling it mentioned that it is in eaten in the Doraemon cartoon show. I have not watched Doraemon carefully enough to notice it. Please let me know if you know what this is called by leaving a comment below.

This Miso is to be used in the cooking and not consumed directly from the jar

This Miso is to be consumed directly from the pack. It can be used as a dip.  Can be used in cooking as well. They also have a spicy version of it.

Matcha green tea. I got it with the intention of using it in baking.

These are 2 types of Mochi (Sweet Rice Cakes)- The one on the left is called Monaka Mochi and smells of Coffee and the one on the right is called Warabi Mochi which is similar to the Konkani sweet. However, it comes with a spice mix and a sauce which I guess have to be eaten together.

Veg Sushi which comes with a deep brown sauce, not visible clearly in the picture

These were Free Snacks at a stall. They were like  elongated cheese balls which had a nice seasoning of herbs and spices

So far, we have had the Warabi Mochi, Sushi and the Doraemon sweet. While I liked the Sushi, it did not receive a positive response from others in the family. The Warabi Mochi reminded everyone of a Konkani sweet called Duddali, which I must admit tastes absolutely same. The Doraemon sweet was like some sweet stuff sandwiched in miniature pancakes. I did not really like the stuffing. My family members thought this to be good but not excellent.

We tried some vegetarian- Japanese curry and rice with Sweet Potato Katsu. The curry reminded me on the Maggi tastemaker of Masala flavour. The rice was traditional Japanese sticky rice. I must admit, we all loved the Japanese curry with Sweet Potato Katsu. It tasted brilliant. The order of my favourites of the Japanese items I have eaten today would be Japanese Curry and Rice with Sweet Potato Kastu, Sushi, the Free Snack (not sure what it is called) and Warabi Mochi. I am sorry I do not have pictures of the curry dish as it was quite crowded and I could not wait anymore to taste.


What surprised me:

- I knew we had a few Japanese restaurants in Bangalore but today I realised just how many! I did not really think we had so many of them in the city. Some of the food stalls put up were by these restauranteurs. They are Japanese people who wanted to bring in their flavours to India.

- Just how many people learn the Japanese language in the city and talk the language quite fluently and just the sheer number of language schools that offer to teach the language. Many visitors today as well as some of the stall owners were from Bangalore but spoke Japanese like it was their mother tongue. I just knew one Indian before today, who spoke the language that fluently.

- Some Japanese folks spoke....wait for it...KANNADA...I was so amazed. At first, I thought they knew a few words here and there but later I came observed two or three who could respond to questions in Kannada too.

The one thing I would like to change, being a stationery lover- Please sell some Japanese stationery. I am sure, you would have good sales.

In case you were not able to make it today, do try going next year- if not for anything else, just for the experience of something different.