Love, Laugh and Reflect turns two!

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to Love, Laugh and Reflect

Happy Birthday to you!

Woohoo! It is the birthday of my blog “Love, Laugh and Reflect”. And needless to say, I am feeling so happy and joyous. 

Please take a piece of this strawberry cake. I wish I could send it across to each one of you.

Exactly 2 years back, when I started this blog with the promise of blogging regularly to myself, I hardly thought that this blog and the blogosphere would mean so much to me.

What started as a place to jot down my random musings and share news about my books, became a canvas of my creativity, a platform to review products and websites, share my travel tales and express my opinions.

The last one year was great for my blog. I got plenty of creative satisfaction and fulfillment. It provided the perfect canvas, especially to write and share poetry. It is because of this blog that I got the confidence to publish my first poetry book “The Heart Listens To No One…it hums its own song”. I released the Kindle edition of the book on Valentine’s week this year and plan to get the paperback released by June.

Since my blog played a big role in the making of my poetry book, I am giving it away on my blog anniversary for free.
Download your free copy from Amazon and please do leave a short review if you enjoy reading it. I would love to know your thoughts on the book and those who have already read and review it, thank you so much!

Also, there are 2 book hampers up for grabs (book hamper comprising a mythological fiction by Anand Neelakantan [Asura/Ajaya], a signed copy of any one of my novels or an anthology/popular fiction).

Do participate in the Rafflecopter Giveaway and the 2 lucky winners will win the 2 book hampers. The result will be declared here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And finally, a big thank you to all my fellow bloggers, readers and the blogging communities- Indiblogger, Blogmint, Poets United and BlogAdda. Without you, Love, Laugh and Reflect wouldn’t have grown to this extent. You all have contributed largely to not only the blog’s growth, but also to my growth as a human being and a writer, especially the lovely souls who regularly comments on my post, no matter how busy they are. Special mention to Gaurab Mukherjee for motivating me to take blogging seriously in those early blogging days when I was too lazy to write even one post. 

Much love and gratitude! Thanks for being with me in this amazing journey!

And to my blog, I would say~ Thanks for making me fall in love with life a lot more, thanks for making me laugh even louder and thanks for helping me to reflect better about the mysteries of life.

Rangoli Design Inspirations for every occasion

Rangoli is a beautiful Indian art form in which people create various kinds of patterns on the floor with colored sand, dry flour or flower petals. It is made during auspicious occasions and various Indian festivals such as Diwali, Pongal and Onam. Apart from serving as an object of decoration, Rangoli also brings prosperity and good luck to a house.

I am personally very fond of this art form. I cannot help but admire the intricate Rangoli designs wherever I see them. Every year on Diwali, I rack my mind for a unique and attractive Rangoli design that can make my house look beautiful and bring prosperity to it.

Rangoli designs can be of various kinds, such as flower shaped Rangoli, geometric shaped Rangoli or deity impressions. The more creative you are, the more you can experiment with your designs. Ethnico is a website that provides ethnic design inspirations such as Rangoli designs, Mehndi designs, etc. It is your ideal destination if you are looking for some great Rangoli design inspirations for any occasion.

You can find various kinds of Rangoli Designs on the website of Ethnico that will help you to adorn your house beautifully and creatively.

The enamel Rangoli in sky blue color is perfect for your home décor. It can add a great welcome feel to anyone visiting your house. 

For festivals like Diwali, you can create one of these colorful Rangolis in your living room to make it look colorful. All these Rangoli designs look very attractive and radiant. They can easily change the look of your living room and make it look beautiful.

If you have a huge courtyard, then you can also create a Rangoli to welcome your guests in occasions such as New Year. 

You can also find Floral Rangoli designs on the website. These Rangolis look beautiful and they are made totally by using flowers and flower petals. Floral Rangolis can also be made on water. You can take inspiration from this design to create a floral Rangoli on water.

Floral Rangolis look beautiful. They add a lot of warmth, happiness and positivity to a house. So next time, you create a Rangoli, don’t forget to take Rangoli design inspirations for every occasion from Ethnico.

Note: The images have been sourced from the website of ethnico. 

Place Of Origin: The best of tea and coffee

Placeoforigin.in is a wonderful marketplace for special Indian foods, ethnic foods, famous regional Indian snacks and a wide range of tea and coffee. The food products that you will find in Place Of Origin are sourced directly from the producer and are delivered directly to the consumer. Therefore, you can be totally assured that you will get 100% genuine food products from Place Of Origin.

Specialties of Place Of Origin

Place of Origin is a paradise for foodies all over India. You can get delicious sweets and confectionery, snacks of various kinds, pickles, mixes, spices, tea and coffee.

The best thing about this website is that you can find food products from the popular and famous brands of India such as Flurys of Kolkata, Almond House of Hyderabad, Moshes of Mumbai, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwala from Pune, All good taste from Punjab, Amonar Tea from Nagaland, Anandini Himalayan Tea from Himachal Pradesh, Bean Therapy from Mumbai, Jay Hind Sweets from Gujarat, Seven Beans Coffee Co from Karnataka, Evergreen Sweethouse from Delhi and many others.

You can view the menu of the brands and shop for your favorite sweets, snacks and staples. They also provide free shipping on many of their products.

Best of Tea and Coffee

Most of us are addicted to tea and coffee. We cannot even imagine going through a long, hectic day without savoring cups of tea and coffee. Truly speaking, our life seems incomplete without the morning coffee and the evening tea.

You can find a huge range of tea and coffee in Place of Origin. Apart from black tea, you can also find chamomile tea and various types of green tea such as Darjeeling Green Tea Elixir, Green Tea with Himalayan Tulsi and Rhododendron, Palampore Kangra Leaf Green Tea with wild tulsi and many others. We all know the tremendous health benefits of green tea and Place of Origin provides you a lot of options to choose from.

For people who prefer coffee to tea, Place of Origin also sells a wide range of coffee such as Coffee from the Nilgiris, The café chic blend, Rich Hazelnut Cream Coffee, The Sunkissed blend, French Vanilla Coffee and many others.

Tea and coffee are best enjoyed with cake, biscuits and namkeen. Therefore, you can also shop for your favorite snacks from Place of Origin to give yourself a delicious treat.

Final words

Place of Origin is the perfect destination for people who love to enjoy various kinds of tea and coffee with delicious snacks from all over India. Hop on to the website to savor the various flavors of India.

A cup of tea or coffee seems to make everything bearable and makes life way better.  

Dollops of sunshine

I was a resolute seeker,

Seeking dollops of delectable sunshine

In dense, misty forests

And algid, snow-clad mountains,

In my deep, gloomy days

And moments of stinging despondency,

In bitter, acerbic people

And in those who're deceived by fate.

My search restlessly continued

In every lane and place,

Moment, day and person

Till I looked within

And communicated with my soul;

Deep down there,

I found the priceless treasure

Of delicious sun and soothing zephyr.

Now, I carry my own sunshine,

Spread it wherever I go

And share it with whoever I come across.

-Purba Chakraborty

(17.04.2016)

Linking this poem with Poetry Pantry #298 and Prompt Nights: Pour me drops of glorious sunshine

Be my home!

Neither a riveting adventure,

Nor an electrifying escapade;

Neither colorful mocktails

Nor tantalizing refreshments.

Be the tender pleasure 

Of having water after a tiring day,

The soft snugness of my old cardigan,

The velvety breeze of my native town,

The familiar song of the monsoon.

Just be someone

I can call my home!

-Purba Chakraborty

(13.04.2016)

Linking this poem to Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Home

IndiPR.com: the new brainchild of Indiblogger

Indiblogger launches IndiPR.com which is designed to help businesses get their press release published by top bloggers. Whenever a new product or service is launched by a company, a press release is the first order of business. IndiPR.com makes it possible for businesses of all types and sizes, including start-ups to have their press releases published within 72 hours by relevant influencers.

How does IndiPR.com work?

In order to make it simple for businesses to get their press releases published by relevant influencers, IndiPR.com introduces the Automated Influencer Targeted Engine or AITE. 

Once a business uploads their press release at IndiPR.com, the AITE will proceed to accept applications by the relevant influencers. On the basis of internal ratings and rankings, it will efficiently shortlist bloggers. The influencers, on getting shortlisted will publish the article on their site.

Within 72 hours of uploading the press release, the business will have its press release written by relevant influencers. IndiPR.com is easy, quick and hassle-free.

Let’s hear what the co-founder and director of marketing at Indiblogger, Anoop Johnson says on their ambitious new venture:

“With a starting budget of just USD 150, a business of any size will be able to get their press releases published by influential bloggers with a few clicks.”

How will marketers benefit from IndiPR.com?

It is a very time consuming process for marketers to find the right influencer for their product or service. Even if they find some relevant influencers, it is quite cumbersome for them to target and contact each influencer. The co-founder & business head at Indiblogger, Karthik DR says, 

“The amount of time that people spend in trying to identify and contact influencers is huge. With IndiPR.com, you don’t have to worry about any of this as the system just needs your press release. The rest is history.”

Therefore, the digital marketers will be able to generate a lot of awareness about their new product or service through this platform. IndiPR.com will help businesses efficiently with content marketing.

How will bloggers benefit from IndiPR.com?

About bloggers, the founder and CEO of Indiblogger, Renie Ravin says:

“We believe that this system will help Influencers with fresh and new content on their site every day. In a way, you could be writing about the next Google without even realizing its immense potential.”

Influencers will always stay updated about the latest news on the planet with IndiPR.com. It will let influencers attend the trendiest launch events and get great creative assignments. IndiPR.com will carry more than just press releases in the future. 

IndiPR will benefit both the marketers and the influencers in a systematic and convenient way. Businesses and startups, interested in getting their press release written by top bloggers can contact Anoop Johnson at contact@indipr.com. 

Celebrations of life are merrier with DholDhamaka.com

Parties are great fun, but organizing them efficiently can be quite tedious, especially if you have to hop around several shops for your party supplies. Going to one shop for the decor and another for the costumes is not only tiresome, but is also extremely time-consuming.

The tedious process of organizing parties

There are many people who love to organize parties at home on every special occasion, be it on Birthdays, Anniversaries, Holi, Diwali or Christmas. Honestly speaking, I belong to that category. Instead of going somewhere out, I would love to spend quality time with friends and family at a house party. The problem in organizing parties is that so many arrangements have to be done simultaneously from the food to the costume to the decor. 

The savior

At such times, we crave for a single magical destination that can perfectly take care of all our party needs. And DholDhamaka.com is that wish-come-true of party lovers like me.

 DholDhamaka.com

The first ever celebration products company of party supplies, DholDhamaka.com was launched in 2012. It is a great, convenient portal that helps its customers to organize parties and events in a simple and easier way. It has customers from all around the world, including countries like India, US, UK, Singapore and Australia.

You can find more than 2500 products at DholDhamaka.com. All the products are cool and attractive, that can help you to arrange a great party. The primary product of the company is birthday party themes.

Birthday Decorations at Home

Whether it is the birthday of a kid or an adult, you can completely rely on DholDhamaka.com for their extensive product range of party supplies. They have great theme balloons of as many as 14 categories.

They take special care of the birthday party themes for kids. You can make the first birthday of your son or daughter special with the range of cool products from DholDhamaka. Their motto is to help parents celebrate a memorable birthday of their kids. 

Wedding and Anniversary party supplies

Not only birthday party supplies, you can also get a great range of wedding and anniversary party supplies from DholDhamaka. For wedding and anniversary parties, they have beautiful products like paper lanterns and sky lanterns.

Celebrations of all types

Whatever the occasion may be, with the help of DholDhamaka, you can now organize a party at your home easily. Be it New Year, Holi, Halloween, Valentine’s Day or Friendship Day, you don’t need to think twice before organizing a party. 

The next time, you decide to throw a party, let DholDhamaka do all the hard work for you.

Check out the wonderful site of dholdhamaka.com, shop for the things you would need in your party and zest up your party. Their products are affordable and they provide free shipping on all orders above 250 INR. For suggestions on how to arrange great parties, you should visit their colorful blog.

Celebrations of life have never been so colorful, enthusiastic and easier before!

The bleak, fateful moment

The bleak, fateful moment,

The moment just before

The soul irrevocably leaves the body

When the mind is excruciatingly restless

The heart, numb and ravage

The soul clueless,

But it sure weeps

And yearns passionately for its loved ones.

Yes, that fateful moment

When your soul was longing

For a gentle caress of a loved one,

A few solacing words

And one last assurance to be remembered...

How I wish I was there

To ease your frenzied suffering

Wish I could hold you and not let you go...

-Purba Chakraborty

(10.04.2016)

P.S. Yesterday was the death anniversary of my cousin sister, Disha. She succumbed to depression and ended her life. Whenever I think about her, countless regrets and innumerable memories flood my mind. This poem was my free flowing thoughts on her death anniversary. You are deeply missed angel and you will live in my heart as long as I live.

Linking this poem to Poetry Pantry #297

Image Source

Planning and organizing events with Blisaura

Blisaura is the first interactive online portal whose motto is to help its users to plan and organize an event without any hassle. It takes full responsibility and ensures that its users are able to plan their event and execute it perfectly.

What exactly does Blisaura do?

Blisaura focuses to create happiness among not only its customers, but also among its partners and anyone associated with the company. Blisaura is built with the value of creating happiness and bliss. It aims at providing a blissful life to all its customers, vendors and partners. Their values are clearly reflected even in their emails.

The purpose of Blisaura is to help the users in searching, selecting, reaching and fixing the service providers for an event. The users of Blisaura can easily organize a social event and play the role of an event planner.

Blisaura is an online interactive portal that interacts with the user like a trusted friend. It offers valuable advice and suggestion to the user so that he can organize his event perfectly. It plays the role of a personal assistant to its users by helping them to plan a complete event and execute it properly.

There is an automatic process of follow-ups in Blisaura that helps the user while planning, organizing and executing the event.

Unique offerings of Blisaura

1.    There is a unique budget feature in Blisaura that helps its users to organize their event within their predetermined budget. Almost all people want to have a great party, be it a wedding party or an anniversary party within a predetermined budget. The budget feature enables the user to mention the budget, fill other necessary details and choose the services they require. Blisaura will understand the requirements of the user and provide services whose price will fit the prescribed budget. The users of Blisaura can customize their needs and Blisaura will take complete care of it.

2.    There is a status tracker in Blisaura designed to facilitate a hassle free event. The feature allows users to keep track of all the activities of their service providers.

3.    Blisaura provides its users the facility of ordering a sample food menu before finalizing the caterer. This is because Blisaura understands that food is the most important element of any event and experiences with caterers doesn’t turn out good always.

4.    Blisaura provides its users the facility of scheduling online appointments with the service providers. Since everyone is busy in their jobs and lives, scheduling an online appointment helps the user to meet the service provider at their convenient time.

5.    Finally, Blisaura allows the user to invite all the guests in the event through email invitations.

Blisaura aims at spreading bliss and happiness in the lives of people through its unique offerings and its great interactive portal. Currently, Blissaura is launched only in Bangalore.You can check out their website at www.blisaura.com  or contact them directly at +91 7899455444.

The Toy Train Journey from Siliguri to Darjeeling

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” 
― Pat Conroy

I have always wanted to explore the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway by taking a toy train ride from Siliguri to Darjeeling. It takes about 8 hours to reach Darjeeling from Siliguri in Toy Train, but the journey is rewarded with beautiful views that is a treat for any nature lover.

I can proudly say that the toy train journey became my most favorite part of my Darjeeling trip this year. Plenty of songs have been shot in the Darjeeling Himayan Railway such as"Mere sapno ki rani", "Kasto maza hai relaima".etc, Movies like Barfi,and Mein Hoon Na have also featured the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. 

So, it was a great adventure to explore the toy train ride amidst the hills and greenery.

All set to start the journey from Siliguri

Sukna (altitude: 533 ft): This is the first station that comes after Siliguri. Sukna implies 'dry place'. The station is situated at the foothills of the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. The uphill journey to Darjeeling begins here, taking the traveler through dense tropical forests. 

The dense tropical forests of Sukna

The uphill journey to Darjeeling begins from Sukna

Heading to the next station

Tindharia (altitude: 2822 ft): The next station is Tindharia which means 'three streams'. 

The tea plantations

View of the plains below

Kurseong (altitude: 4864 ft): The next station is Kurseong which means 'white orchids'. Kurseong and Kalimpong are hubs of orchids. Last year, I went to Kalimpong, which is located close to Kurseong, where the flowers mesmerized me. From Kurseong, the entire view of the plains below , Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri can be observed. 

The toy train halting somewhere in the midst of the journey, allowing me to take some photographs.

Tung (altitude: 5656 ft): Tung is an intermediate station along the Hill Cart Road. The area is covered with evergreen coniferous trees and has the Senchal Sanctuary.

The evergreen and lush coniferous trees

Sonada (altitude: 6552 ft): This is the next station on the way to Darjeeling. The weather is very cold here and you can see trees wrapped with clouds.

Ghum (altitude: 7407 ft): Ghum means 'turn'. It is the highest point along the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway route, after which the train travels downhill to Darjeeling. It's extremely cold and misty in Ghum. 

The Ghoom Railway Station

Batasia Loop: Batasia Loop is a feat of Railway Engineering that eliminates the requirement of reverses. It is a U-shaped loop where the toy train travels after crossing the Ghum railway station and reaches Darjeeling. Batasia offers a panoramic view of Mount Kanchendzonga (only if the weather is clear). A Gorkha war memorial has been built within the Loop.

The train travelling through the Batasia Loop to reach Darjeeling

So that was my Toy Train Journey from Siliguri to Darjeeling, full of beauty, adventure and thrill. I am glad that I could tick off one of the things in my bucket list: to explore the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and get lost in the enchanting, mystique hills.

"We travel, initially to lose ourselves, and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again-to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more." ~ Pico Iyer