When a bibliophile tries to sell her old Blackberry!

I always believe in having a clutter-free home. Therefore, before every Diwali, I try to get rid of all those things that are no longer serving me. I donate a few things to the needy and sell other useless stuff.

Now, before smartphones made us crazy and dependent on them, I had a number of phones with QWERTY keypad. I especially loved my Blackberry during that time, but after I got my first smartphone, I realized my Blackberry no longer served me. So, I decided to sell my old Blackberry with QWERTY keypad before Diwali. I think the year was 2014.

At first, I told my younger cousins that I am ready to sell my Blackberry and if they would be interested in buying it. I was initially hopeful as they were really eying my phone, but their responses were extremely discouraging.

Cousin 1: Please Di. This is my birthday month. Gift it to me.

Me: I am trying to sell this.

Cousin 2: I will give you all my Harry Potter books in return of the phone.

Me: Um..that sounds good. But you only have the first 3 books. Are you trying to fool me?

Cousin 3: I don’t need this phone. Dad will gift me a smartphone if I score 80% in my board exams.

Me: Such a demanding kid you are!

The conversation with my cousins went nowhere. I understood that I have to think of something better to sell off my Blackberry.

I knew it would be useless trying to sell it to my friends as all of them had smartphones. I decided to list it on sites from where I can sell it. As my Blackberry was in a good condition, I quoted 3000 INR and listed it on the selling websites. I waited for sellers to contact me, but even after 10 days, I got no reply.

So, I reduced the price to 2500 INR and then waited. Finally, a seller messaged me and told me he is interested in buying my Blackberry at 1200 INR. His negotiation infuriated me. I was not at all ready to sell my Blackberry at such a low price of 1200 INR.

Finally, I thought to take help from my friends. One of my friends wanted to buy it for her sister. I was relieved and told her I am ready to sell it at 2500 INR.

“I have a better idea.” She said.

“What?” I was curious.

“You are a crazy bookworm and I am a book hoarder. Why don’t you take 10 of your favorite books from my library in return of this phone?” She said with a twinkle in her eyes.

I was speechless at her proposal. The fact that even after trying so hard, I cannot make any money selling off my old phone pinched my heart.

“It’s actually a perfect give and take offer. I need your old phone for my sister. And you want many of the books that I have in my library. Think about it.” She continued, looking at my crestfallen face.

She guided me to her library. As I looked at her enviable collection of books, my heart leaped with joy. I selected 10 books that I always wanted to own- books by my favorite authors, Paulo Coelho, Nicholas Sparks, Jhumpa Lahiri and Dan Brown.

I gave her my Blackberry and finally returned home with the 10 books and a toothy grin.

After that incident, my father tells me that I am a disaster in selling off my old gadgets. Well, he is right, but he cannot say that to me anymore! Why? Because, now I have Cashify, where selling used mobile, tablet and iPhone is so easy and completely hassle-free.

So, if you can also recollect one such failed attempt at selling off your old phones, you should immediately check out Cashify. For the lovely readers of my blog, I am sharing a Coupon Code (CLEANCASH). If you use this coupon code when you are selling your gadgets, you will get an additional 250 INR on the sale of your gadgets.

So, what are you waiting for? #CleanUpCashOut this Diwali!

No more food blunders. Thanks TinyOwl!

When the same kind of incident starts happening to you again and again, you are stereotyped and given an annoying name. And that’s an awful feeling, especially when you are called something which is really irksome.

Take my life, for example. Whenever I plan to take my family for a grand dinner or lunch on a special occasion, dear destiny turns no stone unturned to make it a grand blooper making me all fidgety and stressed to fix the problem. As my plan gets spoiled and ruined every time, I look at the sky helplessly and yell "Why me?" The feeling is so frustrating! 

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Be it Durga Puja, Christmas or birthdays, I always end up in an embarrassing situation whenever I take my family out for a meal and then I try hard to make amends. Fixing food problems at the last moment, sometimes by buying road side chowmein or other times by just preparing Maggi (when it was available, of course) has become my trademark instead of people complimenting me about how good the treat was. This is the reason why I am named “Miss Food fix” (not in a good way, of course!)

In fact, my granny loves calling me by this name after a series of food bloopers. I don’t blame her though. Here’s what she said, a few months back, when I told her that I want to take her out for a lovely dinner.

Me (with a cheerful grin): Granny, a wonderful new restaurant has opened. I want to give all of you a treat as my new anthology of poems have released.

Granny ( with a sarcastic smile): Oh dear, why don’t you rather cook something great for all of us?

Me (with a frown): You know it well how I hate cooking. I would rather do something more interesting during that time.

Granny: My little Miss Food Fix, you need to love cooking, else you have to keep fixing things at the eleventh hour.

Me (with a huge frown): Oh granny, stop calling me this. I agree that twice, okay thrice, things went wrong, but that doesn’t mean it will happen again.

Granny smiled and then tried hard to suppress her smile, after looking at my pitiful face. 

Now, I am sure all of you must have understood what I have to face whenever I tell my family excitedly that I will take them out for dinner. Let me share one of the blooper stories that led me to a food fix.

It was the occasion of Holi and therefore, I wanted to take my family and cousins for a sumptuous dinner. We went out of the house at 8pm and when we reached the particular place, we saw that all the restaurants were already filled and buzzing with people. There was not a single vacant seat inside and we were told to wait outside each and every restaurant. Seeing no way out, we waited outside a restaurant for about an hour and then we finally got a seat.

Being a Biriyani lover, I ordered Biriyani for all of us, but the waiter said that Biriyani was not available. Then I ordered Peas Pulao and even that was not available. With an unwilling heart, we settled for vegetable fried rice and chilli paneer. The food did not arrive, even after 45 minutes and on asking the waiter, he said that it is getting prepared. Finally the food arrived and it tasted so horrible that I don't even want to recall the taste. My Dad tried to eat some of it but my granny and cousins did not eat more than 2 spoons. The fried rice tasted like ordinary rice and the paneer tasted too bad. An abominable smell of garlic hit our nose as we had it. It was horrible.   

We left the restaurant with a look of disgust. It was 11 pm in the night and all of us were having terrible hunger pangs. 

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I felt guilty and helpless. I hit my forehead with my hand dramatically, but that did not result in anything miraculous. I kept on mumbling sorry and then remembered about the roadside chowmein which would surely be available at that particular hour of the night.

The chowmein tasted at least better than the fried rice and chilli paneer. I apologized to everyone and all of them said it was okay. Yes, it definitely was okay, but I was stereotyped Miss Food Fix when this kind of thing happened thrice. In all the 3 times, I had to do some last minute arrangement which was not at all good or even a little closer to what I planned.

Recently, I was sharing my sad story with a friend, when she suggested me to try the App called TinyOwl. I guffawed at first hearing its name, but when I tried the App, I was happy beyond limits. It was so awesome that after ordering food for the first time from this App, I was screaming "Yay!". Finally, I got a solution to my problem. 

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Tiny Owl is a great food ordering App that helps me to treat my family with a grand dinner or lunch at home itself on the special occasions and festivals. On festive days, most Restaurants and malls are always occupied and I really don’t want to land up in a food blunder anymore.

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The TinyOwl App lets me enjoy great food at home and I don’t even require cooking. This App is the smartest, coolest and the fastest way to order food. From Donut to Dosa to Paratha to Pasta, you can get anything delivered to your home by ordering food through the Tiny Owl App. The App can easily detect your location and choose the best restaurants for you. It is available in both android and iOS.

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The App also stores all your previous orders. If you are not aware of the new restaurants near your area, this App will give you great recommendations too.

This App has made my life easy and has helped me to get rid of the Miss Food Fix title as I don't have to fix food blunders anymore.  Thanks to TinyOwl!

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I was sad, wallowing in self-pity

All my plans get spoiled and gritty.

Whenever I plan a family dinner,

I end up in some embarrassing blooper.

I hate being called “Miss Food Fix”

Don’t want to take any more risk.

All I want is delicious and mouth-watering food

Now please for heaven’s sake, don’t tell me to cook!

Pizza, Burger, Biriyani and Calzone

I want these from restaurants reputed and well-known.

One such bad day, I came across you

The cute little fellow in yellow

You introduced yourself as TinyOwl

And asked,“Can I mend your mood that seems so foul?”

I shared with you all my agonies pent up.

You smiled and just showed me the App

No blunder anymore, I just scream "Yay"

Now good food is just a few clicks away

Family is happy and my life is set

Oh TinyOwl, you are so cool and great!

Do check out the amazing TinyOwl App that is available in Android and iOS. 

The Super Awesome ASUS ZenFone 2

As we all know, ASUS ZenFone 2 will be released in India on 23^rd April, 2015. The stylish look of the phone and a couple of attractive features would surely make it the best smart phone in the market. Well, here are the 5 reasons why I feel that ASUS ZenFone 2 could redefine my smart phone experience:

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1.     The phone is powered by 4 GB RAM: Since ZenFone 2 is powered by 4GB RAM, the performance of the phone will be three times better than the other smart phones. You can get amazing gaming experience, smooth video playing and fast web surfing on this phone. Multitasking on the ZenFone 2 would be so much easier because it is powered by 4 GB RAM.

2.     The phone has a luxurious and a wonderful design: ASUS ZenFone 2 has a stylish and attractive look. You can flaunt this smart phone to everyone as it is extremely gorgeous. It has a brushed metal finish that perfectly depicts the spirit of Zen. The Ultra-Thin Arc Design gives it a bold yet elegant and graceful look. The 5.5 inch HD display would let you see everything on the screen more beautiful, brighter and bigger.

3.     It has a 13MP PixelMaster Camera: ASUS ZenFone 2 has a wonderful 13 MP PixelMaster Camera that would allow you to capture beautiful high resolution photographs. Since I love to click pictures, I am excited about the wonderful features of the camera of this phone. The phone features a low light mode that makes use of pixel-merging technology. Due to this technology, you can capture brighter photographs in low-light or at night. You would not require switching on the flash. The Super HDR quality of the phone would allow you to see clearly within daytime shadows. When more light is there, Real Tone Flash of ASUS ZenFone 2 would ensure perfect color and warm skin tones. Thus, I can be sure that I can click amazing pictures, whatever the time or occasion is, with this phone.

4.     You can get sharp selfies with ASUS ZenFone 2: Nowadays, everyone loves to click selfies no matter what the occasion or day is. ASUS ZenFone 2 makes the process of taking selfies more fun and exciting. This phone has a 5MP front-facing camera which is provided with 85-degree wide angle lens. This feature of the phone allows you to take sharp selfies. You can also have clear and amazing video chats with your friends and family.

5.     ASUS ZenFone 2 gets charged extremely faster: The smart phone supports exclusive technology of ASUS which helps the phone to get charged with an unusual speed. Within 40 minutes, the battery of the phone gets 60% charged. I really feel bored when my phone gets charged for hours, but with ASUS ZenFone 2, I won’t get any chance to complain.

The stylish look, the amazing features and the wonderful camera of ASUS ZenFone 2 will surely redefine my Smartphone experience. #CantWait4Zenfone2

Read more about the phone: http://www.asus.com/Phones/ZenFone_2_ZE551ML/