Am Indebted To My Mom-Dad Forever!

If I have to sum myself in a line, I am probably destiny’s favourite game she likes to play harder and harder and so that when she wins her success tastes far more sweeter and I am in an habit of now making her win, patiently bearing all the tests she puts me through. I am perhaps also a suitable example of Darwin’s survival of the fittest theories, where there were umpteen instances in my life to have me perished but I survived and am here to narrate my journey from nobody to a little somebody to you.

Long before my birth, my mom has carved the script of my wonderful path-breaking journey as despite being a daughter of a very rich businessman she refused to marry a businessman and instead married by banker father. So the battle has already begun. Ideal to her times, though highly educated she gave up her profession when she conceived me. My dad was the eldest son among ten siblings and the pressure to bear a son has culminated on my mom and my birth in a small room of our parental home in a small town of Uttar Pradesh without the aid of a doctor or a midwife was mourned in the family. The attack on my mom for more dowry and the vicious trap to lure my father to abandon my mom and me and remarry only grew more severe with each passing day. That’s when my dad picked me in his arms and promised to himself that he will make me what none of the boys in the family can ever become.

Thus began my wonderful journey with the most brilliant and best set of parents in the world. The values, the dedication and the killer instinct they instilled in me early on still keeps me ticking. When I was about four I was sent to my maternal grandparents home so that I can begin my education in a good school. In a huge household of my mom’s nine siblings, I got my second lesson of survival of the fittest amongst scores of cousins and their parents available to defend them but not mine, but I survived😊 and became ferociously independent.

This was the period when my younger brother was born too and he stayed with my parents...so it did hurt the tiny me and I took to writing my heart out, something which thirty years later today is my identity. The foundation of my academic excellence came in these two years when my maternal aunt(Usha) grilled me and etched the concepts forever in my brain. Dad did realise the agony of a six year old and took a on-request transfer. Thus we moved to Trichy in Tamilnadu and I spent my formative years there, so now you know why I am a South Indian at heart. Part2

To be continued in the next chapters of #SlicesofLife Series on #TrulyYoursRoma in #AtoZChallenge this April.  I am writing on some extraordinary slices of my ordinary life.

Thank you so much for all the love and support you have always given me. Truly Yours Roma is nothing without you! 

My Hair’s True Tale to Reclaim Their Lost Glory : Schwarzkopf Gliss Range Exhaustive Review

 My heart shatters to a million pieces to confess how ruthless I have been to my knee length hair ever since I was too young subjecting them to different types of tortures...perming, straightening, chopping them frequently and even colouring them multiple times and by the time I have realised what I have done to them, I have lost both quality and quantity of my gorgeous hair who still make an attempt to gleam in all their dignity but I know internally they are weak and brittle.

For the past one month I am determined to render them back their lost glory and thus I am ready to walk that extra mile to do anything for them. I give them warm oil massage regularly and have become particularly choosy about my hair care products. My hair stylist of three years has introduced me to his own tried and tested best categorically and I have been using the following hair care products from Schwarzkopf for my precious hair now.

The first one is Schwarzkopf Gliss Million Gloss Shampoo with concentrated Gloss Elixir for millionised shine reflexes. This formula with Shine Lamination Technology provides long lasting gloss and deep repair. It possesses liquid keratin which reconstructs the hair ant renews its quality by repairing damaged areas deep inside hair and in its surface. I massage it gently into wet hair and then rinse thoroughly.

Also, I use it in combination with another product - Schwarzkopf Gliss Million Gloss Conditioner which I apply in my wet hair immediately after washing with shampoo, leave it for a minute and rinse it off. Together they have imparted a new life to my lifeless and frizzy hair a new zeal of life and I love the softness and the sheen they have imparted. I use them 2-3 times a week and it’s been around a month that I have been using them...I must say these were the results I was craving for and I intent to use them over a long time to regain my precious hair’s lost glory.

When in hurry they also have in their kitty Schwarzkopf Gliss Million Gloss Express-Repair-Conditioner which can be sprayed both of towel dried or dry hair after washing and left as it is to let your gorgeous hair flaunt some extra Gloss.

Their packaging is impeccable with delightful aesthetic appeal and user friendliness. They are suitably priced at 275-295INR for a 200-250 ml bottle which is just not heavy on pocket.

Another hair product from this brand that I found a surprisingly impressive package is Schwarzkopf Gliss Million Gloss 10 Days Shine Treatment.

After washing and conditioning massage it into wet hair and leave for 1 minute and wash. I have found this making my hair worthily silky and bouncy.

If you like to style any set your hair for a party or that special evening, Schwarzkopf Taft Shine Hair Lacquer or Mousse can be your best companions. It promises to hold your hair for 24 hours without stickiness or residues and protects it from dryness.

The special Taft fortifying formula builds a micro fine layer and strengthens the hair. It’s formula protects our hair against wind, humidity and the harmful UV Rays.

Apply the Mousse in damp hair for optimal results before styling and spray the lacquer from a distance of 30 cm in short bursts over the stylised hair. With this I think Schwarzkopf has perfectly scripted my wonderful haircare regime and the results are making me super elated.

I have also coloured my hair in Schwarzkopf Intense Palette Delux Oil Care Colour with Oleo Gold Elixir as it promised no harm but only extra care for my Goa Vacation and did I mention Schwarzkopf has made my hair look utmost glossy and fascinating despite of the rigorous sea and pool swims for over a week (see all the pics I am flaunting in this blogpost).

Thus I am fairly impressed by this product range and after exhaustively testing and trying them, Truly Yours Roma highly recommends this professional hair care range. Try it to believe it. I rate it well above 4 out of 5 stars beyond all doubt♥️.

P.S. In India, they are marketed by @Schwarzkopf Retail India ( #SchwarzkopfProfessionalHairCareForYou #SchwarzkopfRetailIndia)

It's Time to Do our Bit : The Impressively Innovative #CuttingPaani initiative by LivPure

I am here in Goa for our much awaited priceless annual vacation and over the years I have seen how slowly the massive mesmerising pristine sea green water bodies here are gradually loosing their sheen under the dense clutches of water pollution. The day isn’t far when we loose such wonderful marvels of Mother Nature to manmade chemicals and pollutants....and it really hurts.

Back home in Pune, I read a similar piece in the newspaper which spoke about the heart breaking fact that the city would soon be having zero potable water. Well, the number of water cuts in summers for the past few years have already been speaking the gruesome story. If this is the state in one of themost posh locality where I reside, I wonder how the economically weaker sections of society fare in such situations. All I know is how my house help is always late to work because she has to stand in long queues to grab a few pitchers of drinkable water. Personally I ensure not a drop of water is wasted as I believe that every ounce of drinking water saved, is every ounce of life saved.

So when I laid my eyes of the #CuttingChai initiative of Livpure, I had to immediate satiate my soul by knowing more about it and do my bit in spreading this lovely concept. I was impressed by the thought process behind the idea and wanted to do my best first before spreading the meaningful message which we unknowingly miss on our daily life. How many times do we simply drain the drinkable water because we have already sipped our need and render it a waste that too when a larger section of our mother nation walk miles to just have a little??

Thus, I first shared it with hubby and sonny that now we will categorically fill out glass only with the amount of water we wish to drink and if some is left we will use it to water our plants and give it back to Mother Nature in it’s purest forms. We will always keep bottles with us and drink as and when needed rather than buying a lot of mineral water bottles wasting half the drinkable water and also loitering around the plastic wastes - the bottles. While the little one looked so keen and interested that he immediately shared the message among the people sitting on our adjacent beach pads. Thereafter, as we entered the shacks for some quick bites I was reminded of the lovely video below and we asked the waiter to serve only cutting pani to all instead of full glasses and surprisingly everyone there agreed unanimously😊. People today are much more understanding and tolerant and really understand how significant it is for us to conserve our natural resources, drinking water undoubtedly topping the list.

This is when I decided to share this profoundly conceived initiative from Livpure called #CuttingPaani with my precious readers here too♥️. You remember how Mumbaikars have glorified the concept of cutting chai to soother both their pockets and taste buds, similar is the idea behind here. Pour for yourself only what you want or else finish that extra bit to do yourself a calorie free nutritious favour. Come what may don’t waste, better still pour it in your pets’ bowls or in aquariums. Incase of bigger gatherings or parties collect the unused water and the same can be wonderfully used to mop our floors or wash clothes with some disinfectants in them.

It’s all in the mind dears and Livpure has fulfilled their responsibility pat excellence of embedding this worthy concept in our minds, now its up to the wise us to follow it religiously and spread it far and wide. Truly Yours Roma urges to you, not for anyone else but for for ourselves we must get to #CuttingPaani  and also sign this petition for a genuine cause😊

#ThemeReveal #AtoZChallenge : 'Extraordinary Slices of Ordinary Life' on Truly Yours Roma

My fingers are itching to write and forcing my chronic fibroid pain to let them do what they love most for the #AtoZChallenge is here and I better do what I am best at. Well the pain isn’t bearable but I sure am penning this post because I can’t hold it any more. This is only the second time I am writing in March and it feels I haven’t breathed normally for a while now because writing is like breathing to me. The odds are just not in my favour and every moment I am enticed to give up on this coveted challenge and sit back and rest but giving up that easily is not me and that too something which has in last two years given me more than I could have asked for ~ my two books, The Fragrance of True Love and Dare to Defy the Destiny. With our shifting to a new abode coinciding with the challenge start date and with offspring at home whole of April for summer vacations, I will need a lot of your coveted push from you my precious clan....as I say always, I owe my everything to you.

So my precious peeps, here I am officially announcing my participation in the Global #AtoZ Challenge for the third consecutive year and I am truly truly proud of it (I am attaching below a small video I did for Blogchatter on the same). Blogchatter is the most wonderful community I have come across in the last two years and I shall forever remain indebted to them for all the support they have rendered in thick and thin.

A million notions are boggling me simultaneously as I pen this Theme Reveal Post for though I have a clear vision after doing two series for the last two Aprils, one non fiction and the other fiction and learning immensely, this year there are a various distractions from my goals.

So finally, this time I wish to sail a different boat and the topic I choose this year is life itself. I call the series ‘Some extraordinary Slices of Ordinary Life’ in which I shall bring to some tickling and heart-warming and some thought-provoking anecdotes from life.

While you may as well consider it a continuation to my most successful #FoodforThought Series on #TrulyYoursRoma, (probably because that’s what I am best at bringing some motivational and some conscience pricking True pieces to you), this A to Z posts shall be the same with a surprise twist you all are most welcome to experience from 1st April. There are umpteen facets of life which I always wanted to capture in my journal and I guess this is the right time and the right way to do it, to pour out buckets of my life experiences and learnings to a global audience and enrich from their experiences too in the process.

Well, so with all my doubts and no advance planning , I still promise you to bring to you a sumptuous platter this April. Bon Apetite, My loves ♥️ See You Soon😊

On Women’s Day, I Pledge to Win This Weird Battle 😜

Imagine you are this girl next door with nothing strikingly pretty or extraordinary about you to turn on someone or make him carve a dream fairy tale for you and then this boy enters your life and treats you every bit like a princess. Love happens much later first he teaches you how to live life and how to love life, he gives your life a new meaning. Friendship blooms and you don’t realise when your wish becomes his command♥️.

You love that soft tickling feeling inside you whenever you see him, not realising that it is love until you part ways only to be united forever and yeah your Cinderella tale of a happily ever after continues for years. Your man surprises you with his love in umpteen ways and fulfils all your desires even before you say that...barring one just one...Phew 😭!

Yes this is my own story and this is probably the most weird piece I have ever written. This guy is the most understanding and loving partner one could ever crave for but has a strange fear which yo would undoubtedly find really hard to digest. Can you believe he is scared of me driving a four wheeler. Ironically and much to an extremely burning in angst me, despite of a City and Santro standing in my parking I struggle everyday with the useless Ola and Uber guys for even mundane works and it really pisses me off. Have you ever tried going to buy groceries by a taxi or to drop and pick kid from a birthday party in a taxi😤? For years, I have debated on it with him on multiple occasions along with a candid heart to heart talk but he refuse to change his stance.

It is even more weird because around a decade back when we bought our first car right after he finished his driving school classes, he had enrolled me too which I had to abandon due to pregnancy, so what happened suddenly.

Even worse I am an automobile engineer by education and have worked in Honda Cars and Tata Motors for several years, technically also I should be allowed the same, isn’t it? I have driven a bicycle since I was in grade 1 and my Honda Pleasure for last 10 years. I love driving for my own therapeutic reasons, when I drive I feel like a bird and the feeling is so so liberating. I personally feel car driving is no rocket science. Like any other skill, it too can be acquired by diligent practice. If I can work across the globe, take solo international travels, handle many other responsibilities independently why can’t I drive a car? Trivial issue you may say but it really hits hard my independence and sometimes my sanity too when the drivers keep cancelling my bookings.

Generally S trusts me more than anyone else in every other job then why this strange fear, I will be extremely grateful if any one of you can justify it to me. He says he would rather pay my taxi bills(which is what I hate as I love to pay my own bills) rather than letting me drive, which is very unsafe because most accidents take place because of someone else’s fault. I promised him I will drive very slow, will practice a lot, will take care but my words fall to deaf ears. I wish some day I can rid my Prince Charming of this lone fear! May be this Women’s Day helps me win this weird battle because for me it is my day and on it I pledge to make myself a little better than the earlier Truly Yours Roma. So the plan is to go for it secretly and surprise the man 😜😜. No matter I failed to convince him but I am surely not giving up my desire and I am gifting myself this driving course not to defy my love but to prove my worth.

On this happy note, I wish you all a very Happy Women’s Day, my precious peeps♥️, how do you plan to treat yourself or your women this Women’s Day??