Saluting the Patriotic Souls at Jallianwala Bagh!!!

Punjab is the land of patriots, them being in the list of freedom fighters or the jawans serving the nation. Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar is the garden which witnessed bloodshed of about 1000+ patriots including women and kids, who had gathered for a protest against the British rule, on 13 April 1919. A group of soldiers led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer opened fire against the crowd. Few of them tried to escape by jumping into the well in the garden, while some lost life in stampede of the panicked crowd. The section of the wall pock marked by bullets and the well are still preserved in the garden. After 32years from the massacre, Government of India post independence constructed a memorial of national importance in 1951. Built in the shape of eternal flame, the Martys memorial stands tall in the garden reminding the lives lost during the independence movement.

The Martys Memorial

The entry to the Garden, through narrow lane

Wall pock marked by bullets

Amar Jyoti, flame of immortal souls

The Jallianwala Bagh is very close to Golden Temple. You get to enter the garden through narrow street, which has been still preserved in its original form and houses few photographs from the massacre and other Independence movements.

Travel Info:
Entry free
Timings: 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM
Check out my post on Golden temple, to plan a visit to Amritsar.

Do check out the complete series on this trip of mine here. 

Golden Temple, Amritsar!!!

Almost after 5 months from our trip, I start my series on our Punjab and Himachal Pradesh tour. We started planning our trip sometime in January for our visit in March. March is our ideal time for long travels, as kiddo gets a month's break from school and her summer vacations during May are always planned for our trips to native and around. And accordingly we made the bookings. Just few days before our trip, there was an unexpected weather change and there were floods at most of the places around the country, but we were in no mood to reschedule our plans.

We reached Amritsar in the morning, and booked our taxi for the day for the tour of Amritsar city and Wagah Border. The weather had got worse, it was freezing cold. Our taxi driver dropped us at around 200mtrs from Golden temple and said, the taxi wouldn't go further and we had to go by walk till the temple. The walk is through the market place, where there are shops selling almost everything Amritsari, from Kulchas to scarfs(to cover your head while entering the temple), footwear to souvenirs. It was still 9 in the morning and we were told most of the food stalls would open only after 11 and we headed straight to Golden Temple. It started drizzling and the weather got still colder. All that chillness disappeared as soon as we got the glimpse of the temple, the Golden structure, with its reflection in the pure waters of Amrit Sarovar. The white structure surrounding the golden temple, the little kids taking dip in the holy sarovar, everything made the premises so serene and beautiful.

The entry to the temple, through the bridge

The top floor of the Harmandir Sahib main complex

 About Golden Temple

As per Wikipedia, the city of Amritsar was found in 1574 by the fourth Sikh guru, Guru Ram Das, while the Harmandir Sahib, or Darbar Sahib or Golden Temple, was designed by the fifth guru, Guru Arjan, who had the cornerstone laid by the Muslim Sufi saint Sai Hazrat Mian Mir on 28 December 1588. Guru Arjan completed the Adi Granth, the holy scripture of Sikhism, in 1604 and installed it in the gurdwara. Harmandir Sahib is considered to be the holiest Sikh Gurudwara.
The temple is built on a platform at the center of the Amrit Sarovar, connecting with the main complex of Harmandir Sahib by a bridge. The temple is three storied structure, with the front facing the bridge decorated with repeated arches. Check more about the structure here.

Travel Info:
Amritsar is a district in Punjab, India around 217km from the state capital Chandigarh. It is near Pakistan with Wagah Border around 28km and Lahore city of Pakistan around 50km.
By Road: Amritsar is on NH-1 well connected to Delhi, Jammu and other cities of Punjab.
By Train: Well connected to Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and other parts of Punjab.
By Air: Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, has many domestic and international flights, connecting with rest of the country and internationally.
Golden Temple is well with-in the city of Amritsar, and has accommodation and free food(langar) as well.
Timings: 3AM to 10PM, you can check out daily routine here.
Entry Free, everybody is allowed to entry the Gurudwara, better visit early morning, when the crowd is less.
Need to leave your foot wear outside and cover your head, while entering the temple premises.

Do check out the complete series on this trip of mine here. 

Make-up, Beauty and Selfie Gyan by VJ Anusha, at ASUS #DivasMeet!!!

If you are wondering what make-up and beauty had to do at a Mobile phone event, read on to know!!!

ASUS has launched their new ZenFone 2 series. After a fabulous Zen Festival at Delhi, ASUS had #DivasMeets in Mumbai, Bangalore and few other places, where few of we bloggers got to experience their new Zenfone 2 Deluxe, Zenfone 2 Laser, and Zenfone Selfie(You can pre order these mobiles here). The event started off with a presentation on the three models. Though three phones were presented, it was a #DivasMeet and all that took center stage was Zenfone Selfie.

The Zenfone Selfie comes with 13MP front camera and front flash, which is first of its kind to have a front flash. The phone also has photo enhancement features, which beautifies your images and also works well at low lights. While the 13MP front cam makes it all girls favourite, its girlish shades of chic pink, aqua blue and pure white, are to die for. Swiping C, S, W(along with few others), directly takes you to rare cam, front cam and web page respectively, even when the phone is locked. The display comes with anti scratching corning, which protects your screen(much needed if you are one like me, who dumps most of my stuff into my handbag along with my phone).

Clicking a panoramic selfie

After the presentation, VJ Anusha shared her beauty and selfie secrets, on how to hide your cons and highlight your positives. Did you know, the perfect way to click a selfie is holding your cam at your face level or higher, that makes you look lower on weight and highlights your face. There were few fun games like clicking selfie while walking a ramp and clicking groufies. To end the session, we were introduced to ZenTalk, a platform to connect with ASUS users, upload photos clicked with their phones, and more. 

Selfie with VJ Anusha

We checked out all three models along with accessories, the Zenpower(10050 mAh power bank), Zenear(Ear phones), ZenFlash with Xenon Flash and lastly my favourite of all, the super cute Lolliflash(Dual-LED light for natural skin-tone enhancement colourful outlook). The event ended with munchings.

Zenny merchandise being demonstrated

  Zenfone 2 Deluxe(ZE551ML)

• 64-bit Intel Atom 2.3G APU
• 6430 PowerVR 533MHz GPU
• 64-bit Dual-Channel 4GB RAM
• Cat4+ 250Mbps LTE W/CA
• Android L OS
• 60ms Touch responsiveness
• 5-mode Positioning Navigation
• 5LDS Antenna
• DSDA SIM Card
• 802.11ac 433 Mbps WiFi
• 5.5” FHD
• 3000mAh Li-Polymer Battery
• 5MP, Fix Focus, Wide View, PixelMaster Front Cam and 13MP, Auto Focus, LED Flash, PixelMaster Rare Cam
• Colours: Red/Silver/Gold

Zenfone 2 Laser(ZE550KL)

• 64-bit Qualcomm 8916 CPU
• 450MHz Adreno 306 GPU
• 2GB RAM
• 64-bit Android L
• Cat 4 upto 150Mbps LTE
• 3 Satellite GPS Navigation systems
• DSDS LTE/LTE SIM Card
• 5.5” HD Screen
• 3000 mAh Li-Polymer Battery
• 5 MP, Auto Focus, F2.0 Aperture, PixelMaster Front Cam and 13MP, Auto Focus, Wide View, LED Flash, F2.0 Aperture, PixelMaster
• Corning Gorilla Glass 4
• Colours: Charcoal Black/Ceramic White/Glamour Red

Zenfone Selfie(ZD551KL)

• 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU
• Adreno 405 GPU
• 3GB RAM
• Cat 4 150Mbps 4G LTE
• 1080p Full HD Video/Display
• 802.11ac 433Mbps Wi-Fi
• 5.5” HD Screen
• 3000 mAh Li-Polymer Battery
• 13 MP, Auto Focus, Wide View, PixelMaster Front Cam and 13MP, Auto Focus, PixelMaster Rare Cam
• Corning Gorilla Glass 4
• Full Screen Lamination ASUS TruVivid
• Colours: Pure White/Chic Pink/Aqua Blue/Glacier Gray/Sheer Gold

Image Credit ASUS India Facebook Page

The Power of Constructive Parenting, #ColgateMagicalStories!!!

Am blessed with a kid who is more interested in games than watching TV, and what better can a mom expect from her little one? Hubby and me always try to keep up her interest by playing with her, our Saturday mornings are mostly for playing Monopoly with the kiddo. 

Colgate has come up with packs with printed magical castle on the inside of the package. Three set of playset cutouts with a castle, royal family and dragon and tower. Check out the video to find how we had fun with our Colgate packs.

Do check out other videos, as kids get creative with each pack of Colgate.