Screen Time – The Impersonator, The Player

Hello my enthusiastic readers! I know that you all are reading my post after ages. I had horribly slowed down this year, with only one or two posts and that too I wrote just to keep my blog up and running. Even I feel that I had a downfall in my followers. But I am not so sure about it, since I have not kept any track for a year.

So this year is approaching its farewell and hence I thought a lot about writing something, which I love. Since I am into motherhood now, I am more into finding stuff for my kid so that she can stay away from the Digital Entertainment i.e. Screen Time. But to be honest, in spite of many things, still the screen time is not less. But my daughter eagerly waits for what will be her next session or next play.

To make this work, obviously I have to take help of screen and i.e. Instagram. Though Instagram has a lot of rubbish content, it also helps with ideas for home-sitting parents. At first, I started with craft. I am not at all a craft person but since kids love to do this, I started searching for simple craft. Some crafts were cute and some turned into horrible irritations. So, if you are a parent, and if you want your kids to stay away from the screen, then the first option after their homework and other studies is craft. I stay in India and India has many festivals. So my first craft is always of that particular festival. Now, since it’s Christmas and new year time, I have told my daughter to make greetings for their friends. She zealously searches for new designs on Instagram and YouTube. But here, again the screen time. Screen time did not end here because to make that stuff, me n my kid had to watch that particular video. Basically, I encouraged Digital Entertainment by myself.

Simple Craft

I am into social media. I even scroll Linkedin and I do read the professional contents. I do follow a few mompreneurs there and then one day, I came across one post, where I saw that the kid was doing lots of physical activities. The activities were pretty good, but in order to make it work, someone has to be there to make their kid do that activity. As a mom, I can’t make my kid do physical activity alone. Well, any activities, I have to be present there, with her. There were many comments to this post saying one parent has to be free to make this happen. Then one replied that his daughter is into reading and she keeps on reading, claiming that she is not having any screen time.

Well a debate here. Yes, reading is excellent, great, incredible, outstanding. But reading all the time will make your child introverted and boring. Child has to be active and expressive. For that, children should know how to talk and also should know how to fight with their friends. Yes, I make my child read books. But not more than one or two chapters in a day. But wait, I saw that, the man who commented about reading, had actually uploaded her daughter’s photo. The daughter was reading on iPad. So????? screen time again. What’s the use of reading a book, if you are making them read digitally? Yes, his daughter is increasing knowledge, but at what cost?

So scrolling down LinkedIn, recently I came across one mompreneur’s post, who has invested her time as storyteller, saying it is compulsory to keep story reading sessions once in a month, along with kid’s friends and their parents. Well, it’s very hard to find such a group. But I loved this. I don’t know whether I can keep such sessions or not. But I will definitely try this with my kid and one of her friends. The mompreneur even explained how to make it fun. Whatever story we are reading to them, make them draw or make them enact and take their video. In this way, drawing will help in their imagination and enacting will help in their public speaking and will overcome stage fear. This will also make them fall in love with reading.  

And what else can you do with your kids at home to avoid screen time? Teach them stitching. I am not saying teach them embroidery, but some basic stitching like running, back stitching etc. For this, you don’t need to buy anything. Take some rough / old cloth and teach on it. Well, I have started this. Yes, my daughter is bored now. Though, I told her that it’s not a one day job but you can do this everyday for 10-15 mins.

Sounds great, right!! But what if I say that all these activities your kid will not do alone. You have to sit with them, then? Well true, Your kid will not do these activities alone. They will sit for like 5 mins and if you are not around them, then they will easily get distracted and also leave the place messy. So what then? Above all these, first teach them to clean their own stuff, to keep their own stuff at its own place. Else you will be the most exasperated person. So no option, you have to sit with your kid in order to keep them away from the screen. But the problem is, the moment I get busy in the kitchen or in some other house work, my daughter starts scrolling Instagram or will watch videos on YouTube.

So is there any solution to this? Well, as such no. All you can do is be strict in their screen time. Some phones do have screen time options. Unfortunately you have to keep your phone and other devices in the kids zone mode. Always keep a password to payment gateway apps. Download some educational games like recognition of flags or sudoku. At Least your kid will play and learn a few things. I always do this, as soon as my daughter is back from school, she finds one motivational quote or good lines about her and one small puzzle to solve on her white board. She willingly solves such puzzles.

After School Activity

So again the same question; What about the screen time? Well, ask yourself first. Are you ready to give up on social media? Are you ready to give up WhatsApp? Are you ready to keep your mobile aside, whenever your kid wants your attention, no matter how urgent work you are doing or some informational video you are watching? Are you ready to switch off the TV, in your me-time, when your kid is watching mobile? If yes, then yes, screen time will drastically reduce and If no, then invest your time with your kid.

Back in the golden days, we didn’t had mobile phones but we had TV and we all grew up watching TV all the time. We all had a whale of a time watching TV i.e. we too had screen time. Nothing has changed. The only change is that now we have different varieties of the screen. 

The Exhibitionist Eventide

Hello my fabulous readers. A marvelous day to you all. I am back with yet another sit-on-your-hand content. Just a while ago, while browsing through my photos gallery, I saw many pics of clouds and in the next few minutes I came across the meme saying that we all turn into professional photographers whenever we see clouds. It instantly kicked me and I lollygagged with my blog and penned down this article, “Cloud Exists, Photu Photu“. Today the same thing happened. I saw that I have many sunset photographs, and here is my content.

Who does not want to be Opacarophile? What happens to you when you see the effulgence of a pink sunset? It is ineluctable to avoid such a majestic view. But what if I say that, the pink sunset or “afterglow” is caused due to pollution, dust and smoke in the atmosphere. Well, It’s not what it seems. It’s an irony of life saying, all magic always comes with a price.

Kristen Butler said this line, “Sunsets are proof that no matter what happens, every day can end beautifully”. Well, beautifully said. When the sun is on the verge of setting, it gives an immense pleasure and it really feels like the problem will also set in this beautiful way. But what we see is the darkness that follows the sunset. But don’t forget that before sunset, the sun is unbearable to our eyes. But still the sun sets in an astonishing way. That means, the endings are beautiful. Yes, the darkness follows. But after every darkness, there is a light i.e. sunrise. This whole process provides a salve for our guilt. 

A perfect sunset has the power to stop anyone. It literally makes people forget what important work they were doing. Such an attention seeker right? But this attention seeker helps us to flush out all our toxic energy and makes us believe in love at first sight. Even if we are fighting with someone, then this attention seeker will not only stop our fight but also enhance our mood and our conversation automatically goes lighter. A sunset is nirvana to all.

The last ray of sun, while setting down, is a perfect example of “Not to give up”. It rejuvenates us. Every sunset is different from the previous day. We are always ready to capture this moment with our lense. But if you are a professional photographer and if you have a professional camera, then only you will get a perfect pic. Not all cameras capture the perfect sunset. But yet it’s photogenic.  

What do you do right after sunset? I always search for the star. The first star, Venus. And then suddenly, you will be an astrophile. In that, if a full moon appears then Selenophile. and if not, and if electricity goes away, then you will be a combination of nyctophile and astrophile.

As it is said, the sun sets to rise again. Same way, take a break from your hectic busy days so that you can start fresh. Meanwhile enjoy some more pics of sunset, along with the sunset video. Also try to solve the different names of the Sun’s name.

** ALL PHOTOS /  VIDEOS ARE TAKEN BY ME. PLEASE DO NOT USE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.**


Hope you like my post. Do like and comment. Pingbacks will be appreciated. Also, do check out my other similar posts.
A Few Clicks To Remember
Clouds Exists, Photu Photu
Game Time: 21 Names Of Lord Surya Deva

Enjoy the sunset through this video.

Momentary Life, Live It Like A King Size

Hello my fabulous readers. A very good day to you all. After a long time, I decided to pen down a horror story and so today I am a ghost writer. To begin with, my favorite disclaimer. This story is fictional. The characters in this story are fictional and it has nothing to do with the real world. This story is nothing but just my imagination. So just read and forget. and blah blah.

6 friends; Neeta, Suhana, Lavita, Sharad, Aman and Vicky, went to a cozy destination. All were very excited as they met after many years. But there was one more friend, Dhiraj,  who had recently died due to illness. So they had to leave that emotion behind and decided not to stress themselves and enjoy this vacation. After visiting nearby sightseeings, they all decide to go back to the hotel, by walking. But the driver was requesting them not to walk. Because he had just heard about Diraj’s death. and he was a little superstitious. Still the friends decided to walk.

After walking for a few minutes, there was silence. One of them took Dhiraj’s name. Upon taking his name, one-by-one starting recollecting all memories attached with Dhiraj. But Neeta started talking negatively about him. Neeta claimed that Dhiraj was not at all a good guy and she is very happy about his death. Others were not so happy with the remarks given by this girl. Neeta didn’t go into detail and they all continued to walk. They reached the hotel room. All were upset and continuously thinking about Neeta’s remark.

Neeta, upon reaching her room, took a quick shower and decided to watch TV. She opened the drawer for the TV’s remote control. In that drawer, there was one envelope, with her name written on it. When she opened the envelope, there was blank paper. She was confused. “What’s this? Why is my name written on it? And why is this blank?”. She kept on thinking about it. She didn’t have a peaceful sleep.

Next day, Neeta was thinking whether to share this incident with her friends or not. Since Neeta had already spread negativity last night, and hence she didn’t want to spoil her friend’s mood again. She decided not to share things. But Aman came shouting at her. Neeta was clueless. After sometime, Vicky also came shouting at her. Upon asking they said that Neeta knocked the door, middle of the night, left one envelope on the door. The envelope had their name, with a note saying “From, Neeta”. 

“I have not done that? Why would I do that? And even if I pranked, why would I write my own name? What kind of prank is this? Then, what did you do after receiving this envelope?”, asked Neeta.
“I came to your room, I knocked on the door many times. Even called you. But you neither opened the door nor you picked up the call”, said Vicky.
Neeta –  “No phone calls from you dear. Please stop this nonsense. And I was awake almost the whole night. No sign of knocking the door. You must have knocked someone else’s door.”
Vicky – “This is your number, right? check your phone”.
Neeta – “See, no calls. Aman, what did you do after receiving the envelope?”
Aman – “What an idiot you are Neeta, I came to your room. I was in your room the whole night. Infact In morning, I left your room. We had a chat about Dhiraj. You told me the whole truth about Dhiraj.”

Neeta was perplexed. She didn’t understand what was going on.
Neeta – “Aman. What rubbish Aman. I was alone in my room. And you were not around. In fact I too received an envelope. But it was in drawver. But my note is empty. I decided not to discuss this with you all because yesterday I had spoken enough. I didn’t want to spoil this trip. I seriously don’t know what’s going on. I didn’t write any letters to you. I didn’t knock on your door. My door was not knocked. I didn’t get Vicky’s call and I was not with you, Aman. What’s going on?”

They all were silenced. Sharad suggested a handwriting match. But it was typewritten.
Neeta – “See, this is typewritten. Where the hell will I find a computer or typewriter to write this nonsense?”

After all this mess, they decided to leave the matter and go sightseeing. All were waiting in the lobby. But Suhana was late. She said she will take some time because her stomach is upset. Lavita decided to stay with Suhana. and the rest all went to play indoor games. After some time, Lavita came crying.
Lavita – “Where is suhana? I was in her room. She was in the bathroom. So I didn’t disturb her. But she took too long. I went to check on her. When I knocked on the bathroom door, she didn’t respond. Upon knocking and pushing the door hard, the door opened. But no one was inside. Where is Suhana? She is not in her room. She is not in the bathroom. “

Everyone rushed to Suhana’s room. She was not there. They all checked the hotel. Tried her cell phone. but she didn’t pick. No sign of Suhana. Police were called to check the whole hotel. Now, it is more than 24 hrs. No sign of Suhana. She is still missing. All friends were in the lobby, waiting and trying her cell phone. Next day, Suhana shows up for breakfast. They all panicked.

Suhana – “What happened? Why are you asking such questions? You all forgot kya? We had a night stay at that campfire? Morning 5am we all came back.”
Lavita = “We all? Who we all? We all were here in the hotel. Didn’t went anywhere. We all were searching for you. Even filed a complaint in the police station. With whom did you go to campfire?”
Suhana – “What rubbish? of course you all were there. Ask the driver.”

Police did a detailed investigation. Suhana kept on saying that they all were at a campfire and came back in the morning, 5am. Even the driver confirmed the same. But all other friends were denying it. Police went to the campfire site and they said, no one came except one girl with her driver. Suhana was in shock. but instead of the driver, they pointed at Sharad and said, “Suhana was here with her driver Sharad”.

How come Sharad will be at 2 places at the same time? Everyone was scared as shit. Even the Police were confused now what to do. No one’s statement was matching with the other’s. They all were scared as hell and decided to come back to their hometown.

On the day of checkout, Aman got a phone call from the police. Police said they have found Sharad’s body. Aman was scared as hell. Because Sharad was right in front of him. If Sharad is dead, then who is this boy in front of him? And  if he is alive then whose body did the police find? Aman ran from the room. Sharad was confused and he too started running behind him. Aman shouting like hell. All the other friends came out of the room. Aman explained what happened in the room. Sharad started laughing.
Sharad – “You idiot. I am alive and I am not a ghost. Police must have found someone else’s body. Or the police must have dialed the wrong number. Let’s all go to the police station and check.”

They all went to the police station. The police were shocked to see Sharad alive. and they all were shocked to see Sharad’s look-a-like dead body. As if Sharad had a twin brother. Police and friends were clueless. “Is this real?”.Many questions were unanswered. Police decided to check everything from the start. They were told each and everything in detail but got nothing in hand.

Main Plot:
Dhiraj and Neeta were caring and Neeta was serious about the relationship. She wanted marriage. But Dhiraj denied and they had a breakup. Neeta was very angry at him. But their relationship was private. and hence nobody knew about their affair. Neeta wanted to tell this to everyone but soon Dhiraj died due to illness. Now, even if Neeta tells everyone about their relationship, nobody will believe her. Day and night, Neeta became more upset and she wanted peace. When on vacation, Neeta tried to tell everyone but her fear came true and nobody believed her. And soon a series of incidents happened.

If this is Dhiraj’s soul then why is he harassing Neeta? Actually, Dhiraj didn’t wanted to harass Neeta. He just wanted to communicate with her and wanted to tell her that he is a good guy. He didn’t marry her just because he knew that he would die soon. But Aman knew about Dhiraj’s health condition and also about the relationship with Neeta. And hence Dhiraj decided to communicate with Aman so that through Aman, Neeta’s all questions will get answered. So was the envelope scene. That night, Aman had actually gone to Neeta’s room and they had a discussion the whole night. But Aman played here. Aman didn’t say anything good about Dhiraj. In fact, Aman lied and in that he won Neeta’s attention. Dhiraj was scattered to see this. And hence he played the envelope game with Vicky as well. Just to scare Aman, Vicky and Neeta. Neeta, on the other hand, lied the next day and said that she was alone in the room and was awake the whole night.

After the Night scene with Neeta, when Aman left her room in the morning, he got caught by Suhana. But Suhana chose to keep quiet about the new relationship with Neeta. Dhiraj was mad like hell. He decided to teach her a lesson. So the next day Suhana went to a campfire with everyone. But everyone was at the hotel. and in Campfire’s management eyesight only Suhan and Sharad were there. Suhana will never get her answer with whom she went to campfire? Why all are denying, etc.

After coming out from Neeta’s room, and after getting caught by Suhana, Aman went to Sharad’s room. Aman grossly talks about Neeta. He revealed everything to him. To which Sharad also decided to play dirty with Neeta.  Dhiraj cried in hell. Neeta was not at all in safe hands. So he created an image of Sharad’s dead body. Now, Sharad has many questions. “Whose dead body was that? Who went to a campfire with Suhana? etc”.

After all the investigation, everyone found it a little weird. But Neeta understood about this paranormal activity. She went to her room, sat quietly and thought of Dhiraj. She understood each and every play. She felt very bad for Lavita and Vicky, because they had to go through this unnecessarily. Still Neeta has few complaints. When Dhiraj loved her so much then why didn’t he tell her the truth about his illness. If Dhiraj wanted the relationship to be private, Neeta would have kept it private and she would have agreed to all his terms and conditions. If Dhiraj would have spoken truth to Neeta beforehand, then Neeta would have not fallen for Aman and spoil her future and also Lavita and Vicky would be stress free.

Life is short. Keep it simple. If you know your future, at least inform your loved ones. So that you enjoy every moment with them. Don’t depend on a third person to do that. You never know who and when the person will change. Do your best in that moment, and God will do the rest.  

Hope you like my post. Do like and comment. Pingbacks will be appreciated. Also, do check out my other story tales.

The Two Sides Of Coin
Tortoise Earning Rabbit Spending
Love Is Adjacent
The Comfort Zone
A Promise Not To Fake Promise