Saturday, August 20, 2016

Being a Zap Curator

Online shopping has made life quite easy. Due to the bloom of e-commerce, we have got the ability on our fingertips to order products of our choice online anytime. In the recent years, there has been a flood of e-commerce players in Indian market, the most popular ones being Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Jabong, Paytm, Myntra among several others. Due to millions of choices being available online now, it becomes too muddled for an average shopper like me to decide which item to choose, which e-commerce website to visit and several other unended questions.

To reduce that incoherence in our online shopping world, a new player Zapstore has introduced itself into the market. Zapstore is a one stop shop for all your e-commerce needs, and will get you the world of online shopping at your fingertips. For each one of us, our choice of clothing, accessories, interior decor and everything else that we surround ourselves with is a reflection of our style. And Zapstore provides us with that long-needed option.



Zapstore provides a single platform for all the best products across e-commerce sites, including Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, etc. Here one can find all the best deals on products handpicked by other users, as they show you the best of the best products available across online stores in India.

The best thing about Zapstore is that you get access to different online stores prices, product specifications, customer reviews on all e-commerce sites -- all this on the selected product page at Zapstore
Some of my favourite products available via Zapstore are listed below:

1. Samsung Galaxy A8

Best Price: Rs. 26990
Store: Amazon

  • Samsung Galaxy A8 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop
  • The device features a 5.7-inch Full HD Super AMOLED display
  • It is powered by a 1.5 GHz octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor and 2GB RAM
  • It comes with a 16 MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5 MP front camera
  • The device has 32GB internal storage capacity
  • Connectivity options include 4G, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB 2.0 port
  • It is fuelled by a Li-Ion 3050 mAh battery


Best Price: Rs. 20,288
Store: Amazon 

  • The earrings are made of 18k (750) gold
  • Product height is 12.3mm and width is 6.1mm
  • The earrings have been adorned with real diamonds
  • Diamond carat 0.1, color GH, good stone cut, with SI clarity
  • Diamond is set in 18k (750) gold certified by seller
  • All diamonds are warranted to be conflict free
  • This product has a buy back value of 70%, please ensure that you retain the original invoice of the product, buyback can only be availed from the physical stores of the brand


Store: Flipkart
Best Price: Rs. 2791


  • If you are attending a music concert with friends or heading for a party, these stunning loafers from Arrow will suffice for any casual occasion. Crafted from leather, these shoes offer long permanence. These blue and white loafers are stylishly-designed with intricate panel and stitched edges that add a touch of style and elegance. With the cushioned footbeds, your feet will always feel comfortable and relaxed. The textured hard soles provide complete degree of friction on a rough surface. Team these versatile Arrow Loafers with a T-shirt, casual jacket and jeans to complete your uber-cool look. Shoes from Arrow carry forward the brand's legacy of treating the modern man to a fine blend of comfort and style with premium materials and superior care. Footwear Care Dust these shoes with a soft cloth to discard dirt and grime.
  • Colour : Blue, White

Store: Amazon
Best Price: Rs. 182



As you can see in the examples above, how easy it is to sort out products of our interest and check for the best price online and purchase in a single click. On the top of that, we can earn rewards as cashback at Zapstore for all our purchases.


P.S. -- I am making my own store for the #BestZapStore activity at BlogAdda in association with Zapstore.

The Advice That Mattered

I have always been fascinated by starry nights. The smile of the stars, the loneliness of night, the embrace of breeze had always pushed me closer to the almighty Universe. I always paid special attention to any study or reading or viewing material pertaining to stars or our Universe. I remember reading for hours the Astronomy encyclopedia and watching the tv serial Brahmaand, featuring renowned astrophysicist Dr. Jayant Narlikar and also starring two Universe fascinated adolescents - Ravi and Bhaskar, both cleverly named as Hindi synonyms of our own star, the Sun. The serial used to be telecasted under Chhutti-Chhutti program every summer vacations on Doordarshan in the effervescent 90s.

I was so mesmerized with this series that I never used to miss even a single minute of the episodes and used to watch the same series over and over every year. And sometime in those moments, overwhelming my natural curiosity to understand more and more about stars and the Universe, one idea got vehemently stuck in my psyche that I want to become an Astronaut.

Astronomy became my obsession and Aeronautical Engineering my ambition. But due to different circumstances, I could not enrol for Aeronautical Engg. from PEC, Chandigarh, the same institute from where the eminent Kalpana Chawla did her graduation. After my ECE engineering, I got busy with a lucrative career in order to make a living.

But I never left Astronomy. In fact, I made it my no. 1 hobby and kept pursuing it full devotion and passion. I read books, met with like-minded people and through some lucky turn of events, met with my Astronomy guru, Dr. Jayant Narlikar himself. Below is the pic of two of us together at IUCAA.



Life always has different plans for us. When I thought that I was drifting away from Astronomy to steer my newfound passion in Poetry and confronted Dr. Narlikar with my self-doubt, he gave me an #AdviceThatMattered. He advised me why not write poetry pertaining to Astronomy, so that I do not lose one in pursuit of the other. And the following poem of mine then materialized, which has been appreciated by many.

रात और तारे 

ये तारे जब
जगमगाते हैं नभ में, 
तब ज़िन्दगी से तंग आकर
आ जाता हूँ मैं आगन में, 

ऐसा प्रतीत होता है -
अकेला नहीं हूँ मैं,
इन सूनी, तन्हा रातों में;
नवजीवन फिर से पाने को 
एक दीप है इन सितारों में | 

उस तन्हाई में भी
अपनेपन का एहसास होता है
चलो, साथ मेरे भी है कोई,
ऐसा आभास होता है | 

आंखें बंद कर उन तारों के बीच
बाकी सब कुछ भूल जाता हूँ,
उस सुप्त काले दर्पण में फिर 
कोई गीत में गुनगुनाता हूँ | 

खुलती हैं आंखें जब मेरी
तो दिखता है चाँद गगन में,
साथ ही, उभर आता है एक
चाँद-सा चेहरा मेरे मन में | 

तब निकल पड़ता हूँ बाहर
खुद से कुछ बातें करने, 
सोचते हुए, कहीं तो होगा वो चेहरा 
अनजानी किसी डगर में | 

ख्वाबों से छूटकर दुनिया में
जब वापस कदम बढ़ता हूँ, 
तो पता नहीं क्यूँ महसूस होता है -
जैसे मिल गया इस रात को 
इन चाँद और तारों का साथ, 
वैसे ही, कोई तो होगा मेरा अपना, 
जो थामेगा हर पल मेरा हाथ | 

कोई न भी मिला इस दिल को,
तो ग़म न होगा मेरे यार,
क्योंकि तन्हा रात बिताने को 
इन तारों की बारात 
हमेशा होगी मेरे साथ | 

बस! इसी तरह 
आँगन में बैठे-बैठे ही 
सपनों में खो जाता हूँ;
उस चाँद का चेहरा दिल में लिए, 
फिर रात को सो जाता हूँ || 

-- 


The ambition of Astronomy used to be so deep-rooted in my adolescent years that after watching Dr. Narlikar and his tv series Brahmand and reading Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, I had got an idea to write my own Science Fiction novel, or Scientifiction, as Dr. Narlikar calls it. Currently I am in the process of reading one of his many such novels to get proper inspiration related to Indianisation of science fiction as is the theme in his novels and would be in mine. Best of luck for me and Thank you to my Astronomy inspiration, Dr. Jayant Narlikar sir. Salute!


P.S. -- I am blogging about my dreams and the people who helped make them true for the #AdviceThatMattered activity at BlogAdda in association with Stoodnt.

Thursday, August 18, 2016