My May empties are here. I am happy that most of them are over and I can buy new ones. ;)

May Empties: Garnier Fructis Contioner, Dover Conditioner, Palmolive Aroma Sensual Body Wash, Patanjali Facewash, Lakme Absolute Mousse(centre)

From left
Garnier Fructis Conditioner. I had review the Garnier Fructis shampoo here.
Dove Conditioner: Acts as a good detangler on lengthy hair. Hair remains smooth and soft.
Palmolive Aroma Sensual Body Wash: Good fragrance with lot of freshness.
Patanjali Facewash: Ayurvedic facewash leaves the skin clean on daily usage.
Lakme Absolute Mousse (centre): Works great as a daily wear to office.

As a child, I read in the school books, that, men and women are always equal in all aspects. There is nothing that, we, women cannot do which a man can do. These things appeared fine only in the text books when you have to mug up few lines from the books and scribble them on the exam paper to pass!

The world, outside, treats women in a different way and women are always considered weaker gender compared to men. It has been the way, society has been over centuries. Watch any of the Hindi or Kannada or any regional movie in the 70s, 80s or even the 90s, you see 9 out of 10 women harassed, beaten to death and eve teased in public. Most TV serial soaps also portray women to be homely, not speaking a word against the husband and be an obedient daughter-in-law nodding her head to what elders say. The head of the family always makes a decision and the women have to follow. The sons dominate over the daughters. Sons have more right than the daughters because, once daughters are married, who will take care of them?
So the sons are always given more privilege at home and cajoled.

When a women steps out of the house for college or work, the hurdles are nevertheless. An experience which I had during my college days commuting in the rush bus, most of the men would misbehave with young girls or women, including the ticket conductor. Men who occupy the ladies seat and do not vacate in-spite of repeated requests. The worst part is, most of the girls do not have the courage to speak out and oppose what is happening to them. They remain mum. Unless, you speak up and oppose strongly, things wouldn't change.

Over the past few years, the crime incident on women has increased in the cities like Delhi, Bangalore, that you may read a rape or a child abuse. Women are always criticized that it is the dress that they wear which is the root cause. Women, in this country no longer feel safe walking alone on the street even during the daylight. Unless, what is taught in the school books are also implemented in real world, we wouldn't feel the change. Respect a woman, she is your mother, your sister, a daughter and a wife. Treat her equally with love and care.

Without a women, you wouldn't have entered the world.

A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
~Eleanor Roosevelt 
This entry is a part of Ring The Bell in association with Indiblogger.

Cross posted from my other blog

OLAY Total Effects 7 in one

 I have been using OLAY Total Effects 7 in one cream serum duo for 10 days now. I wanted to use it well before I could review this product. Olay claims that the product can protect the skin against the 7 signs of ageing such as

Comes with SPF 15. weighs 20 grams.

 Uneven Tone.
It is slightly dark under eyes and I have been applying the cream constantly under eyes. But I do not find any difference on the skin tone under eyes with other areas of my face. May be if I use the cream in a long run, I can see some difference.

Container is half filled with the dispenser at the top

 

Dryness.

Non greasy cream.

 I apply the cream twice, in the morning and evening after a face wash including under eyes. The cream does not leave any residue not a whitish patch on applying. It can be used as a moisturizer and can be used before applying any make up foundation. 
It is very handy and can fit into the makeup kit easily or even in jeans pocket easily. It is a plastic container with a dispenser in black color at the top. You have to pump it on the top to get the cream which comes out in sufficient quantities. One thing what I wondered was, the container is half filled and is 20 grams. I would have preferred a full container instead of half. I did not get the concept behind this.

Overall, the product works well with an oily skin and I would recommend this product.

Overall rating: 4/5

Fine lines and wrinkles.

Savita is a foodie and loved eating sweets regularly. She would never stop herself from eating ice creams, chocolates, gulab jamoons and jalebis etc, be it day or night. You name it and she would eat it. Savita, at 23, was always confident that she would never get affected by any disease as she was working out in the gyms and wouldn't be difficult for her to lose weight on eating the food of her choice.

I bought few nail colors from recent launch from Lakme Absolute collection. Blue Breeze is cool and this is the one seen on ads by Kareena Kapoor.

The color looks different under natural light and when photographed.

Lakme Absolute Nail Tint - Blue Breeze

Lakme Absolute Nail Tint - Blue Breeze

I applied two coats to get this color on my nails. Single coat will be very light.

This is a limited edition and have been priced at Rs 250.

I had applied for Singapore Visitor visa from Australia while I planned to take a transit for 3 days and see the city. I was skeptical I would get an on arrival visa for Indian passport holders and sent an email to the Singapore High Commission and they replied with detailed email, with the documents and fee required to process my visa.

Please note, the below procedure applies ONLY if you're holding an Indian passport with a valid Australia Work Permit

Kindly follow the guidelines below to apply for an Entry Visa for Singapore:- -

Step 1:
Fill out form 14A (can be downloaded from here from Indian passport holders) and paste one passport size photo onto form 14A. Read the details here: http://www.mfa.gov.sg/content/mfa/overseasmission/canberra/visa_information/visa_application_for_national_level1.html
Step 2:
Provide us the original of your passport (must be valid for at least 6 months at the point of arrival in Singapore) including the details of your current Australian visa.

Step 3:
Travel itinerary (Onward/return ticket details)

Step 4:
Self addressed envelope (Please speak to Australia Post or a courier company to arrange safe transport)

Step 5:
A fee of A$25 per person by Money Order or Bank Cheque, please make it payable to "Singapore High Commission, Canberra". (If applying for more than 1 person, one - Money Order/Bank Cheque of #of persons x $25 is fine)

Step 6:
Contact details (mobile number / email address)

You will need to post, courier or hand deliver this to the

Singapore High Commission
17 Forster Cres
Yarralumla
ACT 2600.

Normal processing time is a minimum of 4 working days (excluding delivery time). Please note that the Singapore High Commission in Canberra does not have online application facilities. We need to receive the application by post, courier or in person.

My personal experience
It took just 2 days for the Singapore High Commission to process my visa application and happy to see such a quick service. I had sent all the required documents as they had mentioned above.

First and foremost, book your flight tickets at least a month before your travel and have the confirmed itinerary handy.
Book the hotel online. You can check out for the hotels suiting your budget on Agoda.com . I would not advise booking a hotel in Little India, Singapore.
Fill the form and pasted a passport size photograph NOT more than 6 months old.
Money order for the visa costs 25 AUD and can be purchased at any Bank or Post Office.
Two Platinum envelopes - one addressed to Singapore High Commission and other is self-addressed. Double check your address before sending.
Don't forget to send your passport.

Visa is provided in an A4 sheet.

Total cost involved in AUD:

1. SGP Visa                  = 25 $ (equivalent to 30 SGD)
2. Money order             = 7.95 $
3. 2 Platinum envelopes = 27.80 $ (13.90 $ each) 

          Total cost                  = 60.75 AUD

Applying from India
Please go through this website and follow the simple procedure. 

I like listening to songs of all genres, be it Kannada, Tamil, Telugu or Hindi, that are melodious.Maestro Illayaraja is one of the famous South Indian music composer from the Tamil film industry. He has also contributed to the Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi film industries. One would be mesmerized listening to his compositions.

Bombay Talkies: 4 stories by different director

Language: Hindi

Running Time: 127 minutes

Released: 2013

Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Randeep Hooda, Saqib Saleem, Vineet Kumar Singh, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Naman Jain, Ranvir Singh
Directed by: Karan Johan, Dibarkar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2797242/

I watched this movie two weeks ago at the Mantri Mall after having read a lot of praise on the newspaper. The movie has 4 short films, each by different director.

Story 1: Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh by Karan Johar

The story is about a married couple, Rani Mukherjee and Rajdeep Hooda; Rani's new colleague, a gay. Rani is unhappy with her marriage with her husband being a workaholic and shows no interest in her. Her colleague brings out the truth and she discovers the truth.

Story 2: Star by Dibakar Banerjee

A drama actor from childhood, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is struggling to make a living and has a wife and a daughter to support. His alter ego wants others to come to him and offer him a job. He struggles doing odd jobs after his father's demise. One fine day, he is offered a small role unexpectedly and he does it. He is so proud and happy that he forgets to collect the payment for his work.
Returning home, he now has a story to narrate to his daughter.

Story 3: Sheila Ki Jawaani by Zoya Akhtar

A little boy from a middle class family is forced to practice football after school though the boy is interested in dance. He skips the football coaching and secretly watches the girls practising Kathak. His parents take him to cinema and he is impressed watching Katrina Kaif's Sheila ki Jawani. In his parents absence, he dresses like a girl, wearing his sister's jewellery and mother's makeup. He manages to fuffill his sisters dream of going to a trip which costs Rs 2,000 by raising fund from his new found passion.

Story 4: Murabba by Anurag Kashyap
Vijay from Allahabad, which is Amitabh Bachchan's hometown, comes all the way to Mumbai to fulfill his ailing father's only wish, that Amitabh ji has to eat Murabba half and he would eat the remaining half. Vijay waits in front of the great actors house day and night and finally, manages to meet Amitabh ji who ate the Murabba before him. He manages to take the Murabba to his father... whats will be his fathers reaction?

There are guest appearances by Katrina Kaif, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Juhi Chawla, Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji, Sridevi, Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Imran Khan, Vidya Balan, Kareena Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Anil Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahrukh Khan.
I felt the stories were bragging and better stories could've been chosen. Out of the four, I liked only the first, Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh. Other ones should have been focussed better on the script.
If you are going with high expectation to watch this movie, then you will be disappointed for sure.

My rating: 2.5/5

Madame Butterfly by John Luther Long An audiobook I listened to

Author: John Luther Long

Chapters: 15

Cho-Cho-San, a 15 year old Geisha is married to an American Lieutenant, B.F. Pikerton, and she is the main character of the story. Pinkerton leases the house after their marriage but Cho-Cho-San is unhappy as she is not allowed to invite her family members for August Ancestors in Japan. 

Pinkerton leaves Japan to US and Cho-Cho-San only hopes for his healthy return. Meanwhile, she delivers their baby boy. The baby has purple eyes and as fair as his American father. She has to name her son after the Robins nest that year, she longs for the robins to nest but they don't. She looks for her husbands but all in vain. The Nakodo, a matchmaker in Japan, gets a suitable alliance of a prince, Yamadori, to Cho-Cho-San. He promises he would give her all the love and happiness and that she would live in his palace along with her baby.

The story is very interesting and portrays the life in 1890's and how Cho-Cho-San longs every minute for Pinkerton's return from America and Robins nest. It was Pinkerton from whom she had learned how marriages are made in US and the process of divorce too! Her innocence and madness to see her husband, has been depicted very well by the author. Cho-Cho-San is Madame Butterfly. I was moved reading this story.

Will the Robins nest for the young boy to be named?

Does Pinkerton return to her or does she chose to marry Yamadori and live in a Palace?

Read the book online here: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/long/cover.html