Blogger Launch of Flipkart Image Search functionality at Bangalore IndiMeet

Have you ever come across these -following scenarios??? .....I have, many times!!! :) 

Scenerio I

Some dresses of Deepika Padukone or Sonam Kapoor compel you to make your jaws wide open .... and you wish for a similar dress, to be the centre of attraction in some party. But, then probably you 'make a sigh' as you don't know where to search it.....

Scenerio II

You catch your friend or colleague or some relative wearing a mindboggling dress or kurti, shirt or shoe, earring or watch in office, party, wedding or any other occasion. You praise the person..and ask, “Wow…this is sooo pretty… where from you bought it? What is the price?”

……And …, you get a vague answer….  “Aww….ummm…...actually not sure….Probably, my hubby gifted me…..”

…..You are confused about the reply....Makes you think for a while about the intention of the other person!

But now, no need to 'make a sigh' or worry for a satisfactory answer in such situations, any more!!!…..Just download the picture of Deepika's dress or praise your colleague or friend, click one pic or selfie with him or her…..and you get the answer as that picture can be worth a thousand keywords or worth many hours….

Yes! Great News for the Fashion fans!!! Image Search Technology is in vogue now….

Few years back, in one start-up meet, I met one techie who was working on the visual search technology. He explained me how exactly it would work…… I nodded my head that time, but by heart, I was not convinced about the popularity of this technology. But, to prove me wrong, visual or image search technology is one of the most exciting trends in ecommerce now.

Flipkart is all set to float with these tides! Flipkart recently has added 'Image Search' feature to its app designed for its fashion category. Last week, I received an Invitation for an event organized by Flipkart and Indiblogger to do blogger launch of this app feature at Hard Rock Cafe, Bangalore. I did not want to give a ‘Miss’ to it anyhow.

Rough n Tough ambiance of Hard Rock Cafe, Bangalore

Amazing event it was!!!!  Witty talks of Anoop Johnson from Indiblogger, shout out “Hell Yeah!” throughout the event with regular interval, energetic performances by the band to break all bloggers out of inertia, interesting skull face playing guitar with the band, bouncy music and dance by HardRock Café team, yummy food, networking with wonderful bloggers and above all, excellent presentations by the Flipkart team including the Chief Product Office Puneet Soni : all made the event marvelous!!!!

A short video of the warm-up performance by the Band :

Here are few pics :

Anoop while cracking jokes, throwing funny comments with a serious mood

Hard Rock at Hard Rock Cafe

Introductory note from Flipkart

Chief  Product Officer, Puneet Soni is giving an insightful presentation

Flipkart team during the live Image Search functionality demo

Anoop n his team 

So, how this image search functionality of Flipkart works?

Flipkart tags this image search functionality as “Point, Shoot, Buy”.

…Why?

Point your camera to the product you wish to search

Shoot and search for the same or similar products

Buy, once you hunt down the product in Flipkart store

This  functionality allows the use of any image to find visually similar products on Flipkart store. It reads images to identify color, shape, size and proportions. The users can click a picture or download a photo on their phones to find fashion products of same colour, pattern or style on Flipkart.

So, what is the process?

1.     Download the Flipkart app on your mobile.
2.     If you already have the old version, upgrade it.
3.     Click a picture of the targeted product
4.     Crop the product picture and start searching for the matching ones  

  

 

This functionality is currently available in some of the categories of Flipkart, like clothing, footwear, accessories across all sections and will add other categories progressively. 

The Flipkart team showed us a live demo of the functionality and then we had a joyful team activity to have live experience ourselves. We were divided into five teams. We were Team number 2 and I was the Team Captain whereas Suranjana was Vice Captain. The contest was: we had to find maximum matches of the products within a time limit. So, all bloggers became extremely busy for a while in taking pictures of different products and searching for exact matches in Flipkart app.  Our team managed to match 24 products whereas Team 5 was the winner having impressive 40 matches. 

Bloggers with Beverage 

All set for group activities

Our Team - VIBGYOR

The event ended with the book launch of 10 Love Stories compiled by Indiblogger :

                   

Paromita Borah who wrote the “The Transitional Boyfriend” and Varsha Dutta who wrote “Speechlessly in Love” read out few paragraphs from their chapters.

And then, had a wonderful networking sessions with all wonderful bloggers:

So, Guys....Happy Pointing, Shooting and Buying!!!!! I guarantee... You will be amazed with this Flipkart new awesome app functionality!!!

You can look at the Commercial on the introduction #FlipkartImageSearch functionality here :

A Review on eKAVACH : India’s first Digital Parenting Application

“Mamma, we have a poem recitation competition. VJ ma’am asked me to search a poem in youtube!” My neighbour’s 4 yrs old child told her mother just in front of me, few days back.

“Papa, why are you using Chrome, Mozilla Firefox is better….” Another 5 yrs. old boy of a friend was suggesting his Dad….

My 4 yrs. child has always been defeating me and his Dad in Rails Rush …..since his three years of age……

This generation is awesome…..don’t you agree? They learn computers before they learn alphabets….infact before they are potty-trained!!!

I just envisage these kids in the future when they would be using the internet extensively, may be for their studies, fun or some other reasons. But what would happen if we won’t have any control over it…!!! For today’s parents, providing kids a safe browsing environment has become one of the biggest concerns.

Children are generally very inquisitive and the internet is an ocean of both good and bad information. There is no way that we can put these inquisitive kids off from browsing the web.

So, while child is growing….technology is developing…world is changing…..and worry is increasing….Can we stop any of these?

….Just next to impossible…! I am saying next to impossible, because….probably we can reduce our worry a bit using some technology!

Yes! Now, I am talking about India’s first Digital Parenting Application : eKAVACH. A mobile app to shield your child from any kind of internet related threat like Cyberbullying, Cyberstalking, Internet addiction etc.

Through eKAVACH, the parents can easily understand the environment that surrounds your child in modern times, monitor your child’s online safety, even without your physical presence. The app offers sufficient features for parental supervision and to have control over the online behavior, likes, dislikes and interests of the child.

eKAVACH can filter or block a cyber bully’s text messages, instant messages and email exchanges. Whenever a child views or types a pre-designated threatening keyword or key-phrase, eKAVACH automatically generates a real-time notification that notifies the parent of a potential problem.

eKAVACH is simple to use, provides you with real-time alerts on your phone, works on iOS and Android and is developed on a superior technology platform. It is available in the Google Play store.

What are the specialties and features?

1. Safe browsing, content filtering - Prevents exposure to inappropriate content such as violence, pornography, sex, by setting auto age-appropriate web category filter for children. Parents can also define custom filters based on their own parenting style for safe browsing experience for kids

2. Time and Access Limit - Define and set healthy access limit for your child’s internet usage. This feature reduces internet addiction by limiting screen time per day.

3. Keep a tab over gaming or block inappropriate applications – This feature reduces exposure of kids to unsuitable apps, prevents gaming and social networking as in Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter apps as parents can set healthy time limits or block access to any app

4. Real Time Alerts & Push Notifications for breaches - Can helps parents to mitigate any kind of risk to their kids to ensure child safety. Parents can customize alerts notifications. Receive SMS notifications if there is no internet connection.

5. View Dashboard of your child’s online activities - Enable positive parenting by analyzing the types of sites your child visits / tries to visit, type of apps kids download. Take a step towards digital parenting by viewing these trends from your child’s dashboard

  

6. Remotely Manage activities – eKAVACH parental control app allows family access from anywhere, anytime. Be it from office or on the move, there is no need to be physically around to ensure child safety

7. Device Heartbeat & Geo-location – Monitor child device reach through device heartbeat monitoring. Geo coordinates helps the parents to track location of their children for their safety.

8. Family Relaxation Time – Gives parents the ability to define quality family access time for meals or other family activities. All internet and app access will be blocked during these times to give kids a break

9. Emergency Child Notification to Parents – Kids can send SOS message to parents from the child device in case of an emergency. Parents will receive message with geo location to ensure timely assistance and child safety

10. Communication with Parents – Child application also allows kids to send regular messages to parents for conversations with them any time of the day

eKAVACH is a ‘must app’ for parents with children who are using internet.

Now, eKavach is a completely free app and Click Here to download it!

For more information, visit http://www.yourekavach.com/ or you can connect with the eKavach Team through their Facebook Page or Twitter page.

Eloped with my boyfriend in a bicycle

I eloped with my boyfriend in a bicycle one fine day….during the dawn……..I could hear my younger sister's heavy voice from far behind, "Gone! Gone! Gone .......my Sis has gone....eloping with one guy!!! Maa....Dewtaaaaaa......."

......We kept riding on the narrow muddy roads through the endless paddy fields……..took rest for few minutes on the way under a big banyan tree….hearing some hissing sound, I hold him tight with fear, and his strong shoulders made me feel safe…….and then we rode again till we reached a different village…..

It was already dark, very few people we could see on the roads….may be those who were returning from the paddy field or those who were in search of the magic water, desi wali!!! :) 

He stopped in front of a house which had a long entrance, both the sides of the entrance had rows of flower bushes…..there was a big yard in front of the house. The roof of the house was made of hays.  I am calling it a house, not a hut, as it had at least 4 rooms inside.

He asked me to stand in a corner of the yard and went ahead to knock at the door. Lovely smell of  different flowers, like roses, jasmine, orchids along with the chirping of some birds, glow worms dazzling in the surroundings, all were making the ambiance divine…as if I could see everything very clearly under the moonlit night……….

Suddenly, some drops of water fell on me….I started thinking whether those were mere dew drops from the trees or some welcoming raindrops, though the sky was clean and clear ……….

Story may go on….but how is it? …..Yes, it was my dream….so many times I dreamt while I was a teenager. I wanted to elope with my future husband in a bicycle. But, this could not happen in this life….though there were so many twists before our marriage…….Promises, Cries, Fights…what not happened……

People say, Birth, Marriage and Death, all three things are only on destiny. I totally agree and believe. And I thank God for making my dream partially true by putting me on a roller coaster before achieving my second destiny: 'Marriage with My lovely Hubby dear'!!!

Now, though I have made my hubby promise to fulfill my dream fully in our Next life….and luckily he promised too…., not sure whether this kind of village or ambiance will exist that time or not!!! L

Whatever happens in the next life, putting everything on destiny again…, this life, I want to live and enjoy to the fullest with U: U understand my dear hubby!!!! So, be always the same…..Love you to the no limit!!! J

Happy Anniversary to Us, anyways!!!!

Ghostly affair : Ladies whose eyes were red

Usually, during the summer vacation time in school, I used to visit my Grandparents house. 

One such fine summer day, I was relishing half ripen mangoes with chili and salt on a banana leaf with my brother, grandma and younger aunt, sitting under the big mango tree in the front yard. Green ambiance, we put a straw mattress in the shadowed area to sit on. The mangoes were extremely delicious…..cool breeze was hitting us continuously to make us feel fresh and nice every moment. Grandma was telling us some paddy field stories…..how she had caught fishes the previous week in the muddy area….how she used to find the luscious small red fruits in mossy areas and how tasty they were…

Suddenly, we saw Grandpa walking very fast, infact almost running towards home….he quickly opened the gate……spitted three times towards outside, and then came inside the boundary, and closed the gate properly, ……asked aunt to quickly bring a glass of water and lied down just beside us….He was a bit shivering.

My Grandma asked him what happened suddenly. He just went 15 / 20 mins ago, with a plan to clean his fruit farm, which was just 300 mtrs away from the house. He went with one axe, but there was no axe in his hand while returning….

That fruit farm was almost 5 bighas of land, full of big trees, including all kind of fruit trees like mango, peach, pomegranates, pears, coconut, jackfruit, guava, o’ tenga etc. Just almost 50 mtrs away from the entrance, there was huge banyan tree. Usually, grandpa used to go there in the afternoon to bring some fruits. I and my brother also used to accompany him sometime, during our stay.

But, as it’s been just few months of his retirement now, he did not have anything to do during the day time. Extremely active grandpa….he never wanted to rest except a sound sleep at night time. So, that day, he went during the day time, almost around 2pm, just after having lunch, thinking of not wasting time sitting idly at home.

So, he explained us what happened there……

Grandpa just entered the farm opening the jewra gate (made of bamboo sticks) as usual. He picked one pear which was lying on the ground, rubbed in his t-shirt and sat there to eat it…..Suddenly he heard some ladies’ voice, relaxingly talking, giggling…… probably their voice was very low and unclear…..he could not understand the language……he wondered from where the sound was coming…… there was no house nearby…… till he could see, there were trees and trees….and he wondered who would come to his farm without his permission.

Grandpa stood up. He carefully followed the voice…..as silently as possible…..He reached the banyan tree…. The voice was coming from the other side of the tree….He could not see who were there as the trunk of the tree was huge at least 2 mtrs in diameter.  Grandpa moved ahead to see who were there………and …..and …Oh my God!…..what he saw…….

Three ladies were sitting there…. One was looking at the hair of the other, probably they were looking for lice.  The average height of those ladies would be about a feet. The hair of each lady was almost more than their height. They were well dressed….wearing some beautiful muga silk mekhela chadar and some heavy gold ornaments too…. Grandpa could not believe his eyes… got goose bumps …..he immediately understood they were not human being….He was clueless what to do….should he run away or shout loud…….If he would shout, who would come to help him as no human being he could see nearby…..

While he was thinking, in few seconds, his eyes were caught by the lady who was sitting on a higher plinth…… Her eyes were not normal, a bit reddish…..not clear….she jumped up, shouting something…..rest two also jumped up……posed in an attacking mood….. My grandpa got scared now; he had no way left than throwing the axe on them…….Yes! He threw the axe on them, immediately the three ladies vanished…….But what to do now………????

Grandpa……ran and ran…….till he could see us from far…..  

Grandpa recalled, few years back, he found two gold coins just nearby the banyan tree……..He wondered whether the ladies were the guards to some treasure, which was probably just hidden somewhere in the tree or was that banyan tree their home??? What kind of spirit they were……. 

Rice Bucket Challenge at Bangalore, Do Contribute!

A lovely Challenge is going on ‪#‎ricebucketchallenge ! Donate a bucket of rice or whatever you can for the cause (no, you don’t have to give the bucket) !!! .

Beneficiary - Senior citizens (Neglected) of Om Ashram Trust-Old Age Care-Home for the Aged in Bangalore…

When: June 15 to July 31 2015

Experience the power and joy of giving… Give a call on numbers in the creative…  Apartments, Colonies, Corporates, Individuals, Volunteer Groups, Clubs and all as the contribution would be substantial : Bulk contributions will be picked up by the organization.

You could also place the order for required quantity via www.bigbasket.com.The consignment would be delivered at the doorstep of Omashram. Namma Bengaluru can share this with each other's contacts

Happy RICE Collection and Happy Connection!!!

​YOU HAVE REALLY NEVER LIVED UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN NEVER REPAY YOU.

So, Get the Blessings from all the elders at Omashram.

For more information, contact :
Team Omashram

#767, 3rd Cross, 11th Main,

Vijaya Bank Colony, Bannerghatta Road,

Bilekahalli, B'lore - 560076

Yummy Quick Dish of Jackfruit Seeds

My hubby loves Jack fruit....and I love its seeds. Whenever we have it, I always save the seeds indeed….You can sun- dry the seeds for two or three days, add to the Dal peeling the light cover or you can make yummy dish and have a never forgetting relish!!!

How I prepared my Dish, here is my quick recipe:

Ingredients:

Jack fruit seeds : 15 -20

Potato: 2

Onion : 2

Green Chilly: 2

Cumin Seeds: ½ spoon

Tomato Sauce : 1 Table Spoon

Honey :  Half Table Spoon

Mustard oil: 2 tsp
Salt and Turmeric to taste

             

Method : 

1. Chop each jackfruit seed into two pieces and boil separately.
2. Cut the potatoes into medium pieces.
3. Put Mustard oil in a hot pan, put Cumin Seeds and then fry Potatoes till they become brown and then add Onion pieces  and fry for 3 or 4 mins in medium heat. Cover with a lid.
4. Once all vegetables are fried well, pour boiled pieces of jackfruit seeds, add tomato Sauce and Honey and shift to a bowl. And your yummy dish is ready to serve.