New Year Resolution #2 - Meditate Daily On Your Favourite Songs #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

A calm mind is a tool that can sail through the difficult of times with ease and that can come from something we know as meditation. In these stressful times, Meditation is something that can keep you close to yourself, sane and give you a vantage point to see things from a top view. I have not been doing it for many years now but I remember the way it used to move me to a trance state where I could see what is the hidden agenda or the potential just using the power of meditation. 

Meditation is a simple chanting or focusing in the space between the two eyes with eyes closed. You can also use a candle flame to focus on or also on your breathing nostrils. Whatever it is, just relax and let the thoughts flow and let the mind wander to some new worlds. Soon you will be able to focus on your chanting or breathing once all these mind wandering stop but keep a conscious decision to just let it all observe without any judgement of good or bad.

Let me bring you a new kind of meditation that will really enhance your soul, heart and mind. We all have our favourite songs which we shall always keep referring back to in terms of the downloaded folder in the smartphone or desktop or laptop else you can use some app like Gaana, Spotify, Apple Music etc and create a playlist. I really love some songs for which I also won a laptop when I shared my playlist in 2013 with HP Connected Music. You can read the blog post here. 

Coming back to the meditation connected with music is that if you can't sit and focus on the breathing pattern or centre of eyes or on chanting any mantra then this can be something you can easily follow. I am definitely sure that it will bring in much more benefits over the long run. You will always feel happy and joyous if you do this mediation on songs on a daily basis as you get to listen to your favourite songs as well as with your eyes closed, you get back to all the thoughts floating around in your mind. As they change with the soulful melody in the background, more and more positive thoughts will flow into your mind. I am sure some old memories and crushes which were not fulfilled will also emerge as I associate each and every song with the year of my life. Sometimes these songs from various movies bring all those years back to mind but it's always useful as you can connect the dots and also check as to what you used to think at that time compared to now. 

It's so difficult to sit straight with eyes closed even for a single song but do it sometimes with your favourite song and sing it loudly if you want to with actions. It fills your life with all the positive things love is known for and you feel in touch with your emotions. Let me know how was your experience? and comment also the new thought leadership I am sharing with all of you guys!

Cheers!!!

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Give Dad the Gift That Keeps On Giving This #FathersDay @SpotifySA #SpotifySouthAfrica

Hi Friends,

Father’s Day is almost here and choosing a suitable gift can prove quite challenging, at times. What do you get someone who possibly has everything?

A personalized thought out gift adds that special touch so why not get him something he can’t lose and can use every day, like a Spotify account.

Download the Spotify app via the Android or iOS app store or by heading to www.spotify.com onto Dads mobile and/or laptop and create his account. You can then curate a playlist especially for dad and give him access to all his favorite artists, tracks, and podcasts to keep him entertained wherever he is. Personalise his profile by uploading a picture of the two of you. A few minutes is all it takes to create that playlist and recreate the good times and make new memories that will last a lifetime.

Spotify has already done some of the work for you - to stream Spotify’s Father’s Day playlist follow this link.

To give him uninterrupted listening pleasure and the ability to listen while offline, play any song, anytime with no skip restrictions and no ads, upgrade him to the Spotify Premium account for only R59.99 per month.

To create a playlist, go to www.spotify.com and follow these simple steps:

1. Sign up
2. Click New Playlist on the bottom left-hand corner
3. Search dad’s favorite song
4. Tap the (…) button
5. Tap Add to playlist
6. Repeat step 4 and 5 until you are happy with the selection you have made

#SpotifySouthAfrica - Facebook: @Spotify |Twitter: @SpotifySA | Instagram: @spotify

Cheers!!!

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#HPCONNECTEDMUSIC - Me Myself and Music

Hi Guys!

Music has always been an integral part of our lives. It starts from the time when our moms used to sing lullaby to make us sleep during our childhood. As we grow older we came across the music through Radio, TV channels, Music concerts, movies and various other platforms. I have seen myself running to  
music stores every sunday to check on any new cassette tapes released for the upcoming movies. Those were at that time priced around Rs. 20-25/- and after discount I could buy three of them in Rs. 50/-. For that Rs. 50/- I need to work hard on my studies so that mom allows us to spend the same on cassettes.

When I was doing Engineering during 1997-2001 years, my mom dad gifted me a personal walkman and I cherish it throughout and it really made my travel comfortable. I used to purchase blank cassettes and then ask local music shop to fill in my favorite songs into the same. In those days, whosoever has the cassette and the latest songs asap was considered the COOLEST among his/her peers. I used to stay on the top and used to lend my cassettes to my friends and family. I have innumerable number of cassettes still today and I bought a special Sony Walkman from London to play all my oldies. The same is with my father who is easygoing in terms of technology to play his religious music early mornings with attached external speakers. In between I spent some time in Delhi NCR for some training so I bought this FM tuner small radio which really made me glued to box of songs – you never know what you are gonna listen to next kind.

As the number of years increased, desktop computer became more popular in households and I too bought one with good speakers. There started the path of MP3 CD's made available in the market at Rs.  25-50/-. It will have atleast 10 movie songs and I collected a lot of songs. I shared my Hard disk with other computer holding friends and put all the songs in 80gb hdd. It was a regular routine fetching songs from people all over in my city. Finally HDD crashed and all my data was lost.

As I entered the years of job as a lecturer I had this personal stereo from Philips accompanying me wherever I worked. As I entered my MBA college in Hyderabad in 2005, my brother, mom dad came to meet me and brought me a Nice MP3 – 256mb player operating with AAA size battery. This one really helped me with my docs of MBA and also could play music as and when required. The same only worked for a year with replacement.

I went to Singapore to meet my brother & he gifted me Motorola Rokr phone basically meant to play great music. It was an awesome phone and I really loved all my favourite songs on the same. Meanwhile, my brother reached USA and came in touch with Apple iPOD Nano 4gb and purchased the same with engravings on my bday. I had to pay Rs. 2300/- in Hyderabad to FEDEX for the customs duties. Apple device was awesome and it played continuous music for 14 hours at a stretch. All my train journeys from Hyd to Delhi – the music was always available.

As I joined the job in 2007, my Motorola Rokr died and I was gifted Nokia N73 Music edition by my soon to be Brother-in-law. The phone is still one of the best music phones with good speakers. As I grew older changed several mobiles to reach Nexus One and iPod Shuffle but music has been with me throughout. Ipod Nano gifted by my brother on my 26^th bday was lost last year by my wife. I felt immensely sad and devastated.

This is the journey of my life which has been made very easy with Music. It has been an important part of my life. With the growing storage capacities of the memories inside the mobile/MP3devices my memories too grew immensely. Music makes life live as the Aashiqui logo goes and it remains my favourite album till date. As the music of Aashiqui 2 is picking up so is the love for music.
I still remember the time when I was preparing for the MBA exams and used to listen to movie - Lakshay – haan yehi rasta hai tera, tune ab jaana hai! for all the motivational aspects.

When I was hurt in love or separated from my gf, I loved to listen – Musafir – zindagi main kabhi koi aaye na rabba.

When it's raining – Tip Tip Barsa paani – Mohra because of Viju Shah's music. I always loved the music of Viju Shah in many of his movies.

The album which I can listen to again and again is “Yeh Vaada Raha”. I feel great to listen to all the songs from this movie.

My other favourite songs are -

1.        Tujh mein rab dikhta hai – Rab ne bana de jodi
2.        Haal-e-dil tumko sunata – Murder 2
3.        Chehra hai yaa chand khila hai – Saagar
4.        tu jaane na (unplugged version) – Ajab Prem ki gazab kahani
5.        Chak de India – Chak de India
6.        Kal ho na ho – Kal ho na ho
7.        Isq risk – Mere brother ki dulhan
8.        Pehli Nazar mein – Race
9.        Give me some sunshine – 3 Idiots
10.      Yunhi chala chal – Swades
11.      Tu jo Nahin – Woh Lamhe
12.      Roobaroo – Rang De Basanti
13.      Mitwa – Kabhi alvida na kehna
14.      Pehla pehla pyar hai – Hum Aapke hai kaun
15.      Kahe toh se sajna – Maine Pyar Kiya
16.      Aaja meri jaan – Aaja meri jaan

The list goes on and on.

My favorite artist has been Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and I loved his album SALAAM very much. I can listen to Mera gham aur meri khushi / Yeh shaam phir nahin aayegi many time a day.

As my interest in music increased I also felt that I am inclined to love Earphones and Headphones a lot. I have bought a lot of earphones and headphones (Sony, Sennheiser, Panasonic, Philips etc) but the search to find the best one is still far as I have not used Beats or Bose or Ludicrous etc.

But as I look backwards I do realize that knowingly or unknowingly I have been part of Music Piracy. As in this new world where you have thousands of websites offering free music to download and increasing libraries of songs we need to come in terms with this and stop this misuse of music services.

HP has come with HP Connected Music service in partnership with Universal Music & Hungama where they are offering unlimited download to users who have purchased their new laptop HP ENVY 4 – 1105TX Sleekbook. This service will even let you listen to songs offline on your devices. This music library has wide collection of various genres from Bollywood films and regional films & international music too. I hope these steps will definitely reduce Music Piracy and will make people aware that they are doing theft in case they are downloading songs from the sites offering them at no cost.  More details are available at https://ssl.www8.hp.com/in/en/ad/hp-connected-music/overview.html

We say Music is our life and when we ask ourselves, have I ever bought any song online or have bought OST CD/Cassette? The answer will be very less number of time. I will say that I don't download myself, I take it from my friends through NFC/Bluetooth/data cable or whatsoever communication medium but the truth needs to be faced that we don't respect the creativity of all the people involved in creating the same. Thanks to all the online stores which now have made it easy to purchase the music online and jobs that are paying us good amount of money to enable us to either buy our fav Artist online or wait for the song to be played on TV/Radio.

HP has launched a great service with more than 1 Million songs with 20000+ artists of your choice and you can have this service at no charges for the very first year with no limit on downloading. May be in the future the app will be available on various devices as we now run in this world of 3G/4G and always connected & then we will be #HPCONNECTEDMUSIC. Moreover this app will help you see your favourite artist live and a lot of goodies from the one you listen to most. Winning is an art and not a science and few will be lucky ones who will really keep themselves connected to their passion of life - MUSIC.

I hope to live my dream of music through whatever I can do and to enjoy at the upcoming live Indiblogger meet with #HPCONNECTEDMUSIC to learn more about the same. 

It is really gonna be fun as PSY takes on the Indiblogger stage with Gentleman in Gangnam Style on Chikni Chameli or Fevicol se songs! Oh...Balma...

Thanks All!



Update:- This post is a prize winning entry #HPConnectedMusic 
Indiblogger meet at Gurgaon.  Thanks a lot to all from HP India as well as Indiblogger team for this HP Laptop. I am very happy to won this with an year of subscription to #HPConnectedMusic App to download all my favorite songs for free! 

Contact me for your product's review on twitter @araijain or @thelifesway or email - thelifesway@gmail.com 
 
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