2020 - Brighter Alleys | Life of a Teen

Collab: Meet a Girl from Her Wonderland!

December 29, 2020
By Gauri
3 Comments

Hey Guys, I'm delighted that you found this blog! Today, I am doing a collab with another Teen Blogger. And this is my second collab! I'll be asking her a few questions, and she will answer them. Well, who is the blogger?

It's Ria from riawonderland.blogspot.com. She is a sweet and kind blogger, and post unique stuff on her blog. Some of her ideas are so unique that I feel that why didn't I think of that earlier?!!!

Okay, so here's an intro of hers in her own voice (I mean in her own sentences!):

Hi guys

, I am Ria ,the author of Ria Wonderland blog. In my blog I write about teen lifestyle, fashion, gift guides etc... I am a teen with a big mouth who like chatting a lot. When I am not blogging, i like to read books , scroll through my phone and eat Doritos.I love writing, eating and organizing stuff.
I am very excited and happy for collaborating with Gauri. Hope you will love this post.

Okay, so I chose the best possible questions, and she answered them. She too asked me ten questions and you can find my answers in her blog. It's gonna be fun for you to read them! Let's start:

My questions:

What is your hobby? How do you like to spend your free time?
Which famous personality do you appreciate the most?
What do you wish to become when you grow up? Why?
What is your dream destination? What do you want to do there?
What is your favourite TV show/web series of all time?
Is there any movie that could’ve had a better ending? Which one?
Do you like sports? If yes, then which is the one you like the most?
If you become the principal of your school, what rule will you add or remove for your school?
Do you prefer studying from books or from videos?
Imagine you go abroad without any money or luggage. There you meet a generous person who offers you a help. He asks you to buy any ONE thing and he would pay the money. What ONE thing will you choose to buy? Why?

Her answers:

1. What is your hobby? How do you like to spend your free time?

My hobby is learning foreign languages. I love to learn foreign culture and traditions. I am currently learning Italian. Another hobby of mine is Gardening.

2. Which famous personality do you appreciate the most?

J. K. Rowling is my favourite. Her Harry potter series is one of my favourite books. She is a great inspiration for me because she didn't give up even though she got rejected lots of time.

3. What do you wish to become when you grow up? Why?

I want to become an IAS officer. Because I want to serve the people and also want to contribute to my country's development.

4. What is your dream destination? What do you want to do there?

My dream destination is Switzerland. I want to enjoy sky dining with my family. And I love Swiss chocolates.

5. What is your favourite TV show/web series of all time?

Stranger things is my favourite series.

6. Is there any movie that could’ve had a better ending? Which one?

Yeah. I wish Avengers End game had a happy ending. I literally cried when Tony died

7. Do you like sports? If yes, then which is the one you like the most?

Yeah , I like sports. Tennis is my favourite. Every weekend I play tennis with my family.

8. If you become the principal of your school, what rule will you add or remove for your school?

My school starts at 8'o clock and ends at 5.15p.m . I hate staying in the same place for 9 hours. So if I become the principal of my school, I will reduce the school time to 4'o clock.

9. Do you prefer studying from books or from videos?

For studying literature or a theorem ,I prefer to study from books by reading . But for learning physics or chemistry I prefer to learn from videos.

10. Imagine you go abroad without any money or luggage. There you meet a generous person who offers you a help. He asks you to buy any ONE thing and he would pay the money. What ONE thing will you choose to buy? Why?

I don't even want to imagine such a situation. And moreover I will never go to a country without their currency.

Hope you all liked this post. Weren't her answers superb?! Tell me if you liked this post in the comments box. I'm waiting! Also, since this is my last post of 2020, I wish to express my new year wishes to y'all.

Cheers,

Gauri

Blogging

Nominated For Liebster Award!

December 23, 2020
By Gauri
14 Comments

Hey Guys, I'm delighted that you found this blog! Today I'll be telling you some great news: I am nominated for the Liebster Award!

Thanks to Esdi from https://esdiblogs.wordpress.com, Maya from https://prettylilscribbles.blogspot.com, Ivy from http://ivysscribbles.com and Ria from https://riawonderland.blogspot.com: all four of them nominated me and believed I'm worth it.

Esdi is a really sweet blogger, and posts neat and lovely posts. In her about section, she says that she "aims to cover ideas on Harry Potter Universe, Literature reviews, Television series and Blogging". Isn't her niche cool?!

Ivy is a thirteen-year-old blogger, and her blog is really pretty to hop upon. Her posts are super professional, and she is my blogger friend from quite a few weeks.

Talking about Maya and Ria, they are one of my favourite bloggers. I have written about them in my post: 7 Teen Lifestyle Bloggers You Need To Know. Both of them are really worth checking out!

So, what really is Liebster Award?

Well, it is a kind of appreciation the a blogger gives to other bloggers, and asks them to appreciate a few others. It kind-of an award chain, where everyone's a winner! It gives you some popularity, and at the same time, it binds you with your audience too.

But to participate in the Liebster Award, there are a few rules:

Number 1: Give a thanks to the blogger who has nominated you.

Number 2: Answer the eleven questions he/she has asked.

Number 3: Nominate eleven more bloggers for the award.

Number 4: Make sure that they know you have nominated them.

Number 5: Ask your eleven nominated bloggers eleven questions.

That means that I now have to answer eleven questions asked by Esdi Maya, Ivy and Ria; and these were the questions:

What is success according to you?
How do you take care of your mental health?
Which public figure do you admire?
What would you want to change about yourself?
Which one country do you want to visit?
If you are given an offer to buy 3 things for free of cost, what 3 things will you choose?
If you have to give a huge amount as donation, for which 1 cause would you want to donate?
Why did you choose blogging?
Where do you live?
Three of your favourite brands from any industry?
If given a time machine.. which moment will you re-live?

Lovely questions! But most of them need much thought to answer! I prepared my answers in 4 hours (yes!). Here they are:

What is success according to you?

In simple terms, success is when you want something and you get it. But for me it's not just an accomplishment, it is something that gives you satisfaction and inner peace. Success is something we all seek, and working for success is what gives life its meaning.

How do you take care of your mental health?

I do stress-relieving activities to take care of my mental health. To lift up my mood, I listen to music or do sketching. I write my feelings into a diary to flush out any negative feeling. But when I feel really sad, I cry. That makes me feel much lighter.

Which public figure do you admire?

For me, that's Albert Einstein. I look upon him as an inspiration. As a student, he was quite smart, but his teachers underestimated him. They said he would not be 'worth much'. But he changed the whole of Physics!

What would you want to change about yourself?

Too much of digital life. This is what I want to change. I believe that by being online all the time, we loosen our social relationships. I am working on it, my aim of less digital – more social life

Which one country do you want to visit?

I want to visit the United States. My mum has been there during her studies, and she tells me everything she did there. I now wish to go there too!

If you are given an offer to buy 3 things for free of cost, what 3 things will you choose?

The first thing I'd buy would be a big garden with beautiful plants. The second thing I would choose would be a big wardrobe, full of dresses. And the final thing I would choose to purchase is gift cards worth $100,000 (Ain't I clever? 😉)

If you have to give a huge amount as donation, for which 1 cause would you want to donate?

There are many sightless people on earth. Their eyes can be cured, but they don't have enough money for it. I would donate the sum for them, so that they could get their eyesight. How lovely would the world look in full colour!

Why did you choose blogging?

I chose blogging because it lets me share my feelings and thoughts with everyone. Blogging this media for me to express my creativity, learn and connect with everyone around the world.

Where do you live?

I am an Indian. I live in the second largest country of the largest continent!

Three of your favourite brands from any industry?

Park Avenue, Cadbury and Classmate. Clothes, chocolates and stationery, that's all I love!

If given a time machine.. which moment will you re-live?

I want to re-live my class 7– the standard I was in, before Corona. I want to re-live the awesome time I spent with my friend. We talked everything nonsense and giggled throughout the day.

These were my answers. Tell me in the comment box if you enjoyed reading them.

Now is the time when I nominate eleven bloggers. So here are my eleven nominees:

Izzie @ Mizz Iz

Miriam @ Inside Miriam's Mind

Evin @ A Curly Sue's Ramblings

Smeeha @ Lala Life Of Smeeha

Srisha @ Sky and Soil

Maggie @ Maggie's Doodles

Shanessa @ My Days in Montana

Roshni @ Roshni's Random Thoughts

Farren @ The Starry Eyed Dreamer

Renee @ Renee's Poetry

The Silver Fashionista

The questions for the nominees is the same eleven questions which I answered. That's because I couldn't have written better questions than those. Now, you have to answer these questions, and follow the above rules and continue the chain!

All the best to all!

Gauri

Life

Flashback : 20 Things I did in 2020

December 18, 2020
By Gauri
20 Comments

Hey Guys, welcome back to my blog! We know that 2020 has almost ended, roughly two weeks more to go. This was definitely not a cool year: Australian Bushfires, Protests in Hongkong, Climate Change, Floods and Cyclones, and of course the COVID 19 pandemic. What more can you add in the 2020 list?!

There was a time when a news flew that world would come to an end, thank goodness it was fake! Also, there were many hoaxes and confusions regarding COVID pandemic: how it spreads, how to protect ourselves, how to sanitize food items, dot dot dot. There still are a lot confusions!

But anyways, as 2020 is ending now, I'm a lot happy. There are vaccines which slowly coming for use : another big reason for happiness!

Okay, so in today's post, I'll be telling you TWENTY special things which I did this year. All these things were special due to some reason or the other, and you'll come to know them as you go through this post. I have added a few links in this post, and I want you to click through each and every link!

It is a small list below, and let's dive straight into it!

Twenty Thing I Did in Twenty-Twenty:

1. Made my gmail account, since I was thirteen finally!

2. Changed the position of my study table to avoid 'boredom'.

3. Drank ayurvedic drinks and ate healthy foods daily to boost immunity.

4. Watched repeat telecast of TV Serial Ramayana on DD National.

5. Made my Youtube Channel (and posted videos regularly).

6. Helped my dad make his own Youtube Channel.

7. Sweeped my house everyday during lockdown!

8. Did the Chloe Ting Two Week Shred Challenge.

9. Purchased a bluetooth headphone for myself.

10. Watched a lot of movies throughout the lockdown.

11. Made a Model for ISRO Cyberspace contest.

12. Participated in a Quiz by gangaquest.com and won a T-Shirt (yay!)

13. Started my own blog, first at google sites and then at blogger.com

14. Got my Front Splits for both legs! I also discussed it in the post My Biggest Achievements.

15. Prepared Fried Rice, Potato Chips, Oats Recipes on my own.

16. Celebrated my Birthday online, and designed e-cards for the first time. I talked about this in "It's My Birthday" Post too.

17. Gave a speech on Diwali for my school's online program.

18. Purchased two sets of earrings and a few dresses without the help from mom (I'm bad at making choices, so it was a challenge!)

19. Played song quiz on the newly-bought Google Nest (and lost the game from an online contestant 😆)

20. Tried the rice water recipe for the first time (I applied it today itself, so can't say if it worked!)

So that was my list of 2020. There could have been more items in the list, but you know, 'twenty' and 'twenty-twenty' sound cool! That's kind-of a stupid reason though!

Anyways, what things did YOU do in 2020? Which ones are the most memorable? Did you too take some sort of immunity-booster recipes? Share your ideas in the comments!

Cheers,

Gauri ✌️

Books and Studies

My Bookshelf Tour: See What's in A Teen's Bookshelf

December 12, 2020
By Gauri
4 Comments

Hey Guys, you're welcome to my blog! Today I'll take you to my bookshelf, and show you all the books which I have read. Well, my bookshelf is not that big, and that's because I have continuously changed the position of my books, and some older books (which I read years ago) are resting in a closet.

If you find any of the books common for me and you, do tell me in the comment box! I can't wait to find out that our choices are similar!

Talking about my bookshelf, I actually have my books at two different places- one bookshelf has all the other books I read when I'm free, while one bookshelf has all my school and competition books. And today, I'll take you to both the places!

The major part of my bookshelf is filled with storybooks and self-help books. Then I have handbooks for some subjects, and finally my school books. I also read magazines and monthly published books, but I don't have them in my bookshelf, because it has been a year since I bought one!

Well, this post is different from my other posts because it has real-life pictures from my home! This post has a lot of them and I guess you'll really enjoy it. I have made sure to keep the text less this time, so you have enough time to observe each of my books!

Please keep in mind that I am not a good photographer, so the pictures might seem quite unprofessional! I hope you'll forgive me for that <3

Let's start!

The picture below is of my first bookshelf. Here, I keep storybooks, some inspirational as well as knowledge books.

Below are some of my favourite books, which I love reading all the time. Well, I have listed my favourite books amongst all of them in this post: My Favourite Books Of All Time. You can read the post too, it is one of the most-seen posts till now!

(I guess the names are quite clear in the images, so I'm not writing the names separately)

Now below are a few lovely storybooks, which I read, forget, and read again! That "I am Albert Einstein" is too inspiring, and I would really prefer you buy one!

This was my favourite book collection, and out of these, the book "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" and "The Secret Seven" aren't yet read by me. I bought them two days ago, so you know I have a lot to read now! I don't know how they are, but hopefully they would be interesting!

Now, this is the upper-most part of the same bookshelf; I keep the hindi story books and novels here.

These are some of the hindi novels, my mom bought them for me. I haven't completely read any of them, but will try reading after exams.

Now this is my second bookshelf, and here I keep all my school books. Starting from the right most, they are the notebooks of mine, then the middle column is of class eighth books, and the left-most column contains books for class 9 and olympiads.

Here's a close look at my school books. Well, the top four are my 'reference books' for science. I will be found reading them whenever any olympiad is approaching! I read my course books only during exams!

Yeah, that's what my bookshelf is all about. I keep only those books in my bookshelf which I enjoy. There are plenty of other books in my house, in fact, if they were all stacked together, I guess they would be as tall as a ten-floor apartment! That was a weird imagination, but trust me, my whole house is filled with books!

I hope you liked this post. If you are a book lover, and you just found a book to read, congratulations! If you wish, then tell this to me in the comments box. Which books do you have in your bookshelf? Do you also read books on kindle? What books are you favourite?

See you in the comments :)

Cheers,

Gauri

Life

The Scariest Moments Of My Life

December 09, 2020
By Gauri
7 Comments

Hey Guys, I'm delighted that you found this blog! Today, I'll be sharing with you some of the scariest moments I've been through. I'll tell you about two of them, which were SUPER SCARY for me. When I had been through them, I thought as if they were the worst thing anyone must have been through! But now, while writing 'em all here, I perhaps think it was not that bad.

Well, I've made sure there are no ghostly experiences, so you don't need to worry! Just keep reading and imagining how it would have been for me. Well, I do not prefer a big intro these days 😆. So let's start:

No.1 Monkey in the Pool

This story dates back to when I was just seven years old. My brother and I had gone to a swimming pool on the top floor of our apartment. There were my other friend too, and we were having a lot fun in the pool. Talking about the fun, we were dancing inside it, and racing with each other too! Sometimes we would grab another friend and make her fall inside the pool too!

And then an aunty (with her two small kids) came to the swimming pool. Although we weren't friends with those two kids, our friends group had no problem with that. We minded our own business (of playing!). And it was almost an hour in the pool, when the 'scary part' came by...

We saw a troop of monkeys coming near the swimming pool! I still can't understand how those monkeys climbed up till the top floor, like it was ten floors up. And they couldn't use the lift, could they?

Anyways, the sight of the monkeys sent a chill down our spines. We ran to the farthest corner of the swimming pool to save ourselves. Although we were together, we felt too helpless. And our last hope was that 'aunty', who we thought would save us. But she didn't!

She simply gathered her two kids, and ran off somehow! I really didn't expect her to leave us that way. We all started saying ill of her, but we also knew it was of no use. The monkeys were coming closer and closer!

One of the monkeys started touching the water of the pool, and it definitely knew we were scared! It, after tasting the pool water, JUMPED INTO IT!

What?!!

Yes, the big fat monkey jumped into the pool, and we felt as if we were to die the next instant...

But you know, I am alive, and am writing this post. This means that I survived the 'monkey-attack'? Was I injured? Did others survive uninjured?

Yes, I survived the 'monkey attack'! And that was certainly not by a miracle, but I still consider it a miracle. While the monkey came inside the pool, we also noticed our building guards coming to save us. We were 'evacuated from the site of disaster' and safely sent to our homes.

This was the ACTUAL STORY OF MINE, and I still can't forget how scared we all were in the pool. Then we never dared to go to the pool without an adult! One thing I don't understand till now, is that, when we didn't call the guards, how did they come to save us? Was it the "aunty" who indirectly helped us all?

2. I Was Absent on The Most Important Day

This is too recent, just of January 2020. Yeah, it was the last month of me in school, and then my exams had begun. After that, you know, Corona entered. So I remember it VERY WELL how scared I was when I attended my school the next day. Let me tell the incident:

The Sports day of my school was on 24th Jan, and I had participated in it. I am such a big fan of running that I participated in ALL THREE races: 100, 200 and 400 metres! And after the races were over, and I was having a silver and a bronze medal, I felt really sore. I didn't realise the extremeness of my soreness, until I reached home!

I was happy with the medals, but too tired to celebrate. I wanted an oil massage for the whole day! But that wasn't so much possible, and I finally took the next day off. My mother agreed with my not attending the school because she knew I was too tired. But it was not the same for my teachers!

And my teachers were disappointed with my absence because I had to give a speech the next day! On 26th January, there was a function in our school to celebrate the Indian Republic Day. And I was the girl chosen for the speech!

And although my speech was written, I had forgotten that tomorrow is 26th! I thought I would be punished for being absent, but if I would be absent the next day too, I would be punished even more! So the next day, I dared to go to school...

My speech was ready, but I was really scared. My legs were shivering before meeting my teacher. I really felt like it is going to be the worst day ever!

But as soon as I met my teacher (in-charge of the program), she greeted me with a warm smile. I was blank! How come she not scold me?

Then I came to know that my class monitor had requested my teacher to not be angry on me. She is a good friend of mine, and she saved me from everything! She said that she had somehow convinced everyone, including the principal!

I can't still believe how smooth everything went that day!

Conclusion

Thanks guys, and I hope you found this post interesting. If it is so, then tell me in the comments box. What was your scary moment? Did you ever encounter a monkey too? Or was it a dog which ran after you? Tell me your answers below!

Cheers,

Gauri

Blogging

7 Teen Lifestyle Bloggers You Need To Know

December 05, 2020
By Gauri
15 Comments

Hey Guys! In today's post, I'll be talking about some of my favourite teen bloggers. Well, I have checked out many-many teen bloggers till now. In fact, I find a new one almost everyday! But some of them really grabbed my attention; and today I'll be telling you about these very teen bloggers.

Image by Kardono Kardono from Pixabay

I am giving you a brief description about them, and I'll also provide a link to their blogs. I want you to click every link and read where you land! I'm quite sure that you will like their blogs.

Now, let's get started:

1. Blogger: Evin

Blog: A Curly Sue's Ramblings

A Curly Sue's Ramblings is a really sweet blog run by Evin. She is twelve years old, and I was unable to believe this fact for the first time! Her blog is gorgeous, and she definitely took a lot time designing it.

A really great part of her blog is that she helps anyone who wants to improve their blog design. She says on her blog: "If you’re a blogger who’s just starting out, or even if you’re someone who has been blogging for sometime, but just needs a little brightening up/ starting out your blog OR if you’re someone who just needs a hand in graphic designing, I’M HERE TO HELP!"

Another awesome thing in her blog is that she often organizes blog contests and gives 'digital prizes' to the winners. Moreover, she also gives shout-out to some awesome blogger every month!

And what else do i like about her blog? Her social reach! She has more the 500 followers (and that's amazing when she's just twelve) I really believe she did a lot hardwork with her blog. You're amazing Evin!

2. Blogger: Miriam

Blog: Inside Miriam's Mind

I found Miriam's blog quite recently, just a week ago, but fell in love the very incident! Very neat and clean blog design and a lot of bitmojis make her blog very personalised.

Talking about the posts, they are very beautifully written. Her writing style is decent and easy to understand. She knows well how to make her posts engaging. An interesting part is that she is the same age as me, that is fourteen years. And we both started blogging this very year! She also tells in her 'about' section that she is a gymnast: but I am not even this flexible!

I am loving her blog Inside Miriam's Mind, and I want you to check her out! Miriam, you are doing great, girl!

3. Blogger: Gunneka

Blog: Catastrophic Teenage Life

Catastrophic Teenage Life is a blog by Gunneka, an eighth grader. She posts short and fun posts, and you might really like them! We both started blogging at almost the same time, and have even done a collab together, check it here: My First Collab: Meet Gunneka.

She is really a very friendly blogger, and often collaborates with other bloggers. You will find a LOT of collabs on her blog! She says in her about section "I know I'm not very professional with my blogs but I think that helps me relate with my readers."

UPDATE 2021:

Gunneka is not blogging anymore. This also means that you won't be able to see anything on her blog, but I'll not be removing her name from this list-she was awesome when she was blogging!

4. Blogger: Maya

Blog: Pretty Little Scribbles

Maya is a twelve-year old blogger, and she started blogging quite recently, in October 2020. But her posts don't seem to be written by a new blogger! They have no mistakes at all!

They are neatly written and compiled, and the topics on which she writes is lifestyle and books and travelling. My favourite post on her blog is Dear 18 Year Old Maya. I loved this post! I am waiting for her to be eighteen now!

Her blog design is clean and beautiful, and easy to navigate. She never forgets to add an image or two in her posts, and that's a very nice thing. Also, she has a super-cute profile picture! Keep up the awesome job Maya!

5. Blogger: Isabella

Blog: Mizz Iz Blogs

Mizz Iz Blogs has become my go-to blog these days. Isabella writes engaging posts related to her life, be it a What's in My Purse Post, or Making Peanut Butter Cups post. She has written a brief about her blog in the very beginning, and that's what made me familiar to her at the first place.

One thing that I really like in her blog is her writing style. She manages to keep her posts understandable. They are not too long, but not too short either. Just Perfect! And she adds a good number of pictures to her posts. That's what make me love each of her posts! Isabella, you are doing great!

6. Blogger: Ria

Blog: Ria's Wonderland

Ria's Wonderland is a beautiful blog and she has a very regular schedule for posting. I like the way she keeps her posts of optimum length, with images wherever necessary. She posts on lifestyle, fashion, and sometimes about delicious recipes. Her blog is really welcoming, and the current 'Christmas Theme' gives it all a personalised touch.

I like her posts on teens, two of which are habits for a successful teen life and helpful apps for students. All her posts are nicely written, with text neatly divided into paragraphs and images making them vivid. I feel she is gonna make an awesome blogger in future. All the Best Ria!

7. Blogger: Lexie

Blog: What Lexie Loves

Who can ignore Lexie in the teen bloggers list?! She is a sixteen-year-old teen and is a part of blogging since the past seven years! Her blog is a lifestyle and fashion blog, which is quite famous now. Wow Lexie!

Well, I made my initial blog design inspired by hers. In the beginning (in August), I opened her blog every single day to get idea from her blog design! But yeah, I didn't copy hers!

I exceptionally loved her post Dear 11 Year Old Me, where she responses to her own letter which she wrote as a kid. It was a really lovely letter... I think I'll be writing such letter soon!

Tell me in the comment box if you want one! Well, I have written A Letter To My Younger Self, but you know, I'm never getting a reply to it!!

The End

Before ending this post, I want to say that if you were not in the list, please don't feel sad for it. Your blog must be very good, maybe I am just unaware of it. So, if you want me to check out your blog, simply write your blog's address in the comment box below. If you want me to do more such posts in future, you can tell me that too.

Who is your favourite teen blogger? Is there someone from the list that you like too? Do you want to be featured like this too? Grab the Comment Section guys! I'm waiting for your answers!

Cheers,

Gauri

Life

My Best Lockdown Moments Part 2

December 01, 2020
By Gauri
5 Comments

Hey Guys, I'm delighted that you found this blog! You might've read my post My Best Lockdown Moments. There I had promised to write a part two, and here it is! If you haven't read the previous part, that totally fine, because this post is not linked with that one. But I would still prefer that you read the first part....okay, I'll remind you at the end of this post.

I think I should go to the main topic now; I shouldn't waste any time of yours! I'm really excited for this post, not only because it has refreshed my memories but also because my readers chose it through my Survey!

Okay, let's begin talking about my Best Lockdown Moments:

1. My Brother-Turned-Chef

This incident is from the month of June or probably July. Everyone around me: my friends and my mom's friends were interested in cooking some 'restaurant-food' at home. People cooking something or the other. I remember that all the pics I saw on Whatsapp that month were of food items!

Seeing everyone else's whatsapp status, we too decided to cook some 'tasty' food. The food which we were missing the most those days was PIZZA. Online delivery was shut, restaurants were closed, and even shops which sold pizza base were closed! So there wasn't that big chance of our desire to be fulfilled.

But my big bro was so determined, that he decided to make a pizza himself. The big deal here was that he had to first prepare a pizza base! Thanks to Youtube, a very beautiful video helped him do that. Later, my mom and he together prepared the pizza toppings.

I don't really know the whole process of how he and mom prepared the pizza. That's bcoz I was sleeping that time! After watching him make the base, I had gone sleeping. And when I woke up, I was finally served the hot pizza! That was yummy!

2. We cooked a Spicy Cake!

In the part one of this post, I had promised to tell about the story of the second cake. I'm writing it over here, and it will (officially) complete this "Cake Story". If you already read that one, you'll feel quite familiar to this topic, but if not, that's okay! Just keep reading, I'll remind you to check out the first part afterwards:

Well, spicy cake sounds like a paradox, doesn't it? And my mom and I did not want to bake a spicy cake! It became spicy due to a little mistake of ours. We had seen how the previous cake (which I had baked with my brother) went wrong. Now, we considered ourselves to be experienced!

We believed that we should try baking the cake in some other way, and the "baking cake in cooker" idea was popular back then. So we too decided to bake a cake that way! And this time, we also decided to bake an eggless-vanilla less-flour less cake!

Wait, what? We had planned to make cake out of biscuit-pieces! I know this is the weirdest idea we had, but lockdown forced us to do so (or probably our cake-baking skills forced us!) And when we finished baking the "cooker cake", and tasted it, we realised that some biscuit pieces were actually spicy! Uhhh....

I definitely don't recommend this idea to anyone, please learn from my mistake! While eating that cake, we all were laughing at our foolishness, and I was promised that we'll have a REAL cake-party after lockdown!

3. I became the Zoom Host in my Online Class!

I kept the best one for the end! Becoming the zoom host is a common incident during online classes. If a teacher's internet goes off, any random student gets to be the host of the class. This lasts for a few minutes and the teacher is back. But in my case, it lasted for longer than expected...

I was the (g)host of my online class for twenty-five minutes! Definitely my teacher's internet ditched her quite long!

So, it was my History Class, and an interesting chapter was going on (yeah, it was somewhat interesting). But suddenly she was out of the class, and some "random" student became the host. No, it wasn't me yet! When that random student became too scared of the responsibility, she left the meeting-and I became the new host!

It was my first time, so yeah, my heart started beating faster and I too became scared. But a few minutes later, I was cooled down and thought to have some fun. Let's make some use of time! So, I "allowed all participants to unmute themselves" and "allowed all participants to chat privately".

My classmates started shouting like MAD! I still remember a guy played Despacito on his mobile! Everyone was laughing, singing, shouting; even I started howling weirdly in the class! It felt as if everyone had regained their long-lost energy!!

It was the coolest online-class incident, EVER!

The End (Reminder+Request)

Okay, I promised to remind you to read this post: My Best Lockdown Moments. Click the phrase and you reach there! Come on, you surely have a little more time, don't you?!

And if you haven't conducted the survey yet, DO IT NOW! It will hardly take a minute, or maybe less than that! It would help me get your opinions, and in turn, improve Brighter Alleys.

What food did you make in lockdown? Did you spoil a cake too? Any memorable incident from your online classes? Tell me in the comment box! I would love to hear from you 😄

Cheers,

Gauri

Blogging

How to Write an Effective Blog Post : The Only Tips You Need

November 26, 2020
By Gauri
13 Comments

Hey Guys, if you are a blogger, or are interested to become one, then this post is a must-read! I'll be discussing with you guys some of the MOST IMPORTANT tips while blogging. I'm a blogger myself, and I've learnt quite a lot of things since I started. I'm sharing the tips that I have learnt from my experience. They have been extremely helpful for me, and perhaps they'll be helpful for you too.

This post had been asked to me by Maya (a blogger herself), in the comment section of my previous post, Best Lockdown Moments. So if you too wish for a particular post, you can tell in the comments box.

Now getting into the topic, THE ONLY TIPS YOU NEED TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE BLOG POST:

1. A Blog is Unique Only When The Blogger Makes It!

The topic is as true as it sounds! We should always have our own ideas to write on our blog. Writing things we don't really know about will never benefit us. Ask me, I have been through this! I had once got a list of "blog-post topics" from a website, and I wrote my posts based on that list!

I did not really enjoy writing my posts those days, moreover, a list will end someday, then what would we write next? That's the reason we should have our own ideas to write on our blog. If we are not really sure what we'll post next, then we can't really write an effective post.

Also, our post should be under our niche- whether it's a lifestyle or a travel blog. If we don't post under some specific topics, we could end up turning our blog into a magazine!

2. The Three P's of Blogging: Plan, Prepare, Proceed

Making a schedule for blogging might be the best thing you can do to be consistent. But sometimes, it happens that a schedule might put pressure on us. Yeah, that CAN happen.

So, what I prefer for myself is to NOT MAKE A SCHEDULE. Instead, what I do is to note down all the topics I'll to write that month. When I have a rough plan for the whole month, I can be nice to myself and write without pressure.

But the topic isn't gonna be the whole post! We need to write something (good) under that topic. So here's the third tip to write an interesting post:

3. If You Don't Enjoy Your Post, Your Readers Won't Too

Imagine I write a travel experience on my blog, with a lot of grammatical errors, and without any pictures- only text - all in a single paragraph. Would anybody like it?

Not even me! I would simply scroll to the bottom to check out for comments. If my post can't engage me, then I shouldn't expect others to find it engaging. As simple as it sounds!

Here's a tip to quickly check if our post is up to the mark: We should try to re-read your whole post, at least once to make sure that we don't find it boring.

Note that an interesting post can't be written in a matter of minutes - they require time. Also, sitting for four hours straight isn't the right choice. I can get too saturated and end up writing nonsense. That's why I prefer completing my posts in two-three days, so that I feel fresh all time (and write posts that are FRESH!)

4. Images: They are the Spices for your Blog!

If you've written a beautiful post, make sure you aren't missing this one thing- IMAGES. Like spices improve the taste of our food, images improve the taste of our blog! They shouldn't be missed, because we don't want our readers to be bored while reading our blog.

You might've experienced that the books with more, coloured images seem to be more attractive than image-less textbooks. Do the same for your blog- add pictures! If you remember the quote, a picture is worth a thousand words!

If you have read my posts, you must be knowing that I add two-three pictures in all my posts. Most of the images are designed by me, but I also use stock images, like this one in my post.

Like many other bloggers, I too use the app called 'Canva' to create my designs. Click this link to join Canva. If you create an account using the link I'm giving you, both of us will get a premium icon for free; that's a win-win! But it's completely your choice to use this link or not.

When adding images, just keep in mind they are related to the very previous paragraph; or if you are putting an image related the whole post, you could preferably put it in the very beginning. That was just my suggestion.

Cartoons, GIFs, Stock Images - whatever you like better could be added. Images also make our blog colourful and lively, and is much better than just a heap of words. And who doesn't like to have a break from the text part?!!

5. Have a Conversation

Writing your blog in a conversational style is a simple yet effective way to get familiar with the readers. Do you remember that at the beginning of this post, I had asked my readers to comment their post ideas? I wrote it there because I wanted everyone to feel that I REALLY read their comments.

The readers don't know us that well, but by writing in a conversational style, we can somewhat connect our readers. Asking questions to our readers, or starting the sentences with "Can you guess....." or "Do you......?" type of phrases is really a great idea. I don't know if I always follow them, but yeah, wherever I get a chance, I do.

Summary

So we have now reached the bottom of this post. I'll summarize my tips in a few sentences. You won't be bored, I promise!

1. Choose the blog topics which you can write on. You should not prefer a topic that you are unfamiliar with. Also, you should try to write posts under your specific niche.

2. While blogging you should try to be consistent. Think of all the topics you would write that month and write it on a paper.

3. While writing a post, take your time. There's nothing to rush for. Read your post at least once, to see that you don't find it boring.

4. To add life to your posts, try adding a few images to it. It gives a break from the text part- and that's really a great idea.

5. Write a post which makes the user feel familiar with you. Talk with the readers, use conversational sentences; ask them a question and tell them to reply through the comment box.

Hope you liked it guys! Comment to let me know if my experience-based tips were helpful for your blog. And there's a share button on the screen: use that!! That's all for this post. See you in the next one!

Cheers,

Gauri

Life

My Best Lockdown Moments

November 22, 2020
By Gauri
4 Comments

Hi guys! I recently conducted a survey for my blog, and found that most of you wanted a post about my ‘Best Lockdown Moments’. Since this post is the choice of my lovely readers, I am much more excited to write it!

Let’s start:

The spread of COVID is definitely not a good news. I am still sitting at home and hoping for a vaccine to arrive. Anyways, this pandemic led to lockdown in most places, which allowed me (and probably everyone) to spend enough time with their families.

The lockdown period for me was filled with many experiences, especially in the month of April, when everything had suddenly changed. Despite a lot of uncertainties, I spent a nice time with my family. It felt so great- everybody at home, no homework, no school, no ANYTHING!**

**In the beginning of lockdown, the online classes had not begun. That was the best time. Now, things are different. I’m having online classes (along with homeworks), like everybody else.

So here, I'm discussing the best moments of lockdown, which are mainly from the months of April-June. Let's start the list!

1. Watched Movies (with a problem in seating arrangement!)

Perhaps most of us saw a lot of movies in lockdown. This was the same for me too. In my post My Experience in Lockdown, I had told that my family watched nearly twenty movies in lockdown! Our whole family would sit together in the drawing room to watch a movie. But we never really planned which movie we should watch!

So, we would search 'family movies' in Prime Video, and that would itself take a long time- nearly 20 minutes! Then after deciding the movie, we would sit on the sofa and see the movie.

Photo by August de Richelieu from Pexels

But it wasn't that simple! At times, the net would go slow, and we would have to wait till the net becomes strong and the movie stops buffering. Then at other times, we would change our seating arrangement and watch movie while laying down. Since we would start watching movies after 11 at night, so we sometimes felt drowsy during the movie. A lot of problems!!

2. Did a plank challenge with my Family

This was the funnest (and funniest) moment of lockdown! It happened to be one day, when we had ended playing Ludo at night, but were still very active. So much active that we wanted to play another round! But as it was already 1 (a.m.), we decided not to. Instead, we all planned to do a plank challenge amongst each other...

My dad, I and my brother were supposed to stay in the plank position, and the one who could stay for longest would win. My mom was referee for the game (or perhaps she wanted to not do the challenge herself!). So we started the challenge.

3...2....1.... Start!

For the first 30 seconds, all three of us remained stable in that posture (we all were workout freaks those days!). Then we started wishing for someone to give up, bit nobody literally did! By the end of 50 seconds, our legs began shaking, but we still continued. Then my father finally gave up the challenge! Huhh!

Okay, now the main challenge was between me and my brother. I was quite sure that he would win, but we both had together started showing the signs of giving up- huffing and puffing, moving neck here and there, and our legs shaking even more!! When it was nearly 1 and a half minutes in the plank position, I saw that he had laid down.

DID THAT MEAN THAT I WON?!!

He actually laid down AFTER me! (yeah, I gave up a few seconds before😆😆). But we still had a fight over who won, because we simply wanted to fight! But yeah, he won the plank challenge. It was so much fun!!

3. Made Two Unsuccessful Cakes!

Story of the First Cake

It was probably the month of July, and I hadn't had a cake or pastry for a long time. And it was the lockdown period, so I couldn't go outside to buy it. So, I decided to prepare a cake at home. Okay, so I began the preparation of cake by starting searching for ingredients!

Maida-CHECK

Vanilla-CHECK

Sugar- Ofcourse CHECK!

Egg-CHECK

Milk-CHECK (wait, anything left?)

Okay, so I took the help of my brother to prepare the dough. Basically, it was he who did most of the work and I was the lazy guy here! Then after the preparation of dough was done, we probably became too restless-we placed it in the MICROWAVE without waiting for the dough to become soft!!

And when the cake came out of the microwave, it was a horrible sight😂. The cake had become BLACK and hard as rock!! (oops...)

So I didn't have the cake that day, and additionally wasted two cups of maida (refined flour), sugar and everything else. Also, some of the vanilla essence was dropped inside the microwave by us, which kept on smelling inside the microwave for the next few days (it smelled so ew!)😬

Story of the second cake

This one is definitely funnier than the previous story, but if I tell it now, then this post would become TOO BIG. So, I'll make a second part and

write it there, along with another BEST LOCKDOWN MOMENT. And some suspense is worth it!

The End

Yeah, this post is ending now, and if you haven't read my previous posts yet, then here's a work for you: Take a packet of chips , sit on your couch and binge-read all of other posts! Then you can comment at different places to let me know that you REALLY liked this blog.

But anyways, here's another option for you: just share this post on your fb page, or whatsapp, or anywhere you like, and bring your friends here too!

And if you enjoyed this post, you can let me know by the comment box. Did you ever burn a cake too? Or you were successful in the first attempt? That might be cool!

And did you take the survey yet?

Well, I'm now giving you a formal bye from this post. Have a good day!👋

Cheers,

Gauri

Pages

Collab: Meet a Girl from Her Wonderland!

Nominated For Liebster Award!

Flashback : 20 Things I did in 2020

My Bookshelf Tour: See What's in A Teen's Bookshelf

The Scariest Moments Of My Life

7 Teen Lifestyle Bloggers You Need To Know

My Best Lockdown Moments Part 2

How to Write an Effective Blog Post : The Only Tips You Need

My Best Lockdown Moments

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