The Life's Way: June 2022

Tuesday, 21 June 2022

How Awesome is the @SamsungMobileSA #GalaxyA53 5G Smartphone? #ProductReviews

Hi Friends,

It all started with an email from Samsung Mobile South Africa's PR team that we are sending you the newly launched Galaxy A53 5G smartphone while I was waiting for the S22 Ultra and still, I have not used the new S22 series after 4 months of the launch event too but it didn't matter because I fell in love with this smartphone. Let's come back to the AWESOME A Series launch event which happened a little bit after the S series launch event. I received an email asking for my T-shirt size/waist size and Shoe size and received the DRIP shoes which you can see in the unboxing video on my YT channel but not sure why the t-shirt or track pants size was captured?

How Awesome is the @SamsungMobileSA #GalaxyA53 5G Smartphone? #ProductReviews

I got the sealed pack of the Galaxy A53 5G smartphone and totally fell in love all over again as now somehow all the Samsung smartphones have a consistent design in terms of form factor. The quad-camera specifications keep on changing on front and rear cameras as you browse through the range of A series of smartphones but the design is almost consistent. It makes it really difficult to tell which one the other person is using which I think is really great to bring in brand recognition for sure.

I really loved the capable cameras on Galaxy A53 5G smartphone which the front camera is 32MP (F2.2). The rear cameras have 4 different ones along with a flash design. The Main camera is 64MP (F1.8), a depth camera of 5MP (F2.4) along with a Macro camera of the same configuration and finally an Ultra-wide camera of 12MP (F2.2). This whole setup allows you to go easily from 0.5x to 2x on optical zoom and up to 10x on digital zoom. It's best to use this one within the range that's optical in nature as snow or noise starts to creep in if using the same in hands. I am sure nobody expects you to carry a smartphone stabilizer or tripod on the go.

The selfie camera is really cool and I have showcased a lot of photos using that mode in my post here using the gesture mode is a treat to click selfies. The snaps are really cool during the day for sure on both the front and rear cameras. Night mode selfies are a little bit fuzzy as there is no OIS on the front camera. I did use both the rear and front cameras for shooting a lot of Youtube Shorts which you can go and check on my channel.

The second thing which I loved about this phone is the longer battery life as the same is powered using 5000 mAh in a package of 189grams only. The same powers up the 6.5inch SuperAMOLED FullHF+ display which is really nice to look at. The touch is one other thing that is responsive and makes it easy to play a lot of games using the fast response time the smartphone offers. There is a special game booster mode provided to make the best use of battery power, heat generation and memory use to bring in a great gaming experience at 120Hz.

I felt the lag a little bit in the sense while using cameras which might be due to the software not being able to allocate proper resources for faster processing as the 5nm Octa-Core 2.4 GHz processor is working with 2GHz clock speed with 6GB RAM and 128GB ROM. It may not appear to normal users because if you have not used the S series, you might not even notice the same. I took around 2000 photos and videos during the time my A53 smartphone was with me which I shared religiously on my social media channels too. The lag was felt only during the camera usage as that's the main function of a smartphone these days.

I listened to a lot of audiobooks on this smartphone while I walked around a lot and had no connection loss using Bluetooth devices. I was using Huawei earbuds on a Samsung smartphone most of the time with recently used the Apple Earpods first edition of my dad. I did watch a lot of YouTube videos as well including mine to check the quality along with posting a lot of Youtube shorts using this device. I think in a week or so I posted more than 100 Youtube shorts using this phone. The smartphone has no headphone jack but the same USB Type-C can be used as a charging port as well as earjack for your headphones. You can definitely buy this attachment from the Samsung website which I bought for hi-fi quality audio to use my old wired headphones.

The SIM tray is dual design with one side offering to place a nano-SIM card and on the other side, a micro-SD card can be added. Also, the smartphone makes use of the best IP67 rating to make it water-resistant up to 1 meter under certain conditions. There are a lot of other features built into various apps like Portrait mode which brings in bokeh effects which can be changed later as per your convenience and save the same photo in all the options.

The Galaxy A53 is available in 4 colours - Awesome Blue, Black, White and Peach colours. The phone definitely got some of the best durability as it got dropped by my hands a few times but no scratch or damage to the screen happened. There is no silicon case inside the small package as it only contains the smartphone, manual, SIM ejector pin and a Type-C to Type-C cable for charging. As I have returned the smartphone today, I am already missing the same but I feel fortunate that I took this one to Kruger National Park and took a lot of photos and videos using the same. Thanks, Samsung South Africa.

The retail price of this smartphone is around ZAR 8495 and if you consider the feature this phone provides which comes at half the price of the S22 and almost one-third of the price of the S22 Ultra, the performance is really strong at this price segment. Buying this smartphone is a no-brainer if your budget is less than ZAR 10000 and you will get some of the other Samsung accessories as well during the sale or campaigns. I am saying this because it has a strong quad-camera setup which works really well during the day shooting, can work best at night if you use a tripod, can take 4k videos, 32MP selfie camera, 5000mAh battery life, 128 GB ROM to store all the videos and photos, 120 Hz refresh rate on Super AMOLED display with 800 nits of brightness, portrait mode with advances software to post-process the images, dual-SIM capability, 5G connection for fastest possible downloads and internet speed and above all the ability to be in the Samsung Ecosystem to integrate the smartphone with your Smart Tag, Smart Watch or Galaxy buds.

I have used the smartphone to pay using Samsung Pay as well which also gives you a chance to win some amazing new Samsung products if you complete 5 transactions every 4-6 weeks or so. Go for it and fall in love with the AWESOME FEATURES at AN AWESOME PRICE!

Cheers!!!

Contact me at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate on your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #10YearsofTheLifesWay. Namaste!

New Year Resolutions - Week 24 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

Week 24 was really hectic in terms of all the emotions coming down on you as my brother left for the state of California in the USA. We really miss him after he left for the whole weekend and even when my mom's birthday was the next day, we spent most of the day sleeping and taking rest without any enthusiasm. The week started in a full swing once again as I came back to completing all my so-called tasks and activities.

Week 24 - Sat 11 Jun 2022 - Fri 17 Jun 2022

1. Thank You - I completed around 10000 of the same and took the counter past the 58000 mark for the month. This is one of the activities I really love a lot. I am so grateful that my brother and his family came to meet us and this has been the biggest benefit of this activity I was doing from the start of this year. I am so so happy about the same.

2. Audiobook - I completed the 9 hours-long audiobooks named Leil Lowndes - How to Talk to Anyone? and totally loved the same. I am definitely going to buy a print edition as this is like the textbook which you should always keep with yourself to stroll through your life.

3. Entertainment - The very first series I started watching was Season 3 of Ek Badnaam... Aashram starring Bobby Deol, Esha Gupta and others. But I felt that in series 3 nothing much happens and only some types of actions which baba did in the past and current are showcased - how did he become the Guru of Politics too? All of a sudden, Baba's political influence and thinking pattern has been upped to be made used by the other Politicians and the Corporate Branding CEO played by Esha Gupta. It's such that the baba is honey-trapped by the CEO in this game and money flows from one end to the other just like water. I also saw a Malayalam movie named CBI 5 starring Mammootty on Prime Video in Hindi. I found the movie to be interesting and full of twists and turns as the protagonist tries to solve the Basket Killings happening around one of the states.

New Year Resolutions - Week 24 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

4. Walking - After a gap of around 2 weeks, I started walking again and was able to complete the 22nd week's target of 440 kilometres during this week. In total, I did around 22.7 kilometres during the week. I also went on to watch my daughter play the finals of Girls' football with my parents to boost her confidence. Unfortunately, the girls did a self-goal which led to the other team winning by the only goal done in the match. This was really heartbreaking but it all happens in sports all the time so she needs to overcome and learn from the game of sports.

5. Party - It was also a time to get together with my friends for a full day picnic at one of their houses. We spend the whole day on Thursday at their home and ate nice food and beverages. I must have gained a lot of weight that day for sure. It was also mom's birthday which we celebrated and I gifted my mom the new Garmin Vivoactive 4S watch which I received from the Takealot.com birthday sale contest on the very first day of the event. It also got delivered on 13-Jun-22 just a day after my mom's birthday.

6. Social Media Posts - I started scheduling and writing some of the pending blog posts again this week. I also took some of the blog posts down but not significantly like in Week 21. I am still considering being more focused on YouTube and also on other platforms to increase the marketing aspect or branding of my channel overall. I attended one of the YouTube events for Shorts and Black Community again this week.

Post Covid-19, the market is trying to recover and I got the idea that we need to start from scratch once again. Despite being in my 10th year of The Life's Way - I have to start from scratch and all relationships are not transactional. I need to understand the same but it's too difficult to come out of your comfort zone. I have to break the thinking patterns which are making me bound to the same ground rules. It's time to fly into the unknown and reach for the sky! To upwards and farthest!

Week 23

Cheers!!!

Monday, 20 June 2022

New Year Resolutions - Week 23 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

Week 23 was one of the best ones as my parents were here in Johannesburg along with my brother too and we went to see the African Wildlife in Kruger National Park. It was a 2 nights stay at Satara Rest Camp and 2 nights at Skukuza Rest Camp. We took the comfortable Sunset Safari twice and an early morning Safari. It was really nice and some of the days it was too cold too. We had the best sightings ever seeing the Lion on all 3 days and Lioness and Cubs with their number going as high as 13 in one batch.

Week 23 - Sat 04 Jun 2022 - Fri 10 Jun 2022

1. Kruger National Park - I took holidays for the first 4 days of the week and came back on Thursday and returned back to work on Friday. The sighting at Kruger National Park was amazing as the park was not flooded with tourists but there were a lot of European tourists in the park.

2. Walking - No walking was performed as the whole day used to go in our car and then rest on the Safari vans. Will try to cover the same in the next few weeks.

3. Entertainment - Watching animals and taking their photos and shooting vertical format shorts for my Youtube shorts channels was the only entertainment we have had other than the amazing food and lovely company of my family members. I have posted a lot of content from Kruger National Park on my Youtube Shorts this time around. To end the week we had a family dinner at Taste of Punjab in Sunninghill and my brother and his family loved the food there.

New Year Resolutions - Week 23 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

4. Youtube Shorts - I achieved the 1000 mark at 283 videos on 9 May 2022 and saw that at the end of the week I am now standing at 383 videos with more than 1250 subscribers. All of them were shot using the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G smartphone which I took to the park along with selfies. Thanks to Samsung South Africa for the same.

5. Thank You - I was lazy on the same and only was able to take them past the 48000 mark from the 42640 mark which was done till last week.

The Lifes will slowly go back to normal as the office will start soon and then the emptiness will be felt as the kids will go back to their schools and all the fun and togetherness will again become like talking to the walls. This is the most difficult phase that will remind you of all the memories that took place when your relatives were there for you.

Week 22

Cheers!!!

Sunday, 19 June 2022

A Memoir - This Month Last Year - May 2021 www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

May 2021 was the time when the lockdown opened for a little while and a lot of virtual and in-person events started to happen. The first one I attended was the one for High Tea at Hype Park Corner where I also got my first Le Creuset mug as well. I won the various contests on Facebook for LG FN7 earbuds to Instax Superfan Contest on Mother's Day and on Twitter as well which kept me motivated during 2021. I was invited to the AC DC Express store and got some goodies there as well. I also got nice goodies from Huawei for the 947 Joburg Day too.

1. 3 Million Pageviews on www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay - It takes time to build up your following and pageviews on your blog. I am in my 10th year of The Life's Way and I am sure I am going to reach 4 Million by 27th December 2022 when it will be time to cut the cake of 10 Years of The Life's Way. I may have not earned anything from The Life's Way in terms of actual currency but in the notional currency terms, I have earned a lot. But does notional value brings food to the table - Definitely NO! Currently, I am hanging around 3.69 Million and the flow has been slower as I am more focussed on my Youtube channel. Will it be possible to do the 0.31 million page views in the next 6 months only time will tell?

2. A Memoir - This Month Last Year - May 2020 www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay - I did a lot of posts in the previous year during the first lockdown. This post reviews all the ones I did during those days. You will find a lot of links to those posts and can enjoy the same.

3. A Memoir - This Month Last Year - Apr 2020 www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay - The photo posts continued which were also shared on Google Connect Local Guides channel as well. It did fetch me a lot of support from the Local Guides community too. It made me take my number of posts on Google's platform to around 100 or so in a small amount of time.

4. A Memoir - This Month Last Year - Mar 2020 www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay - I started reviewing a lot of products as well as photo posts from various locations around the world. I did a lot of posts for Dubai based on all the locations I visited during my trip in 2020. Dubai trip I really loved as I found it to be an amazing city worth living but you need to be earning in Dirham's as compared to going and spending there in some other currency, especially ZAR.

5. A Memoir - This Month Last Year - Feb 2020 www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay - Feb 2020 was still the time when I was travelling back from India and UAE. I totally loved the same with my family. It was a fun time but also my onsite deputation ended leaving me hanging on the African shores with Indian income which was really trying but thanks to the job of my wife, we could carry on with our savings and the same lasted for around 10 months. Always you should have a savings balance which can last you a year long. Lesson Learned.

I watched a lot of web series during this time from Tripling Season 2 to Superman and Lois Season 1 to Lupin Season 1 to Permanent Roommates Season 1 to The Last Hour to Pati Patni Aur Panga to Runaway Lugai to November Story to Radhe movie to Sardar ka Grandson to Road of the Lions to LOL Hasee to Phasse to Wrath of Man to Tom Clancy Total Remorse and so much more in a single month.

Cheers!!!

Saturday, 18 June 2022

A Memoir - This Month Last Year - Apr 2021 www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

April 2021 was a busy month as I started working on an onsite project and was learning the ropes of the trade once again in a new product and new role. As I have deleted a large number of posts on my blog, I will only talk about the posts that are still active.

1. My Experiments with LG Mobiles in #India and #SouthAfrica @LGMobileSA #TakeFlight - As LG Mobiles went out of the market, I felt nostalgic about the journey of the LG smartphones and the events I attended for LG in India and South Africa. I still use one of the LG smartphones named LG X Screen which is a small little smartphone where my 4 years old son plays games every day.

2. A Memoir - This Month Last Year - Jan 2020 www.thelifesway.com #TheLifesWay #2251Post - It was last year that I reached 2251 blog posts when I wrote about the Jan 2020 but this year I took down more than 600 blog posts done for brands, events which were past their deadline date and were not contributing any value to my readers. I took down all the stuff which I didn't feel important about from 2555 posts to around 1950 posts. It definitely has improved my self-written posts percentage which was around 33% earlier and now may be around 50% or more. It doesn't matter to anyone but why keep posts which are irrelevant.

3. The Grillroom & Sushi Brings A Culinary Experience Like Never Before @TheGrillRoomPTA #TheGrillroomAndSushiBar - We had a wonderful lunch at The Grillroom and Sushi in Pretoria but some months back the same was closed for business after a great run. Covid-19 came heavily on a lot of restaurants and the Chef too left a little few months before. The food was great and they gave me a wonderful vegetarian option as well.

4. The New @HuaweiZA #HuaweiFreeBuds4i: Unpacking The Specs #FeelTheBeat - I am using these earphones for a few months and they are really something of my day-to-day Bluetooth earphones for my audiobooks and music needs. I have watched a lot of web series using these earphones to the time they got completely discharged. They came as a gift from the Marketing Manager of Huawei in my personal favourite white colour. So grateful to her for all the goodies I received during her time with Huawei.

5. A New Portfolio That Consumers Will Love, Trust and Want to Keep @NokiaMobile #LoveTrustKeep - HMD Global brought a lot of new smartphones to the South African shores and Nokia Mobile again came with the Android One ecosystem and features like no other smartphone manufacturer. With promised 2 years of pure android experience and updates on the value segment phones to more than that too on niche high-end ones, it became a talk of the market. The market dynamics have changed though as Google Pixels are in the international market too but in South Africa Google smartphones are still far from launch or it's not a market for them to date.

April is the start of the financial year in India and I also started working on some new projects internally toward having financial freedom in the future days. I am still in the process to reach the same and working toward the same goal day and night. I don't want the pen drives or socks or notebooks from the launch event goodies where I put in my own petrol and time when I can invest that time working on my future self.

Cheers!!!

Wednesday, 15 June 2022

New Year Resolutions - Week 22 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

Week 22 started with showing my brother various places around Johannesburg before he embarks on Cape Town on his own with his family. Montecasino won the heart of his daughter as she loved to play at the kids' zone/gaming zone.

Week 22 - Sat 28 May 2022 - Fri 03 Jun 2022

1. Walking - 3 kilometres is what I achieved in the whole week and now will have to cover the same during the rest of the year. This may be those 2 weeks which I kept open for no walk and still able to achieve the 1000-kilometre mark. The total mark

2. Thank You - I started from the 22000 mark to close at 42460 during the week. I am sure I will have to pick it up too later in the month.

3. Entertainment - I watched Runway 34 starring Ajay Devgn and Rakul Preet Singh along with Amitabh Bachchan. The film fails to leave an impression as monologues of Amitabh don't create effects like Pink or his other movies on social causes. The one I loved watching was Toolsidas Junior movie which is a movie where a kid learns Snooker and beats all odds to reach the finals. One of my college classmates is being used to showcase the Snooker shots while the actors acted with the dialogues etc.

New Year Resolutions - Week 22 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

4. Launch Event - I was invited by Western Digital to meet their executives at the Securex 2022 expo which was nice. I didn't get any goodies bag from the team but just random expo stuff from various stalls which is not worthwhile. I was also invited by the Intel Africa 12th Gen Processor launch event which happened at the Evetech office in Centurion which I always wanted to visit. I shot a lot of YT shorts and got a lot of goodies for which video will be shared soon.

5. Reunion - My mom and dad also came to South Africa just in time before we embark on the trip to Kruger National Park. They reached on 2 June. The next week I will be on leave from my day-to-day job and only enjoying the same with my family. It's long since I saw my parents. I last met them on 16 Feb 2020 in Dubai. A lot of sweets and other stuff came when they arrived which is going to be the snacks for a long long time now. My daughter loves my mom the most as she has lived with them and being the first born she has received the love of everyone.

All the activities took a backseat as the focus was on fun, laughter, togetherness, eating and talking our hearts out. I didn't pray for a single day, I didn't do anything else other than attending office calls and trying to accommodate myself according to the plans made by the family to visit several restaurants and places.

WEEK 21

Cheers!!!

Tuesday, 14 June 2022

New Year Resolutions - Week 21 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

Week 21 is finally here and just 5 days away from the fun times to start as my brother is coming on Thursday afternoon. There will be some fights too but that's part and parcel of life.

Week 21 - Sat 21 May 2022 - Fri 27 May 2022

1. Walking - The daily walking took a back seat this week and the next few weeks for sure as I only did 15 kilometres for the week which leaves a gap of 5 kilometres which I will have to achieve in the future weeks.

2. Reunion - It was a reunion time with my brother after he travelled to us in Dubai from USA way back in Feb 2020 just before covid lockdown happened. I met his family after a long long gap of more than 5 years. Meeting his kids was the best part as I wanted to meet them all as the elder one is going to turn 6 soon and I saw her when she was only 6 months old. I think the reunions should happen a lot faster and should never extend beyond 2 years or so. Covid-19 has taught us that LIFE IS REALLY SHORT! and to live and love before the final time comes. We went to see Apartheid Museum and start the trip by going back into the history of South Africa before he makes his way to Cape Town to see all the beautiful places there. My younger one took holidays to meet the kids of my brother.

3. Entertainment - I watched the Jersey movie which I didn't enjoy much as I have already seen the original one on Youtube but Shahid Kapoor did his best what he could. I didn't like his Punjabi accent as it all felt fake and directly coming from the same Jab We Met movie extension kind.

New Year Resolutions - Week 21 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

4. Audiobooks - I started listening to Leil Lowndes - How to Talk to Anyone - 92 little tricks for big success in relationships which I found should be a textbook in schools and colleges. It gives so many insights into human behaviour and how to win friends kind?

5. Blog - I deleted a lot of blog posts which I found unnecessary from the count I had around 2555 posts and brought it to below 1940 and took out all the posts which were about past events and dates which has already passed. It has dropped my daily pageviews significantly but let's focus on creating content which is valued more than just the press releases. The overall percentage of my self-written posts is going to improve from the 33% it was struggling with to whatever new percentage is because it will be a big task to create another excel to check which all were deleted.

6. Thank You - The count went from 6000 mark to 22000 mark during this week. I am sure slowly and steadily moving towards the 100k for the month of June 2022 now.

7. Gifts from the USA - My brother gifted me his Kindle Paperwhite 7th generation which comes with a backlit panel and is easy to read books during the night too as I was struggling with my Kindle Keyboard for the past many years. The rest of the gifts were for my family and also I got a lot of Cashew nuts which I really love from one of the brands in the USA.

Overall Week 21 is the week I was looking forward to and was a lucky one too as I won the Takealot Birthday Sale contest too on Twitter to win myself Garmin VivoActive 4S watch.

WEEK 20

Cheers!!!

New Year Resolutions - Week 20 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

Week 20 is the last week before my brother arrives from the USA and it's going to be the time to get everything ready for him and his family. I will see his daughter after a gap of 5 years and the younger one I have never met who will turn 2 in August 2022. I saw the princess when she was just 6 months old and now will celebrate her 6th birthday in Aug as well.

Week 20 - Sat 14 May 2022 - Fri 20 May 2022

1. Walking - I completed 19 kilometres this week and it is still a good effort from the previous week when my leg was paining a lot. The weekly targets in terms of walking and other things are going to be difficult when my brother will be here.

2. Thank You - Took the same from 82670 to 100k and then again to the 6000 mark during the course of this week. It's a celebration in terms of the completion of another 100k for the month.

3. Entertainment - It was time to watch Panchayat Season 2 and totally fall in love with the TVF production company again. It made me cry, laugh and curious enough to wait for the next season which will be released in some year's time. I also watch the RRR movie which is a visual extravaganza. I totally loved the whole storyline, action and VFX as showcased in the movie. Totally worth your time.

New Year Resolutions - Week 20 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

4. Launch Events - I was invited to the YouTube Creator Day - Africa Month Celebrating African Voices as a member of the Youtube Shorts community. It was an awesome and grand affair and we learned a lot. The event gave us an awesome goodies bag as well which you can watch here on my Youtube channel. I received my first Google Smart Speaker at the launch event. Another launch event was for HMD Global - Nokia Smartphones which was at a great location named Dreambox which is really Instagram-worthy. I totally fell in love with the same and the goodies received were formed into a video as well.

5. Hanuman Chalisa - I am now left with only 200x japs of Hanuman Chalisa from the goal of 42x Years of the same. I am really happy that I am progressing fast on the same.

6. Social Media - I have been not been able to schedule the posts to be shared on Instagram or Facebook during the next few days. I am sure it will have some gap of 3-4 weeks before I start them again as my blogging has reduced on my website. I will get back to the same as I was more focussed on the Youtube channel and creating more and more videos there.

All the goodies I am unboxing are only for the time when I receive or buy them and after a little, while I give them away to someone visiting me or the person whose birthday is near and sometimes ship them away to my family and friends. All the small goodies are not kept with me if I don't need them and not using them right away. All the snacks are also distributed right away to all the kids around me.

WEEK 19

Cheers!!!

Monday, 13 June 2022

New Year Resolutions - Week 19 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

This has been a consistent effort with a complete focus on achieving something every week in all parts of my life. I am trying to do my best with whatever comes my way but still, I am struggling to get into the wealth mindset.

Week 19 - Sat 07 May 2022 - Fri 13 May 2022

1. Walking - I only did around 10 kilometres this week, which is half of my target, but sometimes life happens and you have to move on to the next targets. I need to gear up to reach 1000 kilometres in 2022 and let's see and track where the counter currently is.

2. YOUTUBE crossed the 1000 Subscriber mark- The best thing that happened this week was the Youtube Creators online event and me winning a prize in the same. I am still awaiting delivery of the same but I am sure it's on the way. Also, my Youtube channel - TheLife'sWay crossed the 1000 subscribers mark on 9-May-2022 and it took 283 videos in total to reach this point. It all happened because of the YouTube Shorts Community which I became part of in South Africa. One of my shorts has even crossed 330k views so far but I have not got any money for the same because it was uploaded 4 years back so it may be the first shorts on my channel when YT shorts didn't exist. The online session made me do shorts on my channel on a daily basis and one of them went on to reach 1500+ views in a day. I will also cross 500k views overall on my Youtube Channel soon may be in June 2022.

3. Entertainment - I won the 3D tickets vouchers from Sterkinekor but when I went to get them converted to the actual tickets, it came to my notice that one of the vouchers has been used by someone else to watch a Spiderman movie in Eastgate mall. The call centre guy told me that they can't do anything as they can't verify if it was me only who booked so 1 ticket got lost. I booked the other one for Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 3D movie which I really loved. I also watched KGF Chapter 2 movie and it was awesome to watch the same too.

4. Thank You - The count went from 43000 to 82700 this week which is a good number despite not being able to achieve the walking targets.

New Year Resolutions - Week 19 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

5. Books and Audiobooks - I have gone slow on the books part during this week as I focus on other tasks I needed to complete. I am also lagging behind on Gratitude journaling and need to bring discipline into my day-to-day living.

6. Hanuman Chalisa - The count is constantly reducing towards the 42 Years mark and I am around 250x Hanuman Chalisa left now during this week. I prayed for 4 times during this week and has been inconsistent these days. I need to make new targets or at least some daily prayers once this target is achieved.

Overall, it was an entertaining week and I had full power to learn and focus to get things done. I totally enjoyed myself chasing up all my tasks. I went to Hospice Wits Charity shop as well and shopped for some stuff there at cheap prices. I have made some videos also on the same if you want to watch it.

7. Charity Shopping - Hospice Wits Benmore is a shop where you can find old books and other random stuff which people donate. In a way, you are bartering cash by buying their old products for the benefit of the charity as well as yourselves. I generally try to donate all the extra things I don't want there for someone to enjoy the same.

These are the 3 videos I shot for some of the stuff I bought from the charity shop.

WEEK 18

Cheers!!!

New Year Resolutions - Week 18 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Friends,

At the start of Week 18, I was around 984 Youtube Subscribers and struggled to reach the 1000 mark where I will lose a few subscribers and gain the equivalent number of them. It really needed a little push for which I asked one of my cousins to go ahead and do it. He did what he does best and helped me reach the 1000 mark in Week 19.

Week 18 - Sat 30 Apr 2022 - Fri 07 May 2022

1. Walking - I completed 27 kilometres in this week to make it to the 360-kilometre mark in Week 18 which is around the 20 km mark every week. This brings a lot of satisfaction that we are where we wanted to be and the same was achieved on 2-May-2022. This week I walked too much which made me go in with some kind of leg and back pain and impacted the next week completely. It's better to follow the schedule always and reach a point where your body can take it comfortably.

2. Hanuman Chalisa - I completed the 41x Years of Hanuman Chalisa on Tuesday, 3rd May 2022 and also completed 15000x Hanuman Chalisa on 4th May too and am left with less than 400x now. It brought me a lot of happiness that I am going to reach my goal soon rather than waiting till my birthday on 22nd July 2022.

3. Launch Events - This has been a rare case when I attended 3 events in a single day and that happened on 6-May when I attended a RedHat event, an Intel event and then a book launch event in the evening. The goodies were really nice from RedHat and a snacks box from Intel which you can check in my Youtube videos below. Also, Monday being a holiday brought the parties at home on Saturday and a picnic at the Botanical Garden in Johannesburg. It was great to see that the place has been upgraded quiet significantly from the last time I saw it many years ago.

4. Thank You - The count started from 16000 and reached the 43000 mark during this week. I am still not able to count all the totals as I don't want to waste my time on the same instead I will increase the count for the day.

5. Books/Audiobooks - I completed Invested: How Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Taught Me to Master My Mind, My Emotions, and My Money audiobooks by Danielle Town and Phil Town and came across various new financial ratios which I need to think about. The book inspired me to look at the other books by Phil Town a little later in the year.

6. Entertainment - I watched Legends of The Ramayana With Amish on Discovery Plus as Amish Tripathi is my favourite writer and because of this I started reading non-fiction novels when he launched the Shiva Trilogy series. I met him too during the launch event of his third one from the Shiva series on Westland books. The 3 episodes documentary march the journey taken up by Lord Rama to find Sita from Lanka where Raavan kept her. There are certain landmarks in various parts of India and Sri Lanka which are showcased and the whole Ramayana is mapped to where it happened and what remains there in the modern world now. It was an eye-opener in terms of various facts which I was unaware of about the Ramayana book. Totally worth your time if you love Lord Rama or Lord Bajrang Bali ji.

May 2022 is the month that I have been waiting for since the start of the year 2022. I am going to meet my brother and his family after a gap of many many years. He is taking a long flight to South Africa and I have to schedule a great stay for him. Everything will be focused on him as I love him a lot and respect that he is coming to me. The last time I went to him was in 2005 on my first international trip to Singapore and he came to meet me in 2006 in Hyderabad from the USA.

WEEK 17

Cheers!!!