Bring home a Deepam, shine bright like a diamond

When you love someone more than anything else in this world, how do you express it?  Is there a description or a sonnet that can convey your feelings with authentic delicacy, passion and ease that they would just understand what you want to say? 

Swarovski collection in Kanjeevaram silk

Well few people can. What would you gift to the most beautiful person in your world? When you are in search of beautiful gift for your beloved for a special occasion, you might as well choose something that compliments not just their tradition but also accentuates their individuality. If you are still searching for such a matchless gift, head to Deepam Silks and check out their Swarovski collection!

Get dressed for any occasion @ Deepam Silks Crystal Silk wonder

Inspired by centuries old traditions of Kanjeevaram silk sarees that mark the auspicious occasions like no other, invigorated by glittering stars in the night sky and the varied colors that leave you enchanted, Deepam Silk's Swarovski collection is ready to usher in beautiful blessings of the season.

As we were witnessing the unfolding of original silk wonders that come out of the handcrafted Kanjeevaram master weavers, lights danced off to the silent yet rhythmic chants of the star studded signature motifs, reliefs, corals and gopurams. I was simply bowled over as the finest silk sarees spread majestically before us and later adorned a beautiful lady who walked with poise and attitude in various colors that secretly whispered silent stories of love, joy, patience, commitment and promise that were personified in the yards of pure silk. What were crystals doing romancing with silk? Well the world's leader in cut crystals decided to go in tandem and learn to collaborate with some of the best weavers the world has ever seen and bring out the most gorgeous Swarovski collection of Kanjeevaram Sarees for Deepam Silks.

Tradition and style @ Deepam Silks Swarovski collection of Kanjeevaram sarees

The beautiful borders stand out and you know it is a Deepam even when you are in a crowd, said Pramila C, who was our host for the evening. "People call us and book appointments, give us color combinations and prebook some of our collections even before they book tickets to India!" "A Deepam Kanjeevaram silk saree is a must in every function. The occasion is incomplete without a Deepam Saree and it is this traditional love and sentimental value of our customers that motivates us and encourages us to come out with more designs and style without diluting the traditional values."

 

Pramila C, Deepam with Madhu

What is in vogue now? Well bright colors and bridal colors are back. Especially fuschia, yellows, blues and oranges are a must for this season. The well-crafted minute designs in the pallus are accentuated when the saree folds or moves but because you got the crystals embedded in them you now have small little sparkles that steal a look here and play a hide-n-seek there drawing your attention to the otherwise missed crafty work. 

Elegance and tradition packed in one @ Deepam Silks Swarovski collection

So what can you expect from this collection? Classy Kanjeevaram silk sarees that let you wear Indian heritage and culture while elegantly allowing the light to play with the naughty Swarovski crystals that keeps you graceful yet exuberant. Will you be so immersed in the intricacies of the saree design or would you be wondering how the numerous stars of the night sky have some to adorn your loved one’s feet? The answer is none. You would be overawed by the joyous reaction and the simple serene beauty of your beloved’s smile that would be brighter than all the small clean cut Swarovski crystals in her dress. 

The finest silk  @ Deepam Silks

What are you waiting for? Bring home a Deepam and shine bright like a diamond!

Contact: Deepam Silk Retail Pvt. Ltd., 404 Barton Center MG Road Bangalore – 560001, 9845108374 
sales@deepam.com | www.deepam.com | Deepam's facebook page

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Consumers... Behave!

You might say the service is bad, or the waiter should be more responsive or they should anticipate. I only agree on the word - anticipate. This is a beautiful contrast int he last 10 years that we didn't see seeping through. Wonderful read and some of us might be more considerate with what we do and how we behave as a customer in the shop. This is taken from The Meta Picture.

Monday Blues: Be Original

"Since God made us to be originals, why stoop to be a copy?" 

Reverend, Billy Graham

God will take care of you

One from the classics for today's worship!  

God will take care of you.

Homeless fonts and creativity

Sometimes creativity and fresh ideas are right near you but we choose to ignore them.

Homeless fonts chose to #openup and listen!

Mövenpick and the art of Swiss Ice cream

What happens when there is a passion for gastronomy and you have the resources to access the best of nature? Now add in the legendary Swiss perfection and you have one of the best food brands in the world. And when you know that their ice cream is one of the finest in the world, you don't mind traveling 10 kilometers for over 3 hours in jam packed Bangalore traffic on a rainy day, especially when it was one of the highest rains of the year. 

We were invited by Blogger's Club for an exclusive preview tasting of Mövenpick ice creams at their flagship store at Lavelle Road, Bangalore and it was truly a delight.

Mövenpick's products are made from all natural ingredients without artificial additives, flavorings or colors! With this all natural policy they have developed several innovations over the years, ever since they started in 1948 by Ueli Prager, with a philosophy that - “doing simple things in an extraordinary way”. 

The Movenpick ice cream boutique is the only third outlet in India (with 300 outlets across the world) and is targeted at the affluent consumer base and the ‘newly conscious of natural products’ young adults. Dennis Koorey (Country Business Manager) flew in from Australia to oversee the launch and was also our guide for the day as we explored the various flavours they had to share!

Fresh baked hot Belgian waffles served with Movenpick Swiss Chocolate Ice Cream and Stracciatella ice cream

The colors are slightly different from what you see outside, Dennis explained, as we use only natural fruits from each country and then ship them to Switzerland where the ice cream is made in the central factory and then the finished product is shipped back to the market. So you can be sure about the quality, taste and the texture of all the ice creams to be the same. 

Spiced Viennese Coffee with a strong hint of cinnamon

All Mövenpick recipes are only made out of carefully selected natural ingredients that are processed in a clearly defined manner. Exclusive food treatment procedures have been developed with all their suppliers to ensure that there is no chemical additive in the ingredients. Only natural starches are used as thickeners in fruit preparations and lemon juice replaces citric acid. 100% fruit and vegetable concentrates and/or extracts are used for colour which retains their natural colour. 

Peach Melba with Vanilla ice cream, poached peaches drizzled with raspberry sauce garnished with whipped cream, ripe peaches

Swiss Chocolate Obsession with a Stracciatella ice cream. Watch out for their chocolate sauce and shavings.

Raspberry Sparkling Sorbet

What you should not miss is their Swiss chocolate ice cream. This is their best selling of all flavours across the world! It is like a perfectly layered ice cream with sheets of fine Swiss chocolate in between sponges of soft ice cream that keep bursting in to your palette as you bite in to it. The coned caramel delight version won my heart too. 

Tiger and Dennis Koorey

You must visit them at 4/1-1 Lavelle Road, Lavelle Heights, Near Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore, India 560001 or call  080-41679720 

Website: http://www.moevenpick-icecream.com

For more pictures, visit our facebook page.

Tiger's ratings:

Ambiance: 4/5

Product spread: 4/5

Value for money: 4/5

Taste: 4.5/5

What does your closet tell about you?

You don't keep items or create clutter. 
You keep memories. 
But shouldn't some of them be let gone? 
What is the psychology behind keeping things? Is it just a part of out psyche which goes back to our gathering days (in the scientific evolution theory way)? 

Or it is that we know that something might come up? Did you try giving away somethings and see how it works? Is it true that it liberates and changes your attitude towards life? 

 I am really excited in this field and am checking some publications and see what I found out in Wall Street Journal's website. What does your closet tell about you?

Why you should watch KBC 2014

It is important to know that there is a man called Amitabh Bachchan in India. Note my words - Amitabh Bachchan and India! Amitabh is not a person but a legend and is well known for his gift of acting and more than that his phoenix like rise from the oblivion is well known.

What I am particularly interested and fascinated it his ability to touch the chord of a billion strong population with his charisma, literary ability, diction and his baritone voice. So when you are planning to skip his KBC 2014 version, I would suggest you wait and watch it for you are going to encounter some amazing snippets to his life and how he manages to sway the audience and play with your senses, emotions and the play is just an excuse for him to come to your home. With a promise of a celebration of cultures, unity, amicability and charm, this season is a must watch.

Unforgettable Sunday brunch @ Yauatcha

When you are headed to have lunch at a Michelin-starred restaurant from London, you skip breakfast and probably your morning coffee too. When I reached Yauatcha, a dimsum tea house, located at #1 MG Road Mall, Bangalore, it was a pleasure to meet Snehal, their CEO, service team and was floored by the service, decor, smiles and the food, especially their food. As a foodie, I have been on the quest to find out new places, new tastes and new cultures and food. If there is one place, I would love to revisit with my family, that would be Yauatcha. Let me tell you why!

"Our food is served hot from the kitchen. Though we don't have buffet for your today, I assure you, you would have more food than you can imagine!" When you hear this from the GM Operations, you know he is serious, especially when he proceeds to show us our seats and assigns the best people on his service team to your table.

The look and feel of the restaurant is maintained to reflect an old tea house where people dined together chatting and sharing. They have tried to retain the same materials, ambiance, noise, especially by having the kitchen inside the restaurant where you can see the food being prepared clinically almost like a music recital.

The lunch starts with a question asking about any allergies you might have so they can suggest you to avoid certain things you might need to avoid. You know it is an advantage to know the ingredients. For a place that doesn't add any MSG in their food, they are really careful. And then comes tea, in a porcelain pot to be served hot in your cup while you are prepped for the dimsums to arrive.

Now to explain the way dimsums were served I would have to ask you to imagine a play with cute little interesting characters each with an important role to play in the whole game. You are left to watch it all without realizing you are also a part of the play and once it is done, the experience leaves you changed and you are a different person. At Yauatcha, dimsums were served not just to tickle your taste buds but also to bring the goodness of Chinese cuisine home.

How do I pick my favorite? Should I say, the delicate Har Gau or Truffle edamame dumpling? The vegetable chui chow dumpling or the vegetable chive dumpling or should I say, my favorite chicken and prawn shumai or the leafy looking chicken wrapped in Pokchoi. Did I mention, the crispy prawn cheung fun, Shanghai dumpling, chicken charsui cheung fun and the veg Peking dumpling?

Or the ones that was requested to be served again - Wagyu Prawn Puff, crispy duck roll, sesame prawn and chicken fried Balls, Golden fried vegetable puff? And just when you think you are full comes the stir fried chicken rice  warped chicken in pepper and stir fried beef... Oh! How do I tell you the experience? It was like witnessing someone else having the food while you were just about to wake up and imagine all this as a dream.

When you thought this was all coming to an end and you could eat no more come these beautifully decorated, wonderfully crafted and most efficiently planned and served desserts who I must say are the showstoppers of the whole show. Not one of us could resist giving them a standing ovation while we had conflicting emotions to eat first or click a picture first!

First came the soft looking mango mousse with her glaring red raspberry delice who marked her territory with red velvety touch. Then came the sinfully delicious chocolate hazelnut mousse with her partner in crime, the delicate religieuse with curly topping that demanded immediate assault. While all the desserts disappeared to the fencing match between forks and spoons while we devoured on the beauties, we were treated to the good luck charm, the assorted maccarons and when you felt you were full and were ready to walk out with a heavy tummy, I was surprised to feel very light, as if there is still some space, which I was sure didn't exist.

How can you describe a good meal? I should say, when you want to have some more but have no space left! Sunday brunch at Yauatcha is not just another lunch, it is an experience fit for the kings. If you are in Bangalore and have not been to Yauatcha, then you are definitely missing the chance to be treated like a king, na, like an emperor. Head out to Yauatcha today with your girlfriend, boss or children and you might get not just a thank you but a hug too!

Address: Level 5, 1 MG Road Mall, MG Road or call 1800 266 1000.

Here are Tiger's ratings:

• Ambiance: 4.5/5
• Service: 4.5/5
• Food: 5/5
• Value: 4/5 

For more pictures, click here for my facebook album.
Special thanks to Blogger's Club for inviting us.

Monday Blues: Get well soon Neymar Jr.

This Monday let us all look for hope, doors to open, brighter times, realized dreams and step ahead. When in pain, look for hope. Neymar shows why he is still as star and why he has such huge fan following. Get well soon. Don't give up yet!

#MondayBlues

Save some money with Zoutons dot com!

Where is discount when in need? 

Where is that known contact when you want to buy something at a cheaper rate?

Don't we all like discounts and price cuts? Still we find it difficult to find what we like being offered at an enticing rate. Wait no more. Search no more. As Zoutons is here. 

Zoutons offers the best deals from all over the market place at one point to look at all the leading brands and is an amazing place for deciding what to buy as the deals are updated constantly and offer you an amazing choice. I particularly liked the choice it offered me on menswear and the number of stores available for shopping. It is like a supermarket on your screen!

Unlike most websites offering deals on only brands, Zoutons offers you deals based on the type of card you are holding or the account based on the bank! This is very convenient as you might find out coupon code for Myntra is offering a good deal for Axis bank account holders or ICICI bank card holders and choose your payment mode to be different to make sure you save some valuable bucks. A well thought out layout and clean look with light pleasant colors that you might open at work without being sneered upon!

One of the plus points is that apart from giving what offer is available, there is information with ratings given to show if it is worth your time to actually go and check about the offer or just ignore. I think this would save a lot of time by reducing the number of websites I would like to check before I go and pick up something.

The team at Zoutons is all set to capture mobile time-space as they have designed a very comfortable mobile friendly layout and design that is not too heavy on my phone, loads quickly and provides me smooth operation. I am impressed with the simple and clean look they have on their site and am really looking forward to seeing some sweet deals before I pick up my favorite stuff. With this incredible solution, Zoutons is replacing my Shivajinagar friend who checks and keeps me posted about the prices and where I would get a good deal. Time to save some money with Zoutons dot com!

 

Property prices to go high

This is good news to me, especially considering the plans I have. Also a good news for our clients. The next two years are expected to be extremely high growing markets for real estates and people are already preferring property purchase to gold! Here is the post.

Riding high on improved market sentiment, especially after the Narendra Modi government took charge in late May, more and more investors are going for real estate compared to stocks and gold, according to a survey.

Nearly 67 per cent of respondents in the survey preferred to invest in real estate compared to only 18 per cent in stocks and and just 15 per cent in gold, India Property said.

The property portal surveyed 2,583 people, of which over 30 per cent were above the age of 46, while 40 per cent in the 25-35 years bracket.

"With a new government at the centre, sentiment across sectors seem to be positive and real estate is riding the wave. Investors expect the first budget from the Modi government (due next week) to favour property seekers with reduction in home loan rates and a sector regulator, besides providing a boost to infrastructure segment," the property firm said in a statement.

According to the survey, nearly 79 per cent of the respondents are looking at the realty sector as a long-term investment option. Also, Mumbai tops the chart for property investment followed by Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad.

Investors also feel the property prices will go up in the next two years, it added.

Why you can't avoid video marketing

Kathryn Royster is the communications coordinator for HouseLens, the nation’s largest provider of walk-through video house tours. Her personal real estate passions are old houses and getting in over her head on restoration projects. This is her post from Inman.

Homebuyers are turning to the Internet before they turn to real estate agents, so you need to have an online presence if you want them to find you and your listings. But just putting up a website and feeding your listings to the local MLS isn’t enough. Homebuyers are increasingly turning to video for house hunting, and video is proving to be one of the most effective ways to corner the online market.

Still not sold on the idea? Maybe some statistics will convince you. By the numbers, here’s why you can’t afford to skip out on the video marketing revolution. (Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are from the Google/NAR study.)

Buyers and sellers want video

In 2012, the National Association of Realtors found that 85 percent of buyers and sellers prefer to work with an agent who uses video marketing, but only 15 percent of agents are actually using video. In other words, there’s a huge untapped audience out there, just waiting to watch your videos. And since video-savvy agents are still very much in the minority, joining the video revolution gives you a major edge over your competitors.

Video increases leads

A study by international listing website Domain.com found that video increased listing inquiries by 403 percent. That’s inquiries, not just views. In other words, properties listed with video generated four times the number of quality leads.

That’s not surprising, given the information density and memorability of video. You’ve heard that a picture is worth 1,000 words? Well, Forrester Research found that just one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words — that’s the same as roughly 3,600 Web pages of text. And according to the Online Publishers Association, 80 percent of viewers remember what they’ve seen in online videos.

If you want buyers and sellers to not only remember you and your listings but do something about it, video is the way to go.

Video makes email marketing effective

If you’re like most agents, e-newsletters and email blasts are a big part of your marketing tool kit. We all know, though, that email marketing has its weak points. Plenty of people just delete marketing emails without reading them — and those who read the email won’t necessarily click through to your website or listing. You’re also struggling constantly against opt-outs.

Video can help on both fronts. Forrester Research found that including video in marketing emails doubles click-through rates. And according to marketing automation firm Eloqua, video reduces email subscriber opt-outs by 75 percent. Add video to your marketing emails, and you’ll not only hold onto your audience, you’ll get more engagement.

Are you sold yet? Come back next week to find out how to focus your video marketing efforts to get the biggest return on investment!

Facebook's study got it wrong: seeing our 'friends' happy can make us sad

Apparently facebook was trying to either depress you or improve your mood. I never knew! Here is a clinical post by Jess Zimmerman.

It's cute that Facebook was apparently trying to make me sad by suppressing my friends' good-news updates so that I feel surrounded by anxiety and illness, in order to measure the effects of "contagion" on users' emotional states. Well, "cute" in the manner of a creepy social experiment on uninformed participants, so maybe not really the standard usage of "cute". Remember Dexter's Laboratory, the cartoon where the little kid was always plotting world-destroying antics but was also two feet tall and six years old? Cute like that.

Anyway, the point is: bless their invasive little hearts, but this was doomed from the start. People don't get sad because their Facebook friends are sad. We get sad because our Facebook "friends" are happy.

This is not me being cynical – of course I'm capable of empathy for the people I care about, and vice versa. No, this is a matter of Facebook not understanding its own product. For the average Facebook user, only a fraction of our "friends" are actually people we love – people whose setbacks strike us near to the heart, people whose triumphs uplift us along with them. The rest are former co-workers, friends of friends from that party that one time, people who were jerks to us in high school but not big enough jerks to reject their friend requests, and exes. Screwthose guys.

I realize that scientific progress sometimes means performing rigorous research on questions that seem self-evident. (I also realize that thisresearch is supposed to be done on people who know they're participating in a research investigation; never mind that right now.) But you don't need a study, informed or not, to tell you that the connection between our emotions and those of people around us are a lot more complicated than "sad=sad". All you need to do is look at a happy Facebook pic from your ex's wedding.

The study in question, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, reports that, for a week in January 2012, some Facebook users saw an altered timeline wherein posts with either "negative" or "positive" words got suppressed. A lot of the hand-wringing horror over this unauthorized experiment stems from the reality that users who were exposed to more negative content responded by making more negative posts, which implies that they were more sad. In other words, they were materially harmed by their experience as social-science abductees.

But the study doesn't seem to control for the possibility that people simply match their tone and word choice to that of their peers, to avoid being the tall poppy. In the end, it's not clear that Facebook found out anything about emotional contagion. It sounds more like semantic contagion to me.

If Facebook really wanted to make people experience unhappiness, suppressing "positive words" isn't going to do the trick. Emotions are way more complicated than the mere words we use, and it's not always posts with negative words that make us sad.

For its next mad-scientist foray into emotional manipulation, Facebook and Co should instead try building a news feed where users see only the following:

• Notifications of career success from an acquaintance who is in the same field as you, but younger
• Mushy "Happy anniversary, baby!" notes from your ex's new significant other
• Cute snapshots of your friends' young child who they say is doing so well since they opted not to get him vaccinated
• Triumphant posts of celebration from people who root for a different team/candidate than you
• Memes involving a photo of a beach or flower overlaid with encouraging platitudes with at least two obvious typos
• Off-the-chart FitBit stats
• Profile pictures making it clear that the mean, gorgeous queen bee from high school is still – against any reasonable expectation of biology or justice – extremely gorgeous
• Birth announcements from dear friends who gave their offspring really stupid names

I doubt there would be a "negative word" among them, but I guarantee you the emotional contagion would be off the charts.