‘Management Lessons from Working Mothers’ by Bajaj Allianz Jiyo Befikar Women

*This is a sponsored post.

After a very successful webinar event last month, Bajaj Allianz Jiyo Befikar Women brings us another event this week. This is a Mother’s Day special to honour working mothers.

In the traditional role of a housewife, women have managed budgets, help staff, inventory and multiple schedules. They’ve been multi-taskers and astute managers. As mothers, they’ve balanced teaching, discipline, health, love and numerous other things that go into being a good parent. In the recent years, more and more of them have come into the workplace and continue to prove their mettle to the world. But they also continue to fulfill their roles as loving mothers and proud homemakers.

The ‘Working Mothers Management Tips’ Contest

Who better to give a lesson in management than this lady who’s juggling diapers, balance sheets, groceries and her own health? This week, we ask working mothers for tips on good management, based on their own experiences. These could do with work-life balance, time management, overcoming personal challenges or any of the other ways in which working professionals who are also mothers successfully juggle their multiple roles.

If you are a working mother or you know someone who is, share a working mom management tip on Twitter:  Tweet #MgmtLessonsFromMom. The contest begins tomorrow, 10 May and will run on till 11 May. Five worthy tweets will bag prizes from Bajaj Allianz.

The ‘Management Lessons from Working Mothers’ Webinar

And that’s not all. On Saturday, Jiyo Befikar Women will host the grand finale: a webinar on ‘Management Lessons from Working Mothers’.

The panelists are:

Deepa Malik: This international sportswoman is a Limca Record holder and has also been a participant in several auto rallies, despite the fact that she has been a wheelchair-bound paraplegic for over a decade. This hasn’t stopped her from achieving remarkable glory in sports too, as she has won gold medals in events like javelin and discus throw in the Malaysia Paralympics featuring 13 countries.

Roopa Kochhar has been identified as one of the top 100 women in Allianz, after she single-handedly set up the team that manages over 3500 employees. At 35, she is also one of the youngest Human Resource heads, especially for a company the size of Bajaj Allianz. Roopa is a big proponent of women-friendly and women-secure workplaces. She splits her time between heading the Human Resource division, managing the operations for the Bajaj Allianz Staffing Solutions Division and bringing up her 4 year old son.

Namrata Arora Singh is a talent development expert. with over 13 years of experience with some of the big names in the corporate world and professionally training as an instructional designer, performance consultant and small business entrepreneur, Namrata is a corporate heavyweight. She specializes in coaching women through transitions in life and at work.

Mahima Tankha Marwa is a pioneer of social media as a sales channel. Her 11 years of experience include setting up and successfully driving the websales channel for Bajaj Allianz. Mahima’s other big priority is her 3 year old daughter, with whom she packs in as many activities as possible.

Deepa Malik, Roopa Kochhar, Namrata Arora and Mahima Tankha Marwa will talk about their lives as working mothers building successful careers. Hosting this discussion will be Ajay Gupta, Head of Web Design & Digital Marketing, Bajaj Allianz. The webinar will be broadcast live at 12:45 pm on Saturday, 12^th May. The winners of the ‘Working mothers management tip contest’ will also be announced during this event.

I will be covering the event on Twitter. Register for the webinar at Jiyo Befikar Women, share a #MgmtLessonsFromMom tip or ask the panelists a question by Tweet #JiyoBefikarWomen.

Schedule: Management Lessons from Working Mothers

Twitter contest on #MgmtLessonsFromMom: 10-12 May 2012
Webinar on Jiyo Befikar Women: 12:45 p.m. on Saturday, 12 May 201

Connect

Facebook: Jiyo Befikar, Jiyo Befikar Women
Youtube: jiyobefikar
Blog: Jiyo Befikar Women
Gmail: jiyobefikar@gmail.com

Official: Follow @BajajAllianz
Contest: Tweet #MgmtLessonsFromMom
Webinar coverage: Tweet #JiyoBefikarWomen

Bajaj Allianz Jiyo Befikar awards ‘The Most Inspirational Working Women 2012’

* This is a sponsored post.

Bajaj Allianz’s Jiyo Befikar Women is running a poll on ‘The Most Inspirational Working Women 2012’. The finalists include 9 participants from various fields and showcasing different achievements. There are also two special mentions who did not qualify for the contest but have been featured because they deserved recognition too.

The nominees

Each of these 11 women has a story of personal glory, ranging from extreme sporting triumphs to overcoming a health condition to give back to society. A lot of the women have broken ground in areas that are traditionally seen to be men’s forte. Others juggle parallel lives with multiple interests, activities and jobs, all with aplomb, being poster girls for womanhood’s multi-tasking abilities.

The nominees are:

1. Annam Suresh, Kolkata
Development Journalist whose work covers commercial sex workers.

2. Urvashi Patole, Bangalore
Creator of Bikerni, India’s only all-women biking association & social media executive

3. Anu Vaidyanathan, Bangalore
India’s only woman triathlete (extreme sport combining athletics, biking and swimming) who also runs Pat & Marks IPR Consulting

4. Sucheta Kadethankar, Pune
The only Indian woman to trek across Gobi desert (1680 km). Also a Symantech employee

5. Chandersuta Dogra
Avid car rallyist and Outlook magazine editor

6. Yogita Rajgandhi, Mumbai
Consulting Opthalmologist, Teacher, National co-ordinator for 120 colleges

7. Deepali Joshi
Dentist who has cycled all the way to the highest motorable road in the world

8. Yogita Salvi
Office Administrator, Ruia college who conducts nationalism drives among students

9. Farah Ghadiali
Musician and Events marketing manager at NCPA

The special mentions are:

Archana Achyutan, Chennai
Cerebral palsy survivor and founder of Sampurn Counselling Center

Rakhee Mehra, Delhi
Founder, Frontfoot Sports Management

The contest is being judged based on an open vote and a special jury including Deepa Malik, a paraplegic rally driver who holds multiple Limca Book records. She represents India in the London Paralympics 2012. The jury also includes Mrs Roopa Kocchar and Mrs Anamika Rashtrawar, both successful Bajaj Allianz employees.

The event

On Saturday, 28 April 2012, the award will be announced. During the event, all the nominees will be part of a panel discussion, which will be broadcast live. In addition, the panel will also take questions from Twitter that are hashtagged #jiyobefikarwomen. The best tweets will receive special prizes.

I’m going to be covering the event on Twitter so watch my tweets and also the hashtag stream #jiyobefikarwomen. You can also send in your questions & comments on this and I’ll be sure to pass them on.

Connect

Jiyo Befikar is on:

Facebook: Jiyo Befikar, Jiyo Befikar Women
Twitter: @BajajAllianz
Youtube: jiyobefikar
Blog: Jiyo Befikar Women
Gmail: jiyobefikar@gmail.com

Blue Frog: Condescending Attitude, Offensive ‘Customer Care’

I haven’t had a reason to write a ‘What Not To Do‘ post in awhile and I wasn’t complaining. But you can always rely on one of the uber-cool, high-priced services to let you down, I suppose.

What Not To Do: Expect Blue Frog‘s security personnel and customer care to respect its customers.

Blue Frog is a hip nightclub in Mathuradas Mills Compound, Lower Parel. They have a stage which showcases musical acts (and occasionally other events). There is also restaurant-style seating and a bar. I’ve attended a few gigs before at Blue Frog.

My Friday’s plans sounded interesting. A friend mentioned that Blue Frog was hosting an experimental performance involving music & film. So we decided to catch the show after work. We got there around 9 and lined up for the mandatory bag-checking and security frisking. The security personnel asked to see identity proof. Two of my friends pulled out their company ID cards (a reputed Tata company). I didn’t know these were valid ID proofs till they told me that these had been accepted at airports too. But the security personnel refused to accept them. Here’s how the conversation went thereafter:

Security: These are not valid.

Us: Why not? Airports accept this.

Security: No, these are not valid.

Us: These are company ID cards (with photographs). It means we are employed by them.

Security: We need age proof.

Us: It is illegal to employee minors. Look at the ID card. The fact that this company employs us means that we are over the legal age, right?

At this juncture, another man strode up. He did not identify himself but his demeanor seemed to suggest that he was senior to the two people who had stopped us. He demanded to know what was going on and we explained. Here’s how the conversation went after that.

Him: At what age are you an adult?

Us: Why are you taking that condescending tone with us?

Him: Tell me what is the legal age?

Us: You’re a minor till 18. Legal drinking age is 21.

Him: 21? *snigger* Are you sure?

Us: Look, what’s the problem? Why are you being condescending?

Him: You tell your people to behave.

Us: Let’s take this down a notch. There’s no need to be condescending about it. You’re not making any relevant points. You’re just saying this to look cool.

For some reason, at this juncture we were allowed to go past. The entry fee (not the cover charge) turned out to be Rs.500 a head. This did not seem reasonable to me, especially in light of the unpleasant conversation just before so we walked out.

I tweeted the following,

Here’s what I received in direct messages:

The problem:

• Blue Frog is a premium nightclub. They showcase musicians and this sets them apart. What they charge is their prerogative. If I think it is not worth my while, I am free to not go. I have no issue with their high prices. But I don’t expect to pay to get insulted.
• The first problem was with the security norms. It seems odd to me that a service outlet would refuse to accept a document that airports deem valid ID proofs. But I’m willing to see that this is a process they have in place or that their security personnel are not equipped to handle any situations outside the script.
• The second and bigger problem was the senior security/bouncer’s attitude. I cannot think of a single service situation where condescension is permissible. What was the basis for this?
• I was quite taken aback by the excessively hostile attitude. My friends and I were asking for something beyond the script. But none of us were drunk (the evening had not even begun!). There wasn’t a single abusive, sexist or otherwise offensive word in what we said. Our voices were not even raised. What justified his saying that I should ‘tell my friends to behave’?
• It makes no sense to me whatsoever that after this hostility, we were allowed to go through. It sends out the message that security norms are not mandatory procedure but simply ways to bully customers (unless they push back).
• The last and biggest problem are the tweets. I found the second tweet really offensive. It implies that I’m lying. Why DM me to tell me that? I am not a kid who got into a fight, asking teacher to intervene. The only explanation I can think of for this, is that my tweets provoked them to hit back. (an earlier case where this happened). But if this were true, why ask to meet?
• The second part of the tweet is equally offensive. Blue Frog and I are not old friends who had a little tiff. The relationship we have is that between a service provider and a customer, a disgruntled one at that. If you let a customer leave the premises dissatisfied, what would their incentive be to return to discuss this? The onus of rectifying a customer’s negative experience lies with the service provider, not with the customer. What’s more, the tone implies a casual invitation (‘to hang out’) rather than an intent to reach out to a dissatisfied customer.

All in all, I’m disappointed by a business that believes it can talk down to its customers (for whatever reason). If you are a service provider, your customer’s questions & demands are not an imposition on your time. It is perfectly fine to not meet some of those demands. That’s just a business situation that is not possible for some reason. Hostility and condescension have no room here.

Customer care is customer care whether it’s for a bank or a ‘cool’, hip brand. Alienating the customer is the first no-no of customer service (in fact, isn’t their very function to resolve issues arising from such badly-handled situations?). I think Blue Frog is also confusing being cool with being a good service. The etiquette for resolving a negative issue don’t really differ. Be polite, be firm and be straight. It is a business situation and formality is an indicator of respect (a must for customer service), not stodginess.

If you don’t believe in paying to be insulted, you’re just going to have to do without Blue Frog.

Blue Frog is on Twitter and Facebook. They also have a website. I’ll update this post if and when there is a relevant response.

April 2012 ‘Unboggle The Blog’ – Workshop on Social Content

We started our series of web writing workshops with ‘Unboggle the Blog‘ in February. The workshop got such a good response that we conducted the workshop again in March. Both occasions have been greatly fun as well as informative, for us and for the participants.

Encouraged by this, we plan to make this a monthly feature. We start with an ‘Unboggle the Blog‘ workshop on Sunday, 8th April 2012. Here are some of the things that participants can look forward to:

• How to create engaging & sustainable conversations
• How to manage responses
• How to initiate and drive conversations
• How to build communities

We are Ramya Pandyan (Ideasmith), writer/blogger and Payal Shah Karwa (The Word Jockey), an independent communications consultant. Both of us have been keen users and observers of this space, since its inception. We each have a corporate background as well as writing experience across different media including social media. Come, explore this new medium with us!

The workshop details are as follows:

Unboggle The Blog: Workshop on Social Content

As with other media like magazines, newspapers, radio & television, the social media has its own unique personality. A tweet, a status update, a blogpost, an email, a comment or even a shared link have their own code and language. This workshop will look at blog creation & viralling, microblogging, managing conversations and community building.

Date: Sunday, 8^th April 2012
Time: 10.00a.m. – 5.00 p.m.
Location: Bandra West, Mumbai
Number of seats: 20
Fee: Single: Rs.2300 ; Group of three: Rs.6000.
Registration will be confirmed on full payment. Entry to the workshop will be on presentation of receipt.

To register, email us with ‘REGISTER FOR UNBOGGLE’ in the subject line at:

Ramya Pandyan: ideasmithy@gmail.com
Payal Shah Karwa: thewordjockey@gmail.com

You can also call us at 9870964781.

Connect

Find Write Click on Facebook.
We’re on Twitter as @ideasmithy and @thewordjockey.
Follow the hash tag on #unboggleblog.

Related articles

• ‘Unboggle The Blog’ – Workshop On Content Creation For Blogging
• All about Social Content [video]
• Workshop On ‘Social Content For Branding’ For Avignyata Inc.

I Wear: Elephants = Fashion + Fusion

My February began in a flurry of closet confusion. I had happily RSVPed to Kiran Manral’s book/beauty event for ‘The Reluctant Detective‘ at Biguine, Bandra. I had a long meeting coming up, to plan my own event highlight of the month. And in the evening, I was due across town for The Bombay Store’s ‘India Haat‘. What to wear to such diverse settings? My wardrobe agonizing would’ve done Kay Mehra (‘The Reluctant Detective‘s protagonist) proud.

It wasn’t a cool day so that put paid to any plans of turquoise double-breasted jackets, funky nylon leggings or oversized sweaters. I finally went along with a mix of both events – a slinky top that I’d normally wear to a party and a block-printed cotton skirt that I usually build into ‘ethnic’ looks.

My first thought was to theme my look with camels (in honour of the Rajasthan focus of India Haat) but I couldn’t find anything in my wardrobe. I spent the briefest of moments wondering about other animal iconography from the desert state and settled on elephants instead. (Imagine my surprise when I discovered India Haat had more elephants than camels!).

Here are all the textures & colours that I wore:

The top is a plain black wrap with texturing in the form of sheer fabric stripes.The skirt is an ankle-length, flowy wraparound in white with black blockprints of elephants and flowers. I knotted a silk scarf with black & white bandhini prints, on my handbag.

The look still felt too stark for a colourful theme like Rajasthan so I added interest with these accessories:

The earrings are tiny silver studs shaped like elephants. The silver pendant depicts an elephant too and is strung on a thin silver chain. The ring and bangle are both green & red wood (matching the pendant and bag). With these, I didn’t need much more make-up than a swish of eyepencil and a touch of red-brown lipstick.

I Wear:

• Black & sheer wrap top: Lokhandwala market
• Black & white wraparound cotton skirt: Lokhandwala market
• Black leather boots: Shop next to KFC, Linking Road, Bandra
• Silver elephant stud earrings: Cottage Emporium, Delhi
• Silver elephant pendant: FabIndia
• Silver chain: Local silver shop
• Green & red square wooden ring: FabIndia
• Green wooden bangle: FabIndia
• Red handbag: Baggit
• Steel watch: Casio

* Cross-posted to Divadom.

The BarCamp Mumbai 8 Round-Up

I spent yesterday at Barcamp Mumbai 8. This has been my first unconference in nearly 2 years. My last Barcamp was over 4years ago, overrun by techie discussions and only drew me because it had a teensy segment for bloggers. BlogCamp evolved as an offshoot of that.

Yesterday was a pleasant return. For one, the event that usually struggles on time, breezed through the multiple sessions, speakers and classrooms easily. There were 4 classrooms in the ultra-posh Mukesh Patel ….. The wiki was flowing with colourful post-its even at 10:15 a.m., which is when I got there. And most delightfully, the subjects spanned a diverse range of intellectual tools, hobbies & interests & scientific applications in fun real life ways. One had to be truly ruthless to pick sessions to attend since there were so many good ones, several happening simultaneously.

Off the top of my head, these are the ones I attended:

• Anatomy of a question – Sumant Srivathsan (How to design an interesting question in a quiz)
• Mindmaps – Rehab Chougle
• Kitne star diye? – Manisha Lakhe (on film reviewing)
• The censorship of AMEN, gay community rights – Harrish Iyer
• Comic book publishing for dummies – Aditya Bidikar
• Diagnosing Bipolar Disorder – Anubha Bhat

Interesting titbits from the day:

I entered Rehab’s session late, having misread the wiki schedule. It was interesting and fun, though occasionally highjacked by someone who claimed that genocide made him happy. Quick tip – if you’re demonstrating or talking without a powerpoint, avoid the big conference room. The larger crowd is harder to maintain & engage. Rehab did a great job though and showed off a mind technique that will help anyone from an artist to an executive stuck in a business dilemma.

Harrish is always entertaining and touching in equal parts. His first talk was about the film AMEN being denied a certificate by the censor board and he did a superb job of bringing out the inconsistencies in their policies. His second talk though, was the one that really had people talking. He was speaking of how gay people are treated in India, when partway through, he was interrupted by a very fervent member of the audience who insisted that,

“According to Hinduism, you can only have sex with your wife, inside a closed room. Only after marriage and only for procreation, not for fun.”

The uproar that followed had to be taken out into the corridor to make way for the next speaker. The episode illustrated one of the reasons that unconferences are a great way to seed ideas, bring out thoughts and get people talking, sometimes about controversial and difficult topics.

My session on ‘Social Content’ happened on the fly. It’s been years since I spoke completely extempore, as I did yesterday and it was a great experience. I was actually hoping to create interest for my upcoming series of blogging workshops, beginning with ‘Unboggle The Blog‘. But instead, I found myself naturally touching on several related but disjointed thoughts about this space. My 20 minute, stream-of-consciousness ramble imitated the way we consume and add to social content, on our Facebook Walls, our Twitter timelines and all out other channels of social media. I touched on the artificiality of traditional media, social media as an extension of normal, human behaviour, how trolls are mirror daily social miscreants experimenting in their own ways and that we’re all creators & consumers of social content. Here’s the talk:

I missed the #TWSS talk by Aditya Sengupta since the room was so packed that even the door couldn’t be opened. From what I hear, it was a tongue-in-geek demonstration of an algorithm used to generate and viral #TWSS (That’s what she said). But the geek in me found a corner in Anubha Bhat’s talk on diagnosing bipolar disorders using algorithms.

I’m not going to dwell on how great it was to catch up with old friends again, since that’s a given in any gathering. Yesterday was more than just friends catching up and people networking. It really was a meeting of minds, a true sharing of ideas. A big thank you to the Barcamp team for pulling off such a great day!

The Bombay Store Launches ‘India Haat’

I was at The Bombay Store on the 1st of February, for their India Haat event, showcasing their Rajasthan special line. There was so much colour around (in keeping with the state represented), that all I did for the next hour was shoot pictures. Let my photographs speak for themselves:

I started with the clothing section:

Fabrics for those who prefer the richness of design & texture, that is Rajasthan:

Home furnishings weren’t far behind:

Fun, quirky kitchenware:

Trinkets are pretty much all I can afford at The Bombay Store, at the moment and here’s what caught my eye:

There was a definite elephant theme going on, curiously coinciding with my own elephant-themed look for the day! Here are all the adorable pachyderms, I spotted (including a photo-negative version of my skirt!):

And finally, the band-baaja:

You can see the individual pictures on the Facebook album of The Idea-smithy.

As the invitation says, the India Haat will be on till the 14th February, 2012.

Star Plus Launches Survivor India

I was at the SurvivorIndia launch party last Friday at Vie Lounge. We started with a welcome drink, a nariyal paani served up by a pretty girl in Hawaian-style clothing. It was a blogger/tweeter event so they had a live display of all tweets with #SurvivorIndia. I was live-tweeting and twitpic’ing through the entire evening (pictures later in this post).

I want to make a note of the fact that the event, scheduled to start at 7:30p.m. actually began only at 9.30p.m. The delay was because some of the participants had not turned up. I spotted Shilpa Agnihotri (of Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi) & Rajesh Khera (Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin) very early on in the evening and my guess is they’re probably the biggest stars on this show. Payal Rohatgi, on the other hand, only turned up very late (after which the event promptly began). I’m not amused by such affectations and in case it needs to be stated, it’ll probably not win any viewer support either. As it was, I left at 10.20, having sat through the preview screening and without being able to attend the question-and-answer session. Bloggers & media people have lives too and Friday nights are not for any starlet to steal.

I didn’t have much else to do for 2 hours except shoot random pictures and tweet. Here are some of my spottings:

Survivor India has 22 participants from different walks of life – glamour professionals like models & actors but also sports persons, wrestlers and other people. Some of the recognizable names on the show are Payal Rohatgi, Shilpa Agnihotri, JD Majethia, Sangram Singh, Abhinav Shukla, Karan Patel, Timmy Narang, Sylvester Rodgers, Priyanka Bassi, Rajesh Khera and Munisha Khatwani.

The show takes place on a remote island in the Philippines where the participants (called Survivors) will have no access to even basic amenities and will have to fend for themselves. The teams will also vote out people during the show, which means each member has to survive the elements and also human dynamics.

Survivor India will air on Star Plus from 6th January, 2012 at 9pm.

Popular Dance Is Now A Legitimate Activity

When I was a teenager, dance wasn’t a slightly taboo concept. I say ‘slightly’, because the times didn’t exactly forbid or punish dancing. Indeed, most girls were sent for bharatnatyam or kathak classes. But these, seemed to be, at best, surface-level attempts to show how ‘broad-minded’ and ‘culturally inclined’ their families were. Even as a leisure activity, dance placed somewhere below music. Every child who learnt music was made to parade their skills at family functions and friendly gatherings. The dancers didn’t get the same kind of attention.

More contemporary forms of dance (then mostly Bollywood), were not taken seriously as forms of art or indeed, activities that could be pursued and nurtured, by everyday people. Somewhere around the turn of the millennium, that started to change. Maybe it’s because Bollywood got more modern and the dhak-dhak-jhatka-matkas gave way to more light-footed steps that were accessible to the in-front-of-TV dancer (which I assume would be the equivalent of the bathroom singer). In parallel, there was a concerted effort to push various other forms of dance, salsa being the prime leader in this. All at once, there were dance shows, dancing competitions & reality shows on TV, dance classes & special instruction in dance.

A decade later, dance is suddenly serious business. It’s a tangible career option, a viable part of major public functions and a respectable aspect of one’s profile or resume. Words like salsa, tango, merengue aren’t alien to us anymore. Even forms like belly-dancing and pole-dancing which would have been unmentionable a decade ago, are being openly advertised, sought and attended today.

This is personally intriguing to me, interested as I am, in both pop culture and art of any sort. But it never went beyond that. My musical career went from classical Carnatic music training to guitar lessons, to pop/rock jams on campus to stage performances all through my academic life and some after. I also had the mandatory bharatnatyam training too, as a kid. But it never went beyond that, save an awkward shake-a-leg at a crowded college festival. I never thought of myself as a dancer. I don’t even know whether I am graceful or not, since I never had a chance to explore it. So it’s quite wonderful to know that dance in several forms is now within reach of regular people like you and me too.

This is what got me thinking about this – Sayan Chowdhary, a friend and former colleague has begun a parallel career in dance at the relatively ripe age of 28. After over a year of lessons, shows and other dancing adventures, he now teaches too. It’s personal inspiration to me, that he’s able to manage a busy corporate career as well as a burgeoning creative one in a time-starved city like Mumbai. But he seems to be thriving on it, which is more than I can say of my other friends whose lives are sucked up completely by their careers. The group he is with, MadMax Academy of Dance is expanding with new venues & events. I think I’ll go shake a leg too!

Here are the details of MadMax’s next event. It’s free and it’s a Christmas special so do walk in (dance in?) with your foot-tapping shoes if you’re in the area:

MadMax Academy Of Dance: Christmas Dance With Santa

Free Christmas dance workshops on  Bachata & Bolly-Hop by Madan.

This is a fun and lively dance workshop, which is not only enjoyable but also serves to educate participants about many dance forms. A dance experience not to be missed!

Dress Code : simple, sober and elegant white

Date : Wednesday, 28th Dec 2011

Time : 7:30p.m. to 9:30p.m.

Venue: Nipra House,

             17,Ropa Lane,

             Chandan Wadi,

             Marine Lines,

             Mumbai

To register in advance please contact us:

Contact

Phone : 993-0996-623

Email : info@madmaxdance.com/, madmaxdance@gmail.com/, madan@madmaxdance.com

Social Media

Website : http://wwww.madmaxdance.com

Twitter : @MadanMadmax

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/madmaxdance

Zomato: http://www.zomato.com/events/mumbai/christmas-dance-with-santa-100007884

Ideamarked Nov2011: Window Gardens, Bookstores, PS3 & Kolaveri Di

I’ve always loved November. Diwali festivities, vacations to look forward to…as I’ve gotten older, I find the end of the year packing up. The weather is crisper, even in hot & humid Mumbai. Everyone starts to let their hair down and spends more time thinking about parties, picnics & get-togethers than work. The world takes a break next month & November is all about the planning and anticipation of just that.

It’s been a packed and enjoyable November for me. I attended the NH7 festival in Pune, in its second year. A story on women bloggers featured me in a prominent way. For the few of you who remember my long-winded adventure with NovelRace, I finally managed to complete it! Whether this ever comes out or not, I can now die happy knowing that I did write a full novel.

On that cheery note, here’s this month’s links. As you can see, there was a lot of link-love going around too!

• DewarsIndia’s channel features music travelogues across India. (on Youtube, link courtesy Sangita Bhargavi)
• ‘Simi’s new show: India’s most botoxed, banal & brainless‘: Of course, I agree. (via FirstPost, link courtesy Lakshmi Shesadri)
• ‘MasterChef India: Guaranteed to cure you of any desire to cook‘: Sadly, I’m having to agree. MasterChef India has a long way to go before it can be in the same league as MasterChef Australia. (via FirstPost)
• Window gardening for the urban-dweller longing for a touch of green – ‘Growing Organic Fruits & Vegetables at Home‘ (via Earthoholics, link courtesy Vishal Gadkari)
• ‘Worklish’ is a way to cover up how much one doesn’t know. They why is it that we who don’t speak it, are left out in the cold?: ‘Buzzwords at office driving you crazy? 6 ways to cope‘ (via Huffington Post)
• If your interest in astrology, tarot, dream interpretation & the predictive arts extends beyond mere curiosity, you should definitely visit Magick. The store  is currently looking for fulltime apprentices to initiate into the Wicca tradition. (via Swati Prakash)
• If you ever wondered why the people you follow, don’t follow you back, here are some possible answers: ‘The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Follow You On Twitter‘ (via Mashable)
• Reviews, recipes and workshops, you have to stop by Tulleeho if you have a love of the drink.
• India as the Indians see it – non PC humour (on Facebook, link courtesy Shweta Madan)
• ’5 Tips To Help You Decide How Much Of You Should Show Up On The Blog‘ (via SharingWithWriters)
• Hail the motherland of idlis, software dreams & kitschy Kollywood songs! This month’s music craze – Kolaveri Di (via Youtube)
• A 5-yr old post that’ll still interest Mumbai’s booklovers: ‘A Bibliophile’s Guide To Mumbai‘ (via The Idea-smithy)
• A lovely gift from blogger to blogger – ‘It’s Not Just A Car‘ 55 word story by Manuscrypts!
• Kitab Khana, a bookstore recommendation courtesy Anuradha Shankar.
• A little thought on liking and love (via Slices of Time, link courtesy Rehab Chougle)
• ‘MICHEAL: PS3 Long Live Play‘: A fun advertisement for gamers (via Youtube, link courtesy Ashwini Mishra)

* Catch these links as they happen on The Idea-smithy Facebook Page. You can also post an interesting link of your own to the page and get featured on the Ideamarked post at the end of the month!