My Diwali Day

My Diwali this year was a very special one…although was away from my family and was missing them but still I enjoyed to the fullest… My Diwali day was a busy one..I woke up early in the morning as I had great plans for the day…my cook came on time.. but my maid was on leave as she was also busy celebrating Diwali..I planned to cook nice food (Lunch) – Puri (made of wheat flour), Aalu ki sabji with gravy (Potato gravy), stuffed Patal/Parval and Halwa (Sweet dish which I prepared with Ghee, Wheat flour, sugar and water), for breakfast I had fruits then I cleaned my house..took bath and did morning puja…then made rangoli with different colors…the rangoli was all over the place..in verandah, balcony, puja room and at the entrance of every door..i took almost three hours to complete that…it was fun decorating my house with that...

This was my main rangoli at the varandah


Rangoli at the entrance of every door


My Puja room rangoli

For lunch my friends joined me and were at my home till evening… in the evening I dressed up for the evening puja..and then went to my friends place to do that first

Preparing for puja at my friend’s place


About to start puja


Puja ki thali..

After doing puja at my friend’s place I came back to my home for the same …my friend helped me out for the puja...n am really thankful for that…:)

Preparing for puja at my place


Doing puja.. :)


Decorating puja room rangoli


preparing floating candles bowl for the main rangoli.. it is said that this thing spreads positive energy..(used clean water, flowers petals and candles)


done with the floating candles bowl..i actually used tea tree candles for the natural fragrance..


My lovely main rangoli...


View from my balcony

After all this I burst crackles which actually was a surprised gift by my friend for the Diwali.. bursting crackles is the best part of Diwali for me…I just love it…:)diwali wishes from my relatives and friends via calls and text messages was part of the entire day..:)missed them a lot...:(
For dinner we had a invitation from our common friends… we went there..had dinner…did chit chat..and was back home..till that time I was very tired and slept early…with the sweet memories of the day..:)

Waiting Enthusiastically For Deepavali

May the festival of lights be the harbinger of joy and prosperity. As the holy occasion of Diwali is here and the atmosphere is filled with the spirit of mirth and love, here's hoping this festival of beauty brings your way, bright sparkles of contentment, that stay with you through the days ahead. Best wishes on Diwali

Natural Skin Care

As most of us know - “True beauty comes from within” and your skin reflects what you eat. According to Japanese their skin care begins with eating habits. So, taking this into consideration I would like to share few tips/knowledge (internal and External) for healthy skin:
1. Maintaining healthy eating habits helps in achieving gorgeous skin. At least 1.5 liters of water must be consumed daily, a good water intake provides necessary detoxification to the body
2. Water therapy is also beneficial in fighting against various health disorders
3. Proportion of oil in the daily food intake must be reduced significantly; food must be cooked more in water than oil
4. Daily consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables (especially raw tomatoes) helps in achieving redness in the cheeks
5. Mangoes are rich in Vitamin A and helps repairs skin
6. Avocadoes - Nourish skin inside out, makes skin smooth as it contain abundant essential oils and b-complex vitamins
7. Daily washing of the face three to four times without soap or face-wash solution helps in keeping the skin gorgeous
8. Application 1 spoon of honey with 1 spoon of lemon juice gives shine to the skin
9. In case of oily skin, facial massage with papaya slices once in two weeks for a period of 10-15 minutes is quite beneficial
10. A massage mixture of almond, sandalwood, and milk is also beneficial for facial skin
11. A regular bath with a mixture of cold water and ‘neem’ leaves boiled in water helps in fighting against several skin problems and infections
12. During winters massaging with almond oil, olive oil or coconut oil on the face, hands, and legs before taking a bath also assist in dealing with dry skin. Massaging with curd also helps to get rid of the dry skin, it is also considered as natural skin bleach solution
13. Applying mint on the face and leaving it for at least for a period of 10-15 minutes provides relief from pimples
14. Cleaning face with tomato slices gives radiant skin

Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince

My favourite dialog – “Once again I must ask too much of you, Harry”
I watched Harry Potter and Half blood prince last week with my colleagues. One of my friend was very annoyed with the film as he has not seen the previous series and was not able to understand haha…it was fun to see him getting irritated.. the movie was good as usual but what I found was that the climax in this series as compared to it previous series was quite less but it definitely increased my excitement to watch next series as I think that it would be full of climax…would like to talk about the overall story:
This was Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts with the arrival of a new teacher, Horace Slughorn, the teacher turns to be more useful to Harry. Harry during his class got the book which used to belong to the mysterious Half-Blood Prince. Harry finds some text written along the margins of the pages, which gave Harry advice on how to make the potion correctly. On the other hand, Harry started the private lessons with Dumbledore, during which Harry got to know some secrets of Voldemort's past, with the hope that, these secrets will help him find a way to defeat him. Harry also assumed that the Voldemort is making his way through Draco Malfoy and quickly finds out what he was up to...
I would like to recommend this movie and will give it eight points out of ten :)

What’s the next step of retailing…?

During my visit to a Big Bazaar departmental store last week, I got a feel of a vegetable market where vendors try to sell vegetables by yelling the cost of their product… the same was the condition here where the sales person was selling the groceries by ringing a bell and bellowing the lowest price and discounts. I was stunned and it made me to think, is this of the trend coming up in Indian retail? Or is this a consequence of competition where retailers have to yell and shout about the discounts they offer? On the other hand, is it a strategy to attract their target segment? When it comes to organized retail, which accounts for hardly four per cent of the total retail market and is pegged to grow to $64 billion by 2015, is trying a variety of methods ranging from discount stores to supermarket to hypermarkets to specialty chains, and most players appear to be gravitating towards the hypermarket format. Can you imagine the intensity of competition five years down the line?

The major players like Pantaloon to RPG to Piramals or the Tatas are working to exploit this model, which is perceived by consumers as more value enhancing. However, in the long run, the strategy most likely to succeed is a more balanced multi-format strategy that will help the retailers adapt to the different shopping patterns that exist within the country and even within regions. Here again, merely copying global trends will not help. On the other hand, a research found that single-format players generated higher shareholder value than multi-format ones. Some feel a combination of cash-and-carry and neighborhood stores, as in a hub-and-spokes model can be a good bet. As of now, India needs a lot of room for experimentation on part of the retailers. Currently, there are no cut-and-dried solutions when it comes to fixing on the right retail format.
Finally, with the flush of the retail boom, the elimination of traditional intermediaries are bringing windfall gains (as well bringing much-needed relief to the producers), and few years down the line, even this source is going to dry out as competition intensifies and margins come under pressure. What would set the survivors apart from those who are forced to sell out (or go belly-up) will be differentiators like location, value-added services (convenience), private labels and customer loyalty programmes, other than price. Going further in the last, the retailer-manufacturer tie-ups, state-of-the-art supply chain infrastructure, global sourcing and scale will be a key factor. If experience in other markets is anything to go by, will be an ability to read shifting trends…and then again what next?