In this day and age there are many who would be skeptical about shopping online for gifts. Granted, the net holds many perils, but keep your eyes peeled and you won’t get ripped off.
Choosing the site is important. EBay is one that has made a name for itself for selling anything and everything, but that is because it panders to the eccentric whims and fancies of people. However, it is possibly one of the better sites you could go to for your shopping. If you have the time then check out the credentials of the site by contacting the people behind it and visiting their regional office, if they have one. If you plan to do a lot of online shopping then it is imperative that you do this. In order to test the products and the kind of services the site provides, then simply start shopping – start with small purchases first.In time you will get to know the site better and understand how it works. With minimal energy you will have found yourself a veritable gold-mine for all your colleagues and bosses who are, after all, your main focus in this exercise.

But why shop online?
The obvious: it saves time! Time is the biggest cruncher of all in our times of fast money, fast cars and fast lifestyles. Often with the culture of gifting creeping into our workspace we end up being forced to buy gifts for people we don’t give a rat’s ass about. Pardon the French. So why spend too much time and energy on that? Money can also be saved – think about the travel expenses you would be saving by simply clicking a button on your computer. It might seem like nothing to you now, but think of it in the long run. You save time as well as money. And it is just as easy to get it delivered to the recipient as it is when you are shopping personally.

Moreover it is not as ‘shady’ as it used to be. When you shop online you get a 360 degree view of the product you are considering. So you’re not buying anything blindly.
There are so many corporate gifting websites that it is difficult to sift the chaff from the grain – check out how many people would actually endorse the website. It’s not too difficult or time-consuming as websites would happily advertise anything positive said about them. So investigate the site and see what the customer feedback is like. Ask people you know who have sold or bought things online and get to know the site through their experiences.
Just like the services provided at a store, websites also have fun add-ons that make the whole experience memorable. Funny icons, catchy opening lines, riotous colours … they’re all in place to keep the consumer – you – hooked. Online shopping is much more safe than it used to be earlier and a whole lot more fun too!

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There are certain occasions that you must carry gifts into the office for – otherwise you would immediately be made an office piranha.

Your Birthday : You will immediately be labeled a kanjoos makhichoos if you do not bring at least a cake for everybody on your birthday. If not that, then worse – you will give out the impression that you are not a part of the team and that you do not feel close enough to your team mates to include them in your day. Bad impression to make!

Your boss’ birthday : The entire team should be roped in for this. Pool in your money and buy him or her something special. Even if you joined the day before, don’t even think about making a fuss about contributing. It is not about money, but about being part of the team. So just do it even if you don’t want to.

Indian festivals: Alright, bringing a gift to office for Independence Day is a bit much; no one wants those traffic signal flags flapping about on their desks. But considering how multi-cultural India is, do bring in a gift on a special day of your own religion or culture. Like katha-stitch bags for the Bengali New Year, or a dabba of dhansak for the Parsi New Year. It is an indirect invitation for everyone to participate in your special occasion, and generating a feeling of kinship. However, whether you do this or not, celebrating the most important festival of the particular region your work is based in is crucial. Diwali in Maharashtra, Durga Puja in West Bengal, etc etc … you get the picture. You may forget about the others, but not this.

Christmas and New Year : They’re not Indian but the hype is certainly strong enough to make them hard to ignore. And most of us who have gone to English-medium schools and colleges certainly have a soft spot for these. Rum cakes, Santa hats, bells for the entrance door, etc, are small ways of bringing in the holiday spirit.

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“Do me a favour, let’s play Holi…”

crooned Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra in a blockbuster film with Akshay Kumar. In spite of the barrage of colours that they threw at each other and several others during the filming of the song sequence, Priyanka survived the ‘assault’ with her hair intact. Priyanka Chopra may recommend Sunsilk for the hair, but we recommend going a little deeper when it comes to keeping your hair and skin intact during one of India’s favourite festivals.

• Always buy your colours from a reputed brand.
• Apply oil to your skin and hair before commencing with the celebrations; they coat your body with a protective layer.
• Wear synthetic clothes – cotton clothing absorbs liquids only too well.
• Use mostly gulal – it might not sound as fun as the water colours but it is a whole lot better for your skin and hair.
• Use relatively safer colours like red and pink. Colours like purple, blue, green and yellow contain far more chemicals and are way too harmful.
• Make sure that you keep a great soap and shampoo (no, not necessarily Sunsilk!) ready for your bath!

Holi Don’ts…

• Go on a colour rampage on the streets in your car with your friends. That kind of fun suits only those uneducated or little educated hooligans who live in chawls or slums.
• Force anybody to play. Holi is a very physical festival, so to speak; forcing someone to play by throwing water balloons at him or her is a serious invasion of one’s personal space.
• Throw any colour at someone’s face. The chemicals in the colours have been known to damage people’s eyesight.
• Play within throwing distance of the mithai and other food that may have been kept for the Holi party – you definitely don’t want to swallow any of the chemicals either!

So go safe this Holi and have clean good fun!

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March 21 celebrates all the wonderful fragrances in the world. We often underestimate our olfactory nerves. Did you know that these nerves help us taste our food? Skeptical? Eat and drink while pinching your nose shut. The food will fail to stimulate your taste buds.

Smell plays a significant part in our memories as well. Certain smells will always remind you of certain incidents, and it is not as simple as the smell of bhajiyas frying making your mouth water. From musk to fruity to floral to woody and spicy – it is all about the play of the ‘upper notes’ with the ‘lower notes’… much like tasting wine. Here are some tips for office perfume etiquette that helps you make the right impression.

Choose Wisely : The only way to select a perfume that works well with you is to select it yourself. These days the fashion is to spray perfume onto strips of paper, wave them about and sniff delicately in between coffee bean shots. This does not help. Dab the perfume onto your wrists and wait for a few seconds. Just as wine takes time to come into its own and bloom into its true nature on your tongue, so does perfume take time to blossom on your skin. A perfume smells quite different a few minutes after it has been sprayed and its reaction with your skin also determines how long it will last. So ditch the paper strips and spray onto your skin directly; never mind the snooty sales assistant’s expression of distaste.

Perfume or Deo?
Fine you hate the thought of picking up those cheap deos that come in plastic bottles with spray buttons that need to be jabbed extra hard for them to work. Yet the expensive perfumes that you pick up fade away in four hours, max. That’s because they’re supposed to – they’re perfumes, not deodorants that are meant to last the whole day through. But look at the labels carefully – ‘eu de cologne’ is what you must avoid, ‘eu de deodorant’ is what you should go for, and there are plenty of brands offering your favorite smells in the deodorant format that will last you the whole day. Davidoff’s Cool Water is only one of the options.
Never, but Never Let Your Perfume Overpower You
Each perfume is different; some are mild and delicate, others like to dominate the air around them. It is never good to smell as if you have bathed in your perfume; Cleopatra had her reasons, but those are not for this day and age. You may smell pretty, but nobody wants to soak in floral or woody or musky fumes from your desk. Besides, studies have proven that your natural scent can work more wonders for you than anything from an assembly line. So always go for a subtle fragrance.
Wear it Right : Where you dab your perfume is as telling on you as the scent you choose. Never spray it on your clothing; besides leaving unsightly marks behind, it is just simply not done. Hold the bottle at a suitable distance and spray onto your wrists; contrary to popular perception perpetuated by the movies, you do not rub your wrists together – that destroys the top notes. Rub your finger on the bottle nozzle and apply the perfume behind your earlobes. Spray some on to your neck and cleavage and you’re all set. For added drama, you could spray the air and walk through it to ‘absorb’ the perfume – it ensures that you are almost literally enveloped in your perfume!
So go ahead and floor everybody with your perfumed aura that is certain to make your presence felt the right way.

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With stock market in a tailspin, people are looking to build a more diversified portfolio of investments that will cushion them against such random and rapid falls in equities. Indeed, stock markets world over have turned topsy-turvy in recent times as the indices have become hyper-sensitive to inflation, recession and any negative macro or micro-economic clues. Experts are advising investors to stay away from the stock markets, and rightly so!

It may be that one of your friends or family members have burnt their fingers in the stock market meltdown. Can you provide them with some succour? Do you want to suggest them an alternative avenue to park their hard-earned money to safeguard and grow it? Is there a way to assured wealth building in these uncertain times? Well, you need not harangue them on risk-free investing. What you need do is just buy a nice piece of art, and gift it to them. It’s bound to fascinate them. Then draw their attention to the fact that many high net worth individuals and non resident Indians are putting their money in art!

Art is now viewed not only as an object of pleasure but also as an attractive asset to hold. Especially, Indian art is emerging as a safe investment option, making it a valuable gift from long-term perspective. What better way of making your friends or family drawing to value investing in art than gifting them a piece of art? What thousand words can’t do, a piece of art will!

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The singular aim of celebrating World Book and Copyright Day (WBD) is to encourage masses to explore or discover the immense joy hidden in books, which are ultimate treasure troves of knowledge. The celebrations are for cultivating the habit of book reading by providing the people with the opportunity to own a book of their own.

World Book and Copyright Day celebrations start in March. The day is marked on March 6 in the UK and Ireland. (This date applies to the UK & Ireland only). This is just a precursor to the worldwide celebrations that happen more than a month and a half later, on April 23, when the official World Book and Copyright Day is celebrated in most other countries, including India.

The initiative is well established in the UK schools. The academic circles make the most of this opportunity for celebrating books and reading. Schools in India – children and especially parents – need to follow suit. For e.g., instead of gifting expensive toys on birthdays, parents and relatives should gift books to children.

Of course, buying a book needs some thought and planning. You cannot just pick any book, get it wrapped and hand it over as a gift. You need to select an author or genre that the receiver likes. If you succeed in finding this out, it will add a personal touch to your gesture. While dealing with delegates or clients from abroad, a coffee table book about your country will be a perfect gift idea.

You may look for attractive offers from leading bookstores like Crossword that has on offer gift vouchers. The gift vouchers can make the perfect gift idea. They are available in various denominations you can choose from, depending on your budget. You need not redeem the entire voucher value at a time, and can do so in part, over several visits. Many other leading bookstore chains, including Landmark and Granth among others, have similar attractive offers for book lovers.

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While dealing with delegates from UK or when you happen to be in the UK for corporate meetings, keep in mind that a firm handshake is the norm irrespective of the gender of the person you happen to meet or greet. People shake hands upon arrival and at the time of leaving. Maintain eye contact during the handshake, but do not prolong either of the two acts. It will make people uncomfortable. Business cards are exchanged at the time of introduction without any formal ritual. It may be put away by your British counterpart with just a cursory glance, but don’t get offended by it.

Now, let’s follow some important gift giving etiquette norms in the country. The British people tend to exchange gifts quite frequently between close friends and family members on personal and social festive occasions like Christmas. However, giving and receiving gifts is not a common practice of British business culture. In fact, your British business colleagues might get embarrassed on receiving any gift. The only exception can be made at the time of finalizing a deal. You can mark the occasion by giving an appropriate commemorative item gift.

Again, avoid showy objects that may make the recipient feel awkward. Small gifts like a pen or a book, suitably inscribed, would serve as genuine gesture. Flowers or wine/champagne as a token of thanks for junior colleagues will suffice.

The key point to remember when giving gifts to your UK business associates is to be tasteful and restrained and unostentatious.

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International Women’s Day has been celebrated since in the early 1900’s - a period of great expansion in the industrialized and business world. At that time, great unrest as well as critical debate was occurring amongst females.

Their fight against inequality and oppression was gathering momentum. It spurred many women to become active and vocal in this concerted campaign for change. In 1908, about 15,000 women marched through New York for their demand of better pay, shorter hours and voting rights.

In accordance with the Socialist Party of America declaration, the first National Woman’s Day (NWD) was celebrated across the US on 28 February. The US continued to celebrate the occasion on the last Sunday of February till 1913.

At a Socialist International meeting held in Copenhagen, an International Women’s Day was proposed to acknowledge their rights movement and to help them in achieving universal suffrage.

In 1917, on the last Sunday of February, women in Russia started a strike for ‘bread & peace’. Despite opposition from political leaders, they continued with their strike till the Czar was forced to abdicate; the provisional Government granted the right to vote to women.

The date the strike commenced was Sunday (23 February) on the Julian calendar then being used in Russia; this day on the Gregorian calendar was 8 March, now marked as the International Women’s Day.

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There are certain nuances of the British behavior that one needs to understand before learning gift giving etiquettes in the UK.

The British essentially are very private and reserved people. For them, privacy is very important, and they expect others to respect it. They like to maintain a distance and don’t like to open up as much, at least to begin with. There’s a proper way of presenting yourself in most situations. The British people strictly adhere to protocol. They do not make use of effusive language, and show a marked tendency to employ ‘qualifiers’ like ‘possibly’, ‘it could be’ or ‘perhaps’. They are restrained in their hand gestures and overall body language.

It’s important to keep in mind the fact that the British can get quite formal; they prefer to work with individuals and firms they know well personally or through their associates. In this regard, the younger generation is much more open, and looks beyond long-standing personal relationships for doing business.

Nonetheless, relationship building and networking often hold key to long-term business success. It takes longer to build relationships or friendships with the British business associates. However, once they are formed, the bonds tend to be deep. In fact, most Britons look for forming long-term relationships, while doing business. They will tend to go into their shell and become cautious if it appears to them that you are running after a quick deal. Gifts can be a way of increasing familiarity and building bonds, but as explained, one should be careful in following the gift giving norms or else your purpose won’t be served.

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Let’s understand the ways of giving and receiving gifts – business or personal – in France. There are certain unstated conventions of selecting and presenting an appropriate gift in the country. The first thing to be kept in mind is that pompous display of generosity and warmth amid business associates through lavish gifts is unwarranted in France’s business culture. Though giving and receiving gifts is acceptable, you should exercise discretion. Even though gifts are given during social events, especially as a thank-you gesture after a dinner party, don’t get too fussy about its price tag. It need not be very expensive or showy.

Give thoughtful gifts like esoteric books and music collection that the recipient will like and appreciate. For this, you need to be familiar with the recipient’s tastes and interests. Any ethnic object, for example, a piece of art and craft or a coffee table book about your country will be a good gift idea.

One common mistake to avoid is tagging your business card with a gift since it goes against the French business etiquette.

If invited to a French home, carry quality chocolates, a special French dessert, high-quality liqueur or lovely flowers. Remember, chrysanthemums are for funerals. A gift of carnations may be interpreted as a sign of bad will. (Ensure that the bouquet is in odd numbers, in keeping with the old European tradition.) Don’t forget to send a personal thank-you note along with flowers or a basket of fresh fruit to your host the next day.

Holiday cards can be an appropriate gesture, particularly as an expression of sincere gratefulness to your business associates. Sending New Year’s greetings is another popular practice in France. This can be done during the entire month of January, i.e. first month of the New Year.

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