As we all know, festive occasions can be a great opportunity for companies to lure enthused customers. An interesting news report (‘Icing on the kite’ by Shreya Badola in The DNA India), refers how food and festivals tend to go hand in hand in India. Most of the festivals come with their very own special foodie feasts! The festive occasion of Makar Sankranti is no exception.

However, as the story adds, there has been not many tempting treats associated with the first major festival of the year, apart from the traditional til ladoos and khichdi. That though is fast changing thanks to several restaurants and popular food joints now coming up with unconventional Sankranti offerings like cupcakes, desserts and cakes. For example, Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel is readying fusion sweets such as sesame & jaggery chocolate, sesame milifilli, etc.

Are you also looking to a celebrated with a host of interesting delicacies resembling activities synonymous with the festival? Well, there is no death of options – why no go for kite cakes – those with images of a child flying a kite. They are very much in demand…
The Monginis Foods marketing head, Viren Ghole, has been quoted as saying: “We’ve launched some special offerings on the eve of Makar Sankranti this year. People, not only in India but also abroad, can choose to gift the special Makar Sankranti Cake, special Til Gajak and Special Til Ladoos to their loved ones,” adding, these items are available on their website or over the counter.

DeliveryChef.in, an online food portal, has on offer pretty cupcakes and cakes. Entrepreneur Aditi Talreja, who runs the venture, mentions: “We believe in celebrating the festivals with loads of love, fun food and frolic, hence want to welcome the very first festival of the year with special cupcakes and cakes.”

Of course, there are many more unconventional sweet offerings going beyond cupcakes. The Crepe Station owner, Ravi Sharma, recommends special saffron waffles, also his personal favorite, for the occasion, apart from special winter muffins that they have also introduced…

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The festival of Makar Sankranti and kites go hand in hand. It’s a perfect opportunity to spread cheer and generate some goodwill.
The festival of kites, til-gul laddoos (sesame and jiggery) and gacchak gives a good chance to align with the popular motifs. People of all ages, cutting across the cross-section of the society, pick up their favorite kite designs.

Bollywood star Amrita Rao quips in an interview: “The sport mirrors our aspirations and inspirations. Just like our dreams and ambitions, the kite soars higher and even after it’s cut, it will glide down gracefully.” So there’s a lesson to be learnt for all of us, as to always keep flying high, never give up, and accept failure graciously.

In a way, kites provide a good opportunity for branding. But instead of simply printing a ubiquitous logo of your company, why not keep in mind the popular trend, and accordingly design or gift kinds that are popular? Last year Bollywood symbols were in demand, whereas kites that flaunt tinselville stars seem to be grabbing for attention along with those bearing Anna Hazare and the World Cup winning Team India this year. Actor Vidya Balan in her ‘Silk’ avatar of The Dirty Picture also surfaces on the kites.

Kites bearing the social activist, cricketers, and those of the Bollywood beauties are very much demand. The kites made of PVC plastic in the range of Rs 10- Rs 250 are also popular because they are more durable. Why not organize a kite-flying competition for your staff, and give an award to the winner to create a sense of unity and build team spirit.

Festivals like Makar Sankranti provide a perfect opportunity to bring your employees, colleagues, business associates, clients and partners together, keeping aside professional relations and bonding in a more informal manner. This helps build a rapport with the people who matter to your business. Even popular celebrities can be invited to add a tinge of glamor to the event. This will be a good promotional activity and an apt, occasion based branding exercise.

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Some sleek services have recently emerged on the horizon to allow people to locate products as well as create wish lists, which can be e-mailed to your family, friends, colleagues and distant relatives, essentially to make sure that they get at least one cherished thing they aspire for. One among them is Svpply (pronounced ‘supply’). Here’s it what does or you!

What if you are in the market searching for a winter wardrobe, but not sure which puffy coat or motorcycle boots pair to add to your buying list? After signing up, this service, lets users find other like-minded users as well as friends, to check the products and items that they have ‘liked’ on the website.

Many brands, shops and boutiques do update their own items’ feeds – those they’re selling themselves or the ones they have recommended. As an introductory note on the site mentions: “Svpply is a fast-growing community of people discovering the products that they love. Use it to keep track of the things you wish to buy, or browse your own feed of products from all across the web, curated and filtered by other people and stores that you yourself find interesting.”

Users may key in generic terms such as wool scarf and gloves. They then can browse through the items those in their own network as well as others have added to their lists. The service also makes recommendations on basis of the tastes of the different people you follow. Once you happen to spot that near-perfect white leather gloves pair or camel-hair coat, you can add the items to a holiday gift list.

The website has a frequently-updated rotation of gift guides for all budgets, cutting across a wide range of categories, such as booze, women’s accessories and tech. Svpply allows shoppers to keep tab on drool-worthy products/ items that they see on other websites, bookmarking the same in their account for further perusal.

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It always feels so much better and nicer to give than to receive, if you are relish the act of giving yourself. But then there is nothing worse than that act of ripping off colorful fine wrapping paper to unveil some gym socks, a ubiquitous CD box set of any kind or that oh-so-obviously re-circulated scented candles. Well, it can be just enough to make you seek a lump of coal, know why!

Of course, an array of online tools have long been there to let you cobble together a quick list of things that you would love others to gift you.

Pinterest

• As its name suggests, this service indeed acts as a virtual pinboard wherein users can save items that have caught their eye online.
• The site is developed with the basic understanding that  surfers in their zigzag across the online realm are constantly stumbling across interesting books, cute trinkets, pieces of furniture, iPad cases and other objects. It lets them save all these items and organize them into specific sets, including holiday wish lists.The service allows users to follow others’ lists to come up with enhanced gift ideas.

Evernote

• It’s a note-taking service that lets users add tags to the photos and notes they save. Adding a ‘holiday gift’ tag to those items will create a list of desirables.
• It has teamed up with ShopAdvisor that analyzes gift ideas in your account and searches the Web to look for matching products. It sends information about where to find them - online as well as offline.

HavetoHave

• HavetoHave allows people to clip and to save products from across the Web and then assemble them into handy shopping lists.
• The website allows members to find and to follow their friends as well as browse through the items that they have saved, either as a way to get gift-giving ideas or as suggestions to add to their own wish lists.
• As a bonus, it has put in place a built-in blue-light-special alert to tell people when an item they have flagged has actually gone on sale.

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In the west a food hamper is the most preferred gift and corporates choose their hampers with great care, it is usually a  and other accompaniments. Unfortunately this trend has not yet caught up in India given the fact that most stores such as Godrej – nature’s basket or RIL’s Fresh, shoppers stop and spencers do not cater to the corporate gifting market. There is an opportunity here for someone with an artistic ability to pack and put together a beautiful hamper that the receiver will cherish. What is important is the packing to give it the kind of panache it requires.

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Now there are a host of online platforms are perfect to make a last-minute holiday list. However, they will come in quite handy year-round especially as online registries for a number of special or generic gift-giving occasions. Prime among them Amazon.com, is one place to compile a list of DVDs, coveted books, and whatever else under the sky.

While Amazon.com is a great resource for the users who already are well aware of exactly what they want, it tends to fall short in terms of turning up interesting and unique items you perhaps not have thought of otherwise, like a military lace-up boots pair trimmed in fur, a vintage Polaroid camera or a high-tech juicer

Wantful is a site that serves just like a virtual personal shopper, which is assigned to skillfully pick a selection of items for each visitor on your exclusive holiday shopping list. Here’s how it works:

• After signing up, shoppers will answer queries about the individual they are seeking a present for, describing the recipient’s gender, tastes as well preferences, like whether he or she enjoys cooking or reading. The relationship to a gift recipient is also considered.
• The website generates 16 items in your specified price range it thinks might well be appropriate gifts; it will print a physical book listing the items and also mail it to recipient of the gift. (Those last-minute gift givers in a hurry can also send their catalogs by mail.)
• The recipient then will choose a gift from the list; the giver is charged. Wantful has populated its lists by teaming up with various vendors and merchants. It offers hundreds of gift ideas; the lower-end ones starting around $30, whereas the most expensive topping out around $500.

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As glam-girl of Bollywood, Deepika Padukone celebrated her birthday, journalists asked her about gifts and pleasant memories of the occasion. And here’s what the bold beauty had to say…

“The birthday parties that my mother used to organize for me were memorable. She would invite all of my friends, cut a cake, play games, and also give goodbye gifts.” Which is the first major gift she fondly remembers getting on her birthday? She got her first laptop on her 18th birthday from her parents. But she now doesn’t expect any gifts from anyone. Her rationale is: “I really work hard; treat myself to whatever I wish (to have)…”

Deepika recently got possession of a posh apartment in South Mumbai, and there were rumors, unconfirmed though she was gifted it. More than such grand statements, sometimes even small gifts or gestures, which make a relationship truly special, excite her. Deepika in fact, gave a romantic gift to her boyfriend on his birthday. What was it that she gifted Siddharth Mallya on his last birthday?

A rich person like him has almost all material things So she was in a fix as to what to give her beau. Of course, she didn’t wish to get something glossy for him. She rather wished to give a personal touch to it. Guess what special she got for him? She compiled a dazzling digital album of all the special moments the two had shared together so far and presented it to him.

He was indeed touched by the gesture, particularly since she had given it a personal touch more so because she had taken the efforts to customize it carefully. There’s a lesson to be learnt; a personal touch and an element of customization makes a gift truly special…     Interestingly, another glam-girl of Bollywood Bipasha Basu celebrated her birthday on January 7. She has decided to celebrate the occasion for 11 long days in a grand way. She was quoted as saying that the ‘Players’ (her new movie) promotion crew would to have to celebrate her birthday during the tour.

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Archies offers some of the most special ways to say you care. Archies is a gift’s portal (www.archiesonline.com) that provides services to send greetings and gifts to your family and friends all over India.

It is a unique and secured online shopping experience from any part of the world. Your most important milestones and occasions, when you want to share a smile and when you seek to offer comfort. At Archies Online, the effort is always to deliver the customers online order of gifts quickly and even on the preferred day.

You will come across a vast list of categories on our website for sending gifts. These categories have been defined on basis of products, occasions, relationships, prices etc. To start shopping, you need to register online by providing with necessary information. Your information is secured with us and will be used to contact people regarding their orders and transactions.

‘My account’ section option will approach you to your own private account; you can manage your account details, track your orders and manage your reward points through the section.

Here are some gift ideas for new born babies from Archies:

Soft Toy - Musical Star (Price: 450.00  |  $ : 8.82): This adorable musical soft toy makes kids smile with its vibrant colors as well as makes them sleep with its serene musical tone.

Baby Train Photo Frame in Pink (Price: 1,399.00  |  $ : 27.43): Make a line-up of your child’s adorable pictures in this pink colored train-shaped ‘three picture’ photo frame, to add more life to their precious expressions.

Baby Record book (Blue - Price: 425.00  |  $ : 8.33): Record all the activities of your new born right from baby’s booties to boots.
Being this Cute - Romper with BIB (Price: 475.00   380.00  |   $ : 7.45): If you have or you are planning a baby than this is a must buy. Make your precious little one wear this attractive and stylish quote dress with matching BIB to enhance his/her cute looks.

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Artists belonging to the new-age, dynamic India, greatly influenced by global developments in contemporary art thanks to greater exposure to the international art world, now work in a diverse range genres, styles, subjects and mediums. Their works are worth collecting:

T.M. Azis: His work is figurative in nature. The paintings may revolve around what might be outwardly ordinary, everyday occurrences, deeply contemplated over.

Samit Das: Space or rather lack of it in the burgeoning cities is his primary artistic concern which he expresses through his visuals loaded with metaphors.

Murali Cheeroth: His involvement with theatre coupled with continuing interest in cinema helps him in presenting his images through dramatic ambiance for an unusual perspective.

Hindol Brahmbhatt: He treats his work as a documentation of historical reality in contemporary context, and looks for clues of social changes.

Nitish Bhattacharjee: His work is a documentation of his memories, his impressions, and perceptions of his surroundings.

Sudarshan Shetty:  He takes apart ubiquitous objects without dismantling them, and decodes them, by revealing their inherent mechanical being.

Bharti Kher: Her practice revolves around pangs of dislocation and transience, involving an autobiographical examination of identity.

Reena Saini Kallat: She is known to be deeply influenced by the never-ending cycle of life and nature, as well as the extremely fragile nature of the human condition.

Anju Dodiya: The self is often at the center of her work that explores various possibilities within it. Her practice is rooted in the figurative.

Rekha Rodwittiya: Her female protagonists are often elevated to iconic proportions. They can simultaneously occupy multiple avatars.

Navjot Altaf: Known for her multimedia work, largely interactive sculpture, photo and video based installations, she tackles varied themes of gender/memory/ history and loss.

Nalini Malani: Her artistic world, largely constituted by visible overlays, is fluid with everything in a constant state of metamorphosis.

Anita Dube: Her aesthetic language incorporates ubiquitous objects, everyday materials and images that together resonate with a meaning far beyond perceived local and prosaic associations.

Chitra Ganesh: While firmly rooted in a Western, postmodern discourse, the artist’s cultural references let her convey the principle of a multiplicity as a spirit, which draws together, and not breaks apart.

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With the sun just rising on the horizon of the Indian art world, it’s time to soak into the creative journey of emerging talent! We provide you a glimpse of some of the most promising artists from India, bound to be in limelight in the coming years…

Highly talented contemporary Indian artists have attained appreciation and applause on the international art scene for their propensity to express current concerns through quaint and recognizable motifs. In this context, the fascinating works by our female artists deserve a special and separate mention.

Here are some of the noteworthy female artists who have won the nod of collectors and critics…

Jayashree Chakravarty: For this sensitive artist, painting is a process and means of making sense of the chaos around her.
Mithu Sen: Known for unconventional themes and forms, she represents the new wave of talent in contemporary Indian art. She puts to use a wide range of media.

Schandra Singh: She mostly works in the medium of oil and gouache, touches upon shared social and political realities.
Meetali Singh: According to the artist, she treads a fine territory between real-life emotions and sheer imagination. Hence the images are surreal, dreamy in nature.

Heeral Trivedi: Looking at history and connecting past histories with present, the artist looks to draw parallels among women in different eras.

Anu Agarwal: Bold lines, stark contours and fantastic female forms are the hallmarks of her oeuvre.

Jignasa Doshi: She focuses on the showbiz for depicting the increasing showiness and shallowness, as she terms it, under the garb of sophistication.

Suhasini Kejriwal: At first casual glance, her beautiful works -tend to camouflage the more disturbing view one begins to notice after further analyzing it. Startling juxtapositions and unconscious associations, which transcend habitual thinking to reveal deeper alternate levels of meaning, emerge.

Sonia Mehra Chawla: Her work encapsulates and inculcates the ever-fluid essence of the organic. The ambiguous, hybrid forms often suggest the generative and the sensuous.

Parvathi Nayar: Her practice largely revolves around drawing and painting; conceptually it is rooted in ideas of narrative, at different ways of looking, perceiving and the privileging of sight.

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