Valentine’ Day is all about proclaiming one’s love. And who knows this better than Salman Khan. He does not miss an opportunity to make public his feeling about charismatic Katrina Kaif. There is no way that he would miss out on Valentine’ Day.

As a gossipy bit in a magazine reports: “Their love is literally touching the skies. Earlier, the two used to hit the headlines for their differences and frequent tussles but now the things are something different. Nowadays, we only get to hear the romantic stories of their love. With each passing day, the two are coming closer as they are able to read one another’s heart in a far better way. They do not anymore get into any sort of unnecessary arguments or brawl.”

People would differ whether Sallu is an expert or not in wooing his lady love but he is doing everything possible to keep his Kat happy. The couple often goes out for a nice candle-light dinner. Salman Khan also brings a smile on her radiant face with a surprise visit on her shooting sets. As Valentine’s Day is approaching fast, Sallu has a fantastic gift ready for her to broaden the smile. He has decided to gift her one plush flat in the posh western suburb of Bandra, according to media reports.

The location of the flat and its design appealed to Salman Khan so much that the actor has already made up his mind to purchase it and gift it to Katrina on February 14. He actually wanted to finish the interior decoration work before he could gift her. He has reportedly given the task of decorating it to Suzanne Khan (Hrithik Roshan’s wife). Salman will also decorate the living room wall with a pretty portrait of Katrina.

So, what you are going to gift to your ‘Kat’?

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Gifts give a great joy, it goes without saying. They convey your emotions to the receiver, who in turn, appreciates your sentiments. Gifts enhance relations and strengthen bonds of love. But gifts also serve a practical purpose when it comes to financial planning. You may wish to know. Let me bring to your notice that gifts can serve as a simple albeit very effective tax planning tool.

The provisions of Section 56, relating to tax on gifts, along with the basic exemption limit provisions to make your income is tax-free are applied simultaneously, to ensure tax-free income.

An individual falling in a higher tax bracket, can manage to cut down on the tax liability and increase his or her capital into tax-free income through gifts. This is essentially made possible by tax planners.

The method they follow is to make a person give gifts from post-tax capital to the parents and major children, who mostly are non-taxpayers. To double the benefit, when the recipients of these gifts invest the same, the family can earn more tax-free income.

Of course, there are certain issues, precautions and clarifications that you need to seek from your tax consultant who will address all these aspects so that you are able to put this gainful tax planning strategy through gifting into practice.

In a nutshell, gifts given to your parents and children (above 18) will not invite clubbing provisions. We shall learn about the finer aspects of tax planning and gifting in the subsequent blogs.

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As Christmas approaches, Santa Claus is eagerly awaited by children and so also the goodies and gifts he brings along.

It is interesting to note that the popular view of Santa we all have today - with the sleigh, the reindeer and the chimney – was derived largely from Clement Moore’s ‘The Night Before Christmas’, the 1822 book, further reinforced further by an advertising campaign.

The Santa Claus story combined with the modern retailing phenomena and consumer culture has grown since the turn of the century to make gift-giving an integral element of the Christmas celebrations. Incidentally, there was no elaborate exchanging of gifts until late 1800’s.

The Christmas tree – apparently a German tradition – began in the early 700AD century. The tradition of a Christmas Tree gradually moved to the UK and US. Since Victorian times, people had been decorating trees with candies and cakes hung with ribbon, ornaments and candles. The first electrically lighted Christmas tree appeared in 1882. Mistletoe, representing the goddess of love (Frigga - Scandinavian), was used as a decoration in houses for thousands of years and is also associated with many pagan rituals.

The 12 days of Chistmas are the ones that separate Christmas day (December 25) from Epiphany celebrated on January 6, marking Christ’s baptism (the Catholic tradition) or the day when the wise men visited baby Jesus with their gifts. This includes great fanfare and singing. The Anglo-Saxon tradition revolved around gathering together for small, serene choirs on the scenic village green lawns to sing carols and popular Christmas songs that would entertain and please the passers-by.

This joyous festival truly enlivens our hearts with warm revelry that extends well into the new year! Gift your near and dear ones, the little children, your friends and colleagues to spread the joy of Christmas.

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You might have noticed your friend, colleague or one of your relatives need a capable media storage and organizational solution that will integrate into their home environment solution. Zip-up binders and CD Towers, unfortunately no longer meet the people’s needs.

However, now there is no need to worry as far as media storage is concerned. Innovative solutions are being evolved to match the consumer demands. discgear is one of them. It acts as the ultimate storage solution, and here is why?

discgear is perfect for those who are ‘organizationally inclined’ and ‘technically savvy’. It’s sure a complete media storage system that will offer a user a superb collection of storage products and software.

Music lovers with help pf Discgear can now ably organize and retrieve stacks of software CDs, data discs, as well as music CDs, with the new discgear system.

The movie and music buffs do not often know how really to manage their ever burgeoning media library, DVD, Blu-Ray, Wii, Xbox, PS3 and Computer Software.  But the trendy discgear units will provide them a respite. It can hold disks in a rugged carry-around case, that’s heat-n-scratch resistant. It comes with compact, double-sided self-cleaning, sleeve-dividers.

It’s a gift that scores not only on looks, but also on functionality, and is bound to be appreciated.

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Gifts play an important role as they are the easiest way to express your sentiments. The gift should be such that it would make the receive feel special. It becomes even more lavish gesture when it is for high-profile individual from an equally high-profile individual.

Indeed, in case of celebrities, the whole connotation and scale of the gifting exercise changes as we pointed out in the previous blog! Here are more instances from across the globe that indicate what celebrities choose to gift and mark a special occasion.

- In what can be considered as one of the most ‘outrageously’ expensive gestures ever of love, the famed Hollywood Star Tom Cruise gifted his pregnant fiancée Katie Holmes a whopping $20 million Gulf Stream Jet as a present.

- Davaid Beckham, the England soccer star whom we have already mentioned, reportedly gifted Victoria a mere $8 million (going by Tom Cruise’s standard) Bulgari necklace on her birthday. He also reportedly spent $10,000 to fly out a team of chefs from London’s trendy restaurant Nobu to cook delicacies for her in Spain.

- Actor Richard Burton bought a diamond weighing 240.80 carats to gift it to Elizabeth Taylor. Following her divorce, she put one of the world’s largest diamonds up for sale for raising funds for a hospital.

- Hollywood Actor Brad Pitt gifted actress-wife Anjelina Jolie a gold ring that featured the birthstones of their (four) kids. (Incidentally, Angelina Jolie recently spent $65,000 to gift herself a horsehair mattress that would help her sleep well.

- Shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis presented his wife Jacqueline Kennedy her very own private Island in Greece.

On your part, you can let us know about the best gift that you have ever received or given. And also let us know why do you think it was the best?

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This is a fun event for children to which you can take your children and bring a smile on their faces. Apart from gifting children toys and games, this is one way of making them happy, in a quality way.

Bookaroo, the children’s literature festival, will happen in New Delhi (22nd and 23rd November, 2008 at Sanskriti Anand Gram on Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road).

Here are the events that form part of the festival
- Listen to stories
- Dramatix
- Rhyme time
- Comics
- Interactive buzz
- Graffiti
- Glum peacocks
- Magic pencil
 
Choose your event/s and register now! You may check the possibility of holding a similar event in your city by sending a mail to info@bookaroo.in 

The Bookaroo Festival kicks off with an outreach program on November 19th and 20th. It will give children a chance to meet famous Indian and international authors, poets, and illustrators. The aim of the festival is to expose children to the hidden joys of reading. This is truly a one-of-its-kind event, which focuses on the role books play in shaping children’s thinking and lives. The interactive sessions will comprise workshops, plays, comics, storytelling, games and lessons in creativity.

For instance, Sampurna Chattarji, Kalpish Ratna and Ishrat Syed will present ‘Panchatantra in Wonderland’. These animal fables are an invariable part of our literary and social heritage, but what do they really mean in today’s world? Here a modern twist is given to the classic tales.

According to Anita Roy, one of the organizers, the Bookaroo Festival is all about bringing together children with those who actually pen the books they love so much. She adds: “It is about celebrating the world of children’s book writing and literature in all its marvelous variety.”

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The act of gifting need not necessarily always involve giving out something tangible. Especially, in case of children, it can be an activity or a gesture that will lead to instilling good habits in them that will stay with them for a long time and even change their way of thinking.

Here is a unique opportunity for parents in New Delhi to give their children something beyond toys and other gift articles. We are referring to a children’s book & literature festival that is set to take place in the next few days in the capital city.

The festival is inspired by Hay-on-Wye, a unique first Book Town, lies on the border between Wales and England. One of the major annual events for Hay is the ‘Hay Festival’. Book lovers can visit this unparalleled book town, which is now a major tourist attraction. Taking a cue from the book town and its festival, literary enthusiasts in New Delhi has come up with a unique event for children. 

“I was indeed intrigued by the idea of a festival like. As I learnt more about it, I wanted to do something similar but for children,” informed Swati Roy, Eureka Children’s Bookstore co-owner and publisher of a magazine for children. M. Venkatesh, Anita Roy, Jo Williams; Anushka Ravishankar, Manisha Chaudhry of Pratham Books, Subhadra Sen Gupta and Swati Roy the organizers of the Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival 2008.

The children’s literature festival will act as a platform for inculcating reading habits in children. Children’s books will be viewed as gorgeous, bouncy trampolines to encourage their creativity.

Note the details of Bookaroo Children’s Literature Festival

Dates: November 22 and 23, 2008

Timings: 10 am to 5 pm

Venue: Sanskriti Anand Gram, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Delhi

Outreach program across the city - November 19 and 20, 2008

For more more information click here.

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Roses are romantic, but a terrible cliché! There are many other flowers that spell l-o-v-e –

Bluebell
constancy and everlasting love

Ironically enough, it is thought to be unlucky to walk through or bring home. The Latin name for this flower is Endymion who was the lover of the moon Goddess, Selene. The goddess put Endymion into an eternal sleep, so she alone could enjoy his beauty.

Carnation
betrothal, love and fertility

This flower was believed to be an aphrodisiac, hence its popular use at weddings. Due to its association with love it was widely used in wreaths. Gentlemen began to wear carnations as a button hole, Oscar Wilde developed the fashion with a dyed green carnation.

The various carnation colours can mean different things: white - love; yellow - rejection; pink - I’ll never forget you; red - aching heart.

Forget-me-nots
true love and remembrance

Mythology describes this as the flower chosen by a brave knight for his sweetheart before going to battle, as he knelt to gather the tiny blue flowers he fell into a river and was swept away, calling to his love, ‘forget me not’.

Honeysuckle
devoted love

It is said to protect your garden from evil. It is known as the ‘love bind’ - symbolizing a lover’s embrace in its clinging growing habits. The heady fragrance of the flowers was believed to induce dreams of love and passion. If the bloom is brought into the house a wedding is said to follow within the year. But – the honeysuckle’s berries are poisonous!

Hyacinth
constancy

Mythology tells how a handsome youth, Hyacinthus, was loved by the god of the sun, Apollo, but Zephyrus, god of the west wind became jealous and blew the discus that Hyacinthus was playing with and killed him. Flowers sprang from drops of his blood and so became known as hyacinths.

Pansy
loving thoughts and attraction

Also known as ‘heart’s ease’, this pretty flower was believed to heal love problems. Anyone wanting to ensure they were loved by their sweethearts would carry a pansy.

Primrose
first love

Its name is derived from the Latin ‘primus’ meaning first, due to their early spring flowering. The primrose is the sacred flower of Freya, the Norse goddess of love and was used in rituals giving honor to her.

Violet
faithfulness and modesty

During mediaeval times violets were believed to provide protection from evil spirits, and the leaves were used on wounds as healing plasters. Napolean Bonaparte sent Josephine a bouquet of it every anniversary and apparently wore a locket containing violets he had gathered from her grave. In medieval times the violet was strewn on the floor as an air freshener due to its sweet perfume.

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