Lifestyle to beautiful skin

Its official I am now an editor of a published book – Lifestyle to beautiful skin. It is selling on Amazon.com for $3.51

Lifestyle to beautiful skin - Amazon link

I was taken aback when my friend Hetal who had previously shown no inclination towards the literary word said she wanted to write a book. She said she wanted me to be her editor and that gave me a smile because she trusted me with her words. A huge compliment for me; always tends to put me in a good mood.

When the first draft of the book came for editing, my first reactions was to rewrite content put in more flowery content and basically take over. Sorry about that Hetal but when I took a step back I realised that this was her book, the way she wanted to say stuff and I was just helping her present it. I am glad I didn’t listen to my initial instincts I would have botched everything up. Instead now the book has shaped up well and with the true intent and soul of the writer herself in the presentation.

However, what I liked about the entire exercise is the entrepreneurial spirit I saw in my friend. She had put in efforts to research on skin care from various different sources for her own skin problems. She had the knowledge at hand and she decided to put it to use.

How many of us do that? Even before I start a thought on possibilities, my mind fills up with the constraints attached rather than the opportunities. I am typically a person who sees the glass as half full and half empty with more analysis to why it’s half empty. :) (Couldn’t go about calling myself a pessimist directly!)

Well Hetal hats off to you and your entrepreneurial spirit, I have no clue whether this book will sell or not but I have absolute faith that in years to come I shall hear of more ventures you undertake. May success be your companion.

Meanwhile let me explore the possibilities of showing off as a budding editor. ;)

Housefull

During the week I had been to a home beauty parlour run by an Indian woman whose husband works in Infosys in a project with Royal Bank of Scotland. I sincerely think though that she earns as much or better than her husband. She was professional, clean and had an impressive array of services to offer. Better yet she was punctual and expected you to be too.

Anyways to my joy she mentioned that yes Indian cinema did get released in the theatres here in fact she had been to one only the last weekend. So then during the weekend, we set out for the Indian cinema ourselves at the nearby Cineworld. The movie was Housefull, had Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Hritesh Deshmukh, Lara Dutta and Arjun Rampal. So even though the movie was directed by Sajid Khan who has a pathetic movie direction taste and manner, we decided to over look it for the awesome star cast. Hell, who am I kidding? I would have gone even if the movie had pathetic actors since its been a long time since I had seen a hindi movie.

To say the movie was pathetically bad would be an understatement, some of the times, the movie was so desperately bad that you ended up laughing by the sheer level of idiocy!! The title song seemed a poor imitation of the one in DevD and while it worked well for the latter it wasn’t doing anything for this one.

Akshay Kumar always so good at action and being the brute with a bit of sensitivity totally blew it by being the whining crying loser through the movie. I thought at sometime the meek shall inherit the world but then Akshay defied all odds and chose to remain a loser of the first order till the end. Why in the world did both Malika Arora and Deepika Padukone fall for this guy despite his loser abilities is beyond me.

Hrithesh Deshmukh is enjoyable and Arjun Rampal amazingly good eye candy. Lara Dutta manages to hold her own despite Deepika’s washboard waist. Boman Irani with his Rani Bhen is classic. I wish though that the movie hadn’t had the black baby which so reeked of racial discrimination and that below the belt hit on people who stammer.

Kinder Surprise

One of my earliest childhood dreams had me coming back to the apartment we used to stay in, opening the door and having Kinder chocolate falling on me, the entire apartment being filled in with the chocolate and me diving straight into it. Well it’s no wonder then that I was obese as a child and not that I am svelte now either. :)

Now in India when the ad was coming on for Kinder Surprise, the chocolate egg with the toy inside, I used to get all nostalgic and reminisce those days of hair pulling competition I used to have with my brother over some of those toys we would find inside Kinder Surprise!

I have had the opportunity to taste quite a few chocolates now and till date I still find Kinder occupying the cherished number one position in my mind. This could be more a childhood formed bias than the actual taste per say but that is how it continues. So when a friend (Shyju) went to US and asked me what I wanted I hounded him for Kinder chocolate. This was in 2004. I truly thought he was lying when he reported back that he couldn’t find the chocolate there. :) I threatened and emotionally blackmailed and at last my poor friend managed to get it from Dubai airport while in transit. All was well. :)

Kinder by the way is German for children and it’s produced by the Italian chocolate company Ferrero. The chocolate has been in existence in the European market from 1967 and it still continues to thrive here. The taste yet undiminished and untouched by modern times. Ferrero is more famous for the chocolate Ferrero Rocher but its other products are also famous like Tic Tac (the mints), Nutella (the chocolate spread), Confetteria Raffaello (more famously known as the white Ferrero Rocher and my friend Smitha’s favorite) and others.

Well, the reason I am rambling on about my favorite chocolate is that I have been indulging myself for the past few weeks. So today when my dad said you look FAT when he saw me on skype, it was like the warning bells were tolling away crazily. When he added that with a follow up comment on how hypocritical I was by gorging my face with all kinds of sweets and at the same time advising him not to touch any; I guess to say I felt embarrassed to the core would be an understatement. So dad from today I shall abstain from chocolates and sweets of all kinds except for my customary two spoons of sugar in my tea if you don’t mind.

I am sure Shaiwal on reading this shall just roll his eyes over and say, “Yeah right!!!” For all its worth I am going public and as a responsible blog writer (heheheh) I shall keep my readers (by god are there any actually?) updated on this vow of chocolate abstinence. Dear god, I hope I don’t regret this one!!  :(

The Big 3 and Elections

Today i received a mailfrom a friend wishing me belated happy bday and asking me how it felt to be 30! In an age where a one year anniversary is marked as a milestone and calls for a huge celebration bash, i guess turning 30 is a milestone especiall since that’s nearing halfway to my maker…..however when I look back, the last 30 years seem like a haze now, not so clear but full. Happy years, carefree and years spent on creating the foundation of who I am, how i think and what i believe in.

Frankly speaking a few years back whenever I thought of turning 30 I kept thinking that’s HUGE!!! However, when it actually dawned it was just another year just another number, I didn’t cry buckets full for turning 30 nor did I embrace it with cheer, it wasn’t anything I could get worked up or excited about.

I just kept thinking "Miles to go before I go to sleep"......I have loads of responsibilities to take care of and some of my own dreams to be dealt with before I go meet my maker and the years are rolling out.

To tell you the truth, I think I might just enjoy my 30's a hell of a lot, upto my 20's it was always good behaviour, obedience and marks, in my 20's when I got a job it was always about independence, marriage and friends but in my 30's I guess its going to be family, friends, money and ME.

I have now arrived at an age where I have a lot of roles to play but am equipped with the safe knowledge that if someone can’t accept me then its not personal and its not hatred. A sort of complacence towards the fact that life can not be perfect, if anything it is always the opposite. An acceptance of the fact that i shall never have an hourglass figure but i will always beliked for my cheerful disposition (when i am in possession of it!). :)

By the way, to digress a bit, the results for UK’s 2010 elections are to be out today. Despite close to 500 out of 650 votes counting completed in the morning, the country saw a sort of stalemate with no clear majority. However, at this point, it seems clear that it is highly unlikely for Brown to come back, unless of course he is able to strike a deal with the Liberal Democrats. (The Legend on the side is from BBC at 10 am EST)

The election results do not hold much of an interest to me; the impacts afterwards are what I am more interested in. Each of the parties had promised more jobs to locals, cuts on outsourcing and of course more stringent labour and immigration laws. This was also the first time in political history that the previous government did not give a spending review before campaign and so during the campaigns the parties were not able to talk on their plans for price cuts, government costs and spending. Taking a view of the dire economic conditions of last year, I guess we are to be faced with quite a bit of an awakening.

The HSMP visa which used to be an easy enough affair to attain now has changed rules and is no longer easy. This before the elections, I can only wonder at what nasty surprises are pending for people like Shaiwal and me.

Social Networking

How compelling are social networking sites?! I mean I can understand that it helps to keep in touch, you get to know who’s birthday is coming up, who has moved from which city to another, who has just got married, who just got a baby and blah blah blah.

I have an account in Orkut which I rarely ever use and one in Facebook which I visit once in a week and so I am labelled a dork for having such low net visibility!

I was taken aback when I went to Facebook today and saw that a friend had posted “gave birth today and we are all fine”, along with photos of the baby! One I didn’t realise it was safe to take pictures of such a young baby, guess the doctor would have okay-ed it! Two what was the tearing hurry to announce it on the very same day on The NET?!!

Don’t get me wrong I am happy to see the news and I sent in my wishes as well but realistically I would have thought that she would have been too tired and too happy to have given a thought to anything else. Clearly I was wrong!

I guess where earlier people would have run for their mobiles or the nearest telephone to phone up those who matter and inform, today people run to the nearest net kiosk to publish the news – perhaps an easier way to reach a whole lot more at one go!

As of March 2010, Facebook traffic made up 41% of all traffic on a list of popular social destinations. MySpace was in second place, capturing 24% of traffic. Gmail had 15%, and Twitter had 8%. [Source – Socialnetworkingwatch.com]

Interestingly however, today the net edition of ibnlive.com carries a video article right on the front page on social networking risks and the guy on the video says, you put out your address on the net and then tweet saying going out of city on vacation for two weeks. You are then happily putting out an invitation for robbers….and its as simple as that.

I don’t prescribe to paranoia and I wont deny the happiness of finding long lost friends and being able to chat up but I would say that social networking sites are a MEANS to an end and not the END in itself.

What say?

P.s - a special mention on my friends blog http://doctorforcure.blogspot.com/. A blog on health tips. We live in an era of information overload so much so that you google for a headache you get a whole lot of text on the why’s, the how’s, the when’s, the types….and the list continues…..i like this blog because its short, to the point and its her personal experience not some researched or referenced gibberish. Hetal, I hope I’ll get to see a whole lot of informative blogs on it and hey please respond to comments :)

Contract Employment Hassles

Umbrella!!!! Isn’t that what you use when it starts to pour? Well there are other meanings to this word I discovered today.

I have been for sometime now engaged in a futile search for jobs, everyday I apply to at least a dozen and half vacancies and every day I get rejected as much! Bother!! Wonders to my self confidence too! Well the reasons could be many and since analysing the world rejection of my skills is not right on top of my list I guess we can safely skip that part.

Today, however, was different from other days. I actually had a call which was not from my husband, relatives or friends or the irritating (sorry) marketing guys. It was from a recruitment agency. No voice has sounded sweeter to me and no call more important!! Its not as if I was getting a job and all that but the very fact that someone was calling up to verify my skills and my availability was more than enough reason for the big smile on my face.

The call was going smoothly till I got into the Umbrella glitch! The recruiter asked me since the position was a contract one, would I please specify if I had my own limited company or otherwise was part of which umbrella company?! Duh-huh!! On request the recruiter did repeat her question but my response remained the same!

Alright, nothing much to do about this than to confess my absolute ignorance on what she was talking and so I did that. The explanation dear friends is that when you are on contract you need to take care of paying taxes which the company contracting you will not do and neither can you do as an individual. You either set up a limited company of your own and pay taxes through it or you can join a company which would do it for you – that company is called the Umbrella company!

Basically the umbrella company has systems of its own such payroll invoicing and timesheets. So when you join somewhere on contract you fill in your timesheets with the umbrella company and put in your expenses report there. The Umbrella company on your behalf invoices those timesheets, pays taxes to the government from it and then credits the amount to your account after taking their cut out of it!!

So now I have a list of umbrella companies which the recruiter out of pity provided me with. I now have the option of visiting the websites of these companies and requesting for a “No Obligation” call back where they give me their sales pitch and I have the option of listening to it, agreeing to it or banging the phone down. No obligation!

And i thought the IT industry was filled with meaningless jargons!!

Anyways, as per popular websites, I need to check out for stuff like their fee structure, payment frequency (how often will they process my invoice and pay me?), Insurance cover, expenses process and what qualifies as an expense, what web technology the use for timesheets and others and last but not least for any hidden costs!!! Of course all this doesn’t matter because if I am not happy with them I could just kick them out and take my business elsewhere.

Provided I get a job first!!!! :(

My Birthday

I haven’t been writing in for sometime now, I confess I was too busy feeling supremely content and happy. My birthday passed and I had a three day celebration!! Three days, you ask, well the first day was my nakshatra bday which this year happened to fall 2 days prior to my actual date of birth, the second day evening was the dinner party and cake cutting session for the 12 o clock its going to be your birthday now time and finally the third day my actual date of birth. :)A wonderful year I must say and I hope it continues to stay so.

My husband beyond doubt proved he knew me for he gifted me with things I cherish – flowers, a handwritten letter and travel. On my birthday he took off from work and took us on a day tour to the highlands. It was awesome. In return as a show of my affection I gifted him with a small wall hanging that said – “If I had to choose again I would choose you.” However, since I am after all unemployed and not earning, I graciously allowed him to pay for my gift. :)

Precious of all however, I received a bday card and letter from my brother via post. So all these days of diligently checking my post box and clearing out all the election campaigning leaflets, finally paid off! :)

My cake cutting was a humble affair with just Shaiwal and me and the cake being a chocolate roll and the knife almost as big as the cake itself! :)

The highland tour took us through places called Pitlochry, Lochness, Glencoe and Stirling. I remained indifferent to the names not however to the scenic beauty my eyes were treated to. It truly felt as if I was on a voyage series inside one of those documentaries in discovery channel. A little inconsequential perhaps but along with the flora and fauna I also saw some local animal species like sheep and the highland cows. My first time on both counts and looking at those sheep I felt like going up to them and hugging them to just know how the feel of wool is.

I am not so adept in writing as to presume that I shall be able to describe the beauty of the highlands and so I shall not attempt it. Such moving sights need to experienced to be believed.

During our highland tour we also did a cruise over the Lochness, Loch here in Scotland means lake and there are four major Loch’s of which the Lochness is the most famous. After all I am sure that at least some of us have heard of the Lochness monster, haven’t we? As per our guide, the entire world population can be fitted thrice into the Lochness and still there would be space left!!

The movie Braveheart perhaps made it right to the top of the list of movies which are far removed from historical truth but it serves its purpose as a reference point in these highland tours. Our guide kept referring to William Wallace (character played by Mel Gibson) and the wars he fought. We even had the opportunity to see the statue of William Wallace during our travel. He is far taller than Mel Gibson and still continues to be the hero of the Scots.

I felt proud of India and sympathy for Scotland for the fact that we received our independence more than half a century back and they still haven’t.