Dabangg vs. Zandu Balm – Fireworks?
“Dabangg” – staring the youth icon Salmaan Khan and Shatrughan Shinha’s daughter Sonakshi Sinha, is turning out to be 2010’s prime box office success. Most people have liked the story-line of the movie and especially the way Sallu Mia talks and behaves. It’s very different from Salmaan’s past work, it blends comedy, action and romance. Salmaan’s body language is certainly worth a mention and the chemistry he shares with Sonakshi Sinha adds to the theatrical experience, some call it a sensual match. ‘Tere mast mast do nayen mere dil ka le gaye chain’ – has fast become a hot favorite among Bollywood music lovers.
On the other hand, the very trendy item song “Main Zandu Balm hui darling tere liye” has landed Arbaz Khan in quite a pickle. The producers of Zandu Balm have come down hard on Arbaz stating he’s used the brand name without explicit authorization and have ordered him to delete the song entirely. This of course, perpetually impossible since the song is a raving hit across the charts. Another unconfirmed report says Zandu Balm has seen a major sales boost from the song.
The company’s counsel Ashok M Saraogi has issued a notice to the filmmakers which states: “In the song, the name Zandu balm has been used continuously at various places. By using the brand name in the song, you have not only violated the copyright of my clients, but you have also made an attempt to defame the reputation of my clients and the product manufactured by them.”
Big bucks for an MBA? – Think again
Over the last decade, this has been a question that has haunted many and will continue to do so till the baton is passed on to something bigger and better, rather something more convincing. A Masters degree in Business Administration in its various forms i.e. MBA, PGDBA, DBA, DBM, MMS supposedly lands you more money, better pay and a settled life.
Lets try to get to the bottom of this. Entrepreneurship is on the rise and small and medium size businesses are flourishing often with a young top management that lacks certain traits that come with sheer years of experience and having been in diversified problem solving scenarios. On the flip side, large businesses are becoming segregated by region and the recent ‘Business Unit’ trend. All of the above need one thing in common, a skipper at the helm who can orient the team and generate what’s most important (green numbers and upward arrows) for the business.
But who’s to say an MBA has the required skills? A recent success story book ‘Connect the dots’ speaks of various businessmen without a traditional MBA who’ve made it big. One fails to understand how business can be taught over correspondence. Learning business is best done with simulation; namely group discussions and mock-up markets, not reading out of a book at a desk. Its best done while making mistakes under controlled situations, for example, an ad strategy having gone bad because one upset a certain community or substandard raw material from a substandard vendor and referring back to the mistakes while at the job.
What we gather from this is that Business and Business Management is an acumen, it’s both, an art and a science. Business Management is dynamic and there’s no ONE set of rules to figure it out. If there were, why would it be hard to crack the code? It can be improved by applying certain proven techniques and thinking out of the box, but one finds it hard to believe that a Master in Business Administration can truly be a Master by just a mere certification.
Maruti Suzuki A-Star goes Automatic
In an obvious move, Maruti Suzuki has decided to market the A-Star with an automatic gearbox given that its chief competitor, the i10 offers one. One would have expected Maruti to make this move a little earlier since the car’s USP has always been its predominantly city-drive nature.
The new 4 speed automatic comes with very few shortfalls. The A-Star’s K-series engine churns out a very decent 68PS with a top speed of close to 150kph, but the automatic variant makes it feel a little sluggish to cater for better economy. While the manual variant came rated at 19.2 kmpl the automatic manages around 17 kmpl which is phenomenal for an auto.
Furthermore, Maruti offers the automatic A-star in the VXi variant only. They’ve added ABS with EBD to the variant, but it still lacks Airbags, Fog lamps and 2 additional speakers, as against the ZXi stick.
All said and done, the VXi auto will definitely sell. More and more people in India are becoming less bothered about optimum mileage where the trade off is a better, more comfortable drive. One needs to keep in mind that at close to 5 lacs on road in Mumbai, it’s well into premium hatchback territory.
Charm Jewellery
Charms and charm jewellery have been around for thousands of years. They were worn for a variety of reasons, to ward off bad spirits to identifying someone to the gods in afterlife, to for something as simple as making one stand out and express one’s inclinations to religious and political thoughts.
In modern times though these were made popular by soldiers returning from the second world war who brought home trinkets made by local craftsmen where they were fighting. Interest in charm jewellery waned in the late 20th century, but off late there has been resurgence in interest in both usual (worn as accessories) and vintage charm jewelry.
In the past some specific forms of charm jewellery were worn but today there are several varieties and as such they are very popular. The literally millions of styles and forms available make it pretty easy to choose one that suits you. Apart from something that helps reflect your individuality these are also great conversation starters. These days the market is flooded with new charm styles in all price ranges. Fashion giants have added glamour to charm jewellery and as such they have become rather an essential accessory. In addition they serve as wonderful gifts. Charms can be given to acknowledge any significant event such as a birthday, Christmas, graduation, prom, wedding, or birth of a baby.
You can stop by many jewellery stores where you can buy charm jewellery and also shop online to receive a great variety at very competitive prices So go on then charm yourself.
Bears ‘N Bulls
Apparently, 2007 was an amazing year for experienced traders and investors, but to what end? JAM investigates the loopholes in stock market investments for the young investor, as it turns out, it isn’t that simple!
Markets are more volatile than ever today. Leading news channels and analysts are finding it difficult to place profit and loss scenarios both, on long and short term perspectives. Some blame the diminishing influx of investments by overseas funds, others point at the ever increasing crude oil prices.
The fact still remains though, that the young Indian investor, battling it out with a 9 to 9 job finds very little time to track investments, leave alone trading in a 10 to 4 market. Here’s where youngsters need to check their market fundamentals. Late 2007 saw a huge number of teenagers and young executives entering the markets and indulging in what can only be termed as headless stock investments in an attempt to make something extra, probably cover taxes. Quite naturally, with growing markets back then and seeing rising numbers everyday more and more joined in and eventually to the young investor, the Indian stock markets became nothing more than a giant slot machine. Risk it, play it and hope for the best! What followed was quite a disheartening state of affairs.
Early 2008 saw a bunch of well to do stocks dip or sometimes fluctuate because a large number of fundamentally weak investors entered, exited and entered again! Fundamental based investments, simply put, investing in companies like Reliance or the Tata Group, are generally considered safe because of good track records and market monopoly. It’s not surprising to see these stocks behave very abnormally owing to a large population of uninformed investors making unplanned moves.
So what’s the solution? Earlier on investors cribbed about a 2% entry load on Mutual Funds. In a very recent development, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has revoked all entry loads. Mutual funds houses sport various schemes, some sector specific and some diversified wherein a fund manager, an expert in the field, enters stocks on behalf of the investor. The returns are passed back to the investor as a dividend or reinvested basis the application instruction. Apart from mutual funds, once can buy into some high value a.k.a. large cap stocks like DLF and L&T at current pricing, with a long term perspective. Whether it be Mutual Funds or Stocks, the young investor needs to diversify into as many sectors as possible; Banking, Infrastructure and Natural Resources being at the forefront. This ensures a fall back in the event that one particular sector sees bad times.
The bottom line is in reading up sufficiently about market linked investments and recognizing risk taking potential. A new investor must get into watching business news channels and their end-of-day summaries rather than trying to resonate with the supposedly market savvy next door neighbour or worse, mistaking the markets for a casino. The idea should be in going long, and not treating investments like savings. Indian markets being emotion driven, a constant watch is also in order. There’s loads of value in the Indian markets today, one just needs to completely understand what’s going on!
Citizen Eco-Drive
Eco-Drive by Citizen is a range of watches that sport light powered technology. Citizen, doesn’t really need an introduction. Following demand, it launched the Eco-Drive series in 1995 and one has to appreciate the pure genius in this technology, so now a small science lesson.
Eco-Drive watches come with a titanium lithium-ion battery. This battery is charged through a solar cell placed just behind the front dial of the wrist watch. Being lithium-ion, the cell doesn’t get affected by constant charging and discharging and caters for long life. Generally, a fully charged battery should offer from 30 days to 8 years of run-time. Here’s where the genius kicks in. In the event that an Eco-Drive wrist watch is kept in the dark for too long, a hibernate mode is automatically engaged wherein the hands stop moving but the watch still maintains track of time. Thereon, as long as the wrist watch is brought within a sufficient light source, it charges again and the hands become operational. Citizen Eco-Drive wrist watches sport a 6 month power backup.
In short these new Eco-Drive watches will never need to have the battery replaced. Now all this technology is available in a wide variety of styles and colors, so you can make your own statement. What’s more, Citizen states that the lubricants used for their watches ensure that timepiece movements remain smooth for a long time as the oil does not harden even after 20 years.
Do we need to say more… If you like gadgets and also like watches, and want something hi-tech and eco friendly for life…you have to get one of the Eco-Drive watches from Citizen.
Charcoal Grills and Smokers
It’s a beautiful day, you are home with your family, and you want to eat something special but don’t want to leave the comfort of your home on your day off; so what you do? Well it’s pretty simple, you BBQ. Yes the beautiful and very, very tasty traditional American barbeque. Now you can do this in two ways. One is to fire up a gas fired grill and get your stakes really quickly or to take your time sipping beer while your stake matures over a nice, good old charcoal grill and believe us here that the latter is what you want to. For two reasons, one that the food comes out much, much better with the great smell of charcoal smoke and two, that’s just the only way to really barbeque!
As such with grills and smokers priced from $35 to $1,000, there is something is to fit the budget of anyone who’s a fan of traditional barbecue.
A charcoal grill can be as basic as a 55-gallon drum cut in half and turned on its side, or as extravagant as a $1,000 ceramic-lined cooker. Depending on your needs you can get a basic grill sufficient for small gatherings for as little as $35. $ 50 to 200 will get you a decent size grill which can handle a dozen burgers or chicken breasts. If you’re interested in grilling an entire Turkey you’ll have to shell out about $250 to 300. But the real king of grills these days are the ceramic lined ones where you’ll spend close to $1000, but it’s really worth the money.
A small tip though, make sure your grill has a smoker function with it to give your food a splendid aroma…oh! And yes don’t forget the barbeque sauce.
Something’s Fishy: A 35$ Tablet PC?
There’ve been a lot of HOWS following the announcement of a very questionable $35 / INR1500 tablet PC launched by the HR Ministry last month. The form factor and rubberish exterior is nothing to go by. What we do know is that this Stylus Operated Tablet comes with built in WiFi, a Camera for Vid Conferencing, 2GB RAM, 2 USB Ports, a memory card slot, a SIM card slot, a Video Out port, it’s Solar Powered and comes preloaded with Android. Whether or not a Firmware upgrade is possible or supported is yet to be seen.
The Government of India, trying to make it seem like a ‘innovate now and move forward’ scheme, seems fairly certain that the Tablet will be supplied exclusively to schools and universities, though its pretty obvious it WILL hit the retail market soon.
Don’t get mislead just yet, the 35$ Tablet PC is still in the development phase and it maybe a while before they can deliver results i.e. support for pdf, docx, ods, adp, doc, xls, jpeg, gif, png, bmp, odt, zip, AVCHD, AVI & AC3. All said and done, an Android device for 1500 bucks is always welcome, but performance is very very questionable as of now.
This has always been a brain racker, but Resume Online sets the record straight.
A Biodata is the least understood. Traditionally a bio-data translates to biological information which would include things like Name, Age, Ethnicity, Parents so on and so forth. It has absolutely nothing to do with job related aspects of a person’s life, much less his career goals. A Bio-data is essentially the shortest of the three.
A Resume on the other is a very brief outline of a candidate’s work related history, a little bit about his/her educational qualifications and his/her most recently held office. A Resume includes everything a Bio-data has plus the above. The purpose of a Resume is for an employer to be able to shortlist candidates to further scrutinize.
A Curriculum Vitae or CV is a detailed description of all Educational Qualifications including market related projects. Furthermore, it lists out all the previous offices held with designations and job roles, including achievements and certifications. A CV contains everything a Resume does plus the above. It is used prior or post an interview by an employer to make sure the candidate fits into the specific job role/portfolio they are interviewing for. A CV is generally the longest of the three.
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Inception makes No Sense!
Inception didn’t bone too well with many viewers, then again the concept seems to have overtaken the fact that the movie came with its own set of flaws. If we questioned the Director we’d ask:
- What’s that rather primitive looking box that allows people to enjoy the shared dream experience?
- Clearly, since dreams are a neurological phenomenon, do you expect us to believe their brains connected through their blood streams? We didn’t see anything attached to their heads.
- The fact that the human brain thinks at 4 times the speed has nothing to do with the fact that the time factor slows down within the dream. As a matter of fact, most people we asked said, a 4 four hour nap generally lets them dream for what seems like just a few minutes.
- Why have the makers of Inception so conveniently used the so called wake up ‘KICK’ whenever they felt like? We came across various instances where the dreamers, while still in the dream, got tossed and turned against gravity. Wouldn’t those also qualify as kicks?
- Who says 4 levels down is pure subconscious space? Is there anything at all to support this claim?
- And this one’s our favorite! How many times have you woken up from a dream to Mother Nature’s call? They were on a trans-Atlantic flight. You’ve got to be kidding!
All said and done, Inception has been a good watch. It was entertaining and the cast pulled off their parts really well. But, unlike Star Wars, Star Trek, even the Matrix; Inception leaves way too much hanging in the air. Sci-Fi has its limitations in 2010, in our opinion, Inception is pure fiction not science fiction!
