Twenty- five Seven

Personally speaking

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  • Musings on a Diwali Morning

    In praise of wealth

    To some people money is the root of all evil, particularly when people fight over a share of the pie. Lack of money also breeds envy, and love of money can encourage greed. But on the other hand it helps economies grow and spreads prosperity. While the pursuit of money without scruples and ethics is wrong, money itself is not a bad goal to pursue because it is only with money that can one actually achieve other goals and fulfill other desires

    The Goddess Laxmi is said to be fickle and only stays in your house if you have a healthy respect for her. Welcome her with grace and enjoy the bounty she brings to you. 

    Getting ready to welcome the Goddess

    I went to Bhaji Gully early this morning to beat the morning rush and traffic and get ready for Laxmi Pujan which we will celebrate after sunset today. The market wore a deserted look and not really not ready to receive any one with half the vendors still asleep and the other half getting ready for the day. This is a vast change from the market three decades ago when the vendors would have their stalls filled right from 7 in the morning! I asked a vendor why the late start and he blamed it on television. Not only are the housewives busy watching TV till late at night but so are the vegetable vendors. So they prefer opening up their shops leisurely after 8, despite their pre-dawn visit to the wholesale market.

    However, there were a few early birds waiting to catch the worms like me ( vendors don’t like to turn away the first customer of the day which is referred to as ” Bohoni” believing that a good first sale will bring them luck for the rest of the day), so I was a welcome menace to the few who were ready to wait on me.

    I saw a vendor putting out his wares of clay idols of Laxmi and Ganesha to be used for the Puja this evening. I actually have been doing a Laxmi Puja without these idols simply because that’s what I’d seen my mother do while growing up. But the man explained to me that these idols are specially made only for this Puja and that one is supposed to worship them and immerse them the following year. These pretty little Ganeshas and Laxmis are made in Kolkata but I’ve seen simple terracotta ones too.  Laxmi Puja this evening is from 6-8.30 so I will make sure my doors are wide open, all the house well lit so that the Goddess of Wealth doesn’t pass us by!

    Creating Wealth & Abundance

    So taking a cue from Write Tribe’s Wednesday prompt which is all about  creativity and the quote it inspires 
    Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties ~ Erich Fromm

    I’d like to encourage everyone to create wealth and abundance in their lives.

    • Think out of the box
    • Exploit your talents
    • Make your money work for you
    • Abandon all fear

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  • Shopping on Quikr

    One of my  all-time favourite cinematic moments is when Julia Roberts as the feisty, warm hearted hooker Vivian goes shopping for a wardrobe on Rodeo Drive and comes out happily swinging her bag and stepping into the first store that turned away and telling the frosty, snotty sales girl that turning her away before was a huge mistake .Oooh……how I just love that scene!

    Shoppers will easily identify with this situation because there are always instances when one enters a shop hesitantly or even with trepidation. I remember once entering a swanky men’s store in Milan, minutes away to closing time, looking distinctly ratty after a hot, tiring day traveling, hair askew, make up long vanished, and with a baby with baby in tow expecting fully well to be turned away only to be surprised by the warm welcome given to me by the poshly dressed salesmen who were perhaps only too gobsmacked to react any other way!

    Part of the experience of shopping is not only looking for products but also the reaction of the salesmen who attend to you. I am not a great spender but I am a great shopper and love scouting around different markets for all kinds of wares – crockery, cutlery, clothes, beauty products, household goods and even the daily vegetables and fruit!

    So I am not really a fan of online shopping though I do find it convenient for buying regular branded household groceries that I shop for on bigbasket.com or localbanya.com.

    The competition

    But I am a great sucker for competitions and contests. I am also a great sucker for deals and shopping. So when Blogadda announced a unique campaign that required you to shop on Quikr.com , I quickly enrolled myself and was one of the lucky ones to be invited to participate in this great shopping experience.The deal was that a blogger had to buy products worth Rs. 5000 from Quikr and blog about the experience. That didn’t seem to hard to do because with the festive season around, there is always a need to buy things and if one can buy it from the comfort of one’s home, it is even better.

    The experience

    After getting over the disappointment of finding out that Quikr was some kind of an online jumble sale I thought I’d still give it a shot as there were always things that I could buy as gifts.

    After a few minutes of random clicking, I realised that there is a method to shopping on Quikr.com

    Step 1 – Choose the city you live in so that the geographical location is determined
    Step 2 – Choose the category of goods you are interested in
    Step 3- Set filters like product, brand, price
    Step 4 – Identify the product you want to buy and contact the dealer.

    I realised that one has to choose filters to avoid random clicks and wasting time looking for something to buy. I wasn’t interested in most of the categories ( I mean can you even buy a house for Rs. 5000 anywhere in India leave alone Mumbai?)

    So with most categories being eliminated by the process of Natural Selection, I zeroed down to Home & Lifestyle.

    In the Baby Infant Products that I was kind of interested in being a full time granny to an over active toddler, I thought I’d get something – but sadly there’s nothing interesting. Some used prams, unheard of brands of diapers and basically nothing I found even remotely tempting.

    I then went down to the next attractive sub-category  Health Beauty Products since I was on the lookout for a BB Cream. Sadly this too was a waste of time as the cream I wanted wasn’t even listed and the rest of the items seemed too dodgy for me…..I mean imagine getting L’Oreal lipsticks or Herbalife slimming powders from an unidentified source?

    Household goods are always useful especially mixers and toasters which I could gift to Anna Shetty but sadly I couldn’t find these here either! There were no Oven Toaster Grills, nor were there any decent branded mixers.

    But wait, something did catch my eye –  a  ROTI MAKER. How cool was that? Ever since I’d heard about Rotimatic a new gizmo invented and available in Singapore, I have been dreaming of buying a roti maker. However, when I clicked on to the link, I got some more ads with absolutely no mention of the roti maker.

     Disappointed yet again at having my dreams for a roti maker dashed, I went for another category and was surprised that when I clicked a Painting for sale Mumbai, this is what I got.

    Tell, me honestly, would you go for a picture for Rs. 1,75,000 without even seeing what it was all about? This was way beyond my budget in any case but also ridiculously unrealistic- to expect someone to buy a rare painting online without even a hint of what to expect.

    Geographical limitations

    Apart from the fact that most of the items on sale were not of my interest, most of the locations too were way beyond my reach. The few items on sale like this one for instance was within my ambit but frankly with a vague description like display counter, with no other specifications and with no photo to boot, the advertiser will be lucky to get an inquiry let alone a customer!

    A big let down

    So all in all, this has been one big disappointment and one which actually left me depressed rather than on a high which I normally feel after I go shopping either online or off. Most of the items were not after my heart, not even on my wish list so even if I wanted to buy something for the sake of buying as most compulsive shoppers do, I am well aware of the adage –  a fool and his money are soon parted – and I definitely like to think that I am no fool!

    This post is a part of Quikr.com activity at BlogAdda.com

  • Diwali Gifts with a difference

    Diwali in the distant past

    Diwali gifts at one time meant new clothes given by my parents, a small token of cash given by my father for Padwa and another gift of cash given by my brother for BhauBeej and some more cash from other relatives whom we met during Diwali. We made or bought Diwali cards which we sent to relatives and friends and we dropped off home made sweets to our neighbours on Diwali day. This was how I celebrated Diwali while growing up.

    Changing times


    Diwali gifts took on an entirely new dimension after I got married. Being part of  a business family we often got gifts from business associates. A few days before Diwali would come baskets laden with fruit: dozens of sweetlime, a pineapple or two, half a dozen oranges, some apple and chickoo and if the merchant was generous some pomegranate too! The huge big basket covered with gelatine paper would be hauled into the kitchen after they were delivered by either the office peon or the delivery boy. Since we weren’t too sure whether the gifts would be delivered in person, we had to dress up in our diwali finery to receive the merchants and offer them cups of tea and  home made sweets in return.

    Gradually, gift giving became more impersonal and more sophisticated. Gone were the shabbily dressed delivery boys and gone too were the merchants who preferred to send gifts smartly packed with their drivers or office boys. Baskets of fresh fruit were replaced by boxes of dry fruit – kilos of cashew and almond, with some raisins thrown in. A generous merchant would add pistachios as well as dried figs or then sweetmeats made out of dry fruit.

    The Dry Fruit Box became more and more ostentatious as the years went by – with tiny compartments stuffed with some amount of assorted dry fruit – fig, cashew, pistachio, apricot and stuffed dates. For a while, these boxes would contain cashew marzipan biscuit-like discs which supposedly lasted for months if they were not eaten up in minutes. Sometimes dry fruit was gifted in fancy plastic boxes or in fancy storage bottles that could be kept on the dining table or sideboard. These have long since lost currency as have dried fruit which have since been replaced by chocolates and designer sweetmeats. It was fun opening boxes with elaborate or elegant wrapping to uncover some hidden delights beautifully packaged and delightful to taste.

    Diwali Gifts now


    Gradually the gifts became less ornate and more practical and even unique. With merchants being replaced by corporates, the gifts became more sophisticated. Pens, coffee mugs, small electronic items, and “novelty” items became the rage. Gift giving took on new proportions with Trade Fairs for gifts being organised so that corporates could find gifts that suited their image.

    Yesterday I got a Diwali gift from Manvinder Dawer of India Fine Art an art gallery at Famous Studios Tardeo which is the only dealer of T.Vaikuntam in the city – a set of coasters printed with Vaikuntam’s work.

    Thank you for your Diwali gift Mani.

    Happy Diwali to all those celebrating the festival and good wishes to those who are not!
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