Taste life in style

Glamour takes the centre stage in Bengaluru with Blenders Pride Fashion Tour 2014, as the spectacular fashion event arrives in style. The evening marked the Indian fashion industry with glitz and grandeur with models strutting down the runway donning the cutting edge collections of Gaurav Gupta and Little Shilpa. The second day of the tour presented an array of stylish couture and mesmerized the crowd with a music concoction of various genres like rock, pop, classical, electronica et al by Grain featuring Karsh Kale with Ankur Tewari.

Bringing together a concoction of design, music and technology, this tour, in its tenth edition, celebrates absolution in style. Mr. Raja Banerji, Assistant Vice President at Pernod Ricard India said, 

“This is a very proud moment for all of us at Blenders Pride Fashion Tour as we celebrate 10 years of style, substance and excellence. This is the fourth stop of this stylish journey, throughout we have endeavoured and succeeded in setting the stage for the various talents; celebrating style like never before. This year, the Tour is grander, infused with newer dimensions from various facets of art-forms along with fashion and glamour in literature, sports, music and cinema.”

At Blenders Pride Fashion Tour, the technology concepts comprising of augmented reality and social media, along with explicitly curated music by Midival Punditz, for the entire tour, kept the audience engaged and excited. The décor exuded handcraft and delicate patterns that accentuated the whole experience.

Onlookers were tranced as models donning the Blenders Pride Collection by Gaurav Gupta walked on the runway. The new age, luscious and ever so flattering drapes incorporating the transparent basics for timeless and sophisticated sensuality stunned the audience with the celebration of womanhood. And that was not all as the gorgeous Shradha Kapoor the audience enthralled as she walked down the ramp in the finale design.

Unleashing his collection, Gaurav Gupta shared, “I am delighted to be a part of Blenders Pride Fashion Tour. Explore your fantasy with me and I love this adventure that allows me to reveal different elements of style. Egyptian tall gowns, multi-draped futuristic saris and sari gowns and fantastical red carpet glamour comes alive in this collection. 

Be dipped in shimmer, gold, ivory and flaming orange and explore your inner goddess. It’s time to be sexy and glamorous". 

Little Shilpa came next to present her contemporary collections, Disco Denimals, Grey Matters and Black Magic. Taking the ease and insouciance of denim, and putting it through an even more malleable state, harking animal iconography and discotheque imagery, Little Shilpa painted the picture for a free spirited future. The onlookers saw the English dandy meet the Bombay local as Little Shilpa infused decidedly offbeat influences on the arguably strict norms and practices associated with India's most beloved silhouettes -the sari and the katoricholi in her Grey Matters collection.

Commenting on the occasion, Little Shilpa said, “I believe style is being bold. Being true to yourself is a portrayal of self.  It is my intuition that makes me brave enough to take my decisions in life, no matter what others say. Faith in oneself and the courage to take bold steps is my definition of style."  

The evening became entrancing as soulful notes by Grain featuring Karsh Kale with Ankur Tewari filled the air. 

The artists rocked the spectators with their brilliant performance that blended perfectly with the spectacularly styled evening, ending the tour in Bengaluru on a high note. The five city tour is now set to reach its final destination, Kolkata. 

                                                                            

Till next time....Keep it STYLISH By Nature !! 

Anindita Sinha
Msc.Media || PG:1

Facebook addiction

Face book at today’s era have became the first choice for almost many individuals to get rid of their regular stress or to spend their leisure time in a more convenient way. It has become the best place to share their feelings, depression etc.

Well, during the recent study conducted by Swedish researches, several thousands of respondents aged 18 to 73 years were questioned. The results showed that Facebooking might become uncontrolled habit. The majority of respondents visit Face book pages every day without even realizing it and this form of resource utilization subsequently develops into a addiction,” – says Leif Denti , doctor of psychology at the University of Gothenburg.

The experts also said that women spend more time on Zuckerberg’s social networking site more than men, because the social network are often chosen as the best place to share their day-to-day story. It has also been noted that they give false statement just to seek attention or to show off their face book friends that are livelier or more excited with life while there are also users who share their negativity as well their experiences about themselves or nearby.

Some of the people are so into face book that they cannot imagine a day working out without visiting Zuckerberg’s social networking site because half of the users are afraid of missing something important on face book Researchers have also found that the average Face book users spend about 75 minutes a day on the site, women spend about 81 minutes and men about 65 minutes well 70% of them surf whenever they switch on to data connection on their mobiles or laptops.

A social networking site is a social network to manage relationships with friends and family. However, users should not expose everything on face book or any other social networking site because most messages are associated with important and positive events and anyone can make misuse of that information. So to protect that privacy should be maintained while surfing any social networking sites. If we look positively at Zuckerberg’s social networking site we come up with the conclusion that face book helps in people in promoting their products or shows etc.

In face book you can also create pages or groups of your own to and ask people to either join or like your pages. It is also regarded as the more convenient way to link up to other various sites by surfing on and on.

But not so long ago a similar study was conducted by Professor Christopher Carpenter of the University of Western Illinois. The scientist came to the conclusion that Face book provokes antisocial behavior and exacerbates the tendency toward narcissism. The findings are published in the scientific journal Personality and Individual Differences. 

The expert concluded that Face book offers more options for the internet users to connect themselves with hundreds and thousands of people or non committal social ties , which are subsequently replaced by people full of communication. Well at the same time people here often do things or try to present things which are not been done by them it’s just that they suffer from narcissism where they want more appreciation and admiration from others which ultimately leads to exaggeration of one’s self importance.      

Anita Baruah

Msc.Media || PG:1

Performance of digital media at various aspects

Digital Media as a profession relates with the advent of social media and new age interactive marketing, the evolving digital media throws a plethora of opportunities in the industry. The interactive web-based marketing is slowly replacing the traditional interruptive marketing and help fans and followers to stay tune to their favorite brands 24x7. 

The new-age marketing focuses on relation over reach, interaction over interruption and customer satisfaction over customer saturation. Brand all over the world are pampering its people and customers on a platform that caters to the expectations of it users. It is estimated that with both the businesses and consumers increasingly shifting to the digital medium, there will be 1.5 lakhs jobs available by 2016.   

Digital Marketing as an industry is witnessing a rapid growth 2013 onwards as reported by IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India).This comes as no surprise as the global trend for digital media consumption is far surpassing anyone’s forecasting expectations. The bottom line, however, is that industry in the US is of the size of $62 billion a while ago. 

From this there won’t be any exaggeration that the future of marketing is digital and its evolving overall as an industry itself.

Digital Media had served its people with profit making benefits also as it begins from the late 90s when people are engaging themselves with the online business and digital marketing either to supplement their  “regular job” earnings ,or they’re determined for it to become their main source of income. Affiliate marketing in these regard is common way of earning as it provides profit with 15 to 20% to the people involved in it along with various avail options.

There is no doubt that digital marketing in Indian economy is emerging as a digital hub for diverse services including online advertising, social media and website design. 

The rising trend in web-based marketing, mobile marketing and e-commerce industry have fuelled new growth aspects in Indian Economy. In a latest survey conducted by an independent media house, it is estimated that nearly 25,000 jobs are going to be created in the field of digital media this year alone which is major boost for Indian economy which was paralyzed for significant period of time. This is like a soothing musical tune to Indian economy which is expecting a boost from rising demand of the industry that was under performing for quiet sometime due to tight economic scenario.  

Anita Baruah

Msc.Media || PG:1

What makes us happy

Studies surprising insights into why some people are happier than others.landmark twins research from the university of Minnesota, USA, found that roughly 50 percent of the difference in happiness from one individual to another is genetically determined. We don’t inherit particular traits that make us more or less optimistic, our DNA is responsible for what researcher refer to as a “happiness set point.” Because happiness is intangible and difficult to measure, they are influenced differently by each person’s perception of happiness.Research points to four key areas: family community, work and faith.

Family: according to ongoing Grant study, several things that common sense tells us are true, that having a loving childhood predicts happiness in adulthood. That men are happier in their mature years if they are close with their children. And that one of the predictors for happiness in old age is being in a good marriage.

Community: the community that is build around us are our friends which boost our happiness. All the happiest people have close relationship at least a few people we can really count on. Some people believe that friends are not as important as relatives because certain friendships dissolve when someone changes jobs or moves to another city. Friends can be particularly rewarding for people who have drastically different interests, compared to their family members. unlike relatives, we can choose our friends.

Faith: in this 21^st century, when people seem to be more interested in money, pop culture and tech gadgets than old- fashioned values like spirituality and religion. Part of the reason is that one should follow our faith, it’s likely that we all need to be a part of a community or like-minded group  which produces positive feelings. Religious people are happier than people who don’t rely on their faith , because of their interpersonal connections.

Work: work provides meaning and purpose to life and its closely tied to happiness studies have shown that completely disabled people are less happy than other people, largely because they are unable to do work of any kind. The best way to increase happiness through work is to find enjoyment in what we do.

Antika Supriya

Msc.Media || PG:1

Glamour and living, with fireflies

The fifth edition of  ‘Kolkata’s Fashion & Lifestyle Exhibition’ was held at Taj Bengal on 14^th of March 2015. The concept of this entire event is showcasing an amalgamation of local and international fashion and lifestyle products for the urban Bengal society.

With the tagline of ‘A lot for all’, it was well graced by the presence of some eminent personalities from Tollywood namely RituparnaSengupta, Neha Panda, SahebChatterjee, Gargi Roy Chowdhury, June Malia, Rachna Banerjee, Koneenica Banerjee, ShreyaPande, RimjhimMitra, SayaniDutta, Rita Bhimani, SharbariDutta, Imran Zaki, ArindamSil, NilanjanaChakraborty, ArjunChakraborty, Jessica Gomes, NeenaSaxer, UshossheeSengupta, Mrs. Dhanuka, Jasjit Singh, SaritaMohta, ManjariBhutoria, IndraniVerma, Ena Shah, ShuklaSil, Ruhi Singh and a lot more.

As a well-crowded event it surely had a lot to engage the visitors, as the display of products ranged from ethnic Indian to international western. Products ranging from clothes to lifestyle products like bags and accessories were on display. The products however were exclusive and personalized by designers. 

The focus of the event was on current status of trends and consumption of the existing market and general buyers. The core team of Fireflies consists of PritiAgarwal, SnehaTapadiya, SaloniBhalotia and ShillpiGoel who head the organization collectively. Culturally from diverse backgrounds, what brings them together is the common passion for Fashion and Lifestyle, and their unique entrepreneurial skills. ‘Fireflies’ was born out of their love for glamour.

The theme of the event was based on nature, and was well observed in its décor. The participants were veterans and some fresh new designers from the Indian Panorama. By the end of the evening the success of it all could be well noticed and covered by multiple journals and mainstream media.

Arunim Das Purkayastha

Msc.Media || PG:1

Android TV, the future is here!

While we might wonder what the future of television may be, it is already a revolution by the way technology has been changing it! Recently the masterminds behind android, Google has announced of Android compatible Television Devices, which will give users a freedom to stick to traditional Television Broadcast to a Browser, based New Media Convergence.

The tagline for this segment of devices has been versed as “Entertainment tailored for you”. The defined uniqueness of these new devices comes from their fully functional Android operating system. Earlier models of Smart television devices had a limited interactivity, which have been replaced by these Android devices.

Some of the new personalized features of the TV version of Android OS are its Voice Search function, Google Cast compatibility with other devices and Remote control compatibility. Your cellphone or a digital watch can now control your television! The all-new TV OS based Google Play has all those favorite applications to be downloaded into your devices. Video calls would also be easy and possible with webcams. Some new devices can be predicted to be having inbuilt front facing cameras. 

That’s not all. Gaming moves to a whole new level as game controllers are now being developed for these devices.Gamers can play multiplayer games online as well and build community based gaming forums. Game developershave shifted their concentration while scripting new interactive games for the Android platform as the devices have now moved to larger screens from earlier mobile devices based on android.

Google has officially announced tie up with ASUS, NVIDIA, Philips, Razer, Sharp and Sony for the manufacturing of these Android based smart Televisions. However we can find various other companies developing on this open source platform bringing out their own versions of android TV. 

Arunim Das Purkayastha

Msc.Media || PG:1

India’s daughter – Sparks before diminishing

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made women’s safety as one of his top priorities; his Govt appears to have tripped on its first big test of its sincerity. By banning Indian channels from airing the BBC documentary titled “India’s Daughter” on the brutal rape and subsequent death of a Delhi medical student in December 2012.

Union Home Minister RajnathSingh should have known that such fiats are difficult to impose in the age of internet. The Govts power to prevent the free flow of information across digital pace is highly limited. Rajnath’s ban saw the documentary go viral on the social media and by last night, there were already a million hits on YouTube with several people posting the BBC serial.

There were parts in the documentary directed by LESLEE UDWIN that were moving, particularly when Nirbhaya’s parents relived their experience and spoke of how their dreams and hopes lay brutally shattered by the incident. It was revealing to see the slum colonies in which the rapist lived and grew up and how their parents, Wives or relatives viewed their crime. The jail psychiatrist said that most of the rapist serving terms in prison had confessed to having raped many women before they were caught.

There were parts of the BBC documentary that were appalling to watch. Particularly when Mukesh Singh, one of the rapist, now on death row, showed no signs of remorse and instead said, “earlier, they would rape and say,’ leave her, she won’t tell anyone’. Now when they rape, they won’t let the girl go like we did. They will kill her.”

The two defense counsels of the rapist argue that women “ask for it” when they dress in jeans and roam around freely with their boyfriends after dark, as they claimed Nirbhaya did. One of them even said he would set his daughter on fire if she exhibited such behavior.

The main reason cited by the Govt for the ban was that the views expressed by the rapist and lawyers would create “a situation of tension and fear amongst women” and that airing would be “against the interest of justice and public order” in India. The Govt also pointed out that the director, LESLEE UDWIN, had misused the limited permission granted to her to do interviews for research purposes and not for making these public. The Delhi Police subsequently slapped a case against her. The Govt does not appear to have viewed the documentary entirely when it took such a decision.

There are far more pressing issues concerning woman safety that the Modi government should concentrate on than banning the documentary. For the views expressed by the rapist and some of his lawyers are not surprising and if the documentary played a role in creating awareness against them, it would serve a purpose.

Attika Dutta

Msc.Media || PG:1