Explorer of Experiences

In this age of social media, no matter what the industry, it is in the business’ interest to have digital presence. Just maintaining presence for the sake of it is one thing, but doing a great job of it is another. Few other aviation brands are doing as good a job on social media as KLM is. Just browse through the airline’s global Facebook page . You don’t need to be a frequent flyer with the airline or a travel enthusiast or a plane spotter to enjoy their page. You simply and inevitably will enjoy it. And what is remarkable is that the brand’s social content has such a universal reach and appeal. Let us see what they are doing well and more importantly, differently. 1)       Beautiful imagery You would think seeing images of the blue KLM plane daily on Facebook would be boring. After all, the aircrafts look alike and the colours are the same. So what’s new? Well, they share some really magnificent pictures of their fleet fr...

There’s a new friendly neighborhood bistro whose food and desserts have got the town talking. I make the drive to Baner to find out what’s in store… Desserterie. Patisserie. Bistro. Minus 18 Degrees in Baner is all this and more. What catches curious eyes is the view of the top storey of Minus 18 Degrees of busy chefs with their gloved hands working on dish after dish. This 45-seater bistro is the vibrant new kid on the block. Stark navy blue and white walls could have made the place look clinical, but the smart interior designer has blended it together with subtle touches of teal - on the upholstery, the menu and the picture frames on the wall. With the chosen color palette, Minus 18 Degrees could have been the perfect naval office canteen. There is alfresco seating but you really want to sit where all the action is happening – indoors. Push open the door and you are greeted with a sweet aroma. It’s a bustling scene inside - young waiters energetically atten...

Today I'm feeling very positive and inspired. So, I thought it's the right time (and about time) that I blog about my experience being at the Yanni Live in Concert at the VadFest in Vadodara. It was a surreal feeling walking into the concert grounds on 23rd January. This was really a dream come true for me. Watching the maestro perform in person, his skillful fingers gliding past the keys of his shiny black Yamaha piano, was for most part a distant dream for me. It was at boarding school in 1997 when I first discovered the musical legend. His tracks were fittingly used for most of our school events. As the curtains of our auditorium drew open every Friday, ' Santorini ' played as the opening track to the news reading event during the morning assembly. 'Swept Away'  was a befitting track to the most anticipated annual fashion show where girls draped in lovely saris walked across the stage with their beautiful flowing  pallus . I was hooked onto the instru...

I thought I'd write something special with Womens' Day just around the corner. Sometimes, you don't need to search far and wide for inspiration. It's right close to you. Look around you - a friend, a co-worker, a movie, a book, travel...inspiration can come from anywhere. In this case for me, my ever-smiling and oh-so-hardworking friend Keshia is an inspiration. And I want to share what makes her tick with you.    ‘Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously in it.’ This famous quote by Julia Child fits like a glove as the beginning to our interview with Chef Keshia D’souza. Currently Chef de Partie at Courtyard by Marriott Pune City Centre , she found cooking to be her passion at the tender age of eight. With over six years of experience in the kitchen, here she is in her Chef’s whites with a smile on her face and her affable personality already evident. How did your passion for cooking begin and what inspired you? I got the idea...

This article was published on The Punekar and can be viewed here .  I have been lucky enough to live in several cities over the past few years. Pune has been a particular favourite for me; I always feel home here. So I am always thinking about ways this city can be made more livable and more exciting!  1. Pop-up Restaurants Chef Gaggan If you’re a follower of the global food scene, you’ve probably heard of pop-up restaurants. Pop-ups are like wandering, nomadic restaurants and our neighbor, Mumbai, has seen quite a few of them over the past year. Case in point, Gaggan Anand of Gaggan fame (his eponymous Bangkok restaurant ranked 3 rd  on the World’s 50 Best Asian Restaurants list) set up a public tasting of his progressive Indian menu at Bandra-Kurla Complex. Needless to say, the city’s foodies were raving about it. Pune has a proud and flourishing food history too and we are sure there will be lots of takers of such pop-ups. 2. Dedicated Public Ope...

Mussoorie International School “Hanisha, you’re going to boarding school! Are you excited?” To my eleven year old mind, this one sentence coming to me from my mum was just too much to process; I probably did not completely comprehend the entirety of the situation and the journey I was going to embark on. One minute, it is life as usual with my sisters and I returning from day school in Nigeria lugging a 3kg bag with books – and the next minute, there was going to be a disruption in this cyclical routine of eight years in the form of being sent to a boarding school in Mussoorie. I did not even know where Mussoorie was! Was I prepared to leave behind my oyster and be swung atop mountains unknown? I was fresh out of fifth standard and watched as my mum and dad gathered the contents of my cupboard and neatly placed them into a suitcase. We were departing for Delhi the next day from where we would hail a cab and head towards my mum’s maternal home in Jaipur. I remember it all so w...

I loved studying Public Relations as a subject back in university. It all sounded like quite a fun profession, at least within the four walls of the Lecture Room it did…until my first job was as a PR Executive and I realized it was a tough job. Here's a funny meme I came across... Jokes apart, here's reality: 1.      You slog hard to make someone else or something famous 8 hours of your every working day, you work to shed limelight to your client or client’s product. It is a result of your own effort of pitching your story to the journalist and coaxing them that your client gets featured on the cover page or even gets a quarter page clipping in a magazine. Think how selfless you have to be when you sport a genuine smile while you see your excited client reading about himself in that magazine. 2.      You blame Sex and the City where Samantha make her PR job seem glamorous Always on the phone, in demand, dressed immaculately a...