Sunday, March 30, 2014

KotakJifi Indiblogger Meet : Now Experience banking via Social Media

I was waiting from a long time for an Indiblogger meet in Mumbai and when the KotakJifi meet was announced I quickly hopped on to it. What added to the excitement was it was first meet to be organised simultaneously across Mumbai, Bangalore & Delhi.

Informed all my blogger friends as I was so eager to meet them.
Agenda for the meet was the launch of new service by Kotak Mahindra Bank called Jifi.
Venue was Cafe Zoe in Lower Parel. It was an afternoon meet, commencing from 12 p.m. till 4.

It was a fresh Sunday morning!!
As planned I was going to meet Stephen, Monica & Vikrant at Andheri Station from where we were supposed to start for Cafe Zoe.
As usual everyone was on time expect Stephen who made us wait for half hour. I was so wanting to kill him for that along with Monica but we controlled our instincts.
Renu called to accompany and we had one more member added to our gang.

After reaching Lower Parel we walked our way to Cafe Zoe. Many veteran bloggers who were regular at Indimeets had already booked their seats. But we were eyeing the other members of our gang Karan, Rohan, Tapobrata, Vaisakhi, Deepti & Fatima. After scanning the complete venue we finally found them sitting at the upper floor. We walked upstairs and smiling faces greeted us.
It is so much fun when the complete gang is together.
Leg pulling, complementing each other's attire and clicking pics started in no time.



Our host for the day Anoop from Indiblogger announced free drinks and in no time bar was flooded with people, everyone wanting to get their booze first.
After all were settled with their drinks , twitter contest made its way.
It was simple, click a selfie with most no of people in it and walk away with vouchers & goodies.

Anoop as usual was a great host who kept us entertaining till the secret chief guest took his position.
We were shown different videos and this time "Hudd Hudd" was replaced by the lyrics that were coming on the TV. We enjoyed cheering every word loud and with full passion & intensity.



Next we had to guess the chief guest's name. There were lots of wild guesses ranging from Actors to even Cricketers. Finally no one could guess the name correctly and our excitement reached a different level altogether.

When he finally appeared on the podium everyone was cheering for non other than Mr Chetan Bhagat.
He started with promotion of movie "2 States" which is adaptation of his novel by same name.
Next we were provided insides about Jifi through presentations & Videos.
Finally he introduced, Mr Manian, Country head for consumer banking at Kotak Mahindra.
We were asked to tweet our questions regarding Jifi which he was going to answer.



The live streaming of event in Mumbai was made available to the bloggers in Bangalore & Delhi.
After the Q&A round we headed for lunch. There were not many options in veg which disappointed me specially.

After lunch Anoop announced another tweeter contest called Kotak Premier league where all were divided into 6 groups. Each group had to tweet about Jifi, how the experience of connecting banking with social media was different. We fell into group 6. Unfortunately we couldn't win but our friends won SPA vouchers.

Another Superb Indiblogger meet concluded successfully and not the forget the awesome Tees that were given by the Indi team at the end.



Lets now explore Jifi
1. Kotak Jifi bank account is not a traditional bank account but a new age socially & digitally synchronized account. It's a new age social banking which lets you do everything with your account just my being on social media.



2. Facebook & Twitter are the new platforms for anywhere-anytime access to your bank account and hassle-less transactions. You just need to be on facebook to open a brand new Jifi account.



3. You can receive banking account updates via twitter & refer friends via Facebook.
4. So having more friends on FB is so beneficial for me as every referral earns me reward points.
    Also every time you like or comment on Facebook you get reward points.
    You transact online and you get more reward points.
    The more you are social the more you earn points.
    This loyalty points can be used in shopping, entertainment activities like movies & dinning purposes.



5.  No minimum balance, no tension. As kotak Jifi account comes with no minimum balance feature it
     allows you to shop & dine without giving a second thought about your balance.
6.  Kotak Money Watch -:
     Do you want a feature that keeps track of your expenditure as you spend a lot on shopping and
     other activities, then money watch is for you.
     You can connect your bank accounts to it and see the net worth, calculate taxes & keep track of all
     the expenses and bills.
7.  Balance above Rs 25,000 is converted into term deposit.
     Now this is an add on. No minimum deposit was a special feature which gets integrated with this,
     adding on to your money.
8. Platinum Debit Card -:
   With your Jifi account comes the Platinum debit card which is packed with lot of features.
    Every time you do shopping or online transactions you earn points and can easily redeem them.

So everything on your Jifi account is just a tweet away.
I am hooked to this idea of social banking and feels that Kotak Jifi account is more a youngster like me.
I would recommend to definitely get ours or become my friend on FB and I will send you the invite..:)
Till next meet CYA..TC




     

Friday, March 28, 2014

Gazal Se Bhi Pyaari Aankhein..




Khubsurat hai hasi teri..
Khubsurat hai teri har baatein..
Khubsurat hai duniaa me sabse zyaada..
Teri gazal se bhi pyaari aankhein..

Log to mile hume zindagi me...naa jaane kitne..
Par tujh jaisa shaks aaj tak nahi milaa..
Phool to khilte hai har roz duniaa me hazaaro..
Par tujh jaisa gulaab aaj tak nahi khilaa..

Chehre par tere hoti hai humesha..
Ek alag si taazgi…
Dhundne par bhi nahi mil sakti…
Tere swbaahv jitni saadgi..

Karu agar puri taarif teri..
To guzar jaae kaee din aur raatein..
Khubsurat hai duniaa me sabse zyaada..
Teri gazal se bhi pyaari aankhein..


 :) :)

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Travel Smart, When you plan it with Skyscanner

This time the most liveable, most network ready and most tourist loved country of Asia is on our cards. Yes you got it right it is “Singapore”, the island country of Southeast Asia.

But when you are thinking to visit the 7 most expensive city of the world a smart plan to travel to the dream destination is a must. Tough to accomplish it in a budget is difficult but not impossible.

The best way is to find a place where you can compare fares of different airlines to get the cheapest deal without burning your pocket and to add cherry on the cake also the best accommodation suiting your budget.

After lot of brainstorming, goggling, analysis and speculation we found the one stop destination for cheap airfares, hotels and cars – “Skyscanner".

A bit about the leader
It is the leading global travel search site which provides instant online comparisons for millions of flights on over a thousand airlines. In addition to that you can also find deals on hotels and car rentals. Travel search in over 30 languages makes it easy for people around the world to navigate it.

Step 1 – Pick the right time to travel
If you are planning to visit Goa in July when it is damn hot,
USA in winters when you can't even get out from your hotel because of everyday storms.
Or a place which gets flooded during monsoon is not a good deal.
You are not planning smartly.
So the first thing you need to plan is the best time period to visit your dream destination.

For Singapore the climate remains the same round the year so that was of no concern.
The high season is from June to July & Nov to Dec, so the smart way to travel was during the low one.


Step 2 – Plan your flight
After deciding on the time period next is to book the flights.
It is quite possible that we are not sure about the date we want to travel.
For us anytime round the 8 months the plan could spin off, so we wanted our travel dates to be flexible.
After we entered the From and To of our travel and went on to click the Depart button we were utterly surprised. Flexible date for a complete year, just wow!!







After selecting the whole year we clicked on search and selected Mumbai city to board our flight from.
The amazing comparisons of flight rates for each month round the year was impressively presented in form of Chart and Calendar.





Seeing such a great comparison you can easily decide on
Which Airline is cheaper ?
On which days it's flight are cheaper ?
Whether it is good to board a morning or night flight ?
Planing a travel under budget suddenly seems to be a quite easy task.

Also go for transit flights as they are cheaper.
Direct flights should be taken only when you have a serious time constraint.


Step 3 – Plan your stay
After flights are booked next is to plan your stay.
You can search for hotels, guest houses and private homes.
During low season there are many hotels who welcome you with open arms
that too at a reasonable rate.
But than reviews from the past travelers gives you a brighter idea which one to pick from the lot.

When we searched for hotels on Skyscanner we were welcomed with another surprise



You can search accommodation based on Popularity, Price, Distance from city's center & ratings and decide on the perfect one.
Also to help you more there is another feature called MAP.
I tells you the exact location of different hotels on the MAP and also of the near by attractions.
So accordingly you can choose the one which lies in the center.




Step 4 – Plan your commuting 
After your travelling and stay planning is done and you have googled about all the major attractions and extracted the required info, the only thing remains is your mode of commuting.
For that you just have to click on the CAR HIRE option and bingo.


You can find all classes of car here and pick which suits you the best.
Even you can pick the age of the driver...:P

Last but not the least the best way to travel smart to any destination is to keep oneself updated about all the latest deals, offers and prices for that place.
And for that you just need to subscribe to the newsletter "Airmail" from Skyscanner.

Follow it on twitter and Facebook and set up a price alert which provides the best prices for the destinations chosen by you.



This post is part of contest Travel Smart With Skyscanner on Indiblogger.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

And I learned to play with them..

In our school it was a rule for the boys to have a solider cut.
Everyday our karate teacher who was also in charge of discipline committee used to check our hair.
If someone was found guilty of keeping long hairs, he was given an exotic package

This package included -
10 rounds of 500 meter long ground and 20 push ups all under the love of red hot sun. And yeah not to forget 2-3 claps came complementary.
No one dared to afford it and I was no exception.

Also I had no time for my hairs as I was busy preparing for different milestones which included clearing NTSE in 9th, than securing a merit in 10th and finally cracking IIT.
So I was happy with my short rough hairs.

Though I couldn't crack IIT but got admission in one of the top engineering college of my state.
In school it was karate sir and here seniors took his place.
No causal attire, collar button should be closed, always look at the third button of your shirt and address every senior using sir/mam were few protocols set.

Though many didn't like it but I had no problem as it made me look the same.
As the studies pressure was not so much as it was during my IIT preparation days hence I began to take interest in different extra circular activities also.
Dance was one thing I was really interested in and fortunately got selected in the 1st year group which was going to perform in the cultural fest.

Our group had 4 boys and 4 girls. I was paired with Nehal.
It was those days when for the first time in my life I came close to the opposite sex and came to know more about them.
Nehal was quite impressed with my dancing skills and intellect. I was too fascinated by her beauty.
The attraction grew stronger and I finally proposed her.
Though it was not a instantaneous yes but finally when she said it , I could hear nothing else.

Finally first year passed away and everyone welcomed second year, the year of freedom , the year of seniority with open arms.
Now was the time to look stylish and fashionable.

One day I and Nehal were sitting in the parking area. She was looking sizzling hot in her black skirt, white top and high heels.
I slowly placed my head on her lap and tried to flirt but was hit by a tsunami, volcano would also fit in.
Get up now , just get up...she was yelling at me with pain.
"I have few things to say to you and don't you dare ignore it ", she ordered

1. Your hairs are like cactus. I could feel them digging inside by soft skin. They are so rough and dry.
    Every girl likes to play with her guy's hair. Soft and silky, wow what a feeling that would be!!!..
    But I don't think I am lucky enough.
2. Also you know I heard from some junior gals that people make fun of you.
    They say "Ye to second year mai bhi junior hi reh gaya".
    It feels so bad when people talk like this about you. Can't you get out of this soldier cut avatar and       get a proper stylish one.

I could connect her words with that of many others.
Like my niece used to say "You are a very bad Chahu, you prick me with your hair", whenever I used to sleep in her lap.
My friends used to call me "Ujadi Zameen ke Loote hoye Sultan".
And even my mom who would not say anything when I used to sleep in her lap but I could very well understand that my rough and cactus like hairs caused her pain too.

Now was the high time to change and get out of this soldier cut mode.
I asked Nehal if she had something in her mind and without any haste she suggested
"Dove Men+Care" shampoo.




This time I did let my manes grow and decided to play with them.
Dove helped me a lot to keep them silky and soft.

I started with The Spike look and so did Leonardo DiCaprio..

                                                        source : Google.com


Then I tried something which the gentleman below tried to copy..

                                                          source : Google.com


And finally I impressed Nehal with my new shoulder hair cut from which Iron man also got inspired and used it to woo his gal..:P

                                                             source : Google.com

Now a days it was not me alone who wanted to play with my manes.
My girlfriend used to enjoy hours touching, running her fingers through and messing them up.
Even my niece started calling me Acche Chahu..

A new life had started. No more any karate sir, seniors or milestones can stop me from looking stylish and playing with my hairs.
All thanks to my sweetheart Nehal and world leader in Hair solution "DOVE"



                       
                                                       https://twitter.com/DoveIndia


This post is part of contest Dove Go Play on Indiblogger.