Think of Madonna &mdash; the pop star, not the Mother of God &mdash; and then think of your first association after the triangular breasts.

Second life

Business Standard

Talk about a reversal of roles. I&rsquo;m usually the fellow who, essentially on a whim, pinpoints a place on a map, organises transport, packs his bags and says &lsquo;Ok bye!&rsquo; to the rest of the office mob, never to return. Ok, that&rsquo;s an exaggeration &mdash; I do return eventually, but soon after that event I repeat the above-mentioned steps all over again. Now, however, I find myself holding the fort in the office while everyone &mdash; and I do mean everyone &mdash; else travels all over the country (and world) doing stories for the forthcoming 11th anniversary issue of BSM. It&rsquo;s an unusual experience for me, but one that I&rsquo;m enjoying in its own way. And no, you lot, don&rsquo;t go getting any ideas &mdash; this is a strictly temporary state of affairs.

Office-bound

News reports in business dailies, including this one, tell us almost every day that India and Asia continue to grow at a robust rate. While developed nations are still suffering from the effects of the recession, India and most of Asia are clocking impressive growth rates.

Don't forget the home ground

I&rsquo;m looking for a luxury car and my budget is Rs 20 lakh. My topmost priorities are excellent comfort over Mumbai&rsquo;s potholed roads and good brakes. I&rsquo;m not concerned with whether it&rsquo;s a petrol or a diesel car, but I&rsquo;m leaning towards an automatic gearbox given the ease of driving it offers. A knowledgeable friend has suggested the Toyota Corolla, the Volkswagen Jetta, the Hyundai Sonata and the Honda Accord as good options.

Feeling of comfort

The Klove Studio partners tell Rrishi Raote how they designed the set for Karan Johar's fashion debut.

Glass menagerie

The Sai Baba and a cousin who is an environmentalist are responsible for Senaka Senanayake&rsquo;s painterly journeys into a rapidly disappearing landscape.

Exiled to a world of rainforests

Old JWT hand Sunil Gupta offers fascinating insights into the mad ad world in this irreverent memoir of advertising in India.

The thunder years

The East-West encounter, in the arts sphere at least, can be a very productive engagement. The fruit of one such collaboration between French installation artist Jean-Michel Othoniel and the glass blowers of Firozabad is &ldquo;Precious Stone Wall&rdquo;, which will be on show at the NGMA in the capital sometime in February next year and thereafter, travel to the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Wall decor

Tarquin Hall follows a hunter in pursuit of a rogue. Anand Sankar sniffs a man-animal morality tale.

On the elephant trail

By far the most important skill in business,&rdquo; wrote the London Times&rsquo;s Sathnam Sanghera in a recent column (also carried in this paper), &ldquo;is the ability to tell a decent anecdote.&rdquo; I think he&rsquo;s right, especially when it comes to the old-fashioned way of doing business &mdash; face to face. &ldquo;Frankly,&rdquo; said Sanghera, &ldquo;banter should be taught at school alongside Geography and Maths. Nothing will benefit your career more.

Past speaking

Mahesh Bhupathi was one of the best Indian tennis players of the decade. Aabhas Sharma finds out what made him such a success, on and off the court.

The perfect partner

Until even a few years ago, an evening on town meant going to the disco &mdash; Athena or Fire &rsquo;N&rsquo; Ice in Mumbai; Ghungroo, Dublin, or My Kind of Place in Delhi; Pink Elephant in Kolkata.

R.I.P.

Time was when the only &ldquo;wines&rdquo; available were either the port-style stuff from Goa (remember &ldquo;Adega de Velha&rdquo;?) or Golconda. In 1986 Indage launched &ldquo;Marquise de Pompadour&rdquo; &mdash; touted as the first &ldquo;Indian champagne&rdquo; (we really didn&rsquo;t know much about wine back then, did we?). Grover&rsquo;s entry three years later gave some competition, but it was Sula which raised the bar by bringing in better-quality wines and marketing their wines professionally.

Anniversaries and milestones

The bow tie brand now has an impressive new hatch. And we&rsquo;ve driven it.

Beat there, done that

From music to mind games to muscle-building exercises, mobile applications are the key to turn your cellphone into a know-all mate.

Time to get app hungry

We all watch videos and TV content online. But we also know that streaming videos can become frustrating on a dawdling internet connection, which usually kills the experience. This is where mobile broadband connections come to the rescue. A mobile broadband connection is essentially a mobile phone for your PC &mdash; it uses the same GSM/CDMA and 3G technologies that provide voice and data to your mobile.

Watching TV on the go

Gone are the days when one had to stand in queues to buy movie tickets or even tickets for cricket matches. You really had to get up in the wee hours days before the match and make sure that you are ahead in the queue for tickets. Then came the internet and, more importantly, websites like www.kyazoonga.com. And voila, life became relatively easier.

Kyazoonga: Your ticket to entertainment

Brand experts are divided on the move to drop the 10-year old name of the European steelmaker, which contributes 70% of Tata Steel&rsquo;s production.

Tata's ta-ta to Corus

Famed British toy retailer Hamleys will make its India debut with a 22,000-square-feet store at the popular Phoenix Mills in Mumbai, by February next year.

Hamleys set for India debut in February

Swedish telecom equipment provider Ericsson is looking for a new identity to make the brand more vibrant at a time when the company is moving from being just a equipment provider to one which manages services.

Brand Ericsson gets a makeover

Coca-Cola India is adding one more product to its portfolio in India - Burn. It is a premium energy drink (250 ml for Rs 75) which the company has launched to tap the Rs 200 crore energy drink market in India that is growing at over 60 per cent over the last couple of years. It will compete with Gatorade from PepsiCo and other established products like Red Bull and Cloud 9. Seema Sindhu spoke to Ricardo Fort, vice-president, marketing, Coca-Cola India, about the company&rsquo;s plans on Burn, how it will impact the competition and other issues.

'Burn targets those who are always on a high'

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