Neha Bhatt savours some short stories from a prizewinning Nigerian author.

At home and abroad

Business Standard

Amitav Ghosh met Aung San Suu Kyi twice in 1995-96, while he was &ldquo;At Large in Burma&rdquo; researching the essay of that title he wrote for the New Yorker. (It later became part of his excellent book of narrative reportage, Dancing in Cambodia, At Large in Burma.) About seven months elapsed between the two meetings. Ghosh spent that time meeting dissidents; he also travelled to the Thai border in the east, to visit the Karenni, a minority ethnic group fighting a guerrilla war in its native forests against the Burmese army.

Seeing Suu Kyi

The Jermuk Grand Prix is heading for a tight finish. After 10 rounds, Ivanchuk, Leko and Kasimdzhanov share the lead on 6.5 points with Aronyan and Alekseev on 6. All three leaders are unbeaten. Gelfand and Karjakin have plus scores with 5.5 while Pavel Eljanov is on 50 per cent with 5 points.

CHESS #602

Monday. Can&rsquo;t believe I had to wake up again. What&rsquo;s the point of living in a free country if you have to wake up every day? This is so relentless. Wake up, get tired, go to sleep, recharge, wake up, get tired, go to sleep. It&rsquo;s like eating, only that&rsquo;s much worse.

Slow news week

Shiamak Davar talks about work and his dance academy, but Abhilasha Ojha finds that Elsa steals the show.

Dancing to her tune

It is no secret that luxury goods companies in India are struggling. These companies came with the premise that Indians have lots of money which they are willing to spend freely on consumer items. The second premise that most hold is that the Indian consumer wants value for money. And based on these two ideas, luxury goods companies came flying into India, assuming that the consumer was just waiting to buy anything they chose to sell us.

Home advantage

Television chef and cookbook writer Anjum Anand is one of the faces of Indian cuisine in Britain. A new season of her series Indian Food Made Easy has recently started on Discovery Travel &amp; Living. In this, Anand visits Indian homes &mdash; Gujaratis in Leicester, Kashmiris in Birmingham and Punjabis in Scotland &mdash; in search of recipes and is at pains to establish that anybody can cook Indian food.

Anyone can cook

They say, bravery is endurance for a moment more. But when misfortune befalls, even the bravest breaks down and looks for some solace in the external world.

Click your problems away

Two weeks ago, when Australia&rsquo;s opening batsman Phil Hughes tweeted about his dropping from the team, it became a talking point for two reasons. One, Hughes was reprimanded by the team management for &ldquo;leaking&rdquo; the news and, two, he joined a growing band of athletes getting active in the online world. Back home in India, however, the social networking bug is yet to bite our sportspersons.

Networking yet to tickle Indian sports stars' fancy

From a project engineer at AMG General Corporation (makers of Hummer) to designing Dodge RAM for Chrysler to starting an e-cards business and then turning it into an over Rs 300-crore digital marketing company in a decade, 47-year-old Suresh Reddy, chairman and chief executive of Hyderabad-based Ybrant Digital, has come a long way.

Scripting a 'Ybrant' success story

The only radio that you might own right now would be an in-built one on your mobile phone. But loving local radio has just got better. So, how about listening to your favourite radio stations while whipping up a family dinner, or winding down with a glass of wine after a tiring day at work? Today&rsquo;s sleek, contemporary designs blend seamlessly with modern d&eacute;cor and look just perfect on a desk at home or at office.

Music to your ears

Media planners and advertisers are focusing on the success of individual shows rather than the fast-changing ranking of channels.

Twist in the plot

A lot of the advertising greats will tell you that the first rule about doing an ad is not to do it. What they mean is, do not dash off an ad as soon as you are asked to do it. Resist the temptation. Instead, acquire every bit of information and trivia about the product or service that you are about to advertise. Toss all the facts and information in your mind, sift through it, and then do the most important thing. Link actual experiences from your life to the information you have gathered. If you can do that successfully, more often then not, you will have something beautiful to show.

'Life partner'

Way back in 1996 when people were still struggling to understand the relevance of the internet and digital platforms, Olivier Fleurot, who was then with the French newspaper Les Echos, launched the first online French news website. Fleurot, who has taken over as the chief executive of Publicis&rsquo; new PR structure, which includes MS&amp;L, Publicis, and Kekst &amp; Company, and Publicis Events Worldwide, speaks to Sapna Agarwal on his target to increase the contribution of the Bric nations to his firm&rsquo;s overall revenues to 25 per cent. Excerpts.

'The winners will be players with data and deep pockets'

Soap opera

Car makers the world over are in a fix &mdash; how to get customers back to their showrooms. The liquidity crunch, depressed stock markets and fears of joblessness have dented consumer sentiment badly, though there seems to be a recovery of sorts in India. Synovate Motoresearch, the automotive research division of Synovate, the global market research company, has come out with its Tipping Point Study which seeks to address these concerns of automobile makers.

&#39;Auto companies need to deliver at the dealer's level&#39;

Domino&rsquo;s Pizza is now delivering pasta.

Dial-a-pasta

Spoof ads have been for long the norm in aerated beverages. They have of late been done with telling effect in categories like soap, dental cream, motorcycles and even direct-to-home television. Now is the turn of chocolates.

Munchy bites

If you thought Kolkata-based Emami Group will take life easy after the acquisition of Zandu last year, your judgement could prove wrong. It has plans to invest some Rs 1,600 crore in its personal care business. This includes new products as well as extension and repositioning of brands.

Emami Group: Personal care push

It&rsquo;s a small car with big ambitions. The Volkswagen Polo is the car that Volkswagen India wants to bring it the volumes. The German carmaker sells the Passat and Jetta in the country, together which accounted for about 1,500 units last year, which Volkswagen hopes to double this year. But with the compact Polo, it will enter an already crowded and extremely contested segment. More players like Ford, Toyota and Nissan are firming up plans to enter it.

Volkswagen: And here comes Polo

REALISING THE importance of brand identity and an uplifting consumer experience, many brands in India have started focusing on translating the brand personality into communication and messages that reinforce the brand positioning. From materials, shape, in-store music to even smells, the consistency of brand communication is more important at the point of purchase than advertising.

KIT: Retail trends

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