Cubans Ambassador To India Also A Cultural Messenger

By Sobhapati Samom

Imphal, Apr 14 : Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos, Ambassador of Cuba in India who was on a three-day visit to Manipur on Tuesday said that he will be the Ambassador of Shumang Leela, a courtyard play in the State, around the world.

“I will be the Ambassador of Shumang Leela around the world”, the visiting Ambassador Ramos said while speaking at a pre-play gathering at Iboyaima Shumang Leela Shanglen here.

Stating that Cuba has a better relationship with India and Manipur in particular, the Ambassador said many Manipur sports persons (mostly boxers) would be trained in Cuba.

Former Manipur Arts and Culture Minister Dr Moirangthem Nara also urged the visiting Cuban Ambassador to make use of his visit and become the Ambassador of Manipur culture around the globe.

Soon after arrival here on Monday, the Ambassador delivered a talk on “Achievement of Cuban Revolution” in Manipur University campus where he said though Cuba won less than the expected number of Olympic medals, its per capita medal-population ratio is the highest in the world.

Cubans have a genuine love for their country and the sense of nationalism among the people is very high, he said adding that was why Cuba is developing despite the 50 years of economic blockade imposed by the US.

He further admitted that human resource development of his country is very high as the people have the right to recall and re-evaluate their representatives every six months because there is a constitutional rule governing the obligation of the representatives of the people to show their achievements after every six months.

North East India Turns to Risk-Reduction and Disaster Preparedness

By Ngayawon Shimray

Landslide near Kalijhorra picnic spot in Sikkim

Effective warning systems and adequate preparedness to mitigate disaster events is critical to the survival and sustainability of any nation today. The twin disasters, the earthquake followed by the catastrophic tsunami in Japan last month, is an example of how even the best of technology cannot withstand nature’s fury. The quake measuring 8.9-magnitude was the fifth-largest in the world since 1900 and the tsunami which followed caused large-scale impacts. The nuclear reactors that were damaged by the tsunami are still a threat to the people living around it. Its impacts may remain for long and could even reach other parts of the world.

With respect to the North East region (NER), history has recorded two major earthquakes viz. the 8.7 earthquake of 12 June 1897 in the Shillong plateau and Independence Day earthquake of 1950 of the same magnitude on the Tibet-Arunachal border. The 1897 earthquake had killed 1,540 persons, injured a lot many others and damaged huge property. The 1950 earthquake killed over 1,500 people and triggered a large number of landslides that dammed many tributaries of Brahmaputra River. This changed the course of the river which has had a long-term impact on the environment and livelihood of the people of the region felt even today. It is perhaps for this reason that even today, a small faith induced earthquake forewarning is given more than needed attention.

In order to sensitize the policy makers of the NER about the natural ‘time bomb’ on which the geology, geomorphology and geography of the region are embedded, the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority, the North Eastern Council (NEC) and the Government of Assam recently organized a National Workshop on “Earthquake Risk Mitigation Strategy in the North East” on 24-25 February 2011 at Guwahati. “It brought together some of the most reputed experts who have devoted their life and career in understanding the hazards of earthquakes in the region to interact with the policy makers, jointly identify the strategic issues and develop a road map for earthquake risk mitigation and preparedness for the region”, informed P.G. Dhar Chakrabarti, Executive Director, NIDM.

The Workshop was inaugurated by Shri Tarun Gogoi, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam. P. Chidambaram, the Union Home Minister also extended his support and had this to say about the workshop, “This is a welcome initiative as this region has witnessed several earthquakes and the seismologists have been warning of the recurrence of such earthquakes in future. It is expected that the workshop would bring together reputed experts on earthquakes in the region to interact with policy makers and administrators and develop a road map for earthquake risk mitigation and preparedness for the region.”

The workshop discussed the need for a more focused, sustained and time bound multidisciplinary research agenda and provisions of state-of-art infrastructure and necessary investments for pursuing the agendas under expert supervisions. The workshop made some important recommendations such as coordination of earthquake hazard assessment studies, upgradation of seismic monitoring facilities, seismic microzonation, and assessment of vulnerable structures. The NEC is in the process of developing a Regional Framework of Disaster Management. The council has also initiated the setting up of a North East Regional Disaster Management Decision Support Centre.

“The sharp contrast between the lives lost in two recent (2010) comparable earthquakes, one in Haiti and the other in Chile, has vividly highlighted the heavy cost of delay in preparedness in terms of heavy loss of invaluable lives and valuable property. The lesson should not be lost upon us”, declared P.P. Shrivastav, member of the NEC. All said and planned, it is the political will to implement that will bring a change and save many lives from falling prey to disaster. The issue of installing mega dams in the seismically active NER (especially Arunachal) unfortunately did not get much attention in the recent elections in downstream Assam. Another Japan may already be in the making and the challenge is to overcome unplanned development  and become a better example to a world threatened by known and unknown disasters.

With inputs from Govind Singh | Image by Pragya Lama

source: negreens.com

SHOCKING: How BPOs Exploit Young Indians!

A call centre employee in India

With constant surveillance and monitored bathroom use, the BPO worker is not just partying says Shehzaad Nadeem

While offshoring is motivated by the prospect of significant cost-savings, many companies have reported substantial productivity gains, ranging from 15 to 25 percent.

Consultants McKinsey report that one 'British bank's call-center agents in India not only process 20 percent more transactions than their counterparts in the United Kingdom but also do so 3 percent more accurately'. 

Gains can be accounted for by the fact that wages are lower and thus companies are able to spend more on supervision and training.

Workers may also be more motivated as the jobs have higher prestige in India than in the United States and United Kingdom.

An executive says that Indian employees are more productive because 'they're better qualified, they're better educated, they're younger'.

Additionally, managers often give cultural explanations, arguing that Indian industriousness is a product of the culture's emphasis on education.

One manager speaks admiringly of the 'Indian psyche'.

In call centers, at least, gains in productivity may have less to do with age, motivation, or cultural inheritance than with an accelerated work pace and technologically induced efficiency.

Larger call centers use automated dialing technology, through which numbers are dialed automatically and workers are fed only live calls.

According to one manager, the rate of calls is variable: On average an American worker might have 45 seconds to one minute between calls, whereas an Indian worker would have only 5 to 10 seconds. By eliminating "idle time," nominal working hours remain the same but real working hours are lengthened.

'There isn't a break after every call'

According to call centre executives, they get barely few seconds between two calls

One worker, Adnan, says that in a day they handle about 200 250 calls, of which 80 90 last a minute and 50 60 last between three and five minutes.

"It's a source of stress. You don't have a long gap after every call," Adnan says. His coworker, Preethi, adds, "It's seconds. There isn't a break after every call, though I would rather do an 8-hour than 10-hour shift with longer breaks."

Busy hours do not preclude an extension of the workday when necessary. A former worker complained that her shifts occasionally extended from the required 8 to 10 hours and that she handled hundreds of calls daily.

Workers also complain about not receiving their promised salaries. Managers respond that this is because a large portion of one's 'salary' comes in the form of incentives, which are based on performance and adherence to predefined parameters.

Two major components relevant to our argument are talk time (the quicker you can dispatch a customer the better) and the intervals between calls (a matter of seconds). The result is an internalisation of time-discipline, which is manifested in a psychological pressure to perform.

"If I can't achieve targets, it leads to an in-built stress. We know what we have to do every day. It's our own mind telling us, 'You have to do it'. The only thing we do is talk, talk, talk. We have about two seconds for the next call. Sometimes, though, you do have a long break. Those are the times we party," says Preethi, looking at Adnan, who is looking at a coworker who is looking out the window.

Yet even breaks are a matter of dispute. Despite the bright furnishings and the game rooms, the conditions of work can be exacting.

Breaks (including dinner, which might take place at two in the morning) are strictly monitored, and one worker complains that they 'are not given on time, if at all'.

 

'We have to plan to fall sick'

Leave policies in BPOs are a matter of contention

One worker says that they are denied weekly days off and that 'sometimes we don't even get breaks if call flow is high'.

Leave policies are another matter of contention: You can't fall sick. You have to plan your sick leave in advance. It's almost like having to say, "I'm planning to fall sick in three weeks."

They don't have a real sick leave policy. Someone had a bad fall once and they wouldn't sanction the leave at first. She came to work in intense pain and only then was told that she could go. They want you to come in first. Also, if one is sick, then they don't get incentives because the sick days are construed as leaves, unless planned.

Another worker says that he cannot attend out-of-town gatherings because of work timings. Leaves are hardly an option:

"If we take more than one leave, then we will have to pay from our salary. And without money we cannot fulfill our social and family requirement."

At the same company, workers must ask permission from a superior to use the bathroom -- the visits of which are timed.

In one case, a worker named Neeta was dealing with a particularly cumbersome inbound call.

Thirty minutes in, she requested permission from her team leader (TL) to use the restroom, the normal protocol being that another worker or superior would handle the call from there. But the TL did not allow her to get off the line, and 20 minutes later when the call was completed, he congratulated her with a paternalistic smile and said, "I knew you could be a good rep if you put yourself to it."

In this, Neeta's company is hardly unique.

According to one study, "62 percent of managers say that their employees have little or no discretion to handle unexpected requests that arise in the course of customer calls and 70 percent say there is little discretion to handle customer complaints." For the company, the end result was an uninterrupted and successfully handled call.

After writing a letter to management itemising this and other abuses, Neeta's services were suspended, officially for 'dropping calls'.

 

'Operational heads regularly clock 17-18 hours each day'

There are no fixes hours of work in the BPO industry

The IT magazine Dataquest released a study that found that long hours are the leading cause of stress for workers, followed by work timing. As it surveyed workers at some of the largest employers in the outsourcing sector and is largely pro-industry in outlook, the findings are worth quoting at length:

"Any average agent works for 11-12 hours per day -- the number goes up to 14 in case of companies that encourage overtime. The plight of the operational heads is worse -- they regularly clock 17-18 hours per day working their shift besides staying back for customer conference calls."

The 'mandatory' workday is from 9 am to 6.30 pm, but workers regularly end at 7 pm and sometimes as late as 11 pm.

Saturday is also a full workday. Likewise, many workers I interviewed spoke of frequent 12- to 14-hour workdays. Seeing long hours as a positive thing, one executive mused,

"Here people are much more willing to sacrifice their time and do things."

Workers at small to midsized companies fare no better.

Manoj a manager at a midsized firm contrasts Infosys (a 'good paymaster') with smaller companies 'that exploit their workers too much'.

Employees routinely work over 60 hours a week, he says, and 'too much pressure is given to the developer to complete work'.

There are also occasional power shortages. When they occur, "Developers have to stay longer and work through the outage. Sometimes people have to work 18 20 hours continuously. It makes me feel like I should leave the industry, but there is satisfaction when I complete the work."

There is also the satisfaction of being able to buy his first car, a sand-colored Tata Indica.

This and the serenity of domestic life in which the discordant complexity of work is resolved into a harmonious simplicity: Salubrious meals cooked by his mother-in-law, a playful child and loving wife, and a meditation alcove from which the sinewy young manager returns with hazy eyes and a light smile that says, "Really, this is all a game, is it not?"

Given these issues, one might wonder about the policy options available to limit the adverse impacts of long and irregular working hours. Mindful of the social consequences of the '24-hour society', the European Union released a 'Working Time Directive,' which lays out guidelines on the scheduling of shifts, rest periods, and work hours.

It is unlikely that such a directive will ever apply to the offshore partners of EU companies. Nor is it likely that Indian companies will welcome the imposition of 'foreign' labour standards.

 

'Indians work hard because we are a poor country'

According to a CFO of one of India's largest ICT companies, we work hard because we're a poor nation

The CFO of one of India's largest ICT companies puts the issue of long and busy hours in comparative perspective:

"People work very hard. And why do people work hard? They do so because they're a poor country. They're growing up. India's a poor country. So every country has worked hard. Koreans have worked hard; the Japanese have worked hard; the Germans have worked hard. To grow your national economy, a couple generations work extremely hard. People in the US worked hard; People in the UK worked hard. Once you become wealthy, you work less, right. A wealthy country cannot dictate to an emerging country and say, 'You work less'. It's not going to happen because everybody's at a different state of development."

Thus in addition to cost, part of the attractiveness of Indian labor to corporations is its willingness to 'work hard'.

Software developers who visited their US parent office for training said that American employees generally stick to a nine-to-five schedule.

They, on the other hand, frequently have to stay into the evening to attend conference calls with 'on-site' personnel. They then stay on to fix software glitches, which leads to 'more than eight hours of working a day'.

As an employee who has made frequent visits to the New York office remarked, "People tend to work more here. We work later hours. We accelerate the pace in the evening."

A manager in the US office says that the extended hours were unintentional: They simply were not mindful of the time in India.

"We have a big clock now that's set to Chennai time on the wall. It's not that big, perhaps it should be bigger, but we are much better about it now," he says.

 

In the US, people are better at meeting deadlines

Dead Ringers: How Outsourcing Is Changing the Way Indians Understand Themselves. Inset: Nadeem

A BPO worker who previously worked at Reuters's offshore office in Bangalore says that in the United States people are better at meeting deadlines.

Indians, by contrast, "are not all that cool with it. We work longer hours to meet their timelines. We're having to raise the working level."

She adds that her parents are not very comfortable with her working late.

Commutes to suburban work-sites can take up to two hours in company vans and taxis --as workers are picked and dropped in groups -- which can extend the "work day" considerably.

Says one call center worker of his nightly commute: "It's sightseeing in Bangalore. They should provide a greater number of cabs, but they think to cut costs first. Service is not up to the mark. They put all of Bangalore in one cab."

Long hours and overtime can also negatively affect health. A growing body of research indicates that overtime and extended work schedules increase the risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, fatigue, stress, depression, musculoskeletal disorders, chronic infections, and diabetes, among other things.

In sum, Indian ICT employees work long hours and are often squeezed on overtime pay. Moreover, simply looking at the length of work hours masks their qualitative density, revealed in infrequent breaks and heightened intensity.

Excerpted with permission from Dead Ringers How Outsourcing is Changing the Way Indians Understand Themselves (Princeton University Press), by Shehzaad Nadeem

She Ran Away From Home And Made It Big In Fashion

Vaishali Shadangule (centre) at Lakme Fashion Week, Summer-Resort 2011

By Abhishek Mande

When she was 18, Vaishali Shadangule (nee Talankar) walked out of her parents' home in a small town in Madhya Pradesh with no money or belongings. Today, the designer runs a fashion brand in Mumbai that employs 65 people. This is her rags-to-riches tale.

It was little past 3 am when Vaishali walked out of her parents' home in Vidisha, a small town about 56 km northeast of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

She walked furiously towards the local train station, with just the clothes she was wearing at that moment -- no baggage, no cash, nothing.

As she sat on the platform, ignoring the curious and unwelcome stares, she hoped for a train to arrive that would take her away from her hometown.

When she got into the first train that chugged up to the platform, she didn't know if it was going to Bhopal -- the largest town close to her home -- or away from it.

All she wanted to do was to get out of Vidisha. Forever.

A little over 12 years later she employs over 65 people at Vaishali S, a design house of some repute in Mumbai. Her flagship store is a sprawling 2,000 sq feet multi-level outlet in the upscale northern suburb of Juhu.

Vaishali just made her debut at the Lakme Fashion Week, her designs a pleasant departure from the heavily embroidered clothes that she usually retails.

The line -- Virus Free -- drew inspiration from pleasant childhood memories and used Chanderi, a delicate handwoven fabric from her home state, as its base fabric.

Vaishali Shadangule's journey from that railway platform in a small town in Madhya Pradesh to the glittering runway in Mumbai is purely inspirational.

She told her story to Abhishek Mande in Hindi, the language she is most comfortable in.

'I left my home at 3 am not knowing where I'd go'

Vaishali's designs in her flagship store in Juhu, an upscale Mumbai suburb

It was sometime in April 1997 when I left my parents' house in Vidisha.

Vidisha is a small town, 56 km away from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. It still retains a lot of its rawness and the small- town feel.

Even though it isn't very far away from Bhopal, it hasn't seen a lot of development.

People there aren't very broad-minded and about 12 years ago when I left home -- I am 30 now -- it wasn't very easy for a woman to stand on her own feet.

Even today, many people see only medicine and engineering as respectable professions. I suspect fashion designing would still be looked down upon there.

When I left my home though, I didn't know what I wanted to be. In fact, at the time I wasn't even aware that fashion designing existed! I left home because I wanted to be somebody and a small town wouldn't have let me be that person.

I was born into a fairly conservative family and, like most other families I'd known then, the idea of having a girl was to get her married, sooner rather than later.

By the time I was in my eighth grade, talks about my marriage had already begun. But I wanted to study. After arguing with my family I managed to get past my tenth grade and convinced them to let me study further.

Even though they relented, things weren't very easy.

Finally, one April morning at 3 am I decided to walk out. I left everything I had known -- my parents, my family, my friends, my hometown -- behind.

'My hometown wasn't the place for me'

Vaishali shares some of her sketches

This was a big step for someone who wasn't allowed to stay out of her house after 7 pm, but I knew if I had to be independent and make a name for myself, Vidisha wasn't the place to be.

So I headed to the train station. I waited there for a train that would take me to Bhopal -- the largest town I had known and seen (and the state capital).

That day, sitting on the train platform, I was not sure what I would do next -- I had walked out with no money and no extra clothes.

I got into the first train that chugged upto the platform. I didn't have any money so I travelled without a ticket. The thought that I might be caught hadn't even occured to me then. It was a little past 4.30 am when I reached Bhopal. There again, I waited. It was too early to call up any of the few friends I had there. When it was a decent time to call, I headed to a PCO (public phone) and realised that I wasn't carrying any money! I requested the owner to let me make a few calls.

As I began dialling one friend after another, another realisation dawned on me. By walking out of my parents' house, I had become an outcast. No one wanted to have anything to do with me.

Finally, one of my friends -- Shefali -- agreed to help. She fed me lunch and we stepped out to look for hostel accommodation.

Pradeep Shadangule (who would later become my husband) was then just a friend. He and I had met at a youth festival and had been in touch. He helped me immensely to organise funds to pay as a deposit at the hostel.

That night I had a roof over my head, but I was alone. There were other things, howeve, that I was more concerned with -- surviving, for instance.

'My first job paid me Rs 500 per month'

Outfits from Vaishali's last collection Dor, inspired by the 'thread of life'

When you aren't even a graduate, jobs aren't easy to come by and money, even more difficult.

My first job was as an office assistant in a small company in Bhopal. I was being paid Rs 500. My hostel fees at the time were Rs 700.

I took up the offer simply because there was nothing else I could do. I borrowed from friends who were kind enough to lend me money to survive. Soon, I landed myself another job, also as an office assistant in yet another small company in Bhopal. But this one paid me Rs 1,500, so life became a little easier.

These jobs were clerical in nature and didn't really demand a lot from me.

I carried on this way for a few months. Meanwhile I completed my graduation in computer science. I had informed the college in Vidisha of my situation so they had me transferred to a centre in Bhopal at the Barkatullah University.

Things were starting to go smoothly and I was making ends meet.

I made new friends and met new people. I was always artistically inclined. Even though I was studying computers I knew my interest lay elsewhere.

People around me began to see that I had an eye for fashion. I would dress well and those around me started taking my advice. They would come to me with a salwar kameez material asking me how they should get it tailored or ask me what they should be wearing.

Unknown to me, I was becoming a designer!

 

'I was 19 when I first heard of fashion designing'

A model in one of Vaishali's outfits

Meanwhile, as my horizons expanded, I began to realise that I could do a lot more with my life and there was no reason to be caught in a rut.

Someone mentioned fashion designing. That was the first time I even heard about the field -- and I was about 19 at the time. I was told that it was creative, something I would enjoy and be able to make a little more money than I was making then.

So I joined a small fashion technology institute. A few months later, I had to drop out because there wasn't enough money for the fees.

By then I had tasted blood. I had learnt the basics and I knew that this would be the field I would make a career in. My only dream was to complete a course from a reputed fashion institute. I knew it would be a while for that dream to come true, but I was prepared to work towards it.

What I wasn't prepared for was an incident that shook me up completely.

One evening, not having any choice and unaware of his intentions, I took up my boss' offer for a ride back to my hostel.

Soon I realised we were on an unknown road. I panicked, raised an alarm and got out of the car.

The next day, I didn't go back to work. Quitting abruptly like that also meant giving up my salary for that month.

It also meant that I didn't have any money to pay my hostel fees.

For two days, I lived out of a friend's place.

'Mumbai embraced me with open arms'

One of Vaishali's recent creations

Around this time, I realised taking small jobs wasn't going to help me get to where I wanted. So while I continued working, I also started educating myself so I could better my prospects in the job market.

I had completed my graduation in computer engineering, but now I had begun to realise what I really wanted to be -- a fashion designer!

So with the help of a friend, I managed to get a copy of the syllabus for fashion designing they taught at SNDT University in Bhopal. I read all the prescribed books and made my portfolio.

I was always good at drawing and painting. The portfolio contained some of my work, designs I had created and a few samples of work that I succeeded in learning from books.

When I look back I realise it was very amateurish, but I knew if I wanted a job in the field of designing, I would need something to show. I hoped the portfolio would help me prove my worth.

Armed with that, I went for an interview at a small design institute in Baroda (Vadodara, Gujarat) which had advertised for a teaching position. I appeared for the interview and got the job. Surprisingly, they didn't even bother to see my work. It was a small organisation, so I suppose none of it mattered.

For about nine months I taught illustration -- I can't say I was professionaly qualified to teach it, but I think I can safely say that the institute was happy with what I was doing.

But it was a job I didn't really enjoy. I've always been an introvert and speaking in public wasn't something I would do out of choice.

Ironically, this was the very job that opened the doors to the glittering city of Mumbai.

During one of the seminars in which I was representing the institute, a garment export house based out of Bandra (a northern Mumbai suburb) offered me a position as a designer.

So in December 1999 I landed in Mumbai, the city that would become my home.

My salary was Rs 11,000. I was over the moon! I hadn't seen so much money.

I am often asked if I was treated any differently in Mumbai because of my small-town roots. The truth is I wasn't. The city offered me all the opportunities I wanted and embraced me with open arms.

 

'My savings came back to zero'

Vaishali's design sketches

Over the year that I worked at the Bandra export house, I did little else other than go to work and return home. Home was a paying guest accommodation nearby that cost me Rs 2,500 per month.

The rest of the money would go straight into my savings account. I just couldn't think of what I would spend it on!

This held me in good stead. Sometime during that year, I developed a slip disc and that left me bed-ridden for over six months. I had to quit my job and my savings came to zero.

***

By 2001, I had fully recovered though. I had made up my mind that in the long run, I would not work for anyone. But for my immediate survival, I needed to do something.

A friend suggested I join a gym as a trainer. I had been an athlete all my school life and I knew a thing or two about workouts.

It was a small gym in (the northern Mumbai suburb of) Malad. I worked there for about a year and made my contacts. I would show my portfolio to the women who would visit the gym and I started designing clothes for them.

Work began to trickle in. As it increased, I employed two tailors full-time.

At one point, I knew I had to take the plunge. Fortunately, one of my clients was a banker's wife. She convinced her husband to put in a word at his workplace and get me a loan.

So with Rs 50,000, I set up a small boutique in Malad in 2001.

'After 10 years, I decided it was time to fulfill my dream'

Vaishali's latest collection, Virus Free, drew inspiration from childhood memories

My life had taken me away from Bhopal and Pradeep and I had lost touch.

Years later, when our paths crossed -- he was in Mumbai looking for a foothold as a filmmaker -- we figured it was for a reason.

On May 4, 2004, we got married. Three years later, we were blessed with a baby girl -- Smiti.

My business grew. Although I couldn't boast of high-society clientele, I knew I had a loyal client base.

I had moved on from the small boutique in Malad to a three-store set-up in a suburban mall -- two of my stores sold casual Western and Indian clothes and one of them, the largest of the three, sold bridal collections.

One of my biggest learnings in the business is that people's idea of 'designer' dresses is a lot of embroidery. They believe that if they're paying a lot for an outfit, it should be seen.

So if you notice, the outfits that sell are usually those that have heavy embroidery and are jazzy.

My design sensibilities, on the other hand, are minimalist. I get a high when I discover a certain drape or how a simple fold reveals a new side to a garment.

The idea of participating at the Lakme Fashion Week was this -- to be able to showcase my personal design sensibilities and not play to the gallery.

A part of the credit to this newfound self-confidence goes to the formal training I have been undergoing.

About two years ago, almost ten years after the thought first crept into my head, I decided that it was finally time to fulfill my dream.

'Hubby took charge of the baby and the house'

Vaishali's husband Pradeep supported her, taking care of Smiti, while she pursued a fashion degree

I enrolled in the Pearl Academy of Fashion in New Delhi.

My husband wondered why I was doing it, because the going was good. The business was doing great. I was moving from strength to strength but I, of all people, knew more than anyone else that I needed formal training in fashion designing.

So I decided to cut my profit margins, lost some business, but pursued my dream.

For two years, I shuttled between Mumbai and New Delhi -- during the weekends I would be in Mumbai and the weekdays would be spent in classes in Delhi.

My husband supported me whole-heartedly through this time. He took charge of the baby and the house and made sure nothing came in the way of my education.

Next month, I will complete my post graduation in fashion technology.

The formal education exposed me to a lot of new things, aspects of the art I was unaware of, works of designers I hadn't even heard about and the technicalities that I wouldn't have been able to figure out by myself.

It broadened my vision and this began to reflect in my designs.

At the academy I also met designer Rahul Mishra's sister-in-law -- Bhumika -- who introduced me to Rahul. (Rahul Mishra, who started off at Lakme Fashion Week and is now part of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, is a reputed name in the business of fashion. His work with Chanderi is well known.)

During the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week a few seasons ago, I got the opportunity to work at Rahul's stall.

 

'In many ways, this is just the beginning'

A model walks in one of Vaishali's outfits at Lakme Fashion Week Summer-Resort 2011

To watch Rahul at work was a learning experience in itself. He would be at the stall from the time it opened to the time it shut. Since that time, I have looked up to Rahul and consider him a mentor.

It was amazing to see how much energy he brought in as he interacted with clients. I was also surprised to see that just like my clients, buyers at the fashion weeks would also demand changes in designs.

Finally, I knew I was ready to showcase my line at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai. I applied and I got through.

On March 14 this year I showed alongside Abhishek Byas and Sabah Khan at the LFW.

I drew upon childhood memories and used motifs of boats and paper planes among others and experimented with folds and drapes.

It was an amazing feeling to see my designs being showcased on such a huge platform.

In a way, it was the culmination of the journey I started 12 years ago. But in many more ways, this is just the beginning.

---

Vaishali Shadangule's flagship store Vaishali S is located on Juhu Road, Opp SNDT University, Santacruz West, Mumbai. She also retails out of Kimaya and Misake in Mumbai, Nautanky in Ahmedabad and Tamaara in Hyderabad.

This Is Making 'Our Water Undrinkable'

Soil Erosion Far Worse Than Reported In American Farmlands, According To New EWG Report

By Joanna Zelman

If the American classic song is right and “this land was made for you and me,” then why are we paying to have it destroyed? This is the question presented in the video for the new Environmental Working Group (EWG) report, "Losing Ground."

EWG, working with Iowa State University, has found that erosion in Iowa is much worse than previously reported. In some regions, soil loss was found to be 12 times greater than the stated average, as storms stripped up to 64 tons of soil per acre of land.

The organization blames irresponsible farming practices for putting America’s land and water at risk. As the video says, pesticides, fertilizers, and manure run into water, which “renders our water undrinkable, our beaches unfit to swim in, and has created an area in the Gulf so contaminated that aquatic life has to flee or die.”

There is little incentive for farmers to stop erosion, and EWG places part of the blame on Washington. According to The New York Times, “Enforcement is needed more than ever, environmentalists say, because high crop prices provide a strong incentive for farmers to plant as much ground as possible and to take fewer protective measures like grass buffer strips.” As EWG states, while wealthy landowners receive taxpayer money, “the rest of us, and the environment, pay the price.”

According to the report, $51 billion is spent on boosting all-out production in farm states. Meanwhile, 97% of soil loss could be prevented with simple conservation measures. Effective practices include placing strips of grass or trees near the edge of crop fields, and creating grass waterways to both prevent gullies from forming and filter out pollutants. It’s time to stop destroying this land, and start embracing conservation practices.

Wanna Waste Time? Here’s How?

That Can Be My Next Tweet

That Can Be My Next Tweet analyzes the most common words, syntax and overall tone of your Twitter, and predicts what your next tweet might be. The results are, predictably, hilarious.

Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes

Remember how Muppets With People Eyes seemed like it could fill a few lifetimes worth of nightmares? Those were simpler times, when Chicks With Steve Buscemeyes had yet to be created. We never knew how disturbing it would be to see a window to the soul of the "Boardwalk Empire" and "Big Lebowski" actor on young women.

 

Auto Buds

Auto Buds is a blog with pictures of two cars of the same make and model parked near each other. It's also the brainchild of Jon Glaser ("Delocated," the new book "My Dead Dad Was in ZZ Top") and Matt Hall. If you're not sold based on this description, you need to find a new source of joy in your life.

 

Non-Threatening Vampires

The vampire trend is still going strong in pop culture (when Billy Crystal throws his hat in the ring, you know it's got legs). Non-Threatening Vampires is a great example of what ultimately happens when vampires become less Bela Lugosi and more Robert Pattinson.

Peanutweeter

Following the pattern of "Charlie Brown customization" made popular recently by the existentially dark 3eanuts comes Peanutwitter, which matches funny tweets with a random panel from Charles Schulz's classic comic.

Pick A Year To Begin The End

Some of us are mildly concerned about the apocalypse in 2012 (read: completely freaking out), but as Pick A Year To Begin The End proves, any given year has just as much evidence that the world will end.

Where's Randy Savage?

"Macho Man" Randy Savage has been out of the spotlight for a few years, but as Where's Randy Savage? proves, he's busier than ever.

iPad 2 Tablets For Kindergarten Students

By Yoshita Singh

Boston, Apr 13 : Looks like crayons, finger paints and alphabet blocks as teaching tools are old school. Kindergarten students in Maine will now learn their ABCs and 123s on the latest iPad 2 tablets.

A school district in Auburn, Maine will dish out 200,000 dollars to buy iPads for nearly 300 kindergarten pupils for the next school session starting around August this year.

Apart from their alphabets and numbers, the kindergarten students will learn drawing and music on the hi-tech gadget through apps for phonics, building words, and letter recognition and letter formation.

The iPad is a powerful education tool with hundreds of teaching applications, Superintendent Tom Morrill said in a Boston Globe report.

"With its touchpad screen, it is simple to use and can bring learning to life with imagery and sounds. It's a revolution in education," he said.

The school board had last week unanimously approved the plan to give all kindergartners iPads next fall.

Maine had distributed Apple laptops to all seventh and eighth graders in 2002 and 2003, becoming the first state to equip students statewide with computers.

The state Department of Education believes Auburn is the first school district in Maine that will give iPads to kindergartners, the Boston Globe report said. Schools in Omaha, Nebraska; Columbiana, Ohio and Scottsdale, Arizona are among other places where kindergarten pupils are using iPads.

Angus King, the former Maine governor who launched the state's laptop programme, lauded the idea of iPads in kindergarten saying anything that holds the attention of pupils will help in the learning process.

"If your students are engaged, you can teach them anything," King said.

"If they're bored and looking out the window, you can be Socrates and you're not going to teach them anything. These devices are engaging," he said.

However some education experts and parents are not sold on the idea of using iPads for kindergarten pupils.

The $200,000 proposed for iPads "might be better spent on some other school programme," said parent Sue Millard.

She also questioned whether kindergartners are old enough to appreciate the effort. "I understand you have to keep up with technology, but I think a 5-year old is a little too young to understand," she said.

Larry Cuban, a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University and the author of 'Oversold and Underused: Computers in Schools,' said there's no proof that computers bring learning benefits to pupils who are young.

"There's no evidence in research literature that giving iPads to 5-year-olds will improve their reading scores," he said.

The Email That Could Cost Mark Zuckerberg HALF Of Facebook

The Social Network Part Two? The emails which could cost Mark Zuckerberg HALF of Facebook

Lawsuit: Paul Ceglia is suing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for a 50 per cent stake in the company

When a judge threw out an appeal by the twins who claimed they had the idea for Facebook first, it seemed the long-running legal feud dramatised in The Social Network had finally come to an end.

But now it seems there could be scope for a sequel, after Mark Zuckerberg became embroiled in a fresh legal row over the ownership of Facebook.

Paul Ceglia, of Wellsville, New York, has released emails which he says prove Mr Zuckerberg offered him a 50 per cent stake in the fledgling social network in exchange for $1,000 start-up funding.

The new evidence has emerged just days after Mr Zuckerberg won a final legal victory against twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who claimed he had stolen the idea for Facebook from their website ConnectU.

The claims are not new - last July Mr Ceglia filed a lawsuit against Mr Zuckerberg, citing a 'work for hire' contract between the pair which appeared to give Ceglia a 50 per cent  ownership in 'the face book' project in exchange for funding its initial development.

He made two separate payments to Mr Zuckeberg of $1,000, one of which was for coding work on his site, StreetFax.

In the original terms, he could also receive an additional one per cent stake in the project for every day it remained uncompleted beyond its launch date, an agreement which Mr Ceglia claimed gave him 84 per cent of Facebook.

Mr Ceglia's case centres around a dozen emails exchanged between the two men from July 2003 to July 2004, the year in which Facebook was created.

Billionaire: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg now enjoys a personal fortune of $13.5bn, according to an estimate made by Forbes magazine

In his federal court complaint, Mr Ceglia said the emails show how Mr Zuckerberg tried to get him to abandon his interest in Facebook by souring their business relationship in 2004.

He also claims the Facebook founder downplayed the popularity of the site after its launch at Harvard University.

'Zuckerberg knowingly misrepresented to Ceglia that thefacebook.com was not successful, that he was too busy to deal with the website, that he had lost interest in the website and that he was shutting the website down,' according to the complaint.

Victory: Mark Zuckerberg final won his legal battle with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, but now he faces fresh ownership claims

Mr Ceglia now contends that, in accordance with the original agreement, he is entitled to an equal share of Mr Zuckerberg's ownership of the social network, which has more than 500 million users across the world.

Mr Ceglia's updated claim has been lent credence by one the world's biggest corporate law firms, DLA Piper, who took on his case recently after 'weeks' of due diligence to ensure its validity.

Dennis Vacco, an attorney representing Mr Ceglia, said: 'The beauty of the e-mails is they represent a contemporaneous account, not viewed from the prism of the present day "man of the year", but viewed from the eyes of a Harvard student at the time these events were actually occurring.'

Face to Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg, right, meets actor Jesse Eisenberg, right, who played his character in The Social Network

The Social Network: The 2010 film starring Justin Timberlake, left, as Napster founder Sean Parker, anotheri investor, and Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg

Orin Snyder, an attorney for Facebook, called the claims 'ridiculous.'

'This is a fraudulent lawsuit brought by a convicted felon and we look forward to defending it in court,' Snyder said in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press yesterday.

Mr Ceglia was put on probation in 1997 after pleading guilty to possession of hallucinogenic 'magic' mushrooms, Panola County, Texas, court records show. He was also charged with criminal fraud in connection with a wood pellet company he operated.