ASPIRE — An Entrepreneur & Lifestyle Magazine Feb 2021

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FEBRUARY — 2021 ISSUE 5 aspiredubai.ae — AED 30.00

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Tanuj Shori & Kanika Shori AN EMPIRE ERECTED ON RE AL ESTATE

J AYA R AT N ANI

The Mortgage Debt Doctor

THE NEXT GEN DANUBE DYNAMITE

Adel Sajan, Director of Danube Group, is creating a ‘sky-rocketing’ odyssey for the conglomerate

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THE NEXT GEN DANUBE DYNAMITE!

A peek into the metamorphosis of Adel Sajan from a fervent thirteen-year-old novice to the Director of UAE’s leading Danube Group, whose willingness to take risks has created a ‘sky-rocketing’ odyssey for the conglomerate 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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INSIDE 22 5

Bulletin Bytes Bite sized interesting news from around the world served with a twist!

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The Proptech Revolution

AN EMPIRE ERECTED ON REAL ESTATE

Tanuj Shori, has created history beating professional realtors at their own game. Hear him as he walks us through his story, spilling tricks of his successful trade

With increased convenience, faster turnaround time and better sustainability practices,Proptech is a game-changer for the real-estate sector

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The ‘Marketing’ Pillar of eCommerce

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Smart technology to do up your home

‘Marketing’ involves many activities in moving a product or service from your business to the consumer. Learn to do it right to get the results you want

Explore these apps to do remarkable things when designing, decorating, or digitalizing your home

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Creating Your Wellness Home

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Events

Great events that you must add to your calendar

How much of a wellness experience do you implement into your home environment?

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The Mortgage Debt Doctor Are you a property owner having a tough time managing your home loan? Jaya Ratnani comes to your aid offering exclusive Mortgage Debt Management solutions

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When it comes to trusted real estate advice from Marina to Downtown, trust the word of Farooq Syed, CEO of Springfield Properties

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Is Geopathic stress making you ill?

Maitha Monther Alazawi educates us on the science of Geopathic Stress, its causes, and its cure

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Building a Happy Relationship Let’s dive into what it takes to stay happy in a marriage and in love over the years

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An Ode to a Mathe-Magician Educator Uma Rale’s journey of igniting minds and transforming underprivileged lives has been as inspiring and heart-warming as it gets

PUBLISHER

Sumeet Gupta EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Shagufta Patel PRODUCTION

The Purple Stroke EDITORIAL TEAM

Misbaah Mansuri, Ayaat Attar, Rachit Gupta EDITORIAL INTERN

Arundhati Surendran DIRECTOR (MARKETING & SALES)

Jaya Balakrishnan M: +971 50550 8812 HONORARY EDITOR

Rizwan Zulfiqar Bhutta « OUR CONTRIBUTORS »

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Guide to Greatness

Read to know one of the main reasons why Amitabh Bachchan is one of the most celebrated and respected professionals in the world

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Probiotics and Prebiotics

A Garden in My Home

Discover what is your gut microbiome and why is it so important for your physical and mental health

Indoor gardening is a rewarding hobby whether you grow those greens as cheerful decorations, to reduce air pollution, or as your salad

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From chasing pleasure to finding purpose Travel junkie Misbaah Mansuri set out to live her postcard induced fantasies, but found purpose and beauty in the journey instea

Sunil Nair

Kim Shelar

Digital Marketing & ECommerce strategist

Meditation & Executive Mindset Coach

Dt. Geetika Uppal Gold-medalist in Nutritional Science

Vyara Tosheva

Wellbeing Coach and Consultant

Hemangi Goud Image Consultant

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WATCH is Your Style Are you choosing the right watch according to your lifestyle and the Image you wish to portray?

1601, Corporate Business Hub, Burj Gate, Dubai, United Arab Emirates W: thepurplestroke.com Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the persmission of The Purple Stroke FZE LLC. All the information carried herein is checked and verified to the best of our knowledge and abilities. In matters of views expressed and opinions held, it is solely that of the authors and contributors themselves. The editorial or publisher or ASPIRE cannot be held responsible for unintended errors and oversights if any.

Email: hello@aspiredubai.ae 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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Editor's note HOME SWEET HOME!

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CEO of Springfield Properties, who with his dashing presence has given real-estate a Youtube face lift.

If at all you are caught up in home-loan worries, Jaya Ratnani offers her debt-management bespoke solutions; and Maitha Alazawi gets us aware of Geopathic Stress and its remedies to help us have healthy dwellings. Uma Rale the math wizard is our pick for her community service for the underprivileged.

We also dive into apps that help you design and decorate your pods, and get a peep into the proptech revolution that is proving to be a game-changer for all concerned. Besides nudging you to pick up a rake and sickle and get some green

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growing for a calming condo, we also urge you to implement the wellness experience at your abode and follow a guide for long happy nuptials.

Continuing the series on eCommerce, this month is all about the ‘Marketing Pillar’.

Health talk is all about the great stuff you can gorge on to aid your gut microbiome. Raising the curtain on ‘Style’ we show how a timepiece can do wonders for your image and what is it that keeps Bollywood maestro Amitabh Bachchan ticking.

Tonight as you gather around the table breaking bread with people who matter, consider yourself lucky to have a nook to come back to. For it isn’t just home, it’s a feeling! J

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Home, sweet home.

More than just bricks and walls, more than just floors and doors, more than just pots and pans... A home is where beautiful memories are created, where frolicking friends gather and where a caring family belongs. A home is a haven that has heard your loud laughter and seen your uncontrollable tears. It is a harbor where you can safely park your most haunting fears. A home is a sanctuary where you rest awhile. It is an oasis where enduring love resides.

And so, this month of love, whilst we warm up to snug romance and cozy dinners, we also thought it befitting to make ‘Homes’ our focus for the February edition. Adel Sajan, Director at Danube Group, and the one to breathe a fresh lease of life to Danube Home with his earnest enthusiasm couldn’t agree more.

Also joining the bandwagon is Tanuj Shori, CEO of Square Yards who has taken the world of realty by nail and hammer; and avid vlogger Farooq Syed,

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t is Valentine month folks.

Where the air gets mushy and cupid strikes. When all of love laces life. And while the latter might take you places, sometimes even where you least expect to go; it is love that always brings you back to a place called home.

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BITCOIN SHOOTS FOR $50,000

AS IT VIES WITH GOLD There was a peak in the price of Bitcoin earlier this month, and after that, there has been a dramatic pullback in the same.

MicroStrategy Incorporated, a business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services company, purchased an additional 29,646 bitcoins for approximately $650.0 million in December last year. Having been on a steady increase for the past ten years, Bitcoin is attracting immense capital from the asset class. The ongoing dip in its prices hasn’t bogged down employees at firms like MicroStrategy Inc, as they are happy to be pioneers in the digital monetary network, for they believe Bitcoin is the future.

But what do the aficionados of the subject speculate?

Breaking down the conversation stock market geniuses are having about the best-case scenario for its price, it is deciphered that Bitcoin will replace gold, further transforming into the monetary index that replaces stock indexes like the S&P 500. Those who want a safe heaven to store their money over the next ten to thirty years will be attracted to a digital asset that has no inflation in it.

As for the stocks? They are moving whichever way the Bitcoin is going.

Cash-rich corporations across the world are looking at cash as a liability. They are in search of an asset that is going to appreciate faster than the rate of monetary expansion.

Experts predict that the corporations will either embrace the coin on their balance sheet because it converts a liability into an asset, or they are going to follow the footsteps of giants like Square, PayPal, or Grayscale Investments, i.e., build Bitcoin into their product.

Bitcoin has been a big tech monitoring network

that’s exploding at 200% a year, and scholars believe it will continue for the decade.

At present, there is a little bit of regulatory ambiguity around crypto-assets. If there was enough parity and clarity that stocks and bonds hold, there would have been an avalanche of money flow from institutions into Bitcoin.

In view of the same, CEO of MicroStrategy Inc., Michael J. Saylor, has planned for a ‘Bitcoin for Corporations’ conference in the first week of February’21. Thousands of officers, directors, corporations, and advisors are going to be a part of it to decode how to plug Bitcoin into their balance sheet, or P&L. Michael has also decided to publish their company’s playbook with all of their accounting and legal guidance, which is going to be an open-source document, so it is easily available to everybody with the singular thought of each of them saving millions of dollars, and weeks if not months, to make this an easier transition.

Experts believe 2021 is going to be a transformational year for cryptocurrency. Its heyday may have come and gone, but the crypto market still has a lot of upsides to go!

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National Policy for Quality for Digital Life With the advent of the intangible but the ever so real world wide web, alternate reality isn’t a proxy anymore. It is a well-accepted and documented norm that individuals have to operate within set rules of the fraternity. And so, it is imperative for the construct of being a ‘law abiding citizen’ to extend to the world of internet.

In keeping with this idea, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, approved the “National Policy for Quality of Digital Life,” to create a safe digital community in the UAE and promote a positive identity through appropriate digital interactions.

The ‘Positive Digital Citizenship Values and Behaviours Code,’ was launched and attended

by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and several ministers which consists of ten articles that cover UAE’s legacy, digital reputation, respect for others, positive investment, good manners, digital privacy, publishing credibility, responsibility and systems, digital ethics and balanced usage.

Relying on three key pillars -Technology, Readiness for the future, and Knowledge, it aims at advancing in the ‘World Digital Competitiveness Ranking,’ where the UAE leads Arab countries, and ranks 12th globally.

“We adopted the National Policy for Quality of Digital Life to maintain a healthy digital environment for new generations who spend more time in virtual reality than in the real world. Our aim is to make their reality positive, productive and safe,” says the Sheikh Mohammed.

The policy, which was drafted by the National Council for Quality of Digital Life, in partnership with relevant authorities, rests on the objective of enlightening the community on the power of digital media, consolidating positive digital behaviour, guiding one to use positive content, and protecting users from predators.

The National Council for Quality of Digital Life was established through a Cabinet resolution and comprises of ten government authorities. It is chaired by Lt. General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, and Hessa Essa Buhumaid, Minister of Community Development, who is the council’s vice president.

How will it help?

The misuse of the internet has not just destroyed smaller businesses across the globe and cheated risk-takers of money, but has also horrified scores of others, disallowing them to explore the immense opportunities it brings with itself, thus

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holding entire communities back. With the initiative of “Digital Life Quality Knowledge Platform,” which is a comprehensive interactive web portal, parents, teachers, people of determination and senior citizens could catch up with the emerging technology and be a part of impacting change.

While the “Digital Life Quality Approach” revamps archaic education methods, the “Sannif ” platform monitors the contents of e-games.

In charge of protecting the rights of its people, the council is responsible for raising the digital awareness of all wedges of the society, and encouraging the appropriate use of technology, so password protected doors of opportunity can finally be unlocked.

SME-Oriented Zbooni bags a whopping $5m investment UAE-based e-Commerce enabler Zbooni, has raised a staggering $5 million in a Series-A funding round led by an undisclosed Londonbased fund.

Zbooni is an integrated mobile application, enabling smaller businesses to keep up with the ever-dynamic nature of modern commerce.

Lately, detailed interactions with customers have become a norm so their needs are well catered to.

However, there are few alternatives in the market that provided a safe and user-friendly gateway, allowing buyers to make payments for the orders placed, within the same interface. To bridge the gap, the idea of ‘Zbooni’ germinated back in 2017.

The simple invoicing tool creates a payment link that ensures its users a fast and safe checkout experience. Catering to the needs of freelancers, Instagram sellers and merchants operating from physical locations, the free online store can be leveraged by a diverse set of entrepreneurs.

“Zbooni is on a mission to help provide access to digital commerce tools, ultimately supporting our merchants to start, run and grow their business. While we wish to keep the investor undisclosed, their reputation and track record speaks for itself. They have previously invested in some of the most successful emerging market growth stories - operating a fund of well over $1billion in assets under management. Through this support, we will invest in people to develop even better products for our vendors and enhance the customer experience with best-in-class technology,” said Ramy Assaf, Zbooni CEO and co-founder.

Serving thousands of consumers in MENA, the company currently operates in the UAE, King-

dom of Saudi Arabia and Amman, in Jordan. A considerable chunk of its funding is intended to be directed towards its team and fuel expansion across the home ground. Zbooni identifies as an online market-place that works closely in association with Amazon Payment Services, PayTabs, and more.

What could an opportunity like this mean for emerging businesses?

Focussed on giving flight to the dreams of micro-enterprises, the chat commerce app believes customers are the real heroes of the story. A convenience in operation is a huge boost, and gives smaller firms the much-needed confidence to compete against veteran establishments that have been dominating the market for a while, but devoid of an ease of facilitation, may not be propelling the same like the competitors do. For the market to keep evolving, there has to be an influx of newer energy, something, Zbooni is ferociously facilitating.

The knowledge that investors are looking to invest in fresh talent brings out the best in newer players of the start-up game. Irrespective of who bags the highest seeding, the greater picture lies in the fact that the quality of everyday interactions around the world, is bettered.

The core team of Zbooni identified a gap in the operating market, and set out to fill it. The fact that an established firm saw potential in their vision and bankrolled them wholeheartedly will encourage creative problem solving among contemporary entrepreneurs, thus elevating the overall standard of services offered.

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THE PROPTECH REVOLUTION

It’s interesting how several real estate players have resorted to technology with a renewed sense of urgency further fuelled by the onset of Covid. And that has resulted in increased convenience, faster turnaround time, and better sustainability practices.

Misbaah Mansuri highlights why proptech is a game-changer for the real-estate sector

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hile countries world-over had to grapple with months of Covid-led lockdown, it’s truly phenomenal how proptech played a crucial enabling role in the UAE opening up for business early, safely, and successfully. Credit it to technology-enabled remote operations, provided operational visibility for sanitization levels of occupant safety and wellness. That’s the most relevant example of the potentiality of prop-tech.

For the unversed, prop-tech is a buzzword that means ‘the usage of digital innovation in all the processes relating to property search/ buying, selling and managing’. Thanks to virtual viewings, AI-powered valuations, blockchain transactions, and online listings, the scope of proptech has expanded, and how!

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Gaining ground

As a KPMG group report suggests, 2019 proved to be a banner year for proptech, securing $2.6 bn of global investment, which was up from $1 bn in 2016. To be sure, UAE is emerging as a leader in enabling people-centric digital services.

The Dubai Land Department (DLD) introduced AI into the valuation process of real-estate properties in September last year. The move was expected to reduce the valuation processing time to 15 seconds and cut the cost by 20 percent. DLD introduced AI to verify ‘Ejari’ contracts back in 2018.

ACCORDING TO CRETECH, THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY RECEIVED A RECORD-BREAKING

$14

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OF INVESTMENTS IN JUST THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2019

Many real-estate companies have already experienced the positive effect of using Big Data. A case in point is UAE-based Property Finder, which launched a new feature enabling people to live stream a house viewing and leave real-time comments for agents during Covid.

In another instance, Emaar announced plans in July last year to build its first 3D-printed house in Arabian Ranches III. Tailored solutions are also of essence. For example, Management company-Provis launched its Provis Connect app designed to optimize service delivery, streamline maintenance processes and enhance customer management. A constantly evolving array of proptech solutions is allowing real estate businesses to leverage data to unlock profitability and revolutionize the user-experience of the real-estate sales forces.

From strategy to implementation

Collaboration with high-tech startups is one of the most popular ways among real estate incumbents to move from innovative strategy to implementation. Many tech firms and startups now see the current landscape as an exciting time to introduce homegrown proptech solutions. HomeValue, a Dubai-based start-up, recently claimed to have launched the region’s first independent and instant home valuation platform powered by proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms.

Online walkthroughs, virtual tours, staging, and 3D models greatly simplify the search process and help real estate agencies cut costs.

46% of real estate respondents of the National Association of Realtors found virtual tours very useful. Potential buyers are wandering around digital rooms, getting acquainted with space. Buildings under construction become real with interior and exterior design. Software like Matterport enables adding digital assistants to guide customers on how to use utilities. Each aspect, from property search results to customer assistance, can be taken to a new level. For instance, technological advances will help people find a property according to their personal traits or previous experience in the future.

Most notably, SoftBank raised about $1.76 billion for developing the PropTech segment.

Chatbot solutions

AI applications like chatbots can be made available to customers 24/7. This helps commercial real-estate agencies provide clients around the world readily available support

$1.76

Billion RAISED BY SOFTBANK FOR DEVELOPING THE PROPTECH SEGMENT

46% OF REAL ESTATE RESPONDENTS OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS FOUND VIRTUAL TOURS VERY USEFUL

and better accessibility, irrespective of their schedule or the customer’s time zone. Another startup, Via Fone Technologies, offers AI chatbot that engages with customers in two-way communication. When it comes to real-estate, AI chatbots have revolutionized buying, selling, and renting property by automating the business processes, fostering relationships with customers, and turning leads into customers.

A world of opportunities

Apart from bots, technologies like biometrics, blockchain, data visual tech, geolocation tech are other opportunities that players in the real-estate sector can embrace. While technologies like voice commands and facial recognition are being used to improve security in commercial buildings, blockchain-based smart contracts are another aspect set to become more widely used in the world of commercial real estate. To be sure, blockchain can negate the need for any third-parties in a real-estate transaction. Furthermore, AI draws critical data about properties from maps of their location, which can be leveraged to analyze and predict future changes and trends.

Realizing the impact of proptech on UAE property buyers, more and more real-estate websites are launching proptech tools on their sites. Among these, virtual reality, blockchains, and chatbots make the entire property leasing, buying, selling, and marketing more efficient and thereby, more exciting. Several market-leading real estate companies and drone-powered solution brands like Sky Vision Dubai to Feds are also using remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS-certified) drones to capture footage of properties and their surroundings for use in virtual tours and to produce videos of areas undergoing development or upgrades. After all, a sweeping, swooping drone’s eye view of a property can enhance the sense of space, highlighting the unique selling points of the property effortlessly-something particularly important for properties that boast of an expansive garden, exterior annexes, or outbuildings.

According to CREtech, the real estate industry received a record-breaking $14 billion of investments in just the first six months of 2019.

Moving ahead, disruptive technologies such as 3D architectural renderings, IoT technologies, and integrated software look further set to alter the landscape and the structures we work and live in. After all, the future belongs to technologies that unify, simplify and optimize. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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SMART TECHNOLOGY TO DO UP YOUR HOME

The great thing about modern technology is that it’s seamless and easy to use. Whether you’re on iOS or Android, Rachit Gupta explores apps that use your smartphone to do some remarkable things when designing, decorating, or digitalizing your home

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smartphone today comes with a combination of cutting-edge software and hardware that allows its users to do things that were only possible with bulky and power-hungry supercomputers a few years ago. Here we are in 2021, where technology has made smart devices small, wieldy, and quotidian. No wonder then that their application has extended beyond the realms of communication and entertainment.

As part of the milieu now, our average phone can be a fitness coach, chef, library, and even an interior designer and architect. The latter most aspect is still a bit niche, but its popularity is fast catching on.

Apple’s new range of iPhones, especially the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max variants, come with a neat new tech called LiDAR. In layman’s terms, it’s a new scanning system achieved through a dedicated laser sensor in the phone. It’s a detection system that works on the principle of radar but uses light from a laser. Using this tech, your phone can detect background depth with increased accuracy.

And the implementation has allowed appli-

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cations on your smartphone to achieve some fantastic new results in terms of Augmented Reality as well as Virtual Reality. Not just Apple’s LiDAR, even a select few Android phones have similar cutting-edge technology with optics that has enhanced the way your phone can transform your real estate.

Thanks to the arrival of state-of-the-art optics on phones, it doesn’t matter if your device has a 12, 48, 64, or 108-megapixel camera; you can use it just the same to style, organize and plan your home like a pro. If you’re one of those select few who put in great effort and thought into the design of

allows users to create an editable 3D space of their home and place popular pieces of furniture to see how they would look in your living space in real-time. Say you’re planning to renovate your kitchen, you can empty the space and use Houzz to set up cabinets and appliance spaces and see what your final setup will look like, even before you’ve bought nails and wood boards. No more ending up with a fancy piece of furniture or décor that looks like a white elephant in your abode.

IKEA PLACE

IKEA is the warehouse concept that spoils consumers with a plethora of choices in home furnishings and furniture. They have a unique app called IKEA Place, where you can literally place every piece of IKEA furniture available in their vast catalog in your home space. The Place app lets you try IKEA products in your living space before you go to the store to pick them up or order them online. The best part for iOS users is that IKEA Place uses the LiDAR sensor on iPhones to give you perfectly calibrated simulations of their furniture.

ROOOMY

Another great app to use augmented reality is RoOomy.

It allows users to simulate 3D models of real furniture pieces and place them in the real space of your own home, using the camera of your smartphone, of course. Just like IKEA’s offering, RoOomy allows users to try before they buy so that only the right furniture reaches your home.

your home, here’s a list of curated smart technology that will put the proverbial wizard’s wand in your hand.

HOUZZ

The American media calls Houzz the definitive home improvement app. It has over 20 million images to assist users in planning, visualizing, and executing home renovation ideas. The best feature in Houzz

MORPHOLIO BOARD

For those with a more creative and artistic streak, Morpholio Board is like the canvas on which you can design your blueprints and then execute them like a professional interior designer. This feature-rich app allows you to mood board your creations and compiles a detailed design for any room of your home, down to the furniture, wall art, décor, and furnishings, too. If IKEA and RoOomy are for noobs, Morpholio is for true artists.

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Tech love MEASURE ME QUICK

Users of iPhone and iOS will be familiar with an app called Measure from Apple. The multiple sensors on your phone camera, including the depth sensor and LiDAR (if available), gauge the environment that you point your camera at and then give you near accurate length measurements of objects, walls, distances, etc. But that’s not all; there are now dedicated apps in the market that use this new tech to achieve a lot more.

ROOMSCAN LIDAR

If you’re a DIY aficionado, who prefers to spend more time at the local hardware store than the mall, then chances are you’d be looking for an app like RoomScan LiDAR because this nifty little app allows you to use your iPhone or iPad’s LiDAR sensor coupled with the camera to measure any room and create a floor plan within seconds. How is this useful? Well, if you have the architectural bend of mind, you’d be creating an entire, professional-grade floor plan for your home in minutes, and you’d know which wall to knock down and which door to seal shut for that allnew home improvement plan.

CANVAS

Professional architects and interior designers use a full-blown software suite called AutoCAD to design and plan construction and renovations. You can pretty much achieve similar results with Canvas. All you have to do is point your camera to the walls in the room, move the phone from left to right and top to bottom to let Canvas conduct a thorough scan of the room. A few minutes later, voila, the phone dishes out a full-3D rendered model of your room, complete with Google-street style gradient views and top-angle POVs. This is particularly useful for those who are renovating new properties. Just create scans for every room, and then you can plan furniture and furnishings by viewing everything from a 3rd-person perspective.

PRIMER: AR HOME DESIGN

Anyone who has ever taken up the task of renovating their house without the help of an interior designer will tell you that you may get everything right, but one aspect where you’ll be at the mercy of dumb luck is wall décor and

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wallpapers. Because you can be at the furnishing store and pick out Picasso level papers for your wall, but when they get put on the actual room, there’s a fair chance that your fancy choice may end up looking out of place and tacky. That’s where Primer allows you to play with color schemes and wallpapers for any wall in your house. All you have to do is scan that part of your room, and using augmented reality, the app will neatly apply a digital wallpaper or paint to your wall and give you that priceless preview of what the finished wall is going to look like with your existing set of furnishings.

INTERNET OF THINGS

SEARCH

DEVICES

Having finished constructing your dream home and then renovating your casa with your personal choices, the last phase of real estate development will be to make your abode future-ready, achieved by installing the internet of things (IoT). IoT is basically a network of smart devices that you’d install in your home for added security and ease of convenience.

Like Google Home, Amazon’s Alexa, or a smart home security system. IoT can have simple devices like smart lights and switches to complex systems as a full-bio security suite for your entire home. There are even dedicated systems that purify the air within your home to a quality you’d probably only expect in the Himalaya or the Amazon. The IoT is a hot-wiring of your living space so that you can control and manage everything inside your home through the internet and WiFi. Imagine using your phone to change the Netflix movie on your giant screen smart TV, adjust the air-conditioning, dim the lights, task the robotic mop to clean the popcorn dropped on the floor, fire up the microwave to heat-up some nuggets, and lock out the doors of the entire house just in case the Netflix movie puts you to sleep. That’s what IoT can do for you.

And that’s the future of smart homes. J

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A Food and Beverage show!

It has to be GulfFood

in the best ‘brains and skillers’ of the business will be discussing and presenting the future of gastronomy. The amalgamation of all the knowledge and experience from food scientists, chefs, government officials, and more, all concentrated in one spot attracts a close to a hundred thousand visitors.

Being a live and in-person exhibition, they promise to maintain the utmost of safety standards, including mandatory social distancing and contactless transactions.

Happening at the Dubai World Trade Centre, from 21st to 25th February, 2021. Mark your calendars for this annual event.

Photo: File Photo

GulfFood 2021 is, using their slogan here, “the only food and beverage show that matters this year.”

And of course, there are a ton of reasons backing up that confident statement. It is the only opportunity that people get in a year to fully network with 5000 different food suppliers from around the globe, industry experts and Michelin Star Chefs.

Explore the newest trends in food and beverage as well as get the opportunity to source from an immense range of F&B products at the most competitive prices. The exhibition has many other attractions as well – one of which is the Gulfood Innovation Summit where-

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Events

49 Flags World Investment Expo is here to help you scale your business With exponential growth patterns in consumer demand, tech, and the change in industry dynamic, visibility is vital in today’s scenario. There is no better place to network, learn from those leading the charge than the Investment Expo, where you get to network and engage with industry peers and source new partnerships within a wide range of categories. The perfect opportunity for investors and investment seekers.

Showcase your company, services, or

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product to Key Investors, Leaders of Investment Companies & Royal Offices. For most investors, personal interaction and impression is a key to make up their mind.

So, if you have an interesting investment project, you still have time to send an application and become a participant.

Capitalize on one of the largest and most diverse investment exhibition event in the region slated for the 26th to the 28th of February. The venue is yet to be announced.

Eating outdoors against a backdrop of skyscrapers and the rugged feeling of buying from a food truck is a unique experience – so why not combine it with diverse cuisines and culinary creativity coming straight out of the kitchens of Dubai’s very own home-grown food concepts?

The eight novel outlets at the event include 25’55’; Coppasta; Semisweet; Tres Marias Coffee Company; The Mattar Farm Kitchen; Simple; Lost Bread; and Karak Inc., which is open to people on weekdays between 8am to 8pm, at the Outdoor Plaza next to the Dubai World Trade Centre from Jan 17th to Feb 25th.

The initiative launched by Brand Dubai – lovingly named ‘Proudly from Dubai’, works to highlight start-ups that originate from the Emirate of Dubai. Proudly from Dubai have

Photo: WAM

In mood for some innovative home-grown food concepts?

their own selection process that determines the creativity, innovation and contributions to society from every brand, so there is no doubt about the level of quality on display.

Brand Dubai, the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office, is bringing you this event in partnership with One Central, Dubai World Trade Centre to raise the visibility, forge partnerships and collaborations both at local and international levels for these businesses. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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COVER STORY

The

Next Gen

DANUBE N MT

DYA IE

Adel Sajan's metamorphosis from a fervent thirteen-year-old novice to the Director of UAE’s leading Danube Group has been nothing less than spectacular!

We demystify the maverick magnate, whose willingness to take risks has created a ‘sky-rocketing’ odyssey for the conglomerate.

Interview by Shagufta Patel

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Compiled by Misbaah Mansuri

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Inaugration of the Danube Home showroom at Sheikh Zayed Road with HE Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan - Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence; Anis Sajan - MD, Danube Group; Actress Shilpa Shetty

O

Opening of Danube Home showroom in Sharjah with Paul Raymund Cortes, Consul General of Philippines, Major Abdalla Rashid Al Naqbi and Actress Sushmita Sen

nly a few minutes into our rendezvous with the billionaire businessman, we get a glimpse of his dynamic disposition and high-achieving demeanor. Adel admits to being a man driven by details. The billion-dollar company that started out as a small office in Deira has today, under the able leadership of the Sajans’ expanded into regions of Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

Having worked extensively alongside his father - the Chairman and founder of Danube Group, Adel is well aware of the fact that when you are Rizwan Sajan’s son, you have big shoes to fill in. The significant impact he’s had over ‘Danube Home’ ever since he took charge of the vertical eight years ago could be credited to his flair for omnichannel retail, scaling, and partnership strategies.

“You need to have that reach-for-the-stars kind of attitude,” remarks Adel, also mindful that the penchant for all things prodigious needs to be backed by a prudent plan.

Operating a small building materials trading firm in the UAE shortly after the Kuwait Gulf War, the founding team certainly knew a thing or two about contingency plans. “My father, along with my uncle, established the business in UAE from the ground up. Given the circumstances in the earlier days, they didn’t have the backing that one desires when starting anew. For me, it was different because I had a ready platform available when I began,” acknowledges Adel.

It is interesting to know that Rizwan Sajan zeroed on the company name, inspired by the river Danube, one of

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Danube being awarded as a ‘Great Place to Work’

Adel brain storming with his team members

Europe’s longest, which flows through several countries, including Germany, Austria, and Romania. Continuing the legacy, the young businessman reminisces, “Dad gave me an early start and made me walk the tough path, something I truly appreciate because it gave me a head start of a minimum of five to seven years.” He vividly recalls going to the office at the tender age of ten and admits to enjoying it thoroughly!

LEARNING THE ROPES Appointed his first job when he was merely thirteen years old, at the Danube store in Deira, Adel worked in the warehouse segment with other blue-collar workers, at a starting salary of about four hundred dirhams. He claims it was a lot of fun, although the job was physically exerting and strenuous, requiring him to spend long hours under the sun in the middle of a typical Emirate summer.

Grateful, a level-headed Adel appreciates that it was only because his father threw him in the deep that he is the man that he is today. Big Boss had categorically instructed the branch manager to treat junior Sajan no differently than the rest of the workforce. On the other hand, he went ahead, giving the manager the leeway to deal with the lad with stern stringency, greater than that meted out to others. It was here that Adel got a chance to broaden his horizon regarding the different aspects, finer nuances of the business, and other processes. Looking back at a busy day, he recalls, “While the carpenters would come to buy the building materials, I would assist them with the stock.

The workers would then load it in their trucks.”

Adel and Sana’s wedding celebrations onboard Costa Fascinosa Cruise

Adel with his Danube Home team at their Budapest offsite trip

‘Having never really examined a chandelier up close, he found himself ransacking Chinese markets with no prior guidance and pocket loaded with a million dollars’ All of sixteen, he moved to the Al Quoz warehouse handling the steel division, forging partnerships and signing deals with spunk. A year later he partook in the first-ever Danube catalog launch. “I would sit with the lead designer at the agency in Media City, giving my inputs to alter the fonts, resize pictures, and everything in between,” says Adel. He worked three long years getting the hang of the marketing department, something that would prove to be immensely useful during the lock-down hurdle.

Furthermore, he spent three months in the Chairman’s office, closely observing how to run the show effortlessly.

Armed with notepads and pens, Adel made sure to take every note and imbue how his father dealt with people, for the Chairman’s cabin sees it all. Watching his father handle the business with ingenuity, perseverance, and passion was a lesson he would receive nowhere else. “From dealing with bankers to marketing professionals to the logistics team, I picked up a great deal of dad’s mode of functioning,” he professes, only to quickly add that his style of leadership is quite different from that of his father. “I’m more detail-oriented, but I stay clear of micromanaging. Both of us delegate a lot of work; however, he does it much more.” When Sajan junior outsources a piece of work, he makes sure to help the person assigned the task to figure it out well, and that is another thing differentiating the father-son duo.

MANAGING IT ALL WITH FLAMBOYANCE The big break came knocking when at age nineteen, Adel was handed the baton to set up the ‘Chandelier Division’ at Danube Buildmart (the home interior retail arm of Danube Group), subsequently venturing into newer product portfolios for the company in the home furnishing space.

“Until then, I was shadowing people. It was no doubt a great learning experience, but I was shouldering no major responsibility.” Having never really examined a chandelier up close, he found himself ransacking Chinese markets with no prior guidance and pocket loaded with a million dollars. Determined, he took up the challenge and decided to see the task through - from scouting for the best-crafted chandeliers, to determining the purchase and selling figures; sharpening his business acumen at every stage.

Juggling several tasks at work while studying at the American University of Sharjah, there were times he would be flying to an exhibition in China for purchases and returning the following morning to answer an exam.

A bright student and the ingenious multi-tasker that he is, Adel always managed to pull it off. He adds, “Studying in UAE was a conscious decision as opposed to pursuing a management degree in the west, as the trade-off of me being away for three to four years for a US degree would have been unfavorable to the overall objective.”

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Flamboyant and confident, he has no qualms in admitting that he lives and plays by the rule – ‘work hard, party harder’. “Through it all, I had a great social life and can’t see why a night out with friends, getting married, and having children should slow one down. I have two boys myself! In the end, one has to make time for the things that matter,” he says. Who can forget his flashy cruise wedding that was the talk of the town and remembered to this day.

Letting us in on the other things he enjoys, sports he says is an integral part of his agenda - “I love racket games in general and enjoy padle tennis in specific, the fastest growing sport combination of tennis and squash.”

Adel with parents Rizwan and Sameera Sajan,wife Sana and first-born Aryan

THE RED ZONE WARRIOR The world of suit and tie is never predictable, and true to form, the newly launched retail division Buildmart showed a graph heading down south. “It was a rough ride as we were losing eight to ten million dirhams a year. The retail business was on the verge of a shutdown,” recalls Adel.

A graduate by now, the keen entrepreneur had the option of joining the family’s established booming building materials business. As an energetic twenty-one-year-old, full of fresh ideas & verve, he took the tougher call. Letting intuition lead, he decided to take hold of the sliding reigns and swore to turn things around, obstinately resolute to scale ‘Danube Homes’ (rechristening Buildmart) to unprecedented heights.

“Adel is a Wonder-Boy. When you create an empire, you need somebody to keep it soaring. I’m lucky and blessed that I have a son like him.”

Rizwan Sajan, Chairman, Danube Group “With a plan like that, everyone thought I was crazy, But I believe that’s how it works. You need to have a vision that might frighten some, but deep inside, you know it to be your route to revival,” he says nonchalantly.

The first challenge staring him in the eye was getting the company’s senior professionals on the same grounds. The organization was under the able guidance of ten to thirteen veterans, and here he was, the Chairman’s son, well aware that not everyone would warm up to him instantly.

Adel asserts, “I am of the strong opinion that respect must be earned and commanded, not demanded.”

Completely understanding their (baseless) fears and not wanting them to see him as a threat to their jobs, he sat them down and made them believe that together, as a team, they could overcome every obstacle, no matter its magnitude. “Let’s identify the gaps we need to bridge and make impacting changes,” he enjoined them as a true luminary.

As anticipated, Adel had a few mammoth tasks and some monumental decisions waiting for him. He goes on, “We noticed that while one store was two thousand square feet in size, the other was four thousand, and some others as ginormous as ten to fifteen thousand square feet; there was no cohesion because of the non-normative layout. We narrowed down on the issue and decided to standardize our stores. The agreed-upon size was fifty thousand square

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feet per showroom.”

Next, he was confronted with the task of bettering the purchases. With fifty percent of their material imported and the other fifty percent of it locally procured, he decided on importing a hundred percent of their merchandise.

“The benefit of importing is that your margins shoot up significantly. With the availability of ready stocks, the sales also go up. Besides, one gets the edge and leverage, as you source things that aren’t available in the local market.”

The strategy proved to be a real game-changer, and things instantly started looking up for the vertical.

Breathing life back into a fraying segment of the organization gave Adel new found confidence, and there on, there was no turning back. This decision proved to be a turning point in his life, for today, the once-upon-a-time loss-making retail business has transformed into the fastest growing home improvement brand growing by 40-50% consistently over the past six years.

The key attributing factors in Adel’s position in the company today are his undeterred focus and consistent determination. Looking back to 2014, he had assured his father that by 2020 the business would have multiplied 10X. “Initially in a daunting red zone, today we enjoy a comfortable position in the green. So, looks like we made it!” satisfaction smearing his face.

Adel with his father Rizwan Sajan, Chairman of Danube Group

ONE TEAM, ONE GOAL Fondness in his eyes, and tenderness in his voice, he looks back at a Bali trip they organized for 30 key members from the Danube team and how it ended up helping the company discover its true culture. “We spent four glorious days on the island and had an absolute ball!

Closer to the end of the trip, we had a bonfire session that went on for a good six-seven-hours leading into an intense heart-to-heart conversation. Everyone spoke of their journeys within the company, and the challenges they faced were discussed with great sensitivity. Each one sharing their vision for the firm’s growth and development, we discovered the company’s vibe. Ever since then, every employee of the Danube Group lives and breathes the ‘one team, one goal’ principle. From the technician to the CEO, everybody has it in his blood,” he accentuates it with a smile.

Thanks to relentless expansion and acquisition wherever and whenever possible, Adel’s efforts have paid off. They traversed from a turnover of one hundred and twenty-eight million to a staggering eight hundred million in a span of six years. Professing his love for numbers, he says,” I am an absolute number person, but with a creative side too.” He believes it’s good to have a little bit of both, knowing a bit of everything, when one is in a

position like his.

An overjoyed Rizwan Sajan can’t stop raving about Adel’s untamable potential and ever inspiring grit. When asked about how his son has carved a gem-strewn path for the Danube dynasty, this is what he said: “Adel is a Wonder-Boy. When you create an empire, you need somebody to keep it soaring. I’m lucky and blessed that I have a son like him who is so focused on his work, comes to the office promptly at 9 am, and hustles away until all the day’s tasks are done. Needless to say, he keeps the staff thoroughly motivated. Today the strength of Danube is not because it is Rizwan Sajan’s company, but because it is managed with wonderful skill. It is this quality of Adel that I’m very appreciative of. With each passing day, he is taking Danube Home to a different level,” pride pouring from every spoken word.

On the other hand, Adel shares that the one indispensable learning he has absorbed from his old man is having a sense of urgency which is crucial for every aspiring businessmen. “People have tons of ideas, but how fast and effectively one can implement it is of immense consequence. That’s where a lot of folks falter. Talking is easy, but putting in the work is the key.”

The enigmatic entrepreneur continues, “A crisis is an opportunity that should never be wasted.” In a move that was widely reported in the region, the company announced that they wouldn’t let go of any of their employees due to the Covid-19 crisis. On the consumer side, they forecasted the average ticket value to plummet and customers’ spending pattern to reach fairly low, and immediately introduced several schemes adhering to a low to middle price range, attracting scores of buyers.

Finding productive ways, the team set up virtual zoom appointments with potential clients to bring the store floor right into the safety of their homes. Another saving grace was the virtual store that was whipped up within three weeks of hitting the quandary.

FLOWING ACROSS THE GLOBE All ups and downs considered, today, Danube Homes has mushroomed into the fastest-growing retailer in the region. Not one to stop, Adel now has his eye set on the global market. “Within a span of five years, we featured in the top three housing retails in the UAE, number one in the Sultanate of Oman, and among the top three in Bahrain. I now aim to not only being a regional player but a global contender in the domain of housing and furnishing.”

Danube Homes recently launched the ‘franchise concept’, with ten stores across Uganda, Nepal, and Egypt, open to a wide consumer base. “By the end of this year, we plan on having about twenty-seven franchised stores across the globe,” says the delighted director with an air of finality.

Adel Sajan’s journey has been synonymous with that of Danube Group as a stellar organization, bouncing back with greater vigor and never giving up when faced with adversity. His quest offers an inside view of resilience in action as the company marches on with a million milestones to tick and a billion homes to beautify. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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AN

EMPIRE ERECTED ON REAL ESTATE The man with the Midas touch, Tanuj Shori, has created history beating professional realtors at their own game.

With Square Yards sprawled across ten countries, he stands synonymous with passion and ambition. Letting us peek into his genius, Shori walks us through his success story, spilling tricks of the trade like no one else!

Interview: Shagufta Patel Compilation: Ayaat Attar

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In

INTERVIEW

334 BC, Alexander III of Macedon led a fleet of Greek ships across the Dardanelles Straits and into Asia Minor. On reaching the shore, Alexander ordered his men to burn the ships to the ground and told them, “We will either return home in Persian ships or die here.” I bet my bottom dollar if Alexander the Great was born a couple of centuries later, our interlocutor for the day, and he would’ve been great friends, for they mirror each other in their tenacity!

Building blocks CEO to India’s largest tech-enabled Real Estate Brokerage and Mortgage Marketplace, Square Yards, Tanuj Shori grew up in a one-bedroom space that accommodated six people. For little Tanuj, having a meal outside was a once-a-year luxury, and he first got a chance to visit a theatre only when he was twenty-two. Indomitable aspirations and a work ethic to match kept him going, and he passed out of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, with flying colors.

Life took a three-sixty degree turn for the struggler when he landed his first job as an investment banker with Lehman Brothers in the bustling city of New York. For a young Tanuj, the sudden influx of the green was dazzling. He now had a lifestyle and owned things that were once a fantasy. But somewhere amidst the comfort, his hunger for life quelled. And one fine morning, he asked himself if the trade-off was worth it.

Having shared an interesting relationship with money as a concept, he believes that humble backgrounds like his have the power to push one to either end of the spectrum on how one views money. “Either money becomes very important, or irrelevant. If you’re lucky, the latter happens to you, and that’s what happened to me,” he recalls.

All of thirty, and navigating restlessly through his days, Shori was ready for entrepreneurship.

He had ideas and capital, but unfortunately, he hadn’t struck upon the third and the most essential element of the holy trifecta - passion. And so, he turned to angel investing, bankrolling the ideas of other entrepreneurs who had found their calling.

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# Tanuj and Kanika in Shanghai for an event

“Individuals must never aspire to become business owners, so they don’t have to work for somebody else, neither should they do it for monetary returns. Such individuals set themselves up for failure on day one. Business is like firefighting.

Things go wrong every day,” he cautions. He believes establishments should be set up only if one is unendingly passionate about an idea and has no ‘plan B’. “Every day brings with itself a new challenge. If you are in it for any other reason, you are going to quit at the first sign of adversity,” he asserts.

An idea squared Fascinated by the world of business, he kept a sharp eye for trends that worked. Every time Tanuj visited China, he couldn’t help but notice the parallels it draws with India in terms of culture, emerging economies, socio-economic growth, and industry characteristics. He further noticed the Chinese based real estate giant Lianjia, which today stands at a staggering $ 80 billion, with their offices having proliferated every 1.2 kilometers.

The sheer absence of a similar real estate venture back home got his mind churning. “Why doesn’t anyone replicate the same model in India?” he thought to himself.

When in 2013, a group of young starters came to

$ At the Emaar Annual Broker’s Meet, 2019 $$ Women’s Day celebration at the Square Yards office

“SOMETIMES BAD HIRING IS INEVITABLE. YOU CAN’T JUDGE HUNGER, PASSION, AND MOTIVES IN ONE INTERVIEW” him with a real estate investment opportunity, the ex-banking professional found himself intensely intrigued. By a weird twist of fate, the cheque did not come through, and the boys, unable to wait any further for capital, retracted to their corporate jobs. But the idea of exploring the real estate space in India had embossed a special place in Shori’s heart and mind. To bring this idea to fruition, Tanuj brought his wife Kanika into the fold.

Kanika Gupta Shori, Tanuj’s other half, and a Wharton University Business Management graduate, has had quite a journey herself. Having made spontaneous career choices, her trajectory has seen it all, from emoting before the lens to the management of commercial events. Having held a strong belief that her life has a greater purpose, Kanika found herself back on the corporate ladder when her little one was less than a year old.

Today, she holds the post of the Chief Operating Officer of Square Yards, a name she coined herself. Kanika resonates with the likes of Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi Co. India, and aspires to leave behind a legacy of her own someday. Art encoded in her DNA, hues and patterns have her heart! Given her primeval desire for interior decor, she worked on a home furnishing idea back in 2013. However, when Tanuj planted the seed of setting up a real estate venture, she realized that the world of end-to-end housing presented unlocked doors of immense opportunity that were calling out to be explored. And so, in 2014, the duo kickstarted Square Yards, a firm that continues redefining real estate in the Indian Subcontinent.

Six months into the venture, Tanuj quit his lucrative job in Hong Kong to focus on his few found love of realty and housing. Although the risk-taker did not care about his savings, he faced a lot of flak for his decision from relatives back in India that did not consider real estate brokerage a white-collar profession.

The primary team of Square Yards was carefully handpicked and included close friends of the Shoris from school and college, all of whom were well educated, consistent performers at their corporate jobs, and a bunch they wholeheartedly trusted. Some were convinced in a day, while others took as long as three to six months. With getting them to quit their cushy jobs and joining hands with the newest housing intermediary on the block, they had a winning team, which barring one, stands strong to this day. Together, they operate like fifteen founders that wake up each morning with a collective goal – building a $ 100 billion real estate intercessor for all of a person’s housing needs.

One brick at a time “Square Yards started as a traditional brokerage firm, with a singular dream - If a person wants a house, they should come to us,” simplifies Tanuj.

They soon figured that seventy percent of Indian homes needed loans, following which mortgage services became an integral part of the value chain. They decided to facilitate contact between the customer and the bank, and before they knew it, they held the helm of India’s largest mortgage integrator. Once the house is purchased, the space needed inviting interiors, where Kanika’s home furnishing idea was revisited. Given the current trend in the real estate market, setting up a rental management service was their next target. They soon learned that seventy percent of property owners resided in cities away from their purchased asset, and launched a professional management company committed to securing rentals 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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and its management for the homes of absent owners. Treating each vertical like a standalone firm unparallel in their game, Square Yards enables the selling of over two thousand homes and the mortgaging of around one thousand five hundred of them, as we speak. With over five hundred rental transactions to their name, Square Yards has successfully established a one-stop-solution culture, dominating India’s real estate market.

When the going gets tough…

However, not everything is as smooth sailing as it seems. A few bumps into the ride, Tanuj realized good CVs and slick talkers don’t always deliver.

He learned that retaining a detrimental hiring costs more than recruiting one. “Sometimes bad hiring is inevitable. You can’t judge hunger, passion, and motives in one interview. What one contributes on the floor in the first thirty days makes all the difference. And that has been my biggest learning,” he shares.

The first three years in business brought with themselves a struggle with developers who sometimes never built the homes they promised, or worse, abandoned them midway. Once burnt, forever shy, they created a ten-step process to assess the developer’s track records, running background checks, not going ahead with the deal unless each developer checked right all the boxes. “If developers posed twenty percent of the problem four years back, today it has successfully been reduced to less than two percent,” beams a relived Tanuj.

Having raked an empire from scratch, the IIM alumni is full of good ideas for those starting out.

“It took millions of variables to fall into place for life to evolve on Earth. Anything could have gone wrong, and life would never exist. Similarly, you could be the smartest, most hardworking person in the room, with the best degrees or the best ideas, but you may still not be able to scale a start-up because you might not be able to deal with chaos every day. This is why how a founder battles chaos on an everyday basis is of paramount importance,” he emphasizes. Ernest and upstanding, strong ethics and integrity of a business’s founders are non-negotiable for the real estate mogul.

The tough nut that Tanuj Shori is, nothing seems to faze his spirit. While the pandemic of 2020 single-handedly destroyed several small and large-scale businesses, Square Yard’s dynamic leadership saw April 2020 turn out to be the best performing month for the firm. Intuitive and quick to act, ‘the 40 under 40’ awardee was traveling across borders when lockdowns were being imposed on nations, and he knew immediately that the same was coming for India.

His first plan of action was to mentally prepare

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“BUSINESS IS LIKE FIREFIGHTING. THINGS GO WRONG EVERY DAY” the team for the next few months that would prove to be challenging in terms of salary cuts and working hours. He treated the virus attack like yet another speed breaker in the path to achieving goals and motivated his crew to go the extra mile. When the global epidemic was at its worst, the management worked harder than they ever had, burning the candle at both ends,

“THE MOTIVATIONAL TALKS WILL AMP THEM UP FOR TWO DAYS, AND ON DAY THREE, IT’S BACK TO SQUARE ONE. NO ONE KNOWS YOU, YOUR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS BETTER THAN YOURSELF” keeping their morale high. Astonished by the company’s agility, several establishments reached out to Square Yards for sound advice, for they had changed the way the industry worked.

Beyond boundaries A workforce comprising of three thousand and eight hundred employees internationally, the organization operates globally, including UAE, Qatar, Oman, Singapore, UK, Hongkong, Canada, and Australia. Their unique business strategy utilizes unchartered Indian markets as frugal trial grounds and scaling to a more competitive space outside the country once the model works.

For now, the CEO plans on staying clear of raiding Chinese and American markets, given their ruthless competition. He reaffirms that there is indeed no shame in taking low risks that promise high rewards. The first of its kind, Square Yards is preceded by no other real estate intermediary that has dared to go global before. At present, the company is working on their home furnishing vertical, soon to be launched. This year, Square Yards plans on expanding to South East Asia, with Latin America on the cards, treading steadily on the path of establishing a hundred-billion-dollar enterprise headquartered at Gurgaon, India.

Family first

# The Shoris with their sons Aarav (R) and Arsh (L)

With a business ascending at the speed of a commet, it is inevitable for the balance between work and personal life to take a back seat. Fresh recruits at Square Yards are prepared for the most demanding years of their careers. The management leads from the front, working twelve hours a day, for six days a week. Tanuj, however, preaches that taking a breather is a significantly important part of the grind. When not working, he enjoys playing cricket, which is one of his other lesser-known passions, and soccer. An ardent traveler, he has visited over seventy countries and is nowhere near done!

Beneath his steely exterior, Tanuj is a devoted family man, even though, owing to Tanuj and Kanika’s hectic travel schedules, the family gets only three to four days in a month together. However, the fairly liberal and open-minded couple more than make up for the lost time by imparting

their kids with strong values and wholesome conversations. The duo has recently started homeschooling their kids Aarav and Arsh, aged ten and eight, respectively. As intuitive as he is as a business person, the corporate taskmaster is an equally aware father. He believes that they hold the luxury of not having to force their children into the regular nine-to-five-job grind and would like them to study literature and music, travel and get exposure, and eventually be the masters of their own destiny.

Two equal halves of a balanced equation, inevitably enough, Tanuj and Kanika have their professional differences. The partners, however, diffuse the stickiest situations with able decision making and understanding. “Since Tanuj is the CEO, he holds a certain veto. Although, I do have my ‘I told you so’ moments!” laughs Kanika.

Mannerism maketh a man Tanuj Shori implores young entrepreneurs diving into the daunting world of business, to do so only for the passion that keeps them going, and to develop a responsible attitude. He urges the youth to work on themselves continually and says the same applies to him. Intune with his ideals and full of words of wisdom herself, Kanika shares that the realty space is undeniably male-dominated. Battling patriarchy, she rose above the petty game of gender roles, focusing her energies solely towards bettering the organization each day.

Introspective and reflective, Tanuj, on the other hand, can read entrepreneurs in a glance. He believes only twenty percent of humanity has the capacity to ask themselves the hard questions.

For the rest eighty percent of them, he says, “the motivational talks will amp them up for two days, and on day three, it’s back to square one. No one knows you, your strengths and weakness better than yourself.” And so, he encourages inculcating the art of self-searching.

Doers in themselves, the couple lives and breathes the entrepreneurial principal – jump in the waters, and you’ll know how to swim. They reiterate that strategizing is overrated and that execution is key, as they continue taking the world of real estate by storm, one brick, one slab at a time. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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W

hen dinner table conversations at the Syed household revolved around the newest properties on the block and their prices per square foot, a young Farooq could not wait to jump on the bandwagon.

Subconsciously, he started fine-tuning his skills, so someday, he could be a part of the big talk. Seven years down the line, the University of Michigan graduate heads the family business, which is one of Dubai’s leading property sales, brokerage, and

investment consultancy firm, taking it to unchartered heights.

We had the wonderful opportunity of catching his enthusiastic self, smack in the middle of a well-planned morning, dressed to the nines, hair in a perfect coif, and an earnest smile that glints in his eyes.

FIRMING UP THE FOUNDATIONS With a superior tech-based analysis of the market, Springfield Properties stands tall as a real estate advisory in the market. However, the empire was not erected overnight. A people-cen-

SPRING All smiles and hearty laughs, CEO of Springfield Properties, Farooq Syed, is a front runner in Dubai Realty’s circuit. From Marina to Downtown when it comes to trusted real estate advice, the buck stops at his word, discovers Ayaat Attar

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“Business is all about taking risks.

Without risks, there are no returns”

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tric business like theirs holds the firm belief that their agents are their biggest assets. What sets the brand apart from the rest is the amount of time and effort they spend making sure their sales advisors are on top of their knowledge game and know all the different projects in the market, so they deliver apt advice to anyone who approaches them for real-estate investment options. Standing out amidst a sea of over five thousand real estate professionals, Springfield Properties advisors are now a brand in themselves.

Appointing the right workforce for the right roles was their greatest challenge. Farooq beams, as he shares, that today they have an excellent team in place with six directors in the company that manages sales force activities like day-to-day activations, plans, and roadshows which have contributed majorly in helping them scale the organization.

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME, AND COUNTING… Yet another tool that magically entered his life, giving more flight to his already soaring real estate career, was the holy intervention of social media.

Having explored YouTube back in 2008 when he was still in university, he made his first video only in 2019, 11 years later. For ten years, he regrets sitting on the power of social media.

Today he is very active on social media, and it is also one of his undeniable passions.

From Burj Khalifa to Emaar Properties and all the way to the heart of The World Islands, his ever-engaging vlogs have a niche fan base that wants

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Farooq with his team members at the Emaar sales center

a peek into Dubai’s swankiest real estate spaces, and an astute Farooq never disappoints. He owes his glorious social media presence to his competent team, which has given it their all to put out phenomenal content in the past year. When their first few videos opened to a raving response, the creative team decided to make it more interactive by having him breakdown

the appeal of the properties before the camera. The idea worked wonders, and today, with over forty-three videos and a strong subscriber base of over seventy-nine thousand people, his channel ‘Farooq Syed - Dubai Real Estate Vlogs’ is UAE’s largest real estate presence in the domain, swiftly making its journey towards a million subscribers.

From Burj Khalifa to Emaar Properties and all the way to the heart of The World Islands, his ever-engaging vlogs have a niche fan base that wants a peek into Dubai’s swankiest real estate spaces

Drawing from his personal experience with digital media, the influencer believes that in the current day and age, when convenience is at our fingertips, every broker must put themselves out there in order to broaden their horizons. “Putting out a video is so much easier when compared to making thirty thousand phone calls, isn’t it?” he questions rhetorically.

Farooq admits to entering the most jaw-dropping spaces and wanting to never come out of the doors as he covers them. His most favorite memory so far has been from the time he had just begun dabbling into the world of video blogging, back in Downtown.

As he arrived dressed in a crisp suit at the poolside, everyone’s eyes were fixed on him and the camera set-up around. Before he knew it, he had tourists coming up to him with requests for selfies, for they thought he

was a superstar! Today, Farooq throws his head back, laughing hysterically about the riotous experience.

WORDS WORTH A MILLION However, one cannot deny that he is indeed a superstar of the real estate space. With a niche skillset, Farooq’s words can put established speakers to shame. One could attribute a considerable portion of his corporate success to his interpersonal interactions. But he holds the firm belief that indomitable speaking skills are just yet another part of the commercial housing game. He speaks fondly about some of his friends in the real estate business who may not be flamboyant in their words but have closed some significant deals. He had once watched an interview that featured one of America’s highest-selling salesperson, where the man was asked what separated him from the crowd.

Quoting him, Farooq says, “All you have to be, is likable.” He reiterates that likeability is at the core of everything, even if one is a slick talker, but if the client senses some malice within you, or cannot wholeheartedly trust you, no amount of impeccable speaking skills can come to your rescue. He encourages young realtors trying to make it to the top of the real estate business to keep working on their skills but at the same time study the market before they head out to sell. Personally, he stays clear of the business of hard-selling and directs all his energies in really truly understanding where his client is coming from. Many times it has so happened that he has actively had to stop his clients from making a purchase that would have made him a lot of money but proven detrimental to the buyer in the long run. This has rightfully earned him a loyal clientele, for his 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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advice was always for the betterment of the receiver.

STAIRWAY TO THE SUMMIT Battling everyday challenges that the daunting world of housing surprised them with, Springfield Properties continued treading on its way to the top. But when the pandemic of 2020 hit, just like every other business in the running, the management found itself staggering too. “It has been a hard year personally and professionally,” admits Farooq. When the lockdown was announced in March, most entrepreneurs resorted

to playing it safe and strategized scaling down. Springfield properties, on the other hand, took a huge risk and decided to doubly expand their office in terms of size and workforce in the middle of a rough year. Their primary motivation came from the fact that in its truest element, real estate is all about good people. There were scores of honest workers out in an open market who had been laid off, courtesy of the epidemic, with as much as seven to eight years of industry experience who were waiting to be hired. “We saw this as a golden opportunity and leaped at the idea

of expansion,” sounding pleased with the decision taken.

Farooq doesn’t miss a chance to laud the commendable work done by leaders across the UAE in empowering business owners and says that his brokers have never been this busy since the hay days of 2014. All set to take 2021 by storm, he believes we have lived through the worst, optimistic that the new year will bring with itself opportunities like never before. “Business is all about taking risks. Without risks, there are no returns,” he implores. He urges entrepreneurs to shed pessimism and

There were scores of honest workers out in an open market who had been laid off, courtesy of the epidemic, with as much as seven to eight years of industry experience who were waiting to be hired

At one of his super luxurious listings at the Dorchester Collection in Business Bay, also featured on his Vlog

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look at the new year with a fresh lens, and be committed to taking risks that will shake their market up! Looking out for younger organizations, he advises businesses to change their product offerings, evolving with the times. He prods every hustler in the arena to embrace the new normal and keep going.

Having conquered the real estate market, the man with the plan is, however, nowhere near done! In the next five years, he hopes for Springfield properties to hold the position of Dubai’s no. 1 real estate advisory. Ten years down the line, he aims at establishing the company as a household name, having diversified vertically and laterally into other business avenues, including development, having spectacular properties of their own.

A BALANCED APPROACH A self-proclaimed workaholic, Farooq cannot imagine a day not jam-packed, lined up with tasks to accomplish.

A lax day and he feels like he’s missing out on life! Having a work-life balance is no challenge for him, considering that he works along side his father and brothers, with his mother who loves dropping by now and again, lighting up their day. Full of life, he loves spending an evening out with his beloved wife, discovering a new restaurant, or catching the latest movies at the cinema halls. The majority of his clients are from overseas, and he enjoys taking them out, which further strengthens the bond he shares with his patrons.

Ending a challenging day at work, Farooq likes to unwind with a bike ride, an interest he developed only a year and a half back, but has really grown to enjoy. Besides biking, the young entrepreneur is an ardent sports lover and indulges himself in a game of cricket with his best pals.

His active and hectic schedule is bound to change some in the days ahead, as he and his dear wife just welcomed a baby boy (as this piece is being written), who they have very fondly named Hamdan, after the crown prince of Dubai.

Every day, Farooq finds himself

With wife Zara for an event at Dubai Polo Club

As he arrived dressed in a crisp suit at the poolside, everyone’s eyes were fixed on him and the camera set-up around. Before he knew it, he had tourists coming up to him with requests for selfies, for they thought he was a superstar! exploring Dubai’s most extravagant spaces, selling houses that cost a fortune. When he returns home tired and exhausted, he retreats to his personal space where the young man feels most at home. His comfort zone is a cozy corner of his bedroom with a snug sofa facing his luxurious Apple TV, where he loves sitting down, propping his laptop open to watch the most riveting documentaries or YouTube videos. He occasionally

enjoys reading his emails on his giant TV screen, finishing off a long day’s work. “That’s my favorite spot in my house. It’s like my own little study,” he says, contented.

Farooq Syed may have come a long way from where he started with, but he believes he has miles to go before he sleeps. Settling new standards of success each day, the business tycoon still identifies himself as a little boy with big dreams. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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The

Mortgage Debt Doctor

Jaya Ratnani is one of the first woman entrepreneurs solely offering Mortgage Debt Management solutions to property owners having difficulties honoring Home Loan payments. In this exclusive interview with ASPIRE, she shares her views on managing Mortgage Debt during these challenging times.

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Y

ou have finally bought your dream home after completing loads of paperwork, choosing the best finance options available, smug and smiling on having achieved a huge goal. All that remains now is to pay the monthly equated installments and live happily ever after.

Well, it doesn’t always end in a fairy tale for some. Life happens along the way; a home loan is not finished within a few months or even a year. For some, this ‘dream nest’ turns into a ‘debt noose’ that they can’t seem to escape, and before they know it, things catapult to such extremes that everything gets thrown off balance.

Especially in today’s pandemic scenario, many borrowers face salary cuts, job losses, delays in receivables, and business closures, preventing one from making timely payments. This is where Jaya Ratnani comes in as a savior. Better known as a ‘Mortgage Debt Doctor’, she helps people find a cure for their Home Loan Debt ailments. “Everyone’s diagnosis and case is different, so I understand their needs one-on-one before working on a cure or solution,” she states.

Jaya is Managing Partner at FREED Financial Services, an exclusive Home Loan Debt Management company. She and her team of experts represent borrowers to structure the best possible solution for Home Loan debt with banks without resorting to any legal procedure. The team diagnoses and run some checks to analyze the individual’s financial situation and offers customized repayment options in line with the borrower’s ability and the bank’s policy.

Tell us about your background?

What have you been doing before you started FREED Financial Services?

I was part of the corporate sales team at Le Meridian, India, before joining Dubai Properties Group in 2005. I was a prime member of the business development team to drive the local

and international sales for JBR, Business Bay, Culture Village, and The Villa project.

When the 2008 crash happened, I joined Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and was instrumental in developing the Mortgage Collections Team.

Defaults had started; people were losing jobs and leaving the country with properties behind. I was part of the initial setup to devise an end-toend process that included foreclosure procedure, restructure policy, and the remedial risk framework to manage credit control and recoveries.

Is that how you started your venture?

Having worked in both the Real Estate and Banking sector for a long period of time, I was able to identify a gap.

People buy a property with a mortgage based on certain projections, and sometimes things do not work out as per the plan, thereby making it difficult to fulfill these commitments.

Also, in my role with the bank, I came across many families and individuals in difficult situations, not being able to honor their mortgage payments.

Fortunately, in some cases, I was able to provide an appropriate solution, which was personally very satisfying for me.

I guess it’s a combination of these two, which led me to embark on this journey, and today I am guiding many families who are struggling to cope up with their Home Loan payments.

How does one manage the home loan debt in these difficult times?

Typically, in a period of economic slowdown or an extraordinary situation like Covid-19, we see property owners struggling to meet their home loan payments due to loss of income, drop in rental yield, property values, and many other factors. These circumstances can throw anyone off track, and property owners hit a roadblock paying off the debt.

Many borrowers start defaulting on the payments or even chose to relocate. But this is not a solution as the unpaid debt can keep mounting with interest and penalties and can turn into a monstrous sum of money.

As a solution, there are a set of op-

tions that can relieve an individual or a company from litigation processes and assist in reducing the debt burden.

What are the different options to manage Home Loan Repayment?

Some of the options to mitigate a bad debt situation are: Debt Settlement Plan: This plan includes finding a suitable buyer and liquidating the asset. If it is not possible to cover the outstanding loan amount out of the asset’s sale, the shortfall can be negotiated with the bank. This includes options like reduced repayment sum, flexible payment on shortfall – single or multiple, at a lower rate of interest.

Debt Restructuring: In this process, based on the financial situation and repayment track record, banks can

People buy a property with a mortgage based on certain projections, and sometimes things do not work out as per the plan, thereby making it difficult to fulfill these commitments modify the terms of existing debt and provide relief in repaying the monthly obligations. The banks can offer options like reducing the loan interest rate, increasing the loan tenor, providing a payment holiday, or reschedule the interest and principal payments.

Bankruptcy/Insolvency: Under this law, borrowers are supported against legal prosecution, and a three-year plan is offered to settle the financial obligations. Under this option, an application is submitted to the court.

The insolvency option should be considered as the last choice as it may damage the credit rating adversely for a long time. Such an option reflects that there is no more source of revenue available, which can discourage creditors from loaning money in the future altogether.

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What are the consequences when someone leaves the country with a Mortgage behind?

Leaving the country will not help to get rid of the Mortgage Debt. Moreover, one will be closing all the doors to return in the future and work in the UAE. The banks can legally pursue various measures. At first, the banks will initiate legal action against the bounced security cheque. Thereafter, they will make all collection efforts with the help of affiliates and overseas agencies to recover the debt amount.

Banks can also take legal action on defaulters in home countries.

This means that the verdicts of UAE courts can be enforceable wherever you are living.

If one still plans to leave the country, it is recommended to clear the outstanding Mortgage Debt.

Alternatively, one can give a Power of attorney to experts who can discuss and manage the remaining payment terms with the Bank.

How can experts like yourself help individuals manage the Home Loan Debt?

If one cannot meet the financial obligations and has exhausted every

“Leaving the country will not help to get rid of the Mortgage Debt. Moreover, one will be closing all the doors to return in the future and work in the UAE” JAYA RATNANI, Managing Partner at FREED Financial Services

avenue, hiring an expert can certainly work to one’s advantage. While some banks can be cooperative, others may require sensitive handling to find suitable alternatives.

Gauging the right option will depend on many factors such as repayment history, the borrower’s personal and financial circumstances, the market value of the property, etc.

An expert can assist the client in the following way: ¡ Represent them at the bank, even if they have to leave the country. ¡ Assist in selling the property & negotiating the best possible settlement if the market value does not cover the loan outstanding. ¡ Help builds back the client’s credibility so they can come back to the UAE in the future.

Can you share a step-by-step process for the successful management of Mortgage Debt? ¡ Identify the problems that are making your loan repayment program difficult. ¡ Prepare a cover letter that explains the events leading to such a situation and why you are looking for settling or restructuring your debt. ¡ Gather all the essential documents related, such as bank statements, termination/salary reduction letter, cash-flow position, other assets, and borrowings. ¡ Approach the bank or seek specialist advice by finding out your legal rights and options that would be best suited for you.

Doing things on your own can be daunting. Debt counselors have the expertise and experience to help find the right solution. The experts ensure the borrowers are represented in the best way possible until a favorable repayment option is reached.

What advice would you like to give our readers?

Buy Wisely. Honor your Mortgage payments. And if you are stuck at any point, speak to the experts. J YOU CAN REACH OUT FOR ONE FREE CONSULTATION WITH JAYA RATNANI AT info@freeduae.com

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IS GEOPATHIC STRESS MAKING YOU ILL? Not many people are aware of the science of Geopathic Stress, its causes, and its cure. ASPIRE met Maitha Monther Alazawi for an exclusive and in-depth interview to know essential details on the subject matter

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t was 1982, the day before Christmas; a cancer diagnosis shocked the Hahnen family of Langenargen on Lake Constance.

32-year-old Mother Roswitha had abdominal and breast cancer and, if she was lucky, had half a year left to live. Father Werner, who refused to accept the diagnosis, organized a cancer symposium in Montfort castle in Langenargen to which scientists and alternative health practitioners were invited. Werner Hahnen offered 50,000 DM (approximately US$ 40,000) research funding to the person who could help in their hour of need. It was at the symposium that Werner Hahnen first heard Dr. Erich Klemke speak about the relationship between geopathic stress and cancer. Dr. Klemke, who was a biochemist, suggested using alternative medicine that promoted the production of killer cells. Six weeks after starting treatment with the serum developed

by Dr. Klemke, doctors were no longer able to find

any cancer cells in Roswitha Hahnen.

This happy news motivated Werner Hahnen to research radiation and its relation to naturopathy.

He developed the first measurable geopathic stress shielding, founded a medical practice despite hostility from mainstream medicine, and devoted himself to studying electrical engineering and the interior architecture of Geobiology.

This is the story from the Founder’s desk of Geovital Academy for Radiation Protection and Environmental Medicine. Geovital, based in Austria, has followed a natural pathic health thought with over 35 years of environmental medicine experience.

Maitha Alazawi, comes from a family of civil engineers is an architect by profession herself.

During her academic research, what got her excited was the fact as to how our health gets affected by external sources that we may not even be aware of. Fascinated by her findings of ‘Geopathic Stress and Radiation’ and how complementary medicine 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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can save people physically and mentally to live healthier lives, Maitha, through this exclusive interview, hopes to offer knowledge and guidance to anyone needing relief from health issues affected by external exposures (natural and artificial radiations).

She says, “Had I not made my mindset more flexible and open; I would not have entered into the world of ‘Radiation Protection’ and knowing of its effects on our health. I aim to spread awareness and let as many people know what possibly could be affecting their health.”

Here is all that you need to know about the subject:

What is Radiation according to Geobiology?

Radiation is the energy emitted from a body or source transmitted through any space or intervening medium and absorbed by another body. Transmission is in the form of waves.

There are mainly two types of radiations: Man-made radiations include radiofrequency (high frequency) electromagnetic radiation waves, low frequency ‘magnetic’ fields, low frequency electric and dirty electricity.

These cause less energy or tiredness, nervousness, and fearfulness, headache or migraine, tinnitus or dizziness, sleep disorders, high or low blood pressure, heart problems, itching or tingling, learning difficulties in children, general exhaustion, reluctance, irritability, dissatisfaction, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) in children, fertility issues, leukemia, and cancer.

Natural radiation is generated from water veins, fault lines/ground mixing, Hartmann & Curry lines. Illnesses that come from natural disturbances is called Geopathic Stress.

Can you explain Geopathic Stress a bit more in detail?

The word “Geopathic” is derived from two Greek words, ‘Geo’ meaning ‘the Earth’, and ‘pathos’ meaning ‘disease’ or ‘suffering’; so literally ‘suffering of the Earth’. The term ‘Geopathic Stress’ means the stress of the Earth which is negative energy that emanates from the ground, causing discomfort and ill health to those living above it.

Earth has a natural vibration, but features like underground watercourses, drainage pipes, underground tunnels, and even simple geological faults distort this vibration. Such distorted vibrations are held to rise upwards through the Earth’s surface and create a pernicious effect on the health and/or behavior of all biological life.

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What is Dirty Electricity?

Dirty electricity is commonly referred to as noise or electromagnetic interference by Electrical Engineers. In the context of environmental health, it relates to elevated electrical pollution or electrical distortion on wiring that can cause health effects.

What are Water Veins and Fault Lines?

“Had I not made my mindset more flexible and open; I would not have entered into the world of ‘Radiation Protection’ and knowing its effects on our health” MAITHA MONTHER ALAZAWI Architect and EMF consultant

Water Veins- are underground water channels that moves and travels to other areas. It can drag metal particles with it like iron, zinc, copper, etc., and those particles can bump into each other. The water allows them to react with each other, and energy can emanate from that area.

Fault Lines in the soil are created when layers of soil with different predominant metals inside them have too much pressure in the ground, causing a shift or a crack to appear.

The metal of one layer is opposite to the other, and in the presence of water, they can react

with each other. This again creates a subtle field of energy in that area.

What is ‘Hartmann Line’?

The most well-known global network of lines was discovered in the mid 20th century by Dr. Ernst Hartmann. The effects of the lines on human health occur, especially during sleep hours, as the intensity of the Hartmann lines increases during the night.

In mid-latitudes, they are lines that are 2.5 to 4m apart and can put added strain on those parts of the body that experience prolonged exposure to them, especially during sleep. Given their close proximity to each other, almost every sleep environment is affected by these.

The most unfavorable situation is when the intersection points of Hartmann’s net overlap with a person’s bed or workplace. ‘Geopathogenic Zones’ are when there is an overlap with available underground water streams, and these zones cause an extensive array of illnesses. People living in these zones feel weak, have low energy, are always tired, especially in the mornings; they also get exhausted and nervous quickly and get ill very frequently.

The drop in energy levels and the possibility of severe illnesses increase with the number of years one spends sleeping or working in such intersection points and areas where such points overlap with underground water streams.

What is ‘Curry Line’?

Named after Dr. Curry, an American physician, in honor of his publication in 1952, Curry lines or the Curry network is a grid diagonal to the Hartmann network. These are northeast-southwest and northwest-southeast lines with a separation of 2.5m to 4m between the lines.

Like the Hartmann lines, the Curry lines show increased radiation intensity during the night and at the points where they cross.

Besides, their intensity also increases on a full moon night and is influenced by lunar cycles.

In this sense, significant health effects can occur at night during sleep, usually in the form of insomnia, for people resting on the vertical of Curry crosses.

What is Electromagnetic Stress?

Electromagnetic stress results from exposure to electromagnetic (EM) fields.

Differences in voltage create EM fields: the higher the voltage, the stronger the resultant field will be. Magnetic fields are created when electric current flows, and greater the current, the stronger is the magnetic field.

An electric field will exist even when there is no current flowing. If the current does flow, the magnetic field’s strength will vary with power consumption, but the electric field strength will be constant.

Our bodies are exposed daily to electromagnetic fields, which scientifically causes damage to our cells, while the body needs to fix itself when we are sleeping. Scientists have discovered that broken DNA builds up in brain cells in the daytime, and repair work reverses the damage only during sleep.

Phone towers are built beside our homes, schools, hospitals, and the place of our work, and we are surrounded today by different types of technological devices like cell phones, laptops, iPad, etc. We are using these devices even when we are sleeping, not giving our brain and body time to rest when these devices find their way to connect with the nearest phone towers located.

What are the remedies available to combat the radiation?

THE TERM ‘GEOPATHIC STRESS’ MEANS THE STRESS OF THE EARTH WHICH IS NEGATIVE ENERGY THAT EMANATES FROM THE GROUND, CAUSING DISCOMFORT AND ILL HEALTH TO THOSE LIVING ABOVE IT

Today gratefully, we have solutions to avoid sickness due to these factors, and we also have the equipment to identify these health affecting syndromes. Geopathic Stress is well documented in Europe and taken very seriously in natural medicine. With Geovital Geopathic Stress solutions, the issues are quickly resolved. The solutions offered have proven to be a practical and durable approach over the last 25 years. One can reach out to a Geovital consultant who will gladly educate you about the materials and how they are correctly utilized in your homes to protect you and your loved ones from the harmful effects of these natural and man-made radiations. J YOU CAN REACH OUT TO MAITHA FOR A CONSULTATION AT maithaalazawi@gmail.com 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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PROFILE

Residential property by Global Realty Partners in Arjan

D

ubai based developers-Global Realty Partners LLC, major land acquisitions, capitalizing on the fast-expanding have successfully completed their 8th residential real estate market, and spurring the Group’s growth beproject in Arjan, opposite the Miracle Garden sittween 2002-2007. uated on the major Umm Suqeim and the Sheikh Before starting off in Dubai, Wahedna a rank holder CA Mohammed Bin Zayed (E311) arterial road corridors. had extensive expertise spread in financial services, stockThe units ready for hand-over include studios broking as a member of the Bombay Stock and one-bedroom apartments, between 42 and Exchange (BSE) since 1991, and real-estate 100sqm, respectively. The building (tentatively development in India. named as Bldg 88) has in all 88 apartments and Instrumental in executing a significant numsix prime retail units, with amenities like an ber of eminent projects, including The Palladiindoor lap pool, steam and sauna with sensory um Tower in the Jumeirah Lake Towers district experience shower area, and a fully equipped and the Lamborghini Building on Sheikh Zayed gym. All units come equipped with German enRoad. He spurred the group’s growth taking the gineered wardrobes and cabinetry, soft-closing group to its zenith, investing and participating doors, and Grohe bathroom fixtures. in various private and joint-venture developAll units will come with German engineered ments in excess of USD 250 million.

ARSHAD WAHEDNA, wardrobes and cabinetry, soft-closing doors, To date, the Group has successfully deChairman, and Grohe bathroom fixtures. The building veloped 100.000 sq.m of residential and Global Realty Partners will further differentiate itself having used commercial real estate, with 125.000 sq.m the Dubai Municipality’s newly established Green Building presently under construction and holding 175.000 sq.m of Standards, including a proposed green roof, bicycle parking, admissible area slated for future development. electric vehicle parking, and low-flow water framework.

With an aim to create net surplus value for investors, its Global Realty Partners LLC, a subsidiary of Gulf Global clients, and stakeholders, the Group has also broadened its Group (www.gulfglobalgroup.com) established in 2002 by industry expertise to include planned investment and asset Mr. Arshad Wahedna, who moved to Dubai in 2001. He management in the realty dominion. J became one of the first freehold land investors making www.gulfglobalgroup.com

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The ‘Marketing’

PILLAR OF ECOMMERCE

PRO TALK

Digital Marketing Expert & Ecommerce Strategist

Sunil Nair

One of the primary components eCommerce, ‘Marketing’ is made up of every process and activity involved in moving a product or service from your business to the consumer. Call it persuasive communication if you like; when done right it reaches and influences your consumers to get you the results you want

I

f the objective of your business is to sell more products or services, then marketing is what helps you achieve that goal. A few questions to ask when considering ‘Marketing’, the fourth Pillar of eCommerce, should help formulate an apt digital marketing plan that aligns with your eCommerce needs.

Some of the questions to ask would be • What is eCommerce Marketing?

• Is digital marketing and eCommerce the same?

• What’s the best eCommerce marketing strategy?

• Which one should I be using for my eCommerce store? Which one will work for me?

Using Google and getting some know-how on the complex world of ‘Digital Marketing’ comprising of SEO, Google search, Google display, Social Media, Email marketing, Affiliate marketing, I knew it was time to get a mentor and learn the nuances of the field from the masters themselves. This was the right way to forge ahead in an area that had caught my fancy since 2006.

I clearly remember the pictorial representation on ‘Digital Marketing’ taught by my

guide and mentor, Prof. Ratan K.K, that is now gravely cemented in me. Having read a lot about each of these silos in digital marketing individually, I had never imagined the power that an integrated mix of these tactics could bring in. Today, 15 years later, the power of ‘Integrated Digital Marketing’ brings me exemplary results in almost all the campaigns that I execute and manage.

Each of the above silos can be classified as a digital marketing tactic set on a digital platform. Each platform has its own set of target audience and deliverables. Campaigns are set on these platforms aiming to achieve the best deliverables possible. Each of these campaigns is then closely tracked and analyzed to ensure that we are hitting the desired Key Performance Index (KPIs) defined.

In an ‘Integrated Marketing’ setup, campaigns are envisioned with strategies that criss-cross each of these silos resulting in a better ROI on ad spends and a higher impact of the advertising campaigns resulting in stronger ad-recalls. The audience of each of these silos are cross-marketed using lists, platforms, and collaterals aligned with each.

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WEB ANALYTICS

EMAIL MOBILE

BANNER

SMM

PPC

SEO

WEBSITE STRATEGY

DEFINED KPIs

MEASURE, ANALYZE, OPTIMIZE The Key takeaway here would be to understand that: • A ‘Marketing goal’ defines your KPIs • A ‘Strategy’ defines the path to your goal • A ‘Tactic’ is the platform where you are going to execute your strategy Clear on these, we can now delve into understanding ways to align digital marketing tactics with our strategy and achieve our set marketing goals.

eCommerce Marketing ‘eCommerce’ encompasses the platform that enables you to sell your products, while ‘eCommerce Marketing’ is the use of various digital marketing platforms and tactics that draws traffic to enable product purchase along with payment realization. It can be said without a doubt that eCommerce and digital marketing go hand in hand, and a huge pie of the marketing budget is channeled in developing digital marketing strategies that result in generating meaningful interactions with potential and returning customers based on their online behavior on your site. This helps build brand awareness and places your business at the forefront when the customer is ready to buy.

A simple marketing funnel consists of • Creating awareness about your eCommerce store • Driving traffic to the store • Converting visitors into paying customers • Getting your customers to keep coming back for more.

Ideation and strategizing during the initial stages of setting up an eCommerce store helps align marketing channels, tactics and sets a strategy that suits all marketing components from communications to the sales cycle.

Identifying your Buyer Persona A detailed description of a fictional person

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representing your ‘target audience’ is called a buyer persona. This process consists of describing the characteristics of your best potential customer in great detail right from the name, demographic details, interests, including behavioral traits that can be marked and mapped to your product categories. Understanding your persona’s goals, pain points, and buying patterns will help you create marketing campaigns and communication content that connects and gets better ROI. Your buyer persona should guide everything from product development to your brand voice to the social channels you use. Since different groups of people may buy your products for varied reasons, you might need to create more than one buyer persona. This helps in the proper segmentation of your customers and product alignment that keeps unsold stocks at manageable levels.

Product taxonomy

Each platform has its own set of target audience and deliverables.

Campaigns are set on these platforms aiming to achieve the best deliverables possible

Product taxonomy helps to develop a product hierarchy that arranges products into categories so that customers can find what they want in the least possible clicks. Proper tags are used to group products into the right categories, which forms the base of a useful search function that yields relevant results, great user experience, and enhanced sales with strong conversion ratios. Various attributes are then applied to the products in each category.

In the eCommerce world, by preparing a robust taxonomy for your products, you create an eCommerce site that makes it easy for search engines to find your products, for your customers to add items to their carts, and ultimately, complete that order.

eCommerce Advertising ‘eCommerce advertising’ can be defined as the methods through which your products can be promoted using various digital marketing platforms. These ads may come in the form of display ads, banner ads, or rich media ads. Please find listed below some of the most prominent channels and their KPIs that can be used to market and sell your eCommerce products.

Why Facebook • Most trafficked with current and social media site potential customers • Top social search • Promote content engine you create, • Create a community including webinars, around your busiblog articles, or ness other resources • Connect and engage • Generate social

proof and credibility along with sales KPI’s Measured • Number of fans • Conversation rate

potential

who matter • Develop your posi-

• Engagement ratio • Sentiment

Why Twitter • Allows you to con• Increases traffic to nect with your target your website and audience easily blogs • You can send infor- • Helps customers to mation to your folstay updated with lowers in real-time the latest trends • Building brands • Get mobile with and visibility Twitter

followers • Follower/ following ratio

• Retweets • @connects: both

@replies and @ mentions

Why Instagram • Connects you to your • Allows you to intarget audience eascrease traffic to your ily with #hashtags, website and blogs @mentions • Connected with • A very friendly, amother social icable community platforms like • Identify influencers Twitter, Facebook, and promote InfluFoursquare, encer Marketing Tumblr, Flickr KPI’s Measured • Number of followers • Comments & Shares • Follower/ following • Both #hashtags and ratio @mentions Why YouTube • Second most extensive search engine after Google • It has the potential to go viral • People would much rather watch something than read it • Global and local audience KPI’s Measured • YouTube Insight • Views • Shares Why Blogs • Creating a real

• Brand awareness

and recognition • Submitting to other

social media sites increasing reach • Instant distribution of information • Making own customized channel and customer base

• Audience Retention • Engagement

dialogue with those

tion and your reputation as an expert • Public Relations & Press Releases

• Multiple Authors • Instant distribution

Marketing

KPI’s Measured • Number of visits • Traffic Source • Top viewed posts

• Subscriber rates • Social Shares per

of information

posts

Once you identify the platforms and the KPIs that you would want to track, the next step is to develop a marketing plan. A step-bystep approach to enable digital marketing for eCommerce would be: • Create a marketing strategies for each strategy decided eMarketing • Decide the eMartactic. keting objectives • Implement & go • Decide on live with each tactic eMarketing tactics • Track, Measure, • Align tactic to and Analyze eMarketing • Optimize the tactics objectives • Review the tactics • Plan and evaluate • Repeat

KPI’s Measured • Number of

• Awareness • Educational

Product taxonomy helps to develop a product hierarchy that arranges products into categories so that customers can find what they want in the least possible clicks

Once you have the right strategy in place, you can always add some more eCommerce marketing ideas to increase online sales.

• Upsell your products • Reduce abandoned carts • Reward your loyal customers • Ensure post-purchase follow up Use email marketing extensively • Keep generating email subscribers • Improve your email campaigns • Send wish-list reminder emails • Send an offer for abandoned cart emails Go high on • Put product-related videos on YouTube • Influencer marketing • Affiliate marketing • User-generated content (UGC) • Generate word-of-mouth marketing • Set up referral marketing campaigns • Launch search engine marketing campaigns • Set up relevant re-targeting campaigns • Product listing ads By working on some high performing strategies and tactics to help you reach your goals, one can tweak to fit your niche, and you can build the perfect plan for your eCommerce store. ✪ SUNIL NAIR CAN BE REACHED AT sunilsn72@gmail.com 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

43

Creating Your

WELLNESS HOME

We live in a world where man created luxury leisure and wellness experiences at star hotels and resorts, but how much of that do we implement into our home environment where we spend the most precious time of our life?

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ur home is our haven. The place we return to after a long day’s work to rejuvenate, and the space where we spend beautiful moments with our family and ourselves. In the present situation where some of us continue to work from home, our living pads have become our sanctuary, our playground, our office, our place to socialize and find intimacy.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could create the perfect wellness oasis right where you live, for you and your family? Following the well-known wellness wheel model concept, you could easily instill into your home the dimensions of breathing, sensing, drinking and eating, moving, feeling, thinking, self-responsibility, and safety. Below are the eight pointers to follow for each of these:

1. Breathing Studies and statistics state that the pollution inside a house is 2-5 times greater than out-

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Illustration: Pikisuperstar / Freepik

Wellbeing Coach and Consultant

Vyara Tosheva

PRO TALK

side due to the artificial environment we live in and the unhealthy products, equipment, and furniture that fill our homes. Choose natural and organic cleaning materials, say goodbye to the artificial air fresheners, and use natural herbs, essential oils and spices to create that exquisite fragrance and aid your breathing.

2. Sensing and Good Light We function 24/7, and it is vital to adjust the biorhythm towards the circadian light cycle, rising with the sun and resting when dark.

Sadly our modern lifestyle, with all its digital distraction’s affects our metabolic cycle. Invest in multi-tempered lights for your bedroom radiating in orange shades to naturally boost the body’s melatonin levels. Choose a blue light in the morning to help reduce melatonin levels and overcome morning drowsiness.

Choose light colors for your walls and furniture as they reflect the daylight and visually

make the space look much brighter and bigger, especially for your living room/working spaces.

3. Drinking Schedule a lab visit to assess the water quality at your home and use the best filter system available. These can be varieties of models like Brita filter, Kangen water, LifeSource that function on carbon, UV, ceramic, and other filter types. Those can be exchanged or maintained monthly/annually and suit every budget. Water, after all, is the elixir of life.

bands in the entry spaces or back yards so you always get a chance to be active. Practice passive fitness while watching TV sitting on the floor, and engage in some stretching.

4. Feeling and Comfort

8. Self-Responsibility and Safety

To create a home where we feel at home is a demanding but rewarding endeavor. Start by creating corners and spots that are enjoyably comfortable for the eye and body, such as a meditation or a self-reflection space. Avoid too many distractions such as unmade beds, crowded countertops, or TV cords that are clutter to the mind. Separate room spaces such as the active and relaxing one, and don’t place them too close to each other. This creates the right atmosphere for each of them.

As per medical statistics, yearly 21 million accidents are happening at homes. Do invest in guiding lights by the places you are most likely to use during the night - by the kitchen, stairs, and washrooms. Move away all the cleaning chemicals under the sink into a separate shed or storage room created for that purpose. You will eliminate the chemicals’ smell, which is extremely poisonous, and also restrict easy access to kids.

Ensure you take care of all the shoddy wiring and defective electric wires, cracked wire insulation caused by heat, age, bending, and install electric outlets at a fair distance from water sources. Install non-slip mats, grab bars in showers and tubs, and have your home emergency kit always available, handy, and re-stocked.

5. Thinking Bring nature into your home! Mimicking nature, wherever possible within your space, creates a feeling of being outdoors. Place in your living room different kinds of rugs, pillows, and mats in natural patterns or colors, indoor plants, or perhaps set up an aquarium or a water feature to create that perfect environ.

6. Eating How likely you are to eat an apple if it’s in the fridge? Place your healthy and fresh food in the centerpiece or on the kitchen countertops where you will be instantly reaching out rather than forgetting them lying in the fridge.

Clean the chiller regularly and do not use plastic containers as they leach a lot of toxins into the food directly.

7. Moving As per health recommendations, we need to do vigorous physical exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes every day. Implement an active standing desk at your home office.

Fitness rooms are often created in the back yard or somewhere hidden. Do position them in the front area, so you remind yourself to exercise daily and start your day with a simple stretch bar and a yoga mat if that is what you enjoy. Create fun and active zones in your rooms using gym balls for sitting and perhaps install decorative climbing walls or TRX

With simple wellness implementations, everyday tasks are made simpler; your brain works more productively, you become healthier, and create environments that boost joy and happiness.

Evolving wellness-centric designs combine cognitive psychology and neuroscience and are proven to pump out dopamine and create a delightful experience. Wellness homes help you create a sanctuary to nourish your body, mind, and spirit for a well balanced holistic living.

Take some time and create your perfect space today. J

Studies and statistics state that the pollution inside a house is 2-5 times greater than outside due to the artificial environment we live in and all the furniture that fill our homes

VYARA CAN BE REACHED AT info@vybewoman.com

2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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Building a

PRO TALK

HAPPY RELATIONSHIP

Meditation Expert, Energy Healer & Executive Mindset Coach

Kim Shelar

We might know how to fall in love, how to propose, how to see that he or she is the one, how to have the best date night, and there are also tips available on how to lose a guy in 10 days. This month, let’s dive into what it takes to stay happy in a marriage and in love over the years.

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n an online group, a few weeks ago, a girl married for around seven years asked, “Do happy marriages really exist?” and there were over a thousand replies. If I could vaguely categorize the answers, over 80% said happy marriages were just an illusion. The other 20% were more optimistic and yet placed the dependency on having the perfect partner to make the relationship a ‘happy one’.

Some might scoff - Isn’t that an over-optimistic topic? Is it possible to have a ‘perfectly ever after’?

I believe that our outer world is a reflection of our inner world and marriage, or any relationship for that matter, allows people to grow, first as individuals, and then within the relationship- even when it involves walking out, but peacefully.

Here are seven tips to have a happy marriage:

1. Define what a Happy Marriage means to you Happiness is quite subjective and could vastly vary across age groups, cultures, social and economic status. The meaning of happiness changes with travel exposures, friendships made, knowledge gained, and the experiences gathered along the way. Quite honestly, it will evolve over the years for the same individual, depending on the phase they are in.

The biggest problem in a relationship is the lack of awareness of what could potentially make one happy. That leads to a wide range of expectations from the other without even knowing oneself thoroughly. When one has at least a structure to what makes one happy, it can be shared with the partner for their understanding.

Remember Will Smith talking in an interview where he thought that throwing the most star-studded party for Jada Smith would make

her intensely joyful on her birthday, where in reality, noise was everything she despised.

So, know what happiness means and communicate it to your partner.

2. Know your boundaries and find out your partner’s Boundaries are essential in any relationship.

When in love especially, we often forget to draw that invisible yet delicate line. Boundaries are often misunderstood as distance, but in reality, the most respectful relationships have healthy boundaries. Khalid Gibran’s version of relationships so beautifully describes this, “Let there be spaces in your togetherness; fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.”

3. Discuss your Values One major cause of difference is the gap in the value systems. Say one person believes that raising one’s voice to make a point is required (maybe that’s how they were brought up) and the other believes that conversations can be and should be more civil, irrespective of the topic of disagreement, no matter how tiny or trivial. THIS difference of value could potentially create a bigger gap than the disagreement itself.

4. Heal yourselves individually As humans, we have resorted to defense mechanisms to cope with hurtful situations life throws at us. When one is unhealed, they tend to project it on the person they love-- the adage that we hurt the people we love, holding true here.

While that is not to be accepted as a rule, it is what happens when both partners are unhealed or even when one is unhealed, as that would put the entire brunt on one partner to maintain the sanctity when the other lets off steam. Doable for a short period but definitely not manageable for a lifetime.

5. Schedule time together Life will be unpredictable, but having guidelines can help one navigate through it. Most relationships, after certain years blend every single aspect together. Date time is now with friends or kids, family time is with colleagues, dinner table conversations include budget talks and by the end of it, either one or both partners feel stressed.

Allot segments to life and then create days or dates to meet these segments specifically. It won’t always go exactly as planned, but will at least direct one’s attention to the importance of planning.

In couple-therapies, the women often complain that they don’t spend time together, which confuses the men.

They site examples of a family outing, office parties, grocery shopping, etc. Clearly then, it’s not an issue of time but of allotted time for specific segments.

6. Grow together This I have personally found to be a big turnon for long term relationships. Supporting each other’s growth is a big boost, a constant foreplay and aphrodisiac to any relation. When relationships are strained, the one common thread is a lack of support when either partner is having a hard time in life.

Remember, our best friends are those who stand by us in our dark hours. So helping each other climb the ladder is an indisputable requirement for a successful relationship.

7. Meditate, reflect and relax together Reflection is a part of life. We reflected on our grades in school, reflected on our performance in our appraisals at the workplace, we reflect on business success at the end of the year or every quarter; some even do a weekly check-in.

Then why not a reflection for our relationships?

Meditation as a couple has ten-fold benefits.

• It helps relax and align • It aligns both partners in the same frequency and the same zone • It improves communication • Aids healing and ensures constant growth.

Relaxation, of course, does one a world of good for the mind and body, and making time to relax together is as good as it can get for your intimacy too.

So as the world celebrates Valentine’s month, I encourage you to apply at least one of the steps to build your happy relationship.

A happy heart after all let’s you focus better on all the other important aspects that need your attention as an entrepreneur. J

Supporting each other’s growth is a big boost, a constant foreplay and aphrodisiac to any relation

KIM SHELAR CAN BE REACHED AT hello@kimshelar.com 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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COMMUNITY SERVICE

Slum children at the Ramvadi Balbhavan

An ode to a

math-e-magician

From working for over one and a half year without salary, in a quest to explore and understand teaching as a profession, to selflessly devoting hours teaching the underprivileged and passing on her mathematics art to more and more teachers and parents; educator Uma Rale’s journey of igniting minds and transforming lives has been as inspiring and heart-warming as it gets.

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t is rightly said that a teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. Throughout her life, educator Uma Rale has devoted her energies passing on her mathematics skill teaching at schools, preparing children towards excellence apart from brightening the lives of children from underprivileged backgrounds by educating them. Uma started on this path in 1977, and since then, there has been no looking back. She reminisces working without salary for one and a half years in her quest to understand teaching as a profession. “Back then, it was quite tough to make a livelihood, as a teacher given the meager salaries.

So I gave it a shot. After my interest towards it was ignited, I decided to take it on full-time, as I discovered that it was my calling,” she shares.

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The joy of educating Uma’s first job was with the Don Bosco School, followed by a stint at St Joseph’s School, thereby leading to the Indian High School, which she served with love for two and a half decades.

“As a teacher, I always had a batch of students from broken homes, and watching them, teaching them led me to this path. However, I realized that even if one wanted to do community work, getting a starting point was not easy,” she says.

Uma’s turning point was when she saw a gathering of over 100 children at Bandstand from the slums with their books and decided to undertake the task of educating them.

“I found a way to join the group and give my time teaching mathematics to them. I would hang my board on the

tree, calling it math-e-magic. Those children were very receptive because they wanted to get out of their current situation. I really enjoyed teaching them,” Uma recollects.

Igniting the spark She reveals Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech inspired her to give in more time towards educating those from the economically-backward backgrounds. “I was very inspired by Modiji who suggested that education should be available to masses by educated people who are willing to volunteer their time,” she asserts.

In 1985, Uma moved to Dubai with her husband, who works in IT service.

While she decided to take a brief break in her career, she remembers children and teachers reaching out to

! Uma online with teachers - planning a revision strategy

# Zip-zap rules of multiplication

# K ids and teachers share a computer at the Malala balbhavan in the slums, learning math online with Uma

her to pass on her mathematics skill and not let them die. “While teaching in school, I brought in Vedic maths methods and thereby brought it down to the level of school children calling it as the Maths ++ program. It was a super hit. We found that children became brighter post the lessons, with their performance in the subject improving drastically. For the first time, children would enjoy maths and come out laughing, shouting, and sparkling, and hence many reached out to me urging me to spread that skill,” shares Uma. The encouragement from fellow-teachers and students gave her the push to publish her guidebook on mathematics. “And when I published my book called Be a Mathematician, I was told to try and translate it into various languages of India... easier said than done,” she remarks.

Furthermore, she emphasizes that what she teaches is not a part of the school syllabus but is complementary to it. She has been teaching the same not just to children but also their parents and other teachers so that the skill keeps passing on and doesn’t die down. “Teach a person to fish instead of providing him with a fish is what they say,” Uma exclaims.

Uplifting moments Currently, Uma has been working in

# Uma answering questions parallelly across 3 centres- Malala, Kalam and Halbe Balbhavan located in Ahmednagar slums

tandem with The Lighthouse Cohort.

This Dubai-based social enterprise creates and enables cohorts for international development and humanitarian aid. Uma is volunteering as part of a project cohort and teaches more than 230 children online. These children attend bi-weekly classes at Snehalay’s slum centers and at the school for kids affected by HIV/AIDS, those rescued from human trafficking, and orphans.

“When you look at student’s faces, and you see that smile and shine in their eyes of accomplishment, you get goosebumps. Fellow teachers say that I have started a movement to create a love for maths as children now come running for the 2 pm maths class. Lighthouse Cohort has helped me reach children from the interior of Maharashtra sitting from Dubai, and it is such a big gift for me. To share all that I know to make Math simple, fun, and easy is my goal. 200+ kids are learning now,” says a beaming Uma. Aishwarya Joshi, Founder, The Lighthouse Cohort speaks of Uma’s noteworthy contribution to the cohort with huge respect, raving about it.“Madam Uma’s presence in our

cohort for re-imagining education during Covid-19 has paved a sustainable path of least resistance not just for learning but also for teaching mathematics against all odds. Her creative, tireless, and one-pointed effort has transformed the stereotype world of grassroots education and created mascots to carry her knowledge forward for the benefit of many in rural India and beyond,” Aishwarya remarks. And with that, Uma wishes that more and more NGOs contact her so that she can reach out to more children and illuminate more lives by spreading the gift of education.

The learning never stops Uma reveals that her father played a significant role in inspiring her to do what she is currently pursuing. “My dad came from a low-economical background as his father died when he was only eight. He studied under arduous circumstances and would still get an impressive 99 out of 100. He would always say, never stop learning,” she exclaims.

And rightly, she reveals that at 70, she continues widening her horizon each day and is now taking classes in graphology. “It is beautiful that your handwriting lets you know what’s troubling you. I wish I knew this earlier, so I could have helped children even more,” she remarks. Laud her contribution and a humble Uma asserts with an air of finality, “And there are thousands more who are doing bigger things and many who have no idea where to begin.” J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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HOBBIES

R&R

CELEB TALK TRAVELS HEALTH EXPLORE RE

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CR E- ‫٭‬

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Guide to

Greatne AMITABH BACHCHAN’S FLAWLESS PUNCTUALITY IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS WHY HE’S ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED AND RESPECTED PROFESSIONALS IN THE WORLD WATERCOLOR PORTRAIT BY DINESH BANDUNI

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ss 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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W R&R / celeb talk

When you spend 51 years in the film industry, you must be doing some things right. Amitabh Bachchan first made a mark with his trademark baritone, narrating Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome in 1969. It’s 2021, possibly the final season of Kaun Banega Crorepati was on air on Indian TVs, and fans still can’t get enough of the septuagenarian superstar and his big, booming voice, now overshadowed by only his growing elegance and charisma. I’ve been a ringside spectator of Mr. Bachchan’s grace and greatness since 2006. My first ever interview with the ‘superstar of the millennium’, a term that was hot and happening back then, was at a launch event for Ram Gopal Varma’s Nishabd (2007). The event was held at a swanky 5-star hotel in Mumbai; it was attended by the film’s entire cast, along with RGV. Being one of my first ever professional assignments, I was hell-bent on reaching at least 15 minutes before time. But it was a herculean task, considering I got to know about the lunch-time event at 11 am. I had to travel from Mumbai’s Lalbaug area to Juhu, a 1-hour 20-minute distance by road, a little more so for a penniless, firsttime reporter like me, who was going to travel through the local trains.

Nevertheless, I huffed and puffed, and by 12.30, I had reached the sprawling Juhu hotel. I was ushered into one of the gigantic ballrooms, decked up with gargantuan posters of Nishabd. I was surprised that the place was full, with a melange of print and TV media. Mr. Bachchan and the other members of the cast and director RGV soon appeared on stage, did the usual jing-bang of poster unveiling et al and the floor was thrown open to questions. I had a ball of a time asking Mr. Bachchan a question about a 64-year-old actor’s confidence

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in romancing an 18-year-old co-star onscreen. The event concluded as fast and as seamlessly as it had begun.

An apprehensive cub reporter like me had a great morale boost about the film industry and its ultra-professional ways. Little did I know that professionalism and punctuality were a rare phenomenon.

A week later, I was assigned the task of covering a film shoot at Kamalistan Studio, where a colorful Holi song was going to be picturized with a senior superstar and his newer costars. The director of the film was one of the Hindi cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers as well. My call time was 1 pm, so I huffed and puffed again and reached the sets by 12.30. An hour later, I had been introduced to every star manager and publicist on the set, a handful of journalists and then most crew members and technicians, too. The actors and the director were nowhere in sight. Two hours later, the stars showed up, and shooting began. I was slated to conduct short

interviews with the superstar and the new actors. I was able to complete my tasks by 5 pm. Definitely not as smooth as the Nishabd launch. I thought to myself, that was an event, this was a movie set, the chaos is totally different. A few days later, I was to cover the launch of another film, an event that was again being hosted at a swanky 5-Star in Juhu, and the event began an hour late because the actors, all newcomers, hadn’t arrived. The air of professionalism that I had taken for granted was slowly vanishing. When I discussed my conundrum with my seniors at Screen, a weekly newspaper then published by The Indian Express Group, I was given a lunch-time class by my colleagues and then-editor Bhawana Somaaya that Mr. Bachchan and his time etiquettes were cut from a different cloth. Suffice to say, I now had a renewed perspective on both the standard time modules of the film industry and Amitabh Bachchan, too.

Time and again, I was told of stories about Mr. Bachchan’s punctu-

FOR THE UNINITIATED, MR. BACHCHAN HAS A FLAWLESS TRACK RECORD OF ALWAYS ARRIVING A FEW MINUTES BEFORE THE TIME THAT YOU ASSIGN TO HIM FOR A MOVIE-DO, FILM SHOOT, OR JUST ABOUT ANY EVENT POSSIBLE ality, how even when he was a rank newcomer, he used to be the first person at the studios. There were times when he used to unlock the gates, having reached even before the security guards. I took these urban legends as part of the industry’s tall tales. We are, after all, in the business of over-the-top storytelling. But my first-hand tryst with Mr. Bachchan’s professionalism and punctuality left me listless in 2007. One of my early dial-a-name contacts in the film industry during those days was actor and producer Saahil Chadha.

Saahil sir had produced and acted in a film called Thodi Life Thoda Magic (2008), and he had insisted that I be present at the launch of his movie. By then, I was already a few months old in the biz and getting acquainted with the idea of being fashionably late.

Also, on the same day as the event, I had an interview with a Bollywood superstar at his Juhu bungalow. I was sure I’d miss Saahil sir’s launch event. But, as fate would have it, my

interview with the A-list actor got pushed to the next day, after waiting at the bungalow for just 45 minutes.

Having been relieved well-before time, I decided to make a beeline to the Thodi Life Thoda Magic event.

Back in 2003, Saahil sir had played one of Mr. Bachchan’s sons in the now-cult hit Baaghban. He had a great equation with Bachchan sir, and understandably, he had the Shehenshah of Bollywood as the guest of honor to unveil the first poster of his maiden production. So, here I was, standing at a stone’s throw from the movie launch event, and I noticed the event time was 7.30 pm, and my wrist watch showed me the time was 7.10 pm.

I knew the event would not start before 8 pm but, I relented and walked to the venue. I reached the venue at 7.15, and as expected, the place was still being set up by the event crew, with a few carpenters still nailing the film’s art work on the stage. There were dozens of white chairs in front of the stage and not a single soul to occupy them. I took the corner chair on the row farthest from the stage. I looked around to spot a public relations representative but, even they’d not arrived yet. It was, by all means, too early. A few minutes passed; I checked my wristwatch, which showed the time as 7.25 pm, and someone wearing all black walked past my chair through the aisle at a brisk pace. I could hardly look up and spot who it was. But a few seconds later, I saw Amitabh Bachchan taking a seat in the front row. The carpenters were still hammering; the sound technician was still installing his equipment and microphones. The cartons with mineral water bottles for the guests were yet being opened. The PR, the journalists, the event managers, the cast and crew of the movie were not there, but Mr. Bachchan was. He sat in his chair, patiently and gracefully.

For the uninitiated, Mr. Bachchan has a flawless track record of always arriving a few minutes before the time that you assign to him for a movie-do, film shoot, or just about any event possible. Many years later, I had to interview him for the movie Aarakshan

(2011) for Filmfare magazine. Our collective call time was 12.30 pm; I reached at 12.40 and got a schooling from Mr. Bachchan’s manager that he’d been waiting for me for 15 minutes. On another occasion, I was coordinating at the Filmfare Awards for a segment where Mr. Bachchan had to present an award on stage. His call time was 10.30 pm. On a night when every single guest, even the award nominees, were all at least 30 minutes late, because of a massive traffic jam near the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Mr. Bachchan arrived at the venue 5 minutes before time. Coming back to 2007, at the Thodi Life Thoda Magic event, at somewhere around 7.40, I saw a bevy of people running into the event venue. I spotted Saahil sir in that group, too. He dashed straight to the front row, and what I could read from the body language, he looked like he apologized profusely to Mr. Bachchan. On his part, Big B assured Saahil sir that everything was fine and that they should start the event ASAP. That’s precisely what happened, and about 20 minutes later, Bachchan sir had left the building.

In the last decade and a half, the film industry and its ways have changed drastically. Most modern stars are punctual, and even when there are delays, it’s hardly ever the star’s doing. But, even at its most professional, the film industry is still not nearly close enough to the precedents of Mr. Bachchan. The big takeaway from his punctuality is the fact that to be successful in any field in life, one must be disciplined. And when you see a legend like Amitabh Bachchan consistently respect time, both his own and that of his peers and colleagues, you understand how important professionalism can be when it comes to success. I strongly believe that no one can achieve the superstardom and respect that Amitabh Bachchan commands in the annals of Indian culture and history. But if we mortals aspire to be like him, the first thing we must learn to respect and honor is time. It is the ultimate quality of gentlemen and entrepreneurs alike. Because when you respect time, it gives you back tenfold. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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R&R / health

There is enough research and evidence that links your gut health to your physical and mental health. This article serves as a guide to the gut microbiome and reasons why it’s so important for your health.

Dt. Geetika Uppal Gold-medalist in Nutritional Science and the founder of ‘Foodmatters by Dt.Geetika Uppal’

Probiotics Probiotics, the live microorganisms naturally present in the intestines, aid in better digestion,

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nutrient absorption and help build immunity. If the gut environment is healthy, the body has a better immune system to fight diseases and infections. Probiotics are commonly found in certain foods and supplements like » Yogurt » Kimchi (pickled » Kefir and fermented » Sauerkraut vegetables) (fermented food » Raw honey made from cabbage) » Fermented » Pickles vegetable » Fermented cheese » Fermented like gouda buttermilk

Prebiotics Prebiotics is the non-digestible part of the food that passes through the gastrointestinal tract undigested until it reaches the colon, where it gets fermented. This process produces fatty acids, which become food for good bacteria present in the gut. In other terms, prebiotics is the food for

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ood health starts in the gut.

Considered relatively ‘simple’ at one time, our digestive tract is home to about 300 to 500 different species of bacteria, and the “gut microbiome” is not only incredibly beneficial, it is also essential for a healthy body.

Having a wide variety of good bacteria in your gut can enhance the immune system function, improve symptoms of depression, help combat obesity, and a host of other benefits, besides keeping the “bad” bacteria in check. These beneficial or ‘good bacteria’ are what we term as ‘Probiotics’.

So then, what are ‘Prebiotics’?

Probiotics and Prebiotics though they sound similar, are very different in their roles in the digestive system. ‘Prebiotics’ is food that the good bacteria feed on. Both of them are equally important and support the body in building and maintaining a healthy colony of bacteria, supporting the digestive tract, and improving digestion.

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consuming food high in sugars and fats increases the growth of harmful bacteria in the gut, which leads to insulin resistance and other health problems. On regularly ‘feeding’ the harmful bacteria, they increase in number to form big colonies affecting health, especially when the good bacteria are relatively low in numbers.

This leads to a higher Body Mass Index, another significant cause of obesity.

While consuming fermented food for its probiotic benefits, one must take care that the products are not pasteurized as the process kills the good bacteria.

Certain foods are rich in both prebiotics and probiotics, such as Kefir, cheese, sauerkraut. These foods are also known as ‘synbiotic’, in which the prebiotic compound selectively favors the growth of probiotics.

How to consume Prebiotics and Probiotics?

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It is advised to take both prebiotics and probiotics regularly in the diet. They can be taken at the same time as well; this maintains a healthy routine. The healthier the gut microbe, the healthier the body is. 25-30 grams is the daily recommended dose for dietary fiber, out of which 15- 20 grams should be the prebiotics. » ½ cup onion has 2 gm fiber and 17% prebiotics » 1 slice wheat bread has 1 gm fiber and 70% prebiotics » 100 gm asparagus gives 2-3 gm of prebiotic fiber » 1 apple gives 2 gm of prebiotic fiber

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ics

probiotics.

Prebiotics are majorly found in plant food sources such as: » Legumes, » Onion beans, peas » Leaks » Banana » Asparagus » Berries » Apple with skin » Oats » Dandelion » Garlic greens

Effect of food on gut microbiota The food you eat plays a vital role in maintaining the gut flora. For example,

Are Probiotic supplements good?

This is a very common query while selecting probiotics. The supplements provide very specific good bacteria to the body, which is beneficial, but not all supplements are of excellent quality or deliver the required quantity of Probiotics as needed. Therefore, it is imperative to read the labels and discuss with your health practitioner before starting any supplements.

Always remember, a healthy gut keeps the body and mind healthy.

Recipe

Brown rice bowls with tofu and broccoli A great combination of flavors, vegetables, prebiotics, and probiotics

--- Ingredients --Boiled brown rice

1 cup

Plain greek yogurt

¼ cup

Fresh orange juice

2 teaspoon

Broccoli

1 cup

Tofu cut into medium slices 250 gram Radish sprouts or any sprouts1 cup Shredded radish

½ cup

Salt as per taste Black pepper

as per taste

White miso paste (optional 1 tbsp soy sauce or tahini) Canola oil

2 tbsp

--- Me t hod - - • Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and stir fry sliced tofu till golden brown. Keep aside.

• In the same pan, add a little more oil and saute broccoli, add water and cook till soft and tender. Add salt and pepper as per taste.

• While broccoli is cooking, whisk together yogurt, orange juice, white miso, salt, and pepper into a smooth paste.

• Place cooked rice in a bowl, top with cooked broccoli, tofu, sprouts, shredded radish. Pour the dressing as desired.

• Serve hot, can also be served with sauerkraut. (please note - while buying readymade sauerkraut, make sure it is in an active form) • Serves 2 with 330 calories per serving. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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R&R / tr avelers’ tales

From chasing pleasure to finding purpose

Shagufta Patel meets a travel junkie who set off on the path to travel in her quest to discover brightly-colored flowers and live her postcard induced fantasies, but found purpose and beauty in the journey instead

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ravel is the only thing that you buy that makes you richer. The sheer experience of it all touches the voyager in ways that can be hard to generalize as each one takes away joys and learning that has an intimate meaning for the exploring soul. And if the trip is an all-expenses-paid one, it is like hitting the gold jar at the end of the rainbow.

What started as a quest to discover her true calling - travel; Misbaah Mansuri, our protagonist for this travel tale, soon discovered that her journeys brought her closer to life, something that she had never imagined as an outcome of her explorations. All she desired was to quit her fulltime job covering news stories for leading Indian publications like Hindustan Times and DNA to find happiness that she could not find in her reporting job.

Misbaah started her career as a journalist and was soon breaking big front-page stories, but the joy was still eluding her. The news reporting stint was followed by a features-writing job with a Beauty Magazine, that is where she got acquainted with the concept of a ‘FAM trip’ which opened the doors of her mind to it. “I promised myself to go on one such trip someday,” expresses Misbaah. However, seven months into the desk job, she recollects hitting the glass ceiling. “I was only 21, and I was already marking out dates on the calendar

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merely waiting for payday. This certainly could not be my motivation,” she recalls.

Born to travel

Misbaah’s thoughts back then were that “life is a fun trip and traveling is living it twice”. The following month, she quit her job and spent time reading and pitching to Editors as touring full-time beckoned her as the only salvation she had. “A sense of panic arose after the quitting, but the fear was short-lived as I assured myself that this could be a journey of a lifetime and that I’ll recreate myself through this.”

Moreover, unlike other situations wherein the families aren’t very supportive, her mother encouraged the girl to take the plunge and go with what she wanted to do, no matter the trials and tribulations that she might have to go through. “That was just the backing I needed to keep my spirits up,” she recollects.

After some days of trials and errors, her pitch on a Hollywood-themed resort in Goa got picked up and since then there has been no looking back for Misbaah.

Clearly elated, she goes on to reveal that what stood out starkly once she started embarking on those journeys were the joys of travel that imbibed in her the desire to experience life to the fullest, to be a free soul, and most importantly, the biggest learning: to be fearless, yet cautious. “The euphoric independence I felt with my new life was truly refreshing and intoxicating. It’s an amazing feeling to let go and find true freedom with the act of exploring,” she says.

“Travel shows you that borders aren’t real; they only exist in people’s minds. It has taught me to accept and appreciate the differences that make up this world”

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2 1. Misbaah enjoying a spread laid out for her 2. Feasting on a delicious halwai breakfast at the ravishing Suryagarh in Jaisalmer 3. Udaipur Palace

Travel has changed her into a person who feels a sense of freedom, being in charge of her own pace, detours, and destinations.

The door to dreams and destinations

What’s interesting is the way her travels offered her lessons in resilience during the Covid-led lockdown. “Life’s uncertainty felt more vivid than ever during this pandemic. It left me feeling lost in my own home. What a feeling!” she shudders. The thought that consumed her was how would she survive this disorientation and dislocation? “I was not sure whether I’m going to get through these days by pulling out my board games or trying my hands on different variations of Dalgona Coffee, although I was doing a lot of it,” she quips.

4. Misbaah striking a pose in magical Udaipur 5. The avid traveller enjoying a dip in her private pool villa at U Tropicana, Alibaug

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6. Challenging her limits with a military-themed obstacle course at Della Data Resort, Lonavala 7. Waking up to the sweeping views of the Chao Phraya river in Thailand 8. The traveller soaking in the aura of her stay at W Hotel, Bangkok 9. Cologne Cathedral, Germany

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What has sustained her during these challenging times, Misbaah reveals, is noticing the small parts of her life that she loves, and those were from her travels around the world. “My travel experiences held a mirror to my fears and taught me that in most cases the only thing that you have to fear is fear itself,” she said nodding her head with a sense of wise awareness.

The travel writer acknowledges that scary things have happened in the past, but that doesn’t dissuade her from exploring. She narrated one such experience when she was staying at a treehouse at a newly launched property in Goa when in the middle of the night, she could hear treehouses nearby torn apart and ripped to shreds by a cyclone that had hit the region. “All I could see for miles were smashed up tents and could see the sky shudder and light up ferociously, and the trees swaying uncontrollably.

This was heightened by the incessant thunders and the sound of glass windows breaking in close vicinity. I was obviously terrified but luckily, it didn’t turn out to be a major disaster.

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The efficient army of staff at the resort managed to help us get out, and the next hotel that I had booked a stay at- the Taj Exotica did their bit by helping me with an earlier check-in,” says Misbaah feeling gratitude for having escaped the ordeal safe and unharmed.

Another incident she tells us about is the serious malfunction while on a plane to Phuket. “There again, with the help of others, I made it through. And what this taught me was: when we fixate on the scary things out there, it takes the spotlight off the people bettering the world.

From daredevil tuk-tuk drivers to pickpockets in crowded squares, I’ve seen it all. And I learned that much like the Covid crisis, when you learn to take reasonable precautions, things usually turn out okay. I trusted, and more often than not, I made it,” Misbaah smiles at her insights. “Spending so much time at various airports and public places, I, in fact, started the sanitization and distancing precautions almost three years back. Now they’re old hacks,” she wisecracks.

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The road to discovery

The wanderlust addict observes that her solo travels have been one of the best teachers and gave her a lot of strength to survive through the cloud of uncertainty that the recent scenario brought in. “I have guzzled that traveling by myself can be daunting but empowering: something that helps me sail through the self-isolation phase.

I took self-propelled journeys with my travels and came out with this: glowing inside out.

From a moving cabana massage in the rain at Koh Samui to an incredible Tibetan healing session at Ananda in the Himalayas, I’ve had some of the best travel experiences all by myself,” she beams. She states that they have changed her into a person who feels a sense of freedom, being in charge of her own pace, detours, and destinations.

According to her, travel makes one take note of the joy in small things: seeing small rivers gush down milky white stone steps or biblical monsoon rains washing away the landscape. “If at all, the inside of me feels undefined and anxious, I pause at the outside world

“Life’s uncertainty felt more vivid than ever during this pandemic. It left me feeling lost in my own home. What a feeling!”

you show the picture to someone else, they might not always understand its significance as they weren’t there physically.

While it’s great to capture a few moments, the camera is best put down, which she urges all holiday goers. One must come back with stories to tell, not stuff to show, is her premise.

The thing about borders

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for a moment and remember how much I love the fog and the snow. It makes me think of my first experience with snow in Gstaad when I was smiling, radiating happiness. It taught me that there’s value in the small pleasures. Without the bitter cold, there wouldn’t be an opportunity to appreciate the warmth on your skin,” she shares with that distant look in her eyes as though standing in the snow again.

Furthermore, Misbaah loves how travel gives her access to lesser-known details and appreciates these. “Travelling removes me from the known and forces me to be more attentive. When home, I’m the one who snoozes and loses, but on my trips, I am the same person who wakes up at 4 am to see how the sky changes its colors. I love how it has opened my eyes to small, ordinary things of life- things that are undervalued but have great significance,” she says unmistakably bewitched.

Slow and meaningful holidays Misbaah recollects how she would previously travel with

must-dos lists and went at a feverish pace to cram in as much as possible in the start but later learned to appreciate the art of slow traveling. “The over planning and over-cramming made for constant stimulation and highs, but I often ended up feeling like it was more work than pleasure. So now I ensure that I only stick to one or two things per day and spend the rest of the day meandering about, returning to restaurants, and at times also enjoying a nice nap.

And this brings me to other things I’ve learned – never feel guilty about spending a whole day lolling about in bed in the hotel and doing something that you enjoy ensuring that you are living in the moment.”

Interestingly, she also advises taking fewer photos. “I know this may seem counterintuitive to some but it’s one of the best pieces of advice I can give to anyone. We see it all the time; individuals with their Canons and Nikons snapping away furiously. I found that it’s more important to take it all in, be in the moment, and not worry about taking the perfect picture.” She reasons that when

10. Misbaah lounging by the pool savouring some bites whipped up by the chefs at Four Seasons, Mumbai 11. Eiffel Tower, Paris 12. Checking out a church in Switzerland

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Furthermore, the travel diehard notes that one of the most incredible things about travel is that it teaches you to be patient and adaptive to situations around you. “Travel shows you that borders aren’t real; they only exist in people’s minds. It has taught me to accept and appreciate the differences that make up this world. Through these travels, I feel reborn and have been able to shed all the insecurities and worries I had about people and judgments,” Misbaah reflects.

“It’s amazing how every little etch left on my soul by my travel experiences makes me breathe, believe and look forward to creating more memories. The kind of ones that give me a sense of being lost in a delirious soup of cosmic consciousness and give me comfort even during such turbulent times,” she expresses. When she started, there was no knowing where she was going. Travel has evidently given her a clear direction and purpose, as she quietly reflects, “I had to travel far and wide to meet myself.”

Misbaah shares that she cannot wait for her next trip post the Covid-led hiatus. “I did have a trip to Goa and Jaisalmer recently, but since I’m a winter baby, I’m looking forward to a trip to Finland in March. But this time, I swear I will live every moment (even more) and admire the snow flakes, the sun and sea, a bit longer than I ever did before,” the avid wanderer resolves. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

59

R&R / hobbies

Bring a

Garden Home The reasons for indoor gardening, explains Arundhati Surendran, can be purely for enjoyment, strictly practical, or maybe a little of both. Whatever your reason, this is one activity that brings you the pleasure of

watching nature bloom in your closed room

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or those who have had to stay at home during the pandemic, picking up new things to pass the time other than mindlessly scrolling on social media may have led you to the wonders of indoor gardening. Or perhaps you were a fan of it previously – but for those who have not explored this avenue, let me enlighten you of the most high-stakes yet low-pressure activity of all time.

There isn’t much to explain regarding the premise of it – the term ‘indoor gardening’ is ample information – but there are many nuances to the hobby,

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and depending on what you want out of it, you can better your own experiences with plants.

Perhaps you want to upgrade your surroundings – adding a bit of green and life to your house is only ever a good thing! The best option for a low effort sprucing is to go for succulents – plants with thick leaves that store water in jelly or sap. They barely need any watering, and a quick search is enough to figure out the best succulent to suit your house’s conditions.

You could also liven up your balcony or terrace with colourful flowers – which,

while may take more effort, are well worth it in the end. Flowers like amaryllis and orchids have inspired designers and artists for generations and for good reason. For blooming plants, it’s better to go for plants that have already matured rather than seeds, since most flowering plants will take a while to grow into their splendour. Make sure to let them shine in the sun and give them the care that they need – they are working so hard to beautify your home after all!

Another option is to plant a herbal garden – there would be no more reason to eat your spaghetti ungarnished if you grow the garnish yourself!

Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme and other perennial herbs are among the easiest to grow if you are a beginner. Basil and Lemongrass are also well suited for the indoors. If you are careful, a warm sunny window and regular watering would be all you have to do to reap the flavorful rewards.

There is also the option of growing your own fruits and vegetables – but this isn’t for gardeners’ who want it easy.

Homegrown vegetables are more sensitive and require a bit of patient tending, but the satisfaction of eating a meal whose ingredients you have grown yourself isn’t one you can describe in verbal totality. Start with the easy ones like Hot Peppers or Carrots and work your way up. It is tedious and takes time, but that is what ‘fruits of labor’ is all about, isn’t it?

While the concept of indoor gardening sounds easier said than done, there are different options for everybody and based on what suits your tastes, you can pick and choose the best method for you. There is even hydroponics where you can avoid soil altogether!

Regardless of which type of gardening you are interested in, the activity has loads of

Another option is to plant a herbal garden – there would be no more reason to eat your spaghetti ungarnished if you grow the garnish yourself! benefits. The quiet activity forces you into peace and concentration. There are a myriad of studies showing that indoor gardening reduce stress significantly – both physiological and psychological. And though the reasoning behind it hasn’t been determined exactly, having a real plant in your surroundings can increase your concentration and performance for sure.

This is the big reason why Millennials and Gen Zers have a strange but healthy obsession for indoor plants. Many live in urban environments with demanding jobs, busy social lives, where nature is hard to come by. Not only does having an indoor garden encourage nur-

turing, patience and self-care, it also fosters a bond in a world where people can otherwise feel isolated.

One of the other most cited benefits of indoor gardening started with a NASA study in the 1980’s that stated that plants do far more than you think for the air around you.

Of course, there is the obvious conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Oxygen that goes on – but more interesting is the effects of Phytoremediation. The term Phytoremediation is used to define the process of plants essentially leeching out the pollutants from the air. The study was looking for ways to better the air quality in a sealed aircraft and discovered that plant roots and soil absorbed airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

More recent studies have called this into question and said that you would have to have a large number of plants to imitate modern biofilters, but the plants still do have a significant enough impact to be noticeable. The most effective houseplants in this regard are spider plants, rubber trees, bamboo palms and Boston ferns.

Even if you choose to ignore every scientifically proven health benefit, it is impossible to deny the calming nature of having noiseless, low effort dependants, and the pure aesthetic value of having more of these green home-mates around. J 2 0 2 1 — F E B R U A R Y — ASPIRE

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R&R / st yle

Watch Your Style is

A watch does not only tell time. It is a reflection of your personality and taste. Hemangi Goud helps you choose the right watch according to your lifestyle and the Image you wish to portray “Everyone looks at your watch and it represents who you are, your values, your personal style.” —Kobe Bryant

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watch is no longer just a device that ticks its hands and tocks time. It is so much more. Not only does it represent your image, it also embodies your reputation and character. It is a statement piece that can amplify the impression you are trying to make. A wristwatch is an attractive, relatively eye-catching timepiece that has the power to dazzle or dampen your outfit. It has the power of lending its charm, pulling together, and completing your overall appearance.

Not just a mechanism that measures the passage of time, watches are an emotion, a tradition, an heirloom, sometimes a legacy passed down within families from generation to generation. Can one forget the reputed Jorg Gray wristwatch which President Obama wore in 2008 while taking his oath for office? The chronograph timepiece was presented to then-Senator Obama in 2007 by his Secret Service troop, as a gift for his 46th birthday. It’s clear then that a watch doesn’t just tell time; it creates history.

Each feature of a watch tells a story.

Let’s unearth whether your watch is making an impact in building your image and enhancing your appearance, what it says about you, and where can you wear it?

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Watches for Women Versace Palazzo Empire Black The watch expresses: The Medusa head – the famous Versace emblem, and the Greek key pattern along the dial’s edge imply Italian Luxury, making it a desirable possession.

The round black dial with spokes radiating out from the center denotes expansiveness. The sapphire crystal covering represents a wearer with tough robust power.

Not glass, the crystal is a specialized material that is significantly expensive to make and hence gives a lavish air to the hands it adorns.

A leather strap makes the watch more ‘everyday’. The simple and elegant black leather strap latched on with the golden lug lends it an informal yet sophisticated classic feel.

How to wear it: Like the Little Black Dress and a Black Blazer is a staple in every

woman’s wardrobe, a black leather watch is in her accessories box.

This piece can be worn on many occasions, be it for a formal business event or an informal time out with friends.

Styling Tip: The leather strap and the metal used in the watch should be coordinated with the footwear, purse and its handles, and other embellishments in the outfit.

Aigner Bergamo Green The watch expresses:

How to wear it:

With its distinct horseshoe design and detailing, an AIGNER ladies’ watch reflects its owner’s deep sense of exclusivity and confidence. It is crafted for women who understand fashion as a statement of vogue and individuality.

What makes it a piece dé resistance is its deep emerald green color, which is symbolic of balance and harmony. Seen as a color of luck, freshness, and growth, it promotes a sense of calmness, whether it’s being expressed in nature or by ourselves.

With its emerald color and unique dial shape, this watch is a statement piece for sure. Apt to wear at weddings, parties, informal and casual gatherings.

Styling Tip: Use any hue of green in your outfit, and it will balance your dress, especially if you don’t want the watch to be the focal point in your ensemble. When coordinated with neutrals like white, beige, nude, greys, the watch draws attention, adding a burst of intense color to a garment that needs some uplifting.

Michael Kors Access Gen 4 Two-Tone The watch expresses: Rose gold holds the energy of love, grace, and elegance.

Whereas silver conveys innovation, dignity, and controlled responsible sophistication.

The silver stainless-steel strap has an aura of weldability yet sturdiness and gives the wearer an unbeatable strong look, softened by the smooth round dial.

The ring of tiny diamonds at the edge and the inside, with the little heart lends it that dainty grace, and the heart-line adds an element of liveliness.

The grainy grey dial with what looks like stars in a galaxy adds a sparkling charm. The date feature on the dial is perfect for

the woman who is conscious of her day being used well.

How to wear it: The watch is big and sporty and also has a dash of brilliance and femininity that makes it apt for a chic casual, semi-formal, or informal occasions.

Styling Tip: This two-toned watch is a good choice as it complements all skin types. The rose gold, silver steel, and the studded diamonds gives you more options to play around with, combining it with other additions in the attire such as shoes, handbags, and eyeglasses.

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Watches for Men TANK LOUIS CARTIER WATCH The watch expresses: “Les Must de Cartier” was the very first slogan used by Cartier and speaks for itself. Simply meaning - Cartier, is a must!

The silver dial with bluedsteel sword-shaped hands and Roman numbers represents the Roman spirit depicting wealth, pride, and territorial expansion, which was the center of the Roman society.

The 18K rose gold strap designed more like a bracelet, and the gold casing with the beaded crown set with a sapphire cabochon, screams opulence from every angle.

The sharp, straight, and chiseled look gives one the aura of a true leader ready to make a million-dollar deal.

How to wear it: An heirloom piece, it is undoubtedly made for formal and the all so important black-tie events.

Styling Tips: Style in itself. Wear it with your matched suit; to add an extra ounce of chutzpah.

Tissot tradition powermatic open heart The watch expresses: Tissot, first started in 1853, proudly displayed on the watch’s face, indicating it to have a reputation in the market. Shows reliability of the wearer too. The silver dial with charming detailing in a simple round rose-gold casing with indexed numbers sends a message of warmth, simplicity, and organized determination.

The open heart at the top, which displays the watch’s mechanism (heartbeat), is symbolic of an unbiased, open, and dignified compassion. The embossed strap lends the piece a bit of spunk and boldness.

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Hugo Boss Navigator Blue The watch expresses: This chronograph watch finished in tonal blue ion-plated stainless steel, with 30 minute counter and 24-hour subdials, is for the man who does not fear to experiment with fashion and trends.

The mesh strap gives it a designer look and feel, along with the tenacity that a mesh is made to withstand; this watch is a stylish way of adding color into your wardrobe.

It powerfully communicates a dare-to-try attitude, an outgoing, multi-tasking, adventurous and free-spirited persona.

How to wear it:

How to wear it:

A watch that is suitable for everyday wear, it goes best with semi-formals and semi-casual styles.

Goes well with business formals, semi-formals, and semi-casuals.

Styling Tips: Team it with a brown leather belt and brown leather shoes for a neat, complete look.

Styling Tip: Match all your metals (pen, shoe and belt buckles, tiepins, and cufflinks) for that sleek easy on the eye well-coordinated look.

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