Letters From Santa – Get a Personalized Letter From Santa to your Child

Recently I came across this interesting website, SantaMail.org. This was started by Byron Reese (age 37). The company sells personalized letters from Santa Claus across North America.

Go through the “about us” page in their website, the letters will be postmarked from North Pole, Alaska, to give them an authentic feeling.

Byron Reese sold 10,000 letters in his first year in business (i.e. 2001). His sales increased subsequently every year and he still looked for ways to expand his offering. He introduced birthday cards from Santa as well which can be ordered by parents for their children. The sales reached $1 million in 2005.

The key to Byron’s success is his organization. After realizing that he and his staff didn’t want to pull the marathon 36-hour shifts they did the first year, he looked to outside vendors to help him with the yearly rush. He also deals with any problems as soon as the rush is over, and then starts planning for the next year. By February, he’s up and running. “The temptation is to not start working until you get close to that season, and we’ve made that mistake in the past,” says Byron. “Things always take a lot longer than you think they’re going to take. We find it much better to work steadily.”

“When I was a child, my parents would give us letters from Santa. My mom died three and a half years ago, and I wanted to do this to honor her,” says Byron. “I entered it with low expectations, but we sold 10,000 the first year.” The magic of Christmas is a serious trust to Byron, so he implemented a rigorous quality-control program that has multiple people (his elves) checking each letter, ensuring complete accuracy on each one, as well as on a birthday card from Santa and the post-Christmas ‘Greetings from Hawaii’ postcard from a tanned, beach-bound Santa.

Byron’s childhood Christmas memories include installing 200 strings of Christmas lights and decorating dozens of Christmas cookies each year. He loves the look on the postman’s face when he goes to buy 40,000 Santa stamps at the post office each Christmas.

Courtesy: Dmitri Davydov

Sub-prime crisis simplified!

The sub-prime crisis in US has been the buzz word in media from past few months. Lot of my friends started asking what this is all about and here is the simplified version of the entire episode.

First thing you have to do is, forget about the terminology used in many news articles which will only confuse you.
The story goes like this…
In US of A there is something called as credit score for a person which is basically calculated from the past records of a person’s credit files, simply put the score tells us how well a person is able to pay his debts in time and can banks trust him to give a loan.
A person having a bad credit score is not eligible even for availing banking services, forget about getting a loan. So such people with low credit scores if borrows from a bank are called Sub-prime borrowers.

The last two lines above are contradicting each other. The question arises why would bank give loans to such people with low credit scores? The answer is simple, since there is a risk involved in giving loan to such people; banks charge higher interest and make higher returns. Now comes the interesting part, the boom of lending money to sub-prime borrowers. There were many investors who are willing to lend cash but the traditional borrowers are not having a need of cash. So investors had to look for new markets to invest in.

Seeing this opportunity, the banks gave money to sub-prime borrowers as mortgage loans (mortgage loans means taking loan on a property owned, if the loan is not repaid then the property will be taken by bank) and then these loans were bundled and derivative instruments called Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) (one form of Asset Backed Securities) were issued. Investors bought these securities and thus indirectly provided the money required for sub-prime lending. Well, to put it simple, if the borrowers pay the interest on the loan regularly both banks and these investors who bought CDOs will profit. Lot of multinational banks and investment banks have bought these CDOs.

The sub-prime crisis occurred when these sub-prime borrowers defaulted (unable to pay) in their mortgage loans. This affected the returns on CDOs. On top of this the banks have issued home equity loans through which these borrowers could take second loan on the same mortgage. These added to their (borrowers) inability to payback the money. Lot of borrowers said they can’t pay back the loan and others have started panic selling of their properties due to which the prices have come down drastically. So other borrowers who thought of selling their properties to pay back loan were affected because the property prices have gone down. More and more people defaulted.

The CDOs were not performing well because of borrowers defaulting, so all the investors want their money back so they started selling these securities, forced selling of these securities reduced the price of these securities drastically. Investors who are holding these securities incurred huge losses. The concept is simple, as an investor I have bought something (CDOs) for 1 crore (say) today its value is 1 lakh, I am in huge loss, and I have to reflect this loss in my accounts. This was the main reason why many investment banks have filed for bankruptcy and why Bear Stearns was acquired by J P Morgan Chase for such a low price and why UBS or ICICI have declared huge losses in their accounts.

How Indian Stock market was affected?

The foreign investors who are having CDOs and who also invested in Indian stocks sold their stocks. The selling pressure melted down the stock markets; IT companies lost few of their clients who belong to US mortgage industry. Not only Indian markets, many other markets were affected across the globe in a similar fashion.

Bazar Vs Bazaar

Kishore Biyani, MD, Future Group has locked horns with Anil Ambani, Chairman Reliance Adag over an attempt of the later to register Reliance Big Bazar with India’s trademark authority. Biyani considers this move by Anil as an attempt to misappropriate India’s best known retail name “Big Bazaar”. It is unusual to fight over such major brand name.

The motive of Reliance Adag to name its retail venture as Reliance Big Bazar is to keep it under one umbrella brand, Reliance Big Entertainment which has Big FM, Big TV etc.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail has around 544 stores across the country, Biyani has 89 Big Bazaars. Now Anil is planning to enter India’s retail market which is estimated to be around $300 billion per annum.

Reliance Big Bazar is for retailing Reliance Adag’s entertainment products and services.

Let’s wait and see who wins the battle!

What your take on this issue?

Fair enough! Sounds good! or No issues!

You can post your comments.

Green phase of coal technology in India

Recently, an agreement was signed between the BHEL and Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation to set up a 125 MW power plant at Vijayawada using IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) technology.

IGCC is considered as the cleanest among the emerging power technologies, it first converts solid coal into a combustible gas, which is then rid of sulphur compounds and other pollutants. The cleaned gas is burnt in a gas turbine to generate electricity. The exhaust gas from the turbine is further used to produce steam to drive a turbine and generate more electricity.

Thermal efficiency puts IGCC above the conventional pulverized coal technology. For every one percentage point rise in thermal efficiency, there would be a reduction of about two to three points in greenhouse gas emissions. These factors will also help IGCC plants qualify for earning carbon credits.

High ash content of Indian coal has been blamed for the higher emission of suspended particulate matter by thermal plants. But IGCC, in comparison with a conventional plant, promises to remove, independent of the coal type, 99 percent of the sulphur compounds, 90 percent of Nox and 35 percent of CO2. It is also low on water consumption. The World Bank estimates that the cost of an IGCC power plant is 10 to 30 percent higher than that of a conventional pulverized coal plant but the additional investment is well worth it.

Through this investment, it is made clear that India’s commitment to clean technology is on par with that of any developed country. The report on country’s integrated energy policy clearly states that coal will play a dominant role in energy production till 2031-32.

In such a scenario IGCC is a step in the right direction and the way forward. Similar efforts along with increased attention to solar and wind power generation will go to improve the environmental performance of the power sector significantly.

Courtesy: The Hindu Editorial

Geometry by Tarantismo

Dance, it is natural, it is learnt and a beautiful paradox that only adds to the beauty of the being we call the human.

This weekend happened to be one of my memorable one’s in bangalore. I happened to watch this dance show on saturday at Alliance Francaise de Bangalore.It was done in a mind blowing fashion. I always wonder what these bachelor degrees in dance teach? I found the answer when i watched this wonderful show put up a professional dancer and her troupe.

Tarantismo

Arati Punawani Sunawala, whose name is now associated with aesthete movements in any form, is a graduate in dance and is known for her expertise in forms like Kathak, Jazz, Indian Contemporary Dance and Belly Dance.
She is known for dexterity in the very fact that she balances the classical and the contemporary forms with a panache that is unequalled.
For the last few years Taranstismo, a dance group that’s been ushered into existence by Arati, has performed annually giving the city visual choreographed treats with themes that have ranged from the earthy to the metaphorical.This year they give us Geometry.

Geometry

“Life is circular, love is triangular. We approach situations from different angles and we all desire the perfect curves!
Geometry is a compilation of dance vignettes named after ordinary shapes portraying different stories, ideas and themes. From marriage to peer pressure, politics to addiction, ‘Geometry’ has a little something for everyone!” the poster states, and if that hasn’t summed it all up, then here’s more from Arati.

“We’ve tried to use geometry as a theme, and even though we might not use it as a form in the presentation, the theme will run all through. Be it the fact that existence is after all a circle of life and death, or that love is often a triangle. A marriage is like a diamond, with sharp edges and connecting lines, which is why the gem is often used to represent the bond, and that addictions are spiral in nature.
Geometry is present in every aspect of our lives and this is what we hope to address through the production.”

Opinion:

The show is very professional and i wonder how Arati convinced these guys n gals to lose their inhibitions and dance.The entire dance was split into 10 different themes, each one is explained by arati prior to its start.The audience are well educated about the module before they perform. The costumes are very bold i must say.The crowd which came to watch are all lovers of dance as an art, they are all mature enough to
understand what it takes to present such a show and encouraged them with clapping at the end of every module and few gave a standing ovation at the end.
I spoke to a couple of performers after the show, i apreciated their efforts in a proper dancing language. It took them 3 months, 2hrs a day to put up this show. The guy i spoke to is an IT professional and he is dancing from past 8 years. The gal is going to scotland to do a bachelors course in dance,it is a 3 year course and she got admit into second year directly.I felt very happy to see her pursue a career in her field of interest, tats her passion!
Most of us are bound to family responsibilities and peer pressure and we are not free to choose our dream career.Well it revoked my passion for dance which was lying dormant from past 18 months.

Let me think what i can do further with this passion!

Courtesy: L Romal M Singh