In pictures: Gaylord's 60th year celebrations

Last Monday passed by quite quickly because I had something really enticing to look forward to. It was the 60th birthday of the iconic Gaylord Restaurant at Churchgate, Mumbai and I had the honour of being on the invite list. Gaylord has a special place in my memories for its pocket-friendly bakery that was a frequent haunt during my college days. Given my penchant for baked goodies, the aroma of Gaylord's muffins and croissants always had me trooping in like a bear on a honey trail. Even now, when I crave a lonesome breakfast or simply a cup of their kona coffee with a good book, I head straight for one of the corner tables and settle down on a wrought iron chair etched with the figures of Victorian ladies (read: when I went cafe-hopping).

Dressed in my prized long skirt and jacket, I headed to Gaylord even before the party had begun. To see this restaurant founded in 1956 by the Kwality Group adorned in strings of multi-coloured lights and golden Chinese lanterns gave me a warm feeling.

We admired the table set up with an assortment of cheese, fruits and crackers to go with the special wine label launched by Gaylord in association with Fratelli to celebrate their 60th anniversary. It can't have been easy surviving in Mumbai's competitive restaurant market and not just catering to, but staying on top of diners' evolving demands.

Old Mr. Malhotra, who is the CEO of Gaylord was a familiar figure, milling around with the guests, smiling and greeting them with unbelievable humility. His quiet pride was evident whenever he stood back, surveying the beautiful fruit of his labours.

I sipped some of the wine launched for the occasion - a sweet Sangiovese with delicious notes of cherry and vanilla. It was a sure crowd pleaser - reminding me of the dessert wines I sampled in Macau. A live band of two kept us regaled until the cutting of the gigantic three-tier cake by the Lamba family, who currently manage the restaurant.

It was 9 PM by the time the Lamba family assembled to cut the cake and I'd nibbled at more than a few delicious starters, not to mention the cheese and fruits. It was wonderful to see their proud and happy faces as they shared in this evening of nostalgia.“Gaylord’s 60th anniversary is an opportunity for us to honour our heritage and commitment to serve best quality food. We believe in keeping up with the times and hence we recently introduced some new items in our menu, such as Dahi Cheese roll, Kulhar ki Tangdi and Cooker da Kukad. It is heart-warming to see the continuous support of our loyal guests who make us a part of their everyday routine”, said Dhruv Lamba, Executive Director, Kwality Group. 

All regular visitors will recognise the face of Noel D'Souza, the General Manager who has been with Gaylord for 30 years. The restaurant just wouldn't feel the same without his smiling face and I was overjoyed to see him perform a song after the cutting of the cake.

Why don't you go pay a visit to Gaylord Restaurant one of these days? To continue the celebration, Gaylord Mumbai is inviting customers all around the city to join the party with festivities planned throughout the month. Along with discounts, visitors will also get surprise giveaways, merchandises, hampers and gift coupons. Gaylord has introduced a special nostalgic menu bringing back some of the most loved dishes. This menu will include scrumptious delights like Crispy Mutton Samosas, Tava Kheema Kalegi, Vegetable Parisienne and more.

GAIL Indian Speedstar: Athletics as CSR

Courtesy: http://www.gailindianspeedstar.org/

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is a state mandate today and organisations are willing opening their purse strings for social causes. After all, not only does it assuage their conscience, it also allows them and their employees to make a meaningful contribution to society. GAIL, India's largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company has embarked on a grassroots athletics program GAIL-Indian Speedstar which is aimed at unearthing young talent across the length and breadth of India. GAIL (India) Limited and National Yuva Cooperative Society (NYCS), launched a grassroots athletics program GAIL Indian Speedstar on the 22nd of March, 2016 at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi.

GAIL (India) Limited has embarked on a grassroots athletics program GAIL-Indian Speedstar which is aimed at unearthing young talent across the length and breadth of India. GAIL (India) Limited and National Yuva Cooperative Society (NYCS), launched a grassroots athletics program GAIL Indian Speedstar on the 22nd of March, 2016 at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi.

National Yuva Cooperative Society has tied up with Anglian Medal Hunt Company as its Technical Partner for The GAIL Indian Speedstar project. The persisting, epoch-making attempt before - focused grassroots program aims to create a pool of athletes with knack which will possibly bring honor for India in track events at the highest echelon of sporting events - the Olympics 2020/2024.

The reason to launch this program is to identify, select and nurture the hidden talent in athletes. The targeted age group is 11 - 17 years in 100m, 200m and 800m track events across.

Watch Treasa share her winning moment: https://www.facebook.com/GAILIndianSpeedstar/videos/951014715012524/

A panel of eminent sportspersons like PT Usha, Rachita Mistry, Anuradha B iswal & Kavita Raut has been appointed in the selection committee to support selections and guide coaching camps. As members of the selection committee their role would include creating the selection criteria or the GAIL-Indian Speedstar program, and developing the training plan and module for the selected athletes at the National Level.

‘Legendary athlete P.T. Usha launched the initiative alongside the organisers Dr. Ashutosh Karnatak, director (projects), GAIL (India) Ltd; Rajesh Pande, president, National Yuva Cooperative Society Ltd (NYCS) and Maneesh Bahuguna, CEO, Anglian Medal Hunt Company.

District trials were conducted under the watchful eyes of coaches and selectors, appointed by the selection committee. The selection of the athletes was based on talent identification and selection criteria set by the selection committee.

The first State level camp and trial was organized on 27-28th of February in Sawai Maan Singh Stadium, Jaipur where 60 boys and girls participated out of which 4 have qualified for the next level. The state trials were held in Odisha (14 Selection), Delhi (28 Selection), Kerala (28 Selection) &Jharkhand(4 Selection)followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat in the last week  of April.  The shortlisted children from the State trials will then participate in the National camp and selection which is scheduled to be held in May 2016 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi. Shortlisted athletes from state trials will attend an intensive national level camp. At the conclusion of the coaching camp, final trials will be held. Winners will be selected based on the qualification criteria and their potential. The winners will be given extensive training throughout the year. The top 9 athletes will then be provided with a world class coaching for over a period of 5 years with an ultimate objective of one of these athletes to represent India at the Olympics.

Bloggers are the new journalists

Making money out of a blog has always been tricky business. And in reality, in shouldn't be, because brands are actually as eager to leverage bloggers as bloggers are to work with them. What was missing all this while was a bridge that removed all the chaos and confusion and simplified the process of hiring a blogger to post about your latest product or launch.

As a journalist, I know how difficult it is to acquire earned media, especially for product launches. Rather than knocking on the doors of newspapers and magazines till your knuckles get sore, you'd be better off approaching top bloggers with the relevant readership to promote your latest baby. That's where IndiPR comes in.

Indiblogger is already the country's foremost blogging community and it was only a matter of time before it launched a platform dedicated to assisting brands in getting their press releases published by top bloggers in less than 72 hours. IndiPR.com assists digital marketers with a variety of tasks including, but not limited to, SEO, content marketing, generating awareness and gaining much needed conversations around the product, driven by internet users on influencer platforms like blogs.

So how does it work? If you represent a business, you have to upload your press release and the ‘Automated Influencer Targeting Engine’, or ‘AITE’ for short, proceeds to accept applications and automatically shortlists bloggers based on various factors including internal ratings and rankings. Once shortlisted, the influencers do their research and publish their articles. Anoop Johnson, co-founder & director of marketing at IndiBlogger, says, “With a starting budget of just USD 150, a business of any size will be able to get their press releases published by influential bloggers with a few clicks.”

Often, plum assignments go to bloggers who don't even have the requisite reach or quality of content. With IndiPR, such mistakes may be a thing of the past. Karthik DR, Co-founder & Business Head at IndiBlogger says, “The amount of time that people spend in trying to identify and contact influencers is huge. With IndiPR.com, you don't have to worry about any of this as the system just needs your press release. The rest is history!”

The folks at IndiPR have big plans for the future. Once the platform matures, influencers will be able to bag creative assignments, get invitations to attend the trendiest launch events and be privy to the latest news on the planet before the world wakes up to it. Renie Ravin, founder and CEO of IndiBlogger, says, “We believe that this system will help influencers with fresh and new content on their site every day. In a way, you could be writing about the next Google without even realising its immense potential.”

Incidentally, this post you've just finished reading has been made possible by IndiPR. Cool, eh?