A Pose By Any Other Name

Dress in all your finery, grab a guy who can work a turban, park your tushy on a velvet upholstered high back chair and smile the same smile for about three to four hours. If you don’t have the time, inclination or velvet throne to pose for an oil painting, send your photograph to Your Portrait and they’ll get an artist to do you on canvas (oil or acrylic).

Recently started by Tripti Kedia, ex broadcast journalist with Bloomberg UTV, this venture hopes to revive a dying technique and add a little art to your room. Kedia works with a bunch of struggling artists in the city to convert photographs of everything from babies and yachts to celebrities and couples into paintings. While the pictures on Your Portrait’s homepage are a little, how do we put this delicately, garish, their technique seems sound. And since the subject will be you, pretty reader, we’re sure it will turn out great.

After thought: Didn’t Churchgate bar Valhalla shut down recently? Wonder what they did with that velvet throne.

Getting there: www.yourportrait.in, visit the Facebook page here, prices start at Rs 5,000. Order oils in advance (3-4 weeks) or acrylics (7-10 days) if you're in a rush .

Website Woes

We’ve all heard the horror stories: websites that take a year to build instead of the promised two months; tech guys who fall off the planet halfway through the project; overwhelming bills attached to underwhelming artwork; servers that crash on your highest traffic days.

“Where can I get a reliable, creative tech team to build me a website without breaking the bank?” is a question we get asked more than any other. There are very few good answers. It’s no wonder most small businesses just stick to a Facebook fan page.

Google is God?

But wait, now there’s one more option, and like most things magical, it comes from Google: check out India Get Your Business Online (www.indiagetonline.in), a brand new initiative by the internet behemoth in collaboration with HostGator, FISME and ICICI Bank which allows small and medium sized businesses to build their websites for free.

Offered services include an “.in” domain name, hosting service, email addresses, design templates, around the clock technical support and the regular Google tools - AdWords, Analytics, Maps, SEO tips - all without paying a rupee. After the year is up, you get to keep the domain name and get a discount on server hosting by HostGator. It’s enough to make any cash-strapped entrepreneur weak at the knees.

One, Two, Free!

Execution Day

It’s nothing short of road kill, Mumbai’s new dial-a-rickshaw service that seems hell bent on taking a good idea to the morgue. Dubbed Rickshawale, this facility is what Meru is to cabs (or like Ay Auto we wrote about in Pune), a 24/7 number that allows you to book autos that arrive at your doorstep. The advantages, their website will tell you, are many - verified fleet of drivers, same meter fare, no driver refusal, night time pickups.

A friend introduced us to Rickshawale, and like many other Mumbaikars, we were glad to meter. But a Wednesday night call to book an auto for the following morning showed signs of chaos, a teaser to the inconvenience that would ensue. To begin with, the call center was noisy (we’re pretty sure we even heard a crying kid back there) and the gentleman who answered asked for the pick-up address way too many times. The worst part: He seemed to be scribbling it on a piece of paper. No vital information regarding the rickshaw service was volunteered; only when we asked did the Rs 20 convenience charge over and above the meter fare come up. This proves to be quite expensive if you’re travelling a short distance, a friend remarked, commenting that a higher minimum fare would make more sense.  We were supposed to receive an SMS within ten minutes of booking a rickshaw , but no such text came.

What: Brokers Please Excuse, real estate listings portal, visit www.brokerspleaseexcuse.com, no brokerage fee, listing free.

Why: Founded by a bunch of ex-Edelweiss employees, this new website aims to cut out the middle men for both landlords and leasers. Home free! Featuring a simple user interface and efficient customer service, Brokers Please Excuse also offers moving services within Mumbai and housekeeping facilities, where trained cleaners wielding top-of-the-line equipment invade your home every fortnight. We recommend their deep cleaning treatment, just in time for Diwali.

When: You want to do as you (p)lease.

Sex up your career with our free monthly listings of super job openings in the city, from working for an uber cool think tank to landing gigs at newspapers and non-profit organisations.

brown paper bag: bpb is looking for a Junior Editor with 2 – 4 years of editorial experience, a nose for discovery and the ability to work in a fast-paced and fun environment. Also required are editorial interns, creative and eager to learn. Send your resumes into This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Godrej India Culture Lab: A new think tank dedicated to understanding contemporary India better, needs a web and social media intern. College students are welcome to apply, especially from Bachelor of Mass Media programs. You don't need any previous work experience but you should be really good at all aspects of the social web including technology. Send your resume to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it along with a note about why you're interested.

Marissa Bronfman: Soon-to-be-launched boutique social media firm founded by a Huffington Post contributor is looking for interns with extensive experience using social networking sites. Ability to work with Photoshop, InDesign, Wordpress and Tumblr is highly preferred. Stipends will be considered for highly qualified applicants with a great attitude and work ethic - enthusiasm a must! Email your resume and a short note about why you're interested to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Mumbai Mirror: The Mirror is looking for editorial interns! Send resumes to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Youth Incorporated: New youth-centric education and entertainment magazine is looking for an experienced marketing executive. Think you fit the bill? Send you resume to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Save The Children: Save The Children India, a child rights organisation is looking for Chief Operating Officer with an MBA degree and 15 years of relevant experience. Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Two Pack Shakur

That Amruta Walvekar is one mean wrapper. The sound of paper rustling is like music to her ears, and the way she dresses up a gift in it, sheer poetry. Under her newly-launched label Wrapistry, the resident crafts and sells boxes with bows (sheets and cards coming soon), a hand-made guarantee that your gift will never be dissed. She works out of a Pune studio, but ships to Mumbai if you'll pay for the courrier charges. 

In the UK, Amruta studied the art of jazzing up paper under “wrapping gurus” Jane Means and Arona Khan. She then earned an MBA and worked a corporate job, but couldn’t really get her head out of the ribbon drawer. As a result, she recently moved back to Pune to purse presents.

What: Designer rentals from Secret Wardrobe, visit www.secretwardrobe.in, call 09821178804 or 65293067, Rs 2,000 to rent a Wendell Rodricks dress for 24 hours.

Why: Can’t make it in Mumbai? Here’s one way to fake it: Log onto Secret Wardrobe, an online rental hub that leases designer lovelies to the ladies, including Masaba Gupta’s iconic hand print sari, a fun black and white dress by Rahul Mishra, brown sequined sheath by Abraham and Thakore and more that you can try on for size at their Juhu studio. We aren’t big fans of the costume jewellery and sherwanis (men, look for rentals here instead).

When: In the season of Lent.

What: The Wedding Filmer, visit www.theweddingfilmer.co.in or find the Facebook group here, price on request.

Why: Because a picture is worth a thousand words (or a lakh rupees)? It’s your wedding day after all, and you’re the star of the show. Ring celebrity filmmaker Vishal Punjabi (he’s worked with Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee and Akon) and he’ll shoot, edit and script your wedding footage (HD only!) in whichever format you want, from a three minute music video to a thirty minute documentary. Blockbuster!

When: You want to forget-me-knot.

Hot Secretary Service

You have laundry and gym, dentist appointments and salon sojourns, breakfast meetings and lunches with ladies. And all that before 1 pm. Keeping it straight for you is At Your Service, a nifty new company that will manage your day-to-day tasks, from fixing a faulty tap to picking up the kids after school. Easy as pie!

The Jeeves are Turning!

For Rs. 10,000 a month, At Your Service provides you with a Personal Assistant and an office boy who work remotely, and can be reached by phone or email. They’ll take care of all your errands, including  booking tickets to Goa, paying your electricity bill, renewing your passport and even haggling with the sabziwallah. And not just when you’re in Bombay - this mistress of management can organize your life all over the world.

Date Knight

At Your Service is founded by Bharat Ahirwar who formerly ran Big Help, a similar personal logistics company. Rest assured that he won’t raise an eyebrow at your zaniest requests – he’s done it all before, from booking a charter plane to scouting out the best jazz bars in Paris.

So call him, darling. He’s guaranteed to sweep your to-do list off its feet.

Getting there: Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 9819605729, Rs 10,000 a month for a personal assistant.

bpb digs deep into the pockets of restaurateurs and models, techies and Bollywood celebrities to find out what phone applications make them tick. You’d like to tap that (phone), wouldn’t you?

Danish Aslam, film director, Break Ke Baad

Sun Seeker: It shows you the position of the sun in the sky on any date you choose in your current location, including an augmented reality camera view which superimposes the sun (and its projected path) on your surroundings via your camera lens. Very helpful when you're scouting a location for a shoot.
Available for the iPhone here.

Reeder: This is, hands down, my most-used app on the iPhone. It's the best (and the fastest) RSS news feed aggregator available. Basically, it compiles RSS feeds from all the websites that I'm following and puts them in one, easy-to-access place, even if I'm offline.
Available for the iPhone and iPad here.

Camera+: Thanks to this app, the default iPhone camera now rests in the 'unused apps' folder on my iPhone. Very fast load time, it lets you take multiple pictures instantly without waiting for the previous one to save and even has some very competent built-in filters and frames for some basic post-production to jazz up your photos.
Available for the iPhone here.

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Champ Alreja, CEO, Hitplay.in

Pulse: A very useful app that customises daily news according to my preference. I don’t read regular newspapers anymore!
Available for the iPhone, iPad and Android here.

TEDtalks: This one provides inspirational and sometimes, out –of-the-box quotes by entrepreneurs from around the world. It makes for good brain food.
Available for the iPhone and iPad here.

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Nachiket Barve, Fashion designer

Twitter: This app needs no explanation. I use it for all my updates and work promotions.
Available for all mobile software here.

Google: For all that I need to know!
Available for all mobile software here.

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Gauri Devidayal, Restaurateur and Owner, The Table

Conde Nast Traveler: This app keeps me updated with all the traveling information I require. An enabler of fun vacations.
Available for the iPhone and iPad here.

Blackberry Messenger: A very handy tool to connect with personal and professional contacts.

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Clint Fernandes, Make-up artist

AccuWeather: It is the best weather app that I have used. Quite convenient for outdoor photo shoots.
Available for the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry here.

iPad Book Reader: This reader is more user-friendly than the Kindle. It has brought me back to reading.
Available as part of the iPad software.