How I got introduced to a whole new world of shopping!

You know what? I have always wanted daughters. They are precious and they make you shine and glow like you are in love with life forever. Such are my cute little daughters, Renee and Alisah. They are not my replicas but little individuals who make me a complete woman that I have always wanted to be since childhood. You know, there's a certain charm when you live your life with your daughters. It brings back your memories of being a daughter, little girls who love to dress up, put on a little make up and walk around the house as the family's little princesses.

The same feeling came back when I see Renee and Alisah. My princesses! And when they are a beauty queen's daughters, it is quite evident that they will be looking their best and get dressed up in the prettiest attires and accessories. And, it is not the former beauty queen who's saying it, but their mom, I just shopping for them! No matter what!

Photo Courtesy: childhood-images.blogspot.com

Renee is a grown-up girl now. She knows what looks good on her and what should she wear at different occasions. And the doting elder sister that she is, she sometimes takes me by awe when she suggests what Alisah will wear to look prettier than her. On one of the many occasions that we were having one afternoon before a social gathering which we all were invited to attend, Renee suggested that we shop online to save time and energy. I wasn't that comfortable with the idea because I am not sure about the sizes of the products, the fitting and most importantly, quality of the products. How do I know if they were genuine products from the brands that we choose from? What if the products are not of the best quality? Nothing matters than the safety. I was apprehensive but Renee wasn't. Her confidence and the twinkle in her eyes made me listen and give it a go. And there she ran to get her iPad and give me a feel of online shopping. What followed next was completely unexpected!

Renee logged in to Baggout.com which is a product aggregation and cashback website developed for the crazy online shoppers (read, Renee!). With over 500 online retailers like Myntra, Jovi, Flipkart and many more, this turned out to be a one-stop shopping destination which had so many products from different brands. I was awestruck to see all kinds of products that we needed simply listed out and giving us the opportunity to buy from wherever we felt was good. Some great products and accessories to buy now and save for later buy. Well, Renee had already made a list of her own and I just had to give a assertive nod. With each product, the description was available along with necessary details. We could do a filtering search and find the clothes, shoes, and accessories that we wanted for all three of us. All we needed to do then was to click on buy and fill in our details. These retailers made sure that there's a return policy if the products are not good and fitting properly. To top this experience, a cashback coupon was issued in our names and we got the same refunded in the next 48 hours. I must say, quite impressive!

Photo Courtesy: Getty Images

Renee isn't a beautiful daughter only; her intellect and inner beauty is what makes her a wonderful human being. She introduced me to this impressive website and I am now completely glued to it. Yes, I also have a list of my own now.

Shopping relaxes you and when you can do it so conveniently, it is all the more good. I bet all the new age mothers and women are loving it and it's time, that I introduce my mom to Baggout.com now.

Do share your experiences of shopping through Baggout.com!

~ Sushmita Sen

[This is a work of fiction and an entry for the Baggout.com blog contest]

Optimism

My last post was on how I learnt a big lesson in life to never say never. I have been through many situations where grabbing an opportunity has gifted me with new things in life, new friends and new beginnings as well. It’s never easy to understand what effect an opportunity will have on your present and future and thus, there’s no point debating over whether to take it up or not. The key here is to stay optimistic and experience the whole event with a positive outlook.

This post is on optimism and what role it played and continued to play in life. After completing my Graduation studies in Kolkata, my sister suggested that I move to Mumbai for higher studies and that the city has a better scope of work opportunities in the field of communication. We weighed the pros and cons for a while, worked on the financial issues and debated over a few other things. And finally, I ended up going to Mumbai to pursue my post-graduation studies there. The education system in Kolkata and Mumbai are different. If one follows the traditional method of black board teaching, the other used PowerPoint presentations for each subject. If one believed in giving in hand-written notes, the other mailed us presentations to refer to.

The initial few days were a cultural shock. I have grown up studying in the traditional method where, classes and teachers were all about taking notes, memorising them for the exams and write pages and pages of answers. And here I was, referring to presentations to understand concepts, given a free way to refer to any book I want on the concept and prepare presentations on them. Now, our assignments were mostly presentations and interactions and not written tests. It was difficult to give presentations where you cannot just keep saying what you memorised last night. My initial presentations went wrong on many factors: I passed the allotted time limit, I was not clear in explain what I wrote in the presentation, my body language lacked confidence and when it came to interacting with the audience, I failed. These all affected my grades and after a few assignments, I started all my motivation. There wasn’t any positivity in my mind and lacked confidence every now and then.

The miracle that changed my ‘this’ frame of mind, was when a professor called to check if I required any help. He exactly understood what I was going through and suggested a solution. That I should not take these assignments as only ways of scoring marks but as a process of learning. That I should observe why some of the students are always carrying away the brownie points and how they appeal to the audience to listen to them. It won’t help if I starting losing confidence but it will definitely bring about a change if I start being optimistic about these opportunities of self-improvement and development. Confidence comes when you are optimistic about a situation and I had to realise that. True to his words, it worked. I realised that more than explaining the concept, I needed to interact about the concept; I need not spell out every word but explain the concept with its main points only. This paved the way for a new beginning in my life where interacting became easier, confidence was re-built and optimism never left the inner self.

Good or bad, things will be the way they are. The only thing that we are capable of doing is work hoping that it gives the best results.

I am linking this post to A to Z Challenge #Day 15 for alphabet O.

Healthcare Communications

In some of my earlier posts, you must’ve noticed that I have mentioned my career details. I have a Master’s Degree in Communication and Journalism from one of India’s most reputed universities and have been working in the same field till date. I started my career was a writer for an online portal that specialized in healthcare, followed by authoring editorials for a reputed business magazine on retail industry for a leading business magazine group. The third stop of my career was at a reputed healthcare provider company to manage their external and internal communications and now, my role is that of a communications manager for a leading MNC’s healthcare vertical.

Yes. By far, I have mostly worked in the sphere of healthcare and occasionally dabbling in other zones with additional assignments. Although as a child I wanted to become a doctor mainly for the respect that they get for treating people, the same never materialized professionally. But somehow, the urge to work for the healthcare remained within and the secret desire got its approval from God, I guess. Starting from the first job till the one that I am doing now, my involvement with healthcare has been through knowledge sharing.

Initially, reading and writing about healthcare seemed tough and definitely scary. Diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol, calorie management, everything took a toll on my mind and I suddenly started linking everything with healthcare. Of course, my clients were my mom and the entire elderly generation at home and their only response used to be, you are going crazy! For heaven’s sake, don’t take your work so seriously that you end up being crazy. After a stint of one and half years, I took a detour and wrote on retail industry and business. It was then that I realized, whatever I read and learnt in my first job had increased my knowledge on healthcare, made me sane and helped me take informed decisions.

Healthcare communications is a niche genre. It is not only about what or when to eat, how much to exercise or how to avoid getting sick. It is about sharing the core and basic information and logic behind each and every action regarding your health. It is an absolute necessity that we understand our body type and what works on it the best. It is a fact that our health is the most ignored thing and it certainly deserves to be taken care of properly.

Keeping in mind the evolution in the mind-set of the people today, messages regarding healthcare are not communicated in a difficult and scary way. The content today is more reader friendly with information shared in customized manner. There are dedicated web portals for pregnant ladies, new mothers and toddlers, heart or diabetes. You can look for information that you need and stay aware.

If you haven’t started bothering about your health and do not realize the importance of taking care of it, it is high time now. For health is truly the most precious wealth that one can possess.

I am linking this post to A to Z Challenge #Day 8 for alphabet H.