My last post of 2010...

As the year is coming to an end, I thought I would write a post before we all go off to celebrate and welcome the New Year!!

2010 has been a great year for me (growing up wise) and like every year, I've learnt a lot. It has definitely had its moments - good and bad! I have graduated, turned 21 and started my first official job. Wowza!

I hope that 2011 can be an even better year; a chance for me to discover myself and my passion and to begin this new decade with the aspirations to succeed and create a life for myself now that I have completed University.

I have many things that I wish to do this year, as I am sure you all do and you may have already thought of your New Year Resolutions or will do so at some point in the next 24 hours.

To name a few, I want to skydive in the summer and raise money for a good cause or several - these are yet to be confirmed. I didn't get a chance to do so right after I graduated, but I also plan to do a bit of travelling once my contract with The Trust ends - volunteering in India as well spending time with my family. There is so much that can be learnt whilst travelling. Plus, I haven't actually had much of a break since finishing uni and entering the world of work so I am hoping that I follow through with this plan and stick to it! :-)

Another resolution is to find myself a permanent job whilst also trying to figure out my career ambition and what I would actually be good at as well as enjoy! Working within Communications and at The Trust in general has taught me a lot and I have been extremely lucky to have a wonderful Team and colleagues who have been extremely supportive as well as ensuring that my experience is worthwhile. My manager has taken out time to provide me with training sessions and I am so grateful for this. I am most definitely enjoying myself as well as taking away every moment that will no doubt help me better myself.

I am beginning to see that these are more 'plans' rather than resolutions but again, things I have only thought up in my head and hope to pursue!

One other thing - more of a resolution that I really hope I stick to, is to resume the activities that used to be a part of my life as well as to make sure that I keep fit - swimming and dancing. I have become quite lazy over the years, using the excuse of 'no time' and have not continued with swimming regularly. Therefore, one of my New Year Resolutions will to be go swimming- let us start with weekends for now.

I can't think of any more at the minute but you get the gist. What are yours? Are you usually good at keeping them? I tend to set very realistic ones so that I can stick to them...but there have been times where I just haven't stuck to any. Maybe 2011 will be the year ey!

Well, whether you intend to set yourselves goals for the upcoming year or not, I hope that you all have a fantastic year, filled with happiness, success and fulfilment.

Let us welcome the New Year with a bang and I would just like to thank each and every one of you for reading my blog - and here is to many more posts and many more readers!!!

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.  ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

 The chorus from an amazing song...let's take away these words and begin the year right!

Reaching for something in the distance

So close you can almost taste it

Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you

Only you can let it in

No one else, no one else

Can speak the words on your lips

Drench yourself in words unspoken

Live your life with arms wide open

Today is where your book begins

The rest is still unwritten. . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! Have a FAB one and I shall catch you in Jan 2011!

Much love,

Anokhi

Charity begins at the ATM?! Another Coalition Government disaster or could this actually work??

Cash point users will be encouraged to donate to charity every time they withdraw money, under Government plans to encourage a more 'giving' society.

Shoppers could also be asked to make donations whenever they make a purchase, on the High Street or online. The proposals were published yesterday as part of a Government consultation designed to encourage us to give more time and money to charitable causes, and remind us of the 'warm glow' that helping others can produce.

A study by the Charities Aid Foundation published earlier this month found that about 56 percent of British adults regularly give to charity, donating an estimated 10.6 billion pounds each year.

However, while the British public are among the most generous in Europe, the country lags far behind the United States, where people donate the equivalent of 1.7 percent of gross domestic product. In the UK, the public gives the equivalent of 0.7 percent of the country's GDP.

Ministers said they hope to encourage more people to give money regularly, and greater numbers to offer their time to help charities and organisations carrying out work in local communities.

While Britons are generous with their money compared with those in almost all other countries, they rank only 29th for volunteering – spending 17 times more hours watching TV. That is quite shocking guys!

John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, said: "Britain is a generous nation with a long history of supporting those most in need.

"This Green Paper is welcome as it seeks to kickstart some new initiatives which will make it easy to give and to build up existing ones.

"However, there is more that could be done to make it easier to take advantage of tax incentives, including reforming the Gift Aid system, improving access to Give As You Earn and encouraging all types of tax-effective giving.

"Every year around £750 million is lost in unclaimed Gift Aid alone and a third of UK adults don't know that they can give to charity tax-effectively.

"Many countries use Britain as an aspirational role model when developing their charity sectors but there are still lessons our Government can learn from the likes of the US, where tax relief is no more generous than ours but much simpler to understand, resulting in a higher up-take level." 

They do mean well and we can't argue with that...although, I do agree that there could be better ways to go about this. The Government needs to be more encouraging and I think that they need to set an example first.

I am strong believer in giving to Charity (as you may have guessed), but when you are able. I think more and more people find that they are able to give more when they know they can afford to do so and over the past few years, despite the recession, more people are giving.

A prompt occasionally is a good thing; however, when people are feeling the financial pinch, giving to charity is bound to drop? Right?

There are many opinions on this and once again Cameron could find that he is digging an even bigger hole; people could take this is as positive encouragement to do something or they could just react negatively. Especially because it can be seen as unfair in terms of pushing people into giving rather than leaving it to people's own discretion.

I have spoken to a few people I know who already give monthly donations and support various Charities and their views are quite interesting; many are actually discouraged by this 'Charity Plan' as they don't like being told what to do by Politicians. Hmm!

What are your views?

Could this work?

Much love,

Anokhi

Sleep your worries away…an interesting purchase in Birmingham.

So, I was in Birmingham this weekend and we went shopping (as you do) and one of my mates discovered a gift shop that was full of the coolest and strangest things – quite fabulous really. 

Anyways, we came across this handmade product “worry dolls” that have been made by the Maya Indians who live in the highlands of Guatemala. If you are wondering who Maya Indians are, they were a civilisation of people living in Central America for several hundred years. The Maya Indians' culture reached its peak during the seventh and the eighth century.

Read more: About the Maya Indians | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4567240_the-maya-indians.html#ixzz18qrEUhq7

These people make their living from agriculture in the rural areas of the country and are often dependent on alternative forms of income.

“An old story tells that when the Maya Indians of Guatemala had worries, they would tell them to the worry people. At night, they would place the worry people under their pillows and when they awoke, the worry people had taken their worries away.”

Legend has it the dolls were first made by two poor children when their mother got sick and the family was out of food. Using twigs and scraps of cloth, the children fashioned the little dolls along with sacks for the dolls to sleep in. The children hoped the dolls would have magical powers like the magical dolls in the stories their grandfather used to tell them. Before going to bed, one of the children asked the dolls for help, then placed them in a sack and put them under her pillow.

The next morning when she awoke, the dolls were out of the pouch and laid out in a circle on the table. Because she had slept through the night without worrying, the children believed this was a sign that the dolls were magical. They decided to take them to the local market where they sold their “magic dolls” for a hefty sum of money, which they took as even more evidence of the doll’s powers.

Later, when the children returned home, they found the magic dolls they thought they had sold back in their pocket with a tiny note that read: “Tell these dolls your secret wishes. Tell them your problems. Tell them your dreams. And when you awake, you may find the magic within you to make your dreams come true.”

“Worry dolls”, are very small and colourful dolls and a person (usually a child) who cannot sleep due to worrying can express their worries to a doll and place it under their pillow before going to sleep. Some medical centres use them in conjunction with treatment for disease in children. According to folklore, the doll is thought to worry in the person's place, thereby permitting the person to sleep peacefully.

The person will wake up without their worries, which have been taken away by the dolls during the night.

I am a little believer of things and actually quite superstitious in that sense and I love hearing about legends and old history.

 Bit of a random post, I know…but whether you stopped reading after the first paragraph or not, just wanted to share this with you guys in case you found it as fascinating as I did.

I did indeed purchase one of these. If you would like to as well, visit the site below.

http://www.spectrumwellbeing.co.uk/acatalog/guatemalanworrydolls.html

They are really cute and are made as part of a fair-trade scheme - if anything they are environmentally friendly – thumbs up from yours truly.

Have a fabulous Christmas y’all.

Much love,

Anokhi x

WikiLeaks: Not trending on Twitter... What is going on?

There have been discussions all over, as to why Twitter allegedly blocked WikiLeaks as a trending topic.

Twitter first introduced trending in summer 2008. Twitter Trends are algorithmically created and they measure events that are being talked about right now. More explicitly, Trends favour velocity and originality over popularity.

The topic has been the source of anger among some people who have insisted that the company is censoring its "trending topics", possibly under pressure from the US government.

This is what is written on Twitter’s blog: "This week, people are wondering about WikiLeaks, with some asking if Twitter has blocked #wikileaks, #cablegate or other related topics from appearing in the list of top Trends.

"The answer: Absolutely not. In fact, some of these terms, including #wikileaks and #cablegate, have previously trended either worldwide or in specific locations." 

The company explains:

“The Trends list is designed to help people discover the 'most breaking' breaking news from across the world, in real-time. The Trends list captures the hottest emerging topics, not just what's most popular.

So what makes a trend a Trend? "Topics break into the Trends list when the volume of Tweets about that topic at a given moment dramatically increases. Sometimes a topic doesn't break into the Trends list because its popularity isn't as widespread as people believe. And, sometimes, popular terms don't make the Trends list because the velocity of conversation isn't increasing quickly enough, relative to the baseline level of conversation happening on an average day; this is what happened with #wikileaks this week." 
Source: http://blog.twitter.com/2010/12/to-trend-or-not-to-trend.html 

According to people who track such things, on the morning of December 6, about 1 per cent of all tweets reportedly mentioned WikiLeaks, a much higher volume than any topic that did make the top 10, and still it didn't show up.

However, an article on BuzzFeed.com, http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrismenning/is-twitter-censoring-wikileaks, offers an answer.

Rumour has it, it is all Justin Bieber's fault. Twitter used to rank topic popularity by volume, but changed its methodology recently when the pop singer's fan base of teen girls continued to account for almost 3 per cent of tweets. The new algorithm is based on "interesting peaks", sudden increases that mark a new trend. On November 28, WikiLeaks did spike enough to show on the Trends list, but because the volume of tweets held relatively steady after that it simply wore out its welcome.

"It's not that Twitter is 'censoring' WikiLeaks," BuzzFeed concludes. "WikiLeaks has simply succumbed to the Bieber effect, becoming a part of the constant background noise just like love, hate and Christmas." Some users have suggested overcoming the "Bieber effect" by using a new hashtag on WikiLeaks tweets, #BradAss87. Although it has gained a bit of Twitter traction, at last look it still wasn't trending.

I have had so many conversations with people and there are so many questions, so much confusion and so many opinions regarding what is going on.

Are Twitter in fact blocking WikiLeaks from trending? Twitter have argued against this allegation.

So what is happening?

I have been told, and it makes some sense, that Twitter ignores hashtag trends that are also a registered username. Since wikileaks, iamwikileaks and cablegate have all been usernames, this may be the logic behind why they aren’t appearing.

If people talk about some subject for the whole week, at some point, it will not be considered a trend. I really think that this is an issue (or maybe not) with the trending algorithm.

Long story short: #Wikileaks is no longer rising in interest; it is, in fact, a much commented topic, but it is not rising.

Many, still don’t believe Twitter! 

“Obviously, there has been some kind of manipulation going on.
The state department has been very active in advance; putting high pressure on the media. No doubt, they called Twitter and begged for some downscaling …”

Hmmm! This is a toughy!

An Indian Christmas...

Only 14 days until Christmas!

One of the most popular times of the year and almost everybody looks forward to December, no matter where they are in the world! Family, friends, great food and drink and the exchanging of gifts along with the religious and cultural significance behind it.

One place I would just love to experience Christmas is in Goa, India.

The state has a large Christian population and its many beautiful, ancient Portuguese style churches overflow with people and Christmas cheer. Christmas decorations and trees adorn houses; embellish streets, and market places. Christmas carols are sung and many of the churches hold midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Beach parties also thrive.

An example of 'Christmas in Goa'

With over a hundred churches, it is in Goa that you will get the real feeling of Christmas.

The Christian community in India celebrate Christmas with spectacle, high spirits and devotion. Celebrations of the Christmas festival begin on the eve of Christmas on 24th of December and continue until New Year's Day.
Christmas Day called 'Bada Din' (Big Day) in Hindi is a national holiday in India and people from all religions join their Christian friends to make the most of the joyous celebrations.

Customs for Christmas celebrations vary in the vast region of India. These variations are largely because of the local cultural influence. In South India, for instance, Christians light clay lamps on the rooftops and walls of their houses, the same way as Hindus decorate their homes during the Diwali Festival. Moreover, in several states of India a popular custom is to decorate banana or mango trees instead of the traditional pine tree. In North West India, the tribal Christians of the Bhil tribe go out night after night for a week during the period to sing their equivalent of carols. In Mumbai, which has one of the largest Roman Catholic communities in India, there is a tradition to portray nativity scenes and decorate homes with big stars.

As I said above, the most thrilling celebration of Christmas can be seen in the vivacious state of Goa. A large number of domestic and international tourists gather to the beaches of Goa during the Christmas festival to watch it at its cultural best. The Carnival, preceding Lent, is the most important event at Goa. This is similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

The Times Of India recently reported that if you plan to celebrate Christmas in Goa or usher in the New Year there, be ready to spend anywhere up to Rs 40,000 for a return ticket on those weekends. And this is just from Mumbai. Can you imagine the price of a last minute ticket from anywhere in the UK? Woweeee!

TWEET TWEET: A Twitter Party?!

Over the last month or so, our Web Team at work have been getting us all hyped up for our first Twitter Party. It was first introduced to us at our weekly Comms Team meeting and to be completely honest, I had no idea what a Twitter party was. My manager then asked the ultimate question; a question I think we all wanted to know the answer to…What is a Twitter party?

It is a fast and fun way to get people tweeting about issues they care about or even a random topic of discussion using the twitter platform. Twitter parties usually last 1-2 hours and are a wonderful way for people to connect and discuss a topic of choice. Most twitter parties have an expert panellist and party host to keep the party on topic.

Sounds exciting right?!
Twitter users tweet with a specified Hashtag (#) for the party. The party host will announce the hashtag prior to the event.

Twitter parties are a fantastic way to connect with new friends using the utterly genius power of social media. People get together for fun, friends and support.

Did you know?

A twitter party can generate thousands of tweets in under two hours. Twitter parties are an excellent way to introduce new products or services, start a conversation about your niche, or get better acquainted with a passionate group of people.

Intrigued enough to see one live in action? OH YEAH! You are in luck!!


We, at The Princess Royal Trust for Carers are hosting our first EVER Twitter party on Monday 13th December at 2pm GMT, where we will be discussing the role of young carers and the issues they face in their day to day lives.

Young carers are children and young people under the age of 18, who help to look after someone in their family with an illness, disability, drug/alcohol addiction or mental health problem. There are over 175,000 young carers in the UK. According to a recent report by the BBC, the actual number of young carers may be up to 700,000, a shocking four times higher than the official figures!

The BBC have highlighted that of those who responded to the survey, 29% said they had carried out "emotional care or supervision" of someone in their home either "a lot of the time" or "some of the time" over the preceding month. This includes keeping the person they care for company (eg. sitting with them, reading to them, talking to them), keeping an eye on the person to make sure they are alright, and taking the person they care for out (eg. for a walk or to visit friends or relatives). While it's impossible to class all of these as young carers, many will be coping with mental illness or substance abuse in their homes.

The Princess Royal Trust for Carers makes it their mission to identify hidden carers and provide them with the support that they need. It is extremely difficult to carry out a caring role, especially at such a young age – heartbreaking and admirable really and working at The Trust has really heightened my awareness of this issue.

Support all young carers out there and join us for some tweeting fun and have your say!

How do you get involved?

The best way to follow along is to log in to http://www.tweetchat.com/ with your twitter ID and password and follow the easy instructions there. Entering hashtag #carerstweetup will take you to the “CarersTweetUp” room. As long as your account is NOT “private,” every tweet with the #carerstweetup hashtag will show up there and every tweet sent from that room will have the correct party hashtag already included.

Follow @carerstweets which is hosting the party ||| @Danni_YCNet will be the expert on the topic

Do not miss this or you will be missing one of the greatest parties EVER!

Show your support and brighten up your Monday by having some twitter fun!! YAYS!

Twitter parties are a great way to generate buzz on Twitter.

Help us create buzz for young carers and their role in the UK society.


Much love,

Anokhi

Check out Save Our Tigers | Join the Roar

Check out Save Our Tigers | Join the Roar

Students V The Government

On my way home from work, I was checking out this evenings news on the BBC website and I came across “Business Secretary Vince Cable will back a rise in tuition fees in next week's crucial Commons vote...”

Surprise surprise!

Let us go back to the time around the General Election, May 2010 - Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats made a promise to campaign against any increase in tuition fees, as well as make university education free. It was a promise that won him votes, the majority of which, who would be affected by this promise.

So, what happened?

Well, the Coalition Government was formed with the Conservatives and things changed. This was bound to anger students and it certainly has. Over the past few weeks, students from all over have been protesting against education cuts and the rise in tuition fees to a ridiculous £6000 or even £9000 for some.

The election candidates' petition, hosted on Lib Dem candidate Derek Deedman's website, said: "During the general election campaign many of our MPs (and now government ministers) signed a pledge with the National Union of Students that they would vote against any tuition fee rises during the course of the next Parliament.

"The wording of this pledge clearly indicated that this would be unconditional; regardless of whether the party was in government or in opposition.

"The party has been very clear for many years about its view on tuition fees and that we feel they should be abolished." (BBC News)

Before the Election, this pledge was the main basis of the Lib Dem Manifesto – and many people, especially students put their trust in them and thus voted in their favour.

What are they supposed to think now?

Students obviously feel betrayed and the fact that many believe that politics play a huge part in terms of gathering the most votes that can be based on false promises does not help the situation. It has always been something which has been on my mind. Throughout University, there was a constant debate on my course that, although these politicians are fighting to better our economy, there are always other factors that are considered in the decision-making process including their own personal agenda and popularity.

The argument here is that sometimes politicians have to go back on their word and break promises for the good of our economy and in this case, they have done exactly that after assessing the true situation concluding that ‘the books need to be balanced.’ Will it be good for us?

David Cameron admitted that the Coalition’s decision to increase tuition fees by thousands of pounds will apparently keep the cost to foreign students down when they study in Britain. He also said raising tuition fees will mean ''two things”:
“It will make sure our universities are well funded ...and we won't go on increasing so fast the fees for overseas students.”

This is clearly not the end. Students and young people will continue to fight– we all will. Although these proposed education cuts are needed, (so they say), I think it is outrageous, as do many. Being a recent graduate myself, I know of the burden these fees will cause and it is frightening that one can encounter so much debt well before they have even worked a day since graduating. This increase is just going to deter many from going to University, especially those from less privileged backgrounds. How is this helping our future generations, the leaders of tomorrow?

The most important point is that yes, our present Government, a Coalition, includes Conservatives who have always been for these increases and thus, there has to be some sort of compromise; however, where is the compromise? There is no meet in the middle about this. Instead, this is a drastic change, which does not consider how much of an impact these increases will have on the majority.  

There are many sides to this story, but we can only hope that they come to their senses. There will be a vote on 9^th December and this will be a crucial assessment for the Coalition. The Lib Dems are under a lot of pressure after their pledge to oppose against the increase in fees before the election.  

The National Union of Students have said they will hold a "day of action" on Wednesday 8 December, on the eve of the Commons vote.

UNITE AND FIGHT!

STOP THE CUTS!

Much love,

Anokhi 

What is ‘The Real India?’

I have been reading so many articles lately on ‘The Real India’ and there is an ongoing debate about how you haven’t experienced the ‘real’ India until you have visited the villages and seen the undeveloped parts – the true reality.

Many have grown up believing that India is inherent in its villages; a place which completely lacks infrastructure, power, water, transport, communication, decent education facilities and healthcare.

I get really frustrated when people say that "in order to experience real India, you need to go to the villages". I do agree to a point – as a tourist, it is another experience when you visit such places and capture the extreme extent of the suffering rather than just focusing on the well developed, richer areas in terms of tourism. I can understand that foreigners say that they want to see the real India (being a NRI myself), and that they want to go to villages.  India is often stereotyped because a certain image of India has been created.

I have a lot of family in India and we therefore visit quite regularly. I have seen many underdeveloped areas and I am constantly aware of the difficulties and struggles of many out there. India never fails to surprise me in that sense and I have always wanted to be able to do more. Seeing is definitely believing and I think over the years visiting has really opened my eyes to this.

Something I feel strongly about is the fact that because of this, India is seen in the same way it has always been seen. There is very much a sense of inequality, but where does this aspect not exist? I do agree that things need to change and a great deal needs to be done to overcome some of the issues faced but urban India, the new, developing India should also be classified as the real India. Should it not?

Like I said, India never fails to surprise me – the constant growth of the economy and how quickly it is developing amazes me. Isn't it remarkable that even though 70% of the people in India reside in rural areas, it is still one of the fastest growing economies in the world? We should be proud, (I certainly am), of such cities and the country that it is, instead of counting them as an alien in the name of "real India".

I don't believe that we are still the same old undeveloped third world nation.
Yes, we have thousands of problems, but every developing country or countries which are developed have faced problems like these, and they have all come out of this successfully - not because their municipal corporations had excellent urban planning, but because the citizens were responsible and determined to develop and progress.

Once that happens with our country, I truly believe that the majority of our problems will be solved.

Let us see India for what it is, India.

If anyone has any thoughts, agreeing or even disagreeing with me – feel free to comment!

Much love,

Anokhi

World AIDS Day, 2010

Today, 1^st December 2010, is World AIDS Day. 

Over 90,000 people are living with HIV in the UK and new infections continue every year. World AIDS Day 2010 is all about raising awareness to tackle HIV prejudice and help stop the spread of HIV.

According to experts from the Health Protection Agency, over 22,000, a quarter of people with HIV in the UK, are unaware that they have the virus.

Children living with HIV/AIDS are the most heartbreakingly innocent victims in that almost all were infected during pregnancy, birth or through breastfeeding. 430,000 new infections occurred in 2008, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

The science of paediatric treatment lags that for adults; the virus is difficult to detect in babies and its advance can be very rapid.

Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. 

The World AIDS Day theme for 2010 is 'Universal Access and Human Rights'.

World AIDS Day is important for reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done.

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.3 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children. During 2009, 2.6 million people became newly infected with the virus and an estimated 1.8 million people died from AIDS.

To help raise awareness, the red ribbon is an international symbol of AIDS awareness that is worn by people all year round and particularly around World AIDS Day to demonstrate care and concern about HIV and AIDS, and to remind others of the need for their support and commitment.

Visit http://www.worldaidsday.org/ for more information.

BE AWARE – TAKE ACTION!!!


Much love,


Anokhi 

World Aids Day special: Elton John to edit The Independent and i - Press, Media - The Independent

World Aids Day special: Elton John to edit The Independent and <i>i</i> - Press, Media - The Independent

Just 1411 left...Save our Tigers!

Tigers! One of the most beautiful species in the world. 

It may seem ridiculous that I am writing about this and that there are obviously more important things out there to write about. However, isn't this an important issue that we need to consider?! I believe that it is!

I feel the need to stress that this issue needs to be addressed and that they need to be SAVED!

The tiger, a member of the Felidae family, is the largest of the four "big cats". Originating from eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is a top predator and carnivore.

This magnificent animal is a heavily muscled and powerful predator that employs stalk and ambush tactics to bring down large prey, using the characteristic stripy coat as camouflage. Unlike other cats, tigers are good swimmers and often cool off in lakes and streams during the heat of the day.

Sadly, they have been pushed to the edge of existence through hunting and habitat loss, with three of the eight subspecies already extinct, and the other subspecies at high risk.

Today the range of the species is radically reduced. While all surviving species are under formal protection, poaching, habitat destruction and inbreeding depression continue to threaten the tigers.

The illegal wildlife trade is the third biggest "illicit commodity" trade in the world, after weapons and drugs -- it is a multi-billion dollar industry. Moreover, demand for animal parts, especially for exotic ones like tigers, is only continuing to grow.

This is extremely horrid and is bad news; especially since reports in the last year have revealed that the wide swath of efforts enacted by NGOs, governments, and conservation groups to stop the illegal trade of tiger parts have been hugely ineffective.

The authors of the Traffic International report conclude that the only hope to save the tigers is to reduce demand in the countries where tigers are still sought after -- primarily India, where over half the world's remaining tigers live, and China, where the second most tigers are seized annually.

Our national animal is fighting for its life.

From around 40,000 at the turn of the last century, there are just 1411 tigers left in India.

If we do not act now, we could lose this part of our heritage forever.

Speak up, blog, share the concern, and stay informed… Every little bit helps.

Aircel has collaborated with WWF-India to help save our tigers.

Visit http://www.saveourtigers.com/ and JOIN THE ROAR!

As always, thanks for reading.

Much love,

Anokhi 

A great friend and an even greater writer...

First and Foremost ...a little bit of PR!

She will probably kill me, but deep down, I know she will appreciate this and I am sure that considering she knows me very well, she has probably seen this coming.

Now, even though she doesn't need me promoting her at all and her work speaks for itself, I just had to big her up. So, who in blue blazers am I going on about?

Kavi Shah, a nearest and dearest, a recent Psychology and Journalism Graduate who is an absolutely amazing writer is just waiting to be discovered. With a first class honours degree in her hand, she is smart, committed, hard working and extremely passionate about telling stories and keeping everyone in the loop.

She is inspiring and without any doubt she is going to succeed in so many ways. She already has a huge fan base and being one of them, I understand that I am biased, but I cannot lie to save my life and everything I write is 100% true, especially when it comes to this one.

What can she do?

Firstly, as you may have guessed, she is a print/online journalist. She has gained more experience than anyone I know and she has learnt a lot throughout her University years. She has learnt to interview sources, report, write, sub-edit, proofread, pitch features and write both features and news.
She has excellent layout and production skills – and can speedily lay out pages using Adobe InDesign (Skill level: intermediate to advanced) and Quark Xpress (Skill level: basic to intermediate) and can also manipulate images using Adobe Photoshop (Skill level: basic to intermediate).

What do I truly admire?

Personally, I admire every single aspect. The most admirable thing is that she doesn’t give up. She has graduated and is currently looking for a job. Alongside this tedious process, she has been volunteering at various Newspapers and Magazines so that she can develop the promising skills she already possesses as well as gaining new ones.
She has a blog where not only can you find out more about her, her experience and her skill-set but also a wide range of articles that she has written from restaurant reviews and personal experiences to everyday affairs that can affect each and every one of you.

Please visit http://shahkavi.wordpress.com – you will not be disappointed!!

If anyone out there is looking for a writer/sub/designer, or if you have any questions, or simply just want to see her CV, please do not hesitate to contact her.

Email: kavishah89@gmail.com.
Alternatively, follow her on Twitter @kavishah1

Thank you for reading,

Much love,

Anokhi

My First Post. . .

It has taken an embarrassingly large amount of thought to sit down and create this blog, let alone even write something. There are so many things I know I would like to say; a matter of transforming my thought process into words yet, it seems so difficult. 

I have never believed in this kind of social media, the thought of being this open, expressing thought as well as not believing that I can write what I want to write in such a way that people would actually want to read it; but, here I am. I will make the attempt and I hope that I will be able to share how I feel about the world and the things I believe in and do not, and maybe it can develop into a common interest; a fight for change. I hope that we can inspire each other.  

There is so much going on in the world and I know for a fact that “Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something.” I am still not sure where this quote has come from, although one thing I am sure about is that this is absolutely true and I believe it with all my heart!

I don’t know what inspired me to do this today, but I am glad that I have taken this step. Life is too short and I want to embrace every moment as I am sure many of you wish to do. Someday, I want to able to say that I made a small difference to the world. This can be seen as sounding selfish, a dream so far fetched that it is possibly impossible? Maybe it is, but that is a very small part of it. I have been fortunate enough to be blessed with a great family, amazing friends, all without whom I could not live. I have every opportunity to do as I wish, be what I want to be and not everybody is as lucky.

Working within a non-profit organisation has always been an ambition of mine and I have been extremely fortunate to have been given an opportunity to work for a truly amazing organisation soon after graduating. The Princess Royal Trust for Carers helps improve the lives of the many carers and young carers out there and providing the support that they deserve. The experience has opened my eyes even more into the daily suffering of many and I just can’t take how unfair life can be sometimes. I want to do more.

I have cried about so many things in my life so far, but when I think about the unjust nature of life and how so many out there are suffering in their own way, I try to remember the good in my life and I hope that all of you out there can do the same.

I believe it is time for me to stop rambling on. Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and I really hope that it becomes something we can all use to share our views, aspirations and thoughts about anything and everything.

Don’t forgot, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

(Harriet Tubman)

Much love,

Anokhi