Belly dancing is a dance form that makes anyone who dances look sexy, exotic, powerful and unattainable. Most women and some men(who Belly dance) would agree with that fact. The dance form has its folkloric origin in the Middle East although it is difficult to trace its exact roots.The traditional belly dance is divided into two. The first, Raqs Baladi, is a social dance performed during festive occasions and the second form, which is quite popular in the around the world is called Raqs Sharqi.

The Raqs Sharqi form of Belly dance is a relatively very new in India and is catching up fast. Belly dance in India has been surrounded by glamor, misconception and at times bore the brunt of the morally imperfect moral police. Here is the extraordinary story of Meher Malik, a bold, passionate young woman, who has over come all the odds to set up her own dancing establishment in Delhi which concentrates mostly on Belly dance. Her dance school is called as Banjara. The word Banjara translates to gypsy – a word given to travellers who lead a nomadic lifestlye. She says somewhere within every artist is a gypsy – always searching for more, an inspiration, a story. Let’s hear her speak.

1. Why Belly dancing?

   Ans: Well, I didn’t choose Belly dance, it chose me. Having already lived in the Middle East for 17 years, the exposure was huge. I’ve watched Belly dance performances at parties, weddings and on various other occasions. I thought it was a beautiful dance form and I remember telling myself that when I grow up I would learn this dance form. I was always interested in dancing, belly dance happened by chance. I was learning by seeing videos, when I was 14. I went on a school trip to Egypt at 15 and that was when I started getting serious about it. And finally at 17, I attended my first class by an Israeli teacher.

2. Where did you learn and who did you train under?

   Ans: I have learnt in Paris, London and India. I started with Michal from Israel and then went to study with Madame Leila Haddad in Paris and then I traveled to various dance festivals and workshops across the world.                                                                                                                    

3. Usually, I ask this question in end but here it would make more sense. What were the difficulties and challenges that you faced in India? There are a lot of misconceptions about Belly dance, could you throw some light into this?

   Ans: Yes, of course. There were many horrible experiences with men asking you unethical questions like “What more can you give us?” “Does this package include everything?” I have let go of many corporate deals because I refused to work on unethical terms. Money doesn’t come first to me but my morale and self esteem does. I maintain strict work ethics. I have also had experiences with parents accusing me of teaching this vulgar dance to girls. I have been patient and repeatedly told my story and the history of belly dance over and over again. Due to this attitude of people, I only perform artistic stage shows and very selected corporate shows. I do only 1 event in 2 months as I think that the Indian audience is not yet ready to accept Belly dance only as a dance form. They need to understand it first and then they will appreciate it.

4. What is Banjara all about?

   Ans: Banjara is an art project. It is a place where people can express ideas even the ones that they are ashamed of. Banjara is all about overcoming insecurities and becoming one with the body, gaining spiritual satisfaction through wholesome understanding of the body and mind.We started by promoting a lot of different dance forms but now we are only going to promote activities that have still maintained their beauty and serenity and are extremely rare. We are presently focusing on Belly dance and other classical and Indian folk dance forms.                       
   

5. You were very young and with no prior business expertise, how did you set up Banjara?                           Ans: I had my dad’s support, who has an experience of working with some very big MNC’s .I mostly handle the creative aspect of it but my dad guides me through the whole administrative and financial aspect. He always has great ideas.

6. What is your business model and who is your target segment?

   Ans: Well our business model is mostly set up on a franchise model and we work with different brand names to run our classes and pay them a cut of our classes. Our goal is to have a centre in every nook and corner of the NCR and eventually branch out to Mumbai and Calcutta. We also have our Banjara main studio and thats where all the creative choreographies happen. We currently have classes running in all four zones of Delhi. After 3 years of being in the market, we know that our target segment upper middle class and the affluent section of society. But we are trying our best to mainstream it into the middle class society and also for men and children.

7. Where do you see yourself and Banjara in the next 5 years?

   Ans: I see Banjara spreading across at least three states and becoming India’s biggest name in Belly dance. I see myself traveling to teach at various festivals, to teach a style that i have been working on myself. I don’t have a name for it as yet but hopefully by then I would have created a new style.

   

8. Tell us about your stint with India’s Got Talent. Was there a message that you wanted to tell to the general masses?

   Ans: I was on the show but it not because I like being on TV. Honestly I hate it, the attention is suffocating. I participated in the show because I think that in a country like India, people do what they see on TV. They just do or learn what they think is in fashion. So I thought, if i could spread a good image of Belly dance through television and get more people to believe in it. I think, it has made a difference to people who were first skeptical of taking Belly dance classes but now they have stepped out to learn.

9. What is it that you would like to tell to anyone who wants to learn Belly dance?

   Ans: I would tell them to be patient with their bodies, respect their bodies and not crib about how they have an extra inch of fat. The body is as a temple. The body has to be feed well, rested well, exercised well. And one also has to be very hardworking and open to ideas and criticism.

10. Finally, what is your dance philosophy?

    Ans: My philosophy is to learn a beautiful lifestyle through dance. Religion is one way of attaining god, dance is another way.

Contact Details: 

Phone : + 91 989 985 1475

Email :

mehermalik@hotmail.com

meher@bellydancingindia.comAddress: Banjara studio,

A-62, Shivalik, New Delhi

Website : http://www.bellydancingindia.com/

Salsa is one of the fastest spreading Latin dance forms in India. Everybody has heard about it. Everybody wants to do it! Salsa in Spanish means sauce, a rather spicy sauce. It also hints at a “mixture” of ingredients which had made it spicy. Salsa is more than just a dance form. Some say that it a magic drug which improves the quality of your life. Lets just say that it is subject to interpretation and it is a very accommodating dance form,which generously imbibes into itself, the styling from a lot of dance forms across the world.

Having said that, let me introduce to John Anthony, Founder & CEO and his Latino Rhythms Dance Academy based in Bangalore, India that specializes in Salsa and other dance forms like Jive, Bachata, Rueda de Casino and Cha-Cha. He has made a business establishment out of what he loves the most, dance!

Latino Rhythms Dance Academy was founded in 2005 and has seen close to 1500 students in the past 4 years. John admits that it is no easy task to build a dance school right from the scratch when the odds against them. Now that Latino Rhythms is comfortably established, he has big plans for his dance school and his students. By 2012, he wants to see his students perform at the International Salsa Congress that happen all over the world. He also plans to tie-up with various well established Latin dance school in the US for mutually beneficial exchange programs. Yes! He is very ambitious but already has chartered plans to achieve his goals for the dance school. And most of us know that without passion and ambition, nothing much can be achieved.

This was what John Anthony had to tell  India Startup Diary:

1. How did you get interested in dancing? Did you at that point in time see that you will be having a dance school in the future?

   Ans : I started as just a stress buster, never ever dreamt that I would have a school

2. What is your dance philosophy?

   Ans :When you have feet to walk , you can definitely dance.

3. How did Latino Rhythms come into being and how big is your school right now?

   Ans : The idea sprung when I choreographed a routine for my colleagues in an office party which went on to become a big hit. My confidence grew and I started teaching people who were not my colleagues. From then, there was no stopping.

4. India is still young when it comes to Latin dance forms. Whom did you train under?

   Ans: I started learning Jive under Prithvi and Ree from Rock Around the Clock Dance Academy. I was later drawn to Salsa and was under Richard Tholoor from Lourd Vijay’s Dance Studio. Dancing beyond a point is how you interpret the music and improvise on what you have learnt. I am mostly self taught and I have learnt most of my techniques and styling by watching a lot of dance videos.

5. Who is your target segment?

   Ans :Corporates and students. We are working on a lot of programs for college students, host parties at popular clubs, provide student discounts,conduct workshops and so on.

6. How is it going so far and where do you see yourself and Latino Rhythms in 2 years time? Ans: So far, so good, Latino Rhythms in the next 2 years for sure, will be one of the best dance academies in India. In the future, we would not only concentrate on Latin dance forms but also on other dance forms and fitness activities like Bollywood, Hip Hop , Belly Dancing, Ballet, Yoga, Kick Boxing, Aerobics and so on.

7. What are the challenges that you face currently and how do you plan to overcome them?

   Ans:Its always a challenge to get more youngsters involved in dance , especially Salsa because it takes a little longer to learn and needs a whole lot of patience.

8. Finally, what do you have to tell to a person who wants to dance ?

   Ans : Just dance no matter what, don’t ever be bothered about who is watching you. Just take on the floor and enjoy. Some have a natural rhythm and learn faster and some are little slower in learning but eventually everyone does learn. Dance is not rocket science so learn it. Salsa is not just a dance form , but it also something that can help you with a lot of things like  improving your concentration skills, being confident, basic discipline, widening your thought process and kill the stress..

    

   Contact details:

   email jalatino@gmail.com,

   phone: +91 98454 33370

   website : www.latinorhythms.in

Author’s note : Watch out next week for Part 3 of 4 of this series!

Dancing…

Dancing, everybody loves dancing. Some of us are natural dancers, some of us are trained dancers, some of us are dressing-room-mirror dancers and some of us can only dance after five shots of tequila. Then there are some who stand out. They are the ones who have turned their love for dancing into world class dancing business establishments. They are young, energetic, vivacious dancers who are also smart business people. There are a less than a handful in India and they are the ‘League of the Extraordinary Dancing Entrepreneurs’.

Having said that, Mumbai based Karma Salsa guru Kaytee Namgyal and his Salsa India dance school has to be introduced. Many are ready to swear by his unique ‘Karma-Salsa’. Salsa India has seen more than 5000 enthusiastic students falling in love with Salsa, several of whom, after having learnt from Kaytee, have taken up Salsa as their profession. So what is Karma Salsa? ‘Karma’ is Kaytee’s real name. Karma-Salsa as Kaytee describes with passion, is all about musicality, body movement and dancing through one’s body, mind and soul, in a dancer’s interpretation and representation of the instruments being played and feel of the music. Dancing is as individualistic as the dancer’s personality, so is Karma-Salsa synonymous with Kaytee’s panache and energetic yet fluid style.

This is what Kaytee Namgyal, Founder and Director of Salsa India had to tell about what he does about his love of dancing.

1. How did your affair with Salsa begin and how did Salsa India come into being?

ANS: Salsa began in the year 2000 when I was visiting my cousins in Tokyo. I fell in love with the music when I was at a Salsa Bar in Tokyo. It was the music that drove me to Salsa. Salsa India started when I came back to India and decided to spread my love for Salsa across India.

 2. When you started out, India would not have had anyone teaching Salsa. From where did you learn and from whom did you learn?

ANS: I had my professional training in LA and NY. I trained with Luis Vasquez, Eddie Torres, Frankie Martinez and many others from around the world. After learning with some of the biggest names in the world I started experimenting with my own styles and here I am with Karma Salsa- an unique style.

3 Who is the team behind ‘Force Kaytee’?

ANS: All my faculty at Salsa India. They are the reason why Salsa India is still strong and on top. I give full credit to my heart whose decision I don’t question.

 4. Is Salsa the only dance form that you teach?

ANS: I teach Mambo, Street Cha Cha, Zouk Love, Kizomba, K-Style Bachata, Hip Hop Salsa, Disco,Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary and Meringue besides Salsa

5.How is the salsa scene in India and how different is your school from the other dance schools in India?

 ANS: Salsa Scene in India is growing at a fast pace and it still has to go a long way. At Salsa India musicality and technique are the most important. I emphasize on music as the core to dancing and style as well. For me its all about “Different Music, Different Style”. A dancer needs to be versatile. I teach people about the way of life through music.

6. What is your revenue model?

ANS: Work on getting results, rest will all follow. My model in business is to make my customers happy and stay away from their personal life.

7. Who is your target segment?

ANS: Everyone whose minds are open to learning new things.

8. Tell us about the challenges that your dance school faces on a day to day basis and what are risks involved in the dancing business.

ANS: The challenge is to see that every student of mine gets good. My mission is to make every student of mine good at what they have come for. Risks in the dancing business is your health, need to update to be on top from time and again and so on.

9. How is it going so far and where do you see yourself and Salsa India in 2 years time?

ANS: Salsa India is doing very well with centers in Delhi, DLF, Kolkata, Bombay, Pune and Bangalore. Salsa India is the only company in India who gets invited to at least two International Salsa Congresses world wide to teach and perform. In two years from now Salsa India will have its branch in Europe as well.

10. Your dance clothing line that was launched recently, was in the papers. Tell us more about it.

ANS: Since I am into fashion and I tailor make most of my clothes I thought why not spread that love to others too. Since people always ask me where I buy my clothes I thought why not make my clothes available to others so here I am, venturing into another aspect of live. Following my heart again.

11. Finally, what do you have to tell to a person who wants to dance?

ANS: Dance to express and not to impress. Dance from the heart. any one can be a good dancer, its just a matter of time.

Contact details:

www.salsa-india.com
info@salsa-india.com
MUMBAI-PUNE:+91-98203-62629, +91-98333-SALSA(72572)
DELHI:+91-98112-22186, +91-97111-SALSA(72572)
KOLKATA: +91-99038-28223
BANGALORE: +91-97428- SALSA (72572)

Author’s note : Watch out next week for another exciting Extraordinary Dancing Entrepreneur No.2

With everything going online your baby record journal cannot be far behind. www.hiraj.com/ helps the cause. Hiraj.com is an exciting tool for parents who want to record all those exciting steps and exciting milestones of their baby. The best part is all the information is online for your baby to cherish and share it once they grow up.

Hiraj.com is more like your baby record book. You can maintain growth chart, health chart, create photo albums, photo collages et al. All this and more with a social networking feature added to this. The concept is very good. But the challenge is to create a community. I don’t think even indiaparenting.com has an online baby record book. Correct me if wrong.

Jaago Re! One Billion Votes is a non-partisan national campaign launched by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (a non-profit organization) and Tata Tea, to awaken and enable the citizens of India, especially the youth, to register for voting. Its mission is to register everyone in India to vote in the next 5 years, for better governance. In the launch year (2008-09), the campaign targets the top 35 cities of India, and aims to register millions of youth before the 2009 general elections.

If you are a enthusiastic citizen who wants to help towards voting cause in your neighborhood, Jaagore.com helps you run your personal registration drive! You can also opt to become a Booth Level Volunteer (BLV) for your polling booth, and help citizens in your community to register directly through you.

Jaago India Jaago! Stop complaining about bad roads, poor infrastructure, corrupt politicians! Cast your vote today and http://www.jaagore.com is ever ready to help your cause.
A brilliant initiative! Hats off!

Inkfruit.com is all about designing your T shirts. Let your creativity flow from abstract designs, funny quotes or even talking T Shirts. You can post your designs and even vote and rate for your favorite designs. They have a live competition always on, for design enthusiasts. If your design gets the maximum votes you could win up to Rs 35,000! A winner is chosen every month depending on the number of votes gathered from the Inkfruit community.

Some of the designs I checked out were really whacky. Check some of these “I said NO to alcohol, it just doesn’t listen”, “Shame on you girls, am still a bachelor”. I really loved browsing through all of them. The best part is you could browse and order them online. They even take bulk orders. The pricing is very nominal, with each T shirt costing around Rs 350. If you want to show off your Gang’s attitude, you could even place a bulk order for your whole gang.

The site really rocks and is a sure hit among the college and corporate crowds. T Shirts today are considered as an effective branding tool, and you just can’t miss them out during a corporate event or a college cultural function. Its considered trendy to wear T Shirts that communicates either your brand or your attitude and Inkfruit has captured that aptly. I am interested in knowing the number WRT sale and hits, if I gather them I will let you know.

With retail and brands booming in India, the need of the hour is an unbiased sales person who would talk to you about all the brands and all the offers in a particular category. Say you are out on refrigerator shopping and visit a multi-brand, multi-storey showroom and place a request with the sales person. In all probability the sales guy might try to push the brand that offers him maximum commission. Whom to trust then?

As always, internet being our best friend and sites like BrandsIndiaOnline reduce our difficulties in our search for good brands and the best deals. BrandsIndiaOnline consolidates information about several brands available across various categories in India; with brand deals. Say if you are looking for a fridge, then BrandsIndiaOnline provides a list of various brands available in the category refrigerator or fridge; and also hosts information on deals available on various brands.

The startup idea is very good. However, the website tries to consolidate only the advertisements about different brand offers and discounts. It doesn’t provide you further information. This means, only when a manufacturer chooses to advertise on this site, you’ll get information about the deals and discounts. This probably is a little drawback. I checked for refrigerators and got a list of various brands. But there was no information about any offers or discounts because the refrigerator brand I chose, had not advertised on this site.

Considering the competitors like mouthshut.com and rediff.com, the site would be more worthy if it consolidates information rather than advertisements. Graphical presentation can make the site more appealing than pages filled with text and advertisement. With a little bit of changes BrandsIndiaOnline.com could become your first stop towards your buy.

I decided to put this paragraph first, though I wrote it last. Three cheers to this Nearhop team. I have been sitting with this review for some time now. It took me time to research about the site, and every time I visited, they had something new. So I thought high time I put this up, before they come up with yet another new feature.

How about a vacation covering Kerala and Karnataka? In a given week’s time, do you plan to hop from one exotic locale to another, in combination of buses, trains, and flights, whatever is available, making sure that you don’t miss your transports between the hops? Nearhop.com comes to your rescue.

Nearhop.com is a travel website with an exhaustive database of around 67317 numbers of buses, trains, and flights. The database, compiled meticulously, helps you to search information about availability of bus, train , and flight services from around 6000 places. The site provides an exhaustive list and information about arrival and departure timings; ticket availability, ticket prices and you can even book tickets. One can search based on time lines, i.e. search for a train, which departs exactly 90 minutes after your bus reaches the destination.

Nearhop is not only about interstate or inter-town, you could even find information on local train and bus services, timings, routes and even download route maps. What more? You could download all the local information on your mobile phone too! All you need a Java enabled cell phone. Nearhop’s mobile application allows you to download everything from maps to train timetables and bus routes to any local place within your city. One can even check out ways to reach to the destination in shortest time possible. Plus, you don’t need an internet connection for all this and you can download the software for free!

‘Near Town’ is another interesting feature. The objective is to know about small towns/villages neighboring big ones, and list them on Nearhop. Suppose you belong to a small village in Karnataka near Bangalore, you could add the village name on Nearhop database and give information on how to get there from Bangalore. By doing this your village gets added to Nearhop’s database, and many can benefit from the information. This is something similar to a wiki.

Another Wiki feature on Nearhop is the hotels. As an extended service, they also host information on hotels in different cities; using the wiki format visitors can help correct wrong information.

Everything is great about the site- the idea, the speed, exhaustive database et al. Only thing that doesn’t impress much, is the design. Nearhop is already making waves. A better site design with a neat layout, better font and cool colors would certainly help.

SimplyLearnt has cashed well upon the Indian psyche of testing and examining. Be it Kindergarten admission or UG/PG or even employment with an IT company, the first step in India would be to test your ability. 90% of these tests are in a written format. So what’s next? An online site where you could download various tests, model tests, question papers et al. This is what simplyLearnt is all about.

simplyLearnt brings together various coaching centers around India and their students onto a virtual platform. Coaching centers can now reach out to their students and other students virtually. They can conduct classes, hold tests, and share documents; everything virtually. Say you are preparing for CAT using simplyLearnt services, you can get virtual lessons from various CAT trainers and also download their question papers, take schedule tests and even access their study materials.

SimplyLearnt is something more than a mere website hosting test papers. Their services include, profiling of various institutes, scheduling their classes, conduct their tests online and hosting their content online. In short, simplyLearnt is for trainers to reach students in need.

The major advantage of simplyLearnt would be in the choices it provides, if it takes off well. A student preparing for CAT would be able to take preparatory tests, probably for a cost, from not just one, but numerous CAT training institutes while sitting at home. One is not constrained by time and space as in the physical world. simplyLearnt, as I see it, has the potential of providing a lot of choices to students, especially for those looking at preparatory tests.

The site is very impressive and certainly holds a lot of potential in the Indian scenario. I don’t think they have a direct competitor, though many institutes host their test and have virtual classrooms independently. simplyLearnt is the first of its kind and with good marketing will surely make it big.

If you think you can sing or dance well, are good at mimicry or how about shayari (are you a king in shayari?), then you can log on to IndiakaHero.com and showcase your talent. All you need to do is record you talent digitally and upload your file. The world can hear you singing, dancing, mimicking or narrating shayari.

Kudos to the team behind this venture. The idea is very unique; the site design is really good. The colors and the design give it a filmy look. I really liked the look and feel of the site.

They also have a program for the corporates. The corporate can create an account and all the employees can participate and even conduct contests through the website. They have 2 big IT brands- Satyam and HCL global, who have already signed with them and many have shown interest.

Registration is pretty simple, you submit your email id and you are done. You can record songs online; even vote and comment on others performances. All the entries are secured i.e. they cannot be downloaded; so your originality is intact. The site has the capacity to run 10,000 streams. That count is very impressive.

Registering with IndiakaHero.com could be your first step to fame.