Out amp; About

It seems to be just a matter of time before paging services turn into full-blown pager-order catalogues. While EasyCall started out helping you select and deliver gifts across the phone, now you can order home appliances with them as well. Easy Value Plus, a shop-n-save platform for EasyCall subscribers, has tied up with Anjali Kitchenware and Eben Watches, with tie-ups for more products underway. What8217;s more, subscribers will benefit from discounts, which will effectively reduce their quarterlysubscription to nil. And the best part is that the service is available round the clock, all year round. Available to privileged subscribers in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Chandigarh, Chennai and Bangalore.

For more information, call 835 2751/52/56.

Ace card

Accor Corporate Services has launched the Privilege Card for chief executive officers, chief financial officers and others in top managerial positions in companies that provide Accor food coupons to employees. It entitles holders upto 50 per cent room discount in select hotels across India and Europe, apart from a 20 per cent discount on car rentals at Europcar.

With the world8217;s largest network of over 3,000 hotels, card holders can choose from budget grade to luxury and business hotel to leisure resort.

Accor has over 2.5 lakh corporate clients in 29 countries worldwide, making a total of over 11 million users. Join the family.

For information, call 288 0764/281 5357/59

Poet8217;s corner

Penguin India has decided to lift thefreeze on poetry that lasted nearly five years with journalist C P Surendran8217;s latest effort, Posthumous Poems. Dedicated to Bombay, it is expected to be out by the end of the month.

Magical melody

With its first ever ghazal album, Sony Music has brought together two of the biggest and arguably the best names in the business. Marasim relations is quot;memories woven in melodyquot;, delicately penned by Gulzar and composed and sung by Jagjit Singh in his distinctive heart-warming style. quot;Marasim signifies the pinnacle of Jagjit8217;s relations with ghazals. I genuinely feel he has now attained the ultimate maturity,quot; says Gulzar of the singer-composer who first worked with the film maker on his television serial Mirza Ghalib nearly a decade ago.

The album has eight ghazals interspersed with evocative verse in Gulzar8217;s sonorous voice. And such is the quality of music and shayari, that every composition sounds better than the previous one. Woh khatke purze udaa raha tha8216; has a breezy feel while Haath chhute bhi to rishtey nahi chhoda karte, Ek purana mausam8216; and Zindagi yun hui basar tanha8216; have a melancholic shade to them. But perhaps the pick of this treasure is Shaam se aankh mein nami si hai8216;. Equally impressive is the music video shot by the second-generation Gulzar, his daughter Meghana, featuring Jimmy Shergill and Simone Singh 8212; it easily stands out of the crowded line-up of meaningless videos without sense or substance.

Getting your hands on pleasing sounds is a tough ask these days. Which is what makes Marasim a gem you cannot ignore.

Retail sale

The National Institute of Sales and Marketing NIS, in association with the World Gold Council WGC begins a specialised course in jewellery retail selling skills from June 10. NIS Sparta has designed the curriculum and the course material for the six-month programme with two sessions per week. Priced at Rs 8,000, the programme will consist oflearning modules on Selling Skills, Interpersonal Communication, Display and Merchandising and Gold and Jewellery. The WGC will provide inputs for the last component.

For more information contact NIS Sparta Limited on 851 3506/14/16/18.

Good medicine

Touted as a quot;ready-reckoner for the health-consciousquot; My Doctor, a health magazine, is available in more than 200 cities and towns across India and abroad. In its sixth year of publication the magazine is published by the company that brings out The Indian Practitioner and The Journal Of General Medicine. The June 1999 special issue has an exhaustive article on executive stress. It also covers details about health institutions. Apart from health, the magazine carries articles on hygiene, diet, fashion and body care.

Available at all newstands.