SUSPENDED FOOD

Suspended Food is a new concept that is catching up all over the world.  When you go to a restaurant you order food for two and eat your share.  The other share is reserved for a person who needs the food and cannot afford to pay for the same.

It all began nearly 100 years ago in Italy with the "caffe sospeso" which means "Suspended Coffee".  The customer will pay twice for one espresso, instructing the baristo to record the extra amount.  Paid items would then remain in the logbook until someone less fortunate would come and ask for something to drink. They would then be served the coffee for free.

It is a fantastic system that works on goodwill whereby the donors would never meet the beneficiaries.

Starbucks adopted the campaign recently and took the concept of "Suspended Coffee" across the world.

The Good Samaritans in Singapore have started a facebook campaign through a fb page "chope food for the needy".  It will allow people to reserve food in the food court and hawker stalls around the city and the food will be served to the needy.

The concept of "Suspended Food" has caught on well in Hongkong as well.  Watch this video:

While feeding yourself and treating yourself to a good lunch you end up paying for food which is reserved for someone who needs it and does not have the means to pay.  You do not know who that someone is and will never get to know or identify.  It is a great feeling to do something for someone whom you dont know and will never be able to identify and meet.

While it is a fantastic concept the real challenge is in implementing it and ensuring that the purpose is served well.  If the restaurant that I frequent is willing to do this in a credible way, I will have no hesitation to pay for two meals every time I go there to have a meal.

T.P.Anand
Dubai, U.A.E.
31st July 2013

EXPERT

Who is an Expert?  Who can be an Expert?  Nowadays everybody is claiming to be an Expert in something or the other.  I was wondering how one can become an Expert? or when one can claim to be an Expert?

Why do you want to be an Expert?  If the objective is to reach a leadership position in the chosen field then it is important to gain the in-depth knowledge and expertise.

The most important and the first investment to be made by someone wanting to be an Expert is time and energy.  If the time is not allocated for upgrading the knowledge and gaining expertise then it would never be possible for one to become an Expert.

First to become an Expert there has to be a proper and positive Mindset.  The positive mindset will lead to professionalism and help gain further knowledge.  An open mind to upgrade and improve the knowledge base as well as the technical skills in the chosen field is the key to success.  This will also help to build the will power and self motivation to achieve greater heights.

Regular and sustained practice will help to perfect what we have chosen to do.  Through practice and repeated execution of the chosen task experience will be gained and thereby the expertise will automatically be gathered.

Positive Mindset to get the expertise and rigorous practice alone will not help us to become an Expert.  It is extremely important to build a network with the best in the chosen field and get feedback from them.  The feedback that we get from the Industry Peers who are best in what they do will also help us to constantly improve and get to appropriate bench-marking.  Over a period of time instead of bench-marking with the best we will become the best to be bench-marked by others.

Above all you should love what you are doing.  People expect a high level of substance, experience and knowledge which should get coupled with passion.  We will be passionate about our chosen field only when we form a love for what we do.  An expert will have a passion and a deep love for the chosen activity or skill or field.

To stay an Expert it is important to indulge in Continuous Education.  Reading, Writing, Speaking and consulting on the chosen area will help to stay focused.  Focus and ability to dig deeper into the chosen field will eventually help us to stay as an Expert for a long long time.

Each one of us is capable of becoming an Expert.

T.P.Anand
Dubai, U.A.E.
16th July 2013.

MADELEINE CAMERA

Madeleine is the Camera that has been recently invented to capture and store smell.  We are used to Camera that can capture and store important moments in life.  The Digital Camera is now very much part of all the mobile phones and we have got so much used to taking pictures with our mobile phones.

The capturing of moments through still photography and video has been widely used by most people across the globe.  How about capturing those smells in life and storing the same so that we can feel the smell at a later stage in life?  What an idea and what an incredible invention.

In order to use the Madeleine Camera a person needs to place the funnel over the object or environment they wish to capture, then a pump sucks the air across an odour trap made of Tenax - a porous polymer resin, which absorbs the volatile particles that make up the smell.  Users can take their exposed odour traps to the local lab in the same way they would take a 35mm film to be processed - the product being not photos, but delicate vials of the scent, along with a bronze disk o the specific formula bringing a precious, ritualistic quality to the process.

Watch the demonstration in this simple video:

HOW TO SUCCEED WITH YOUR MADELEINE from AMY RADCLIFFE on Vimeo.

Having got used to recording images and video clippings, we will now start capturing and recording favourite smell.  This gadget is the result of the invention by designer Amy Radcliffe at Central Saint Martins, U.K.  She is a student at the University of Arts, London.  With this invention we will now start moving from Photography to Scentography.  We are not far away from the day when the Scentography will get integrated into the Mobile Devices as the Mobile Device already has so many features and gadgets rolled into one.

Madeleine is designed to capture the molecular information of a smell and store the same for retrieval at a later stage whenever needed.  This new Madeleine Camera will bring a new revolution in the world of Technology.

Well done Amy Radcliffe and wish you many more such successful inventions.

T.P.Anand

Dubai, U.A.E.

2nd July 2013