Flipkart : India ka Apna Amazon!

I just love this website. Since long time I was looking for a Indian website which will give me power to order the books which I keep looking at Amazon and do not order due to various reasons. Although Amazon rocks with its reviews and gives lot of confidence when buying a book.

Flipkart has changed the scene with lot of books available, both Indian and International Edition. When I first used their service I smelled Amazon :) ..Well later in a magazine I read that both the founders had a small stint @ Amazon :).

What I like :

• Intuitive website design
• Good collection of books, both Indian and International authors.
  
• Get to order a book which is recently released Internationally
• Super fast delivery - almost got all my orders till date within 3 days of order placed
• Good packing in bubble wrap
  
• Cash on Delivery option : This is something everybody will love as you not get bothered by Internet Payments.
• Good search mechanism
• Free delivery of books
  

What needs improvement:

• Make website design with less clutter
• Special attention to Book Reviews and Book view page should have less Ads!
• Please give Bookmarks with all books :)
• Need to have star rating on book reviews
• Give more discounts on International Editions!
  

Overall the idea rocks!. I am sure they will go long way with their innovation and offer more discounts on international editions to have more buyers! I have not used their other items which they sell too like Mobiles, gifts etc.

I wish they can also influence some International publishers to publish Indian Editions of books available outside India.

I wish them good luck!

Cost of living in Singapore 2010 for married couple with one kid

Its been long time I have written about cost of living in Singapore. 2010 is mid way and I guess it is right time to share some more information with my readers!. In start of 2010 in Singapore, not much rise in rents is seen. But now I heard from my friends that rents are increasing as they are trying to renew their contracts. For long time I wanted to share this post about cost of living in Singapore for married couple with 1 kid. As many of my readers were looking for this information. It is easy to search now a days with google, but if you get something handy it works best :)

If you look at cost it is not much changed from 2009 for most of the things except rent which is increasing in few areas. As I have mentioned in my earlier post too, rent is something you can control too by staying away from city center. As commute in Singapore is very well managed, you reach office pretty fast with combination of MRT and Bus in peak hours.



Kids Expenses : Kids are expenses are something one need to calculate with some flexible budget as most of the activities you are not aware that you will start or not. It also depends how old your kid is when you first arrive in Singapore. As the time goes, kids expenses does go up in any country. In Singapore you have lots of activities for kids which are all year round, like Swimming, Skating etc ..Which normally in India are restricted to warm seasons!. So make sure that you make a good estimate of kids expenses before decide to jump on a plane to Singapore!.

Indian International Schools in Singapore: This is very important decision for Indian Kids. I get lot of emails of readers asking for information on fees and why Indian International School etc. About fees, I have already provided that information, but you need to verify from School websites as these things do change yearly. If you plan to stay in Singapore for short term(3-5 years) I would recommend to go for Indian International School for your child. Although it is expensive as compared to Singapore Local Schools, it makes life much easier for the kid when he/she returns back to India. All the the Indian International Schools in Singapore are affiliated to CBSE. Based on your location you can decide the school. In my personal opinion NPS is a good school which is started recently there. DPS and GIIS are also well managed schools.One good thing about these schools is that generally you get admissions easily whenever you need and fees are published on websites. There are no donations, just refundable deposits.

I hope this helps you. Please do email me if you need any more specific information.

Related Posts :

Cost of living in Singapore in 2010
Preparing for Moving to Singapore
What is comfortable Salary in Singapore

Yakult in India!!

Those who don't know, Yakult is a fermented milk drink!. I remember my good old days of driving Energy Drink ....not many stalls see now having that milk bottle. Now we have Yakult in India!. I used to drink this in Singapore.

In HDB apartments in Singapore there used to be Yakult Ladies delivering Yakult at door step. Now we have similar concept in India too. If you like flavored milk, you will like Yakult too!...try once!

Daily Piyo, Healthy Jiyo !!