Spot light

For Total Care of your beauty needs...

Located off the Kamal Ataturk Avenue in the lane beside Mayasir, Total Care Bangladesh is a hair and beauty salon for both men and women. Don't wrinkle your noses just yet. We all know we aren't all as comfortable having our hair up or our faces covered in bleach in front of men. Total care has separate floors for men and women to avoid just that.

Part of the chain of Ramani Fernando salons, from Srilanka, Total Care came to Dhaka equipped with her 25 years of experience in the profession as well as trained Bangladeshi beauticians to whom the knowledge and skills are being transferred. In fact, over the past one and a half years or so, the local owner and beautician, Sonial R. Khan has been trying to focus on the training of these local beauticians, to dissipate the skills and make the special care available |o all the customers regardless of which beautician is dealing with them.

The place has two sets of price lists, one for acquizing highly trained beauticians from Srilanka and another for local trained beauticians, and both are a bit on the high side with haircuts costing up to TK 650. But they do offer a wide variety of treatments such as a long list of different kinds of facials and hairstyling, etc and they claim that the products they use, albeit expensive European ones, are guaranteed to work and produce the best effects. Warmed by the serene, clean and functional decor and the friendly smiles of the attendants and watching customers smiling at their reflections in the mirror, it is not hard to believe that.

Total care provides other services such as bridal and groom make up and dressing packages which cost between Tk2500 and Tk3500 and they are working on and planning to add to this sec|ion soon. They don't want to keep customers waiting in line regardless of what it is they want to do at the salon, so they encourage calling ahead of time to make appointments. Their phone number is 9861581. As their name suggests, the management and beauticians at this salon seem to genuinely want to take total care of you and your needs, so if you're willing to pay the price and get the extra bit, go ahead and make that appointment.

By Diya

News flash

Uddagy

Shamima Rahman (Sayla) is the President of Uddagy Training Center and Uddagy Handicrafts. She is an example of self-employment / establishment through hard work, dependence and honesty. Rahman started with a small project named Uddagy, one which at present has expanded and become Uddagy Training and Uddagy Embroidery Center (located in 198, Senpara Parbot, Mirpur10, Dhaka1216).

Rahman has achieved First Prize at the Youth Fair in 1998, the National Best Youth Award in 2000, CYP Asia Award in 2000-2001, and so on. She has also achieved a lot of National and International certificates for her excellence in youth work. To further add to her accolades, she has accomplished a lot of training at home and abroad on boutiques, cookeries, handicrafts, etc. Currently, she trains on such items at her training center. Shamima Rahman is also the trainer of the Youth Development of Bangladesh, and Pidlite Industries Ltd., Mumbai, India. Certificates from her center are recognized by both the Government of Bangladesh and Pidlite Industries Ltd. At present, both the privileged as well as the poor are working with Shamima Zahman. Her goal is to establish a commercial complex for the less fortunate, so that they are able to improve their financial conditions on their own.

Cotopex

The cosmetics, toiletries and perfumeries (COTOPEX) exhibition was held at the Sheraton Hotel between the 30th of September and October 2nd. The exhibition, which was organised by Triune exhibition and event management services, comprised of different companies in the local market and it displayed both local and foreign products. The idea of the show was to bring a large number of manufacturers, distributors and importers together, thus exposing the customers or visitors to the wide array of products in the market.

The exhibition was one of a kind, and it had varied products ranging from cosmetics to contact lenses. The majority of the stalls at the exhibition were devoted to cosmetics, as many imported as well as local products were on display. Apart from cosmetics, the home decoration stalls and the ornament stalls were very popular amongst visitors. Home appliances were also available at the exhibition; even beauty and skincare stalls were available. The thing that stood out at the exhibition was the wide array of products available to the visitors. There were special discounts at some of the stalls and this helped promotions for the individual companies.

The exhibition is a great step towards promoting the ever-growing cosmetics and toiletries industry in Bangladesh, and therefore, it received a good response from the public.

Bangladesh food festival and cultural show

A Bangladesh food festival and cultural show was held at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel between the 27th and 28th of September. The food festival and cultural show was organised at the Café Bazar restaurant to celebrate World Tourism day.

The cultural show comprised of a live cultural fiesta with traditional songs, dances and folk music topped off with great Bangladeshi cuisine. The hotel also set up a display of Bangladeshi Musical instruments, with a variety of instruments spanning from the do-tara to |ablas. The display gave visitors the chance to touch and see the instruments used in the cultural show, and gave them the option of purchasing as well. There was also a display of Bangladeshi fishes at the show, with the huge swordfish being the main attraction.

The show's main target was to promote Bangladeshi culture to foreign visitors on account of World tourism day, and the food menu of Café Bazar was altered for the occasion. It consisted of sumptuous Bengali cuisine prepared specially for the occasion.

Check it out

Dressydale's Puja collection

This autumn, Dressydale brings to you its Durga Puja collection keeping an eye on the upcoming festival. All the Dressydale branches shall feature the new Puja collection, which puts the spotlight on contemporary changes in the fashion world. The collection basically comprises of shalwar kameezes made from different fabrics, fatuas, panjabis and sarees. The new line draws its motivation from primitive art, caleography and modern art.

Palate pleasers from Sheraton

If you're planning to tickle your taste buds, hop over to Sheraton where they're having two special food promotions between October 1 to October 31.

Italian cuisine takes on a new turn at the Italia Bar & Bistro with the flavour of Pasta. Executive Chef Adam Glass has created an array of mouth-watering pasta delights that could create a part of your healthy lifestyle. Get a plate and select your pasta, choosing from chicken to vegetable, and olives, peppers, tomato or cheese.

Savour a great selection of Italian pasta at lunchtime and enjoy a fzee soup or salad!

Dine in an informal style at the Italia Bar & Bistro during the lunchtime between 11.00 am to 3.00 pm from October 1 to October 31.

There will also be a coffee promotion with a touch of different flavours at the Lobby Café for those who want to relax and enjoy light snacks over a selection of international coffees.

During the promotion you will get the opportunity to enjoy from a range of Calypso Coffee (Coffee with Rum, Tia Maria and Sugar Syrup), Irish Coffee (Coffee with Irish Whiskey) or special non-alcoholic Cappuccino, Flat White, and Hot Chocolate Coffee.

The Lobby Café is open until 10.00 p.m.

By LS Desk

The Penguin book fair

It's books galore for those who enjoy a good read. The Penguin Book fair is on at Etc. in Gulshan between October 1 to October 31.

From Classics, to popular fiction, to self-help books, you name it, it's there. The store has recently added another level by moving a few of their book sections upstairs, so there's even more variety than before.

There is a special offer of an instant Valued Customer Programme (VCP) membership, and Double Bonus points for existing VCP members who purchase a Penguin book. For the uninitiated, the system is as follows:

Books at Etc. are worth a certain number of points. VCP members score points through their purchase, and accumulate these points. Finally, when they have a certain number of points, they can use these to get a book worth that number of points for free. Of course, certain conditions apply, and for more information, you have to talk to the people there.

Etc. is located on Gulshan Avenue, right next to Pizza Hut, so if you're a book lover, do make it a point to drop in on this fabulous fair.

By Sabrina F Ahmad

TIPS

Interesting uses of hairdryer
Many women in today's orld treat hairdryer as a truly useful electrical device. If you are a college or office goer, then such a dryer especially comes handy when you take a quick shower in the morning. But beside{ soaking up bath water from hair, a hairdryer can also come into numerous other interesting purposes.

Did you ever know that the warm air from a hairdryer helps to remove bandages from wounds? Just blow warm air on the plaster, and Voila your band-aid will come off very easily.

A hairdryer can also be used as a good duster. Those hard-to-reach places on top of high furniture can be cleaned by blowing air from a hairdryer. You can also blow dust off from underneath electrical gadgets like computer and stereo with a dryer.

There are people who love to arrange barbecue nights with friends and relatives at lmast once a year. If you have all the necessary arrangement at home, then thzow a party soon. And in the upcoming party you can use your wife's hairdryer to fan the charcoal briquettes with the hairdryer set at low.

If the toes of your sneakers never seem to dry after a considerable session of workout, then use a hairdryer to fan the inside of your gym shoes. Just aim the nozzle of the dryer set on low into each shoe for 5 to 6 minutes.

Lastly, you can use this small and useful gadget to dry your garments. If the weather is drizzly and there is no sun outside to dry your clothes, then hang the just-washed clothes from the towel rack of your bathroom and blow-dry. This |rick would also come useful to people who travel frequently to places with little or no facility to dry clothes outside.

By Penelope

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Hanging Out

Abacus

The unique red-black exterior and thm very signage will drag you inside this smart bistro. Abacus stands proudly on Gulshan 1 Avenue, and attracts a lot of food lovers everyday. If you ever step inside this small rmstaurant and try their cuisine, it is guaranteed that you will visit this place again.

If you want to lunch out in a good place with your buddies, pay a visit to this eating house and try one of their set lunches. You can get away with a scrumptious and filling set lunch at Abacus within tk.110 to tk.130.

The interior is cosy yet s|ylish. The place is very clean and the lighting arrangement at the ceiling is wonderful. You will also be impressed with the good manners of the staff. You can either choose to sit in their regular steel chairs or in the comfy leather sofas or even on the high seats that they have nicely placed for their customers.

Abacus offers a really wide range of Chinese and Thai cuisine for their valued consumers. They offer set meals for two, |hree and four pmople. A set meal for two will cost tk.380, while set meals for three and four people will cost tk.750 and tk.900 respectively. You can also dine at Abakus with your family (for 4 persons) for tk.1200. A family dinner will include appetizer, soup of the day, special fried rice, Thai fried chicken, sweet sour prawn, beef chilli with oyster sauce and ice-cream.

The ea|ery offers a broad range of delicious appetizers, soups, salads and preparations of fish, prawn, beef, chicken, vegetable, zice and chowmein. And you will find each of these items between tk.100 and tk.250. At Abacus, you will also find beverages like fresh fruit juice of mango, pineapple and orange, milk shake, lassi, lemonade and cold/espresso/Nescafe coffee.

Abacus's special dishes include Mexican cutlet, meatballs with French fries, steak sandwich with French fries, chicken shashlik with fried rice and others. You can try each of their exclusive items for tk.120 to tk.160.

So the next time you want to eat out with your friends or family in a quality place with mouth-watering food, let Abacus top the list of your preferences. To get a good value for your money, and to take a break from home made food, you can always stex inside this small but lovely restaurant.

By Wara Karim