Celebrity Home

Mukesh Ambani

The billionaire chairman of Reliance Industries and fourth richest man in the world, Mukesh Ambani will soon move in to his new house, Antilia in Mumbai. And this 27-storey mansion is anything but ordinary, because at $1 billion, it’s the world’s most expensive home ever built. 
 
Fact # 1:  This 550-foot skyscraping home for five is built on a 49,000-square-foot plot and consequently has more floor space than the gigantic French Palace of Versailles. Also, there are nine elevators to take family and guests to their destinations. What’s interesting about Antilla is that no floor is alike, whether in design or even materials used – all at the request of Mukesh’s wife Nita Ambani. So one thing Antilla doesn’t have space for is repetition. The idea, say the mansion’s designers, was to blend styles to give the feel of consistency, but without repetition. 
 
Fact # 2: Every whim of the family is catered for. The Ambani home is equipped with a health spa, a salon, a ballroom, a 50-seat movie theatre and multiple swimming pools, yoga and dance studios and ice cream room. And if anyone really wants to beat Mumbai heat, they can head off to the snow room that spits out man-made snow flakes. 
 
Fact # 3: And yes, Mukesh Ambani has devoted six floors to his beloved cars, including his Rs5 crore Maybach. He even has his own car service station on floor seven. 
 
Fact # 4: It might be a skyscraper, but Antilia still has a garden. The smartly built mansion’s garden lies in the space that holds the ‘W’-shape beams that support the upper floors. The hanging gardens are not just for show though; the plants are energy-saving devices that absorb sunlight keeping the interior of the house cool. 
 
Fact # 5: It reportedly takes a staff of 600 to maintain the world’s most expensive home. But Mukesh Ambani makes sure that his employees are taken care of as well. There’s also an entourage room where security/body guards and other assistants can relax.

John Abraham

John Abraham let Vogue India into his swanky new home in Mumbai. And boy were we impressed with the clean lines and uncluttered chicness (very un-Bollywood, I say) of Abraham's new duplex.

The entire home - spread across 5,000 sqft and two floors - is made almost entirely using wood and glass. Abraham's new home has been restructured by his father, architect Abraham John and brother, Alan. Highlights of Abraham's new home include wraparound views of the Arabian Sea, a glass-walled bathroom complete with Jacuzzi as well as a 130 inch projector screen. 

Shah Rukh Khan Home in Dubai 

Shah Rukh Khan's luxury holiday home in Dubai is under the taxman's scanner. The I-T department is questioning whether the Rs. 17.84 crore Signature Villa on The Palm Jumeirah was a gift, as the actor claims, or payment for Shah Rukh Khan's endorsement of the Palm Jumeirah.

But whether or not Shah Rukh ends up paying taxes for this luxury Dubai villa, it is one of the Bollywood star's bolt holes. Khan told TLC he enjoyed going to Palm Jumeirah villa because it's 'really fun with the kids' because of the privacy it affords his family.

Lakshmi Mittal

Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, recently announced his plans to build a £30 million (approx Rs. 220 crore) eco-friendly mansion in Surrey, on the outskirts of London. The modern home is touted to be so ‘green’ that the entire 340-acre estate will be carbon negative, as reported by Hindustan Times.

It will cost Mittal - Europe’s richest man - millions to make the 10-bedroom mansion, with indoor/outdoor swimming pools, a basement art gallery and croquet lawn an environmentally sound home that will be heated by giant biomass fuel boilers and solar panels.

But this is not the only Mittal home that’s made news. His real estate portfolio consists of several note-worthy properties:

Scotland’s Most Expensive Home

In January, this year, we told you Mittal was building a luxury home in Scotland. Mittal has knocked down a £4 million property to build his new home, valued at around £15 million (approx Rs. 109 crore), making it Scotland’s most expensive home. The Mittal mansion is coming up in one of the most elite neighbourhoods, right near the Gleneagles golf course in Perthshire County. This luxury villa has six bedrooms and two kitchens. The wallpaper and furniture are from Ralph Lauren’s home collection. The wooden flooring and tiles have been flown in from Germany and a super luxe bathroom is estimated to be worth £80,000 (approx Rs. 58 lakh).

Billionaire Home

Mittal bought his first super luxury house on Billionaire’s Row, aka Kensington Palace Gardens, for £57million (approx Rs.400 crore) in 2004 from Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone. Known as the Taj Mittal, it is said to be the world’s most expensive private home today, with a valuation of £250 million. The mansion is made using marble imported from the quarry that supplied to the Taj Mahal. It has 12 bedrooms, a Turkish bath, a massive ballroom, a rare bejewelled swimming pool, an oak-panelled picture gallery, and parking for 20 cars.

Britain’s Most Expensive Home

In 2008, Mittal went and bought a lavishly furnished property, No 6 Palace Greens, which also had a significant art collection, for £117million (approx Rs. 800 crore), making it the most expensive property purchase in Britain at the time. This four-storey house has five bedroom suites and an extensive servants’ quarter. It was built from red brick and Portland stone in the early 1900s, and measures 13,000 sqft – which he gifted to his son Aditya Mittal.
 

Property No 3 on Billionaire Row

Few months after buying Britain’s most expensive home, Mittal spent another £70 million (approx Rs. 500 crore) on No 9 Palace Greens, which was formerly the Filipino embassy, for his daughter Vanisha Mittal.

 
A Mansion in Delhi

In 2005, Mittal bought a colonial bungalow, No 22, Aurangzeb Road, for $7.5 million (approx Rs. 31 crore) in one of New Delhi’s most exclusive neighbourhoods, that is also home to other millionaires likes the Birlas, as well as embassies.

The billionaire also reportedly has homes in Indonesia and Trinidad, bringing the total count to eight.

Imran Khan

Bollywood heartthrob Imran Khan has big plans to make his new home eco-friendly. The house, which belonged to his grandfather Nasir Hussain, will soon get an environmentally-sound makeover, Khan told the Times of India. 
 
The Pali Hill, Bandra, bungalow is being redesigned and renovated by the same architect who worked on South Indian film star Nagarjuna's house in Hyderabad. Imran and Avantika apparently do not want to construct a high-rise. 

In the meantime, peek inside Shah Rukh Khan's Dubai home and John Abraham's new house.

Their new home will have a manicured lawn, a windmill, a swimming pool and a theatre. Windmills help generation of electricity without contributing to global warming. Imran had said earlier that he is keen on introducing solar energy into his home. The tiles chosen for the couple's new home are also eco-friendly.
 
According to Khan, there are plans to add a new wing to the Pali Hill bungalow to create more space for him and his wife Avantika Malik. Imran and Avantika will be sharing their new home with Khan's mother Nuzhat Husain, who is also Nasir Husain's daughter.

Image and Article Credit: www.luxpresso.com

The Absentee Boss

At first glance, it looks like the perfect situation - nobody to glare at you when you’re five minutes late, ask you how many coffee / cigarette breaks you’re taking, comment on your appearance, etc, etc. And you’re right - it is. The mistake, the trap, as it were, is to think that that’s all it means. 

Being your own master means freedom - and power to establish your own rules. But as you may have recently heard in a fairly popular movie, with power comes responsibility. Responsibility for your own actions! 

But why do you need to be responsible? Can’t you just sit back, relax, and as long as the work is getting done, enjoy some of the benefits? Why do you need to become your own conscience? Here’s why.

Gossip 

Without your supervisor around, you’re that much more vulnerable to backbiting and gossip. Because this may happen when you aren’t around, you won’t even be aware of it, and neither will your boss - so wrong impressions can get formed and cast in stone fairly fast. It’s also very easy for this impression to circulate back to your boss at some point; and by then, it’s too late to correct it.

Misunderstandings

Miscommunication in a carelessly-worded email, or an unanswered call, is very easy. All the other cues which demonstrate your commitment and hard work are missing. Long hours and visible stress doesn’t show up on the report delivered the next morning.

Tips to handle an absentee boss: 

• Discipline yourself. You have to work twice as hard to maintain that same good impression.
• Don’t fall into a comfort zone; you may not be aware that negative perceptions are being built till it’s too late.
• Put everything on mail, so there’s not chance of any accidental or convenient forgetting - and your sent items folder is a ready reckoner for everything you said.
• Learn to use the calendar feature and ’mark for follow-up’ feature on your mailbox. It will ensure you avoid the forgetfulness trap. If your boss sees you every day, he can remind you about pending tasks. If he isn’t around, he’ll recall it only when it blows up into a problem.
• Don’t be a problem - be a solution. If you say something’s going wrong, have a course of action ready. You have to do it because you’re in charge, and your boss won’t see you as someone who only appears in calamities.
• Talk as often as you can. Make sure he always knows your situation and point of view, instead of depending on second-hand talk.
• Summarise the day, daily. This way he knows what’s going on and so do you when you walk in the next morning.
• Build relationships with other people. They’re already jealous of your freedom; win them over, get them on your side.
• And if all else fails - always have a backup plan ready, if the worst happens. Being unprepared when he asks you about a complaint received will only reinforce that complaint. 
  
  With these tips, having an absentee boss won’t be such a problem after all!
  
  
  Image and article Credit: Idiva.com 

Is Your Partner Emotionally Cheating on You?

While the advent of new technology has brought couples closer together, offering new, unique ways to keep in touch, it has also brought new, unique ways to cheat on your better half. For most, cheating has always been considered as physical intimacy with someone besides your significant other. But 10 years into the new millennium, we’ve noticed that even cheating has got an upgrade!

Physical cheating is obviously easier to spot; you catch your lover in the arms of another, call him a bunch of four- to seven-letter words, and storm off. It’s cut and dry, and therefore avoided—except by those really good at hiding their promiscuity. But emotional cheating is hard to spot, even by those committing the act. However, if you find yourself connecting excessively with the following three types of guys, you should know that your significant other will most likely consider that cheating.

The Confidant
Having purely online friends can be a great thing. They tend to be disconnected from the rest of your life, are better at keeping your secrets—since they’ve got no one you know to divulge them to—and are, usually, always there to talk. It might not seem like a big thing at first, but as you start to get more comfortable talking to them, you’ll find yourself telling them stuff you wouldn’t reveal to even your closest friends in the real world.
The reason guys consider this cheating is a simple one: the more emotionally close you are with some other guy, the less dependent you will be on your spouse. Plus, there’s always the added knowledge we have that any straight guy trying to be your friend doesn’t just want to be your friend!

The Flirt
Harmless flirting, an oxymoron if we ever heard one. The ambiguous sport of flirting—indulged in by office colleagues, college friends, and strangers at the club—has led to many a heated argument. Nevertheless, instant messengers and free messaging services have opened up new avenues for ‘harmless flirting’ that are, unsurprisingly, instant and free.

Which brings us back to our original point: harmless flirting is like casual sex—a made-up term for something that we want to exist, but that never will. The reason guys tend to be wary of girls’ harmless flirting with male friends is that it’s only a blurry line away from harmful flirting; and which is why, guys consider it emotionally cheating.

The Ex
Your most likely partner in crime to emotionally (and physically) cheat on your boyfriend with, the ex is a mix of both confidant and flirt—with a little bit of ‘guy who knows how to push your buttons’, for good measure. But while exes were a little harder to stumble upon earlier, today, Facebook actually notifies you when your ex is single again—clearly the social network has something against people in relationships.
You start out just trying to be friends again (remember what we said about straight guys who want to be friends?), suddenly you’re reminiscing about old times, and before you know it, you’re indulging in some harmless flirting. We highly doubt your ex is worth the trouble of keeping around. So unless he got you tickets to the World Cup final, you might want to make your boyfriend a little happier and just ‘unfriend’ him.

Image and Article: Idiva.com 

Skinny Fat

Skinny Fat is a new term, new to health and fitness jargon, and there are a growing number of people (women in particular, starlets even more in particular) that are affected by this phenomenon. When you are skinny fat, you may look great on the outside, and definitely as skinny as the magazines want you to be, but on the inside your body has high levels of fat instead of healthy lean muscle mass. A skinny fat person (you know who we’re talking about) may look great in a v-neck, but ask her to expose an upper thigh or an upper arm, and layers of fat in the form of cellulite on sagging skin may be hiding there. When muscle and fat is evenly distributed you have far less cellulite.

Skinny Fat is a condition that affects more women than men. This is primarily because men aren't scared of lifting heavy weights (and also men naturally have far more muscle than fat). Women, on the other hand, are usually afraid of weight lifting to build lean muscle, as the fear of bulking up is quite high. Along with the absence of weight training, women are also easy prey to fad diets that lack essential nutrients, while sticking only to cardio at the gym and following fitness fads. 

On Health Me Up we maintain that fitting into a smaller dress size is not half as important as being healthy by eating right and exercising well. And we know now that simply being skinny is not the same as being healthy. The skinnier you get without putting on muscle, the more likely the chances of Osteoporosis! 

Image and Article: www.healthmeup.com

: 

The less lean muscle you have, the less work your bones have to do, and they begin to shed that incredibly valuable osseous material: Your bones, which are, in fact, living tissues directly related to your blood, immune system, strength, longevity – even your mood. You have to feed them, and weight-bearing exercises are food for your bones.

There is only one solution to problems like Osteoporosis, a belly that won’t budge, and looking good in a bikini! – Weight bearing exercises. This requires a mindset change for most women who are still stuck in the aerobics and cardio rut. Yes its important to do cardio, and yes it will make you thin. But it won’t increase your metabolism, and it won’t help you build muscle. 

The perfect way to be skinny fat is by running 15 miles a day and living on juice, fruits, and other incomplete diets. Yes, you will be skinny, but don’t tell us we didn’t warn you about the dangers of living such an unhealthy existence. For those of you out there, who think that you are fit and healthy but are regularly falling sick, have low immunity and are injury prone, think again!

First Date

If you've read our article about getting her number, you know that it might not really mean anything. And for that very reason, she just might not give you you'll know that there's a chance she might just NOT give you her number

So how do you make her phone number's debut error-proof?

Have a reason

To make the prospect of her thinking of you (yes, you!) as someone who is meaningful and believable to her in the near future, you need to create a reason. Something tangible. Which is you you will not want to "meet up for coffee." Coffee sounds either watery or a discrete way ofasking her out for a date - both of which are useless if you want to make her comfortable with you.

A simple way of getting around this is to use anything you talked about (and to which we favorably responded) as a way to create a possible event - or purpose, in which she would participate.

If she smiled when you mentioned your time volunteering at a local animal shelter, casually mention that she should check it out.

Make her Ask You

And I mean exactly that - give her a taste of something nice from your life - there's a chance that it might click with some of her own desires. If it does, she'll either tell you directly, or you'll be able to tell how she responds to it through her body language. If you think it's something she would really enjoy, ask her out.

Her Phone Number and the Date 'Just Happen'

Because that feels fake, pre-planned, and has no emotional appeal to either you or her - and you won't emotionally savor it as much. Neither will she, for the same reasons. Internalize that getting her number isn't a big deal; a simple way of being that is to continue talking to her, as if nothing happened. Talk about anything, but stay and chill-a-while.

While neither the phone number nor the date are a big deal, it's the date that you should actually prioritize; the phone number is just contact information. It could be even be her Facebook ID.

Make it Funny

Things like a nickname for her, an inside joke will create an easy banter, and anything fun is a good platform for socializing.

Does She Have your Number?

In the eagerness of getting her number, you could have forgotten to get her number. (Eagerness. Or fear) However, when she gets a call from a number she doesn't know, there's a good chance she won't pick up. Or answer the call with wariness. To reverse this, have her plug in your number with a nickname, or something fun.

Image and Article Credit: MensXP.com