A group of teenagers are on a college tour accompanied by their teachers. They travel through Paris and Vienna. Sounds very interesting particulary when one of the teenager is our friendly neighbourhood Spider Man. This was the narrative of the latest Avenger movie that we watched. It was all good and we were looking forward to a thrilling movie where the protagnist saves the World against all odds until a scenario we face on a daily basis at work features on the screen. So this group of teenagers are traveling through Europe and they reach Vienna from Paris. All along Spidy is doing his thing and saving the World. As the group arrives at their hotel in Vienna, they are welcomed into a crumbeled and delapilated hotel. The young students are not at all pleased and they take up the griviance with their teacher. Who pacifies them and tells them that he will get a refund from the travel company. Thats it, this scenario did it for us. We come to see movies like the Avengers to escap...

Some of the small joys of life that take us through a day is the number of shares and likes our post, picture or blog get. We keep fidgeting with our phone to see if there is some new interest in what we have expressed. While sometimes this could be the reason for added misery when we do not get enough traction as well, however we cannot resist the idea of sharing with the world our stories, thoughts and feelings.   As a small business in the travel segment, the first or second point of reference is always the website. When we started off in 2003 having a website was a big deal. We got our first website up after many delays, still remember the happiness of seeing our company on the World Wide Web, there was dial up internet back then and it took like forever to load, that somehow did not matter back in the day. As we grew in business, our website improved, the second time we made a website, it was by our friend who never charged us for the service. He was a professional ...

The to do list for small businesses An entrepreneuer has different roles to play, this is a known fact and folks who choose this path are aware of the same.  A decade back  if you are good at what you are, you get known and accepted, and you had to focus on just getting better. These days besides being good at your line of work you have to be a good writer, phtographer, accountant, brand manager, website developer etc. The to do list of an average day is something like this -  Click amazing pictures for your social media promotions Think of amazing content for your blog Add fresh pages to your website Tally accounts and get all the billing done Prepare presentations for your sales meetings Design new products for promotions Keep up with the operations and make sure guests are satisfied Address griviances  Manage finaces  The list keeps growing, if you are working in a small team like we do all the above tasks happen ba...

Being part of start up's has now become acceptable and aspirational, lets spare a thought for the tireless and enterprising tribe of entrepreneurs of the 80's and 90's. We are privileged to be part of an era which has seen the likes of Flipkart and Ola, there is acceptability and encouragement from the most unlikely corners for a new venture and idea. The narrative has changed for the better just recently for budding entrepreneurs. Rewind a couple of decades back and the world was so different. Even if you had a brilliant idea and the skills and capabilities to build a business the circumstances were not encouraging. Recently I saw a Malayalam movie - "Varavelp" starring Mohanlal. The movie which released in  1989 tells a story which effectively depicts the challenges of starting up in the 90's. The Plot Murali (Mohanlal) returns home after 07 years in the gulf. His 2 brothers and their families are very excited to see him after all his job in the gulf was th...

Five Reasons To Do The Goa Food Trail... Goa may be India’s party capital but to dismiss it as just that would be criminally unjust to its mellower side. Away from crowded beaches, crazy binges and exorbitant resorts hides another Goa, a world within a world, where time has slowed down and the old-world charm has not faded. Speaking of a world within a world, there’s more to Goan food than sea food, sausages and recheado. A small but proud Saraswat community has kept alive its vegetarian culinary heritage with dishes such as muskachi bhaaji (drumstick flower curry), Keli Kappa (plantain wedges or chips),  alu che ros (a coconut-based dish) and, of course, the famous sol kadhi (kokum and coconut drink). So, why not combine these two lesser-known facets of the tiny state to give you an experience that is both bespoke and memorable. Here are five reasons you should embark on the Goa Food Trail with Indigo Holidays: 1. GOA, BUT NOT QUITE GOA: Give the beaches of Calan...

The teenage years are described in Wikipedia as “ years in which rapid physical growth and psychological changes occur. A long process that begins with a surge in hormone production, which in turn causes a number of changes” Now that is too many changes happening at the same time. No wonder the teenage years are considered volatile and temperamental. Tough times lie ahead for us as we have someone in our midst who is stepping into its teens. Happy Birthday Indigo Holidays , you are 13 years now. March 07 th 2003 was when our company was registered in Mapusa, Goa. Since then we have been celebrating every year on March 07 th , a time just to get together and have fun for surviving another year in this tough, competitive and ever changing travel industry. Not much of a political person but our former prime minister has been referred to as an "Accidental Prime Minister". We think the title - "Accidental Entrepreneur"is just apt for us. We are not the lot wh...

I am a firm believer that magic created in certain destinations should not be replicated else where. With magic I mostly refer to food. For example, I would never order a Goan fish curry and rice outside Goa, similarly there are many street food joints in Goa that are known for Wada - Pav but I have never had the courage to have them there. Some how Wada - Pav is synonymous to Mumbai and how ever good the taste it is not complete without having it on a busy road in Mumbai, with lots of crowd, noise, honking and chaos. Certain dishes and delicacies are complete only at certain locales. In our annual visit to Kerala (our home town) the early morning's I look forward to Kattan Kappi (Black Coffee) also known just as "Kattan". Some how the urge to have them never kicks inn while at home in Goa or Mumbai. It is not all about the coffee but the whole package of having a hot glass of kattan while watching elders reading Malayalam Manorama and discussing the news in the thinna...