Sheraspace, a prop-tech interior design firm, seeks to promote interjecting intricacies of Bangladeshi culture and heritage into modern interior design styles while providing high-quality interior design services for the residents of Dhaka.
The firm came into being to reformulate the service of interior designing upon realising the gravity of humanising one’s dwelling.
Since its inception, the firm’s aim has been to make availing high-quality interior design services for the city dwellers a hassle-free essential rather than an unattainable luxury.
Faced with countless obstacles while getting her own family home designed, Sarjeena Maodud joined hands with Nizam Farid Ahmed to unravel the concept of a prop-tech interior design firm.
Sheraspace, a pool for all things interior, is not limited to just designing and delivering projects. From weekly digital design inspiration in the form of tips and advice on Facebook to quizzes, mood boards and live interactive Q&A sessions with their followers, Sheraspace works on a wide variety of content.
They feature weekly blogs on their site, in both English and Bangla, to raise awareness about home and interiors amongst the audience.
“The goal isn’t just promoting the service, but advocating interior designing as a lifestyle in itself,” said Sarjeena Maodud, co-founder and CEO of Sheraspace.
In the face of adversity
Sarjeena Maodud and Nizam Farid Ahmed, co-founder and COO, agreed that having to shift to remote work for a period of over five months during this coronavirus pandemic made on-site operations unimaginable.
But nothing can make determined minds bow to anything. Thus, they launched the ‘Online Interior Design Consultation’ service - the first of its kind in Bangladesh - where individuals interested in home improvement are able to receive expert interior guidance and plans from the comfort of their home, without getting involved in a long-term project.
Behind the scenes
A peek behind the curtains at Sheraspace will broaden the frame for someone who is foreign to the way a young team of 30 unite their efforts. Ranging from the sales team to marketing, tech, operations and creative and design - every member in each department is assigned tasks catered to their unique set of skills.
As adaptation to technology and automation is pivotal to keep afloat in today’s fast-paced world, Sheraspace has embraced tech as dispensable for an interior design firm.
Its team of astute software engineers work to modify the technological inner workings in an attempt to create a technology-driven service.
According to the co-founders, the company is working to introduce Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality experiences for its clients. Every sales executive is coached in the broad field of interior designing to make her/him best equipped for capturing a client’s unique requirements and accordingly pairing them up with a designer best matched to the consumer’s taste and specifications.
While aiming to revolutionise an industry, the key may be in honing behind and beyond the curtain.
How important is redefining interior design in Dhaka?
Sheraspace believes that in redefining the local interior design scene, the key lies in promoting transparency, quality and reliability.
Attaining a service that is meant to enhance the standard of living is something that a consumer should not need to be apprehensive of. It follows then, reformulating the service of interior designing is imperative and Sheraspace aims to do just that.
Though China's Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly states that "elderly people are citizens over 60 years old," the elderly are getting "younger" in the eyes of many due to a higher national life expectancy, reports Xinhua.
In 1957, a 40-year-old man could have been considered an elderly person in China, because official data shows the average life expectancy of the Chinese population at that time was just 57 years. In 2019, that number was 77.3 years.
Over the past 30 years, China's average life expectancy has increased by about three years every decade.
"With continuously improving medical and social security services in the country, the elderly have been getting healthier," said Xing Yuan, a professor of sociology with Shanxi University. "This will affect people's evaluations of the elderly."
But exactly how old is a senior citizen? There are many differing opinions on this matter. However, interviewed experts, ordinary people and the elderly themselves did not believe 60 to be an old age.
Feng Junqi, a 77-year-old retiree in the city of Changzhi, north China's Shanxi Province, said the ten years between 60 and 70 is a "golden decade."
"Sixty years old is not old. We have time and money, and most people are healthy during the decade. We can actually do whatever we like at that time," Feng said.
For more than 10 years, Feng has been traveling the world and has visited more than 60 countries. Today, he is spending more time on calligraphy than traveling abroad. "Now you can call me an old person," he said.
If you take a look at the streets in China, you can see that the elderly are no longer as "old" as they were 20 years ago. They not only look and dress younger but also live more colorful lives in their later years.
From square dancers and elderly club-goers to football lovers and silver-haired internet celebrities, there is a widespread sense of unwillingness to accept the process of aging.
China's elderly consumption market will hit 3.79 trillion yuan (567 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, according to a report released by the China National Committee on Ageing.
"This is not only because the number of people reaching the legal elderly age continues to increase, but also due to consumer demand generated by the desire to stay young," said Jiang Shan, a senior tour guide in Shanxi Province, adding that major travel agencies are now competing in the elderly tourism market.
Many retirees believe that they can still have significant social value.
Over the past nine years, more than a hundred retirees have been planting trees in the deep mountains of Kelan County, Shanxi Province, greening more than 33 hectares of barren hills.
"We are regarded as senior citizens by law, but we don't feel that old," said Zhang Wenhan, a 74-year-old retired official.
The public's evaluation of age is also affecting policymaking. A few years ago, China began to consider delaying the retirement age, with the general public expressing widespread support for the potential move.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Public Security announced the removal of the upper age limit for car driving license applications.
The number of social security cardholders in China has topped 1.31 billion, covering 93.9 percent of the country's population. The country is now implementing its "Healthy China 2030" strategy, with an action plan covering a period running through 2030.
All efforts will help extend the average life expectancy of the Chinese population and allay the worries of the elderly.
In the future, people who are considered elderly today will be seen as younger in the eyes of the public as age evaluation develops, said Xing Yuan with Shanxi University.
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Weddings globally have taken a massive hit since Covid-19 turned the world upside down; forbidding gatherings in fear of the disease’s transmission. Thankfully, Dhaka and other cities are gradually lightening up the preventive measures gradually despite the epidemic persisting this late into the year. Regardless, safety is still paramount; so here is how you can get married in Bangladesh during Covid-19.
The Engagement Ceremony
Despite facing a constraint in attendees for this festive occasion, throwing an engagement party before the big day is still very possible. In Bangladesh, it is common to commemorate an engagement: a celebration that the bridegroom organises to ask the bride’s hand in marriage in the eyes of close family. The celebration happens in the home of the bride and always involves a lavish feast and a formal exchange of rings to seal the deal before the actual marriage.
As of late, these events have commonly taken place in banquet halls, but seeing as the epidemic is far from over - organising the engagement ceremony within the confines of the bride’s home isn’t a bad thing as it sets an intimate environment for both sides of the family and does not hamper the chances of a celebratory feast. Ideally, the fewer the attendees, the safer; which leads us to recommend at least five members from each side of the family at the maximum.
Sangeet, Mehendi and Gaye Holud
Those who choose to organise a Sangeet, Mehendi and Gaye Holud Ceremonies can still add flair to the festivity with music, dance and decor, but it’ll have to be either carefully organised with vendors or done DIY style. With strong encouragement to keep guests to the minimum due to the epidemic, it is critical that any visitors outside of the family (DJs, caterers, etc..) will have to be staggered and carefully monitored while they carry out their tasks in your home.
If you choose to take the helm of planning these events; organising a potluck system, creating a playlist for your sound system at home and vacating your living room space for dancing will not only make the affair a lot more personal, but it will be easy on your wallet too. In this difficult time, it would be straightforward to merge all three into one event, but if the bride wants to have her own Mehendi ceremony with their closest friends separately, that could definitely be a wonderful alternative if the aforementioned has been carried out safely.
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Akht or Nikkah
This sacred ceremony won’t suffer too much from the current global situation, as Akht is a very personal union in the eyes of God and society that requires the minimum of two witnesses to help commemorate the unification of the couple through the signing of the registry. More may attend, and Akht can be mixed in with the next two ceremonies, but safe distancing and a small group of guests are still mandatory precautions to take.
The Wedding Ceremony & Reception
The big day in any culture has always demanded a large gathering of loved ones from the bridegroom and the bride’s lives to commemorate the once-in-a-lifetime festivity (hopefully). However, Covid-19 has forced couples everywhere to downsize the official celebration. Booking a luxurious venue could definitely apply to other festivities on this list, but none is higher on the priority list than the actual wedding.
Once again, it is vital to keep guests to a minimum despite no official hard cap being enforced. With countries opening up to have more than 30 people allowed in a single area, slight leniency can be accepted. Ideally wedding vendors, organisers and guests have their temperature taken and seated at least a few meters apart for safe distancing. Ultimately, it will be up to the bride and groom to figure out how many people can fit into the venue while following the recommended safety procedures. Being Covid-safe does unfortunately require a little more effort and compromise, but if basic safety measures are followed, everyone at your wedding can still let loose enough for us to put the global situation aside for a just a while.
Being cooped up at home due to the pandemic paid handsomely for a Minnesota horticulture teacher who used the extra time to constantly water and feed a massive pumpkin that won this year’s Half Moon Bay pumpkin contest.
Travis Gienger, of Anoka, Minnesota, spent a lot of his free time in the pumpkin patch in his backyard, watering his plants up to 10 times a day and feeding and fertilizing them at least twice each day.
Gienger, 40, then drove his gargantuan gourd for 35 hours to see his hard work pay off at the 47th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, where his winner came in at 2,350 pounds (1,066 kilograms).
“It was nerve-wracking because with every bump on the road I kept thinking, ‘is it going to make it?’” And then finally it got weighed, it was the last one, and oh, my gosh, it’s been incredible!” Gienger said.
Gienger, a landscape and horticulture teacher at Anoka Technical College, has been growing pumpkins since he was a teenager, inspired by his father who also grew them. It was his first time competing at the Half Moon Bay weigh-off but he’s not sure he’ll be back next year.
“I might need a year off from the work and the nerves and everything,” he said, laughing.
The first-time pumpkin champ won $16,450, or $7 per pound, for the lumpy, orange pumpkin that will be showcased during a parade through Half Moon Bay later Monday.
Gienger’s pumpkin was the second-heaviest ever weighed at the 40-year-old California event, but it was still far from a U.S. record. That was set in 2018 when a grower in New Hampshire produced a pumpkin weighing more than 2,500 pounds (1,134 kilograms).
The record for the heaviest pumpkin in the world was set in 2016 at the Giant Pumpkin European Championship in Ludwigsburg, Germany. A Belgium grower’s winning whopper came in at just over 2,600 pounds (1,179 kilograms).
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Are you looking for a suitable job opportunity? The multifarious effect of COVID-19 is crippling the global economy. Every day, numerous people are losing jobs or facing salary cuts for the inevitable upsets caused by the ongoing pandemic. Nobody knows when the job market would return to its normal pace. In the meantime, people have to adjust to the ‘new normal’ life. If you are currently unemployed or under-employed, don’t get frustrated! Read this article, to know about the best job searching websites in Bangladesh.
It is the largest job site in the country. Here you can browse jobs in different categories on the basis of functional and industrial dimensions, such as Accounts, Banks, Engineer, Education/training, HR, Admin, Medical, IT, Driving, Law, etc. Unlike other job sites, bdjobs.com gives you the opportunity to divisional jobs in Bangladesh. Therefore, if you are living outside the capital city, you are equally capable of searching for suitable jobs anywhere in Bangladesh through this trusted job site.
The clever interface of bdjobs.com allows job-seekers to pick the precise job circulars through applying diverse filters such as keyword, category, industry, location, deadline, newspaper job, etc. These options would not only save you time but also help find the right circulars. Don’t worry, if you are unable to choose any relevant category. Put the specific job types – for instance, business writer, yoga trainer, or logo designer – on the search window, and then click on the ‘search’ button. Now the system will show you the relevant opportunities.
To apply for jobs through BDjobs.com, you are required to open a profile on this platform. Here you get a predesigned resume format that would ask you to enter your educational history, professional experience, skills, references, contacts, etc. You can also upload your curriculum vitae in MS word or PDF format. BDjobs.com has been designed with a bunch of user-friendly options like following employers’ job-circulars, short-listing jobs, checking employer activities upon your applied jobs, etc.
On this platform, most of the jobs are easy-to-apply online with a single click. However, some jobs may ask you to apply through an email address of respective organizations. Adding to these, BDjobs.com offers a variety of paid online training courses to help the job-seekers learn new skills and upgrade their qualifications.
Click on the following link https://www.bdjobs.com/ to find jobs.
Linkedin is the most popular social networking website among professionals. Here you can invite people who are doing related jobs to your professional sphere. Furthermore, this well-designed social networking platform gives you the scope to find people who have some common factors with you such as an educational institute or employment. Unlike other social networking sites, LinkedIn can go a long way to help people in searching for jobs. If you are looking for jobs, you can share this with the people of your professional community.
Besides this, LinkedIn has an option where you can search for related jobs. This platform is blessed with a clever job filtering option called ‘All Filers’ that would assist you in sorting out jobs on the basis of several criteria such as relevancy, date of posting, required experience, type of company, job location, nature of employment, etc. Furthermore, this trendy platform offers the ‘job alerts’ option which would notify you about the latest relevant jobs through email.
You can apply to most of the jobs through the ‘easy-to-apply’ option. It allows you to apply online through uploading a resume in MS Word or PDF. You can also save the chosen jobs to apply later. Clicking the ‘My Jobs’ button you can check out the jobs you have already applied. The ‘resume builder’ option is provided to assist the job-seekers in preparing a proficient resume.
Do you often get anxious before facing a job interview? Thanks to LinkedIn for the ‘interview prep’ module. This facility aims to train people for facing interviews. Here you would find relevant interviewing questions under different categories, such as, common questions, sales, customer management, accounts management, investment banking, etc. Adding to these, LinkedIn offers a range of courses to hone your professional skills.
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/
https://www.linkedin.com/interview-prep/
Besides BDjobs.com some other job-searching websites are working to help the job-seekers in Bangladesh. Check out the following links to search your desired job.
So far we have highlighted the best job searching websites and platforms in Bangladesh. However, it behooves upon you to scrutinize the brand reputation and company history of the prospective employer before attaining any job interview or accepting the final employment offer. Any kind of unauthorized monetary transaction for getting a job is highly risky and strongly prohibited.
A conventional resume hardly attracts employers. Therefore, try to write a resume in professional formats. With the advancement of technology, you need to learn new skills and knowledge. Constantly upgrading the level of knowledge and skills can unleash startling opportunities for you to grab a dream job.