The Coca Cola Factory

Hey there!

Yesterday, we went to The Coca Cola Factory, which is located in Pemberton Place in downtown Atlanta. Actually, it was an impromptu visit. My son, Atulya, wanted to go to Georgia Aquarium to see the fishes, turtles, and crocodiles. We began from home around lunch time thinking we will reach the aquarium in 30 minutes. What actually should have taken not more than 30 minutes, it took us nearly 2 hours! And why? There was some soccer game in a stadium located next to the aquarium. We lost precious time. Nevertheless, we reached around 3:15 PM and we rushed inside the aquarium with Atulya. By the time it was 5 PM, the aquarium had to close down. We came out and while going towards the parking lot, Atulya wanted to touch the Christmas tree. While touching the tree, I saw that the aquarium and The Coca Cola Factory are interconnected. And since my husband had wanted to visit this place with us, I asked him if he wants to go. He was kind of upset - it's too late, it must have already closed down, leave it. And while he was saying all this, my attention was towards the ticket counter, which was at quite a distance, of The Coca Cola Factory. Seeing few visitors buying tickets, I ran towards the counter leaving my son and husband to follow me. And imagine what! I managed to buy the tickets - we were among the last few visitors to be admitted. (The saying, 'where there's will, there's a way', came true here).

Enough of all this. At the World of Coca‑Cola you can experience the fascinating story of the world’s most famous beverage brand. There is this vault, which supposedly contains the secret recipe to the beverage, there are so many artifacts related to Coca Cola, and much more. And if you are a fan of soft drinks - specially the Coca Cola products, you can tempt your taste buds with more than 100 beverages from around the globe.

The best part of the visit? My son enjoyed playing with the polar bear there - this was a person dressed as a polar bear. Atulya kept saying to the bear, "Hello bear". And loving him on his cheek.

And my husband being a fan of Coca Cola products, loved this place too!

Visit this place if you are visiting Atlanta sometime!

US - A land of opportunity?

Hello!

I was speaking to one of my friends back home and she said I should be happy that I am in the US, known to be the land of opportunity, specially for people of my age group. I have many work options, etc etc.

I started to read to find out the reasons the US termed as a land of opportunity. The one reason that came up the most important reason was that people are free to do what they want to do. In many other countries, people are bound by social boundaries and cannot do simple activities. Women cannot do a simple activity as drive and go out alone in some countries. In the US Declaration of Independence, it states all men are created equal. It was the American Dream to be in the US. However, the meaning of this American Dream has changed over the course of history. Historically the Dream originated in the mystique regarding frontier life. As the Royal Governor of Virginia noted in 1774, the Americans "for ever imagine the Lands further off are still better than those upon which they are already settled". He added that, "if they attained Paradise, they would move on if they heard of a better place farther west. 

This brings me to the question - is the US actually a land of opportunity in today's scenario? Quoting from the Internet,
"Blanden et al. report, "the idea of the US as 'the land of opportunity' persists; and clearly seems misplaced." According to these studies, "by international standards, the United States has an unusually low level of intergenerational mobility: our parents' income is highly predictive of our incomes as adults." Intergenerational mobility in the United States is lower than in France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Among high-income countries for which comparable estimates are available, only the United Kingdom had a lower rate of mobility than the United States." "This challenges the notion of America as the land of opportunity."[46][47][48] During a TED conference on the social ills associated with economic inequality, social researcher Richard G. Wilkinson said that, "if Americans want to live the American dream, they should go to Denmark."

I found a blog when I was searching for this topic - see if anyone wants to read it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-ayres/america-the-land-of-oppor_1_b_5208374.html

What do you think? Is US a land of opportunity?

Play date

Hey!

I have been finding families who have toddlers or young children here in Alpharetta, GA. The main reason to do so is to find children of my son's age group with whom he can play. I did find few Indian families who are settled here and have kids who were born here & will be brought up here. There is one pretty American child who lives close by and we started to talk to her too. On initiating the talk of both children playing together, this child's mother suggested a 'play date' for both the kids. This got me to read about play dates for toddlers/young children.

A play date is a date & time set by parents for children to play. Apparently, it is very common here in the US in recent times because parents have a busy schedule, and media warnings about leaving children unattended. A play date is not to be confused with, say, an organized trip to the museum because that kind of a trip is more structured as opposed to a play date.

What happened to the good old times, when children simply went to a park and played with other children? No, you won't leave your toddler/young child unattended in these places; however these help children socialize and enjoy their free time instead of being boxed in the time frame of a play date.

What do you think? Is play date a cool idea?

Can you 'buy' happiness? - 5

(...contd...)

Give it Away

Okay, the final one to be happy is to give it away! Yes, you read it right. In a study, wherein some people were given a small amount of cash. Half of the group were asked to spend the money on others and the remaining half were asked to spend money on themselves. By the end of the day, these people were contacted again and the people who spend money on others were much happier than the people who spend money on themselves.

Spending money on others brings a sense of being content and happiness.

Go ahead, spread happiness!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This brings an end to this series. Lots of L.O.V.E.

Can you 'buy' happiness? - 4

(...cont'd)...

Make It a Treat

Sometimes, we are happier not only by delaying consumption, but also by reducing consumption. There was a study wherein chocolate lovers were asked to come to a lab on two occasions to eat chocolate, one week apart. During the intervening week, one group was told to abstain from eating chocolate; another group was sent home with a big bag of chocolate to eat; and the third group wasn't given any specific instructions. When the three groups returned after a week to taste chocolates again in the lab, the first group derived the most pleasure from eating chocolates. This simple, yet effective study proves that less consumption of existing things makes us happier.

I tried this at home myself. I gave myself a break of nearly 2 weeks between eating my favorite ice cream and chocolate. The effects were amazing! YUMMY!!

(...cont'd)

Can you 'buy' happiness? - 3

(...cont'd...)

Buy Now, Consume Later

Earlier, I said that buy experiences - that's 'what' you buy to be happy. However, what's also important is 'how' you bought what you wanted. With the advent of buying stuff and experiences on credit, the buy now pay later scheme, creates a serious dent in a person's happiness. My own experience holds true in this case - when I paid all the money upfront, I was guilt-free and much happier being debt-free. There was a time when my credit bill was higher than I had thought - I had this constant stress about paying it off as soon as possible.

Delaying payments bring stress; however, delaying consumption bring as much happiness. How? By enjoying the pleasure of anticipation. This is something I tried recently, that is before I could blog about it. It was as simple as first delaying buying my favorite bar of chocolate for two days and then keeping it in my refrigerator for a week before consuming it. Oh my God! It tasted far more better than buying and consuming the chocolate immediately.

So, go ahead. Try this too.

(...cont'd...)

Can you 'buy' happiness? - 2

(...contd.)

BUY TIME

A study by psychologist Daniel Kahneman shows that housework is the least enjoyable activities. So, what money can do in this case is to enable you to outsource these tasks to someone. Now, how you spend your free time will help you be happier than spending that cash in a mall. You need to think how a particular purchase will affect your daily life turns decisions about money into decisions about time. The bonus here will be that people start focusing on time rather than money and therefore, enabling them to spend time on happier activities.

(...contd.)