Whether you’re a foodie or not, it’s impossible to deny the food presence in our lives.

MasterChef, Top Chef, Bake Off and Mestre do Sabor (Master of Flavour) are just some of the popular cooking reality shows in Brazil. Brazilians are hotly enthusiastic and involved in watching these shows, with Twitter users always making comments and engaging in debates (and outrage!) online whenever they’re on air.

If you’ve traveled to Brazil before or have Brazilian friends, you’d know that the country’s cuisine is very unique. …

In a world that is becoming increasingly complex and bewildering to negotiate, human beings tend to find it comforting to slot each other into boxes, to make their decision-making processes easier. “He’s a liberal.” “She’s a centrist.” “They’re baby boomers.” “Oh, and they’re Gen Y.” These labels are easy to apply, but they can be meaningless, because they often lack context and nuance; Gen X-ers all over the world can’t be deposited into one catchall box, for example, because they come from different countries and backgrounds.

Zooming In on the Gen Z Consumer…

Similarly, you would expect millenials and Gen Z-ers to have some unique characteristics in India, and you would be right. According to a survey carried out in 2019 by Deloitte, they differed from global respondents in that, among other things, they were more satisfied with their lives, more optimistic in their outlook on the world and more confident that business (rather than a university degree) was the solution to the world’s main challenges. …

In financial circles, the term sandwich generation is considered something of a misnomer. Strictly speaking, it doesn’t refer to a cohort of people born around a similar time like Baby Boomers or millennials. Sandwich generation instead refers to people who are in a stage in life where they are providing care for both their parents and their children. They are sandwiched between two generations of people.

Aside from providing care for their loved ones, they are often under significant financial and emotional stress due to added pressure from their own careers and planning for their own retirement, resulting in high levels of personal debt. …

Ah, rom coms. Makes us wish that instead of swiping for one hour to find the ‘’perfect’’ tinder match we could just accidentally bump into a cute guy, like girls always do in the movies.

There are so many aspects that make a good rom com: the on-screen chemistry between the main two characters (like Noah and Allie in ‘‘The Notebook’’), the intriguing plots (like in ‘‘To All The Boys I Have Loved Before’’ and the amazing reflective quotes about life (super recommend ‘‘About Time’’ if that’s what you’re into). We’re clearly rom-com lovers here.

These films became popular in the late 80’s and early 90’s, with films such as ‘‘Steel Magnolias’’ (released in 1989) causing great buzz. This film featured a predominantly female cast and attracted a large female audience. Soon after, ‘‘Thelma and Louise’’ and ‘‘Fried Green Tomatoes’’ were released. …

As we hit the one year mark of living with the pandemic, people in some parts of the world once again find themselves back in lockdown, with a lot of time on their hands. And, because we’re in November, a whole lot of cold weather too.

In such times, we’re anticipating a shift away from previous lockdown trends such as trying out new baking recipes and exploring gaming landscapes, and more towards typical comfort activities such as binge watching favourite TV shows.

If you ever get the chance to go to Burning Man when this COVID-19 madness finally goes away, do so.

While there, you’ll see everything you expect to and everything you don’t — insanely creative art installations, wild costumes, fascinating people of every persuasion, an impromptu Daft Punk performance in a dive bar — and at the end of an eighteen-hour day, toasted by the high-altitude sun, frozen by the desert night and battered by dust storms, you’ll want nothing more than to take a shower, cook yourself a hot meal, turn on the A/C and slip into a soft bed. …

Health-tech is in.

Our analysis of over 37 million searches for 434 identified key phrases around electric toothbrushes over a year (Feb 2019–Feb 2020) revealed that interest has been growing at a gentle pace and spikes during the Black Friday holiday sale (the search volume increases by two to three times).

This interest has been consistently increasing for the last five years, with a proportionate spike during the holiday season each year, and is not reflected in other product categories of personal care or smart devices.

In an effort to demystify this consumer, the research team at Quilt.AI analysed data extracted across search engines, e-commerce sites, blogs and social media platforms to understand the consumer discourse around electric toothbrushes and the different user segments. …

In the last week of July 2020, a 36-year-old Indian man poisoned his 4-year-old daughter and 28-year-old wife before hanging himself. Conflicting reports emerged about why. Some media outlets said he feared losing his job, while others said he was frightened of contracting the virus and passing it on to his family.

But there was little doubt about the underlying cause: fear.

Even as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in early March, it was acutely aware of its mental health ramifications. “Fear, worry, and stress are normal responses to perceived or real threats, and at times when we are faced with uncertainty or the unknown. …