Most Bengali girls love to take a quiet stroll by a garden or a park, away from the busy city streets, where they can walk hand-in-hand and discuss about all things under the sky. The Rabindra Sarovar lake is a great spot in Kolkata for a romantic walk in the evenings.

This is also a great place to get those sunset-lit selfies as the lake is surrounded by lush spreads of greenery, bejewelled with vibrant blossoms DJ-ed by the chirping of numerous birds.

If you want a walk to remember, then the Rabindra Sarovar Lake in Kolkata is a must-visit romantic spot in the City of Joy.

You may also choose to talk over some delicious munchies or over the sultry smoke of hookah at the two notable cafes cum lounges in Kolkata – Bistro by the Park and at Caafe 360. If you visit the Bistro, then it is highly recommended to take a seat on the over-sized, almost bed-like couches on their mezzanine floor to get the best view of this adorably decorated place. Just like Caafe 360 degree, this place also serves hookah along with an assortment of grubs and beverages. However, alcohol is available at the Bistro by the Park, which is not available at the Caafe 360.

There are a few romantic stops you can make in Kolkata to impress your special date when in college and who knows, maybe this could make a story worth telling your children later!

Click here to read the whole story, which has a special surprise for young couples in college to make their date extra special...

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The countdown for the most anticipated event of the month has started as the YUP Card Fresher’s Week 2016 is here. If you are a student at Amity University Kolkata, then this is the best time to be in college first year for you. Continue reading to know why... 

In order to help you out, we have answered common questions regarding the YUP Card Fresher’s Week, 2016.

Duration of the event

The YUP Fresher’s week will hit the town on 12^th September, Monday, and will continue to entertain students over the next 5 days till 16^th September, Friday.

What are the offers available?

On each day of the event, selected lounges and cafes will offer unique deals. Here is the list of such restaurants and their offers for college students.

·         Day 1- 12/9/2016: 1:1 offer on hookah, at CAAFE 360 DEGREE

·         Day 2- 13/9/2016: ‘Buy one and get one free’ offer on hookah, at ONE SPORTS LOUNGE

     Day 3- 14/9/2016: ‘Buy one and get one free’ offers on cocktails, mocktails and hookah, at WINNING STREAK

·         Day 4- 15/9/2016: 1:1 offer on alcoholic beverages as well as hookah, at BEER REPUBLIC

·         Day 5- 16/9/2016: Flat 10% on total bill, at POUR HOUSE

Who can participate in this event?

Students of the Amity University, Kolkata can avail this offer. However, the deal is meant for only the new batch of first year students from every department of the institution are eligible to enjoy this offer.

How to avail the offers of YUP fresher’s week?

To avail the best student offers of the year, students should have the YUP Fresher’s Band. 

Where and how can I get the fresher’s band?

The YUP Fresher’s Band can be collected from the YUP Card officials. You can contact them through the website itself. Once you contact them, they may ask you to provide your college identity proof or admission details for verification. Once your application is verified, you will receive the fresher’s band instantly.

How much does the YUP band cost? 

The fresher band comes at a negligible cost of INR 100 only. How many deals can I access?

If you have a band, then you have the freedom to access all of the offers throughout the 5-day event. The fresher’s band allows you to utilise the YUP Fresher’s week to the fullest. Nevertheless, your accessibility of these offers is limited to only one offer per day as per the itinerary.

Am I eligible for offers on alcoholic beverages?

You have to be at least 21 years old to avail the offers on alcohol.

Refresh your average fresher’s week with the YUP Fresher’s week, 2016 celebrations. This is a week without deadlines, classes and restrictions and will fill your life with sheer uninterrupted joy and happiness. After all, you must pamper yourself in your college days. Unlock your enjoyment cravings and achieve them with YUP Card’s amazing student offers. The idea behind Fresher’s week is to create a favourable environment for the new college students, so that they can learn to socialise and experience college life like never before. Therefore, this can be a good opportunity for making new friends and hanging around with them. So, here’s hoping to see you at the Fresher’s week celebrations new friend!

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With the risk of sounding like your nagging parents, we are going to start off by suggesting that college students mostly spend their pocket-money on junk foods, or as they might want to call them – SOS foods. 

If you have decided to read on further through this blog after reading the title, then it means that you definitely understand which part of your monthly expenses is ‘eating’ away your budget. Before we begin our list of cheap yet filling snacks for college students, read the incident mentioned below to ascertain that we are the right people to take food advice from! Almost all of us may find this story highly relevant to some of our own experiences with hunger.

You get off from the endless hours of class after class daily grind and some more tuition classes when you hear a bone-chilling almost haunting sound, like that from a man-hungry haunted mansion and you soon realize that it is nothing but the sound of your stomach. You remember that in this daily grind you completely forgot to refuel your stomach and start imagining how you can indulge in some fast food to satiate your hunger.

You head off to a nearby Indie-Chinese joint with a menu of delicacies that are mostly spelt wrong and suddenly the smell of freshly cooked tandoori or Chinese food whooshes into your nostrils making you drool uncontrollably. So much so, that while ordering the food you can barely keep your bodily embarrassment in your mouth and the waiter is slyly smiling seeing your hunger. Seeing this unspoken exchange between you and the waiter you choose to get out of the situation fast and do not even ask you about the total and order as much as possible. Soon the food arrives and you pounce at it embodying a lion in his conquests. After you’re done you ask for the cheque and seeing the amount mentioned in the bill what leaves your mouth is not a satisfactory burp but an exclamatory sigh! Darn it...you know have to diet and live on bananas for the next two days to compensate for this impulsive indulgence!

Relevant right?! But fear not as we have some other convenient options other than plain old banana for snacking within budget. Here’s a list of such foods:

Go nuts for nuts:

This is an easy way to find a healthy dose of protein while not compromising the health of your pockets. To keep things interesting try a mixed bunch of nuts for some added sweetness and combination of different textures. And the best bangs for your protein buck are pistachios and almonds.

If you want to get especially adventurous then you can also try some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.

You get Yogurt:

Again to save your pocket from getting hurt (rhyming unintended) you could get some yogurt which is a healthy and economical snack that is also readily available. This food has also got some recent buzz as a pop culture favourite, but it does have some valid points for staying. A snack low in sugar with a good content of protein and being a creamy delight (Greek yogurt) to be a good replacement or ice-cream makes this a weight loss staple.

Eggs for eggs-treme hunger:

Too hungry to think straight?! Do not get lured into buying that oil dripping cutlet, simply reach for the hard-boiled egg instead. They are fast filling as well as light on the pockets being around INR 5-6 only. They are also a primo protein source and are packed with healthy amino acids. The compound choline present in eggs is also known to be fat fighting.

Here were our best examples of cheap yet filling snacks that do not taste blunt, or in other words are not Oats! But jokes aside sometimes college students get really hungry and the wait to getting a healthy food when there are so many easy unhealthy options available around them is difficult. So, we recommend that you step into a quality eatery that make their foods from scratch and use fresh produce. And if you are worried about your budget, then try out a college student discount card to save on every order.

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Do you often end up with too much month at the end of your money? Have you been trying hopelessly to save as many Gandhi Ji’s headshots as possible with futile results?

It may often seem impossible to save money especially for college students, living on a tight budget and too many items on their To-do list of fun and hangouts. But if you invest a little time and planning into your budgeting and financial discipline you can always save more than you were, for stretching your money a tad closer to the end of the month.

The battle of saving vs. spending:

A common idea for saving money is to just use it less often! But this basic idea does not seem too enticing to most people, especially youngsters who have the least of care in the world apart from almost mandatory social obligations of having the ‘raddest’ parties with friends. So, saving is often the last of their thoughts.

But in this bewildering battle between spending and saving, most of the times, as life is unfair saving wins. So, here are a few tips on saving more money, while you are in college:

1. Make a list: those who were simply scowling at this blog but still reading on to find a way out from the depths of debt have probably starter rolling their eyes now that we mentioned two dull tasks in a go. Yes, we dared to pen two outrageous ideas in a go, first being budgeting and the second of making a list! While most students leap to reach for their mouse to click through more cat videos on YouTube, let us explain why we think this is a good plan. By writing down all your expenses you can analyse the areas where you spend the most. Then determine which ones are necessary and which are not and plan accordingly.  
2. Set up saving goals: simply planning to save will not be the right motivator for helping you to save. You must have a bigger goal in sight. So, plan something you have desired to own or do for a long time and start accumulating funds for that. It could be a new phone, a camera or a trip, whatever sets your savings muscles rolling will do. And at the end of this bitter struggle you will still have a new amazing experience to look forward to.  
3. Determine your priorities right: it is evident that what you most value be it a hobby or a person that will be the one eating away most of your funds. So, sit down and prioritise where your finances must go.  
4. Automate your savings: a good plan for extreme shop-a-holics to have frugal discipline is to automate their savings or fund expanding investments. The idea is that if you cannot see it then you cannot use it hence, you will not spend it! So, automate transfers from your expense account to your savings account the moment you get your monthly allowance that way it is locked in safely away from your own robbing hands.  
5. Try and create an obstacle course whenever you get in the mood of unnecessary spending: whenever you see something that may actually be completely unnecessary in actuality but for the moment you feel like you must have it. We recommend you take a walk or find something else to do before you drop in your precious pennies to make an unnecessary purchase.  
6. Bonus tip – Use a student discount card like, YUP Card: YUP card is a discount card for college students only, with a yearly subscription as low as 499/-. The card comes with a plethora of offers valid in different chains of cafes, restaurants, hookah parlours, pubs, entertainment centres and shopping and retail sites and stores. With a YUP Card one can save up on every billing amount starting from minimum 5 percent to maximum 20 percent or higher. And the card has unlimited usage without any hidden preconditions.

Saving should not be a struggle for temporary change:

In closing thoughts, most youngsters end up paying more than they should due to either bad habit or Naiveness about expenses and costs. If they can simply change their outlook to find an opportunity where they can save more without compromising their quality of entertainment then the whole pattern of spending will undergo a revolutionary change. Thus, saving should not be taken as a short term plan but instead should be proactively built into the lifestyles so, that one’s financial health remains balanced but not completely deprived.

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