I’m looking to feature exciting, creative decor ideas on my other blog Magical Homes. So if you have a home that you’re proud of, or a quirkily designed piece of furniture, or an interesting wall or even a creative corner send us pictures/mail on maildipikasingh@yahoo.com
And why just homes? Any space that pushes the boundaries in terms of decor – a cafe, a restaurant, a garden. Write to me and we’ll figure out a feature.
To play a raunchy actress in Dirty Picture and then follow it up with so contrasting a character as that of a pregnant woman searching for her husband, and play both to perfection, requires talent. Hats off to Vidya Balan. But the hero in this movie was truly the story. Pacy, and with the right amount of twist at just the right moment towards the end. I was also impressed by the actor who played Rana – the rookie cop who helps her out. Very understated, very shy, very sweet. But what I loved best was Calcutta. Oh Calcutta. The city, which amidst decay, still manages to exude so much warmth, culture, friendship and color.
I was born in Calcutta. Don’t remember much from that stint. But I am sure that fact has something to do with my love for Bengali food. So in 2003 when my husband was given the opportunity to move there, I was quite bemused. Armed with much ‘Oh you have to go here’ and ‘ you have to go there’ by my mom, who I think was far more excited about me going there, I landed in the city of joy. It was a week before Christmas. The company put us up at a charming hotel very close to Park Street. And the very first evening, post a long and tiring day looking for houses, I decided to walk through Palk Street towards my husband’s office to join him for dinner. I can never forget the way Park Street looked. All lit up. I joined a group of carol singers just off Park Street and promptly fell in love with the city.
I lived life in Calcutta exactly the way Calcutta expects you to live life there. In the slow lane 
.
I worked with an NGO -on some very flexible timings, did theatre, made loads of friends and ate out at some awesome restaurants. I loved the place. Yes, of course, I do agree that work wise, the place was a little slow. Ask my husband. The very punju, aggressive professional that he is, Calcutta was a huge shock
The first time a city bandh was announced, he dismissed the news. What bandh? How ridiculous! Of course, I’m going to office. But baby, they say you shouldn’t step out. They may pelt stones at your car or something, I tried to warn him. To no avail. The building guard was shocked. No no sir, you can’t go out, he said.
10 minutes. Exactly 10 minutes later a visibly chastened hubby stood at the door. Apparently , a group of men waved his car down, kindly told him to step back home or they would deflate the car tyres.
Around 15 days later, the opposition party announced a bandh. Hubby didn’t even make the effort to venture out this time! But he wasn’t happy about the place. So a year it was. I won’t say I was very pleased to leave the city. I have lovely memories of the biryani at Shiraz, the champ at Ameena, chaelo kebab at Peter Cat, fish curry from a small joint on Free School Street and the many, many other places that we ate at; the NGO where I worked, the P G Wodehouse club readings, hopping into a tram just for the fun of it, walking around all night to visit as many pandals as possible during the puja, reworking on my Bengali which came back so instinctively, and last but not the least- the friends that I made. It was an awesome year of my life.
The mantra in Mumbai, and I’m assuming across all other major metros in India, is – Have Horn. Will Honk. I am by now so irritated with the rising noise levels in this city that it is beginning to translate into crazy behavior. Like the other day, travelling by cab, I was next to another cab whose free left turn was being blocked by a largish car that possibly wanted to go straight. The largish car was obviously in the wrong lane. But honking LOUDLY was not going to change that. And it was a matter of a minute or so before the lights changed. Yet the cab next to me relentlessly kept honking till I popped my head out and screamed. My own cab driver turned around and wanted to know if I was mad!!
And it set me thinking. If I was in that cab driver’s place I would have possibly relentlessly honked too.
Firstly, I completely agree there are people walking, animals, cycles in the wrong lanes, rickshaws also sometimes in the wrong lanes, heck even cars in the wrong lane, and umpteen other valid reasons to honk, maybe even at 3 ‘o’ clock in the night, but what irks me big time is when I see someone honking for NO reason at all. Nothing ahead of them. Yet honk. And some of them can be really sharp. I vaguely think there is a law against honking. I am not sure but am planning to look that up. Though I have no clue how that is going to help me. But really, for the sake of everyone’s sanity, I propose you reduce honking now. I also think that automobile companies owe to the planet to reduce the volume on the horns they put in the cars. Otherwise, I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely getting effected.
Have you checked out www.magicalhomes.wordpress.com yet? Oh and we also have a FB page. You’ll find a link on the Magical Homes blog. And if you like the blog, you can ‘like’ the FB page too. Shamelessly plugging 
Yep. That was the theme for this year’s party.
A very, very happy new year to all. So what did you do? I partied. I am like that on New Years. I need to celebrate. It does not need to necessarily involve alcohol or expensive places. But it needs to have friends, good food, music and lots of dancing. Though I must say the old bones and muscles were creaking rather much the next day.
We always have a simple plan. It’s been the same set of people the last 4 years since we moved to Mumbai. Most of them are friends from Delhi or friends’ friends. I think after a certain age it is rare to make new friends. So you hang out with the same set of people. There is no pressure to prove anything. And there is a general sense of comfort. So we get together at someone’s place. Kids too. The cost of the alcohol and food is always split. Music playlists are drawn up, elaborate themes are discussed, discarded and frozen. This year it was Daaku and Haseena. I don’t know how we came up with that. But, everyone ran into everyone at the usual suspect shops in Bandra furiously hunting for some accessories that would turn them into daakus. Guns were heavily in demand! It was hilarious.
And the ones that stay some distance away from the chosen house for the party always crash at the host’s place. Safer that way. Even if you are not drunk some other idiot on the road might be.
I don’t have any resolutions this year. I’m only determined to figure out some stuff that I’ve been thinking about for a bit. I need to come to a decision. I hope I have the courage to make that decision this year.
On the whole I’m looking forward to 2012.
Here’s wishing all of you a great 2012.
Long back I had mentioned here that my dream job would revolve around Home Décor. While I don’t have the courage to jump headlong into a career change, I have decided to take baby steps into developing this into a hobby that I can spend some passionate time on. 2 steps have been taken in this respect.
One is of course a new blog where I will post pictures from my home, readers’ homes, friends’ homes and in short any home that catches my fancy in the way it is done up or reflects the personality of the owners. You will also find here helpful tips, new product details and any other information related to home décor. The blog design is still w.i.p. I don’t even have a header pic right now. I’m also discovering that the blog is actually helping me to learn more about photography skills. Hats off to Archana, Priya and Bhavna for the beautiful photographs on their blogs, blogs that I ardently follow.
The second is workshops around home décor. I just concluded a fabulous workshop on Instant Party Décor. If you can look different for every evening out can your home do the same? Can you use flowers and table linen to create a different ‘look’ every time? 12 women discovered that with a little ingenuity they can.
I don’t know where this is going to go. The only plan right now is to have fun. So enjoy, grab yourself a cup of coffee while I take you on a tour of some magical homes.
When you travel Darling
I can have Maggi for lunch and Maggi for dinner
I can sleep without being pushed to one corner
I can apply nail polish without having to hear, “yuck, red?”
I can let clothes pile up on your side of the bed
I can try two outfits and dress up for work at ease
Without constantly listening to, “Can you hurry up, please?”
I have a loo to myself, sweet smelling and DRY
I can watch reruns all night of Ross breaking up with Rachel and cry
I am not subjected to conditions of the international financial markets
I can go to a mall and window shop for stuff other than squash racquets
I don’t have to deal with dirty gym socks every morning
May I please know when your next trip is darling?
…..an old, old post that i had so much fun writing and posting…. 3 years back.
‘At some point he ceases to be Ranbir Kapoor and you only know him as Jordan’. This statement by a colleague aptly sums up the power of Ranbir’s performance in the movie. I’ve never really been a fan of the young actor. While I felt he had promise, he lacked a range of expressions. A peculiar hangdog expression seemed to be his mainstay. But I was blown by him in this movie. His comic timing in the first half and his angst and pain in the second half made me live, love and feel the character played by him.
I do feel that the story lacked a wee bit of credibility. Jordan’s pain seemed a little overdone given the circumstances that led to it. But as a viewer, in the face of such a power packed performance, I was willing to overlook that. Nargis Fakhri has a long way to go. I think the genius of the director was visible in the fact that he took her failings as an actor and made them a part of her character. So her strange dialogue delivery, jerky mannerisms all became a part of Heer.
I liked the movie a lot. Maybe not as much as Jab We Met but definitely more than Luv Aaj Kal. Hats off to Imtiaz Ali for being consistent in delivering good movies.
I caught the Don 2 trailer on youtube today and must say am looking forward to it. Firstly, I’ve developed into a Farhan Akhtar fan. He makes good movies. I also like his understated acting. It would be quite fun if he’s developing Don into a franchise. It would be interesting to watch a franchise around the bad guy. Very convenient that Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin namumkin hai.
Coming to SRK, I braved RA.ONE the other day. I went with zero expectations, to a nearby hall, on a five day Diwali weekend ( excellent strategy Mr SRK) and hold your breath….I didn’t think it was so bad. Apart from that irritating South Indian angle which so does not work, I think the rest of the movie was not so bad. I loved the special effects. Of course, there was no story. I totally agree. But I don’t go and watch a movie only for the story. Sometimes there’s other stuff that does magic for me. The music. The effects. SRK. Much as I’m a disgusted by his in your face promotions and his antics on stage at various live events, I still think he does good movies. I watched ‘My name is Khan’ on TV the other day and liked that too.
We shifted houses again. Copious amounts of seepage in the earlier house prompted this. The new one is on the 11th Floor on a building at Pali Hill. Oh My God. The view! But I refuse to get excited about houses on rent anymore. You never know what will crawl out of the woodwork. Literally and figuratively.
Illness. Shifting houses. Lack of internet at home. Work. Results in no blog updates. And France in any case is a distant dream. I look at the photographs and wonder if I really went there. In fact I’m ready for another holiday. Even if it’s 2 days to Goa.
Yes, but there is a bright, shining star in this darkness of gloom that permeates.
It. Is. Called. Bigg. Boss.
For a very long time, years actually, I’ve dreamt of going to Paris. Strangely, in spite of so many holidays, I’ve never been to Europe. So this year, I decided that Europe it was going to be. And if it had to be Europe it had to be Paris. I was getting some relatively cheap tickets to London, so I thought London – Paris would be a good idea. And then I got greedy, maybe combine one more city..Zurich perhaps and do what a lot of people do…wrap up 3 countries in one go. Till better sense prevailed. Did I really want to do a tick mark holiday? Paris – 3 days – tick. London – 2 days – tick. Zurich – 2 days – tick. No I don’t think so. I wanted to LIVE Paris…so what it was only for 10 days. I wanted to walk around, not hurriedly see the place from the top of an ‘open tour bus’; roam around, soak in the atmosphere and not be bound by time.
So it was decided that I was going to utilize my cheap tickets to get to London and then hop on to Paris from there. Till even better sense prevailed and I decided to speak to an ex- senior colleague and a dear friend who has worked in the travel industry for yeeeeaaaars. After 2 hours of major debate I came away much more informed on how to plan an international holiday. The first to be chopped off my list was London. You see, the tickets were cheap coz, ahem, they were not really confirmed. He was horrified. What if you don’t get seats on the way back? And please calculate the extra visa fees that you’ll have to pay if you’re going to London. Go only to Paris. More securer and relatively cheaper that way. Aah! But also go to South of France. Yes. Nice, Cannes and Monaco should be good. And why don’t you spend one night at Bordeaux? At a villa in the vineyards?
OH MY GOD! I can do that?
You see his whole point was not to go with a list of ‘items to see’. Yes those too. Of course one will see the Eiffel Tower, and of course one has to go to the Notre Dame. But also gather experiences that are unique. Experiences that are different. Brag worthy? I asked him and only got a smile in return.
His other advice, one which I did ignore and sort of repented was to fly in and out of different cities. It’s very simple. Most of us tend to book a round trip. Mumbai – Paris – Mumbai. And in the middle there is travel to Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt perhaps. His advice is not to book a round trip on the cheapest online site available but to visit the sites of some of the major airlines operating internationally out of your city. To quote him
“ Note down all the cities serviced by the top ten popular airlines from your city to the continent of Europe. You will see that in the list for every airline the 80-20 rule applies. i.e 80% of the airlines visit a select 20% of the cities for sure. Typically the list for all major airlines will contain London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt, Vienna, Athens, Istanbul… So amongst the countries in your wish list to be visited for this summer if you were to choose one of these cities as an entry point & the other as the exit point you will get the highest efficiency or VFM for your air ticket. Now go look for the cheapest ticket on that route!”
Now that we have spoken enough about how to book tickets for international travel, I will come back and we shall talk about my GLORIOUS 10 day holiday spanning Paris, Nice, Cannes (oh my god – the yachts) and Monaco.
Cheers
