For The Love Of Six Yards – Part 1

If there is one garment that has always held my fancy, it has got to be the saree. Right from my innocent childhood days when I used to indulge in some pretend play with my mother’s saree to this day when I own a shelf full of sarees, the saree has never lost its charm on me. So, when I got a chance to review Sakhi Fashions, naturally I was more than thrilled!

They have such an amazing range of sarees that it is quite difficult to pick one to be honest! I have at times felt that the world of online saree shopping hasn’t quite kept pace with the online shopping boom. While it is easy to shop for western wear, books, toys and electronics online, the choices for reliable and dependable online saree shopping is somewhat limited. Hence, it was really satisfying to come across Sakhi Fashions with their user friendly website and wide variety of designer sarees. Actually, even my family members were initially sceptical when I told them that I have ordered a saree from Sakhi Fashions. However, once they saw the saree in person, they admitted that their fears were misplaced.

Eventually, I chose a beautiful green and yellow lace crossover saree. The crossover saree is a unique design that has been conceptualized by Sakhi Fashions. This saree gives the illusion of wearing a half saree, but it is much more graceful and elegant! The pallu is made of chiffon which makes it lightweight and quite easy to drape. The lace material is of high quality and flows beautifully when worn. 

The red raw silk border serves to enhance the entire look of the saree while the contrast applique work on the pallu shows the amount of thought and attention to detail that has gone into this lace crossover saree. 

What’s more, I am wearing this saree without a single safety pin! And mind you, it’s not as though I am a saree-wearing veteran who wears sarees every day! I only wear sarees for special occasions because although I love sarees, I am a bit clumsy in handling it – added to the fact that my toddler keeps me on my toes all the time. However, I must admit that this lace crossover saree was highly manageable to wear and I could drape it within a few minutes.

Do you know what is one of the most frustrating things about deciding to wear a saree? It’s finding the correct blouse to go with it! Tailors these days are a dime a dozen no doubt. However, they take their own sweet time to stitch one blouse. Despite charging a high rate, often they mess up the stitching as well. An ill-fitting blouse can spoil the entire look of the saree, even if the saree by itself is exceptional. Like me, if you find that you too are at your wits end about getting the perfect saree blouse, fear not. Sakhi Fashions will even tailor a blouse for you according to your specifications! The blouse that I am wearing was stitched by Sakhi Fashions. 

The process is pretty simple. Once you choose your saree and decide that you want your blouse stitched by them, they will send you a blouse measurement chart as well as a list of choices for various parts of the blouse such as the style of the neckline, length of sleeves etc. You will need to get someone to take your measurements and fill up this form accordingly. Once you send them the filled form they will start working on your blouse and it should be ready within a few days.

Regarding my experience with the blouse, I would rate it 6.5/10. It was a bit loose for me and I had to alter it here and there. However, I am not very sure if the mistake is at my end or theirs, because as I do not have any tailoring experience, it stands to reason that I might not have taken my measurements precisely. Therefore I assume that this might have introduced a slight margin of error.

Overall though I am quite happy with Sakhi Fashions. Their customer service personnel were very polite and understanding. Their packaging was neat and professional and shipment was speedy. If you are looking  for a saree that speaks for itself, then you must check out Sakhi Fashions without fail. They are also on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. Happy shopping!

Smitten By Saris!

Do you like saris? I think that this quintessential Indian attire is one of the most sensual and feminine outfits for women. Although they can be pretty daunting for someone who isn't used to it much, who can refuse that an elegant sari adds to the beauty of a woman?

If your an Indian, chances are that you might have stepped atleast once into a Nalli showroom, while on your sari-hunting trips. How has this reputable company evolved over the years and what are it's plans for the future? Meet Lavanya Nalli, President of the Nalli Group as she shares her vision and mission with us! Read my interesting interview with her at Women's Web over here!

Wednesday Wishlist #5: Lush Treats!

Generally I have horribly bad luck in competitions which require some amount of chance. Lucky dips, lottery tickets, housey/bingo games, wheel of fortune etc etc - nope. No luck. I hardly ever win anything in such games. (I hardly ever win in any other games too, but I digress.) Over the years I gradually stopped participating in such games altogether. Then a couple of weeks back, a newspaper called 7 Days was conducting a contest over at their Facebook page. A very simple contest where they put up pictures of Lush cosmetics and we are supposed to ‘Like’ whichever ones we fancy. Every day they would pick a random winner to giveaway a Lush goodie bag. I almost didn’t click and then thought “Well what the heck? I’m not gonna lose anything!” and clicked. And voila! Not only did I win bit I was also the very first person to win!! (By this time you should have already guessed that, right?? If I had not won, this whole paragraph would have been a completely meaningless ramble!)

So anyway, I was thrilled! I don’t know how many of you have heard of Lush but they are this wonderful fresh and handmade range of personal care products. I came across them first when I was working in England. The entire street where this shop was located used to smell lovely and one just needed to follow one’s nose to find the shop! I confess that I have satisfied my cravings by simply gawking at the display and have never bought any before because as with everything else, great quality comes with a hefty price tag! And I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much money. They are also extremely environment friendly using minimal chemicals and limited plastics. Most of their products come without any packaging and whatever packaging is used is also to a large extent recyclable. So obviously when someone is sending me a free goodie bag of Lush goodies, what’s not to like huh?!

I picked up the bag over this weekend and it had a pretty gift wrapped box called “Hello Gorgeous!”. I couldn’t wait to get home and look inside. I eagerly opened up the box and then sat admiring all the lovely goods inside. This gift pack is kind of Japanese themed, starting right from the cute cherry blossom print packing. Inside packed in colourful packing peanuts (and these are also bio-degradable; how great is that?!) were:

(1) An heavenly smelling Bath Ballistics Bomb named Sakura, scented with mimosa, jasmine and orange blossom.
(2) A creamy Mmm Melting Marshmallow Moment Luxury Bath Melt which is supposed to make you “melt into a pink, fluffy bed of marshmallow and cocoa butter”
(3) A tiny tin of rich Gorgeous Moisturiser to “nourish, protect and rejuvenate”
(4) A bottle of Helping Hands Hand Cream to impart “instant softness for hardworking hands (moi!)
(5) And finally a pot of Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub with “sea salt and tropical flowers”

All this plus a discount coupon! Am I lucky or what!?

I already started using most of the products and am absolutely luvin’ it!
My only small grouse is that since the hand cream has linseed oil in it, my hands kinda smell like I have been oil painting the whole day! But apart from that they are simply superb!

I usually don’t use too many cosmetics simply because I don’t really know how to use all the pastes and powders. Instead of a sultry, smokey-eyed look I would probably end up looking like a cross between a human and a raccoon. Plus I am an extremely clumsy person blessed with butter-fingers and I keep dropping stuff all the time. Once I dropped a box of black, smokey–eye mineral powder all over my white tiled floor and spent a good half-hour, cleaning away stubborn traces of what looked like black soot.

But the concept, the products and the people behind Lush are soooo awesome that I definitely want to try out all their other marvelous stuff too. I am one sucker! But a sucker for some of the best things in life!

So on today’s Wednesday Wishlist, we have Lush goodies! you see, my wishes are not always deep and poignant - sometimes I wish for quite earthy stuff too - just like any other normal girl!
Okay now I am going to soak away all my cares in a warm, sweet smelling and surreal ball of marshmallow melt! Sigh!

Image Courtesy: www.makeuptemple.blogspot.com

Dilemmas Of A Domestic Diva

I know a lot of people who are career-oriented and ambitious. But unfortunately, due to some weird wiring of my system I don’t fall under that category. So here I am – The Domestic Diva.

I do appreciate the fact that you all out there are busy saving the world from the aliens or educating today’s brats to be responsible citizens of tomorrow or playing dice with stocks and shares or simply writing software for the next model of the mobile phone that I am using now or even pretending to work and reading my blog (Ha! Caught you!). But on behalf of all the domestic Goddesses out there, I would like to state here that we have our own share of dilemmas too! Cynical? Well wipe that superior smirk off your face and read on mon ami(e):

Dilemma No. 4: Which idiot designs the cobblestone pavement encircling the supermarket to be sloping?!?!?! For those of you who know me, I am a poor little petite lady. I find it almost impossible to manipulate a shopping cart loaded with about 2 weeks’ worth of groceries against the slant of the land. It is an uphill task (pun intended) all the way! I step out of the mall and hang on for dear life to my cart, lest it rolls away and bangs into a car or worse on some unsuspecting soul. Recently I was pushing and prodding my way to the taxi stand without much success. A kindly Good Samaritan offered to help and helped me till the taxi. But while I was loading the stuff into the trunk of the taxi, the taxi driver blew his horn and turning, to my horror, I saw my cart rolling down the pavement. Dropped the bags in my hand and grabbed my cart. Thank goodness I was not holding onto the eggs basket! Sheesh!

Dilemma No.3: My nephew plays a game in Kindergarten called Wood, Paper, Scissors. Well I ask you- Wood, Plastic, Glass?? I am talking about chopping boards. Sometime back I was advised to use wooden chopping boards instead of plastic. But on a recent visit to a friend’s place, I saw him using a plastic one. He is in the catering industry and so what with him being the man in the business and all that, I posed this question to him. Isn’t a wooden chopping board better to use than a plastic one? Because if you notice on your plastic chopping boards (if you use one), there would be many grooves and cuts formed while chopping whatever it is that you chop. Which probably means that you add a few particles of the plastic too alongwith your chopped stuff, right?
Well turns out that all major hotels use plastic chopping boards-and what’s more they even have them colour coded-Green knives and green plastic boards for veggies, red ones for meat, blue ones for seafood, yellow ones for ready-to-eat things like cut-up fruits and so on. It seems that since wood has pores in its surface, juices/water from whatever we are chopping may seep in and the dampness would serve as an ideal ground for bacteria and germs to breed.
I am guessing that glass might be a good option-but then if you are endowed with butter-fingers like me, chances are you would break the glass AND prick yourself with the glass pieces too! Not safe! So finally I just decided to settle on wood anyway. I figured that with the high temperatures involved in the Indian style of cooking that I mostly do, all bacteria should be effectively destroyed. Better than eating plastic I presume.

Dilemma No.2: Can somebody please, please, please teach me how to use the can opener?!?!?! I have been trying to figure this out for the past couple of years all to no avail! (Shut up! I am NOT dumb!) Wahhhh!! Back in my childhood, we never had any can openers at home. I remember my mom holding a sharp knife vertically on the rim of the can, hitting it with a hammer and going around the whole circumference of the top of the can. If you lose your patience mid-way and try to pry the half-open lid-stop right there and don’t waste your energy. That approach hardly ever succeeds-you will probably end up with a bent lid, half the contents stuck within the can, not to mention scraping your finger on the serrated edges of the can. Trust me I have given blood all for a few yummy drops of Milkmaid. You got to go the whole damn way! Or they could just stop producing cans which need can openers and instead just manufacture the ones which can be opened by pulling at the hook on the top-like Coke or Beer cans…Sigh!

P.S: Hey BG, if you are reading this I remember that you had written something about this on your blog a long time back... But I couldn't find it now....

Dilemma No.1: This exalted position goes to the ubiquitous question “What to cook for the next meal?” There are innumerable cuisines around the world and a zillion dishes to make. I agree. I could cook that dish that I was thinking of trying out for some time now. Only I checked my pantry (or the fridge) and the one important ingredient for this particular dish is out of stock. Well okay…then let me cook this other dish-oh wait! Somebody (or the other) doesn’t eat this vegetable/meat. Fine then what about this one? Oh no! Not that! I just made that a few days back! Apart from all that, it should also be nutritious and healthy and tasty all at the same time, not too oily or cheesy, not too much of sodium, not too sweet, not too bland, should not require too much effort or money, should not be boring and repetitive, should be different but not too adventurous, should not contribute to the ever-increasing waistlines and love handles, should appeal to the eyes and nose as well etc etc etc!

Okay I hear you say, "Well these are common to both the working and the stay-at-home women!" But then the working woman can always say "Well I am too busy to worry about such trivialities! I have to think about stopping the sky from falling down and the earth from caving in!"
On the other hand, what lame excuses could we domestic divas give?!?

So there you go! Now don’t you agree that the life of a domestic diva is as bad as braving rush hour traffic, handling pesky customers, uncaring co-workers, irritating bosses, ever-shortening deadlines, impossible targets and uninspiring projects!?! All I can say is ….. You’d better ;-)

Image Courtesy: http://www.dreamstime.com/

Mars & Venus...

A few years back I used to read books like ‘Men are from Mars & Women are from Venus’, ‘Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps’ etc, elaborating on the basic differences between the sexes.

Now it looks like it is time to actually live through all of that!

Am sure there are many people out there who have realised that men turn deaf while watching TV.On the other hand I remember the hours I have been chit-chatting over the phone or even in person while still following something on TV!

Also what is this constant obsession with Ten Sports, ESPN and any other Sports channels on air?!? I am constantly watching players running around one field/ground/court or the other and always hearing running commentaries, cheers and the constant hum of the crowds, all of which peak when someone kicks a goal, hits a four or misses a shot.
And if it’s not from the broadcasts it’s from the Playstation :-(
This forms the background of my cooking, reading, eating, browsing, sleeping and all other general activities of the day!
Oh no, am wrong. Not always.

Suddenly I hear a hard, raspy voice screaming something unintelligble, a serious of dull thuds and some booming music.

Do you smell what the Rock is cookin?!?

WWE is beyond me.
Honestly.
Just can’t imagine why on earth anyone would want to see one mountain of rippling flesh pummell another mass of meat.
Depressing.

But now its time for a happy thought.

Today is grocery shopping day. Yippeee!

Though I suppose Mars’ and Venus’ feelings on this is totally reversed.
Men just go, pick up a handfull of items that are in the list, check out and exit. That’s it.

I could easily spend about a couple of hours in a supermarket,
walking up and down the various aisles(though I do get myself lost half the time ;-)), looking at what is available on the shelves even if it’s the same stuff that was there last week,ticking off the things on my list and picking up a few that were not on it, roaming around once more to see if anything catches my eye (or anyone for that matter! Hehe!).

And if this is the way I shop for weekly supplies you can just imagine how I would shop for clothes!

I hear that most of my friends’ husbands dare not accompany them for shopping.
Or actually its vice versa.
Most of my friends dump their husbands,take their credit cards and go shopping ;-)

A plan I intend to follow from today!

Off I go,
On my way,
All aglow,
It's Shopping day!!

Ta Da!!!!!

Shop Till U Drop!!

Of late Life seems to be one endless shopping expedition.

All my free time-am shopping!

Weekend plans?-Shopping!

Never thought that I could possibly get bored of shopping :-(

But looks like I am-or at least soon will be.

Mudhal Onsite Payanam!

One of my teammates is going onsite tomorrow for the first time.
Seeing him I was soooo reminded of how I was before my first onsite trip.
I almost saw my former self mirrored in him. It was nostalgia!

Generally for anyone in the Indian software industry, onsite chance is like a dream come true. After months of getting your Visa ready and being tagged as a ‘Travel Ready Resource’, after weeks of false alarms like “You may travel for so-and-so client next week”- finally you get the much awaited green signal - roughly 2 days before your travel date. Then everything is a flurry of activities.

Getting your tickets booked by the travel desk people, getting forex (and actually handling foreign currency for the first time!), giving treats and farewell emails and speeches, running from pillar to post for shopping anything and everything under the sun ranging from luggage-that-fits-into-overhead-cabins to sweets-that-my-onsite-lead-asked-to-bring , bugging mom to make all the podis and pickles on earth, frantic phone calls to anyone who has ever travelled abroad to enquire about “is it cold there?”,”do we get Indian stuff there?”
Your mind is in a jumble of last minute questions-did I take those printouts? Did I take a backup of my documents Did I surrender my mobile connection? Did I do this, did I do that…. Everything is one breathless blur!
And then comes the packing and weighing. Invariably it will be too heavy-then unpack and repack -Finally leaving behind half the things we had shopped!

Then voila! The Airport Debacle.
Friends and family all surround you and bid their au revoirs. Someone will invariably start sniffling while you are hovering between feeling excited about the whole thing and feeling nervous and worried about leaving familiar shores behind.

Luggage scanned, boarding passes in hand, standing in the never ending queue for Immigration check, security screening - And at last you step into the flight.
I always ask for the window seat-not because the view is great or something but because no one will disturb me to get up often ;-)
And I always pray that the person sitting next to me doesn’t:
1) Stink
2) Chatter non stop
3) Fall asleep on me
4) Stare sideways at every single action of mine

When at last the flight takes off after the preliminary safety precautions are announced and you see the city lights growing smaller and smaller, farther and farther away from you, when the cars and trees and roads have become tiny specks somewhere far down below, when you are lost in the clouds high above the world - it sinks in.
You are on your way! On your own!

Nobody is going to cajole you to eat dinner anymore, no one is going to tolerate your tantrums, no one is going to clean your bathroom or wash your clothes, no one is going to scold you to take medicine if your sick, no one is going to pay your bills for you, no one! Everything becomes your responsibility. It is up to you.
Fortunately or unfortunately you really are on your own!

BLACK!

Had just taken the day off and was sitting at home doing nothing and so deceided to blog about Black- not about the movie Black but rather about about my favourite colour!
Black is popularly associated with the Devil and Dark Deeds. Afterall how many demonic witches and mean villains have we seen flaunting black! There are a lot of superstitions surrounding black- if a black cat crosses your path its bad luck, if you happen to see a totally black raven its supposed to signal sorrow, a black dot is supposed to ward off dhrishti etc! It seems there is even a ritual practiced in Palakkad for pregnant women, which involves the lady all dressed in black! In fact it usually symbolizes mystery and the unknown but for me it epitomizes simple elegance and confident style. Every time I go shopping I invariably choose some black dress or other at once - much to my mom’s consternation! She doesnt allow me to wear black on any auspicious occasion :-(
But seriously I believe that very few things could be more calming than gazing onto a black velvet night sky, studded with a thousand stars winking back at you and a shy moon playing peek-a-boo!
Black looks black coz it absorbs all the light without reflecting anything back.
And also it’s the best heat emitter. Now try wearing black on a hot summer’s day! Whewwww!
Black has a lot of significance in the world. Everyone must have heard about Black Boxes and Black Holes.
But have you ever wondered why one of the highest belts awarded in Karate is the Black Belt?
Because in Japan Black is considered as a sign of experience and wisdom!
In Hinduism, the much loved God Krishna was supposed to be black though he is depicted a shade of dark blue in pictures. And it is said that he was always surrounded by Gopikas! Afterall though India is obsessed with fair skin, the saying goes Tall, Dark & Handsome right?! I guess I should close this blog with the famous Tamizh song 'Karuputhan enaku pudicha colouruuuuu!!!"