A Love Affair with Weddings

My fascination for weddings is no big secret. Having pulled a Bridezilla act myself (about which you read here), I always knew it was more than just-a-passing-phase. If not an engineer, I would definitely have been a journalist. And I even harboured a secret ambition of becoming a wedding planner! So when my growing passion for shutterbuggery gave me a chance to combine both of these and find my true calling, I succumbed. In simpler words, I combined my love for weddings, photography and journalism to pursue Wedding Photojournalism.

Photojournalism, in plain words, is a genre of photography where each picture tells a story. In new-age photography, the same concept is being applied to wedding photography and is gaining popularity by leaps and bounds. The days of the overbearing  photographers bullying you into awkward poses with your spouse on the wedding day are slowly on their way out and making way for more candid photographers who do their job discreetly and let the couple enjoy their own wedding!  

Personally, I always disliked the concept of ‘posed’ and ‘filmy’ pictures. I mean who wants to see oneself cupping her mehendi-ed hands to see a moon formation or two friends pretentiously holding ur ‘jhumka’and to top it all, such pictures are blown-up and printed into a BULKY album which gathers dust all its life (at least mine is !)

So with the wedding photography undergoing a sea change with the increasing emphasis on candid pictures and more and more new-age couples taking confident decisions for their weddings, I took a plunge in this sea (see my talent for finding apt words all the time :P) and now I’m a part of this noble effort to redefine the way we have known our wedding pictures all this while.

I publish my work under the name ‘Anamika Singh- The Memory Keeper’ (yep, that’s Inky Pinky’s real name :)). Believe me, its so much fun being a part of so many weddings, sharing the emotions, seeing pleasant smiles and moist eyes through the lens, creating beautiful memories for a lifetime AND the joy you see on their face on seeing the pictures – its PRICELESS!

All images are copyrighted by Anamika Singh-The Memory Keeper

For more of my work on wedding photography, check out my page on facebook and LIKE it if u like what u see :)

P.S. All you lovelies waiting to walk the aisle, trust me hiring a good wedding photographer can be the bestest thing you can do for urself! It can make a world of a difference to the most special moment in ur life and you will surely thank me for these $0.02 and if u need help, I'm just a call away ;)

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Vanity Size does matter!

We are confused species. Humans in general and women in particular. Especially when it comes to sizes.We want our laptop screens smaller and phone screens bigger knowing the purpose each serve, our torso bigger and derrerie smaller, our rings larger and chains finer..the list is endless. An online shopping order gone wrong has made me rethink how confused exactly I am about sizes.

I am not exactly an avid online shopper and my latest online order hasn’t done much to bolster my trust in online shopping (no points for guessing which site I ordered from!) The item is question was a ‘free’ size Kaftan dress with attractive prints and a chic belt to team it up with but what was delivered to me was a XXL size dress sans the belt and much more sheerer than it actually appeared online. I can accept no-belt thing assuming I missed to read the fine print but a XXL size in which two of my size can easily fit and still leave space for more is certainly NOT done! Free Size does mean ‘One Size Fits All’ but pushing a XXL size as free size hoping that it will fit all isn’t right! Or is it?

I was grappling for a term to describe this experience and Vanity Sizing came close but ‘Inverse Vanity Sizing’ is what it would be best described as. Vanity Sizing or size inflation means the garment is actually bigger and more accommodating than the label suggests. That means clothes sizes are labeled a size or two smaller than actual by shops and designers to flatter the customers. In a nutshell, vanity sizing, as its name suggests, is designed to satisfy buyers' wishes to appear thin and feel better about themselves.

That made me think Vanity Sizing isn’t a bad thing after all. Well who doesn’t want to feel slim and fit and if a label can massage your ego, no one’s complaining. A wardrobe full of XS, S and M sizes is such a joy but the moment the letter start reading L, XL, 2L and what not, you strike the panic button.

Knowingly or unknowingly, all of us at some point of time must have had picked a wrong size and still feel good about it. I have done it many times…like the waist 24” hot pants I bought ages ago – forget about the pants fitting me , the button and the hole are more than 4” apart today ! Similarly, like the time I went shopping with my ‘apparently large’ friend where we both picked a size M – she unsure if she’ll wear it but afraid to admit she is large and me amused at her suicide attempt by asphyxiation! :D

So I’ll let this particular oversized buy pass as a compensation for the undersized ones and I think I should probably gift it to a pregnant friend!!!

P.S. What has been your vanity sizing experience?

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The Gift of Time

The announcement of a blogging contest at Indus Ladies has got my creative juices flowing. Its been a long time since I wrote a commissioned post and this seems like the perfect opportunity. The contest is a prelude to the International Women’s Day celebration and therefore, centers on women. The topic is ‘A perspective on roles of Indian Women’ and this post is my entry for the contest. I tag Tanvi, Chandni and Ritu to participate in the contest.

Indusladies 2nd Annual International Women's Day Blog Contest

I love Saturdays. Well, who doesn’t! But my reasons for loving Saturdays might differ from yours. I love them for a very simple reason that my husband is at work on Saturdays and I get the ME time I so look forward to the whole week. Don’t get me wrong here – I looove spending time with him and family too (whenever they are around) but there’s a greater person that itches for a fair amount of undivided attention – That’s Me!

 

I won’t call it self-love (though I admit I’m quite vain! :P) but I love spending time with myself for a simple reason that ‘Me-Time’ is liberating, exhilarating and peaceful all at one. Spending quality time with myself has always been therapeutic for me. Making activity almost irrelevant does that trick. I could spend that time doing anything from curling up in bed with a book or flipping through my favorite channels or facebooking endlessly to pampering myself in a spa or indulging in retail therapy without having to care much of the responsibilities that awaits me when the Me-time ends.Over time, it has become my quick fix for an instant rejuvenation.

And its heartening to know that it isn’t just me. I find more and more women appealed by this idea of Me-time. Women today, Indian Women to be particular, do realize (and definitely should!) that there is something beyond the labels that the world has metaphorically pinned upon their torso - homemaker, nurturer, mother, daughter-in-law and wife. Each responsibility, of course, constantly entails being a constant physical presence in the lives of others. Not many of us can look beyond these responsibilities even for a fraction of time without feeling guilty or selfish. 

My two cents to all the women reading this and on the brink of getting convinced of Me-time – your spending time with yourself is not being self-centred, it's self care! Irrespective of what role you play in life, care for yourself first so that you care for others better. There’s something magical, fun and empowering about spending time with oneself. You will always return with a renewed sense of gratitude for what awaits you. Discover yourself. Let your hair down. Turn up the volume. Croon louder. Laugh harder. Nobody will sue you for that!!! :)

Happy Women’s Day and a toast to your new-found freedom!

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Eat.Shop.Love.

These three words quite sum up my current state of mind that is still reeling under Goan trance. A mid week break was the perfect excuse to sneak out from the city for an idyllic getaway and what could be better than Goa at this time of the year. It turned out to be such a crackerjack holiday that even a week-long break left me salivating for more!

Goa has become a second home of sorts for us and we rarely go through a year without holidaying in Goa…at least once and sometimes even twice. This was our fifth time there so sightseeing wasn’t figuring on my wish list at all. I’d rather planned to laze around the beaches and soak up the heady mix of sun, sand and surf. In midst of doing lot of nothing-at-all, I indulged in making the most of Eating, Shopping & Loving! The eating and shopping bit will get a room on this post and I’ll reserve the details of the loving bit :D

The gastronomic journey that I experienced had some stellar pit-stops which deserve a respectable mention. Had the best brick-oven pizza ever, gorged on cheesecakes and banoffee pies and savoured a delectable array of seafood. Here are a few of the images I clicked to keep the awesomeness alive in memory…

Seafood Pizza at Magic Italy (Palolem -South Goa)

Cheesecake at a German Bakery (Baga -North Goa)

Apart from being immensely hip & happening, Goa never fails to surprise me with the effortless style in clothing. A nip here, a tuck there and ta-da u have a beautiful gown made from a traditional sari or few seams conjoined to make a wraparound out of almost anything. Barring a few items that cater to the ‘Butter Chicken & Dal Makhni’ crowd like block-print kurtas, cotton dresses, straw hats and souvenir t-shirts to name a few, the flea market can churn out highly interesting stuff if you have the eye for it.

The flea market is also the pulse of latest trends and this time around I found few things dotting the market

• Scarf Dresses

• Harem pants in all dimensions (short/medium/long) and different fabrics (cotton/ tie-dye/silk)

• Jump Suits

• Hot Pants

• Shimmer Bags

• Ruffle Lamps

Flea Market at Palolem

The colorful ruffle lamps in the flea market

I grabbed a whole lot of stuff from the flea market which gave me a head rush and made me feel good. And at those prices, it’ll make me feel less guilty even if I don’t use them more than once.

I will post some pictures of outfits I wore and those of my flea market buys in subsequent posts…after I figure out how to manage 2.5 GB of pictures spilling out of the folder on my already saturated hard disk and each one vying for my attention. Damn these digital cameras!!!

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Winter Funk

I never tire of saying “I love winters”! Well, moderate winters to be precise – not the ones which leave u bunny faced (pink nose & red eyes :)) There’s no greater joy than sitting in front of a crackling fire with your family, or snuggling up with a good book under a cozy quilt or sipping endless cups of chai and eating piping hot food with sinful amount of ghee & butter. Hailing from a winter heartland but settled in a place with maritime climate (read: Mumbai), a vacation in the north every winters for meeting family & experiencing some chill has become a tradition of sorts (the former activity driven largely by the latter!)

I’m off to Delhi this weekend for this season of Meet the Parents (his & mine –in that order) which usually makes me nervous and excited at the same time (for obvious reasons :P!) However, this year the news of unprecedented cold is making me li’l nervous and sending chill down my body already. But on the brighter side, a hope of getting a chance to don my wintry best is leaving me far more excited...

I enjoyed this long weekend to the hilt. I’d been on a shopping frenzy for last two days primarily scouting for gifts to carry home and also to arm myself for the winter fashionably. The mall hopping was both exhausting and exhilarating as I ended up picking up some stuff for myself at almost every store I shopped at, which I obviously did not need but what the heck! Its festive season and time to cheer :)

Winter clothing wasn’t on my shopping list this time around. I have accumulated a fair amount of winter clothing & accessories which can last forever considering the rate they come out of my closet. But more accessories, definitely YES!


Here are a few of my mention-worthy picks from the shopping haul

Leg Warmers - Thrift
I got a wee bit carried away while shooting :)

Cape -Globus

A cape has made a comeback this season and how!



Scarf-Shoppers Stop

 

Clutch - Cherokke

Purple is HOT this season !!!



  Doesn't this clutch look good without the chain too?



Kewl, isn’t it? And to add a dash of delight to an already fabulous day, I spotted Akshay & Katrina promoting their latest flick in one of the suburban malls and got locked inside the mall with the berserk mob. Katrina looked quite a stunner but my heart went out for Akki, looking dapper in a classic combo of white shirt & blue jeans. I couldn’t help smiling the rest of the day for reasons more than one…



P.S. How did u find my buys? Any suggestions what I can team up that black cape with? 



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My wedding shopping spree!

17 years and still going strong, that’s precisely how long my love affair with weddings has lasted. It triggered at a cousin’s wedding just when I had barely entered my teens when I realized there so much more to weddings than my childhood game of ‘gudiya ki shaadi’. I was left completely smitten and I knew the fascination was gonna last life long. That shows in the scratches of my favorite DVDs which happen to be all wedding movies - 27 dresses, Bride Wars, Father of the Bride, The Runaway Bride et al. With such a sound foundation in mush, no wonder I grew up to become a sucker for weddings.

Love for shopping was natural but that assumed deadly proportions with each passing year. Being hopelessly romantic at heart and shopaholic by passion was enough to throw me in frenzy when my wedding date was announced. Getting married to my boyfriend was comforting enough for me to channelize all my energy in shopping. And out I went like an untamed Bridezilla ready to devour anything and everything that even had the remotest possibility of being of any use in my wedding. This Bridezilla also spit fire occasionally on those who tried to talk her out of that frantic shopping spree. After all, it was MY wedding and like every bride, I also felt that I’m the first and the last bride on the planet!

Six months of gap between engagement and wedding was a good time frame to stock up my regular dope of shopping. With due regard to the countless spa & salon treatments I endured, a retail therapy was a far superior way to soothe my senses and satiate my soul. Living in a city that is a shopper’s paradise threw up endless avenues for loosening my purse string at the drop of a hat for anything that could be a part of my bridal trousseau.Everything had to be perfect and of course, the best!

My shopaholic alter ego in an overdrive ran berserk piling up goodies from an endless list of must-buys - bridal accessories, jewelry, lingerie, makeup, fragrances, toiletries, bed linens etcetera etcetera, although I knew that most of those will never see the light of the day a second time – but then “my wedding and reception outfits are special to me”, my mind would trick me! After blowing up the booty kept aside by my parents for my wedding shopping, I resorted to my credit cards. Credit card payment cheques departed as soon as the salary cheques came in. After bringing home the most expensive labels I’d ever worn (and the most blingy accessories too!), my bank account hit rock-bottom but that didn’t deter me from further shopping. I transformed into a bargain huntress on the prowl!!

The four-lettered word ‘SALE’ had a hypnotic effect on me and gave me an excuse to accumulate stuff for post-wedding times as well. The choicest Victoria’s secrets for the honeymoon, the itsy bitsy dresses for beach vacation on Valentine’s, the LBD for one of the many candlelight dinners to come, the killer stilettos for clubbing-dos, the ethnic chic for first diwali… the list was endless and so were my excuses. My wardrobe was on the verge of bursting at seams but my shopahol hangover refused to get over easily. The eclectic mix of designer wear and bargain buys offered me a little solace when a bit of sanity set in.

The D-Day tiptoed amidst this madness. It brought the curtains down to the days of hysteria I endured for those six months and the atrocities I subjected to my family and BFFs by those crazy jaunts and numerous dress rehearsals and ushered me in the next drama titled ‘The big fat Indian Wedding’! I put my best foot forward in my handpicked outfit and makeup. The admiration I garnered as the blushing- beautiful- radiant bride made me feel so much better for my feet gone sore from those endless shopping spree. The effort seemed to have finally paid off well!

Three years into marriage, I can’t really recall if each item of my bridal treasure has got a chance to venture out of the closet even once. But whenever it does, it sure grabs some attention. A compliment or two on that wedding special collection item –a pair of chandelier earrings or an ornate outfit or flashy footwear or a bright clutch, lessens my guilt for the sinful indulgence. As I sit flipping through my wedding album today, I walk down the memory lane and re-live each moment of the shopping frenzy that has become a part of these wonderful memories. I feel that’s the best wedding gift I could have given myself! And to all the brides waiting to walk to aisle, my two cents – you get married only once (ideally!), so go splurge!!!

P.S. This post is my entry to the 99lables's Wedding Week Blogging Contest. (Category - My wedding shopping spree!)

99lables.com is a members only 'event based' online shopping community. To become a member, click on the referral link below:

http://www.99labels.com/v1/Become-Member.aspx?re=anamikasingh28@gmail.com

Rules for participating in the contest:

1. Become a member of 99labels (If you are not a member already) by clicking on the referral link at the bottom of this post. (You get Rs 100 worth of credit free to shop!) .
2. Create a log-in preferably using the email id attached with your blog. This is to protect the anonymity of some bloggers as the referral link (read rule 2) displays your email-id.
3. Post your referral link on the post (This means that whoever becomes a member clicking on the link gets Rs 100, and whenever you referral buys an item you get Rs 500). To find your referral link
1. Log in on www.99labels.com
2. Click on “Invite friends” on the top menu.
3. Go to bottom of page and look for “Copy and paste your personal invitation link” and paste the link at the bottom of your post E.g . My Referral invite – http://www.99labels.com/v1/Become-Member.aspx?re=xyz@gmail.com
4. Copy and paste all the rules in your post.
5. Leave a link to your post in the comments section of the contest page of 99labels http://blog.99labels.com/2010/10/25/wedding-week-blogging-contest/.
6. Copy and paste this image at the end of the post and the category under which you have posted.

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A Short Hair Story

I can qualify as a model for a commercial on dull and lifeless hair. Trust me, I can offer a lot of variety in hair woes – dry, weak, frizzy, limp etcetera etcetera. The only thing which comes next to glowing skin on my secret wish list is shiny black hair and the overwhelming response to my post on glowing skin proves that we all girls share the same wish list, well, more or less, don’t me? Its comforting to know that someone out there empathizes with me as I embark upon the forlorn hope of shiny black hair.

I have been a tom boy for nearly half the time I‘ve spent on the earth. A tomboy with long hair is so uncool so I sported short hair during my tomboy hey days. The adulation for my mushroom hair cut combined with zero maintenance was reason good enough for keep short hair for 15 good years. When the sweet sixteen bug bit me, I decided to break the monotony and grow my hair long. And then came along the frenzy of hair care regime which, I thought, would to make up for the lost time.

I wasn’t genetically wired to have very long hair so the collective wisdom of mummies, aunties and didis came to my rescue. The ubiquitous items on their list found their way to mine – amla, reetha, shikakai et al. Ignorant of the proportions in which each of these have to be mixed before application, I applied a generous amount of only amla on my head and my hair ended up looking a shade of crow! That was the first and last time of my tryst with traditional hair care. Sooner, mehendi became a hair conditioning staple. I would pull all the ladies in the household for the mehendi regime and Sundays would turn out to be a day of green domes where heads belong. Full marks to this one though. It turned out to be quite effective and I would rejoice at the sight of an extra mm of length.

This bliss wasn’t meant to last long. I got carried away and went it for a perming treatment. My long-ish straight-ish (neither long nor straight) tresses which I had laboriously grown reduced to half its length. My curls evoked mixed reactions – some liked it, others were polite in saying straight were better. But when my bratty nephew described me with curls as a maverick scientist, my heart broke. I couldn’t wait for my straight hair to grow. Salon visits for a trim became as regular as groceries shopping. I ended up cutting off every bit of my curled locks and that brought me back to square one. I was left with bobbed hair, roughly the same amount I had years ago.

I put my hair through a more rigorous grind this time around. My hair would let out my eating preferences and I would end up covering it up with an explanation – vinegar – chinese? Yes, I love chinese food .So what, if I occasionally apply on my head too?!! ; egg – ofcourse, I am non-vegetarian ; beer – sorry, I don’t booze , its adds bounce to hair I’ve heard, so m just trying. Persistence did pay in terms of length but the shine was elusive.

Along came the streaking and coloring trend. Before I decided to take a plunge, my friend who went for a burgundy look started turning red with every wash and I just thanked my stars for not being too hasty. My long-ish and straight-ish hair needed a change and rebonding was an ‘it’ thing. After the perming fiasco, I was wary of any chemical treatment so bought myself a hair iron. It came handy in giving my hair a rebounded look but I had no respite from chemicals as I had to rub in a copious amount of hair mousse every time. In hindsight, it added a new attribute to my hair – brown-ish! :D

Whenever I enter a shop for buying skin care products, the sales assistant invariably tells me, “Ma’am, can I show something for your hair, too?”!! It leaves me confused whether she’s trying to hard sell or suggesting me to do something about my hair. “No, thank you. I’m just looking for something for my skin”, I retort.

I have grown comfortable with my brownish hair. Infact, I like it bcoz it look somewhat naturally colored. But I hit the panic button when my niece’s sketchy description – my hair is a color of branch. BRANCH??? Can u beat it? I headed straight to the Body Shop and this time when the sales assistant offered me to show some hair products, I told her to bring it on! I bought Grapeseed Glossing Serum and Rainforest Moisture Hair Butter.

The Body Shop's Hair Serum for dull and frizzy hair  ;)
Picture Courtesy : Inky Pinky

I’m sacrificing 10 extra minutes of my morning sleep to follow this new hair care regime. If I notice any visible changes in my hair texture in a couple of weeks with application of this serum and butter, I’ll definitely post a detailed review. Until then, I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the betterment of my long-ish, straight-ish, brown-ish hair…

P.S. What’s your hair story? Any tips for me?

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Get trendy with Jeggings

I was very fond of my skinny jeans in my early college days. They were a big rage back then but as time progressed, the skinnies made way for the bootcuts and flares and while my wardrobe was being revamped with the flared and low-rise variety, my skinny jeans met its fate as a capri, then shorts and then hot pants and finally as wax strips before ending up in the dustbin laden with oodles of hot wax!!!

Fashion being cyclical, few years on, the flares lost their flair and a similar treatment was deliberated to them. Though they served well in ways more than one – compliment the tank tops better, hide the belly jelly and make definitely superior wax strips, in hindsight I shudder to think how on earth did I wore those embroidered nirvana jeans with flair (and flare ofcourse!) What goes around, comes around, they say and it holds true for fashion in equal measure. As a natural progression, the extra piece of clothing swaying at the bottom had to lose itself and transform into a leaner and trimmer cousin – the straight fit. Gradually, as size zero went on to become a obsession from a mere trend, it inspired the denims for a similar metamorphosis.

I am not a fashion victim but I do, consciously try to ‘follow’ fashion so grabbing a latest pair of skinny Levi’s Diva jeans was both a choice and a need. If you care for my opinion, I’d say it is worth every penny you put in – these are extremely comfortable, exceptionally stylish and uber-chic.



Photo : Inky Pinky

 Crystals and diamante adorning the fabric is clearly a glamorous option for buttons and rivets and the embellishment is done quite aesthetically to make it appear least garish. It’s designed to bring out the Diva in you and the silver sequined letter ‘D’ is your passport to flaunt it too!

As I sat basking in the glory of my newly acquired Diva status, the skinny jeans were apparently working overtime to transform themselves into their anorexic cousin this time around – the Jeggings. Touted as the next big thing in fashion, Jeggings are extremely skinny jeans that are styled to look like leggings. Jeggings are slated to become a fashion staple ‘cuz they are much more comfortable that the skinny jeans and offer a more modest and stylish alternative to wearing leggings as pants. However, jeggings is not a style for everyone as they they give wearers no room to hide :D

Jeggings are available at all Max stores and Lifestyle outlets across India. So while I chalk out my plan to burn that muffin top off my waist before embracing the jeggings, you go take a look at the collection in your nearest store and join me in the calorie burning endeavor. Let’s build a lean nation! ;)

P.S. For styling tips on leggings, click here

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In search of the coveted glow...

How far would you go for that perfect skin that glows like a 1000 W bulb? I betcha a majority of the ladies just wouldn’t mind giving their eyes and teeth for that (what use that glowing skin would be sans eyes & teeth is beside the point :D) Jokes apart, it is that quintessential quality that every lady aspires for…some are born with it, some earn it with hard work and the rest keep striving till they achieve it…And then there are some lucky damsels who fall under all of these categories. If you have gone through your fair share of skin troubles in your younger days, you tend to realize its value even more, like I do!

Glowing skin is considered harbinger of health & happiness but there’s something quirky about watching that glow on someone else’s face…an eerie feeling that implores you to explore the closely guarded secret of her glowing skin even if it takes befriending your nemesis who has the privilege to her proximity and what follows is a wild goose chase starting with the same brand of beauty products to following the skincare regime and ending with making a beeline to the salon she frequents. If all that fails, you try to ascribe the possible reasons of her glow – hmmm must be love! or psst, is she expecting? or to top it all, blame it on her genes !!

In growing up years, my girl’s hostel was the perfect arsenal to combat the menace of skin troubles. With shoe-string budgets, there never was any spare money to dispense on beauty treatments. Going natural was rather a constraint than a choice. My skin savored a healthier diet than my tummy. A trip to the neighborhood grocery store was less for appeasing the taste buds and more for the elusive glow. The shopping list was as vivid as it was divergent - milk, curd, tomato, papaya, lemon et al. I wasn’t alone in this noble endeavor. A symbiotic relationship existed between the bevy of beauties vying to beat the competition. After all, there’s no greater joy than hearing your name resound when the classic poser pops up,”Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” :)

When an already fair & glowing roomie brought a sandalwood stick, the others followed suit to foil her bid to overtake others in terms of complexion. My room looked like an arena for flexing muscles developed by endless extraction of sandal wood paste. On the brighter side, we earned some extra brownie points from the hostel warden who thought we had suddenly turned religious as she likened the chandan smell to agarbatti :D. A multitude of colored faces filled the rooms of our hostel..thanks to the innumerable varieties of face packs – brown-multani mitti, orange-papaya, green –cucumber, yellow-besan and what not! Nobody mind gulping down utterly bitter Safi tonic when someone mentioned my cousin owes her great skin to Safi. Similar was the fate of karela which until now had always been subjected to step-motherly treatment. Every room had a corner dedicated to these sacrilegious rituals – one roomie massaging away to glory, another scrubbing a tomato and others rubbing their finger nails together as a yoga exercise presumed to bring that wonder glow: D

Picture Credit : Kaya

I have donned some of these roles off and on – the performer and the spectator. Several years have passed since then but so much yet so less has changed. The same quest continues to this day. With less time to spare and more money to dispense, natural products have made way for expensive cosmetics and salon treatments. This quest took me to Kaya Skin Clinic last week. I was intrigued by their ad of ‘beautiful skin that glows from within’ and went ahead for Kaya Everyday Radiance service. This Kaya experience was good, as it has always been, in terms of service and professionalism but am still waiting for the glow for the last 5 days! I check myself out in the mirror every morning for the glow but alas it eludes me even today…I am reminded of my trusted neutrogena facial cleanser lying in my vanity bag. As I reach out for my bag, I notice some brochures lying by my bedside table. One of them reads “Rejuvenate your Skin this summer as Kaya Skin Clinic introduces Aqua Radiance. ~A new service based on water, oxygen & air technology~”. I stole a cursory glance at myself in the mirror and to my surprise, I saw my skin and eyes both glowing in anticipation :)

P.S. What's your secret? Pink Diaries would love to have it jotted...

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Deconstructing the 2-minute noodles

If there’s one food with which I associate my most profound memories, it has to be Maggi! 25 years old and still going strong…this 2-Minute wonder has grown with me (rather most of us, I’m sure!) in its varied garbs - a childhood staple, an instant hunger-fix after playtime, a delight in school tiffin box, a saviour in college canteen, a survival kit in foreign lands, a comfort food for lazy days and a saving grace after a hard day at work!

With a brand new campaign and innovative marketing, things could only get better between ‘me & meri’ maggi. But someone was playing killjoy in this blissful union. Forward emails starting doing the rounds on the internet highlighting the potential health hazards of consuming Maggi. The key points mentioned in the email were that these instant noodles are coated with wax and by cooking it the traditional way; we consume the wax along with it. It also mentioned that the tastemaker contains MSG and when the ingredients in the tastemaker are boiled, the molecular structure of the MSG changes, causing it to be toxic. Therefore, the correct way of making Maggi is to prepare it like hakka noodles - draining water after boiling the supposedly wax-coated noodles and mixing the tastemaker after the noodles are done.

I was heart-broken, totally ! I felt as if a good friend had betrayed me. I tried to ignore, avoid and occasionally snub that old friend for being what it was made out to be. When I couldn’t resist much, I started following the tip mentioned in the email and ended up getting frustrated every time I cooked Maggi since this new process was quite tedious. It was like a love affair gone sour!

The same forward mail landed in my inbox yesterday and this time I decided to give the relationship a second chance. I immediately wrote to consumer services at Nestle about the email demanding an official take on it.I was pleasantly surprised to receive a prompt reply from them clearing the air on the email contents. It turned out that the stated facts were FALSE and our good ‘ol Maggi noodles are as rocking as ever. In public interest, I am appending their reply here...hear it from the horse’s mouth!

Some relationships are meant forever, they say, and I couldn’t agree more today! Maggi, here’s to you and friendship…

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When u shop, the world gets better...

Last night I watched 'Confessions of a Shopaholic' for the nth time and fell in love with the movie all over again. Isla Fisher delivers a remarkable performance as a compulsive shopper who finds herself in a vicious circle of shopping & credit card debts. She is neck-deep in debt due to her shopping obsession and then to come out of the distress caused by this, she shops more, for she believes “When u shop, the world gets better & better”!

Doesn’t that sound like your own story? At least, it does sound a wee bit like mine, though not in the same proportions. Shopping is my dope too. The four-lettered word ‘SALE’ has a hypnotic effect on me. It is just an excuse for stocking up more goodies. That doesn’t imply that I do not shop when there are no discounts. Of course I do! My inner voice says that the good stuff is available only at full price and that wont be on display when the sale is on…Then why do I shop during sale?? Well, my inner voice does a volte face then and tells me that it’s a steal at the price I’m paying at the moment and I might bring that item to use later…like that black overcoat I can wear when I go abroad next time or that itsy-bitsy skirt that will look good in my beach vacation pictures or that pink-and-blue muffler that will jazz up my outfits when I’ll be in a snowy location or those killer stilettos I can wear when I go clubbing next (c’mon I don’t want to repeat my party shoes !) The list is endless …and so are my excuses. My wardrobe is on the verge of bursting at seams but my shopahol hangover refuses to get over easily.

As soon as my paychecks come in, my credit card payment cheques depart. Occasionally, I swipe my credit card for cheap thrills like reward points which I can redeem for gift vouchers and shop again! Each time I resolve not to fall in this trap but my shopper alter ego tricks me into it every single time. After all, like the protagonist in the movie, Becky Bloomwood a.k.a the girl in the green scarf puts it. ‘When u shop, the world gets better & better’! Sigh!!

My refraining ego & my shopaholic alter ego constantly engage in a war of words every time I cross a fancy shop but from the reverberating thoughts in my subconscious mind, the Girl-in-the-Green-Scarf comes forth to whisper gently in the ears of the Girl-with-a-Pink-Diary ‘Indulge in shopping but do it responsibly’!!

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