Landmark is having their annual sale! Of course you knew that if you are a book-lover in this city. But did you know that they don’t just have their regular (great!) books on sale but also a load of cool stuff as well? Check out what I picked up for the princely sum of Rs.199. That’s the lovely Dipali who showed me the bag and agreed to model it for I Style! as well.

EcoFrendz is a brand that has retailed bags from Landmark before but I’ve never seen some of these designs on display before. The bag I bought is khaki coloured cloth with a black cloth strap. Now normally, I’d pass off this stuff as being too stereotypical social worker stuff. But look at what’s on the side. It says ‘Let’s go places’ and it even has a real compass hanging down the side! I can see myself carrying this with jeans, salwar-kameezes as well as a skirt!

Now I’m a sucker for toys like that, it’s kitschy, it’s cool without being flamboyant. How’s that for I Style!?!

I spotted Neil Dantas at The Wall Project and I just had to stop him to tell him just how I Style! he was!

i am the BEST

Isn’t his tee-shirt absolutely fab? It’s Bambaiyya in a way that nothing else starts to match.For the uninitiated, BEST, an acronym for Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport, runs the Mumbai bus system. Every bus carries the BEST logo in Hindi, in white inside an oval white patch, painted on the side of the bright red bus. It’s one of Mumbai’s most recognizable logos.

The BEST man's tee-shirt

The good news is that Neil is himself a designer and retails his creations from his website. Do drop into his place if you’d like to carry forward his style. Or as I’d like to call it, Neil’s I Style!

Update: The full form of BEST has been corrected (thank you, Peter!). Much apologies for the error; I can only blame it on the 4a.m. posting.

The Landmark bookstore opens its doors on 23rd January 2009. Landmark has been shut these past three months after a fire broke out in Infinity Mall where it is housed, causing much damage to merchandise and fittings. Mercifully no human casualties except of course for avid Landmarkers who’ve missed the store sorely all this while that it has been undergoing renovation.

I’m irrationally excited over this. Come Friday and I’m making no plans, except to trek back to my favorite bookspot and just savour the feeling of being able to walk around in its interiors again. Is this an indication of the shallow, consumerist lifestyle I lead, that I miss a shop so much? Let me tell you just what Landmark means to me. (more…)

Oh my stars! Help me someone, I’m still recovering from the split sides I have from excessive suppressed laughter. Who is the cause of my cheery mood, you ask?

Meet the man himself – Mr.Mannequin!

He doesn’t believe in needles or anything permanant scarring his peaches n’ cream complexion. But the gods of fashion dictate that tattoos are in a la Jolie (or considering the neighborhood, Rakhi Sawant). So Mr.Mannequin sports a tatoo painted on a …what do you call it? A body-suit with only the sleeve? Tattoo on, tattoo off…now you see it, now you don’t. Actually you see it all. Including where the sleeve ends and his not-so-pink white arm starts.

Oh but wait! It gets better. Blonde we are, as blonde as the Hilton girl, as gold as Goldilocks. Let’s add a tie to the tee-shirt. And oh, snorkelling might be fun, you think?

And just in case you lovestruck ladies are wondering where you can get to meet this delectable creature, trot over to Lokhandwala market. He’s the style icon for that peculiar breed we call Lok-hunk-wala.

Curiouser and curiouser. ;-)

Business is dry during wet monsoons because Mumbaikars prefer to stay at home, enjoy hot pakodas and sip milk tea. Monsoon sale is the carrot these days businessmen use to get people to come to mall despite the rains to shop hard. Here are a few pictures I took on a wet Friday evening in a mall near my home.

Look this guy has himself done some it of shopping :)

Macy’s the quintessential shopping experience of New York City is all set to show up at a Shoppers Stop shelf near you. Everyone who has been to New York has visited Macys at Herald Square.

DNA India reports that Shoppers Stop may start stocking Macys products in their shops. I presume the day is not far when Mumbai will have its own Macys.

Now, I am sure this will bring one big smile on my sister’s face :)

Happy Shopping

Unless I’m greatly mistaken, these are the pipes that one uses to smoke ganja? I remember seeing these in little shops on my way home from school as well, and wondering what they were. Back then, I figured they were some special attachment to be used on taps. My curiosity continues unabated and I’m still wondering whether these aren’t illegal. If I’m right, they are…sort of.

I could be wrong, however. Does anybody know what these things are used for? I didn’t have the nerve to walk up to the shopkeeper and ask him. He didn’t seem perturbed by my taking photographs though.

It’s January and time for all of Mumbai’s iconic events. After the Mumbai Marathon and the Mumbai Festival comes the Strand Book sale. Book-lovers across the city have looked forward to this annual event far before the gleaming interiors of the other bookstores came into being.

While on this, here’s something that was written sometime back but will still be of interest to anyone who’s kicked about the Strand Book sale.

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In a city that loves designers, it is always good to go back to the philosophy of raste ka maal saste mein! Take a trip down the street with me while I poke into the tinsel of GlamourTown.

Roti (food), kapda (clothing) aur makan (shelter)…so the dictat goes. Roti (and also naan, idli, dosa, pizza, pasta and pita) is available in an appetizing variety while the glitz and glamour of teeny-weeny kapdas dazzle us. But what of makan? Oh well….life is always something short of perfect. For now, we settle for ramming our fresh fruit purchases in with the bling-thing that we call an LBD (Little Bright Dress!)
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I’ve developed a rather late interest in flowers. And why not? With all the frivolous things that we spend on, a little bit of beauty is much appreciated. Why must a gift always be intelligent or useful? How about just alive? Nothing better than a flower then. Here’s an account of my most recent floral jaunt.

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