Archive for September, 2009

Dance & food of the season!

Posted by Team Trendiya on September 24th, 2009

Season Introduction
Beginning of autumn and festive season always starts with a bang! One has so many different occasions to celebrate – starting from Ganesh utsav and Eid in holy month of Ramadan and presently having Navratri (for 9 days, nine forms of Shakti or Power i.e. Goddess are worshipped), ending with Dusshera and followed by ladies special Karwa Chauth fast and the festival of Lights ‘Diwali’.
Durga Puja is celebrated in West Bengal, Assam , Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Tripura where it is a five-day annual holiday. Almost all Bengali women dress up in red & white saree with huge bindi.

Apart from beautifully designed pandals or tents for placing Durga idols, Navratri is celebrated differently in different parts of India. In Gujarat and Maharashtra, its celebrated with the famous Garba and Dandiya dance which continue till late night during the period. The festival is known as golu in South India, a Golu or Kolu in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Bommai Kolu display is placed in the homes in Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka, which is an exhibition of dolls. In Bengal, Durga Puja is the most important festival and they rejoice with sound of Dhak, Dhunuchi nachh and mild fragrance of Shiuli (some flowers).

Dandiya Dance(image source ToI) and Falkuni pathak (image source-Rediff) songs

Food, music & dance.
Its either gawking on food after breaking fast in Ramazan month and enjoying the Eid feast with Saviyan,and Biryani along with Sufi music and qawwali. For the music – Coke studio music is liked these days by today’s generation.

maalpuas and Phirni-Image from trivialmatters.blogspot

In Navratri fast you can eat so many vegetarian items that you will not miss chicken!! The items range from Sighare or Kuttu ke atte ki Puri and Aloo Sabzi and Sabudana (Sago) Khichdi, and Makhane ki kheer in deserts are just a few names. Many restaurants in North India turn vegetarian (in some dishes they don’t even add garlic & onion) and offer navratra special food and you would not mind going specifically to eat it. From five start hotels Taj & Hyatt to Haldiram’s, you can enjoy it anywhere.

priyanka and dandiya

‘Su che’ song from “What’s your Rashee” is already tuned in many events and so what if Priyanka Chopra is getting excited to attend a dandiya night in Mumbai and tweeting about same, girls in other cities are not less excited. They are taking out their backless chaniya choli, bandini Ghagra with lots of mirror work & jewelry and boys are dressing up in Kedias (Gujarati dress for men) and dancing out with Dandiya sticks on the music of Dhol.

In food, going vegetarian is the demand of festival and picking rich textures and bright colors with glitter is choice of consumers in dresses.

Sweets pics courtesy- www.trivialmatters.blogspot.com

Posted in Lifestyle, Trends, Youth Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments »

Austerity is the new trends in Indian Politics!

Posted by Team Trendiya on September 16th, 2009

Sonia Gandhi flew economy class yesterday and Rahul Gandhi traveled on Shatabdi train. Is it a political drama or hype to get more votes or are they genuinely concerned about our hard earned and paid income tax.

sonia and rahul gandhi- the simple life

Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday, Sep 14 travelled to Mumbai in the economy class via flight, setting an example for all ministers. In fact, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee travelled to Kolkata by economy class and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna traveled to Belarus in the economy class of a Lufthansa flight. He also said that he would be using commercial flights for his travels henceforth.

It has been almost a week that all news channel and TV channels are going gaga over austerity drive by the central government and congress party. It started few days back when the government asked foreign minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor to give up the five-star accommodation they were enjoying in Delhi even if they were paying from own pockets. And so what if union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar didn’t like cost-cutting in travelling saying business class provides comfort, privacy and allows them to clear files even while flying.

The effect is that now Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel had to travel to Mumbai by the low-cost carrier Indigo and Union heavy industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh came to Mumbai from Delhi by SpiceJet and Union power minister Sushilkumar Shinde flew economy on Air India to Delhi.

mamta banarjee

Other side, railway minister Mamata Banerjee says “she has been practising austerity for decades”. Banerjee, who has not yet taken the official car, and commute in a private vehicle to office and fly in economy class and pay for own snacks. A jhola slunging over shoulders a cotton saree and hawai chappal in feet is what Mamta Banarjee’s trademark. She really lives like an ‘aam janta’ as she feels ‘commoners are the strength of the country’.

Youngsters are looking forward to seeing Rahul Gandhi in same train compartment or high flying cabinet minister in low budget flight with them. Let’s see, how long this austerity drive goes among Indian Politicians. Will they really enjoy this trend and set some example or will it create problems just like today, when Rahul Gandhi’s train was stoned. Austerity at the cost of security!

Posted in Lifestyle, Trends No Comments »

Men’s fashion week.

Posted by Trends Reporter on September 14th, 2009

dino morea and anil kumble in manoviraj creation.

Fashion week in India is not a new thing but what is special this time was it being a solely men’s fashion week and it will definitely play a significant role in positioning the Indian fashion market in world. Planning a all-men-fashion-week was in talks from a long time from the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) and after partnership with Van Heusen it is all set to change the dynamics of the Indian fashion landscape.

Models present creations by Indian designer Himmat Singh.

Van Heusen India Mens Week’ was held in New Delhi on September 11 – 13, 2009 at The Grand and featured 15 shows by 21 designers.
Brands like Reid and Taylor, and Raymonds are exclusive men’s fashion brands, but if one wants to opt for a designer label, the choices are restricted to bridal wear only. But many still feel that Indians are not ready for men’s fashion so what if John Abraham started selling fairness cream and Shahrukh Khan doesn’t mind sitting in bath tub to sell bathing soaps. Mainly because fashion design happens only for weddings in our country, that is why bridal wear is such a big thing. Though the branded men’s apparel segment is growing at 15 per cent and retail industry for men’s apparel is five times bigger than the women’s apparel segment in India (am sure this is news for many).

Models present creations by Indian designer Rajvi Mohan

Sunil Sethi, President, FDCI elaborated on the need for an independent forum for men’s fashion- “Men are active participants and contributors to the growth of fashion today, who have moved beyond deciding their favourite colour of ties and socks to actually cultivating loyalties for designers and lifestyle brands. Menswear dominates a larger per cent of branded apparel sales in the country and is said to be growing at a CAGR of 15%. The ‘Van Heusen India Mens Week’ aims to give menswear designers a structured impetus and the much needed platform to tap this potential of men’s fashion in India.”

Models present creations by Indian designer Ravi Bajaj.

India’s first men fashion week began with Ravi Bajaj’s collection. Apart from quality to excellence, the unique feature of his collection was the silhouettes that has evolved from hard edged eighties executive style to the much softer, in touch with soul look that is so trendy these days.

rohit bal and a model in his work, right is a creation by shantanu and nikhil

Rohit Bal launched The Badmaash collection depicting the naughty and flirtatious nature of a man and celebrating life in a wicked manner. In his words “The collection is very moody, vivacious, and self-obsessive. It revolves around the theme – I, me and myself,”

rocky s

Designer Rocky S used skin friendly fabrics like cottons, viols and linen. The collection was replete with colours like beige, ivory and blacks. And his inspiration was – It’s about me looking for freedom in my clothes. It’s about spiritualism in my clothes, so everything is very relaxed and very confident. His collection has stylish jackets, lean pants in exaggerated length.
Actor Dino Morea and cricketer Anil Kumble were showstopper for designer Manoviraj Khosla. Kumble walked the ramp 1st time and admitted that he is learning few things from younger generation of cricketers specially in fashion.

Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna work.

Talk of the event was Greek god look of Shantanu & Nikhil’s collection which has Grecian drapes in silk velvets. Also the man purse, a leather tote or anything sling was an essential accessory for men.

Salman Khan walked in a creation by designers Ashish Soni and Rohit Gandhi & Rahul Khanna on the Grand finale day of ‘Van Heusen India Mens week’. Ashish Soni showcased his collection ‘On the Run’ in the first part, which was inspired by the film Don. And style gurus Rohit & Rahul decided to go eco-friendly and presented soothing collection ‘Hypernature’.

salman in ashish soni and Rohit Gandhi - Rahul Khanna

Image source: Van Heusen India Mens Week 2009

Posted in Fashion, Trends Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment »

Balcony Garden!

Posted by Trends Reporter on September 9th, 2009

High rise building and little space in those apartments; how can we think of owning a little green patch in that concrete jungle! Well, now if you love greenery but don’t get time to do gardening or less on ideas- call “My Sunny Balcony” and they will bring liveliness in your otherwise neglected balconies or terrace.

Zen style garden

In their words- Any space that receives even a little bit of sunlight is a potential MySunnyBalcony space: A tiny unusable patch outside your front door, an ugly terrace on your roof, or even a back balcony in your high rise apartment. It doesn’t matter how high up or small your space is, we’ll work with it. We’ll also tell you what you can do and what you can’t. You’ll be surprised at the immense number of green possibilities that even a tiny amount of space can hold!”

3428364863_c341386e5b

The childhood memories of playing in lawn and plucking fresh vegetables from home garden or sipping a cup of tea amidst of greenery are gone things. You don’t have to be super rich to own a bungalow with garden. My Sunny Balcony team (Athreya, Reena, Shailesh and Sriram) will take care of everything. Only thing, presently they operate in Bangalore city only but hoping they will start operating from other cities too ?

So what are you waiting for? Now even small spaces will have own personal garden! More details you can read at mysunnybalcony.com

Posted in Decor, Lifestyle No Comments »

Made in India!

Posted by Trends Reporter on September 3rd, 2009

Designed in India or better say, Made in India, Made for India and recognized everywhere is something we are seeing these days.
Recently two very useful products got international recognition and awards.

One is Chulha. It got Index awards (biggest design award in the world) in Home category.

Intent: limit the dangerous health conditions caused by traditions of indoor cooking in many rural areas of the developing world. The Chulha is a stove designed to limit the dangerous health conditions caused by traditions of indoor cooking in many rural areas of the developing world.
chulha1achulha2

The stove is being made available by Philips Design to the universe of social entrepreneurs so that they can, free of charge, produce the stove, themselves, and generate local business while helping counter what the World Health Organization estimates is some 1.6 million deaths per year from conditions prompted by the toxic fumes of indoor cooking with “bio-mass” fuels (wood, dung, peat, etc.).  WHO estimates that 25 percent of indoor air-pollution deaths are in India, and that 800,000 infants die of related conditions worldwide, annually.

The Chulha creates a safer environment for indoor cooking in several ways.

       It traps smoke and heat inside a locally cast housing in such a way as to heat two pot-holes with a high rate of efficiency to require less fuel;

       It then directs the smoke through a chimney chamber that includes a stack of slotted clay tablets – they capture particulates as the smoke moves through, cleaning the exhaust before it ever leaves the assembly; and

       The Chulha’s chimney then includes an indoor access for cleaning, eliminating the need seen in previous devices for a family member,  usually the mother, to climb on the roof and attempt cleaning. This has been blamed for many accidents, along with the toxicity of the smoke.

 “The target users of the Chulha are all the families in rural environments. The focus for the creation of the Chulha was India, however there are similarities in many countries in Africa, Latin America and other regions, as well as in India.”
“The fact that this product can be manufactured by even the end-user creates the opportunity in any location,”  

Designed by: Philips Design. Design team: Unmesh Kulkarni; Praveeen Mareguddi, India.

Text from Index awards.
Other Product is Stacket Bucket which got honorable mention in red dot award: product design 2009

futuring design Stacket
As millions of people in India have a critical problem of access to water and storing it in small bathrooms, this functionally designed product offers new ways of handling water. Stacket is an innovative square bucket designed to be stackable. This makes it three times more space-efficient, providing a meaningful and affordable yet beautiful solution. futuring design Stacket1

Manufacturer: Gnoo Designs, Mumbai, India. Designed by: Futuring Design Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India (Jashish Kambli, Vijay Kumar)

Text from Red dot award

Posted in Design, Rural Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment »

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