Our Indian ministers have a fascination to grow heavy and weighed in silver coins and currency notes garlands and proudly flaunt gold & diamonds crown which they receive from their party people including industrialist.

They don’t mind spending common men’s hard earned money on making huge marble statues of their political leader idols. Forgetting about the need for a bridge or better roads all they want is a sculpture holding a purse! Can you imagine a statue of a politician on a crowded road holding a purse and saying here I keep all you stupid people’s money? What you earned is mine!

One side Mayawati, Uttar Pradesh chief minister is getting decorated with 5 crore garland made of 1K rupees on party’s 25th founding day and on the other side ex Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav & Rabri Devi are organizing their daughter’s wedding in 5 star hotel. On top of that, Delhi’s CM Sheila Dixit is charging extra taxes for upcoming commonwealth games when these ministers are spending OUR money on their own grand birthdays! It’s not acceptable.
And what is Income Tax department doing? Are they are also busy in celebrating own birthdays after taking bribes from riches!
There should be driving license kind of system. After 3 tickets your license to politics is gone!

Recently Pantone (Pantone Inc, world’s color authority from 45 years) forecasted the Color of the Year for 2010, which is an inviting and luminous hue PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise (vibrant blue-green). Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise inspires thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a comforting escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing.

Other colors that will be seen in 2010 are – Turquoise — Pantone 15-5519 (vibrant blue-green)
Tomato Purée (classic red), Fusion Coral (warm orange), Violet (light purplish hue), Tuscany (warm beige), Aurora (slightly greenish yellow), Amparo Blue (a warmer navy), Pink Champagne (delicate pale neutral), Dried Herb (green neutral) and Eucalyptus (practical gray).

So will turquoise rule in India in coming year 2010? For sure, it is a surprisingly versatile color. It looks great with white, make an awesome contrast with Indian orange and red and with green make a cooler combination. It can work with just about any other color and in any style of décor.
In fashion; it will definitively make you stand different. It’s strong enough for men but delicate enough for women. Remember the Men ties in turquoise color making bold statement, now a days bride want to try new colors apart from clichéd red and getting dressed in turquoise color lehnga is very trendy.
Anyway, turquoise can be used as an accent color- From draping a scarf around neck to hanging in turquoise in ears. Turquoise, an opaque, blue-to-green mineral and very popular gemstone combination with silver jewelry.

Hope to see more of turquoise in India, that will surely cool down the recession fever.

So some are making news by saying, why we don’t remember long forgotten unsung hero Lal Bahadur Shastri who also has birthday today.

Apart from politicians who visited Rajghat to pay homage-

In real world, everyone is busy and no one bothered but everyone is curious about ‘What twitter is and how to be on twitter’. Apart from new media evangelist, latest on twitter are politicians. Rest are journalist to ad world gurus to bollywood actors and writer etc. Might be all this made India rank 3rd : in twitter users list after USA & Germany.

Someone questions why a holiday for Gandhi birthday. If we want to follow what he said, then we should work.

So some Bollywood celebrities are today concerned about plain life of Gandhi ji and and waiting to see #Gandhi as a trending topic.

So some people did not like Gandhi as a personality.

But still many are waiting to see him on Twitter trends with #Gandhi or Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, father of modern India and icon of austerity and nonviolence.

Google too marks Gandhi’s birthday with a special logo.

Some are still wondering why they could make #gandhi a trend.

Some says he is a forever trendsetter!

This is how we Young India are celebrating Gandhi’s birthday. By tweeting

Tweet tweet wishes to over heros!

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).

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.

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.

‘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

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.

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!

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.

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).

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.”

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 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,”

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.

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’.

Image source: Van Heusen India Mens Week 2009