You’ve breathlessly read Rowling’s seventh and last epilogue. Now you’re dying for more. While you pray J K writes again, our Trendy Bookworm sends more literary enchantment your way:

Ursula le Guin’s Annals of the Western Shore: 30 years before Harry, she wrote of a magical school where a young lad came to become A Wizard of Earthsea. In a new series, the septuagenarian gives you Gifts and Voices; await the newest, Powers, in September. (Rs. 350 each)

Joanne Harris’ The Lollipop Shoes: Young Anouk, the little girl from Chocolat re-appears here. She has the power to charm, but a witchy woman with bitter chocolate eyes weaves her own web. (Rs. 650)

Payal Dhar’s Eternal City trilogy: There’s A Shadow in Eternity. A schoolgirl-by-day trains to be Defender of the Light by night. In The Key of Chaos (just out), Maya stumbles onto an ancient conspiracy. Rivetting. (Rs. 295 each)

Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series: The feisty heroine of Sabriel must retrace her father’s steps in the eponymous Abhorsen. Then unlikely Lirael walks a doubled-back path. When the wind blows from across the wall, things get spooky (Rs. 350 each)

Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell: Wizard wars for those too impatient for multiple books — a magical, meaty read. (Rs. 425)

Available in all major bookstores.

You go over big. Diamonds the size of the Ritz? That’s totally you. Personalised suites at the Savoy? That’s your style too.

Solitaires are so yesterday. Go to the next level in ultimate indulgence. Get yourself the latest in super serums, made of 24 carat gold. The La Prairie Cellular Radiance Concentrate Pure Gold comes in a glamorous gold metal shell over a glass bottle on a silver base pedestal: the container hints at the goodies within.

The serum, just out from the ultra-premium Swiss skincare brand, is a liquid suspension of 24 carat gold. At platinum prices, even the most indulgent shopper might pause. But our Trendy Tester was bowled over by the soothing sensation and the instant radiance.

Resembling a cool gel to the touch, the serum immediately gives lovely glinty cheekbones. Its minuscule flecks of gold dissolve into the skin, and make it more supple. What’s more, the quartz crystals and reflective pigments in the precious metal work together to smoothen, rejuvenate and brighten.

Our Trendy Tester came out of the store minus her trusty bronzer and blush-on. Just the dash of the serum.

Now that you know, get the glow.

La Prairie Cellular Radiance Concentrate Pure Gold is available at La Prairie counters at Shoppers Stop in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. Price: Rs. 27,000 for 30 ml.

You swoon over Swiss chocolates, have the hots for handmade pasta. You go out of your way for organic produce, and colour-coordinate your crockery with your menu.

Make sure you have a friend around to pinch you really hard tomorrow. For at the first ever Gourmet Bazaar at Olive Beach, you might just think you’re dreaming.

Set the mood with Thomas Louis’ Mangrove range of handmade pottery and ceramic tableware or Colour Factory’s customised ceramics. Spin a conversation around the zodiac spice rack or the mermaid cookie jar by artists Shan Re and Romi.

Nibble on Parma proscuitto or Black Forest Ham. Make magic with organic vegetables and herbs nurtured by Green Fundas, or pull out the stops with Chefs Manu and Tanmoy’s fresh breads, stuffed pastas and Italian sauces.

Do dessert, Olive Beach-style, or sample Gallianoz’s Swiss chocolates. To wind down, check out the Parmigiano Reggiano, Gruyere, feta or Brie on the cheese board.

The best part? It’s no dream. And it’ll be back every month.

Gourmet Bazaar, 11 am-4 pm on the last Saturday of every month at Olive Beach, 16 Wood Street, Bangalore. Tel: 41128400. Baseline prices — Ceramics: Rs 150; breads: Rs 50; organic veggies: Rs 40/kg; handmade pasta: Rs 120/500 gm; pasta sauces: Rs 100/jar; cheeses: Rs 100/100 gm; cured meats: Rs 200/100 gm.

Palm lines, numerology and tea leaves — and you consult your fashion horoscope every day. Moon salute, cobra pose, upward-facing dog — you’re more grounded every time you say, om.

But true inner peace comes from getting your favourite girls together to chat, chew and chill. And the revamped drinks, dishes and decor at The Chakraas make this resto-lounge the place to do it .

Your spirits will rise with a sip of their seven new signature cocktails — one for each of your body’s seven chakraas. Choose the Divine Goddess (vodka and chocolate liqueur), the Kama Sutra (strawberries infused with white rum and chocolate), or Radiant Beauty (blue curacao, fresh lime, tequila and tabasco sauce).

Then feast your senses on the new Mediterranean, Lebanese and Teppanyaki menu. Start with the popular Seafood Bisque flavoured with Dill. Stylish Chicken Teriyaki and Five Spice Sticky Rice, or for veggie fans, Crepes Primavera and Hortarika Briam. Our Trendy Taster says the Sliced Grilled Fish with Lemon sauce is delish enough to make you forget even a horrendous hair day.

On the rare chance you run out of girlie gossip, the new seating around the transparent kitchen lets you spectate as the salmon gets sliced. Or view the Delhi skyline from the window.

Take it all in. And let it all out.

The Chakraas, Hotel Samrat, Kautilya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. Telephone: 26874811/12. E-mail: thechakraas@yahoo.co.in. Meal for two: Rs. 2,000, without drinks.

The world’s your oyster. And your pearly luminescence is only enhanced by the polish that travelling afar brings.

Here’s a place that almost as much-travelled as your hot pink hobo. The new Flag’s restaurant gives you the planet on a platter. Literally. The menu? Call it your Meal Map, ‘cos it tells you where all the exotic dishes are from. More than 200 dishes from across the world and counting, there’s enough variety to ensure that you can eat here for a month of Sundays and never get bored.

Our Trendy Taster slurped up the French Cognac-laced Smoked Chicken Cream Soup and very Italian Grilled Asparagus Spears on a superbly al dente rigatoni pasta stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese and pepper cream. You can choose to eat healthy (try a fab salad) or indulge in the Farinaceous section, where you can stock up on everything from starchy paellas and pastas to Korean Bibimbop and Senegalese Jollof Rice.

Nothing is connoisseur-centric; it’s more like the adventurous palate’s Lonely Planet Guide. But if you’re looking to play safe after all that globetrotting, take our word for it — the Blueberry Tiramisu is sensational.

Flag this one a must-try in your foodie calendar.

Flag’s, B-1, Amarchand Mansion, 16 Madam Cama Road , Colaba, Mumbai; Tel: 22828200; Meal for two (with drinks) costs Rs 2,000 and up.

First you fell for those stones on the beach — fun to collect, or throw into the water. Then came the Rolling Stones phase — you still blast ‘Satisfaction’ on your iPod. And then you lost your heart to precious stones — shiny, colourful baubles for your jewellery-box.

Now there’s a new stone in town that’s bound to catch your eye, and your appetite.

Designer Vijay Arora’s Gelato Vittorio adds scrumptious toppings to their gelato using a granite stone that stays at -20 degrees C to prevent them melting.

Imported from Italy, the stone — a first in Delhi — makes every gelato look and taste sinful. Pick your favourite flavours and sample a customised gelato cocktail. Try Alphonso Mango Tango and Luscious

Lichi or go for the Snickers, Hazelnut, Ferrero, Bubblegum and Whisky. Top ‘em with nuts, fruits and sauces, just the way you like it.

The creamy gelato is 100% vegetarian and contains less fat than ice-cream.

The only other stone you may want to see in your dessert would be the one on an engagement ring. But a few scoops of gelato bring instant bliss.

Gelato Vittorio, M-69, M-block market, Greater Kailash-1, New Delhi. Tel: 32512527.
Prices: Rs 30-60 (80 gm scoop, depending on flavour), plus additional charges for toppings.

You’re the real urban diva. The city is your landscape of choice, its frenetic energy your inspiration. You thrive on the chaos, and know how to find the little oases of calm intimacy that let you breathe.

You are the real spirit of the city.

Betsy Karel, award winning photojournalist from Washington DC, celebrates this very spirit with her new book of photographs, Bombay Jadoo. Inspired by the writings of contemporary Indian writers like Vikram Chandra, Rohinton Mistry and Salman Rushdie, she seeks visual equivalents of their humanity, humour, mystery and psychological energy.

The result? A series of lyrical images shot over nine years, capturing public-yet-private moments in the life of Mumbaikars. From rikshawallas to girls on local trains, from Juhu beach to the Taj Mahal Hotel, she discovers the ’swirling, urban fairy tale’ that is Mumbai.

And if that isn’t enough to get you excited, the book includes words by Maximum City Mehta and Ardeshir ‘Beach Boy’ Vakil.

Revel in the magic of Mumbai.

Bombay Jadoo by Betsy Karel. Steidl Publishers. Available starting today at all leading bookstores and online at www.steidlville.com and www.amazon.com. Price: Rs. 1500. Panel discussion with Shyam Benegal and Shilpa Phadke: Aug 1 at NCPA, Nariman Point; Tel: 22833838.

You have been lusting for Jimmy Choos since you could walk. Chocolate pedicures come before daily meals in your do-or-die list.

But once in a while you need something other than that short black skirt to show off your toned legs. Our Trendy Danseuse picks the classes the teach the swingiest moves.

Dance Studio Inc: Learn the demure waltz, tempt your partner with the tango or sign up for pole dancing.
Mondays-Thursdays, 6.45-7.45 pm; weekends 1 pm-7 pm. Opus, 4, Palace Cross Roads, Bangalore. Tel: 984515123. Charges: Rs 3800 for three months.

Doodle Den: Tune into some great Turkish melodies and become the belly dancing belle. Then wow the floor with some jazz funk moves. Shakira or Beyonce, you can be both.
Jazz funk: Mondays and Fridays, 8-9 pm. Belly-dancing: Wednesdays and Fridays, 4-5 pm. 3, Curley Street, Richmond Town, Bangalore. Tel: 9886444466. Charges: Rs 1000 per month.

Mezclao Dance Academy: The salsa is sizzling hot, their dancers acknowledged show-stoppers. The Latina in you couldn’t ask for more.
Saturdays, 9.30 am-11.30 am. Hungry Buddha, 7th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. Tel: 9845101042. Rs 1250 for singles, Rs 2000 for couples per month.

Rock Around the Clock: Prefer a lively little jaunt on the dance floor? Relive the ’60s with some old-fashioned jive or just do the cha-cha.
Jive: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, 7-8 pm. Cha-cha: Tuesdays, Thursdays, 8-9 pm. Alliance Francaise, Thimmaiah Road, Bangalore. Tel: 9980008667/9342508667. Charges: Rs 1000 for singles, Rs 1500 for couples per month.

Set the night on fire.

Blue cheese from that quaint French inn. Pilates instructors from Hollywood. Footwear consultants from Italy. Mud baths straight from the Dead Sea. And you pay just as much attention when it comes to your home furnishing.

Hold the air tickets. Mon Chateau, a new store stocking the best in American designer furniture and furnishings, is right here in Bangalore. All pieces promise to last well into the tips of your family tree. Designer beds, dining tables, rugs, fabrics and exquisite teeny things that make your home look ah-ah-ahdorable.

Comfy, sigh-able beds and dining tables from Stickley in mahogany and macassar ebony. Hickory Chair, where your pieces are made to order, and textured fabrics from Glant. Royal Pedic for mattresses that have a whole science behind them for your behind, Simon Pearce and his hand-blown unleaded crystal glassware. And Merida Meridian and Sahelia for fine printed fabrics that promise just the right touch of posh. And a forever-flowering potted plant from NDI (Natural Decoration Inc).

Chateau it up. Cause that’s where the heart is.

Mon Chateau, #57,100 ft Road, Defence Colony, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore, 560038. (2nd floor above Bossini). Tel: 41471666. E-mail: info@monchateau.in. Website: www.monchateau.in. Accessories priced from Rs. 5000-50000 and furniture from Rs. 50000-500000.

You slip into Jimmy Choos for a well-heeled stride. Your jackets are Armani, your long skirts Ralph Lauren. But for hand-embellished detailing, you come home.

It can be a long haul, though, finding a spanking fusion flavour in Indian designer lines. Which is why you’ll love fresh new Drashta collection, inspired by the fun, summery vibe of a trip to Cuba. Cool colours and swinging silhouettes. The intricate detailing is all-Indian in technique, with a twist in the application.

Our Trendy Fashionista loved the ruched leafy fronds laddering up the short dresses and long tops in sparkling silver and dusky plum. Also enchanting: richly textured flowers popping up in bold yellows and oranges to outshine the sun.

Designer Drashta Sarvaiya — whose name means ‘visionary’ — is an award-winning NIFT graduate and the former head designer of Indo-Irish label Ashley Blaine.

Her line appeals to the fun-loving free spirit in women of all ages. So go ahead, wear whimsy on your sleeve. And release your inner Latina.

In Delhi: Drashta Design, House No. 2, 2nd floor (near Ogaan), Hauz Khas Village. Telephone: 011-32465394.
In Mumbai: Ogaan, Vaswani House, 1st Floor, 7 Best Marg, Colaba. Telephone: 022-24972884, 24962451/16.
Price: Rs. 3,000-15,000 for pret pieces. Couture also available.