The delicious sandwiches, which my friend and I took down to the banks of the flowing Ganga, were swell. Better still were the fragrant cups of spiced tea our trusty tea-shack owner dished out as well, while letting us in on Haridwar’s best-kept secret: The Wild Brook retreat, tantalisingly close to where we were. So we leapt into his cherry-red jalopy and took off to where no metalled road, mobile signal or electric pole had dared go before!

With an organic farm, high ‘viewing’ verandas, aquamarine streams, and spring-water lemonade, the Wild Brook retreat, with its charming red-brick chalets, is as close to nature a settlement can get. At night, guests rely on lanterns, candles and a few solar electric points. I loved everything about my sturdy room, but my favourite had to be the deck chairs on the viewing verandas, with their long leg-and-arm rests.

Having worked up a huge appetite swimming in the streams, going on treks with Wild Brook bird specialist, Dr Chaturbhuj Moundiotiya, and bathing with hamam-warmed water, we gorged on homegrown vegetables spiked with sweet neem and other herbs. We heard jungle sounds — wild elephants, bears, gorals, porcupines, and deer, the roar of a hungry tiger — and watched some of these creatures gambol in the river bed below.

By day we spied three of the 375 bird species that live here — Grey Hornbill, Oriental Pied Hornbill and the Himalayan Kingfisher. We drank more tea at Sohan Lal’s chai-shop in nearby Bukundi, and feasted on peanuts grown in local farms. All too soon, it was time to jump back into that old red jalopy.

The next time, I’ll bring my paints, my collection of Jim Corbett, and only myself for company.

The Wild Brook Retreat, Village Bukundi, District Pauri, Uttaranchal. Distance from Delhi, 229 km. You can travel by road or rail: if taking the train to Haridwar, ask for the Wild Brook jeep to pick you up from the station. For reservations call owner Manoj Kulshreshtra at 09314880887; or Dr Chaturbhurj at 09319989499. E Mail wildbrook@gmail.com for queries. Visit www.wildbrookretreat.com for more information. Tariff: American Plan: Rs 5480 per day, per couple, including all meals. Jungle Plan: Rs 7490 per day, per couple, including all meals and a jungle safari.

Pink nail polish. That was my big sin during my school days. The nuns saw clean socks and regulation shoes while I hugged to myself the thrill of breaking the rules — in more ways than one. Because the nail paint came from my mum’s Sally Hansen bottle, carted all the way from the US of A by my aunt. And it was strictly off-limits for school girls.

So when I discovered this global leader in nailcare technology has introduced its vast portfolio to India, the two-plaited girl inside me did a little jig. But, hey, nailcare is no longer just about pretty pink nails, it’s about beauty with treatment. Sally Hansen does it best, with its range of strengtheners, hardeners, nail-growth boosters, cuticle care, base and topcoats and anti-fungal products.

I signed up immediately for a five-minute manicure. First, the Manicure in a Minute cream was massaged onto my hands. Then came the Instant Cuticle Remover, which got rid of all the dead cuticles, followed by a Hard as Nails strengthening base coat and the Cuticle Massage Cream. The diamond-strength no-chip nail colour came on next in Sweetheart Frost and bringing up the rear was a top coat. And there I was, ready to go with flawless hands in all of five minutes.

With 32 shiny shades in nail colours, I know I don’t have to look any further when I put on my red lips. Or my summer florals. What’s more, the enamels actually stop my nails from breaking and protect them from damage.

Now, my hands are a newfound asset. I’m all set to flaunt them — along with the pink nail polish

The Sally Hansen nailcare range is available at leading salons and stores like Health & Glow. Prices start from Rs 475 for diamond-strength no-chip nail colour and go up to Rs 725 for Manicure in a Minute.

I took along HarperCollins India’s new release, Kari, to pass time on a train journey. By page two I was gripped, stunned by the dark story of a heroine whose ‘twin soul’ — her lover — has gone away, leaving Kari alone with her distress in the urban jungle of her ‘Smog City’.

First-time author/artist Amruta Patil’s protagonist Kari finds her feet slowly after heartbreak, urban life and workaday realities sucking at her every step. She makes of herself a superhero — sans tights, plus PVC. En route, Kari becomes a ‘boatman’ rowing to her own rhythm, ferrying other passersby across the sea of metropolitan life. Which pushes Kari along on her own journey of reconciling with the hand she’s dealt.

The graphic novel is still a young genre in India. Twenty-something year-old Amruta Patil is our first graphic storyteller who happens to be a woman, entering the space with this bold, mature work.

Kari does for the Indian graphic novel what Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis did for the genre in Europe, addressing difficult issues in a style that’s deceptively direct. Telling her story through strong, flat, nuanced outlines rather than a clutter of detail, her reality is painted in unflinching black-and-white, the occasional splashes of colour more likely to be dreams or illusion.

Move over, manga! Comic-book superheroes, scatter! Visual storytelling just came of age in India — in a woman’s hands, fittingly.

Kari, by Amruta Patil, HarperCollins India. Price: Rs 295. Out in bookstores nationwide.

A lens-chasing pal sent in raves from London’s Grosvenor Vadehra Gallery, charmed by Nandini Valli’s The Definitive Reincarnate Vishnu series in modern settings. Especially the one where the God inhabits a middle-class drawing room with peeling plaster and overloaded switchboard. It was just one of the arresting prints that she loved in the Click: Contemporary Photography from India exhibition.

That pushed the right buttons to have me hotfooting it to the Vadehra Gallery in town, which is hosting its twin exhibition Click: Contemporary Photography in India right now.

The photographs on display brilliantly capture time and place, mood and space. I’m sure you’ll be entranced by these — Raghu Rai’s Traffic Constable and Horse Bagghie from Kolkata, foregrounding a woman with a scooter; Atul Kasbekar freeze-framing One Day in Saket, as well as Bijoy Chowdhury’s little boy behind a Bohurupi mask and Sheba Chachhi’s Silver Sap 4, capturing a rural woman’s voter’s ID.

What excited me is that the exhibition is clearly an art revolution in progress, which Vadehra curators Sunil Gupta and Radhika Singh have been tracking for some time. It helps that Singh runs Fotomedia, a Delhi-based photographic image library. For Click, the duo looked up 600 of India’s ‘photo artists’, some well-known, some not so; haunted three metros; viewed 10,000 digital images — to freeze on 83 camera-wielders and 180 frames.

No wonder something clicked.

Click: Contemporary Photography in India. On at Vadehra Art Gallery, D-178, Okhla Industrial Area - Phase I, New Delhi; ph: 65474005-06. Timings: 11 am-7 pm, Monday to Saturday, up to March 29. Prices: Rs 8,000 onwards.

Call it my nesting instinct or magpie syndrome, but I just can’t resist seeking out stuff to enhance my bachelorette pad. Whenever there’s a new home décor store on the horizon, I’m usually one of the early check-outers. Recently, my seeker sense was tingling so much I just knew there was something really exciting coming up. And how right I was!

I found makeover manna at Address Home, a brand new luxe lifestyle boutique. Everything from plush bed and table linen to cushions, curtain and upholstery fabric in silk, cotton, satin, velvet, jacquard and polyester, embellished with foil printing, contemporary embroidery, crystals, quilting and other types of texturing, including tiny metallic pieces.

I loved the current range, which shows traces of Moroccan and French textile influences, but is all about very ‘now’ colour combinations — whites and whites; chocolate with teal and copper; black with white and silver; fuchsia, orange and red or aqua and off-white bring summer into your design palette, with muted platinum and charcoal adding depth. Coordinate easily with elaborate accessories: German hand-blown glass vases, lamps, lights, serving and dining pieces, glassware, flowers and candles. Even some fab spindly-legged French chairs, handcrafted from acrylic.

I-candy in a store that’s sheer eye candy — right from the banyan tree sprawling outside to the polished wood rafters inside.

Owner Rajat Singhi comes from a family that’s been at the forefront of India’s home furnishing trade, designing and manufacturing stylised home linen for retailers like Harrods of London, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales in the US. He promises a new collection, just as scrumptious as this one, every month.

Home style just got a new Address.

Address Home: Raghuvanshi Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai; Tel: 40040474; Timings: 11 am to 8pm, through the entire week. Prices: Rs 200 and up.

The first time our eyes met in a crowded room. The first time we held hands. The first time he finished my sentence. The first time I dished up a TV dinner when his football club was playing. Anniversaries, all. And I love them.

Now, I can share the love. Rim Naam and Szechwan Court, two premier restaurants at the Oberoi, are rolling out the red carpet for us anniv-aficionados. Ahead of our big one later this month, I got a sneak peek of what’s in store.

A bouquet of flowers, as soon as we walk in. Smiling escorts to our corner table. (At Rim Naam, it’s next to the rippling water body that surrounds the restaurant on three sides.) Specially set places, with red-ribboned menus, candles and a card. A bottle of Champagne to pour into our tulip glasses.

And then, ah, the food: soup, starters, main courses and dessert. At Rim Naam, we get three starters (chicken pandana, the so-yum papaya salad and vegetable spring rolls), tom yum soups (veg and non-veg), main courses (fish, lamb and veg with noodles and steamed rice) and wind it up with fried bananas with vanilla ice-cream. At Szechwan Court, there’s stir-fried chicken with dry chilli and scallion, salt-and-pepper veggies and veg spring rolls for starters; a sweet corn veg soup, main courses galore (red snapper, lamb, okra et al), followed by a warm banana crumble with coconut sorbet.

That’s not all, of course. But to tell more would be unforgiveable. Let’s just say the finale involves something rich, dark and totally delish — and no, my man won’t have any cause for jealousy.

Anniversary Specials at The Oberoi, MG Road, Bangalore. Only for dinners, 7pm-11pm. Per couple charges: Rs 6000 (with Indian sparkling wine); Rs 9000 (with Champagne). Call 25585858 for reservations. 24-hour notice necessary for weekdays; 48-hours for weekends.

I admit, I’m high maintenance. Designerwear, weekly spa visits, poolside cocktails rock my world. Heck! I even like my fast food served up in fancy glassware.

Which is why, this delectable new place with its equally delectable proprietor caught my kohl-lined eye super quick! Giancarlo’s Place, a sparkling bar-ristorante-pizzeria, is every bit as elegant and stylish as the latest haute couture from Milan. In the open-air terrace pizzeria, I enjoyed the stunning backdrop of city lights as much as I did the bread basket, served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The Antipasto Italiano entree — a delicate combination of roasted pepper, soft pecorino cheese, olives and aubergines — was followed up by an authentic Italian pizza (the yeast recipe has been with Giancarlos’ family for five generations), specially baked in a clay oven with wood flown in from Ooty. The good tasted better when I learnt that every dish here is cooked in oh-so-healthy olive oil.

For a special occasion, I’ll opt for the ristorante downstairs, elegant and understated, with antique lamps and artistic B&W photographs. For a very private celebration, there is the discreet Moulin Room. And for the food, I have a wide choice: Maldivian scallops, German pork, Italian turkey or Argentinean Angus beef. To wash it all down, there’s Prosecco or Dom Perignon and Krug champagnes.

But ending the meal is a dilemma. Espresso and chocolate martinis? Giancarlos’ tiramisu (Savoiardi biscuits dipped in Italian espresso with mascarpone cheese cream, topped with a sprinkling of sugar and Italian cocoa powder)? Or the cigar bar, with the best in Cuban, Dominican, Columbian and Italian?

Reason to go back!

Giancarlo’s Place. 4/1 Walton Road, Lavelle Junction, above Café Coffee Day. Tel: 41571350. A meal for two with alcohol will cost around Rs 3000. In the VIP Dining Room, a special menu costs Rs 10,000 per person. Only mineral water served at Rs 100 per bottle.

Yes, I do love a luxe meal in an elegant place. Thankfully, Mumbai’s got enough of those now. But there are moments when I feel like eating on the go. And wish there were more options than the usual vada pao or McD’s. I just found a super food stop and it’s so good, I just have to put you in the loop too.

So here goes. Drum roll, please. Or rather, Calcutta Rolls. At a no-frills joint that serves those famous egg rolls that every Bengali friend of yours is always yearning for. Spicy masala chicken or mutton, or paneer or potato with mixed vegetables, inside a maida roti (with or without egg), and wrapped in butter paper for easy take away.

I love them. Each one, a tasty and hearty treat. Especially the Kasa roll, with its small pieces of boneless meat cooked in a ginger-garlic paste with cashew nuts, raisins and khuskhus. But then I thought I’d better double check with a friend truly in the know. So I took Turna — my Bengali gal pal, originally from Kolkata — to sample the menu. She gave the spicy chicken kalamari her stamp of approval. So now you can safely pick up a roll in the midst of a shopping spree. Or head to this little outlet with a one-point agenda: to have that unusual street snack you’re looking for. Satisfy those post-movie hunger pangs. Or grab a quick bite between college lectures.

You may never win the arguement with a determined Bengali about these rolls being anywhere close to the real thing. But you can have a super snack while the debate rages.

Calcutta Rolls and Fusion Dosas, Diagonally opposite Amarsons, Linking Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai 400 050. Price: from Rs 20-40.

Last time, my gal pals and I brunched on the grass, in the spring-freshened outdoors. But I have to confess that some days a Sunday minus windblown hair holds appeal. Not that I intend to sacrifice my sip in the sun. So I head for window seats — brightly-lit, offering gorgeous views of the outside. Here are Trendy’s top-rated indoor brunches.

Sakura Sunday Brunch: The sushi’s the best-est. The live teriyaki and tempura counters are hot, hot, hot. And the green-tea ice cream is the last bite in cool. In between, my must-haves: citrus-marinated tenderloin tataki, raw okra dip and gomashio with Japanese ‘curries’ and soba (buckwheat) noodles. With big mug of beer (or sparkling wine). (Rs 1,800; 12-3.30)

Ploof! Weekend Barbecue Brunch: This one you can get into a day early, on Saturday. Frozen is out, in climate and cooking alike. Ploof! flies seafood fresh to your plate, from lobster bisque to grilled squid to Cajun-spiced Chilka prawns. Hearty helpings of vegetables and meats too: lemongrass-scented winter broth, roast chicken soup with star anise, grilled polenta, Saigon chicken, souvlaki, tenderloin burger. With salad, pasta and roast potatoes. Share the sweet slices - lemon cheesecake, German chocolate silk cake. (Rs 1,200 (alcohol extra); 12.30-3.00)

Café G Unwind: Now playing at Crowne Plaza. Starring Piper Heidseick champagne and Absolut on ice. Featuring our most-wanted cuisines — Med and Asian — with comforting desi sidekicks. And a separate corner for Dennis-the-Menaces. Leaving your way clear to a huge hock of ham, grilled organic veggies, marinated artichoke hearts, noodle salads, bowls of miso broth. And a cheeseboard chequered with Cheddar, Red Leicester, pale Parm, and Brie. (Rs 2,200; 11.30-4.00)

Sakura, The Metropolitan, Bangla Sahib Road, New Delhi; ph: 42500200. Ploof!, 13 Main Market, Lodhi Colony, New Delhi; ph: 24634666. Café G, Crowne Plaza Today, Gurgaon; ph: 0124-4534000. All prices per person, taxes extra. All brunches only on Sunday, except at Ploof!

Designer preview parties are de rigueur in the Fashion Week run-up. Previews for new TV shows and travel brochures are the bulk of the mailman’s seasonal deliveries to us critics, and this is high season for brand new shows.

But this 6 episode sneak-peek CD had me pause in my daily bin-or-pin zip-through. A travel show by a fashion designer?! Why would I want a dictator of hemlines marking his dotted lines on my vacation map? But The Adventures of a Ladies Tailor, splashing Manish Arora’s name across the cover, had me intrigued.

Taking its title from this quirky fashion icon’s cheeky tattoo, the show takes us on the road and behind the ramp — with Manish for a tour guide. So, an informative itinerary unfolds in his trademark irreverent style. Opening our eyes to haute-ness in the deceptively mundane — that trademark of popular aesthetics in India.

With an insight into the humble inspirations behind high fashion — and street fashion as it unfolds daily. The swirling folk aesthetic of Rajasthan’s kalbeliyas inspires a London Fashion Week photo shoot. An Italian designer crafts chillums in Goa, a tattoo artist culls motifs from Indian art. A bikers’ dream store in Pondicherry and Jodhpur’s madly colourful autorickshaws lead to the pre-show frenzy of India Fashion Week, its frenetic creative chaos resolving into decorously presented couture collections.

My favourite was the double-episode, though, involving a motorcar makeover.

Manish takes the stolid Ambassador, guts it, then stuffs and upholsters it with Pondicherry leather, Swarovski-sequinned swathes, glittering metallics and bright bolts off the streets of Karol Bagh and Chandni Chowk. Then he wraps it in underwater/firecracker kitsch-fantasy packaging — mermaids, bimbettes, shells, fish, and sparklers pour across the exterior, turning this on-road ‘old faithful’ into a chariot that’s both conversation-starter and showstopper!

Tune in to the boldness and beauty of Indian street aesthetic. It’s tailormade for trendsetting travellers like you.

The Adventures of a Ladies Tailor, premiers March 16, Sunday, 8.30 pm (repeats Thursday, 10 pm) on Discovery Travel & Living.