It’s my best friend’s wedding. And the bridesmaid, moi, has been entrusted with putting her pre-wedding ensembles together. Of course I’m going all out. Nothing but the best for my fave gal pal!

But when I got a sneak peek into Shyna Design Studio’s upcoming exhibition of ethnic eveningwear, I knew my search had come to an end. The highlights of this particular collection are the ultra-hot cholis for the woman of today.

The cholis are all a mix-and-match of antique pieces and modern day fabrics. Jute silks, tussars, heavy brocade and tissue add to the sauciness of backless pieces held together by multi-hued beaded strings. The daringly low cut necklines promise to dazzle against cocktail sarees. For the pre-wedding brunch, I’m going with earthy colours to contrast with gadwal and cutwork sarees.

I love the summery blue ikat piece with intricate glass and threadwork in mustard and green. For glam evenings, there are black-and-red silk cholis flaunting ornate jeweled pieces at the back.

And because I can’t conceive of an Indian wedding without gold, I also have my eye on a light gold cotton silk blouse with handwork in three different shades of gold! Versatile, wearable and very very hip.

All the cholis and sarees are perfectly complemented by Shyna’s brocade batuas. For garments accentuated in silver, there’s beautiful silver jewellery from Arnav, which will also be on display. And if I want to ogle some more, there’ll be a 118-year-old Kanjeevaram in pure gold up for auction.

My fave ensemble is a stunning cutwork ’saree-choli-batua’ trio in silk and gold tissue. Perfect for my BFF’s big day.

The best part? Each of these pieces is unique. Because none of us are alike.

Shyna Design Studio exhibition-cum-sale. On April 11-12, at RainTree, 4, Sankey Road, Bangalore. Cholis: Rs 1000-5000. Sarees: Rs 2,000-16,000. Batuas: Rs 300 and above. Baseline price for antique Kanjeevaram: Rs 40,000. Regularly sold at No 12, 15th cross Ring Road, J.P Nagar 6th Phase, Bangalore 560078. Call Shylaja at 9845670520.

Holding a well-thumbed book makes me feel like I’m meeting a much-travelled character whose life I’d love to trace. And there’s wisdom in those notes people make in margins, the inscriptions that sprawl over the fly leaf, and the scraps of paper they leave behind.

Which is why I’m excited about a book sale organised by my favourite NGO, the Welfare Of Stray Dogs (WSD), which sterilises stray dogs, inoculates them against rabies and other diseases, gives them first-aid and rescues them from bad treatment by doggy unfriendly types. WSD’s got its supporters to donate books — new as well as old — for a four-day garage sale that starts tomorrow.

Being a volunteer, I got a sneak peek into the collection. I have my eye on some travel tomes, including a Rough Guide to Goa and a beautifully bound book on Rome. The biographical books seem interesting too, ranging from British billionaire Richard Branson’s Losing My Virginity to American comedian Tim Allen’s (remember him from ‘Home Improvement’?) Don’t Stand Too Close To A Naked Man. I plan to pick up the almost-new set of encyclopedias and the atlas for my friend’s kids. For myself, I’ll get some evergreen ones like Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead and a few Mills & Boon and Archie Double Digests for days when I just want a fun read. I might also get experimental and give some unknown authors a try.

It’s a win-win situation. Even if I choose a book that doesn’t give too much pleasure, I’ll have bought it at a throwaway price AND helped those adorable four-legged friends.

If I had a tail, I’d wag it.

The Welfare of Stray Dogs’ Book Sale: April 11-14 (Fri-Mon) from 10 am to 6 pm in the compound of Vaswani Mansions, Opposite KC College, Churchgate. Price: Starts from Rs 20. All proceeds will go towards WSD’s sterilisation and rabies prevention programme. Tel: 98191-00808, 64222838; Website: www.wsdindia.org.

I’d been cajoling my favourite cousin to visit Delhi for years. Last summer, she finally caught the train. Unfortunately, that was the week I nabbed an overseas assignment. We nearly cried.

‘Best big sister’ that I am, I did the next best thing to being there. Handed over keys to my apartment, plus a painstakingly put-together folder — maps, fave bars and bargains, which pal to call for shopping/jogging/birding/boy-watching, an appointment at my favourite spa, car rentals, Top 5s: museums to mithai mongers.

It took 16 late nights. Next time I’ll just buy her the book, Love Delhi, the third in author Fiona Caulfield’s series of travel guides (after Bangalore and Mumbai). In its hot rani pink pouch, with her signature printed raw-silk covers, Delhi is gorgeously touchy-feely.

I met Fiona herself, dressed in seashells and ecru for the Indian summer, to check out the luxe guide on the eve of the release (tonight!). Down Chandni Chowk’s foodie gullies, guided by a leading city columnist (pp 18-19). The pick of late-night paranthas — from our fave ‘Italian diva’ (Yup, Ritu sent Fiona to Moolchand.) Fashion footholds: ‘The individual attention you get in a designer’s studio beats browsing boutiques,’ Fiona insists. Hideaway homestays that leave 5-star hotels in the dust (pp. 134-136). Guided tour to flora and fauna on the Ridge (pp. 88-93). Yoga groups. Google group. Laughter club. Charities. Bespoke polo shoes. Custom-blended attar. Punchiest paanwala. Carpenters and carpet sellers. And where to go when fleeing the city like a bat out of hell.

The perfect pastime for the NRI cousins down for your monsoon wedding. A bright welcome for your new colleague from Down Under. The bedside read in your guest room for friends from NYC.

Be warned: They might fall in love and never leave!

Love Delhi, by Fiona Caulfield. Available at major book stores; plus select boutiques and online stores. www.lovetravelguides.com. Price: Rs 1200.

Initiator, planner and executor of all things ‘fun’ for friends and family, I’m always on the look out for ways to make my life easier. BookMyShow, which lets you buy cinema, theatre and concert tickets with a call or a few clicks of the mouse, is a gift to ever-on-the-go gals like me. The service isn’t new, but I tried it for the first time a few months back when they were running a promotion and quickly added it to my speed dial. Who has the time to go and stand in an advance booking queue?

This is how it works:
Phone: Call 39895050 and select your movie. Complete the transaction using your credit card (including a nominal extra charge). Have your tickets delivered or pick them up just before show time by citing your booking ID number.
Online: The cheery yellow www.bookmyshow.com interface lets you choose from a variety of movies, plays and concerts in your neighbourhood. And the seating chart let’s you select your exact seat. Pay by credit card and get an SMS/e-mail confirmation to pick up your tickets at the booking window. The best part? The website offers a free service that sends your friends an SMS inviting them to join you for the show, with date, time and other details.

My boyfriend’s pleased as punch with me cause I got him tickets for the Scorpions concert in December, and ICL India v/s Pakistan match this Sunday. And I’m looking forward to catching Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi in Kaifi Aur Mein while he’s away.

What’s your POA?

Tel: 39895050 (only in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune); timing: 10am-10pm; Website: www.bookmyshow.com (in almost 30 cities in India); extra charges: approximately Rs 10-20 per ticket for movies and plays.

Yesterday never dies. School. College. Pink Floyd. Dhaba food. Bunking. Boys. Crushes. Battle of the exes. All of these crossed my mind the moment I heard that Chetan Bhagat’s bestselling lad-lit Five Point Someone is being staged in the city. What better way to meet up with nostalgia and savour yesterday?

To top it all, the male-dominated cast is directed by a woman, Nikhila Kesavan. She not only identifies with the characters, but also believes in the story’s premise: Can under-performers, with five-point-something scores (in a 10-point scale) show they are actually five-point-someones?

A fast-paced, rib-tickling play set in an IIT campus, the characters are real and their identity crisis, believable. There’s Alok, who wants to study, only to find a job and support his family. Ryan dismisses the educational system because it doesn’t promote innovation and creativity. Hari wants to be like Ryan. And Prof Veera does a Patch Adams and reminds you of Aamir Khan in Taare Zameen Par. His friendly and unconventional ways make him the trio’s sole guiding light.

Before I forget, there’s Neha, Hari’s love interest. As sparkling as champagne, she brightens the proceedings just when things start to go downhill. Can friendship and love survive in an environment of relative grading? Can fun and creativity co-exist with tests and assignments?

The play has all the answers.

Five Point Someone. Staged by Evam Productions, Chennai, at Ranga Shankara, 36/2, 8th Cross, JP Nagar 2nd phase at 3.30pm and 7.30pm on April 12-13. Tel: 26592777, 26493982. Tickets: Rs 200.

Work stress? PMS? Boyfriend blues? Up until now, I’d have recommended a steaming cup of chamomile tea to soothe your over-wrought nerves. But I just found something that may hit the spot even better than that tried-and-tested decoction!

Chamomile, the new designer store in Khar, is a touch of serenity in the urban jungle. The all-new fashion space, ensconced in a picturesque 2,000 sq ft villa, is at a whole different level than all the kitschy-quirky boutiques I’ve been seeing these days. Frangipani blossoms and bamboo shoots cluster around a small goldfish pond fringed by water lilies. The store’s warm tones and minimalist lines are reflected on its shimmering surface. The calm sets off the riotous collections showcased in the open plan areas, separated by chic silk screens. If ever there was healing purity and unabashed hedonism in a single place, this is it.

The 30 designers have been handpicked by owners Kanchan (NIFTian) and Vineet Dhingra (an MBA from SP Jain), who’ve already made a splash with the first store of the same name in Delhi’s GK N-Block market. And with couturiers like Wendell Rodricks, Malini Ramani, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna’s Cue, Rocky S, Shantanu & Nikhil and more on their roster, I can guarantee that anyone who loves to play dress up is going to be halfway to heaven just browsing around.

There’s lots I can tell you about all the fab fusion outfits, wispy gowns and funky Indian threads, Meera Mahadevia’s ornate clutches and stunning jewellery by Shaheen Abbas. But honestly, at Chamomile, the retail therapy is more about the enriching experience on the shop floor than the loot you carry out the door. You could buy, buy, buy anywhere — but when the ‘trying on’ is super special too, you know you’ve found your glee spot.

Chamomile, Laxmi Niwas, Ground Floor, Plot No 450/B, 14th Road, Khar (W) Mumbai; Tel: 26489986; Prices start at Rs 3,000.

Woo hoo! Summer’s here, and I love being in the pool all day long. And now I can show off my cute new bikini, because I got rid of my expanse of pale and patchy skin.

This happened at just-opened Tamaya Spa at the Jaypee Vasant Continental, which, I was told is Pevonia Botanica’s first spa in Delhi. (Pevonia is an up-market spa care brand, available only in exclusive resorts across the world) The products have natural minerals, floral and fruit extracts, and ingredients from the ocean.

Tamaya — flowering tree in Japanese — evokes a sense of well-being as you walk in. It’s all soothing beige and brown with Italian marble and oak veneer, and the therapy rooms are light and airy, with big windows.

The resident aesthetician heard my tale of woe, and advised a Moroccan Rassoul Mud Body Wrap and a Deep Cleansing Facial.

My therapist started with a dry body brush (to improve blood circulation), followed by an aroma body scrub ( to slough off the dead skin cells). Then came the best part, the actual Rassoul mud wrap. I was cocooned in a sheet with volcanic mud mined and treated at the Rassoul Mountains in Morocco — known to be super-rich in minerals. Post-wash I was slathered in aromatic moisturiser to seal in the minerals. The whole thing took a fabulous 45 minutes.

Then came my facialist. A Pevonia eye and lip cleansing gel was used to wipe off my makeup. Then she used a gentle exfoliator, and followed up with a truly relaxing massage, a combo of soft kneading and stroking. Finally, the glow-enhancing mask brought back colour to my cheeks.

I left, gleaming.

Tamaya Spa, Jaypee Vasant Continental, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, Phone: 26148800. Treatments start from Rs 2,000 on. Rassoul Body Wrap: Rs 3,000, Deep Cleansing Facial, Rs 2,000.

Mughal miniatures. Japanese haiku. And Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories. Now that I’ve just finished Unaccustomed Earth, the Indian-origin author’s second book of stories, I’m convinced that the best things in life come in little packages.

Actually, that’s not quite true. The shortest story in Lahiri’s new anthology is 24 pages long. And the longest is a triptych spread over 70-odd pages. And her concerns are anything but small: She writes about situations and emotions so universal, I could barely turn a page without thinking, ‘Whoa, I know that feeling.’

I think that’s where Lahiri’s magic lies: In unearthing the story — silent, secret, possibly even unacknowledged — in every one of us and telling it in heartbreakingly clear prose. Her characters are mostly of Bengali origin and based in the U.S. — as they were in Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake (the novel that was made into a memorable movie by Mira Nair) — but in epitomising the immigrant story, they could as well have been Brazilian or Balinese.

For me, the stories that rocked were the title piece, a superbly restrained tale of a widowed father and his daughter; ‘Only Goodness’, a sibling story layered with knowledge, guilt and love; and the concluding triptych, ‘Hema and Kaushik’. More mature than the stories in Interpreter, more nuanced than The Namesake, these stories stayed with me long after I’d read them.

Like the medieval miniatures and three-line haikus, Lahiri’s stories are appealing at first glance, intriguing at a closer look, and utterly captivating when I let them get under my skin.

Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri. Published by Random House. Price: Rs 450. At leading bookstores across the country.

My tickets were booked, my visas were in place, but my suitcase looked desolate. Just as I was despairing of the style non-statement I would be making on my European summer, I got sneak peeks of a weekend bonanza. Not one, but two great sales of quirky summerwear, footwear and accessories.

First up, on Saturday, is the Colors of Luxury sale at the Park Hotel. On my shortlist from the collection: A handpainted, funky canvas-and-leather carry-all by designer Romi. No all-logo bags for me: What makes me walk a foot taller is the knowledge that no two of Romi’s creations are exactly the same.

I also want an embroidered skirt from Neelam. Which I’ll team with Shweta Gupta’s turquoise-studded wedges. With my Victorian coral danglers, I know I will stand out from the crowds at the Eiffel Tower.

For the dinner at Alain Ducasse, I plan to go desi. An Anarkali kurta from Arifa Jaffer’s label Kyra, I think, paired with Shweta’s Swarovski-studded stilettos. Just so my man matches up, I’ll pick up a Harsh Aggarwal linen kurta.

Coinciding with my funday on Sunday is another sale: the O-Show Sunday Bizarre Buzzaar. A Tahera Peeran dress in gogo prints for the walk down the Champs-Elysee, coupled with the so-English Emma’s bandhini silk-and-leather bag and funky earrings from Nimboo Closet.

There’ll be tarot card readers in attendance too, but I just need to look at my luggage to know I’m headed for good times.

Colors of Luxury. Showcasing eight designers and three artists, only on April 5 at Park Hotel, MG Road, Bangalore. 10 am-6 pm. Prices start from Rs 1000.
O-Show Sunday Bizarre Buzzaar. Featuring 15 designers, art, cocktail-mixing and dance classes only on April 6 at Opus, Palace Cross Road, Bangalore. 11.30 am-11.30 pm. Prices start from Rs 500.

I’m the sort who’s always experimenting. I agree with SRK who says, “If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.” Which is why, I hesitate to revisit a fab restaurant because there are too many new ones to justify the same ol’ same ol’.

Luckily, The Banyan Tree cafe, one of my fave places to catch up with my chick clique, has recognised my need to stay relevant. They’ve come up with a weekly special menu that will change every — you guessed it! — seven days.

I headed to the homey eatery early this week to see how different what they have on offer is from the regular menu. Instead of the spinach and asparagus soup that I enjoyed on my last visit, I tried out the spinach, mushroom and barley soup, which was nicely flavoured. Next, I opted for the chicken harissa skewers, which were tasty but a tad chewy. If we were hungrier, we may have tried the grilled paneer bruschetta or the charmoula prawn or chicken skewers (they were highly recommended by fellow diners). Instead, we went straight for the main course. I thought I’d calorie count and picked a Greek Salad from the regular bill of fare, but landed up so feta cheese-deprived, I happily tucked into the largish portion of superbly done char-grilled fish in a potato basket with caper cream sauce, which my friend ordered.

Neither of us had any room for dessert so we settled for Green Grape Coolers that put our systems on chill while I emailed notes for this review on my lappie. Yes, they not only have tree cover and a super breakfast-lunch-snacks-dinner-dessert menu, but they’re wi-fi enabled too!

You just might be able to pin me down to a single place yet.

The Banyan Tree, Krishna Worli Sagar CHS, Ground Floor, JN Palkar Marg, Opp. Poddar Hospital, Worli, Mumbai; Tel: 64527222; Price: Approximately Rs 900 for a meal for two.