Indians hide and Sulk

What a co-incidence...

That I was planning to write about the Sulk Station  gig that happened yesterday and this morning the paper says....

 And Sulk.

So Sulk Station is a trip-hop/electronic duo. Tanvi Rao and  Rahul Giri. I am not so good with the musical jargons and all, but basically she does the vocals and he makes the beats. 

I love their music! Not just because Tanvi is my sister :) I think they are very new. And different. And refreshing! I could say yesterday's set was one of the best I have heard so far...

.

Yesterday, they played at B-Flat, one of my fave places for their kinda music. It's an intimate setting, just perfectly lit and just perfectly small.(intimate by the way, was the word of the gig yesterday)

Ah.... the stage set up did look like an i-store :P Not kidding!

 I hope 2012 sees them performing more, much more! :)
And of course their *album release*! yay!

Check them out here http://www.facebook.com/sulkstation 
and here  http://www.sulkstation.com/

 So 2011 has been a wonderful year.... A lot of love, work, travel and madness. Hope it continues :D

 Wishing you all a Happy New Year 2012! 

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas!

Here is Lady Gaga singing the most sober song in her life I guess... Beautiful!

 

Merry Christmas once more ;)

Trippy trippy song!

Yes yes.... La gente esta muy LOCA!

                                                              Merry Christmas!!! :D

No touching, no touching, only seeing, only seeing!

This post is endearing as well as mad.It might not make too much sense too, as I have so so soooo much to say in just one post! But anyways...

Quaint Minnie here and the title of the post are absolutely un-related by the way!

So its the Christmas weekend, MERRY XMAS !!  :)
It's been a lovely one so far...(the weekend). See below- the lovely tree in UB City!

Sangeet wears Forever New, I'm wearing Arrow

I have been meaning to write about all the madness happening around me specially at work, but its been a helluva busy few weeks. And SO FUN!! As it is, I love what I do(most of the time at least) and then it goes and becomes better with a superb December where all we do is prepare for internal competitions, bond with our team (and try to hate the other rival team, but you know, our hearts are such pure gold, we can't seem to hate them) :P




Anyway, this post is about my fab weekend. Which went like:
1. Grand finale and culmination of the office madness. Hmm we didn't win, but we what a blast we had! We actually did a FLASH mob. Now, how cool is that!
2. Danced my *@# and poor back off at Shiro with the dancing queen and many others. It was capital F.U.N.
3. Did a fantabulous photo shoot in front of the goregous X-mas tree in UB city with Sangeet. As you can see.
4. Wished our very close friend Sini a happy birthdayyyyyy and went crazy there too.
5. Best of all was spending so MAD-TIME with Sangeet. Now she is a crazy one I tell you. We pleased the dance gods, bappi lahiri n all other sidey lyric-song musicians last night.  Sorry, no images of that ;) And yes this morning, went to Motorcycle museum and cafe, right next to my place for breakfast with her. Cozy, quaint and a damn sweet set up. Check it out!

On the way up!

wowww!

The view from the balcony

So the owner, Mister Prabhu said that they were planning to shift as it was not working out for him. How sad. Sangeet and I were just discussing that this cafe is so charming because it's in such a place,and not on- say Church Street. Lets hope he shifts somewhere nearby...

 Here's me, signing off and singing off for the weekend.

PS: No touching, no touching, only seeing, only seeing is a Himesh Reshamiya song. I heard it for the first time yesterday, and yes, i LIKE it! Just the song, not the annoying Mr.Himesh :P

I don't know why but I love this pic I took. Found this card lying on a friend's work table in Prague :)


I have been busy with the festive season and also busy falling sick :( But I promise to be back with a bang! Real soon!


Merry X-mas week!
xoxo

The Brazil Series -1: Rio

Copacabana Beach, Rio

Ah, travel!How much I love you.
These are some gorgeous pics and memories from my trip to Brazil in 2007. I had quit my first (and worst) job out of boredom and thirst to do something new. And boy! Was it new :)
I went to Brazil to intern at a knitwear company. Which I did. Kind of. But I ended up travelling a lot more :P


So my companion was a dear friend of dad's who became my friend too... her name is Ana and she's a real sweetheart. It was such amazing fun.... We started our wanderings from Sao Paulo. Flew up to Rio and Salvador (in Bahia district) and then to Fortaleza. More pics coming up!

That's Ana with the famous Christo

The Christ or Christo or locally referred to as "Corcovado"( the letter R is pronounced as H, so it would sound more like Cohcovado)  is probably the most famous statue of Christ in the world. Most recently seen in Twilight: Breaking Dawn where dear newly-weds Edward and Bella go to Rio, on route to some exotic la-la land island belonging to his mother! :O  Vampires are rich, I tell you! I watched this movie twice already by the way.

  

Streets are filled with this kind of graffitti

Some serenaders by the Copacabana beach. They taught me how to samba as well!

That mountain behind Ana is called "Sugar Loaf" or locally known as "Pau de Azucar" It really does look  like it!

 
What else did we do there?
Umm.... nothing much really! It's such an amazing city to just chill and do nothing (except have lots and lots of beer) and crash some amazing parties happening on roads, beaches and parks and every possible place!
Below are some pictures of a party we crashed ;)

Not only do they graciously welcome shameless foreigners into their gathering, they are amazing musicians! I wish I had a good quality video to upload here! And everybody in Rio knows how to samba! In 5" heels. Men in flats of course :P


I have probably never felt as tom-boyish as I felt there, because the women were SOOOOO hot! I am a girl and I felt it. No wonder, the reputation of Brazil :)


Even the view from the top, on route to Rio looked like a freakin' tiny bikini! God bless Brazil!

I miss you Brazil!
Also Ana and all the lovely people I met...
Waiting to write my next series! :)


Beijos! :-*

My travelogue begins :)

http://rainingteasleepyfish.tumblr.com/

When the cat came to stay

I am so so excited.
I have a cat. And his name is Fonzie.The cutest cutest cat ever :)
Ok its not mine. We are cat-sitting for a friend. For two whole weeks yayyyyy!

So in the past two days... the most important question on my mind has been:
Am I a cat person?

Am I? Am I?

 Just look at him! <3 <3

How could I not be....


So the question is more like: Can one be a cat person AND a dog person at the same time? I have probably had 2 dogs in my childhood and never directly contributed to taking care of them. And dogs are hard work personified. But I truly loved them. I was always lazy. Like a cat.
And cats? They are something else all together.

My sister with  Fonzie

Cats are self-indulgent.
They don't really care.
About anything.
They are just so pricey.
And I love it!  ;)




Lets say, I have two weeks to find out... :)

The big cat is away for a couple of days :) So its Fonz and me signing off for the weekend...

The Zara Pilgrimage

So what happens when Zara opens its first store in a sleepy, modestly dressed, kind of laid back city like Namma Bengaluru???

Well, me for starters, dressed up a bit more than usual. I had to go to ZARA after all... And brush shoulders with fellow fashionistas and Zara-obsessors (is that even a word!?) I even carried the slightly-too-heavy Canon DSLR around my neck... Such was my intent and excitement. Who knew, I would probably put up pics all over my blog about "my day out" at the Bengaluru Zara.

But what exactly happened?
I did not manage to take even one decent picture!
And well, not to exaggerate, but it was a bit more like a factory visit, the whole journey with my colleagues to the outskirts :P Sorry, all you people staying in Whitefield. Until my work place shifts to some non-central location, I will always consider Whitefield the "out-skirts".

Ah, but the mall was quite large (I'm not always critical!) and spacious- a welcome change for malls in Bangalore. The Zara store is supposed to be 17,000 sq feet. An expansive la-la land of fashion. But, somehow to me, it just seemed empty and some merchandise looked like it was last season(horrors!) Specially after just visiting all the Zara's through my Euro trip (I am one devoted pilgrim , right?) and of course the Zara's in Delhi n Mumbai... Okay, okay, it just opened a week ago and all that, let's give it a break.

So, I realize I am not supposed to behave like this. But this is great news!
I speak for all fashion conscious Bangloreans. We have been waiting foreverrrr for Zara to come here. Now let's just hope that we get fresh stock around here. Fingers crossed :)  The absolute lack of international brands in this city makes us behave in such funny ways! And the best part is that all other brands are going to follow suit, now that Zara is here.
 Hoot hoot!

The devotees await :)

Toned , stoned and Barceloned

No I don't mean 'that' stoned, though I wish we were... haha!

Things to do before going to Barcelona :

1. Make sure you're toned. Or at least half way there. It reaaaallllllly matters how the legs look in those short shorts. Oh yes they do.
 2. Make Gaudi your God. Yes, worship him.Or at least google him and his famous works so that you don't feel like an idiot visiting the most mind-freakin'blowing architecture that you will see (made by a human).
3. Beware of the La Ramblas... Its supposedly the most 'happening' street of Barcelona. But all it had to offer was lousy touristy objects(which are must-buys of-course :P), a bunch of tourists and a whole bunch of fellow hindustani shop-owners who will give you special discounts as you're Indian.
4.Learn some spanish. Nah not really. Can manage just fine without it. But learn it anyway as its a beautiful language.Though I prefer the South American Spanish to The Spanish spanish.....

Things to do once in Barcelona :

 Become a hippie.Roam aimlessly. Its really easy once you're there. The vibe just got to me.... Sadly we were there for a very short while :(  But then I bought whichever trinkets (see my right hand) which took my fancy and consoled myself... sigh!!

Go to Zara! ( well, we have one now in Bangalore too, but who cares!)

Must buy this season: The coated pants!

Go to the Desigual store (only if you want) as you're in Spain. Or not. I didn't. No, really. I find it over the top, garish and in-asthetically loud. I'm sorry if I'm hurting sentiments here, but that's what I think :P Maybe this point should be called "What NOT to do in Barcelona"!

 All of Gaudi's masterpieces are completely worth going to and gawking at. For hours... My favorite-favorite was Parc Guell. 
 

 Sagrada Familia (the famous still-under-construction church/monument ) is definitely the biggest and the most ambitious piece. What I love about it the most is the contrast between the outside and inside. Depressing vs Divine. Structured vs Flowing. Obviously, I loved the inside. How did he manage to carve such crazy intricate things in stone!

The tree trunk - his inspiration

The pillars inside Sagrada- his creation

Have the Sangria or dieeeeeee! I mean seriously. Sangria is the most delicious, mouth watering wine punch ever made. And make sure you have a litre- pitcher. The pitcher works beautifully in making all things blurry... Sangria made me talk super-fluent Hindi as well!  :)

Walk around.  And see how beautifully the whole city resonated Gaudi's aesthetics in beautifully crazy way. Initially I thought the word "gaudy" comes from Antoni Gaudi's surname, but that's not true. Though the souvenir shops seemed to have taken "gaudy" too seriously, we did manage to find some beautiful mosaic trinkets :P

Born off the beautiful black guitar

Thanx Viv for the shot :)