Street smart
On-ramp fashion is lending charm not just to the models. Even the cream of café society is wearing the stuff to look chic, says
Saurabh Malik
Mannequins are on the move, sashaying down the path of life and parading the ramp craze on city roads and streets, meandering through polite society, glamorously and gorgeously. Pretty damsels are mugging up the book of charm in colleges and other institutes across the city. You may find it incredible, but the young leaders of fashion are actually decking themselves up in stunning minis and even ghagra skirts. It’s actually more of less in the avenues these days.
If you haven’t appreciated this new street rage so far, just drive down the roads of the city. You will find fair damsels giving a new tone to society in glittering asymmetrical dresses paired with long boots. Or else, in ensembles involving the reinvention of the classics with layering and random prints, overstating the old to give them that oh-so-hot contemporary look — something you had thus far only seen models wearing during the fashion week.
STREET RAGE: The fashion scene has shifted from ramps to the streets. It’s not uncommon to see youngsters sporting dreses and accessories as ramp models.
— Photo by Pradeep Tewari |
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Mad about media
Conventional career choices are no longer considered a passport to success. City students are opting for newer and exciting placements in media, reports
Anandita Gupta
Not very long ago, mornings in the city used to be a familiar sight. A swarm of students were seen rushing to their morning tuitions, shouldering a load of books in their Nike or Adidas bags (not necessarily the original). And even before the crisp sunrays filtered through their thick-rimmed spectacles, these students were lost in their books—IELTS,
TOEFEL, PMT, CAT or CET. Medical, engineering, architecture, MBA or a degree from an ivy-league foreign university were the only career options commanding indisputable respect.
Today, however, things have changed tremendously. Students still don’t mind boarding a Chandigarh Roadways bus or a rickety rickshaw to reach a tutor’s far-away academy.
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Style mantras for interiors
A
number of basic design styles apply to everything from furniture to interior and exterior home designs. Let us talk about various design styles offering some general guidelines to create your own dream home.
Contemporary design translates itself beyond glass, metal, bold fabrics, leather and stone to sleek, unadorned cabinets, plain panel doors, monochrome combinations or jarring contrasts and hardware that’s hidden or unobtrusive for the warm chic options. Remember, we are talking about your home not a museum or a show house.
SALSA BEATS
Mohit Dewan, software engineer in the US, does more than just toying with computers. He dances and listens to fusion music, writes
Gayatri Rajwade
This young lad is breaking stereotypical images of the quintessential IT geek from India and the irony is he never really set out to do it deliberately; he just followed his heart.
Twentyseven years old Mohit Dewan, a software engineer working with Intel in Seattle, does more than just dunking his head into the innards of a computer. Mohit dances, the Salsa! Not just this, he is also part of a professional dance group, ‘Salsa Salvaje’, in Seattle that not only teaches dance but also holds performances in Salsa meets all over the country. And the best part is, it all started less than a year ago in January 2005.
Chic fashion on shoestring
Anandita Gupta
It almost feels like walking straight into a girlie dream. As one enters, the place welcomes visitors with all its warmth. Some bulbs cast muted shadows on the walls of this snug, shopping haven, while creamy tubes glow luminously from the ceiling. A white wall contrasts sharply with the stunning splashes of bottle green that smile down from the ceiling, at the contemporary, minimalist interiors and the feminine, almost festive displays, elegantly resting on the shelves.
DIVINE SPELL
Parbina Rashid
Guess what? Baba Ramdev is not the only one who is getting all the attention abroad. Giving him stiff competition are a few Hindu and Buddhist Goddesses who are creating as much hype in Sydney. And it is making V. N. Singh, director of the museum, who went for the installation of the miniatures for the show at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, one proud man.
MINIATURE MAGIC: The Kangra miniature paintings of Radha-Krishna are currently displayed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
Photos by Parvesh Chauhan |
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HAIRY TALES
Smriti Sharma
Mention spring, summer and fall winter collections and all one can think of is models sashaying down the ramp in some cool, hip skirts with polka dots and floral tops in pastel shades and long coats, cigarette trousers with suede boots for the particular season. Right folks! But wait before you stop going any further.
A tabla maestro at 10
S. D. Sharma
‘Coming events cast their shadows before..’ sounds true for the prodigious, Aman Samrat who at the tender age of ten has carved a niche for himself as a Tabla whiz . Back after wining laurels at the 42nd All-India Music Competition, held at Agra by the Sangeet Kala Kendra as a tribute to the celestial musicologist, Pandit Vishnu Digamber, Aman feels ready to accomplish more and repeat the feat. He has previously been credited with a dozen prize-winning tabla performances in the city at various prestigious functions, but his solo performance at the HP University youth festival closing ceremony at Bilaspur last year, is one to remember. “ I was hugged, blessed and honoured by Mantriji (Ram Lal Thakur, agriculture minister Himachal Pardesh) amidst a lofty applause, disclosed Aman.
Fragrance on lens
Anuradha Shukla
MADHU Pandit is a commercial photographer, capturing events and gadgets to be launched for promotion—her heart though wants certain permanence in defining her vision through her camera. She prefers to freeze her subjects (flowers) in water and click them in the morning light. Want to know what we mean, then see her next exhibition titled “Fragrance of Eternity” to showcase her photographs at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai from December 1 to 10.
PICTURE PERFECT: Madhu Pandit. — Photo by Vinay Malik |
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All about writing ART
The easel holds a large painting. The painter in a kurta stands on the left and the painted in a sari stands on the right with her plat flung forward on her left shoulder. The painting shows her in a tattered blouse and sari resting against a larger than life candle, painted in the literal and dramatic style of calendar art. Yet it evokes nostalgia in a big way for the painter is Dadamoni Ashok Kumar and the painted, the incomparable, Nargis. The watermarked cinema still dates back to 1952 in a film called Bewafa in which Hamlet-like Nargis swings between Ashok Kumar, a famous painter, and playboy Raj Kapoor. It comes as an Email poster for a workshop to be conducted in Delhi on writing art. The designers have very aptly chosen this picture for the poster for this still has the power, never mind the quality of the painting on the easel, to stir the soul. It has to it a period quality, romance and also the depiction of art within art.
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Samiksha’s debut on
telly
It is not easy to imagine an engineer playing the lead role in one of the most- awaited television serials, Zaara—Pyar Ki Saugat, to be aired from December 4 on Sahara One Television. But this is exactly what another Chandigarh di kudi, Samiksha, did after qualifying as an engineer. Now concentrating on acting after doing ad films, one Hindi comedy film directed by Partho Ghosh, and five Tamil films, this ambitious actress wants to make it big with her debut in the serial produced by Edit II Productions and directed by Pawan Sahu, who has earlier directed Sindoor and Vaidehi.
Shoeshine to sunshine
Anuradha Shukla
Had it not been for the medium of theatre, that has given expression to his being by teaching him the nuances of make-up, Veer Pal would have been lost in oblivion like many children like him. Condemned to a life of back-breaking hard work and no way out of poverty and deprivation Veer Pal was a shoeshine boy till about six months back. The sunshine of hope has touched the life of the boy from Dehradun, as he has finalised a contract as a make-up artist for a 52-episode serial.
FILM & FASHION
Al Pacino charms
‘Godfather’ legend Al Pacino recently charmed the staff at London’s lavish Ritz hotel by talking to them in the middle of the night.
Sources say the 66-year-old actor suffered a bout of insomnia, and came down to the lobby at 2 am.
They revealed that Pacino neither complained about anything nor did he make any demands of cleaning or changing
his room.
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