Regional rampage
Has the first Kolkata Fashion Week set the tone for regional extravaganzas, say, a Punjab fashion week? Designers and models offer mixed views…
Week after week, we are being bowled over by novel fashion styles. From swish traditional trends to contemporary themes, the mantra this season seems to be, 'style mein rehne ka'. To be precise, this seems to be a season of fashion weeks, that started with Lakme Fashion Week followed by the Wills India Fashion Week and close on its heels came the announcement of the first Kolkata Fashion Week (that had curtains up on Sunday).

Bong bombshell: Bips sports the classic look

Pleated profusion: The Bengali sari styles got global exposure at the recent KFW. PTI Photo

STATE SHOWS: City model Anchal Kumar’s all for them

Crowns & couture
Kangana lets Priyanka dance  to Fashion songs for  Miss India finale
Kangana Ranaut was all set to perform at the grand finale of Femina Miss India on Sunday, but when she got to know that Priyanka Chopra would also be dancing, she decided to let her groove to the songs of Fashion.

Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone was a jury member at the Miss India final

Actor Priyanka Chopra performed at the Pantaloon Femina Miss India 2009 final in Mumbai on Sunday

Model and actor Sushmita Sen presented a rosy picture in her fuchsia dress Photo: PTI Photos

House full
Celebrity models and designers thronged the KFW 
For the first time Kolkata witnessed a deluge of celebrity models and top fashion designers, who were there to participate in the inaugural Kolkata Fashion Week.While Bollywood hotbod and model John Abraham walked the ramp for ace designer Rohit Bals collection, his girlfriend and actor Bipasha Basu presented a Monapali collection at PC Chandra Greens.Yesteryear actor and top model Zeenat Aman also sashayed for the weavers collection tomorrow.“This is the first fashion week in Kolkata and all reputed models and designers easily agreed to come here.

Black magic
Bollywood actor John Abraham was a showstopper at the Kolkata Fashion Show. He wore a waist long coat with flower patterns on a black base teemed with black tights in the Rohit Bal’s creation.Bal who drew upon history, fantasy and folklore in his creations, showcased a mixture of gothic and Indian and the theme was about seduction of the night.“Whatever I say about Rohit Bal is not enough. It’s an honour walking for him. I am honoured to have walked the showstopper with him. It’s just been an awesome experience,” Abraham said . —ANI

Chura liya hai…
Former Bollywood actor Zeenat Aman revived the romance of yesteryears when she walked the ramp to the tunes of Churaliya hain tumne jo dil ko, a hit in eighties, at the Kolkata Fashion Week. The show presented a gorgeous selection of saris and dhotis. Zeenat Aman, credited with bringing the western heroine look to Bollywood, said it was important to walk the ramp as it focused on weaves of the local talent. “For me, it’s very important to walk the ramp here because the weaves of the local talent being showcased.

Yesteryear actor Zeenat Aman sizzled the ramp in a traditional yet elegant attire. Photo PTI

Role call
Anil Kapoor bags role in American TV show 24
Bollywood star Anil Kapoor is going places post the success of Slumdog Millionaire and the actor has now bagged an starring role in American TV show 24. Kapoor, who won critical acclaim as a game show host in the multiple Oscar-winning film, will have a regular role as a Middle Eastern leader in the eighth season of the thriller. The show will mark Kapoor’s debut on American television. The actor has reportedly clinched the deal with ICM and is all set to star as a leader who comes to the US for a peacekeeping mission. Kapoor played Prem Kumar, the host of Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, in Slumdog Millionaire. —PTI

Actor Riya Sen (above) presents a creation of local weavers at KFW/Actor Chitrangada Singh (left) wears designer Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna’s creation 

Cause on canvas
For these collective artists from Chattisgarh, colours on canvas reflect hues of society
All good things don’t happen by chance. And to make them happen, the tested process of planning and execution has to be followed. So, when 19 artists having some or the other connection with the IKSVV Khairagarh University in Chattisgarh came together to hold series of exhibition across the country, they too adhered to the same procedure but with an addition, “Besides planning and executing, right intentions are also important to make things happen. The participants in the exhibition are now settled in various parts of India. We asked them all to join hands to pay tribute to our Alma mater,” says Mahesh Prajapati, now a city based artist, who has studied art from the same university. Other then the obvious aim of promoting their art, these artists, through the display of their works, want people to know the source of their talent.

Photo: S Chandan

Spadework
Hydrate your greens
No doubt today’s rain and sweet weather is relief for the gardeners for the time being but the benefit will be short lived. The ensuing summers will command water availability and application to the plants. There are water application restrictions too. So, the most important gardening aspect now will be to fix the watering priorities. Normally, the first pressure of the summer water scarcity is on the watering of lawn, the most water consumer in the garden. There are restrictions and the watering is restricted only to the evening hours. This is good too. We have also been advocating watering in the evening hours. 

Chikan check
Alankrit, an exhibition would be presenting fabrics, dupattas, kurtis intricately designed with gotta patti, fusion embroidery on large variety of fabrics like banarsi, organzas, lehrayras from today. An initiative by Manju Jalota, Alankrit has been the revival of the Indian oldest craft chikankari and upliftment of the craftsmen. Today the company has workers in forty different villages around Lucknow.

Launch PAD
Double deal
To satisfy the need of staying fresh throughout the active day, Cinthol - the flagship brand of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. launched India’s first 2-in-1 freshness and skin hydration soap ‘Cinthol Fresh Aqua’ unleashing 24-hr confidence and invigorating freshness to beat the heat this summer.

Geek SPEAK
Let the music play
Portable media players are, by definition, MP3 players that do much more than just play your favourite digital audio files. These specialised devices also let you carry and watch your favourite television shows or movies in a portable format as well as letting you view loads of your favourite digital photos and more. There is a whole world out there when you go looking for portable media players in the market presently, so it is important to consider these essential features when making your selection.

Well tuned
If you've been collecting music on your computer for long enough and from enough sources, it's easy to wind up with more than one copy of a song. To find these extras in Apple's iTunes program, select your music library in the left-hand sidebar, go to the File menu and select 'Show Duplicates'.

Door sense
Now, car doors that get jammed when near danger
Considering that the opening of car doors into the path of oncoming vehicles has been a major cause of road accidents, scientists have now developed a new technology to avoid such mishaps-doors that sense potential impacts and get jammed. Named the "haptic"-the technology provides tactile feedback to the users, and can thus help reduce both road injuries and repair bills Invented by Michael Graf at BMW and Michael Strolz's team at the Technical University of Munich, the current prototype looks like a normal car door.

Cyber cemetery
Internet sees hoards of sites everyday that spring into action, are an overnight success and are lost to oblivion soon after
Peep through the gates of the Internet Cemetery, and you can see the gravediggers are never idle. Day after day, hour after hour, the dead withered from a lack of interest, ran out of money, were overtaken by a rival with snazzier technology, or just lost their cool. The headstones tell their own story: "HotBot.com. Dearly beloved search engine. Born 1996. Downgraded 2002ish. Forever in our bookmarks".

Cradle of life Models strike a pose at the opening of new mall in the tricity Lifestyle photo:  Pradeep Tewari