I went to Dharamshala. It was my first trip to the city I had heard so much about. I had a list of places to visit out of which I could not miss the church of St. John.
The church was made in 1852 and is known for its gothic structure and Belgian stained-glass windows donated by Lady Elgin. Its churchyard is the final resting place of Lord Elgin, who served as Governor General of the Province of Canada, who oversaw the Creation of Responsible Government in Canada, and later, while in China, ordered the complete destruction of the Old Summer Palace.
As I walked towards the church, the first thing that came to my mind was: Now this is the oldest building I have ever seen! It was beautiful. Though I am not a religious person at all, I can go there almost everyday if I am in the city.
There were some pretty flowers near the pavement you could not miss and if you walked a little, there was a graveyard too which I could not see much. Speaking of graveyards, I have always wanted to visit the place where Oscar Wilde was buried, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris..Someday…
Details: Shorts, sandals and bag: Done by None, Blouse: Primark, Accessories: Benaras
So what do you do when you go to a shopping mall with your friends and you realize you are too broke to buy anything?
You look at people instead of clothes, trying to believe they can give you more amusement than the latter.
You deliberately walk through the stores you never buy anything from anyway. You keep suggesting your friends that you are hungry. You make a call or keep texting someone, flirting to an extent that your mind doesn't drift anywhere else.
You go to a bad store, a really bad one, talk about the kind of clothes designers make, their lack of imagination and how everything is such a waste of money. You even talk about serious issues of shopaholics.
Do you feel a thrill when you swipe your card at the register? Come home from the store with things you didn’t plan on buying? Buy things you never use? Run your credits cards up to the limit? If your answers to these questions are yes, you may be a shopaholic...straight out of the movie.
So far so good. Are your friends still buying stuff? You might like to have some water. Feel better? Get out of the mall. Take pictures of each other. Do something really crazy and see if people notice. If you are a selfie kind of person, go for it baby. The more, the better.
How about going to a book store and reading a book, mind you, take just one book as the more books you flip through, the more are the chances of you spending money...on books if not clothes and shoes! Last, but not the least, you think about your favorite TV show that you might miss if you stay at the mall for long. A certain Mr. Caffery or McSteamy deserve all attention.
This could go on. So what do you do when you have less money in your wallet and more shopping pangs in your heart?
T-shirt: Forca Jeans, Shorts: Only, Belt: Forever 21, sandals: Lifestyle, accessories: Benaras, Sunglasses: Juree got them from Goa
My hat was pulled down and this girl said 'Are you really him?' I whispered 'Yeah, I'm really him.' She screamed, 'Mom! Dad! It's Heath Ledger!
-Josh Hartnett
That was a good one. Jokes apart, I keep wondering why girls don’t wear hats in India. After all, Its hot like crazy these days.
As much as I try not to do it, I end up giving you all a history of several items of clothing and accessories. At times I do think if it serves any purpose. There must be some kind of dormant teacher inside me.
In the past, hats were an indicator of social status. Though hats originated long back, it was not until the end of the 16th century that women started wearing proper hats inspired by men. The word 'milliner', a maker of women's hats, was first recorded in 1529 when the term referred to the products for which Milan and the northern Italian regions were well known, i.e. ribbons, gloves and straws.
Now that you have studied for the day, go get your hat on and enjoy the weekend. It's hot out there.
"Where are you lost, why are you so lonely in your own world?"Richard, a once upon a time colleague, used to ask me.
Well, he did not know that my world was never lonely. All that went into my head, almost crowded it there. So many thoughts, so many people, so many things to do. For me, it was and it is difficult to get bored , of course unless I am thrown on a deserted island, handsome man-less.
Richard and I used to share the same cab to work. He was much older and wiser than me and I frequently mentioned about the latter to him. And he would say," Aah, if I had wisdom, some of it would have rubbed off on you. You still look so blank (read dumb!)
It happened the other way round actually. I kind of infected him a bit. He started asking random questions to people, looking at things from a new, not necessarily good angle :) So he once asked me, "If you could change your name, what would it be and give me an English name."
"Summer", pop came the answer.
I have no reason for liking the name. I hate summers in India. I really do. But yes, I was born in summer, love the breezy and the bright colours people usually associate with summer, love mangoes and the summer vacations spent at my grandmother's place as a child.
So, here is to summer...
Okay, so not many people wish to dress up as Bet Lynch.She almost spoiled the fun of animal print by wearing it with bad make up and other things. And she did go overboard with the jewelry.
I have seen people either hating animal print or loving it. No one says "Okay I might try or I don't know, what do you think... is it some new trend"?
They simply know.
About leopard prints,Roberto Cavalli said a few years back,"I started to understand that God is really the best designer so I started to copy God."
I think the animal print is about embracing something new, and understanding that a lot of things go well with the print. A pair of animal print ballerinas, for example, go well with different kind of things. To me, it is also about loving things that are animal like. Having an instinct.
An obvious song is in my head:
And the thing that gets to me
Is you will never really see
And the thing that freaks me out
Is I will always be in doubt
It is a lovely thing that we have
It is a lovely thing that we
It is a lovely thing, the animal
The animal instinct in me...
You guys have a great weekend. Do like my Facebook page if you like the blog.
"Our clothes are too much a part of ourselves for us ever to be entirely indifferent to their condition; the feeling of being perfectly dressed imparts a buoyant confidence to the wearer, and it impresses the beholder as though the fabric were indeed a natural extension of the man. … So strong is the impulse of sartorial morality that it is difficult in praising clothes not to use such adjectives as “right,” “good,” “correct,” “unimpeachable,” or “faultless,” which belong properly to the discussion of conduct, while in discussing moral shortcomings we tend very naturally to fall into the language of dress and speak of a person’s behavior as being shabby, shoddy, threadbare, down at heel, botched, or slipshod."
As I read Quentin Bell's lines depicting the importance that was levied upon clothing and sartorial choices, I think less about him, more about his aunt, Virginia Woolf.
My friend recently gifted me a book that sums up most of Woolf's published work. A feminist icon, a Bloomsbury snob, a difficult person, an extraordinary woman who killed herself, a writer who brought a revolution that defined an era, a lot has been said about her.
But I have seen very few people talking about her being a sartorial figure during the Victorian era. She and her sister Vanessa Bell were actually instrumental in bringing the bohemian way of dressing into consideration if not norms.
Today, the term bohemian chic is more common. I have always thought that bohemian style is something that speaks volumes about a person. I think it is a style that does not stem from nothing. There always seems to be a story, or a place or a free spirit behind it.
What do you think?
There are days when we plan everything. It then goes as per the plan, to an extent, or not. And then there are days when we don't plan anything. It was such a Sunday for me. No plan, nothing.
My room mate wanted a haircut and I tagged along. I was roaming around aimlessly. I was wandering, doing almost nothing. And it was an interesting experience in itself. Heard a couple fighting, a child keeping his parents on toes, two friends discussing about long distance relationships.
My father always says that I will end up a vagabond. He started using this word when I did not know its meaning (yeah I know, my vocabulary sucks). I don't know if he actually is right as I have always wanted a house of my own. My father says he doubts I 'll ever live in it :)
We'll see.
You guys have a great weekend. Do like my Facebook page if you like the blog.
Details: Shorts, sandals and bag: Done by None, Blouse: Primark, Accessories: Benaras
