2012

Image courtesy: Syddharth

I wanted to do something quite elaborate for a pre-new years' eve post. I thought I'd do 3 different looks depending on how you're planning on celebrating the night. I even went to extent of trying to make a video encompassing 3 varied looks, and shot a little of it with Syddharth. But the moment I heard about the death of the Delhi gang rape victim, I decided to shelve the plan. 

It did not feel right. Wait, let me correct that- It felt WRONG. Terribly wrong to be addressing something as minuscule as style concerns, when are there are far larger and graver concerns to be addressed at the moment. The horror of the crime committed is so extremely horrendous, I cringe and cry every time I even begin to think of what she must've gone through every second of it. I wonder how her parents will live every day of their lives with the mental burden of how brutally their daughter came to be murdered. 

Everyone is busy playing the blame game. The people blame the government, the government blames the police department, the police department blames the women for being "modern and slutty and going out with boys, going partying, and being out that late(10pm) at night". In fact, the very ministers of this country tag modern women(basically women who are independent, opinionated, have a strong voice and rebel against these chauvinistic pigs) as "dented and painted". Abhijit Mukherjee. A Member of the Parliament! More importantly, THE PRESIDENT'S SON!

If these are the kind of pigs ruling the country, it's really no surprise that certain citizens are this rotten, cheap and disgusting, don't you think?

The need of the hour is harsher laws. And more importantly IMPLEMENT those laws, and implement them QUICK. If harsher punishments are given and their implementation is covered extensively by the media, at least the potential rapists will stop out of fear, if not conscience. While we work on giving justice and giving it fast, side by side our society really needs to work on how men look at women. Women are extensively objectified and looked upon as something meant to 'satisfy' a man. Only if we try to bring about change at an individual level, can this society change collectively.

My rantings here aren't really going to make a difference of any sort, but I had to vent out my thoughts and frustration in some form.

But yes, wrapping up with this, I hope you guys have fun and more importantly a safe night ahead of you.

See you next year! :)

Five Things

Have been clicking around with my father's 5D camera since the past couple of days. Here are some images I managed to capture. 

Have played around with the curve tool and saturation levels to garner desired colour tones.

Bougainvillea adorning the balcony.

Pearl accessories 

Have started a new project | Style Diary | on the facebook page, where I shall try maintaining a daily style documentation of sorts. The picture above is from there.

Peach

I've been trying to grasp the basics of video editing, and this was just a little something I ended up making this afternoon. 

Took some random footages on a Canon 5D, and used FCPX for editing it. It's highly flawed, but I'm so excited to have created something, I'm sharing it here. :) 

Wearing  a Zara lace dress, stockings and top from Forever New, Peace necklace from Delhi Paharganj market and the ring from Blur accessories.

Neon & Lace

Photographs By Ajay

Top: Mango

Lace Skirt: Zara

Pumps: Zara

Clutch: Forever New

Earrings: Cleosara

(You can check out more of their collection on their website)

I haven't been a very big fan of the Neon Trend, but this top looked just too pretty when I spotted it at the Mango sale a few months back. I wore it with my off-white lace skirt from Zara which I've been in love with this ever since I purchased it, my only complaint being this city rarely gives me any occasion to slip into it. One BIG question we women face(at least a lot of us) is-"I want to dress up. But where do I dress up and GO?" This happens to me all the time, especially because I'm not much of a party person, so I seldom get chances to get all decked up and go out. Also in Mumbai if you are walking on the streets "too dressy", people look. No wait- They STARE. So getting dressed just because you feel like it and going out also gets uncomfortable after a point.

I hate this city more and more each day. A lot of you might feel differently, but I'm expressing my personal opinion here. It's one of the most uninspiring cities I've been to/lived in. There are so many weekends and evenings where I'm planning an outing with my best friends or boyfriend, and there's this one big question that perpetually looms over us- Where to go? What to do?

Apart from malls and over-crowded restaurants, the city gives us very limited options. And the places, if any, which are even remotely interesting take forever to get to thanks to the eternal traffic jams that punctuate the city.

But someday I'll escape from this city, you know. Someday.

DIY: How to make a Bib Necklace

This was something I ended up making on a rather lazy afternoon, thought I'd share it with you guys.

I adore bib necklaces, and when I found some interesting patches and fabric at a local store, decided to try making one myself.

You will need:

-Fabric

-Scissors

-Fabric glue

-A needle and some thread

-Patches

-Interesting little trinkets to adorn the leftover space on the fabric

-Ribbon/Chain

 STEP 1:

It'll take a good few hours, and a reasonable amount of hard work and hunting in craft shops to accumulate all the pieces you would need for a DIY of this sort.

While buying the pieces, keep in mind the colour combination you want your neckpiece to comprise of and stick to it, too many colours will spoil the beauty of it. 

As you can see, I've opted for pieces in off-white and gold here.

STEP 2:

Put together all the pieces, and play around a little with the permutations and combinations, and see what design you would like best. There are clearly no hard and fast rules for this, it all depends on your creativity, and what seems appealing to you.

I placed my main patches to form a 'V' shape, as seen here. I used fabric glue to stick them on, and used two layers of fabric as base, to make the whole bib patch more sturdy.

I bought these pretty little things from a local market near my house.

STEP 3:

Fill in the empty spaces on the fabric, after you've stuck on your main patches. 

Play around with the designs, make it fun and quirky!

STEP 4:

Let it dry for about 20-30- minutes, then cut out your patchwork with scissors.

 STEP 5:

Cut out equal portions of the ribbon, and stitch them onto the backside of the patchwork.

This is how my final product turned out to be. Doesn't it look gorgeous?!

And the fact that I made it with almost negligible amount of money makes me so gleeful! ^_^ 

You can also make it in different colours and different patterns to go with various dresses and attires. :)

Drop in a comment here if you have any questions. 

Hope you enjoyed the DIY-

:)

Sheer

Photographs By Ajay.

Top, Pants: Forever New

Earrings: Lifestyle
Ring: Cleosara

On my lips: Rubylicious by Maybelline

This post was supposed to be up last night, and I sat at my desk trying to accomplish this task for almost an hour, but then eventually gave up around midnight. I just wasn't in the mood to write, and honestly don't like forcing myself to do it either, it feels wrong and dishonest.
I have been in an extremely cluttered space of mind off late. There are so many career options, so many things you want to do, so many places you want to travel to, and sometimes things just don't fall into place the way you'd want them to. I wanted to backpack in the Himalayas after graduation was over, and spent months trying to convince my parents to let me, unfortunately to no relent. I was disappointed, annoyed and went on ranting about how I was now '21 years of age' and still didn't have the freedom to choose. But they had a strong point too, you know. You can't let your daughter take off like a hippie, especially in a country like india, not to mention north India, which is definitely not one of the safest places around. They very willingly suggested I go abroad and visit a country where we had family friends or relatives, so they won't be as tensed about my safety. But I didn't want to take off from Bombay, which is an urban jungle, and land up in a place like Singapore or Kuala Lampur, which aren't very different either. I wanted to go on a nature trail, relax, reflect, write, click pictures and maybe shoot a documentary if an interesting subject came along. I've always believed travelling inspires you more than anything else. You meet different kinds of people, are exposed to different cultures, even though nobody really teaches you anything, you end up learning so much just by absorbing things from the environment. There are times I've wished instead of doing a 3 year graduation course, i should've just travelled the world for the 3 years. I believe I would've learned much more and would've grown into a different person altogether.
But yes, education is important, but you know what, so is travel, more than you realize.

Sometimes I wish more than anything else that this country was a little more safe. Safe enough for a woman to be travelling alone and her parents not having to worry about her safety every minute of the day.
Let's just be hopeful. Someday maybe my wish will come true.

An Afternoon

These were clicked on a rather lazy afternoon we(Aayushi, Syd and me) spent at my place. Not very meaningful pictures, but I'm in love with the way Syddharth captures things- people and objects alike. I'm a sucker for beautiful images and I can't help but notice how much he has evolved as a photographer and an artist through the years. I've been in love with his work since the first time I saw it, and with every new photograph of his, he only reinforces my opinion.

All pictures here are by Syddharth.

Love at the window.

Tiny colourful kandils adorning the balcony.

 Mundane little things that make you happy

 Aayushi

 No, I'm not always up for posing.

 Vanity is a mirror's best friend.

 We went ribbon shopping. The original plans we had with this didn't really fall into place though.

My camera got a colorful makeover by Aayushi.

Badges are fun.

The Roof Top - Video

This video was made by Syddharth more than a year back, while we were working on The Roof Top post. I had no idea he was filming, when he was only supposed to be taking photographs! But I fell in love with this since the first time I saw it, and have only been thanking him for slyly recording this. :P

Sunset

The reason for my absence from this space for quite some while now is that I was in Delhi, away with family, for 10 long days. That city is gorgeous around this time of the year, especially because of the weather, and almost everything contributed to us having a fabulous time there!

So yes, while I work on something more substantial and interesting content-wise, I thought I'd do a little post to come say a quick hi to all the new followers! :)

Hand accessories: Hill road

Top, crochet jacket: Thrifted

Footwear: Colaba Causeway

Photos By: Ajay.