Found my roots! Yay!

As a child I always heard stories of my friends going to their village for vacations, I never had such stories because I didn't know my village! For me village was Pune where grandparents used to stay. But about 6 years ago my grandmother passed. In her last days all she would do is talk about old times and memories. In one of those memories she mentioned that we have an ancestral temple in a small village near Khopoli-Pen, in Maharashtra. She also mentioned that my grandfather's great grandfather had a big house there. But after she passed away, her wish/idea to find this place was forgotten! Only until recently her idea was forgotten. At one family get together, this whole topic came up and so did all the bad feelings of not having a 'gaav' as was called my childhood friends in Marathi!

Finally this Diwali with all the back and froth, we decided to go and find the place! So I went on my trusted friend, guide Google Maps, and luckily it knew where my village was, I was so glad and amazed as well. A very small village on the Khopoli-Pen Road in Maharashtra and yet Google managed to find it for me. After narrowing the distance, place to halt etc. we decided to make it a one day trip! So on Thursday, 12th November, after managing to get up at 6 in the morning, me mom and dad left our house at 7.30am. As they saw breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we decided to have a good and healthy one at my dad's college hangout place at Matunga east. Sharda Bhavan, a small Udipi joint, which I think, has the best idlis! We hogged on the food, idlis, upma, dosa and coffees! With happy tummies, around an hour’s drive on the Mumbai- Pune express highway, my ipad said please take a sharp right after the Khalapur toll. After the right, we were on the Khopoli-Pen highway after around half an hour came a right to my village road. The varsai road from the main road was so under developed it barely fit one vehicle, filled with dust and stones and no street lights but on the plus side parallel to the road is a river called Bal- Ganga. On the end of the road, we reached the main market chowk of Varsai.

A small one of those typical villages, which have tiled roof houses, with courtyards, happy faces in the harsh sun, which is barely found in our cities. Honestly it was like a very small village with no computers or Internet, no fast food joints barely any cars like a village in the 1990’s.

But the people living there were so amazing and warm. They welcomed with open arms showed us around their an entire ‘waada’ i.e. a huge house with an courtyard with an tulsi plant in the middle, a well outside the house and the farms ahead of that. Then we went to our family temple, which was almost looked one of the houses of the village. There was an simple idol of the elephant headed God with a small lamp light. After finishing all our prayers, we sat in the temple for 20 minutes, on the rock floor and I was so at peace. Ironically whenever I go in the Temples of Mumbai or Pune, which are filled with lights, places to sit like marble benches or even ACs in few, there is no peace but here there was all peace and you could feel the god with you there. In the month of Magh i.e a month according to Marathi calendar which comes between January and February, there is a festival in this temple, which is a great fun! Then of course how can I leave a place without eating so we went back to waada, and the aunty there made yummy typical Marathi style batata pohe and tea! With a little resentment of not being able to stay in our ancestral house, we left back for Mumbai. But the sad news is that this village soon being uprooted and moved to a higher place as there is dam built on the river which will cause the level to rise and the place will be under water.

Here are the photos from the trip I managed to click!

Yummy idli!

Udipi ambience

Anna!

Our Lord.

Unusual sitting position

Road to the Temple

Village Scenes! 

What To Wear: Week 5

Dressing is an art, which should be worn with a little attitude to make an impression.  As Coco Chanel has quoted ‘Keep your heels, head and standards high’ which is important now a day for girls and more importantly for women. Especially in the competitive world! Speaking of girls and women, we need to always dress good firstly for ourselves then the world. Here are my picks for this week!

Outfit 1: Knee-length boots and a belt, this time we can base the entire outfit on the accessories, we can wear material dress with these two picks of accessories! For Mumbai weather, cotton, crepe etc,material dresses will be great instead of woollens, but woollens can be worn in winter months.

Outfit 2: Meetings, presentations and job interviews can be very monotonous in terms of routine also and dressing as well. You can add a little colour to your outfit as in the picture. A mint green or ochre yellow pant with a white shirt makes your outfit look a little different from the rest!

Outfit 3: Simple Kurti and Lycra Chudidar, is a great option to wear for any special occasions or day-to-day life also. Wearing a Chinese collar style kurti is a great escape to the hassle of wearing any dupatta plus we can get great designs and patterns for such a collar type!

Outfit 4: An ethnic style skirt is a great outfit to wear for a causal movie date or a pani-puri outing with your bae! Or a shopping trip with your girls! Try Anokhi or Fabindia for such skirts, they have a very good variety. Also you can opt for knee length skirts.

Outfit 5: A patterned dress with a neckpiece looks fab! You just need these two things in your wardrobe to get a very chic and classy look! Just keep in mind to have a good contrast between the necklace and dress colours.

Outfit 6: Blue and pink is my recent favourite colour combination for dressing!But I am very specific about my pinks too. I prefer pinks like Coral Pink, Poppy pink etc. A denim and pink combination is also too good for a travelling outfit for a plane ride, or a road-trip with your bestie.

Outfit 7:With a long weekend in coming, this outfit is adapt for an small trip like on the beach or in the woods, a white shirt with linen pants or rather any cotton top with linen pants is comfort and style together.

Image Courtesy: Pinterest

Down the Memory Lane!

I hate being sick, it means sitting home and resting! I hate it, but at times when your body doesn’t support you, there is no option. House arrest is so boring and gives you a lot of time to think. To avoid the thinking bit, I started going down memory lane. While I was going through my photos, I came across the trips folder. My latest one was to the beautiful Rajasthan. Rajasthan is one of my favorite places to visit in India. I have been there thrice but still haven’t seen it all. There were these two particular places I loved in my trip this time i.e. Kumbhalgarh Fort and Ranakpur Jain Temples.

Kumbhalgarh Fort – https://www.behance.net/gallery/22714305/Kumbhalgarh-Fort

Ranakpur Jain Temple - https://www.behance.net/gallery/29829697/Temples-In-India-Ranakpur-Jain-Temple

While going through the photos, I found this one outfit of mine that I haven’t worn in a long time but love it! I was visiting Udaipur City and its palace when I was wearing this outfit! A black top and pants with a brown lace jacket and a Native American style tribal necklace. A very simple outfit with a little oomph! Also the jacket and necklace goes well on a white top and bottoms.

Top – Bare,Pantaloons

Bottoms – Zara

Jacket – Colaba Causeway

Sunglasses – Forever 21

Necklace - Tribalzone in pantaloons

Lipcolour – Colour Bar, Pencil Lipstick Peachy Pink 016

What To Wear: Week 4

This week my outfits have been inspired again from the amazing Coco Chanel’s quote, ‘A woman can be over dressed but never over elegant’. True yet again Coco Chanel never fails to impress me with her words, which not only speak about Fashion but also the women who is carrying the fashion on them.

Hope this post helps you in dressing a little different then normal.

Outfit 1: Nothing to begin the week with some perky colours and prints with comfy jumpsuits. Low maintenance and making a style statement go hand in hand with jumpsuits. Wear them as is or with a jacket or belt, or put on some funky footwear to style them.

Outfit 2: The famous LBD or better know as The Little Black dress, is always a win-win for any occasion. Wear it with right accessories and you can turn the dress into a formal outfit, or a party one or a causal dress.

Outfit 3: An unusual look, but I found it quite interesting and something new. A checks dark shirt and a lace skirt, and a simple necklace makes me just go wow!

Outfit 4: A short dress and knee-high boots is a great causal combination for a girl’s day out or a movie date. The boots never fail to impress your gals or your guy too! Wear any kinds leather, suede etc. with a printed dress or a plain with a belt and you are good to go!

Outfit 5: One of the most worn material in the world, Denim. A total denim look can be painted in many ways with different accessories and shoes. But Denim is the trustworthy and to fall back on kind of outfit!

Outfit 6: Ikat, another love of mine, which I can wear in any form. This time I am going for pants, wear them on solid shirts and that simply does the charm because Ikat in itself is so colourful and interesting in its pattern.

Outfit 7: Khaftan is of ancient Mesopotamian origin, which was worn by many middle-eastern ethnic groups and now is modified to fit the modern trends and times. This look has a little modernity and traditionalism to it. It is also an amazing beach look too. And can be adorned in formal look too.

Images Courtesy: Pinterest