Been living here for 20 years. Cycled around as a kid, played all sortsa games, scraped knee, bhatkoed and tafree maaroed.

And here is the forest I found snake skins in, curious bones, a new path everytime, abandoned sheds and electric stations with the roof falling in, gnats and newts and as dusk turned to night, began to hope that we weren’t lost. A salute to fellow explorers – Sattu, Nachi, Jenny, Varun, Ruchira, Vishu, Sujay, Dhruv, Sawmya, Manu K.

I have been looking for this word for years! And I finally have it. Aldous Huxley used it repeatedly in Brave New World to describe women. I read it nowhere else since; came across it while looking for info on the Ajit Bhavan Palace Resort. What was it doing there? I don’t remember exactly.

pneumatic

Etymology:
Latin pneumaticus, from Greek pneumatikos, from pneumat-, pneuma air, breath, spirit

1          of, relating to, or using gas or air; inflated

2          of or relating to the pneuma (spiritual)

3          having a well-proportioned feminine figure; especially having a full bust

I think ‘fashion victims’ have sweet realism about them.

Photograph by Cédric Labourdette. Paris.

Yesterday I attended the NIFT Fashion Design Graduation show. And I was astounded. Well-conceptualized garments, some much better than the garments I have seen at India Fashion Week.

I do wish I had been more alert and kept a notepad with me. I do not remember the details.

Each designer showed around 5 garments, based on a theme and there must have been 30 designers in all. Slouchy silhouettes, wired hemlines and bulging whacky pockets were noticeable in all the collections, trends that had hit the FD batch enmasse.

Jyothsana Swarup’s collection borrowed high ruffled necks from French royalty; had ballooning tunic silhouettes with layering and sudden tapering at the knees with stockings. Check out the neon style eye-make up by Mayank that has been in vogue on the ramp for a long time now. I feel that we should start wearing such eye-make up regularly; at least to parties!

Her collection was named ‘Similar Dilemmas’. She explains - An individual is a combination of different characters and roles. Each ensemble reflects one of the various shades of a single person – a tyrant, a saint, a troubled person, one who can hear many voices, a carefree and buoyant soul who is least bothers and enjoys life to the fullest!

I think it’s a collection that’s unwearable enough to be fashionable; and original, practical and loads of fun enough to be wearable. How do you like it?

Marilyn Thomas’s collection left me amazed at her power of visualization. The first model who walked the ramp wearing Marilyn’s creation gave the audience the ‘wow’ moment they were looking for. She walked up in a white dress – flouncy skirt, narrow bodice, tie-ups around the waist and midriff. At the headramp, the model undid the tie-ups to let the skirt fall and reveal a colourful dress that simply sprang out of all the white! The skirt was the lower part of the dress.

Marilyn Thomas: The drama dress

Marilyn Thomas: Orange stockings..hmmm!

Marilyn Thomas: Fashion framed as art

Here, have a look at Vinita Adhikari’s collection. The theme of the collection was ‘Doodle’ and I think it rocked!

Drifting away from slouchy-ness and a casual attitude, Rahul Verma designed garments “OUT OF THE BLOX”. His collection was inspired by Bahaus, the great art movement - geometric, minimalist, clean and modern. His work was suggestive of architectural style, experimental attitudes, pioneering technological advances, modern-day environments and lifestyles with compartmentalization. Rahul Verma won the award for the best design collection.

Have a look at Rahul’s meticulous planning that went into the collection. Boxy from head to toe. Have a look at the designer’s desk.

All kinds of concepts had been explored – Out of my granny’s closet, Association between clothes and body, Travel and influences, Pop-op art, Boxy lives, Deconstruction.

India is getting some good designers.

Hello,

Who is the Wichita visitor?

After making complicated Audio Visuals, I am unable to tackle this simple AV, almost just a slide show of correctly chosen images, some layering, no voice-over, no sound. The topic is sattva, or enlightened existence and spirituality that goes with wisdom. A topic I can’t tackle just now. My head refuses to budge. And how do I tell this to my boss who informed me this morning that the deadline went by yesterday. The boss who sits hour after hour at his chair handling multiple projects. One thing that he does not have is: Mood swings.

Spirituality is so different for different people. I don’t have to go so deep into the topic for the AV but it’s crazy to have to go deep enough and not too far to create a film that sets the mood, conveys the message but is not the most mind boggling piece ever.

I am having a hard time differentiating spirituality from escapism. One kind of spirituality would be in nothingness. Nothingness in mind, in vast empty landscapes of Ladakh, in a landscape capped and levelled by snow – all white, all same. Spirituality in homogeneity, in not looking for anything, in the absence of clutter. In the absence of a lot. In not wanting anything so that there are no disappointments. In just being. Might as well have cyanide and die. Dumb kind of spirituality huh.. Reducing oneself to an unfeeling slab of slate.

The other kind would be of controlled involvement. Participation in life but not taking any blow too hard. Kind of like the content shopkeeper who sees street dogs playing in front of his shop, his wife cooking monotonously, unconcerned by adulterated grains and pulses in gunny sacks among which rats run in his shop. A benign smile and you’re set.

Or the hedonistic kind of involvement in life where everything must be enjoyed to the fullest, explored. Attaining peace in life by jumping into life. No holds, No bars.

I don’t know. I have meandered. Spirituality may or may not be connected to this post now. I am just making excuses to not do the AV. You know what, great words are spoken by lazy people.