Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts

Monday, January 4, 2016

What is Khan Market in internet famous for?

What is Khan Market in internet famous for?

What is Khan Market in internet famous for?

It was last night that I got to know about khan market trending online. For a moment I turned curious knowing that. 

Few days back I was discussing with a friend how much I love Khan market. It is the place where I spent one week during my business school internship. 
It was the year 2004 when I visited Khan market for the first time. But the experience that I garnered there is prominent in my memories till today.
The colorful flower shops and illuminating lanterns stores at Khan market bewitch my memories.  The beautiful bookshops and eateries are another reckoner to my time spent there.
One of my favorite places to dine at Khan market is the Turtle cafe. It has a simple decor adorned with all things turtle. Even the wreath at their entrance was of cheerful miniature turtle decorations. 
Apart from the eateries, I also love the independent stores at Khan market. Back then I recall visiting a small store selling handmade organic cosmetics. Visiting a similar store today will not amaze me to the levels that that store did a decade back.
Since I was a student then, so could not indulge in shopping. Moreover, the fact that the Khan market is one of the popular upscale market places of our country scared me. 
But then over these years I could never find an opportunity to visit the same place again. Though for a fact I did visit Khan market twice after my initial visit. But as the luck would have it, both the visits were on business purposes.
I did lunch at the Turtle cafe, but discussed a business project. I did visit the boutique shops at Khan market. But that was with the purpose of taking out a client for a shopping excursion. I could never visit Khan market again on a leisure trip.
So watching the Khanmarketonline trend last night made me super excited. But little did I know that my excitement will be short lived. 
As everyone knows by now that it was another gimmick by another Bollywood superstar. 
At present there is a single page domain to their name. I am not sure if it is an official one by them. I wish that the beautiful Khanmarket comes online with an e-commerce model. Much like the way branded chains of malls have. 
I do not care if they get the domain Khanmarketonline. I know for sure that the contents of their domain will be far more valuable than their domain. The theory is much like content writing. The actual content scores far better than the domain. I hope to see that happen with my dearest places to shop as well. 
Till that happens I find contentment in dreaming about the place and planning a trip as well.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

JLF - Day III

"Raavi Paar" - my favourite of all I attended

I look like a kaam wali bai standing next to her

wow wow wow

our Oprah
The third day at JLF was supposedly going to be a hectic one, and it indeed turned out to be one. Well, it had to be since Oprah was coming. I woke up early and finished my breakfast quick to be at the Diggi palace  to attend the first session at the Bank of America Mughal tent. It was the one by Shashi Tharoor. He was moderating a panel on the "Superpowers of the 21st century". Though it was sounding more like a discussion on the falling of superpowers. I was not concentrating much on the session, as my senses were more attached to running quick to grab a place to watch Oprah. This was the almost first session at 10 am that day. Almost first because there was one at 9:40 am, and I fear if any one from the general public went to attend that one. Any ways, I left the Tharoor session after attending it for half an hour to sneak into the Tata Steel Front Lawns. I was not amazed to see the entire lawn filled with people, people and only people. Suman Yadav was singing some religious song, I am sure she too must have been surprised to see so many people alighted to watch her recital on Kabir. If she knew the crowd had gathered to attend to the Oprah session after hers, then she really must have been sad that day.

I could manage a place to stand at the side end. I kept standing for about 45 minutes and then Oprah arrived in a golden coloured salwar kameez, though the salwar seemed more like some pedal pushers. It was interesting to see so many people huddled up to see just one person. The side tramps, the balconies, the roof tops, no place was left vacant. In fact one of the big sized placards was about to fall since it could not resist the force from the people standing all around it. I was not able to move even a bit from where I was standing in the crowd. I could barley lift my hands to take a picture, I had to request a young girl standing next to me to take one for me. Thought the pictures came out hazy and unclear from my digital camera, I still feel privileged to have captured the pictures in my memory as well as in my camera. Miss Barkha Dutt interviewing her looked so excited while in conversation with Ms. Oprah Winfrey. She seemed to be her biggest fan of all. If someone like Barkha Dutt was all begging up for a job with Oprah, you know the magnitude of personality what Oprah is. Rather the people in the crowd that were crying while listening to her was another proof to it. The lady did not say anything in a sad tone, though the things that she said were indeed sad, like the molestation as a minor, being born poor, suffering discrimination, and of course being single. I think the question on being single that Ms. Dutt asked was more a personal one, rather personal more to Ms. Dutt herself. What Oprah replied to it was again something that touched me. She admitted that appreciating a woman for her strength, good work and good will gestures is all fine, but when it comes to being married to the same woman, is altogether a different issue. I realised that I am lucky in life. To get a man by your side who not only loves you, but also lets you be you is a big blessing in life. I was also amused to find Oprah saying so much of stuff that I also keep talking about, in exactly the same words. Like she said that being in India' s traffic feels like being a video game character. I too said the same thing when I was experiencing travelling within Kerala villages in the local buses there. Also, she happens to be a great fan of the book Shantaram, and she shared that whenever she reads a good book like that, she wishes that the book never ends, and she feels sad when it really does. I said the same thing to my husband just a week back before I heard the same from Oprah's mouth.

I doubt if anyone willingly went to attend any other session going on during the time Oprah was happening. If I had been amongst the unlucky ones to miss out on the Oprah sessions, I would have then gone for the Fatima Bhutto's at my favourite Bank of America Mughal Tent. I had schemed to watch Ms. Fatima in the upcoming session later on the same day at 2:30. So, then I found a comfortable place to sit at the Mughal tent, cause I eagerly was looking forward to the session "Raavi Paar: Readings from Punjab". I was shrivelling with enthusiasm. I am so fond of anyone with a good sense of humor and Punjabi flowing in-between. I was updated during the session that what Mr. Hanif was reciting poems in the Shahmukhi dialect of Punjabi. It was such an entertaining and engrossing session. I ended falling in more and more love with Sir Gulzar and the hunk Mr. Hanif. I could have managed meeting Mr. Hanif after the session, but on realising that my heart beat was at an alarming tempo, I decided not to. Please note it was for the same reason that I deliberately ignored him and went pass by him on the Day I of the JLF. Wow, I just had an upgraded self-control.

I really had planned everything well in advance of this festival. Therefore, I had packed Aliva biscuits, a small tetra pack of juice, few candies and an orange in my bag to be suitable during the times of non availability of food. After the Raavi Paar session, I had to decide upon attending either the session on Twitterati or the one where I could hear Ms. Bhutto. The one by the latter was on Wars, Revolutions and the Writers on exile at the RP- Sanjiv Goenka Group Baithak. So, I ditched that one for the "Survival Strategies in the time of the Twitterati". So I was comfortable at my seat since I did not had to leave it, and another set of speakers would have come to satiate my aliment for the knowledge and wisdom. But there was a catch. There was an hour of book launch by a woman, which was to be done by none other than Mr. Bhagat, yes, our Mr. Chetan Bhagat. I just can go on and on and on with my reasons for hatred to him, but I will spare that to some other blog post. Luckily, I had to jhelo that pseudo person for only half an hour, since another writer's book launch happened at the last hour at the same venue, causing Mr. Bhagat and his college senior's wife (the lady with her book launch) to leave the stage. Ahhh I was so relaxed. But then it was the time to face the man again in a panel with Mr. Tharoor and Mr. Suhel Seth in discussion on social media revolution and it's relevance in a writer's life. Luckily I was seated at such a place where I could hardly watch the speaker whom I detest, so I was all fine with just hearing him. But then hearing him is the biggest trouble. That man speaks anything, anything under the Sun that could make him more popular, or that could earn him a little more money, or that could get him to contest through the BJP. Therefore, without doubt, I termed him as the Chikni Chameli of writing since that day. Though the session had good things to look forward to, such as the humble and wisdom filled experiences from Mr. Tharoor. It was so nice to know that the man graciously accepted all his follies that happened on twitter, and since then he has revved up his tweets to deliver more serious and meaningful messages. I wont comment on the third speaker of the session, Mr. Seth since I am yet to form an opinion on him. I have only seen him act and throwing his ideas on a public forum, I still need to read anything that he writes to form a firm opinion on him. I was waiting for the session to end, so that I could run up to the book signing arena to catch Mr. Tharoor to get an autograph or if luck were to side me, perhaps a picture too. I guess I was the first one in the queue that formed after an empty table, such was the magnitude of the followers for him. 5 minutes passed, and he just did not arrive, I was getting anxious what if he does not come!!! Just then someone appeared before me who made me forget all about Mr. Tharoor, it was none other than Ms. Bhutto. Oh my God she was so pretty, I requested one kid to click a picture of mine with her. That kid hurriedly took out picture and I was so happy. All the while attending the Twiterrati session I was regretting about failing to attend Ms. Bhutto's session twice, but a mere click with her made me forget all my resentments. After that I was examining my picture with her and also waiting for Mr. Tharoor to come at the signing bay, since I thought I would be the first one to meet him. If it had not been for an angle, I surely must have missed meeting Mr. Tharoor that day. A young kid asked me if I knew where Mr. Tharoor would be, I took full use of the opportunity and we both started on to look for the correct queue to find him. Luckily, we found the queue. I was already carrying Mr. Tharoor's book, so I saved money from buying it from the festival's book shop. The moment my moment with the man arrived, I was on cloud 9. I told him that I met him a year back at the Delhi airport, but could not manage a picture then, so he got my cue and readily posed for a picture. I was so thrilled, just then when I was about to leave the queue, the kiddie who accompanied me asked me if I could click his picture as well. I readily accepted his request and then we both exchanged our facebook ids which made me promptly share his picture after i returned home from the JLF. Well, this is indeed the times of social revolution....
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Monday, January 30, 2012

JLF - Day II

Well the second day at JLF seems inappropriate as a title for this post. Because I ditched the JLF for the Jaipur city that day, i.e. 21st of January. Since I had already scanned the curriculum of the festival one week in advance of the commencement of the fest, so I knew that there was not much that I would miss on the day. Though there were few sessions with speakers whom I would have loved to attend. The list included Mr. Prasoon Joshi, Ben Okri, Girish Karnad, Tarun Tejpal and Gurcharan Das. Since I was done with Mr. Tejpal a day back and Mr. Das almost a year back, I was prepared to not to hear them again. Mr. Joshi and Mr. Okri had more sessions in the days to come, so I missed them too. I knew visiting the places in Jaipur would not take me much time, and I could be back in time to either attend the session by Mr. Karnad or the one on "Publishing". I thought of making a decision on that when the time comes, ie. 5:15 pm. So, I left all my JLF worries and headed straight to the M. I. road after my breakfast to catch a vehicle to reach the Jantar Mantar. I have always been amused with the place. I have visited Jaipur many a times during my school days and also visited Jaipur with my friends from the U. K 5 years back, but I could never really bring myself to see the Jantar Mantar. I really do not know why. It seems to me that I got a strange connection with the place. So, this time I had decided in advance to visit the place. But before the Jantar Mantar, I decided to visit the Anokhi museum of textile; simply because it is situated way ahead of it. It would have been wiser to visit the distant place and then come back to visit the one that is nearer to where I was staying. So, with much struggle I finally reached the Anokhi Museum of Textile and Hand-Printing. Struggle because very few people in the city know where it is. It is ironic that every ones knows where can one find a  Anokhi store in the city, but no one knows about the place where all the inventory sold in each Anokhi store in each part of the World is produced. It was funny when one auto rickshawalla suggested to his colleagues that I might be looking for the hip-hop Anokhi cafe, since I look like the visitors to that place. Thankfully to the Internet enabled smart phone of mine, I could find the contact number of the place and then the administrator of the museum directed the rickshawwalla to the place. I simply loved the place. But the same story saddened me. I was disappointed to see that the craftsmen are again paid peanuts for the job that brings so much capital to the people who sell the finished goods made out of the intricate labor of theirs. I did ask about it to the administartionj of the museum, but their sly reply was "we at least give them continuous work." Any ways I was lucky to receive a fresh block from one of the craftsmen, he made a flower punch block for me in 5 minutes as a gift.

From the museum I headed to Jantar Mantar, I still could not get the complexity of the place and the monuments built in there. Most of the apparatus there seemed close to a bar to me, and I could only imagine a party there. I clicked few pictures there and started walking to find a good place to have lunch. I landed up at a forex exchange shop and ended up getting a print out of my railway ticket for free. At times carrying a pretty face does help. LOL

From there I landed up at a "Mojri" selling shop. I ended up buying a pair of mojris for my husband a 3 pair of harem pants for myself. The shop owner suggested a nearby food joint for lunch. It was at a walking distance, so I kept walking and reached the place in 10 minutes. I had a lovely "vegetarian meal" of missi rotis and "gatte ki sabji". Imagine me enjoying a vegetarian meal outside, cause I am a kind of person who does not waste money in eating vegetables that are cooked outside my home.

After a hearty meal I took a rickshaw back to the hotel. I must have relaxed a bit in the room, after which I walked to the festival venue and attended the session on publishing. When I was walking to the venue, I had made up my mind to skip Girish Karnad session for the one on publishing. It was again not that great. It did not add anything new to what I already know about the industry. Though I felt bad that so many people are struggling to find publishers, and here I already have a publisher trying to get me finish my book and I do not even respond to him. The most interesting was to see that a theatre actress shouted amongst the audience saying that though she not only writes but also performs on her poems, but still she does not find any takers from the publishing industry for herself. 

a block printer

the block crafter

me along with my zodiac figure

awesome place for good veggie food

yumm milk
After the session, I bought a folder which was sold as a merchandise of the fest. I bought it as a souvenir.   Just as I had done the previous day, I again missed the music session. Instead I headed towards the bus stop to catch a bus to Malviya Nagar.  The buses were indeed a nuisance. They looked so nice from outside, but they never stop, even at the bus stops. Thankfully the cops in Jaipur are very helpful, they suggested me to hail at them. I did and was finally on board a bus, which I was not sure if was taking me to my destination. It was not, so I got down at a stop near to where I had to go. From there I got another bus, but I had the amusing experience of my life time in it. I was surprised to notice that in both the buses the conductor occupies the last seat, and expects every one entering the bus to go to him and collect the ticket personally.  The bus driver was furious at me cause I was wanting to get down from the front door, and he had issues opening the door for one person. It was impossible for me to get down from the rear door, considering some dude tried putting his hand in my bag. I was not sure whether he wanted to get hold of a part of my thighs or my wallet. For both of his searches, I told him to try next time with more skill. He gave way for me to get down and looked embarrassed. It must have been 8: 45 pm when I reached my destination, Shoppers Stop after the sad bus rides, and the crossing of railway track; but all my efforts went in vain. The big looking mall shuts down at 8: 30 pm during winters. I got so frustrated and started walking back to catch another public vehicle to reach the hotel back. On the way back while walking I saw Saras dairy's plant. I stopped by it to have fresh hot jalebis. But the local baddies did not let me. 7 cars passed by and the men inside started showing their leching behaviorism. Something to ponder upon is that lechism is not restricted to age, all sorts of men, with all colours of hair and some without hair were offering rides to wherever I wished to. I was wondering if this hospitality is extended to older women and men too?? Also if they could drop me to London in their cars?? If yes, then what would the entire trip cost?? lol I then obviously chucked the jalebis and got into the first auto rickshaw that came my way. I reached my familiar "Venus Bakery" at M. I. road, and headed straight to a nearby food joint to it to have a nice tumbler of thick warm milk. I was satiated and real tired after the entire activities. I simply walked to my hotel room, started VH1 and went into a slumber. ZZZZZZ
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