Store Feature - My Artitude

One bright and sunny day I called up Anita Bora who in addition to doing a whole lot of interesting things, markets her sister's pottery through her brand/store My Artitude. A quick chat and a phone call and a day later I was off to meet Anita and see the latest collection at My Artitude. While the store is generally open from Noon to 7 pm, it is recommended to take an appointment before you go to make sure Anita is around in town and not on one of her trips around the world! She is on one right now :)

The store is located in Defence Colony, Indiranagar, behind Max Mueller Bhavan. It is easy to find, just keep the house number in mind. You will need to find street parking which is ok on weekday mornings. You walk up a winding stair case and enter a room. And for all the pottery and ceramic lovers the sight is akin to paradise! And let me just add while you are here, you can also shop for some jewellery from MoodSwings Jewelry by Benaazir. They share the space. Double motivation to shop!!  What else can one ask for??

The pottery is crafted by Ranjita Bora, Anita's sister. Ranjita works out of Pondicherry. The sisters do travel around the country taking part in exhibitions that they like. You can catch up on their Facebook page for the latest info - facebook.com/myartitudeindia. Anita also curates works of other potters to add more variety to the collection. New items are added pretty often. You can keep track of that by following their FB page 

I picked up some lovely ceramic holders. This is how I use one of them - to hold my earrings and my make up accessories. Makes it super easy to hold those long earrings and keep them detangled.

For your kitchen there are onion/garlic storage jars, cups and saucers, mugs, bowls, plates, appetizer servers. They come in different shapes and sizes, beautiful patterns and are multipurpose.

There are some very attractive ceramic door or drawer knobs, these oh-so-cute owl tea lights holders (Know of anyone who loves anything owls? Perfect gift for them!) and jars and holders in lots of shapes and sizes.

There are so many other things. You have to go and see for yourself. She has these tea light and perfumed oil burners in some gorgeous colours. I LOVE that green!

Be warned - since these products are not mass produced, getting exactly same products as in these pictures might not be possible. But I am sure you will get other lovely pieces :)
The prices are reasonable and are in a wide range. The items can be used functionally across the house or for gifting (umm hmm for that next house warming party? Or even to a friend who loves pottery).

Happy Shopping!!

100 ft - Boutique. Bar. Restaurant.

My mom is visiting us. She offered to baby sit N while we went out for lunch one Sunday. I wanted to go to 100 ft since quite some time. S and I had been there P before marriage. I wanted to revisit the place to re-live those memories. And the place is beautiful as ever. In fact it has become better. I loved the ambiance, food and the boutique.
100 ft is bang on the 100 ft road in Indiranagar. So no complicated directions, going round and round or getting lost. They have valet service for parking so saves you the hassle of finding parking space.



They have 3 areas for dining - the open courtyard on the ground floor, an indoor dining area surrounded by the boutique and the covered terrace on the 1st floor.

The gound floor dining area has a mini lotus pond with splashes of teal blue thrown in. Love this colour. Notice the chairs below. There is a bar on the ground floor.

The dining area in the boutique.

The lovely shaded terrace seating. If you want this location on a weekend, making reservations is a good idea.

The boutique had unique, funky, eclectic, kitsch kind of stuff. Eye candy kinds too.

Home decor stuff by Mukul Goyal like the wine bottle rack above. I like his creative twist on regular home decor things.

Vintage hindi film posters.

Coffee mugs and glassware. And yes, that's me in my peep toes. I love love love peep toes - in heels, flats, any form.

Cookie tins from Chumbak

More from Mukul Goyal

Funky umbrella anyone?

Notice the antique lamp shaped candle stands?

Chai ketli painted with hindi movie names

And shoes, so many of 'em!

The boutique is a shopper and collector's paradise. I could spend hours there. Sigh!

The restaurant was great. There was a bar in the terrace restaurant too. Loved the chef's specials of the day. The food is true to the cuisine - Mediterranean.

Service was quick and efficient - the servers did not hover around irritatingly and were around just when you needed them. In fact when I asked for my drink to be changed they did it quickly and with a smile.

This is a place I would definitely recommend if you love your pastas and wine. Oh did I mention that they have a good collection of wines.

Edited to add - The place welcomes kids. But IMO, if you have active adventurous brats, like mine, who like to see, touch and explore things, it is better to leave them at home and enjoy your lunch/dinner in peace.

Linking in to Patty's Weekly Party and Tanya's Tea-Time Thursday. Have a great week ahead!

Modern Family

I absolutely love love love it!! And am excited that Season 1 has started again on Star World Mon to Fri 8:30 pm.

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I totally dig the whole dysfunctional family scene. It is the one comedy series after Friends that does make me laugh and really like all the characters.
Phil and Claire (in the center in pic above) - They are so made for each other in their unique funny way. I actually can relate to Claire a lot - a li'l bit of the OCD, attention to details that don't really matter to anyone else, always looking for something to do or fix or take care of, brushing her emotions under the carpet most of the times. And Phil is the sweetest dumbest (in a nice way) husband. He is chilled out compared to the frantic Claire! His attempts at being the "cool dad "always amuse me. The kids Haley, Alex and Luke are super cute. Love Luke for the curious yet moronic kid he is!
Jay and Gloria (left in the pic above) are not our conventional married couple but they are the comical delight of the show. The over-the-hill jokes and Gloria's Colombian accent keep me hooked. And Manny is the little young "man" of the house. Like his straight faced humour.
Mitchel and Cameron (right in the pic above) play the gay couple with their adopted baby girl Lillian aka Lily. Cameron is quite the drama queen. His sweet little wisecracks at Mitchel and his family are funny.
How are they all tied together? Claire and Mitchel are siblings with Jay as their dad.
Happy Watching! I am going to record it every night so that I can watch it uninterrupted while N is at school.

Yay! I won a book!

Kiran over at thirtysixandcounting has a contest and a book to giveaway!! Check it out here.
She is giving away the book "Chanakya's Chant" by Ashwin Sanghi. Its his 2nd book after The Rozabal Line. Read the review on her blog.
All you have to do is send in your favourite Chanakya quotes and the ones that she likes will win a copy of the book. So hurry guys, there is only a total of 10 copies to be given away!

I have already won my copy. Yay!!

Here are my top 2 Chanakya quotes -
1) “There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth.” – One might say no this ain’t true for all my friends but look at it this way – we like being with our best/good friends 'coz they make us happy and feel good about ourselves! The feel-good factor is a self interest too.
2) "Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.” – I for one, need to practise this before I put my hands into anything new.

I am excited and eagerly awaiting my copy :)
Thanks Kiran!

A perfect example of bad service - Oasis Mall Koramangala

Weekend was here... Saturday evening .... what could be more ideal than to spend some time at a local mall and eat out too! (I know there are better ways, but blame it on a brain freeze and lack of ideas).
We (the husband, wife, baby and grandma) decided to visit Oasis mall on the Inner ring road (near Sony World Junction in Koramangala) which houses Lifestyle, SPAR, Max and some other stores.
The journey started with the torture of weaving through Bangalore's narrow roads and haphazard traffic combined with the weekend evening madness. After a lot of traffic lights, honks and speed breakers we reached close to the mall and the woes of a weekend-mall-goer began -

1. There were autos and cars parked on the left side of the road  just before the entry to the mall (it is supposed to be a no parking zone). As a result all the vehicles that wanted to enter the mall had to disrupt traffic and butt in right to overtake these stationary autos and cars. There was no traffic cop or mall security to clear up the unmoving traffic.

2. Then began the looonnng queue to park. If you have been to this mall you will know that the transit from one level to the other is difficult, badly planned (who was the architect here?) and very irritating (because you are made to go up around 5 to 6 levels and wait on 45 degree ramps). We saw quite a few drivers backing up at every turn and then driving up the curves.

3. As if the upward journey wasn't enough once we reached the top we were made to wait till a parking spot became available which was about 10 minutes. The guy in front of us had been waiting for 10 minutes already. There were a row of cars behind us including some standing on the awkwardly angled ramp. There was no coordination between the parking attendant on the top floor and his counterparts on the other floors. So the staff on the ground floor had no clue that the terrace parking space had run out and they kept on sending cars to the top floor.

4. Enter the mall and search for a restroom - they are tucked away into one stinking corner. Dirty, smelly, wet and leaking is how they can be described best. There was not even an effort being made made to clean them. Hygiene was at its worst!

5. The way out of the mall isn't great either. Cars were backed up till the 4th floor and it took 30 minutes to reach the ticket collection point on the ground floor. What we thought was a delay because of cars merging with traffic on the main road was a result of inefficient service at the ticket collection booth. The guy was taking his own sweet time - least bothered about the cars backed up till the top floor. Had they been more sensitive and organised they would have employed 2 to 3 people to speed up the ticket collection process. This was sheer callousness on their part.

It is hard to believe that this is one of the newest malls in the city and it lacks space management and good services. This experience has definitely taken this mall off our weekend-to-go places.

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UPDATE - I sent this article to the Bangalore Mirror and they published an edited version of this on 9th July as a feedback in the "Letters to the Editor" section. Felt good about voicing my opinion and seeing it in print!

Book Review: No No Yes Yes

No No Yes Yes is a board book with those thick cardboard like pages that the little ones cannot tear. That is a very important criteria for me - since N is a very active toddler who out of curiosity grabs the pages of a book a little forcefully at times. He is getting better with time :)

The book has a few daily activities sorted into what is OK to do (Yes Yes) and what is not (No No). A little baby in his diaper shows all the actions. N is able to relate to the baby so its even more fun! 

Everyday things like eating food, colouring with crayons, playing with other kids, reading books, playing with animals, bath time, going poo poo and going out with mommy daddy are represented in the book. On the left side is shown how not to do it (say, no crayons on the wall) and on the right side is the correct way (crayons on the paper). Some of the illustrations are funny yet effective.

You might find some of the activities not relevant to your lifestyle - say, you don't have cats or dogs at home; you can skip those pages and read them later when the kids are more aware.

For toddlers (ages 1 to 2) one or two big pictures and a few words are ideal as beginner books. No No Yes Yes fits this criteria perfectly. The pictures are big and clear. The book was hand-lettered by the author. Even S who isn't a book reader (at all!) loves reading this one out to N.

I have 3 other books from the same author - Quiet Loud, Big Little, Yummy Yucky which follow a similar pattern as No No Yes Yes. N enjoys reading all of them - he can read them a million times!

Name of the book: No No Yes Yes
Author: Leslie Patricelli
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Recommended for ages: 1 to 3