A H3YYoouu ddoonn’’tt hhaavvee ttoo sshheedd ccllootthheess ttoo llooookk sseexxyy.. II tthhiinnkk tthhaatt mmoorree tthhaann llooookkiinngg,, iitt''ss aabboouutt ffeeeelliinngg sseexxyy

Parineeti Chopra,actor

UP NEXTJaipur, Friday, June 8, 2012eeppaappeerr..ddnnaaiinnddiiaa..ccoomm

IN THE PINK

T ied low on the waist, pinnedhigh on the shoulder, pairedwith a mismatching blouse,

woven in traditional fabric or craftedin sexy chiffon, the six-yard drapecalled the sari is being reborn on theIndian fashion scene. Designers sayexperimentation with draping styles,endorsement by celebrities and anIndo-Western spin to this piece ofclothing are popularizing it amongthe younger lot of women.

Designer Varija Bajaj describes it as“the sexiest and most evergreen out-fit that suits all body types”. “Over thepast few years, designers and Bolly-wood have played a lot with saridrapes, embroideries and colours.However, the sari today, in its mostsexy avatar, is targeting young girls”.And innovations are being made indraping styles and blouses.“Bikini blouses, backless choli styles,stitched saris, lehnga saris, cocktailversions are all targeted at the youthand, of course, the look is irre-sistible.” Designer Debarun Mukher-jee adds, “The sari has always been afavourite silhouette for women andwith the attire emerging as big trend,it is surely one of the sexy avatars agirl can look out for.” Nothing canmake one look more feminine than asari and there’s a maximum possibil-ity to showcase that oomph factor ina sari.This oldest clothing of India is now-a-days catching eyes of both young andold. So, show off your inner gracewith a beautifully woven and elegant-ly draped sari!

Perfect designs for you…The couture store, Chaubundi offers a wide rangeof block printed fabric sarees, salwar suit, dupttaand other ladies ware. The stuffs are in cottonand silk. The store is a perfect destination forblock print lovers. It presents the perfect blend oftraditional and modern style, in its designs.

Fairies are nature angels whotake care of every aspect ofnature like trees, flowers, wa-

ter bodies, birds, animals , grass etc.The fairies live very close to the earthso they understand our mortal every-day concerns. Connecting to thefairies can bring fun , laughter , play,enchantment and wonder back intoyour life while giving you powerful be-ings of light to fulfill your desires. Connecting with the fairies is easierthan you think. They love to connectto adults with childish vision, thosewho still see the world with rose tint-ed glasses. The fairies are known for

their ability to bring magic into livesthey touch, healing emotional trou-bles, financial worries, physical ail-ments and just a dullness of spirit. To mark the celebration of interna-tional fairy day, Divine chords is fa-cilitating a day long workshop “Healwith fairies” at their studio. Thisworkshop is about: 1. adding moremagic and divine synchronicity inyour life 2. learning the art of work-ing with nature 3.adding fun, laugh-ter and creativity in your lives. Comejoin in the celebrations on 24thJune to connect with our fairyfriends.

A truly golden revelationW at Traimit Witthayaram or the Temple of theGolden Buddha is a Buddhist temple in Bangkok,with a Buddha statue, that is four meters high! In theearly 20th century, this statue was abandoned in aremote temple in Thailand. However, in 1957, theEast Asiatic Company took over the premises. And,of the two Buddha statues in the temple, one wastransferred to the Wat Traimit Witthayaram. Whenthat statue was being hoisted up, it slipped and fellto the ground. When it fell, its surface cracked andit was discovered that the clay and lacquer was onlya cover. The status was actually cast with five tonsof gold! The fall shattered all the clay to piecesrevealing the gold. What do you think the fallmeant? Coincidence? Or a lesson in deep Buddhistwisdom?

DIG THIS

Want some respite from heat, but don’t want to visit thetourist-infested spots like Shimla and Manali? Then Binsarmight be the just right option for you! Located at an altitude of2,480m on the Jhandi Dhar hills of Kumaon, the place is knownfor its forests of oak, pine and deodar. With so many varietiesof birds, the place is a heaven for those who love bird watchingand jungle safaris. This Himalayan town is an ideal getaway fora short vacation packed with activities like trekking and cyclingaround the breathtaking landscape. Pantnagar Airport is thenearest airport to Binsar. It is located 152kms away. The airportis well connected with Delhi. Hotels in Binsar range from thebudget hotels to jungle resorts. While the budget hotels cost`2,500 per day, double, the deluxe ones just cost `5,000 perday, double.

—AH Correspondent

WHERE THE HILLSARE ALIVE….

Ithink on all our holidayswe bond as a family. Weexplore new things, eat

together and spend qualitytime together, which we gen-erally don’t get to do as oftenas we’d like to.

The last vacation we tookas a family was in Africa. Itwas the first time we wentthere. We went on safaristhere. It was breathtaking!We saw all the predators andeven saw a lioness attack awildebeest. The sight is stillfresh in my mind! And myrecent Europe tour was justas amazing as Africa. It waseverything we dreamedabout. My younger brotherand I planned the trip, rightfrom the places we’d stay at.Even though the languageswere alien to us, we always

found our way. We were likethe Live Active GPS for ourparents and my siblings. Wewent to Vienna, Rome andParis. Rome is my favouritecity, there is always some-thing new to see there.

Whenever I travel, I makeit a point to taste the localcuisine. Every time we havedone that, we have been sur-prised by the taste. I mean,there are so many things tochoose from, you know! Butas an actor, I always havebeen conscious of eatinghealthy. What I really en-joyed in Italy was the pizza.Unlike our pizzas, the Ital-ian pizzas are all thin crust-ed and easy to eat. Of course,I skipped the cheese in all ofthem. And also the spaghettiwas something I really en-joyed especially the onemade out of whole wheatpasta.

I think every kid dreams

of going to Disneyland andUniversal Studios and I wasblessed to visit both thoseplaces more than once. I re-member the first time wentto Universal Studios andDad made us go on all therides and for that one dayour parents became childrenlike us to make us happier. Itwas truly magical!

For my next vacation, Ithink I am going to go to

Scotland. Being a huge fanof history, I want to visit allthe historical places aroundthe world, but I’d like tostart with Scotland, especial-ly the palaces in the country-side and the pubs. Eventhough I don’t drink, I wantto cherish the ambience of atraditional pub.

— As told to Shakti Salgaokar

For MMaahhaaaakksshhaayyCChhaakkrraabboorrttyy familyholidays are thetime when is truly athome with his folks

Mahaakshay with his brothers on a Europe trip

Healing with FairiesSARI IN A NEW AVTAR!Dalbeer Singh Negi/DNA

After Hrs Correspondentafterhoursjpr@dnaindia.net

The first drink of the after-noon—the healthy greengoddess set the tone for thesession! Pollen Club’s 10th

meeting was going to be allabout cool and healthy recipes for thesummer. Held at Zodiac Coffee Shop,Fortune Select Metropolitan Mall, onThursday, the workshop was attendedby no less than 55 attendees. At a timewhen most of the city is out vacations,that seems like an impressive number.

For the healthy green goddess, in-structor of the afternoon, Chef NisarAhmed of Zodiac said, “It is an effec-tive drink for easy digestion.” He at-

tributed its benefits to its ingredientslike kiwi and pineapple, which acceler-ate enzymatic action. Red grapes,green apple and black salt are other im-portant contents of the mocktail.

This was followed by another mock-tail recipe rich in vitamin C—Goldenmoon energizer. “This drink is veryhelpful in boosting up your immunesystem,” informed the chef. Made ofeasily available ingredients like red ap-ple, fresh orange juice, pineapple andginger, this drink became afavourite with most ladieswho seems extremely excit-ed to go home and try itout. “I will surely make itfor my son tonight,” whis-pered a guest Pooja Agarwal to herfriend seated next to her.

Next in line was a mango paneerolive trio, a seasonal salad with dicedmango, paneer and black olives inlemon pepper corn and corianderdressing. “It’s an extremely easy saladto make,” said the chef during hisdemonstration, adding that it’s a greatrecipe to impress your guests with whodrop in without notice.

Then hecame up theRain-bowSaladrecipe, which caught a lot of attentionwhen it was shown that it’s served in ahome-made vermicelli basket with bal-samic drizzle. “I particularly liked theconcept of making that basket athome,” shared Shalini Singh with ahint of excitement in her voice, while

stressing that she willmake the salad at her nexthouse party.

In the end, came thestar recipe of the day---Watermelon mint and yo-

ghurt cake. Made of hung curd, freshand whipped cream, icing sugar, water-melon flesh, mint puree, butter, biscuitcrumbs and china grass, almost all theladies felt that it was a very easy andinteresting recipe.

“I liked the mix of watermelon andmint with yoghurt,” shared KhushbooJain, while Seema Sethi liked therecipe as the ingredients are easilyavailable.

Say cheers tobeating the heatDDNNAA PPoolllleenn CClluubb came together for a memorable10th session to discovernew and exciting mocktailand salad recipes

what’sCOOKING

Dalbeer Singh Negi/DNA

After Hrs Correspondentafterhoursjpr@dnaindia.net

Beauty products are,perhaps, the mostcompetitive seg-

ment in the consumer prod-ucts industry. But, this chal-lenge doesn’t deter DrBlossom Kochhar, chairper-son of Blossom KochharBeauty Products Pvt. Ltd,(BKBP). “This is whatencourages me to workhard to develop new andimproved products,” saysKochhar who was in the cityon Thursday to promote anew beauty products range.

In fact, she points out,the brighterside of theproverbial coinis the factthere is a lot ofcustomer loy-alty for beauty products.“Once people are hooked toyour product, they stick toit,” she says. After all, if acertain body lotion suitsyour skin and you like it,there are little chances ofyou switching to anotherproduct ever!

In the past one decadewe have seen several inter-national brands like BodyShop, Mac, Estee Lauderetc., make a place in theIndian market. However,homegrown companieshaven’t fared so wellabroad. “It’s because thedomestic market in itself isvery big to cater to!”promptly reasons the beau-ty expert, stressing that itis important for our compa-nies to meet the needs ofthe Indian market, and onlythen they can jump in to abigger arena.

Besides, in order to caterto an international marketyou have to study the nature

of locals’ skin and come upwith area specific products.

So, going global isn’t anoption for a fledgling com-pany. According to Blossom,another reason for this isthat there is a very stringentcontrol on ingredients,labeling and branding inIndia. However, now,Kochhar observes, Indianbrands have begun to exer-cise rigid quality control.“The consumers these daysare extremely aware,” shesays. “They ask all sorts ofquestions and you can’t foolthem.”

Blossom’s latest productrange is Aroma Magic,

which shestresses isonly for pro-f e s s i o n a l s .For personaluse, one can

procure several it from sev-eral salons in the city likeShades, Woman’s Era,Beauty Creations etc.Reasonably priced between`325-600, the rangeincludes cleansers, facepacks, moisturisers, toners,creams, lotions and pureessential oils.

Apart from beinginvolved in developing newproducts, Blossom alsodevelops talents. She runsBlossom Kochhar College ofCreative Arts and Design, inDelhi, Mumbai andChennai, where you canlearn anything from make-up art to haircuts and evenspa techniques.

She also hosts a nationallevel competition for hair-dressers and beauticians.“This year, it is being heldbetween June 7-9 in Delhi,”she informs, adding that thewinner will be sent to Milanto compete for the worldchampionship.

talkingSHOP

Her work ismore thanskin deepIn JJaaiippuurr to launch her range of beautyproducts, DDrr BBlloossssoomm KKoocchhhhaarr talks to AAfftteerr HHrrss about the ‘business of beautification’ in India

Blossom with her daughterSamantha

Da

lbe

er

Sin

gh

Ne

gi/

DN

A