Vedasri Siddamsetty

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Living it up .

  • Petroscentophilia and petrochemicals

    Ive always loved the smell of petrol, pulling into a petrol bunk, its another matter the price of the petrol and the heart burn that it involves burning this fuel for the environment and for my lungs, that is not inclined to the good sense in me. But recently at IndiaWood 2026, specifically at the mattress expo I was made painfully aware of the presence of petro-derived products in my sofa foam, mattress and worse in my pillows too, obviously even after tossing all the polyester in my wardrobe still kept me in the petro loop!

    When I asked Gemini what is the love of the smell of petrol called it said: You likely enjoy the smell of gasoline because its high aromatic hydrocarbon content—specifically benzene—triggers a, sweet scent that activates your brain’s reward pathway, causing a minor, temporary sense of euphoria. It is also linked to nostalgia, evoking childhood memories, or a physiological response to inhaled hydrocarbons.

    As the west bombards the east for political reasons, the mines of petroleum that span across the region are going to create ripples across the globe, not to mention the devastation that war brings. World leaders scramble some to condemn and some to laude the attack as a way of the good winning over the evil. But the decimation of one does not mean there will not be the rise of the other. But as the repressive policies of nations are challenged and the fight is for peace, the nature of the oxymoron remains unchallenged. The love of the scent of petrol or the flash of the polyester clothes or the softness of the petro foam is no excuse for the use of fuel that only burns to damage not just itself but in the very environment it is a part of.

  • Spaces of wonder

    What do you achieve by travelling my father asked me last week, a question he supposedly poses to everyone who loves to travel, has to travel or rather wants to travel. I wanted to think for a second but instead I instinctively replied for the wonder that travel entails, quickly adding that it was also the reason I dont enjoy travelling to the same place twice. The joy of the new, of the novel, the novelty of how a place is, the myriad of ways people tend to live, work, play or simply be, the wonder that is in experiencing places that are untouched, the wonder of nature and the wonder of beauty, of course we can experience a sense of wonder in our day to day also too, being wondrous about the beauty in everyday life, the simple sunrise everyday is a thing of wonder, or as the Nuns in my school, my Principal would boom that waking up every single day is a miracle, a thing of wonder. After each day is a day of new wonder.

    When I travel the novelty of the situation, the same person in a different place or the feeling of new, the taking in of different ways of being, beauty anew is something of wonder. And then I realised that when I come back home, I strive to bring that same sense of wonder into everything I do. Especially the spaces I create. Looking at the drawing board today at a very incredulous project I am wondering at what would instill in this space a sense of wonder, pun intended! The dictionary meaning of wonder is a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar; a person or thing regarded as very good, remarkable, or effective; desire to know something; feel curious or even doubt! But it is the feeling of amazement and admiration we look out for. That said there are places we end up travelling to that makes one wonder with doubt, and then comes the gratitude for how much better we have it. In life it is all relative, Einstein with his theory of relativity established just that. So the thing is, the sense of wonder is why we chase new experiences, which could even be something new in the house, new clothes, new things, but what does it take to make the space that we live or work in steep with wonder, to keep us vibrant and alive.

    The spaces we inhabit shape us more than we realise, the design of our homes, our workplaces, recreational spaces dictate how much we walk, the amount of sunlight we bask in or the energy that we tend to absorb from our surroundings making design of our built spaces extremely crucial. We may or may not follow the tenets of Vaastu calling it dogma, but logic is infallible and what we definitely could do well to entertain. Needless to say then, form follows function, finance, feeling, frequency and wonder!

  • Peer Pressure on my knee!

    Its strange that this week there were so many lessons but the major one was to not land on my knee, and for that its better had I been a mermaid and lived in water, for then the landing wouldn’t have mattered one bit. And the next lesson was seriously how to say no. They say we lose muscle mass as we age and now am petrified that its the no muscle that is losing strength. When they say build muscle looks like the neck rotator muscle needs building in my case that conveys a firm, yet hopefully polite (considering my RBF) no! But then the sheer need to prove myself or rather the ever optimistic belief that five years hence the anterior cruciate ligament would have healed, were two really dangerous premises that I ended up operating on, so much that it raised the question of me being operated on! A slippery slope for sure. So one is better off being a realist than an optimist in this world. The body has most cells that regenerate and heal and yet it has some that apparently don’t, but there is no harm in hoping and praying for a miracle. So while I light my diyas and find my Gods, am deciding that instead of pounding muscle in the gym, it is time to build completely my other muscles namely the tongue, the stomach, the neck and alongside building the quadraceps and the hamstrings wont be a gain, pun intended.

    The joy of listening to my National level athlete flex his sports achievements and throw in a sneer about others not playing a sport, pulled out the competitive streak in me, possibly also a memory loss conveniently forgetting the doctors advise to not play high impact sport, well who would’ve thought Badminton is a high impact sport and also well the brain is firmly an organ and not a muscle, so nothing to build there, made me jump onto the court take a serve and in the lure of scoring a point jump to the nets. Alas, the pain, the twist, the swelling thereafter and the completely painful process all the same made be guilt trip myself for four days before summoning the Pollyanna in me, like seeing the sun after a storm. One surgeon pronounced surgery much to my chagrin, and while swearing off cardio for the rest of my life secretly praying, pleading to God that I wont fall to peer pressure in the future, even if the peer is the partner in question. So much so I pulled on my sweatshirt from the School of Planning and Architecture days, the years of first being an adult, the years where peer pressure did not so much as touch me, and hoping that the fabric memory lays its bit on me, days when I firmly said no, with not a care in the world, and didnt fall to peer pressure no matter the pascals or rascals. So if you meet me next and I say no, please, pretty please respect it, and you’d be doing me a huge favour in helping build a muscle that will take me over the next 62 years of my life, ofc assuming I’ll hit the century.

    But then when I write this I realise, I was always immune to peer pressure but not sneer pressure. And thats how I put peer oops sneer pressure on my knee. God help me!!

    P.S. Inspite of the public sneer I was polite enough to notify in private that synapse is actually a word, and thereby flexed my kindness muscle proving not all muscle needs building, some just magically appear in good faith!

  • Kochi Biennale 2025

    Kochi has attracted various sailors in the past the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. Along with the rulers of erstwhile Kerala These foreigners also left their prints in the state. Muziris, which was a mythical ancient city now under the water was the centre of this trading port, also, a hub where even juice came to sell their wares. Today, very many centuries later, Kochi pays ode to this mythical city of Muziris, while attaching the name to its own for the purpose of the largest art Biennale that is held in India. Biennales are important centres of art as artists are invited to display the collection that they are working on or having in their mind, but a collection that is not ready for sale. And this art whether, performance, visual or aural is put up for sure by a curator of the event aligned with the theme of the year. The Biennale that runs between the months of December to the following March, sets its location alive, abuzz with a plethora of activities and intellectuals. and when one arrives at this venue overlapping with the Christmas season, it is literally a riot. Cause after all Kochi fondly called Cochin is the Christmas capital of India. And during this season, all roads lead to Cochin or very specifically to Fort Kochi!

    The city that is also a bunch of islands together has the venues of the Kochi Biennale sprung across three different islands. Actually, it is two islands and one mainland that is Ernakulam. The islands are connected by ferries, bridges and more recently the swanky water metro. And as one traipses across the art venues of the Biennale one is treated to the architecture of the land that was built over three centuries ago. Even the more recent buildings choose to vibe with the tribe of Fort Kochi! Mainland Ernakulam is a different story altogether, much like any other Indian city, a smaller one though compared to the bustling metropolises of our time. Dotted with restaurants, hotels, villas and museums the urban scape of Fort Kochi seems to be paused in time, the cobblestone sidewalks and the stone slab roads tell a story on their own of a time of the past. With restaurants doling out cuisines of the world, the Kerala cuisines are just about punctuations in the wide array of offerings. A highly Instagrammable city, the Biennale and its host are somewhere we can find dozens of influencers making a beeline for.

    While I thoroughly enjoyed the architecture of Kochi, the perfect amalgamation of Dutch, Portuguese and British architecture styles has lent it a unique style, one that is its own and one that is charming to say the least. The deep sloped roofs and the thick white walls are shelter nonetheless yet so soft and pleasing to the eye amidst the blue December skies and the green foliage as a frame. The simple verandahs and ceiling fans the best hope for the tropical heat, enough to provide comfort in the tropics, truly an ingenious stroke of design in the equatorial zones. The Kochi Biennale is an expo for contemporary art, and is important in the sense that it is in Biennales that artists truly explore the creation of art, without the perils of cost and efficacies, that way keeping the sense of wonder intact. Will the art sell is not the question, how does the art make one feel is the matter in question. Beautifully arranged in one of India’s most lovable cities, the Biennale has a grand list of sponsors including the Tata Trusts, Jindals, Nadars, and many more, the prominent venues of the city turns host too, like the Cochin Club, the Durbar Hall, Anand Warehouse and even the Island Warehouse in Willingdon, not to forget the art galleries in the city too. While the Biennale is not only about visual art, it encompasses all forms of art including Performance, spatial sometimes using the subject themselves to be a part of the scheme. Keenly retrofitting several derelict structures for the purpose like the Pepper House, the city and the volunteers at the Biennale work tirelessly to make this a seamless affair.

    A myriad of art is what defined this Kochi-Muziris Biennale of 2025. While tapestries ruled the roost with work of Sayan Chandra and Ms Correa in the difference of the bright coloured and the timeless black and white respectively, the large-scale installation of the 108 monks chanting on a large visual scale was stunning to watch and imbibe, as the chants washed over each one, similar gripping the five senses is the installation of the engraved wood and a terracotta fountain with salt in the room to bring us back to the present. The setup included a sitout sheltered by woven bamboo and insitu seating that allows one to sit back in a perfectly anthropometrically aligned back-rest to look out into the vast Arabian sea and get a whiff of the salty air, the sea breeze and the visually stunning ships leave the harbour, the ship blowing itst horn is another delight to the senses, with the sense of hearing not causing one to jump out of their skins as all horns tend to do but to enjoy the feel of the ocean. Some art terrifies, some art uplifts, some art dazzles and other art glorifies, but most importantly all art is a love affair, making one feel more and think a little different. While the numbers are left to the wind, the explorations on display are plenty, curating them an even finer effort. While the artist’s guild presented their work with dishevelled toys lying merry and the Art By Children volunteered goaded us to paint with clay, well yes with the right consistency, it is possible and truly delightful, art can be made with anything. But that is truly not the point, the importance of a Biennale is if it provided you a sense of wonder, and in that the Kochi-Muziris 2025 wins.

  • Cloud Dancer

    As a child when I made art, I loved the idea of pastels and lightly pressured work, where the white of the ivory page became a medium as I sketched or painted lightly with colour that would be pasteled as ever with the white coming through. The softness that white brings to every colour ridiculously softens the aura of any painting, art or craft and with that was the love for Monet, then Manet and slowly every other artist, including Serov’s “The Girl with the Peaches”, all fashioned with a delicious dose of white, not the stark Apple kind, yet the soft vanilla kind in warm light. And with Pantone declaring a certain warm shade of white as the colour of the year I couldn’t be happier, because after the mocha brown, it is refreshing to have warm white dominate the merchandise of the design world next year, including the furniture fairs around the world, meaning we may just have a lot of white dominate our lives in the coming year. While everyone has a favourite colour, it is lovely to have a year of white. A colour when fractured gives rise to all the colours in the world, a decided rainbow certainly. What a witty name to name a shade of white, a lot inspired by the clouds that dance over our head in broad daylight. For what its worth, in fashion, I think everyone looks good in a warm white.

    Yes, and cloud dancer has me dancing for sure!

  • Peace over anything

    In this age of hustle and conditioning the ones who finally win are those who choose peace. Yes, peace over purpose, peace over policing, peace over points, for if one is peaceful, one is relaxed and relaxing is key to every enjoyment of the moment. Frenzy, frantic, fierce are all great provided they are only but punctuations in an otherwise calm and peaceful canvas of life. Being peaceful comes real easy to a few people and being peaceful is really hard for some, who cant sit still, but even movement can be done with peace, a sure shot ingredient of which is a word that has been showing up really often in my world which is that of S-L-O-W, well traffic signs also give us this word of wisdom, lest we forget. Doing things slowly meant we cant do as much, but then do we want to do much? Isnt less always more, a fact that we have established a lot earlier in the architecture circles, but even now in the might of life. But then doing this slowly does not always mean not getting anything done. Even in Zootopia, the lovely, lovely movie the sloth does all his stuff all in his good time! Fabulous movie by the way I say this as I wait to watch the second part.

    This morning on my morning walk, my friend exclaimed how peace is the secret to youth, to sense, to an aura of calm, and choosing peace isnt always easy as it always comes with the pre-conditon of letting go. In order to be peaceful time and again there is a huge component of letting go of the situation and sometimes the way our mind determines the situation ought to be. Peace, slow, calm are words that instill tranquility in our thoughts itself, and there in they may ignite the slow fire in our being. Being peaceful also is tremendously good for our nervous system that ensures that all the involuntary functions are taken care of in the best way possible. Meditation is a way to be peaceful and still, yet there are many ways to ignite peace in us using movement, like Pilates, Yoga, walking, swimming, cycling, and would you be surprised, even ironing! The methodical movement and the straightening up of crinkles that it entails is guaranteed to leave the iron-er extremely peaceful. Am not observing my local dhobi, who seems to always be in a pleasant mood, but is always also gossiping, and hence increasing his stress and perhaps thats why isnt a learned monk yet, though he knows a lot!

    But then again the best serum in the world for the skin is peace of mind, the best antidote to stress is peaceful sleep, and the best environment to thrive is a peaceful environment. Even the golden age of Chandragupta Maurya came at a time of peace, when wars were not majorly fought, the age of renaissance also blossomed in the age of peace. Shanti as we say, and pray for the entire universe, solitude, quietness, harmony are all synonyms of this frequency of peace. Peaceful people are also skinnier, since skinny is a byproduct of the golden age of a body, and hence a calm non-inflammed body that isnt fighting. Peaceful people, who are peaceful in and out are not fighting with their minds even, not bending situations with their will are those who thrive sometimes with the best ideas. One can be peaceful as much as one can and though sometimes not, those episodes are better as punctuations of being, the pop of colour in a tranquil setting, that allows the setting to be brighter but not as a continued state. Slowing down is a way to peace, in case you were wondering and I sure hope you read this post slowly! As my friend said, if something is not worth doing slowly, its probably not worth doing at all and my favorite author Donna Tartt said if you aren’t enjoying doing something, you are not doing it slowly enough. Think about this as your car inches slowly in the wonder of the world called Bengaluru (or anywhere for that matter, all cities are the same) traffic!

  • Mark Rothko

    Colour is an emotion, it always is. Think of a blue sky versus a grey one, versus a pink-tinged orange one or the deep velvety blue or black, all rife with completely different moods and hence emotions. Of all the expressionist painters, say Van Gogh who brought sunny, cheery sunflowers to life or Monet who poured a dull hue over every scene, or Matisse who defined block, opaque colour in a different narrative. But an artist who gave colour it’s due, without a subject, or rather a subject that could be arrived at by the bystander themself is Rothko.

    A New York based artist of Russian origin (now that park of Russia is present day Latvia), who painted rectangular floating clouds of art on a large scale canvas to bring out raw, unfiltered colour and hence raw, unfiltered emotion. It is said that in a gallery filled with Rothkos, the average museum goers have been filled with joy or brought to tears at their own accord. He intended to provoke tragedy, ecstasy, doom, as he says. Though his artistic evolution saw him begin with early figurative works and urban scenes, to a period of transition figuring biomorphic abstraction influenced by mythology and surrealism, finally abandoning all rules with his Colour-field work, his mature works feature two or three soft-edged rectangular floating clouds of saturated colour on a contrasting coloured background. The large canvases that he usually painted on be believed could create a sense on intimacy and a rich spiritual experience for the viewer. He insisted his paintings were not merely about color relationships, but were dramas designed to communicate basic human emotions.

    It is true, when one observes a Rothko its floods one with a serie of emotions, while yellow, red and orange are truly uplifting, black, burgundy and maroon could be equally devastating. Its the colour field when our visual senses are flooded with swathes of opaque solid colour and evoke an experience of seeing that colour balanced with another. In this day and age of extreme information, where we can even live vicariously through pictures that can at times be microscopical in nature, that have so much information that it can feel like we have lived it in real, it is a welcome break to have abstraction in art that bring one back to one’s body and feelings. A lot of talk and research is being done in this world on meditation and its benefits, that solely impress to bring one back to oneself in this world that offers a myriad of experiences, can we go back to experiencing oneself. One of the best ways to meditate and ground oneself, could simply be to watch a Rothko painting, or equivalent work that are a part of the Colour-Field painting. The best part of a Rothko or how it stands apart from all the others is the fact that the soft edges of the clouds are almost surreal, but then he had me with the colours and what they are paired with.

  • Project Focus No. 9: Dream a little dream

    When a client comes back to ask one to design their new home after 10 years of completing their earlier one, it is nothing short of a dream and when they ask one to design a home that is dreamy then it is a total dream!

    Thus began the work on this project that was truly nothing short of a dream for a doctor-couple, an eye doctor and his pathologist wife who has also been awarded a Padma Shri for his extraordinary work in the field concerning the Retina, needless to say they shared unmatchable wit and wisdom all through the design and execution process sometimes pulling out images garnered from their insane travelling all across the globes, staying in the fanciest of the hotels and attending conferences in state-of-the-art hotels, this time the clients did not show me Pinterest boards, but real time images for inspiration or ideas! Most of which wouldn’t work, as the most experienced of the designers would know!!

    The home came with a request of tranquility and peace, easy to maintain, and a hue of white touched a little with a sprig of pink and a suggestion of green and with only that as the brief the clients got back to their schedules as the team tinkered away at the project all through summer to turn-key during the Monsoons. With a palate to please, the entire house is swathed in shades of pink hinging on a generous dollop of white. As one enters, one is greeted with a fancy chandelier, that is modern in spirit yet old-school in its make, the entry way is flanked by the niches of wonder as I call it, that houses all the accolades this brilliant doctor-couple has amassed over the years, including the Padma Shri that they sport with no fanfare and a collectors piece by the renowned artist Shishir Sahana. To me it felt like a really big deal, but like they say about humility. A matte shimmery wall paper is bathed on the opposite wall punctuated with an inch beading polished in chocolate brown all along the length of the wall. The foyer leads to a rather large hall, that includes the dining and the living areas of the house. The entire length of the hall opens out to the great outdoors making the entire feel of the house rather expansive. The outdoor here is fringed by a verandah with a wooden swing and art work collected over the years with a wind chime to add rather lovely notes as the wind blows.

    On one breadth of the hall is the utilitarian part of the house with the Kitchen, Utility and the Househelp’s quarters, while on the other breadth are the private rooms of the house. A powder room is tucked away along the dining space. The beautiful dining table in solid wood is attached with a cushioned bench seating and two dining chairs, the wall that it is along is treated with a fluted painted wooden panel to about four-feet high and is finished with a rather simple yet artistic mirror a nice rotund on the wall. A cutlery cabinet tucked into the corner is snazzy with light along the glass thickness adding panache to pretty shade of green on the wall. This arrangement is balanced by a comfortable and large L-shaped sofa-set with circular centre tables at varied heights and a reading chair before ending with a floating television panel wall, designed with metal strips, ambience lights and a sleek storage. The beauty of the space is got bang on right to be exceedingly pleasant and spacious all in the same measure. A lovely set of drapes in hues of floral and the subtle shade of salubriousness echoes the hearty sentiment of the living and dining hall.

    The rooms are designed rather differently also depending on the main use intended. While one flits modern with classical, the beading encompassed wainscoting taken up to a seven-feet height and a gallery mirror, lit along it’s length and a floor to ceiling wardrobe that makes up for a beautiful addition to space and a modern bed, lit along it’s niche and the bottom panel with decorative lights on the wall and lit wardrobes; the other bedroom is more modern it its feel and appeal, bringing on to one portion of its ceiling a bright and cheery blue sky in wallpaper of course and while at that a world map engraved in a three-dimensional effect to add depth and structure to the world as we know it. This world map includes the tiniest of countries and islands in the world, all labelled and engraved for future reference. None the truer word was said then that the world is my oyster and the oyster is my home! A tranquil Buddha sourced from Bhutan adds to the eccentric touch of this room. The bed is skirted by a grand scale piano keyboard as it finishes with a sleek modern line and a arty wall light above the bed, twirling, whirling and curling like Rumi would to Ayin in Fez. Any this shiny, pearly, oyster-hued home is just what dreams are made up of!

    Project Data:

    Project Architect & Builder: Vedasri Siddamsetty

    Project Area: 1565 sft

    Project Timeline: April 2025 to August 2025

    Project Team: Reflex Surfaces, Inder Woodworks, The Town Hardware stores, Vasanth Painting Works, Siddeshwara frames, Trinity Decoron, AURA Lighting, SunMICA Laminates, Somani Plywood, Becker

  • Golden Temple, Vellore

    Temples have begun to commercial, or well they always were, was the debate as we walked into the beautiful Vellore Golden Temple built to worship the Goddess Lakshmi, the consort of Lord Venkateswara and the pseudo-Mom of Lord Ganesha who was given to her by his mother Goddess Parvati. This temple houses both Lord Ganesha and Lord Venkateshwara but Goddess Lakshmi is the Lorddess here, well am surprised how Lorddess isn’t a work in English as I find it called out in my paragraph(!), however, in this Temple the main shrine is for Lorddess Lakshmi and what a beautiful shrine it is. Emerging from a pond of water, sculpted to perfection this beautiful Garbha Griha or the inner sanctum is enmeshed in pure gold and all that glitters is definitely gold.

    The star shaped walkway leads one from the main entrance into the temple of the divine Goddess and on the way of the main road leading to the star-shaped walkway are the shrines of the Husband and the pseudo-son of the Goddess. Till my visit to the temple I always worshipped Lord Ganesha before a Lakshmi pooja but was only learning then on the why, that’s because when Parvati loaned Ganesha to Goddess Lakshmi as a son he became a part of the worship of the Vaishnavites, also becoming the tying factor between the devotees of Shiva and Vishnu. What a beautiful way the Hindu deities all come together.

    My favourite Goddess all decorated in all her glory is depicted in this beautiful Golden temple, fit for the Goddess of wealth and prosperity! Everything that the Goddess is believed to love is earmarked in the design of the temple, the lotus, the conch, the owl, the Shri or as IAST helps us say Sri, a moniker used to illustrate all that this beautiful Goddess symbolises, the curly hair, all astrologers believe that the curls on the head is symbolism for the Goddess herself, the owl, the elephants showering prosperity, beauty that the Goddess loves, white and pink and all else that epitomises the Goddess. The root word of the name Lakshmi is literally translated to knowing your lakshya or knowing your goal. In the Rigveda though the Goddess is purely referred to as Sri while Lakshmi is more from the Puranic texts.

    Tossing a coin into the water body that the main inner sanctum of the temple rises from is to amplify the quality of prosperity, as water is said to amplify things, well thankfully it doesnt do the same to humans in water ;), but swelling is a quality associated with water, and in this pond we found currency notes too tossed in! The walk to the main temple is dotted by quotations and motivational lines that help the devotees reflect on words of wisdom in multiple languages as one makes their way to the main temple. The Goddess decorated in all her glory was a delight to see and the alankaram as they say for decoration was befitting that of a Lorddess! A beautiful, stunning and divine experience in all, all in a day!

  • TOFU, MOFU and BOFU

    Being chair of the Ladies Circle this year, I hosted, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore a very interesting Marketing workshop at the premier college of marketing itself. One the building itself is so gorgeous with its stone build, and two the building impresses one to the T, no wonder architect BV Doshi was so celebrated, he made spaces that would raise the spirit, and how! After strolling across the whole campus and marvelling at the beauty of the space I finally settled into one of the state-of-the-art lecture rooms in the campus and began to listen to one of the most interesting conversations in marketing. Ofcourse the subject of marketing in itself is ridiculously interesting as it hinges on the subjects of psychology, economics, scale, and the privileges associated with the appeal to the masses.

    On that subject, the professor began talking about the Marketing pyramid or umbrella and what is at the Bottom of the Umbrella is titles BOFU, in the middle is MOFU and right on top is TOFU. So every marketing material or advert as we can call it for the benefit of ourselves, is targeted as a part of this umbrella, not with that knowledge every poster I see I classify in my head as BOFU, MOFU or TOFU. So the first stage posters that call out on information about a place, event or enterprise is BOFU and is vague, kind-of generic, but tries to capture the concept of the idea, whereas TOFU on the other extreme is highy targeted to an audience who’s response is elicited and taken to the stage of executing the action of selling that is the endgame of marketing. MOFU as surmised is something in the middle.

    The idea that a marketing umbrella could be so wide was something that piqued my interest. As a case study of successful marketing models is that of Parachute hair oil, so when one says coconut oil in India, Marico Industries’s Parachute brand comes right in our minds, and specifically that used for the hair. Though Parachute coconut oil can very well be used for cooking it never springs up to the mind in that reference. That’s successful marketing that leverages the idea that once in the mind is enough, for when the time to buy arrives, the customer will reach out to the brand firmly lodged in the mind with no further thought. The lazy mind is supported in that case to not have to think and that’s the ultimate marketeer’s win!

  • Oh Jeeves!!

    Growing up on a staple of Wodehouse, now as a thirty-something trying to manage a house the person I miss the most and am trying to manifest with all my might is Jeeves. The cook, the maid, the driver and all on one side, a perfect housekeeper, lets say a butler on the other, but to tie them all together wouldnt it be so lovely to have Jeeves in toe! While reading the Empress of Blandings, which happens to be my favourite book whipped up by Wodehouse, I couldn’t help but laugh my heart out heartily. Every tome after that was also something to lighten up the mood and the vibe. In his flowing English English, with matters of marmalade and the ring of a bell, the laid-back nature of the English countryside conjures up in one’s mind, irrespective of which library or hostel dorm room one is perched on.

    Having one to be at the beck of a ring is something by 1931 born Grandfather still manages even at the turn of a century, but he has his butler english and generational precedence to thrive on, today the only bell that has me jumping out of my seat is the sound of ringtones from the mobile phone, all without the depth and the alacrity for sure. The beauty of the tingle of the phone is severely unmatched. I would wonder what it would be to have Jeeves watch over my 7 year old. The conversation that is already so delightful would for sure turn spiffy! Jeeves the character is very smart, so is the little fellow, who reminded me this weekend that he isn’t so little anymore. Much the reason to have a prompt butler to seize the day with copious amounts of wit and wisdom.

    For one he would very aptly answer all the questions put to me by the child and put out once and very quickly at that, the question of why, that is directed to me all along. The husband very conveniently puts out the why with the act of being deaf and somehow the question why comes straight back at me, also because of the time we spend being idle is a lot more perhaps! Again a reason to have Jeeves at hand, and one who can answer along with the son’s questions, mine too that happen to announce the arrival of the benefits of self reflection! The high competence of Jeeves has me all the time. Infact he would have corrected me just now, decidedly proclaiming that even if around, he would be my valet and not a housekeeper. Well, Oh Jeeves!

  • Things I never knew I’ll learn at LC.

    Constituting a very diverse set of women all vibrant, all enthusiastic and always on a high, I have learnt the art of living to its very best at LC. The organisation that buzzes with activities and a multitude of to-dos keeps the quintessence of being alive at its very core. With never a dull day, there is learning everywhere. Whether it is speaking for hours about a cause that matters the most to us, or female friendships that take us along on this boat of life, or the art of making every moment count, the art of food and frolic, the art of gentility or the way of being a community that holds each other close. But more than ever I learnt the art of being in tandem with each other, always as a friend, as an equal, loaded with empathy and the generosity of the spirit.

    The days are different, as different as can be yet the fraternity that bonds for life, the friendships we make through LC are one for keeps. I never knew I’d learn that these friendships are as precious or even more than the ones we make in school! Thats quite a bummer for if chaddi baddis can be made at LC then well it would have to be a school!! 😉 School is where learnings come at its peak and so do the learnings come at LC, from 80Gs as Treasurer or learning when to speak (and give those vocal chords a rest) as CP, the most fun thing I learnt at LC is how to make the best use of Canva! It’s literally like “move over AutoCad” you have a new friend on my deck! Thank God for that software, also, I learnt how to use AI!