Fashion Week in Delhi

Been busy with Delhi's fashion week this past week. It was a pain to sit through all the shows through five days - especially the bad ones. And there were plenty of them at Autumn/Winter 2008.

My personal favourite was the Tarun Tahiliani show - with qawwali numbers and a Kathak dancer - though it was more of drama than true-blue fashion.

And in case you were wondering, the audience didn't get to witness the "wardrobe malfunction" at the Rajesh Pratap Singh show.

Bollywood turned up, if not in full force, at least in enough numbers to keep the shutterbugs happy - Bipasha Basu, Minissha Lamba, Celina Jaitley, Zayed Khan, Soha Ali Khan.

Katrina Kaif looked awesome at Ashish Soni and Anamika Khanna's Finale on Sunday, though the show couldn't match Rohit Bal's Grand Finale at Spring/Summer 2007.

Here are some of the stories I did -
"Ecological" possum fur jackets on show in India
James Dean inspires designer at India fashion week
Mickey Mouse turns gladiator at India fashion week
'Dandy' Paris Hilton inspires India fashion week
Designers going green at India fashion week

In the photos below, designer Manish Arora poses with his gladiator models, views of the Pragati Maidan hall where the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week was held for the second time, and a Birla Cellulose seminar which turned out to be a no-show with the media preferring to watch models walking or "malfunctioning" on the ramp.

February 2008 Blog Mela

The Great Bong presents a day in the life of Jalaluddin Akbar

Arnold ponders the advantages of being gay

Krish Ashok speaks symbolically

And introduces the ten avatars of the Dark Lord of the Ad

Falstaff rewrites Hansel and Gretel

Bikkupedia remembers the good times spent at Appu Ghar

Mitali Saran goes channel surfing

Rahul Razdan engages in toilet humour

Jamshed V. Rajan wonders what life would be like in 2050

Aditya Kulkarni gives pointers on how to avoid doing household chores

That's all for now. The March Blog Mela returns early next month. But before leaving, do please vote for the best post in the February 2008 Blog Mela.

The best of February 2008 Blog Mela
	The Great Bong
	Arnold
	Krish Ashok - symbols
	Krish Ashok - avatars
	Falstaff
	Bikkupedia
	Mithali Saran
	Rahul Razdan
	Jamshed Rajan
	Aditya Kulkarni
pollcode.com free polls

Check out previous Blog Melas
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008

Did you just come across a quirky, interesting or something-that-tugs-at-your-heartstrings blog? If yes, feel free to nominate it for the March Blog Mela being hosted here on April 2



Blog Mela Rules
- Posts must have been written by Indians or have an Indian angle
- Only posts published between 1-31 March, 2008 would be accepted
- If possible, please nominate individual posts, not the whole blog
- Feel free to nominate something you have written. Immodesty appreciated
- You can nominate as many blog posts as you like - provided you really like them
- Only nominations received before midnight on April 2 will be featured
- No, you don't get any moolah for nominating or getting featured in the Blog Mela. That could change once I am a millionaire but for now you'll just have to bear with me
- Yours truly reserves the right to nominate good posts which you ignore

How to Nominate
- Leave a comment on this post OR better still - Mail me at toeknee (at) gmail (dot) com

Don't date that BPO babe

Rachel's my girl. She's Rachna by day, Rachel by night. Confused? Don't be. Rachna works in a call-center and Rachel is her westernised moniker for professional purposes.

Rachel's a pretty girl, very cosmopolitan. Intelligent to boot. And I wish I had never dated her. Think I am crazy? Well I have my reasons. In fact, 10 of them:

1) She is not Rachna anymore. Not even at home. She likes to be called Rachel all the time. I miss my girl.

2) While the world sleeps, Rachel awakens and… goes to work . And it's when I'm in my deepest slumber that she calls and insists on love talk. Neighbours raise their eyebrows and mouth words like 'loose morals'. After all, middle class morality says, no maiden from a respectable family goes gallivanting in the middle of the night. I don't care, she doesn't care, but I do wish she wouldn't keep sighing about the liberal West.

3) She practices her weird call-center accent on me. I mean, I love to be of help in her work, but now she seems to use it all the time. Believe me…that twang is really mind-blowing.

4) Rachel has got used to croissants, pasta and chocolate truffles. That's the kind of food at her workplace and it is free. But I have to foot the bill at restaurants she now wants to eat at.

5) Then she works off those calories at the office gym. So do the men at her workplace. Lately she has been eyeing the little roll around my middle with pronounced unhappiness. Me? Exercise? I'd rather live a loveless life.

6) She wants 23 roses on Valentine's Day - one more than Mary (once Meera) got. Plus a teddy bear, perfume, all branded. She spends hours shopping for it, I pick up the tab. I mean, Valentine's Day? Whoever heard of it?

7) She gave up Jagjit Singh for Robbie Williams. Threw out Shah Rukh and developed a crush on Enrique Iglesias instead. What if after marriage she decides she doesn't like a desi husband after all?

8) Weekend for Rachel is defined the American way. Work hard through the week and then party hard. I work hard during the week and then…work hard during the weekend. She wants to party, take in a film, live it up. I am pooped.

9) Rachel is due for promotion. She is good at what she does - transforming an irate customer into an affable pal in seconds. Problem: She treats me like one too. When I am a little miffed, she purrs: "How may I help you?'

10) This one's important. I am just not good enough any more. Last month, she dated a colleague with an equally jarring accent. And promptly had a crush on him. That's the third this year.

Still think I am crazy?

(Wrote this piece for The Times of India some years ago)

Dramatic monologue (Inside a DTC Bus)

Here's a little something that I wrote some years ago -

"Hey, lady! I don't even want to touch you. I didn't do it deliberately. You must realise that the bus is so crowded that I am bound to touch you if the driver applies the brakes.

This is a democracy. This is a public vehicle and I certainly will ride in it. If you don't want anybody to touch you, then please Miss hoity-toity, you could condescend to travel in your own Mercedes.

No, I am not being rude. You are being rude. Accusing me of being an eve-teaser and the like. As if falling on ugly fat girls inside a crowded bus is a preferred vocation.

Yes, you are ugly and fat. I am stating the obvious. If you call me a shameless vagabond, I have all the right to call you whatever I want to call you.

Yes, Scream and cry all you want. You have got the public on your side. Would be saviors of a defenseless Draupadi. These puny teenagers will not intimidate me. You don't know that I was Punjab Wrestling Champion three years in a row. They better not try messing with me - I am the real Hrithik Roshan of India.

All right! I will get off the bus. Listen lady, you haven't seen the last of me yet. Because of a few stupid females like you, being a man in this country is becoming a curse.

Ladies this! Ladies that! Adam is always wrong. Eve is divine. Ha! Injustice prevails and nobody says anything. Is there no one here to speak a word in my favor? I see - India will always remain the same. Never mind. I'll get even with you soon. Just you wait."

Murder he didn't commit

One of my recurring nightmares involves having my photos splashed across newspapers and TV channels as the face of a wanted murderer, rapist or thief.

The nightmare came true for a San Antonio man recently when a newspaper carried his photo as the suspect in a murder case.

One problem though - he was innocent.

A dog gets right to vote in India

Did you hear about the dog who made it to the electoral rolls in Nizamabad, Andhra Pradesh. This is so unfair, my name is usually missing in the voter list - now even canines have better luck. This country is truly going to the dogs.

One of my friends, a woman in her twenties, also had an identity crisis when she was listed as a 52-year-old male in the electoral rolls.

But what of the dog? Will the ballot papers of Nizamabad witness some paw prints? Will all the other dogs in India demand the inclusion of their names as well. And will we soon see dogs elected to Parliament?

As for the photo, is that a BJP symbol I see in the background?

Read full story here

I loved this quote by Nicky's owner Radhakrishna.

"I can understand that Nicky can be mistaken for a girl's name, but the name of Nicky's father is mentioned as dog. Would that not make the authorities check facts?"

Give Sarkozy a break, he's a human being

So what if French President Nicolas Sarkozy got a bit testy when a man in the crowd at an agricultural fair refused to shake hands and told him to take his dirty hands off him.

If you were in Sarkozy's place, you would have traded some insults or even come to blows. As far as I can make out from the video, the man provoked Sarkozy. The president told him to get lost.

And later regretted the outburst.

But what of the unidentified man? He walked scot-free.

I was just wondering if the same thing were to happen in India. President Pratibha Patil would have remained silent, stunned by the stranger's temerity.

But her bodyguards would have roughed him up, and had him arrested. Or at least tortured him enough to make sure he didn't talk back even to his mother.

Democracy is okay, but that doesn't mean one can walk around insulting the president. Sarkozy replied in the heat of the moment, just like any normal human being. Give him a break - let him enjoy his trip to South Africa with Carla Bruni.

Aishwarya Rai pregnant - so what?

Bollywood beauty queen Aishwarya Rai Bachchan may or not be pregnant - but that isn't stopping thousands of fans from Googling her pregnancy status and arriving at my blog.

Well, I am not complaining but it would have been a better ego boost if people visited Toe Knee Unplugged for its content -- and not for news of the Bollywood actress.

And even if she is pregnant, why should you care? It's Abhishek Bachchan's baby. He''ll deal with it.

It's not as if anyone can hide this for long - if Aishwarya delivers, you will find TV channels broadcasting interviews with the doctors attending to her.

Don't worry, you'll get to know.

Last I heard, the actress told some news channel that motherhood had been put on hold for three years.

That's a pretty long wait but if you guys keep Googling the phrase "Aishwarya Rai is pregnant" and coming here, tarry a while and read the other stuff on this blog.

But if you really interested in stories like Bachchan astrologers sending Aishwarya Rai herbal pills for her pregnancy - you can go read this.

Let Deepika touch BBC's body - Shah Rukh Khan

I don't like attending press conferences by Shah Rukh Khan. You are likely to find yourself packed in a room with some 500 photographers, reporters and guests all clamouring for a dekko at the King Khan.

Now the Ballroom at Delhi's Oberoi hotel is pretty big but I still felt a bit claustrophobic when Khan dropped in earlier this week to promote a liquor brand's 'Don't Drink and Drive campaign'.

And the pretty reporter behind me wasn't helping matters by squealing "He's so sexy, I so want to take him home" whenever Khan smiled.

Clad all in black, the star had arrived on time (surprisingly) and was bombarded with questions on everything except the brand he had come there to promote.

One enthusiastic reporter was upset that actress Deepika Padukone had been denied the chance to be the first to touch Shah Rukh's six-pack abs for "Om Shanti Om".
Well, "feel your body" was how he put it, perhaps incorrectly quoting what Deepika had told BBC Radio in an interview.
Khan was nonplussed - at first.

"She should have told me. She never told me. If she tells BBC, she can touch BBC's body. If she tells me, she can touch my body."
Perhaps the inquirer still looked upset, for Khan looked him in the eye and asked, "You want to touch my body?"
When the laughter had died down and the reporter had stopped blushing, the barrage of questions continued. But Khan parried them with practised ease.

Why did you spend so much money on cricket's Indian Premier League?
"Maine jaha se kamaya mera tha, maine jaha lagaya meri marzi" (I earned it and it was mine to spend wherever I pleased)

There's already so much money in cricket..
"Aap ne gina hai?" (Have you counted it?)

Why you bought Kolkata team instead of Delhi where you grew up?
"I couldn't afford Delhi. That's why I left and went to Bombay. Delhi's very expensive."

Will you make a film based on the 'Don't Drink and Drive campaign'?
"Making a film on this topic? How will I make a three hour film in which I keep saying 'Don't drink! Don't drink! Don't drink!' - it will be weird...'Devdas' was based on drinking."

Is this campaign some kind of disaster management for your "no smoking" tiff with Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss?
"It'll be really stupid of me if someone doesn't like me smoking to give him the message 'Don't drink'. I should be saying 'Don't smoke'."

Will your reel image prove a burden on your real life?
"It's not that when I walk on the streets, people think of me as drunk, smoker, vulgar, idiotic. In fact, when I come to Delhi, people say I am smart, handsome, educated, articulate and well-bred."

In "Chak de" and "Om Shanti Om", you had new girls working opposite you. Even in Aditya Chopra's project, he's searching for a new face - why don't our heroines want to work with you?
"Girls can't tolerate me for long. They get tired."

It's not that Khan wasn't serious at all - he also spoke at length about his "smoking" controversy, his injury years ago that forced him to give up sports for acting, his plans for building sports infrastructure in the country. But all that has been splashed across national newspapers.

But it's the little things that fans don't get to read or hear. Like how he scolded a reporter he spotted discussing something with a friend.
"Are you listening? You are chatting away there. Pay attention to me. Then you won't get confused."

Believe me, that poor girl was the only one not paying attention - the rest of the audience was hanging on to each of Khan's words. And for those of you who aren't convinced about the Bollywood star being the best ambassador for a 'Don't Drink and Drive campaign', here's what Khan has to say.

"I myself am not a hard liquor drinker. The hardest I drink is Pepsi on the rocks."