WittyGift Boxes

Adventure Seaker, Indulgence Junkie, Spa Lover or Culture Vulture? Tell us what your Valentine is like in the comments below and win them a WittyGift Box of your choice!

This Valentine’s Day do something you’ve never done before; gift your Valentine an experience! Lucky for you MissMalini has 8 awesome WittyGift Boxes for you to win :)
Psst! Don’t forget to tell me what city you’re in so I can send you the right box xoxo

WittyGift provides over 800 of the most fun-filled and thrilling experiences like massages, beauty treatments, fine art, kayaking, paragliding and even Japanese cooking classes! Available in a variety of themes like Adventure, Adrenaline, Wellness, Culture, Gourmet, Dance etc. with a price range of 999rs to 7999rs, there is a box for every occasion and budget.

Wellness Box

Wellness WittyGift Box

Wellness Box : 2000rs
Choice of activities include massages, manicures, pedicures, skin treatments, makeovers, art therapy, fitness, yoga etc. from AromaThai, Lakme, Birla Ayurveda Vaidyashalya, Ambika Pillai, B-Blunt, Sykz Fitness and many more.

Adventure Box

Adventure WittyGift Box

Adventure Box : 4000rs
Choice of activities include paragliding, rafting, paintballing, camping, star gazing, trekking, flying fox, zorbing, quad biking, sailing etc. from Natura Adventures, Wanderlust Travels, Adventure Plus etc.

Culture Box

Culture WittyGift Box

Culture Box : 3000rs
Choice of activities include salsa, ballroom, photography, film making, painting, wine tasting, multi cuisine cooking classes, pottery, guitar, bollywood, fashion design, color exploration, belly dance, acting, ayurvedic treatments, yoga, kathak from Sandip Soparrkar, JJ Rodriguez, Yellow spiders Pottery, Nrityanidhi, Guitar Hall, Delhi Dance Academy, The Art Loft, School of Symphony, Pulse the Studio, etc.

Indulgence for 2

Indulgence for 2 WittyGift Box

Facebook Like! WittyGiftBox
Twitter: @WittyGiftBox
website: www.wittygift.com
email: info@wittygift.com
Tel: +919820881993

Sharmistha Ray

Painting metascapes takes me into the realm of the imaginary, where I can pinpoint past experiences and turn them into metaphors. I spent a year working on the exhibition, hidden geographies, at my studio at Space 118 in Mazgaon.

Sharmistha Ray at work

The environs of the converted mill compound, its sand pit and mango trees with parakeets, kites and crows circling above or planted amongst leaves provided a haven away from the din of Mumbai to think, scheme and work.

In the distance, one can hear the rattle and horns of the cargo trains from the old docks and towards the evening, the sound of prayer from nearby mosques. My studio – an old shed with whitewashed walls with paintings leaning up against the walls, old wooden tables covered with paint tubes, buckets, palette knives and studies for new paintings – is the world I was ensconced in while working towards my solo debut in Mumbai.

The Golden Temple, 2011

The experience was almost monastic. In that solitary abode, paintings like Agni, The Golden Temple, Forbidden Pleasures and The Sublimation of Desire were conceptualized and created, all in 2011.

At the end of the making process there was the inevitable “moment of separation” when the paintings, fresh with thick layers of paint, left the studio to go to the gallery where they would be placed, hung, lit and labeled for the world to see. As each one was lifted, packed and heaved into the vehicle that was to transport them, I struggled with the notion that this was the end of this particular journey. I took some solace in the words of Joseph Conrad, from the introduction to one my favorite books The Gift by Lewis Hyde: “The artist appeals to that part of our being…which is a gift and not an acquisition – and, therefore, more permanently enduring.” That thought, drifting in and out of consciousness, allowed me to let go.

MissMalini's Wedding Invites by Designwallas™

Ever since Nowshad and I decided we were getting married in Goa, I got my heart set on a very special wedding invite - a message in a bottle! My awesome wedding planners Marry Me – The Wedding Planners even used the whole cute flip-flop & beach motif across our save the date & wedding website. Truth be told, I never expected them to turn out so absolutely awesome and for that I owe some major love to Designwallas™, a design outfit based out of Delhi that can create funky, different and individual invites for any occasion and as they put it, “no flowery, shiny gold crap!” You like? I love! xoxo

Facebook Like! Designwallas™
website: www.designwallas.com
email: info@designwallas.com

MissMalini's Wedding Invites by Designwallas™

MissMalini's Wedding Invites by Designwallas™

MissMalini Wedding Invites by Designwallas™

MissMalini Wedding Invites by Designwallas™

Marry Me – The Wedding Planners sourced everything from sea-shells to confetti and Designwallas™ designed the invites and even created a special M&N monogram for us to use! One afternoon my all-star wedding crew of friends came over to assemble them all between dance practices! :) Also since transporting bottles is tricky business we did paper versions too with jute ties for outside India. Clever right?

MissMalini's Wedding Invites

PS. Win a cool Steve Jobs Icon Journal by Designwallas™ here.

Beth Ditto for M.A.C

Don’t you just love this picture? It’s so Picasso-meets-Roy Lichtenstein, don’t you think? This is singer Beth Ditto in a visual for M.A.C, the famous make-up brand. The company has just signed her up, to create a range of limited-edition products, which will be in stores this June.

We’re loving it already!

Icon Steve Jobs' Journal

Tell us what your favourite Steve Jobs quote is and why? Write your answer in the comments section below and win a fab Icon Journal!

We love the work of our friends over at Designwallas (so much so, that we’re using them for all of our wedding invites and designed materials – stay tuned ;) Today they’ve released the latest in their supercool series of “Icon” journals – and this time it’s very appropriately all about the legendary Steve Jobs (previous Icon titles have included Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara). Featuring Jobs’ famous words “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish“, 500 of these stylized hardbound journals are already on their way to France to be featured in the Collette concept store (another MissMalini favourite). But wait! Answer the simple question & you can win your very own copy right here!

The backcover

If you can’t stand the suspense and just have to get your hands on this beauty, (and won’t be in France anytime soon), you can pick up a copy of this, and other Designwalla goodies, here.

Icon Journals

The iconic Amul girl makes a strong statement on the Jaipur Literature Festival 2012

The ionic Amul Girl is one of the few out there who makes a statement, loud and clear, whenever a statement needs to be made! And quite often, the endearing character, is on the side of the underdog.

With theatre director and ad-man, Rahul DaCunha, at the helm this time, the Amul Girl questions the politically motivated ban on author Salman Rushdie making an appearance at the Jaipur Literary Festival 2012.

Frankly, her question needn’t be answered. Don’t you agree?

Sharmistha Ray

Artist Sharmistha Ray held her first solo show called Hidden Geographies at the Galerie Mirchandani & Steinrucke on Wednesday night. She says her paintings explore the spiritual and metaphysical conditions, using Mumbai city as a site for poetical excavation. Check out the video to hear from Sharmistha about the largest piece of art in the showroom as well as another inspired by Mumbai. Also, watch this space for a special guest blog by Sharmistha herself! :)

Spotted at the event were Pheroz Godrej, Rajiv Saini, Nalini Malani, Munna Zaveri, among others.

Alex Kuruvilla and Rajiv Saini

Guests at Sharmistha Ray's show

Kiyomi Talaulicar

Munna Zaveri

Ranjana Steinrucke and Bakul Patel

Rohan Parikh, Cecelia Morelli, Ashiesh Shah

Sharmistha Ray and Nalini Malani

Sharmistha Ray with Pheroz Godrej

Get eco-friendly with stuff from the Eco Corner, Mumbai (photo credit | robinage.com)

How much sense does that title make? If you weren’t one of those eco-friendly, let’s-save-the-world people before, I’m sure you’re thinking about it now huh?

And why is the title of this blog in quotation marks? Because it’s the sign-off from Urvashi Mody, one of the partners of Eco Corner in Mumbai and it got your attention didn’t it? I admit, before I Googled the store, I had no idea that I have already been there. And I loved it. Located on the 3^rd floor in Palladium, High Street Phoenix, the store is very easily missable, but once you’ve been there, you keep going back. Home accessories (including animal planters, which can double up as candle- stands – adorable!), stationery, candles and body products are among the things available, to name a few. Their newest offering? A 2012 planner made from the A4 paper that YOU threw out. Yes, those pointless printouts that somehow manage to find their way to your desk every, single day have now been recycled into this cute planner:

2012 Planner from Eco Corner

Specs are as follows:

Size: 12cm x 17cm, 14pages.

Two options are available: Cycle & Yogasana.

Both are white  & available at Rs. 370 each.

So this year, we at Team MissMalini pledge to save the earth in our own little way. Will you be joining us?

For more details check out their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ecocornerindia

@ankash1009

*This just in from Anurag Kashyap, Dear Sahara please release the film!

Mumbai, I Love You (photo courtesy | flickr.com)

I woke up this morning with with an overwhelming love for Mumbai city… and it made me wonder when someone’s going to put together this city’s chronicle of love like they did with Paris, Je T’aime and New York, I Love You… I can think of a million little stories waiting to be told, can’t you? Anurag Kashyap, I hope you’re listening :) xoxo

Paris Je T’aime

New York, I Love You

Lady Gaga wears Paco Rabanne by Manish Arora

Lady Gaga is an Indian at heart – a fact that cannot be disputed!

She came to India last year wearing a tri-colour hairdo, she wore Tarun Tahiliani couture for her performance, then she went back and tweeted a picture of her with Shah Rukh Khan and Arjun Rampal, saying, “Screw Hollywood! It’s all about Bollywood.”

She also favours Manish Arora couture quite often for her appearances and performances.

But the icing on the cake is her tweet from last night: “Been reading a lot. Thinking about an OSHO tattoo”*

Osho Rajneesh; A tattoo of Osho

Yet another Indian connection for Gaga? Wonder if her tattoo will look anything like this one?

*Tweet edited for clarity!