Have you ever realized that the fashion industry has grown by leaps and bounds in India over the past few years? the NIFT (National Institute of fasion technology) in HSR Layout is well known for being the nerve centre for fashion studies in India. In fact it was HSR Layout’s first known educational venture for fashion.

India is one of the oldest civilisations in the world, presenting itself as the converging point for a large number of cultural groups professing varied customs and traditions. Respective customs and traditions bind each of these groups to adopt their own way of dressing, thereby inspiring budding fashion designers to experiment with a huge plethora of options. What is noteworthy in this context is the fact that no matter how large the array of options there are for the designers, their final designs always portray an element of ethnicity that acts as a major crowd puller in the markets. As more and more fashion designers recognised the potential of the country to provide ample ground for their creations, they went on a designing spree and brought about a renaissance of sorts in the fashion industry. The generally adopted way of dressing up in the traditional clothing gave way to the adoption of a new cosmopolitan way of dressing that was highly fashionable and was the right cliché to woo the GenNext.

Very soon, magnified by the large-scale appeal of these contemporary creations among the trend aware population, which comprised of more than the up-scale urban crowd, a new wave of promotional campaign was ushered in. Tasting initial success with their abstract creations, designers sought to take the couture culture to the next level through road shows and fashion shows in major parts of the country. The gimmick, of course, worked perfectly as expected and made the designers pretty well known faces, owing to the media exposure of the events.

Having said that, if you have wondered if there is a website dedicated to understanding this industry more better and also to know about international careers in fashion design and how you can go about securing that all important knowledge and degree in fashion, it is indeed present. This is the fashion schools website. The site provides important stuff such as articles on fashion, emerging trends, details about schools and careers in fashion and also a blog on fashion.

I had written an article about South Indies, a south indian restaurant in Indiranagar where I had been to sometime last year. The occassion was a meeting with my best friend Kishore, on his visit to India from USA.

To just tell you more here, Kishore and I know each other for more than 15 years now, he is more than just a friend to me, he is part of my family and one of the key influencers of my life. Well, without digressing much, it was one year more of not seeing him, and this time he landed in Bengaluru once more. This time we decided to head straight to BonSouth yet another south indian restaurant in Koramangala, a stone’s throw away from my house.

BonSouth is a restaurant, which is situated bang on the 80′ Road Koramangala and it is built on a huge piece of land. As usual as one would expect, you cannot park anywhere closeby thanks to BTRAC and thousands of no parking boards everywhere (I think this BTRAC aims at inconveniencing people rather than helping them). So BonSouth currently has taken up the land next to their restaurant for parking purposes. These days I find this is being the norm of many people including MTP (More than Paranthas) another Delhi based restaurant in Koramangala adopting the same approach.

We had gone by two wheeler, and I didnt have a problem finding parking for myself. It was night and we landed up for dinner. Knowing and having seen South Indies before I must have realized the costs of going to Bonsouth, but I was not too surprised looking at the menu card. Firstly we were handed over the spirits menu, where it showed one bottle of champagne to be about 12,000 bucks (roughly 250$) which I thought was on the higher side. After some discussions, we decided no to spirits (especially understanding the fact that a brahmin iyer family would not allow me in if they smelt alcohol 🙂 ). We then wanted to go straight to that part of the menu which was synonymous with its name – BonSouth.

The ambience was just right with enough room to talk and catch up for a long while before the food was served and finished. The items on the menu were arranged according to the states in South India – Andhra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, each sporting its own famous cuisines. We settled down on cabbage vada for starters, and some lemon rice and curd rice, along with some andhra veg soup – now dont ask me the names, they were bizzaire! 🙂 A candle was lit for us, and we went ahead and started our meal.

What is of significance that I did not know then but later understood, is the fact that both South Indies and Bon South belonged to the same person and he was running this food chain promoting southern specialities in each area of Bengaluru. So much so also that, I came to know the whole place for both these restaurants were landscaped by a firm called Terra Firma, a company started off by Rohit Marol a well known landscapist today.

The indications were strikingly similar – well dressed waiters (perhaps there is a much more respectful term than this), with suits and coats, all having wireless PDAs to take orders and well mannered too. The landscaping of the place was also done up well with small water bodies here and there and the lighting to suit the mood. Overall for about one starter, two rice items, and one soup (without dessert) the bill was about Rs.800, more or less the same as what we paid at South Indies ealier. But I somehow felt that the food in BonSouth was much better than the one at South Indies given that I could not find any difference in the ambience.

There is also a buffet lunch and breakfast options available somewhere around the Rs.275 mark if you wish to take part in it. Overall, we had a nice dinner and our pockets were lighter by a grand at the end of it. However, given that the prime importance is for the time spent with friends, and a peaceful atmosphere, I would recommend this place as a must visit – atleast once, for the experience, if not again and again. So head straight to BonSouth, and get a taste of what south has always meant to you! 🙂

Technorati : Bon south, LA, ambience, andhra, b-trac, bangalore, bengaluru, bill, blog, bonsouth, breakfast, btrac, buffet, candle, champagne, chowchowbath, cmh road, cost, culinary, delhi, dining, dinner, experience, friends, indiranagar, karnataka, kerala, kishore, koramangala, lifestyle, los angeles, lunch, meal, meals, menu, menu book, more than paranthas, mtp, oasis, parking, pda, restaurant, rice, rohit marol, signal, sony world, soup, south, south indies, spar, spirits, stewards, subhiksha, tamil nadu, tamilnadu, terra firma, usa, waiters, wireless

It was sometime back that I noticed this service while driving to work, but I could not find time to blog about this. However its better late than never that I tell my readers about this. Manipal Hospitals have made an attempt for kidney patients in Benglauru, to bring Dialysis closer to their home by making the service mobile.

They also have a kidney helpline where you can dial 2520 4000 for any queries on kidney ailments, and also avail the dialysis on wheels if you require it urgently.

According the Hindu Business Line,

Manipal Institute of Nephrology and Urology has launched a “Dialysis On Wheels” programme that will bring renal care to the houses of patients, particularly to the aged and who are unable to travel to the hospitals. The fully equipped air-conditioned dialysis mobile unit will be available round the clock and can be called for on 520 4000. The dialysis can also be transported to smaller hospitals and nursing homes where such facilities are not available, allowing the patient to get treatment closer home rather than moving from one hospital to other.

Dr H. Sudarshan Ballal, Director, Manipal Institute of Nephrology and Urology said, “with this programme, we intend to make life easier for the unfortunate patients who have severe kidney failure and need dialysis.” The compact `dialysis on wheels’ would also have trained doctors, technicians and other support staff needed for smooth running of dialysis. The machine can be moved into the homes if required and patients can receive the treatment right along the bedside. This service is priced at Rs 2,200 and ambulance charges per visit.

If you found this post useful, click the share button below and send it by email to your near and dear requiring this service, do a good deed!

Technorati : , Director, Manipal Institute of Nephrology and Urology, Sudarshan Ballal, ambulance, bangalore, bengaluru, blog, charges, dialysis, emergency, fitness, health, kidney failure, kidney helpline, renal failure

If you have been going around Bangalore watching the billboards at major traffic junctions, you would not have missed out seeing this advertisement about the commune apartments from golden gate properties. Their unique selling proposition is apartments at 19 lacs onwards as the pricing. There are a few things that I wanted to voice about this project which I will do here for the benefit of those wanting to invest in it. Firstly it is close to the NICE Corridor done by Ashok Kheny and company. They go on to say on their website that there would be a road leading to their apartment from the clover leaf junction that NICE has constructed in Somapura Village halfway between Kanakapura Road and Mysore Road. More details about this so called road or roads are present in their own website.

What I like about this project is that the apartments look nice for that price range of 19 lakhs and up. Golden Gate properties have been consistently improving on their designs ever since their first few projects in Begur (near Bommanahalli) almost 7-8 yrs back. That is good news. The Commune does have its own share of issues as well which are evident from the above photo (again taken from their website, with due credits to them). The main cluster of apartments have a region on the inside which would have dimly lit areas thanks to minimum sunlight penetration. Elevationally the apartments look good at present, but the free areas surrounding them are surely going to be occupied slowly by all other apartment builders, making life hell around that area sooner than later. Already Kanakapura road is a good example of civilization improving day by day so much so that they had to do double laning of that road upto Konankunte junction.

As far as the plans are concerned, they offer three types of flats, two of 900+ dimension and one of 1100+ dimension. After checking out top views of each of these I found only the Plan 1 reasonably okay in terms of spacing of rooms and privacy. The rest were a bit unimpressive but hey then that is what low cost housing is all about! I did not like the fact that other than the hall, no other room had a balcony provided which is bad. Also the specifications are not so impressive as I have seen in certain other apartments of course at higher costs. Also to be noted is that only 50% of the car parks would be concealed while the rest would be open to the elements, and god save your vehicle in such a case.

According to their own costing sheet the prices for the starting at 19 lacs apartments would now end up to be either 25 lacs or 30 lacs for the bigger one. So is it affordable living? Think again, I sold my apartment at HSR layout for just a thirds more than this.

Two other things really bother me about the Commune. One is that in their walkthrough they show a road from the clover leaf junction all the way upto their apartment complex which in my opinion would never exist. NICE company is smart enough not to provide entry and exit at the clover leaf junction for every tom, dick and harry. Why for that matter I would be surprised if Banashankari 6th Stage BDA layout manages to secure one exit and one entry point into the clover leaf. And in the case that this entry and exit are not provided, the Communists if I may call them so 🙂 would then have to either reach Ravi Shankars ashram or Mysore Road to secure an entry into the NICE BMIC-Peripheral Ring Road linking Tumkur Road with Electronics City. So I would take this road approach statements and plans with a pinch of salt.

The second most irritating thing is that the compound wall of the Commune directly abuts or is adjancent to Vrishabavathi Valley or river. For those who do not know what this river is all about, dont have your hopes high, here is the wikipedia description of the river – The Vrishabhavathi River is a minor river that flows north of the Indian city of Bangalore. The Vrishabhavathi is a tributary of the Arkavathy River. The majority of the sewage emanating from Bangalore is carried by these two rivers. Click here for more information. If you want to see a map of how the river flows until it reaches a sewage treatment plant on Mysore Road, see the figure below. (note that the blue river flowing behind the apartments in the figure above is the one being spoken about)

So with this said, how would you like to live bang next to a sewage river? My guesses are as good as yours. There are positives with Commune in trying to provide low cost housing in these troubled times, and there are cons of living next to the NICE clover leaf and the VV Valley/River. Once the mysore bangalore corridor is operational the noise levels in the corridor are expected to go up manifold disturbing peace and harmony all around given the fact that we Indians are fond of honking our vehicles even when there is no necessity for doing it.

This review is not about deciding whether the Commune indeed is the next wave of low cost housing and whether it is the best project till date in town as far as low cost housing is concerned. But it does touch upon the projects highlights to meritoriously put forth a few points to note before investing into it.

Technorati : 3d floor plans, anjanapura, apartments, approval, art of living, ashok kheny, ashram, banashankari 6th stage, bannerghatta road, bda, begur, bmic, bommanahalli, commune, electronics city, family mart, ggproperties, golden gate properties, hsr layout, kanakapura road, konankunte, kumarans, low cost housing, magadi road, mantri, metro, mysore road, nice, peripheral road, ravi shankar, ring road, sewage treatment plant, singapore gardens, south bangalore, spencers, tumkur road, vakils, vrishabhavathi river