Oh Bangalore!

~ The Tamarind Tree ~

It was a searing hot May day when I got an email from The Tamarind Tree, inviting me to experience their beautiful property in Bangalore. Having already heard many a complimentary things about them, I was very happy to accept the gracious invitation. And in spite of a ridiculously packed month, I was able to work with the lovely Nishi of The Tamarind Tree, who organized everything so smoothly, for me to visit them in the last week of May.  

And what a trip it turned out to be! It began with the warmest of welcomes at The Tamarind Tree, where I got to meet the young team who are now managing the property. You know how there are places that feel like an oasis in the middle of a city and the moment you step into one, you automatically breathe in deep and feel totally relaxed? The Tamarind Tree is exactly like that. It's antique wooden doors shut out the noise of the city as soon as you walk in. As I toured the property, it felt like each pillar, each vessel, every sculpture and every tree had a story to tell. As we sat down for a delicious lunch, I came to know that this beautiful five acres of land used to be a paddy field many decades ago. And then it was a warm home, a home that over the last 22 years built an enviable collection of antiques and artefacts from the South of India. These antiques are now spread over the property and add to the unique charm and character of this place. As the demand for hosting intimate weddings and events at The Tamarind Tree started growing within the circle of family and friends of the home owners, they decided to lease out the venue to the current management, who now expertly manage the property for hosting truly unique weddings. I can't wait to see what comes up next as the new team is very keen to preserve and maintain the current character while bringing in new ideas to allow the venue to host not just weddings but also exclusive cultural evenings and soirees.  

The Tamarind Tree takes on a magical hue as night descends. Twinkling fairy lights, diyas, flowers, music and if a wedding ceremony is taking place, then joyous festivities! The Tamarind Tree has hosted many a beautiful weddings with ceremonies from different regions of the country and the world. It is rapidly becoming one of the most sought after venue for couples who are looking for an unique ambiance and a memorable venue. The character of the place, so wonderfully captured by wedding photographers, is as warm and homely as it is fabulous.   

~ Basava Ambara ~ 

My next stop was at Basava Ambara, the splendid boutique located in one of Bangalore's oldest neighborhoods, Basavanagudi. It is run and curated by Aravind Kashyap and Venkataram Reddy, who is also the owner of The Tamarind Tree. Housed in the outhouse of a sprawling heritage home, Basava Ambara has a hand picked collection from a cross section of designers, craftspeople, textile connoisseurs and antiques sourced over the years by Venkataram. Over a healthy lunch of farm fresh salads at The Rouge Elephant, Venky, Aravind and Cynthia - the lovely creative manager at the store, and I chatted about all things creative and beautiful. It's amazing how good food and good conversation can be so engrossing that you don't even notice how much time has passed!  

I, of course, couldn't help but go back to the stunning antique jewelry at the store and tried on as many as I could, just a tad short of looking like a Christmas tree. It was with great effort that I took the jewels off and handed them back. But I know where I will be headed when I decide to treat myself to some antique sparkles :)

~ And then some more ~

The rest of the week was spent in a whirlwind of catch-ups - old friends, ex-colleagues, friends-of-friends now turned friends, the many lunches, dinners and drinks, the 12:00am creative brainstorming inspired by the storm outside and the wine inside, the 2:00am gossip/singing/crying/laughing sessions, again inspired by the thunder outside and oh-my-god so much wine inside! I/We hopped bars, all in happy anticipation of an upcoming birthday, experimented with Kokum cocktail recipes one late night at an organic farm, with four large dogs and one tiny cat keeping a watch over us as we downed each of our experiments. Inspite of all the intoxicant induction, I also got more work done; I visited a wonderful textile studio and factory and spent hours selecting fabric. This place is a linen heaven and as much as I would like to shout the name from rooftops, the owner has requested me to keep quiet about it, for now. He is gearing up to open a retail outlet in sometime, and for now, I guess I was lucky to have the opportunity to spend time looking through his fabulous collection and making my pick for the wildlife project that I am working on. And as promised, I live blogged it all people! Shared the goodies over at my instagram account as it happened.   

 

Oh, and the grand finale of the trip was, my first ever football match! Not as a player, peeps, not as a player. The closest I can get to the players is that I can now proudly announce that the coach of the Bengaluru FC team is my friend. Ha. But but, what an exhilarating evening it was! I loved the Bangalore crowd! The chants, the flags, the synchronous abuses hurled at the referee ~ all very very loud but not rowdy, at all! It was such a pleasant surprise for someone from the big bad city of Delhi. And then, to complete the football experience, we headed to the local post-match pub in pouring rain and met up with more friends, celebrating a good game. I was one of the boys, in my blue XS BFC jersey, though I zoned out as soon as the technical football talk started. So the boys very kindly made me feel at home and we argued till late in the night about the North-South divide and staked strong claims on Goa and the Himalayas. An eventful end to a wonderful week, and I have to say Thank You Tamarind Tree for pulling me to Bangalore. I will be back...yet another city that I have come to love, not just for it's places and what it has to offer, but also for all the splendid people I met and the friends I made. And the friends I did not get to meet this time, the readers who invited me to visit them, who sent me tips of what to see, where to eat ~ I'll be seeing you soon!    

 

[Image credits: My Images are tagged such; Other images: 2nd & 5th from top: Manoj Masand; 10th & 11th from top: The Tamarind Tree; 12th from top: Tina Nandi]

You'll Find Me..

..In Bangalore 

Next week!

I am in the lovely city of Bangalore next week, at the invite of a breathtakingly beautiful boutique heritage property. I will come back with stories and pretty pictures of all that I experience, and for the first time, will give 'live' blogging a shot over at my Instagram account! So if you would like to see surreptitious pictures of my co-passenger's meals, aesthetically shot pic of my boarding pass, pics of fluffy clouds and a plane wing, my feet as they first touch Bangalore, my first coffee and the first idli of the day at Bangalore...don't hesitate and send me a 'follow' request on Instagram right now! 

And if the above doesn't entice you, sigh, what to do? I WILL have to share pics from this heavenly place where I will be staying, the antiques that I will be marveling at, the boutique shops I will be visiting, the quaint bungalows, the cats I find and tickle, the fabulous textiles and crafts I gorge on, the cafes I visit, the wines I drink, the night sky from an organic farm, the rain...oh, the rain & thunder that I know is waiting for me in the city of Bengaluru. Find it all here :)

I'll be back on the blog in the first week of June

You be good and you take care

Join me on this trip right here, on instagram!

P.S: Thank you so much for your warm messages after the last post. I am doing much better...travel acts like a ninja anti-illness drug and I am back on my feet again! The next few months are all about moves & travel...we are going to go places, my kittens, and puppies! :)

It's Awful

Yes

It is

It is awful to be sick. To be sick when you had a packed week and you have more packed weeks coming up. When you were planning a surprise birthday party, for you love surprises and you adore birthdays and together they are the most awesome thing ever, turning over the hill be damned. When you were jumping around in high heels at the party, but with an existing hangover from the previous night and with a crushing backache that had merrily invited it's friends to the party as well. Friends that stayed over for the weekend and don't show any signs of leaving yet. You might know of these friends - neck ache, headache, eye ache and yes, even ear lobe ache showed up! Sigh. I am as grumpuss as you can imagine a cat denied to go outdoors can be. If not for the brilliant storm that brought some soul relief to me yesterday, I would have been silently [ok, not so silently most likely] sulking away in a corner. And oh the anticipation of upcoming travel! I have weeks & weeks of back to back travel coming up, and I am behaving myself as well as I can this week, so that I am fit as a fiddle and free as a fancy next week. [I am sick and I am allowed random word play, for all the grammar nazis out there who just flipped at the last sentence]

So, since I am squinting my eyes while typing this out and can't type no more [Ha ha, I like poking them grammar-oos, when I am not on their side being a nazi myself], I will hand over the post to you. Remember the cat not being allowed to go out? I am that cat, staring wistfully at all these vistas to be viewed from these rooms. Give me a room with a view any day. Like ANY DAY. I will take it and say Thank You.

I am off to Bangalore for the week, next week, my lovelies

Holler if you are around

And tell me if there are things & places JUST NOT TO BE MISSED in Bangalore.

I will see ya once again, before this week is through

Hale & Hearty

Mercury Retrograde be damned.

Ha.

[Images: Here]

Nope, Nothing

Yup, that's right. There's no agenda to today's post. No theme either. No well-put-together story of sorts. Nothing at all. I felt like talking to you. And I am having severe mountain pangs. And I am so neck deep in work,  so much work, that I am this close to saying 'Oh, fish it. I am going to Prague. And Paris'. Which is happening too, but that update is for another time. So going back to the mountain pangs, I go to my favorite tumblr blogs to get me some of those snow clad peaks and then I get distracted by these rooms and spaces. And I look at these spaces and I think to myself that these need to be shared with my kittens over at the blog. If I like them, they might like them too, and then all of us can be happy together, even if sitting in non-mountainous areas. So yeah, this is what the post is about. You and I, thinking of mountains, and looking at some pretteh rooms.  

And here I pause you. Wait. Take a deep breath and look at this image below. This, my munchkins, is what I call a working space. Imagine, you are working, working, working, and then you recline back and look to your left. You take in all that greenery, get visual oxygen and then go back to working, working, working. And then you pause and look again to your left. Maybe this time, pick up your glass of wine cup of tea/coffee, and go and stand by the window. Then you sigh, and go back to the desk and start working, working....yes, this can go on; I am sure you get the idea. Just lookatit!

Drop me a note if you live in the mountains. I am going to stare wistfully at you. Virtually of course. But even my virtual wistful stare can be quite heart melting, or so I have been told, and I am anticipating that you will invite me. To join you, in your mountain abode.

In that hope,

Adieu

I will be back with a more meaningful, with depth sorta post, soon

You, my kittens, have a happy rest of the week!

[Images: From here and there]

The Water Bearers

From Coppre

I am so happy to announce the launch of yet another fabulous new collection from Coppre, called the Water Bearers! Beautifully hand crafted, by the metal craftsmen in Tambat Ali, a small settlement in Pune, this collection is as much a decor statement as it is utilitarian. And that's not all! Traditional wellness wisdom talks of "Tamrajal" or "water ionized by copper" as having myriad health benefits. In ayurveda, water kept and had from copper vessels is known to be 'rich in antioxidants, kill bacteria, regulate thyroid, cure arthiritis, heal wounds faster, stimulate brain activity, improve digestion and beat anemia'. Phew! Something so pretty to look at and packed with such a punch! Drinking water just became way more cooler :)

The Water Bearer collection has Terracopper Jug, Terracopper Tumblr, Linear / Concave / Convex Tumblr, Bedside Carafe & Glass, Desktop Carafe and the Stepped Tray and you can shop for these and more from Coppre's repertoire right here.

~ The GiveAway ~

Coppre loves An Indian Summer readers and has gifted lovely products earlier as well to a few lucky ones. We are back with a giveaway and this time Coppre would like to gift one reader, anywhere in the world, a Desktop Carafe. This desktop carafe is beautifully finished off with handbeaten indentations of the Tambat craftsman and can be used both as antimicrobial packed drinking water vessel or as a flower vase.

~  How To Participate ~

1. Hop on to Coppre's website

2. Scroll down and sign up for their newsletter to get the the first dibs on all their exciting new launches & offers

That's it! 

Coppre will pick a winner from all the new subscribers who join their mailing list. The lucky (and henceforth very healthy) winner will be announced on facebook on Tuesday - May 5th!

Have a great weekend, folks! 

[All Images: Coppre. Creative Storyboarding: An Indian Summer]