Despite the hollowness, I am happy. Yes happy.
No really I don’t mind the emptiness.
The time of meeting my inner dialogue is over.
Really no mistakes now, I run my hands through my clean hair and I feel a rush of adrenalin. I don’t contemplate anymore.
I want it I have it.
I want it I get it.
Don’t blame me if I have a great job. How is it my fault I earn pots of pennies?
No really how is it my fault if I crave for a good life?
Didn’t you say work hard and have a good time?
Wait I need to light my smoke.
And please I don’t need sermons and guidance.
There is no one to reason out my freedom.
It’s my eyes.
They do all the work, they conduct the magic, and they execute all my sins.
And trust me I like them, it.
And I hate the letter Y.
At lest, I’m man enough to look my self in the mirror daily and say “I love you”
And please don’t bother judging me. It’s an effortless exercise, I am sure. But please don’t waste precious energy.
I’m sick of hearing “save for a rainy day”.
The rain gods can conserve their resources till I lie in my grave.
How is this cynical, how many men do you know would freely admit to all this.
How many men do you know?
I’m man enough to **** anorexic models without rubber. There I said it. I don’t give a **** if this sounds crass.
What was that?
“Look inside my self and see if this is me talking”
(Evil laugh)
Yes Sherlock it is I.
It is I who has sold my soul to the devil.
It is I who trip on expensive LSD.
It is I who buys Dolce and Gabanna and don’t think twice of starving children in Somalia. Should I kill my self? I think not.
You want to know me ah?
So here know me.
Do you know what I see when I squeeze my eyes shut?
I see glamour.
I see money.
I see promiscuosity.
I see light.
I see mirrors.
And I see hell.
Oh please I can’t cry anymore. Crying is a sign of loneliness and fear.
I’m alone and I’m scared.
I am.
Loneliness
Alone
Solitude
Alone
Fear
Paranoia
Stress
Alone
Panic
Pressure
High
Drop the pressure.
I can’t, because I don’t know how.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The art of seduction.
Sunday afternoon, post brunch, post one and a half bottles of white wine.
Drop into an art show looking around I spot her and she me.
The curator is the only common link between us. While he explains the subtleties of colour, the nuances of brush strokes, I and she have already taken off on a journey to the stars. For us there is no tomorrow, so tonight we dance like no tomorrow.
Famous first words from a liberated woman, “your place or mine”. She drove, again like no tomorrow.
My place, a company guest house. With two sleeping occupants.
We sit on the couch respecting the next five minutes of an unnecessary prelude. She calls me enigmatic and I call her my forbidden fruit. She wants to see my bedroom and en-route she pins me to the corridor wall and kisses me. I kiss her back with as much adventure as in a racy sex novel. To the sounds of the Morning orbits, a song close to my heart now…“all your sex and your diamonds”.
The evening is on. We both get that adrenalin rush of making love in house with other guests. No bedroom had we. But that did not stop us for one nano second.
Having sex with all your clothes on intensifies the element of mystery and intrigue. For a while we stretch out on the dining table and make crazy love. Panting for more, we use the quentiessential marble kitchen counter of with her halter and off with my Levis in darkness in perfectly rehearsed synchronization we make love. Back on the couch we can’t keep our hands off each other, necks covered with the remains of the evening we want some more there is no looking back now. Just like in the movies we move closer and closer and touch more and touch deeper. Each time we kissed we heard music divine.
We don’t want to stop but someone wakes up and walks into the room. To the naked eye we were just two regular people having a drink and a chat. They exit and we start whispering into each others bodies. We must stop, it’s highly dangerous that someone would walk in again and we could be compromised. But this is not a confidential secret society meeting. Oblivious. Sexual abandon and our dreams came true.
I walk her back to her car.
I don’t have her number neither do I know her name.
But we promise to meet before we die!
Drop into an art show looking around I spot her and she me.
The curator is the only common link between us. While he explains the subtleties of colour, the nuances of brush strokes, I and she have already taken off on a journey to the stars. For us there is no tomorrow, so tonight we dance like no tomorrow.
Famous first words from a liberated woman, “your place or mine”. She drove, again like no tomorrow.
My place, a company guest house. With two sleeping occupants.
We sit on the couch respecting the next five minutes of an unnecessary prelude. She calls me enigmatic and I call her my forbidden fruit. She wants to see my bedroom and en-route she pins me to the corridor wall and kisses me. I kiss her back with as much adventure as in a racy sex novel. To the sounds of the Morning orbits, a song close to my heart now…“all your sex and your diamonds”.
The evening is on. We both get that adrenalin rush of making love in house with other guests. No bedroom had we. But that did not stop us for one nano second.
Having sex with all your clothes on intensifies the element of mystery and intrigue. For a while we stretch out on the dining table and make crazy love. Panting for more, we use the quentiessential marble kitchen counter of with her halter and off with my Levis in darkness in perfectly rehearsed synchronization we make love. Back on the couch we can’t keep our hands off each other, necks covered with the remains of the evening we want some more there is no looking back now. Just like in the movies we move closer and closer and touch more and touch deeper. Each time we kissed we heard music divine.
We don’t want to stop but someone wakes up and walks into the room. To the naked eye we were just two regular people having a drink and a chat. They exit and we start whispering into each others bodies. We must stop, it’s highly dangerous that someone would walk in again and we could be compromised. But this is not a confidential secret society meeting. Oblivious. Sexual abandon and our dreams came true.
I walk her back to her car.
I don’t have her number neither do I know her name.
But we promise to meet before we die!
Luxury brands and the Indian market.
Like Marie Antonette once said: “If they can’t have bread, give them brands instead!”…
Diamond dripping & air kissing Indians can sip their champagne in peace, now that the Indian government has introduced a porthole for foreign direct investment (“FDI”) in single brand retail. In January 2006 the Indian government gave upscale retailers a further boost by allowing foreign companies to own a controlling interest of 51% in joint ventures operating “single-brands” stores. India has been pushing for enhancing FDI inflow, the FDI inflow into India stood at 5.5 billion in the financial year 2005-06. The Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy group, the French luxury goods conglomerate that owns, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Donna Karan and Dom Perignon are in talks to invest 500,000 euros in India over the next five years.
Brand consciousness is suddenly on an all time high. While shopping for luxury brands more than its sensory gratification, the social approval is what most people try to buy. A higher price implies a higher level of quality and a certain prestige. For this, brands invest a lot of time and a lot of money in advertisements. They constantly need to have a certain sex appeal to attract consumers, this is quite evident while flipping through a perfectly photo shopped magazine or browsing the net. The urban Indian consumer wants to own products that inspire, awe and envy. Whether its drinking Pellegrino water or decking up in brands like Manolo Blannik, uber trendy, super sexy, extremely rich Indians are cashing in on luggage from Louis Vuitton, jewellery from Bvlgari and fur coats from Fendi.
Luxury is derived from the Latin word “Luxus” which means indulgence of the senses irrespective of its cost. Luxury brands are those whose ratio of functional utility to price is low while its intangible utility to price is high. What really makes a brand a luxury brand? Is it its heritage of craftsmanship, its exclusivity or its fashion intensive uniqueness? Its premium pricing, highly customized and limited editions creates an aura which make these brands desirable and luxurious. Whatever be the reason, the
debate on whether luxury products sell if so how much, who its buyers are and whether its market will grow has comfortably ended. There are an estimated 73,000 multi millionaires in the country, number of households with an annual income of more than 1 crore.
Till a few years ago rich Indians would shop for their fixes of luxury items while they went globe trotting, but now with many brands from all over the world deciding to open stores on Indian shores, one really doesn’t need to go across the Atlantic to indulge. It stands correct to say that India has come of age; in as far as the luxury goods market is concerned. Though most brands function from the confines of five star hotels they not only had a very limited footfall but also inadequate visual impact. Major Indian cities lack the concept of high fashion streets which else where provides a symbiotic cluster of posh retailers. While New York boasts of Fifth Avenue, Paris the Avenue des Champs Elysees and Hong Kong the Causeway Bay the luxury shopping experience is missing. The Indian market is fragmented and rather disorganised.
But with malls sprouting at an incredible speed things are about to change Indians can do retail therapy at high end malls and not have to depend on their next vacation or that invitation to the Milan fashion week. The Gitanjali group are investing in high end luxury and wedding malls in eight cities across India. Delhi and Mumbai have their high end malls and selected areas where one can shop comfortably. So apart from raising a toast to such sparkling growth it’s safe to say its passé and so last season to be seen in domestically made shoes and clothes, now its Jimmy Choo and Hermes all the way.
Diamond dripping & air kissing Indians can sip their champagne in peace, now that the Indian government has introduced a porthole for foreign direct investment (“FDI”) in single brand retail. In January 2006 the Indian government gave upscale retailers a further boost by allowing foreign companies to own a controlling interest of 51% in joint ventures operating “single-brands” stores. India has been pushing for enhancing FDI inflow, the FDI inflow into India stood at 5.5 billion in the financial year 2005-06. The Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy group, the French luxury goods conglomerate that owns, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Donna Karan and Dom Perignon are in talks to invest 500,000 euros in India over the next five years.
Brand consciousness is suddenly on an all time high. While shopping for luxury brands more than its sensory gratification, the social approval is what most people try to buy. A higher price implies a higher level of quality and a certain prestige. For this, brands invest a lot of time and a lot of money in advertisements. They constantly need to have a certain sex appeal to attract consumers, this is quite evident while flipping through a perfectly photo shopped magazine or browsing the net. The urban Indian consumer wants to own products that inspire, awe and envy. Whether its drinking Pellegrino water or decking up in brands like Manolo Blannik, uber trendy, super sexy, extremely rich Indians are cashing in on luggage from Louis Vuitton, jewellery from Bvlgari and fur coats from Fendi.
Luxury is derived from the Latin word “Luxus” which means indulgence of the senses irrespective of its cost. Luxury brands are those whose ratio of functional utility to price is low while its intangible utility to price is high. What really makes a brand a luxury brand? Is it its heritage of craftsmanship, its exclusivity or its fashion intensive uniqueness? Its premium pricing, highly customized and limited editions creates an aura which make these brands desirable and luxurious. Whatever be the reason, the
debate on whether luxury products sell if so how much, who its buyers are and whether its market will grow has comfortably ended. There are an estimated 73,000 multi millionaires in the country, number of households with an annual income of more than 1 crore.
Till a few years ago rich Indians would shop for their fixes of luxury items while they went globe trotting, but now with many brands from all over the world deciding to open stores on Indian shores, one really doesn’t need to go across the Atlantic to indulge. It stands correct to say that India has come of age; in as far as the luxury goods market is concerned. Though most brands function from the confines of five star hotels they not only had a very limited footfall but also inadequate visual impact. Major Indian cities lack the concept of high fashion streets which else where provides a symbiotic cluster of posh retailers. While New York boasts of Fifth Avenue, Paris the Avenue des Champs Elysees and Hong Kong the Causeway Bay the luxury shopping experience is missing. The Indian market is fragmented and rather disorganised.
But with malls sprouting at an incredible speed things are about to change Indians can do retail therapy at high end malls and not have to depend on their next vacation or that invitation to the Milan fashion week. The Gitanjali group are investing in high end luxury and wedding malls in eight cities across India. Delhi and Mumbai have their high end malls and selected areas where one can shop comfortably. So apart from raising a toast to such sparkling growth it’s safe to say its passé and so last season to be seen in domestically made shoes and clothes, now its Jimmy Choo and Hermes all the way.
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