10 Essentials For This Navratri!

It is that time of the year, when the jeans are replaced by the Churidars, Skirts by Lehengas, Shirts by Kurtas and Tops by backless Blouses! 9 days of the world Famous Gujju Sunburn “Navratri" has begun, and all we want to do is to dress up and dance. This colourful festival brings the colourful dilemma of choosing the right accessories with the right outfit and most importantly wearing the right colour combination. Here’s a list of products, to grab all those eyeballs ;)

Check out the top 10 Navratri Essentials for this season below!

1. The Chic Story: Palazzo Skirts from FabIndia

Palazzos are the in-thing this season, And if you are Modish, with an eye for Fashion, and, love to try new styles ... A Palazzo Skirt is all you need this Navratri. This shocking Pink palazzo Skirt (Rs. 1890)  from FabIndia is a must have. Club it with this Orange Kurti( Rs.1790) and this gorgeous pink neck  piece (Rs.490) for the ultimate Chic look!

Style Tip: Club this Pink Palazzo Skirt with a black boat neck crop top, a neon green Dupatta and statement accessories.

2. The Sober Guy: Kurtas For men from Keri and Fabindia

There are two categories of guys in Navratri ;) Ones wearing the jingbang “Khedias”and the sober ones, wearing the cotton Kurtas. And Yes, we are talking about the sober ones. There’s always, a lot of confusion when it comes to men’s shopping. VR Surat has a solution to this. Find vibrant coloured Navratri special cotton Kurtas for men at Fabindia and Keri on the second floor.

Style Tip: Wear these colorful Kurtas with white or black bottoms and contrast Bandhani Dupattas, for that dashing look.

3. The Junk Freak: Feature accessories for females from Keri & FabIndia

Yes, we aren’t as lucky as the Bombaywalas and the Delhiwalas to have a Colaba Causeway or a Sarojini Market to buy junk jewellery. But we surely have a great mall with some very good stores. Add a dash of junk to your Navratri outfit with these unavoidable pieces from Keri and Fabindia .

Style Tip – Basic rule in junk, is to either wear the neckpiece or the earrings. Too much is not always too good :P

4. Beautlicious: Beauty products from Forest Essentials

If you are beauty conscious and experiment with the range of beauty products, then you must try the "Saudarya Collection” by Forest Essentials at the ground Floor of VR Mall. It’s a special gift combo offer comprising of soap, body oil, radiance cream and body lotion with a dash of 24 karat gold at Rs. 4800 only. Flaunt that Glow!

Beauty Tip – Always follow the “Directions for use” section of any beauty product to avail the best results.

5. The well Co-ordinated Shoe-o-holic: Colourful Kolhapuri Chappals from Keri

For the finicky shoe-o-ohlic women, who are obsessed with colour co-ordination. Keri, at VR Mall, offers you wide range of colourful Kolhapuri chappals. These chappals are available in the rare most colours, and are priced at Rs. 695. All for the perfectionists!

Style Tip – Buy colours that you can wear even otherwise and are matching with your casual wear outfits.

6. Lehenga Lover: Cotton Skirts from Westside, Biba, FabIndia

For the Garba fanatic women, it is a prerequisite to wear different outfits on all the 9 days. Visit Westside, FabIndia and Biba for some vibrant cotton lehengas. Feel good on each day :D

Style tip – If you are wearing a printed lehenga then use a single colour plain Dupatta and vice versa :D

7. Makeup-maniac: Behold waterproof Makeup by Mac is here!

And who doesn’t like Makeup. Here is the look of the festival by MAC. Nude is the “in-thing”, club it with some coral blusher and glitter eye makeup for the glamorous Navratri look. The products you’ll need for this look are a foundation of your skin tone, "Look in the box” - face kit with comprising of blusher eye shadow and lipstick palette worth Rs.5800. Water proof Mascara worth RS.1400. Lip and eye kit comprising of Lipstick, Lip gloss, glitter eyeshadow palette and an eyeliner Kajal worth Rs.4800

8. The Kids conscious Parents: Navratri Collection for Kids from Keri and Biba

For the “Helicopter Parents”, dressing their kids the best is also an obsession. Buy these cute traditional Chaniya Cholis and Kurta sets for your girls and boys from Keri and Biba.

Style Tip – Don’t impose too much on your kids, make them wear comfortable clothes to enjoy garba!

9. Spa at O2!

Soothe your nerves with these Navratri special offers from O2 Spa,VR Mall. Get Upto 49% discounts on individual Spa treatments till 3rd October 2014.

Here is how much discount you can  avail on what dates:

29th Sept - 29% Off; 30th Sept - 44% off; 1st Oct - 39% off; 2nd Oct – 34% off; 3rd Oct – 29%off

10. Foodie's Delight: Food Box will be open till 12 in the night!

So all those gluttons , whose only aim to go out in Navratri , is to eat food , should definitely visit the food box at VR Surat. It offers wide range of cuisines from Indian to Mexican, to Italian, to Chinese and also the sandwiches and burgers :)

Blogger - Hetvi Choksi / Photographer - Vishal

Happy Minds.

Event: The Happiness Therapy

Conducted By: HappyMinds (visit website)

Venue: Science Center Auditorium

Guest Blogger: Shweta Merchant Gandhi

Photo Courtesy: HappyMinds

We at HappyMinds look at the organization as an empowerment institution, on a spree to infect the nation with happiness! And are just overwhelmed by the response we received for our very first "The Happiness Therapy" session this last Sunday which is a small step in this endeavor of ours.

The Happiness Therapy session aimed to answer a few simple but really relevant questions from our day to day lives... questions like - Do i need a direction in my life? Do i need to be more positive and confident? How do i be awesomer? I need to practice gratitude and life anger free/complain free life... but how? This fun session was aimed at teaching ways to positive thinking, rediscovering self and making best possible use of one's life.

The session is aimed at making people aware of the simple fact that they are the CHIEF HAPPINESS OFFICER of their lives! And no one else should be assigned that much power over YOUR life!

The session was also full of small snippets of wisdom such as - "Change The Script" which essentially tell you that the Mind Is A Great Story Teller. And it loves telling stories. All day, everyday, it tells you stories about who you’re, what you’re like, what you should be doing with your life, what other people think of you, what’s wrong with the world, what will happen in the future, what went wrong in the past & so on. Unfortunately a lot of these stories are negative. Change the script! Change the quality of these stories – make it positive, powerful & pure!

We were thrilled that we had a jam packed auditorium. And we could i hope make a small impact in their lives through this session. In the end i want to leave the readers of this blog with what we call 10 HAPPINESS FACTS. Do tell me if you think of them... here they go -

1. Only 10 percent of your happiness comes from external circumstances.

2. Your outlook on life, and what you choose to do with your life accounts for 40 percent of your happiness levels. This includes your friendships, work, and participation in your community.

3. A mere 20 minutes of exercise, three days each week will increase your happiness by 10 to 20 percent after six months.

4. The happier you are, the more antibodies your body generates – up to 50 percent more, in fact.

5. Happy people generally earn more than unhappy people.

6. Dancing increases happiness.

7. Money buys happiness. Those who can afford to have their basic material needs taken care of are happier than those who cannot, however…

8. Money does not buy happiness. After having your basic material needs met, additional money does not have any impact on your levels of happiness.

9. People in relationships are usually happier than people who are single, however…

10. Happier people are more likely to retain relationships.

PS. - If you attended the session do post your feedback as a comment to this blog. I would love to hear from you of what you think about the session. Do let us know your take away from the session.

Shweta.