Chiconomical

Hiya lovely people. Have you been completely frustrated with the crazy weather this morning? I have! Mumbai usually doesn't have blinding sunshine one second and then crazy downpour the next. Now I know you think that this weather is something that's going to mess up your long weekend plans, but I've got the perfect ways to look fabulous by bringing you three ways to wear your gum boots. I know, you probably don't think these are versatile enough to be worn to everything that you could possibly have lined up on the weekend, but read on and maybe I'll change your mind.

1. Summer Hustler



2. Party Babe




3. Desi Boho Girl

With one day to go for New Years, I thought I'd share my New Year's Eve outfit with you guys. I usually am a fairly casual dressing type of girl. I don't like to wear very "party" outfits and if I must I almost always fall back to the LBD. However, 2016 demands that I try something different. That's exactly how this outfit came up.



A quick pinterest search will tell you, you can't have a new year outfit without sequins and if you're feeling extra girly, lace. So I decided since its new year, I'll combine both these things to get my outfit. Hey, gotta go big or go home right?

So a few months ago, I was contacted by Santosh, who is a writer to see if I would review his books. He has written quite a few and was gracious enough to send me 4 of them for review. Now I know its been long overdue, but the last couple of months have been hectic and it took a week of fever to get me to finally sort out all the old posts I've had lined up. Oh well, enough personal drama, lets talk about the first book I read, called Surrogate Author.

Now, I say book, but its almost like a little play. The premise is, the famous story of Devdas and his Paro (made rather mainstream by a certain Mr. SRK and his leading ladies) but instead, told from the point of view of a struggling writer. The book unfolds as a play over nine months (I love this little nod to how writing is almost like giving birth to a child), with each character having their own lines, and even a narrator. I really like the premise of the book. Truly, every struggling author has an almost poetic romance with his first book. Right?

While the premise held me till the end, the writing almost made me feel like throwing the book at a wall. I abhor incorrect grammar, especially in books and this book has a lot of issues in that sense. I cannot stand dialogue that is riddled with mistakes.

Onto the characters, I find it a little difficult to accept that one of the characters is a book. Yes, this would be fine but the fact that the book speaks, moves about and fights with the lead character, which all the other characters can see too (its not just in his mind, mind you) makes it a little weird for me. There is a scene where the book is described to be running through the house in joy. I cannot relate this to any real life scenario. I do understand that the writer has a certain creative liberty, I still wish it was a bit more realistic.

All in all, the book is a quick read (finished it on a single train journey to work) and an interesting take on the classic. If you can manage to ignore the writing issues, you should read it. If not for anything else, then just for the romance between a writer and his first book.

Summer is finally here. Tis the season for crop tops and cool trousers. Recently, vintage looking outfits seem to catch my fancy. This outfit is something along those lines. I am currently all above high waisted skirts and pants with crop tops. I styled this outfit for a friend's dinner party. I had a meeting that day, so I actually wore a shirt through the day (remember this outfit) and then changed into the crop top and vest.










I have a lot of love for these trousers. They had to be altered and I can't believe I almost returned them! Thankfully, mom saw a way of altering them without messing up the silhouette. The button detailing at the waist is absolutely my favorite thing!  Oh, in case you've noticed, I've mentioned the approximate prices of items that weren't bought by me. A friend recently pointed out that I mention a lot of things that are gifted and in turn, don't add their prices to the overall total. Well, I may not always know the exact price of the gifts, but from now on, I'll mention prices of similar items. I hope this helps you guys get a better idea of the total outfit price range.

PS: Sorry I've haven't been posting regularly (Thank you, real life!). I've got a few people asking me if I'm unwell and its great to see that someone does read the blog and notices the absence of posts. I'm thankful for your kind words and I hope I can blog regularly soon. 

Fast foward to the mall where the Tata Bolt is beckoning with its Red and sleek design, I'd have to say the first look did manage to get me a little excited about the review. The team at the booth was extremely helpful and they had some really interesting activities going on aswell. My friend even managed to win a little gift, but more on that later. So down to the Tata Bolt, which is said to represent an attitude of winning. One of the first things you notice is that the car is quite tall, even if its ground clearance is 165 mm. The interiors have a sleek look and I especially liked the feel of the steering wheel which is well sized (I really don't know if this is a thing but it felt like a wheel I could caress with without wanting to pull it out and chuck it outta the window while stuck in traffic). Well, onto the more "serious" features that are supposed to be discussed here.


The Tata Bolt page tell you that the following are its winning features:

• Revotron 1.2 L Turbocharged MPFi engine with first-in-class multi-drive mode
• Harman touchscreen multimedia system
• Voice recognition and SMS readouts
• New Signature front grille
• Projector headlamps
• Speed dependent volume control
• Rugby shoulder seats

While the awesome team at the booth did tell us all about these things (well, they forgot the speed dependant volume control, but that's awrite), we managed to shortlist our own set of neat little features we liked and felt set it apart from other stock cars.

Things We Liked:

1. Boot Space with Collapsable Seats

Drop down rear end seats to make some more space!

The slot to keeps the belts away!

As I close the back!

The Tata Bolt has a spacious boot (which was incidentally where we began checking the car out) and we liked the clean finish of the interior. Its 210 lts booth space is quite enough for stuffing a couple your bags for that impromptu trip alongwith the extra bag of shopping you did on the trip. Still need some more?? The collapsable seats increase the space and make it spacious enough to sleep back there! There's even a little slot to insert the seat belts at the side! A definite win in my book!

2. Sound System

A little peek into the sound system

I happen to be a big believer in judging a car on its sound system so the fact that this car's sound makes it to my "good things" list is saying something. They have an excellent touchscreen by Harman Electronics which makes it an awesome companion on that long solo road trip. Oh, and like i mentioned before, they have a speed dependant volume control! Another nifty little feature that makes the car interesting.

4. Multi Drive

As I couldn't test drive, a picture with the car

The multi drive feature lets you switch between three modes. Sports, Eco and City. What's the difference between the three you ask?
The Sports mode lets you have a burst of power, the Eco gives excellent fuel efficiency and City is somewhere between a two, supposedly balancing between speed and efficiency. To be honest, the sports mode (I hope) is quite a compelling reason to buy the car, I mean, who doesn't wanna be cool in their little sports hatchback?

5. Storage Tray

The litte tray I loved!

So this is something my friend pointed out and I found quite interesting. Its got a little tray for storing documents (maps maybe Mr. Navigator) under the navigator seat at the front. We took an extremely awkward picture of this so you guys could get an idea of it. This certainly isn't present in both our cars and is a quirky little addition we both appreciated.


Things We Weren't too Convinced About:

1. Impact Resistance

Under the hood

2. Storage

Storage space under the dashboard

Yes, I've already written quite a bit about the storage space, but at the same time, the storage in terms of the back seat is quite minimal. The door pads, while quite large, have no bottle holders! (Where will all my water bottles go guys?) and the cup holder at the center can hold only one cup. (Erm, don't you know a girl needs about two cups of coffee before she wakes up and reaches work?). Not a major dealbreaker though, as you can always hold one in your hand, provided you aren't the driver.

3. No CNG
A factory fitted CNG capability would have made this car a lot more pocket friendly to be honest. However, I can understand that the sports mode just wouldn't run right with CNG but in the current state of the working population, I'd definitely like the CNG option.

Well, there wasn't anything other that this, there isn't much to not like really. While an official price isn't out yet, it is expected that the car will be priced somewhere around 4.2 - 6.6 lakhs. If you ask me, then that's an extremely good deal in terms of value for money.

Some members of Team Bolt (sadly a few had gone to have lunch when we took this picture)

A "picture" with the sportman.

In other things, I managed to get a picture with the team present at the Bolt Booth and really wanna talk about how helpful they were and answered all our questions (no matter how silly they were) with a smile. After we'd checked the car, they asked my friend if he'd like to play a little quiz about the features of the car. Well, long story short, five questions and a five answers later, we won a little table clock and also managed to take a couple of selfies with the car as well as Narian Karithekeyan. Thanks a lot guys!

So finally, the big Question....

Should you Buy It?

Oh yes! While I'm no expert, I was quite impressed with the little details put in the car. Like I've mentioned before, the car comes packed with loads of interesting features and is value for money if they do offer it in the said price range. So if your looking for a sports car with little quirks that suite your wandering soul, this is the car for you. If you aren't that kind? Well, I'd say get this car anyway, as its other features will definitely make it suitable for a wide range of people, right from the family of four on a family excursion to the lone rider who just wants to follow the long wide open road.

This post is a part of the Get. Set. Bolt. activity at BlogAdda.