Chiconomical

I know what you've been thinking, Where have I been recently? Working! No, not working in the "I'm a student working in the lab" sense. Instead, I've now got a job. My first ever real office job! Yes, crazy right?! The last few weeks have seen me busy with office (omg! its weird even saying that) and wrapping up my academic commitments and there's a whole new set of rules I need to know and follow now. Obviously, one of the key ones is office dressing! The new job came with its own set of dos and don'ts for what is and isn't appropriate at the workplace. Whoa! Quite a challenge for a girl who likes her grunge jeans! Let the hunting begin!!


On my little hunt to find office wear that was chic and in my price range, I came across Dress4Less. So impressed was I with the items on the site (and the prices too), that I decided to get in touch with the beauty and brains behind the store, Naina Seth Jain. Naina is one of the nicest people you'll meet and she told me a little bit about the collection! She curates each piece and tries to offer the quality that you may find in a boutique in UK (she lived there for a few years) to the Indian market. A lot of her pieces are similar to collections I've seen on high street stores such as River Island and H&M, but don't have the price tags of those brands. You should definitely check out the tops section for some interesting pieces (read cute crop tops and a minions and cartoon print vest I'm coveting!!

Now, onto how I got on the site in the first place (and my outfit of course), there are some really amazing blazers in a very affordable price range.  I've spent loads of time looking for blazers and other officewear bits recently, and let me tell you, finding one that doesn't fall in the 3-5 grand range is a challenge. Dress4Less has some unique pieces in the 1.5k price range. There are also some great bags that are office as well as pocket friendly. Oh, and for those evening dinner parties, there's some interesting gowns too! With easy shipping and returns options, I found the store to be a simple, hassle free shopping experience.

Indo-western is something I've rarely done on the blog. While a lot of my outfits will have little Indian touches, somehow I feel that these outfits are never good enough for the blog. Well, turns out I was to get a chance to shoot for this trend very soon, courtesy of "My first ever blogger collaboration"! What?! 

The awesome Abha Tiwari from PunkPie Blog got in touch with me for a very special collaboration where we would showcase our take on the Indo-western trend. Of course I was excited and said yes! Now I usually don't wear a lot of Indian on a daily basis and when I do, its usually for some occasion of the Great Big Indian Weddings that I have to attend. So as soon as I got the theme, I knew I wanted to do a look that was wedding appropriate Indo-western. Abha did a more casual everyday take on it and I love how both our looks show two end of the spectrum. 

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.