Bangalore Jam: Meet Chumbak! (#2)

"Bring out the bread and get your spread of 

Saturday Jam!"

Greeting and Happy Saturday.

Quick Recap: The last time I did this feature was a year ago. I was so pumped about it, I stopped after one post.  

It was suppose to bring my blog back to life! Bleh, but it didn't.

Nevermind that. Now it is officially back!

For real.. yes I will be continuing this feature because I still love the idea so much! 

The Last Saturday this was launched dates back to Jan 14, 2012, which was when my first edition came out featuring the Drongographer.

Today I will be featuring Chumbak! :)

Hmmm...I discovered Chumbak at Crossword (books store in Bangalore) piled up in a basket. There was an assorted range of funky looking coasters, charms and wrapping paper. I LOVED them, they were hilarious and adorable. I picked up a set of coaster to gift my friend's parents for Diwali. 

And then I looked it up on Google and they had a website and this whole trove of other things. They've grown a lot since I found them. My memories are vague, but I remember telling a couple of my friends about Chumbak. Now I stalk the site frequently and keep putting them on my wishlists. When I planned this feature, Chumbak came up and here they are.

What is Chumbak all about? 

The idea of Chumbak started as an expression of our love for travel. Each time we traveled, we brought back a piece of that place in the form or a fridge magnet or some small knick knack. While researching the Indian souvenir market, we found that it didn't offer much in terms of creativity in its products. Which was really surprising, since India has so much to offer by way of expression and culture. Being a first generation entrepreneur, we soon realized the market was not limited to tourists and travelers. Young Indians were also looking for products that truly represent their generation. The wanted products that represented India and at the same time, design that they would relate to. So Chumbak was born :)

How did you come with the name Chumbak?

We intially wanted to do only Magnet. Chumbak means Magnet in Hindi.

"chumma (kissing)+ bak (stone)"- Pool Magazine (December)

Who are the people behind Chumbak?

Shubra Chadda and Vivek Prabhakar (who is often referred to as Darth in Chumbak blog posts!)

                                     

What does Team Chumbak like to do for fun?

We honestly don't have much time being a start up, but we're pretty normal when it comes to fun.:) We make time out and read...watch movies and just relax. Ask us this question in about 5 years. :)

What do you love most about Namma Bengaluru?

The weather! (who doesn't?! I think we should have been named God's own country instead of Kerala)

 An activity/place, unique to Bangalore, that you would recommend?

Koshys for some awesome relaxed atmosphere and some yummy food.

What do you think of Chumbak? 

Log onto chumbak.com  to see and buy some of the stuff they make. 

Thank you Team Chumbak for being a part of this feature,

and thank you audience for stopping by.

Until next Saturday! 

Got any ideas? Want to be featured or know someone who can be, drop a line on my facebook page page.

Note: Person to be features has to be Bangalorean or must know enough of  Bangalore to share their thoughts. 

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Sources for interview: An email interview+ Chumbak blog+ magazine interview  

Investigating Sherlock Holmes

Who: 

Sherlock Holmes 

(a fictional character created by Sir Author Conan Doyle)

Profession: 

Freelance Detective

Place of residence: 

221 Baker's Street, London

Age: 

60,he was born in 1854. 

(According to "His Last Bow" which is set in Aug 1914)

Habits: 

-eccentric and lives 'bohemian' style, though he is said to love being clean in general

          - pursues the habit of using cocaine, his excuse is that it stimulates the idle mind

          - depends on Watson until his marriage, and later lives of his sleuthing wages

Love interests: 

-seem to be minimal. 

           - he tries to impress Irene Adler in "A Scandal in Bohemia" but it is an unhappy ending -In The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, he is engaged to be married, but only to                    

                         gain information

Holmes states, 

"I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind"; in fact, he finds "the motives of women... so inscrutable.... How can you build on such quicksand? Their most trivial actions may mean volumes;... their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin".

You get the idea?

Methods of deduction:

Abductive reasoning a form of logical reasoning that uses a presupposes hypothesis to account for data. 

Use of Disguises

Weapons and Martial Arts: ranging from Pistols to an above average physical condition.

Knowledge and Skill :

Loyal Colleague/Biographer and like a best bud: 

Dr Watson 

Stage and screen adaptation:  

A LOT! 

The Guinness Book of World Records consistently lists Sherlock Holmes as "the most portrayed movie character" with 75 actors playing parts in over 112 films.  

This last bit was suppose to be the main focus of the post, but as I started my research it seemed important to introduce the character at first. The introduction seem to have created a fairly large post on its own, so maybe I will save the Stage and Screen Adaptation for later. 

It also inspired me to introduce a new feature, but  I won't jinx it by making it public yet. Lol, sometimes I think I get commitment-phobic with my blog. Anywho stay tuned for more on Sherlock Holmes and my surprise new feature. 

--x--

Source: Wikipedia 

Maxi's making the waves this summer

So with summer here in full blast, well despite the periodical rains the general weather is hot. So everyone's pulled out their summer best. For a long time I thought it was a special skill to detect fashion trends, lol especially to beat it before it turned popular and was EVERYWHERE. This time I got hooked to maxi dresses and floral prints via Weheartit before it got here, surprise surprise they are everywhere now. Not so much maxis on people, but in stores yeah. Even jeans are becoming icky for the summer. So I've been eyeing a lot of them lately, just haven't got around to picking up one. Because I am super fussy about summer dresses and with a tiny figure, it easy for clothes in the non-kids section to sag on you and look *scrunches noses up*..u get the idea?

So here are some summer pretties I liked..

These are from the MANGO collection

Tail hems are so cute! I love them so much!

Summer maxis, the blue one is carried off sooo well! 

And there is this other side called Free People, it doesn't allow you to copy the pictures, unless you have the patience to work around that and get yourself one. Must see, they have a fine Limited Vintage Collection which cost a bomb, it runs into like 20k, which in my opinion is a crazy price! Here is one pic I sneaked into my blog..

So over time, I developed this Vintage fetish, which vaguely runs parallel to my History topic with is America in the early 19 century to the end of the century. So a bit of the Jazz Age, flappers and their fashion..it doesn't stop there..some of the eras here and there in time like the Hippies in Britain also have pretty vintage maxi inspiration.. So I found Sammy Davis, who runs a thrift store in Canada and has her own web page and facebook page that I diligently  ardently follow. Below are pictures of two of the many dresses she put up pictures of on her page and I love so much. Here is her Facebook page...and there you can find a link to her web portal.

 

Maybe next time, if I'm patient enough, I shall do some research and put together a more insightful post with historic tidbits post related to pretty maxis. Meanwhile let me know what you think of maxis and share with me your maxi/vintage loves! 

--x--

photo credits:

Weheartit

Mango Clothing Store

Freepeople.com

Sammy Davis Vintage