The one-horse race of the iPad is finally at an end! Welcome to the next level



The one-horse race of the iPad is finally at an end! Welcome to the next level 1:15 am, New Delhi International Airport, Croma Store: person in line has just bought a Motorola Xoom Tablet 2:45 am, Lufthansa Flight LH 761 to Frankfurt: a woman across the aisle in a sharp business suit fishes out an Asus Transformer Tablet 4:55 pm, Selfridges on Oxford Street: Bollywood actor from Dharmendra clan has spent 15 minutes quizzing me on all the Tablets available (nine of them) and finally decided on buying the Blackberry PlayBook 6:15pm, T-Mobile Store on Marble Arch: there's a line of three people; two of them have just bought the HTC Flyer Tablet. YES, IT's on. The one-horse race is finally a full fledged clash of thoroughbreds. While the iPad and the iPad 2 have created and captured the market, the monopoly is over.
The floodgates have opened and a tidal wave of Tablets has swept across the world. Strangely enough, India is right there on the priority release list for each and every brand. If you're in the market for a Tablet, here are your contenders.
1 HTC FLYER Very small and portable, typical HTClevel, tank-like build quality and form factor. Looks very different from others, great screen, speedy processor, good battery life, good optics, has some special add-ons and touches like the magic pen and HTC Sense. Runs Android 2.3 and is priced at around R 38,000.
Reasons to buy: Super portable, stunning looks, great build quality and the magic pen works well.
Reasons to ponder: Unjustified high price, doesn't run Honeycomb, the latest version of Android for Tablets.
2 BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK Seven inches of multimedia and multitasking heaven, bulletproof OS, smart gestures for extra functions, industrial design that is simple yet elegant and a rubberised back that doesn't slip.
Prices start from around R 26,000
Reasons to buy: Well-priced, QNX is great, best multi-tasking yet on a Tablet.
Reasons to ponder: Apps (the dearth of them). BlackBerry Bridge forces you to connect to a BlackBerry phone for email, contacts, notes and calendar, a blunder that RIM needs to correct NOW!
3 MOTOROLA XOOM The mothership, the showcase device for Android Tablets, the best reason to try Honeycomb. Beautiful screen, great build, has all the ports you want, super responsive, brilliant optics, lots of power, lots of RAM, nothing can slow down this beast. Prices start from around R 32,000 32GB (WiFi-only version).
Reasons to buy: Beats the pants off all others in hardware, huge screen, great resolution, feels very solid in the hand.
Reasons to ponder: Heavy, not all ports have been enabled, not too many native apps for Honeycomb yet.
4 SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 7, 8.9 AND 10.1 The one company that seems to be taking the Tablet market very seriously. Has offerings across the board. The 8.9 and the 10.1 run Honeycomb and is what Samsung designers went back to the table and came up with after the iPad 2. The 10.1 is the big deal here. It's lighter than anything else in the market, has a screen to kill for and may well be Samsung's silver bullet fired straight into the heart of the Tablet war.
Reasons to buy: Samsung has promised aggressive pricing.
Now if only they can shave off 15 per cent off the iPad 2 prices!
Reasons to ponder: If they still play the `Samsung is a premium brand and thus will only sell at premium pricing', it is game over.
5 MSI WINDPAD ENJOY The Tablet for the rest of us. And that's a big market. Remember, if you don't have about R 30,000 to spend, you're pretty much out of the Tablet market as the lowest offerings start from there.
But not for the Enjoy. Very well priced at about R 14,000, this one still has a 10.1 inch screen, looks good and sports two cameras, two mini-USB ports and an HDMI-out. The screen isn't razor sharp and the hardware isn't stellar, but it's a great entry for what is predicted to be a huge market: the Economy Tablet! Reasons to buy: Price, price, price.
Reasons to ponder: Screen, build and innards are a little off. But only a little.
6 ACER ICONIA A500 The first Honeycomb Tablet to be launched in India, this one has it all: good hardware, a 10.1-inch screen, aluminium casing, dual-core Tegra 2 processor, HDMI-out, 5 and 2 MP back and front-facing cameras respectively and Dolby Mobile Audio It has a logical button layout and costs about R 27,000.
Reasons to buy: Fantastic hardware, good price, functional USB port and a microSD card slot.
Reasons to ponder: Slightly bulky, screen has a fine grid and there is no 3G version yet.

There are others. The OlivePad is now playing the price champion game (about 13K); HCL has the ME Tablets; Notion Ink is finally shipping; LG seems to be playing a bit of a waiting game (but from whatever has been announced, the LG Optimus Tablet looks promising); Asus has the notebook-killer Transformer coming up. The other biggie that may just be the giant killer is of course the HP TouchPad with webOS.

Stage two of the Tablet war is now officially underway. Three months from now, another three or four new Tablets will be out, current kinks will have been ironed out, prices will have dropped, iOS 5 on the iPad 2 will have been released and some real sales numbers will be available. Will it still be a one-horse race? I seriously doubt that. As Tesio said about horse racing: “A horse gallops with his lungs, perseveres with his heart and wins with his character.“ I have a feeling the Tablet war will be also be won by a device with the great lungs, a big heart and a strong character.

Kamla is any woman who would rather stay at home than go out to work ­ a noticeable trend among urban women. Whatever happened to the feminist dream of self-worth and financial independence?


NOT THAT long ago, in the Seventies, feminists urged women to go out of their homes and work. Domesticity limited their potential, women were told, they could do much more with their lives than remain restricted to their nurturing and homemaking roles. `What men can do, women can do too, and maybe better“ was their anthem.

Fast forward to thirty years later. Today, the idea of women going out to work is commonplace.
Economic independence has been the buzzword for women for years now.
But wait, something else is afoot here. A growing number of women today are actually choosing not to go out into the workplace. Maybe they've tried working and opted out because they couldn't manage home and office. Maybe they've stopped working to bring up their children. Maybe they still work out of the house, or do a bit of free lance work. Or maybe it's none of the above ­ maybe they want to stay at home. Whatever the reason, here's a question: what happened to the fierce desire to be someone other than stay-at-home-women? JUST A REBELLION?

Some men ­ at the risk of having women shout them down ­ still view the Seventies movement as a rebellion to be “different“ rather than as something that grew out of an intrinsic belief.
“That is what it was ­ a rebellion,“ says Chandra Bagheria, a Bangalore-based businessman. “It happened at a point when the idea of women working wasn't so prevalent. That's why the idea of women going out to work was `eulogized' and looked at as `the only' way for women's emancipation. Then times changed and so did the general psyche.
Going out to work was no longer taboo. Once the reason to rebel didn't exist, how could the rebellion itself continue?“ he asks.
Abhishek Kant, a marketing professional with an IT firm, agrees. “Unlike men, who grow up with the notion that they have to provide for the family, the idea of going out to work was not `intrinsic' to women in general. It was a certain section of feminists who propagated the idea and it became a movement. But women were never told that they needed to be the bread winners,“ he says. What does one do all day if one stays at home? AFTER A busy, fast-track life, isn't home and household work a little too mundane? No, say our SAHW (stay-at-home-women, silly). With more and more avenues for entertainment opening up and with so many things to do, life at home is definitely not limited to watching TV and waiting on/for husbands and kids. Whether it's going to the mall, partying with friends, travelling, joining pottery or salsa classes or participating in charities, life needn't be dull at all. Almost all women who have decided to stay at home assert that it is fairly `cool' to be home.

“Well, I may stay at home but I don't do the sweeping, cleaning and cooking. I read, go for jogs and to the gym, swim twice a week, go to a spa at least twice a month, watch films on DVDs, listen to music... basically do anything and everything that I want to without having to stress about meeting any deadlines,“ laughs Udita Gopal, a consultant. TV journalist Prerna Kapoor too falls in the same category. Tired of clocking in for TV bulletins and rushing about meeting deadlines, she quit her job just before she got married. “The initial plan was to move abroad, but that didn't happen. Having left work already, however, I decided to enjoy my marriage. Travel is what I intended to do and did do, lots of it. I travelled across the world and through India with my husband. While these were work trips for him, they were holidays for me,“ she says. Two years later, Kapoor is still in that blissful zone. Though she sometimes feels the urge to get back to work, she says it has to be around her routine.
Merchandising executive Anamika Khare who quit after her wedding is happy doing pottery.
“Once the course is over, I might start my own pottery classes or make pottery that I can sell.
It'll be work and it'll also be great fun. All in the comfort of my home,“ she says. TUHIN SINHA Here's a man unlike most men ­ he doesn't go out to work “My wife is at peace with me being a house husband“ I was given to understand some years ago that I belong to that category of men whom women ideally like to have as their boyfriends, not husbands ­ the creative sort who likes to live a life of nomadic fantasy, sans the stability that a woman looks for. To that extent, I think my wife is a really brave woman as she is at peace with me being a writer house-husband.
Not that I've never been in a job, but I think I realised way too early that I was too much my own man to be bound by other people's instructions. Leading the life that I do has given me the freedom to explore myself beyond my own imagination and I'm happy with the way I've grown professionally and personally in the last few years, which would not have been possible otherwise.

Yes, there are uncertain phases when the anxiety is bound to rub off on your spouse as well.

But I'm happy my wife has just shown a lot of confidence in me in those phases. Of course she realises the advantages of my flexi-working hours ­ like dropping her to her office, barely half a kilometre away from home.
Is it tougher for a man to live the life of a freelancer? I guess one is conditioned to believe that way. But the point is, should one stick to the belief at the cost of what one really wants to do in life? If you ask me, it's as much about a personal choice as your entire life is. I'd personally pursue what my heart tells me to, because there's no point leading a compromised life which I might regret later.

Does the uncertainty bore me now? Nope, I'd say. The key to not getting bored is doing as many different things as possible and/or doing them as differently as possible. That explains why each of my books belongs to a different genre and why I'm constantly juggling between books, scripts, newspaper columns and commissioned writing assignments.

Would I be fine if my wife chooses to quit her job too? Well, why not? Sometime ago, we'd worked together to set up my content management firm, Write Quotient. Unfortunately, we couldn't give the venture the attention it required. But in future when we decide to start a family, I'll be more than happy if she quits her job and instead takes care of this firm. I can't be not encouraging her from leading the life I have so stubbornly led.

We all love stimulating environments, people, conversations and goals. When we get something which we find interesting, we love doing that work. But at the other end of the spectrum we have situations and jobs which make us anxious, tired, bored.
In between these two extremes is the fascinating and yet mysterious world of stress. There is good stress which stimulates our mind and emotions; and at the other end of the spectrum, we can even collapse with stress. There are two aspects we need to understand: the experience of stress and the personality type.
What happens when our experience changes from stimulation and cheer to anxiety, anger and stress?
People enjoy doing their tasks more when the end result matches or goes above their expectations We enjoy the task more when it is somehow linked to something we have an interest in We enjoy the task if it gets us appreciation or adulation Tasks which are done well within time, and yet at our personal pace give us the most satisfaction Tasks which have a high social value also give us joy We like tasks where we feel we are getting paid more than what we expect Tasks where we inch closer to our deep-seated ambition of wealth/ power/ recognition / comfort are more appealing What are the tasks/experiences we do not enjoy?
Surprises which are unpleasant, where the task is not in line with our list of appealing experiences Deadlines set by others Orders and instructions given without our buy in Task disconnected with our onnected with our set of interests and abilities Getting too many tasks, which we don't know how to do Environments that are noisy, hot, and very uncomfortable Maladjustment with people in the team who are involved in the task Feelings of injustice A work pace not aligned to the task deadline Not asking for help /delegation The bottomline is that stress = personality type (response ) + environmental situation. Some basic examples: A person who enjoys research and investigation is put into sales and marketing A person who enjoys solitude is put in social networking and communication A person who hopes for a little appreciation is neglected and taken for granted What are the solutions? We shall explore that in the next column.

Are you addicted to shopping?
If so, find out why and what you can do to get rid of this expensive, destructive habit by Kavita Devgan LIKE OTHER ADDICTIONS, THIS ONE TOO STEMS FROM EMPTINESS
T'S A standard staple of chicklit literature ­ the main character who finds it hard to resist the temptations of shopping. But for Chennaibased computer professional Neeta ISenGupta (name changed), this is not a fictional situation. Every month, as her credit card bills arrive in the mail, SenGupta and her husband face off over their amounts. “I know very well that the fights that we have over the figures in these bills is eating into our otherwise rock-solid relationship,“ admits SenGupta, adding, “But still I feel powerless to fight the shopping impulse when it hits me. After each splurge, I start dreading the next fight I'll have with my husband, and to tide over the stress, I go shopping again. I really want to break this dreadful cycle, but don't know how to.“ According to the experts, a shopping addiction is not as uncommon as it seems. “What Neeta is calling a habit is actually an addiction,“ explains Dr Ashima Puri, consultant psychologist at Aashlok Hospital, Delhi. “Shopping is fun for most of us. But when this seemingly of us. But when this seemingly innocent pastime spirals out of control, it gets classified as an addiction.“ She adds, “There is a clear-cut distinction between shopping for a need and shopping to fill a need. And therein lies the divider that differentiates a shopper from an obsessive shopper.“
Mamta Singla, consultant clinical psychologist at Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon, agrees with Dr Puri. She says, “Actually, addiction is defined as having a compulsion to commit a behaviour, being unable to stop a behaviour, and continuing the behaviour despite harmful consequences. Research now shows that addictive behaviour often provides a momentary lift in one's mood. A flood of `good feeling' producing adrenaline hormones rewards a shopaholic.“ Singla ARE YOU A SHOPAHOLIC? Do you go on buying binges when you feel lonely, anxious, disappointed, depressed or angry?
Do you feel a `high' when you go on a buying binge?
Do you feel on edge, agitated or irritable when you haven't been able to buy something?
Do you spend a lot of time watching the shopping channel on TV or surfing shopping websites?
Do you buy something and then feel guilty about it?
Do you often run your credit cards up to the limit?
Do you try to stay within budget, but always fall short of your goal?
Expert: Shailaja Pokhriyal, consultant clinical psychologist, Dr B L Kapur Memorial Hospital, Delhi adds, “Unfortunately the lift is not permanent, and the shopaholic must go out and shop more in order to find the next boost in hormones.“
“It is estimated that one in 20 men and women fall into the category of a compulsive shopper,“ reveals Shailaja Pokhriyal, consultant clinical psychologist, Dr BL Kapur Memorial Hospital, Delhi. “So there are a lot of people out there who tend to hear `Buy, Buy, Buy...' when they go out to shop.“ WHAT LEADS TO IT?
Like other addictions, a shopping addiction too stems from a lack of self-esteem, loneliness and emptiness. “This disorder has been linked to emotional deprivations in childhood, an inability to tolerate negative feelings, the need to fill an internal void, excitement-seeking, excessive dependency, approval-seeking, general impulsiveness and compulsiveness, and the need to gain control,“ lists Singla. Often the root cause lies way back in childhood. “About a year ago, a man brought his 30-yearold wife to me with a complaint of excessive shopping. After many sessions with her, it turned out that her behaviour stemmed from her childhood conditioning,“ shares Dr Himanshu Saxena, senior consultant psychiatrist, Jaipur Golden Hospital, Delhi. He adds, “As a child, whenever she would buy something, her parents used to praise her for her independent behaviour. She grew up enjoying the feeling of being different from others, and felt superior to her friends and cousins. Gradually she got addicted to shopping.“
According to Dr Puri, sometimes a loss can also trigger a shopping addiction. He says, “I remember a mother-daughter duo from Gurgaon whose shopping habits spiralled out of control when their teenage son/brother committed suicide. Sadness leads to low self-worth and people when emotionally weak begin to look for a magical solution to help fill the void. Often shopping gives them that fix.“

A DANGEROUS HIGH Shopping can send many people into debt, place a strain on their marriages and basically ruin their lives, say the experts. Dr Puri shares the story of a 28-year-old woman who opted to break off her one-year-old marriage when her husband refused to let her buy a Versace bag worth one lakh. “Obviously there must be other issues too in their relationship, but different shopping sensibilities was the one they just couldn't resolve,“ says Dr Puri, adding, “Then there was a 29-yearold mother of two children whose guilt brought her to me when she realised that because of her incessant shopping jaunts she was totally neglecting her children and husband.“ According to the experts, it is important to understand that shopping and spending money will not assure more love, or bolster self-esteem, or heal hurts and regrets. Nor will it ease stress. “Relationships also get affected as often a compulsive shopper cuts family (and friends) time and misses social engagements because of this addiction. I once handled a man who would lie to his parents all the time and hide his shopping,“ recalls Pokhriyal.
“Actually shopaholics tend to emotionally distance themselves from friends and family in an attempt to hide their excesses and keep trying to cover their debts with deception,“ points out Dr Puri. “There are other practical repercussions too.
Shopaholics are always short of money and keep borrowing.
Soon people start avoiding them and they are left friendless, which only compounds the problem,“ shares Dr Saxena.
Sometimes, a shopping addiction can occur with a cluster of other addictions ­ such as gambling, drinking, drugs, eating disorders etc.
Pokhriyal remembers a 26year-old boy who came to her with a shopping addiction and alcohol abuse problem. “He would shop for clothes all the time and when he was short of money, walk long distances and skip meals to save money for shopping. Missing office hours to go for shopping was regular too and his alcohol addiction made the situation worse,“ she explains.
HELP FOR THE PROBLEM Doctors say that a shopping addiction can be controlled by undergoing counselling with a clinical psychologist. It usually requires a multifaceted approach; and there are no standard treatments. “Although some medications show promise, especially for people who have an underlying case of depression, results are mixed, so they should not be considered a sole or reliable treatment,“ says Pokhriyal. “Going to the root cause is essential,“ says Dr Saxena. For example, for some patients, cognitive behaviour therapy and hypnosis will work. But there are a lot of self checks too (see box).

There's one more reason to waste time on the Internet: Google's brand new social network, Google+! We got so excited that we didn't care that Google says it's still in a testing phase ­ we stacked it up against Facebook and Twitter anyway. Does it pack enough punch to blow them away?
by Pranav Dixit
THE STORY SO FAR Google's latest salvo at arch nemesis Facebook in the social networking space is kicking up a storm in the tech world.
Currently in a limited, invitation-only `field test' which means that everyone and their brother is dying for an invite. KILLER FEATURES Looks deceptively like Facebook at first glance. Digging deeper reveals features like Circles (to sort contacts into friends, 3 am buddies, losers and so on), Hangout (multi-user webcam chat) and Sparks (to quickly find stuff you care about). EASE OF USE Facebook fanatics should feel right at home. Posting, uploading pictures and sorting people into Circles is a snap.
Google isn't particularly known for gorgeous user-interfaces but Google+ looks clean and classy. PRIVACY This is Google we're talking about. Once you sign up, you sign your life away. ON THE GO: APPS Has a great app for Android phones (iOS version coming soon, worry not). Everything possible on the site is possible on your phone. Bonus: mobile users also get an exclusive `Huddle' feature for quick group chats. CREEPINESS QUOTIENT High. Not only will your Google+ notifications show up at the top of every Google service you use (including Gmail), it will automatically grab every picture you click from your phone and put it up in a special folder. 750 million users ­ that's 10 per cent of the world's population ­ and counting! The world's biggest social network shows no signs of slowing down. You're hooked. So is your boss, your mom, your 93-yearold grandpa ­ and your dog.
Farmville. No, we're kidding. This is the best social network for sharing pictures, photos, videos, links... anything you want.
Has a Circles-like `Lists' feature buried deep within the clunky, interface (along with the rest of the privacy settings).
Much like Microsoft Windows, Facebook isn't really the easiest thing in the world to use ­ we are just used to it. We find that the general interface could do with some de-cluttering and simplification. Also, that hideous photo-viewer needs to go: now! I beg your pardon?
We are rather fond of the Facebook mobile app. It does a good job at squeezing the full-blown site down to a tiny screen. It does have a few rough edges though and we think it could use a little spit and polish.
High. Facebook doesn't exactly make it easy for you to delete your account if you ever decide you've had it with Mark and his cronies. Sure, you can deactivate it, but Facebook still stores all your pictures, posts and profile information... in a safe place. Twitter came as a pithy, no-frills, alternative to Facebook and was a runaway hit.
Particularly useful for spreading the word, chatting up your favourite celebs (or trolling them), blowing your own trumpet or simply engaging in pointless babble.
No clutter, no rambling. Bang out your post in 140-characters or less and get done with it. View photos and videos right in your stream. Have long links that you post shortened right then and there. Tweet from anywhere: you PC or on the go.
Twitter is so minimalist that it couldn't get any simpler. Type your tweet in the big box at the top, hit `Tweet'... and that's it.
Replying to @Mentions, retweeting and searching is a breeze and the interface is snappy and responsive.
Twitter does collect your personal information to sell it to advertisers, but unlike Google, it doesn't really have all your private mail, pictures from that party where you got sloshed, your phone number and your credit card numbers.
No matter whether you use an iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone, or even a plain old Nokia, chances are, you'll find a Twitter app you like. Our favourite? Tweetdeck! Moderate. You don't really have to `connect' with someone or accept a `friend request' to be stalked/abused. All those creeps on the internet out there?
All they have to do is type your name to spam you till you scream. ROUND 'EM UP! Your favourite celebs sorted into the Google+ Circles we think they deserve to be in DID NOT NEED PLASTIC SURGERY (REALLY!) NEED A STYLIST (PRONTO!) NEED A HIT (AND FAST!)

Done with carrying the zoo around your neck? Check out our trend report for the funkiest jewellery for the coming season by Yashica Dutt
OWLS, SWALLOWS, reptiles, fish, zebras, dinosaurs, elephants and flowers. Last season a veritable forest was more than willing to hang from women's necks, ear lobes, wrists and hair. If you too regularly ignore your mum's well-meaning advice to invest in gold and blow a chunk of your cheque on statement jewellery instead, then at least one of these creatures will find a home in your ornament box.
A huge trend last year, animal jewellry found takers among the regular and even recognisable fashionistas like Sonam Kapoor and Shruti Hassan. But it's time most of these animals return to the zoo as the next season paints a whole new picture in terms of jewellery trends. We spoke to the leading accessory and designers to find out more. GEOMETRIC/GRAPHIC After swimming in a pool of random, abstract, floral, ultra-girly jewellery last season, straight lines make a big comeback. Women, be prepared to become familiar with geometry all over again, though this encounter will be more pleasant than your mathematics class. Hexagonal cuffs, triangular ear-rings, latticeshaped rings and three-dimensional cuboid necklaces are what you could be wearing soon. Narresh Kukreja of the designer duo Shivan & Narresh tells u that with alternate materials like wood and acrylic, geometric jewellry is here to stay.
“Though the base could still be abstract, it will certainly be seen in a geometric frame this season.“ And if you still love the chunky, layered neck piece look, then it's time to clean up your act and jewellery box. “Lines will become cleaner and less layered and the numerous crystal chains and beads will be replaced by graphic motifs,“ says designer Shilpa Chavan. But layers aren't set to disappear completely. Designer Suhani Pittie confirms that it will be the effect and not the number of pieces that will matter as she talks about the exit of the art nouveau trend. “It will be one single piece that cascades into many layers and not ten pieces that will be in vogue.“ ESSENTIAL MINIMALISM/CONCEPT JEWELLERY Still looking for what Aishwarya Bachchan wore to the Cannes film festival? Stop looking! The age of randomly wearing what everyone else does is over and it's time to wear jewellery that is more than a conversation piece. “Accessories that have a story attached to them or bear a native influence, whether it's language, tribe or period, are trending right now. Pieces that draw you in and have a cultural conversation by the way of their stone, cut, texture or quality of workmanship and represent one's individuality are hugely popular these days,“ says Suhani Pittie. And if you wished to live in a world that was run by ideas, then it's here. Jewellery is standing in the front row after being developed into concept art. Designer Eina Ahluwalia, who creates concept jewellery, says that an idea is its strongest component and the material and method serve the concept itself. “Such jewellery is evaluated, like fine art, for its ideas, inventions, intuitions and content rather than for its precious materials or conformity to tradition.
And there are many takers for this sort of minimalism. People want less but better, real as opposed to faux, handcrafted as opposed to machinemade and artist-made instead of mass-produced.“ LESS BUT MORE Individual, artist-made pieces are more popular than mass-produced trinket.





THE AGE OF RANDOMLY WEARING WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS WEARING IS OVER
Must-haves for your jewellery box COCKTAIL RINGS Walk into a hi-street store, roadside stall or a luxury boutique, you will find them every where. And the bigger the cocktail ring the better. Choose alternate materials -stone, metal or wood ­ as they are bound to draw attention to your shapely fingers. But don't skip the manicure with this one! ECO-FRIENDLY EARRINGS It's easier than you think to bring out the green fashionista in you. Opt for jewellery in natural materials like organic cotton, hemp, jute and bamboo, easily found in most indie/kitschy stores around the city. And you will earn yourself a sensitive yet rebellious image in no time! MULTIMEDIA NECKPIECES If we haven't already established that you don't need deep pockets to be trendy, then here is more proof. Inexpensive materials like plastic of various kinds, recycled glass, feathers, leather and faux stones in bold tones are being assembled to create eye catching statement pieces. Complementing one with your outfit will not only let you own the room but will prevent you from bursting the piggy bank too.
BROOCHES The older the better. Go raid your grandma's closet and you will find at least one elegant, old-world piece with which she used to pin her saris. Use it on your jacket lapels, shirt collars, shoe flaps, as a hair accessory or a pin to hold your scarf. There is no way you could go unnoticed and yes, God is in the details. MILITARY-GOTH The colour blocking trend has driven the entire fashion industry into dreams of psychedelic technicolour and they can't stop talking about it. (Guilty as charged!) But not everyone is as crazy about it. To counter balance the burst of colour on clothes, jewellery will have to go goth. “With such bright colours around, jewellery will be using trends like military bottle green and the dark goth tones of black, brown, beige and related hues. Black especially will return as a strong trend mixed with intense military shades this coming fall,“ says Shilpa Chavan. RIOT AGAINST COLOURS Goth is likely to come back next season; take a cue from this piece by Shilpa Chavan Goodbye animals, hello animation! Lady Gaga is a patron and Hello Kitty jewellery is already a massive trend globally. But Japanese animation characters are set to invade more than your TV screens for Autumn/Winter 2011. “I have created a lot of anime pieces like television cartoon characters turned into neckpieces and ear studs for the coming season,“ says designer Felix Bendish. Even though direct animal motifs might be so last season, their remnants make stylish statements this coming winter. Like the fur neckpieces we spotted in James Ferreira's collection for Autumn/Winter. “Horns, nails, bones will continue to be big. And you might also see influences from DC Comics and its characters,“ says designer Shilpa Chavan who retails under the brand Little Shilpa. Well, we can't wait to get our hands on that Wonder Woman pendant! LACE/VINTAGE The Mad Men hangover is showing no signs of fading anytime soon and it's not only the Fifties but even the Victorian epoch that is influencing jewellery this season.
Vintage is a huge trend and it's time to skirt the extremes, according to Suhani Pittie. “You need to go diametrically opposite in your jewellery choice. Either wear something Edwardian or something radically uber cool. A mix of both works really well too. One of my headbands pairs beautiful delicate rhinestones with funky three-dimensional bakelite and it is a brilliant, quirky mix,“ she says. And when going the vintage way, lace can't be ignored. Lace is a big trend in jewellery right now. “Metal replicating the fineness of lace with patterns delicately cut into it, is very trendy,“ says Eina Ahluwalia.