Exercise can be fun. No, really.

Exercise is possibly the most refreshingly tiring thing in the whole world. Yes, I know. The paradox isn’t lost on me. It seems impossible, doesn’t it? But after much deliberation, this is the conclusion most people have come up with. Exercise makes you aware of muscles you didn’t even know existed, which while being painful makes you a whole new person. Exercise, after the first few agony filled days, makes you energetic and active, so as to directly affect your productivity. Yes, healthy too. But too much has been said about the health aspect of exercise. The unfortunate part is, that most people shudder at the thought of exercise. Exercise...

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Unwinding the day, in another sense of the term.

When the time comes to unwind, different people do it differently. For some people, unwinding involves getting into their pajamas and spending time in bed with a good book or some soothing music. For some, it involves “suiting up” and going out to dance their time away. For some, like me, catching up on movies that might have been missed with the busy schedule is the perfect way to unwind. Unwinding varies, but the point of it is simple and universal. It is the time that you spend relaxing your self and your mind. The time that you spend unloading the burdens that you have, so that when you go forward the next day, you don’t go crazy in this...

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Cause you had a bad day

Imagine one of “those days” in your life. The days when everything that you plan goes haywire, and everything that you dread will happen, happens. Gah. Not so pleasant even thinking about it, is it? But then, think about all the good things that happen to you those days. I know, it just doesn’t seem possible that something good even happens. But it does, I’m sure of it. The bad just always seems to overshadow the good. It could be anything, and it varies with person to person. It doesn’t even have to be something specific, it could be something general. It could be you and your roommate sitting in comfortable silence at the end of the day and sipping on tea. It could be your mother cooking you your favourite meal, knowing only as mothers do, that you’re having a bad day. It could be seeing...

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"Bringing in the new Pune" by Christopher Charles Benninger, Architect

Pune Mirror. Sunday, 30th May 2...

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"Pune: City of my dreams" by Christopher Charles Benninger, Architect.

Pune Mirror. Sunday, 16th May 2...

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Kitchen Tales

According to the dictionary, a kitchen is “a room or part of a room that is used for cooking and food preparation”. That is fundamentally true, I guess. But what’s the fun in having just a basic styled design, with just the bare necessities? Kitchens come in many styles, and choosing the one that suits you best requires serious thought. To begin with, it is important to know what kind of style you’re looking for. Deciding this, will help you start to narrow down choices related to wall colour and cabinet doors. But before the styles can be decided, the basic layout of the kitchen must be considered. This helps in easy functioning, the way you...

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Books need to be kept somewhere.

Books have always been an integral part of my life, and I’ve always owned too many of them. If there is such a thing as owning too many books, that is. One can never have enough of those, and problems arise when space becomes a scarcity. Bookshelves are the solution, no doubt. But what happens when the bookshelves themselves occupy too much space? You get hold of compact, smart, sleek bookshelves. That fit within the corner pockets of rooms, and still hold all the wonderful books that you can’t even think of throwing out, even though you sometimes have to in order to create space. The Equation bookshelf, designed by Marcos Breder, is a simple...

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TAIN Square

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A free and gentle flower, growing wild.

Flowers can make anyone’s day, regardless of their age, sex, social status, etc. And flowers can work wonders when used to accessorize a room. But has anyone ever wondered what the significance of different flowers is? Everyone knows what a red rose stands for, but what about the others? Yes, drawing a blank here, aren’t we? Well, that’s alright. Today, we’re here to tell you all about how giving and receiving flowers can be meaningful. It is also helpful to know this floral dictionary in order to avoid misunderstandings. Since it is not possible to cover all species of flowers, we’ve only listed a few popular ones.• Baby’s breath – a delicate...

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All I want is a room somewhere

I grew up in a room that was always a grownup’s room. It had nothing that really showed that a kid of no more than her teenage years lived there. And everyday I longed to be able to do it up the way I wanted to. My ideas used to change every couple of years. There was a time I wanted purple walls, and posters of the Backstreet Boys. A time came when I wanted all my walls white, except one which would be shocking red. And I begged my parents to please let me have it the way I wanted. But at that time, my room also functioned as a guest room, so my parents used to tell me that the guests wouldn’t necessary adapt to my tastes very well. Which while...

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Rain, and the things we like doing

Someone asked me recently, “What are the top four things you would do in the rain?”I thought about it for a long while, before coming up with a reply. It’s a tough question, when you think about it. There are so many things that you think of, and short-listing them to just four becomes tough. There’s drinking chai and eating bhajiyas (an Indian delicacy, popularized as “rain food” which almost every Indian craves for at the first signs of the monsoons), there’s long drives and long walks. There’s dancing and playing in the rain, there’s reading by the window. There’s a kind of music we relate to the rains, and it must be played and listened to...

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A Freezing Summer

“There’s a calm surrender, to the rush of dayWhen the heat of a rolling wind, can be turned away”It’s funny how there are so many different songs, about different things that can inspire blog posts about other things. Who’d have thought that a song about two childhood sweethearts, would feature on a blog like this about completely unrelated topics. But then, to be fair, who’d have thought there’d come a time when air conditioners existed in the world. It’s hard to imagine a time when the heat of the day was all there was, with no respite. I’m sure everyone will agree when I say god bless Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley for conducting the first...

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Bare Necessities

Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities. That’s what the cast of the Jungle Book sang. And all of us live by it, consciously and subconsciously. While looking for a house, while living life, we are always looking for the bare necessities to suffice us. We don’t look for something completely over the top. At the end of the day, we need the basic things in life first, before the other fancier things can come by. The simple things, which make life comfortable. A roof over our heads, a bed to sleep on, clothes to wear, food to eat and water to drink. What more can one really ask for? A lot, you might say. And to be honest, I might even agree. But it really is enough to just look for the bare necessities, because fringe benefits are elusive. They come around only when one is...

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Curtains fall

Curtains are the window to the soul, just like eyes are the window to the soul. Other than their basic function of blocking or obscuring light, curtains are useful in finding out things about a person. The kind of curtains that decorate out homes, are insight into the kind of people we are. They are also insight into the kind of lives we lead, and hope to lead. If our homes have dull dreary curtains, we are sure to feel dull and dreary ourselves. Bright colours reflect a happy state of mind, something to brighten and colour your day when you get home tired. Yellows, pinks, greens are always much more appealing than the dull browns, whites and...

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Ah, wouldn't it be loverly?

I don’t know about other people, but I, for one, adore sitting at the window with a hot cup of chai and spend hours looking out at the view. Sadly, the view out my window is certainly not the prettiest. The roads are being dug up, there are only concrete buildings all around my house, there are stray dogs everywhere and traffic is a noisy nightmare! Again, I don’t know about other people, but I’m willing to bet it’s the same case with a lot of people out there. It’s the sad reality of life, and one must learn to deal with it. But why should we? Why shouldn’t we have a better view to look at when we want to relax and spend time looking out the window?To all the people who, like me, enjoy spending alone time looking out the window, I say this: imagine a view with so much greenery, one can never...

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Dorothy had it right all along

“There’s no place like home” – when Dorothy, in her red shoes, clicked her heels three times and repeated these words in a bid to get home, she meant it with all her heart. And really, how many of us can even disagree with that statement? After a long day at work, regardless of an AC workplace that is no doubt comfortable, every one wants to come back to the comfort of their own home. Even students who live in rented apartments; long to go back to those apartments they call home. A place that you call your own; a place that belongs to you, even if only for the time being. Everyone longs for a place like that in their lives, so that they can decorate...

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