Today I went to meet Indrakshi and Karen in Colaba, after lying in bed for half of the day! We started at Mondy’s to grab some food, I had a veggie burger and chips, I wanted to eat something familiar, as I’ve eaten so much exotic food here, it’s starting to get old!
We moved on to Colaba Causeway and I picked up some clothes for my Mum, there’s this amazing shop, which will be one of my first ports of call WHEN I come back here. WHEN. Not if. I can’t get over how much I’m going to miss it here and will definitely be back.
After wandering Colaba for a while Indrakshi, Karen and I got a cab. As we were driving down the motorway at breakneck speed the door came flying open and Indrakshi nearly fell out onto the road to her death! Shocking, and yet hilarious. Definitely one of the funniest things of the entire trip!
Me and Karen went to Babulnath to get my elephant but to my disappointment, the store was closed! The girls were not able to come with me the next day so I decided I’d trek it alone to get my basket in the morning.
I got back to the guest house to some packing and skyping. After a while I came into the lounge to use the internet. To my surprise my editor came in! I didn’t know that she lived upstairs from me! We sat talking for ages which was really cool, seeing as I had to leave in quite a rush on Friday to get out with the girls.
I was so beat I went straight to bed after skyping for a few hours and didn’t get up today until really late either. It’s so hot at the moment you can barely be bothered to do anything! Skandita and I hung out in the cool and eventually I went out for a walk round Babulnath while she did some work. I walked up to the shop to get my elephant and the store was closed again! Needless to say, I was heartbroken beyond belief. I’m sorry to tell you all but the wicker elephant will not be flying Air India or living in Falmouth with me. And I’m pretty upset about it. I failed the wicker elephant!
On the brighter side, I can barely lift the cases I just packed so it probably saved me money! I’m sitting in the guest house now waiting for my dinner, reminiscing about the amazing time I’ve had here. I don’t think it’s even sunk in that I won’t be waking up in India tomorrow. I absolutely love it here, I can’t say it enough and the girls have all told me I can stay with them if I come back. Which I will, I just know it. I have got so used to this place, to its strange rhythm, the chaos, commotion, traffic. The roads of the U.K are going to sound so quiet. I did an experiment the other day; I counted how many seconds there were between each car horn here, the most I got, and this was once, on a bridge with hardly any traffic; 21 seconds. My average was 4.5. Yes, I’ve spent a lot of time in cabs.
So this is me signing off, thanks to everyone who’s checked in and been a regular reader, it’s been fun documenting my time here for you all, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it! So, because it’s the last night, and I’m sad about it, here’s my list of why I’ll miss Mumbai, and the reasons you should come and see it for yourself.
The warm heavy air, the strong incense/spice smell everywhere you go, the colourful markets and street stalls, the uncertainty of whether when you take a cab ride, you’re going to come out of it alive, chinese Indian food, szechuan sticks, Bollywood movies on TV at all hours, late night back to back episodes of Castle, vada, sambar, imly chutney, barfi, how everything is cooked with coconut, how you literally can’t spend your money, the Elephanta caves and most of all the amazing people, without who my experience would have been a completely different one, I love you all!
A little bit of pesto…a lot of rum
May 22, 2010
I’m off out in a bit to Colaba Causeway with Indrakshi and Karen, but before I go I thought I’d let you know all about my last day at Grazia and my awesome night last night!
Before work Skandita and I went shopping to Asiatica. Asiatica is a department store near Churchgate station which specialises in gifts. Skandita took me to help me pick out some cards and chocolates for the girls, as it was going to be my last day in the Grazia office. I picked up a couple of cards, one for all the girls and one for the editor, Nandini, to say thank you. I got a huge basket of chocolates with a massive bow on them and a big box of choc chip cookies for the girls, and then I got a small basket of chocolates for Nandini.
I arrived at the office and everyone was really sad I was going, which was nice. We ate tonnes of biscuits and did some work and made multiple runs to the coffee machine as usual. I discovered my new favourite snack, some might say a little too late; soya szechuan sticks. Now they don’t sound very nice, and they look like something that was born in a Holland & Barrett’s bin, but I absolutely love them, and am bringing a bag back with me to ease the pain of leaving this amazing country!
I had a nasty fright the night before last when I spoke to Ben who’s already at home. He told me that on his return check-in they told him he was only allowed 20kg of luggage. This is ridiculous seeing as we were allowed 46kg on the way in! He told me that the airport had tried to make him pay £200 for extra luggage, and I started to panic. Luckily he argued his way out of the situation, but I was already mentally mourning the loss of my clothes. Of course, I’d worried for nothing, my ticket clearly states that I can carry 46kg back with me, which means I can still buy my wicker elephant today, without paying through the nose, or trunk.
Thursday night I successfully finished my case study, which took me until 4am to finish. It was horrific, I literally spent all morning in work wandering round like a zombie. My first trip to the coffee machine was rather horrendous, I felt as though someone had rubbed cotton wool over my contact lenses I was so tired. Luckily, the amount of concealer I was wearing covered my dark circles! The tiredness was outweighed by the fact that I’d completed the whole project and could now be more carefree.
Me and the girls decided for my last day that we would order a ridiculously large Chinese takeaway. Not even twelve of us could polish off what we ordered! We had chicken fried rice, szechuan prawns, kung pao chicken and a variety of other dishes. Chinese food here in India is so much nicer than British Chinese. It’s more flavour-some than greasy and it’s actually natural colours rather than bright orange!
Our chinese feast
Me and the girls spent the last half of the day messing around and taking pictures, swapping numbers, adding each other on Facebook and planning the evening ahead. It was really sad when I left, Nandini said a warm goodbye to me and was really grateful for her gift. I’ve got into such a work routine it’s really hard to imagine how I’m going to survive without the rat race in Cornwall!
Me, Pasham, Indrakshi and Ekta.
Me, Indrakshi and the flat plan!
I went back to the guest house to freshen up ready for the evening. Me and the girls met outside Mondy’s and decided what to do. Some of the girls that had already eaten, wanted to go and see a DJ in Bandra, about 45 minutes away, so we let them go and said we’d meet them later. I’m glad I said bye and got hugs ‘incase I didn’t see them later’, because we had such a laugh in Leo’s that me and the others didn’t make it to Bandra in the end.
Me, Karen, Sonam, Mamta and Indrakshi went to Leo’s upstairs bar where we shared two of the biggest bowls of pesto fusilli I’ve ever seen and baskets of garlic bread with cheese. We washed everything down with cocktails, me opting for my favourite- long island iced tea. They played really old school dance there, like Robert Miles’ Children that got us all reminiscing. After a few drinks we hit the dancefloor and Karen taught me how to dance like I was making chapattis. It was hilarious, we got a lot of strange looks from the people in there but we didn’t care. Karen then showed me another routine that was supposed to imitate an Indian man doing laundry! Watch out Remedies, when I get back there are going to be some brand new moves in town!
Italian feast
Me and the girls upstairs at Leo's
We left Colaba in the early hours of the morning and I flopped onto my bed still in all my clothes after saying a sad goodbye to Mamta and Sonam. Me, Karen and Indrakshi made plans to see each other today and tomorrow, so luckily I didn’t have to say goodbye to too many people!
After a while of dozing in my clothes, Skandita came home. We sat up having a girly chat until who knows what time, and I slept until so late today as a result! Luckily Bombay never sleeps, so there’s no rush for us to get out to Colaba, all of us are feeling a little worse for wear, and at least we’ve missed the mid-day heat!
The day of the anniversary
May 20, 2010
Today was the Times of India’s 75th birthday, which meant that the whole building was in celebration. As I entered the door this morning there were musicians in the foyer playing music and dancers in traditional dress. The doorway had been adorned with flowers and paper shapes and there was a huge board announcing that it was the anniversary of the Times of India’s opening.
I completed some more stories, as the deadline for print was extended. I wrote another story that involves Chanel, which can now go in this next issue. It was quite hectic in the office everyone was arranging and then rearranging pages.
As we went upstairs for lunch in the cafeteria, we were greeted with more paper garlands and fairy lights. We discovered that dinner today was free due to the celebration which was awesome! The food was nicer than usual and we even got it on a plate instead of a tray! We had spicy herb roti, wild rice, chole, which is like a chickpea curry, cham cham which is a sweet that looks like a mini tuna sub and weird crisps that looked like quavers.
After lunch I wrote the text for one of the last fashion pieces! I can’t believe how much of my stuff is in the magazine, I’m so excited to see it actually printed!
Again, I’m sorry about the unimaginative anecdotes but we’ve been so busy I’ve barely had time to breathe. Me and the girls haven’t had time to do any of the things we wanted to do for my last week. Tomorrow I’m taking in cakes and chocolates as it’s my last day, and I’m getting cards for the girls and the editor to say thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity and for giving me such an amazing work experience.
I am rather sad I’m going, I’ve made some really good friends here and it’s a shame to leave when I’m just getting to know these awesome people. They’ve all promised to come stay as they’re all really curious about Britain. I’ll definitely be going back so I’ll no doubt see some of them again, and then there’s Facebook.
After lots more work me, Aarti and Meghna went for snacks in the cafeteria. It was a really weird, yet strangely tasty concoction. Bombay mix, covered in curry, with chopped red onion on top, and bread. Sounds horrible right? It tasted so good though, I just embraced the glaciosity of the meal and ate it without whinging. Collectively it is called misal pav.
I left the office at around nine, which sucked as now I am back in the guest house finishing my case study for tomorrow, and have had no break whatsoever from typing and working hard. My brain is barely functioning! I’m going to give myself an hour of rest to watch Castle, although I’ll still be busy trying to guess tonight’s murderer so it’s not that relaxing.
The day we went to press
May 19, 2010
Today we had to have everything finished ready for tomorrow, when the magazine gets sent off ready for processing and printing. By the end of the evening, the flat plan on the wall was completely full, and the magazine was looking pretty awesome. I didn’t leave the office until gone nine as we had so much to do before we left.
I finished off my story from yesterday, did an advertorial jewellery piece and helped the girls with a fashion piece. The rush was quite a buzz and the phones in the office were ringing all day.
We went for lunch in the cafeteria, I ate dal, chapatti, rice and a coconut curry which was amazing. Today I had a sweet aswell which looked like a prawn wonton but that tasted of coconut and baklava.
After so much typing, lots of phoning, lots of snacking and about a million coffee runs we got it done. There’s only a few things that need to be tweaked tomorrow, but aside from that, it’s pretty much in the bag.
I apologise for the lack of inventive-ness today but I really have been a very busy lady and haven’t had time for my usual observations of Indian life.
Right now I’m about to do some more work on my case study, no rest for the wicked, eh? I’m over half way through and I’ll have it done ready for tomorrow which is awesome. Can’t wait to get that weight off my shoulders aswell, getting everything done for the magazine in time has been stressful enough. Always fun though. Still, there hasn’t been a dull moment so far!
The day of the ‘Prawns in Heaven’
May 18, 2010
This morning I had breakfast with my roomie, Skandita and some of her friends in the guesthouse then we all got a cab together to work. I got to the fourth floor and answered my emails and carried on sorting out my high-res image pursuit for my current story.
After green tea trips and copious amounts of typing it was time for lunch. The girls and I decided to order in, as we’re all pretty sick of cafeteria food. We ordered from Mociambo’s Café. The menu was hilarious. Instead of just describing the meal, they named all the dishes very strangely. For instance, I was having fries with szechuan sauce, which is easy enough to explain as it’s a popular dish here, but they had to go and call it Spice ‘N Nice Fries. Not even Nice ‘N Spice. I was having breaded prawns with my fries, but obviously they couldn’t just be breaded prawns. They were called ‘Prawns in Heaven’. Sonam did the ordering and we found it hard to keep a straight face when she read out my meal. Thank God I didn’t have the ‘Tits and Bits Prawns’, God knows what that meal consists of.
Me, Ekta, Mamta, Sonam and Karen sat around the table eating our meals which were delicious. My fries were amazing. How we have cheesy chips in this country or chips with gravy, is how they have szechuan fries here, just covered in spicy sauce. My prawns were good, heavenly was a bit of an over-statement. We decided that seeing as we were working extra hard we should order some dessert to share. We got a ‘gooey chocolate cake’ and ‘cappuccino cup’. The chocolate cake, was chocolate cake, but the cappuccino cup was insanely good. It was a cappuccino cream served in a hard chocolate shell. Delicious!
After lunch I began editing a piece I did a few days ago. Some of the images had been changed to form a better layout, which meant more word space for me, awesome! I got to work finishing that and eventually we looked at the clock and it was six! I literally don’t know where the time went. We went up for snacks in the cafeteria. Today they had sambar! My one true love was served with idly though instead of vada, but que sera, sera. I’ll have some vada before I leave.
So basically today we did lots of awesome work, drank lots of awesome tea and ate LOTS of awesome food. At the end of the day Nandini, the editor had a meeting with us all about the cover, we all had to give input and opinion about the image and text that will be on the June issue. I thought it was really good how everyone’s opinion is valued, even if I am just an intern, they wanted to know what I thought just as much as everyone else.
I got out of the office, more or less bang on eight o’clock and got a cab back to my current position. My fingers may actually bleed from the amount of typing that I’m doing but it’s all worth it, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
My latest obsession and maybe the best thing that I’ve ever seen is the Bollywood movie ‘Dil Se’ that I watched today with the chef and the porter in the lounge, it’s part wonderful, part hilarious. Just watch this extract, all the way through and you’ll understand why I love it here so much! They’ve just suggested two more movies for me; ‘Diwale Dwhaniya Le Jayenge’ and ‘Dhadkan’, man I love India.
The best part of the film is below, a dance routine on a train to the song, ‘Chaaiya, Chaaiya’. Epic.
So everyday that we go through Babulnath to get to work, there’s this wicker furniture shop that I see, which I would usually find repulsive. Except for, a wicker basket shaped like an elephant that sits outside woefully looking for a home. Ever since I saw this little basket creature I wanted to go over to this horrendous wicker shop and adopt him. Today I made the journey again, only this morning, he looked more sad than usual, and I decided that after work I would go and get him and bring him to a loving home. That was my plan.
I got to work bright and early and got on with some editing that Ekta needed help with. It was a piece on how to look five years younger. It was a pretty standard job that took me less than an hour and the day was starting off well. Nandini came to the office and gave me my next task. She forwarded me all the fan mail for the magazine and asked me to select, then edit the letters that we had been sent. And I needed to. The writing and wording of some of the worse letters made them almost impossible to read. It took three of us; me, Ekta and Meghna to decipher some of the text. The best letter, (and highlight of I think nearly everyone in the office’s day) was one from someone who could not string together a sentence without a metaphor or a simile. They began by telling us how they thought of our magazine as their deodorant. We’re not sure whether they meant that every morning they want to wipe our magazine on their pits, or that our magazine is just as essential, as a beauty product such as deodrant. This did not stop us finding it hilarious. They went on to describe how our magazine was…wait for it, farm fresh. Farm fresh? We laughed so hard we almost cried.
The day went by in a blur of business and we cut ourselves a break when we went for lunch. My favourite dinner was there today, whole boiled eggs floating in curry. I am obviously being sarcastic. That is my least favourite of all the things they serve, which I’m sure my Dad understands, being the world’s biggest hater of most eggy produce. I settled for dal, chapatti and rice. The safe option. During dinner me and the girls had a chat about all the stuff that we want to fit in before I go. It seems so sad that this is my last week, I really wish it wasn’t. Even the editor said she wished I wasn’t leaving, which is what you want to hear when you’ve been working for someone as hard as I have.
After lunch I got assigned an awesome yet stressy task which is ongoing. Some of the girls are doing a product shoot for Zara, Diesel and Vero Moda tomorrow, as they are all stores which have just come to India. I’m writing up a three page article about the opening of these new stores, and had to contact the PR agencies which handle all the catalogue photos and press releases. Thankfully the ladies I emailed were really lovely and are in the process of sending me the high resolution images that I requested from them, and the answers to some questions about their respective brands. I got to look first hand at some new Diesel products that came into the office and choose which ones I wanted to feature which was so cool! Once the shoot is over tomorrow, the girls will also have loads of images for me so I can choose which pieces from which stores I want to write about. So exciting, but also, so much of it is my responsibility it’s a little scary. Ah well, more bylines for me!
At around five we went up to the cafeteria for chai and kachori. Kachori is like a veggie burger with pastry round it that has been deep fried with loads of spices on top. You eat it with your hands and dip it in imly chutney, which is like a spicier, tangier version of mango chutney. I need imly chutney and kachori when I get back to the U.K or I’ll have withdrawal symptoms. I also need to find an Indian that does good vada and sambar. I’ll be on the lookout in Fal.
I finished work just before seven and made my way in a cab to the elephant basket shop. There was the sad little elephant that I have come to love, and the greedy fatso in the shop wanted over Rs 3000 for him! No way I’m paying 3000 bucks! I’m going to take bartering master Indrakshi with me after work tomorrow. That elephant will be mine. Mine I tell you!
Saturday morning I was up bright and early ready for brunch at Cafe Mondegar’s with Karen. I got a cab down Marine Drive which looked lovely on a lazy Saturday morning (lazy by Mumbai standards anyway). We drove past a field of cricketers all dressed in white and running around laughing and joking. A little further down the road a wedding was beginning. It was somewhere between wonderful, tacky and a meringue explosion, I’ve never seen so much ribbon in my life. We carried on except my next observation was not quite so attractive. A fat, homeless, wrinkly guy was stark naked pulling on his pants ready for the day on the side of the road. I didn’t turn quickly enough. Lovely.
Thankfully I was not put off my breakfast, and we continued on our way to Colaba. As we stopped at a traffic light a man came over trying to sell his wares through the cab window. This is completely normal in Mumbai, it was not this that bothered me. What bothered me was the man trying to sell me one of a stack of Grazia magazines. ‘I work there,’ I explained to him, ‘I don’t need a copy.’ ‘Yes, yes, you buy!’ he insisted, ‘brand new issue’. I looked at the familiar front cover, having worked at the office for over two weeks now. The ‘new issue’ was two months old. ‘That’s old!’ I exclaimed, ‘I work there!’ Despite my obvious refusal he kept trying to sell me the old magazine until the lights changed. The driver, who spoke more English than the salesman, found the whole situation hilarious and laughed all the way to Mondegar’s about how stupid the guy was.
I met Karen outside Café Mondegar and we went straight in to get a window seat. The first thing that greeted me was an awesome old American style jukebox. A café where I got to choose my own soundtrack and eat breakfast foods? I was so in love. After ordering we laughed and chatted with Wham’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’ on in the background. The Café was really cool, with an awesome mural on the wall done by a famous artist, who I can’t remember the name of.
Cool wall mural in Cafe Mondegar
Jukebox at Cafe Mondegar
Karen and I got our food, me a Cappuccino (complete with frothy face stencilled on top) and scrambled eggs on toast with cheese. Karen went for a ham and bacon omelette and some toast. This time I chose our song, Red Hot Chili Pepper’s ‘Scar Tissue’, it made my brunch even better than it was already. After Karen, the amazing historian (I know you’re reading this Karen!) told me all about the significance of the symbol on Indian coins and about local heritage, Pasham joined us for a pot of tea. We sat there drinking tea listening to Marley for a while and then the girls had to go to the office.
Pasham, Karen and me in Cafe Mondegar
I went back to the guest house to get Ben for a day of adventuring, except on arrival I found that he was pale as anything. With a twinge of green. Food poisoning was not my friend for the rest of the day. Ben had his head in the toilet bowl, while I had my head in my hands, bored of the four walls of the guest house. Thankfully I had Skandita, my roomie to keep me company, and Varoon, Ben’s roomie to talk about superheroes with. Varoon introduced me to the best cookies in the world and downloaded Kick-Ass for us to watch. We had a mini picnic and film fest in Ben’s room while trying to make him better, and less vomit prone. He had to get a flight a few hours later. Luckily Ben recovered and went on his way. He’s back safe and sound in the U.K now, no more curry for him. Or uncooked seafood.
I went back to my room to sit with Skandita, eat Domino’s and watch bad movies. The girls didn’t get out of the office in time for us to do something, but I actually needed to relax a little after the busy week.
This morning me and Skandita drank tea, ate biscuits and leftover pizza and watched more bad TV while I waited to sort out my day with Indrakshi. Indrakshi was spending the morning with her niece, so we arranged to meet up at four.
I got to Bandra just after four, though it was still baking hot. Indrakshi and I decided to stay at hers for an hour before venturing out to shop til we dropped. We had a complete orange fest, having orange juice and orange cake while sitting in her room worshipping the air conditioning system. After an hour we took an auto rickshaw to Hill Road in Bandra, a shopping hotspot. I have never been nearer death than I was in that machine, I thought the cabs were bad. I’m lucky to be alive.
Me and Indrakshi in an Auto-Rickshaw of Death
We arrived unscathed, luckily and headed for all the street stalls where I bought my first Indian style tunic. I’m not going to lie, it’s lush and I actually look good in it. I thought I’d look ridiculous. We continued through the hustle and bustle and headed for the stall where the Accessorize supplier works. Indrakshi and I were just browsing and sweating away when we heard someone say, ‘hey guys!’
We turned around to find our friend Ashika, the model from Thursday’s shoot who greeted us with a hug. It was so random and me and Indrakshi walked away and to our surprise, on the window of Globus, was a huge photo of who else but our very model friend again. ‘Oh my God we were just hanging out with her!’ we laughed and it was completely surreal.
Me, Indrakshi and Asihka, the model from Thursday's awesome shoot
Our friend Ashika on a building!
We carried on shopping and I got a few lovely dresses thanks to Indrakshi’s knowledge of the Hindi language and incessant bartering! We dropped off one of my dresses at the tailor’s before going for tea, as one panel of a beautiful dress was too big, but I really wanted it! We went to Gloria Jean’s for dinner and I had a butter chicken wrap and quiche, it was delicious. Indrakshi had a weird grey drink that smelt like biscuits and made my stomach churn.
We picked up my dress and went back to Indrakshi’s for a fashion show of all our clothes for her maid. It was so funny! I then got a cab all the way back to Babulnath, which is where I am now, on my favourite sofa, watching the guys watch cricket. My legs are so tired and I can’t believe I have to get up and go to Grazia tomorrow looking like a normal able, fashionable person. Who am I kidding, I’ll love it in the morning.
Me in one of my new awesome dresses!
The day of the big story
May 14, 2010
So today I got given the task of writing up a certain significant New York event! It was really exciting because the story is going to be one of the ‘ten hot stories’, so it will be in the first few pages of the magazine. It took me longer than usual to do as I was in severe self-critical mode and kept re-writing what I had already written!
The editor came to the office about four and looked at the text, once I had put it into InDesign with all the pictures and the layout done. She really liked it, so that’s one more story that’ll definitely be going in the June issue!
In other news I’ve got a room-mate for the remainder of my stay now, which is cool. Her name is Skandita, she’s a Mumbaikar, she works for The Economic Times and she’s just staying here for two weeks until she moves into her new apartment.
Whilst I was in the lift this morning, I was reading the advertisement for Time and Style magazine on the wall, and guess who was on the cover? Ashika from yesterday’s shoot! It was really funny and I wanted to tell this really weird guy that was in the lift with me, but he did not want to be disturbed, you could tell.
So today went by really fast in a blur of coffee trips, typing and general office chatter with the girls. Lunch was the usual cafeteria affair, today I hardly ate any of my food though. I have come full circle with my eating habits here. At the beginning I hardly ate anything because I was too hot and didn’t fancy anything, then I got really into the food, and now, I think I may be a little tired of the same meals. There’s not much variation in the food in the canteen and in the guest house. It’s always curry, rice and chapatti, standard. I did however have really nice carrot soup in the guest house for dinner, and I did have a really nice sweet in the canteen. It was made of pulses that had been sweetened and rolled into a ball, sounds horrible, tasted lush.
Nandini let me go just after five so I came back to the guest house to do some work on my case study, which is what I’m doing now. Ben is leaving the early hours of Sunday morning so we’ve only got tomorrow to do something before he leaves. Karen and I have made plans to have breakfast at a place called Mondegar’s tomorrow morning that apparently does the best scrambled eggs ever, but apart from that who knows what the day will have in store!
Swimsuits, shoes and sharing sandwiches with Supermodels; my day at a Grazia photo shoot
May 13, 2010
Today was the day of Pasham’s photo shoot. Pasham Alwani is the Junior Fashion Stylist here at Grazia India, and she invited me to take part in the accessories product shoot. So, take part I did.
At around eleven this morning, after changing my flight at Air India back until the 24th May, I made my way to the office to pick up some important packages. A huge box of Zara items, along with another large bag of high street clobber greeted me. On going downstairs I was provided with a driver to take me to Mahalaxmi to join Pasham, Indrakshi and Aarti on shoot.
As we drove through a rough suburb, I thought to myself, oh my goodness where on earth are we going? However, after a few minutes we arrived at an industrial building. Inside were rooms used for all kinds of small businesses. Me and Indrakshi dragged the box of Zara goodies into the elevator and made our way to the top floor. I was not prepared for what greeted me.
We entered a large completely white room, with the biggest Broncolor para umbrella I have ever seen! The backdrop had already been set up in a bright pink and looked amazing. The photographer had already arrived and was using two Apple macs; one to set up his camera and one to blast out some awesome tunes.
The photographer setting up the shoot
Rows and rows of heels standing on their boxes were piled up against one wall, bags, belts and jewellery of every kind imaginable was stacked as far as the eye could see. I was in heaven. Particularly when I saw a large section dedicated to Miss Sixty. I thought I may have actually died. It was everything I expected, and more.
Aarti, Indrakshi and Navna getting the clobber ready
On closer inspection I realised the room had two smaller rooms in it. One that was rather like a reception and the other a hair and make up room. ‘Priyanka and Ashika are in there!’ I was told. Priyanka and Ashika are very famous over here, and have modelled for Vogue, L’Oreal et al. Needless to say I was feeling a tad intimidated, I thought models would be the last people I would get on with, they get a lot of bad press.
Pasham asked me to document the day via my camera and my writing, which I obviously have, so I began snapping away. I went into the hair and make up room to take a picture of the girls getting ready and there were curlers both for hair and eyelash in use. Floor length mirrors and even brighter lights greeted me in there, along with the whole MAC collection of make up.
Priyanka and Ashika in the dressing room
The girls and I began to get a bit hungry, but that was O.k because the caterer was on hand with some food, and the company supplied us with the hugest file of takeaway menus I’ve seen in my life. Pasham ordered us all special veg sandwiches incase there wasn’t enough catered food. We ate vada, idly, sambar and chutney, it was lush.
After the food the models were ready to go. As I sat on the large couch I started talking to Ashika, one of the models who told me that she was from New Zealand. She was really lovely, and the last person I ever imagined to talk about agriculture with. After a few minutes of talking to her, (dressed to the nines in bright yellow leggings and a swimsuit), she explained to me how she loved the U.K and often visited Liverpool where her Dad was from.
A few photos were taken against the pink backdrop, and then were scrapped. It gave me and the girls time anyway to eat the sandwiches that had been delivered. As I was unwrapping the foil of my veg toastie, my new friend popped her head round the door and asked if she could have half of the sandwich. I sat there thinking to myself, I’m sharing my sandwiches with a supermodel, how awesome is my job?!
Priyanka and Ashika in front of the cameras
During the next part of the shoot I spoke to Priyanka’s agent about how hard the models work. The photographer was making them pose in difficult positions in high heels and barking at them to do this and that. Anyone who says models don’t have to work hard; doesn’t know. Try holding a handbag in the air for five straight minutes, while a guy shouts at you to pull different facial expressions. It’s difficult.
Pasham and Aarti dressed the girls up in an array of different swimsuits, belts and bags. The models got to wear the nicest shoes, I was supremely jealous of the footwear. After more posing the girls got a breather. By now we were about four hours in, and a long way off getting the winning shots.
The hairdresser and make-up artist stayed on the sidelines to sort out flyaway hairs and moving make-up. The only thing that was flying away though was one of the handbags. We had the yellow Aldo bag rigged to some fishing line, so when the shot got taken, Indrakshi would pull and the bag looked as if it were in the air. It was really impressive.
The bag shot
The agent then left, apologising that she had a film shoot at seven with another model, yes it was getting on to that time. Before I could ask her whether it was a Bollywood movie she was off to see filmed, she was off out the door with her LBD and her fierce attitude.
As I helped out, co-ordinating accessories and making suggestions I felt better than ever that I decided to stay here. I can’t believe how much experience I’ve gained, and am even more excited that I’ve taken the Fashion Journalism module for next year.
After a few more hours the shoot came to a bit of a stand still while the photographer spoke to Pasham about more ideas. I went for a gossip in the dressing room with my new friends and the make-up artist. One of the first things they did was compliment my make-up, which coming from a make-up artist was about as good as compliments get. We talked shoes, boys and food, which made us all hungry. We ordered pizza and brownies to the dressing room, which was probably my bad influence.
Ashika, me and Indrakshi
We stuffed our faces with nice cuisine from down the road and then the shoot resumed. The more the photographer got into the shoot, the louder the music got, until I felt like I was in a fabulous designer dream disco. I was rifling around in my bag, and made Ashika try on my Primark sunnies, she got spotted in them and they became part of the shoot! My Primark £1 sunnies! As the shoot drew to a close just before nine, the music changed. We needed the divas of the world to help us get through after ten hours of shooting. Rihanna, Gaga and The Pussycat Dolls were blaring over the scene, which was like something right out of a movie. One of the last songs was Jason Mraz’s ‘I’m Yours’ and I couldn’t believe the last time I heard that song was in my hairdresser’s the day before I came to India. Now there I was listening to it at a Grazia photo shoot. Life doesn’t get much better.
Ashika modelling my Primark sunglasses
I love my job
May 12, 2010
Today I got to the office bright and early and received the mass email with all of today’s deadlines on it. The editor, Nandini had set me two major tasks which I started straight away. The first I can say was a story associated with iPhones, the second with Louis Vuitton.
After being briefed by Nandini about my stories she said that she was really glad to have me in the office, which is a wonderful compliment. After finishing the stories for her, she was really happy because I managed to get them all finished nice and promptly. I finished the second story just after lunch.
I went for lunch with the girls to the cafeteria as usual. We were excited because today it was Chinese, which makes a nice difference! We had some form of noodles with vegetables and spicy poppadoms. It was delicious. We’ve planned to order in and go out for some awesome lunches next week, seeing as it will be my last week there. Lunch here is a really social affair and it’s always really fun, even if it’s more high school than high end sitting there with our metal trays of food.
The second half of the day I spent just putting finishing touches on the Indesign files of my completed pieces. This work experience has really given me amazing insight into the workings of a magazine, but also has helped me develop my Indesign skills.
As I finished everything around four, Nandini let me leave and said that I was welcome to go to the shoot tomorrow, which I was invited to by Pasham. This is going to be my first shoot and I’m so excited to see how it all happens behind the scenes of the pictures I’ve been writing about!
Right now I’m back at the guest house, having done loads of Grazia work today and more on my case study, I feel that I more than deserve to catch up on Gossip Girl. So that it what I’m doing, curled up with lots of cushions and a coffee, and I didn’t even have to make it myself!
