Its been a crazy couple of weeks workwise...haven't managed to sleep more than 3 hours on any given day, and am feeling totally dead now. Did I hear someone say that lifestyle journalism is easy and that freelancing allows you to set your own timings?????

But the funny part is that I love all this running around and working 20-hour days....would be bored to death if I was not working like this :)

Yesterday was again fun but amazingly hectic. First there was this trip to Curio Cottage in Colaba to review their new silver jewelry collection for a leading international fashion magazine. They have some truly exquisite pieces - spent a full two hours their immersed in wonderful designs and semi-precious stones, and then just could not resist buying a pair of gorgeous Victorian style earrings and a really chunky pendant for myself :)

In the night was the much anticipated music launch of Swades - Oscar nominated writer and director Ashutosh Gowariker's new film. The plan was to have the music launch at the Gateway of India, and then few selected guests were to move on to dinner at the Oberoi. And the arrangements at the Gateway were terrific, with some really cool divan-style seating and huge screens, but it started raining just as the first song was being played and ten minutes later we had to pack everything up and move everything and everybody to the Oberoi. Don't worry Ashutosh - it just means that the heavens are blessing your venture!!

Swades looks like a really good film, and though the comparisons with Lagaan are perhaps inevitable, I think this movie has the capacity to really make its own mark as well. The hero - Shahrukh Khan - of course needs no introduction, but even the leading lady - model-turned actress Gayatri Joshi - looks really good. In fact, in the song Saanwariya, she looks just like a much younger version of Madhuri Dixit. Can't judge her acting skills as of now, but she's got a really sweet and innocent look about her.

Talking of Indian films and Bollywood, these next couple of months are really going to see the return of the mega-budget blockbusters. The last few months were ruled by small budget, independent and some pretty experimental films that came in vogue, but now we are looking forward to blockbusters like Yash Chopra's Veer-Zara, Ashutosh's Swades, Aamir Khan's The Rising, Gurinder Chadha's Bride & Prejudice and so on. Its going to be a pretty interesting time.

In the meantime, I think you should really check out the music of Swades - especially the songs Yeh tara and Yun hi chala chal. In fact, with Aahista aahista, the movie also marks the return of the lullaby after a really long time in hindi films.

Anyway, after the launch, there was this mad rush to get to the annual dinner of the Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID) at the absolute other end of the city - at the Grand Hyatt near the airport. Got stuck in a 50-minute traffic jam under the Andheri flyover, and finally reached the venue after 12 in the night. Thankfully our interior designers and architects really know how to party and managed to catch up with everybody there despite the late hour. Would have been a tragedy otherwise to have irritated Ashutosh by leaving his party early, then driving 2-hours and finding everything had shut down - although staying in Bombay you do get quite used to such eventualities!!!!