This week on our curated list of all things luxury, whether in value or in experience: An immersion in nostalgia and culture at Haveli Dharampura; Dayanita Singh’s latest photo-novel; a new line of homegrown spirits; Roastery Coffee House’s beautiful new outlets; a must-play Metaverse game; and a pair of performance sneakers for running enthusiasts.
Picture this: you’re in the heart of Chandni Chowk, and yet the chaotic frenzy of Delhi’s oldest market doesn’t reach you. Instead, you sit enjoying high tea on the terrace of a historic haveli, with majestic views of the Jama Masjid and the Red Fort in the backdrop. As the sun begins its descent on the horizon, you’re invited to join in a kite flying session.
Later, over a glass of your favourite red or white, a kathak recital enthrals you, as was the way in the olden days. To wrap up the night, comes a five-course dinner—a Chef's Tasting Menu of Old Delhi delights, including iconic chaats, meat preparations and desserts.
This is a nosedive into nostalgia, served with a side of cultural immersion at the 135-year-old Haveli Dharampura, which was marvellously restored from dereliction into the UNESCO-awarded heritage hotel that it is today. Spending an evening here is akin to stepping into a time capsule to the Mughal era, when architectural grandeur seamlessly met cultural and culinary indulgences—an experience that can only be termed luxurious!
In a YouTube interview with German publisher Steidl, Dayanita Singh says that she never wanted to be a photographer; “I came to photography by accident.” When that did happen, she became one of the first women photographers in India, who went on to be counted amongst the most remarkable image makers of our time.
Her new photo-novel, the latest of 14 books that she has published, now presents a collection of her earliest works from a time when she did not yet consider herself a photographer. Let’s See is a probing remembrance of “an eye I no longer have access to.”
During the pandemic, Singh poured through 40 years of her archives and found these images from the 1980s and '90s that she had created with her first camera, a Pentax ME Super with a 50 mm lens, but had since forgotten.
There's a tenderness, a gentle quality to these photographs—of hostel roommates, friends, family, weddings, funerals, self-portraits. The almost full-page photographs with little to no text are curated without any theme, to let you determine what the context or narrative behind the captures could perhaps be. The book is priced at INR 1,900 and available to order on Amazon.
Japanese multinational corporation ASICS has been producing top-quality sports footwear and apparel for over 50 years now, with game-changing technologies such as the Flytefoam and core GEL cushioning system. The 29th edition of the stability legend ASICS GEL-Kayano launched last month brings some key updates in its upper and midsoles.
With a stack height of 35 mm in the heel and 25 mm in the forefoot, the shoe creates a stable running experience and a more responsive feel underfoot for runners of all paces and distances. The Kayano 29’s midsole features a combination of ASICS’ GEL as well as FF Blast Plus cushioning systems, while the LITETRUSS technology provides the stabilizing structure in the shoe. Priced at INR 14,999, the shoe comes in four colour options for the Indian market and is possibly the best product at the moment for a smooth, injury-free running experience.
Gin connoisseurs will know Third Eye Distillery for their award-winning Stranger & Sons gin. Now the Goa-based makers of fine gin have expanded into other territory with a new range of homegrown liquors called Short Story.
The Short Story portfolio currently includes a classic London dry gin with a juniper backbone; a triple-distilled, charcoal-filtered grain vodka; and an Indo-Caribbean white rum. The range is set to hit bars and retail shelves across Goa, Bengaluru and Mumbai this month and subsequently reach other parts of the country. All three bottles are priced at INR 1,050 in Goa and INR 1,950 in Karnataka, while in Maharashtra, Short Story vodka will be available for INR 1,650, gin for INR 1,850 and rum for INR 1,950.
Coffee roasters and café brand Roastery Coffee House has been serving Indian-origin coffee since opening its flagship store in Hyderabad in 2017. They also have cafés in Kolkata and Delhi NCR. In the last couple of months, they’ve ventured to Lucknow and Jaipur as well with two new cafés.
In the ‘City of Nawabs’, the cheery café exhibits a charming design reminiscent of the French quarter of Pondicherry. On the other hand, the most striking feature of their latest outlet in Jaipur is the tranquil baori or stepwell—a tribute to Rajasthan’s magnificent architecture. The rainwater harvested in the step-well is intended for watering the café's lush greens.
Interesting interiors aside, both new cafes feature Roastery’s ‘crop-to-cup' experience, wherein the beans are sourced directly from India’s finest coffee estates and roasted in-house on Giessen roasters. Their signature line of single-estate specialty coffees is served with a menu of Italian, American and Continental dishes.
Back in the day when we were still unfamiliar with the term ‘metaverse’, which was just a few years ago in fact, game development company Pixowl had given us two mobile gaming hits—The Sandbox (2011) and The Sandbox Evolution (2016), which together garnered over 40 million downloads. In 2018, Pixowl decided to move from the mobile to the blockchain ecosystem, primarily to disrupt existing game makers by way of giving ownership to creators in the form of NFTs. Today, the Sandbox has grown into the third largest metaverse by market cap.
For the uninitiated, it is a virtual world where players can build, own, share and monetize their own properties, gaming experiences and in-game assets on the Ethereum blockchain. It has three main products—the 3D modelling tool VoxEdit, where you can create avatars, vehicles, plants, animals, other objects; the Marketplace, where you can sell these items; and the Game Maker, where you can develop your own 3D game without coding. In fact, so popular is The Sandbox metaverse that American hip hop superstar Snoop Dogg is recreating his mansion and selling his own LAND digital assets on it, while the Dubai government has purchased a piece of land here for its virtual headquarters!
