"LE MANS OR ANY MAJOR CHALLENGE REQUIRES SOME TEST, SOME TRAINING AND SOME DEDICATION. I AM A PERSON WHO IF I DECIDE TO DO SOMETHING I DO IT 100%; I DON'T DO IT 50-50." - FERNANDO ALONSO

What (I Think) Bangalore Needs To Make It A Global City - 1 Of Many

I came across this amazing e-mag site this morning "Toronto Life" and spent quite a bit of time browsing through and getting infused with how life in the city of Toronto flows. I've always heard a lot about Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver through a significant portion of my family who had boarded the Canada Immigration bandwagon eons ago and have very happily nestled into the high life of their respected micro geographies and what always amazed me was that these places are a bustling cauldron of ethnicities, cultures, customs and ways of life which have blended and flavoured in with the original demography and thrown out a brilliant infusion of arts and culture and music and movies and design and food and just a wonderful collage of a big city experience.

So, why can't we have the same thing in Bangalore?

Our city is a mash up of all kinds of peoples. We're 10 million and growing and we have immigrants rushing in for our way of life by the hour. I can walk around and apart from bumping into (quite literally when you think of our traffic woes) a person from every nook and corner of our beautiful country, I can see Americans from both sides of the hemisphere; Europeans from both the new and the old - Italians, French, Danes, Czechs, Bosnians; Africans - Nigerians, Kenyans, Ethiopians, and our continental bretheren - Japs, Chinese, Koreans, Thais, etc. etc. etc. etc. - you get the picture but yet we are no where on the global city map. Nor do we make it into the list of rapidly growing cities. We may just about be listed amongst the top 40 global cities by 2000 and twenty/ thirty something.

You and I will be 40 something then, brother. Forty something and unless your going to eternally young and kicking it, we need to step out now and make a grasp in calling this city our own and moulding it to what we think it should become - a global destination - a place where dreams can metamorphose into reality - something like how New York was in the late 20th/ early 21st century (am I too much of a dreamer?) .

Yes - our roads and all other related and supporting infrastructure are under various stages of development (finally!) and apart from the IT/ ITeS and its tertiary rooted off shoots which is driving our economic engine on a world scale, we need something more. Bangalore has a model IT growth footprint which other countries like Australia, England and China want to replicate and if they can be inspired by our IT business model and its economic benefits, why can't we reach out and look at their culture and how they bring everything together. It's not just economic growth which makes a city an envy of our boundary neighbours, its the people and their way of life - now that's what makes it truly and wholly wanting. Looking through the lenses of a global city trotter, we have up and coming (sub) culture - music across all genres; dance forms; a flummox of restaurants, pubs, bars and clubs; theatre and now movies; arts; architecture and design to a certain extent; photography; spirituality; (fill in whatever I've missed).

But. What am I getting at or trying to get at here?

What I want to state is that, all these little beautiful pieces of Bangalore's art and culture are strewn all across the city and place; and like one of those beautiful silk and wool patchwork quilts, some form of medium has to be the thread that brings all these pieces together and make it an enviable masterpiece.

How can we do that?

Something on the lines of Toronto Life. Check it out and let's create a mastermind group to make something like this happen - a platform to put out what Bangalore has to offer to its inhabitants and an experience for its tourists.             

Stunt 101 | Re-Cooked With Soul

To celebrate the G-Unit reunion, Cookin' Soul had to go and make an incredible laid back vibe filled remix to Stunt 101.

Welcome back Fif & The Gang!

Nick Wooster | Five's

Nickelson Wooster is a retailer, street style hero and brand ambassador for the Lardini Group. Here are his answers to his five most recent purchases, which designers are on his radar and what are his go to-items.

Five Most Recent Purchases
1. A carton of cigarettes in duty free.
2. A hemp jacket by Layer-0 that I found at Maxfield, in Los Angeles. It has the most amazing cut, sort of couture but very butch at the same time.
3. A new iPad. I bought a Mini last year, but miss the drama of the gigantic screen. And it has 128 GB.
4. A pair of Kolor shorts that are probably the most comfortable and unflattering thing I own. The construction is a work of art. They are basically a pair of size 42-waist pants that have been given a master cut-and-sew. They are the coolest thing from this season.
5. Twenty pair of J.Crew no-show socks for my trip to Italy.

Five Designers I Am Feeling Right Now
1. Ganryu, a new brand in the Comme des Garçons stable. This stuff is completely amazing, sort of sport and very well-engineered. My favorite gray pants from the spring season are from them.
2. Kolor is another amazing Japanese brand — the jackets, the pants, all so amazingly conceived.
3.Thom Browne is, in my opinion, one of the great minds in men’s wear. I always want something (or many things) of his, every single season.
4. RTH. Rene Holguin started RTH about five years ago. He is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met. His two stores in L.A. are always my first stop once I get off the plane.
5. Comme des Garçons. For me, Rei Kawakubo and all in her orbit are the masters. For me, she is untouchable.

Five Go-To Items
1. White button-down shirts. Period. The end.
2. Blue button-down shirts. Ditto.
3. J.Crew no-show socks. The gray-and-white micro-polka dot are my favorites. I think I have spent $250 on them this spring alone.
4. The Triple Welt collection from Grenson. I now have their shoes in black, brown and my newest favorite, white. They are made in Northamptonshire, England, and are shockingly comfortable right out of the box.
5. Stan Smith Adidas sneakers, white with green. And the newest addition, the Raf Simons Adidas collaboration in both white and navy blue. I am crazy about the stripe across the shoe.

McLaren P1 Vs. The Nürburgring-Nordschleife