When you walk out of a tiny shop — where the shelves are lined with dainty glass vials — on Mannady Road, you smell like a flower bouquet.

And when the shop is run by a veteran perfumer, who loves to please his customers, the blend is unimaginable.

N. Fakhruddin Attarwala’s shop is perhaps one of the few places in the city where you can still get perfumes in their raw form — without alcohol or gas. “It is quite rare to see such perfumes being sold these days. Earlier, people would sell tiny bottles of perfumes with gold-coloured caps at fairs and marketplaces, enticing people with the aromas. They were not just sellers but perfumers who learnt the trade with great difficulty,” recalls D.V. Sainath Guptha, a perfumer himself, who prepares scents only for self consumption.

Several old areas, including Periamet, Royapettah and Triplicane, have such perfume shops but the number of patrons seems to be thinning with most people preferring branded products.

Though one connect such shops with traditional fragrances like  attar ,  marikolundhu  and  javvaadhu,the variety available is surprising. Mr. Attarwala, who has created some 50 fragrances in his 45 years as a perfumer, says some fragrances require up to 200 ingredients.

“The foodie note is the in-thing now, with melons, strawberry and lime vying for favour. One fragrance can contain 40-60 ingredients and take at least two years to perfect. It is a laborious process. No doubt perfumery requires knowledge of chemistry but it should be in your heart. It is only recently chemicals are being used in perfumes. Previously, it used to be just natural oils,” says Mr. Attarwala, whose home is where he creates his magic.

Whatever perfume is made, sandalwood is the basic requirement along with ylang ylang oil and musk oil. These perfumes must be diluted with four parts of water each time they are used.

“The cost of the perfume depends on its quality and not quantity. You can get the same quantity of jasmine perfume for Rs. 30 and Rs. 500,” he explains, as his customers patiently wait their turn to let their olfactory senses decide what they shou ld buy.

Gone are the days of tiny vials of scented natural oils withgold-coloured caps

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Tamil Nadu / by Deepa H. Ramakrishnan / February 11th, 2015

Tunday kababi wins trademark infringement case

The most popular pit stop for all visitors to Lucknow, be it film stars, politicians or even tourists, is the Tunday Kabab shop. But not just for the outsiders, but for the city folk too, it had become increasingly difficult to differentiate the real from the copies, with kebab shops by the name of Tunday mushrooming all over the city in the last few years. But after Mohd Usman, grandson of the legendary Tunday or Haji Murad Ali won a case filed against him for infringement of trademark by his khala’s (paternal aunt) son, Mohd Muslim, who owns Lucknow Wale Tunday Kababi’s chain of restaurants, all shops bearing the name Tunday and not belonging to Usman had to take their signs down on Monday . They will now have to change the names of their outlets.

Muslim claimed that the name ‘Tunday’ belonged to him and his family and they were the rightful owners of it and anyone else using the name was doing so illegally . But in December 2014, the Delhi High Court declared Usman the rightful owner of the name ‘Tunday’.

The lineage

Haji Murad Ali, a one-handed royal khansama from Bhopal made the Galwati kababs and paranthas world famous and several shops in his name had sprung up in Lucknow and outside of it. Mohd Usman, who holds the patent of Tunday , is Murad’s brother’s son, as Ali himself had no children.

“It was our grandfather who started Tunday . Although I don’t remember much of him but my father tells us tales of how he used to work with one hand. The 109-year-old legacy of our grandfather was being misused and maligned. We had to put a stop to that. Allah has bestowed his blessings on us as we have won the case.It’s nothing else but the blessings of our dada jaan,” says Usman.

The patent and the problem

“We had got the name’Tunday’ patented in 1995, so no one could use the name without our permission or without our franchise. We had also got the secret recipe patented a decade back,” he says, adding, “Mere dada jaan ne, unke baad mere walid saab ne itni mehnat se yeh naam aur iski shaan banayi thi. Hamari origi nal dukaan Chowk mein Akbari Gate ke paas hai, aur 1996 main humne Aminabad wali dukaan shuru ki.”

Not happy with the circumstances that led to this lawsuit, Usman says, “It’s not nice when people within the family fight but I was forced to take this step as it was affecting the reputation of my forefathers. People would come up to me and complain about bad quality food being served at these outlets in our name. Ab main kitne logon ko batata ki yeh asli Tunday Kababi nahi hai?” says he. What also irked Usman was that tourists and celebrities were often taken for a ride, and led to the fake Tunday kabab outlets instead of the original ones.”Kitni baar hum akhbaar mein hi padhte thay ki falan-falan celebrity Faizabad Road ya Gomti Nagar gaya.Yeh log toh tourists ko bhi mislead kar rahe thay,” says Usman. He’s right on the mark. In November 2012, celebrity chef Vikas Khanna had promoted a TV show at the Faizabad Road outlet, which had to remove the Tunday signage on Monday .

Apart from Chowk and Aminabad, the other original Tunday outlets are at Kapoorthala, Alambagh, Kanpur Road, Telibagh, Rahim Nagar and Sahara Ganj.

In August 2014, Usman filed a writ petition in the Delhi High Court to prevent anyone from using his grandfather’s name. “Those people – my khala’s family, went to court last year and filed a case against us for trademark infringement and demanded a compensation of 50 lakh from us, but now that they have lost the case, we are demanding a compensation of `20 lakh from them for misusing our grandfather’s name and bringing it ill repute,” says Usman, “Now it’s time for them to get worried,” says he with a smile.

Board of contention

The restaurants in Lucknow that had to take down their signboards displaying the name of Tunday are those in Vivek Khand, Gomti Nagar, Sapru Marg, Faizabad Road, Aashiana, apart from the one in Kanpur and in Raebareli.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Itishree Misra, TNN / January 07th, 2015

Hurricane lanterns, once a common sight in households, are now a part of antique collections

If you were to search the loft in your house, you might find a hurricane lamp with the faint smell of kerosene still emanating from it. These lanterns, which were once a common sight in households, are now a part of antique collections.

Until about two decades ago, most homes in the city owned hurricane lamps with wicks. The flame would never get extinguished, not even on windy nights. The children of the house were often entrusted with the task of cleaning them in the evenings.

“As children, we had to remove the glass covering carefully, and clean the soot gathered from the previous day’s use. After this, kerosene was poured in the bottom chamber and the wick lit. We used to study under its light,” recalls V. Aryadevi, an octogenarian resident of Mylapore.

Now, these lamps are purchased only by some restaurants, cinemas, serial production houses and interior decorators. “Earlier, we used to sell around 300 lamps per month. But, now, the number has fallen to 100,” says Shair Ali, who has been selling lanterns since 1945 on Evening Bazaar Road.

Though electric lamps have replaced hurricane lights, he says the latter burn for a longer duration. “I use one in my house to this day. You can still spot them in villages,” he says.

K. Nizam, who also sells hurricane lamps in the locality, says those who sell food on Marina and Elliots beaches, and petty shop owners purchase the lanterns from him. “But most customers prefer electric lamps. They feel that pouring kerosene and lighting the lamps is too much of a hassle. Hurricane lamps are more of a decorative piece in most homes now,” he adds.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Vivek Narayanan / December 24th, 2014

Hyderabad :

The bylanes of Charminar have series of shops offering Zardozi work. Most of them have been running the show for the past thirty to thirty-five years.

Stopping by Mohammed Haji at Laad Bazar, the artist, Mohammed Haji himself sits on the floor behind the wooden equipment working on a piece of cloth, held taut with two long pieces of wood and thread to enable him to work easily.

“Though in the beginning of my career, I used to do a lot of work on sarees, I mostly work on blouses now as people these days like heavy blouses,” says the 24-year-old, who started designing when he was in school.

Not being a family business, he got into the craft full-time after his class VII. “I started with helping my brother Mohammed Latif in my childhood as my mother would not like me wasting time. She asked me to pick up the skill as it would make a good source of income in future. I later dropped the idea of continuing schooling,” clarifies Haji.

He now has set up a separate workshop for himself in Laad Bazar and works along with one of his helper.

He says, “The way sarees are pre-designed these days has changed the fashion style.”

Today, we can witness a blend of the past with the present, the old with the modern. Zardozi has become a well-known and fashionable hand embroidery. “Earlier people would prefer heavy zardozi sarees. But now its limited to blouses only. Which in turn is affecting our income,” he rues.

The Zardozi work has not only kept up with modern embroidery but is also booming.

Ranging from gold to silver to the metal one, the craft though has changed with the passing time, Haji is more focussed on using the metal one, which he blends with zari, kundan, lace, chain, beads and resham threads. “But zardozi is what completes the design,” he informs.

Speaking about designs, he says, “Peacock and mango are the most popular designs which people prefer these days. They come up with their own designs. Sometimes if the customer has no idea about the design, I suggest them as per their material and the occasion. They add their own ideas to it and that’s how we brainstorm.”

Budget plays an important role while deciding design he says.

As his workshop is on first floor, there is not much footfall there so he generally picks orders from a nearby boutique.

The materials used to do the embroidery are bought from the city market.

The smallest work takes a day to be completed. “Gold, silver and antique Zardozi is in vogue now. Along with that, people also prefer using coloured ones,” explains Haji.

Each piece is charged as per the design and the materials used for embroidery. The quality check of the Zardosi, Haji says comes through years of experience.

The Zardosi works can specify patterns and motifs to suit their budget and choice. “Normally for a blouse we charge anywhere between `1,000 to `5,000. But for bigger works we charge more,” says Haji.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Pratima Shantaveeresh / December 22nd, 2014

The “Wah Taj” campaign with Ustad Zakir Hussain not only engraved Taj Mahal tea on the popular imagination, it also helped the tabla to make its star space in the popular imagination

You have to admit it was a whacky idea. I mean, taken literally, who would you find to go and sit in front of the Taj Mahal and start practising the tabla? And then continue to sit right there, with India’s most famous monument as a backdrop, and sip a cup of tea served up by an anonymous hand? But it wasn’t just any old tea, it was Brooke Bond’s Taj Mahal, and it wasn’t just any tabla player, it was Ustad Zakir Hussain, one of the earliest ‘stars’ of Indian classical music. So, when the anonymous voice complimented his playing with “Wah Ustad, wah!”, the ustad replied with “Arre huzoor, wah Taj boliye!” And the entire nation was hooked.

Whether everybody began drinking Taj Mahal tea is not the question here, though that may have been important to the tea makers. But if it was consumer connect they were after, they hit a winner. Brand recall? The combination of “Wah Taj!” with the dashing young Hussain’s curly locks flying about his face as his fingers flew across the surface of his tabla — not to mention that charming smile accompanied by the resonance of his playing — ensured brand immortality.

It’s not surprising that the man commissioned to shoot that ad, Sumantra Ghosal, went on to make an acclaimed documentary on Ustad Zakir Hussain.

The tie-up between the tabla maestro and the tea company went on for a number of years, during which it must have helped that Hussain was not linked to any other product. The ad that added a phrase to the lexicon of modern Indians had a number of sequels. In one of them, an adorable little disciple keeps pace with the maestro and, in place of the disembodied voice, Hussain — hats off to the naturalness of his acting before the camera — praises the little fellow with “Wah, Ustad!” This time it is the cheeky little one’s turn to correct him, “Arre huzoor, wah Taj boliye!”

Aditya Kalyanpur is on tour in Goa when we contact him to look back on those early days. “I was around nine when I was invited by the ad company to do a screen test at Famous Studios in Mahalaxmi (Mumbai),” he recalls. It was his guru Ustad Alla Rakha — father of Zakir Hussain — that recommended him to the ad filmmakers, says Kalyanpur. “They were looking for kids to appear along with Zakir Bhai. But they couldn’t find any that played the tabla. So Alla Rakha sahib said why don’t you try this boy, he is playing well. Fortunately, they thought I was good looking and I could play.”

It must be a great thing to know that your guru has recommended you at such a young age as a promising artist. Agreeing that he has had many blessings in life, Kalyanpur says the elder ustad was “like a grandfather and mentor” besides a tabla guru.

While he was “excited and maybe a little intimidated” at the thought of playing with the celebrated Zakir Hussain, Kalyanpur says, “It was the beginning of a new chapter of my career. I learnt how to record, how to face the camera. Fortunately I started when I was very young.”

As for preparations, he says, “Zakir Bhai asked me to play a couple of relas — fast compositions. He picked one up and said let’s play this.” The audio recording was completed in Mumbai in only a couple of takes, but for the video for which they travelled to Agra, a few days were required. “In 1989, things were much different from what they are now,” he adds, referring to the changes in technology.

Kalyanpur agrees that the ad campaign, by emphasising the excellence of an ustad’s playing and juxtaposing it with its claim of a high quality tea, helped ordinary people become familiar with the concept of classical music and the tabla in particular. “Thanks to Zakir Bhai for reaching into people’s lives,” he remarks.

Some old-timers might have cringed at the idea of a serious artist allowing praise for his musicianship to be substituted with a lip-smacking pat on the back for a beverage — no matter how much a part of Indian culture that beverage was considered. If that shocked the purists, the 2001 ad (“Taj Mahal Challenge” of Hindustan Thomson Associates and HLL), really made them shudder. Here the ustad was shown staking a claim that if anyone found a better tea than Taj Mahal, he would quit playing his instrument. But, on the part of the ad makers, the idea was to simultaneously put the tea brand at the top of its category in consumers’ minds, and scotch wild rumours that had recently surfaced that Zakir Hussain was going to give up his performing career. By the time 2002 rolled in, contest winners were getting to meet the ustad and also receive a gold tabla set, for having ‘found’ his instrument, which his detractors — so the ads told us — had stolen since he could not be stopped from playing as no better tea brand had been discovered.

Time has proven that the partnership between the tabla wizard and the tea brand gave both their careers an enviably healthy longevity, and both are still going strong. And the brand’s classical music connection is expanding. Since this summer, sitar exponent Niladri Kumar has been the tea’s brand ambassador.

In recent years — another ad campaign, another beverage — we have been hearing that a lot can happen over a cup of coffee. But there’s no contesting, whirlwinds in a teacup are of an older vintage

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Anjana Rajan / December 14th, 2014