Almost overnight, I packed up my bags and moved to New York. (Technically, Jersey City until I find a kickass place in NYC) but yes, I’m in back on this side. Also, I am bored with my blog. Atleast with the way it looks, feels and just comes across. I also don’t like that it’s still called StyleStation — when that name, is in all honesty, a little crappy. So tell me, what do you think of this new name that I’m thinking of: Constant Beta.
(It was inspired from a quote by Bruce Nussbuam, Innovation Editor at Business Week)

I’m doing a bunch of fun branding/ advertising/ digital media related things in NYC. Mostly, my time is now spent on a lovely couch at POKE. (www.pokenewyork.com) I’ve joined this digital think-tank as a Strategist and am working with some very smart people on some very fun projects. You should check out our website and if you keep checking it often, you may see me on the couch. (Go to the site to see what I mean)

I was listing things that I want to do and I havent done yet and I figured that moving to NY was a step in the right direction. For your benefit, here are the other things that I want to do in the coming years:
1) Work in Asia. (In particular, India and Japan)
2) Go to grad school to study economics and social media.

That a good goal for now, what say!?

i buy books – i read magazines
i wanted to share my bookshelf with you – i’ve read *some* books, most are half-read and yes, a few are untouched. my plan is to aim on finishing atleast 2 unread books every month – anyone want to start a virtual bookclub with me? or at the least share their book shelves with me?

Friday, the 13th.
(just wanted to point that out:P )

a

Wish you a very happy new year! Hope the rains didn’t drench your new year plans last night. A few of my friends were moving apartments (yes, talk about timing!) so we stayed in and chose to bring in the new year with wine and cheesecake. It was perfect.

 So, in addition to learning Italian, traveling outside USA and visiting home (Bombay), I’ve also resolved to post here every single day. And a bunch of exciting interviews in the Being My Boss series will continue. Perhaps, even video interviews later this year.

Yay for 2007!

As most of my readers know by now, I was born and raised in Bombay, India. I grew up in a quaint colony of cottage-styled houses that shared walls. It was quite common for us to walk into our neighbours houses at odd times of the day and demand food if we were hungry or a place to hide if our moms were angry. And ofcourse with shared walls, everyone knew everyone’s business. We heard our neighbours when they fought, we heard the shriek when they discovered their father had died in sleep, we heard everything. They heard my mother’s frustrations with raising two difficult, teenage daughters, they probably heard my mother and father fighting and who knows, what else they heard.

My childhood was uneventful except for a few scrapes and a stitched finger that was slit and bloody when it got jammed into the bathroom door at a cousins wedding. But what I remember the most about my childhood are my neighbours. More than my extended family and friends, it is my neighbours that were witness to every minute detail of my family’s history as we were to theirs. As kids, the grandmothers and grandfathers of the colony were our gaurdians when our parents weren’t around. They’d keep a stern eye on us but unlike our parents, they let us play out in the fields without our shoes on.

It was my friend’s grandmother that fished me out of the nasty dry gutter I had fallen into once. And my grandmother who proved to be much cooler than anyone else’s for ordering ice-cream for us one day. And ofcourse, every colony has it’s share of villians. Our villian was the grandmother and grandfather in house number 3. Imagine, five saucer-eyed kids being yelled at every say for being too racacous and loud. We took our revenge every afternoon when they napped : we’d ring the house bell a hundred times and scurry away.

The big news in teh colony was when a little kitten dropped into house number 2 out of the ceiling. She’d been hiding there from the monsoons and I guess she must have fallen through the roof or something. Because most fathers were at work, and most mothers were napping, the grandmothers huddled around the whimpering kitten and inspected it, attempting to decide its fate.

These grandmothers were the backbone of our colony. They’d sit together on the parapets in the evvenings, gossiping, cutting vegetables and stitching buttons to old shirts. Always, keeping a strict watch on us, making sure were were within sight.

It was when I turned 16 or was it 17? that the exodus began. It’s as though they had all come with a limied time warranty, I couldn’t understand. Old age and frail health, started taking them one by one and it wasn’t until last year when my grandmother died of a minor fall, that the mortality of the eight strong women who contributed in raising me and who form such a solid basis of my childhood memory, hit me hard. And then this week, two of the last three died a few day apart of each other. It was like reeling from one shock to bang straight into another.

An entire generation of women I grew up with will cease to exsist in a few years. The thought is terrifying because it reminds me, I’m not a kid or a girl anymore. I am a full-grown up adult whether I like to admit it or not. What remains are the few precious memories, no last chances, no last goodbyes…if I’d known that when I met them last year would be the last time I’d be seeing them….what would I have done differently? I don’t know, perhaps — would have clung to them a little bit longer.

This is the way of life, I know. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

This blog has achieved its purpose.

I started StyleStation last year in August to enhance my job-hunting. I thought having a blog that displayed my (assumed) knowledge of youth culture would help. And it did!

I have recently accepted the role of Director of InSights and Strategy with Buzz Marketing Group and I am super psyched. My blog didn’t bring me the job, but it definitely helped to have my boss to look at something before she hired me. So there! Mission accomplished.

Now, this blog can relax! I can relax and allow my thoughts to relax.

Yay for me! Yay for this blog and yay for the new avatar of this blog!

Dear Readers,

If you have stumbled upon my blog from this article, please note that this is NOT a fashion blog as the article proclaims. I am a trendspotter/ reporter who happens to work in fashion.

This blog is mostly about culture, youth and consumerism, or atleast I think so! But you are welcome to your own conclusions.

Thanks!

Jinal Shah

All you shoe-addicts, so badly want to be in my shoes right now. Ask me why.

I will be interviewing the outrageously famous red head, Patricia Field. The lady who gave Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik’s it’s rarified status’s. The lady, who presented Sarah Jessica Parker aka Carrie Bradshaw, in sometimes achingly beautiful to the disturbingly horrendous outfits on Sex and the City. And the lady, who gave so many fledgling designers the right platform for their talents.

I’d love your input. What would you ask her if you had the chance to? Is there something you’ve been dying to find out about the show or its clothes? Or just the designer? Share it with me and I’ll ask Pat.

Hi!

My name is xxxx xxxx and I am a student at Swarthmore College. My
friends and
I eat at your place all the time.
We are having an israeli speaker come and I was wondering if you did
catering.
t would be falafel, Israeli salad, etc. for about 70 ppl.
Let me know-either email or call 610-xxx-xxxx
Thanks, xxxx

I understand mistaking a customer to work at a store, but how can you mistaken a journalist to own/work at a restaurant she reviwed aeons ago?

Maoz Review

A friend’s suggestion made me re-think the value of the numerous categories on my blog esp. when a majority of my posts either belong to World Culture, Youth and Consumerism. I have severely diluted the categories to make it easier to navigate my site. I am still in the process of reassigning my posts to these categories, so bear with me.