Ek Bungala Bane Nyaara

This was my first visit to Bungalow 8,Mumbai avant-garde,fashion and design store near Radio Club in the hip Colaba district. Am writing this blog just two hours after returning from a guided tour of the three-storeyed store that told me multiple stories about Indian fashion,creativity in the country,why curating is is more about rejecting than about selecting and why ethnic needn’t be a screaming adjective.

Maithili Ahluwalia,curator and founder of Bungalow 8 is my Facebook friend but I saw the model-like stunner dressed in a shibori red and white dress (see the first picture with this blog) for the first time. Her passion has seeped into every detail of Bungalow 8 which stocks clothes,accessories,a couple of select décor and interior pieces and beautiful precious by Jamini Ahluwalia who is Maithili’s mother. Outside the store are children of the neighbours playing “shame and shame” and giggling uncontrollably only as devil may care three-year-olds can. Inside you are transported into another India but not one that’s completely disconnected from the personality of the old staircase and architecture of the building outside.

The patina of time-worn interiors,rough hewn walls,thoughtfully chosen white and kota coloured tiles; one big square of a see-through glass flooring,its a big picture experience. Each storey in this three-storeyed store has a personality of its own,each sells curated wares with a distinct point of view,yet you know its one single home because of its design homogeneity. “I just feel that whoever comes in to Bungalow 8 should feel there is no place like this in the world,” says the husky voiced Maithili. She seems quite close to realising that dream.

See these images,they tell their tale.