 INDIAN FASHION
By Hindol Sengupta
Pearson Power
Price: Rs 1,999
Pages: 255 | Robert Pante, the witty fashion consultant, must have read this book: Indian Fashion by Hindol Sengupta. His wisecrack that if you look good and dress well you don't need a purpose in life is a perfect fit for Sengupta's book. Starting with a pretentious foreword by Ritu Kumar and an inane introduction, the whole book is a sycophantic gush where phrases like "urban legend" and "heritage flag bearers" litter the pages like glitter on a ramp, long after the show is over. But having said all this and since it has become habitual to pan anything on Indian fashion and for fashion designers to invite more intellectual jeers than an rss shakha, Sengupta has done a lot of hard work. The book is a good formula guide to the world of Indian couture. All the usual suspects are here, with attitude as marvellous as Ravi Bajaj's moustache and about as cool. Look at these gems and you'll see what I mean. Tarun Tahiliani: "Luxury is a cross I have to bear." Wendell Rodricks: "My clothes are about a minimalist democracy." Bajaj: "I'm bored of fashion." Puhlease ... The photography is quite good though the production standards, which should have been exemplary for a glossy book on fashion, seem to have followed the Ludhiana Fashion Week Code. Nevertheless, the list is comprehensive and appears to be the first of its kind on Indian fashion. Sengupta writes well and the little Q&As are quite chatty. Fashion victims will find it must-chic for their paltry bookshelves. As for fashionistas, they will flip the pages, yawn at their peers and giggle over those who have been left out. But then as Seneca said in 1 A.D, we live not according to reason but according to fashion. It's in vogue.  | TOP 10 BESTSELLERS
A monthly national list of bestselling books compiled for India Today by ORG-MARG based on data from 15 retail outlets in six cities. | | | FICTION | | NO. | TITLE | AUTHOR | PUBLISHER | | 1. (2) | The Da Vinci Code | Dan Brown | Doubleday | | 2. (3) | Five-Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT | Chetan Bhagat | Rupa | | 3. (11) | Shantaram | Gregory David Roberts | Little, Brown | | 4. (10) | The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho | HarperCollins | | 5. (6) | Angels and Demons | Dan Brown | Pocket Books | | NON - FICTION | | NO. | TITLE | AUTHOR | PUBLISHER | | 1. (1) | The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari | Robin S. Sharma | Jaico | | 2. (4) | Winning | Jack Welch, Suzy Welch | HarperCollins | | 3. (3) | Blink | Malcolm Gladwell | Little, Brown | | 4. (5) | Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found | Suketu Mehta | Penguin | | 5. (-) | The Tipping Point | Malcolm Gladwell | Abacus | | OTHER INDIAN BOOKS IN THE TOP 20 | | FICTION | | NO. | TITLE | AUTHOR | PUBLISHER | | 6. (6) | The Hungry Tide | Amitav Ghosh | Ravi Dayal | | 7. (-) | The Inscrutable Americans | Anurag Mathur | Rupa | | 15.(15) | The Red Carpet: Bangalore Stories | Lavanya Sankaran | Review | | NON - FICTION | | NO. | TITLE | AUTHOR | PUBLISHER | | 6. (2) | Spouse: The Truth About Marriage | Shobhaa De | Penguin | | 7. (17) | The Future of India | Bimal Jalan | Penguin | | 11. (8) | Who Will Cry When You Die? | Robin S. Sharma | Jaico | | 15.(-) | Indian Intelligence Unveiled | M.K. Dhar | Manas | | * Last month's rating in brackets Participating bookshops: Delhi: Om Book Shop, Faqir Chand, Teksons, Full Circle; Mumbai: Crossword, Shah Book Stall, Danai Book Shop; Bangalore: Fountainhead, Gangarams; Hyderabad: Walden Book Store, The Book Point; Kolkata: Oxford Books, Modern Book Depot, Family Book Shop; Chennai: Fountainhead | |  | Index
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