Match Point

If the Nadal-Djokovic final made you want to up your stamina (and girlfriend standards), we suggest you rally around Freestyle Fitness. This week-old endurance training centre and ‘sports clinic’ in Bandra aims at getting you one step closer to your favourite sportstar, quite literally, with squash champion Joshna Chinappa training right next to you. There’s also members like Neha Dhupia , thrown in for the glam quotient.

Lunging With The Stars

While they have a gym where you can go about your usual exercise routine, Freestyle Fitness specialises in making personal training regimes followed by athletes accessible to you. So this means your agenda could include physiotherapy along with sports conditioning and rehabilitation. They have Crossfit ceiling bars used for a complete functional workout under the guidance of a certified trainer (Rs 6,000 a month in groups of four) and a sandpit for joggers with weak knees. The coolest bit is that they even integrate squash and tennis games into your schedule to break the monotony that comes with most gym workouts.  For this, Freestyle Fitness has tied up with clubs around Bandra – Khar Gym, Bandra Gym and Otter’s Club - where they can book a court for you even if you’re not a member. Net profit, indeed!

Expect to find expert trainers here like Egypt’s ex national fitness coach, a nice upgrade from the Mr India hopefuls carelessly dictating their personal exercise routines, the kind you see in many gyms around the city. Sign up and Freestyle Fitness will conduct a thorough past and present fitness analysis on the basis of which they’ll chalk out the most effective game plan for you. They even conduct boot camps with members at Mahalaxmi Race Course, Jogger’s Park and nearby beaches to regularly test and check improved fitness levels.

Juiced Up

Coming soon: Yum smoothies and juices from Fellas Café. They’ve even tied up with sports nutrition brand Neulife for protein shakes. No Whey!

Getting there: Freestyle Fitness, 301, Silver Pearl, Waterfield Road, opposite China Gate, Bandra (W), call 31924779, Rs 6,000 a month for Crossfit training and Rs 4,000 a month for gym membership. 

So there’s this Wall, right, where you can get your carpenter, right after you speed dial your art dealer, to hang up your newest acquisition. Don’t have a dealer, painting or the cash? The Wall can help with all of these. The carpenter you’ll just have to source on your own. Remind us to hook you up with our trusty handy man Sharmaji later.

Launched this month by art collector Kapil Chopra, The Wall is a virtual art magazine (www.thewallartmag.com) that addresses connoisseurs and first time collectors, artists and gallerists in the same space, with user interface that’s pretty enough to stare at. Opt for the full screen view and The Wall pops up in a fun magazine format with pages you can flip though. Licking your fingers already?

Paint Ball

In time for the India Art Fair, the cover story gives a macro view of what to expect at the fourth edition of the festival, padded with lots of pretty pictures. There’s also a cool idiot’s guide to collecting art complete with a fistful of reasonably priced works to pick up (starting at Rs 25,000) and an unbiased pictorial guide on adding value to your collection. In addition to this, there’s a dreamy photo story from inside the folds of a Hyderabad wedding, Q & A with artist Jitish Kallat, reviews of Yoko Ono’s Delhi art exhibit (give this piece a chance?) and author Swapan Seth’s This Is All I Have To Give.

Overall, we think the magazine makes for delicious browsing but could definitely do with better written features (we even spotted a typo). Case in point is the press release-like Sakshi Gallery profile or The Leela (Mumbai) hotel feature that reads a little like a plug. We also wish they’d picked a newer, hipper Mumbai restaurant to profile than Ziya.

The e-zine is currently free of cost and we hope it stays that way or you’ll have to invest in a new monthly plan. Wall pay per view?

Getting there: Visit www.thewallartmag.com, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , free.

Sex up your career with our free monthly listings of super job openings in the city, from working for a Sunday newspaper to landing gigs at a fashion house and non-profit organisations.

Know of a cool job opening? Send us an email on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll list it for free!

Sunday Mid Day

Sunday Mid Day is looking for a Deputy Editor with six years relevant experience and an Assistant Editor/Chief Sub with five years experience. Job will involve news reporting, feature writing and production. Send your resume to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Westland Publishers

The publishing house is looking for a part time PR executive with two years of work experience. If you’re interested email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

AXYZ Music

The music label is looking for a Mumbai based intern as Akshai (www.myspace.com/axai) releases his music worldwide on DJ Tiesto-founded Black Hole Records. Need a young, efficient right hand man/woman to follow up on album artwork, music videos, paperwork, marketing and digital/social media. Send your resume to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

What: Buy LP players on www.saregama.com, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , start at Rs 9,500, free shipping, delivery in three weeks.

Why: This week’s cool find comes from an unlikely place - Sa Re Ga Ma. Scratch that! On the music company's website, bpb found for sale LP players and turn tables by Lenco with USB slots and one year warranties. If you have the cash, this one’s a catch.

When: You need a new vintage point.

Join the bpb office - along with Bono, Lana Del Ray and Michelle Branch - to sing for KP, today's birthday girl and our favorite Secret Scouter. Much love and music ~

Download the podcast or hear online here.

Happy Birthday, Beautiful - Innocence Mission
You Are My Joy - Reindeer Section
Everywhere - Michelle Branch
Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye featuring Kimbra
We Don't Eat - James Vincent McMorrow
Stuck In A Moment - U2
Video Games - Lana Del Rey
Against the Grain - Hudson
Satyameva Jayathe - Superheavy
Bella - Angus & Julia Stone

Have a favourite song? Send us your recommendations to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and if we love them, we’ll add them to next month’s track record!

What: Dial-a-masseuse from the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind, Tardeo, to make an appointment call 23531236, Rs 250 for a half hour and Rs 450 for a one hour foot massage.

Why: Considering all the debauched parties that your legs were photographed at last December, we think they could do with some good press. Call The Victoria Memorial School for the Blind that sends visually impaired foot reflexology specialists to your home, creating a spa experience that levitates somewhere between basic maalishwallah and fancy masseuse. They’re super skilled, not to mention reasonably priced.

When: Feet and greet from Monday to Sunday, appointments must be made a day in advance between Monday to Friday from 11 am to 5 pm.

What: BooksOnToast book drive, drop off points at Thane, Bandra (W), Bandra (E), Andheri (W), Dadar, Flora Fountain, Chembur, Juhu and Pune; email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   for exact addresses; book sale at Candies in Bandra (W), all titles for under Rs 150.

Why: Drowning in words, wading through pages, trying to cut down to 140 characters? This book drive is your chance to get rid of your excess books, all of which will be sold at a special sale at Candies. Proceeds will go to Hamara Footpath, an NGO that works with street kids. If you’re looking to pad up your reading list, stop by the sale for titles at deep discounts, including children's books, old Naipaul, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and a collection of graphic novels. Plotted cream!

When: Book drive on until January 18; Candies sale on January 22 and 23.

What: The Music Bay, Satyam building, ground floor, opposite BP Petrol Pump, Juhu Tara Road, call 9819982662 or view the Facebook group here, Rs 3,800 for a beginner’s acoustic guitar.

Why: The coolest thing about this new instrument shop is their own brand of guitars, cheaper and better than many instruments on the market. Also on offer are Ratpro, Dean and Fender electric guitars, NUX amplifiers, accessories like 3-in-1 auto tuners and pure leather guitar straps. Pay special attention to Djembe drums, first in a range of exotic instruments from all over the world. The Music Bay also holds basic guitar classes four times a month.

When: You want to be a strum dog millionaire.

Melting candy, unbalanced hearts, yards and yards and yards of discarded gift paper: maybe we have the holidays on our brain, but Indian Mylar Vision, a yet-to-open exhibit by German artist Anselm Reyle, reminds us of the end of Christmas.

A Brush with Berlin

Showing in India for the first time, Reyle’s art is housed at Galerie Isa, a 2,000 square-feet, split level gallery at the Great Western Building that launches this weekend. According to gallery director and art collector Ashwin Thadani, Galerie Isa will focus exclusively on contemporary art by established international artists - after Reyle, the he plans to showcase works of Puerto Rican visual artist Angel Otero.

Wrap Your Head Around This

The gallery’s wide, whitewashed walls and soaring ceilings are a perfect backdrop for Reyle’s huge works, the bulk of which are crafted out of shimmering sheets of artfully crumpled foil, which seem to have been rescued from under a gift-laden tree and pinned against purple and blue backgrounds, juxtaposed with neon lights, preserved behind thick panes of glass.

The melancholia of a party's end is also echoed in a porcelain sculpture made entirely from Messien cups, white, gold and melting into each other, and huge canvasses streaked with sugar-sweet shades of blue, pink and yellow, reminiscent of disintegrating candy canes. These colours appear again in the Drawing By Number series, dripping over dolphins and horses and pandas but refusing to stay within their boundaries.

Novel Ideas

“I want to live inside that,” one of us Scouters thought when we saw a large frame of undulating foil, as shiny and blue and absorbing as the long twilights of the summer solstice that Joan Didion describes in her new memoir Blue Nights. But on our way out, we were offered another perspective of the same universe, a translucent, turquoise block that a pair of hands was desperately trying to break open from the inside. It made us glad for the strong afternoon sunshine. 

Getting there: Galerie Isa, 132, Great Western Building, first floor, opposite Lion Gate Clock Tower, Fort, call 66373432 or visit www.galerieisa.com, opens Saturday, December 17.

A Bug in a Hug

A couple  of days ago, Anisha Sharma, a public relations professional at the NCPA and  @Ghaatidancer to her over 3,000 Twitter followers, was in a really good mood. So she decided, quite literally, to give Mumbai a hug.

Thus began "Ghaatikijhappi" or more officially, Free Hugs campaign, where she along with volunteers will congregate on Carter Road, Bandra at 5:30 pm on December 10 to dole out free hugs to anyone who might want them. They're even planning on having banners and, of course, someone to take a video of the whole event. "Response has been tremendous," Anisha tells us. "In the first day alone, we had over thirty volunteers."

We Don't Knead No Education

Indeed, Anisha managed to compete with all the Kapil Sibal chatter on Twitter yesterday to flood timelines and garner an impressive amount of support online - "Carter Road was trending, " she points out. She also emphasises that her campaign has no agenda or sponsors: "I just love giving hugs, that's all."

Chip of the New Block

"Flash mobs and free hugs - Bombay's turning into San Fransisco," a recently returned friend from the Bay Area observes. Indeed, there seems to be the emergence of a new kind of community engagement in the city, largely mobilised on the internet and inspired by international projects. It's too early to tell how sustainable it is, but we hope it sticks around. Free  hugs  on Saturday - one of us Scouters is staunchly hug-averse, and it even made her smile.

Getting there: Carter Road, Bandra at 5:30 pm on Saturday, December 10, hugs for free.