What: Eatizens culinary community, click here to sign up, membership free.

Why: Currently in Beta stage, this website might offer slim pickings but Eatizens is a super cool concept: here, you can not only register for food-related events - supper clubs in private homes, cooking classes, meet-ups in restaurants - but also create your own gigs. Just add description, price, number of people, and fellow Eatizen-citizens will sign up. Look Who’s Coming to Dinner!

When: You want to star in a ROM-com.

For Priya Gonsalves, the day is broken up into dances: morning rehearsals, afternoon YouTubing, evening freestyle dancing and night clubbing. The self-taught freestyle dancer and instructor who promotes various non-commercial dance styles through a company called Syntheskillz (run with partner Prosenjit Kundu), has also recently put together India’s first all girl street dance group called Urbanista (watch their YouTube video here). You can catch their performance at Blue Frog, Lower Parel this Saturday, July 9 at 10.30 pm.

bpb gets Priya to open her dance kit, step by step.

The Styles: Most people are familiar with just commercial hip hop dance, because that’s what they see in videos. In reality, urban dance encapsulates a number of different styles — old school hip hop, B- boying, house, popping, locking, waacking and more. View this freestyle battle to see how the girls can get down!

The Gear: No bling please. Dressing like a rapper when you aren’t one is NOT cool! The most crucial part of a dancer’s wardrobe is the shoes; my favourites are High Tops at the Adidas original store at Linking Road, Bandra. I also shop for jackets and accessories at Hill Road’s street stores and love the geek chic glasses people are sporting these days (I bought mine from a roadside shop in the lane the opposite KFC, Linking Road for as little as Rs 300!)

A new brown door recently appeared at Bandra’s Chapel Road and it’s rather unremarkable. No one would guess that it conceals behind it a red light, an S&M style chair and a bottle of eucalyptus oil, all of which we personally tested. Have we been bad girls this week? Depends on who’s asking.

To Answer the Door

Curious cats, the new addition to your block is Skin Kitchen, a previously home-run service that provides natural beauty fixes made with fresh fruit and veggies (sourced from Lalu’s at Pali Market). Inside the studio, you’ll be greeted by potion maker and proprietor Diya Dembla, who after being a “professional gypsy” for years – she’s dabbled in modelling, fashion, art, communication – finally found her calling with Skin Kitchen. Qualified from the International Dermal Institute in Boston, Diya’s recently returned from a three-month Hong Kong stint where she was certified as a masseuse for pregnant women and babies.

Her luminescent skin is a great sell for why you should get one of the treatments, all of which sound good enough to eat - mango mousse cream, lychee cleanser, watermelon slushie, jamun scrub, avocado pack. We’d tried some of these face desserts already, so we decided to opt for a head massage instead. Clay treatments and acupressure massages are also provided.

Limbs With Digits

If we had an ‘Om’ for each time someone asked us to recommend a good yoga class in Mumbai, we’d be pretty relaxed right now. So, you emailed/called/tweeted to ask us too? Here you go:

One of us Scouters recently signed up for a new class at Gamdevi and are quite enjoying it. This yoga centre (morning classes are held at Worli) uses the Iyengar style as a base and tailors it to your individual needs and ailments (if any) by mixing different schools such as power yoga. bpb realised very soon into the class that chief instructor Kapil Sehgal’s intuitive nature allows for excellent customisation. The initial few classes are done on a one-to-one basis, after which you are added to a small group of about six.

The coolest part is that if you miss a session and inform Sehgal before 9:30 pm the night before, you can take an extra class anytime in the next six months. Talk about being flexible!

Getting there: Kapil Sehgal’s class at Worli and Gamdevi, call 24923204 between 8 pm and 9.30 pm for inquiries, Rs 2,400 a month for bi-weekly and Rs 3,750 a month for tri-weekly classes.

Our play list takes us over the moon this June by way of Perth, Bermuda and a brimful of Asha.

Download the podcast or listen online here. Enjoy!

Break Me Out - The Rescues
Perth - Bon Iver
Let Go - Frou Frou
Bermuda - Kisses
Alane - Wes
Brimful of Asha - Cornershop
Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club
Saturdays - Holly Brook
Nindiya Re - Kaavish for Coke Studio
Nighthawks - Two Hour Traffic

Big thanks to Sonjoy Basu and Hersh Khumbani for sharing their music!

Have a favourite song? Send us your recommendations at 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!

Bark Code

Leaf through this: the pretty Banyan Tree Bakery and Cafe at Fort’s Gallery BMB is attempting to start a book club. Reading lists have not been planned yet and no literary figures seem to be on the panel, but there is a 15% discount card for anyone who signs up for the Banyan Tree Book Lover’s Club; all you need to registrater is donate one book. This card is valid all day at the cafe, where for now, you have to BYOB - bring your own books - and read solo. You can also browse the uber cool collection of art, architecture and photography tomes at the gallery’s bookstore. Once enough people sign up, formal meets and book discussions will begin. You have their word.

Not since Metallica announced that it might tour India has a music event caused such a buzz. After a successful run in Pakistan, Coke Studio made its India debut on MTV last Friday (June 17) featuring heavyweights like Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar Mahadevan and Kailash Kher. We round up the reviews:

Indiecision.com, in Tweets: “What we liked: Khogen Gogoi, Harshdeep Kaur, most arrangements. What we disliked: Camera work, scrolling text song intros, camera work.” Read more here.

IBNLive: “[Performances] lacked variations as expected out of Coke Studio… music appreciated, magic awaited!” Read more here.

Indian Express, on the launch of the show in Delhi: “Music was like a drug and singers delivered ample doses of it.” Read more here.

Mumbai Mirror: “The show packed in a punch, giving a fine glimpse at the reservoir of potential that the platform will offer with its fusion of a cross-section of Indian musical genres.” Read more here. 

Sunday Guardian: “Sloppy camera work and lackadaisical live editing… the saving grace though… is that they've captured the music beautifully.” Read more here. 

bpb bonus: Listen to this super pretty track from the Pakistani version of Coke Studio, featuring Kaavish. Happy World Music Day!

We always knew you would go places. And now that Citybliss is in town, you can get a massage en route. New in Mumbai, this teal blue van is a mobile spa that picks you up at your doorstep, and offers a host of fuss-free wellness treatments while transporting you to work, the airport, bachelor party or wherever else you knead to be.

Vanity Fare

Vans are shady. It’s all that concealed space in the back that makes you wonder what schemes are being hatched in there. So naturally, our first reaction to Citybliss was laced with scepticism. But there are couple of things that finally put us at ease: a bpb reader who’d tried and tested it, a legit website with interior shots of the van, the fact that both therapists were female and a reassuring voice at the end of the phone line that explained all our options. Treatments on board include facials, foot rubs, head massages, manicures and pedicures for thirty minute and one-hour slots, while commuting anywhere in Mumbai. And all this at super reasonable rates!

The downside: Citybliss currently has just one van (they are yet to brand it) so your satisfaction depends entirely on their availability. And remember, use this service only if you really have to get somewhere. Driving around the city just so you can get a massage isn’t great for the environment. The Scouters for instance, got an afternoon foot massage while parked outside the office.

What: No Man’s Art pop-up gallery, secret South Bombay location, to RSVP (compulsory for all attendants) email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.nomansart.com, entry free.

Why: After popping up in an old home on the Hamburg Bay, Westerpark in Amsterdam and an empty apartment in Rotterdam, No Man’s Art plans to land at an undisclosed Mumbai location. Here the gallery will show works by European and Indian artists, (Roman Asmus, Catharina Gerritsen, Hersh Acharya, Bhairavi Parikh) as well as a winning photograph from the No Man’s Art Slum Photography contest, which provides 45 teenagers with cameras to take photos of Dharavi. Shoot!

When: Easel your way in on July 1, for three days only.

Have you met Mashoom Singha? Of course you have. Her angular face and never-ending legs appear regularly in fashion magazines, swimsuit calendars, ad campaigns and ramp shows for top Indian designers like Ritu Kumar, Rohit Bal and Wendell Rodricks.

But meet the model in person and you’ll discover a lot more. She’s a qualified engineer, runs a wine tasting club called We Know Vino and loves The Tasting Room. Read on about Mashoom’s Mumbai.

What’s your favourite shopping ritual in Mumbai?
There are a bunch of standalone stores in Mumbai where you get great finds that won’t burn a hole in your pocket. I usually hit boutiques like Izzo and Taxxi & Vitamin K in Bandra for my monthly shopping fix. If I’m in the mood to hunt, export surplus stores like Cotton On also yield some great finds.

What’s the one thing you’ve wanted to steal off a ramp and take home with you from a fashion week?

Exquisite half sarees and beaded jackets by designer Anamika Khanna.