The Great Aalayam Rendezvous!

Hello Dear Readers!

Today, we bring to you a special summer treat. The much awaited rendezvous of the dynamic Aalayam duo, replete with brainstorming, creative sketching and glamorous posing (of course). 

Deepa and I are delighted to bring this special edition to our dear readers. Hope you enjoy perusing through this post, because let me tell you, we sure enjoyed putting it together!

It was serendipity at best, after 3 years of working together bringing our brainchild – Aalayam to life, it was quite a joy to plan a trip to meet Deepa. Two style and design stalwarts meeting face to face could only mean one thing – more Aalayam awesomeness.  And awesome it was, starting with planning for what accessories and goodies to take on the trip, to helping plan the minute design details of the party Deepa was hosting, up in her home town for her gal pals. It was turning out to be a girlie vacation for me as I was traveling alone, without the husband and the kids. And I planned to maximize it. 

You see, when I go on family vacations, I barely get a couple of minutes to slap the makeup on my face and pull the first outfit that's accessible in my closet (it’s the same story when I go to work every day), but girlie vacations…ah..they are a treat. Cos, that’s when I get to apply the mascara and style my hair…and not pretend that my messy bun is a style trick! And the biggest decision I have to make that day is what to wear! And I wanted to take full advantage of this girlie trip for that very reason. And just thinking of all the photo opportunities we’d get..thanks to the magic lens and creative photography of UJ, had gotten me sartorially prepped!

The trip was sublime. I rarely say this about my air travel. I am one of the unlucky few who always get stranded at airports, lose their luggage or get rerouted for unfathomable reasons. But this trip to Ohio was relaxed, with no nasty surprises, and chockablock with pretzels and tomato juice. The flight even landed early at my final destination! 

See, I had a feeling this trip was going to be awesome. 

When Deepa and I finally met, it was like no time had passed since our last conversation. 

It became easy to understand why we worked so well together, respecting our creative differences, giving each other artistic latitude, yet believing in the common ethos of perfection and detail oriented dedication. It’s hard to run into someone who understands your neuroses like that! And when you do, you hold on to them! J

The first few hours were a flurry of "oohs" and "aahs" over accessories, carefully thought out gifts for each other, plans for the weekend, party planning details, catching up on the local news (who’s doing what these days!) and of course lots of pictures! 

Walking through Deepa’s home was like traversing through a well loved, and familiar terrain of design delight. Most of her rooms have been featured on Aalayam and other design mags, so seeing these rooms in live splendor was delightful. 

We got to work right away, planning our upcoming line up, tweaking our authoring strategy, working through our repertoire of topics and brainstorming on how we could make the content more meaningful, the format more engaging and the outcome more creative.

We talked through the work life balance conundrum that we both were facing – with  both of us being superlatively busy career women with full families to take care of, but both with compelling visions for what our stamp on life had to look like. 

Through Aalayam, we realized, we’d reached that common ground of evocation, or leaving a lasting footprint in this fleeting world (even though we had 48 other things to do most days before finishing the blog post we were working on!)

But we could not work for long, as scenic vistas had to be explored, and party fun had to be had! So off we went to don our ensembles, and meet the other gorgeous divas from all over the world, dressed to the nines in pastels (you know who you are!) for garden party extravaganza!

It was sensational partying during the day, and even more fun hitting the Ohio party scene as dusk approached! 

And just when we thought we were done with playing dress up, we decided to treat ourselves (and our readers)  by dressing up (again) in our favorite wardrobe choice and all its glorious accouterments – the Saree! 

The rustle of the silks, accompanied by the clink of the bangles, the heady perfumes in combination with the brilliant Ohio weather, transported us back home to an Indian wedding, where damsels flamboyantly don the Saree and give the celebrity red carpeters a run for their money!

In all seriousness, this trip was long overdue. And it was total paisa vasool! Stay tuned for the exciting line up of posts coming up – ranging the spectrum of cultural inconveniences, fashion choices done right, culinary shortcuts and parenting woes..we are going to continue to write about topics that speak to us, and resonate with you...and give us something to leave behind for our kids.

After that whirlwind weekend, we bring to you this post - fun, festive and forward looking post! And with this post, Deepa and I both want to take a moment to thank you, dear readers for all the love, support and patronage you have given us for the last 3 years, and anticipate that you will continue to stand by us, as we continue this creative journey.

Lots of love,

Supriya and Deepa