By Papri Das

When you take names like Madhuri Dixit and Terence Lewis in the same breath, you already know that you?re in for an epic dance show! This World International Dance Day, the two have come together to celebrate contemporary dance with a one of its kind dance festival in India - Jugnee.

So what makes this experience unique from the numerous dance festivals that happen round the year? Festival curator Terence Lewis throws light on it. ?In India and more so in Mumbai, we hardly have any ?only dance? festival and having one solely on contemporary dance is non-existent. Moreover, the dance community in India and Mumbai works in isolation and are unaware of the opportunities they have for themselves. Jugnee provides a platform to these dance enthusiasts to come together, interact and learn from each other, whether they are professionals, choreographers, trainers or amateurs.?

A five day non-profit festival, Jugnee offers a miscellanea of activities for dance lovers like workshops by international and national teachers, emerging artist, panel discussions, film and documentary screening, etc, that builds up a ?D Positive? (dance positive) atmosphere in Mumbai.

?Our efforts have been to keep this festival completely non-profit with minimum ticket prices for the performances. We are also granting a fully funded scholarship to one of the deserving participant of Jugnee, who will get the chance to go to Impulstanz International Dance Festival in Vienna,? shares Lewis.

An icon of dance in India, Dixit?s name is synonymous with talent grace and beauty! Since it is Mumbai's first indo contemporary dance festival, there?s no one better than this Mumbai girl, who gave dance respect and dignified it with her performance. Delighted at having her onboard with the festival, Lewis says, ?Madhuri has always supported dance and young artists selflessly, and seeing the potential this dance festival has as a platform to bring together various dancers from all over the country, she readily agreed to be part of the festival.?

Lewis is also working closely with Dixit in her free dance tutorial app (Dance With Madhuri: DWM). The main focus of the festival is to bridge the gap between international teachers and emerging dancers of India and provide guidance and opportunities on dance as a career. Splendid performances by the talented dancers from well-established companies as well as emerging artistes in the field are also in store at the festival.

The five-days of the festival will be held at the following venues across Mumbai:

? 29 April: NCPA

? 30 April: Prithvi Theatre

? 1 May: St Andrews

? 2 May: Social (Meet & Greet)

? 3 May: Equal street walk (Dancing on the streets)

By Papri Das

What can possibly motivate a London based musician with a popular album to his name to to start an e-commerce business out of an animated video made for fun? Pat comes the reply - ?The eclectic taste of Biriyani.? Meet Biryani 360 CEO and founder Shayan Italia, who recently started this delivery-only startup.

?One day, I was fooling around with an animation software and created the video ?Biryani360 ? How It All Began.? It was quite a hit with people, which led me to consider exploring making Biryani360 a reality. The problem was that I had no experience in food and neither did I cook! So I went on the biryani hunt of a lifetime, sampling different varieties from across india. What came from this was a light, refreshing and incredibly flavourful dish that is unlike anything out there in the marketplace,? says Italia.

So what makes Biriyani360 different and better than the many popular choices we have at hand already? ?Biryani360 is not your typical biryani. It is an original recipe created from scratch in 45 minutes flat using the latest technologies and preparation recipes in food. There are no preservatives, no colouring agents or anything artificial in our biryani,? Italia assures.

With its people friendly website and application, online orders too can be done in a jiffy. ?Customers can place an order through our website ? www.biryani360.com and can choose to pay online or through cash-on-delivery. Thirty-one days down the line, over 90 per cent of our customers order online. This is a good start for us, and we are hoping that this trend only picks up more speed.?

Italia doesn?t indulge in the popular belief that Biriyani tastes best the next day, and so the meat in Biriyani360 is not marinated over a day. ?We?ve taken advice from the best nutritionists the world over to create something truly special. Apart from combining three unique grains of rice to reduce the carbohydrates and make it more digestible, we used BlueFlame technology that allows us to cook our meat perfectly in merely 20 minutes yielding the same results as marinating it over 72-96 hours.? 

The folks at Biriyani 360 not only take pride in their unique cooking methods, but in their packaging as well. A delicious portion from Biriyani360 comes in efficiently created boxes of quirky colours of green and red, to denote ?Veg? and ?Un-Veg (their version of Non-Veg)? orders, along with a lip-smacking side-yogurt made out of imported curd.

With quality in affordability being its USP, this month-old venture has managed to garner many patrons, and also received good reviews in online rating portals like Zomato and Burrp.

MUMBAI: Hyderabad?s Adaa at the Falaknuma Palace has done the nation proud by becoming the first Indian restaurant to have made it to the world?s top 100 list. 

Adaa, which is led by head chef Arun Sundararaj, was one of seventeen new entries that were included this year. India?s first entry into the awards reflects the continual development of haute cuisine in India.

Chicago?s Alinea, and Spanish restaurant El Celler de Can Roca took away the first and second places on the list respectively. 

?I think a lot of the other ratings systems and guidebooks are taking note. Because, quite honestly, a lot of chefs tend to complain about the unfairness of certain systems. I think it?s really refreshing to have an evaluation based on people?s experience when you don?t even know that they?re in the restaurant,? said Chicago?s Alinea head chef Grant Achatz.

Compiled by the fourth annual poll of readers by private jet lifestyle publication Elite Traveler, the list also recognised the Delhi-based restaurant, Indian Accent as one for the five strong contenders for the 2016 awards.

The 2015 awards also saw Eleven Madison Park and NoMad in New York head chef Daniel Humm take the title of ?Chef of the Year? ahead of Grant Achatz (Alinea and Next) and Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal). 

?Young Chef of the Year? was won by Eneko Atxa of Azurmendi in Spain, followed by Joshua Skenes of Saison and Sean Brock of Husk from the US.

MUMBAI: FabFurnish is celebrating its third year of success. To share the joy with its patrons, the site is hosting five days of astounding deals. The Anniversary Special deals were offered from 16 - 20 March, 2015, giving five days of unbelievable offers and discounts to its customers.

FabFurnish CEO and founder Vikram Chopra said that the three-year journey of FabFurnish has indeed been a fulfilling one. ?These three years of success and popularity wouldn?t be possible without the continued patronage of our loyal customers, who have loved the brand and made it their favourite destination for Furniture and Home Decor products. A special thanks to our trade partners who have showed continued faith in us in this journey of growth and success.?  

Founded by Chopra and Mehul Agrawal, the company is part of German incubator Rocket Internet.

Mumbai: E-commerce is a trending cultural phenomenon and has resulted in the rise of a new segment of society called netizens. Jashn, the ethnic, indo-western and lifestyle fashion brand for women, with a presence in over 40 locations across India, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, now plans to target netizens and make them their loyal customers.

The brand will now be present on multiple online shopping sites like Myntra, Jabong and Flipkart in order to expand its customer base and to improve product accessibility. Jashn has a galvanic range of designer sarees, kurtis and beautiful material for the modern day Indian woman. The fashion brand wishes to expand its presence on e-commerce platforms that will allow users to shop from their favorite brands just at the click of a button. These sites also have a number of sales and offer exemplary discounts that are simply irresistible.

Jashn managing director Rahuul Jashnani said, ?Jashn?s prevalent goal is to showcase contemporary ethnic fashion extensively through e-commerce websites. The extensive growth of trends and technology has led masses to expect brands to be functional in the e-commerce section.  Jashn is looking forward to increasing sales and improving consumer brand relationships by sailing into the Internet abyss.?

Getting onboard with e-commerce, Jashn leaps forward to fulfill its vision of becoming an Indian- multinational organization and a dominant player in the international fashion industry. The merchandise offered on these e-commerce sites is exclusive to the ones in the store

Mumbai: Yepme.com has launched its latest television commercial (TVC) featuring leading players of the West Indies cricket team. The campaign features Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy, Marlon Samuels and Captain Jason Holder sporting the Yepme collection of #freshfashion and sharing their take on how it goes with the famed West Indian flair.

Yepme has sponsored the West Indies team in the ICC World Cup 2015 that is currently underway in Australia. The West Indies cricket team will play sporting the Yepme logo on their jerseys.

Yepme.com founder and COO Sandeep Sharma said, ?West Indies cricket stars like Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy and Andre Russel are known for their effortless style and have a massive fan following in our cricket-crazy nation. We are extremely proud of this association and look at this as an opportunity to spread the message about Yepme being the destination for the latest fashion with cricket lovers across the globe.?

The ICC Cricket World Cup commenced on 14 February. The Indian fans are now looking forward to the much-awaited encounter between India and West Indies next weekend, 6 March 2015 at WACA in Perth.