Lux Style Awards

DISCLAIMER: this post will be full of shameless name-dropping and potential self promotion. but i feel like blogging and i dont want to come up with mysterious pseudo names. i want to remember this just the way i am typing right now. my blog, my journal. i just hope i dont shrival with disappointment-with-myself when i read this again at work tomorrow.

the night before:
i said i wouldn't go but i did. the night before, sitting and sipping chai... after our ritual dinner and sheesha at damascus we found ourselves in mickeys room where fraud and his med-school friends, drummer and puppo were all hangin out. mickey was himself cracking jokes and coming up with brilliant nicknames and what not. we were all waiting for Sahil's debut video to show on the musik. Z hadn't seen it till then. i promised to send him a copy the moment Hasil sent me the one he promised me.

btw, 'we' is: me, Z and hamad (S's cousin).

in between the convo, the laughs, the ad that both baffled and tickled us (insure yourself for 30 days against accidental death. min amount: 500,000 rupees), Z and mickey found out i wasn't going to the LSA (what was any award function after the TMAs? + i had nothing to wear hehehe...) and had given my pass away to someone else.

[ i'm losing my flow... ]

with potential puppy-dog eyes (<--my masala version of the look he gave) and few words of how my presence was absolutely neccessary (the reason, which i will not disclose was v.good), Z convinced me i had to go. mickey further reinstated his stand by claiming to have gazillions of passes that i could use and so on.

the next morning:
called up so-and-so person who had given me my first pass and he told me to pick up me pass from his office. that was easy. cleaned room and mum and i spent 15 minutes trying to figure out what i was going to wear. shimmering red bluse and plain black (and it really was plain, uh almost see through dupatta material) sari. mum freaks out over clothes more then i do and gets more excited about the events i go to then myself. if it weren't for her super-watchful eye keeping track of everything i wear, i would've (glady) gone to the awards in the sari wearing a pair of sneakers :)

picked pass up, ran to lifestyle to buy benders and other little thingies that were supposed to help me turn into cinderella for the night. i am very last minute which is what frustrates mum and my sisters the most, but i looove the rushing round and the freaking out. the end result is always a hell lot better then when everything is 'planned'.

hair and make-up:
came home, tried altered-sari on. freaked out in front of own-mirror and ran to mum's room where she was on the phone. this is the dialogue that followed:

me: *standing in front of her, trying to hold sari up* mum! i'm literally naked! *turns around and shows her behind to prove my point*
mum: *starts laughing and doesn't stop*
me: i know i'm technically a very bay-sharam person and i am very comfortable with my body etc but phulease! i do not want to go naked anywhere. maa..!
mum: *starts choking in the middle of fit of laughter she has engaged herself in* madeeha! you're supposed to wear a petti-coat under a sari!
me: *feels incredibly stupid. tries to maintain the last shred of dignity i try to muster up from somewhere* *grumbles* right. the petty petti-coat.

*mum rushes off to tell my sisters about me-naked-sari-petty-coat thingie*

ten minutes later i find my self trying to do my make up with older sister and mum tugging at my hair and little sister doing my nails (she is literally a nail expert). 20 minutes later mum and older sister are still tugging at my hair only to take out the benders they had so painstakingly rolled my hair into. i'm trying to remain in one place while also jumping around after stepping on nail-polish that had been spilt on the rug. after gazillions of pleas and promises of how my feet do not carry any life-threatening germs and are absolutely clean (i had creamed them this morning!) little sister is convinced to at least try and clean off the glaringly red nail colour from under my feet. while i concentrated on smoking-up my eyes.

it was madness i tell u. but lotsa fun ;)

pre-party:
while getting out of the car at the hotel where Z, hamad and i were to leave together for the awards, mum tells me to slightly hitch up my sari while getting off so it doesn't get caught in the 4-inch dainty lil heels that i had been wearing.

i hitch sari upto knees and get off. making my best attempt at being sophisticated and appearing like i was born to wear a sari, i walk into the hotel, up the elevator to the wrong floor. afraid of getting lost after realising i dont remember which room number to go to, i bump into an LSA volunteer who graciously offers me a ride to the awards in one of the LSA cars kept for transporting the media-people staying at the hotel to the awards venue. slightly tickled but not sure whether Z and hamad had the same thing in mind, i tell him i'll call him if i do intend to use that eh mode of transportation.

Z and hamad were still putting the finishing touches on their appearances while i sat, double-checkd my hair, and allowed them to model for me. hehehe. one our way out, we took the orange and apple juices from the lil bar to drink on our way.

managed to sit meself in the car without ripping my sari or having it come off (wise ol mum had pinned it up in just the right places). conversation in car shifted to real life ghost stories and spirit calling experiments etc (my favorite! although have been too chicken to call one myself).

the parking at the awards was crazy. the venue had a very large parking space but it was full. in this respect the musik awards outdid the lux style awards. the venue of the musik awards was walking distance from the hotel where most of the invitees had been staying, hence no parking issues.

since we'd parked quite far and realised the option of valet parking that was available on our walk back... well we had a long way to go. realising that Z and hamad were several steps ahead of me and going further, i 'ran' towards them taking tiny geisha steps (i felt like a drill machine on slow-mode) and dropped the sari i was holding up with the first step into the lil hallway thingie with blown up fashion photos by different photographers.

the event:
the walls in the waiting area where full of black and white photos from fashion shoots, old movies with an array of manequins in the centre wearing designer outfits. was nice. just like stepping into a nice clothing-outlet. photos were fantastic waisay.

just as we are about to step into the main hall we hear an ursula-sounding (from the lil mermaid) voice coming from behind us: "ZP! i thought i'd find u here..."

'twas the person we had been hoping to avoid the most. hamad and i exchanged looks and giggled.

in the venue, there were no seats left in our colour (single black, right and to the front). saw many familiar faces. smiles and waves were exchanged. felt like i was in a beauty-pagent. all i had to do was walk upto the stage continuing the flashing of the smiles and the waving ;)

hamad and i decided to ask for a place in the balcony since we didnt have a place to sit. while waiting on the platform thing that had the seating, bumped into qasim raza (old school fashion photographer and assistant editor of She) but most importantly, he's a good person and one of my most favorite people in the industry. we've always hit off really well whenever we've met. hamad was successful in getting us a place in the balcony and i was helped off the platform by qasim and Z. decided to be a lady and accept help. the stepping down moment was like stepping out of a carriage in a 1800s movie ;)

balcony seats turned out to be quite a treat :) we'd pulled up our chairs against the railing (you could see nothing from the sofas) and spent the rest of the evening being served some very nice pina coladas, appetizers and (joy! oh joy!) ice cream.

being with qasim was awesome in the sense that the event turned out to be a little learning experience for me as well. he is very much fashion and telly whereas i am very much music. i got to know the behind-the-scenes drama and what not and which upcoming model had potential and what drama-serial was worth watching etc. in return i updated him on music news, we exchanged details and phone numbers of people we were interested in writing about. it was fun. and meera by far was the most entertaining (no pun intended) she danced amazingly well. the story behind it was amusing yet in a way, incredibly cute as well.

five minutes after Z left to use the loo, they announced the catagory for which he had been nominated for... sent him a frantic message and phone call. it would have been a classic moment had he won and not been there to accept his award because he... was in the loo.

after-party:
we didn't go to the after-party. which was also a farewell hosted for mrs. musharraf hai, whose (finally) leaving unilever. we left early-ish. around 12.45am. qasim and i exchanged the biggest of hugs and promises to call each other. lurve him. he's a jaan really.

ended up going out the wrong way and had to walk a little extra to get to our car. considered taking off my shoes, holding up my sari and running down the street, the wind was awesome. i stopped the moment i saw several street dogs around. thought it wiser to remind between Z and hamad. i am super scared of street-dogs. and according to Z, they can smell fear.

ended up at damascus with our frooge and sheesha again. was comfy and felt good to wind down that way. fell asleep in the car on the way home where i was confronted by a very angry baby-billa sitting in the middle of my bed in my room. was literally like him asking me, and where have you been missy? picked him up and hugged him, he started to purr.

made one last phone call to close friend-half relative-vj-rocker, took make-up off, jumped into pJs and slept. mr. maximus billa curled up against me and woke me up purring and rubbing his nose against my face...

the next morning (afternoon):
i woke up beautiful ;)