Xperience Bliss: Publications

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/travel/03surfacing.html

A Suburb in Mumbai Goes Bollywood

UNTIL the last few years, Andheri in North Mumbai was best known for being the largest suburb in India’s largest city. Industrial offices and dirt-caked apartment buildings framed streets so densely packed with cars and scooters that traveling a mile could easily take a half-hour.

Today, the traffic is thicker than ever, but this once-bland area has reinvented itself into a destination neighborhood full of elegant flats, trendy restaurants and bars, top-quality spas and a mix of big name-brand stores and homegrown boutiques.
The overcrowding and astronomical cost of living in South Mumbai have led to an influx of young professionals, families with young children and expats in Andheri, where the housing prices are more digestible. And, since the suburb is also home to studios where Bollywood movies and television shows are filmed, show-biz types have also moved in. The neighborhood’s newfound reputation was solidified with the 2007 opening of Mega Mall, a large shopping complex with international stores like Sisley and S.Oliver.

But where to shop? One of the newer chic stores is Bliss (180, Aram Nagar 1, Fisheries University Road, 7 Bungalows; 91-22-2633-2111), a two-level boutique housed in a gated white cottage with blue windows and doors. Fashions by emerging Indian designers dominate the first floor, while the second offers a selection of furniture and home goods.

“Andheri used to be a place where Mumbaikars moved away from,” said Bliss’s owner, Mallika Desai Thakker. “Now, thanks to the changes happening here, it’s become an area they want to move to.”
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DNA After Hrs
Date: Oct 27, 2009