Store Tour – Mecca Lifestyle

Love at first sight!

Roaming the by lanes of Commercial street I stumbled (yup stumble a lot but always with a good find so far, so touchwood :P) upon my dream kitchen. Yup you read it right, a store selling stuff of my kitchen dreams lodged in a busy commercial street by lane amidst the stores selling handbags, footwear, accessories and all those things synonymous with Commercial Street shopping. As I stared entranced debating whether my mind was playing games with me due to the overdose of drool inducing cookery shows on  TLC and Foxlife with the equally drool worthy cookware, when the elegant store lady with chicest outfit for her age invited me with a broad smile. I followed her inside determined not to buy anything as I really did not have space or occasion for fancy cookware and declared it at the outset. Sensing that I was a first timer at the store, the lady showed me around patiently yet stepping back and giving me space to marvel and examine the pieces closely. The store had the most exquisite handpicked yet affordable collection of ceramic cookware and crockery I had ever seen up close. They had rows of neatly arranged dinner sets, tea sets, soup bowls, mugs, jugs, serve ware, oven friendly cookware, diffusers, vases, and the list is endless. I just couldn't decide which amongst the colourful yet earthy pieces were my favourite and ended up going around in circles in the tiny space of kitchen paradise I just discovered and also felt that my resolute control of not buying was slowly fading away replaced by panic that I would not be able to buy my dream’s worth this time!

The store had at least eight collections of dinner sets and serve ware in various motifs and colours which Noori; the aforementioned elegant lady J  and also the proprietor of the store; informed me were in Mughal or multi Mughal style. She also told me that the pieces were handpicked by her and her family on their regular trips to UP, Agra, and Muradabad and that all of them are hand painted and hence each piece was unique in its own way. While she was highlighting the nuances of the pieces with additional inputs from her husband, in walked two sturdy men who turned out to be her sons and I witnessed a most funny yet touching scene where each family member was trying to tell the story of their business and how it started etc. It was heartening to see the sons so involved and so proud of their mother. They are this one big happy family with entrepreneurship in their blood each supporting each other’s ventures and interests. Turns out their family business started way back in the 1920’s with balloons and moved to buttons, electric, and plastic to more recently a circulating library from 1974 to 2010 when the ceramics business was started. On top of it, Noori also had a successful boutique till some time back with some regular clients still coming back to her even now. I forgot to compliment her on her outfit the other day but let me say it now that it was very chic and classy, long kurta with palazzos J. She dabbles in interiors also but for now the ceramic business is her baby that she is nurturing and she has plans to slowly include more household stuff also into the store.  The store is an apt gift place (cough cough, birthday next month :P) where all the pieces are useful, long lasting, and functional and not to mention very aesthetic. They would make excellent gifts for housewarming, wedding or even Mother’s day. And of course the warm conversation is the icing on the cake! All in all a warm place with a warm lot, definitely worth a visit J

 Genie in a bottle!

  

Yellow or blue? I say both!

 Loved the blue block print stlye mugs top right

 Big fat planter

 Too many choices!

 Got a pie dish in blue :)

 Pretty window display

Psst: Noori knows Commerical Street like the back of her hand and can give excellent pointers on where to get good fabric, sarees, silver jewellery etc J

Address: #4/2, China Bazaar, Commercial Street Cross, Next to Shiv Sagar Hotel, Bangalore – 560001

From Commercial Street, take the lane adjacent to Anand Sweets.

You may want to check out my other Commercial Street find:
Store Tour - Asiatic Arts and Crafts