Hello Shaded Viewers,
Diane has been kind enough to ask me to share some of my experiences from India (and abroad) on her blog, and after much contemplation (and photo resizing), this is my inaugural post.
First I thought I’d explain a little bit about my journey to India. My name is Sameer Reddy, I’m Indian American and I was born and grew up in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, then went to a small college north of NYC, called Bard.
The Bard Performing Arts Center by Frank Gehry
I spent a lot of time in NY, living there each summer, and after graduation, I moved there permanently. NY was always a place I both hated and loved- loved for its intensity and grittiness and sense of forward motion, but hated for its its self-consciousness, its awareness of itself as a ‘world capital’ (i think a lot of New Yorkers actually think it is THE world capital).
My job experiences while there were elclectic to say the least. I worked with a couple small magazines (Hintmag, Bidoun), collected and sold vintage haute couture, and eventually moved home to Detroit for a year to co-design and open a sushi bar and nightclub called Oslo.
Oslo’s sign
Then I got an offer to start a new magazine from scratch, funded by Sheikh Majed al-Sabah (the owner of Middle Eastern luxury retail emporium Villa Moda). I became the editor and creative director (and accountant, public relations rep, secretary and occasional janitor) for Alef for about a year and a half. I loved working on it, and was proud of all the amazing people I was able to bring on-board as contributors, but doing ten people’s jobs meant not having much of a life.
Alef’s 3rd issue, Cover shot of Ana Mihajlovic by Aaron Ward
Which brings me to my arrival in India. While visiting Lakme Fashion Week, I met the managing director of Conde Nast India, who expressed an interest in hiring me as the Features Editor for their impending launch. A month and a half later my boxes and bags were packed and I was on-board a nonstop flight to Mumbai. Vogue was an interesting experience, but
ultimately an office job just wasn’t the best fit for me. I realized I
had moved to India to try and be happy, not to climb the corporate
ladder. If I was interested in that I could have just stayed in New
York. So I resigned from Vogue (but have stayed on as a contributing
editor) and began to freelance for other publications.
The gatefold cover of Vogue India’s inaugural issue, shot by Patrick Demarchelier
Mostly though, I’m just trying to find my center. 29 years in America can throw you off balance. Not that India is some exotic paradise – of course there are all kinds of problems here… it’s full of human beings after all, a lot of them. But, for me at least, there’s a sense of belonging I’ve never felt before, on a basic level of being surrounded by people who resemble me, but also on a less tangible level as well, a different sense of pacing and priority, and a spirituality that pervades every street corner, no matter how humble. I feel like I might have found my home.
So that’s my story. I’ll finish with some photos of my life here so far.
The view of a monsoon storm from the first apartment I sublet when I arrived in Mumbai. It’s in an area called Breach Candy.
My bedroom in my new apartment, located in Colaba. Colaba is kind of like the West Village of South Bombay.
When I first moved to Bombay, I thought it would be really inexpensive
to live here. I was wrong. My apartment here costs more than my
apartment in New York did per month – luckily I have a roommate,
Cecilia (she’s also, by chance, from New York, and she’s the bookings
editor at Vogue). Daily expenses are a lot less though – I can get by
happily on about $8-10 day. If I want to go out to a nice restaurant
though, it ends up costing the same or more than it would in New York.
Strange. It’s a consequence of all the money that is being made in
India at the moment. There has always been an upper class, but now
there’s a big middle and upper-middle class, and they want to have fun.
So bars, clubs, lounges, restaurants, stores – they’re springing up all
over the place. And they aren’t cheap.
The living room
Sunset on Marine Drive, which winds down the west ‘coast’ of Mumbai
The view from my room
About a month or two after we settled into our new apartment, Cecilia and I decided to throw a big party. Well it wasn’t supposed to be that big. Maybe 30-40 people max. We bought an obscene amount of booze, hired a bartender, filled the place with flowers and incense and music and snacks. At first I thought no one would come. But people go out late in Bombay, and they stay out even later. They also drink a ridiculous amount. So by 2:30 our flat was completely full. Probably 70-80 people came and I had no idea who 1/2 of them were. But Bombay is in some ways, oddly, a very small town. Since that party I’ve probably run into all of these people at some point, whether on the street, in a restaurant or at another party. By 6 am Cecilia was passed out and I was about to join her. Her boyfriend, Rohan, helped me to gently nudge everyone out and then I fell asleep in a very, very dirty house.
My amazing, beautiful, intelligent friend, Bandana Tewari, Vogue’s Fashion Features Editor. She’s the reason I was able to come to India, and she’s also one of the most generous people I’ve ever met. She was India’s first high-profile fashion journalist and she’s probably the most passionate person I’ve met here when it comes to supporting India’s burgeoning fashion scene.
Alex Kuruvilla, the managing director of Conde Nast India and Homi Adajania, the director of Being Cyrus and one of India’s most interesting young film talents
Priya Tanna, the editor-in-chief of Vogue India, and Anaita Adajania, Vogue’s fashion director
In what has to be one of the strangest coincidences in my life, I moved to Bombay and found out that my best friend from growing up, who I had lost touch with, lives here too. His name is Matt Daniels and here he is with his friend Veronika.
A full house
I’ll try to bring you more images and anecdotes from interesting people,
projects and places I encounter here. There is so much going on at the
moment in India…that’s the other fascinating thing. You feel, every
day, as if you are watching history being made. I hope you find it as interesting as I do.
-Sameer
