Posts in category: Life Style

Morning coffee is more than a beverage. It’s a ritual, a coping mechanism and a moment of silence before the day flows into emails and existential crises. But what if your cup could do more than just jolt you awake? What if it could support your metabolism, digestion, stress response and even your skin?

Turns out, it can. If you know what to stir into your morning coffee.

“What you add to coffee changes how it behaves in your body,” says Mugdha Pradhan, functional nutritionist and founder of iThrive. Proteins and fats slow caffeine absorption, offering steadier energy. Sugar-laden syrups? They do the opposite, spiking blood sugar and setting you up for a crash.

Below, expert-backed ways to upgrade your morning brew.

Protein powder

Skip the post-gym shaker. Stir a scoop into your mug instead. “Protein slows digestion, which smooths out caffeine’s effects,” says Dr Eileen Canday, head of nutrition and dietetics at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, Mumbai. It also helps you stay full longer and supports muscle recovery. Pick one that blends easily and skips the sugar.

Ghee

If you’re following a keto or low-carb program or just want longer-lasting focus, ghee can turn your morning coffee into an energy-boosting elixir. “Healthy fats slow caffeine release, preventing crashes,” says Pradhan. But pairing high-fat coffee with intermittent fasting can spike cortisol and disrupt your hormonal balance, especially if you’re already stressed.

Cocoa powder

Adding a bit of cocoa powder to your morning coffee enhances the flavour but it can also boost your mood and provide antioxidant support. Start your day with a little extra kick by adding a spoonful of unsweetened cocoa powder to your coffee. This twist packs in feel-good flavonoids that boost mood, sharpen focus, support heart health and even give your skin that lit-from-within glow. Cocoa helps smooth out caffeine jitters, stabilises energy levels and brings anti-ageing antioxidants to the party without the sugar crash of sweetened syrups.

Salt

A pinch can cut bitterness, enhance flavour and help restore minerals like sodium and potassium that caffeine tends to deplete. Pradhan recommends using remineralised water to brew your coffee. It doesn’t alter the taste but helps support hydration and electrolyte balance.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha blends in easily and helps with stress, cognition and immunity. Pradhan explains that its taste is masked by coffee and it works well as a daily adaptogen. As for honey, it’s better than syrup but still a form of sugar. Use sparingly.

Spices (Nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper)

Cinnamon brings a warm, sweet edge to coffee while helping regulate blood sugar and adding antioxidant benefits. Cardamom offers digestive support and has anti-inflammatory properties, making your brew gentler on the gut. Both are also thought to support better insulin sensitivity, which may help prevent caffeine crashes and sugar cravings.

My grandmother needs nighties: large ones with front-opening yokes that can be pulled down over her head. Soft cotton garments that sit weightlessly on her 95-year-old frame. In pastel colours only, please. As I trudge up and down Bengaluru’s Commercial Street seeking this delicate combination, I know these voluminous gowns do little justice to her dignified self. But for her stiff arms and corroded knee joints, what other options exist?

Clothes are everywhere—in malls, bottomless online feeds, in the stand-alone textile shops that dot our neighbourhoods—creating the illusion of infinite choice. But for those whose bodies carry visible and invisible markers of what society construes as ‘nonconformity’—be it disability, age or even a temporary affliction such as a frozen shoulder—suitable clothing is elusive.

Soumita Basu would know. At 29, she was all set to pursue a master’s degree in the Netherlands. Even though she walked with a limp and bore niggling aches, nothing signalled the loss of mobility from an autoimmune disorder that was about to upend her life. Soon even everyday tasks like changing clothes became cumbersome and painful.

Soumita Basu and her mother. Image courtesy of Soumita Basu

“In 2018 and 2019, I googled adaptive clothes but nothing was available in India. The stuff from the US or Canada was too expensive and not compatible with our culture, climate or aesthetics.” Fuelled by her own necessities and the gaping holes in the market, Basu cofounded Zyenika, a pioneering adaptive fashion line, with her mother. She went on to create an entire range comprising elegant front-open dresses and chic no-bend pants that could be worn easily by individuals with limited locomotive ability or dexterity.

Recent years have witnessed the birth of several homegrown inclusive fashion brands. At Multifly’s basement studio in Bengaluru, cofounder Brinda Pancholi demonstrates the nuances of a maroon top with magnetic buttons, a shirt with tactile designs for persons with visual impairment, a pair of trousers with two-way zippers and discreet alterations to conceal catheter bags or stoma pouches. These adaptations cater to a spectrum of needs and are significant. Yet, the difficulties faced by persons with disabilities or older people go beyond design, into more structural issues.

Image courtesy of Multifly

Sangita Thakur is a disability inclusion consultant. Her Instagram grid makes me gasp as I marvel at the saris—Paithanis, Kanchipurams, Banarasis—that flash by in a riot of colour. Before she began to lose her mobility due to a progressive disorder, she loved to saunter through the handloom exhibitions in Delhi. As a wheelchair user, those spaces are now largely inaccessible.

Even the malls with their cramped fitting rooms don’t allow her to try on clothes. She must estimate fits based on size charts, cross her fingers and hope for the best. “I don’t seek out specific adaptive brands, but from the mainstream options, I choose designs such as elasticised waistbands that serve my purpose. But my choices are limited.” The one compromise she won’t make is on the saris she wears to work daily. “I can barely stand for the two minutes that it takes to drape one, but I don’t want to sacrifice my personal sense of style.”

Image courtesy of Sangita Thakur

Kkanchan Gupta too has a story to tell about sartorial aspiration. At a rehabilitation centre, she met a young man who had just cleared the famously competitive CAT. But his heart was set on another, more ubiquitous goal: a pair of jeans. He asked if she could customise pants that could be pulled up over his prosthetic which led to the creation of her amputee denims at Haxor. We are often guilty of viewing fashion as superfluous, as frivolous desire disconnected from life’s lofty purposes. We forget that a pair of jeans is not just a pair of jeans. It is also agency, identity, a sense of belonging. And that clothes make and unmake us, in both practical and profound ways.

Image courtesy of Kkanchan Gupta

According to a World Bank report, persons with disabilities are estimated to be about 16% of the global population. While older people comprise approximately 10% of India’s population, as per the ‘India Ageing Report 2023’. Despite the significant numbers, searches for adaptive apparel on e-commerce marketplaces throw up few meaningful results; the category seems mostly invisible in large retail stores as well. The West is ahead at least by a few steps with mainstream fashion houses offering inclusive options (Tommy Hilfiger, Primark) alongside specialised brands like IZ, Buck & Buck and Silverts.

“Awareness!” chorus the two friends and cofounders of Anucool, Saritha Kamath and Nalini Venkataramanan, when I ask them on our Zoom call about their biggest challenges. A handful of labels and a large, disparate community with limited autonomy mean most people don’t know that the solution exists, even if in limited ways (for instance, footwear is an underserved category). Kamath says, “There is also some resistance to identifying with the label given the social stigma surrounding disability and ageing.”

Image courtesy of Anucool

The language is alienating. Adaptive fashion or clothing seems to suggest that there are two categories, one regular and another ‘adaptive’, making the latter appear like a compromised option for a ‘less than’ body. But a garment is inherently meant to ‘adapt’ to the human body and not the other way around. This is not a niche requirement; it is a fundamental ask from every article of clothing. Fashion and functionality cannot be mutually exclusive.

My grandmother is giving her drapes away and insists I take my pick of her kasavu saris. Her days and nights are spent in nighties; for photographs, a shawl is wrapped over her torso. When Google serves up a memory, I gaze at her steel-grey eyes, still-black hair. Her timeless grace is intact. Only fashion has some distance to walk to meet her.

Also read:

When the fittings are over, this is how Indian models really dress

The Delhi thrift market boom rests on the backs of women cloth recyclers

From bugadi to kaanphool, today’s earring stacks echo centuries of style

Cleopatra knew how to make an entrance. Not with sequins or speeches, but with scent. History tells us she doused the sails of her ship in rose oil so that the harbour of Tarsus carried her presence long before Mark Antony ever laid eyes on her, as Plutarch (Greek philosopher and historian) writes, “the very winds might bear her perfume” before she even arrived. She seems to have understood that perfume isn’t about smelling “nice”. It’s about command. That’s the thing about perfume, it’s always been less about smelling nice and more about control. Take Napoleon Bonaparte, who was so devoted to cologne that he allegedly ordered 50 bottles of it a month, often layering citrus with rosemary.

Meanwhile, in Elizabethan England, gloves were perfumed with rosewater, orange flowers, cloves, musk, civet and ambergris. And in Mughal India, emperors wore attars of rose and sandalwood; these can be so potent that they’d linger on garments for months. Empires might collapse but fragrance endures.

Then came Coco Chanel, who approached perfume the way she approached clothes, with rebellion. By the 1920s, she’d had enough of single-flower scents that reduced women to roses, violets or lilies. Her answer was Chanel No5, a layered blend of aldehydes and florals that felt as modern as her little black dress. Marilyn Monroe later immortalised it in Life magazine; when asked what she wore to bed, she answered, “Chanel No5.”

Modern perfumers like Juliette Karagueuzoglou remind me that fragrance isn’t just bottled luxury or history’s afterthought, it’s generosity. She’s the creative mind behind scents like Yves Saint Laurent’s L’Homme, Ferragamo’s Signorina and YSL’s velvet-dark Tuxedo, perfumes that already live on countless vanities.

When I asked her what fragrance is, she didn’t reach for molecules or chemistry. Instead, she smiled and said, “For me, perfume is about giving people emotion, giving them strength, giving them confidence. It’s the tool that lets them appear in the world the way they want to.”

Signature scents and perfume layering, at its core, is storytelling. Maybe that’s the reason it has endured for 3,000 years, it reminds us that identity isn’t fixed. Cleopatra layered to seduce, Napoleon to conquer, Coco to liberate. Today, we use it to curate identity, memory and mood. The fascination endures because layering, when done well, is narrative. Perfume is music in molecules. Every scent has top, heart and base notes. An overture, a chorus and a finale. Layering is remixing that symphony. A smoky oudh under a rose? That’s jazz. A bright citrus lifted by vanilla? Pop ballad. Each spritz is a casting choice: who do I want to be today?

What’s the first thing that goes through your mind when you’re about to step into a high-stakes match?

PT: Firstly, there’s this looming pressure: Are Indians even good at MMA? Because for 30 years, nobody brought home a medal. Then I think back to where I came from, how girls aren’t valued there and how my victory could be their victory too. For me, winning is not only about bringing glory to my country, it’s also about bringing change to my village.

GD: The mental toll that each game takes on a player is quite high, especially at the top, where there isn’t a single easy game for a stretch of two to three weeks. You sit at the table and cannot afford to lose your focus for five hours straight. It gets to me, but I feel like the nerves are also my North Star. I get worried if I don’t feel nervous before a game because being slightly on edge means that my brain is fully locked in.

Winning is all well and good but having to deal with failure in public requires a different kind of strength. How do you do it?

PT: I won’t deny that it feels great when people recognise me at the airport because it motivates me to continue along the path I am on. When I won the UFC fight, some journalists travelled to my village. The locals couldn’t understand what was happening since my mother hadn’t told them where I was or what I was doing. So instead of answering the media’s questions, they started asking questions of their own. They’re very proud of me now and there’s always a grand welcome waiting when I return home. That said, I have no qualms about admitting that losing a match makes me cry a lot. After I have pacified myself, I assess my flaws to see why I lost and whether I need to work on my attack or defence.

Puja Tomar reacts after her victory against Rayanne dos Santos of Brazil in a strawweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at KFC Yum! Center on June 08, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky. Jeff Bottari/Getty Images.

Sit in silence for a bit, Sag. Get to know yourself and your vibe. Allow yourself to check in with your core dreams and new aspirations. Envision the brightest, most alluring future that you can and remind yourself that you are the creator of your destiny and life. Yes, the world may think you are offbeat, and yes, you may also feel like no one gets you, but honey, you are not here to be got by anyone else. You are here to be got by you and the cosmos, and your guides remind you that you are perfectly on time and on track.

Cosmic tip: Honour your emotions and trust your gut.

Your struggles are being resolved, your challenges and trauma are being healed, Capricorn. You have Archangel Raphael working with you today— so close your eyes and imagine this. Breathe in a beautiful powder pink and gold light and breathe out density and stress, repeat as often as you like, several times a day. You can take this a step further by inviting your guides and angels to help you release energetic and other toxins as you do this exercise. Feel free to repeat it as often as you like, not just today but throughout.

Cosmic tip: Become whole again, receive healing from the Universe. Learn to love yourself like you love others.

Take action. Use your thoughts, words and intentions wisely. Harness your ideas and move towards avenues that help you set the ball rolling in that direction. The more prepared you feel, the more opportunities you will notice and welcome into your life. Aquarius, the time has come to allow your potential to awaken, allow your thoughts and inner dialogue to only lift you to the skies.

Cosmic tip: You are coagulating—your ideas, skills, relationships, self-worth—your very essence.

Pisces, you are being tested. What has felt held back from you? What has felt elusive? Now, the cosmos is not saying that you cannot have it; the cosmos is making sure you feel ready for it. The cosmos is reminding you that true life happens in moments and that while you may have been pouring endlessly from a cup that is now feeling depleted, you are to restore balance in your life now. Inculcate discipline, set up assertive boundaries, ask yourself what you crave for and be open and non-judgmental to the honest answers you receive. You are being guided by your higher self. So listen intently for breakthroughs that are around the corner.

Cosmic tip: Wisdom+Experience+Self-awareness= Magical shift in your life.

Shimmering in metallic rose, Ananya Panday wore a hand-embellished Krésha Bajaj gown from the designer’s Dubai Fashion Week presentation, The Archive of Hidden Things. Her look was pulled from the third chapter of the showcase, Liberation, a segment focused on ease, exposure and movement.

Styled by Priyanka Kapadia Badani and team, the gown’s base was a muted, metallic rose tone, hand-embellished with dense micro-beading throughout the body and scattered larger beads on the straps, which glimmered with the light. The silhouette was elongated and body-skimming, with a slight flare at the hem. The bust was sculpted, while sheer panels traced both sides of the body from the underarm to above the knee, underlining the bust.

These sheer panels were threaded with crisscrossing cords of fabrics, creating controlled openings or cut-outs that revealed skin in clean, deliberate slashes. Cut-outs have cycled in and out of fashion since the ’90s, but their appeal has remained consistent: they inject a sense of ease and sensuality. While their popularity was revived during the Spring/Summer 2022 collections and moved beyond high street into cultural zeitgeist moments, thanks to Maddy’s viral black cut-out dress from Euphoria, they have also made recent appearances at Dior and Prada’s Spring/Summer 2025 shows, where bodysuits and skirts came spliced with jarring, precisely placed cuts and portholes. In Ananya Panday’s case, the cut-outs are integral to the dress’s architecture since they balance the ornate handwork with tailored exposure, making the display of skin part of the design and not embellishment.

Bajaj’s work continues to centre traditional Indian techniques—zardozi, aari and micro-beading—by reimagining them through a contemporary lens. The Archive of Hidden Things filtered this through a triptych: Revelation, Obsession and Liberation. Panday’s look captured the latter’s stripped-back confidence, anchored by strong lines and tactile embellishment.

At the Birmingham 2025 event, Kareena Kapoor Khan reminded everyone why she’s one of India’s style icons. She wore a custom-made silver Manish Malhotra sari, a visual feast sequined from end to end in a wave-like pattern. There was sparkle throughout; the drape blended traditional and modern elements with the help of a halter-neck blouse.

Malhotra is celebrated for his hallmark use of sequins, which bring a luxurious shimmer to his designs. His collections often mix classic silhouettes with contemporary touches, with sequins carefully placed to elevate each piece. In his couture saris as well, Malhotra combines traditional embroidery techniques with modern craft, creating garments that feel both timeless and current. This sari is another testament to his enduring legacy.

Stylist Lakshmi Lehr ensured every detail, from the blouse to the nails, felt unlaboured. What made the look stand apart was the carefully designed halter-neck blouse. Departing from more conventional sari pairings, the halter-neck added a modern interpretation, framing her shoulders. The blouse was structured, with a tailored fit that contrasted the fluidity of the wrap, adding a touch of couture architecture. Sequins extended across the blouse as well, ensuring the look remained cohesive while allowing the halter design to stand on its own.

The 2025 MTV VMAs took place Sunday night, bringing with them a chance to lock in on the buzziest names in music right now—namely, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Rosé, Jelly Roll (…sure, why not?), and, of course, Mariah Carey.

But what were the standout moments of the night? We’re glad you asked. Here, a round-up of the five most memorable performances, speeches, and special appearances from the 2025 MTV VMAs.

Sabrina Carpenter’s timely tribute to trans rights

Photo: Getty Images

With Man’s Best Friend, Carpenter currently has the number-one album in the country. She made the most of her spotlight at the MTV VMAs on Sunday by performing her new song “Tears” for the first time, surrounded by drag queens holding signs that read, among other things, “Dolls Dolls Dolls” and “In Trans We Trust.” As the Trump administration ramps up its needless attacks on trans people, it’s nice to see Carpenter speak up for an oft-maligned community—without whom pop music as we know it simply wouldn’t exist. Plus, that Britney homage didn’t hurt either!

Busta Rhymes’s tribute to Ananda Lewis