Chanel Bags Lover

Gucci!

A new business has emerged thanks to the fashion aspirations of Indians in small towns. Some online shopping sites are bringing national and global luxury brands within the reach of these people at throwaway prices.

A couple of years ago, 34-year-old Pankaj Maithil, a businessman and also a collector of designer perfumes from Indore, had to travel abroad or to Delhi to add volumes to his collection.

Today, the best fragrances from around the world are just a mouse click away from him. Thanks to the boom in online shopping sites.

Inder Goyal, a 42-year-old engineer from Jodhpur, loves to indulge in buying high-end labels like Versace and Armani and Gucci. And now, living in a Tier-2 city he fulfils his passion of following the global trends with the help of his laptop.

For Frainy Singh, former Mrs India and now settled in Chandigarh, online shopping is a blessing. Earlier, she had to make frequent shopping trips to bigger cities to maintain her glamorous lifestyle. Now she can do the same even without stepping out of her home.

All this has been made possible by a gamut of online fashion retail web sites that have been launched in India in the last couple of years.

Both Indian and international luxury brands can be bought at throwaway prices on these sites. Fashionandyou, 99labels, Brandmile, DesiCouture and Privatesales are some names that are getting popular among the fashion-conscious Indians.

These sites also offer good discounts for the customers. Davidoff Cool Water perfume priced at Rs 4,000 can be grabbed at Rs 1,800, a Calvin Klein dress priced at Rs 7,000 is available for Rs 3,000 and Polo Ralph Lauren T-Shirts with a regular price range of Rs 4,000-5,000 can be bought for less than Rs 2,000.

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Some call the dish a true delicacy of the American West. Others call it just gross.

However you care to refer to them, the festival that serves up bovine testicles was held this weekend just south of Santa Cruz.

The 2nd annual Testicle Festival happened at JJ Crosetti in Watsonville Saturday.

Testicle dishes are called Mountain Oysters, Cowboy Caviar, Swingin Sirloin or Calf Fries.

It’s long been a practice on cattle ranches for young male bovines to be castrated into steers, which after the initial loss, eventually makes them more docile and easier to handle. In order to make the private parts palatable, they are sometimes peeled and marinated.

The festival was an all-you-can-eat deal, but for the weak at heart, chicken, pasta, salad and garlic bread were also available for your $40 ticket.  Oh, and the band who signed on for the party? “No Respect” and that is no bull.

Rancher families will tell you they taste like chicken, but you’d have to partake to see if they are telling the truth.

Lori Preuitt was kind of tempted to head over the hill next weekend.