Latest Waste of Time

is Rent the Runway (www.renttherunway.com).

Love the concept, love the website.

If you need a party dress (Western-style, that is) and you don't want to buy one, you go to Rent the Runway and rent one. They get designer clothes from previous seasons and rent them out for cheap. The clothes're clean, you get 2 sizes for free and you don't have to dry clean the clothes before returning them.

I had signed up for this about a year ago after reading about it on NYT, but never found a need to use it. Recently though, I got invited to a friend's wedding shower and wedding. Now, in my younger days, I might have pooh-poohed the idea of wearing some dress and said, with my nose obstinately up in the air, that I would wear a saree... and probably done it too.

Now, I am older and more Westernized and frankly (my younger self would have been horrified to hear this), I CAN'T handle a saree. Things jab into me from all ends, I feel suffocated in the skin tight blouses and God, I have turned into one of those detestable NRIs who lounge about in T shirts and baggy drawstring pants. I blame the drawstring pants entirely on the pregnancy. If I had never become pregnant, I would have never ventured to wear them and become suckered in. Now I can't let go. I have stepped into the dark side and going back will be impossible.

So where was I? Oh yes, the dresses for the shower etc. Long story short: went to the website, totally mesmerized by dresses with names like "Make Him Regret It dress"


or the "Bam Pow dress" (sounds better than it looks)


or "The Miss Mysterious Gown" (lovely, just perfectly lovely )



or even "The Passion Twist"

Really, half the fun is in the names!


The dress I have rented out (for $50) is comparatively quite conservative... no "Drive anybody crazy" dresses for me. But I think it's cute and I'm looking forward to wearing it