ADVERTORIAL Reflecting Indian vibrancy and diversity

Pooja’s Designer Collection, a new fashion boutique was inaugurated in March 2009, the brainchild of proprietor Nalini Rajkumar, who has always had a passion and love for Indian fashion. Nalini was inspired to start Pooja’s Designer Collection after touring India in 2008, and visiting Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Puttaparthi and Chennai. Since then, she has been determined to establish and exhibit a collection of products that demonstrate the finest that India has to offer.

Only using the finest products sourced from India’s most reputable merchants, her collections are a reflection of India’s vibrancy and diversity, and each individual garment is hand-picked. Her collections comprise of sarees, churidhars, kurthis and accessories, all made from high-quality material.

At Pooja’s Designer Collection, Nalini’s highest priority is to serve her customers well. She does this by providing an excellent selection of Indian ethnic fashion, combined with quality guidance and customer service

As every woman is unique, she stocks garments in multiple sizes, shapes, colours and styles, to suit every woman’s taste. This uniqueness can also be found in her own collections. Most of the garments are made by reputable designers in India, especially renowned Bollywood designers.

The Kanchipuram silk sarees are bought directly from weavers in Kanchipuram, and can be made to order, a unique feature. The colours and designs can be chosen and custom made, and even highlighted with beadwork of the customer’s own design!

At Pooja’s Designer Collection, Nalini also keeps her customers up to date with the latest collections, offering the facility of an online catalogue and shopping. It is her greatest desire to help all women efficiently buy luxurious and exotic garments that allow them to look fashionable and elegant, but at the same time, without spending a fortune. “Our mission is to ensure that women feel special and have pride in what they wear,” she says.

Nalini can be contacted on 0412 240 201 or at www.poojascollections.com

Special diwali sale on 11.10.09 at Uniting Church hall, Carrington Road, Strathfield and 12.10.09 – 19.10.09 at 4, Fernbrook place, Castle Hill. Radhini rewards to both, recipient and giver. And in its ability to perpetuate.

For example, giving $30 a month may not require any serious sacrifice on your part. But donated towards a child’s education in a poor country, the same amount means the world of a difference at the other end. It liberates a suppressed soul, wakes up a dormant mind and gives the world one more individual who can contribute to society with skills and education.

What follows is you receive a handwritten greeting card from the child you have sponsored, and you have every reason to feel special and quietly acknowledge the fact that you are being a good citizen. You feel empowered, and compassion becomes a more integral part of your nature.

Years later, when the child sponsored by you finishes his education, the world is richer by one more person who is most likely to give back to society. We have another ‘giver’ who already knows what it is like to receive. Someone who will give, naturally and regularly. Someone who will inculcate the same values in his/her children.

And to think it all started with you sparing a dollar a day.

We may not understand it, but there is a reason why almost everyone who donates regularly is a happy, content soul. I have spoken to volunteers and each one of them actually believes that they get more than what they give. We all need something that is missing from our lives. And when money, books, clothes and medicines are not an issue, maybe it’s the feeling that you have made a difference to someone’s life. A small act of charity has the power to create a stronger individual who knows the real value of things. Who believes in sharing, who has taken his blinkers off and stepped out of his silo to be one with the world. You can argue that the donor is, in fact, the bigger beneficiary.