Urvi (Clothing)

While there is absolutely no biological reason that you must nurse an itch to decorate your home in nationally acclaimed trinkets, it is socially the done thing. And Urvi bets its bread on this side of you.

Starting at the entrance, at Urvi's, the space is taken up by brass urns, some going up to embarrassing proportions. Wooden toys and homely ladles taking up the first few shelves come next. The doorway too is lined by marble urns and geometrically interesting odd-shapes.

The scene keeps getting better as you burrow deeper into the shop. Urvi harbors Rajasthani camels, priced at Rs. 1,500 and above, Jharokas starting at Rs. 1,500, and chimes of some very innovative designs, Rs. 250 onwards. Blending ethnicity with punk, there are wooden and ceramic toys, starting at Rs. 150, and marble and wood wall paintings, priced between Rs. 350 and Rs. 1,100.

At Urvi, you can dig out Belgium carpets, cotton bedsheets and embroidered wall-hangings. The cotton curtains are available at Rs. 295 a piece, and cushion cover-sets at Rs. 500 and above.

There is a large collection of women's wear, with stitched and unstitched cotton suits, priced between Rs. 450 and Rs. 2,000. The stitching is done in Hyderabad, but at times the semi-stitched materials are sent to various places like Jaipur (for block printing), Bihar (for Madhubani embroidery), Karnataka (Kasuti, Negi and Dharwar embroidery) and Gujarat (for Kutch embroidery). The Kalamkari block printing and hand-painting, and the Banjara embroidery are done in Hyderabad itself.

While some of the stitched salwar-kameezes have dupattas, those without can be mixed and matched with other dupattas in the shop. Most of the cotton fabric that you'll find at Urvi is woven in Andhra Pradesh. In addition to the above, there are fusion clothes with smart A-line skirts, and short kurtas with Om and Ganesha indices.

There are enough attendants to prevent your leisure-only browsing, or even ventilation. This place is notorious for being eco-friendly - using vegetable dyes in printing and dyeing, and being ruthless in determining the green roots of all procured products. The only danger that you are in is from trying to balance a brass cauldron in a paper bag, on your way out.