The port city of Vizag, with the arrival of Sankranti or Pongal transforms to its traditional avatar. As a city closely attached to its roots of agriculture it celebrates this harvest festival in quite a grand fashion. The festival marks a time to shop for new clothes, ornaments and gifts...

Vizag’s festive chapter has moved a few pages ahead, as the city prepares to celebrate the most popular, colorful, noisy, bright and vibrant festival – Diwali – with large-scale sales and shopping and with new gifting options. MetroMela compiles a guide to tell you more...

Mannequins, in a great combination of men’s ethnic wear and men’s formal wear at MF Khan International’s brightly-lit and swanky window display, effectively project the store’s stylish products. These make way for an ambience that speaks: ‘shop-with-ease-and-in-style’, at this premier men’s wear store, close to Pages at Jail Road, in Vizag...

Navratri, a socio-cultural and religious festival of the state of Gujarat, finds a loyal fan following in Vizag too, as this city also has a small but well-knit Gujarati community that comes together for these nine days to relive the spirit of Navratri. Vizag has two known Gujarati cultural associations, which are actively involved in the celebrations...

A little after the War Memorial, on RK Beach Road in Vizag, housed in Bina Rao’s residence at Jaideep Apartments is her store Binaca Creations. Bina has converted an entire room into a chikan work clothing boutique...

Revamped and renamed, the Girijana Vegetable Growers’ Society store in its new form as a showroom of Tribes India at Chinna Waltair, opposite Vuda Park in Vizag, comes as a pleasant surprise. Once stocked with organic products from the tribals of Araku Valley, this store of colorful pillars and a bright yellow smiling sun signage is now replete with the best rural handiwork from all the states of the country...

Exhibits of walkers and gym equipment at the entrance and footballs and cricket bats inside could only mean that we have arrived at Andhra Sports at Dabagardens in Vizag. The shop, stacked with floor-to-ceiling racks of sports goods, is abuzz with early morning shoppers walking in with various requests, some for sportswear and some for badmintons and shuttlecocks...

Every city has a unique character that is defined by the weather and topography of the region, the industrial and commercial landscape and, most importantly, the inhabitants and their lifestyles. Vizag (in the state of Andhra Pradesh) happens to be a relatively young city in India, and yet it has its fair share of old hands and favorite haunts...

Shopping for Dads is a bit tougher than shopping for Moms because Dads are known to be content with just a little, and their simple lifestyles give kids very few options when it comes to buying gifts for them. But, this year, for Father’s Day (on 21 June) MetroMela has chalked out a shopping plan to give you some ideas of what to buy and where, and also on how to go about celebrating this special day with Dad in Vizag...

The summer month of May is all about the travails of heat, humidity and dust, but May also brings with it a precious day that all children look forward to because that’s the day they get to show their Moms how much they love and respect them. This year, MetroMela recommends a date for the entire day with Mom to celebrate Mother’s Day on 10 May...