Interview

Kishore Biyani got his start in the fashion business in college when he sold 200 meters of stonewashed fabric to shops in Mumbai. Some years later his entrepreneurial instinct led him to launch a brand of fabric for men’s trousers–WBB or simply White, Blue and Brown–an abbreviation of the three most popular colors for trousers then. WBB lived its life and in 1985 he drew his first blood in retail when he set up a 400-sq.-foot (37-sq.- meter) shop to sell readymade trousers for men. Later, Biyani...

LANDOUR, I am told, is where Mussoorie's most acclaimed resident lives. I decide to walk up the Mall and to Landour beyond. The shops at the Mall are tempting and, as I mull over a red-bordered black woollen cap, a chic sardarni gives me the exact location to where Ruskin Bond lives. Bobby, who runs a hotel and a prosperous shop, even offers to take me half-way up as she is headed in the same direction. Grateful at having been spared quite a walk, I hop off and proceed to Ivy Cottage. Huff-puff...