Nothing beats an original. Particularly when it is fashioned direct dil se and out of need. “Made by two farmers, who were part-time carpenters, the recliner sofa emerged out of their desire to relax after a long day. Devoid of upholstery and cushioning, then it was made of wood, steel and levers and gained popularity almost instantly,” Amitabh Chaudhuri, Country Manager, La-Z-Boy, takes us back to Monroe, USA in 1929, when the company designed the first of its kind in the world and got it patented. “The design revolutionised as it travelled through countries and other companies tried different versions of the recliner. And it’s now that we have come to India and have settled in Chandigarh,” chips in Akshaya Badrinarayanan of Stanley Boutique, the company that’s marketing the product, and shows us a range at Glass Palace, Sector 7. The recliner comes loaded with effortless control lever, a mechanism that facilitates forward-backward rocking motion and a unibody frame that promises smooth balance. “Giving the privilege of 18 different angles, La-Z-Boy manufactures about 16,000 recliners a day and has a turnover of about two billion dollars. This, when the overall recliner market in India is about two to three per cent of the total furniture sales,” pitches in Vikram Gupta of the store, a he tells us that the demand is rising thanks to increasing stress and need for comfort. Relax!