Always nice to take tea in the hallowed portals of the BMC, in the special chambers where the Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai presides over the daily workings, of this enormous and often unmanageable city of Mumbai
Always nice to take tea in the hallowed portals of the BMC, in the special chambers where the Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai presides over the daily workings, of this enormous and often unmanageable city of Mumbai.
Ajoy Mehta, the current commissioner is a soft-spoken well read man, an IIT grad, with further degrees in management and law, and someone who can talk as knowledgeably about the classics as he can, about power supply and waste management.
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Ajoy Mehta
We had dropped in to see how Mehta was faring in particularly stormy weather all round. Naturally, the talk turned to the BMC and its relationship with the people of Mumbai. “Because of social media and the Internet, people expect instant responses and problems to be solved with the click of a button,” says the man in charge of the city’s engine. “With regard to public engagement, our challenge is how to make the public know that we are aware of their problem, we are working towards solving it, we have a plan and a timeframe,” he says.
Talking about engines, this childhood anecdote narrated by Mehta concerning his first encounter with Mumbai is illuminating. “I was living in a hotel above Churchgate station with my parents on a visit to Mumbai,” he says, “and remember being struck with awe at the sight of Mumbai’s citizens standing patiently in perfectly formed queues.”
Of course that was a long time ago, we almost say, then realise it’s redundant.
Gulzar for dinner
The best of Mumbai and the best of New Delhi, appear to have met this weekend at the home of publisher Pramod and wife Kiran in the capital this weekend, when renowned lyricist and poet Gulzar came for dinner. Attended by Subbalakshmi and Amjad Khan, Pavan and Renu Varma, Vinod Dua and Mala Singh amongst others.
Pramod Kapoor, Gulzar and Pavan Varma
“Rare malts, Italian reds and whites, and food cooked by the Kapoor’s longstanding cooks with recipes from Kapoor’s ‘Dining with the maharajahs’ were served,” informs a guest. “Gulzar loves desserts, and special Rataul mangoes with rabri, and mishti dahi were served. As for the chief guest, he couldn’t have been nicer.”
Unassuming and charming, Gulzar sahib spent time with each one of us, gave loving tight hugs to those whom he knew. No one wanted the evening to end.” Oh and we learnt one more thing about the maestro. “The hosts had made sure to avoid baigan. Gulzar sahib dislikes baigan,” we are informed.
Champagne at four
Saturday was witness to a glam high tea event at a five-star, co hosted by Anurag Bhatnagar, the hotel’s general manager along with Anandita De, Shobhaa De’s youngest daughter who works at Asta Guru.
Arti Sarin, Nisha Jamval, Ira Dubey, Anandita De and Ira Dubey
Though we were unable to attend, we hear the event took place in the hotel’s drawing room, adjacent to the lobby area and the menu consisted of scones, sandwiches and pastries.
Apart from the hotel’s trademark signature high tea experience, where rituals include servers with white gloves walking down the staircase leading to the lobby level, all in tandem and synchronized to music, we are informed there was a good amount of bubbly consumed. And the highlight of the occasion was a bottle of champagne opened by a staff member using a saber.
Those in attendance included the affable Yash Birla and ladies about town, Zeba Kohli, Arti Surendranath, Nisha JamVwal, Ira Dubey and Arti Sarin. Cheers!
Illustrious clan
We had been hearing about our friend, magazine editor Superna, and biz man Gaurav Motwane’s musically talented daughter Alea, but nothing prepared us for the performance that the young singer had delivered after the end of a week at The Berklee College of music, Boston, which we happened to see on a social networking site.
Vikramaditya Motwane, Superna Motwane, Pratish Motwane and Namita Motwane
Alea happens to be the granddaughter of renowned singer Sudha Motwane (nee Malhotra) and what’s more, she is part of the glamorous Motwane clan (progeny of the iconic Chicago Radio family from Khar), to have made their mark in fields other than business. And so in no order of appearance, a roster of the illustrious clan of second and third gen of Motwanes blazing new trails:
Vikramaditya Motwane — filmmaker
Pratish Motwane — Blues musician
Aditya Motwane — leading wedding planner
Superna Motwane — magazine editor
Namita Motwane (nee Devidayal) — author
Ishika Motwane — photographer and
Deepika and Alaokika Motwane — counselors
Nice!
Saddened but not surprised
We were saddened, but not surprised to read about leading designer, and daughter of world renowned cricketing legend Viv Richards, and award-winning actress Neena Gupta, Masaba’s recent brush with racism at Frankfurt airport. The lady who was transiting through the international hub appears to have been subjected to some pretty insidious racial profiling.
Neena, Masaba Gupta and Vivian Richards
“Nothing like a good old whiff of racism in Europe. While in transit at Frankfurt, the lady at security asked me about two times if I am actually flying business. Had a nice, intimate frisking session. If she’d have asked once more, I would’ve shown her who’s in the wrong line. Ate some terrific char in Salzburg while being watched closely. ‘Can she even afford that?’ And the poor lady at a shop counter almost made me feel sorry for owning a credit card,” she said in a feisty kickass post.
“Ahh... How I Love Europe. But what I love more. Is being a bully with a ‘black-ass’,” she wrote. So as we were saying, we are saddened but not surprised to read about Gupta’s recent brush with racism at Frankfurt airport – and that’s because we had experienced more or less the same thing ourselves at the same place not so long ago!
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