"When you choose to be sincere in your work ethic, maintaining an extremely high level of quality and standards, and when your integrity is attacked by malicious lies, you know you have to stand up for yourself," says interior designer Sussanne Khan, in response to news that the FIR lodged against her by a client had been summarily dismissed by the High Court of Goa yesterday
"When you choose to be sincere in your work ethic, maintaining an extremely high level of quality and standards, and when your integrity is attacked by malicious lies, you know you have to stand up for yourself," says interior designer Sussanne Khan, in response to news that the FIR lodged against her by a client had been summarily dismissed by the High Court of Goa yesterday.
Sussanne Khan with colleagues
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"I would not have been able to rest until justice prevailed," says Khan, who had been accused of misrepresenting herself as an architect. "The belief in good triumphing over evil and having the support of my family, my associates at work and my resilient lawyer Hitesh Jain and his team of lawyers at ALMT Legal, has vindicated my position," she says.
"Further more, it happened on this beautiful auspicious day of Janamashtami," says the feisty lady who has been known to march to her own drumbeat in other areas of her life too.
Feast for the senses
Each year, almost like rites of season, we find ourselves at a Manish Malhotra fashion extravaganza. And though expectedly, the fashions change, what doesn’t, is the overall feel of the experience: enchanting fairy lights, a king’s ransom of exotic flowers, jewel colours, exquisite embroideries, and a truckload of film folk on the ramp and in the seats.
A model in a Malhotra creation. PIC/AFP
And so it was at the Manish Malhotra Winter/Festive 2016 on Wednesday night at a five-star. And with the petite and pretty Shraddha Kapoor in a resplendent deep green velvet lehenga as a show stopper, accompanied by the sleek Sushant Singh Rajput in a black bandhgala and the likes of Sushmita Sen, Shilpa Shetty, Sophie Choudhury, Neha Dhupia, Dia Mirza and Zayed Khan sporting Malhotra’s new line and being drenched in an abundance of rose petals — the showing, as expected, was a feast for the senses.
Bawling over Bollywood
To say we have been witness to the blossoming of author and columnist Aatish Taseer would not be wrong. From the time he was a preteen living with his mother, the author columnist Tavleen Singh, as our neighbour in a Delhi apartment block in the nineties, to now as a celebrated author living in New York, we have followed Taseer’s journey with fondness.
A scene from Sultan (right) Aatish Taseer
No surprises then that the latest offering from the thirty-something hunk who had courageously come out to the world when he wrote about his marriage to ‘a tall white man from Tennessee,’ named Ryan, in an essay in the Wall Street Journal last month, had us delighted. Called ‘Why Do I Love Bollywood?’ the personal essay begins with the author bawling his ‘guts out’ in a movie theatre in Times Square, while watching ‘Sultan’.
"There is something about a big, popular art form that dramatises a society’s deepest tensions that I find desperately moving," he wrote. But the most significant takeaway was Taseer’s POV about who Bollywood chooses to demonize. "The Bollywood villain is the embodiment of what India believes ails India," he says, arguing that (from Ajit, to Pran, to Gabbar Singh, and Mogambo onwards) it’s the bad guys who serve as the benchmark for India’s angst. Nice!
Theatre on a plate
"All the dishes are pretty much close to my heart but I personally love ‘Astronaut’s Lassi’ and the ‘Damsel in distress’ dessert, as it’s quite theatrical, with a fairy tale ending," says our friend, the Cardiff-based award winning Chef Stephen Gomes, about the 10 course tasting menu, to be offered to 16 fortunate guests every night from the first week of September at the newly launched Chemistry 101.
Stephen Gomes
"It will be Mumbai’s first tasting menu by an award-winning chef," says a spokesperson. We have been at the receiving end of Gomes’ unbound creativity in the past, which consists of astonishing aural, olfactory, visual and aesthetic enhancers to his delicious dishes all dreamt up by the affable young man, son of the legendary Chef Gomes, responsible for giving the Sun N Sand its culinary edge.
"My dad is my biggest critic," he says when asked about his father’s influence on his work. "He has to taste the food first before I put it on the menu. Unfortunately he is not a great advocate of molecular gastronomy — for him it’s all about the flavours," he laughs. And our personal favourite on his new tasting menu? The ‘Tribute to Bruce Lee.’ And no, we’re not giving away the surprise.
Hot kitchens
There is a thin line between being inspired by another’s work or concept, and lifting or copying the concept altogether, in any field, be it music, movies, art, or even hospitality. And though it happens everywhere around us, it usually goes unnoticed, under the radar and so a big hoo-ha is avoided.
But word comes in, that one successful Mumbai restaurant has taken grave offence about another smaller restaurant that it feels has ‘blatantly’ copied food dishes, menus and even staff uniforms from them! Personnel from the offended establishment took to social media in an attempt to show their displeasure at their ‘hard work’, ‘creativity’ and ‘R&D’ being ‘ripped off’ so openly.
And though well wishes reminded them about Charles Caleb Colton’s famous saying that ‘Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,’ the offended restaurant in question seems to have had enough and doesn’t see it as flattery any longer but "a pain in the behind". We aren’t experts in this field but maybe it would help to have some clear laws and guidelines in place. But until that happens, a delicious storm in Mumbai’s most popular kitchens is certainly what’s cooking these days!
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