'Tis the season

Kanika Kapoor

'Tis the season
This past weekend, while most of the country's top industrialists, including Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Shashi Ruia, Sanjay Reddy and even actor Aamir Khan were away in Bahrain to attend the beautiful traditional nuptials of the Mehta-Jatia families held on a private island in the Gulf Country, an equally over-the-top affair was celebrated in full Rajasthani fashion in Udaipur.

Newly married couple Varun Chaudhary and Anushree Tongy

Binod Chaudhary, industrialist and chairman of the Chaudhary group (named as Nepal's first billionaire by Forbes), hosted a lavish three-day extravaganza, which saw him take over most of the cities top hotels, to celebrate the wedding of his younger son Varun, who married his girlfriend Anushree (who hails from the jeweller family that owns Dia Color).

Mika Singh performs during the sangeet ceremony

The wedding ceremony, which took place at Jag Mandir overlooking Lake Pichola, was attended by Salman Khan, Shatrughan Sinha, Shobhaa De, Ranil Wickremesinghe (Prime Minister of Sri Lanka), Congress politicians Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh, and others, namely Shaimak Davar, JJ Valaya and Kanika Kapoor.

Shatrughan Sinha and Salman Khan also attended the celebrations

"The mehendi function was so beautiful, it was laid out on the lawns of the Udaivillas, which had been decked up to resemble a floral carnival. And Mika Singh had everyone on their feet during the sangeet at the City Palace!" said a guest.

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

The new spiritual triumvirate
As expected, the visit of spiritual master Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who along with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and Baba Ramdev forms the Holy Trinity of the present times, attracted the country's movers and shakers (in the past it had been Osho, Swami Chandrashekhar and Dhirendra Bhramacharya) to sit at his feet and hear his discourses at NSCI Dome, which has fast become one of the premier venues for the city's many events - be it sari exhibitions, weddings, trance concerts or religious gatherings.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Spotted on the occasion were Rhea Pillai, AD and Sabena, Lara Dutta and businessman Suketu Shah, all card-holding members of the city's beautiful brigade. "It was a very eclectic crowd cutting across age and economic demographics. They hung onto guruji's every word and gesture. He focused on meditative techniques and answered people's questions with wit and authority," says a disciple, who was present. However, the giggly sage's presence had left a few in the audience under-whelmed.

Baba Ramdev

"The choice of the venue shows the enormous contradictions of the system," commented a Left-leaning member of the media, who was curious about the guru and had bought a ticket to see what the fuss was about. "Hardly a few seemed to be aware what a huge land grab the NSCI Dome represents," he said. "Here (had been) a public, municipal sports stadium freely available to the common people. And now, it had been taken over by the rich through an agreement with the civic body and had become a playground for the fun of this class," he added. Citing the sage's insistence on 'going with the flow', as one more instance of a conspiracy to create a system, where people did not ask inconvenient questions or think critically.

"Breeding conformism is the essence. And that is what men like Sri Sri are good at," was his verdict. However, the most damning indictment he had was this, "He seems no better than Baba Ramdev. Same promotion of commercial interests. Same salesmanship of a range of products. These were on display yesterday."

An added sparkle
Word comes in about a sparkling fashion show held over the weekend, showcasing Delhi-based designer Suneet Varma's latest collection 'Shining Star'. Held at a high-street shopping mall in Delhi, it saw four hundred of the Capital's leading fashionistas gather over flutes of bubbly, vino, red spirits and canapés of salmon and dark chocolate.

Suneet Varma along with the models

"Twenty models and five of his celebrity friends walked the ramp, including Malini Ramani and television anchor Fatima Karan," says Varma's partner Rahul Arora. What's more, the evening marked the 15th anniversary of Varma's successful collaboration with Swarovski Crystals, which he has made a part of his oeuvre time and again.

Malini Ramani and Cinthia Marquez with Varma

But by far what added the extra sparkle to the celebrations for the designer, who is currently working on his second home decor collection with Arttdinox of Jindal Steel, third jewellery collection with Swarovski, and preparing for his trunk show in London later in the month was the fact that the show also took place on the eve of his 52nd birthday. How did he plan to celebrate, we asked Arora.

"It's his 52nd birthday and he worked all day today as he had clients for a bridal appointment from Dubai," he replied. "But he is going to see his mother now for dinner." Sweet!

Faredoon Bhujwala takes part in the protest march

Who cares about apathy?
It was hard to miss the difference in his voice when we spoke to our friend Faredoon Bhujwala yesterday, post his silent march to protest the proposed massacre of over 5,000 trees for the Metro III project and against the use of Aarey Colony for commercial activities.

A few hours earlier, before the march had begun, we had spoken to Bhujwala on his way to the venue and he'd sounded much more buoyant. The idea was to gather outside the NCPA and walk from Nariman Point to Intercontinental Hotel on Marine Drive with banners and posters to draw attention to the dire situation. "We started with eight of us," he said to us at the end of the exercise, "but it swelled up to 20 or so protestors."

"What was heartening was that it was not the usual suspects, and there were new faces, including an elderly Sardarji and a mother-daughter duo, who'd come all the way from the suburbs and brought their own banners," he added.

"What was interesting is that we walked past policemen, who did not stop us, and motorists and pedestrians showed interest," said the impassioned Mumbai lover, always enthusiastic to support good causes.

But then his disappointment broke through, and he said, "But what is sad is the apathy of people to stand up and speak for our fundamental right to breathe clean air and ask for honest answers from the powers that be. I mean 20 people in a city of 18 million…" he signed off.