By now, it is part of popular folklore, that actor Boman Irani has worn many colourful hats: from being a steward at a five-star's sea lounge, to owner manager of the city's most cherished wafer shop, to photographer
By now, it is part of popular folklore, that actor Boman Irani has worn many colourful hats: from being a steward at a five-star's sea lounge, to owner manager of the city's most cherished wafer shop, to photographer. The dapper Parsi appears to have done it all. But as those who know him say, the role he enjoys most is that of loving husband to wife Zenobia.
Zenobia with Boman Irani
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This week saw Boman put together a surprise party for her with great success. And when we spoke to him the next day, he sounded quite chuffed with his efforts. "She is the one who always does it to us. Always. And she's just great at it," he said, recounting an earlier effort of his to surprise Zenobia, which had gone a bit awry.
Zenobia at the surprise party
"Our watchman had told her "Khana aa gaya" when she returned from an errand. So the cat was out of the bag and she tried to pretend she did not know," he says. This time, the actor had nonchalantly told the birthday girl that he would take her out for a romantic dinner for two and faked the name of a restaurant.
On the way to it, he had pretended to get lost and had got out of the car at a familiar lifestyle store in Lower Parel to ask for directions. (His acting prowess must have certainly helped keep the ruse up.) The store's owner who was in on the surprise, had got the children of Akanksha Foundation to festoon the place with decorations, and when Zenobia had entered, a room full of her family and friends had shouted, "Surprise!"
Boman is still chuckling over how well he pulled it all off. As for the birthday girl herself, he says, "She is still grinning." Later, the delighted couple went out on their own for a cozy meal to celebrate.
The big fat wedding symposium
As is known, weddings are big business in India, especially destination weddings. And this week, some of the biggest names in the industry flew to Venice to participate in Engage 17, a symposium of wedding planners, which took place at the Belmond Hotel Cipriani in Venice.
Sabyasachi and Vandana Mohan at the event
Leading the entourage was the Delhi-based Vandana Mohan, whose firm has been responsible for some of the biggest and fattest wedding extravaganzas the country has seen, including the Khilnani-Grover do, which had taken place at the very same hotel in Venice a couple of years ago.
The seminar saw Mohan team up with designer Sabyasachi, a first at Engage, where a designer and wedding planner shared stage. "We talked the same language, it was liberating," exulted Mohan about the event. "We talked about sustainability; we talked about being true to oneself, to go back to heritage." Maybe the big fat wedding will also go back to more practical proportions now? You got to be kiddin'!
Unique wedding card from 2000
One of the biggest upcoming weddings is set to take place in Jodhpur in November, when Shibani, the pretty daughter of the socially prominent Sabina and Anil Sanghvi of Pune, marries Jay, the son of one of India's leading jewellers, Viren Bhagat and his wife Madhura.
The card created by M F Husain
The festivities will take place across the city with the mehendi at a five-star, the sangeet at the Meherangarh fort, the wedding on the lawns of the fabulous art deco Umaid Bhawan, with the after-party in its famed Marwar Hall. And given the high-profile status of both families involved, the occasion is sure to see a star turnout.
M F Husain
Interestingly, the invitation card to the wedding has also garnered much interest, as it features a painting of a bride in her doli, done by none other than the late M F Husain. What makes it special is that the words, 'For Shibani", followed by the master's familiar signature, are clearly read below the painting. And the date: 2000! Which means that it has the distinction of being the only artwork for a wedding invitation created 17 years ago!
A smashing time
Oh dear, this middle-aged party-hearty socialite, famous for her three-parties-a-night lifestyle, seems to have walked into a gaffe at a recent popular Diwali get-together. The lady is said to have been in jubilant spirits when she was spotted at a home bar with a glass of red wine in hand.
Next thing one saw, according to those present, was that when guests decided to move to the balcony to continue the festivities, the lady who had followed suit, didn't realise that there was a glass wall dividing the two areas, and was seen literally 'smashing' her forehead into the glass.
Of course, given her social skills, she made little of it and quickly got herself together, and continued sipping on her wine as if nothing had happened. But guests couldn't stop chattering about the large bump she had landed with on her forehead for the rest of the evening. Ouch!
Fake liberals of the media world and their hypocrisy
'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned' goes the axiom, and this past week demonstrated the truth of it, when one of the country's leading media mavens, Barkha Dutt, let fly over what she described as the 'fake liberals of the media world and their hypocrisy.'
Barkha Dutt's display picture
"The one thing I can't stand in people is fakeness," she posted on social media, all guns blazing recently. The ostensible provocation was one of her erstwhile colleagues at NDTV, who'd gone public with his grievances against one of his stories being spiked by the network. But Dutt took on the larger issue of liberal self-righteousness and fraud.
"Done with frauds and their cherry picked 'positions'," she began, adding, "Actually, I can deal with bigots much better than fake liberals. With the former you know what you have and what your battle needs to be."
The rant evoked much response and a lot of it empathetic. After all, the hypocrisy of some sections of the media, which likes to cover itself in glory by championing politically-correct causes to buttress their careers, is not unknown.
In a follow-up post, Dutt went on to reveal NDTV's alleged seeking of political favours from the very powers that it appeared to oppose in public. Had any of the people she'd pilloried responded, we asked the feisty electronic and print journo. "No response from them to the issues I have raised - or none that I am aware of," she replied cryptically.
However, one of the finest responses to her posts had been the one from a friend who said that after reading her tirades, they'd finally understood the meaning of Dutt's Facebook display picture. We reproduce it here in the general spirit of things.
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