The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Media-shy Kejriwal, mystery lunch
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, during his Mumbai visit, was scheduled to attend a lunch party, but try as we might we could find no information about what he ate, or in fact any evidence that he ate lunch at all! No AAP leader, from Meera Sanyal to Mayank Gandhi, had an answer.
Pensive: Arvind Kejriwal. PIC/AFP
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The same was the case with the press conference scheduled to be held at the Press Club, which was cancelled by the party. But no one in the party could tell us why. In case you’re wondering whether the leader went hungry after skipping the lunch at Bajaj Bhawan, worry not — Kejriwal, we hear, had a bite in his car, while his way to August Kranti Maidan from Nariman Point.
You’ve come a long way, newbie
What do you do on your birthday? You work. Well, that’s what model Candice Pinto was doing, with a lot of legwork on the catwalk at the opening of Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2014 at Grand Hyatt on Wednesday. There she was at Huemn’s show yesterday, in a red ‘n’ black creation, as though she was dressed for the red ‘n’ black dance at the carnival (so what if it is over and now it is Lent). And then she was seen at Sougat Paul’s show.
Season's special: Manish Malhotra’s show on Tuesday night. Pic/Satyajit Desai
The fashion week started, as usual, with the Gen Next Show. And taking a serious view of the fresh fashion were established designers including Bollywood’s favourite Manish Malhotra (who presented his opening show the night before, with Sonakshi Sinha as showstopper), Krishna Mehta and Shruti Sancheti. Also viewing the show with great interest were buyers belonging to boutiques like Sangita Kathiwada Sinh (Melange), Azmina Rahimtoola (Atosa) and Falguni Jhaveri (Fuel).
Spotted in the front row was Anil Chopra who started the Fashion Week years ago. He looked chic in a pink shirt (pink is for the big boys). Wife Sabina Chopra, who is always present for the Gen Next show, was not there. But then we hear she is in London, for the trunk show of her friend Sabyasachi Mukherjee.
—Marcellus Baptista
Film flam
After the furore over Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Churchgate had died down, a new crowd began gathering outside Churchgate station. What they were peering at: A group of television cameramen who were comparing notes and checking each others’ footage. Many of the onlookers wanted a glimpse of Kejriwal on the small, nay tiny preview screens of the camera, and one elderly lady, when she found out the cause of the commotion, remarked that people were as excited as if Kejriwal himself was there!
Quality time
Politicians have plenty of activities to keep them busy even after the code of conduct is implemented, but have you ever wondered what bureaucrats do, since there are no projects to handle?
After the polls were announced, departmental secretaries were summoned to a meeting by state chief secretary J S Saharia. Principal secretary and state election officer Nitin Gadre briefed them and left, and it was time for the rest to get down to nitty-gritty. What could that be? According to the chief secretary, “The code of conduct has offered us a break from routine work and given us quality time to think about some of the pertinent issues which we could not implement otherwise.”
And he asked his colleagues to each share at least 10 points on good governance. So can we hope to see some public-friendly administrative reforms soon?
Rock of ages
The average age level at music lounge Blue Frog must have risen on Tuesday night, when the book India Psychedelic was launched. The event included a discussion between author Sidharth Bhatia and writer Naresh Fernandes, which was mercifully kept brief before the highlight of the evening began — that was the music.
The book examines the beat and rock generation of the 1960s and ’70s, and naturally it was musicians of that era who stepped up on stage to rock the night, vintage style.
Never too old to rock-n-roll: Suresh and Deveika Bhojwani
Suresh Bhojwani opened the musical innings, and was joined by wife Deveika, both delivering punchy performances. He remarked that he had first seen her when she sang in a musical, and married her six months later. Now that’s appreciation!
Nandu Bhende upped the noise quotient a little and the evening ended with The Savages, a name that resonates with anyone who was young in the ’70s (and still is).
Some of the in-jokes and references may have left the younger lot in the audience a little befuddled, but there were enough cheers from the silver brigade to prove that old rockers don’t fade away quietly — they just keep on rocking.
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