His matching leather-jacket sneakered dash to the airport with his son ought to have alerted us to the fact that something important was up and when we chanced upon pictures of SRK in London with the newly rehabilitated and jubilant Lalit Modi, we ought to have guessed what was going to come; after all it was only a few weeks ago that we had written of Modi’s blandishment of Interpol’s trendy ‘Turn Back Crime’ wristband
His matching leather-jacket sneakered dash to the airport with his son ought to have alerted us to the fact that something important was up and when we chanced upon pictures of SRK in London with the newly rehabilitated and jubilant Lalit Modi, we ought to have guessed what was going to come; after all it was only a few weeks ago that we had written of Modi’s blandishment of Interpol’s trendy ‘Turn Back Crime’ wristband.
Found on the wrists of various show biz celebs and high rollers, it’s no surprise that Modi’s famous IPL colleague has been named Brand Ambassador of Interpol’s worldwide campaign against organised crime. ‘Latest fashion accessory: turnbackcrime bracelet-got mine. @iamsrk has his.
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Shahrukh Khan with INTERPOL Secretary General, Ronald K Noble
Have u got yours - ask @INTERPOL_HQ 4 one!’ posted the cricket tycoon on a social networking site.
SRK will be joining Jackie Chan and Lionel Messi in the worldwide movement against mobsters.
Take that Ravi Pujari!
Hell hath no fury
Oh dear, what a very awkward situation the high profile and renowned wife of a self made tech tycoon found herself in recently.
Here she was a celebrated and cerebral sportsperson, participating in a tournament established and sponsored by her husband’s company (and in which she was regarded as one of the country’s top players); and there, to her great consternation she found herself at the wrong end of the stick when a belligerent opponent (a Bengali at that) did the unthinkable: he questioned her integrity by alluding to what he thought was an unethical move on her part.
In short, gentle reader, he dared to accuse her of cheating!
Now hell hath no fury as a woman scorned, and apparently so incensed was the lady by what she thought was an unfair and unfounded slur on her character, that her temper boiled over and resulted in a thorough dressing down of the boor.
“It is known that she has a temper,” said an observer, “But no one would ever say she is a cheat!”
Enter, Gen Next
At the high profile launch of the 2014 Hero Indian Super League team ‘FC Goa’ on Tuesday by Goa CM Manohar Parrikar, it was good to see the young Salgaocar scion Vikram Salgaocar on stage.
At the launch of ‘FC Goa’ team
The handsome lad, who is a graduate of Wharton and who spent time working in Singapore after college, is also a big Real Madrid fan (like his father) and a talented football player himself, and was seen lending his heft to the team jointly owned by his father Dattaraj Salgaocar, of V M Salgaocar and company, Videocon’s Anirudh Dhoot, and Dempo Group’s Shrinivas Dempo.
Vikram happens to be the late Dhirubhai Ambani’s oldest and first grand child and his public debut once more underlines the generational shift that’s taking place across the board in the circles that matter.
Husain in St Moritz
“It’s a very handsome book, the first on Husain since he died,” says noted art critic and universally respected Kishore Singh, the Delhi-based writer on the launch of his new tome in the salubrious climes of St Moritz, which took place last week.
Anita Choudhrie, Kishore Singh and Sharmila Tagore
“It was commissioned by the Stellar International Art Foundation, which has a huge collection of the artist’s work, including the Maria series, ‘The Mughal e Azam’, and ‘Our Planet Called Earth’,” he says.
“It was launched at Art Masters, in St Moritz at Nira Alpina, by Sharmila Tagore, in the presence of an interesting audience that was here for the India Week component of Art Masters,” said Singh, adding, “Stellar is promoted by London based Anita and Sudhir Choudhrie.”
Myths and rumours
Perhaps the finest and most thoughtful take on the Rajnath and son comeuppance rumour has been that of our colleague, the Delhi-based scribe, Virender Kapoor.
Subramanian Swamy and Narendra Modi
In a thoughtful article for the website Niti Central (‘Bold and Right’) without going into the veracity of the rumour, Kapoor writes: ‘A leader’s public persona is built around a number of myths, ascribing to him the very qualities, which ordinary people want all great leaders to possess in abundance…’
‘It is not important whether there is any, or some, truth in those stories. The important thing is that a vast majority of people readily accepts those apocryphal tales as the gospel truth…’
‘Modi’s omniscience, omnipotence, as revealed by the apocryphal tales, is a virtue in the eyes of the masses, never mind what the professional liberal-secularist class might say about his being a control freak, an authoritarian, even a tin-pot dictator,’ he writes.
Interestingly, Kapoor is the brother-in-law of senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy (they are both married to Parsi blue stockings) and is also said to be close to Arun Jaitley.
Not that any of that should take away or undermine his own independent and perceptive views.
Happy Birthday, Mickey
His youthful energy and zestful joie de vivre might belie the fact, but today our dear friend, Wellness guru and fitness coach to the stars Mickey Mehta turns 52.
Mickey Mehta
“On Friday, August 29, I will be 52 and it happens to be Ganesh sthapna too. My message to the world is, ‘Let Wellness be your Religion No 1’.”
Happy birthday Mickey and many zestful more to come!
It’s not a bird or a plane it’s a book!
He might be beleaguered and fighting with his back against the wall, but word comes in that Vijay Mallya will soon be the subject of a handsome biography, published by Penguin Random House, one of the world’s most respected publishers.
Vijay Mallya
Said to be written by a foreign writer based out of London, the book is said to be out later in the year.
Will it be a hagiography? And how will it deal with his alleged business transgressions, the latest being attracting the nomenclature of being a wilful defaulter?
Watch this space!
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