Images of Amitabh Bachchan on Versova Beach this Sunday when he'd dropped in to commend and offer support to Afroz Shah, the man spearheading what is now known as the world's biggest beach clean-up, was by any measure a rousing sight.
<img title="Amitabh Bachchan during the beach clean-up at Versova on Sunday" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/aug/Amitabh-Bachchan-aaa.jpg" alt="Amitabh Bachchan during the beach clean-up at Versova on Sunday" /> Amitabh Bachchan during the beach clean-up at Versova on Sunday
The 74-year-old's work ethic and sense of public responsibility is legendary, putting his far younger colleagues to shame. When AB makes a commitment it's set in stone. Request him to grace an occasion at 5.30, and he'll show up at 5pm.
Still, a Sunday is a Sunday, and supposedly a day of rest, whether you're a Swachh Bharat brand ambassador, or not. Not for AB. "Visiting Versova beach today was a huge revelation," he said in his emailed response to us late at night. " ..
Not just to see the amount and extent of damage that garbage does to our environment and particularly the beach, but to find the spirit of one man, Afroz Shah, in taking up all by himself, the responsibility and desire of cleaning up .." The star was still working, this time from home, no doubt responding to his humongous load of correspondence at that unearthly hour.
"Afroz seeks no govt help, and is not cynical about it... how much can the govt do... but just the effort he puts in into a task, which any visitor would find improbable and horrific .." wrote Bachchan.
We had hoped to tease a bit more out of Bachchan about his relationship with the beach, when we'd texted him. After all, being a long time resident of Juhu, he must have had his share of leaving his footprints on its sands on many an occasion.
What do you say to those who hold that 'Life Is A Beach'? we had also asked, in a bid to get him to go down memory lane. But it was now 11.59 and Amitabh Bachchan's ignoring of the question was an eloquent reply.
Life was not a beach and there were miles to go before he would sleep.
Of Moon Moon, Riya and Hugh Grant! Often we wonder about life and the ceaseless revolving door of characters, famous and infamous who we encounter, often in the most random of circumstances. Actor Hugh Grant for instance. There was a period in Kolkata during the late '80s when the (yet to make it big in Hollywood or even become enmeshed with Liz Hurley) British hunk was on a shoot and had fallen in with a rather boisterous crowd from the Tolly Club.
<img title="Moon Moon Sen, Dimple Yadav and Supriya Sule outside Parliament" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/aug/Moon-Moon-Sen.jpg" alt="Moon Moon Sen, Dimple Yadav and Supriya Sule outside Parliament" /> Moon Moon Sen, Dimple Yadav and Supriya Sule outside Parliament
That we would often bump into him at actress Moon Moon Sen's well-appointed apartment was a foregone conclusion. With her aristocratic husband Habi, the scion of an erstwhile ruling family, (he was nephew to the Rajmata of Jaipur), Sen conducted one of the most stylish drawing rooms of that era, where artists, bankers, polo players and writers would congregate.
<img title="Riya Sen and beau Shivam Tewari" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/aug/Riya-Sen.jpg" alt="Riya Sen and beau Shivam Tewari" /> Riya Sen and beau Shivam Tewari
All this flashed by when we chanced upon this recent photograph of the once kittenish Sen, now a responsible looking MP from Mamata's TMC, flanked by her colleagues Dimple Yadav and the NCP's Supriya Sule. Interestingly, this month Sen's daughter the pretty actress Riya Sen, is getting married to her long-time beau Shivam Tewari, and will undoubtedly make for a resplendent bride.
As for Grant, ah yes Grant, after a couple of gin soaked boisterous evenings, it had all ended badly, over an invitation to an evening featuring tins of newly imported caviar and bottles of Stolichnaya, which we'd declined. But that's another story for another day...
<img title="Hugh Grant" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/aug/Hugh-Grant.jpg" alt="Hugh Grant" /> Hugh Grant
Down memory lane "How many editors can you identify in this throwback pic?" It was our friend the former sherriff , businesswoman and philanthropist Bakul Patel's message accompanying this riveting picture of some of India's most eminent personalities of that period.
<img title="Bakul Patel (sitting on the sofa armrest)" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/aug/Bakul-Patel.jpg" alt="Bakul Patel (sitting on the sofa armrest)" /> Bakul Patel (sitting on the sofa armrest)
"It was taken on the occasion of the first Dhiren Bhagat Memorial talk at the Oberoi," she explained. "Seated from left are Behram Contractor, Kamalendra Kanwar, Darryl D'Monte Vimla Patil and Charles Moore of the Daily Telegraph.
"Sanjeev Malhotra MD Oberoi, Rajat Sharma, myself and Dhiren's father on the extreme left," said Patel, who, after the tragic death of Bhagat, had been one of the moving spirits behind the memorial. "We had instituted scholarships for journalist students to be trained under Charles at the Daily Telegraph," she said, adding, "We have lost so many lovely friends since then! It's so nostalgic of the flavour of the era!"
The High Priestess Increasingly the truth about the art world is getting revealed: that far from being an idyllic world of high ideals and creative expression, it is a coterie of unscrupulous gallerists, auction houses, collectors and critics who fix prices, promote favourites, and manipulate the markets as they would the stock market, to make a killing.
And on top of this rancid heap sits this self-appointed high priestess of it all, with her eye fixed beadily on the bottom line, art and artists be damned. "She's really a much abhorred figure," says one hapless artist unwelcome in the gallerist's charmed circle, "and is downright offensive to those who she does not need."
How so? The artist sighs, "I avoid visiting her gallery," she says. "But I had to drop in for the preview of a dear friend who was showing at it some time ago. The dear friend had presented a really fine show, and she was keen that it travelled abroad, but too frightened to bring that up with her domineering gallerist," the artist narrates. "So like a fool, I took it upon myself and dropped into her office suggesting it timidly to her. But she exploded! "Who is running this gallery?!! And who makes these decisions??!!"" she screamed says the artist. "I was so horrified that I turned on my heel and left." Oh dear. A thug and a drama queen!
From sis with love "We are just thrilled with the arrival of little Azarius who is a cherub and consider this another blessing from our father, (the late actor producer director Feroz Khan) who we miss immensely, but his spirit is around," said proud aunt Laila Furniturewala, about the news that her brother and his wife Natasha Madhvani Khan, had been blessed with a son on Friday, a brother to their three-year-old daughter Diani Isabella Khan. Furniturewala was in Dubai as we texted, and said her mother Sundari Khan who'd been visiting her, had flown to London on hearing the news. "We are very close knit as a family," she said, "So we will make sure the children are too. Zaan will also have a brother now."
<img title="Fardeen and Laila Khan" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/aug/Laila.jpg" alt="Fardeen and Laila Khan" /> Fardeen and Laila Khan
What had Fardeen been as a baby we asked his elder sis. "Very loving and quiet; he loved retreating to his dream world &hellip; and being his elder sis, he looked up to me for everything (ahhh wish those things never changed)," she replied.
<img title="Fardeen Khan with his newborn son" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2017/aug/newborn-son.jpg" alt="Fardeen Khan with his newborn son" /> Fardeen Khan with his newborn son

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Images of Amitabh Bachchan on Versova Beach this Sunday when he'd dropped in to commend and offer support to Afroz Shah, the man spearheading what is now known as the world's biggest beach clean-up, was by any measure a rousing sight

Amitabh Bachchan helps to clean Versova beach

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