A date with Ranbir? A day with Priyanka?

Not that we are in a position to bid but the tantalising items going under Karan Joharrsquos hammer at the Swades fundraiser this evening has got us thinking What would we really really want in a list that included attending a soon to be held Dior Cruise show flying on a charter plane with Shah Rukh Khan a dinner date with Ranbir Kapoor a chance to spend an entire day with Priyanka Chopra a portrait or mural done to order by a leading artist and a holiday in ChampagneRonnie Screwvala and Zarina MehtaSuch happy thoughts will be on the minds of a delicious mix of Bollywood business and social tycoons as they make their way to Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Mehtarsquos fundraising gala at the Palladium tonight for their NGO SwadesEstablished with the singleminded focus of lifting a million lives in rural India out of poverty the Foundation has already influenced 300000 lives in Raigad MaharashtraRecently Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan visited villages where Swades worked for a first hand view of itrsquos engagements and interacted with local villagers in a demonstration of how the five verticals that Swades works within Health amp Nutrition Education Water amp Sanitation Community Mobilisation and Agriculture amp Livelihood empowered villagesAmitabh is also the guest of honour at this eveningrsquos function where many luminaries like Sonakshi Sinha Neha Dhupia Dia Mirza Malaika Arora Khan Shiamak Davar Leander Paes and Ayan Mukherjee will walk the ramp in creations by Vikram Phadnis accompanied with some of the people whose lives Swades has touchedJaya and Amitabh BachchanSo what will we choose if we had to from the enticing auction list The Dior Cruise show A chartered flight with Shah Rukh Khan A dinner date with Ranbir KapoorA day with Priyanka Chopra A personalised works of art or a holiday in ChampagneWe would gentle reader choose that the Screwvalas and their excellent NGO Swades achieves its goals and that one million lives are indeed transformed For then the encounters with the stars the international fashion outings and the personalised works of art will be that much the sweeterBizarre coincidenceAnd for those who often spend time wondering about things like this isnrsquot it a curiously coincidental thing that three of the worldrsquos top and most celebrated athletes are facing such an unimaginably difficult timeMichael Schumacher PICGETTY IMAGESMichael Schumacher in a coma Oscar Pistorius tragically bereaved and facing murder charges and Ian Thorpersquos career brought to an end by a deadly virus Three men who at one time were at the top of their game and appeared to have it all Who could imagine that they would face such challengesOscar Pistorius PICAFPAnd has any one captured the topsy turvy reversals of life better than that nasal voiced blowinrsquo in the wind philosopher Bob Dylan who decades ago had proclaimed lsquothe order isRapidly fadinrsquo and the first one nowWill later be lastFor the times they are achanginrsquoWe think notIan Thorpe PICGETTY IMAGESEnter the poet mdashThalaivarrsquos grandpopA mark of a truly great leader of men is that sooner or later they will publish a slim volume of verse that will give rise to many hosannas amongst their loyal flock Such a thing appears to have happened with the right honourable softspoken dulcetvoices great leader Narendra Modi prime ministerial candidate rival to Shakespeare Eliot and Tennyson all rolled together man with 56inchchest and Thalaivarrsquos grandpop when it comes to histrionicsNarendra ModiThe good people at Rupa we hear are lsquodelighted to announce that they will be publishing lsquoA Journey Poems by Narendra Modirsquo around sic 20 AprilrsquolsquoDevotion and dedication love and longing strength and vulnerability all find expression in Narendra Modirsquos poetryThis English translation of verses originally written in Gujarati transports us into the poetrsquos mindmdashhis voice his vision and his thoughtsrsquo says the marketing spiel that accompanies the announcement of the muchawaited tomeThe poet meanwhile is more bashful lsquoThese are streams of thoughtlike a spring of fresh waterrsquo he is reported to have said abut his poetic intervention lsquoOf things I have witnessed experienced and some time imagined May the soft sound of this springrsquos waters Resonate in your ears and mind And touch your heartrdquo he wroteMeanwhile the Bard from Gujaratrsquos translator we are informed is a Ravi Mantha himself a lover of poetry a polymath and a public intellectual sicOn closer inspection one of Mantharsquos previous books appears to be the enigmatically titled lsquoAll about BacteriarsquoIs that his special area of specialisation Is that why he took on the aforementioned project What is the connection between Narendra Modirsquos poems and bacteriaWe think we ought to be toldOut of the mouth of babesOh dear Where and who with your kids spend their time can be a telling indictment of your own set of valuesA pedigreed social aristocrat a lady of impeccable manners was aghast to hear some delightfully unlady like phrases emanate from the lips of her friendrsquos young daughter It appears the toddler spent most of her days accompanying her mother to various health spas and beauty salons where she had struck up friendships with the staff and picked up their lingo that curious mix of mangled Hindi upper class tapori and Bambaiya street speak that passes for languageSo each time the little girl spoke it was a faithful report of where her high maintenance mum was spending all her waking hoursA Gujarati in DelhiTalk about reading too much in to the tea leaves Some businessmen reacting to Dilip Shanghvirsquos spectacular buyout of Malvinder Singhrsquos Ranbaxy through his acquisition Daichi Sankyo are reading in to it more meanings than a simple business takeover How soMalvinder Singh PICAFPWell overheard over tea and samosas at a SoBo five star hotelrsquos business lounge was the following remark made by a leading industrialist known for his wit to another of his ilk ldquoOne prominent Gujju bhai has taken over the offices of a Delhi Sardar How soon before another does the samerdquoOuch