All in the family

They make a handsome twosome the rockstar former minister for IT Milind Deora and the international IT visionary with rockstar looks Nikesh Arora That they are also related makes the pairing even more attractiveAs is known Nikesh is married to the Delhibased Ayesha Thapar whose sister is married to Milindrsquos brother the other Deora rockstar Mukul and so when we heard that Milind had engaged Nikesh in a discussion on IT life and everything in between for a YPO event we couldnrsquot help but think that whoever thought up the programme had imagination and flairMilind Deora and Nikesh AroraWhich is why when we ran into the dapper Congressman the next day we commended him and told him to convey our congratulations to whoever had thought up the idea of putting him on a podium with AroraMilind smiled on hearing thisldquoWell yoursquod have to congratulate Poojardquo he said referring to wife Pooja Shetty the media and entertainment tycoon ldquoIt was her forum which had organised it and shersquod come up with the ideardquo he said NiceShobhaarsquos broodWe love family portraits especially those of big happy families and by any standards this one featuring author columnist Shobhaa De and her brood taken on her birthday last week at SoBorsquos latest eatery Doppio is one for the albumsThere are many things to admire the prolific Ms De for but top of our list is that she is mother hen to six busy and talented children ldquoThe kids are going to throttle me for thisrdquo she laughed good naturedly when we asked her to tell us what each was doing but she gave it a shot neverthelessSo from left to right without further ado Shobhaarsquos brood Radhika De writer painter sculptor living in Bangalore Aditya Kilachand developer of luxury villas in and around Alibag Anandita De working with online art auction house Astaguru Arundhati De working in the luxury brands industry and soon to be married next month and Dr Pramod Raju solar and wind energy entrepreneur with wife Avantika with the inimitable ShobhaaldquoThe only one missing is Rana De who isnrsquot in the picturerdquo said Shobhaa ldquoHe lives in Singapore and works with a global advertising agency And as for husband Dilip hersquos the one who shot the picturerdquoElegant nuptialsBacktoback deadlines prevented us from attending the Aishwarya NairNishant Mathew nuptials last week but by all accounts the arrangements were the talk of the town ldquoBoth events the party at the Taj Apollo Bunder and the reception at the Leela took onersquos breath awaySnapshots from the weddingThe first at the Taj had been designed by architect Smita Khanna daughter of finance wiz Sid Khanna who happens to be married into the groomrsquos family Said a source ldquoShersquod gone for a tropical look and the entire room had been done up with beautiful foliage with a dramatic bar in the centre The second occasion on the lawns of the Leela had been done by Delhibased scenographer Sumant Jayakrishnan and featured chandeliers flower cut outs and installationsrdquoAs for the guests given that the NairsLaxmi and Vivek are a preternaturally social and popular couple the guest list ran into hundreds with Maharajahs ministers and mega stars flying in from all corners of the country We ourselves had promised a lsquoflying inrsquo Maharajah that we would meet him at the nuptials Oh well next time thenSixty rolling stonesFor lovers of nostalgia this appears to be the ultimate fiesta Delhibased ace photographer Pablo Bartholomew plans to bring in his 60th birthday with an exhibition titled lsquo6060rsquo a series of black and white portraits of some of Indiarsquos most eminent flower children back in the day when they were more or less rolling stones whorsquod gathered no moss The list includes actresses Smita Patil Nafisa Ali Sodhi and Soni Razdan activist film maker Anand Patwardhan actor Tinnu Anand and directors Ketan Mehta and Mira NairA poster of the showldquoI refuse to believe Pablo when he says this is possibly the last resurrection of his early archiverdquo said the photographerrsquos friend author Rosalyn DrsquoMello Handbook for My Lover ldquobut this is a really special body of work of artists filmmakers poets when they were seemingly still establishing themselvesrdquo she said adding ldquoIt reminds me of that lovely line my friend Partho P Chakrabarty once came up with lsquoWe will all be young and beautiful oncersquordquo The exhibition opens at Sakshi at the end of the monthPhilanthropy at its bestSaturday night witnessed yet another instance of philanthropy by the Rotary Club that international organisation of business and professional leaders committed to humanitarian causes This time it was an auction by its District 3140 whose governor Subhash Kulkarni had organised an auction by Saffron Art to raise money for various charitiesDinesh Vazirani and Manoj Israni PicTwitterIt was conducted by Saffron Artrsquos co founder Dinesh Vazirani and sponsored by Blue Cross Anand Rathi Securities and YES bank The event raised approximately R 19 crore and saw the brisk sale of some extremely well priced canvasses ldquoThree leading galleries two from Delhi and one from Mumbai donated canvassesrdquo said Blue Crossrsquo Manoj Israni whose philanthropic zeal had inspired the evening ldquoAnd itrsquos been a big successrdquo he said after the event which took place at the Four SeasonsIncidentally the bidders were witness to a delightful little cameo played out between Vazirani and his charming mother towards the end of the proceedings Urged on by her auctioneer son the elegant Padma Vazirani had shyly raised her hand for a donation from the back of the room But seizing the opportunity and taking advantage of familial comfort Dinesh instantly tripled the amount much to the delight of all ndashincluding his mother