Another Udta Punjab

Theres another Punjab thats flying high and its one that we Punjabis can take pride in That of the seven Punjabi bankers who rule the roost in Indias banking sector Each is a man of considerable power wealth and influence with all the trappings of his position and each has more or less made it on their own steamAnd so without much ado here they are Aditya Puri of HDFC Rana Kapoor of YES Bank Ramesh Sobti of IndusInd Bank Gunit Chaddha of Deutsche Bank Vishwavir Ahuja of Ratnakar Bank and Sanjay Nayar of KKR Jaspal Bindra of Standard CherteredSeven dashing bankers almost like Snow Whites seven dwarfs And if you consider that the Indian economy is Snow White then who is Bashful Doc Dopey Happy Sleepy Sneezy and Grumpy The jurys out on that oneJaspal BindraMountains out of molehillsldquoItrsquos all nonsense Such a mountain out of a molehillrdquo grumbles the ebullient Suhel Seth whose book launch at the LSE this week resulted in a considerable snafu when it was found that Vijay Mallya on Indiarsquos most wanted list at the moment had attended the event sharing the room with Indiarsquos current Consul General in London ldquoI tell yourdquo said SethSuhel Seth and Sri Sri Ravi ShankarItrsquos great publicity for your book we said to the man at the centre of it all ldquoDoesnrsquot harm salesrdquo ldquoForget thatrdquo he says already on to the next thing ldquoThis evening Irsquom talking to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at a function organized by the UK AOL at the Royal Albert Hall And itrsquos a sell out Every seat has been boughtrdquo he saysErr any beleaguered beer barrels attending we wanted to ask After all Sri Sri had been one of his spiritual mentors a few years ago we almost mentioned to Seth Could there be a possibility of another controversy Letrsquos wait for the media coverage after the talk we decided After all with Seth therersquos never a dull momentA paree in ChinaNews comes in that statuesque Mumbaibased singer star dancer and actress Suneeta Rao best known for her chart buster Paree Hoon Main is just back from a trip to China where she sang ghazals with a jazz oOctet featuring guitarist Hideaki Tokunaga ldquoWhat a night Looks like my music is finding new horizonsrdquo said Rao about her Chinese debut NiceNot without my bungalowThe corporate grapevine is agog with talk of this highly decorated and regarded head honcho of one of Indiarsquos leading multinational conglomeratesldquoEveryone knows that hersquos been running it for the last few decades more or less as a private fiefdomrdquo says an insider ldquoBut now that hersquos finally beyond the age when he can put off naming a successor and retiring gracefully the big question is whether he will relinquish his grand suburban company bungalow when he doesrdquo says the sourceldquoIn fact so attached is he to his abode that people are taking bets that he will transfer it on to his name and only then retirerdquo says the insider Of course itrsquos just a coincidence that the bungalow in question happens to be in the same neighbourhood where a lot of other grand bungalows and cottages are under siege at the momentWriting well is the best revengeThe art of hitting back in style was more or less invented by Nora Ephron 1941 ndash 2012 the American journalist essayist playwright screenwriter Silkwood When Harry Met Sally etc novelist producer director and blogger who when she discovered that her then husband Pulitzer prizewinning Carl Bernstein was having an affair with her best friend wrote Heartburn in 1983 which was hailed for its ability to turn heart achingly sad memories into stomaching achingly hilarious onesKaran Johar and left Nora Ephron PicAFPIn Heartburn Ephron had said of her fictitious husband Mark that he was ldquocapable of having sex with a Venetian blindrdquo And described his paramour as looking like a giraffe with ldquobig feetrdquo Something of this nature occurred recently when Karan Johar one of Bollywoodrsquos most highprofile and successful film personalities penned a column for a popular website entitled ldquoDear Trolls You donrsquot get me never willrdquoWriting with humour poignancy and a strident courage Johar began his diatribe against obnoxious netizens who greeted him each morning with ldquogay maod good morningrdquo and went on to give readers an account of his sometime humorous sometime harrowing tryst with themldquoIrsquove tried to figure out whatrsquos behind the nonstop trolling Irsquove discussed it with friends family even my therapist Why is it that every time I put up a pouting picture on Instagram Irsquom just called chakka gay Irsquom told ldquochup kar chyerdquo in the process revealing lsquoEveryone thinks I land in a chopper on top of my building and I have the most cushy existenceCould you understand that I might have the most messed up life myself That I am probably in bed lonely most nights sometimes even crying myself to sleep I acknowledge that I am materially privileged but I am not emotionally privileged There are reasons for me to be lonely and sad on most days and I am probably as sad as you the trollerrdquoAs we began to take a distressing situation and to present it with such humour flair and honesty as Ephron herself had once said lsquowriting well is the best revengersquo