Beautiful bride

From Borgo Egnazia the scene of the wedding of Googles Senior VicePresident and Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora and Thapar family scion Ayesha Thapar comes this delightful picture of the bride with her friends the Delhibased designers Rahul Khanna and Rohit GandhiAnd while reports of guests like Angelina Jolie Brad Pitt Sergey Brin Larry Page Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison are said to be joining in the festivities we are pretty sure that itrsquos the bride whorsquos going to steal the show with her mega glam good looksAyesha Thapar with Rahul Khanna and Rohit Gandhi rightMark Zuckerberg PicGetty Images andBrad Pitt and Angelina JolieEnter the heirHello India appears to have achieved a coup by getting Akash Ambani to give them his first interview and that too with what looks like a lavish photo spread The heir to the Reliance fortune who has lost a lot of weight comes across as quite comfortable in front of the cameras and his polished demeanour and shy humour is endearingAkash Ambani on the cover of HelloIn a short clip to promote the issue he is seen amongst other things kicking a ball around getting primed for the shoot and promoting his current project the Reliancersquos 4G rollout ldquoHopefully it comes out soon and hopefully everyone gets a Jio connectionrdquo he saysAnd now that this heir to Indiarsquos largest corporation has taken the unconventional route and debuted in a glossy lifestyle mag media watchers swear that this will be followed up with a more businessoriented profile in a pink dailyAlive and kickingAs a modern day thriller it checks all the boxes and could easily be the blueprint for a film Dashing TV head honcho who turns around the fortunes of a leading network meets young HRD professional at a party and falls in loveIndrani and Peter MukherjeaA few years down the line after wooing her in style and posing for some loveydovey pix together for the shutterbugs they get married both for the second time and decide to launch their own channel Amidst much hope and hype they do so hiring some highprofile journalists to front their ventureAnd then just when their story appears to be heading to the happily ever after scene it all goes pear shaped the channel runs into various snafus they have a public falling out with their top personnel their investors back off and finally they sell out and disappear from the scene for all practical purposesBut wait the story doesnrsquot end their they relocate to England where their daughter studies he buys a Harley Davidson tinkers with the idea of writing a memoir for Penguin no less she travels the world and they live the life of footloose rich and very much in love students even as periodic rumours of them returning to the world of TV surfaceBut does this picture of Indrani and Peter Mukherjea look like one of a couple thatrsquos inclined to roll up its shirtsleeves and burn the midnight oil once again in sweaty TV studios Yep we didnrsquot think so eitherMeeting His HolinessYesterday on the occasion of the Dalai Lamarsquos 78th birthday many of his admirers and followers posted pictures of themselves with the gentle master Chief amongst these were our choice for lsquohandsome is as handsome doesrsquo men the hunky photographer Samar Jodha the maverick rolling stone who gathers no moss and the equally hunky sarod maestro Ayaan Ali KhanDalai Lama with Samar JodhaWe have met the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people on three occasions and we have to admit that two out of these do not show us in a very good light on the first two much anticipated and highly looked forward to occasions we regret that we fell sound asleep at the Masterrsquos feet Yes gentle reader zzzzzDalai Lama with Ayaan Ali KhanInstead of listening to and cherishing each and every word that fell from the lips of such a great man who we so deeply admired something in his calm presence his deep rumbling voice interspersed with his hearty laughter and the sonorous chanting by Buddhist monks that had heralded his entrymade us very very sleepyldquoDonrsquot worry that doesnrsquot mean you are spiritually backwardrdquo said a kind friend ldquoGreat leaders are known to give the seeker exactly what they need at every stage of their lives Obviously you needed sleeprdquo Even as we heard this we knew that this was a charitable explanation and our friend was just indulging us with an excuse for our foolishnessIncidentally the Buddhist chanting that heralded his entry gives rise to another story which we have long dined out on one of the occasions had been a high powered corporate affair at the Taj While major captains of industry and their pretty wives waited for His Holiness to appear one of the wives turned to the other and remarked delightedly ldquoOh theyrsquore playing Buddhabar musicrdquo Of such things great anecdotes are madeMothers will be mothersMoms will be moms Even as media houses and the chatterati were parsing each word and syllable of Rajdeep Sardesairsquos emotional letter of resignation to TV 18 his mother Mumbairsquos feisty Nandini Sardesai eminent professor of Sociology ardent Censor board member and all round activist for good causes had emailed it to a small but significant number of friends on her email directoryRajdeep Sardesai andNandini SardesaildquoSuch a dignified farewell letter No bitternessjust looking at the great achievements of the team Welldone Rajdeep We are proud of yourdquo said Anil Dharker whereas others weighed in with ldquoThe loss is entirely ours for we have lost a reliable journalist who brought us the newsrdquoBut the cheerleading though welcome was hardly necessary with talent and credibility like theirs itrsquos pretty certain that Sardesai and wife the noted TV anchor Sagarika Ghose will land on their feet