Enter the statesman

Congratulations are due to Anand Mahindra the Mahindra group and family who after the devastating tragedy that they recently faced of losing their young scion the 32yearold Kaveesh Nath in a freak road accident in Goa have something to cheer about At the NDTV Business awards held last evening at the Hyatt Regency in Delhi not only was the Lifetime Achievement award given to the former Chairman of the Mahindra Group Keshub Mahindra current Chairman Anand was awarded the Business Leader of the Year award setting a new precedent where two people from the same family are recognised by prestigious awards in the same year From left Anand Mahindra Keshub Mahindra In a celebrity packed audience that saw the likes of Mallika Sreenivasan Pawan Munjal Chanda Kochhar Kumar Mangalam Birla and Venugopal Dhoot and with Chief Guest Montek Singh Ahluwalia doing the honours it was a gathering of stars u00a0 Kumar Mangalam Birla andu00a0Chanda Kochhar Suhel Seth who spoke to us from the hall even as the awards were underway said ldquoWith two generations of the Mahindras being thus recognised and their sustained contribution to the business community over decades the stage is set for Anand to assume leadership of the business community It could be called his Delhi coronation in many waysrdquo said the marketing guru adding ldquoGod knows today with the politicians of this country making loutish statements and asses of themselves we need credible statesman in other fieldsrdquo The NaMo effect As for Dilli the talking heads never rest Not only did Narendra Modi address the FICCI conference Monday morning but also the Think India meet The Capital seems to be in the putative PMrsquos thrall Of course not every one is dewy eyed u00a0 Nidhi Razdan and right Gujarat CM Narendra Modi Nidhi Razdan the popular TV anchor posted on her timeline ldquoToo much mabahen in Modirsquos speechrdquo Followed by ldquoTimes Now Modi address to FICCI laced with humour satire and a roadmap his informal bestrdquo Clearly I have no sense of humour Luminous beauty a gentle considered approach to anchoring and a dry sense of humour We like Ah Taj Therersquos a lot going on behind the scenes at the Taj group Not only has Indiarsquos premier hotel chain had to come to terms with the change of guard at Bombay House following the stepping down of the charismatic Ratan Tata but in a couple of months from now RK Krishna Kumar managing director of the Indian Hotels Company Limited since 1997 is due to retire too RK Krishna Kumar His going will leave a huge vacuum at the top given that he steered the company through some of its most challenging times Whereas much speculation on his successor is rife this diarist has learnt from credible sources that the person slated to take over is from within the group and is a relatively younger man known to be a protege the legendary KK himself If this were not enough to bring on sleepless nights and much toing and froing amongst its top executives the lease that comes up for renewal for its prestigious New Delhi Taj Mansingh still hangs by the wire Our sources say that every other hotel chain is trying its darndest to outbid the occupant and that the NDMC has many contenders Time to take a break and sign up for one of their own summer getaways we think Two women Internationally celebrated Jazz artist and Andy Warhol favourite Asha Puthli and Padma Vibhushan Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay whose birth centenary we are celebrating this year seems to have little in common but think again Not only were they closely related but shared a deep and enduring bond u00a0 Asha Puthli andu00a0Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay ldquoOur families were very closely knit and we were connected through two marriages on my motherrsquos side and Kamalakka Kamaldevi considered my dad her younger brotherrdquo ldquoTwo of my momrsquos sisters married Kamalakkarsquos older sisterrsquos sons their mother died in child birth and Kamladeviji raised both her son Ram Bappa and her sisterrsquos sonsrdquo says the songstress ldquoAll my cousins used to get terribly nervous when she came over and during family functions would tell me that I was the only one she really care for and I know that is true because she always gave me her beautiful temple saris and fabulous rings and I have still kept some of the things she gave me including her autobiography which she inscribed with lsquoTo my favourite niecersquo She was straightforward intense and serious with most people but whenever I walked into the room she would light up The original lsquoDevil is loosersquo and the iconic Indian cultural doyenne who would have thunk it Dubai Times Itrsquos not only Indians within the country whorsquore kicking up their heels Word has come in of the high flying Dubai based Vaswanis Sunil and Rita who celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary over three days of lavish revelry and non stop partying two of them at the Atlantis last weekend u00a0 Akon andu00a0Lionel Richie And whereas many guests had flown down from all over the world including Lakshmi Mittal cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev and the Pali Hill glam brigade of Poonam Dhillon and Manish Malhotra it was the presence of two of pop musicrsquos biggest names who attracted all the attention According to an insider the grand finale included performances by Akon and Lionel Richie ldquoThe previous evening had a lsquoSufirsquo theme and Rahat Khan performed to great applauserdquo said our source ldquoAnd of course on the third night the two biggies were rolled outrdquo Incidentally though Dubaibased for many years the Vaswanis hail from Lagos and have been embroiled in some high profile economic offences which include duping a man to the tune of 16 billionu00a0