Giving back in style

We raised Rs 11 lakh yesterday with the support of Karan Johar Pinky Reddy Poonam Bhagat Shroff Sanjay Arora Sidharth Malhotra and Abu said Sandeep Khosla about the event he hosted along with Abu Jani at Ashray the home for children affected with AIDS which featured Bolly stars Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra in Bandra on SaturdayThe boys as their close friends call the popular designer duo are legendary for their empathy and philanthropic actsAbout 14 years ago Abu and I decided that as God has been kind to us and helped us realise our dreams we wanted to do give back to society AIDS and HIV was the first choice says the ebullient Khosla the more extroverted of the pair Our search for the right organisation to support led us to Sara Dmello who was the head of CCDT which runs AshraySandeep Khosla Sidharth Malhotra Sara Dmello Varun Dhawan and Abu JaniSaturday evenings event was just another in the trajectory of the designers long commitment to the NGOThe launch of their book A Celebration of Style had raised almost R70 lakh through pledge cheques for the same cause a few years agoWe want to continue raising money for AIDSaffected children as they are innocent and abandoned and with the support of a home and education we can help them have a better life said KhoslaRemembering BhabhaIt was the whos who of Mumbai gathered to pay tribute to Jamshed Bhabha on his birth centenary said culture maven the noted Indian dance historian scholar and critic Sunil Kothari whose relentless circling of the cultural globe leaves us dizzyPheroza Godrej Saryu Doshi and Govind Nihalani at the Bhabha birth centenary tributeI met so many friends artists filmmakers theatre directors actors dancers And of course celebrities he gushed about the elegant gathering to pay homage to one of Mumbais noted cultural warriorsSunil KothariVijaya Mehta Saryu Doshi Shyam and Meera Benegal Alyque Padamsee he reeled off a litany of eminent names adding Im here for a twoday Manipuri residency in memory of Guru Bipin Singh and this evening Aditi Mangaldas and her troupe gave a superb Kathak performance And then he was off to another city another cultural extravaganzaKeeper of Mumbais cultural soulIt is said that more than its streets and bridges its parks and buildings a city is the sum of its people the men and women who give it its vitality and characterShirin SabavalaTo know New York City for example go to its fasttalking deli counter managers its zany West Village street performers and its grand Upper East Side hostesses to know Delhi an evening with a South Block babu or a Lutyens grandee would be a good startSimilarly Mumbais particular flavour resides in its people and prime amongst them are a handful of legendary women custodians of its cultural heritageShirin Sabavala is foremost amongst these A great beauty of her time the muse and wife of one of the countrys most revered artists the late Jahangir and a respected spiritualist and yoga teacher Shirins accomplishments are as celebrated as her unmistakable Garboesque husky voice and her ramrod straight demeanour And this weekend we had the pleasure of meeting the grande dame at a friends tea partyOne of the earliest devotees of the Bihar School of Yoga that centre of spiritual sagacity Shirin spoke of her life as a devotee with passion Almost forty years ago I happened to be looking for a good yoga teacher and some one suggested a Parsi lady teacher she said enunciating every vowel in her characteristic styleI said Good heavens Im not going to learn Yoga from a Parsi And here I am forty years later teaching it myself she said laughing throatily A city is known by its people And Mumbai is fortunate to have Shirin SabavalaSushi and moreSaturday evening saw us attend a preview of Yuuka the latest offering by Atul and Gayatri Ruia at the Palladium where the celebrated Chef Ting Yen of the Oishii Boston demonstrated his culinary flair Its a small group of us and we really hope you can make it the Ruias had said and given how rare such occasions are becoming we accepted with alacrityAtul and Gayatri RuiaTo sit with friends and break bread or sushi is a scarce pleasure these days given the ubiquity of mega events and public jamboreesAnd to be sure we were not disappointed Not only was the food spectacular Wasabi has some serious competition now but also the long meandering conversations on our table which ranged from psychology to design from architecture to lifes values were invigoratingRaghavendra Rathore andNeeta LullaAnd given the proximity of LFW next door the presence of leading designers like Neeta Lulla Raghavendra Rathore and Rohit Bal added to the evenings sparkleAnother Pratibha in the makingWord comes in that the snafu around this muchhyped and supposed tobe landmark luxury tower in midMumbai is really the outcome of a fallout between its two promotersThe building whose construction is way behind schedule due to a PIL filed against it was being constructed in the compound of a defunct mill by the scion of a onceleading textile family Apartments had been booked by some of the citys wealthiest denizensA wellknown builder who had an adjoining plot for which he had promised additional and muchneeded FSI had a nasty falling out with its promoter which led to the builder using his enormous clout with authorities to stall its completion said a sourceAnd given that its promoter has the reputation of being dodgy and recalcitrant in his financial dealings it looks like the Mumbai skyline is all set to welcome another Pratibha Ouch