If it's Monday, it must be St Moritz

The latest trend of travelling plutocrats is ski trips en famille to European ski resorts like St Moritz Chamonix and Courchevel The kids learn an international sport the men get a good reason to glug single malts and cognacs and the wives get to show off their latest line of fur fashion Whatrsquos best is that these places serve as good markers to differentiate the men from the boysAfter all anyone can afford holidays in St Tropez and Paris But for the true blue conspicuous consumer what can compare with the thrill of hotels with room rates beginning at a 1000 Euros a night and luxury stores which sell at 50 per cent more than anywhere elsePinky and Sanjay ReddyPioneers of this trend are the likes of Mukesh and Nita Ambani with their family and friends Pinky and Sanjay Reddy with kids and Namrata Baruah and Vikram Shroff amongst others And so if there are some clouds on some horizons in Mumbai these days itrsquos because it hasnrsquot snowed in Chamonix and the ski slopes are barren and bareChina GirlPhilistines and other Mumbaikars might be excused for thinking that former ambassador Nirupama Raorsquos talk on China yesterday was about our growling neighbour After all Rao has been at the very height of international diplomacy and her geopolitical views are highly sought afterNirupama RaoBut no Rao in fact described by a friend as a ldquorenaissance womanrdquo was enlightening a select audience on early nineteenth century lsquotransferwarersquo that is lsquochina with engravings of popular touristic or exotic scenes lsquotransferredrsquo on to its surface and coloured with cobaltrsquo which enjoyed considerable popularity in the European and North American marketsAs for more instances of Raorsquos renaissance qualities ldquoshe paints writes and I think even plays the guitarrdquo said the friend NiceNew Taj pops upWord comes in that there is a new Taj in town The much delayed project of the Taj and GVK Grouprsquos The Taj Santacruz has officially been announced Located off the Western Express Highway next to the airport the property will be branded as a luxury destination and the fourth group hotel in MumbaiThe Taj Santacruz the Taj and GVK Grouprsquos latest offeringldquoPankaj Sampat who spent seven years with the Taj President Hotel in Cuffe Parade will be the General Manager of the new propertyrdquo said sourcesKareena and Saif Ali KhanThe property is also said to offer two large suites that occupy the top floor of the building a spacious spa and new culinary options in the form of the multicuisine coffee shop Tiqri and French and Italian cuisine lsquoRivearsquo but a variant of The Golden Dragon is yet to be completedKatrina Kaif and Ranbir KapoorldquoIt is the new jewel in the Taj crownrdquo said Farhat Jamal Senior Vice President Operations West India ldquoan oasis for business and leisure travellers alikerdquo Does this mean the Bolly stars like Ranbir and Kat and Kareena and Saif will not descend on the Wasabi any more Watch this spacePankaj Sampat and Farhat JamalThe Soulful SeekerWe had been seeing early blossoming of it on social network but the full impact of poet Punam Chadha Josephrsquos debut book of poems The soulful seeker Om Books dawned on us when walked into her starstudded multi disciplinary launch at the Taj Landrsquos end on Tuesday nightKriti Sanon Prasoon Joshi and Parineeti Chopra with Punam ChadhaJosephA warm and creative soul Punam happens to be the wife of Sabbas Joseph one third of the dynamic team that founded Wiz Craft Bollywoodrsquos goto entertainment conglomerateShe said she began scribbling little snatches of rhymed couplets as a response to emails from friends around the world and was soon lsquoinspired to write poems beyond just emailsrsquo With her familyrsquos encouragement she put them in a book It is a handsome book by any standards With a foreword by Shabana Azmi over a hundred poems along with charming illustrations by the poet herself and at the end of the evening the large and cheering audience composed of the likes of Kabir Bedi Anu Malik Parineeti Chopra Kriti Sanon Aditi Rao Hydari Tanvi Azmi Maria Goretti were seen enthusiastically purchasing copiesBut by far the piece de resistance of the evening was when Bedi employed his celebrated baritone to narrate Chadha Josephrsquos Letrsquos Rise a striking and powerful poem about the 2611 terror strikes in harmony with the fullthroated Vivienne Pocha and Merlin DrsquoSouza The first poem in the chapter lsquodespondency and despairrsquo it received a standing ovationStorm in a CcupOur Oolong teafavouring SoBo hostess friend was chortling away ldquoFire and brimstone babesrdquo she saidWhat on earth are you talking about we saidShe shot us a withering glance ldquoItrsquos the women babes They are crying blue murder nowrdquoWe said huhOur friend sighed monumentally and began ldquoRemember that top notch business club mdash the one where members are known to divide up into select men only women only groups which go on educative holidays abroadYees we saidldquoWell their women have just put their Jimmy Choos down quite resolutely ever since it was noticed that too many of their husbandsrsquo vacations were to Dubai Bangkok and places not particularly renowned for their educative faculties with stories of hanky panky coming to lightThe OTFSH sighed deeply ldquoSo no onersquos going anywhere without taking their wives nowAll such trips finitordquo she said dramatically Gosh we saidldquoYesrdquo said the OTFSH rolling her eyeballs ldquoMuch screaming and banging of expensive doors and calls to shrinks and soothsayersrdquo ldquoJust more collateral damage of rampant globalisation And itrsquos going to impact our economyrdquoThe economy We gasped How soldquoThink of all the extra tickets the husbands will be buying to take their wives alongrdquo chortled the OTFSH ldquoA first class airline bonanzardquo she declaredI think yoursquove been reading too much of The Economist is what we saidldquoBoy zara hot water jaldi lao pleaserdquo is what the OTFSH said