Kaa to Alia's Mowgli

Yes Kangana was always meant to be on it She was really looking forward to it too but shes shooting in Delhi until the end of January and wasnt able to get even half a day off to come to Mumbai It was our friend and former colleague Rajiv Masand one of Indias best regarded TV film critics whose opposable thumbs are rumored to be as closely watched in Bollywood circles as the Khan Abcount or Katrinas Kaifs ring fingerWe had texted him to say that wed been delighted to see an excerpt of his Bollywood Roundtable Series featuring the years top actresses Tabu Priyanka Chopra Alia Bhatt and Parineeti Chopra but that Kangana Queen Ranauts absence was unfortunateRajiv Masand with Parineeti Chopra Tabu Priyanka Chopra and Alia BhattldquoWe were happy to fly her in and out just for an afternoon but her producer said he couldnt spare her for even half a day It was our loss entirely but eventually I think the show still worksrdquo said Rajeev of the show that was perhaps more revealing than any one had intendedBecause on watching it on Saturday night wed been struck by how very much Peecees arch remarks her dry quips delivered with narroweyed Hollywood siren insouciance heralded the beginning of a whole new avatar for the ambitious actress One that channeled Rekha all those clanging hints at being in a secret relationship and SRK the new found verbosity and psychobabbleUnfortunately set off against Alia Bhatts freshfaced Annie Hall endearing goofiness it evoked nothing so much as Kaa on the branch with young Mowgli How telling it is when mega stars each a diva and goddess in her own universe have to engage with each other unrehearsed in front a watchful hyper aware publicldquoNext week weve got the male actorsrdquo said MasandOh boyThe politician and tortoiseldquoWe just found a beautiful letter my dad wrote in 1976 to someone who lost Archie his or her pet tortoiserdquo said Mukul Deora about an exquisitely worded missive penned by his recently departed father the late Congress leader Murli Deora while he had been Leader of the Congress in the Greater Bombay Municipal CorporationA picture of Murli Deora with son Mukul from the family album andMukul DeoraThe letter was characteristic of Deoras gentle humor and impish charm He had penned it to Neela DSouza the wife of the then Municipal Commissioner whose pet tortoise Archie had been missing a situation that had prompted her to write a column in a newspaperThe letter addressed to Neela DSouzaMy dear Neela wrote the young politician This morning as I was being driven to office I saw a cluster of people on the seashore and wondered for a moment if all of them had gathered there after reading your heartrending Call for ArchiePerhaps the air in Bombay was too stifling after the salubrity in Delhi and he decided to give himself a brief holiday wrote Deora ending with a cheery he couldnt drown An Archimedes can neverldquoNo one alive can truly comprehend the concept of nonexistence Its just not possible Even when we have disposed of the worldly remains of a loved one and intellectually know he or she is dead and gone it is only by the continuous action of missing that person when we begin to realise that we will never hear their voice when we pick up that ringing phone never catch them taking a quick nap before a bridge game never bump into them stomping around in their bathrobe and slippers with their skinny Indian legs that you have inheritedldquoFor when they are gone you will notice how the hair on your toes the shape of your knockknees the way your eyes react to the blinding morning sun every little strange and insignificant idiosyncrasy that defines you is actually theirsAnd as you stare at old photos of them you slowly realise that they never really go but will always be a part of yourdquo said musician and putative film producer Mukul Deora about his recently departed dad And then he attached this photographGood Ol Boys and GirlsIt was a swathe of some of the cities best and brightest whod gathered as alumni of that bastion of SoBo establishment the Cathedral School Class over the weekend at the PalladiumAditya Garware Atul Ruia Mayank Tejura Chait Sinh amongst othersAnd to prove that even pillars of society let their hair down at class reunions were the likes of former Captain of the national Rugby team Chait Sinha media maven and philanthropist Maleeka Lala real estate tycoon Atul Ruia industrialist Aditya Garware philanthropist music impressario Tina Kapur and Ambaniinlaw Elina Meswani NiceBeyond Mangoes and TongasldquoIt is the culmination of 40 years of immersion in Indian literature first as a reader then as a reviewer and later on as an editor publisher and novelistrdquo said David Davidar publisher extraordinaire and the man who with the deft of his strong tennis playing forehand had set the Indian publishing industry in to motion way about his latest book A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces Extraordinary Short Stories from the 19th Century to the Present AlephDavid DavidarFor a man whod spent a lifetime collecting words Davidar had used his well The handsome inky blue tome is indeed an extraordinary collection of masterpieces hewn from that of stories that make up the great Ganga of Indian writingWhats best about this anthology is that though it salutes the hoary old masters of the Indian canon of Manto and Tagore with their familiar and exquisite stories of mangoes and tongas the book also carries the stories of many subsequent and outstanding writers We found Nisha Da Cunhas Old Cypress Kanishk Tharoors Elephant At Sea and Amrita Narayans Stolen particularly rivetingAt Rs 795 and with an excellent foreword by Davidar this is a treasure Nuff said Book your copy now