Make in India, lose en route

When we met our friend the Delhibased designer Rina Dhaka at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Byculla for Shaina NCs Banarasi Textiles Revival Movement in the presence of Chief Secretary Maharashtra mdash Shri Swadheen Kshatriya Minister of State for the Ministry of Textiles mdash Santosh Gangwar and Chandrakant Dada Patil amongst others she told us the trauma time shed faced in the past few days on account of negligent courier companiesRina Dhaka extreme left with Shruti Sancheti Shaina NC and others at the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City MuseumI remember when it was 475 degrees centigrade in June and feeling like an egg being cooked atop my head while I worked with a cluster of weavers over a haze of pink gold my collection of Banarasi saris for this exhibition mdash they came out so well that I was scared to touch their delicacy she saidChief Secretary Maharashtra Swadheen Kshatriya Minister of Textiles mdash Maharashtra Chandrakant Dada Patil Minister of Textiles Independent Charge Santosh Kumar Gangwar Shaina NC director of the museum Tasneem Mehta and actor Jackie Shroff at the inauguration of the Banarasi Textiles Revival MovementI gave in to the reluctant pressure of dispatch by courier and thats when my life turned upside down she said about the loss of these precious textiles by First Flight the courier companyShaina NC with Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at the showDespite my 100 calls unanswered emails and my teams ritual visits over 5 days to their office along with Shainas team having chased up in Mumbai mdash we have still not received any response from them It took 3 months to complete and a few minutes to lose them she saidTo her credit though because she had followed SOP and worked on 10 extra outfits she could keep up her side of commitment to the enterprise But Minister Saheb whats the use of Make in India if efforts are sabotaged by irresponsible courier companies in the endFire at the TableNews comes in that Colabas popular restaurant and eatery The Table had a fire incident on Saturday Patrons had to vacate the premises as the fire brigade and police was called in A lot of smoke had collected in the restaurant and it was hard to breathe without a maskGauri Devidayal and Jay YousufThe restaurant which is popular for its Sunday brunch remained closed thereafter and was not answering calls Owners Gauri Devidayal and husband Jay Yousuf who are on their annual vacation in America were also unreachable for more details We do hope the restaurant recovers soon to take its place in SoBos smorgasbord of epicurean delightsRIP Ajay MafatlalIt is with sadness that we note the passing of businessman Ajay Mafatlal who had been in college with us many years ago We hadnt been close in college and had only met sporadically after that but we had watched from a distance how the scion of an erstwhile corporate leader had lived a life of spunk and spine never giving in to challenges till the very lastAjay MafatlalOn the few occasions we had met him Ajay had been full of fantastic new business plans and had dismissed the well known internecine wranglings as not worthy of mention We hope that at least in his death people will afford him the dignity he deserves and in this the year of Caitlyn Jenners profound statement for transgenders people set aside their more spurious interest in his life and decisions Our condolences to the familyArchitecture in the political narrativeLike many others we are eagerly looking forward to the National Gallery of Modern Art series of talks events and exhibitions on contemporary architecture in India and South Asia slated for early next year cocurated by architect Rahul Mehrotra cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote and architecture critic Kaiwan MehtaRahul MehrotraAnd thats because Mehrotra Founder of RMA Architects professor of urban design and planning at Harvard University articulated the unease on recent trends in urban development many feel in an interview to Live Mint over the weekend I have no idea what a smart city means because this is a universal term that has no real value except for the people who are sloshing capital aroundThe problem with smart cities is that they are founded on capital and investment but dont consider the human being as part of this equation he said adding People say a smart city is one that uses technology to create connectivity and efficiencies So I can stand at a bus stop and know that the bus is going to arrive in 10 minutes and thatll save me 10 minutes but if its an inhuman city then Im not interested in saving those 10 minutesDilli gup shupOur friend the businessman who perennially has one leg in Delhi one in Mumbai and the rest of whats left on a Jet Air Business Class Cabin many miles up in the air was beside himself with excitement Its falling apart The centre cannot hold he said adding as Eliot once said and then gulped down his third Black LabelNot Eliot WB Yeats we wanted to say but we let it pass The two big satraps are pursuing their own agendas he said For some reason Mumbai businessmen think every hack has an inside track on Dilli gupshup as in Boss dilli me kya ho raha hain This time we let him tell usThe elder one and his son have taken control of the bureaucracy and the younger of the media and judiciary and the main guy cant do any thing about it he said once more adding as Dickens had said something is rotten in the state of Delhi Shakespeare we wanted to say but let it passAmerica callingA source called up to inform that Rohan Ellipses Talwar is eyeing in the international restaurant scene Though his initial preference was New York to open up a branch of his SoBo eatery apparently the Jewish lobby made it impossible for him to acquire a suitable venueRohan TalwarHe has now moved to LA and is having better luck we were told So following news of Ellipses new Bakery in Worli modelled on New Yorks Momofoku Milk Bar we expect more news soon of another Ellipses opening shop on the West coast of America