Between the two Padamsees

We had a birdseye view at the private preview of Jatin Das ongoing exhibition Figures In Motion at a Mumbai gallery last week Das entered the gallery at 5 pm clad in a red kurta attending to the smallest detail For instance at the entrance to his show he requested that the board announcing Closed be changed to the more hospitable Preview the establishment did not have the said board and his fine eye spotted a floor that could do with another scrub which he requestedJatin Das with daughter Nandita outside Jehangir Art Gallery PicPradeep ChandraWanting to freshen up and change from the red kurta into a black one he left his daughter actress Nandita Das to take charge of things in his absence However while he was making his escape his first guest had arrived It was Alyque Padamsee on the dot at 6 pm You always come first Jatin greeted Alyque warmly and while they chatted about the work at hand a largish crowd of friends and admirers turned up many of whom wanted their pictures taken with himTake as many pictures as you like Jatin said to the photographers But dont ask me to pose I hate such photographs By now the hall was packed with the likes of Juhi Chawla and Pheroza Godrej who had both spent a long time studying the 83 canvases displayed Finally Akbar Padamsee showed up on his wheelchair and stayed almost till the end And in this manner bracketed between Mumbais two formidable Padamsees Das first showing in Mumbai after a hiatus of seven years got off to a good startAsia lover worldwideOur New Yorkbased friend the musician and artist Maura Moynihan is truly an Asia lover through and through The daughter of the late senator for NYC Patrick Moynihan shed spent her formative years in Delhi as a student at the American school when her father was posted as Ambassador to IndiaMaura Moynihan with friends and inset one of her canvasesA few years later Moynihan who was married to legendary photographer Richard Avedons son John who wrote a much lauded biography of the Dalai Lama discovered Nepal When wed met her at Robert De Niros trendy dig in Tribeca though her love for India was palpable Kathmandu appeared to have caught her fancyOver the past few years Moynihans passion for Thailand has surfaced Her social media posts are filled with her ardour for Bangkok and the charming ways of the Thais But this is not lip service This month Moynihans exhibition King of Kings in honour of Thailands late monarch His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej is on show in Bangkok and has been attracting appreciative commentsAs is known October is a very special month in the life of the Thais as it is the month when the royal cremation ceremony of the late king who died last October takes place Moynihans portraits of the shy philosopher king much loved by his people demonstrate a keen sense of artistry and command of strokes something that her mentor and employer in the 70s during her stint at the Factory Andy Warhol would have approvedFrom Turkey with loveWord comes in that actor Aamir Khan who is on a trip this week to Turkey has been overwhelmed by the response his visit has attracted I didnt know that in Turkey young people were watching my films They kept inviting me and since then I have said I would like to come here he said at a press conferenceAamir Khan and Sabri ErgenThe visit is the brainchild of outgoing Turkish Consul General in Mumbai Sabri Ergen who had been instrumental in persuading Khan to make the trip after hed met him three years ago at a screening of PK Last year Kiran Rao and their son had visited and loved the place Khan is said to have a sizeable following there with his Dangal being a boxoffice success recentlyCharity gala for a causeActor Randeep Hooda will be the guest of honour at the fifth instalment of designer Maheka Mirpuris annual charity gala and fundraiser in aid of the Tata Memorial Hospital this eveningAnil Kapoor Maheka Mirpuri and Vivek Oberoi at last yearrsquos galaAs is known her foundation MCan provides financial assistance to the underprivileged fighting head amp neck cancer at the hospital and towards this she has got art specially commissioned by Sejal Firodias art studio White Canvas to interpret the evenings butterfly Also going under the hammer are a brass and wood chess set fusion uncut diamond earrings with pearl tassels and many canvassesOver the past four years Mirpuris foundation has raised over Rs 25 crore towards the treatment of 400 patients and she says it is a drop in the ocean as much more is required to alleviate the huge costs of treatmentGuests expected to attend the charity gala are Pankaja Munde Smita Thackeray Divya Palat Meena and Suresh Raheja Eesha Koppikar Narang Alka and Surender Hiranandani Bhagyashree Laila Khan Furniturewala Kintu Bajaj Manali and Dilip Vengsarkar Sachin Joshi and Arzan Khambatta amongst othersRakshanda Khan will host the evenings proceedings which will comprise TMHs Dr Anil DCruz talking about the disease and its rapid spread specially amongst the Indian males along with my show in which 22 models will walk in my creations There will be a live musical performance followed by a Kathak dance performance said Mirpuri when we spoke to her on the eve of her show yesterdayWhose English is it anywayWe came across yet another instance of social media oneupmanship yesterday having to do with correcting a wellknown personalitys grammar Our views on grammar Nazis are unorthodox believing that correcting others ps and qs is pernickety as long as one gets the meaning across ki pharak paindaChetan BhagatOf course this is not only because we believe language is free for anyone to interpret like the AfroAmerican poets who bent English with such zest and got such good results but also because we are so poor at so many other languages ourselves that we cant afford to correct othersYesterday we chanced upon a tweet by author Chetan Bhagat that read Did you ever as an Indian saw the Taj as a Muslim monument as washingtonpost is saying its being neglected because it is Muslim Fellow hack Hartosh Singh Bal was quick to point out the authors grammatical error and responded with Lets please not saw the Taj ticking off one of the countrys bestselling English writersBy the time we went to print Bhagat had not responded or deleted his tweet But others had joined in the fun Sunil Alagh pointed out that Washington Post should stick to reporting about the multiple issues in USA and food critic Marryam Reshii tweeted What is all this seesaw business going on Cant an intellectual wrote a book in peace