Party hearties in Mumbai

Mumbais in the grips of a wedding season And whereas the Daswani wedding was celebrated in style over the weekend at different venues Amadeus Taj and Tote the grand KajiKochhar alliance which had been first announced on these pages is a 10day extravaganzaUnsurprisingly even in the midst of all this Mumbai still found time to party over the weekend with two separate rooftop parties on SundayFrom left Chanda Kochhar whose daughter Aarti is tying the knot with Aditya Kaji Ashish Raheja and Yash BirlaThe Belvedere RED party at the Four Seasons Aer proceedings went to Bono of U2rsquos charity where the likes of Ashish Raheja Yash Birla and Bandana Tewari were spotted in the lounge replete with red bottles and a slew of exotic models and the neighbouring Asilo at the Palladium which hosted Londonrsquos famous themed event lsquolove brunchrsquo which featured a cirque du soleil style party with acrobats and dancers that went on till midnight Itrsquos official the silly season is uponeth weRemembering Riyad and RohitTwo beautiful and talented young men both who died tragically young remembered poignantly by their loving siblings in the same weekRiyad Vinci Wadia andRohit KhoslalsquoMy brother Riyad forever and always 19 September 1967 30 November 2003rsquo wrote Roy Wadia journalist and AIDS activist on the death anniversary of his late sibling Riyad Vinci Wadia the Mumbai based Indian independent filmmaker known for his film Bomgay one of the first films based on a homosexual theme that fell on SundaylsquoThere was a star danced and under that was I bornrsquo quoted Delhibased aesthete Rohini Khosla from Shakespearersquos Much Ado About Nothing on the birthday of her brother the late designer Rohit Khosla one of the pioneers of Indiarsquos fashion industry whose birthday fell on SaturdayRiyad and Rohit Both exceptionally talented young men way ahead of their times in many ways epitomising the cities they lived and worked in who died too young Synchronicities come subtly sometimesBirkin up the wrong treeYour average Mumbai kitty party Twelve women each a pillar of society in her own right Each a legend in her own lunchtime all gathered at a prominent Sobo eatery The topic turns to bagsNot any bags of course Birkins That goatskinned lined creation of handmade enterprise and shrewd marketing which whispers lsquoone of the clubrsquo or lsquoone of the herdrsquo depending on which side of the privileged enclosure yoursquore inThe discussion at hand is about the various types crocodile lizard and ostrich When one striking woman with lips like Marilyn Monroe and eyes like Caligula says ldquoBirkins I canrsquot stand their shape I just gave one away to a friend Too many people carry themrdquoldquoYou gave away a bag costing almost R8 lakh to a friendrdquo says another member chopsticks mid air in a challenging tone ldquoEight lakh Then I bet it was a fakerdquo says the benevolent Birkingiver a bit flustered lsquoTrsquowas a gift babes And I donrsquot think the people who gave it would have spent so much And they live in Hong KongrdquoThe group titters politely as they attempt to digest this bit of information along with their Peking duck Cut to four months later Birkingiver is spotted carrying a Birkin Real or fake ldquoIt looked fakerdquo says one of the kitty members ldquoAnd when she saw me looking at itshe blushedrdquo And so it goes and so it goesNoted architect fetedA few decades ago he played as important a role in creating the Mumbai skyline as Charles Correa but that was also because IM Kadri was perceived to stand on the opposite ideological embankment to the Goaborn architect and so one inevitably got chosen for the cityrsquos important projects if the other didnrsquotIM Kadri on his 85th birthday with family and friendsAnd under their gaze the city as we know it took shape much the same way as it does now between Correarsquos soninlaw Rahul Mehrotra and who could easily be the inheritor of Kadrirsquos mantle Hafeez ContractorBut even as some of his most renowned buildings like the Nehru Centre the Shiv Sagar estate and Sahyadri stand testimony to his legacy and his unique vision much more tangible is the family that Kadri spawned a big loving one that includes son Rahul and daughterinlaw Shimul both noted architects sonsinlaw Yogi Mehra and Suniel Shetty a businessman and actor respectively and daughters Maana and Isha who have dedicated themselves to nurturing the NGO PRIDE that their late mother Vipula had createdAnd yesterday when the renowned architect whorsquod once served as Mumbairsquos Sheriff celebrated a milestone birthday they were all there around him along with a few of his oldest friends to bring it in ldquoHappy 85th Dadlove you and wish you many more years filled wit joy peace travels and laughter and loverdquo said Isha Mehra ldquoYou INSPIRE ME to LIVE LIFE KING SIZE With integrity discipline acceptance laughter and loverdquo We likeMalini in MalinildquoI attended the wedding of Juhi Pande and Michael Delfs in Goardquo says one of our favourite gals the effervescent Malini Agarwal aka Miss Malini of the blogs the tweets the TV show ldquoIt was the most beautiful warm and fuzzy wedding I have been to and I danced up a storm in my blue Malini Ramani creation which she made especially for me because she is a sweetheartrdquo she saidMalini AgarwalInterestingly though we have been in touch pretty regularly with the indefatigable digital diva we realised only now that we didnrsquot have each otherrsquos numbers So varied are the tools of communication these days that to paraphrase Elizabeth Barrett Browning its become lsquoHow do we contact thee by WhatsApp sms email or tweethelliprsquo