Racing's IPL moment

Getting ready for night racing at the Race Course in Bombay Exciting Saturday and Sunday April 18 and 19 It was RWITCs silvermaned committee member and gaming tycoon Jaydev Mody sharing his excitement on a social networking site about the clubs latest whoopee races that started at 5 pm went on to around 930 pm and left punters and other merry makers enough time to have dinner and perhaps a bit of dancing under the starsIts very popular in places like Hong Kong said a racing insider In Mumbai it can be a game changer for the club So naturally Modys enthusiasm was met with many hurrahs from his pippip friends Great idea Fantastic effort Its party time went the response Faced perhaps with more enthusiasm than hed expected Mody struck a more circumspect toneJaydev ModyIts going to be a trial run but with all the ingredients Want to request all of you to be there Its not been easy and if it goes well which Im sure it will it will be a game changer for our club he posted laterRam ShroffWe plan to change the way horse racing is conducted in India and also make the racecourse a destination for Mumbaikars and visitors alike by creating worldclass infrastructure around night racing said Ram Shroff RWITC member and twin of Mumbai Congress politician Raj Shroff whom Mody credited for the ideas conception and executionSo its going to be party time at the RWITC balmy evenings something cool in ones hand and the thunder of hooves in the background Why does it feel like racings just met its IPL momentMoon Moons styleThough we have not met her for long too long as tends to happen in Mumbai we were saddened to hear of the destruction wrought by the fire on actress and TMC politician Moon Moon Sens apartments on Monday The blaze which started in the early am is said to have gutted three rooms mercifully sparing Sen and her daughter actress Riya SenMoon Moon Sen with Raima and RiyaWhen we saw pictures of the accident in the papers we could see the extent of the damage But even in the debris and destruction even amidst the upturned sofas and shredded carpets we could recognize Sens distinctive and glamorous style There had been a time when we lived in Kolkata when her darkly grand and exquisitely decorated home there had been at the epicentre of Kolkatas social lifeGayatri Devi the late Rajmata of Jaipur andHugh GrantMoon Moon no one called her just Moon for short the daughter of one of Bengals most iconic actresses Suchitra Sen was married to Bharat Dev Varma aka Habi from the Royal Cooch Behar family itself a repository of considerable glam To add to this heady mix Habis masi was none other than the legendary Ayesha the Rajmata of Jaipur celebrated internationally for her beauty and glamourThe couple was gregarious hospitable and very charming and their drawing room attracted royalty aristocrats polo players artists bankers and Hollywood stars We ran into a rambunctious Hugh Grant on many an evening there So you can understand why looking at the pictures of the fire singed rooms we were saddened and recalled other similar rooms where the party had once never endedWe hope the Sens are able to put this crisis behind them and those rooms can soon see days of laughter and roses againFancy proposalsYou can imagine how I jumped out of my seat It was Our Favourite Sobo Matron recounting her newest microtrauma this time at the Wasabi witness to many such in the pastI was seated at the window seat and when I looked out I saw a cluster of people and they had balloons and streamers and were carrying a sign that read Will You Marry Me said OFSMSo of course I thought Mr Snore and Bore was finally proposing to moi and going to make an honest woman of me but since hed dozed off into his Miso soup I looked around and saw there was this young couple diamond money and the girl was saying EEEE and waving her hands in the way that young women tend to do these days to show theyre excitedAnd I guessed that the boy had arrange to propose to his friend this way said OFSM Its become the big thing these days how you propose to your girl she said They are flying to a romantic spots picking scenic venues organising the whole surpriseshurprise champagne band baaja baraat so they can put it on a hashtag and send it out to everybody she saidWhy we enquired gently So that the girl can go EEEE and wave her hands said our favourite Sobo Matron waving her hands and saying EEEEThe end of an eraThe term has been over applied in many cases but those who knew her are not overstating things when they describe the passing of Sarla Birla wife of Birla patriarch and statesmanlike business leader Basant Kumar Birla as the passing of an eraSarla Birla with Basant Kumar BirlaNot only did she set so many standards within the family and community but she also founded and supported at least 45 vibrant educational institutions said the insider Born into a progressive home Sarla was the daughter of freedom fighter Brijlal Biyani daughterinlaw of the pioneering industrialist G D Birla and the grandmother of billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla But as she fulfilled the responsibilities that these roles called for she stood tall on her terms too The manner of her marrying B K Birla is indication of her feisty spirit itselfKumar Mangalam Birla Sarla Birlas grandsonShe was still a teenager when her father along with Mahatma Gandhi and Jamnalal Bajaj arranged to have her meet her future husband I was studying in Punes Fergusson College and I got a message that I have to go to Bombay to Birla House to see the boy she once said in an interview narrating how on her return when she was asked what she thought of the boy she replied There were 810 boys so I didnt know who was Mr B K Birla and insisted on another meet to see her future husbandA concept as radical as it was charming and which Gandhiji immediately seconded She was disciplined personally frugal to the point of asceticism and made it a point to keep up with her family friends and community till the last added the insider