Storm in a C-cup

True to its clueless reportage on India the Huffington Post has stirred up a hornetrsquos nest when it presented a list of lsquoTop Indian Designers 8 Fierce Leaders In The Fashion Industryrsquo and named Manish Malhotra Sabyasachi Mukherji Masaba Gupta Pernia Qureshi Nikhil Thampi Payal Singhal Tarun Tahiliani and Neeta LullaWherersquos Manish Arora asked one fashionista wherersquos Rohit Bal demanded another ldquoBased on what Number of showstoppers Annual turnover Profit Bloggers hits Designsrdquo thundered a thirdMasaba Gupta andPayal SinghalBut in our book the most elegant repose was Masaba Guptarsquos who eschewing her own glory shyly demanded ldquoWhy isnrsquot Anamika Khanna on itrdquoPernia Qureshi andNeeta LullaNikhil Thampi andTarun TahilianiManish Malhotra andSabyasachi MukherjiRIP Jagat MehtaWe were travelling when the distinguished Padma Bhushan Jagat Mehta diplomat and politician passed away early in March this yearFather to our friend Vikram the Chairman of Brookings India he was emblematic of an era when the best and brightest in the country opted for careers in government and brought to it their brilliance and sophistication Mehta who had been educated at Allahabad and Cambridge Universities possessed both these qualities in abundanceLate Jagat Mehta andVikram MehtaWe recall meeting him with our friend Bim Bissell in Delhi on many occasions and his erudition and wisdom were much sought after He had served as ambassador to China and Tanzania and then as Foreign Secretary from lsquo76lsquo79 and his conversations was laced with wit and anecdotes from his rich past An Associate at Harvard and Fellow at Woodrow Wilson Centre Washington he moved in the highest circles in America and counted amongst his personal friends the likes of Jackie KennedyHe leaves behind three sons a daughter many grandchildren and of course his highly regarded books on foreign policy which include Militarization in the Third World 1985 The March of Folly in Afghanistan 2002 and Negotiating for India 2006 RIP Jagat As India changes guard and recalibrates her relations with other nations your wisdom and experience will be sorely missedSOS on twitterWhat on earth is going on in the N Srinivasan household These tweets addressed to Lalit Modi from Avi Mukherjee partner of Srinivasanrsquos son Ashwin sound alarming to say the least lsquoLalitKModi We are trapped in ChennaiLalit Modi andAvi MukherjeeWe have 80 pics Of torture Lives are in danger Help AArsquo said one lsquoSatish Maneshinde is our strength in Bombay We have to move back therersquo said another and lsquoThe 10 heads of the Ravana need to be sliced off 1 by 1rsquo said a thirdSatish Maneshinde andN SrinivasanWhat do the 80 pics of torture allude to Who is the Ravana with 10 heads And above all what is Lalit Modi doing in all of this Will Satish Maneshinde enlighten us pleaseOverheated conspiracy theoriesSome of the industrialists who had been close to Arvind Kejriwal and now call him lsquodiabolicalrsquo might have just as likely been BJP plants Or so say conspiracy theorists amongst AAP supporters who wonder how the tide could turn so resolutely against their leader after his tryst with governance in DelhiArvind KejriwalAnother theory floating around is that a powerful and leading Delhi industrialist has funded Kejriwal to counter his business rivals As far as we are concerned both theories appear to be just more grist for the election fever rumour mills that are churning at full speed at the momentOf literary words and beardsIt was a gathering of some very distinguished Indian men of lettersor the usual suspectsdepending on which way you looked at it but last month when Consul General of India in New York Dnyaneshwar M Mulay kicked off lsquoMedia India 201415rsquo a monthly lecture series with a lecture by Suketu Mehta it saw a galaxy of hirsute lit luminaries in attendanceSalman Rushdie Suketu Mehta Tunku Varadarajan and Dnyaneshwar M MulayFor one sporting a promising stubble on his chin there was Mehta himself author of the best selling lsquoMaximum Cityrsquo who is currently working with the Arthur L Carter Journalism Institute New York UniversityModerating the discussion was Tunku Varadarajan Professor at the City University of New Yorkrsquos Graduate School of Journalism with a more realised thicket of hair on his chin and then there was the lit giant of them all Sir Salman Rushdie with his Lenninnesque goatee who it is reported was promptly addressed by overwhelmed guests erroneously as lsquoSir Rusdhiersquo but according to an onlooker was gracious enough not to chide them lsquounlike VS Naipaul who became apoplectic in India when people called him ldquoSir NaipaulrdquorsquoApparently the title goes with the first name in these matters Incidentally we donrsquot want to make a fetish of it but Sir Vidia also sports some celebrated facial fuzz Growing a beard is a career move if you want to be a lit giant obviouslyLove is wearing your sareeSay what you will about Sheila Dixit but Delhi misses the urbane and elegant MirandaHouse educated CM sorely For one her style so complemented the hyperstylish handloom and handwoven drawing rooms of Delhi in which the lsquowomen come and go talking of Mrs Gandhi and corsquoSheila Dixit centre with daughter LatikaBut poetry aside we can vouch for Dixitrsquos impeccable taste and graciousness personally And this picture taken with her daughter Latika after she assumed her new post as Governor of Kerela in which the two women are sporting traditional Kerela saris with their golden borders contrasting with their white mundu neryathum demonstrates quite irrefutably why Kejriwal and his muffler didnrsquot quite make it in Lutyenrsquos Delhi Whorsquos Sari now