The extraordinary in the ordinary

ldquoOur shoots very much like our brand are about individuality and sticking your neck out in this increasingly homogenous world Both Monica and Poorna are symbolic of thatrdquo says Bungalow 8s statuesque creative head and owner the lissome Maithili Ahluwalia inheritor of cheek bones as formidable as her style lineage about a striking fashion shoot featuring Monica Wazir Ali and Poorna Jagannathan to showcase Geometricity a curated selection of garments jewellery interiors and food this Friday and Saturday in BandraMonica Wazir Ali and Poorna Jagannathanrsquos shoot for Bungalow 8ldquoIn keeping with our tradition of shooting striking women from Bandra this time we chose Poorna and Monica since they are both such strong and individualistic women in their own right and represent two completely different age groupsrdquo says Ahluwalia ldquoIn the past we have captured the likes of Kiran Rao and Adhuna Akhtar who did full justice to our brands identity and aesthetic at the timerdquo she addedThe shoot a series of edgy black and white portraits features the two women enacting the heroic narrative of flatmates living together in a modest and familiar Mumbai apartment It is heroic because unlike most fashion features it eschews the usual airbrushed photoshopped and overwrought styling that such a narrative would call forThe women in their billowing bohoMumbai dressing gowns bed heads and beads and baubles appear real their stories believable and their extraordinariness is set off by the ordinariness of their settings and the unspoken dignity of their lives As photo features go it stands head and shoulders above others of its ilk that too often get lost in the braggadocio of their cleverness and witldquoThe idea was conceived by Bungalow 8rsquos creative director Maithili Ahluwalia in collaboration with ELLE Editorinchief Aishwarya Subramanyam and styled by Fashion Editor Nidhi Jacobrdquo says a spokesperson for the storeldquoSince this yearrsquos theme is Black amp White GEOMETRICITY Poorna and Monica were the perfect fit Together they define ageless beauty and timeless elegance that are very integral elements of our label Being active Bandra residents we couldnrsquot think of a pair that was more idealrdquo says AhluwaliaNice But er what does lsquoactive Bandra residentsrsquo implyHollywood CallingWord comes in that Hollywood aspirant Siddhartha Mallya has landed himself a role in a Hollywood movie currently being shot in BangaloreSiddhartha MallyaldquoHe might not be able to attend his dadrsquos birthday celebration this eveningrdquo says a lady friend of the family about Vijay Mallyarsquos birthday party which was held last night at his Mumbai residenceldquoWe donrsquot know more about the film but it sounds bigrdquo she says A text to young Mallya about the movie did not elicit a response Perhaps he will announce it with a big splash soonUber woesOf course it is a coincidence but then if you like us believe that nothing in the world really is one the feature on Travis Kalanick the beleaguered founder of Uber in the latest issue of Vanity Fair is only fittingTitled lsquoMan and Uber Manrsquo and written by Kara Swisher it talks of the thirtysomething techie entrepreneurrsquos legion of international woes and setbacks and must have been written as these things gomonths before the incident in Delhi which has resulted in the cab service being banned in IndialsquoHe says he will not stop until he has won every city across the globe With international protest roiling Parisian cabbies have gone as far as slashing Uber carsrsquo tyres and smashing their windowsKalanick has his work cut out for him even as his ambitions are larger than everrsquo Premonitory And then someMerry Christmas from the QueenAnd to celebrate the honour bestowed on Pakistanborn British poet and artist Imtiaz Dharker who had once lived in Mumbai and has been awarded the Queenrsquos gold medal for poetry joining an illustrious roll call that includes WH Auden Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes we can think of nothing more apt than reproducing her poem on Mumbai in Christmas and Christmas in MumbaiImtiaz DharkerMumbai KissmissOf course Who is not knowing thisthat after Happy Diwali comes Merry KissmissImpossible to miss when allovermumbaiMatharpacady to A to Z Market rooftopsare dancing in chorusand alloverskyis fully full with paper starsHear Horns are telling at midnight on every streetHappy Happy Happy We know very wellto make good festival and Saint Santa isour honoured guest in Taj HotelWe are not forgettingAnd allovermumbai alloverskyis fully full with paper starsSee Tree is shining and snow cottonwool but looks good no Small child alsoface is shining licking icing thismust be what snow tastes likeunder the paper starsAnd allovermumbai alloverskyis fully full with paper stars Imtiaz Dharker Over the Moon Bloodaxe Books 2014International skulduggeryWith the latest installation in the prodigious battle for control of the Aman luxe hotel empire resulting in a set back for Russian oligarch Vladislav Doronin exfianceacute of supermodel Naomi Campbell and one of the key figures in the snafu it is no surprise that IPL founder architect the Londonbased Lalit Modi appears to be a happy manNaomi Campbell andLalit ModiWhy so Well a few months ago it came to light that Modi no slouch when it comes to international high rolling stakes himself had thrown his weight behind chairman Omar Amanat the son of Indian immigrants and Doroninrsquos arch rivals in his struggle for control of the groupAnd with its gathering storm of lsquoFraud intimidation threats evictions locked doors and supermodelsrsquo as described by Fortune ndashit makes the IPL ndashSrinivasan Modi shenanigans resemble a teddy bearrsquos picnic