What made Birla scion Ananya Birla veer to micro finance?

Ananya BirlaWe couldnrsquot make it to Birla scion Ananya Birlarsquos launch of Curo Carte her global ecommerce platform said to offer rare handmade high quality high end luxury products but we were curious about what had led the young entrepreneur to veer in a direction so seemingly different from her earlier venture in micro finance to empower the disenfranchisedI havenrsquot really changed directions I like to think of it as broadening my horizons I have always been passionate about travel and design and wanted to bring redefined luxury to peoplersquos livesrdquo says the Oxford alumnus known as a chess player of consequenceHer latest venture which she conceptualised while travelling she believes is lsquonew age design put together with handmade talent can create magic As for chess does she play with her parents And who is a better player between the two Whenever I get the time I like to unwind at home with my family and friends We usually play cards and board games says the young lady tactfully side stepping the questionPar for the courseOne of the collateral damages of vote bank politics is the need to appease the multitudes The rich and powerful may sup with you at your home but any politician worth his ambition knows that he has to get voted in again What this has to do with the cityrsquos jewel its race course which sits like an emerald at the very entrance of South Mumbai itself an antique in a changing cityscape is not hard to imagineVivek JainThe racecourse one of the last remnants of the citys beauty is said to be under siege Now that he has won the election uncontested as we had first reported a week ago we wanted to know how RWITC Chairman Vivek Jain was planning to protect it from alleged interestsldquoWith its enviable 226 acres in the heart of South Mumbai the Mahalaxmi race course has been often been the target of builders and the Governmentrdquo said Jain We successfully staved off a bid by a well known builder to convert parts of the racecourse into a five star hotel etc he said adding More recently the MMRDA has requisitioned 3 acres of the propertyAs for political agendas Jain did not mince words We are aware of Shiv Senarsquos intentions to make a garden theme park at the centre of the racecourse and of its desire to shift the racecourse to Navi Mumbai I had the occasion to meet both Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya some months ago and impressed upon him that such a move would kill the sportrdquo says JainAnd what of the elitist tag that the sport of racing has earned thus making it a soft target we asked Every city needs recreation grounds and we are the only club in the city on leased land that is truly open to Mumbaikars except during racing hours We maintain a public park have equestrian sports and the centre is used as an open playground for all sport We plan to convince the Sena and the State that the century old racecourse must stay as it is for the good of the city he says IndeedAbsolutely fabulousldquoThe six colours of the pride flag have different meanings and these colours are present on the bottlerdquo says artist Sharmistha Ray who was part of last eveningrsquos introduction to Absolut Colors ndash the brandrsquos latest limited edition release dedicated to the LGBT community which was inspired by artist Gilbert Baker creator of the Pride FlagSharmistha RayldquoThe company was looking to decode the six colours of the gay pride flag through six selected artistsrdquo she said ldquoEach artist was presented a chance to create an expression around the theme for the eveningrdquo Ray who had lived in New York before moving back to India was born in Kolkata and grew up in Kuwait before the Gulf War rendered her family apart She also has a light installation called ldquoIn Search of Rainbowsrdquo in her solo show at the end of the month She was unavailable for comment on the quality of the vodka served at the time of going to pressThe wedding plannerThe daughter of filmmaker Basu Bhattacharya and writer Rinki and granddaughter of legendary filmmaker Bimal Roy Chimoo Acharya whose backdrop for the ongoing wedding special of an international fashion magazine in Dubai has won praise grew up in Mumbai where she studied interior design at SNDT UniversityChimoo Acharya in white and her teamMarriage took her to Dubai where she decided to go back to her designing and started her company Encore in 2001 event managing mammoth Bollywood concerts for a start this included driving singer Shaan into the stadium in her Mercedes coupe once to make a grand entryRohit Bal at the bridal extravaganza at DubaiShe went on to diversify into corporate events for multinational banks and weddings for Dubairsquos rich and famous amongst the Indian and Pakistani communities there Acharya had also been in Montreux Switzerland where she designed the wedding of a Dubaibased Punjabi in the hallowed portals of the fabled Montreux Palace Hotel on the shores of Lake GenevaShe works with a German collaborator an Italian florist and a team of dedicated Filipinos who she says are far more hardworking than Indians Come December and Acharya and her team will be in Mumbai where they will undertake their first high society wedding in India The big fat Indian wedding might just have got bigger