So the past weekend Mumbai's young, not so young but restless nevertheless drove down to Nashik to attend the 8th Sula festival. With cafe Zoë, la Plage, etc. setting up stalls, music, and a lot of wine, the festival saw a record number of 15,000 people in attendance and offered a host of activities, like wine tasting, vineyard tours, grape stomping, a flea market and even bull riding! Though there was a good mix of international and Indian artists — like indie Rock band 'Young the Giant' — yesteryear maverick Lucky Ali is said to have stolen the show with the crowd humming along to all his hits from the 90s. Those found in the VIP section included, Yash Birla, Prahlad Kakkar (who multi tasked by running a biryani stall), Shazahn Padamsee, Ashok Kurien, Miss Malini and Anil Dharker.

Sameer Gadhia, lead vocalist of Young the Giant, with Rajeev Samant; (right) Anil Dharker

Both nights, the after parties were held at Sula founder Rajeev Samant's sprawling bungalow adjoining the vineyard and in keeping with Samant's philosophy of work hard party harder we hear his board meeting followed on the festival's heels with his top execs staying back.

For their sakes, we hope the hangovers weren't too bad!

Changing focus
“Ever since I can remember, I have always been fascinated by the paparazzi that chronicle the lives of the famous and infamous,” it was our friend, filmmaker and author Fahad Samar, whose first novel Scandal Point (Harper Collins) was a social satire about Bollywood and high society and whose second book, Flash Point, released at a glittering party attended by 150 people at the Palladium over the weekend, delves into the life of the young Kashmiri Zeeshan Haq, who comes to Mumbai and works as a red carpet photographer.