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Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Bipartisanism And Bonhomie
The two occasions we had met the former FM had been at the Deora household, as he’d been a close friend and confidante of the late Congress leader and Union Minister Murli Deora, despite their political loyalties.
In their tributes to him, so many have spoken of the late Arun Jaitley’s exceptional spirit of bipartisanism, which according to us, is a much-needed quality in today’s polarised times. The two occasions we had met the former FM had been at the Deora household, as he’d been a close friend and confidante of the late Congress leader and Union Minister Murli Deora, despite their political loyalties. And so, we asked Milind Deora to share his memories of the late BJP stalwart, which he did with alacrity. “I remember when I first got in to parliament in 2004, Arun Jaitley, who’d been a friend of my dad’s, had hosted a lunch in my honour at the Quality restaurant at Connaught Place, which I believe was one of his favourites. He was a big fan of typical Punjabi food and on the many occasions I visited his office, there would always be a dabba of delicious home food which he would offer me. When dad passed away, I remember the beautiful tribute he’d penned for him on the front page of a newspaper. And later, when the BMC named a chowk in his honour, it was Jaitely, as Finance Minister, who immediately messaged to say that he would like to come and inaugurate it.” But it is Milind’s next memory that truly establishes the Congressman’s description of his friend as ‘a man unafraid to wear his friendships on his sleeve even though they might have been across the political spectrum’. “I remember when I lost the election in 2014 (and thus my MP’s bungalow) and had run into him in Delhi, his first reaction was: “Why don’t you stay at my place?” Bipartisanism and a respect for people, regardless of their political affiliations. Increasingly, we have come to believe that this is the hallmark of a true political statesmen.
The Call of The Homeland
Last week, actor Dalip Tahil joined other prominent members of the Sindhi community like Saaz Agarwal (Editor, Sindh: Stories from a Vanished Homeland) and Pinky Anand (additional solicitor general, India), to take part in ‘Journey Through Sindh: A lost homeland’, a two-day seminar hosted by the Partition Museum at the Town Hall, Amritsar. Billed as ‘a cultural weekend with Sindhi music, food, literature and memories,’ Tahil says Soni Razdan, one of the trustees of the museum, had suggested his name and that he had participated as a tribute to his parents, the late Ghanshyam and Shanti Tahilramani, who, along with millions of others, had lost their homeland to Pakistan and had left Sindh to make their home in India, following the partition. “Let the violence of partition create the flower of peace and love. I plan to commit more time to this museum, to honour the sacrifices our parents made, so we could enjoy a better life,” he said of the moving experience.
Wanna’ Have Fun
Move over girls, it’s the boys who jus’ wanna’ have fun, if this photo of textile tycoon Gautam Singhania, ad film-maker Kailash Surendranath and designer Manoviraj Khosla is anything to go by. The three BFFs, whose friendship goes back decades (in fact Surendranath and Singhania live on the same road, a party-throwing distance from each other!), were in Mykonos, Greece, on what looks like a rambunctious boy’s getaway (recently) . But the all-stag, sans wives pictures, of the three party-hearties in various stages of revelry, invited the obvious question: “Where were the girls?”
We’re guessing girls jus’ (wisely) wanna’ stay home and chill.
Lively Discussion With Fashion’s Five
They’re supposed to be legends in their own ateliers who brook no competition. So, when Shefalee Vasudev, editor, The Voice of Fashion, managed to get Rohit Bal, Shahab Durazi, David Abraham, Wendell Rodricks and Rajesh Pratap Singh together for a lively panel discussion this weekend at Lakme Fashion Week, it was regarded as a coup. “They told me they had never been on a panel together in the last 20/25 years,” said Vasudev, one of the fashions world’s most respected personalities, when we spoke yesterday. “So it was a very esteemed panel and it was important to hold their respect and dignity and yet be able to ask them questions on subjects such as plagiarism, the tyrannies of sponsorship (or rather on how they are forced to have Bollywood showstoppers by the sponsors) and other issues, ” she said. And from all accounts, it had gone swimmingly well, with all five men speaking candidly in front of an engaged and knowledgeable audience. Vasudev had ended the chat with a rapid fire round, asking all five designers for a ‘yes or no’ answer to a question she would pose to each. “I asked David if an independent Indian fashion designers’ fund should be initiated, where younger designers got scholarships, he said yes. I asked Singh if sustainability was something that many brands and designers were piggybacking on without really committing to it, his response was yes. I asked Bal if he was offered an all-expenses paid bridal show in Dubai, would he take it and he said no. I asked Wendell what is the worst thing about Indian fashion and he talked about issues like innovation and copyright and how the processes could be streamlined,” recounted Vasudev, with enviable clarity, concluding with: “And I asked Shahab if Delhi and Bombay Fashion Week came together, would he pitch for its finale and he said no.”
But it was her query on the importance of PR and hype in fashion that was most illuminating. “Out of the five designers, only one said he employed the services of a full-time PR agency,” said Vasudev.
We’ll let you guess which one.
