Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Ah Taj…

How does one of Mumbai’s most glamorous divas celebrate her 115th birthday? How else, but with a Black Tie Charity Ball featuring a red carpet, a showing of vintage

How does one of Mumbai’s most glamorous divas celebrate her 115th birthday? How else, but with a Black Tie Charity Ball featuring a red carpet, a showing of vintage automobiles, A showering of flower petals, a band playing live jazz, ballroom dancing and the finest, by way of a five-course meal featuring amongst other things white tender almond gazpacho; truffle olive caviar (paired with a Famille Hugel Gentil 2016); smoked avocados and artichokes (paired with Vincent Girardin Bourgogne Chardonnay 2016) and a slow-cooked lamb loin and périgord truffle duck and forest mushrooms (paired with Domaine Clarence Dillon Clarendelle 2013).
Yes, this Saturday night, the grand-old gal of Apollo Bunder, the Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, celebrated its 115th anniversary with unmatched levels of glitz and glamour, which saw the city’s best and brightest gather at its twin orbs of elegance, the Crystal room and Ball room, to mark the occasion. Hosted by Taljinder Singh, the area director of the group’s properties and the Palace’s current GM, in the presence of Puneet Chhatwal, MD an CEO of Indian Hotels, the evening opened with a champagne reception and an art preview, followed by a sit-down dinner and live auction of canvasses donated by the Delhi Art Gallery, and ended with a post dinner chocolate and cognac repast. We spotted industrialist-philanthropist and scion of the Bajaj family Niraj Bajaj with wife Minal; chairman of Dabur, Vivek Chand Burman, with wife Sweety, and their entrepreneur-son Mohit Burman, one of the owners of the King’s XI Punjab; society hostess and art collector Lubna Allana; businessman and leading light of the city’s consular corps Mahendra Sanghi with author-wife Manju; Delhi’s spirits tycoon Aman Dhall with wife and wine ambassador Madhulika Bhattacharya; head honchos KPMG’s Arun Kumar and KKR’s Sanjay Nayar; along with Bollywood producer Boney Kapoor and daughter-actress Jhanvi Kapoor amongst a host of other familiar faces. What’s best is that by the end of the evening, the art works on sale, which included canvasses by Amrita Shergill and MF Hussain, had raised over ₹2 crore for charity. That’s how one of Mumbai’s most glamorous divas celebrates her 115 birthday.

Puneet Chhatwal, MD&CEO IHCL with Janhvi Kapoor and Boney Kapoor. (HT Photo)

With Or Without U2?

With Or Without U2? (HT Photo)

It has been the subject of much discussion, rumour and speculation. Will India ever get to see a live performance by Paul David Hewson aka Bono, the Irish singer-songwriter, legend and lead vocalist of rock band U2? We are informed that there have been multiple attempts and negotiations with the iconic band in the past, but nothing seems to have worked out, perhaps as a consequence of the large costs associated in bringing it down. But there might just be some hope on that score now and India’s wait might finally be over. The Global Citizen Festival, organised by the charitable organisation known as the Global Poverty Project and curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, which saw thousands of Indian music lovers fill up BKC’s MMRDA grounds in 2016 for its Indian edition, has set its sights for a return to India in 2020, according to sources. The platform, which aims to fight extreme poverty through music, had brought in a large global contingent of music stars like Coldplay, Jay Z and Demi Lovato, over the years, and sources say, for the next edition, they have signed up U2. “They have just completed an edition in South Africa last week, so it is premature to talk about later editions at this stage. But yes, the festival in India had been a success, thanks to support received from the government and public. Talks to return to India are definitely on and this time with U2,” informs our source. Music lovers, cross your fingers and toes!

Separated at Birth?

What’s in a name? A lot, if people keep confusing you with someone else

Pran, Bollywood actor whose roles as a movie villain in films earned him a huge following (HT Photo)

Kamal Nath, Madhya Pradesh CM and Congress leader (HT Photo)

Of Girls, Poets and Goddesses

Three vivacious and accomplished women came together this Saturday evening, at the NCPA’s Experimental Theatre, to tell the story of the ninth century mystic poet Andal, known as the girl poet goddess, whose devotional verses to Lord Vishnu had leached into the soul of Tamil Nadu and are a living tradition there even today. The Mumbai-based Geeta Gopalakrishnan, impassioned philanthropist, honorary director of the Tata Medical Centre and author of My Grandmother’s Tweets, whose ancestral home in Hyderabad had reverberated with Andal’s verses, afforded the audience a unique personal narrative. Pune-based poet Priya Sarukkai Chabria, author of the award-winning translation of Andal’s complete works, ‘The Autobiography of a Goddess’, offered A scholarly perspective, and Chennai-based dancer-choreographer Anita Ratnam brought the poet’s works alive through a vibrant enactment of Andal through dance.

(From Left) Geeta Gopalakrishnan, Anita Ratnam and Priya Sarukkai Chabria at the perfomance of Andal. (HT Photo)

The women had met over the past eight months in Mumbai, honing and calibrating their approaches and insights into the poet’s life and words, and the result was there for all to see: an incredibly-layered mellifluous feast for the senses and the heart, of music, dance, poetry and song. What’s more, with hot pongal, shakkara pongal and filter coffee being served along with a silent garden auction of exquisite Kanchipuram Andal-inspired sarees by a master weaver, before the show, the evening, which saw the likes of Tata heavyweights like Geeta’s husband R Gopalakrishnan, RK Krishna Kumar, and Ishaat Hussain along with the NCPA’s Khushroo Suntook and financial wiz Pradip Shah in the audience and all proceeds pledged towards the expansion of the Tata Medical Center in Kolkata, was as high-minded and culturally-enriching as any you’d find… in Chennai!