Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Beauty, Inspiration And Discovery

“With this, we are bringing the best of D’décor to south Mumbai,” said Simone Arora about the brunch she had hosted in her sumptuous store at the stately Amar Chand

“With this, we are bringing the best of D’décor to south Mumbai,” said Simone Arora about the brunch she had hosted in her sumptuous store at the stately Amar Chand Mansions, on one the city’s leafiest roads at Kala Ghoda, on Sunday afternoon. Billed as an ‘afternoon of beauty, inspiration and discovery’, it was to introduce designers and creative professionals to her new collection, housed on a separate floor, featuring specially-coordinated ensembles of fabric curated by her. As is known, Ajay Arora, Simone’s husband, is one of the moving spirits behind the world’s largest manufacturers of home fabrics. Over a high tea of crab pastries and truffle sandwiches catered by Sobo-favourite Harsha Kilachand and flutes of bubbly, a colourful collection of the city’s design crowd such as architect Hafiz Contractor; managing trustee of the Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum Tasneem Zakaria Mehta; designer Adarsh Gill; editor of an architecture and design-monthly Greg Foster; sailor and creator of bespoke home linen Ranjit Ahuja, jewellery designer Queenie Singh; artist Laila Khan and husband Farhan Furniturewallah were spotted in their Sunday best, admiring the treasure trove of curios, furniture and fabrics on display. “We decided to invite people from 12 noon onwards and keep it open till late evening,” said Simone, the perfect hostess, about the soiree, adding, “As you know, there are multiple brunches being held today across the city.” And though we were informed many guests had arrived on the dot of 12, even at 4.15pm, when we were leaving, car load of invitees were rolling up from various other venues to partake in the afternoon of beauty inspiration and discovery.

(From left) Ketan Dalal, Niranjan Hiranandani, Ajay Arora, Kamal Hiranandani, Simone Arora and Preeti Dalal. (HT Photo)

Full Throttle And Flash-Flash

(From left) Mario Testino , Hanut Singh and Malini Ramani

Word comes in that a gaggle of the Capital’s beautiful people attended jewellery designer Hanut Singh and Bandra-based filmmaker and all-round aesthete, erstwhile Delhi boy Mozez Singh’s soiree for the internationally-celebrated fashion photographer Mario Testino (who, along with his equally celebrated fellow lens-man Bruce Weber had faced sexual harassment accusations last year). “Mario is a dear friend and both Hanut and myself have been fans of his work for eons, so we decided to celebrate him by throwing a party for him at Hanut’s stunningly-gorgeous new home,” said Mozez. Testino had been in India shooting the Kumbh and sundry royals and tribes, and the hosts say they took the opportunity to rustle up a happy circle of their friends on the one evening he’d been free, which was Friday. The party, which lasted till the wee hours of the next morning, saw a sizeable representation of Delhi’s fashion czars and Czarinas like Rohit Bal; Tarun Tahiliani; Manish Arora; Raghvendra Rathore; Malini Ramani and Rakesh Thakore, along with its smart crowd of Ruheen Jaiswal; Niamat Bakshi; Hanut’s sister Devaki Singh; DLF heiress Pia Singh; hotelier Priya Paul; luxury maven Tikka Shatrujit Singh; Kashmir’s erstwhile royals Ritu and Ajatshatru and member of the late Rajiv Gandhi’s Camelot circle Romi Chopra. “It was a smart ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s, sophisticated, grown-up party with artists, writers, filmmakers, journalists, musicians, in Hanut Singh’s sumptuous West End house,” said leading public relations maven and social agent provocateur Nikhil Khanna. “Testino was in full throttle with his camera like a beacon – jumping flash-flash.”

Sweet Nothings

Vijay Mallya (AP File)

More on Vijay Mallya and his curious fixation with a local brand of chocolate which we had reported on these pages last week. The beleaguered liquor tycoon in London, desperately fighting extradition orders to India in the multi-million dollar bank default, which had consumed the public imagination and authorities alike, had taken to social media to thank friends who’d thoughtfully reunited him with a bar of what had been his favourite chocolate (Kingstar made in Ooty) during his growing up years. But it hadn’t ended there. The erstwhile King of Good Times, followed up his original tweet with a post over the weekend noting that “Kingstar Ooty should be pleased with my tweet of gratitude that sent out the…brand to 5.9 million of my Twitter followers”. This gratuitous crowing had not gone down well with some of them though. “No need of any gratitude with such chocolates. You just come and we all Indians will have kheer with extra malaiiis (sic),” went one response. “Banks have reached out to Kingstar for your loan money,” went another. While a third simply asked, “Are you on weed?”
Indeed! What’s with the 64-year-old’s obsession with the confectionary? A chocolate a day keeps the creditors at bay?

India’s Competitive Edge

Mansi Kirloskar speaking at MIT

The weekend saw a host of familiar Indian faces participating in the 9th Annual MIT India Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As is known, the private research university has seen a number of brilliant Indian students pass through its portals, including entrepreneur and sound engineer Amar Bose, famous for his eponymous superior sound systems, who had also taught there for 45 years, and award-winning architect and Padma Vibhushan recipient, Charles Correa. Created to spotlight the achievements of India globally, the conference has, over the years, brought together an eclectic bunch of high achievers and this year given the Indian Summer that the world appears to be celebrating, the theme of the seminar was ‘India’s Competitive Edge’. Guest speakers included actors Anupam Kher and Farhan Akhtar; chairman and managing director of Hindustan Unilever Sanjiv Mehta and Bangalore-based Gen Next entrepreneur Mansi Kirloskar; while former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly; ex-RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and politician Dr Subramanian Swamy delivered their keynote lectures through video conferencing. Incidentally, Akhtar appeared to be wearing his heart on his sleeve and making his newfound love an international affair. He was accompanied on his speaking gig by professed love-interest Indian singer, actress and anchor Shibani Dandekar.