Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Fellow Travellers

It was an interesting group of passengers which found itself travelling on the same Delhi-Mumbai flight this Sunday

It was an interesting group of passengers which found itself travelling on the same Delhi-Mumbai flight this Sunday. For starters, there was NCP leader and MP from Baramati, Supriya Sule, who has to regularly make the schlep up and down; coincidentally, travelling on the same flight were also BJP MP from Godda (Jharkhand) Nishikant Dubey and national spokesperson of the BJP Syed Shahnawaz Hussain; that was not all though – former MP for Mumbai South and current president of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee, Milind Deora, also found himself traveling on the same flight – and if this did not make for strange fellow travellers, to cap it all, the plane happened to be captained by none other than Rajiv Pratap Rudy, BJP MP from Saran constituency in Bihar!

Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Supriya Sule, Nishikant Dubey and Milind Deora.

“We had a full gang on the plane,” said Sule the next day on her way to attend the Parliament. “Cutting across all party lines, but all family friends for decades! Of course, there are huge political differences between us. But personal relationships are kept separate,” said the daughter of one of India’s tallest leaders Sharad Pawar, who is said to have been tutored in the fine art of political statesmanship by the master himself.

What about BJP MP Rudy’s flight performance we enquired from the parliamentarian, known to be one of the most conscientious of her tribe. “It was superb,” was her unstinting response. This in the same week that her father had rapped the ruling regime for its alleged complicity in the Delhi communal carnage. “We felt totally safe!” she added.

See what we mean about learning the fine art of diplomacy and tact from the master himself?

Sangeeta Khanna

The High Priestess of Boho-Chic

Thursday will see celebrated jewellery designer Sangeeta Khanna exhibiting her unique creations at the ‘Boho Love Bazaar’, along with a select group, comprising Rhea Pillai and Radhika Goenka, amongst others. The Boho theme harks back to the eighties when fashion in India was epitomised by the likes of Zeenat Aman in a gentler, flowers-in-one’s-hair, and ‘Dum Maro Dum’ era. Khanna is a natural in this respect. Known as much for her stunning one-of-a-kind jewellery pieces as for her championing of healthy organic eating, compassion and a kinder, gentler approach to life, she, for instance, began solar cooking a full 15 years ago, when the the practice had been just a nascent gleam in the world’s eye. “I’ve been boiling potatoes as well as making bread in my solar cooker for the longest time now and everything in my house is sundried – from tomatoes to strawberries and even the mint,” she says. In Khanna’s world, we are informed there is no wastage – even the remaining water from a guest’s glass is recycled onto the plants, the half-roti leftover given to the crow, the lights and mains switched off overnight.

About her philosophy, Khanna says she is guided by a higher power. “Spirituality is all about day-to-day living. It is the essential nature of human beings to love,” says the high priestess of Boho-chic in Mumbai.

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What they say

“We all know that cow dung is very helpful. Likewise, when cow urine is sprayed, it purifies an area... I believe something similar could be done with ‘gaumutra’ and ‘gobar’ to cure coronavirus.”

BJP legislator in Assam, Suman Haripriya, yesterday

What they mean

When it comes to total bullshit, you could say that my tribe has a monopoly.

Ram Guha and Aatish Taseer. (Instagram )

A HEART IN NEW YORK

They are both known to be outspoken critics of India’s ruling dispensation: men who have earned the displeasure of the powers that be for their outspokenness. So this weekend, when historian Ram Guha found himself in New York for a few hours, no surprises that he would look up author Aatish Taseer, currently one of India’s most celebrated persona non grata and someone who is fighting tooth and nail to get his OCI status back – or that the two doughty political commentators would end up standing beside a statue of another Indian known to speak his mind without fear – MK Gandhi!

The two men were meant to have lunch on Sunday, but on hearing about the riots breaking out in Delhi, Guha had wanted to get back home as soon as possible. Since he had a long lay over, he’d gone into the city and the two had met at a book shop and then wandered through Union Square looking for a place to have coffee.

It had been totally by chance that the historian had asked Taseer if he’d known of the Gandhi statue in the area and that’s how the delightful photograph posted by Taseer on Instagram had happened.

“I think, though he would never say it, that he’s expressing a kind of solidarity, reaffirming my connection to India after all that has happened,” said Taseer, from an early morning in NYC, when we contacted him yesterday.

The last time the duo had met had been at publisher Sonny Mehta’s funeral. “We caught up with what was happening. It was cold and all the coffee shops were full. So we walked around and then I put him in a taxi and he went to Kennedy Airport,” said Taseer. Besides discussing the gut-wrenching news from back home, he says the two had spoken about their common love for Indian classical music. “He said he’s writing something about the Hansdhwani Raga,” said Taseer, adding, “It was a respite from all the talk of bad politics.”