Malavika’s Mumbaistan: Single and Savvy

When Rajdeep Sardesai, who recently interviewed the peerlessly cryptic old fox, and subsequently tried to gain it some traction by drawing attention to Patnaik’s single status, we were not surprised the wily politico handled it with his customary savvy.

Trust Odisha’s four-term incumbent CM Naveen Patnaik to become the poster boy for singlehood. We’d had the pleasure of knowing the 72-year-old, who is believed to be fighting the most difficult election of his career this month, during the early 1990s, when his sparse and ascetic Aurangzeb Road haveli had been the setting for at least twice-a-week soirees/salons for the likes of Koo Stark, Mick Jagger, the late Rajmata of Jaypore, and his own sister — the celebrated NYC-based author Gita Mehta. Though he’d lived alone, he had never struck us as being lonely. Brilliant and laid back even then, when he’d reigned for many decades as the toast of international café society, Patnaik, the son of the iconic strongman of Odisha, Biju Patnaik, for us had epitomised the best of the Single Life. An austere but comfortable existence, in an elegant but simple home, an eclectic circle of friends from near and far, and a world of books and ideas and travel and sparkling conversations, he was certainly one of the Capital’s most agreeable denizens and a dear friend. Which is why, when Rajdeep Sardesai, who recently interviewed the peerlessly cryptic old fox, and subsequently tried to gain it some traction by drawing attention to Patnaik’s single status, we were not surprised the wily politico handled it with his customary savvy. “What is it about single men/women that make them such successful politicians today?” Sardesai had tweeted, alluding to other singletons like PM Modi, Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, and CMs Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee. Now, though we do not subscribe to the popular belief that one’s marital status impacts one’s performance, there is certainly something to be said for the amount of valuable and free time that singlehood affords a professional in a demanding job.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik (HT File)

Rajdeep Sardesai

As always, Patnaik, whose legendary astuteness and tact had held him in good stead in the most sophisticated drawing rooms of New York and Paris, as well as the corridors of power in Bhubaneswar, used Sardesai’s delivery to score an easy point for himself. “Being single is no mantra for success, nor is it lonely,” he tweeted back. “Four-and-a-half crore people of Odisha are family for me.”

Game, set and match to Patnaik.

TRUELIES
An interesting aside to the case of the rapidly receding airline has emerged, since it went belly-up. According to sources close to the promoters, a sabotage of the airline is being alleged. The story is that a powerful politico has had it in for the airline and personally oversaw its demise, because he perceived it as a threat to the rival airline in which he had major interests. “Everyone in the business knows who the biggest beneficiary is. The airline is now getting aircraft, landing slots, international routes and trained staff,” said a source, citing the name of another private carrier. “He went out of his way to create a hostile environment, so that he could reap the benefits of its closure.” Whether this is a canard floated by the promoters of the airline, or in fact the truth, is hard to say as many such conspiracy theories are flying thick and fast: another that bears mentioning is that the same politico had it in for the now defunct airline’s founder, because of the company he kept: some of his closest friends were trenchant and outspoken critics of his politics.

TWEET TALK
When you quit a party based on issue of harassment by party workers, and then you join a party whose party workers harass women of the entire city. That is called being a politician.

-Tweeted by Pratik Sinha

A Bite of the Big Apple

(Left to right) Radhika Jones, Arianna Huffington and Anita Dongre.

It’s been quite a week for designer Anita Dongre. The entrepreneur who expanded her business with the launch of her maiden US store in New York a couple of years ago, is soon becoming India’s undisputed global fashion ambassador, from dressing the likes of Hillary Clinton and Kate Middleton to championing sustainability and traditional crafts. Recently, the designer who shuttles back and forth between her international and Indian business, hosted three of New York’s most powerful women, all super achiever media personalities in their own right, at her SoHo store. The line-up included Arianna Huffington, CEO, Thrive Global, and one of the most celebrated thought leaders of the age (her views of fast fashion, gender inequality and sleep are certainly worth hearing); Moira Forbes, EVP, Forbes Media; and Radhika Jones, the half-Indian Editor-in-Chief of Vanity Fair.

(Left to right) Ne-Yo and Anita Dongre.

“It means so much to see such incredible women support and wear my designs. Such a wonderful feeling when women support women,” Dongre had posted. But the week wasn’t done just yet and we are informed that just before flying back to Mumbai, Dongre also did a quick fitting for a completely different kind of icon, the American hip-hop sensation Ne-Yo, known for his chart-busting tracks like ‘Sexy Love’, who was dressed in a custom bandhi and kurta.