Malavika’s Mumbaistan: The Wedding Planner

Erstwhile supermodel Mehr Jesia joined forces with Red Box, to enter the booming wedding planners space.

Whether the news of erstwhile supermodel Mehr Jesia joining forces with Red Box, to enter the booming wedding planners space, was timed to coincide with her former husband Arjun Rampal’s announcement on social media this week that his GF model Gabriella Demetriades was pregnant with their baby, is a matter of conjecture. News of both broke through the internet almost simultaneously creating their expected ripples with Rampal’s ‘Thank you baby for this baby’ post drawing much comment. As is known, the erstwhile ‘Golden couple’ who’d ushered in a certain rocker glam to Bollywood, had split last year after 20 years of marriage and two teenage daughters, emphasizing that they would maintain cordial and civil ties (“Our love for each other is forever intact and we shall always be there for each other,” they’d said in a joint statement). Kalyani Karandikar, part of the brother-sister duo behind Red Box, who had collaborated with Jesia over the years on fashion shows for the likes of Tarun Tahiliani and the IPL afterhours jamborees, could not stop praising the former Beauty Queen and face of the Vimal campaign, when we spoke to her in Singapore.

Mehr Jesia

Kalyani Karandikar

From showing up at 6am with sandwiches and coffee for her teammates, to being the strong and calming spirit in the run-up to a recent society wedding which was particularly challenging (“A tremendously complicated setup and only thanks to Mehr we got it done on time!!!”) we heard about Jesia’s collegiate qualities).

But how did the lady, who in a recent interview said she would love to plan a wedding by a lake in Kashmir or in one of Pondicherry’s timeless French colonial mansions, feel about her newest gig?

“Weddings are one of the most important milestones in our lives. I feel the possibilities are exciting and endless,” she said later in the afternoon. Clearly, Ms Jesia was being strong and calm.

TRUELIES

A Matter of Euphemisms

Even as one of the biggest banking shakeups in India’s financial world unspools, and dozens of senior management employees are said to be on the verge of receiving their pink slips, many of them, close trusted aides of the lender’s flamboyant founder, the grapevine is abuzz with stories of how the bank’s ‘operational risks’ were not handled with the required rectitude. “Dalal street is agog,” said our corporate insider authority friend. “It cannot stop talking about the fact that the head honcho appears to have been far more astute than some of his peers, who for some reason did not cover their tracks as well,” he said, in his insidious manner. Huh, we said. “Well, for all the ignominy in this case, one thing that can be said is that there is no ‘money trail’, which means some of the institution’s dodgiest transactions will never be unearthed.” How so, we said, trying to decipher the corporate insider authority’s labyrinth of euphemisms. “Well, some of the biggest loans are said to have been given to this particular group, one of the financial world’s most bullish successes, which also had above-board links with the bank and the, well, ‘consideration’ of 2-4% on these huge loans was parked abroad,” said the CIA, adding, “It means that the head honcho might well never be brought to book, or how to put it, happily, go free.” You mean he will literally go laughing all the way to the bank, we said to the CIA. “Exactly,” he said, adding, “Laughing all the way to the bank…”

Tweet Talk:

Would have been far more fun if Akshay Kumar had dressed up as Arnab and interviewed Vivek Oberoi dressed up as Modi.

-Tweeted by Ramesh Srivats

Bugging behaviour

“On my flt arrival in Mumbai, an elderly lady asked if she cud pls take a ride in the parked buggy. The official said “No. It is for the Minister’s wife”. The poor lady walked all the way,” tweeted former actress Simi Garewal yesterday.

Simi Garewal.

“We vote for them - so They can get VIP privileges that are denied to us voters. Is that fair?” she continued. The tweet appeared to strike a chord on social media and received much traction, with many asking Simi to “name and shame” the minister. Having landed many times at Mumbai airport’s large T2 terminal, we have often dreaded the long walk from the gate to the conveyor belt, so we sympathise with the plight of elderly passengers who are made to walk while, so-called VIPs are ushered swiftly in waiting buggys. But when others asked Simi why she hadn’t intervened in the situation, she was quick to respond, “FYI I DID protest strongly. How could I not?!😠 But they kept insisting ‘the buggy is only for Minister’s wife’. They hardly listened…their eyes were searching for the VIP wife,” she rued. Meanwhile, we are informed the poor old lady had disappeared among the passengers...