Nikesh’s Next Move

By any measure, Nikesh Arora is one of India Inc’s blue-eyed boys; not many professionals have achieved his global success or have risen so rapidly up the corporate ladders of international companies like Arora

By any measure, Nikesh Arora is one of India Inc’s blue-eyed boys; not many professionals have achieved his global success or have risen so rapidly up the corporate ladders of international companies like Arora, who at various stages of his career with Google and Softbank, was said to be one of the world’s highest paid executives. He features prominently along with the likes of Sundar Pichai of Google, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Ajay Banga of MasterCard and Indra Nooyi – the former honcho of PepsiCo – as one of India’s most successful corporate czars. Arora is currently the CEO of Palo Alto Networks, a large cyber security firm based in California, where he resides with his wife, the attractive Delhi heiress Ayesha Thapar, and their kids. And we hear there’s lots cooking with the couple, who are planning their next venture as inceptors of a new casual Indian restaurant called Ettan in Palo Alto, not far from their home.

Nikesh Arora

Chef Srijith Gopinathan

Sources say that they have managed a coup and signed on Chef Srijith Gopinathan, the two Michelin-starred executive chef of the Taj Campton Place Hotel in San Francisco, who is the only Indian to have been awarded the coveted two stars, apart from Gaggan Anand. “The restaurant will open in January and Srijith has been in talks with the couple for almost a year and has been made a partner in the venture. But he will also keep his role with the Taj Hotel,” informs our source.

TWEET TALK

Those days: Chee! The government has not fulfilled a single promise in their manifesto.

These days: Ayyo! The government is fulfilling all the promises in their manifesto.

-Tweeted by Ramesh Srivats

Wendell Rodricks in his hand-woven sherwani.

Cruising In Style

The past few weeks have seen Goa-based fashion designer and heritage revivalist Wendell Rodricks embark on one of his frequent voyages abroad, along with long-term partner Frenchman Jerome Marrel. The two men, both impassioned foodies, aesthetes and travellers, have signed on for a luxury cruise through the picturesque ports of Vietnam, Hong Kong and Manila. Rodricks, an avid social media buff, has been posting vivid illustrations of their experiences, which have included gourmet meals prepared by acclaimed chefs on-board, Karaoke sessions and helicopter rides. But the one that caught our eye is this picture of the designer looking resplendent in a golden hand-woven sherwani. “The entire cruise ship is in awe of (it),” said Rodricks in the accompanying text.

We’re not surprised.

Asha Puthli. (Fernando Salgado)

Portrait of a Diva

She had defied all odds when in the seventies. As a young girl from Mumbai, she’d carved a name for herself internationally, eliciting accolades from some of America’s most-celebrated music critics, who termed her singing “extraordinary” and her third solo album, The Devil is Loose, “a masterpiece of snakey, spaced-out soul and pre-mainstream disco”. And now it appears that the singer-songwriter, producer and actress, Asha Puthli – the girl from a cultured and well-heeled Mumbai clan, who went to study dance with Martha Graham and ended up as a card-holding member of NYC’s cool set – appears to be doing it all over again.

This week, Puthli, who divides her time between USA and India, posted a couple of stunning portraits of herself, shot by Fernando Salgado, on her social media timeline, asking her friends and fans for their advice on what would look best on her new album cover, black and white or colour.

“Which do you prefer – hand or no hand? Love your input. Thanks,” she’d said.

The pictures featured Puthli at her steaming glamazon best, every inch the diva who’d been photographed by Andy Warhol, celebrated by the Studio 54 crowd and who’d been the alleged inspiration for Donna Summers.

And going by the adulatory response her portraits elicited, it appears that the 74-year-old blues, pop, rock, soul, funk, disco and techno artist, whose music is celebrated as a cult sensation across Europe and who is witnessing a WIDER revival of interest in her body of work thanks to the Internet, just might have a second, even more successful, career all over again.

And when you consider that it’s 50 years later, and that at 74 she’s not only looking like a million bucks but that she’s using social media effectively and creatively to her advantage, it’s no surprise that one of the responses to her latest career revival is ‘The Devil is Loose.. Again.’