Bride without Bling Daughter of industrialist couple Mallika and Venu Srinivasan,Lakshmi Venu,26,who married Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthys son Rohan Murthy,28,this year,shunned bling at her wedding reception in Bangalore. She chose a simply designed indigo lehnga gown with an embroidered dupatta. A single diamond necklace and some bangles were all that the bride wore as accessories. An heiress as well as the vice-president (global business developement and strategy),in the holding company of her fathers TVS Motors,she could have easily been the predictable bride with designer wedding couture and heavy,South Indian gold jewellery. No,thank you,she said. Big is Big Ram Kapoor,the plus-sized lead actor of Sonys hit TV serial Bade Achhe Lagte Hain goes on to become a heckling husband. He could have well been a villain. Instead,he is the protagonist,in love at 40,at odds with his restive personality,a man trapped between ponderous duty and lightheaded love for a wife he chose through a bumpy,arranged marriage. He weighs more than hundred kilos but is lovingly irritable,sweet,committed,impatient,domineering,rich. Heavy duty,no? The Celeb Haters star-Struck fans gushing over their favourite Bollywood personality may be all too familiar,but 2011 also showed us the other end of the reality the celebrity hater. From a shouting match with Mahesh Bhatt to Vinod Kambli facing a bitter critique and Preity Zinta having to vehemently defend her IPL franchise,the anti-fans got their claws out. They put celebs on the defensive,making them go blue in the face with Star Worlds Love2HateU. Hosted by actor Arjun Rampal,the next in the line of fire is Abhishek Bachchan. A for Acceptance Aamir Khan,one of the biggest and most respected actors of Hindi cinema and his wife Kiran Rao had a baby through IVF surrogacy. Instead of denying their inability to have a child the natural way,the couple wrote a warm letter to friends seeking blessings for their precious son. Due to medical complications,we were advised to have a baby through IVF-surrogacy,and we feel very grateful to the Almighty that all has gone well, they wrote. This is what role-modelling is all about. We Like to Party. Or do we? The anti-party arrived this year in Mumbai and will be in Delhi in 2012. Called the Grime Riot Disco,its cover charge is Rs 250,alcohol is subsidised,the DJ spins some unconventional music,its at a new old venue and has a no dress code code. The organisers,Kunal Lodhia and Monica Dogra,told revellers to leave their ego and their Pali Hill salon,triple-essential-oil-shampooed-hairdo at the door. Billed as the party without judgments,which wont burn a hole in peoples pockets,it announced itself through posters with a rebellious touch and kitsch decor. Food that doesnt Run Slow food lost out to faster alternatives in the last few decades,but this year it began its comeback. Terra Madre (12th December,the international day of slow food) was celebrated with twenty events in places from Mumbai and Delhi to towns like Mawphlang in Shillong and Erode in Tamil Nadu. The Navdanya Slow Food Cafe at Dilli Hart serves organic food,in lieu of Indias slow food traditions. Even as food bloggers sang hosannas to the tandoor and the grinding stone,chefs from stand-alone and 5-Star restaurants took an active interest in rolling it out. Sunnys Day Out Pornography? Tch,tch. Well,think again as Indian-Canadian Sunny Leone aka Karen Malhotra arrived to make the Bigg Boss house a cheery place. Well-behaved and courteous,she may have stoked erotic fantasies among a section of the audiences initially,but the reason she lasted out on the still-continuing war of loonies is not because of her pole dance or her easily accessible personal website. Soon,everyone accepted that she is here because she deserves to be,an almost-celebrity with a mind of her own. Bata Slips Into New Shoes Black school shoes were synonomous with Bata,the countrys largest footwear retailer,but a beauty queens high heels? Not just heels but designer kolhapuris,spiffy sandals,cutesy ballerinas,patent pumps. This year,Bata gave itself a much-delayed makeover. The turnaround included beauty queens wearing Bata shoes in slick magazine campaigns,introduction of youthful footwear designs across its brands and Bata stores with dowdiness dusted away. The school shoes live on,as a footnote perhaps.
