Nina Pillai / Dagger Drawn

Sunrise, Sunset — Swiftly Goes the Day
Saturday night at Indigo, Madhu Sapre looked stunning in a pale pink skirt suit and Islee looked fairy princess in a silver pant suit. Rana Kapoor, Arjun and Shefali Khanna, Mel D’Souza, Ravi and Bandana all made for a riotous fun evening that took us to Beyond the 1900s till the wee hours only to wake up to catch the 2.00 pm launch to Alibaug. Two beautiful homes, Basera and another Balinese-inspired hideout made for two fun-filled days and nights.

Buying prawns from the local fisherwoman on the beach I realised that simple was her philosophy that really there were only two kinds of "Jaths" in the world: "Aurat" and "Mard". That’s what God meant for there to be anyway, the rest was created by man to divide. Salient observations that to be good of heart was the key to longevity and happiness. I was indeed thrilled that from my half hour on the beach watching her peel and shell my prawns I learned more on existentialism and the truth of their life force than I had from two hours of Deepak Chopra’s mish-mash speech. A spell of nature’s bounty and beauty is all one needs to recharge on the battery of our inner chakras and outer countenance. Why is it that when one is having a good time life seems to speed by on gossamer-thin wings of joy and flights of fantasy. Two charming men that I was most inspired by this weekend were Ramesh Chauhan, of Bisleri fame who charmingly escorted me to the Hugel dinner par excellance, and VivekTalwar the sauve, dapper low-key gentleman of Nitco fame. Pradeep Saxena, Nikhil Khatau, Rana Kapoor and Sanjay Menon were the other close contenders for the title of `Men of grace, charm wit and intelligence with an old-world man-about-town aura and dose of chivalry

My two sons who were Islee and my shadow team for our weekend in Alibaug are slwoly but surely picking up on what is life’s simple truth: that a little care and chivalry on the part of a man goes miles in the race of life when it comes to getting the attention of a lady. A wish that as swiftly as the day became the night in the idyllic hampton’s of Mumbai’s Alibaug, a simple lesson of good manners and grace would become the habit of a lifetime to win lifelong friends in time’s warp and life’s weft, the rich tapestry of god’s own simplicity of creating just two castes or types — men and women.

Happy Holidays!