Roving Eye

Salman's dayFor a while, the city's social scene has been pretty dull. But the rains seem to have changed all that. Last week, not only d...

Salman8217;s day

For a while, the city8217;s social scene has been pretty dull. But the rains seem to have changed all that. Last week, not only did it pour incessantly, it was also one of the busiest weeks of the year for Mumbai8217;s glitterati. The chain of events kicked off on Monday at Three Flights Up, when the Cancer Patients Aid Association CPAA hosted a special evening for children suffering from the disease. The kids got to spend the whole evening at the Narang8217;s night spot and seemed to be really enjoy themselves playing pool and throwing darts. But the highlight of the event for these kids was a chance to meet Salman Khan. Apparently, this actor has been helping out the CPAA for a long while and takes time out to talk to cancer patients and visit terminally ill children. Salman was accompanied by his parents and aunt Helen. This Khan really seems to take the cause seriously 8212; for, he has even persuaded his other filmi friends like David Dhawan, Sunil Dutt, Sajid Nadiadwala and father SalimKhan to donate over Rs 10 lakh in aid of cancer patients. One person who looked really pleased with Salman8217;s enthusiasm was the event organiser, Sanjeev Chowdhury. And he was given lots of moral support by close friends. Also spotted at the do were Sonia Garware, Nirmal and Chhaya Momaya, Kishan Mulchandani and Aarti and Kailash Surendranath.

Melange8217;s meet

Melange held a fashion preview for Priyadarshni Rao8217;s latest collection 8212; for men and women. But this was no normal fashion event because there were no models involved. Instead, clients strolled around the store and picked garments of their choice, even as they watched a Tai-Chi performance 8212; Rao8217;s collection is inspired by this art form.

The informal yet elegant affair attracted some of the city8217;s arty types including author Vikram Chandra, ad-film maker Anuradha Tandon and Preeti Vyas Giannetti. The Fashion Bistro8217;s Chhaya Momaya also put in a brief appearance and even managed to do a spot of shopping.

Water babies

Evian hosteda bash on Thursday night at the 1900s and most of the city8217;s glamour girls turned up to party the night away. Evian8217;s Sakala Dabrass helped organise the event and this ramp model really played the hostess with the mostest8217; 8212; going around and speaking to each invitee personally.

Malaika Arora was spotted wearing ultra-high heels, accompanied by sister Amreeta, Sheetal Malhar and the lissome lass Michelle Tung. It is amazing how these women manage to look so ravishing all the time, even when they8217;re partying the night away. Perhaps their secret lies in the fact that they hardly ever drink anything harder than a glass of water. So perhaps this was the perfect party for them, since it was a mineral water event anyway!

Art bash

Amidst all these hectic activities, the party of the week happened with the Oberoi art brunch on Sunday. This event marks the end of the hotel8217;s art week8217; where artists like Kahini Arte-Merchant, Samir Mondal and Anjolie Ela Menon put their paint-brush to work. What8217;s more,each artist donated a painting in aid of the Kargil relief fund. The brunch, though, was a whole day of fun and frolic at the Oberoi8217;s Regal room. The artists let their hair down and danced away to the live band and then quenched their thirst with champagne cocktails. Everyone there was in a high spirits and the party went on into the evening. Seen there were Mumbai8217;s art patrons: Harsh Goenka, Pheroza Godrej, Saryu Doshi and Geeta Raheja. Of course, the real credit for the success of the event goes to the Oberoi hotel which handled the event so well. It was vice-president Sanjiv Malhotra who kicked off the dance and was soon joined by another member of his staff. In fact, assistant marketing manager, Priya D8217;Cunha even got up on stage to sing. And judging by the way everyone enjoyed her performance, the hotel should perhaps think of making her a regular artist at the Bayview Bar!

Beauty with a cause

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When Aviance decides to do something, it has to be done in style. Therefore, when they had atwo-day workshop on the business of beauty beyond the mirror, they sprinkled it with a generous helping of big names to lure women. Rhea Pillai-Dutt inaugurated the event, while Nandini Sen spoke on The Art of Living Course, for which she has been in the news lately. Dr Vijaya Venkat spoke on Food for fitness8217;, setting straight nutritional facts and giving insight on how what you eat makes you look the way you do. A short spiel on cosmetology and perfume and colour selection by Sushilla Vaswani proved to be interesting. There were also talks on fitness, nail art and the complexity of complexion. But the show stealers were the stalls which drew the largest number of people; you could choose from Rinaldi, Magic Faraway Tree candles by Dimple Kapadia, Thewa art jewellery by Roopa Vohra, arts and crafts by Pooja Agarwal, fashion accessories by Jamini Ahluwalia and break murals by Indira Shah. The other fun part was where you could exchange your entry tickets for free beauty services. The most sought after wereeasily the pedicures and manicures, but there was also face massage, instant make-overs, hair braiding, portrait sketching and tattooing.

The show would have been a better affair had more attention been paid to the organisation, which seemed lacking in some ways. But for a worthy cause, no one really seemed to mind 8212; all the proceeds from the event went to the Concern India Foundation.

And finally8230;

Does this city ever rest even on a Sunday night? People just seem to party all the time. On Sunday, the place to be was the Karaoke night at NJ-Jazz By The Bay. Sanjay Narang, who is back in town after a break in London, looked very pleased to walk into his nightspot which was just bursting at its seams. Among those getting up to sing was MTV8217;s veejay Nikhil Chinappa.