Roving Eye

Shobha departs from tradition in another respect, too. The book, for a change, won’t be doing the rounds of the cocktail circuits; instead, Shobha announced its release at Suresh Kalmadi’s chatterati mega-event, the Ganesh Utsav at Pune, and she plans to set aside a part of the royalties for the care of a child living with cancer. That’s one example the book industry would do well to follow, instead of splurging its pitiful marketing budgets on whisky-soda-tikka evenings.

Bade B, Chhote B
For the celebrity-starved set, anyone outside the circle of usual suspects is like manna from heaven. And if she happens to be none other than the gorgeous Shweta Nanda, daughter of the Big B, she’s reason enough for the shutterbugs to start a riot, especially now that she doesn’t show even the remotest sign of recent motherhood.

When the tall and streaked-hair Nanda bahu stilletoed into Le Meridien the other day in a Shahab Durazi sari for the cassette release of her dad’s frolicky venture with the redoubtable Govinda, Bade Miyan, Chote Miyan, the whole world and its monkey jostled to get an eyeful. Hubby Nikhil Nanda was missing in action and members of the Escorts khandaan with her couldn’t hide their amusement at the amount of attention she was getting. But, excusez moi, we want a new face to light up our lives!

Forgotten in the crush was brother Abhishek, the one in need of all the publicity he can get, what with his debut film, Aakhri Mughal, going on floor the same day. He’d flowed into Delhi straight from the mahurat, only to be ignored royally as he went about making small talk with Director No. 1 David Dhawan, and music director Viju `Gupt’ Sha (he has actually deleted the `h’ in Shah!), to Ramya Krishnan, she of those drop-dead looks.

Well, with your father still playing to the gallery for what could well turn out to be his ticket to a box-office revival, you can’t expect hacks to turn to a greenhorn. But Bachchan Junior wasn’t the only one to get the shock treatment. Sameer, the prolific lyricist, went unnoticed. So did Satish Kaushik, Viju Sha, and the mast-mast Raveena Tandon, who one saw less as the evening passed by.

And if its weren’t for the guess-the-actress-in-the-song surprise of the evening, even Anupam Kher would have had a tough time making his presence felt. The stand-up comedian, however, made up for lost time with his quote for the evening: “What you saw in the promos were Amitabh and Govinda. What you didn’t see were Satish Kaushik and me.” Here’s a man who has a line for every occasion.

The designer bargain
Babis Designer Wear, all you clothes lovers must have visited this different boutique famous for its collection of exclusive women’s clothes. The most popular being the Salvar Kameez range. The designs are rich with embroidery ranging from the famous and rich ari, zardozi and Kashmiri. The materials are varied. So you can choose from silks, organza, chinnon, cottons and many more. There is an enormous range and there is one for everyone and every occasion. You can choose from the range of formal, semi-formal and casuals. The prices start from Rs 700 and there is no end to the range.

And for brides to be, Babi’s does complete trousseaus for you. From the wedding dress to the night wear all is done specially for you under one roof and personally.

Babi designs the clothes herself and has experienced craftsmen from Lucknow to do the embroidery.

The latest and good news for label lovers is that Babi is going to introduce designer wear by Geetanjli Kashyap, Reena Dhaka, Ashish Soni and JJ Valaya.

And not to panic about the prices. This designer wear is absolutely affordable. The rates are X-factory rates. The explanation. The designers according to Babi have four lines in a season. And what the City is going to have is the third line which the designers are offering on off season rates. These designer costumes will be displayed at a private show on Sunday. Splurge!

Give me the keys!
It’s cars and women that make news these days. Even as cars keep rolling into the already crowded car bazaar, a City woman has ventured into the car business.

“I’m the first women car dealer in the region,” chirps a bright and confident Geeta Talwar, Hyundai’s recently appointed franchisee for the region. (By the way, she drives a Zen!) She’s found every morning at the under-construction Hyundai showroom in Industrial Area where she personally supervises the work.

“The building will be ready in a week and it’s going to be a set-up never seen before. Piped music even in the workshop …!”

Clearly she’s utilising her diploma in interior designing acquired from the Sector 10, Chandigarh Polytechnic.

Geeta can claim to be a khandaani car saleswoman. Her father has been into it for 30 years. “I also managed our family’s Telco service station … although this was just to help the family and I never got paid.”

“Since I was always fond of cars, I applied for the Hyundai dealership and got it,” she recalls with pride.

But what about the car? Will it sell? “Of course! It’s cheaper, more economical and sophisticated than Zen. I’ll take the battle to the rivals’ camp,”. The tentative price range of Hyundai Santro is Rs 2.75 to 3.5 lakhs and booking should start this month itself. “We might be able to deliver the first car during the Navratras,” she says, launching into a sales pitch … “four models, plenty to choose from, white, red, beige, blue, green and silver”.

Singing Dum Maro Dum to Sai Baba
Sathya Sai Baba may have heard umpteen songs sung out to him by devotees both as eulogy to him and in praise of the several gods and goddesses. But what the young Kunal and Vishal offered him when he went calling on one of his most ardent devotees, film actor-director Manoj Kumar. Manoj told Sai Baba that his children were learning music and naturally Sai Baba expressed his desire to hear a song from them. Soon the bongos and the harmonium were out and the brats got down to singing. And what a song it was! Dum maro dum, mit jaaye gum, bolo subah sham, Hare Krishna Hare Ram. Yes, quite holy as far as words went but imagine Sai Baba’s shock and, more, the embarrassment of the parents!

Kunal Goswami, now grown up and trying out his luck at acting, shared this hilarious incident with the the city scribes when he came here on a tax-exemption mission. Kunal was talking about the family’s belief in Shirdi ke Sai Baba which Manoj transferred into a film and in Puttaparti Sai Baba. One of the reporters wanted to know about his plans for marriage for which the tall, well-built guy’s answer was as practical as his views on his life and career.

“Marriage is never planned, it just happens.” Kunal is very frank when it comes to his films never making it big.

“Yes, I have never had a hit.” So Jai Hind the new film by Manoj Kumar, starring him along with Manisha Koirala, Rishi Kapoor and Raveena Tandon) in a way is a re-launch for him.