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Journalism of Courage
First it was watch launches and now it seems that Mumbai cannot get enough of perfume launches. The latest launch was Escada’s, with a fragrance for both men and women. And caught checking out the perfume was Vama’s Jaya Patel — perhaps she is considering jumping on to the perfume bandwagon? Among other’s who were trying out the new fragrances were Elle’s Nirja Shah accompanied by the entire magazine team, Marc Robinson and Sumeet Chopra.
Society shops
Friday was quite a day. It rung in the start of an early weekend, choc-a-bloc with soirees, luncheons and high fashion. The day started off early with the annual Society Collection at the World Trade Centre. The event was inaugurated by Raveena Tandon at 9:00 am. And helping her cut the ribbon was Magna’s Nari Hira. There were 125 stalls which had a wide variety of artefacts, murals, linens, furniture, designerwear and jewellery. The hall was packed to the gills and shopping frenetically were the usual mix of general junta and celebs. Kumaramangalam Birla and his wife, seemed to be doing their weekend shopping, actress Anjala Zaveri made two trips and Sabira Merchant left the exhibition with an array of bags.
Full of verve
THEN there was the Verve’s lunch at Geoffery’s in the Hotel Marine Plaza. Hosted by Anuradha Mahindra, Mumbai’s beautiful people turned up in large numbers. There was Ramona Garware, Haseena Jethmalani, Mehr Jesia,Tina Tahiliani, Aarti Surendranath, Gita Piramal and Sabira Merchant, who made a guest apperance. Verve’s subscription contest winner Poonam Bubber was gifted a diamond-studded Omega watch. For the rest, the prize was Anuradha’s specially selected menu and the flowing bubbly.
Food for thought
On Saturday, an exhausted Mumbai let its hair down at Mid-Day and Rashmi Uday Singh’s party. Held at the Radio Club pier, the do was organised to launch the Good Food Guide. A who’s who of restaurants, caterers and food-related trivia, the book is a culmination of Rashmi’s association and promotion of food. She literally gave a boost to the concept of home catering and many businesses have flourished because of that publicity. And apparently, it all began when Mid-Day’s Tariq Ansari and Rashmi found themselves on the same plane. Priced at Rs 100, the initial print run will be of 50,000 copies. Sales should be a cakewalk, Mumbai is becoming a city of foodies, with people eating out more and more. Have you tried to get a table at Trishna?
The party too developed on that theme. Stalls of caterers written about by Rashmi — from Thai food to sushi and humus — were out there in the open, including Farrokh Khambatta’s Allied & Catering. A dance band livened up the evening and Business India’s Mala Singh and Omkar Goswani shook a mean leg. Parle’s Ramesh Chauhan was also jiving away with his young daughter. Tariq Ansari took the mike and did his T-man version for the audience. His wife Anu was also there showing no signs of having delivered a baby less than a year ago. Bakul Patel, Dr Saryu Doshi, Ashok Advani, Sabira Merchant, Jamini Ahluwalia, Nirja Shah, Rahul DaCunha, A D Singh and Rahul Bose were all there — covering the party spectrum from the young to the old. The bar was well stocked, the food limitless and the seamlessly organised evening was courtesy another entrepreneurial couple, Rachana and Zuzer Lucknowala. This twentysomething couple run a company called The Party Makers, now we know why.
And finally…
This Wednesday, Persis Khambatta will launch her book Pride of India. Based on all the former beauty queens, she has dedicated the book to Mother Teresa. At a press conference this Friday at the Oberoi, Persis said she was lucky enough to have spoken to the Mother four days before she passed away. It seems the Mother was glad to be associated with the book and apparently said that if she was in better health she would have liked to attend the launch.
Fashion frontiers
Last week was definitely Mumbai’s turn to be Milan. The fashion industry was out in full force, displaying their latest collections and new lines. There were three fashion shows almost one after the other. The show that started the week off was however the worst. Held at Three Flights Up, it was put together by Marc Robinson and Prasad Bidappa. The clothes were the creation of some new Bangalore designers and looked like cheap rip-offs of older Versace oufits. The choreography was non-existent and models, some of whom were contacted the morning of the show, looked like they had not rehearsed. The organisers were lucky that the main sponsors of the event, Early Times whiskey, missed most of the show as they turned up late.
Melange’s show the next day was a different story. Set in the NCPA, the ambience was perfect and since it was on Gandhi Jayanti nearly everyone turned up in khadi — barring Simone Tata. As you walked into the NCPA, there was a special installation telling you all about khadi, kind of setting the mood for the show. The presentation was inspiring with the choreography by Hemant Trivedi. He is probably India’s best. But some of the clothes were a little below the expected mark. After Melange, it was Vama’s turn at the ramp on Friday. With top models like Achla Sachdev and Noyonika Chattterjee gracing the stage, the clothes were by Delhi designers Manju & Bobby Grover. Their colours were muted with heavy embroidery and there were a few lace and crochet sarees, as well. Perfect clothes for the upcoming wedding season.
