Show goes on without the khalli balli man

A formidable gathering of about 500 odd people at the club, "the fashion rendezvous" of the day, clearly said — Bhuppi or no Bhuppi — the show must go on and it actually went on and went on quite well. Free entry at the last stage also did the trick for the organisers who were, till about 6 in the evening, still thinking of whether to hold the show or to call it off.

"Out of the five organisers, three backed out at the last moment putting us in quite a fix. Bhuppi was to be given about Rs 1.75 lakh and that was a difficult amount to manage. Moreover, we learnt that Bhuppi is quite unwell and would not therefore come for the show," said Sunil Sharma, one of the organisers.

But there was no ruckus as was expected because the very idea of selling tickets was done away with. Said Vijay Arora of Anmol Arts, another organiser, "the sponsors gave us our profit and that was why we decided not to sell tickets. The entry is free".

The crowd thankfully behaved well, smitten as it was by the ravishing beauties who set the stage on fire as they made the maiden entry in saffron satin attires, paying floral tributes to those sons of the soil who helped us win Independence.

The show progressed in rounds, the greatest hit being "Untamed" where the ten models took the audience closer to the forests. "This design is inspired by the spirit of adventure. It’s to prove that womanhood is not just about shyness. It’s also about freedom," as put by designer Aditi Srivastava of NIFD, the institution which provided the wonderful and varied collection for the evening.

Nakhra, the round which focused on the `sari’, the harbinger of Indian fashion was specially applauded, and so were the other rounds, titled peace, colour, rang tarang, silver sparks and vineyard musings.