Win Some, Lose Some

It is true that emotions are affected by colour and weather. Balmy weather makes you feel deliciously romantic, and snuggling up to a loved one is such a joy. Punching someone in the face can have an equally delightful effect in the intense heat. The colour white, we always knew, reflects the sun’s rays and soothes one’s eyes. Now, we also know that the colour saffron, the colour of flames, ignites passions like none other.

Not that I want to sound fastidious, but politics apart, fluorescent orange, fiery yellows and lime greens remain the colours of the season … the heat be cursed! The urban elite is trying to beat the heat like the Rajasthanis, who defy the sizzling temperatures and the deathly beige monochromes of the desert with India’s most colourful palette. A gesture which in some way seems to assert the life principle.

It was an attempt to beat the heat and the curiosity to meet Priya Paul that drove me to The Park’s luncheon hosted by her for the press. The idea of a free lunch with chilled beer in an air-conditioned environment proved to be a good lure and the turnout of scribes was almost shocking. The occasion was to celebrate and inform the press that the Delhi and Calcutta Park hotels had been awarded membership of the London-based `Small and Luxury Hotels of the World’ group. The membership, which will give The Park global marketing advantages, is no doubt both a personal and professional achievement for the young corporate president.

Priya, I discovered, is the eldest daughter of Surrendra Paul, Swaraj Paul’s brother, who was slain nearly a decade ago by ULFA terrorists. Priya was then just in her early twenties and had no option but to take over the family concern. She had grown up in Calcutta and had just returned after graduating with Economics from an American university when the tragedy struck the family. Priya took charge of the hotels division and left her two siblings to look after the real estate and shipping companies. The youthful lady had more elan than expected and seemed very much in control.

Though it’s a ten-year-old hotel, it was the first time I visited The Park in Delhi. The aroma of Flury’s confectionery on the premises transported me back twenty years to the city I went to as a teenaged bride. If The Park in Delhi was my refuge from heat, The Park in Calcutta was where a lot of heat and dust of my first marriage was raised, where I sometimes cuddled and sometimes raged. The first marriage is a dim memory, unlike Flury’s delectable chocolate boats, Swiss rolls, lemon tarts and cakes, which were quite unlike the man I had fallen in love with. They were compliant, luscious, satisfying, adequate and divine in the ways most husbands ought to be, but never are!