29 April,2016 06:01 AM IST | | Malavika Sangghvi
It's arguable if Shweta Bachchan Nanda, Amitabh Bachchan's long limbed and lissom daughter has looked any better than now. After all, her sultry radiance has long been a thing of beauty and a joy forever. But what is undeniable is that she has never dressed better
Shweta Bachchan Nanda and Sandeep Khosla
It's arguable if Shweta Bachchan Nanda, Amitabh Bachchan's long limbed and lissom daughter has looked any better than now. After all, her sultry radiance has long been a thing of beauty and a joy forever. But what is undeniable is that she has never dressed better.
Shweta Bachchan Nanda and Sandeep Khosla
So unsurprisingly at her old pals Abu and Sandeep's Fantastique launch on Wednesday, amongst a slew of fashionistas (Prerna Goel in an Anjali Patel Mehta of Verandah, Mansi Joshi Roy in a Mayank Anand & Shraddha Nigam, and Aditi Gowitrikar in Goh: ni) Shweta Bachchan Nanda in a white shirt top by Abu and Sandeep paired with a Isabel Marant pants effortlessly stole the show. Don't believe us? Here's proof.
Not a whine at all
It's rare to have anyone say nice things about the condition of Mumbai's roads and so when we saw peripatetic wine evangelist Rajeev Samant's comment yesterday we were pleased.
Ajoy Mehta
"Driving around today and noticing how much cleaner and neater the streets of Bombay are these days," said the founder of Sula, who made wine drinking an Indian trend.
Rajeev Samant
"Smoother roads. Well-maintained green traffic islands. And I give full credit to current Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta who I interacted with years ago when he was Excise Commissioner," said Samant, adding, "He was instrumental in Sula getting our first license at a time when wine was seen in a negative light along with liquor," said Rajeev when we called to ask about his post. "Was a real gentleman and an outstanding IAS officer and administrator. Well-done sir."
Young Bengali Art
Early May will witness a significant exhibition of Bengal art at the Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai. Brought to the city by Rakhi Sarkar's Kolkata-based CIMA, it will display the works of five postmodern Bengali artists.
Aveek Sarkar and Chiki Sarkar
"Do come, the CM will be inaugurating it and it is full of great art," said Sarkar, the low profile self effacing and accomplished wife of the Kolkata based media tycoon Aveek Sarkar and mother of Indian publishing wunderkind Chiki Sarkar of Juggernaut books. "And what's more," she added, "Aveek will be in town too."
Bengali art, the erudite company of Rakhi and the presence of the silver maned dhoti clad Aveek, one of the country's most interesting publishers? We like
Travel Diaries
So it's summer and everyone we know is travelling. Bashrat Peer is in Istanbul writing another masterpiece in an apartment loaned by a generous friend, Wendell Rodricks is in Tehran, sighing like a dervish at the beauty of the city's arts and antiquities, Rohit Bal has been posting pictures of his trip to St Petersburg and even our Pune-based friend Rudabeh Nanporia, who we thought was something of a home bird, is in Casablanca, Morocco. Meanwhile we are, as you might have guessed, in Mumbai, at home.
Wendell Rodericks
This is not for want of opportunity or means, mind you. We are at home, because we are monumentally lacking in that one thing required to have an interesting and adventurous life: the ability to make 'A Plan'. 'A Plan' is what get's you to look at a calendar in January or February, deciding on a date when you can 'get away'.
Plans are what prompt you to make a booking with a travel agent and then an innkeeper, and even a chauffeur and a guide; they are what inspire you to Google the weather conditions of either Estonia or Egypt or Erevan, or wherever it is you're headed. If you lack the ability to make a plan then you are very much in fear of ending up in the middle of summer wondering why everyone you know is away and realising with a thud that it's summer and once again you forgot to make 'A Plan'.
Persepolis shot by Wendell Rodericks and St Petersburg shot by Rohit Bal
But for those of us who don't make plans and find themselves stuck in the middle of Mumbai's fiercest heat, there's an advantage: we get to wear loose white mulls with sandals, suck on ice lollies and sip tall cool drinks; we get to see crisp blue skies and magnificent sunsets and above all, we get to eat mangoes. Luscious, succulent mangoes; as sweet as a benediction and as rich as life. So that's what we are doing these days. Eating mangoes and feeling a bit sorry for all those currently around the globe, who are missing in action.
Media's Summer of Discontent?
Yesterday according to our sources was something of a red-letter day at a leading news channel's headquarters in Mumbai." All the top echelons appeared to be jittery and tense" we were informed.
"The country's leading cricket anchor, the top female biz news anchor said to be the best honey money in the business and the channel's pre-eminent management. Why so? "It was the day when decisions would be taken on the channel's rebranding and new direction after it was officially taken over by a business house," says the source. "And no one knew what their future role would be." Another instalment of the summer of discontent for media folk?
