Coachella Meets Coldplay

DJ Aqeel, Dino Morea and Sameer Nair with friends at Sussanne Khan's birthday party

By all accounts Sussanne Khan's ‘Coachella Meets Coldplay' birthday party this week was a head-turner. The petite design maven has had quite a year dealing with her public separation from her superstar husband, the expanding and consolidating of her interior business, her taking strides as a single mum and woman, an avoidable legal wrangle with a client, and of course, last but not the least, her award for design excellence from a media group this month.

With all of this going on, no surprises that the party she celebrated for getting one year older was one where everyone let their hair down, wore fancy dresses and generally lived it up. As her brother-in-law DJ Aqeel posted: ‘Happy birthday Sussanne, thank you for the wonderful party keep rocking always...'

Flying private
Everyone has a travel snob friend, you know the one who cannot get over the fact that he's got a few inches more to accommodate his outsize ego on a section of the aircraft only reserved for others like him.

The one who posts his travel arrangements on social media with the inevitable mention of ‘First Class / Business Class' in prominent display, usually proceeded by a hashtag. Recently, an embarrassing exchange, when an alert reader had caught out a highflying media maven, purporting to be in First Class when she was not, had caused much consternation.

Nevertheless, this Mumbai middle-aged wannabe jetsetter's recent post took the cake. "Flying private is great!!" it said, adding, "What about when they empty an airport so you don't feel crowded?" And, of course, there was an accompanying picture of the said entitled entity in a completely deserted airport. How absolutely dull, we say.

It's time for a new move
"Since you never came to the last one, I'm opening a new one!!!" said the effervescent aesthete Srila Chatterjee about her newest furniture store Baro, which houses household items and bric-a-brac, that have caught her discerning eye, and whose interiors have been designed by India Circus' Krsna Mehta.

Srila Chatterjee and Krsna Mehta

"We should be more or less ready in a week, but you can come by and get a sneak peek before. Let me know. It's at Sun Mill in Lower Parel," she said. As is known, it was Chatterjee along with her husband Mahesh Mathai and a handful of others who'd set the ball rolling at Raghuvanshi Mills, when they'd first run a state-of-the-art recording studio there, and later, the hugely popular Blue Frog.

Ever since then, the crowded warren of little rooms and lanes had become one of the city's hotspots for eating out and leisure. But success had brought its own troubles - not only had the mill area become too crowded with a host of other nightlife and lifestyle options, but the rents had gotten too high.

Now, Chatterjee is moving to another mill area to house her latest venture. Will it once again herald the arrival of more such enterprises? Going by her past record, probably and undoubtedly, once again that will bring in its own bugbears. We better visit Baro soon before she moves it once more.

Grapes of wrath?
Every city has its own handful of bon vivants, men and women who take great pleasure in experiencing the finer things in life, and, as far as Delhi goes, Chetan Sheth is certainly one of the community members.

Chetan Sheth (far right) with friends

These past few weeks, the usually reticent cigar evangelist and businessman has been treating his friends to a blow-by-blow account of his travels through Europe, one great meal and bottle of rare wine at a time. ‘#urbino #dukes chapel. Dinner at a small #restorante #lafornarina selection of appetizers. #pasta of the eyes.

Two types #homemade with fresh black truffles and thick local pasta in a cheesy sauce. Downed with a local estate bottled #rubyred dry wine.' This is how the average post reads with the usual confection of delish tabletop pictures, etc. However, Sheth's latest post was a departure from his usual celebratory ones and attracted a fair deal of attention.

It began as usual with ‘#simpleliving #chemonestate #woodfiredpizza #alba #truffles #generousfriends #saint-Julian #grandcruclasse #habanos #cingari #H.upmann #magnum57 #edicionlimitada #tastefortheextraordinary', but quickly degenerated into the maudlin, ‘Can they ever replace #lostlove #emptyness #alone to have it all and yet have nothing. #trust #faith #betrayaltrauma #trufflelover #hallucinations'

And while there was enough concern about Sheth's state of mind, one of his friends hit the nail quite perfectly on its head: ‘Drama Queen' was her only comment. Why is Delhi's leading bon vivant wailing to an expensive bottle of wine? Watch this space.