Jacqueline Fernandez, Varun Dhawan, Siddhant Kapoor get stranded due to downpour

Manish Malhotra

With the downpour on Tuesday evening, and the subsequent warning from the MET department, many chose to take the day off and stay indoors. But others who had travel plans to and from Mumbai were not so lucky. Many were left helpless, as the airport runway was shut and flights were delayed or diverted due to low visibility.

Jacqueline Fernandez, Varun Dhawan and Siddhant Kapoor

In such circumstances, what else to do but post on social media? Designer Manish Malhotra, who was on a Mumbai-bound flight from Hong Kong, which was diverted to Bengaluru, groaned, "Finally out after spending seven hours in the plane...still long way to go."

Jacqueline Fernandez and Varun Dhawan posted a video onboard their Kolkata-Mumbai flight, which eventually landed in Hyderabad, and captioned it 'help ussssss'. Siddhant Kapoor, who was busy with movie promotions with sister Shraddha, landed in Baroda and had to find a hotel for the night.

And Michelin-starred chef Vineet Bhatia, who was off to Bahrain from Mumbai, was stuck at the airport, while businesswoman Devita Saraf, who was in Delhi after changing three flights, wailed, "I just wanna go hooooome!"

And some took to food
The question 'what did you do yesterday when it rained?' is soon going to be as famous as the one that marked an earlier era: 'Where were you the night JFK was shot?' And while most took the opportunity of yesterday's unexpected holiday to curl up in bed with a good book, it inspired poetic flourishes and foodie adventures in others, like Kunal Vijayakar. "This is the Bombay monsoon we always knew," he exulted.

Cyrus Broacha and Kunal Vijayakar at Olympia

"The city looks washed and bathed, the streets sparsely populated, as they would be 25 years ago when we were in college. And Marine Drive and Colaba unlittered, without tourists and crowds," he said about his rainy day.

Bheja fry

After finishing an early morning at work, Vijayakar, along with bestie and partner-in-crime funny man Cyrus Broacha, had headed to the city's famous Irani eatery Olympia for its bheja. "The taste hasn't changed in over 30 years. The same green gravy in the bheja, the baida, the chicken fry and anything called masala..."

A rare honour
Brilliant young Delhi-based Supreme Court lawyer Dr Menaka Guruswamy had the rare honour of having her portrait unveiled at Rhodes House, Oxford University, in England this week. Hers was one of the three portraits unveiled marking 40 years of Rhodes women. As is known, the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, which enables studies at Oxford University, is given to those who exemplify all-round brilliance; past awardees have been Bill Clinton and Kris Kristofferson.

A portrait of Dr Menaka Guruswamy

"Menaka studied at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in New Delhi, and then, went to the National Law School at Bengaluru. I thought of her as making a good diplomat as she had a very even temperament and nature. She, however, chose to study law and roughed it out for five long years," said her proud dad, ace policy wonk and political commentator Mohan Guruswamy, when we congratulated him about his daughter, who, post law school, had worked as a junior with former attorney general Ashok Desai, before establishing her own practice.

The lawyer with her father Mohan

True to her nature, the feisty lawyer, who is a professor of law at Yale and who has championed epoch-making cases in India, namely the Right to Education Act, did not flinch from saying it as it is, even in her speech. "We must not forget that Oxford and its higher education degrees are built on the backs of Africans," she is reported to have said.

What's in a name?
Sharing a first name with a celebrated skin specialist has its moments, as we've noted before. From divas discussing their latest Botox interventions, to businessmen complaining of rashes, we receive a minefield of unsolicited information.

But naturally, since it is all dispatched with the assumption of confidentiality, none of it is usable. Not even by a purveyor of the city's secrets. However, the latest one fascinated us by its anguished detail: 'Hi thought (sic) the leg is almost completely healed, after the entire course of medicines and creams the rash as (sic) come up again suddenly yesterday.

It was almost totally (sic) cured a day earlier. All I've been using are the cetaphil and aqua soft creams. The cetaphil cream does smart a bit when applied. I've taken levocet twice yesterday. Sending you pictures.', it read. Mercifully, for all concerned, the pictures did not reach us, as we intervened with alacrity to avoid further embarrassment... Look before you post, guys!

Modern families and savoire faire
You want to know what true savoire faire is? How about this: wife no. 2 posting a genuinely affectionate greeting to wife no. 3 of a celebrity, who is currently married to wife no. 4, on social media.

Ixchel Leigh, Nikki Bedi and Kabir Bedi

This happened recently when the West Coast-based New Age therapist and perfumer Ixchel Leigh, who had once been married to actor Kabir Bedi (they share a son Adam), greeted London-based BBC presenter Nikki Bedi, who had also been married to Bedi, with a cheery and affectionate 'Hello jet-setter! PLEASE do remember... when you come to LA/CA, call me. Xox"

How reassuring to know that civil and affectionate bonds can be forged even within complicated relationships and modern families!