The mother of all saas-bahu soaps

Gul Panag

This could be the saas-bahu story that would end all SBS-es! Friends from up north swear that it's going to be Gul Panang of AAP who will triumph over her former BF Sikander's mom Kirron Kher at the elections.

"Bhai, svaal ni undi," they say when we cite facts and figures to the contrary.

Gul Panag. PIC/PTI

But whatever the outcome, we can't help thinking that the piquant real-life scenario would do a daily soap writer proud!

Ekta? You listening?

Kirron Kher PIC/AFP

On court heat and dust
And after we carried an item about Rhea Pillai's high-profile friends springing to her defence post her media dissing by Leander Paes, we were sent feelers from the tennis champs' well-wishers. Did we know that Paes was one of the truly nicest guys in town? Had we been unaware of not only Pillai's, but also the materialistic and hedonistic ways of the gang she moved with? Did we really believe that the usually reserved and well-brought-up Paes would ever resort to such hostility, if he were not very very disillusioned with his live-in partner? And so on.

Rhea Pillai and Leander Paes

To which we say: We wrote about Pillai's friends defending her and Leander's prior favourable pronouncements in the press without taking sides. We have been too long in the business to not know that in personal battles like this, there are always two sides of the story, and the saddest thing is actually that both sides have a point. Observers, friends, well-wishers can only allow the heat and dust to settle and tempers to cool, so that further collateral damage to the young and innocent is prevented.

Things don't go better with...
Every now and then, a small white cloud goes poof at a party, and we know that the sinewy trail of cocaine and its abusers is alive and ever growing.

And whereas everyone knows more about it than they let on, once in a while, a name comes up which one never would have suspected to be on the snorter's rolls.

So, the latest theory doing the rounds of Delhi's poshest colonies is that the recent unexplained death of a high profile denizen of the Capital is connected with the white powder - but whether accidentally or deliberately is uncertain.

She don' like, she don' like...

Old rules, new crassness
And every year, even as more rules get broken, new snobbery is invented to keep the social whirl turning. Time was, when the high and mighty and the great and good of Mumbai bent over backwards to pass unnoticed.

People used to tell that famous story in awe, of how J R D Tata would hire batteries of PROs to keep his names ‘out' of the paper, rather than ‘in'. This was, of course, the pre-Nira Radia era, and much has changed from those days when men of standing, men of style would be known for their genteel manners their gentle demeanour, their all- round humility and their aversion to attention. There is a captain of the industry who once confessed to us of how he would get the family limousine to drop him a block away from his snotty Sobo school, so that he could blend in with the others and not be teased about his family wealth. Such were the times. So were the ways.

This morning, we heard of the latest abomination that has the crumbs in the upper crust with the most dough, enthralled: Personal Bodyguards or better known as Private Goons.

"You pay a well-built bodyguard a couple of thousand a night and you can enter just about any club, throw your weight around, monopolise the dance floor or whatever," said a man about town, adding, "and the richer you are, the more you hire to intimidate the guys and impress the girls at the club."

And needless to say, said heavies don't mind a bit of arm-twisting or bullying or roughing up someone, if required by their employer!

Key amongst those who have embraced this practice are a few builders, local politicians and their bagmen.

Mercifully, it's still only the crass new joints that encourage and participate in this vulgarity. The top Sobo hotels and nightspots are still holding back.

Her mother's pride
And out of the outpouring and love fest that sprouted on social networking sites due to Mother's Day being (conveniently for all F&B outlets) celebrated on Sunday, the most stylish was the pictures of the mother-daughter dynamo duo of fashion designer Neeta Lulla and her equally celebrated fashion designer daughter Nishka.

Neeta Lulla with daughter Nishka

Well-toned bods, LBDs sharp haircuts and matching oomph!

We like!