It doesn't get bigger than this: Sources say that Nita Ambani is, even as we speak, winging her way to the Vatican on an invitation from no less than Pope Francis
Pope Francis. Pic/AFP and Nita Ambani
It doesn't get bigger than this: Sources say that Nita Ambani is, even as we speak, winging her way to the Vatican on an invitation from no less than Pope Francis.
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“It seems she arrived from Guwahati in time for the reception hosted at Antillia for Rajesh and Bansri Shah's son, Kaustabh on Monday night, participated gracefully in the garba celebrations and then left immediately for Italy,” says the source. As we said, it doesn't get more stratospheric than this.
Small town glam
To be honest, Ahmedabad during garba season seems like the last place on earth that two of Mumbai's most vivacious gals would visit, but yesterday that's exactly where Queenie Singh and Rhea Pillai were headed.
Queenie Singh and Rhea Pillai
And the reason why the two BFFs were visiting the heart of Gujarat, rather than spending time in San Tropez or Ibiza, as they ought to have been, was because Singh's jewellery (Jewels by Queenie) and chikankari embroidered saris by Pillai, were being sold to the festival-shopping crazed women in that city.
Singh had not so long ago explained how her most successful sales had been in remote places, especially B and C towns far away from the glamour of Mumbai, Delhi and Dubai. After all, as odious as Mumbai's Page Three circuit might seem, the silver lining was that celebrity translated in too much adulation, and brisk sales in smaller glamour-struck towns.
Her comrade-in-arms Pillai was more resigned to the enterprise. “Ahmedabad Navratri. We work some, we play some. See you in a few hours!” she'd said on the eve of their departure.
Doing the family proud
Our cousin, the author and journalist, Lady Kishwar Desai, has truly done the clan proud. Part of the generation that experienced Partition through the eyes of its parents, Desai's ambitious venture of creating the first and only museum to commemorate and document one of the saddest chapters in Southeast Asian history, when more than 14 million people were uprooted and rendered as refugees, has met with much accolades.
Subedar Major (Retd) Gurdev Singh Hanjra and Lady Kishwar Desai
Situated in Amritsar's historic 19th century Town Hall, the museum, whose aim is to be a repository of artefacts, pictures and documents about Partition, is a labour of love for Kishwar and her husband, the economist Lord Meghnad Desai.
“Finally, we opened the office for the Partition Museum at Town Hall, Amritsar, and the first visitor had come all the way from Jalandhar — Subedar Major (Retd) Gurdev Singh Hanjra... 87-years-old, he gave us such a moving and vivid account of his migration from Sialkot,” says Desai, Chair of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust, about the above photograph, adding, “It is when he says that 'at last someone wants to know what I and my family went through'... that the Partition Museum gains in relevance... as a people's museum..”
Daddies dearest
“My colleagues, Colston Julian, Prasad Naik and I, will take pictures of fathers and daughters over the weekend of Oct 15-16. Our services are free and the small cost of an archival, retouched and colour-corrected print helps Nanhi Kali to send a young girl to school for a year!” says ace lensman Atul Kasbekar, who, when he's not jetting off to shoot impossibly leggy calendar girls, spends his time in worthwhile pursuits.
Pics will include those of Sonam and Anil Kapoor, Aaradhya and Abhishek Bachchan and Atul Kasbekar
“We sent over 500 girls to school over the last two years with our small initiative,” he says. And happy daddy-daughter snaps of the likes of Rishi Kapoor with Riddhima, Anil S Kapoor with Sonam, Anil Kumble with Svasti and Aaruni, Abhishek Bachchan with Aaradhya, are the building blocks of that excellent enterprise touted as #ProudFathersFor Daughters.
Poets unlimited
He is a throwback to a more romantic era when poets were rambunctious creatures who led colourful and chaotic lives. And yesterday, when the soulful novelist, musician and poet, Jeet Thayil, who'd been Poet-in-Residence at Queensland, finally departed, it gave rise to many a wistful goodbye.
Jeet Thayil and Tishani Doshi
“The Queensland Poetry Festival is a festival like no other: brave, uncompromising programming, and a visionary idea of poetry's place in the hierarchy of letters, the poet's place as the acknowledged legislator of the universe,” he'd said about the noted annual event that took place at the end of August, hosting a slew of international bards including India's Tishani Doshi.
Where to next for Thayil whose debut novel, Narcopolis, was a book he describes as the 'lost 20 years of his life' when he'd been seduced by opium and its underground culture, had won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. As they say, rolling stones gather no moss.
He can get no satisfaction
The things one pick up on the Mumbai-Dilli red eye! On this occasion, we were seated behind two senior politicos, both having interests in the business world amongst other sectors. “He will now control everything by remote control from London,” said one emphatically. “No, no they will not let him,” disagreed the other.
“If he comes back to India and spills the beans, there will be collateral damage,” the second continued. And as soon as we assumed the conversation revolved around the infamous liquor baron, we were corrected. “He is using his son to keep power. And has managed to get him an important seat through his Rajasthan connections and also appointed him as director of one of his companies,” argued the first.
“But why does he want to come back? He has made so much money, now, he should just live there!” responded the second gentlemen. At this point, we decided to turn up the volume on our iPod and listened to The Rolling Stone's classic 'Satis-faction'. But does this mean we will see the return of India's ex-cricketing czar into power circles once again? And what of the powerful female politico whom he's said to have had a falling out over the spoils with? Watch this space.
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