I confess I overslept and missed the car rally. In my defense it was because I’ve recently discovered a fantastic party mixer game (delightfully) called Partini and just had to take it for a test run last night. Think of it as a combination of beer pong, charades, karaoke (humming style) and truth or dare which I was playing till almost 5am at a friend’s house (amidst some interesting insights from the boys on their theories on whether “to call or not to call” after a drunken encounter with the opposite sex, simply to provide closure/be a gentleman. Highly classified but oh-so-juicy.) Meanwhile the glitterati (which never rests) was at Good Earth in Parel, Mumbai courtesy Tanya Deol (Bobby Deol’s better half) for a pre-celebration party for the Akerkar’s. So I will get all the speed demon snapshots up here tomorrow, but for now all I can report is what I heard from Gautam Singhania, that it was off the hook!
(As cheesy as that commercial was its actually a LOT of fun.)
Eventually I made it to Indigo brunch which turned out (as expected) to be another epic afternoon. Narendra Kumar Ahmed rightly pointed out that it is in fact the “best brunch in the city.” Everybody (and I mean everybody) was there. Off the top of my mind I remember; Nina Manuel, TC & Nathalie, Shamita Singha, Dilip Joshi, Rohan Sippy (who while we were on the topic of financial meltdown mentioned some interesting theories on Global Warming more on that soon…) Ashutosh Pathak, Akanksha & Amitabh Nanda, Nico Ghoghavala & wife Kamal Sidhu (did I hear right, she’s having a baby? I noticed that people kept saying “Don’t smoke near the pregnant lady” but she had her back to me most of the time so need to confirm this!) A.D & Sabina Singh, Divya Mohta, Anish & Vineeta Trivedi (who’s off to Canada with the kids for a break), Kishen Mulchandani (who’s heading to Malaysia tonight right after he pops into the Miss India 2009 after-party)… I’ll post the full attendance roster along with the “official” party pictures as soon as the PR machinery wakes up tomorrow and flurries into action.
Despite the heat and body count brunch lasted well into the afternoon and consisted of banana shooters, a sublime buffet and lots of singing, dancing and mingling. Ash Chandler did an impromptu performance (and boy the man can sing.) Full form after his 40 days of lent a few glasses of bubbly and he was rocking the microphone to Sweet Home Alabama to which Henry Tham pointed out jokingly the new lyrics should be…
From Khar to Colaba
Where the skies are so blue
from Khar to Colaba
Lord, I’m coming home to you!
The ever smiling (and usually color coordinated couple did full justice to the dance floor (grown up kids in tow) as did Ashwin Deo. Proud and happy Aarti & Kailash Surendranathan introduced their somewhat shy son around as did Bandana Tewari with her adorably precocious daughter Myra (clearly ready to follow in mommy’s fashionable footsteps) while Rahul & Malini Akerkar played hosts to perfection. This is probably the first time I’ve seen the glitterati break out their own clickers for some memories. (I got a few action shots myself as you can see, note to self though: balancing a glass of champagne, a camera and a clutch in high heels is much more complicated than it looks after two banana shooters in a test tube.)
Nikhil Chib asked me an interesting question at brunch. He wanted to know if I’ve found that people with the same name tend to have similar personalities. I guess you could say so; the ones I know in Bombay would be Malini Akerkar and Malini Ramani (also I remember a Malini Rao I had the pleasure of meeting when I used to work at those auto expos at Pragati Maidan in Delhi a decade ago. You know the drill; pretty girls in snug dresses standing next to cars they know nothing about. good times.) He pointed out that all the Nikhil’s he knows tend to be pretty skinny.
A.D. Singh & Ash Chandler had a hilarious conversation about fashion (and fashion week) where apparently some “dude” was being a little too touchy feely with the other “dudes.” Its true that at that point any woman could scream blue murder but what’s a guy to do if he’s not looking to pick a fight? (With any luck there will be a comedy bit in Ash’s next show called “vogg” aka victims of gay grabbing!)
All in all the social event of the season. Next stop Hard Rock Cafe on Thursday night where Luke Kenny and I are emcees at the Rolling Stone magazine first anniversary followed by Zenzi mills (i.e. the new one in town) where Matan Schabracq is throwing the official opening party.