Vidya Balan, Hema Malini and Esha & Ahana Deol at Namaste America

I have to say I was surprised to hear that they’re launching yet another Indo-American cultural association (surely we must have several already!) but this was kinda cool because I got to see Hema Malini perform LIVE with her daughters Esha & Ahana Deol, something magical about that (more pix here). Also the kids from the American School jazz band reminded me of all the high schools I spent my life growing up in all over the world, their music teacher so much like all the super enthu, positive and encouraging teachers I had growing up (shout out to Mr. Pratt from the International Community School of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, he was the vice principal at the American School of Bombay for a while too!) Vidya Balan, always impeccably turned out in her desi best was eloquent and dazzling and apart from a few technical glitches in the sound booth (and wet stage issues which they efficiently sorted via red carpet) it turned out to be quite a fun evening.
Also always nice to see Narendra Kumar (who has exciting plans for me yaay!) and Vikram & Nisha Raizada. I even met the talented Talat Aziz who said he’s seen his picture on my blog, score!
P.S. Oh and Brian Brown tried to show us a party-trick where he pops a lit cigarette into his mouth Rajinikanth style, clearly still a work-in-progress though because he managed to burn both his hand and his jacket without once making the mark, uh oh.

Also spotted: Chhaya Momaya, Shiamak Davar, Rocky S., Arjun Khanna, Aarti and Kailash Surendranath, Sheriff of Mumbai Indu Shahani, Lilette Dubey and Poonam Dhillon.