Bombay-Girl’s Birthday Bash!

Ash Chandler and Reshma Bombaywala

Reshma Bombaywala returned to the Mumbai party circuit with an intimate birthday party last night at Aurus, Mumbai looking absolutely stunning and accompanied by her hunky beau Dimi Lezinska (who used his bartending skills to rustle up some fabulous  shots.) Funnily enough a few days ago at a Swarovski soiree the shutterbugs got all excited to see her and assumed she and Ash Chandler are an item simply because they arrived together. I can tell you for a fact that’s totally not true. In fact Ash is quite head over feet about the charming stylist and designer Junelia Aguiar (who by far is on of the sweetest girls I have I ever met.) Remember you heard it here first!

Ash Chandler and Junelia Aguiar

Ashish Raheja (left)

Yudhistir (far right)

Farhan Akhtar (right)

Fahad Samar and Ash Chandler

Reshma Bombaywala and T.C.

Ash Chandler and Kishore F.D.

Reshma Bombaywala, Junelia Aguiar and Alon Mooleman

T.C. and Brian Brown

Also spotted, Ashish Raheja (who I will forever remember as “Sheesh”), Brian Brown (who just made it to my “lame lush list” with his dorky pick up attempt – which I think he thought was super funny – “Look, I’m married” with a wink. Ugh.) Espresso king Alon Mooleman (who’s promised to send me pictures of his futuristic espresso machine which has a fancy name and even comes in pink!),  Farhan Akhtar (Oh. My. God. I did a total double take when I realized this very chilled out chap hanging in the corner was the Rock On! eye candy himself), Kishore D.F. (remember Seijo and the Soul Dish in Bandra, Mumbai? I miss that place), Yudhisthir Urs (who had apparently just arrived from a very successful cooking-while-drinking session and seemed adorably plastered), Fahad Samar (who I had a delightful conversation with about books. I don’t mean to sound like a literary snob or anything but lets face, it on the whole glitterati circuit there is a fine line between people who can read and those who do read!), Nikasha Tawadey and T.C. and Nathalie Ressencourt De Sousa (who’s Cafe Goa you should check out the next time you’re in Bandra, Mumbai.)

T.C., Junelia Aguiar and Nathalie Ressencourt De Sousa

Celebrity Lost and Found (Part III)
Kamal Sadhana (Remember him?) who made his major debut opposite Kajol in Bekhudi (which I quite enjoyed back in the day) and then slowly faded into oblivion through a series of random movies titled Rang, Baali Umar Ko Salaam, Hum Sab Chor Hain, Rock Dancer, Angaara, Hum Hain Premi, Nirnayak, Mohabbat Aur Jung, Kaali Topi Lal Rumaal, Kasamh Se (a TV series) and Victoria No. 203: Diamons Are Forever also why do I feel like he was in Maachis? (Don’t him and Chandrachur Singh have the exact same slightly “lost boy” vibe?)

(circled) Kamal Sadhana

Fahad Samar and Kamal Sadhana

Chandrachur Singh

GQ gets Bar Night, just Right.

AD Singh & Sophie Choudhary

Bandana Tewari & Haseena Jethmalani

Gautam Singhania

Rosa Catalona

Sabina Singh

Zeba, Sabina and Sangita

Yash Birla

Avanti Birla

GQ Bar Nights kicked off its maiden voyage with panache last night at Olive. The place was abuzz with mostly beautiful people, plenty of trendy cocktails and loads of food on the house (now I’ve been pretty dissappointed with the food at Olive in the past but last night’s spread was quite impressive.) AD and Sabina Singh played host to the rich and restless in attendance including  Bandana Tewari (in her animal print dress), Sophie Choudhary, Natasha Poonawalla, Divya Thakur and Haseena Jethmalani (all flying solo), Roohi & Chetan Jaikishen, Yash & Avanti Birla (in surprisingly sedate garb), Zeba & Rajesh Kohli, Pratima & Gaurav Bhatia, Samir & Palak Sheth, Ashwin Deo, Alex Kuruvilla and Gautam Singhania. DJ Aaron James from New York turned up the tempo accompanied by a live percussionist and kept the likes of Fahad Samar, Nisha Jamval, Kishen Mulchandani, Rosa Catalona and Sangita Kathiwada entertained till the wee hours of the morning.

Art for Angst – Remembering 26/11.

Sonal Shah, Anupa Mehta and Sapna Kar

Bacchi Karkarya

Fahad Samar and Sangita Kathiwada

Tuesday night marked an artistic tribute to the 26/11 tragedy at Olive Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. Anupa Mehta and Sapna Kar played host to the arts fraternity including Kunal Kapoor, Sonal Shah, Bacchi Karkarya, Sangita Kathiwada, Surabhi Gupta, Arpit Agarwal, Brian Brown, Sumeet Chopra, Fahad Samar (who himself has written quite a clever piece on the whole Page 3 reaction to 26/11 which he dubbed socialite activism), and Ananya Banerjee.

Around 75 of India’s top artists participated including Anjolie Ela Mennon, Riyaz Komu, Laxman Srestha, Brinda Miller, and Akbar Padamsee with 1×1 foot art at the exhibition. Although all the smiling and posing in front of art meant to evoke a tragic memory seemed a little out of place its at least comforting to know that thefunds raised from all sales will benefit victims of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. Amongst the art at the exhibition are two quilts created by fashion designer Krishna Mehta. The most expensive piece of work is valued at Rs. 4,50,000.

Celebrity Speak – Socialite Activists

Film-maker Fahad Samar’s inside take on socialite sentiments 6 weeks after 26/11.

The palpable outrage that most South Bombay socialites felt after the terror attacks in November last year resulted in some serious soul searching, politician bashing, sms messaging, Facebook emailing, group marching and candle burning.  After all this was not just another attack on Mumbai but an assault on two sacred social citadels -the Taj and Oberoi hotels which almost all socialites worth their Birkins immediately claimed as their “second home” in heartfelt columns and media interviews.

In the aftermath of the attacks, as Mumbai mourned and all celebrations were cancelled, it seemed that the party pages would be temporarily bereft of social events and scantily clad celebrities to feature. But our intrepid and ever resourceful socialites rose admirably to the occasion and vied with one another to organize protest marches and candlelight vigils at the Taj whilst graciously allowing unglamorous, proletarian activists like Teesta Setalvad the opportunity to express solidarity with those who perished at CST. And thus, overnight, we witnessed the birth of the Socialite Activist -a carefully coiffured creature with a bleeding heart created solely for the benefit of Page 3.  Beauties with a purpose, as it were.

These noble fashionistas mobilized all their media contacts and milked the moment with consummate flair- all dressed in creaseless white shirts, designer jeans and oversized goggles. They came to shed a tear, light a candle and nostalgically wax eloquent about the Camembert soufflé at the Zodiac and the Black Cod Miso at Wasabi.

The cynics wondered how long it would be before the South Bombay glitterati abandoned these aforementioned protest activities and reverted to doing what they actually did best- Socialising. A full six weeks after the attacks, it seems that the anger has altogether abated and it’s back to business as usual on the party circuit.

It began slowly but surely as these divas started tentatively foraying to art openings and cultural events. Gradually, discreet sorties were undertaken to weddings and parties at friend’s homes and then when it seemed it was okay to be seen in public, the beautiful people began frequenting Indigo and Olive, although never in large groups. They secretly cursed Alyque Padamsee whilst publicly applauding his decision to cancel his annual Xmas eve party. So tedious to find another media covered event at such short notice, nah? And since seen celebrating New Year in Mumbai would be considered in extremely poor taste the jet set slipped out of the city and headed to Goa where they repeatedly raised toasts to the spirit of Mumbai.

They were however sorely betrayed by their patron saint, the King of Good Times, who had decided to cancel his annual New Year bash at Kingfisher Villa. Scores of South Bombay beauties suddenly found they had no high profile event to attend on New Years Eve and therefore decided to publicly proclaim that they were in no mood to celebrate this year. The activist spark in the shrewd socialite was suddenly rekindled. Having returned to Mumbai in January and found that the Taj and Oberoi had reopened for business, the Socialite Activists had every reason to celebrate-they could now frolic with impunity whilst pretending to make a statement of solidarity.

Partying was never such sweet sorrow.

Easy Tiger

Ash Chandler & Fahad Samar

Ashwin Deo & Narendra Kumar Ahmed

Ash Chandler

It was beer and brunch at the Blue Frog on Sunday where Ashwin Deo (ever the gracious host) took over the reigns as boss man at Tiger headquarters. Daytime drinking was enjoyed by Narendra Kumar Ahmed, Rahul D’Cunha, Dipika Roy, Raju & Esther Daswani, Shibani Kashyap, Sheetal Malhar, Matan Schabraq (who I’ve recently discovered has a major sneaker fetish) Fahad Samar, Amitabh Nanda with baby Satya in tow (already the perfect poser at the ripe old age of 3!) Prashant Raj, Shiv Pandit, Peter Mukherjee, Aditya & Divya Hitkari, Arjun & Shefali Khanna, Farid Currim, Kailash Surendranath, Naz & Remu Zaveri, Sudhir & Rashmi Bahl, Sameer Malhotra, Suleiman Merchant with fiancée Reshma Malhotra and what turned out to be the highlight of brunch – Ash Chandler with an impromptu performance and then a heartfelt dedication by Suresh & Devika Bhojwani.