| |
METROSCAPE
METRO MINUTES
Hosting banquets
no longer seems upmarket enough for Mayfair Rooms, Worli, Mumbai. Last
weekend it hosted a series of dramatic monologues, Going Solo 2 -Living
on the Edge, written and directed by threatre trio, Rahul da Cunha, Anahita
Uberoi and Vikram Kapadia. The monologues have already done the rounds
of Indian metros for a few months now but their black humour and the identifiable
metro angst have made for successful runs each time. The supper was just
as good-Black Dog whisky and Marquise de Pompadour champagne with lentil
and tuna salad, prawn with coriander sauce, poulet asparagus, Lebanese
pattis, pickle verde and some Mongolian accompaniments.
|
|
|
| To
begin with mobile phones and mobile children were asked to be switched
off before Karen Anand got down to whipping cheesy delights. At Britannia's
Cheese Day in Delhi's Maurya Sheraton, the quick, insightful cooking
tips apart, it was the tasting bit that got the women's only crowd
(about 250 of them) scrambling for more of My Caesar's Salad (don't
mistake it for the Roman regent's favourite), Middle East (brinjal)
wrap and Mexican Quesadillas. Nobody missed mozzarella. |
|
The fluted glasses came one after another. At
the dinner hosted in Delhi by the French wine-maker Albert Bichot from
the House of Bichot simultaneously at Daniell's Tavern in Hotel Imperial
and the prissy Belvedere at the Oberoi, wines flowed incessantly as a
smattering of guests, French and Japanese diplomats and company heads,
took soft, knowing sips and nibbled on crusty cheese sticks, venison and
caviar. Bichot wines have been in India since the early 1920s, first imported
by the royal families, so this was actually a "relaunch", a
reminder of Bichot's enduring presence in hotel cellars. Guests were coaxed
to "find your friend in the wines", a mix of vintage reds and
whites, including a superb Pinot Noir from 1993, one of the best wine
years in the last two decades. Many didn't want to stop.
The launch of the eighth issue of International
Gallerie on "Beauty and Context" at Mumbai's Crossword began
with tedious pontifications on the subject by model Kelly Dorji who wouldn't
stop at saying "I like women who are voluptuous and I'm deeply in
love with one" (an apparent reference to Lara Dutta). This was followed
by Mumbai University's Director of Aesthetics Rashmi Poddar's erudite
but extended thesis on the classical notion of beauty. But actress Rekha,
who contributed an article on what beauty means to her in the issue, was
the calming presence in all the noise, excusing herself by saying: "For
every word spoken, silence is better." She got the maximum applause.
Spreading Out
 After
Aamir Khan's stylised cricket match in Lagaan, it's time for the spinoffs.
Recently Megabowl, a video arcade in Kolkata, celebrated Champaner Day,
turning itself into the film's mythical village, complete with temple
bell, thatched roof and Captain Russell's lassi stand. And ushering people
in were Khan's rag-tag cricket team -employees of Megabowl togged out
as Bhuvan, Goli, Ismail and the rest. Apart from pretty good costumes,
they really got into the act with bits of dialogue from the film and some
hamming. But visitors were delighted when, every two hours, the Lagaan
team broke into a dance. Going by the crowds, about 25 per cent more than
usual, managers are now planning something similar at the centre's Bangalore
outlet.
—Labonita Ghosh
|
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives
