This is the only place in Delhi where you can get freshly-crushed sugarcane juice, banned 10 years ago. Doing what no gannawala would have dared to on the street, Masala Art-ists spike this juice with vodka and elaichi. Even the Strawberry Daiquiris come with a fiery new twist of green chillies. The bar has Santa Singhs of the world singing for Buntas (marble soda chasers that fizz up Kala Khatta).
Headed by the tallest toques in the Taj, the creative culinary trio has none other than PM Vajpayee’s favourite dinner minister, Hemant Oberoi, and chefs Alex and Qureshi. The real feast is at live food stations where rare fish like Kane (it makes Mangaloreans bayildi), tiger prawns and subtle arvi slither on to tawas, slaked with spice. This is when the sexy call out to the chefs for their fish to be fried or drizzled with Extra Virgin olive oil! Just desserts are as politically frozen as the watch your line-of-control sweet called Himalaya-ki-Choti that was first served to Pervez Musharraf.
Pramila N. Phatarphekar
Kindergarden Party
Replete with a new "mindgrow" library, two new fountains, an amphitheatre and a science gallery, the hitherto unkept ndmc children’s park at the India Gate complex now boasts of a completely new landscape.
As an integral part of its social service-cum-brand extension exercise, Maruti has stepped in to maintain the park—a collaboration that was initiated almost one-and-a-half years ago. "It’s a modest effort to give the kids quality open spaces," says Jagdish Khattar, MD, Maruti Udyog Limited.
There are big plans in the pipeline. From school outings and picnics, the kids can even celebrate their birthdays at this refurbished green address with Maruti giving them special gifts. The young ones are loving all the attention as are their parents.If the inaugural bash was anything to go by, Delhiites sure care about their kids, but why they gorged upon all the refreshments while leaving only the crumbs for the li’l ones still remains a mystery!
Arijit Barman
In Whose Face Is It?
With a topic as gendered as ‘Does India Deserve Her Politicians?’, could there be anyone else but Suhel Seth at the helm of affairs and the launch of his book In Your Face? With a panel as heavy as law minister Arun Jaitley, Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta, Tarun Tehelka Tejpal and ndtv’s Rajdeep Sardesai, the hard punches when pulled hurt when they landed. While the typical cliches tossed into the rarefied air at the Taj Mansingh were compromise and liability, the newly-coined phrase for the evening was that all the invitees were the beautiful minds of a socially-mapped place called "Suhel’s India". But it’s people like them when provoked into attending book launches that set cash registers ringing for publishers.
Pramila N. Phatarphekar
New At NASSCOM
Coming soon to a theatre near you. When a chief guest was late for a nasscom event, captains of noted Indian abbreviations did some serious "timepass". By March say ficci’s Amit Khanna, The Indus Entrepreneurs’ Harish Mehta, Subhash Ghai when they come together, Indian cinema will never be the same. nasscom will provide "the software", ficci will handle the entertainment bit and tie will sell it to America. Sounds like a plausible plot for B(H)ollywood.
Manu Joseph
