Delhi’s Belly: Here’s a weekly round-up of the Capital’s cabbages and kings

In the visitor’s gallery

They are considered two among the country’s most dynamic young businessmen and coincidentally, both are married into two of its most-respected business clans. Which is why when uber real estate tycoon Kalpesh Mehta (managing partner of Tribeca Developers, which is responsible for supporting the Trump brand in India), was spotted in the company of Vikram Desai (who heads the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in India) in the prestigious visitors’ gallery during this year’s Budget presentation, it attracted notice.

“Desai has been a long-time presence during the Budget presentation and has been invited by successive governments over the last seven to eight years for his valuable inputs,” said a source. “The fact that he was with Mehta attracted attention as the latter is known to be an important power centre these days, especially in Delhi, due to the changes at the White House.”

Incidentally, both Desai and Mehta are married to the daughters of investment banker Hemendra Kothari and Godrej Chairman Adi Gordrej, respectively and represent Mumbai’s blue chip pedigree.

Art smart

Delhi in the throes of the Art Fair is pure magic. The creativity in the air is palpable even as one negotiates the horrible traffic and polluted air to get to destinations. But when you reach, it is ethereal,” says author Parmesh Shahani who runs the popular Godrej Cultural Lab in Mumbai. Parmesh has collaborated with the fair to host the film program showing rare films on Indian artists “right from classics such as Husain’s Through the Eyes of a Painter to new ones made on Padamsee and Dodiya.”

Being no slouch when it comes to matters sartorial, Shahani appears to have been on point amongst the Capital’s pashmina-and-brocade brigade. “I also love the collateral events — especially the fun lunches like the Christie’s lunch and the Khoj brunch. The cool weather means we can layer up in style — and all of us visiting Mumbaikars are taking full advantage to show off our winter wardrobes,” he says, providing evidence in the form of this photograph with Shanay Jhaveri, the assistant curator of South Asian Art New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Some day I’m going to have my own fashion label and Zain Masud is going to be my muse,” he says, adding, “Till then, I’m busy pretending to be James Bond or stalking the gorgeous Shanay Jhaveri all over Delhi and taking pictures of him. Sometimes he even lets me pose in them. (But only when I’ve been a good boy.)”

Rest and relaxation reunites with the Capital’s pollution

Last week, a delicious serving of some of the Capital’s most glamorous women were seen to be looking even more radiant than usual. The reason? They had all spent a long and immersive two-week spell at Kalari Rasayana, a new Aryuvedic spa located in the backwater area of the erstwhile Venad kingdom in Kerala, run by the CGH group that has properties in Southern India from Kerala to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and the Lakshadweep.

The women who checked in for some R&R, included former TV executive Ravina Raj Kohli, publisher of Elle Kavita Bhartia, and fashionistas and activists for clean air, Bindu Vadhera and Shiba Shaw. “It was absolutely awesome,” said Kohli, one of the moving spirits behind Delhi’s recent Right to Breathe Campaign. “The clarity of mind and thought that I have returned with is truly amazing,” she said. But of course, all that fresh air, wholesome food and deep tissue massages could not avoid meeting the capital’s specialities: “Back to pollution, traffic, news, nyooj, nooz...and yes, loved ones. Hello, Dilli!” Kohli posted on social media on her return.

Big ticket weddings

Make no mistake about it, Delhi is gearing up for some of the highest profile weddings this season, with four that are the cynosure of all eyes. This week Yashodhara Scindia, Minister of Commerce, Industries and Employment (Madhya Pradesh), who hails from the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior and her husband, the New Orleans-based cardiologist Siddharth Bhansali celebrated the wedding of their son to a Bangalore-based bride. This is not the only wedding the Scindias are celebrating — The late Madhavrao Scindia’s grandaughter, through his daughter Chitrangada and her husband Vikramaditya Singh (son of Dr Karan Singh), will wed the grandson of the Congress candidate for Punjab CM, the erstwhile Maharajah of Patiala Captain Amarinder Singh, which makes it one of the biggest royal alliances of recent times.

Besides this, there are weddings in the families of the Akois, the clan that owns the beautiful Imperial Hotel, one of Delhi’s most elegant inns and in the family of Mukul Rohtagi, the attorney general of India. Of course the fact that all these occur even as the country goes to the hustings made a wag come up with a great spin on the famous Hugh Grant offering: Four weddings and an election.

Tweedle–Dee and his two interviews

He is very much the man of the moment and no surprises then that Akhilesh Yadav is the subject of much media coverage, following his alliance with Rahul Gandhi in the run-up to the UP hustings. But couch potatoes who are OD-ing on election coverage couldn’t help compare the interviews the Yadav scion had with the two leading TV anchors of the day this past week.

The first conducted on his private aircraft by a senior newscaster, who appeared to be even more full of his characteristic bluff and bluster than ever (as though he’d strolled off a Goan beach with a glass of feni in his hand); and the other with his female counterpart who has recently changed tracks from electronic to digital, were striking in their difference. “The contrast was quite obvious,” said a viewer. “Whereas he couldn’t get past the two or three obvious talking points with UP’s once and future CM, making for a somewhat hilarious and facile session, she, with her flawless emotional intelligence and unparalleled art of insinuation, elicited a whole lot more from her subject.”

Next: Awaiting the Badshah of Bad-ass to get his ‘Republic’ together and enter the fray.