Nita Ambani strikes gold

Coming as it did barely a fortnight before November 1, it was probably the best birthday gift Nita Ambani could have hoped for. In recognition of her nearly two decade long involvement in education, Nita was conferred an honorary doctorate at the hands of Sankracharya Jayendra Saraswathi in Kanchi. We hear Dr Nita has fast tracked plans to open many more schools in other parts of the country, including three in the flood affected areas of Uttarakhand. It’s not as if she hasn’t had enough to celebrate even on previous birthdays, but it wasn’t unusual for her to just jet off with Mukesh Ambani to bring the day in quietly with prayers at the famed Shrinathji Temple in Nathdwara.

This year however is extra special for her golden 50th, we hear there’s a very private get-together planned with family and close friends in idyllic Udaipur which conveniently happens to be less than an hour’s drive from Srinathji. While we’re expecting the entire clan to assemble in Udaipur including Kokilaben, Dipti and Raj Salgaonkar, Nina and Bhadrashyam Kothari, besides the Meswani siblings, Aamir Khan, Firuza and Rajesh Parikh and of course the Tendulkars, it would be interesting to see whether Anil and Tina also make the journey. Though Mukesh is known to avoid any kind of ostentatious display on his own birthday the only notable exception being his 50th anniversary we suspect he’s got something special in mind for Nita this year.

His last lavish birthday gift to his wife was a $62 million jet on her 44th birthday which had made headlines. Will he go one better this time?