Column

So how did Mumbai spend Sunday?

Let’s see: early morning as usual his faithful flock gathered at realised being Ramesh Balsekar’s Warden Road residence to hear his Sunday sermon on the theory of Advaita and other related matters and then went to discuss it at the nearby chai shop.

Nasser-bhai, a reformed Don who now does charity work , spent it with his family at his Colaba Pasta Lane residence celebrating the afterglow of Eid with his wife, three beautiful daughters and son eating delicious almond lace Khir.

Meanwhile, his friend and celebrity author Gregory David Roberts — after a visit from John Abraham to discuss motorbikes (Gregory has been famously restoring an Enfield for Johnny Depp who plays him in a movie) — spent most of Sunday sleeping off his jet lag at his bachelor pad at Kala Ghoda from his recent speaking tour in Australia.

Psychiatrists Rajesh Parikh and Shamsa Sonawala went for a walk at Colaba Woods, to discuss the imminent internship of two resident doctors from Harvard at Jaslok in their department. Apparently just as interns from all over the world are looking at doing stints at Infosys and Wipro, the international medical community is also eyeing India as a desirable place to train.

Ace restaurateur, chef and foodie Rahul Akerker, and his wife, lifestyle icon Malini, meanwhile spent Sunday at the Breach Candy Club, in the swimming pool with their family and kids. Around them Mumbai’s hip young people ate, drank, soaked in the approaching winter sun — and made merry.

At the Club too were most of Mumbai’s expat community reading the Sunday papers and drinking beer while Yuku Hamid Cipla’s swashbuckling owner spun giddy circles around the pool on his evening constitutional.

In another corner on a deck chair sat environmental — activist and sailor Shyam Chainani contemplating a swim.

Meanwhile, in Nariman Point, Jazz enthusiast and soft furnishing Czar Prakash Thadani ate sushi at Japengo with his family, and talked up his newest Jazz Festival and his sing-along sessions at Starters and More with Nina Advani and her daughter Alekha, who were seated at the next table.

Kavita Boga Pandit a hi-fi enthusiast spent the afternoon at a hi-fi exhibition in Bandra, the Bhojwanis — Devieka Suresh and their two kids Karan and Ruchika — spent the afternoon with their grandmother at Altamont Road and the evening together at home. High fashion exporter Chitra Gidwani spent the day giving finishing touches to her swanky terraced flat atCarmichael Road.

Bharat Kewalramani probably went sailing with his daughter and, of course, there were others who stayed in bed all day, read, flew light aircraft, rode, cooked, partied, worked, and entertained. I, by the way, sat and wrote this column!
s_malavika@dnaindia.net