Turning 50 in style
In this world of fast cars, fast lanes, ‘barter’, ‘collabs’, ‘deliverables’, instant coffee and insta love, to find a bestie is next to impossible. Maybe an insta bestie who is in your life one minute and out the next after some ‘barter’, but not often the kind that you can hope for a lifelong bond. So, I guess I lucked out with a good buddy who has been my go-to ‘homie’ since some 27 years. The kind you don’t need filters with — and we can complain about our respective moms knowing we are safe and not judged.
So, when Vinny — that’s what I call him — celebrated his birthday this Sunday at brunch, I had to go even though I had a terribly painful upset stomach since some seafood debacle in Japan days ago. As I walked in late to ‘Eve’, I was admonished by many for showing up ‘fashionably late’ considering I was the closest friend they said. What ‘they’ didn’t know is that I had actually dragged myself out of my bed and my illness with immense courage to show up and celebrate Vinod Mirchandani’s 50th milestone birthday!
Until that moment I hadn’t realised Vinny knew so many people. Eve was cramped like never before and the DJ accompanied by a percussionist created a magically-charged musical atmosphere! Walking through the room reverberating with retro beats — it took a lot of manoeuvre through cheek by jowl crowds. Miss Malini was my favoured pit stop apart from Manish Chopra and Hyatt’s Sandeep Gupta who had flown down from Delhi.
The cake cutting was the knockout moment at Mumbai’s rocking brunch which will be remembered warmly by all guests — even the one odd inveterate gatecrasher.
Foodie convos
Going back even further in time, I remember a special uncle in my life who was just super cool and hosted the most snazzy destination party.
Every year close friend days congregated from all over India at what used to be the Kashmir Oberoi Palace Hotel overlooking the Dal Lake. There was a large banyan tree around which was built an artsy bar and every evening ended up there with sing song favourites.
This was when destination weddings and parties were unknown to scarce. He was also a talented photographer and had kindly agreed at the behest of my fond parents to take my pictures in fancy Kashmiri royal regalia. It’s a different story for a different column that I did end up marrying a Kashmiri prince — well actually one from Jammu if we get technical about this. But coming back to the super dapper super cool Rocky Mohan, scion of Mohan Meakins and son of VR Mohan the founder of Mohan Meakins — I met him after many moons at his swish rooftop sit-down dinner at the ITC Grand Maratha.
Now I must admit here that both Kunal Vijaykar and I didn’t bother to read the invite carefully (as usual) and landed up at ITC Parel — on realising it was at the Grand which is next to the international airport we came rushing to the airport one — late for an intimate formal sit down. The trek was well worth it. Co-hosted by the prince of Mahmudabad, Professor Ali, and by Parul Kaul of Times Black card, the dinner was a feast of many delectable courses, each one better than the other. And the conversation was even more exciting. The sit down was even more special because no one sat permanently at any one table. Everyone kept shifting around and so we ended up having the joy of lots of myriad in-depth joyous conversations getting to know some interesting guests.
The conversation was predominantly about food — and for those uninitiated, Rocky Mohan is now a famous foodie known for his black tie sit-down curated dinner experiences!
And until next time and newer adventures — take care against a feisty summer!
Write to Nisha JamVwal at nishjamwal@gmail.com
