Mahendra Sanghi & The Uzbekistan Connection
Mahendra Sanghi might technically be an octogenarian — and frankly many of my friends are — but I’ve never particularly asked or wondered because he is far more youthful and excited about life than people half his age. Always on the move, always curious, always planning something exciting around the arts and culture scene.
In his role as honorary consul general of Uzbekistan, Mahendra and his singer-songwriter wife Manju Sanghi hosted a grand yet intimate cocktail reception at the Taj Wellington Mews lounge overlooking luscious lawns, for the flamboyant Ambassador of Kazakhstan to India, H.E. Azamat Yeskarayev. He was visiting Mumbai briefly, and I made it my business to attend over other engagements.
What struck me most was the ambassador’s curiosity about all things Indian and his enthusiasm to take a contingent of eminent Indians to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Since I’ve never been, I was delighted at the invitation and am very much looking forward to this plan materialising — assuming, of course, that it wasn’t entirely born from the jollity of the champagne evening and exuberant hospitality. Mumbai social plans sometimes have a way of evaporating with the night. But something tells me I’ll be writing about Uzbekistan in a column soon_. Or perhaps wearing ikat and drinking tea in Samarkand.
Raveena Aswani’s Floating Birthday
Jeweller Raveena Aswani of Darshana Sanjana Jewellers had quite a glamorous birthday gathering at the swanky Koi Bar atop The St. Regis Mumbai, hosted by a close friend to us both, Seema Singh.
Raveena’s store is named after her two beautiful daughters, whom her jeweller husband Kaushal and she have groomed to be strong entrepreneurs carrying forward their legacy. I find them great role models for Indian parents who still covet a “male heir”.
Hers was not a conventional sit-down, but it was as much fun, if not more. There were intimate window tables peppered around the plush bar where people perched temporarily before traipsing off again, while savouring what is now fashionably called a “floating buffet” circulating through the restaurant. Which also means nobody sits long enough to finish all the courses at one table, but they enjoy many conversations and courses at different tables while glamorous ladies traipse in and out.
The ever-metamorphosing Mumbai curtain walls on skyscrapers glittered, the crowd shimmered in bling attire and everyone enjoyed the joint hospitality thoroughly. Which in Mumbai is practically a civic duty.
Roshni Damania’s Glamorous Sit-Down Lunch
After the current wave of standing cocktails and deafening music disguised as dinners, Roshni Damania’s lunch at Brunch & Cake felt therapeutic and relaxed. Like an English countryside brunch in a verdant greenhouse dining space, unwinding and nourishing in more ways than one.
Beautifully planned down to the tiniest detail — every salad, each dish, sorbets and desserts — it featured something increasingly rare in this city: an actual long table where guests remained seated long enough to complete both a meal and conversations. Every course arrived lavishly at a convivial table instead of guests balancing canapés, phones and social ambitions simultaneously.
Civilisation is sometimes just a proper sit-down lunch and some meaningful exchanges. And these don’t include handbags and dress labels. A rare Bombay afternoon where nobody seemed in a hurry to be photographed and leave.
Kalki Turns Kala Ghoda into a Fun Fair
The Kalki Fashion preview at its Kala Ghoda flagship store did not have the regular cocktail-canapé-evening air and was more like an extremely stylish fun fair with raunak and colour. Which made it far more delightful than the standard flute-of-champagne, cheeses-and-forced-networking format.
The sprawling store had little kiosks peppered throughout — charms, accessories, name-engraved goodies and colourful gifts designed to ensure nobody left empty-handed or unentertained.
For summer there were neon Kaleidoscope slippers for poolside lounging or airport appearances — because apparently even one’s boarding-gate aesthetic now requires curation.
My favourite touch, however, was the personalised water flask station. In a world already suffocating under plastic, and hill stations with plastic water bottles strewn across bushes and trees, this felt meaningful and sensible. I promptly acquired a pink one engraved with my name while the vendor industriously sat there engraving bottles all evening long. Mumbai luxury now comes with sustainability — and monogramming.
The clothes leaned heavily festive and bridal, unapologetically traditional and occasion-wear-driven. And yes, thanks to Natalie Mistry, this was actually my first visit to the store. I saw some friends buying beautiful lehngas and another friend a pink Kanjivaram. Is Mumbai already gearing up for wedding season? The last one is only just ending!
Lord Narasimha & Bombay’s Spiritual Side
Did I ever mention that I share my birthday with Lord Narasimha? Which perhaps explains certain personality traits.
Orthopaedic surgeon Dr Unatkat and his wife Nipam Unatkat — a healer associated with Prism Clinic — hosted a grand celebration dedicated to the ferocious and powerful deity, accompanied by a Mexican high-tea prasaad.
Nipam specialises in Access Bars therapy, a healing practice involving 32 points on the head believed to store the electromagnetic charge of thoughts, beliefs and emotions. The idea is to declutter the mind, reduce stress and restore emotional balance. Frankly, given current global affairs and Bombay traffic, most of the city could probably use Nipam’s expertise.
The evening’s most extraordinary presence, however, was the presiding priest who had reportedly taken a vow of silence for twenty years. He said nothing, naturally, yet somehow dominated the room completely. A powerful, calming presence blessing assorted Bombayites all attempting to navigate life’s rapids, troughs and permanent overstimulation.
And in these trying times of wars, anxiety and economic caution being suggested to a city addicted to excesses — perhaps a little spirituality isn’t the worst idea after all.
(Write to Nisha JamVwal at Indiaphenix@gmail.com)
