Lorenzo Quinn comes calling

Lorenzo Quinn; (Right) his father Anthony Quinn; (Left) Arun Bhatia

Like the egyptian Omar Sharif, fellow Hollywood legend Anthony Quinn, the Mexican-American actor, (Guns of Navarone, Zorba the Greek, Lawrence of Arabia) had a special place in the hearts of Indians, because both men had features that resonated with our own.

Many were the men in our acquaintance who patterned their appearance on these stars and a few of them even resembled these heroes. The late Satish Bhalla, the silver-maned, Pali Hill-based industrialist and film producer, and the firebrand bureaucrat Arun Bhatia are dead ringers for Quinn according to us, and so when we met Chhaya Momaya at a dinner on Wednesday night and she said, "Sameer and Divya Gehlaut of Indiabulls are opening the grand Gallery Odyssey at One Indiabulls Centre at the end of the month and are bringing down the international sculptor and son of Anthony Quinn Lorenzo," our ears pricked up.

(Top left) Lorenzo Quinn; (Right) his father Anthony Quinn; (Left) Arun Bhatia. Pics/Getty Images

"Lorenzo Quinn's work adorns all the important properties in London like One Hyde Park and The Dorchester," said Momaya. "And there will be cocktails, a couture presentation by Raghavendra Rathore and dinner. Please block the date," she said. Now all that's left to do is to check how closely Lorenzo resembles his swashbuckling father! Will keep you posted.

Who's sari now?
What's a fashion week without its share of consternation? And so, following on the heels of the recently concluded AIFW in Delhi, this post from industry insider Anjana Sharma, COO and Fashion Director of stylista.com and previously Head of Fashion for IMG's, caught our eye:

Grand finale of Amazon India Fashion Week

‘Respected designers young and old. Congratulations on celebrating,' she said respectfully, ‘but my heart breaks that none of you saw it fit to put a sari on the ramp. SHAMe. #Indian craft #indian design # fdci,' she said, adding, ‘Sorry but had to raise this.'

True to the feeling of newfound camaraderie in the fash frat, none of the designers she addressed took umbrage.

"Sadly I don't do saris in any other fabric but ivory mulmul and Chanderi," responded Rohit Bal. "But that wasn't the colour story we were told to follow," he said.

Love is never having to wear your sari...

On a hoarding near you
We went to bed on Wednesday night promising ourselves that we would not say the ‘S' word. After all, so much had been said, written, felt, broadcasted and posted on the closing of Samovar, the little cafe our mother Usha Khanna had started 50 years ago, that to be honest we were a little overwhelmed by it all.

Rahul DaCunha

So as we were saying... we went to bed thinking that we would spend the following day, as is our normal practice, ruminating about cabbages and kings...

So you can imagine our surprise and delight when we received this sweet SMS from the one and only ad man, playwright and fellow columnist Rahul DaCunha: ‘Hello hello,' it said ‘Have an Amul ad for Mom and you.'
Followed by a picture of the iconic little girl, such a favourite of the land, in the red polka dotted dress sitting forlornly in a Cafe . ‘Yeh Sam Mastani,' it said in the inimitable style that has made it such an enduring leitmotif of modern India. And the tagline? ‘eaten in Cafes'

‘It's great RDC,' we texted back. ‘Is it going up?'

"Yup babe - all over the city," said he. For that is how one of the country's top wordsmiths tends to speak off stage…

And so now, Samovar is on a hoarding near you!

Most-watched placement
It's arguably one of the most coveted jobs in corporate India. We're talking of the post of CFO of the country's most respected corporate house, the Tata group. And whereas one of the earlier titleholders was the erudite and suave Ishaat Hussain, the spotlight is on whom his successor in this most hallowed of positions will be. "It's been almost a year and Cyrus Mistry has not indicated who it will be," says a source.

Ishaat Hussain

"And since the person most eligible for the job, senior-Tata man Koushik Chatterjee has not been named, (giving rise to the speculation that he is being considered for another senior position) the topic of discussion in top business circles is who will be appointed and when! You can imagine the attention this key placement is attracting," he said. We can, we said.

Irony deficiency?
Our interest was aroused when we heard about a blue-chip auctioneer who would be auctioneering the estate of a departed Parsi dowager next week. And whereas our source, a Parsi himself, did not think the miniatures, jewellery and objects of art, which included an Asian inspired carved jadeite and diamond brooch in the form of a dragon (starting price Rs 9 lakh), a Burmese ruby necklace with earrings en suite (Rs 12 lakh) and two diamond solitaire rings (Rs 35-Rs 55 lakh and Rs 12 lakh) and ‘a european inspired bedroom suite including cupboards' were spectacular, he did comment on a piquant situation faced by his beleaguered community. "every day there are childless Parsis dying without heirs and bequeathing their estates to charities," he said. "Sorting out the paperwork and administration has become a major source of income for the city's top solicitor firms," he said.

And which are the preferred solicitor firms? We enquired.

"Mulla and Mulla, and Kanga and Co.," he said, naming the two formidable legal eagle establishments of Mumbai, unfazed by the irony that both of them had Parsi names.

Check please.