Avedon shoots Priyanka Chopra

Maura Moynihan with Andy Warhol back in the day, (centre) Maura in a recent picture in Indian clothes, and Priyanka Chopra

When we'd last met our friend, the writer-singer and impassioned India-lover Maura Moynihan in NYC, she'd grilled us about Bollywood. And that's because the daughter of the iconic erstwhile ambassador to India, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, says the turning point of her life was when she set foot at Delhi airport in 1973, when her dad took office, and she was enrolled as a student at the Capital's American School.

So it was with an added sense of pride that this alumnus of Harvard, who'd been an important member of Andy Warhol's avant garde crowd when she'd worked as a reporter on his Interview Magazine, announced this week that her son Michael Avedon was photographing none other than 'the fabulous Priyanka Chopra in New York City,' and to commemorate the occasion, she'd dressed herself up in her favourite Indian threads too!

Interestingly, the 20-something Michael, who is fast gaining recognition as a much sought-after photographer in Manhattan's top circles, is no stranger to celebrity and glamour. He happens to be the grandson of the legendary photographer Richard Avedon, whose oeuvre helped define America's eye for aesthetics, and whose career working with some of the most glamorous faces of his time - Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Nastassja Kinski (with her serpent) - had made him a household name.

The Hollywood musical 'Funny Face' featured Fred Astaire playing a character said to be based on the life of Richard Avedon. "Living in India as a child liberated me from ignorance about a great many things, principally a cloistered, first-world ignorance about basic needs, and the limits to planetary resources," Maura had written in an essay a few years ago, about her great passion for the country. As for her dressing up on the occasion of her son's shoot with Chopra, she commented wryly, "Naturally, I'm pretending that I'm one of her co-stars in her next Bollywood blockbuster. Madhosh her vaqt!"

A corner of history
How many of us have the privilege of engraving our name in history? Our friend, the celebrated international journalist Pranay Gupte, whose long and fruitful career in journalism has included stints as a war correspondent and columnist for Newsweek International, and Forbes amongst other places, can easily make that claim.

Pranay Gupte and The statue of the newspaper reader

Recently, the Brooklyn-based Gupte posted a picture of the famous J Seward Johnson statue of a 'newspaper reader' at Princeton University, depicting what the artist imagined to be the generic anonymous consumer of the daily news. "The newspaper is The New York Times of August 9, 1974," said Gupte.

The newspaper with Gupte's article

"It was the day Richard M Nixon resigned as the 37th president of the United States, and if you look closely, you will see my article in the lower middle of the page." And, indeed, if one peers closely, one can spot our friend's byline, forever destined to be a part of American, and New York Times, history.

Shooting from the hip
If Mumbai's culturati has its newly restored Royal Opera House to crow about, Delhi has its Vasundhara Raje-bequeathed and Malvika Singh-run Bikaner House at Pandara Road, which has fast become the epicentre of all manner of exciting cultural projects, from fashion, to food and photography.

Parul Sharma, Maneka Gandhi and (R) Nafisa Ali and Farooq Abdullah at the exhibition

And last week, the centre is said to have reached the zenith of its success, at the preview of ParulScape, the limited edition three-day exhibition featuring black -and-white photographs shot by Delhi-based Parul Sharma, who had quit her job as a high-flying executive with a TV channel only recently, to pursue her creative interests.

"Through 'ParulScape' I have tried to showcase how the asymmetry of everydayness around me collapsed and a layered alternative emerged in the mesmerising rawness of black and white," she says about the 40 striking images she'd shot on the camera of her cellphone. As for the preview, it drew a record-breaking 700 people together.

From German Ambassador Martin Ney, to the Ambassador of Spain Jose Ramon Baranano, to politicians of every hue - Maneka Gandhi, Farooq Abdullah, Sheila Dixit, Praful Patel and Jay Panda - to artists (Jatin Das) designers JJ Vallaya, Raghavendra Rathore and Rina Dhaka. They were all there, clinking glasses and drinking in the arresting imagery. As for the picture that elicited the most comment, Sharma says it was her portrait of a chapel in Kyoto. "It was a private chapel in the hotel I was staying in." Nice!

Saying it like it is
Unlike others in her profession, Lok Sabha member and NCP leader Supriya Sule keeps a low profile and is rarely seen at social events or TV studios, giving sound bytes or posing for the shutterbugs. And that is because Sharad Pawar's daughter obviously saves her breath for when it's required the most.

Supriya Sule

Yesterday, we chanced upon a fiery speech she delivered in Parliament on the subject of public lynching, beef bans and the curbing of free speech, and we were delighted to find that not only does she give every sign of being an excellent orator, but that she also stands up for all the liberal values that are under threat and so desperately need a champion.

"I am the daughter of an atheist father and a God-fearing mother," she said at one point, while roundly criticising Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis for his silence over the lynching of a man in Nagpur. "As a woman, I can tell you that one cannot tell the difference between the two meats when uncooked," she said at another point.

"And in any case, if you want to take away the much-needed protein-providing beef from the poor man's diet, at least promise to provide him with free dals rich in protein as compensation," said Sule before ending her speech with a quote from French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the flag-bearer for liberal values. A young, urbane, progressive, outspoken non-BJP and non-Congress leader of the future? Bring it!

Tall storeys
The grapevine is abuzz about this banking icon's penchant for real estate. Not only has it led to the purchase of a fabulous penthouse apartment in a spanking new building in Worli for an estimated price of 60 cool ones, but apparently it boasts of a staggering 12,000 square feet of built up area!

The reason why this has attracted notice is that it is the fourth such purchase that the banker has made in recent years. Aren't four plush apartments in Mumbai a bit excessive? Depends. When you have so much in flow of capital because of the new businesses set up by your spouse, it helps to park it in assets that appreciate, right?