Yes they Cannes!

Queenie Singh and RishiâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088Sethia

Jewellery designer and social diva Queenie Singh, has been living it up in the Cote D'Azur this past week. Queenie, accompanied by her businessman husband Rishi Sethia, celebrated the latter's birthday on the French Riviera in style.

With Tamara Ralph and friends

She posted a picture of the much in love couple about to board a chopper with the words, "happy birthday my darling". And the celebrations moved to a yacht docked in Cannes, where Sethia is said to have cut his cake along with a group of long-legged lasses that included Tamara Ralph, fashion designer (and co-founder of Ralph &Russo), and hostess Natasha Poonawalla.

And if that wasn't glamorous enough, later in the day there was a photo op with actor and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, at one of the film festival's galas!

His uncle's nephew
For those who think IPL founder and high-flying economic exile Lalit Modi more or less invented the phenomenon of the international high-rolling flamboyant tycoon, here's something to consider: His uncle, the London-based billionaire and philanthropist Satish Modi has serious claim to that title.

Satish and Abha Modi with Pamela Anderson

The six foot swashbuckling NRI, who'd been compelled to shift base to London following a kidnap bid on his son, has not only authored an esoteric book (In Love with Death), but is very active on the London's arts and social scene, with dinners with Prince Charles and active engagement in the Arts for India charity foundation. This week Modi, accompanied by wife Abha, was one of the prominent Indians at the Cannes Film Festival, where he caught up with Canadian American actress, model and perennial glam kitten, Pamela Anderson.

Now we know where his nephew gets it from!

From Justin to Paul
The Oshidar sisters are on a roll! Not even a fortnight after younger sis Sahirah (19) had her brush with fame, when her cover version of Justin Bieber's Despacito, was featured as the track behind his promotional video on his India tour, word comes in that her elder sister, Shayaan (22), was one of six of her batch in the final year at Liverpool University, to have had a private 1/2 hour songwriting session, with none other than Sir Paul McCartney, an alumnus of the university!

Shayaan Oshidar with participants and Paul McCartney after a songwriting session with him

Besides studying music for three years Shayaan has also been part of HICARI ( which means Light in Japanese), which performed on the London Liverpool music scene. Besides being one of the band's songwriters, she'd also been one of its lead singers.

"What a wonderful way to end 3 years at Lipa. Quite the icing on the cake!" said proud mom, artist Simeen Oshidar. And then commenting on the coincidence of both her daughters' brush with pop superstars, added "One with Bieber and the other with Paul. What more can one ask for!"

Portrait of the Maharana as a young man
'When India's king of kings left his vast royal palace overlooking the banks of Lake Pichola in Rajasthan for a dose of reality - he came to Manchester.' Was the blurb on a sumptuous spread on Arvind Singh Mewar, the erstwhile Maharana of Udaipur, in this Sunday's edition of the Manchester Evening News. The interest in Singh was not theoretical. In his twenties the pampered prince had spent what he considers the most formative period of his life in Britain's North Western industrial powerhouse.

"I learnt the values of life which are still holding me in good stead," he told the reporter. The reason for his move was to play cricket in the Lancashire league. So eschewing living off the family fortune, he had found a job at a clothing firm as a junior executive at the princely sum of 10 quid per week to earn his keep.

"I remember my first day getting the train, to buy the ticket. It was like every day for others, but this new commuter life was a totally new experience for me. It taught me I could live by myself without this huge support system behind me," he says.

Looking at him today, every inch a story book king, swathed in silks and surrounded by pomp and pelf, one could never imagine that his life would include such a quotidian past. But there for the world to see are pictures of a happy 20-year-old in an ordinary black suit and tie, looking like a very ordinary immigrant, out for a beer with his mates!
Who woulda thunk?

High-flying tales
If you think it's easy being super rich, think again. Increasingly, the status symbol stakes are getting so high that it's making the upper crust bilious. While earlier, a penthouse, a fleet of luxury cars, and a couple of trips abroad could suffice to impress the hoi polloi, today it's got a whole lot more complicated with yachts, European holiday homes, priceless art, bookings at the world's leading restaurants, and, of course, at least one private jet at your disposal, are considered just the entry level to the glam set.

Of course, those who do not own a private jet have the privilege of renting one from the many jet leasing companies that have mushroomed to cater to this need. "Our biggest billing comes from those who do not own their own jets but have a great need to fly in them to avoid commercial flights," the owner of a private jet leasing company informed us recently. "And of this lot, none are as regular as this mother-daughter pair, who are not only our biggest clients but also our most difficult." How so ? "They have foul tempers and think nothing of misbehaving with our personnel," he said, adding wearily, "But what can we do? They have an annual billing of almost '5-crore with us so we play along."
Rs 5-crore? At this rate the super rich are going to be super poor!!