>> This diarist has always been fascinated by Vijay Mallya: his unmatched appetite for life, his penchant for big, shiny toys and clunky jewellery and his unshakeable belief in himself and the apparent absence of all self-doubt. We recall sitting with the beer baron decades ago on his yacht in the company of designer Tarun Tahiliani, Mallya’s wife Rekha and actor Simi trying to fathom what made him tick. “Why on earth would you want bigger, more, better all the time,” we recall asking him genuinely puzzled. “Because life is aspirational,” thundered the owner of the yacht, a trifle exasperated by our incessant questioning. “Everyone wants bigger, more, better. That’s what life’s about!” he’d replied. “A maid wants to graduate to a better cologne and so do you, don’t you?” Even at that time of the night we had thought the analogy a trifle fatuous, but had ‘got’ what the tycoon was trying to say: his newest yacht was only a maid’s better cologne in the larger scheme of things …