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Journalism of Courage
Elegant necks dripping with Swarovskis and diamonds craned to see the handsome couple — Jehangir ‘Jeh’ Wadia and his Australian wife Celina Marie Jovich — as they pulled up at 7 pm in a black Range Rover.
A km away from the Royal Western India Turf Club, other necks were craning irritatedly. Peak-hour traffic at Haji Ali was in chaos. The traffic lights were off, as harried police tried to clear paths for the likes of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
PM A.B. Vajpayee and his deputy L.K. Advani were just some of the A-list celeb stream that converged on Friday night on the Royal Western Indian Turf Club to join in the wedding reception festivities of Jeh (29) and his long-time girl friend.
India Inc was there in full strength: the Ambanis, the Tatas, the Mahindras, the Godrejs and others too numerous to mention.
Jeh and bother Ness had similar black sharwanis over white salwars.
Security was tight with three of the four outer gates to the race course closed to the general public. Daily walkers and joggers to the race course were also banned entry for the entire day. Nearly 1,000 policemen and women — all from the Crime Branch, Mumbai police commandos, Prime Minister’s Special Protection Group — were deployed.
The wedding, which took place on Thursday afternoon at the Wadias’ grand residence, at Beach House, Prabhadevi, had an even more exclusive turnout but with the guest list limited to 200. Relatives and friends came from as far as Australia, London and Pakistan.
As scion of the Bombay Dyeing empire and son of the influential Nusli Wadia — and grandson of Pakistan’s founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah — Jeh’s wedding was the social talking point. According to Parsi custom guests were fed on lagan nu bhonu (wedding feast) on banana leaves. There was white mutton, prawns and their ubiquitous patra ni machchi (fish in leaves).
The groom’s mother, Maureen, fashion diva and editor of Gladrags assiduously kept photographers out during the wedding. The bride wore an ivory, silk gown with a halo of flowers crowning her head.
