On wings of fire and glory

Expect the most wonderful things

To happen, not in the future

But right now.

Realize that nothing is too good.

Allow absolutely nothing

To hamper you

Or hold you up

In any way.

Eillen Caddy

Footprints on the Path

Clearly the blockbuster heroes and the cricketing ones have to take a back seat to the nation’s own grand slam duo of Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Paes. These young men, in their hour of glory, have bathed the nation in pride while creating tennis history with a near clean sweep of the grand slam titles. In a nation starved of heroes, Mahesh and Leander have carved for themselves a niche not just in tennis lore but in the Indian psyche. They have proved consistently in the world arena that Indians are unbeatable when challenged. The hardwork, punishing practice schedules, the lack of privacy and minor personality clashes are not the stuff that gets strutted out when you win a grand slam title but it is definitely a part of thestory.

Therein lies the irony. After their spectacular win at the Championship at Wimbledon, rumours of their imminent split started doing the rounds, the run up to the US open only lent more credence to the rumour mongerers as they seemed a tad out of sync. That they came whisker close to a victory was creditable thus stamping their undoubted talent to the title of world’s No. 1. On Sunday night I stirred from my usual sabbatical langour and laziness to don glad rags and hot foot it to the Taj for a felicitation function to honour our new super heroes.

To be honest, I was really looking forward to meeting Leander and Mahesh and conveying my personal congratulations for their tremendous achievement. I diverted to the Dior watch launch for a while, which incidentally was at the Taj as well, to wish Rauff Ansari. The small elegant gathering, put together by Sharmila, were all in their Sunday best seated for well over half an hour but the show took forever to get through the paces. For an eight thirty invitefor cocktails and show, ten o’clock was an unforgivably late start.

I sat in the front with Zarine Khan and her divinely beautiful brood which included Farah in an exquisitely bare backed criss cross top. Oh la la.. she knocked them dead in the aisles and hubby Akhil seemed to enjoy the attention she got just as much. That’s a thoroughly modern man for you, no insecurity or hypocrisy there. Bravo! Simone and Suzanne flanked Zarine who wore white crochet pants and a black top, tres chic. The warmth and affection between them was palpable and I basked in some of it myself, as we made plans to meet soon. Across the isle from us were the actor Sunil Shetty with his wife and the hostess Mrs Ansari elegant in a steel grey outfit, to the end of the same aisle I waved to Queenie and Raja Dhody looking dapper in black and Dr Farhad Taraporevala and Anju, his gorgeous wife, wearing a lovely black gara sari with her hair piled attractively on the top of her head.

When I turned to comment on Akhil’s new hairstyle, aponytail I managed a quick hello to Vivek and Bonny sitting adjacent to him. Once the mandatory speeches were done with, the lights dimmed and an audio visual of the Dior fashion show started on the screen. Still no action on the stage, I must admit to disappointment as I rose to leave for my next engagement. A quarter past ten and the show had not begun, as one of my friends put it we’ve seen the show on TV, now get on with the real thing. Mercifully, I left, to walk into the Crystal ballroom for the J Hampstead felicitation and homecoming of Leander and Mahesh, organised by Shailendra Singh of Percept Advertising. As I entered I was charmed by the ambience, the room was done in blue and white with tall candles and flowers for center pieces it had a formal yet festive air. The decor had been done by Gurleene Manchanda. I was seated on a table with Uday Singh, CEO, Columbia Tristar, with wife Cheelu, elegant in a black lace saree. Pawan Munjal, Kishore Musale, Shekhar Suman with wife Alka, who looked prettyin a white silk and diamante suit, and Anuradha and Anand Mahindra, who incidentally gave an inspired speech. Harsh Goenka sat by me and we caught up on news sprinkled with a few laughs.

The sporting duo of Mahesh and Leander were invited to accept a crystal tennis racquet which seemed to have a disproportionately short handle. Upon my comment that six inches more and it would have been perfect, one of my dinner companions retorted: “That goes for most men”. It had me in stitches for the rest of the night. Leander in his speech told us he played the right side and Mahesh the left and that they were going to stay a team and bring home the gold from the next Olympics. It was music to our ears.

Mahesh rounded off the speech by thanking their families who were seated with them. To add that Mahesh’s new extension of girl friend to the family group is the one and only Anupama Verma would not be a secret. These two are an item and do they look gorgeous together, made for each other’ springs to mind and whenAnupama came and shared her joy of her new found friendship I felt ever so happy for them.

I have seen her in Jackie Shroff’s Grahan, and to say she took the cake with her sheer presence would be an understatement. She was exemplary. I wish Mahesh and her well, they so deserve a dash of love to be added to the heady brew of fame and success and they seem to have found it. When I met Leander and Mahesh I recounted how my sons Krish, Shiv and I had willed them point by aching point, their win at Wimbledon. I also added to my congratulations a bit of philosophy in that like the best marriages they had to put their differences behind them when they played, as a united team effort made them invincible. I also added for good measure that a nation of near a billion people looked to them as super heroes of the millennium. When I left the party was in full swing with Louis Banks and master percussionist Siva doing their volatile, combustive jugalbandi.

The svelte Madhu Sapre, Dino Morea, the handsome new kid onthe acting block, Rinke, his heroine with her fresh as a daisy good looks, dream boy Tarun Raghavan and others were just beginning to warm up. This is a generation of movers and shakers who are going to set their own standards of perfection and achievement, topping the list are, of course, Mahesh and Leander on whose shoulders rest the awesome responsibility of a nation’s pride and joy. May they forever fly on wings of fire and glory.