Weekend Retreat with Sabira Merchant

This was yet another hectic year for Sabira Merchant. She divided her time between travelling, participating in play readings, teaching at SNDT and helping Miss World, Diana Hayden, with her diction.

This schedule does not include the time she spends at Rotary and, of course, socialising. An important part of the city’s social make-up, it would not be wrong to say that Sabira belongs to the inner coterie that decides what’s in and what’s out. A choice she is qualified to make. Right from the days she ran Studio 29 — the city’s most exclusive night club — to her pivotal role in plugging English theatre, Sabira takes on more than she can chew (at one time she made sinful chocolates, too). It then, comes as no surprise that Sabira has to leave Mumbai to unwind and her choice: Baden-Baden in Germany’s Black Forest. Famous for its spa, Sabira after just one visit was hooked. "It is free of pollution and the environment is pristine," she says.

At the baths they brush you down and then you take three dips in mineral water after which you are so relaxed that you drop off into a fitful slumber. So, they wrap you up in a huge white sheet and then put you in a bunk. Sabira also enjoys German food and wine which she describes as "just delicious". In the evenings, Sabira heads to the rose garden and walks for an hour and a half — which explains her slender form.Her favourite hotel is Barren’s Park and given a choice, that’s where Sabira would go, every weekend.