While Pune slept soundly last night, Holiday Inn's Totem Pole came alive when our VVIPs, guests here for the Pune Festival, decided it was party time. And there could not have been a better occasion. For, the party turned out to be a birthday bash for Hegde who turned 72 yesterday.

So party time it was. Shortly after the Pune Festival inauguration, a gaggle of filmstars and celebrities trooped to the hotel and, within minutes, transformed a regular discotheque to one of the most exclusive birthday bashes the place has probably hosted since its inception.

At the party, hosted jointly by owner L R Bhojwani and Suresh Kalmadi, the guest list was impressive birthday boy Hegde, Cabinet colleague Ram Jethmalani, Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Harshavardhan Patil, journalists Suman Dubey and Khalid Ansari, filmdom's Dharmendra, Raakhee, Shashi Kapoor, Gulzar, Prem Chopra, Pooja Batra, Aruna Irani, Padmini Kolhapure, Rati Agnihotri, Ritu Shivpuri, Om Puri and a host of other celebs which included Shobha De, Sonal Mansingh, Ritu Beri, Nana Chudasama, Uma Gajapathi Raju, Romesh Sharma. All ready to jive away the evening.

Mumbai and Delhi celebrities, of course, hogged the limelight but Pune's creme de la creme too were not far behind. Weikfield's Malhotras, the Karias, the Bajajs and, of course, the Kalmadis were there with their close associates.

The party, which rolled from very near to midnight till three in the morning, began with the cutting of a ten pound chocolate cake, especially prepared at the Holiday Inn for Hegde. Oddly enough, it was Jethmalani who picked up the knife and made the first mark on the cake after which Hegde decided to get into the act.

As DJ Vinay Samtani blared the Happy Birthday number, champagne corks popped and the party took off. Every celeb guest at the discotheque was personally welcomed with her/his name flashed on screens.

No sooner had stars and celebs taken to the floor that diplomats too decided it was good diplomatese to join the fun, shaking an over enthusiastic leg to Lambada, Boogie Woogie and YMCA.

Actresses Pooja Batra and Ritu Shivpuri even had a go at playing the DJ for some time. Much later, the two were seen dancing to remixes of Dhol Bajne Laga and Janoo Meri Jaan. As drinks flowed and sumptuous snacks made the rounds, spirits understandably ran high.

``It was incredible. Although I was there for just an hour, I had a great time,'' said Om Puri. Star designer Ritu Beri came out ``very impressed'' by the hip and happening crowd she saw there.

If the celebs were dressed to kill, even the disc itself donned a new look. The outer portion was made to resemble the Shaniwar Wada fortress of the Peshwas, complete with cannons, swords, dhaals and flagpoles punctuating the walls. Stewards were attired as if they had emerged from the Peshwa era.

``I had never seen so many big people together at the disc,'' gushed Samtani the DJ. ``We played the last track at 2.50 am. Suresh Kalmadi and Ramakrishna Hedge were the last guests to leave.'' Born to party. Naturally.