Despite the touching visuals that preceded the auction, the bidders failed to get charged up. Among those who had donated their works for the cause, the artists were silent in their embarrassment, while the fashion designers were saved from the ordeal by simply failing to turn up. The uneasiness was evident at the table occupied by artists Amarnath Sehgal, Manu Parekh, Jatin Das and Sanjay Bhattacharya when their paintings met with a lukewarm response. Sehgal, whose Ganesh triology was the first to go under the hammer, was at least sold at the base price of Rs 30,000, but Parekh's `Flowers', priced at a basic of Rs 2 lakh, failed to attract a buyer and had to be withdrawn.

The auctioneer, said to be a ``professional'' with the hammer and especially flown in from Switzerland for the event, turned out to be a disappointment too. Much to the amazement of those present, he gave exactly two minutes to each auction before bringing his hammer down and closing the deal! An upset Jatin Das had to be pacified by the organisers when his painting of a ``torso'', priced at Rs 80,000, went for Rs 60,000 made by Kapil Dev (on behalf of London soclialite Surina Narula).

The good thing about these events is that they throw up unexpected stars. Radio jockey Yuri, who was only meant to be a compere for the evening, came to the rescue by subtly elbowing out the Swiss auctioneer, and smoothly took charge of the rest of the evening. He cajoled and he chided, urging bidders to dole out the dosh with sentimental and emotion-charged verbosity.

Sanjay Bhattacharya set the ball rolling further by handsomely waiving aside his 40 per cent cut. The hall came alive as the first bit of serious bidding took over for Bhattacharyya's work, starting at Rs 1.2 lakh, with the hammer coming down on Rs 1.8 lakh, the going price offered, once more, by the gracious Narula. But the Greek ambassador's wife Daphne Zepos, who had also donated a painting, failed to find a buyer (even as her husband Yannis Alexis Zepos looked on). One would have thought that in designer-label obsessed Delhi, the outfits donated by J. J. Valaya, Rohit Bal, Suneet Verma and Ashish Soni would have generated some excitement.

But despite the fact that Annie Thomas very attractively filled up Gudda's low-cut blue outfit priced at Rs 50,000, it didn't get a buyer (though we are told it was later bought by Siboni Sagar, daughter of Roop Sagar, for Rs 15,000). Another outfit that did not inspire bids was Valaya's mustard yellow churidaar kameez, modelled by the mannequin-perfect Sonalika, priced at Rs 30,000. The only active bids were for Ashish Soni's black achkan, bought by Anand Kashyap (of theAutomobiles) for Rs 17,000 and a salwar kameez by Suneet Verma, worn by Divya Chauhan, for Rs 30,000.

Some of the bidderstried to save the situation by making donations, including businessman Suman Sehgal and Vikram Jeet Sahni (a board member of the World Punjabi Organisation) who gave a ticket to Dubai for the last bidder at the `American auction' that followed dinner. Kapil Dev, who was there to pull out a lucky draw for a ticket to the World Cup (you had to donate a Rs 500 note to be part of the contest) was seen literally emptying his pockets, finally donating about Rs 10,000 in cash at the American auction.

As we were leaving after the great dinner and live music that followed, we spotted Dalvi accompanied by brother Madhav, walking into the hotel. Though we were not around to eavesdrop, you can be certain a thing or two were being said about Delhi's heartless mandarins.