If you were there, then you needed a cellphone to find your friends. Yes, Sanjeev Chowdhury's Canada Day celebrations had close to a 1,000 people congregating at the Taj's Ballroom. From the Canadian High Commissioner Peter Walker and his wife Janet (come down specially from Delhi) to the USIS's Sheldon Austin and L'Alliance Francaise's Pierre Emmanuel, it seemed that the diplomatic corps had found their meeting ground. As had the rest of the city. Spotted at the bash were Aarti and Kailash Surendranath with close friend Rohit Bal (also in town from Delhi), Kishen Mulchandani, Vikram Chandra, Meera and Nirmal Zaveri -- all you had to do was open the phone book and they were there. Even people who generally hate to party. The usually anti-social Akshaye Khanna showed up in place of Subhash Ghai. The actor -- who is in Ghai's new flick Taal -- was filling in for his director who is currently in Canada -- Shooting! The highlight of the evening was a performance by Shiamak Davar andthe children of the Sankardhan Vidyalaya School for the Hearing Impaired. They danced while he sang -- and there was not a dry eye in the audience.

Wednesday also saw the end of the Silk & Salsa evenings at the Fashion Bistro. A five-day Latino fiesta, the sounds of South America really seemed to bring out the wild side of the city's movers and shakers. It seems that techno no longer holds sway over Mumbai and DJ Rohan (usually found at the Copa Cabana) had Dino Morea, Bipasha Basu, Nikhil Chinappa, Anjala Zaveri, Marc Robinson, Michelle Tung and Fashion Bistro's Chhaya Momaya doing a mean tango.

Michael's Manish

Michael Jackson has something is common with Mumbai's glitterati. He too must be dressed by Manish Malhotra. So much so, that he had Reverie's top man fly down to Munich to dress him for a concert in aid of the Nelson Mandela Trust. While Michael shared the stage with A R Rahman, it was Manish's white kurta and crinkled white dupatta that the Thrillerman really tripped on. Unfortunately, Michael had a slight accident right before the number he was meant to wear his MM original -- so it never made it to the stage. But it did make its way into Michael's wardrobe -- he tried it on before the show and was so impressed that he has asked our Bombay boy to design another one.

There is no stopping the Manish juggernaut at the moment. At a party held at the Oberoi's Regal Room to celebrate the silver anniversary of a well-known Mumbai couple, Manish's designs dominated the day. Spotted in Manish Malhotra originals of chikan and badla were Hasina Jethmalani and Devaunshi Mehta (of Chopard and Piaget). Move over Michael.

Moving on

Sumeet Chopra, one of Mumbai's best lensmen, is now muscling in to the world of ad films. Hey! Before you scream `unfair', Sumeet is one of the few still photographers who has straddled both worlds very comfortably. So in between shooting a calendar that has now become a collector's item, he also found time to do films forYahama, McDowell's and Siemens. But his lastest offering, shot last week, at Royal Palms, promises to be his best ever. While Sumeet will only say that he has paired Sonali Bendre and Zulfi Sayed for BSL Suitings, a little bird told us that from the concept to the creation, the film is a stunner.

In case you are wondering when Sumeet finds the time to party, well, you know the old adage about people who work hard and party hard -- he fits the bill to a Tee.

And finally...

For a long time now we have been predicting that Sheetal Malhar will be the next super model. And boy, were we right. The dusky, leggy model has now become the face of Maybelline in India. Since their launch last year, the international cosmetic giant has been looking for a desi face to replace Christy Turlington in their Indian ads. And after a long search, they settled on Sheetal. Why? They think she has a look that crosses all boundaries. Will Indian cosmetic companies please take note? Dusky is beautiful so stopshying away from models like Nina Manuel and Noyonika Chatterjee -- just because their skin is a shade darker than the fair, bleached-out look they try and sell. Hey! We live in a tropical country and most of us are wheatish if not dark. And it suits us, thank you!