Over some “chai and nashta”, denizens of ‘Bombay’ and ministers from Delhi restore the island city’s spirit

It was just the kind of balm that a bruised Mumbai needed after being brutally attacked not too many months ago. A warm evening of passionate denizens gathering over some Bombai “chai and nashta” at the venue that was to become the enduring image of the 26/11 attacks. Throw in it an Oscar-winner, that same gent who skipped the black-tie ceremony in favour of a kurta-pyjama, that same gent whose words are being sung by every Indian and every ‘Bombayite’, (everyone here, politicians and industrialists agreed to call it Bombay from now on), and you have a high tea that actually raises spirits.

When the achingly handsome BJP MP Vinod Khanna and his equally elegant wife, Kavita, decided to launch a Congressman’s book of poems—Kapil Sibal’s I Witness: Partial Observations—that irreverant master of ceremonies Suhel Seth said that in Delhi conspiracy theories would have abounded insisting “it was the BJP’s way of showing Congress ministers as doing little work but penning poems”. Other gems from this maverick ad-man forced the well-heeled to kick away their political correctness, as he took wicked digs at all politicians—Congress and BJP members alike.

Sibal and Gulzarsaab, whose Jai Ho, has now become the national anthem, took turns in reading from the book on a dais, while Seth discussed various topics of interest pertaining to the politically-charged verse. When Seth asked Gulzar why the youth of today had forgotten about the genius of

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