New royalty
The late Nigel Dempster, my colleague at the Daily Mail who was hailed as “the guru of gossip”, once told me that he almost never featured Indians in his columns because their names would not be instantly recognisable. The country has obviously changed a great deal because the Tatler, the bible of English society, has placed Sanjay Hinduja and his wife, Anusuya, second in this year’s “Social Power Index” in its August issue. First place has been occupied by King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Tatler’s explanation for this is that: “Old Empire has given way to international money.” The Hinduja family, now headed by Sanjay’s father, Gopi, is valued at £30.5 billion. The Hindujas, whose mansion is a short walk along The Mall from Buckingham Palace, have converted the Old War Office in Whitehall into a luxury hotel and residential complex. Tatler adds: “When your family owns the only private building on Whitehall in a coronation year, yours is the ultimate calling card.”
The Indian social scene in London blossomed after India’s economy opened up in the 1990s, with Narasimha Rao appointing Manmohan Singh as his finance minister. Ramola Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan’s sister-in-law, threw elegant parties at her home in up-market Hampstead and was the ‘Queen Bee’ of London society. Later, she chose to return to India.
Who gets to sit in the Royal Box at Wimbledon is another measure of social significance. This week, the Mail identified 20 people sitting with Catherine, Princess of Wales, and the tennis ace, Roger Federer. Zafar, the son of Salman Rushdie, was among them.
Adventures beckon
Enid Blyton’s best-loved characters, ‘The Famous Five’ — siblings Julian, Dick and Anne, their tomboy cousin, George (Georgina), and Timmy the dog — are to feature in a BBC TV series “for a new audience around the world.” Filming on the3x90 minute series has already started in the southwest of England. The BBC says the series “follows five daring young explorers as they encounter treacherous, action-packed adventures, remarkable mysteries, unparalleled danger, and astounding secrets...”
Nicolas Winding Refn, creator and executive producer, said: “All my life I’ve fought vigorously to remain a child with a lust for adventure. By reimagining The Famous Five, I am preserving that notion by bringing these iconic stories to life for a progressive new audience, instilling the undefinable allure and enchantment of childhood for current and future generations to come.” Will Gould, the co-founder of Moonage Pictures, commented that “this Famous Five will be a modern, timely and irreverent action series with adventure at its heart”.
Fair enough, but I hope the BBC will not sanitise Blyton too much as new editions of her books are being edited to take out words and expressions considered racist or offensive in contemporary society.
Travel advisory
For Indians coming to London for the summer, I am duty bound to issue a warning following a spate of audacious daylight robberies. Please leave your expensive jewellery and watches at home and do not go shopping carrying massive wads of cash. Also try not to flash your mobile phones in public. At a dinner last week, I was provided sobering intelligence by the senior lawyer, Vijay Goel — he takes a dawn walk in St James’s Park with Gopi Hinduja — who revealed: “I had my phone snatched from my hand. He was on a bike and disappeared in seconds. The police do nothing... One of my clients from Bombay had his bag snatched by a man who pushed a gun into his stomach. He had £20,000 in cash. Another man had to hand over his watch.” Street robberies by armed thieves on fast moving bikes are a fact of life in London.
Fond memories
Prof CV Ramakrishnan, who once headed the department of biochemistry at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, is 97. But the father of Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize for chemistry, is still sprightly and full of fun. I paid him a courtesy call last week on a visit to Cambridge where he lives next to his daughter, Lalita Ramakrishnan, professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the university. The father said he wasn’t surprised Venki had got the Nobel after winning the prestigious Heatley Medal of the British Biochemical Society in 2008 “but when I think of him as a small boy running around, climbing trees…”
Do the math
At an Indian wedding in London last week, I was taken by the sermon delivered to the bride and groom by HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, president of Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh. I think he was spot on when he said: “In mathematics, 1+1 = 2. But in love and life and marriage, 1+1 = 1. Two souls become one.” The English guests looked slightly perturbed when he added: “You are married not for one but seven lifetimes.”
Footnote
The Daily Telegraph’s leader, “It’s just not cricket”, piled on the English sense of grievance after the manner in which Jonny Bairstow was stumped in the second Ashes Test at Lord’s. The controversy helps marketing — in marked contrast to India, Tests in England are often all sold out.
