Dinner at Taj Tashi in traditional Bhutanese attire

Prabha Khaitan Foundation in association with Techno India hosted a dinner yesterday night at the Taj Tashi property here in Thimpu to celebrate the Mountain Echoes Literary Festival in Bhutan.

Eminent authors Gulzar, Vikram Seth ,Patrick French, William Dalrymple and many others attended the dinner along with festival director Namita Gokhale and the Indian Ambassador to Bhutan and an author, Pavan K Varma, and his wife.

Most of them thoroughly enjoyed the cocktails and Bhutanese cuisine.

Taj Tashi, in fact, had made special arrangements for providing Bhutanese traditional wear for those guests who wanted to try it out at the dinner.

Thanks to General Manager Ravi Nischal and The Taj Bengal General Manager, Mohan Chandran who thought of this and both of them turned up in traditional Bhutanese attire. Many of the other guests also attended the dinner in Bhutanese traditional dresses.

Besides the authors, the guest list included the diplomats of other countries in Bhutan and local authors and the Chief Guest, Her Majesty Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuk – the one of the four wives and Queens of the Bhutanese King, His Majesty, Jigme Singe Wangchuck, who ruled Bhutan from 1972 until his abdication in 2006.

Her Majesty was particularly interested in promoting the art and the rich cultural heritage of Bhutan.  She is also the patron of Bhutan’s Textile Museum and would speak on textiles in one of the Lit Fest sessions.

I had dinner with her along with Mrs Pavan Varma.

At the dinner party, there were quite a few eminent personalities from Bollywood like director Vishal Bharadwaj, Tisca Chopra, Arshad Warsi and Mushtaq Sheikh.
ess bee