Brunch till dusk

From Bangalore: Yesterday night I went to the other property of ITC – Gardenia – for dinner. Actually Mr Ranvir Bhandari and his wife Danijela Radonic Bhandari had invited me over as I was in city.

Mr Bhandari was General Manager of ITC Sonar in Kolkata and had then moved over to Max Ventures in Delhi. Recently he joined the ITC Hotels as the vice-president, South. We had dinner at the Gardenia’s West View Restaurant where a new Italian chef has joined in recently. The idea is to develop a complete Italian cuisine restaurant at the ITC Gardenia, Ranvir informed me. The new Italian chef was good and he prepared a range of vegetarian cuisine for us.

Ranvir and I had lot of common friends in Kolkata and we chatted about the past and things in general about Bengal and Kolkata.

On Sunday afternoon, the lunch or brunch of my distant cousin and friend Anil Kathodia’s (pic) 50th birthday, as the invite  said, lasted till 8:30 pm. In fact, by the time we called it a day it was 10:30 pm. I think this is the longest brunch that I have attended. In recent years, Bangalore has developed the culture of day parties since there is a ban on liquor by law at the late night parties.

In the past five years I have attended these brunches or lunch parties at the Blue Bar of Taj Westend and once at the Gateway Taj Hotel where the lunch lasted till almost 6 pm.

At the Sunday party by the poolside of Windsor almost one-third of the guests picked up plates for the main course after 6 pm. Till then, since 1:30 pm, it was all about live band, DJs, starters and live counters.

Today evening I shall fly back to Kolkata. I also got information from Rajasthan chief minister’s office that the CM would be in Kolkata on December 4, 2012, to attend the Samman Samaroh event of Rajasthan Foundation, Kolkata Chapter. I am currently the Honorary Secretary of this Chapter.
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