Missing out on Delhi events

November 29, 2014: I am scheduled to leave for Delhi for a week. In winter, Delhi is known for the diplomats‘ events and political lunches and dinners. A front page news in yesterday’s The Telegraph reported that the Prime Minister has discouraged party members and top ministers from hosting cosy lunch and dinner parties during winters.

This is in line with the austere measures that the Modi government has been introducing slowly in the functioning of his government.

The report said that Nirmala Sitharaman has been the only exception to host a lunch for some women journalists with the onset of winter.

This week I missed two events in Delhi. One was the French Ambassador, His Excellency François Richier’s inaugural dinner on the occasion of “Treasures of Rajasthan: A Lifestyle Exhibition” at the Residence of France, New Delhi, on November 20, 2014.

The other event that I missed was scheduled yesterday at 4 PM and hosted by the German Ambassador, Michael Steiner, who organized a satsang to celebrate his his birthday at the German Embassy in Chanakyapuri.

The satsang was addressed by spiritual guru, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who spoke on how to bring different cultures together and foster mutual understanding between people in Europe and India.

Yesterday evening I was at Nandan to see Roopa Ganguly’s new film Nayanchapar Din Ratri by director Sekhar Das.

The film, which carries a social message, is about the life and travails of three domestic helps Nayanchapa, Champa and Malati played by Roopa, Chandreyee Ghosh and Damini Basu respectively, who commute by local trains from the suburbs to Kolkata each day for work braving all kinds of hardships in life.

It was nice of Roopa to bring in her three housemaids at the premiere.

ess bee