If you cannot go to the Vienna Opera House why not make it come to you? That was the first thought of many guests who stepped inside the giant tent in the Austrian ambassador’s garden in Delhi recently. The sprawling garden had been transformed and dressed up to look like a theatre complete with velvet curtains. Later in the evening, the curtains opened to reveal a 70-piece wind orchestra from Wattens in Austria. Where or what is Wattens? It’s the headquarters of Swarovski, the 110-year-old luxury goods company which had brought the orchestra all the way from Wattens to Delhi and Jaipur to mark the opening of the Salim Ali Centre at the Keoladeo Game Sanctuary in Bharatpur.

Austria is, of course, the land of Mozart and Johann Strauss and the place where ‘the hills are alive with the Sound of Music’. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that even a small village like Wattens has its own orchestra that can skilfully negotiate its way through everything from Mozart’s compositions to the Indian national anthem and Sare Jaha Se Acha for the local audience. Many of the orchestra members are Swarovski employees who play instruments in their spare time.

The musical evening attracted many of the city’s luminaries including Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran who was taking the evening off from his diplomatic duties. Also out in strength was the city’s designer fraternity with all the top names showing up including Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, J J Valaya, Ravi Bajaj and Suneet Verma.

(From top): The 70-piece wind orchestra from Wattens performs to much applause in Delhi; a model shows off a linen creation by Shaumitro Mondal; author Shefali Tsabary flanked by Karisma Kapoor and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at the release of It’s a Mom!

Mom’s the word

It’s been a busy week for Penguin with four high-profile book launches in just seven days. And Delhi’s chatterati has never had it better as it revelled in a fiesta of book readings and reveals. The week opened at The India Habitat Centre with It’s a Mom! What You Should Know about the Early Years of Motherhood by debutante author, Shefali Tsabary. The stars of the evening were the two young celebrity moms, Karisma Kapoor and the writer’s good friend, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who unequivocally endorsed the book and said they wished the book had been written before they had their own babies! Said Priyanka, “As I read her book I was wondering why such a book had not been written earlier. That way, when I was expecting my first child, I wouldn’t have felt alone.”

The book takes one through the paces of becoming a parent for the first time. Needless to say Tsabary’s three-year-old daughter stuck to her firmly through the proceedings. So as the author read out tongue-in-cheek excerpts from her book on how a mother can never plan anything for herself with a newborn or toddler around, the point was driven home convincingly by the presence of her daughter. “But I am determined not to be distracted now by her,” said Tsabary. “What is different about my book? It focuses on the psychological changes that take over the mother, something that has not been attempted by anybody else before me. Everybody usually talks about the child and the physical changes that the mother goes through.”

Mother to a newborn child, Kapoor, talked about the emotions and feelings she connected with while reading the book. “I could relate to what she had written because it reminded me of what I’d felt in the last few months. I know that I will gift this book to my friends,” she said. Published by Penguin India and priced at Rs 195, Tsabary hopes that she has a winner on her hands.

The pace picked up again during the weekend as author Kiran Desai set The Inheritance of Loss on its way. Upamanyu Chatterjee’s Weight Loss came next and his 20-minute book reading session saw a full house including artist Bulbul Sharma and media person Rajdeep Sardesai. The week closed on Sunday with yet another book launch ? The Apostle of Love by Rukmini Chawla. This book is a tribute to Calcutta’s Mother Teresa. Published under the Puffin imprint, the author hopes to reach Mother Teresa’s story to children of all ages.

Cool calling

It is the fabric that’s thought to spell elegance and class nowadays. It’s also the fabric that is becoming increasingly popular with a number of leading brands such as Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Color Plus and Benetton, to name a few. Now, Jaya Shree Textiles, part of Aditya Birla Nuvo, unveiled its summer collection of pure linen and exotic natural linen blends at a fashion show in Mumbai recently.

Shaumitro Mondal, an upcoming Calcutta-based designer, showcased his latest collection of pure linen creations. The company’s Linen Club fabrics that he used extensively are designed by internationally-acclaimed Italian designers, Mario Talli Mencioni and Raffaella Palmieri. European technical specialists too have lent an international finish to the linen fabric.

Mondal’s creations on display at the show clothes were a mix of Indian and Westernwear. There was casualwear like skirts and tops and churidars and short kurtas as well as formal trousers and black eveningwear embellished with gold and silver. The colour palette not only included pastels and whites but also earthy tones in brown, green and rust.

The fashion show was aimed at the designer community albeit the Rohit Bals and Wendell Rodricks didn’t turn up as expected. But among the other upcoming designers present were those like Narendra Kumar Ahmed.

Photographs by Rupinder Sharma and Gajanan Dudhalkar