There’s a story, most likely apocryphal, relating to Mayawati’s visit to a posh beauty parlour at a five-star hotel. HT Image There’s a story, most likely apocryphal, relating to Mayawati’s visit to a posh beauty parlour at a five-star hotel. There, the Bahujan Samaj Party boss spied a glamorous politician’s wife having her weekly pedicure. Mayawati is said to have turned to the hair-dresser attending to her: “Mujhe aise hi latein chahiye (I want my hair to look like those).” The story, when I heard it sometime in the mid nineties, was accompanied by much tittering in that particular Delhi…

In a crisis, people need two things: a plan to effectively counter it (or even better, to prevent it), and strong and resolute leaders. Our real tragedy is that we seem to have neither, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image Mumbai is still recovering from the horrific terrorist strikes that began on Wednesday night. But the hand-wringing and the sermonising have begun. Words are tossed about: ‘dastardly act’, ‘spirit of Mumbai’ and so on. But the one question we should be asking is this: what do we learn from these repeated strikes? Even as we prepare to ‘stamp out’ terrorism, are…

Raj Thackeray is a chip off the old block, yet another one-trick pony from the Sena stable, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image Hum UP ke log hain, hume Hindi mein baat karni chahiye – Jaya Bachchan at the promotion of Drona in Mumbai. If you are from Delhi, then why have you come to Maharashtra?- Bal Thackeray to Shah Rukh Khan in an editorial in Saamna Actress and Rajya Sabha MP (Samajwadi Party) Jaya Bachchan’s apparently casual remark sparked off a furore, with Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) declaring a boycott of all Bachchan films unless the actress apologised for…

In the Aarushi-Hemraj murder case one thing is clear: nobody — English or Hindi, tabloid or broadsheet, print or TV — has come out smelling of roses, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image On national networks, TV anchors and editors Deepak Chaurasia and Ashutosh are clear: the media have nothing to apologise about in the Rajesh Talwar case. Now that the doctor, once accused of murdering his daughter, is out on bail for lack of evidence, you’d imagine that he’s trying to pick up the pieces of his life and get on with it. No such luck. The murder of Aarushi…

Although he’s supremely conscious of the role his father has played, and continues to play, in his life, you suspect that Jyotiraditya Scindia is not the kind of person to look back with regret. Namita Bhandare tells us more about this Gen Y MP. HT Image He looks pretty bright-eyed for someone who has been up for most of the previous night. Bounding into the room, file in hand, the new minister of state for Communications and IT says he’s barely had a couple of hours sleep: he’s been boning up on his new ministry, trying to quickly understand the…

Tragically, neither city delivers on issues that should matter most to its citizens: infrastructure; law and order; a modern mindset that includes involved citizens, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image In the early 90s when I moved back to live in Delhi — ironically because I had married a Marathi manoos who lived as an ‘outsider’ in the capital — the Bombay (not yet Mumbai) versus Delhi debate was at its peak. Bombay was cool and cosmopolitan; a city of opportunity and dreams where everybody who worked hard enough, could make it big; a city that was so egalitarian that it…

We have every right to ask our politicians to be honest, efficient and effective, what they do in their off-hours is entirely their business, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image The mandarins at the Ministry of External Affairs — how on earth did they come to be called mandarins? — are reported to be in a flap over India’s official guest at the Republic Day function. It’s not French President Nicolas Sarkozy who’s causing the fuss as much as his new girlfriend, now apparently his fiancée, Carla Bruni. There’s a fair chance that Bruni could join Sarkozy later this month when…

Executives nowadays are paying for high salaries with endless work hours and poor quality of family life, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image Reduced family time, 24/7 work schedules, and concerns about health. Are cool cat MBAs ready for the rat race? The fat salaries come at a price: frayed nerves and dissatisfaction at the workplace. An HT-C-fore survey of executives earning over Rs 10 lakh a year has revealed that there is a high level of concern about burnout and stress. Sixty-six percent of the 400 middle-level executives interviewed in Delhi and Mumbai said they are unhappy about their work-life…

Salman Rushdie is busy signing autographs on scraps of paper, reports Namita Bhandare. HT Image Salman Rushdie is busy signing autographs on scraps of paper. Suketu Mehta is less than thrilled with the hygiene standards in his hotel and Jerry Pinto is busy exhorting people to read his Helen: The Life and Times of an H Bomb. Outside, basking in the afternoon sun are Delhi‘s A-list culturati — Bim Bissell, Shireen Paul, and Lady Plaxy Arthur. Literary agent David Godwin, whose clients include Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, is there too, adding to the firmament of stars at the second…

The three-day festival aims to promote and encourage a love of literature by bringing authors and readers together, reports Namita Bhandare. HT Image One of India’s biggest literature festivals with such major stars as Salman Rushdie and Kiran Desai kick off on Thursday at Jaipur. Billed as a ‘festival within a festival’, the literature festival forms part of the Jaipur Heritage International Festival which began on January 13 and runs through January 22. The three-day festival ‘aims to promote and encourage a love of literature by bringing authors and readers together,” says festival director Mita Kapur. Adds author Namita Gokhale,…

How does a modern woman strike a work-life balance? Seema Goswami has answers, says Namita Bhandare. HT Image Woman on Top: How to Get Ahead at WorkAuthor: Seema GoswamiPublisher: Random HousePages:152Price: 200 In the 16 years, and more that I have known her, I’ll say this for Seema Goswami: she’s never been short of an opinion or shy about voicing it. Right from her days as Features Editor of the now defunct Sunday magazine and, later, as Editor of Graphiti, The Telegraph’s Sunday magazine shelaunched, Seema has had all the answers for which we’ve had only questions. Many of these eminently common-sensical solutions find…

Those who knew Rabindra Seth call him the ‘forever man’, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image Those who knew him — and that list includes anybody even tangentially associated with the travel trade — call him the ‘forever man’. Rabindra Seth, who died on Tuesday at 81 had been there, done that. He was everywhere: writing stories for travel supplements, plowing through research for trade documents, and setting off to far-flung places. “His energy was remarkable,” said Habib Rehman, executive director, of ITC Ltd. “He was willing to share responsibility and would not say no to anything.” That willingness to extend…