Queenie

I was told Jimmy Choo was visiting Mumbai. Unfortunately, I was on a Punjab tour and was not able to meet him there, but fixed up to meet him for breakfast in Delhi, before he took the flight out of India.

There was a time when life seemed simple and relationships were less complicated. Maybe it was just that I was a child and it was easier for me to comprehend situations. However, people did appear more honest, straightforward and they valued the small things.

I was a little girl when I accompanied my mother, an interior designer, to the sites that she was working on. A seed was sown in me as early as when I was a five-year-old, that I would do this work but with a difference. It became my dream.” Her mother could also see her child’s interest in this field from a very young age.

I met Jacqueline in the year 2000, when we were launching a restaurant in Delhi. She is married to Dick Celeste, who was the then US ambassador to India. He had been a friend of my father’s and had known him for several years. Jacqueline had an energy, which was positive and of the quality that made you want to stay in touch with

This is a story about a friend and her family whom I have known for over two decades. For the sake of anonymity, let’s call her Betty and her parents Cynthia and Derek.
Derek left his family when Betty was about ten. He had three children with Cynthia, but simply could not get along with her. I did not know what the real reason was, as Betty never quite revealed whether there

Recently I heard model-host Padma Lakshmi speak at a talk that Koel Purie had invited me to. She spoke candidly from her heart about situations she was confronted with and the choices she made.

She is a one of eight children, half Indian and half Australian. Dangerously attractive and prodded by her sister to model in India, she decided to give it a shot. She never looked back.

Queenie, you have to drop in and see my spanking new Christian Dior store at the Taj Colaba,” said Kalyani Chawla, who is the vice-president of marketing and communication of the brand. I also remember flying down for her wedding to Delhi when I was eight months pregnant. I saw her life change subsequently over the years, from a loving and understanding wife to an independent single parent with a successful and competent career.

This is a little story about a very close friend of mine. I have known her very well for the past 10 years. We are good friends, but there is a past that is hers where she belonged, to a world I never knew her in.

This piece is a sequel to my article, the story of my SMS friend who I have been calling “Dove” (to protect her identity) dated March 14 this year. Twenty four-year-old Dove had fallen into a deep depression whilst in her marriage, where her husband verbally, physically and sexually abused her. Her family had not wanted to unravel the