A day at my own pace

The day was at my own pace. Just returned from a dinner party held at 4 Lodhi Estate which was followed by a sitar recital by Shujaat Husain Khan son and disciple of master sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan and hosted by Dinesh Trivedi, Minister of State for Health. Dinesh bhai has just shifted here and has done justice to this beautiful house. It was a selective gathering of 100 people and included Sharad Pawar, Gulam Nabi Azad, Ravishankar Prasad et al. Jaya Bachhan, Sam Pitroda, Rahul Bajaj, Suresh Neotia, Sanjay and Amrita Singh, K P Unnikrishnan and others. Met quite a few people I know after 2 or 3 years like Digvijay Singh, Shanawaz Hussain and others. Many of them exclaimed “Oh! Your annual Delhi trip. Good to see you again.”

I reached Lodhi estate with Amajeet and Ms Sukhda Mishra, senior politician of UP. Had a chat over dinner with Jaggi Panda who operates Oriya channel and her husband Jay Panda, MP. We discussed about Tollywood and the status of Oriya cinema. Dinesh bhai and his wife Minal were perfect hosts.

In the afternoon there was a chance meeting with Natwar Singh ji at the India International Centre lounge. He was in a meeting with somebody. Natwar Singh ji hails from Bharatpur, Rajasthan. I know him for many years now through a common friend and a Congress supporter from Bharatpur. When he was in Kolkata for the first time after becoming External Affairs minister, Natwar Singh ji visited my residence  for a breakfast get-together (picture below).

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