New Delhi, Sunday February 8, 2009

RING TROUBLE: At the Vanity Fair and Krug party, Paris Hiltonwas seen making repeated snide remarks to her sister, Nicky

Hilton, about how her engagement ring was bigger than Nicky’s Party 3

The opening of VeraPizza by Tonino. Theconnoisseurs of

authentic Italian food are definitely not alien toTonino, the labour of love of Parmeet andSimran Sawhney. There new venture, VeraPizza is now at the heart of the city.

At Masjid Moth in GreaterKailash, which is fast

becoming an evening out destination for poshdiners and groovers.

Well, with the gracious-duoplaying host, the lovelieswere in plenty. Simar

Duggal, the Mehra brothers – Shantanu andNikhil with Reema and Vidushi, Ranna Gill,Anupama Dayal, the lovely Anita Bajaj andShivani Wazir amongst other stylistas of town.

—Jaydeep Ghosh

PHOTOS: PRABHAS ROY

What

What

What

Ooh-la-la: Simran Sawhneywith Sonali Mathur (R)

What’s thebig joke?Akhil Nathand SandeepGupta (R)

Looking for a partner? Amir Pasrich

Thrilled to bits: Designer Ranna Gill with Radhika Kapoor(R)

Date with pizza:Shivani Wazir Pasrich

Playing host:Parmeet Sawhneywith Simar Duggal

Astarlit party celebrating the

engagement of Vinod Sinha (Gen. Sec.Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)Youth) with Garima Prasad.

Napoleon Hall, HotelLe Meridien,

Bollywood daring girl Tanushree Dutta was spotted

in a rather short dress. Also presentwere Neetu Chandra and SharadKapoor, music director ShravanRathore, Sadhu Yadav and televisionactress Amita Nangia. Padma ShriUdit Narayan enthralled the crowdwith his beautiful voice.

—Zabeeh Afaque

What

Where

Who

Those days are not farwhen the dhabas on theDelhi-Jaipur Highway

will have a VIP section guard-ed with velvet ropes for thesnooty crowd to feel privi-leged even at a Dhaba. It’s dis-heartening to see how theCapital is falling prey to whatI would like to term as ‘VelvetRope Urbanism.’

‘Bribe him, seduce him orjust bash-him-up, I just wantto sail past the velvet rope’, isthe demand of most pretty-young things who go clubbingevery night and wants to be atthe VIP arena. Velvet Ropesare placed strategically atmost nightclubs in town tolure in the wannabe crowd bymaking them buy expensivememberships or pushingthem to buy bottles of cham-pagne. ‘Sir please let me intothe VIP section’, the guypleads; the manager sternlysays, ‘That’s a ChampagneLounge. Buy a bottle of Domand you can go’.

If you ask me honestly howaspirational is it to sail pastthe velvet rope, I would saythat in reality, people who

flock the VIP arenas are noth-ing but hollow people surviv-ing on old lineage, deadfather's wealth or a prettywife's hob-nobbing skills.Take this case of a night birdwhose bosoms are ample. Shedefinitely is not the kind whoshould be in the VIP zone butall she does is give a killersmile at the Bouncer man-ning the ropes, brush herample assets on him and

voila, the ropes open for her.My years of nightclubbinghave made me come to thisconclusion that people on theother side of the velvet ropeare either Page3 freeloaders,rich kids who blow awaymoney on dad’s platinumcards, drug-peddlers whocome handy for those seekinga line of Charlie and some

corrupt Police officers who needs to be pampered if the Club needs to run without hiccups. Now whywould anybody

be so desperate to rub shoulders with these folks,fails my imagination. VelvetRope is a mirage that everyone’s chasing.

CAPITALBUZZ

JAYDEEP GHOSH

VELVET ROPE POLITICS

Ring for Life

Hot short:TanushreeDutta

Hey gorgeous:Neetu Chandra

Say cheese: ActressAmita Nangia.

Singing forlove: UditNarayan

Three’s a party:(L-R) Sharad Kapoorwith Vinod Sinhaand Garima Prasad

PH

OTO

S: R

ON

JOY

GO

GO

I

ILLUSTRATION: DURGA

LIP SmackingLip Smacking