This appeared in Bombay Times ....I have enjoyed the laziest sunday ever.... a relaxing massage...and the best neer dosas made by Shanti, a new entrant in the kitchen. If she continues to cook as well and as enthusiastically, I'll blimp out and feel totally wretched.
Am off to Hong Kong and Macau for a few days. Strictly no lap top - that's the drill. May get to post something tomorrow. As of now, my heart is in Cairo..... one of my favourite cities.


Mickey - the BIG mac


Mickey the Magician is in a league of his own. As one of the most respected make –up artists on the sub –continent, Mickey really does not have an equal. The reason he is so good at what he does is simple – Mickey is as passionate about warpaint, as Sachin is about cricket. I met Mickey many moons ago, much before he became the wizard of makeovers. I was astonished by his fluency in marathi, particularly the ease with which he used slang and cuss words. He explained he’d picked up colloquial marathi while an apprentice with Pandhari Dada, the Godfather of movie make up in India. For a young Parsee boy from Central Mumbai (where he continues to live with his wife and two children), to the toast of Milan, Paris and beyond, Mickey has remained admirably sane and thoroughly professional over the years. If Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit, Rani Mukherjee and Kaajol swear by Mickey, it’s with good reason – he’s the best! I remember one of his earliest shoots with Kaajol…. later with Rekha… and how much in control he was even as a newbie working with divas. He was so sure of the level of his work, he refused to be bullied by anybody. The results were there for all to see. Mickey’s base ( the foundation of good make-up) is faultless. As a ‘less is more’ believer, he makes a woman look like a total Goddess by skillfully highlighting her best features and camouflaging the worst. Just as a talented painter’s brush moves smoothly and seamlessly over a canvas, when Mickey works on your face it is with the same dedication – faces are his canvases.
We don’t meet very often these days, but the bond remains as strong and comfortable as ever. We laugh over old shoots, gossip, trade make-up tricks… but mainly we discuss kids and education! Mickey is one of the most hands on dads and knows his kids’ study schedules probably better than they themselves do.His dreams and plans for their respective futures are discussed with a touching level of concern in his voice. Today, Mickey is a star and has a signature line of make –up, especially created by him for one of the most prestigious international brands of cosmetics. I’m pretty certain Mickey’s range will rock. You know why? He was the first make-up artist to identify the peculiarities of our desi skin tone and address it directly. For years and years, all glamour shots of models and actresses looked chalky, ghostly and ghastly, because the right tones for the base were designed for Caucasian paleness or the chocolate complexions of Blacks. We have a yellowish undertone to our skin tone which was totally overlooked by cosmetics’ companies. It was Mickey who started mixing yellow-based foundations from Japan into the regular ones in the market to create the perfect blend for desis. I am looking forward to his latest triumph. If only we could all look like Aishwarya in ‘Robot’. Sigh…..

Moni Mohsin is just the liveliest voice out of Pakistan. Forget the very self-conscious Fatima Bhutto ( who is dismissed as an air head back home), and check out Moni’s book ‘Tender Hooks’ . As a fan of her earlier work ‘The Diary of a Social Butterfly’ ( a collection of hip, cool, satirical and savage columns), I was delighted to meet the elegant and supremely poised writer during her short stay in Mumbai last week. Over a stylish dinner for ten friends at Mumbai’s newest SOBO restaurant (presided over by celebrated international chef Joey Altman), Moni effortlessly held centre stage as she talked about Pakistani politics and politicians and perfectly mimicked the peculiar Punjabi accent of a talent scout peddling pin up shots of nubile star aspirants. When I told her to ‘keep coming back’, she quipped, “ Would love to…but how, ji? The visa- wallas think all Pakistanis come to Mumbai via Chowpatty beach travelling in dinghies.” Touche!