Priyanka sticks up for Meghan Markle 

As with Aishwarya Rai in 1994 and the now relatively low profile Yookta Mookhey in 1999, I first met Priyanka Chopra in 2000 on the morning after she had won Miss World the previous night. 

I had no idea then that that Priyanka would one day figure in Baywatch or be quizzed on the Wendy Williams Show in the US about the American actress, Meghan Markle.

Priyanka, 34, and Meghan, 35, have shared snaps of each other enjoying nights out together on social media in the past.  
“I have known her two years now,” confirmed Priyanka. “We randomly met at a party and got on really well.”

The presenter was more interested on any insights she could offer on Meghan as “Prince Harry’s girlfriend”.

Priyanka pointed out that Meghan was an actress in her own right, stars in Suits, an American legal drama on TV, and could be defined by “her own achievements”.

Asked whether she foresaw a Harry-Meghan wedding, Priyanka waved at a screen image of the couple and said: “I hope so. She seems happy. I think they look great together.”

Did she see herself as a bridesmaid?

“I don’t know if I’m that close to her,” replied Priyanka.

If Prince Harry, 32, were to marry Meghan –— and that is still a big if — the Buckingham Palace machinery would take over and cut out anyone who traded on her relationship, real or imagined, with a relative by marriage of the future Queen of England.

Meghan has been staying at Kensington Palace with Harry but was conspicuous by her absence from Pippa Middlelton’s wedding. The reason given was that she did not want to be at the centre of a paparazzi circus on Pippa’s big day.

But after the church service, Harry drove fast and furiously to London in a high performance Audi and returned after a 100-mile journey to the evening wedding dinner and dance with his girlfriend. She was smuggled in so there were no pictures. 

That to me suggests an engagement is not imminent. But were there to be a wedding to which Priyanka would like to be invited, she is best advised from now to say nothing about Meghan.   

Reel Sachin

♦ There was a press screening last Wednesday of Sachin: A Billion Dreams at Joginder Sanger’s Courthouse Hotel in London.

Much of Sachin’s story in the 2 hour 20 minute “feel good” documentary will be familiar to anyone who has followed Sachin’s career. That means most of India and the Indian diaspora.

It is significant that Sachin’s cricketing years — 1989 to 2013 — coincide more or less with India’s rise as an economic power.

There is a fair bit of family footage provided by the Tendulkars. We see Sachin at the birth of his daughter, Sara, and later coaching his son, Arjun, poor boy, who probably feels the same pressure that was experienced by Sunil Gavaskar’s son, Rohan. Anjali says that having been through the ups and downs with her husband, she cannot go through it again with her son.

I could have contributed one anecdote to the film. I first interviewed Sachin sitting under a gulmohar tree in Bandra at 16, but the sports editor of The Sunday Times rejected the piece on the grounds “we don’t carry stories about schoolboys in a national newspaper”. After much pleading I was allowed one line in a diary column. I think somewhere I still have the tape of that interview. 

Crime scene

♦ It was beyond the call of duty perhaps but I managed five sessions when the Jaipur Literature Festival — otherwise known as the William Dalrymple show — held a two-day event at the British Library last week.

Dalrymple and Anita Anand teamed up to discuss their joint book on the Koh-i-Noor, which Susan Stronge, of the V&A, called the “most famous diamond in the world”. 

Anita believes the Koh-i-Noor, although stolen from India, should remain in the Tower of London as part of the Crown Jewels except it should be taped off by the police to preserve “the scene of the crime”.

The Koh-i-Noor apparently brings a curse to all who own the jewel.

Asked by an audience member about the latest catastrophe to befall Britain, she summed up with a straight face: “Brexit.” 

Making news  

♦ We are celebrating the 70th birthday tomorrow of the Indian Journalists’ Association in the UK. It was founded on May 29, 1947.

Tittle tattle 

♦ It is reassuring that despite everything the Chelsea Flower Show was held, as planned, last week. 

While Pippa Middleton was away on honeymoon, her elder sister, Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, joined the Queen and Prince Philip in inspecting what the organisers call “the best flower show in the world”.

This year has been especially good for roses.