(From top) Bipasha Basu in a Rocky S outfit at the Seagram’s Blenders Pride Fashion Tour; Kareena Kapoor in a Manish Malhotra creation on Day Two of the same event; Arundhati Raja in a scene from A Heap of Broken Images

When you have seven of the country’s leading fashion designers showcasing their work over three days, what else can you expect but glitz and glamour? After travelling to Calcutta and Chandigarh, the Seagram’s Blenders Pride Fashion Tour made it to Mumbai recently.

Manish Malhotra opened the tour with his heavily adorned styles, especially bridalwear embellished with shells and gold coins. Not surprisingly, the star designer saw a large turnout from Bollywood. In fact, Kareena Kapoor walked the ramp for him. Among the stars present in the audience were Kajol, Dia Mirza, Juhi Chawla and Kirron Kher.

Day two of the tour saw a fashion show by Wendell Rodricks and Rajesh Pratap Singh, and another by Rocky S. Rodricks showcased his black and white collection of Westernwear while Singh, who joined the tour for the first time, showed off a collection of salwar-kurtas. Like Malhotra, Rocky S too drew a largely Bollywood audience with Bipasha Basu walking the ramp for him.

The finale was reserved for J.J. Vallaya with his heavy bridalwear, preceded by a show by Raghavendra Rathore and Anamika Khanna. But it wasn’t just the designers and the stars from Bollywood who drew all the attention ? the 40 models showcasing the clothes, including the likes of Sheetal Malhar, Jesse Randhawa, Dipannita Sharma and Deepika Padukone, created a stir as well.

Of living legends

Legends of India, the society that brings music, dance, fine arts and theatre festivals in town, recently inaugurated their third annual theatre festival in Delhi. It included the staging of three plays ? A Heap of Broken Images, Atmadaho and Ghasiram Kotwal ? at the Kamani Auditorium. The two-day festival was inaugurated by Soli Sorabjee, chairperson of the festival committee of the society and the guest of honour on the occasion was veteran actress Zohra Sehgal.

Much emphasis was laid by Sorabjee on the importance of fine arts in the country. “Technology might be advancing very fast, but ultimately what matters is the presence of the fine arts and theatre in our lives,” he said. Playwright, director and actor Girish Karnad was also present at the event. His play, A Heap of Broken Images, was the first of the evening on the first day of the festival. Scripted and directed by Karnad, it dealt with the protagonist and her alter ego, played by actress Arundhati Raja.

“This is the third year of the festival in Delhi. Legends of India is a platform for living legends to perform as well as amateur artists. For instance, Atmadaho, the Bengali play was put up by an amateur group on the second day of the festival. It is the Da Vinci Code of the Mahabharata where the epic is seen not merely as a battle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, but as a conspiracy against the Kshatriyas,” said Dipayan Mazumdar, chairman, Legends of India.

The third play of the festival was a National School of Drama production. Scripted by playwright Vijay Tendulkar, Ghasiram Kotwal, was, as the chairman described it, a ‘stylised’ play full of entertainment in the form of music and dance.

Members of the Isha Foundation perform on the lawns of the India Habitat Centre

Sounds of Isha

It was a musical evening with a difference! The musicians were tonsured yogis from the Isha Foundation, based in Coimbatore, headed by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. But the yogis aren’t full-time musical men. “We play to create awareness about Isha Yoga, which is simply about knowing yourself. We like to call what we create sounds and not music,” said Saran, a teacher with the foundation.

The performance on the lawns of the India Habitat Centre, Delhi, came alive with several unusual instruments like the egg shaker, flute, guitar, one shot (a uni-directional instrument), durbauk (a Lebanese drum), big drums, metalophone (a xylophone clone) and the ghungroo. The players played a selection of mesmerising instrumental tracks like Daybreak, Evolution and Celebration, but the one that emerged a clear favourite was Heaven on the Ground.

The yogis are well-qualified people who have given up everything and joined the Isha Foundation. For instance, there are yogis like Saran, an Ivy League university graduate, and Jack who gave up a lucrative job as a mechanical engineer and Shekhar, who studied at IIT, Chennai.

Spotted at the show was actress Nandita Das who said she’d participated in a wholeness course at the foundation in Coimbatore. “Sadhguru has a very dynamic personality, which you realise when you come in contact with him,” said Das.

Photographs of Delhi events by Rupinder Sharma and Prem Singh