It was the day of two R’s in town. While one didn’t mind posing for flashbulbs, the other kept his trip strictly under wraps. Rani Mukerji was in town on Monday as a special guest for the Calcutta leg of the STAR Plus talent contest, Voice of India Chhote Ustaad. In a shimmering black and beige salwar-kameez, she took turns at sharing the stage with Aishwarya Majumdar of Ahmedabad and Calcutta’s Anwesha Datta Gupta, as the two young finalists belted out one Rani hit after another. “Aamar Kolkatay phire aashte khub bhalo laage,” smiled the queen of hearts (Picture by Aranya Sen). Ricky Martin (file picture), who slipped into town on Saturday, was finally spotted on Monday afternoon with friends and children, at a pizzeria.

Ricky Martin has slipped into town. Again.

After passing through in 1999, spending a few days here in 2002 to visit the NGO Sabera Foundation and coming back in 2004 to meet the three kids he sponsors at the Kalitala home, the Livin’ la Vida Loca man has returned to Calcutta once more, checking in under an assumed name at the Oberoi Grand on Saturday.

Mum was the word for Sabera Foundation. The gates of the home, off Thakurpukur, remained firmly shut on Monday evening. The star hotel, from where Martin is slated to check out “some time on Tuesday”, also remained tight-lipped about the Un Dos Tres Maria singer’s stay.

On Monday, the bearded Martin was spotted at the hotel’s Chowringhee Bar around 1.30pm, after which he went with a group of about 20 friends and children to Fire & Ice, the Italian restaurant off Jawaharlal Nehru Road.

“He just sat around, without any fuss or tantrums, like any regular guy,” said a source at the pizzeria. Martin, looking “inconspicuous in a tee and jeans”, ordered a Margherita Pizza and Spaghetti Bolognese and hung around till about 4.45pm.

No one approached him for autographs. “Our eyes were constantly at the door and we also guarded movement around his table,” added the source. Ricky left the restaurant as quietly as he came, slipping into the front seat of an SUV and staring straight ahead just as a crowd started gathering opposite Jeevan Deep.

Martin has been enjoying the company of the kids, and he took about eight of them to Mangio at Kookie Jar, in Alipore, on Saturday night. Spaghetti Bolognese, tenderloin steak sandwich and molten chocolate cake were on the menu there.

Ricky has been supporting Sabera Foundation, which has had a string of high-profile sponsors, including Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith (who had also visited the Calcutta home).

But Martin is the first to visit after the Spanish co-founder Carlos Duran was deported in December 2004, following a breach with overseas donors.

Though it is unclear whether Sabera’s local officials and Spanish supporters have patched up, the Puerto Rican singer is still clearly involved with the 150 children who call the NGO’s centre home.

Every visit, he plans fun activities with the children — if he is dining out this time, in the past he had played football and watched E.T. with them.