Greetings came pouring in on International Women’s Day, and meanwhile, the ladies partied to keep their spirits high. My week began with Anoo’s product launch of their new herbal face mask and Women’s Day special party at Sangeeth Nagar on Thursday. The two founding sisters of the brand welcomed the guests with roses and goodie boxes. They shared their journey in the beauty industry from 1982 onwards which the guests agreed was quite an inspiring one! Next up was the fourth edition of the Eastern Bhoomika Iconic Women Awards organised by Kochi-based Eastern Condiments. IPS officer Rema Rajeshwari and writer Yandamoori Veerendranath were the chief guests at the award ceremony.
Later that evening, film producer C Kalyan’s elder son Teja, tied the knot with Naga Sree Vidhya in a grand wedding ceremony at Image Gardens. Celebrities from the Telugu film industry including Megastar Chiranjeevi and his wife Surekha, Rajendra Prasad, Vishnu Manchu and Lakshmi Manchu attended the wedding and blessed the couple. On the other end, music composer Arjun Kanungo, best known for his debut Baaki Baatein Peene Baad, impressed the Hyderabadis with his lovely voice at Forum Sujana Mall.
On Friday, Ravita Mayer, managing director of Lyra Innovations, celebrated her birthday at the all-new restaurant Tom Yum Yum in Jubilee Hills. She was spotted catching up with her friends over Asian cuisine and summer special mocktails. I then headed to the Smrityaan Classical Concert featuring flautist Padma Bhushan Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia and santoor player Satish Vyas. The city’s socialites were seen enjoying the enthralling music of the duo at Ravindra Bharathi.
Meanwhile, Saturday saw the grand wedding reception of Bhargav Sudhakar, son of socialites Shobha and Venkat Sudhakar, with Sabitha at Sandhya Convention. Popular DJsPiyush and Abhijit kept the guest entertained as they savoured a multi-cuisine buffet.
My rather long, yet exciting weekend ended with the seventh edition of Infinite Cartwheels that brought UK’s handpan (hang drum player) Daniel Waples, Bhopal-based Samar Mehdi and Akram Ul Haq at The Moonshine Project. Although Akram and Samar started the show, it was Daniel who set the ball rolling. The blue-eyed British musician charmed the audience with his unique trance-inducing tunes on the handpans. Fans who had come down especially to listen to him were absolutely mesmerised.
(The writer is an animal lover, solo traveller and the founder of Touch a Life Foundation.)