LOVING THY NEIGHBOR

AFTERNOOON DESPATCH & COURIER, 18/07/02

KALI MODY, the irrepressible and incorrigible youngest son of the late Sir Homi Mody, not only bears a rather strong resemblance to Bob Hope, but is also as witty, if not more than the legendary comedian. Apart from loving his neighbours, he also loves the world at large. But, he still holds an extra special soft spot for his former 2nd floor neighbour, who has distanced herself away from him in New York.

Yes, I am talking of the very same Meera Gandhi, who breezed in and breezed out of Mumbai, in less than three days, but packed in quite a punch. At Kali Mody's splendidly spacious and aesthetically appointed apartment on Carmichael Road, just a few intimate friends came over, to meet her, her Irish mother Ellen and her adorable 5-year-old son Kabir, and of course to enjoy Kali's legendary hospitality. It was a rather enormous sit down dinner of all time Parsi favourites, made at home, by his faithful retainer of three decades, Jairam. There was Jeroa Billimoria, whose lavish home on Malabar Hill is equally awesome, her nephew Phiroze Dubash with his elegant interior decorator wife Meher, Rita and Karl Mehta of Cine Blitz, who could be permanent winners at any 'Made For Each Other' competition, then Vivek Talwar of Nitco and his wife Anu, Mala and Harsh Goenka of the RPG Group and yours truly. Early exits were made by Poonam and Sanjiv Malhotra of Oberoi and Perveez Aggarwal of DBS, to honour their earlier commitments - but they just don't know what they missed.