On Tuesday night, Sumeet and Apeksha Chopra asked a few friends to join them at the Woodhouse Gymkhana for a French meal. The club, it seems, has a French Festival on and the Chopras decided to make the most of it by hosting a small, informal dinner. The food was surprisingly authentic, with the fish and chicken being the more popular choices. But since the Chopras were the hosts, there were far more palatable dishes at the table than on the table.

Yes, most of Mumbai's top models were in attendance. There was Marc Robinson looking spiffy in a metallic shirt picked up from France. Sitting next to him was Rahul Dev. Both models talked animatedly about their up and coming projects. Rahul, of course, is trying to make his name in Bollywood, while Marc is busy choreographing shows -- the latest being one at the Fashion Bistro, at the end of the month. Also present were Svetlana Casper and McCann Erickson's executive creative director Kaustav Niyogi.

Passion play

Anil and VivekSingh (Procam Sports and promoters of spirits like Famous Grouse whisky) organised a party to promote Passoa -- a drink that promises to `get your passion flame burning.' While no one seemed on fire (thank god), the highly sweetened drink certainly lit the party spark. Most of Mumbai seemed to be at the party -- in deliciously high spirits. Spotted around the bar were a bevy of models like Lara Dutta, Shyla Lopez, Achla Sachdev and Kelly Dorji. Also seen was the elusive Helen Brodie -- back in town for a month now. This is one model who is always impeccably turned out. The rest were in skimpy, tight-fitting lycra dresses -- a uniform code that this city's glam girls adhere to. The party drew in more than the model crowd though. Also present were Jackie Shroff, Farid Currim, Ness Wadia, Sonia Garware, Chayya and Nirmal Momaya. Perhaps it had a lot to do with the venue. The Passoa party was held at Mayur Mahal, a bungalow in Juhu that is home to several film shoots -- it even has a swimming pool. Rumoured toaccomodate 1,000 people, that night, the Singhs seemed to have packed in even more people than that and yet there was room for more.

Two plus

The two-year-old adda still generates a high level of excitement. Come the third Thursday of the month and people start speculating about who Anuradha Tandon is going to pull out from her sleeve. The tour de force behind these `cultural connections' really outdid herself this time. First there was Ninaz Khodaiji's enactment of T S Eliot's Wasteland, starring Jiten Merchant, George Jose and Ninaz. That turbo-charged performance was followed by a stand-up comic routine. Ash Chandler, a LA-based performer, drew a barrelfull of laughs with his impersonations of personalities ranging from Bhaskar Ghose to Sly Stallone. Seen nearly busting their gut with laughter were Lillette Dubey, Vandana Malik, Amrita Shah and Deepti Naval. For those who liked the sound of Ash's voice, there is good news: Magnasound will be releasing his music (he sings too!) very soon. Theevening continued on a light-hearted note with Sharad Gandhi sharing his unique method of communication. He has created an entire language purely based on changes in expression. Sharad and his nephew Bharat actually communicate whole sentences to each other -- complete with punctuation marks. The next stop for him is a mention in the Guiness Book of Records, inshallah.

The evening ended with Saurabh Shukla's Hindi version of the old-time favourite `Que sera sera'. Sung to the original tune, the lyrics capped an evening of hilarity.

Second take

The next night pretty much the same crowd turned up at Ken Ghosh's do. Held at another beautiful house -- this time in Pali Hill -- that is again used in many TV and film shoots, it seemed that the jungle had come home. Partly due to the fact that the interiors were predominantly green and brown, but mostly because all the guests seemed raring to go. Hangovers seem to be a thing of the past what with most of the last night's revellers in a party mood. Theonly additions to the old crowd were Sophiya Haque, Jules Fuller and Shekhar Kapur. Bad mistake really. As Shekhar got more attention than the host. Everyone just clamoured around him -- first to praising his production, Elizabeth. And then to condemn the cuts the Censor Board is forcing on him. It seems that Kapur is always King wherever he goes.

And finally...

Watch out for the launch of the Piramal complex at Tardeo, this week. While a soft launch is planned for Thursday, Sunday will see the mall open its doors to all. Three shops worth a dekko are Ensemble, Fountainhead (a bookstore), and Rashmi Uday Singh's food shop stocked with tasty yet healthy edibles. All of which can be had `to go.'