I hadn’t been to Art Junction, the art gallery-cum-cafeteria at InterContinental The Grand in New Delhi, for a while, but I remember some fairly interesting shows being held there. More popular than curatorial, but what the heck, at a hotel you can do with art that’s more figurative, more understandable than the dysfunctional abstracts that pass off as high art these days. (Oops, I can’t believe I just wrote that!) Read the rest of this entry »

When a fellow-columnist and former colleague said I should write a guide on tipping standards, I thought it a wonderful idea, and the piece appeared in BS Weekend a couple of weeks ago. For my research, I spoke to lots of people (and many friends) in the trade, and almost uniformly their view was that though tipping should be voluntary, it is a gesture that is appreciated since a lot of salaries for service staff in hotels and restaurants is calculated keeping in mind the gratuities that will accrue to them. Read the rest of this entry »

It was an elegant sit-down dinner, planned to the last detail, at a smart restaurant in town. But no matter how meticulously you design the menu and choose the starters and wines, at the end you’re at the mercy of your guests. True, it had rained earlier that evening, truer still that my wife and I weren’t as punctual as our hostess might have wanted, but many others were much, much later. And it wasn’t just a Delhi thing, for those who came in last were prominent Bollywood celebrities. Read the rest of this entry »