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Bibliofile

Guess who stayed for dinner at Chiki Sarkar's wedding? And who was one of the first to congratulate Bilal Tanweer for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize?

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Bibliofile
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Ring For Happiness

Penguin Random House boss Chiki Sarkar got married to Alex Travelli, a senior journalist with a Hong Kong-based magazine, in an elegant cerem­ony at senior Congress leader and bibliophile Mani Shankar Aiyar’s house in Lutyens’ Delhi last week. He and Aveek Sarkar, Chiki’s father and media baron, go back a long way. Besides, his youngest daughter Yamini and Chiki are close friends. It was a traditional Bengali wedding and one of the Sarkar family members translated the Sanskrit shlokas and hymns to the gathering which had guests from the US, Europe, Pakistan, and, of course, various parts of India. Congress president Sonia Gandhi came to bless the couple, and quite unlike her, stayed for over an hour-and-a-half till dinner, mingling freely with other guests, like Rama­chandra Guha and Rudrangshu Mukh­erjee. It was a relatively small affair as the guests were limited to a hundred. The catering was by celebrity chef and Diva restaurant owner Ritu Dalmia—her wedding gift to Chiki—and the cuisine international. This was the Delhi end of the celebrations; now the party moves to Calcutta, where Aveek Sarkar has planned a big bash. Here’s wishing Chiki and Alex a lot of fun together.

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To Karachi, With Love

Pakistan writer Bilal Tanweer is the winner of Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize this year for his The Sca­tter Here Is Too Great, a brutal portrait of Kar­achi.  And guess who was one of the first to congratulate him? PM  Narendra Modi. Apparently, the organisers approached his office only a day before the announcement, and thought it would end up as one of the many req­uests he gets. But prompt came his message. Is it Modi's nod to soft power?

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