A family that eats together, stays together! This age old adage certainly rang true, when we were called upon to design Riddhima’s wedding. My fondest memory still remains our sumptuous lunch at the sprawling RK Cottage. The Late Mrs. Kapoor was the proverbial “hostess with the mostest” making you instantly feel at home. Elegant, graceful and warm is how I remember her.

Interestingly, this was a pot luck lunch. Neetu ma’am had confessed to my mother her weakness for Gujarati food, especially a very popular dish called “dal dhokli”. Now that is all my mother needed to know! On the day, we landed up at the cottage with 2 big handis of our staple homemade delight, which I obviously ignored, and fully focused on the massive spread beautifully laid out. The mutton pulao, tandoori chicken and the yummy pickles…. pure bliss!

No, this article is not about food, sorry for the digression. It is just my observation on how families bond at the dining table. The first time we met Rishi sir and Neetu ma’am was at Krishnaraaj, their gorgeous Pali Hill house. Now, this wasn’t the first time I was meeting a superstar from our film industry. However, when we entered Rishi sir’s “den”, I immediately understood why it was called that! Lord of the jungle in person. There is no way to describe the feelings of nervous excitement I felt when we shook hands. And the lovely Neetu ma’am was effusive as ever, making us feel at ease. This was a preliminary meeting, more like an audition… to assess our competencies, and whether we could appreciate their sense of aesthetic and brief. Thankfully, we were accepted wholeheartedly by the family.