By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when I recalled the first big fat wedding in the Ambani family. For a Saturday following the week when Lakshmi Mithal, the richest man in the UK, was present at the wedding of one of his nieces in Goa. For a Saturday following the week when we attended the big fat weddings of our politicians and industrialists of Goa. For another Saturday following the week when I attended two of the most dignified and beautiful weddings and wedding anniversaries in Goa.
And a few stray thoughts on recalling the first big fat wedding in the Ambani family. Daughter of Dhirubhai Ambani Deepti and amche Goenkar Dattaraj Salgaocar way back on December 31, 1983. Deepti’s father Dhirubhai Ambani and Dattaraj’s father Vasudev Mahadeva Salgaocar owned flats in “Usha Kiran” the tallest building in Mumbai at one time.
Both VM Salgaocar and Dhirubhai Ambani were good friends and bonded over drinks and hot kanda bhajiya. With their fathers so close Deepti and Dattaraj, who were studying in Mumbai, met frequently in the lifts operating in “Usha Kiran.” This way they courted each other for eight long years. In between Dattaraj completed a degree in management from Stanford in the United States, where Mukesh Ambani was his classmate. Deepti went off to her finishing school in Switzerland. Both parents VM Salgaocar and Dhirubhai Ambani gave their consent to Deepti and Dattaraj’s marriage. Dhirubhai patted Dattaraj on the back telling him that would give him an excellent opportunity to visit Goa frequently.
Dhirubhai Ambani always liked to live his life kingsize as if to the manner born, never mind his humble beginnings. The wedding took place at the Cooperage football grounds in Bombay which could accommodate over 50,000 guests. The baraat started from “Sea Wind”, the Ambani residence at Cuffe Parade, to arrive at the Cooperage football grounds and stadium. Dattaraj was riding a white horse.
I was privileged to be at the marriage reception held beneath a huge shamiana at the Cooperage stadium grounds. All the top industrialists and bankers were there including Kundapur Vaman Kamath (then chairperson of the ICICI bank), Deepak Parekh of HDFC and Nimesh Kampani of GM Financial who handled all the public issues of Reliance.
I was present courtesy a personal invite from Dhirubhai to me as I was then the deputy editor of the magazine Business India. Though I had been critical of Dhirubhai and Reliance, the large-hearted Dhirubhai never closed any doors for media people. Indeed, he had invited the entire media for the wedding without any expectation of who will write and who may not about him or the marriage.
I don’t recall any filmstars at the wedding for those were days when there was no social media and therefore, no gossipy coverage of the hungama kind. Either Dhirubhai was not powerful enough or the newspapers and TV channels thought an Ambani daughter’s marriage was a private family affair and what’s there to write about! There was not much coverage even in the business press.
At that time the turnover of VM Salgaocar was probably bigger than that of Dhirubai Ambani. The best part of the wedding was the transparent love and affection between Deepti and Dattaraj. They could not take their eyes off each other and smiled right through the wedding and reception, not unlike Sonakshi Sinha and Jafar at their wedding.
After the wedding when Deepti moved to the palatial Hira Niwas, the sprawling garden home of VM Salgaocar at Chicalim in Vasco da Gama, she was overwhelmed. The Salgaocar bungalow is set on vast gardens over 10 hectares, palm trees lining the entranceway. On the ground there was a more than life-size image of Lord Ganesh. Deepti described her shift to Goa as moving somewhere into a place like the famous “hanging gardens” of Bombay. In Bombay these so called hanging gardens were beautiful parklands built on the giant water tanks put up at upmarket Malabar Hill in Bombay or now Mumbai. It was all covered over with a forest of plants.
Though the wedding was held at the Co-operage football grounds there was nothing vulgar about it. It was a very dignified mega celebration and not accompanied by blaring of media publicity. Perhaps it’s a Goan tradition of treating family occasions as private affairs.
In more recent years there were the marriage of Dattaraj’s daughter Isheta; next followed the marriage of Shivanad Salgaocar’s son Vivek to Vidhi, the daughter of Dilip and Vibha Shangvi of Sun Pharma, a big-time pharma company in the country which maintains a very low profile. At Isheta’s marriage reception there was little media too and I was there more as a friend than editor of a newspaper.
I remember that at Isheta’s reception at the Marriot Resort lawns there was a Belgian chef doing a life station for original Belgian waffles which were all I feasted on. My wife Pankajbala Tara Narayan however raved over the chaat presentations and Guju item numbers like “mini handvo” and “chundo-gorkeri pickles” for she is a Guju herself although a most unlikely Guju and has not even taken to Tamil ways because I am a Tamil Brahmin Iyer. At the wedding reception of Shivanand and Ranjana Salgaocar’s son’s marriage reception there was a veteran chef from Sri Lanka doing appam and veggie stew and that was enough for me to be in happy heaven for I tend to be more Mallu than Tamil.

MITTAL MARRIAGE
AND a few stray thoughts on Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in the UK, attending the marriage celebrations of one of his nieces in Goa. The Mormugao steel plant is owned by members of the Ashok Mittal family. The family celebrated the marriage of their 21-year-old daughter Vanisha Mittal to an equally young son of a big business family from Nepal. Being a Marwadi wedding every dish was drowned in asli ghee. But it was an extremely grand wedding with guests arriving from the country and world over.
The then Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and his entire cabinet was present at the wedding reception. We were. I was there courtesy an invite by RK Radhakrishna, who was the managing director of Mormugoa Steel at that time. The other big mega wedding celebration were that of the daughter of one time advocate general of Goa Sushant Nadkarni’s son to a daughter of builders Adwalparkar. This time the venue of the wedding and the reception were on the grand elongated lawns of the Cidade-de-Goa (now taken over by the Taj Group).
This marriage reception teemed with hundreds of guests. I recall the long, long queue to the dais where the newly-weds stood to get every guest’s blessings for their new adventure in life. At one corner of the lavish buffet area there was a small enclave laid out with a silver plated service alongside other accessories on tables, it was a enclosure for the families of the bride and bridegroom only. Sushant Nadkarni was very close to the then chief minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar. Sushant enjoyed the status of cabinet minister and had several personal security officers. His daughter’s marriage celebration was a massive display of money and power.
AND a few stray thoughts on the big fat weddings of our politicians of Goa. Both the daughter and son Yogiraj of Digambar and Asha Kamat got married while their father was the chief minister of Goa. The daughter got a grand marriage function at the Govindrao temple premises in Margoa. The huge shamiana was put up by a Mumbai party and there were chandeliers hanging even on the pandal set-up. The food was the very best of Gaud Saraswat Brahmin cuisine…and I could relish the usual mungachi ghati and katkate. There was also a choice of continental and northern Indian cuisine and a very rich spread of Indian desserts. There was no wedding cake at the wedding of Digambar Kamat’s son Yogiraj Kamat. His son was married at the Taleigao Community Centre. The chief minister of Maharashtra and other cabinet ministers were in attendance. Digambar called both his cabinet colleagues and opposition leaders. A former chief secretary JP Singh was close to Digambar and came down from Delhi. All Digambar’s guests were accommodated at the Cidade-de-Goa. There was a separate enclosure for VIPs and VVIPs. Digambar played the perfect host. I remember him escorting me to the VVIP buffet. Typically, no publicity was demanded or expected.

LUIZINHO & RACHEL FALEIRO
THE biggest Catholic politician’s wedding I have attended is that of Luizinho and Rachel Faleiro’s daughter, Rania. At the time of his daughter’s wedding, Luizinho Faleiro was a Congress general secretary in charge of the northeast which is predominantly Christian. All the cardinals and the bishops from the northeast were present at the Kesarwal Retreat where the wedding reception was held. I remember sharing my table with Oscar Fernandes, a trusted confidant of Sonia Gandhi and our own Dr Wilfred D’Souza. Another big fat wedding to remember was that of Dr Carmo Gracious’ daughter.

INCOMPARABLE PASCOAL MENEZES
AND a few stray thoughts on the big fat birthdays of Goan industrialists and politicians. Perhaps the most enjoyable of the birthdays of industrialists was that of the 75th birthday of Pascoal Menezes. Pascoal was by then the chairperson of the CMM group. His birthday also coincided with his 50th marriage anniversary. The wedding of a girl adopted by his family was also celebrated along with that of Pascoal’s at the Cidade-de-Goa. Pascoal enjoyed dancing and spent the whole evening dancing with all the prettiest young women. There was of course excellent music as Pascoal loved music (probably inherited from his musician father who played in the military band of Angola). The gold coins which Pascoal’s father earned which gave birth to the CMM empire.
Pascoal also had a celebration on his 90th birthday at the Marriott Resort. One of the highlights of his 90th birthday was Ivan Arthur, the creative director of his advertising agency, serenading with his guitar. Pascoal was one of the most charismatic and colourful personalities of the old business world in Goa. Pascoal not only sponsored carnival floats but took an active part in the carnival himself. His birthdays were joyful events where everyone had a great time.
AND a few stray thoughts on the only Goan industrialist who celebrated his wife’s 50th birthday. Anil Counto had a major bash at the Mandovi Riviera on his wife’s 50th birthday. Anil had met his wife Nutan when they were acting in social natak in their 20s. They doted on each other and forever looked at each other adoringly. Nutan was related to the famous Hindi music composer Sudhir Phadte. So much so there was a performance by Sudhir Phadte on the occasion of Nutun’s birthday. Anil played the perfect host by greeting every single guest who arrived at the Mandovi Riviera.
AND a last stray thought on two of the most dignified and beautiful weddings and wedding anniversaries I have attended in Goa. The first of these was the marriage of Devika, the daughter of Datta and Sushanta Naik, to a chartered accountant from Pune. The wedding was held at the Taj Exotica in Benaulim. This was one of the few Hindu weddings where liquor was served to the guests. The bride and the groom were in traditional Hindu marriage attire. They also wrote out their marriage wows which they read to each other. The Datta Naik wedding also turned to be a meeting of the writers and artists of Goa.
IN a rare very touching wedding anniversary celebration, the late Sudhir Kakar and his German wife Katha celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary at their sprawling Benaulim villa residence. Sudhir and Katha had got married in Hawaii which is part of the USA. At their wedding in a distant land there were hardly any guests.
So much so on their 10th wedding anniversary party in Goa Sudhir decided to organise a proper Indian wedding. Katha was dressed in a Banarasi jari saree and Sudhir wore a kurta-pajama. There was the usual Goan band playing. The catering was done by a famous Burmese restaurant called Bomras. There was dancing following the afternoon celebration of the wedding anniversary. I remember the Sudhir Kakar wedding anniversary because it is now three months since he passed on. His wife Katha posted on facebook on July 16 that it is 12 weeks since he was gone. Sudhir will live on forever in his many books based on his life as a famous psychoanalyst. It must be mentioned that Katha has written a book on Goa which is eminently readable.