Top Gere. Padma Lakshmi’s got a penchant for silver foxes — first Salman Rushdie, then venture capitalist Teddy Forstmann, and now…Richard Gere? Even CNN.com took time off from its exhaustive MH370 coverage to confirm the 43-year-old Top Chef host and the 64-year-old Hollywood star are an item. (PS: We know Gere hearts his Desi gals — remember that infamous Shilpa Shetty Incident, circa 2011?) [E! Online]
The Mogul Who Misbehaved. In March, internet ad mogul Gurbaksh “G” Chahal — founder of RadiumOne — faced 45 felony charges for beating his girlfriend (a highly disputed video, which was thrown out by San Francisco County Judge Brendan Conroy, showed Chahal hitting his girlfriend a gut-wrenching 117 times, according to the police). But last week, Chahal avoided prison time by pleading guilty to two misdemeanors, admitting to domestic violence and battery. To quote SFGate.com,“it sure pays to have a good attorney.” Ugh. [San Francisco Business Times]
Marino’s Modi. While much of India’s come to accept Narendra Modi’s unofficial enigma status, one British biographer attempted to dig a little deeper. Andy Marino, author of Narendra Modi: A Political Biography is described as “the only foreigner known to have unfettered access to Mr. Modi.” Marino seems to have succeeded in getting the leader to open up because of his approach, which was decidedly more biographical than journalistic. “I think the difference was that I was not being hostile, because I’m a foreigner and not involved — perhaps he felt it easier to talk to me,” Marino quipped in a recent interview. Are you just as curious as we are to see how the writer handled Modi’s involvement with the 2002 Gujarat riots? Add this tome to your ever-growing reading list. [New York Times]
High School (Bollywood) Musical. A Californian high school successfully transformed its cafeteria into a pulsing Bollywood dance-floor recently, thanks to Harcoover Singh Bhatti, the enterprising 18-year-old president of the school’s Punjabi Club (sidenote: can we discuss how supremely awesome it is that a club like that exists to begin with?). The dance, which was three years in the making, featured a DJ who “pumped Jazzy B”, a bhangra dance troupe and sherwanis and salwar kameezes for everyone, courtesy of a Punjabi student who recently returned from a big fat family wedding. Insert the mandatory “HADIPPA!” here. [Los Angeles Times]
#Obnoxious. Just when you thought #Selfie, that nerve-grating tune by house music duo The Chainsmokers, couldn’t get more annoying, it gets the Sonam Kapoor treatment. Taking cues from Kapoor’s recent train-wreck of an appearance on the talk show, Koffee With Karan — where she declared herself an icon, deemed the phrase “good actor” is code for “ugly” and confidently attributed a Mahatma Gandhi quote to Robert De Niro — the track meshes her outrageous quotes with electronic beats. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. [H/T Mumbai Boss]
Aarti Virani is an arts and culture writer based in Hoboken, New Jersey. She has written for publications including Vogue India, The Wall Street Journal and Travel + Leisure. Follow her on Twitter at @aartivirani.
