India: Day 10

Thursday is the night to be at Olives, it’s located in an area swarming with bollywood folks, bollywood wannabes, “models” and folks who want to be seen. I use the term “models” loosely b/c every friggin’ person in this country thinks they are model, when most should limit their modeling activities to their hands and feet. according to my cousin there were several famous people, but of course the only person I recognized was Sabeer Bhatia, founder of hotmail, damn the techie in me. I wanted to ask him to reset the password of some people i know, but i didn’t want to interupt his dinner with some other dude – you’re worth over USD $400 million, what’s the deal. Bottomline, Olives is awesome, but it’s best to come early and have dinner then stay till the end. Sidenote – i met more of my friends at Olives then my cousin did who lives right next door to the joint.
MTV Desi is getting some press here in India and looks like it will launch on select cable systems at the end of the year. The website is a bit lame at the moment, but they are probably more focused on auditioning for their Indian VJ’s at this point. The big story in Bombay is about the “Kidnap Aunty.” In summary, bored housewife gives information to “batchmate” (read college friend) about neighbors kid, who gets kidnapped and held for Rs. 3 crore (USD $700k) ransom. They rescue the kid, the money and catch everyone involved, then it comes out “Kidnap Aunty” was involved. She is married to one of the top dogs at the Indian branch of Boston Consulting Group – I’m guessing the next Christmas party will be a bit weird with her around. The kicker, the Income Tax office gets involved to understand how the parents were able to afford a Rs. 3 crore ransom – man what a kick in the pants.