In a world where social networking has become an art form, it was only a matter of time before a new species of curator found himself in business. So now you have-as legit parts of the partyscape-the People Curators. Some are celebrities themselves, others hobnob with them, but in a way, they are all passive people collectors. What they are currently putting up on exhibit are their "friends".

Socialite Ramona Garware was the face that brought in Delhi's happening crowd at the opening of Capitol, the new restaurant cum lounge bar owned by friends.

Depending on the social value of these friends, the exhibition can be at a variety of venues, ranging from five-star hotels to stand-alone restaurant launches and a lot more in between. Take the opening of Capitol, the latest watering hole in Delhi. Its most visible promoter is Ramona Garware, the streaked-hair socialite who lives between Delhi and Mumbai. By agreeing to be the face of the restaurant cum lounge bar, Garware is helping out her friends bring in the "happening crowd". Would she want to be known as a party host? "Why not?" she argues. Similarly, at the opening of Ozone, a swanky gym in Delhi, the invitation said the "hosts" were Aparna Chandra, Malini Ramani and Manish Arora. Fashion designers, they neither knew the gym owner nor were they involved with the venture. Yet, they turned up-Ramani in her leopard-print mini and Chandra with belly-button on show-to play "hosts". They went back with "part membership" to a gym that otherwise costs Rs 60,000 annually.

At the launch of Ozone, a swanky gym in the capital, fashion designers Manish Arora and Malini Ramani played hosts. They went back with part membership to the gym.

In Mumbai, photographer Sumeet Chopra, whose famed calendars are sponsored by Bacardi every year, also throws an annual party for the beverage company. "I have to use my good offices to call my friends and ensure a great party," says Chopra. "I don't get paid for it, but my payment is in the broader sense of the term." Former Miss India Anu Ahuja is also into the act. It began when Elle magazine asked her to invite "50 of her friends for one of their dos". Ever since, Ahuja has been creative consultant on projects and also hosts parties for alcohol companies.

In Delhi, former Miss India runner-up Ruchi Malhotra and city supplement scorchers Rohit Bal and Chandra played hosts at a series of Foster's and Formula One parties at the Grand Hyatt sometime ago. It didn't matter if the hosts couldn't tell the difference between a race track and a football stadium, so long as the guests flowed in. These are the professional hosts, their skill being their "style" and their link with the stylish. Moreover, they are proof that Page Three-dismissed as a circus created to provide the reading middle class with peep-hole entertainment into the lives of the rich and famous-has a higher purpose.

At the launch of a new bar at 1 MG Road in Delhi, the owner stayed in the background and the press was told that designers Rohit Gandhi (right) and Rahul Khanna were hosts.

Formerly pretty Page Three People, they have now evolved into a viable, exploitable cottage industry. From initially being only snapped at parties to being invited as chief guests at events, they moved to being paid to tend to bars, like Marc Robinson in Mumbai and Malhotra in Delhi. Now, they are being wooed for their guest list. The days of invites sent by pr people to a photostated celebrity list are over. It's too impersonal, too riff-raff. "Personal" guest lists are in: more subtle, they give the impression that the celebs really patronise the restaurants. So, smart marketing minds are identifying "well-connected" Page Three-ites and offering them restaurant space to treat as their personal dining rooms.

Foster's threw a series of Formula One parties at the Grand Hyatt where celebrity hosts such as Ruchi Malhotra got to bond with friends and take home some free beer.

Even traditionally conservative hotel chains have recognised this potential. The Hyatt Regency had politico Omar Abdullah and cigar czar Chetan Seth "host" dinners at TK's where they cooked and served to close personal friends-with photos sent out to publications the next day. A prominent hotel had a well-connected interior designer host two lunches with full rein on a socialite guest list. In Delhi, ITC Maurya was the first to extend the network. Among the assignments of cultural impresario Sanjiv Bhargava, who worked with Maurya Sheraton as "cultural counsellor", was to draw celebrities to its restaurant, West View. He would, from time to time, host intimate parties so as to get the culturati-Shekhar Kapur, Meera and Muzaffar Ali and assorted ambassadors-into the habit of coming to the restaurants. "Hotels have always had the sales cocktail," says Bhargava. "But they don't work because everybody is doing it. The question is how to beat the competition." The hotel benefits, he says, from the "goodwill" he has established over the years. "I used to get M.F. Husain to the Maurya often, but now he has almost become a mascot for ITC," says Bhargava.

One may or may not endorse the trend. Malvika Singh, editor, Seminar, part of the networking circle, says People Curators are testimony to the city's growing vulgarity, and adds, "You don't make contacts to exhibit them." But Malhotra, for instance, doesn't see why she should turn down a "paid party". She adds, "Foster's paid for everything. All I did was call my friends." No money was exchanged, but she forged a "long time" relationship with Foster's and took home free beer.

Some, however, are having pangs of conscience. Arora, who insists the gym launch was a "one-off", says, "I want to be known for my clothes, not as a party organiser." He feels he's being used. "When they say host, they want someone who will get the maximum people and for free, " he says. No problem: the C-list is only too happy to oblige with its guest list: the manager of a store played "host" at a club and a small-time designer's boyfriend SMS-es "friends" to come to "his" parties at a nightclub in Gurgaon.

The party, as they say, must go on.

— with Nidhi Taparia Rathi