| It was a meeting of beautiful minds and heavenly bodies. Sometimes an elegant soiree, sometimes a sheer celebrity-stomp, in its 2007 edition, the INDIA TODAY Conclave proved to be a fairground of some of the world's brightest and shiniest. There was former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto advising actor Abhishek Bachchan in a private meeting on how to speak in public, even as former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami surprised end- of-history academic Francis Fukuyama with his knowledge of the arduous twists and turns in his thesis. There was tennis great and sometime actor Vijay Amritraj exchanging notes with Carl Lewis on the Olympian icon's budding film career. And there again was Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani telling stock market whiz Nimesh Kampani about his plans to showcase Indian soft power at the Cannes Film Festival and the UN General Assembly in New York.  | | PICTURE SPEAK | |  |  |  | | MAIN EVENT: Sibal, Bhutto, Aroon and Rekha Purie | | | Bhutto and Sheila Dixit at the high table | | | Manmohan Singh with Khatami | | Breaking protocol and crossing the SPG divide, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came down from the dais to bid goodbye to Khatami. A day before, other political notables had engaged Khatami in dialogue: as Kapil Sibal and Murli Deora talked about oil and gas, and CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury discussed mistaken modernity. Bhutto quizzed P. Chidambaram at the lunch table on how he had achieved India's high growth rate, had a more private meeting with Rahul Gandhi, while also light-heartedly looking under the table for a "deal" when INDIA TODAY Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie asked her whether she had struck one with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. While Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav declared his prime ministerial aspirations, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath exchanged banter with photographers in the green room. It was an event no one wanted to miss. The Bachchan family came in full force (with daughter-in-law-to-be Aishwarya Rai) to cheer Abhishek, Union Minister Praful Patel flew in from Mumbai especially for the gala dinner, even as Sheila Dixit took time out from running Delhi to chat with corporate czars Y.C. Deveshwar and M.D. Banga. Actor Koel Purie asked Mira Nair about her next project Shantaram, while smooth moderator Karan Johar greeted Amitabh Bachchan-who said he wore a red tie in sync with the india today border-with a traditional touching of the feet. The two days had their little discoveries as well. Futurist Thornton May and Amritraj found they shared a tailor back home in Los Angeles. As Diane Hadlee adjusted her new churidar kurta, husband Sir Richard discussed New Zealand's prospects at the World Cup with Amritraj. With India going down to Sri Lanka, guests wanted to know from the affable ace, whose wife is from Colombo, how he retained his neutrality. Leading IVF practitioner Firuza Parekh joked about being the mother of 2,700 children, even as the entire hall toasted her co-panelist and birthday girl Kiran Mazumdar Shaw with chocolate cake and Moet et Chandon. With Ranbaxy CEO Malvinder Singh's incisive questions and Nilekani's witty interventions, the brave new world did not seem like such a challenge, after all.
| | PICTURE SPEAK | |  |  |  | | FULL FORCE: Amitabh Bachchan | | | Khatami with Parmeshwar Godrej | | | |  |  |  | | | | Lewis, Koel Purie, Amritraj | | | Fukuyama, Weil with partner Catherine Goodman | | Full Story at: http://www.indiatodayconclave.com/ Index |
