It is the Indian wedding of the year. In a lavish display of power and wealth, a US-based Sikh hotels magnate has thrown a week-long celebration spread over three cities with 300 guests from across the world arriving on three chartered jets for the marriage of his youngest son to an Indian actor and model.
Flying in for the nuptials of Sant Singh Chatwal's son, Vikram, and Priya Sachdev are former US president Bill Clinton, fresh from visiting earthquake victims in Pakistan, model Naomi Campbell, rap star P Diddy and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. Also attending is the cream of the country's film and fashion fraternity.
The wedding, which began on Valentine's Day, is taking in elephant polo matches and a masked ball on a floating Mughal palace in Udaipur. For the final few days the couple will be in Delhi, where the traditional turban tying ceremony takes place in a five-star hotel that will accommodate French President Jacques Chirac and his US counterpart, George W. Bush, in the coming weeks.
The invitation stresses that the dress for the event needs to be "formal, no blacks or whites. Only colors." For foreign guests there is a 20-page wedding booklet which explains Indian attire.
"It is fantasy," one guest said. "You are showered with flowers and there's piles of Indian food. It is like being at a royal court, a durbar, of ancient India."
The traditional theme has surprised many. Vikram Chatwal was known for a playboy lifestyle in Manhattan. He briefly dated Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen, and had a G tattooed on his arm.
Famous for racing around the city's streets in an Aston Martin, Chatwal had a penchant for partying. He ran up a US$10,000 bar bill and flew with P Diddy on a 767 for a rave in Morocco. He dabbled in films, securing roles in independent movies but failing to land a Hollywood part. Known as the Turban Cowboy, Chatwal hung out with Naomi Campbell -- a neighbor in Trump Towers.
Unlike his elder brother Vivek, who set eyes on his bride only half an hour before the ring ceremony in India, Vikram was set to break with custom. However his lifestyle changed abruptly two years ago, when he told a family friend, Queenie Dhody, a socialite in Mumbai, to look for a bride.
Although there was parental involvement, according to Dhody, the ultimate decision was left to the couple.
"His parents were pressurizing him to get married but it was his decision," she said.
"Vikram told me he was ready and I went looking for a girl for him. It was my husband who spotted her at a party and when they met they liked each other. A lot," she added.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was