WRITERS HAD A BALL AT THE WRITER'S BALL AT LE MERIDIEN JAIPUR ON 21ST JANUARY

When I woke up on the 21st morning after a comfortable sleep on Le Meridien Jaipur's cozy bed, I drew the curtains and saw that it was raining cats and dogs and all the arrangements that the Hotel had made the previous day ( in terms of decoration) for hosting the writer's ball ( for those who don't know this year the venue was moved to the sprawling Le Meridien close to the Amber fort) in the lawns ...alas had been ruined and even if it meant Sun the rest of the day, the lawns couldn't have completely cleared of the muck. I kept wondering as to what the Hotel would do now as most of their area was totally blocked owing to the 'Emami' wedding. I saw Anjali Mehra (Area Director Marketing & Communications South Asia at Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts) and Vikas Malik ( Regional Director Food & Beverage, South Asia at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc) working on Plan B for the evening with their team.

As for us ( the invitees), we went over to the festival, had a delicious lunch at Laxmi Mishtaan Bhandar, did some shopping , got dressed and came down for the party...

And what a party... the team had transformed the 24 hours restaurant 'Latest Recipe' on the lobby level and the area connecting on the first floor adjoining a terrace into a party zone in a couple of hours. Kudos for that I must say! 

Big names like William Dalrymple, Sanjoy Roy, Namita Gokhale, Parveen Dusanj, Tripti Pandey and Kabir Bedi were all seen having a great time. Writers were dancing with full gusto to the tunes of a Rajasthani band led by famous artiste Chugge Khan, who sang songs like Duma Dum Mast Kalandar and Rajasthani folk songs like Kalyo Kood Padya and Mhari Odhni. 

The icing on the cake was the Big Indian Emami Wedding fireworks which could be seen from the terrace. 

As for me I had great company and couldn't help dancing to the music myself. 
It was also a pleasure to catch up with my friend Prashant Gupta ( General Manager at The Trident Jaipur). All in all being Starwood's designated brand for art and culture Le Meridien proved to be the perfect venue to host this ball, even the rain did not dampen the enthusiasm of the team and they rocked !!