Rubi Chakravarti By Express News Service Good morning, Bangalore! So, soothsayers are shouting from the rooftops that either the planet Mars or Saturn (I forget which one) is in retrograde and all living things on this planet are doomed for disaster. Seeing the spate of natural disasters and the crash of financial markets even a sceptic like me is questioning the role of the planets on our lives. Can it be true that the depth of the craters on the moon and the red sky of Mars and the little suns orbiting madly around Saturn can influence the life of a human on Earth? With a background score of eerie music anyone can turn me into a believer! It is a natural tendency for people to blame their misfortunes on other people or extraneous circumstances and I am not an exception to this rule. Like most people I retreat into my own safe bubble when circumstances get a tad bit overwhelming. It is so much easier to switch off and back into a safe and familiar zone. Many of my friends and family complain that I take things ‘too personally’. As if taking things too personally is a type of malady that I should shake off like water off a ducks back! This week, as I sat in the cool and elegant environs of Bangalore Club, where we are third-generation members, I contemplated on the conversations that I had with a plethora of people. Why are we constantly justifying, explaining or complaining about our existence? We broadly categorise ourselves into the ‘more fortunate’ or ‘less fortunate’ distinctions. Counsellor and motivational speaker Anna Chandy, Heather Genomal and celebrity designer Jyoti Sachdev Iyer Without meaning to trivialise the issue, isn’t this also a very subjective way of thinking? There will always be a measure of comparison. We are all less fortunate than the Ambani’s and Bill Gates and they are less fortunate than our Gods right? Is being fortunate always measured in terms of money and assets or the love and respect of friends and family? I make a case in point because the comparative measures are just too vast and to make specific points and would be like trivialising the bigger issues at hand. That brings me to the ‘Club ‘culture that I was brought up on. We were always made to feel like elitist brats who grew up in a ‘safe’ environment with other snooty people and their entitled and privileged kids. I can unequivocally state that to be untrue! My father was in the army and he was given memberships to certain clubs so his family could also fraternise with other like-minded people who were in similar circumstances. This brings me to the argument of the ‘more fortunate’ and ‘less fortunate’ that I mentioned earlier. Believe me when I say there is nothing fortunate about the constant transfers, disruption of a family life or not knowing if your father was going to come back alive! I am an unapologetic member of various clubs. The Bangalore Wine Club being one of them. Every month the genteel members get together and explore the various facets of wine with experts and oenophiles who come from all over the world to explain and educate us on the complexities of this beverage that has been around from the beginning of time. This time the venue was the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel who pulled out all the stops to make this ‘Nuit Blanche’ (a sleepless or white night) soiree a roaring success. The BWC is headed by Irfan Vazirally, the former Hon Consul of The Netherlands, who is determined to preserve the time honoured tradition of dining with elegance and being informed in the process! The all white décor with the members all dressed in white, the Art of Sabrage (the opening of a champagne bottle with a Saber), the fabulous dinner and a Pink Champagne fountain… Oh! I am a ‘Club’ woman through and through and what’s wrong with that! Till next week. Ciao RUBI CHAKRAVARTI writer, actor and funny girl

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