Samir Jain hosts daughter’s wedding in Udaipur, Sajjan Jindal’s daughter weds in Delhi

Feb 27, 2011 Destination Weddings

Two business tycoons hosted their daughter’s wedding in February. Tarini, elder daughter of Sajjan Jindal tied the knot with Vikram Handa. Trishla, the artist-daughter of Samir Jain, Vice Chairman of The Times of India group married Miami-bred, Stanford graduate Satyan Gajwani. Ace Wedding Planner Vandana Mohan managed the Jindal wedding. The pre-wedding celebrations were at Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort & Spa, Maldives and the wedding at the Jindal farmhouse in Delhi. 

Trishla Jain (left) and Tarini Jindal

 

The Jain wedding at Jagmandir, Udaipur, was around the same dates as the Jindal wedding, and was co-ordinated by 360 Degrees, the event management division of The Times of India group. Some of Delhi’s A-list bridal specialists and wedding vendors were contacted by both families, and they had to take the tough decision to figure out which wedding to go to. We presume many VIP guests faced a similar quandary!

When Tanvi, the younger daughter of Sangita and Sajjan Jindal got married in Florence last year, WeddingSutra published reports on how the Florence media went ga-ga over the Maharajah style wedding. Back in India, the wedding generated a lot of interest too. Many WeddingSutra visitors are enquiring if we’ll be featuring elder sister Tarini’s wedding photographs. But the bride and groom wish to keep it private, and so we have no pictures to share. We’re still trying though! Media moguls Jains also guard their privacy fiercely, so here again we have no pictures or details on the Trishla- Satyan wedding.

Fashion enthusiast Tarini ran Muse the erstwhile store in Kala Ghoda, she now lives in Abu Dhabi where Vikram manages his family business; Trishla, a poetry and literature graduate from Stanford, is Meera and Samir Jain’s only child. Her first solo art exhibition was held last year, and besides wielding the paintbrush, Trishla takes keen interest in spirituality writings and has over-seen the launch of Times weeklies Times Crest and The Speaking Tree. Satyan relocated to Delhi some years ago, he works with the Internet division of the Times of India group.(sourced:weddingsutra)

Alumni Profiles, Padmaja Kumari Mewar Udaipur

Padmaja Kumari Mewar is a paradox.

She is strongly traditional and, at the same time, boldly progressive. Her concern is the past, which keeps her endlessly focused on the future. She's both of the Eastern and Western world -- and yet she is typical of neither. Her heritage defines her, but in her family she is like no one who has come before her.
Ms. Mewar is more than just one paradox -- she is many. And yet, in her life and in her business running India's HRH Hotels, all of these strands come together seamlessly.

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Born into a family of Indian royalty that traces its lineage back 77 generations, Ms. Mewar is the latest in her family line to serve the Udaipur region in northwest India. Founded by Maharashi Harit Rashi in 734 AD, the State of Mewar, unlike other regions at the time, based its rule on the idea of "custodianship" -- the simple belief that the dewan (prime minister) of the region should act not as king but instead should act as an administrator for the state.

Padmaja Kumari Mewar Udaipur

In the 1,500 years since, custodianship has remained central to the family's mission and duty; thus, it is Ms. Mewar's charge today. An heir to the family legacy, but no longer a dewan in a traditional sense, Ms. Mewar is the Managing Director of Eternal Mewar -- a conglomerate that works to serve and preserve the region in a variety of ways, from education services to hotels and tourism to historical preservation to public health initiatives.

This transition has taken place mostly within the last 60 years. In the middle of the last century, with the affairs of the state changing, the Mewar family began acting not only as custodians to their kingdom but also purveyors of its traditions.

During the 1950s and 60s, Ms. Mewar's grandfather, Mahrana Bhagwat Singhji, re-imagined the family's mission -- extending the call for custodianship beyond the surrounding region to the world at large. Foreign dignitaries on official visits to the state were given lodge at the family palaces and educational and preservation foundations were established in the region.

Later, Ms. Mewar's father, Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar, extended these programs to include improved local health care and support for regional arts and crafts. These moves, each with an eye on the future, preserved both the region and the family.

Yet, it was another of her father's decisions -- the one that sent his daughter thousands of miles away from home to study in the United States -- that may very well have been his boldest.

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Padmaja Kumari Newar went to Northfield Mount Hermon, a private boarding school in western Massachusetts, when she was only 16. It was her father's idea.

Studying at a college in America was a necessity, her father thought, and Ms. Mewar would only be better prepared by coming for high school as well. In the summer of 1997, her first in America, he enrolled her in the Exploration Senior Program. The transition, Ms. Mewar recalls, both at Explo and in high school, was difficult -- culturally, of course, but also scholastically.

"In the States, it's common knowledge that what you read in a book is not always the same as the way it is on the outside," she says. "When going to Exploration, I realized the style of education was completely different. I remember still thinking in terms of right and wrong answers. It truly forces you to think for yourself. You know, the whole idea of not necessarily having the right or wrong answer, I think, is one of the things that I picked up in America and I realized it is just much more closely aligned to the real world."

After high school, Ms. Mewar matriculated to Tulane University in New Orleans, where she studied international relations and minored in business. Upon graduation, she moved to New York City and took a job at the Four Seasons. Over the course of two years she worked her way from the front desk clerk to special service liaison for the hotel's most important clients.

Having grown up in a family where custodianship is key and then having worked in the hotel industry in the US, Ms. Mewar developed a unique understanding of how to serve.

"In India, it's in our DNA," Ms. Mewar said in an interview with the New York Times. "We learn it in our nuclear families from the earliest age. On the other hand, Westerners deliver a kind of seamless service that I admire. You don't see the waiter refilling your glass but it gets done."

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After her time at the Four Seasons, Ms. Mewar has returned home to join Eternal Mewar, working as Managing Director and traveling extensively to promote the dozen or so palaces and hunting lodges that make up the hotel chain.

In the past year, she's traveled throughout Europe -- to Germany, Russia, Spain, and Italy -- as HRH Hotels attempts to diversify and expand into new markets. All the while, the notion of custodianship is never far from her mind or far from the company's mission. Today, in addition to the hotels, Eternal Mewar runs schools, museums, and galleries, and also funds charities and helps support local businesses.

"We are very serious about our communities and services and the way we go about doing business," she says. "It really is a living heritage. Every family has family traditions, family heritage, and it [custodianship] is such a strong part of our identity and heritage. My father's worked very hard, and it's only fair for me to think progressively and make sure it doesn't end here. It's a great responsibility. We want to go on for another 1,500 years at least."

Lavish Indian wedding celebrations continue

Royal Wedding, Lalit Tanwar with Yogita Jaunapuria at Delhi

March04, 2011

A helicopter was among the gifts for the groom in what is being described as one of India's most expensive weddings.

The week-long nuptials of Lalit Tanwar to his bride Yogita Jaunapuria are lavish and attended by thousands.

The pair married at a family farmhouse on Tuesday - the groom reportedly wore a garland made of bank notes and received the helicopter as a gift.

On Thursday the families hosted a community reception. Celebrations are set to culminate this weekend in Delhi. Thousands of people - including Bollywood stars and politicians - have been invited to attend.

Mr Tanwar's father Kanwar is a hugely wealthy city politician from the ruling Congress party - while the bride's father is an influential former Delhi politician - making the arranged marriage a perfect power deal.

The exact details of the ceremony - which consists of four functions over a seven-day period - have been fiercely disputed. "I don't understand why there is so much hoopla about this marriage," Kanwar Singh Tanwar told the Times of India.

"All estimates of this marriage in the media are speculation." In the Indian Express, he was quoted as saying: "True, a Bell 429 helicopter was given but it was a simple wedding."

Extravaganza

Thursday's Indian newspapers say that the wedding was celebrated with 100 dishes and 12 giant TV screens to broadcast proceedings.

The Hindustan Times reported that 2,000 guests were invited to the pre-wedding ceremony last week and each was given a silver biscuit, a safari suit and $500 (£307) in cash, while at a different ritual the bride's family welcomed the groom with gifts worth $5m (£3m).

There was even a reported gift of $5,500 (£3,381) for the groom's barber.

The Hindustan Times says the ceremony has been held at the right time - because this week the government announced plans to introduce a bill before parliament which limits the amount of food that can be served at weddings - estimated to account for nearly 15% of the country's total food-grain waste.

Estimates as to the cost of the extravaganza vary hugely. The Times of India calculated it to be at one billion rupees ($22m/£13.5m), while the Mail Today said that it was around $55m (£33.8m).

The celebrations are due to culminate on Sunday with a VIP reception at a five-star hotel in Delhi - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to attend.