A dazzling reception for the newlyweds

It was an elegant, dim-lit evening, making the diamonds on the ladies glitter and their sequinned sarees shimmer all the more. But all this was offset by the perfectly muted décor of the venue — dull gold and mauve.
And as the who’s who walked in to this dinner do, hosted by member of parliament Rajkumar Dhoot for the newlyweds Saurabh and Radhika, daughter of Sanjay and Aarti Singal, the Dhoot brothers made sure every single guest was taken care of.
We were informed that the PM and his entire cabinet has been invited, and most of them made it too. Dr Manmohan Singh came early on. He wished the couple, sat with Rajkumar and after a few minutes of introductions and hellos, took leave. From then on, there was a steady stream of politicos, industrialists, bureaucrats, friends and relatives. Home minister P Chidambram came to wish the couple; a little later, Pranab Mukherjee was escorted in, as was Sharad Pawar. We also saw Abhishek Singhvi, LK Advani, Lalji Tandon, Amar Singh... the list was endless. Perhaps, that is why the hosts had taken over the lawns of a plush hotel and the convention hall that it led to, for the evening.
The food was a scrumptious array of Indian fare, with a spicy interplay of Chinese cuisines and a live pasta counter. As the evening moved on, Rajkumar Dhoot was still busy taking care of the VIP guests who kept walking in, but the others relaxed over food, and joked and laughed the evening away.
Spotted: Vayalar Ravi, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Rahul Bajaj, Salman Khurshid, Venugopal Dhoot, Pradeep Dhoot, Motilal Vohra, Janardhan Dwivedi, Sunil Mittal, Veerappa Moily, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashok Chawla, Ahmed Patel, MS Ahluwalia, KR Kamath, TKA Nair, T Subbarami Reddy, Sharad Pawar.
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