the party's A-LISTS

If you are not a self-proclaimed expert of something or the other, you are simply not on ‘The List’. Whether it’s art,  politics or yacht, your life must boast of a high luxury quotient without, however, appearing to be consumed by it.

Do your homework well, tread carefully and take your cue from the evening's celebration.  Hosting a party requires a certain nonchalant flair, in fact, the message is quite clear – the party must be chic and saucy. So keep your sob stories to yourself.

You may be the definitive picture of composure and an unending deluge of beatific smiles, well, some of us grew up. But some, being more equal than others, learnt how to throw a perfect party.

To be invited to this party, you have to be haute and, of course, know how to spell it. If you are not a self-proclaimed expert of something or the other, you are simply not on ‘The List’. You must also have a commendable vocabulary of esoteric terms that relies on calling something as inane as a manicure, cuticle management.

You must pepper your talk with synonyms and antonyms while describing the virtues of your current pet preoccupation, relying on a formula of social hierarchy, the more material your taste, the more philosophical the explanation.

 Tread carefully. If you arrive without doing your homework on your ‘intellectual acquisitions’, chances are you will be ensnared into a world of social butterflies.

If you fly over China and suddenly acquire a Chinese accent, this party is for you. It is here that the hostess takes the idea of ‘global village’ very seriously and will invite the equivalent of the Benetton advertisement to her backyard. Try and rely on some expensive autobronzant tente, if you have not acquired a natural tan of a faraway land by the time you arrive here. See, 99 per cent of the time, a perfect tan is a great opener, as in: “My, my, where is the holiday flush from?” This will allow you to wax lyrical about where you went, what you ate and how many men surrendered to your charm, all in one breath.