Still few signs of retrenchment in Notting Hill, although at a Euro-bankers party this weekend one wit did propose that Soda-Streamed Chablis might pass as acceptably crunchy Champagne. How the time must fly in what’s left of the City. Over the canapés (chestnuts wrapped in lardo, salmon with liquorice), one guest described the distress she had felt at the appalling poverty which co-exists with the conspicuous trappings of new wealth on a recent business trip to Mumbai.
Recent tragedy aside, the Western press seems reluctant to criticize this aspect of the Indian economic boom, preferring to relegate teeming misery to the status of energetic vibrancy or authentic local colour. The harshness with which India treats its poor was briefly bemoaned before the real business of the evening, a runway competition for the women’s shoes, began.
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