Birlas, Lodhas meet & greet at ceremony amid undercurrents

KOLKATA: On Thursday morning, the Birlas and the Lodhas met for the first time since Priyamvada Birla''s will was read out. The occasion was the twelfth-day ceremony (Barwah) of Priyamvada at Birla Park.
Close relatives and friends of the Birla clan and a couple of top brass of the MP Birla group - RS Lodha, co-chairman of the Birla Corporation, and KC Mittal, MD - paid homage to the departed soul.
Lodha was present with his son Harsh, and also attended the bhajan sandhya in the evening, and had dinner. A source close to the family said the Birlas and Lodhas greeted each other with civility, but the "undercurrent was palpable; he was not mingling very freely".
Since early morning, relatives and friends started driving down to participate in the prayer ceremony.
Kumar Mangalam Birla couldn''t make it but the patriarchs, BK and KK, together with other of the clan - Yashovardhan, Nandini Nopany, Uma Goenka, Dr Madan Vaidya - and some select guests took part in the ceremony.
There was a puja, followed by an offering of food and clothes to brahmins and a simple lunch of puri, sabji and kheer, prepared by a chef from Burrabazar.
In keeping with Priyamvada''s charitable nature, all employees of the MP Birla Group, schools like MP Birla Foundation and South Point, Belle Vue clinic and MP Birla institutions across the country, were served food.
School children offered their prayers. Visitors who came in the evening included GD Kothari, SS Kanoria, BP Bajoria, Kashi Nath Taparia and his family, Nawal Kishore Kejriwal and IK Kejriwal among others.
Purushottam Jalota, father of Anup, came down for the bhajan sandhya and rendered a peaceful aura to the place, which has been seeped in controversy.
Gandhiji''s favourite bhajan, Raghupati Raghav, and MP Birla''s favourites filled the air during the one-hour function.
Members of the Birla clan walked up to the stage to offer pushpanjali to the portraits of late MP Birla and Priyamvada. The Lodhas remained closeted among a few friends, exchanging pleasantries.