Daman Singh’s book release

It was pouring, and the whole of Delhi was jammed to a standstill.But, at this event – Daman Singh’s book reading and release, every single guest invited arrived – and bang on time at that.
By the time we cut through traffic and made it to the venue, not only were there no chairs left to sit, even the bar was full with people making small talk over drinks.Guess when the PM’s daughter (that’s Daman Singh) invites you, you better make it, come hell or high water!
And also, most of those invited were friends and relatives, for, Daman knew most of them by name, and more of them called Gursharan Kaur as ‘auntie’. Daman’s elder sister, Upinder, her husband, Vijay Tankha and their sons, Madhav and Raghav were there too. Daman’s hubby, Ashok Patnaik was also present, as was their son, Rohan. Educationist Abha Adams read out excerpts from the book, and then got into a conversation with Daman, which turned out to be a humourous affair, because Daman is blessed with a dry sense of humour, and she could say the most hilarious things with the straightest of faces. Sample this: during the question and answer session, someone asked her whether she looked at other kids and wished her son was different, or whether she wished she had a daughter too. Without missing a beat, Daman replied, “Of course. Who doesn’t? Waise toh women wish their husband was different too. But I gave up wishing for these things a long time ago.”
The Q&A session left everyone in a very jovial mood, and in fact, we overheard Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s wife tell Gursharan Kaur, “This went off very well. It was very enjoyable.” Drinks were served, and snacks too, and Daman sat down to sign the books. And as we were walking out, we heard two of the guests talking among themselves as they were walking out, “Bhai, yeh toh achcha tha. Not boring like the usual ones. Lekin yeh baarish ne toh hadh kar di,” and when we asked them why they think so (the ‘achcha hai’ bit, that is) they said, “God, please yeh mat likhna. Kam se kam, hamara naam toh nahi.” Nahi likha, ladies.