Earlier this week I jump squatted my way through an intense New York City workout with Pelin Baruonu, who, according to me, is one of the best in a city full of top class trainers. When my friend Purva Tsai had told me that the lithe Turkish trainer was the reason for her strong, toned self, I’d gone on Instagram to check her out. One look at her handle (@pelinfitness) and I was hooked. Those abs. Those arms. When I found myself in NYC this month, I had to squeeze in a session, even if it was on my last day there. After sweating it through a crazy circuit workout, and begging Pelin to move to India (to hope is human), I hobbled over to Purva’s beautiful town house to have an almond milk smoothie before heading back to pack.
It was a whirlwind trip, as New York always is. I had gone for the 10th anniversary of Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit, with whom I work. This year Tina asked the question ‘Can women save the world?’ and given how poorly the strongmen of the world are performing, no points for guessing how everyone answered. The lineup had everyone from Oprah Winfrey and Brie Larsson to Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Anna Wintour and Hillary Clinton. When Oprah arrived backstage at Lincoln Center, looking resplendent in an Anamika Khanna floor length jacket, it was as though an electric current went through the green room. And when she came on stage and spoke, I realised she is one of the finest orators in the world. She delivered a soul-stirring speech so full of fervour and conviction that the entire 2,500-strong audience gave her a standing ovation, thundering their applause to her feminist rallying cry.
At the VIP dinner that evening, I spoke to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and his mother, Lili, who worked so hard bringing up her sons she wouldn’t spend even 15 cents on a cup of coffee when they were young. She is a big Indophile and loves meditating. The next day, politician Stacey Abrams lit the stage up when she talked about voter suppression in the US, as did Priyanka. Her answers on attitudes towards women in India were especially well received. Another panel focussed on the million Uyghurs in Chinese detention camps forced to work as slave labour, as did one on Saudi Arabia’s dissident women. Oscar winning Indian producer Guneet Monga spoke on the taboos around women’s reproductive health.
On Friday, Anna Wintour took the stage to talk about her lifelong fashion career, her massively successful fundraising efforts for the Democratic Party, and gun violence in the US. She later mingled in the green room, not a hair out of place in her perfectly coiffed bob. For a gal like me, who remembers the halcyon days of New York magazine publishing in the 1990s, having Anna and Tina in the same room was a huge thrill. Back then, when hard driving successful women were harder to come by, they were role models to a whole generation of women like me. Not only did they spot and launch the careers of numerous talented photographers, they churned out publications totally in step with the times.
When it was all over, I managed to sneak in a few lunches and dinners to places new and old. L’Avenue, which opened at Saks Fifth Avenue in January, is a Parisian import but with a distinct New York twist, given that I had a vegan vegetable curry. Trusted Saint Ambroeus and Café Cluny in the West Village, old haunts Indochine and Balthazar, the incredible views from Soho House in Dumbo, Brooklyn, and the too loud Gitano Jungle Room rounded out the trip. Now, back home and recovering from jet lag in Mumbai, legs still savagely sore by that Pelin work out, I wonder how I packed it all in. I presume it’s because in New York, a city that never sleeps, I didn’t!
This fortnightly column tracks the indulgent pursuits of the one-percenters.
