40. PARMESHWAR         GODREJ
    62, SOCIAL ARBITER
 

The Road Ahead: She wants to build her real estate business, Godrej Properties, into a “world class avant garde company with a cutting edge, which changes the way in which our contemporaries think and practice”.

The Big Discovery: That her five-year-old grandson prefers to watch the US Primaries with her instead of Tom & Jerry.

The Big Acquisition: Her beautiful daughter-in-law, Karla, who married son Phirojsha last year.

 
 
 
WILL & GRACE

Because she’s the original Queen G, society queen, social arbiter and style icon at large. Because international celebrity buddies like Richard Gere, Imran Khan and Salman Rushdie have not only found a gracious host in her but also a safe refuge at her Juhu homestead.

Because her AIDS awareness activities continue and now she has managed to rope in Rushdie for her high-profile campaign, much to the consternation of the All India Ulema Association. Because she sits on the board of several influential charities, from the Bill Gates Foundation to the American India Foundation, which has Bill Clinton as honorary chairman. Because she defies every stereotype of the idle rich.

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