Tuesday 29th September 2009<\/p>\n
\u00a0No, he\u2019s not dead. But he\u2019s getting huge in Hindu circles. In East London.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Hang on, I\u2019ll tell you. As it happens, my menu for my birthday dinner on Thursday has come through \u2013 it arrived in my head all of a piece last night. This sounds mystical and ridiculous. But it\u2019s sort of true. Already I\u2019ve been in extensive confab with Ottolenghi itself re: figs and I\u2019ve been to La Fromagerie. La Fromagerie!\u00a0 Do you know it? Cheesery in Highbury, London. Special cold room in which cheese enshrined. Icy grandeur such as even top gays can hardly get through the door. La Michelson presides, boosted endlessly by Nigel<\/em>, who lives nearby. I spent \u00a322 but let myself down badly at the finish by failing to buy honey at \u00a36.95 a jar.<\/p>\n \u00a0But it\u2019s a vast subject \u2013 the gay dinner party. It\u2019ll have to wait.<\/p>\n \u00a0I may have mentioned before that Robert Nevil has a passion for the sub-continent. Or perhaps not. Anyway he does. Along with Lord Arrowby, as a matter of fact, but not on the same scale. I\u2019ve never visited and after that ghastly scene in Slumdog Millionaire<\/em> when the little boy jumped in the poo, I never will. I know, narrow, narrow! For those that love India it is perhaps an escape from the endless struggle to get everything right in the sleek, relentless Western slipstream. And, curiously, the old-fashioned, underground gay life is an attraction, too.<\/p>\n \u00a0There\u2019s something to think about.<\/p>\n \u00a0At any rate, it is a broadening of the horizons, something beyond the exquisite confines of art openings, frockage and boutique hotels.<\/p>\n \u00a0And Robert Nevil is forging ahead in the Isle of Dogs Hindu world, this being a former industrial zone of London where Dior does not apply.<\/p>\n \u00a0He was Guest of Honour at the Puja. Not the only one, it\u2019s true, but all the same. \u00a0I\u2019ve no idea what a Puja is, I\u2019m afraid, but it\u2019s got a front row, to which RN and the others were conducted, amidst applause. \u00a0There was food, of which they had first pick and their opinion sought as to merits of, further applause, speeches made in their honour, final applause as they departed. In between was, apparently, a religious event\u00a0 – very loud drumming, frenetic dancing and prostrating of priests, hurling of flowers and swirling of incense. Much more agreeable than Fashion Week, Robert Nevil comments.<\/p>\n \u00a0Typical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tuesday 29th September 2009 \u00a0No, he\u2019s not dead. But he\u2019s getting huge in Hindu circles. In East London. \u00a0Hang on, I\u2019ll tell you. As it happens, my menu for my birthday dinner on Thursday has come through \u2013 it arrived in my head all of a piece last night. This sounds mystical and ridiculous. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}