Rekha flew down to Delhi on Tuesday to inaugurate good friend and former Miss India Naina Balsaver-Ahmed`s new boutique of exquisite jewellery and designer outfits, N&M, which she has launched in collaboration with Mandira. As the diva put in a brief half-hour appearance in a bursting-at-the-seams shop in the south Delhi, crowds went berserk trying to steal a close glimpse of this ageless star.

Immaculately dressed in a black satin suit, Rekha smiled and did the honours amidst a motley crowd of men, women and school girls. A round of applause later when shutterbugs and mediamen went about clicking her, little did they realise that the shots would be called by her secretary Farzana, a diminutive middle aged woman who invariably dresses up in male attire. An unselfconscious Rekha was willing to answer off-hand queries on beauty and body regimen when Farzana intervened with all her might to shoo away unwanted lensmen. A fixed gaze from her constant companion was enough to make Rekha squirm. Leaving her sentences unfinished, she dropped everything and rushed off to follow `unspoken` orders from her trustworthy employee. An articulate person, this lady, who virtually holds the key the country`s most `desired lady,` could whisk her `ma`m away within a matter of a few seconds.

It`s perfectly understandable for a confidant to manage and control clients but where was the need to be at your secretary`s beck and call, Rekha, disappearing half way through the launch? A socialite present aptly bitched later, "Who was whose secretary?"