The evening before the Modi juggernaut rolled into town capturing Lutyens' Delhi, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar hosted a soiree at their tastefully done up Lodhi Estate bungalow, a stone's throw from the India International Centre.

Shabana whose MP's tenure lapsed a while back (time to return that bungalow then), wore a flowing white chikankari kurta and a garland of fragrant mogras while sundry elegant ladies in chic and mis-matached saree blouses milled around Aatish Taseer holding forth on his trip to Banaras and Amethi, and the charismatic Professor Mushirul-Hasan. Over delicious meats and rabri and mangoes. Delhi's intellectuals tuttted over the UPA's non-performance even as Javed Akhtar valiantly defended Modi's secular credentials.