Last Night's Dinner Party

One of my friends in the industry, Shikhar Malhotra, invited me to his house yesterday evening for dinner and drinks.  It wasn't just any house nor was just any dinner. Shikhar is the son-in-law of Indian mogul Shiv Nadar who is most known for creating HCL, a massive technology company and establishing the Shiv Nadar Foundation, one of India's largest non-profit organisations.  Shikhar is an executive with HCL and a trustee with the Shiv Nadar Foundation and happens to love football which is how we have cross paths many times over the past few years.  

Given that Shikhar loves football and that his school has recently tied up with french club Paris Saint Germain, he went ahead and invited Portuguese and PSG legend Pauleta who was in town for a few days on behalf of his former club. In addition to being one of the highest goal scorers in PSG history, Pauleta represented Portugal in the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups scoring a hat trick against Poland in 2002.  

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the party and thanks to my limited Spanish, I was also able to spend a decent amount of time with Pauleta discussing life at PSG, life in Portugal and the crazy Delhi traffic.  

It was an enjoyable evening celebrating football in the Nadar family's beautiful home. Also, it was another validation for me that the next generation of young, wealthy and intelligent Indian businessmen and women are seriously considering football as the sport they would most like to put their money behind, signs of a bright future for Indian football. 

Skikhar and Pauleta

With Pauleta, PSG staff Fabien and a friend of Shikhars

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