What more delectable way of asserting that India is everybody's favourite flavour, than a luscious luncheon hosted by Anuradha Mahindra, editor and publisher of Verve, in honour of a high profile group of international women entrepreneurs.

On a languid January mid-morning, under an exquisite Mediterranean tent festooned with fresh flowers on the terrace of Mahindra Towers, with much of Mumbai crawling in suspended slow motion under their well-heeled feet, these fascinating women (accompanied by a few men!) took in the sights and sounds of the city with animated excitement. Some very fine wine bolstered the spirits and live Indian music underscored a poignant note as introductions were made, the ice was broken and, as the afternoon wore on, confidences were shared in the manner that only women who begin to warm to each other do with candid effervescence!

Francine LeFrak, delegation chairman, nursed a nascent fascination for India and was figuring out a way of fulfilling it. "I always wanted to come, but wasn't sure how," she concedes as we settle down, with some bottled water, for a chat.

"When I decided it was time to visit," she continues, "I was sure about one thing - it would have to be with a group of people I knew and liked!" Sounds an amazing enough idea to start with - but, being the producer of award-winning Broadway musicals, she took it to another level as she confesses, "I decided to cast the trip - as I would a play or a film." So, she brought together friends from all over the world, a bunch of very accomplished and attractive women, each weaving her own charming cameo into the pageant of LeFrak's India experience as it unfolded, briefly, before our eyes that afternoon.

To say the brunch-bunch was high-powered would be an understatement; but to stress that they were all wonderfully enthused and charmingly unaffected wouldn't be untrue! Helped by the inimitable British born, New York-based Louise Nicholson, art historian and lifetime India specialist, LeFrak had put together some very exuberant women, indeed.