An Indian-born duchess in Britain?

If socialite Lily Mahtani has her way Britain may soon have a full-fledged Indian-born duchess. The stunning 42-year-old divorcee is regularly in the company of the Duke of Marlborough who is estranged from Rosita, his Duchess of 30 years.

The 81-year-old Duke, a cousin of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, lives in and owns the magnificent Blenheim Palace and Mahtani is often found there when Rosita is away from Oxfordshire. Friends of the Duke say Mahtani makes him feel “astonishingly young”!

Mahtani shot to fame in the late 1990s when she sued Sarah Ferguson, former wife of Prince Andrew for not returning money she had loaned her. Fergie had apparently borrowed £1,42,500 from Mahtani for a holiday in the South of France and only returned £5,000. Fergie insisted the money was a gift not a loan. Eventually Mahtani dropped the legal suit because she didn’t want the publicity.

Now Mahtani is in the public eye, again thanks to her ‘friendship’ with the Duke. The couple was recently spotted at Selfridges in London’s Oxford Street at the launch of a range of exclusive Christmas gifts. Mahtani’s eye fell on an haute couture diamond watch for £97,920 (Rs 78,33,600). As she moved on, the Duke bought it and will give it to her for Christmas.

Restaurants and hotels are rated by the refined wines they have tucked away in their cellars — but that is no longer enough! Claridge’s, one of the world’s grandest hotels frequented by domestic and foreign royalty, has set a new trend — a Water Menu, offering the crème de la crème of H2O at absurd prices.

The cheapest bottle on offer is the plebeian Evian or Volvic at £6.50 (mere Rs - which is a mark up of 900 per cent from the average shop price. The more preferred bottles of water are in the £20-30 range and come from all over the globe. 

Claridge’s selection includes water all the way from the Nilgiris Mountains. The Indian water — called Just Born Spring Drops, is priced at the princely sum of £21 (Rs 1680), and is described as “naturally filtered through the mountain and emerges in an ecologically protected environment”.

It successfully competes with the Mahalo at £20 a bottle. Mahalo is “rare deep sea water that was originally a freshwater iceberg that melted thousands of years ago”.

Claridge’s offers a selection of 30 of the world’s ‘finest waters’ all of them lovingly stored like champagne in a special water cellar. Claridge’s does have a more local variety — London tap water — and it’s free.

But only 25 per cent of their guests plump for this, the rest all want bottled water. And what about the taste? Well to be frank they all tasted like water to me!