By Shinan Govani for Hello Magazine – May 31, 2015.
“Have you met His Highness?” Adrienne Clarkson asked me.
I had not.
Taking my arm, the former Governor General made the intro to the 78-year-old Aga Khan inside the handsome, months-old museum of Islamic art that flaunts his name, on the outskirts of downtown Toronto. A small reception was stewing around us the other night and, on either side, varied security detail stood on guard, eagle-beaked. It’s not every day one meets one of the wealthiest aristocrats in the world – a man known for his collection of estates and horses as much as his extreme philanthropy and liaising between eastern and western civilizations. The entire encounter may have easily felt as stiff as a scene out of an E.M. Forster novel, but I was enlivened by the royal’s crinkly smile. Photos do not do it justice. In person, it’s the smile of a child, an enthusiasm only boyish in form – remarkable, considering that this is a man who has been doing endless meets-and-greets for five-plus decades, and at the tender age of 20 became the hereditary leader to the worldwide Ismaili Muslim flock.
Read more at the source: http://ca.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/02015053116562/on-the-town-with-shinan-his-highness-the-aga-khan-smiles-his-way-through-toronto-festivities
Earlier related Shinan Govani:
Ismailimail 