Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Nucleya energy
The first list of artiste line-up for the tenth edition of Sula Fest has been announced. Nucleya, the poster boy of India in Electronic Dance Music, is set to rub shoulders with Techno duo Loco & Jam (UK/Northern Irish) along with other luminaries. With a resume flaunting Glastonbury and Eurosonic festival, Dubioza Kolektiv is another promising act.

Well-known Afro Celt Sound System will fuse Afro, Irish, Electronic and World Music, too. Electro-swing group Swingrowers will shake a leg with an Indian woman, Priyanjana, known as the Progressive Princess. The second list of names will be up soon.

Open for comment

Pic/Bipin Kokate

(Left to right) Shabana Azmi, Raveena Tandon, Ila Arun and Waheeda Rehman at a book launch in Bandra yesterday.

Kanda Pohe, Trump-style
The Internet has its own sense of humour, but this one had us ROTFWL. And it will probably make many a fan of the Maharashtrian staple laugh or scowl at the thought of it.

Among the countless desi memes doing the rounds on the new President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, this recent attempt deserves special mention. It goes all the way to carefully position three different animated frames from Trump's speeches in the run up to the election with a step-by-step instruction guide on how to crack making a killer poha.

For our readers, who don't know Marathi, here's a rough translation. Pic one: grab a handful of pohe. Pic two: here's how you chop the onions. Pic three: delicious pohe will be ready in no time. We're not sure if we'll try this recipe, though. We've got Aaswad and Prakash instead.

Is it the write question?
A couple of days ago, this page had mentioned how British bestselling author Jeffrey Archer has been touring the country to launch the final part of his seven-volume work, The Clifton Chronicles.

Pic/Sneha Kharabe

Yesterday, he arrived in Mumbai for the last leg of his India journey, and released his book, This Was A Man, in a SoBo book store, jam-packed with fans.

The ultimate catch-22 situation
Demonetisation has sent ripples through individuals who have black money. Political parties are no exception and all such people and institutions are up to many ways to get their ill-gotten wealth converted into white.

Some may have succeeded in doing this job with extreme care and secrecy, but some have been cheated by the agents who had promised them to change their black money into white. A city unit of a national political party, which entrusted a person from Dongri to get an amount of ' 15 lakh converted in to a legal form, is a case in point.

We have learnt that the said person has vanished with the amount and is now untraceable. The party which has been airing a strong voice against PM Modi's decision is now in a fix. It cannot even report the matter to the police. The party office-bearers have launched their own investigations into the escape and are trying their best to recover the money.

It's all about the money, folks
It's the funniest thing to come out of the demonetisation fracas. Columnist and techie Krish Ashok has been sharing fun, ‘limited edition' versions of the new 2000 note.

One of them has the Bengal Tiger, Sourav Ganguly (waving his shirt from the balcony of Lord's) - it is to be used only when buying and owning British stuff. Another one has other Bengal Tigers, Bappi Lahiri and Mithun Chakraborty (in pic).

Our favourite was his version of a comic panel from Bill Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes that has the two of them discuss the numerous rules and changes with respect to the new notes. We can't wait for his next brainwave.