02 December,2016 09:26 AM IST | | Team mid-day
The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Dualist hymns in Pune for the weekend
Dualist Inquiry, which inked its name on the Indian EDM scene in 2010, is an act to look forward to at the NH7 Weekender starting today at Life Republic in Pune. The group is the brainchild of the Delhi-based music producer Sahej Bakshi, who brought the Rock-influenced Electronic sound in India ahead of its time.
The band has been busy rehearsing for what is known as the happiest music festival - one of the biggest in India for independent musicians. Bakshi is one of the earlier poster boys of the Indian trance scene. He created his own market and is in demand since his performance at Ultra Korea this year.
Public figures always smile
Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Actress Vidya Balan didn't let a smile fade from her face despite being wedged in a crowd at the inauguration of a garden in Ghatkopar yesterday.
Bureaucratic blunders
WhatsApp may have revolutionised communication, but it may land you in trouble if you go overboard, especially in official groups of which your colleagues - both juniors and seniors - are members.
A mid-level officer of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is in a soup these days for posting a pornographic clip. We are told the group members were shocked and embarrassed that a clip like it was posted on the group at all. The WhatsApp group has women officers as well.
We are told that the top brass of DRI who are the group's members, have taken serious note of the actions of Indian Revenue Service officer belonging to the 2010 batch, who was earlier posted at the Mumbai airport. The bosses are now asking for transferring the officer out of DRI.
We are also told that the particular officer's misadventure on a micro blogging site had courted a big controversy a couple of years ago when he had used foul language against a senior leader of a national party.
Keys from the past
The mid-day office had suddenly slipped into another era. The beats of the clanking typewriter, which formed the background score of every cult courtroom scene or journalism film before the computers took over, was playing in the office.
A closer inspection revealed a lovely large typewriter that some colleagues were admiring from a distance while other brave souls were taking turns to take a shot at.
This nostalgic machine was a guest of honour for 24 hours as part of a promotional exercise a day before the launch of the book, With Great Truth & Regard, A Story of the Typewriter in India. The treasure trove, edited by journalist Sidharth Bhatia, was launched yesterday and is dedicated to Naval Pirojsha Godrej, under whose leadership Godrej became the first Indian company to manufacture an all-Indian typewriter.
Digitising Indian culture
Kathak maestro Pandit Birju Maharaj, violinist Dr L Subramaniam, singers Kavita Krishnamurthy Subramaniam (in pic) and Shafqat Amanat Ali, and music composer and guitarist Ehsaan Noorani among others will soon be finding their way to schools across India to talk to students about their art and its place in the history of Indian culture.
The artistes are part of a group of advisors to Virsa, a free platform that aims to take interactive digital classes on Indian art forms to schools across the country. An initiative of the Delhi-based non-profit Routes2Roots in collaboration with the ministry of culture, the programme is already underway in five Mumbai schools. It will soon be a five-day schedule involving two cultural activities each day and by the end of 2017, the organisation is planning to include foreign art forms, too.
HP bonanza
If you'd like to watch all the Harry Potter films again, but couldn't care to sit through 19-odd hours of footage, you must check out a film titled Wizardhood on Vimeo.
A scene from the original series
Created by a (very patient) fan named Tim Stiefler, it brings all the important events of Potter films into one snappy, 80-minute recut. While getting rid of most of the bulk, it manages to still make sense. We must warn you, though: don't watch it if you haven't seen the films before - you'll be missing some interesting subplots.
