Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Be-boo main bebo
Kareena Kapoor's T-shirt message doesn't seem to be in congruence with her expressions as she's spotted at the international airport in Mumbai. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

Clippings preserved at the Lord's Cricket Ground of India all-rounder Vinoo Mankad's great performance against England in the Lord's Test of 1952. The match went down in history as Mankad's Test

Dad's a fine way to treat a son
A son of a former cricket great comes visiting. He is invited to India's most famous cricket ground for lunch by the stadium authorities and is shown photographs (including a caricature by Mumbai artist Austin Coutinho) and clippings of his father's deeds. There's more - even the original scorecard of his father's greatest cricket match - the 1952 India vs England Test where the golden great made a big century and claimed five wickets in an innings.

Can one imagine this happening in India? Certainly not, because one, cricket hospitality is almost non-existent and secondly, there are not many items treasured at grounds in this part of the cricketing globe.

Rahul Mankad

But it happened in England. To former Mumbai Ranji Trophy batsman Rahul Mankad, the youngest and only surviving son of the great Vinoo, at Lord's in London the other day.

At Lord's, which some like to call the spiritual home of cricket, Rahul was invited by the iconic ground's CEO, Guy Lavender and was joined by Adam Chadwick, the curator of the museum there. He was accompanied to the fabled dressing rooms, the members-only Long Room and open-for-all museum where the VM Mankad treasures were displayed. Who wouldn't be grateful for such a wonderful gesture, which Rahul described as, "Dignified and classy." Good on you, Lavender. May this cricket fragrance stretch to our cricketing shores too.

A homage from home
It must have been a riveting time to see India break away from the chains of colonial rule to come unto itself. It must be even more enthralling to carry forward a legacy that helped build that India. Shankar Ghosh pens a book that is part memoir and part biography as he strives to tell a story in his father's words. Dr SN Ghosh was one of India's first editors and with the country's oldest newspaper, Pioneer. During his time as a journalist, Ghosh managed to peek into everything from the "only White clubs" in British India, to the Bengal Famine to the beginning of the Ram Janma Bhoomi movement. As his son gets ready to unleash Scent of a Story (HarperCollins), bookworms across the country are gearing up for a truly enriching walk down memory lane.

A library of love
Reading should never be monotonous, but it's hard to find words on the screen that haven't already been said before. Mumbai's zine culture pioneers Aqui Thami and Himanshu S, who helm Bombay Underground, are opening the first zine library in the city today.

(Left to right) Aqui Thami and Himanshu S

With over 1,500 zines in their collection, there is something for everyone. "It is our collection of zines from the past 15 years that include some of our own older publications and many others from friends all over the world," Himanshu says. As part of the opening and International Zine Month, there is also a zine-making workshop along with a book sale and zine pop-up.

Devi or don?
On Phoolan Devi's death anniversary, we stumbled upon the news of a documentary by award-winning filmmakers Hossein Fazeli and Jack Silberman that lies deadlocked and short of funds, as per their website. While the Bandit Queen's violent travails continue to be questioned, it is true that she was a feminist in her own right. An insight into her life can correctly point towards the psyche of those who are tormented because of their caste and the myriad issues that plague the sub-altern.

Summing up a genius
A few weeks ago we had written in these pages about Weird Maths, a book co-authored by Agnijo Banerjee and David Darling. The main reason we had done so is Banerjee's age - 17. He's a bona fide maths genius, with an IQ of 162, the same as Albert Einstein's. And we had reported how he was then on his way to the International Mathematics Olympiad in Romania. Now, we can report that not only did Banerjee shine at the competition, he in fact aced it, attaining a perfect score of 42 out of 42. This is the first time anyone has done so since 1994. And it all adds up to a bright future for the teenager, who's basking in his success at present in Kolkata, the city of his birth.

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates