Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Raising a toast to Khushwant Singh
As the city melts and soaks in unpredictable weather, a few luckier folk have hit the hills, where the sixth edition of the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival is currently underway.

Khushwant Singh

Actors Anupam Kher and Asha Parekh, writer and senior journalist Mark Tully are at the festival, along with others like Farukh Dhondy and Rajdeep Sardesai. The three-day event, held every October since 2012, is a tribute to the veteran author and journalist who spent plenty of time in Kasauli.

Known for its relevant themes and intimate, engaging vibe, the fest's theme this time is centred around the girl child, the ecology of Kasauli and the Indian soldier. We're pretty sure the iconic sardar must be smiling from up there, whiskey glass in hand, at how the literary fest is shaping up exactly how he might have imagined.

From spring to winter
Trust Dilliwallahs to think up new reasons to showcase their winter collections. While a smile curls up on this diarist's face each time memories of watching this clan soak in the winter sun at intimate open air book readings surface, we're pretty sure that, the winter offshoot of a leading publisher's spring reading fest, might be another avenue for such displays.

The five-day affair has a reason to earn bragging rights, what with quite a few heavyweights on the roster. There's Arundhati Roy and Sunita Narain, Shashi Tharoor, Ruskin Bond, Bibek Debroy, Perumal Murugan and Pradip Krishen who will hold court at the evening sessions. And, how can books and Bollywood be far away? So there's a special session where actor Vidya Balan will chat up Shobhaa De on turning 70.

Pic/Sneha Kharabe

Picture perfect
Politician Priya Dutt adjusts a frame of her artwork on display at a fundraiser organised by The Nargis Dutt Foundation, in Bandra over the weekend.

Shantanu's Nepal connection
Ahead of his music concert in the city inspired by his travels in the Himalayas, this diarist asked Shantanu Moitra about a unique vocalist in his troupe.

Ani Choying Drolma, a well-known nun and the UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassador to her country, Nepal, was to sing spiritual hymns belonging to the Himalayan Buddhist culture. "We met at a TedX event in Delhi.

She is a wonderful singer," said Moitra. "When I walked up to her to tell her how much I admired her work, she said students of her school in Nepal sang my song, Chanda Re, in the assembly!"

Women power
Nave Valan, the annual Marathi film festival at NCPA, has been known to attract film buffs for its selection of films with messages. One such film in this edition was Doctor Rakhmabai. Directed by Ananth Mahadevan, it is the story of India's first female practising doctor.

Apart from the star cast comprising Tannishtha Chatterjee and Bharat Dabholkar (actor Tom Alter was dearly missed), also in attendance was theatre artiste Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, who has long been a supporter of women's rights through regular performances of the Vagina Monologues.

Couture in graphic detail
Both designers boast of a clientele that swears by one's red-soled heels and the exquisite Indian craftsmanship of the other.

Images courtesy/Instagram

So when footwear designer Christian Louboutin and trousseau master Sabyasachi Mukherjee decided to get together for another capsule collection, we knew that the fireworks would arrive early this Diwali.

The duo presented their new collection in the form of a graphic novel, starring model Archana Kumar as a film actress under a curse, on their active accounts.

Colourful artwork, unlike Mukherjee's usually sombre shoots, seemed perfect for the collection created from handcrafted saree fabrics and cut-offs saved in Mukherjee's archives. We like.