Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

What's tearing up Lady Gaga?
We love her music, moves and her outrageously amusing sense of dressing. So when Lady Gaga tweets about her sporty side, we sit up and take note, and more so, when it leads her to burst into tears.

Lady Gaga wears her controversial meat dress, in Los Angeles on September 12, 2010. Pic/AFP

She posted this on her official Twitter ID: ‘Watching Team USA and all the ladies killing it in gymnastics. I'm getting all choked up with tears. These are some tough women.' Well, if you've been catching the exploits of the US gymnast team, you will agree.

The Tiger with stripes

Pic/Sneha Kharabe

A cop seems to make the most of his proximity with actor Tiger Shroff, who came along with choreographer-filmmaker Remo D'Souza for a promotional event surrounding a film that stars the action hero.

The cover that never made it
A few days ago, this newspaper caught up with bestselling author Amish Tripathi who rolled back the years to the heady success of The Immortals of Meluha, and its sequel, The Secret of the Nagas, as it celebrated its fifth anniversary since release.

To stir up some buzz around the title, its publishers revealed the alternate cover (The Secret...) that wasn't used as the final print. Here's what Amish had to say about the cover that never got released: ‘Initially, we had thought we will show Lord Shiva's hand holding the serpent.

But later on, we decided that we should show his entire body to establish a visual connect with the kind of cover we had for Immortals of Meluha. The city in the backdrop is Kashi, as it would have been four thousand years ago (in my imagination, of course!).

The city was created digitally using different images and merging them; some very deft computer graphic work. Even the serpent was digitally created.'

Potholed cover
This newspaper has been running the Moon-Faced Mumbai campaign to highlight the woes that the potholed city is facing. And now, Watchdog Foundation have set up this creative initiative that ties well with our cause.

All images on the umbrellas made by an NGO Watchdog and sold to raise funds, ‘celebrate' the pathetic shape of Mumbai roads. Pic/Rane Ashish

The four year-old foundation, with a thousand members across the city, says Nicholas Almeida trustee, is, "going to hold a protest on 1-Day at 11 am. There will be a small peaceful march on the Andheri Kurla Road starting from JB Nagar (Chakala) Metro Station to Marol Naka Metro Station," to raise awareness about potholes and the need for better road conditions.

Yet, if you are whirring down that road on Monday late morning, you may be stopped and gifted a bottle of pain relief balm by Watchdog volunteers. "It is our way of telling Mumbaikars we feel your pothole pain," sums up Almeida.

Of a diva and a boy band
We must admit that singing legend Asha Bhosle is in sync with social media, going by her constant updates. Just yesterday, she tweeted about a ‘comeback video' with none other than Band Of Boys.

The group includes her grandson Chin2 Bhosle. The ageless diva suggested that we watch out for the track, calling it "excellent". We'll take Bhosle's word for it, and keep an ear out for the number.

Make way for Akbar Padamsee
Recently, legendary artist Akbar Padamsee, the last of the Great indian Moderns made a rare personal appearance at a discussion that also featured artist Sudhir Patwardhan, art historian and director-founder of Cymroza Art Gallery, Pheroza Godrej, and art historian, academician and curator, Dr Saryu Doshi.

Akbar Padamsee enters the session; in the audience were Raell and Alyque Padamsee (left, second-left) and Meera Devidayal (second row). Pic/Bipin Kokate

They were in conversation with journalist, author and playwright, Meher Pestonjee, followed by a presentation and discussion on his works by director of the Humanities Centre at Harvard University, Dr Homi Bhabha.