Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Shashi Tharoor

Voices get Boulder
What started out as an intimate gathering of literary minds and authors in the Pink City, over 10 years ago, has gone global, thanks to their outreach festivals in other parts of the world, including taking the festival to Boulder in the US and an association with the MoMa in New York.

Presently, in its third edition in Boulder, the Jaipur Literature Festival has drawn over 70 authors from India and the world. Leading the Indian brigade is father-son duo of Shashi and Kanishk Tharoor; current Indian ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna; diplomat-author Vikas Swarup, and Emmy Award winning writer Kayhan Irani.

With such a promising line-up of some of India's most diverse literary voices, we are pretty sure the ideas must have floweth over.

Urban designs
Architect Ashiesh Shah believes that good design is not determined by snob value. The result of this philosophy is a collaboration with an online furniture store, for a collection called Wabi Sabi.

Ashiesh Shah with one of his designs

You can now own a solid teakwood piece designed by the architect, who is the brains behind the glitzy homes of Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor. "Wabi Sabi is a Japanese philosophy that I have been following in my interior design practice for a couple of years.

Today, we take our lives too seriously and forget that there is perfection, in imperfection. To achieve that perfection we burn ourselves. Sometimes it is easier to let go and enjoy it. Wabi Sabi celebrates imperfection and things that are raw, uneven, like your skin that has bumps and is still beautiful," told this diarist about the line that goes live from September 21.

Pic/Bipin Kokate

That's the offside, Mr Chief Minister
State Education Minister Vinod Tawde seems to have an important point to make as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis looks on at a football event held at the Bombay Gymkhana yesterday.

Chikoo vino in city
If you were at the annual chikoo festival held in Dahanu earlier this year, you'd have tried the world's first chikoo wine, bottled by locals Nagesh Pai and Priyanka Save, under the family-owned label, Fruzzante. If you weren't, there's some good news.

Nagesh Pai and Priyanka Save

The husband-wife duo has collaborated with wine consultant Ajit Balgi to introduce Mumbaikars to the cider-style concoction, which has been crafted from the luscious, farm-grown Dahanu-Gholvad chikoos and created with some help from Canadian winemaker, Dominic Rivard. While plans are to add it to restaurant cellars in the city, for now, it will be available at leading wine shops.

New hat to don
Not too long ago, we reported that chef Jaydeep Mukherjee had exited from deGustibus Hospitality.

A void that massive can't be left unoccupied, and we now hear that chef Kedar Bobde has been appointed the new corporate executive chef for the brand, which runs restaurants like Indigo, Indigo Deli, Neel and D:OH.

With 23 years of experience working with the cream of the crop - The Leela, Jumeirah, Meridien, InterContinental, Radisson and Hyatt - he sounds like the right man for the job.

Actor then, DJ now
Like several star wives have interior or jewellery designing as their go-to profession, turns out there's a favourite new career for has-been actors too. In the past few months, we have spotted three such names. First to come to our mind is DJ Shilpi Sharma (in pic), who has worked in films such as Jo Bole So Nihaal and Heroine.

Sharma has been a regular on the circuit, spotted at DJ nights at pubs across the city. She has also done official remixes of Bollywood songs (the latest being Radha for Jab Harry met Sejal). Another famous face is DJ Zulfi Syed, the hunky model from underwear ads who also played Shah Jehan in the movie Taj Mahal.

He's been doing the rounds as a DJ, including at a Bollywood EDM concert at NSCI. The last one on the list is Ali Merchant, famous for tying the knot on a reality show. Merchant played at a Bollywood night at a Thane bar yesterday. We wonder who'll be the next 'star' at the console. Any guesses?

At the blogger's Emmys
Ankiet Gulabani, who makes us hungry with posts on his Instagram handle, @ankietgulabani (Belly Over Mind) is going places. Saveur magazine, a global guide to cooking, entertaining, and food travel, has nominated Belly Over Mind in the Best New Voice category.

The magazine scans over 30,000 blogs from across the world to select those that will be felicitated at an awards ceremony in Charleston, South Carolina, home of the Culinary Institute Of America. As the day draws near (the first week of October), the 26-year-old food writer says, "I'm looking forward to it.

My focus is to make cooking approachable and exciting to those who shy away from it. I love cooking with seasonal produce. But I am not sure I can make it, it's too expensive."