Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Fashioning the ying and yang of sexiness
The autumn/winter 2019 edition of the India Fashion Week comes to an end in New Delhi tonight with a finale dedicated to celebrating sarees. While it's really not a ground-breaking concept, given the constant conversations around the six-yard drape, we are quite thrilled about the yin and yang sarees that would be twinning on the runway as part of the show.

"It was entirely Schulen's [Fernandes] concept, I helped her with the dramatic crinkled organza pallu, which is quintessential to our brand," designer Wendell Rodricks told this diarist over a call from Goa. In traditional Chinese culture, the yin and yang symbol represent shadows and light. It is used to describe how opposites are interconnected and independent in the natural world. The symbol stands for striking a balance act. Fernandes, the creative director for the Wendell Rodricks label, took the idea and put a resort-wear spin to it by anchoring the ensemble on the sensual low-cut swimsuit with the drape tucked over it. The integration of two dots in monochrome definitely gets our vote. "This one is not for unforgiving bodies, though," Rodricks added with a laugh.

mid-day in comic
City-based copywriter Ruhin Chatterjee got featured in this paper yesterday. During the interview, he had told this diarist that his Instagram page, Life Write Now, was a result of his daily observations. And he proved that when he created a comic strip before sharing the feature on social media.

The strip features the protagonist, modelled on Chatterjee himself, reading mid-day. "I woke up early and figured it out," was his answer when we asked him about how he came up with it.

All in a life's work for Elkunchwar
From watching a Vijaya Mehta production that inspired him to take up writing plays to having the veteran thespian direct four of his early plays, Mahesh Elkunchwar established himself as a formidable force in Indian theatre early on.

Mahesh Elkunchwar (middle) with his award

And in the decades that followed, his path-breaking plays further cemented his reputation as one of India's most progressive playwrights. For all this and more, Elkunchwar, who hails from Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, was conferred with the META (Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards) Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony held recently in New Delhi.

Super news for Superwoman
Indian-Canadian funny woman Lilly "Superwoman" Singh has just made history. She revealed yesterday that she has been chosen as a presenter for an American TV channel, for a show called A Little Late with Lilly Singh.

This makes her the first-ever female late-night presenter on US television (Hasan Minaj, also of Indian descent, hosts a show on a streaming platform). And one of the first people to congratulate Singh was her "bro-in-law", Nick Jonas.

One for the books
Last month, it was awards season for Kidsstoppress, who announced nominees for over 60 categories ranging from best TV show to best stem cell bank. The winners were announced on Thursday.

And in happy news for city bibliophiles, SoBo landmark Kitab Khana won the award for Best Bookstore and Library - Mumbai, with Colaba's Akshara Children's Library bagging the second position.

Expressions that take the cake

Alia Bhatt can't eat cake in the interest of maintaining a pixie-like figure. But, on her 26th birthday yesterday, she made an exception. Pics/Satej Shinde

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