Mumbai Diary: Sunday dossier

Lone ranger
MNS chief Raj Thackeray enjoys a rare moment of quiet after Diwali celebrations at Shivaji Park on Friday. Pic/Ashish Raje

No more Celebrations
For those nostalgic about Chembur's 40-year-old eatery, Celebrations, today's the last day they can enjoy a meal there. After battling dropping sales for around two years, this Diamond Garden restaurant, known for its Indian and Chinese fare, is downing its shutters for good. Insiders say that even though they were managing to battle the hard times, the GST structure appears to have hammered the last nail in the coffin. The call was taken only 15 days ago, which has put the restaurant's 30-odd staff in a spot. "We have no idea where we go from here," said a senior staff member, who has worked there for 27 years. Capitalising on the sweet location will be a brand new outlet of Grandmama's Cafe, that's poised to make its debut in Chembur.

Pic/Ram Bherwani

Pooja's sobriety story
Somewhere last December, just a few days before Christmas, actor-director Pooja Bhatt was having a heart to heart chat with her dad filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, when just before hanging up, she remembers having said spontaneously, "At any point in my life pops, you have been someone truly worth loving." To this, he simply added, "If you love me, then love yourself." That moment, she tells this diarist, was the final nail in the coffin. "I had to do something about my drinking habit," says Pooja, who has turned sober ever since. The actor is now penning a new untitled book with writer Roshmila Bhattacharya for Penguin India, where she will talk about a phase of her life, "where alcohol took over my being, my decisions and became my raison d'etre and how I battled with my addiction". Set for a February 24th release on her 46th birthday, Writer's Side, the literary agency, has secured a deal for a Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English release of the book.

Ready to party like a Russian?
In 2010, when Nakul Mehan (in blue shirt) visited Fabric, a nightclub in Farringdon, central London, he realised what was being passed off as 'deep house' in India was quite different from the real deal. "Most club nights organised in our country are focused on more generic artistes from the commercial realm of the electronic music spectrum. In the process, you lose out on true under-ground sounds," he says.

It's for this reason that Mehan, along with partner Kunal Seth, are launching Oscillate, a monthly party series inspired by festivals like Dekmantel in Amsterdam and Elrow in Barcelona. For its first edition from October 26-29, German producer Raijko Mueller aka Isolee, considered a pioneer of emotive house sound, will be playing along with DJ and producer Lukan. "Oscillate has only one focus - we are purely promoters. Artistes booked by us are exclusive to us. Most importantly, we will be using top-notch audio systems. We believe consistency is key here," he says.

Keeping it tongue-in-cheek
Contemporary art is often seen as "serious", commenting on the difficulties of social justice, environmental degradation, economic inequity or existential questions. A new exhibition that is being planned at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Kala Ghoda by Sakshi Gallery is going to see the use of humour in contemporary art. Titled Sub-plots, the exhibition is being curated by Meena Vari, the dean of contemporary arts and curatorial practice at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology. The show will have works across genres with a pan-India representation, says Sakshi's gallerist Geetha Mehra. Artists such as Ravinder Reddy, Dhruvi Acharya, Waswo X. Waswo and LN Tallur, among others, will be part of it. If you think, however, that this is going to be some attempt at flippant humour, that's not the case. Parody and satire, as we have all seen in recent years, go longer way than the truth laid bare.

Time for a chat with Kumble?
New Zealand's leg-spinner Ish Sodhi was not originally picked for the three-match one-day international series against
India, but a groin injury to all-rounder Todd Astle (no relation to former opening batsman Nathan) got Sodhi a place in the ODI team which play India in the opening game at the Wankhede Stadium today. Ludhiana-born Sodhi, who will turn 25 on October 31, was dejected when he was dropped after one Test against the Indians last year. He marvelled at the way Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja had bowled and desperately wanted to emulate them. He also sought the help of his hero Anil Kumble, then India's head coach. "He [Kumble] spoke of being competitive and finding ways to explore your own strengths in different conditions and in different scenarios. He spoke of his experiences and how he overcame challenges. It would have been great to have more time with him, but he was the coach of the opposition, so I didn't want to pester him too much, but he was extremely helpful," Sodhi told Cricinfo in an interview. Now that Kumble is no longer India's coach, Sodhi would do well to pick his brains on the art of spin bowling for an extended period of time. There are probably two more bowlers to marvel at as well - Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. Hopefully, Sodhi will be picked again for New Zealand as a Test bowler. It's been more than a year since he has worn the silver fern cap in the highest form of the game.