Mumbai Diary: Sunday dossier

Not before my snack
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and businessman Rahul Bajaj seem to be enjoying their meal a lot at an awards function at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba on Saturday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Is Siva getting a raw deal?
In the Indian Premier League, a playing XI cannot have more than four overseas players. But, guess how many foreigners make up the English television commentary team for the ongoing India vs New Zealand limited overs series? Three, in a team of Indian commentators like Sunil Gavaskar, Sanjay Manjrekar, Murali Kartik and Harsha Bhogle. Cricket lovers who follow television coverage around the cricketing globe find this strange because in most cases, there is only one commentator from the visiting team's country. For example, one can't remember two Indian experts in a team of Australian commentators for a Border-Gavaskar Trophy series Down Under.
Here, there are two - Simon Doull and Scott Styris. Another on the overseas roster is Aussie Michael Hussey. One wonders what is wrong in having Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, who has been doing international commentary for 17 years. Ironically, the former leg-spinner is doing microphone duty on the domestic circuit at a time when the Indian team is playing two wrist spinners - Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in their XI. Do messrs Doull, Styris and Hussey have a unique aspect in their broadcasting armoury as compared to Siva or is there something more to this imbalance? In Indian cricket, you can't rule out anything.

Art that moves
Though truck art has now become the domain of high-end Indian kitsch, it doesn't stop people from wanting to honour the original artists who made it what it is. All India Permit, an initiative by Amsterdam-based designer Farid Bawa, is just one such way to do that. Bawa is son to the family that runs the eponymous truck and transport services.

"Growing up in Nagpur, I was familiar with the artists who made the designs on the trucks that my grandfather owned. Every truck was customised with the typography and art they wanted," says Bawa. While the family business doesn't exist anymore, Bawa says that he owes his creative roots to these very artists. Now, a number of these truck artists have found a portal to showcase their work. The USP of All India Permit, says Bawa, is that their works are all made on metal sheets, all of which you can check out on the website.

70s cinema revisited
Veteran Hindi film dialogue writer Rahi Masoom Raza may have passed away nearly 25 years ago, but the sheer artistry of his words continues to stay with us through his films. But, while Raza is most remembered for his path-breaking contribution to movies like Karz and Lamhe, and later the 1980s television epic, Maha-bharata, not many know that he was also a famed Urdu and Hindi novelist of his time. In a first, we hear that HarperCollins India will be translating one of his earliest works, Scene 75, in English. The short novel, which will be translated by Poonam Saxena and is set for a December release, will offer us a peek into the Bombay film industry in the 1970s. With a cast of extraordinary characters, from struggling scriptwriters and wealthy lesbians to film-obsessed social climbers and sleazy producers, the novel, this diarist learnt, is a crazy kaleidoscope of stories within stories. If the characters appear so riveting, we can only imagine what the plot is going to be like.

No more lonesome treesome?
As most Versovites might know, the Treesome Cafe, located next to WTF!, has been one of the most popular watering holes in the area. But, word comes in that the bar has shut shop to make way for a new South Indian restaurant. When this diarist called up Prashant Pallath, the co-owner, he confirmed the news. "Treesome has run for three years now and had begun witnessing a slowdown. Apart from the Thursday musical nights, it had lost its sheen," he told us. The owners now plan to launch the city's first exclusive Tamil restaurant in its place, called The Tanjore Tiffin Room, in December. "When people think of Tamil cuisine, they think of vegetarian fare served on banana leaves when the fact is that over 80 per cent of Tamilians eat non-vegetarian food," he says. Dishes like the tamarind fish curry and the omelette curry have been inspired from homemade recipes collected from friends and family. We have our eyes on this one.

Hold on, collectors
A lot can be said about the Indian art collector, including the fact that there are those who make sure that their prized collections reach the eyes of the public through loans for exhibitions and by creating a museum. However, there are also those that we rue about. Recently, at the launch of a new gallery space in Colaba, there were supposed to be seven prints of a Surrealist painter on display. The well-heeled art aficionados of the city were a little puzzled to see just five on the walls. Over some glasses of champagne, we were told the sad truth. That the collectors who had purchased the prints made sure that the works went straight from the airport into their homes. The prints never made it to the gallery's opening, depriving the art-loving public. How about sharing your love and your art?