Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

When Amitav Ghosh speaks for the world

Pic/Sneha Kharabe

Novelist and essayist, Amitav Ghosh was in the city to speak about his new title, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable. The audience was wowed by his inspired wisdom on the need to protect our planet.

Cooking it up
It's always interesting to be at the other end when a celebrity decides to be frank. So, during an interview with Sania Mirza, when this diarist brought up the now-infamous question about ‘settling down', and about choices for women, Mirza was at her candid best. "I cannot cook, so does that make me incomplete? I am cool with it, and it's my choice." Well served, Sania.

Are we cool now, Dr Asthana?

Pic/Satej Shinde

Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani take a chai break at the music launch of an upcoming film that stars the pair. The two share screen space once again after their hilarious scenes in the Munnabhai films.

Say it like Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy returns after over two years with a non-fiction title, Things That Can and Cannot be Said, written in her characteristic style.

The book is based on an original piece in Outlook and The Guardian (more than 63,000 shares) in November 2015 that received huge attention. In late 2014, she met Edward Snowden, along with actor-writer John Cusack and Daniel Ellsberg, the Snowden of the 1960s.

Their conversations touched on current themes - the nature of the state, surveillance in an era of perpetual war, and the meaning of patriotism. Publishers Juggernaut are calling it ‘Disturbing, powerful, and provocative and extraordinary.' Add explosive to the list.

Twitter, travel and tastebuds
Keen to know about an Indian couple that owns a winery or where to try cricket (the insect!) delicacies in Oz? Look out for #RanveerOnTheRoad, one-of-a-kind food and travel Twitter video show with chef Ranveer Brar, in collaboration with the micro-blogging platform and Tourism Australia.

The Ghummans with chef Ranveer Brar in the first webisode, Nazaaray

Launching today, the series packs in the culinary adventures by the chef during his 10-day trip to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in 40 four-minute webisodes (every Tuesday and Thursday). "Australia is one of the foremost culinary destinations, and as a chef, I love exploring new cultures through its food.

The idea was to showcase snippets from my personal experiences, like a travel diary, where I interact with people related to the food scene, explore the markets or try different bug delicacies," the chef shared at the launch of the series at Tourism Australia's BKC office in the presence of Keya Madhvani (Twitter India) and Nishant Kashikar (Tourism Australia). This diarist also got a peek into the first episode, titled Nazaaray that showcased the chef spending time with the affable couple, Paramdeep and Nirmal Ghumman.

They migrated from Punjab to Australia in 1981, and set up a boutique winery in Victoria. Meanwhile, in another episode, Brar tried a wine of his birth year (1978, if you must know) at a vineyard that houses a collection of vintage port wines dating back to 1878! Apart from the interesting mix of subjects and crisp narrative, we liked the raw footage, along with chef's #notetoself at the end of each episode, that offered insight into the culinary destination through an expert's eyes.

Holiday for Rajinikanth
The inexplicable hype that surfaces each time a new film of superstar Rajinikanth readies for release, is the stuff of urban legend. So this time around, we were curious to watch out for developments around this cine phenomenon.

As it turns out, a few offices and business establishments in Chennai have announced a holiday on July 22, when Kabali releases. Now, that's what we call true fandom befitting the actor's cult status. Mind it!