Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Aussie-style adventures
For the past week, actor-couple Anusha Dandekar and Karan Kundrra have been living it up in South Australia's coastal capital, Adelaide.

Anusha Dandekar

We hear the duo cuddled with koalas, tried dirt quad biking at Vivonne Bay on Kangaroo Island, spotted wildlife at a national park and even scaled the island's landmark Remarkable Rocks, formed naturally over 500 million years of rain, wind and pounding waves.

"It's amazing how gigantic these boulders are. It was great fun exploring them, and trying to climb to the top of some of them. The most thrilling part is the spectacular views of the island and the Indian Ocean from atop the rocks," shared Dandekar.

Happily hitched!
"Tried some wedding thingy with this girlfriend person who then apparently became wife person..." announced stand-up comedian and east India Comedy co-founder Sapan Verma on social media, as he posted this frame with long-time girlfriend Chandni Ghosh.

The Bengali-style wedding on Tuesday was attended by several names from the Mumbai's stand-up scene including Tanmay Bhat, Abish Mathew, former eIC members Atul Khatri and Sahil Bhulla.

Following mommy
It's interesting what leftover fabric and a spirited effort can achieve when you intend to go twinning with your daughter. Ten-year-old Mira convinced her designer-mother Payal Khandwala to create a junior version of her best-selling Banarasi lehengas, and the result is for everyone to see on her Instagram page.

"ever since the pictures went up, I've been getting inquiries about launching a kids' line. But, that's not the case. It's just that I had some leftover fabric, and since Mira insisted that I make an identical version of the adult ensemble from my womenswear range, I did," she says. We were told that Mira, who is a student at Bombay International School, is quite a risk taker when it comes to fashion.

"She prefers shopping in the boys section at Zara; she loves flannel shirts, as she does teaming a shirt with a lehenga and vintage trinkets. And as you can see, she loves posing," says Payal, adding that the pictures were taken by the nanny, Chandra, at their Breach Candy apartment.

Bandra eatery gets a mini farm
The farm-to-fork movement in the city seems to be growing stronger, with restaurants putting extra effort into ensuring that they highlight local produce on their menus. We now hear that Bandra-based Kitchen Garden, which has an 85 per cent organic menu, has taken another step towards becoming India's first fully organic cafe and salad bar.

To do this, they have partnered with Offerings Farms near Pune, which grows a variety of produce for the eatery. "We have decided to extend our collaboration by developing a plot of land to grow produce required for our menu. This will help us experiment with growing new veggies, and ensure a consistent supply of organic produce," says co-owner Jeremie Sabbagh.

Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Look who's pinned my badge
A young girl guide looks on with pride as actor Kajol pins a badge to her uniform at the launch of a campaign at a Lower Parel five-star yesterday.

The family that paints together
We have heard of solo exhibitions and group shows, but when art runs in the family why not have a joint showcase? That's what young artist and environmentalist Rachna Toshniwal thought when she got the artists in her family together for the exhibition, Zen and the Art of entanglement, which opens in December first week in Mumbai.

The show will feature nature-inspired works by Toshniwal, her mother Anuradha Toshniwal (artist), aunt Asha Daga (artist) and cousin Vidur Sodhani (photographer). "We exchanged ideas, brainstormed, and helped each other by sharing techniques and materials. By the end of it, each of us had grown in our own art and had simultaneously grown closer as individuals rather than just family members," Toshniwal told this diarist.

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