Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

01 February,2018 06:00 AM IST |  Mumbai  |  Team mid-day

The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce



Civic humour and a bit of Darwin
The social media junkies in the newsroom brought this to our attention. The city's highest civic body, BMC, sure has a sense of humour. Puzzled? For a while now, they've been tweeting posters and banners that make us break into a grin with their witty repartees. We love the tongue-inc-cheek humour that is now becoming a common feature with their public messages. We were particularly tickled by one such poster that took inspiration from Darwinism, urging people to tackle waste. We wonder what a certain former Mumbai top cop-turned mantri would have to say about this one.


Pic/Shadab Khan

Give me your hand
Actor Taapsee Pannu acknowledges a fan in the front row while showcasing Ritu Kumar's collection on the ramp along with French designer Sylvie Giacobbi (in black) from the same label, on day one of the ongoing fashion week in the city yesterday.

Dubai's green idea for Mumbai
This diarist recently visited the UAE, and in a breather from the manmade marvels, found herself at the foothills of the Jebel Jais mountain in the Ras Al Khaimah emirate. Apart from the stark beauty of the rugged landscape, what stood out was a signage that greeted the visitors, warning them of a 1,000 dirham (over Rs 17,300) fine if they littered the place.

We knew they meant business when they also gave each group of visitors a garbage bag to clean up after themselves. And up at the summit, everyone complied. Now, if only such simple but firm measures were implemented in aamchi Mumbai. It's not hard to imagine visitors to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (in pic) accommodate a garbage bag in their picnic paraphernalia, we say.

Punjab da puttars
Admission time. We enjoy following the calorific antics of two of our favourite foodies on the road - Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma.

The inseparable duo did a trip to their home state, Punjab, and returned satisfied, going by the glorious praise heaped on social media. They were "well fed, hugged, worked and stuffed with makki ki roti, sarson ka saag,and brilliant kheer everyday", while chicken was reserved for the evenings. Now that's what we call a satiated vacay.

Lavani dancers set to conquer Bengaluru
In 2015, Savitri Medhatul and Bhushan Korgaonkar had designed a theatre production based on lavani, Sangeet Bari. Now the troupe will head to Bengaluru over the weekend in a first of sorts for this popular art form from Maharashtra.

"Savitri had attended SMART by Junoon [run by Sanjna Kapoor and Sameera Iyengar] which is an initiative for young theatre groups. At the residential workshops, she met with Bengaluru-based Anuradha Rao who runs Untitled Space," shares Bhushan Korgaonkar (inset), co-founder of Sangeet Bari.

The mini show will be in Hindi and English for different city audiences and will include two dancers - Shakuntalabai Nagarkar (right) and Akanksha Kadam (extreme right). "Since it's an outstation show and there is no budget for our entire troupe, we couldn't bring along the rest, including music accompanists.


Bhushan Korgaonkar

We will use recorded tracks instead," he adds, elated at the idea of performing in a city outside of Maharashtra. "The troupe is thrilled and is hoping that it will be the start of shows in other Indian cities."

East meets west
It isn't every day that we come across a gig where a French jazz band shares the stage with an Indian tabla player. But we hear that is exactly what will happen at a cultural hotspot in the city on February 10, when Mezcal Jazz Unit teams up with Bickram Ghosh.


Bickram Ghosh

The former is a four-piece act that believes in music without boundaries, while Ghosh is a tabla player who's made a name for himself as a world music maestro. But their unusual jam has a definite reason - it's part of Bonjour India, a festival that aims to promote cultural ties between us and the French. No wonder, then, that they will be sharing the stage.

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