12 March,2015 08:37 AM IST | | Contributed by: Hemal Ashar, Sundari Iyer, Shrikant Khuperkar, Vidya Heble
The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Super girl flies off to Canada
To the land of maple syrup, Canada, flies Super Girl, a short film part of a Mumbai-based initiative called School Cinema. Super Girl has been selected to play at the Toronto International Film Festival for Kids 2015 to be aired from April 7 to 19 this year.
Acts of kindness point to the superhero in us. A still from the film
The film is directed by Delhi's Vaani Arora and Hemant Gaba and produced by the city's EduMedia, which is headquartered in Andheri. We learn that this film will play as a part of the TIFF Kids 2015 programme called Imagination Inspiration.
In Super Girl, a young girl yearns to become a real-life superhero and recruits her grandfather to help her build a super rocket car. But when she encounters problems with her design, she learns that there is more to being a superhero than just being able to fly.
School Cinema is an EduMedia initiative, and is a film-based learning module, so children learn with the help of films. We like the story outline of Super Girl. Also we think Mumbaikars may be dreaming about a Super Girl or superhero, who gives them a super rocket car which flies high above the Mumbai traffic and gets them to their destinations in super quick time. Sigh. We can always dream, can't we?
Bottle bank with a difference
Banks come in different guises and places. While some keep their valuables under the mattress, others keep their prized antiques under lock and key, much to the mystification of the local kabadiwallah.
Or rather, platform, for this gleaner and his stock of discarded plastic ware. Pic/Shrikant Khuperkar
Then there are collectors and hoarders of empty plastic containers to the resounding cry of "We are Indian, after all", which means we can never ever throw anything out. When we do throw out unwanted plastic trash, we can be sure that there is someone waiting to pick it up. It's that shabby character toting that enormous, equally shabby sack which isn't as heavy as it may seem.
And where do these gleaners store their precious cargo? Well, we spotted one at Bhandup station, who had stashed his collection under the staircase on one of the platforms while he sorted out the bottles. As safe a place as any, we guess...
An unlikely âsaviour' to save face
There has been a lot of talk about swine flu in the city, and it's good that there is awareness about the spread of infection. Using face masks is one option for individuals, although the "ninja warrior" style of wearing dupattas and stoles probably renders an official mask superfluous. (Do you wear the mask under the dupatta, or over it?)
Be that as it may, the excuse of "swine flu fever" is turning out to be convenient for more than one person from work shirkers to lazy laggards. We overheard a group of youngsters in the train discussing a rambunctious night out that they had had on the weekend. One of them, a girl, said she had reached home in the wee hours, after having consumed certain banned substances with her friends.
In order to hide the "evidence" from her parents she wore a mask and feigned tiredness after having studied late into the night with another girl. And she was allowed to go to sleep in the privacy of her room. We wouldn't recommend misusing a medical mask in such a way; not to mention that it will scare people around you!
