Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

What's the net worth?

Shilpa Shetty Kundra attempts to swat a mosquito with an electric racket in the presence of an amused Raveena Tandon on a set in Goregaon on Monday. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

Dalai Lama and Donald Trump

The Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha, when asked about the big leap of former national Congress spokesperson, Priyanka Chaturvedi from the Congress to the Shiv Sena said that, "There is nothing wrong in nurturing political ambitions but to use a circuitous deception to hop on to a diametrically opposite ideological platform is political immorality at its worst. The Congress and Shiv Sena are as different as Dalai Lama and Donald Trump.

Sanjay Jha and Priyanka Chaturvedi

The Shiv Sena is a parochial, polarising fundamentalist Hindutva organisation that has scant respect for democratic, secular sensibilities. They pioneered the hoodlum "goon" culture where innocent outsiders were brutally thrashed in Mumbai for electoral benefits. Governance and Shiv Sena are an oxymoron. Their misogynistic attitude towards women is legendary." Jha signed off with, "Good luck to her."

When Aamir and Azad met Enid

Aamir Khan is no stranger to book launches, like most Bollywood A-listers - but those events rarely give us an insight into how much of a book lover a celebrity can be. So when Aamir was spotted inside Hill Road's Happy Book Stall with his son Azad Rao Khan, it made us sm­i­le.

We learnt Khan has been visiting the store since childhood and loves En­id Blyton titles. And it was here he picked up a passion for reading. After posing for a picture with the store's owner, Mr Rajan, he also picked up Blyton titles for his son.

Poll pitch

As some states gear up for the elections today, American producer Johnny Harris who is in India, put up posts asking voters to send videos of their polling station, inked finger and how many km they travelled to vote via WhatsApp.

The Emmy-nomi­n­ee has been here since March. "I'm grateful for the Internet," he posted. And it seems like he has picked up on people's nature to spam, as the posts include a request to only send in poll videos. This attention to detail is making us look forward to the result of the poll videos even more.

United we stand

If you crossed the Worli Seaface last evening, you would have spotted a unique photo exhibition en route. For, the specially curated exhibit that celebrated the human, marine and wildlife of the Mumbai coast was a mobile one, and put together solely by people's contributions.

The celebratory exhibition at Worli Seaface. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Organised by Save Our Coast Bombay and Love Your Parks Mumbai, the exhibition had participants submit pictures as well as people volunteer to hold the pictures or form human photo frames. While there were many works by common Mumbaikars displayed, there were also works by photographers Sunjoy Monga, Pradip Patade and Rajesh Vora, author Nikhil Anand, marine biologists and activists, there.

Chef's table talk

It made for a cool frame when we spotted two leading chefs from two cities eat at another celebrated chef's new restaurant in Mumbai. Rahul Akerkar's Qualia, which opened doors to public earlier this week, played host to Mumbai's chef Pooja Dhingra of Le15 Cafe and Delhi's Kainaz Contractor, who owns Rustom's Parsi Bhonu located at the only Parsi Anjuman in Delhi, earlier this week. The two chefs posted the perfect girls' night out pictures giving us major #squadgoals.

Contractor, who happened to be in town for leisure, told this diarist, "Ever since Rahul Akerker announced the opening of Qualia, I have been waiting with bated breath to visit. We ate our way through the menu, which reflects a newer food philosophy of simpler dishes that are flavour and ingredient-forward whilst embracing old-time cooking and preservation techniques li­ke pickling and fermenting. I particularly enjoyed the artisanal breads." Dhingra also shared her thoughts with us, "It was great to see chef Rahul in action," she told this diarist, before adding, "I've known Kainaz for nine years, since I started Le15. I love her as a person and a chef. She's the best dining companion. Though we're in different cities we meet often."

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