Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Anurag Kashyap at a salon in Juhu

Don't look hair, look there

Anurag Kashyap exits a salon in Juhu on Thursday, where he'd gone to finalise Taapsee Pannu's hair for a character in his next film. Pic /Satej Shinde

Let's sing for Celia Lobo

At a time when western music was still the preserve of a small, elite group of people, a Mumbai girl was making waves in the city as its leading opera singer. Celia Lobo started her career in 1953, at the age of 16. She later went on to star in a number of other musical operas, and later started a voice-training academy that has seen the likes of Shiamak Davar, Sunidhi Chauhan, Neethi Mohan, Shweta Shetty and Sunita Rao among its ranks. A musical tribute will be paid to Lobo at Royal Opera House next month. Deirdre, her daughter, told us, "The biggest influence my mother has had on me is that I've grown up listening to orchestra. So, I could sing from the time I could speak."

A controversy we could have done without

With every passing day, it's becoming increasingly clear that we are living in the age of taking offence. The latest evidence lies in the withdrawal of an illustrated Book called The Art of Tying a Pug. Published by Karadi Tales, illustrated by Priya Kurian and written by Natasha Sharma, it essentially acts as a guide for Sikh children for wearing a turban. The cover shows a pug trying to stop a father-son duo from tying the cloth by biting it with its teeth, since the plot deals with how it's afraid that he will be tied up with the pagdi instead. And that's how a whole kerfuffle started, with a certain section of the Sikh community saying it had hurt their sentiments. They have sent a legal notice to the publishers, threatened to burn their office, and even issued death threats, all without having read the book. "Natasha is a Sikh herself and the story is inspired by her own curiosity as a child, when she would see her father tying a turban. And I am not saying that people don't have the right to be hurt. All I am saying is that there are other ways to express it," Shobha Viswanath, publishing director of Karadi Tales, told this diarist.

Setting the Mood

Mood Indigo - IIT Bombay's annual festival - hosts an annual band competition that has been the launchpad for bands like Parikrama, Pentagram and Zero. It is one of the most coveted events in the country's live music calendar, and the winners this year will get cash prizes of '1 lakh, gear worth '1.8 lakh and a chance to go on a three-city India tour. The Mumbai rounds of the competition are being held at an Andheri pub on Sunday. Head there if you feel like you have what it takes to outdo the others.

Readings you have never seen

In light of UNESCO International Day of Persons with Disabilities, this weekend, Kala Ghoda's Goethe-Institut is putting together a unique programme, part of which will be presented without lights. The audience will listen to the spoken word while differently-abled braille-reader artists will read from literary pieces transcribed by noted theatre director for the visually challenged, Swagat Thorat. The genesis of the event comes from Jayashree Joshi's, (Head, Information and Library at GI) trip to Hamburg, Germany. "I visited a museum called Dialogue in the Dark, which is an exciting journey of exploring daily routines through the senses of touch, taste, smell and sound. It set me thinking about the texture of aesthetic experience that is created by moving beyond sight," she told this diarist.

Just kidding

Given the way fake news is spreading these days, it isn't difficult to imagine a future as depicted in a viral trend on social media. It involves people posting pictures of actual things that have already happened, and then posting a caption with the line, "Gonna tell my kids…" followed by a totally fictitious account of what that photo involves. A picture of a shop board that says "Buy 2 get 9 free" is captioned, "Gonna tell my kids I refused this offer." Another with an image of Anil Kapoor in the movie Nayak is captioned, "Gonna tell my kids he was the best chief minister of Maharashtra." And yet another of an actor in a scene from a K serial (in pic) is captioned, "Gonna tell my kids that's Aishwarya Rai reacting after winning the Ms World Pageant." Hilarious.

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