Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Ashish Raje

No way!

Chef-restaurateur Rahul Akerkar seems to have found something incredulous in the brochure of a talent hunt for chefs at Mumbai Press Club on Thursday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Bambai ka hero

How many of you have forgotten your phone or wallet in an auto/cab, and got it back? Well, photographer Mahendra Sinh, had such a stroke of good luck earlier this week, when he left behind his iPhone 10X (258GB), which costs over a lakh. He had hailed Mohammed Sabir's taxi that he had hailed near Race Course.

"After I dropped him off, I noticed that he had left his phone. I waited for 20 minutes, hoping someone would call, but when no one did, I left for my home in Worli. He called later and I gave him my details and told him I would drop it off the next morning by 8 am. When I did, he insisted on giving me a gift for dropping it back," Sabir told this diarist.

But this isn't the first time that Sabir, a native of UP who has been driving a kaali-peeli in Mumbai since 1998, has returned his customer's belongings. "Most people leave their phones behind. What will I even do with something that doesn't belong to me? Besides, the happiness I see on their faces when I give them so­m­e­thing they lost is priceless," he adds.

Meet the brave little soldier

It's a proud moment for Mumbai girl Zen Sadavarte, a student of Don Bosco International, who used her presence of mind and saved 17 people in a building fire by covering them with a wet cloth, as she receives the gallantry award this Republic Day.

According to Meena Saldanha, principal of her school, this was something that Sadavarte learnt while she was in Class 3, during a primary year programme project, where she studied disaster management. "She did a lot of research and figured out how to use wet cloth as a filter to help prevent the carbon from going into the body, which is exactly what she did on the day of the fire and ended up saving lives," Saldanha told this diarist.

This isn't the first time she displayed courage. "Before August 2018, which is when this incident happened, Sadavarte had helped people navigate the flooded area in Dadar-Parel, where she stays, with the help of a raft they have at home. In school too, she is quite vocal with peers as well as teachers and speaks up when she thinks something is unjust," Saldanha added.

Affordable art comes to town

Since 1993, Rakhi Sarkar's Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA) has been an avenue for both aspiring art collectors and emerging artists. With an agenda to make the art world more inclusive, the doyenne also set up an art mela for affordable art.

Pratibha Pawar, former sheriff Bakul Patel, Tasneem Zakaria Mehta and Rakhi Sarkar

After annual shows in Delhi and Kolkata, she has brought one to Mumbai. The event includes artworks by noted artists Prabhakar Mahadeo Kolte, Arpita Singh, Jogen Chowdhury, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Manu Parekh and Madhvi Parekh. All works are priced under a lakh, starting from '5,000. The range is diverse - spanning styles, mediums and technique. The mela was inaugurated by NCP chief Sharad Pawar in the presence of Rakhi and husband Aveek Sarkar.

Sharad Pawar

After gracing the occasion at Worli's Nehru Centre Art Gallery, he tweeted that it was "a kaleidoscope of the original shades of creative expressions... showcasing the confluence of women's artistry and imagination."

Standing up for India

For one night, India' comedians will use the stage to stand up for a cause - the country - as they come together to raise funds for organisations working to help the nationwide protests against the CAA-NRC, both by raising awareness as well as providing legal aid to democratic and peaceful protestors.

Hosted by Rohan Joshi, who's been quite vocal in his support, the event will see performances by Biswa K Rath, Kanan Gill and Kaneez Surka, among others. They have chosen the Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian digital liberties organisation that seeks to ensure that technology respects fundamental rights, and comprises a group of volunteers who previously worked on the SavetheInternet.in campaign.

What a miss

The Jaipur Literature Festival is one of the country's biggest literary events, and attracts the who's who of the global circle. But there will be one conspicuous absence this year - JLF Insider, the much-loved social media page that took snarky potshots at the participants.

The anonymous admin announced that the page will give the 2020 event a miss, saying that given the current political climate in India, "snark during times like these feels out of place".

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