A child follows safety precautions while filming his mother apply finishing touches on a Ganesha idol, in Girgaum

Drawing on faith

A child follows safety precautions while filming his mother apply finishing touches on a Ganesha idol, in Girgaum on Thursday. Pic /Bipin Kokate

Literary applause

The winners of the 2020 Shakti Bhatt Prize were announced recently, and the honour is shared by Dr Anand Teltumbde (inset) and Gautam Navlakha (below). Teltumbde is known for Khairlanji: A Strange and Bitter Crop, among other works; Navlakha has written Days and Nights in the Heartland of Rebellion. The two scholars are in prison for alleged links in the Bhima-Koregaon case. "Their body of work deserves to be honoured.

When writers or students are charged under anti-terror laws, TV debates focus only on whether they are 'anti-national', forgetting their decades of work that is connected with India and parts of it that aren't talked about," author and journalist, Nilanjana S Roy told this diarist.

A global canvas for the art community

City-based Chatterjee & Lal has been busy with digital initiatives during the lockdown. Now, they are participating in the third edition of In Touch, a digital exhibition platform created in collaboration between galleries from India and Dubai. The exhibition goes live today and will feature top galleries from the two countries. The In Touch platform will also host gallerist and artist talks digitally. "It is these kinds of online interventions that are most needed at a time when our collectors cannot easily visit us," Mortimer Chatterjee of Chatterjee & Lal told this diarist.

Home is where the idea is

Home chefs have an upper hand in the pandemic. To help them expand their business, Rishi Chhabria, owner of Sea Palace, along with his wife Deepti is set to launch Shef on July 20. A mobile food delivery service app (Android and iOS), it offers a platform to budding home chefs as well as professionals to sign up at a cost, share their menus and get orders just like with any food aggregator and delivery app. "The idea is to provide them a platform to showcase their talent to a larger customer base. The list caters to a wide variety of cuisines, Indian mithais and cakes. We even have a range of healthy food meals customised for diabetic-friendly, vegan and gluten-free orders," said Chhabria. Log on to www.yourshef.in or follow their Instagram handle,@Shef.india

Music files

Unfinished biz

A song is almost always a work in progress, believes Jivraj Singh, one half of the dream-pop musical duo Parekh & Singh. So, they launched a virtual project called The Unfinished Song Club yesterday, where every week, they will be in conversation with four songwriters about their unfinished songs. "Essentially, Nischay [Parekh] and I want to create some space for budding songwriters to explore where their songs are at that point, and have a dialogue around it. We're doing this to create a sense of community among musicians and spend time on songwriting. Nischay will offer some tips, and his point of view on the mechanics and experience of the craft," said Singh, adding that they've already got a lot of entries. Drop them a message on Instagram if you've been dabbling with a couple of lines yourself.

For the record

The launch of Rock 'n' Roll Renegade in 1988 was a seminal event for Indian indie music. Rock Machine's debut offering is widely regarded as the country's first all-original English album. Its frontman Uday Benegal will now reminisce on those heady days with guitarist David Britto (in pic), who's started a social media series called My First Record. The latter told this diarist, "My parents would talk highly of them while I was in school. Rock 'n' Roll Renegade is what helped me get interested in the Indian independent circuit."

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