Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

A plate for every mood
Imtiaz Ali is caught in a moment during a music event at a nightspot in Lower Parel on Thursday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Nick Jonas and Lilly Singh

Keeping up with the Jonases
We must say that Nick Jonas looked cool as a cucumber despite the brouhaha around his roka with Priyanka Chopra, and that's a view that comedian Lilly Singh endorses. Jonas recently paid her a surprise visit in one of her online videos, delivering a sandwich, with Singh commenting later on how "chill" he is. Which bodes well for PeeCee, of course, and it's good to see that life's returned to normal for the singer.

Nitin Dossa's winning wheel

Now, that's a classic win
There was much to cheer about for the Indian contingent in another corner of the world. At least 10 Indian cars were a part of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance at the Pebble Beach Competition in San Francisco (USA), recently. And we hear that Mumbai's Western India Automobile Association of India (WIAA) head honcho Nitin Dossa's ex-Maharaja of Mayurbhanj 1936 Alvis Speed 25 sporting Vanden Plas coachwork, was second in the Maharaja class.

Dossa is back in India after the August 26 win, and says he is yet to celebrate the victory. Decoding the ex-Maharaja of Mayurbhanj tag Dossa said, "The car once belonged to the royal family of Mayurbhanj in Odisha; it was bought by the family many years ago."

Haruki Murakami

A prize on the shore
The excitement around the Nobel Prize is a yearly ritual as the selection process remains hidden from the public eye. This wasn't the case with the prize in Literature this year when allegations of sexual misconduct arose. But it took journalist Alexandra Pascalidou and a group of 100 Swedish cultural figures to launch the New Academy Prize with a more transparent selection process.

Neil Gaiman

Approximately 30,000 votes from readers were cast to create a shortlist of four writers from a long list of 46 - this includes writers Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, Kim Thúy, and Maryse Condé. The winner will be announced on October 12 with the ceremony on December 9. When it comes to awards, the Japanese writer has been unlucky on several occasions, but we hope that he ends the year on a winning note.

(Left to right) Swara Bhasker, Vikramaditya Motwane

Wake up, Vik
A Pandora's box has opened up in the aftermath of the arrests of activists Varavara Rao, Sudha Bharadwaj, Surendra Gadling, Rona Wilson, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves and Mahesh Raut on their supposed links to Maoist outfits. As the country's youth came forward to support them, upholding the freedom of speech and the right to dissent, some chimed in with dollops of hate. One such person was the man who gave you Hate Story (no puns intended), former director and present troll, Vivek Agnihotri. In a dangerous tweet that borders on being incendiary Agnihotri called upon, "bright young people to make a list of all those who are defending #UrbanNaxals," referring to those who questioned the arrest of innocent people.

Vivek Agnihotri

The tweet drew harsh criticism from all corners, be it filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane laughing Agnihotri off, youth leaders and journalists shaming him, or Swara Bhasker offering her two cents on the bigotry that has been unfolding online for the last few days. Agnihotri continued to uphold his posts. And while some might label us "too woke" for our stance, maybe it's time they woke up, too?

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