Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Sneha Kharabe

Aam, aadmi and actor
In Bandra, celebs are as common as Mac aunties. The neighbourhood fruitwalla is certainly not starry eyed when he sees Parineeti Chopra ready to get into her car.

Doggie smiles for this move
Sometimes, it's news like this that adds a spring to the soul, even at the fag end of a deadline-chasing day. Delhi-based publishing house HarperCollins India (HCI) announced last evening that they would offer 'pawternity' leave to their employees who wish to adopt a pet. The decision, possibly the first of its kind in the country, rolls out from this year itself where employers will be allowed to take a week or five working days' paid leave if they have adopted a dog, cat or any other pet. Its CEO, Ananth Padmanabhan (in pic), a self-confessed pet lover, confirmed the news with this diarist. He added, "if someone does have to bring their pet, we will make space for them. Fortunately, we have an independent building with a garden." Now, that's what we call a 'pawsitive' step.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui with Nandita Das

Ride back in time with Manto
Actor-director Nandita Das has been in the news for directing the short film, In Defence of Freedom, on the radical ideas of legendary writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Das recently tweeted this frame of herself with actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui who plays the icon, with the post, '…like I'm going back in time with Manto.' Going by the uncanny resemblance to Manto that the costume stylist and make-up artist have managed for Siddiqui, this certainly looks like a journey back to the pre-Independence era.

The mobile museum. Pics/Datta Kumbhar

BMC schools get a history lesson on wheels
Who says history is all about textbooks, when it can be felt, touched and seen? The third edition of Museum on Wheels exhibition - As It Happened: Historical Sources and How to Read Them - kicked off yesterday as students of the Municipal Secondary School in Colaba stepped into a bus to experience history come alive in 3D. An initiative of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and a private bank, the mobile museum is complete with display cases for objects, interactive demo kits, art supplies and audio-visual equipment.

School children explore an artefact.

"History is often thought to be boring and dull. The exhibition aims to excite students into donning their detective glasses and looking closely at objects as history clues, which helps them unravel the mysteries of the past," said Bilwa Kulkarni, education officer, CSMVS. The travelling exhibition, which displays various historical artefacts including a fifth-century Shiva sculpture from Parel, will reach over three lakh students across 1,000 BMC schools in the city.

In young guns, we trust
More than 200 engineering students of Vivekanand Education Society's Institute of Technology (VESIT) picked up the broom recently to clean up the Chembur station and its surroundings. Railway officials and BMC's 'M' ward joined in to make this more the merrier, or let that read cleaner. In fact, the Chembur station is under foster care since 2015 and regular cleanliness drives are part of the process. We like how railway stations have been adopted by different agencies, like NGOs, citizens groups and students through the city. While this indicates that the authorities in-charge aren't probably doing the best job, it's heartening to see that the city's cleanliness is no longer seen as the prerogative of the civic body. Now only if the brave would come forward and adopt the shockingly decrepit and dirty Bandra East station.

More breakfast
Just in time for the ongoing T20 extravaganza, producer and cricket presenter Gaurav Kapur (in pic) has launched the trailer of the second season of his web series, Breakfast With Champions. With episodes featuring Yuvraj Singh and Hazel Keech, Harbhajanâu00c2u0080u00c2u0088Singh, Stephen Fleming, Gary Kirsten, and Steve Smith among others, this season promises to be more candid. We'll wait to see what Smith had to say on the show.