Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

Who's the lady with the broom?
Dressed for her character in an upcoming movie, actress Vidya Balan was spotted at a provision store in Andheri yesterday.

Brew a beer
We've added another item to our to-do list: brewing our own beer. Brewbot has launched an initiative called The Beer Incubator that allows you to walk into the brewery, and brew a beer - one batch is 20 litres or 60 glasses - of your choice. You have the chance of viewing the entire procedure, through the month of June. If the restaurant likes your brew, they may even add it to the menu. To start off, you can go and try out their first collaborative brew, a Lemon Meringue Pie Beer. We hear it is served with an actual pie for comparison. Go on then, get brewing.

Khasi tales from chef Ratnani
Over the last few days, chef Vicky Ratnani has been stoking our wanderlust by offering a glimpse into his Shillong sojourn on social media. He ventured into the markets to try local produce like baby carrots and a sour fruit called Sohphie, and made trips to a cultural centre and waterfall site on the outskirts of Meghalaya's capital. He even had the opportunity to tuck into Khasi-style Chicken made by a lady, who owns a tiny eatery in a village called Mylliem. "She showed me her treasure house, that is a smoker, which has pork and beef smoking over for two days! I had tears in my eyes," he wrote. Must we expect some flavours from the verdant hills in Mumbai, chef?

In memory of SoBo's felled trees
They fought a legal battle, took to the streets, hugged trees as a last resort to stop them from being felled, but now as SoBo's leafy lanes empty out for the metro project, the neighbourhood's residents are mourning. To mark this massive loss, citizens from across Mumbai will participate in a symbolic mourning procession, which will start at 4.30 pm today from the YB Chavan Centre and continue till J Tata Road, which has witnessed the 'biggest massacre' as they call it. "We are deeply saddened by the way things have unfolded. We are also tracking the trees the authorities promised to transplant, but the success rate isn't encouraging. We can only hope for small victories now - if we can even save 100 out of the 5,000 trees, it will be something," Sohaila Jalali, a Churchgate resident told this diarist, adding, "This isn't Mumbai's only environmental concern. With mangroves under threat, we are in for some irreparable damage."

Tasting the real high
Life is easy when you can order food or a cab with just a swipe. But what happens when all that luxury is taken away? Starting June 10, actor-presenter Rannvijay Singha in his new web-series, The Real High, will take viewers on a journey, where six ultra-urban city dwellers test their survival skills in the jungles of Arunachal Pradesh. The eight-part series, produced by a multi-media platform, will see contestants fight harsh conditions like sleeping in tents in the middle of nowhere, walking through knee-deep swamps and having worms for dinner.

To mid-day, with love
Through the years, our readers have nurtured a special bond with this newspaper by sending us love via letters to the editor, pulling us up when we slipped up and trusting us with the happenings around by being vigilant citizen journalists, way before the term became popular. While much of the feedback we receive today comes via email and text messages, an occasional letter sent by post still comes our way, which always warms our hearts. But yesterday was something special. Complete with the old mid-day masthead neatly stuck beside a ten-rupee note - carrying a series of digits marking the date when this newspaper was first published (see pic) - it was a warm, anonymous, anniversary note. This June 25 will mark 38 years of mid-day's existence, and we cannot thank you enough, dear Mumbai. Happy reading!