Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Bad hair day?
Neerja Birla and Karisma Kapoor keep their tresses in check as the photographers take position at a session to discuss mental health held on Sunday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

All roads lead to this auction
This diarist remembers being part of a vintage car rally in Kolkata. It was a grand affair, where people on the streets cheered wildly as the vehicles were driven at a leisurely pace around the city. So there really is something to be said about the unique sense of nostalgia that these automobiles exude. And you can now own a piece of that nostalgia, as a city gallery is auctioning paintings and photographs of such cars, including the one Dev Anand drove in a still from the film Funtoosh, and a hilarious image of Laurel and Hardy stuck in a car that's caught between two trams. There are also some classic posters of automobile advertisements thrown in for good measure.

Look who's back
Two years after they wowed audiences in India, British teenage sensations The Vamps will be back in the city for a gig on October 27. The last time around, they shot for a music video directed by Farah Khan, which involved doing stunts in an autorickshaw and pulling off Bollywood moves. They even recorded a song for the Ajay Devgn-starrer Shivaay. Suffice to say that they wholly immersed themselves in Bollywood culture. We wonder whether they have similar plans this time around , too.

Train your eyes
Most of us dread the daily commute by local train because of packed compartments, long queues at ticket counters, dirty stations and the fact that there is absolutely nothing beautiful to watch outside makes the ride even drearier. Would it hurt to inject some colour to give the passengers some visual succour? Apparently not. We were pleased as punch to see this heart-warming picture of a ladies' compartment that had been given a makeover, with the image of a peacock resting on a tree. Now all we hope for is more such initiatives to perk up our daily commute.

The last note
One of the most beloved doyens of Indian classical music passed away over the weekend. The legendary Annapurna Devi breathed her last at Breach Candy Hospital, aged 91. Her long and fulfilling life was dotted with several achievements, notable among which were being honoured with the Padma Bhushan and her contribution in forming the foundations of the Senia-Maihar gharana. Annapurna Devi was surrounded by a family of illustrious musicians. Ustad Ali Akbar Khan was her sibling, and she was married to Pandit Ravi Shankar. She started off playing the sitar, but graduated to the surbahar. Her death is a loss to the world of Hindustani classical, but we are sure that her memory will continue to be alive through the medium of her music.

Let's eat, says Rujuta
One of the biggest tragedies in India is, undoubtedly, the fact that so many children die of malnutrition every year. Just to give you an idea, around 700 children died in the year 2016 in the district of Palghar alone. That's a heartbreaking number, and we were thus really happy when we came across information that a village in Maharashtra is now malnutrition-free.

Sonave, close to Mumbai, is celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar's ancestral home. And for a year now, she has ensured that the anganwadis there serve ragi kheer instead of the gruel that is the norm in most other villages. And the effort has borne fruit, with Diwekar announcing on social media that Sonave has reached the milestone of zero malnutrition. There is a lesson to be learnt here, since diversification of diet can go a long way in treating this malaise, which remains possibly India's biggest bane.

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