Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Alia Bhatt, mother Soni Razdan and friends

Back to the grind
Just a day after freely posing with fans in New York with rumoured beau Ranbir Kapoor, actor Alia Bhatt reached Mumbai and immediately set off to work, bidding adieu to her mother Soni Razdan and friends. Pic/Sameer Markande

Modi's love for Bambai
When a top politician decides to go on an indie or viral platform, you can be sure that they have more to gain than the platform. It was the case when Obama plugged his healthcare bill on Between Two Ferns. It was true of Kejriwal when he appeared in TVF's viral Arnub series. And so it is true with Narendra Modi, who featured in The Humans of Bombay as their first big profile of 2019.

How did that come about? Modi says he always heard about references to Bambai around him and wondered if he would ever get to see the city of dreams. 'I would hear some traders speak about Bambai and wonder, "Will I ever get to see the city of dreams?" I was always curious - I would go to the library and read everything I could get my hands on," he said in the post. Well, not only has he seen the city of dreams, but he will also be finishing five years at the seat of power, not to forget the 90+ countries he has visited since becoming PM. Whether such social media campaigns will help him do an encore remains to be seen.

Good timing helps Amol
Amol Muzumdar, the former Mumbai cricket captain, who was terribly unlucky not to wear India colours, is a busy man these days. On Wednesday, the cricketer-turner-commentator was travelling from Kolkata to Hyderabad after doing duty in the Delhi vs Bengal Ranji Trophy game at Eden Gardens. As soon as Muzumdar's flight landed in Hyderabad (from where he would take another flight to Vijayawada for a women's Challenger Trophy game), he took a call from his friend Amit Dani, who informed Muzumdar that coach Ramakant Achrekar had passed away.

Muzumdar immediately booked himself on a Hyderabad-Mumbai flight and landed in the wee hours of Thursday morning and that's how he could attend his mentor's funeral at Shivaji Park. Had it not been for Dani's call during the stopover, Muzumdar would not have been able to make it in time. Dani was known for his alacrity while fielding. He was supremely quick on Wednesday too.

Tata gets booked
Industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata dropped by one of South Mumbai's most loved bookstores on Saturday. Tata visited Kitab Khana in the afternoon with a female guest, who picked up a book by Indian-American journalist Thirty Umrigar.

"We even showed him the new books on the Tata group and he liked them," says Jagath Tekkate from the SoBo store.

Insta confusion
Over the past week, Kelvin Cheung has been posting a smorgasbord of photos of Indian food, including one of dosa. "Starting to study, learn and practise a couple dishes I want to make for our family back home," Cheung wrote recently, explaining his sudden interest in desi fare. Then, the chef posted a picture of a bowl of piping paya and thanked Floyd Cardoz and Thomas Zacharias for helping out with the dish.

Much like this diarist, many others then confused the post for a teaser of what could have been an unlikely collaboration between two of the city's most celebrated chefs. But, it seems like the rumour got out of hand, following which Cheung removed Zacharias's name from the post. We checked and can confirm that a tie-up, after all, is not on the cards. Would have been great though, wouldn't it?

Little Lulla's here
Fashion designer Nishka Lulla took to social media yesterday to announce the birth of her baby daughter, Miraya. The new mommy is busy making sure the little one is comfortable in her nursery, every detail of which she has overseen herself. "It's our first baby and we are elated. We are over the moon," shares Dhruv Mehra, Lulla's husband, adding that right now, everyone is just waiting to meet the newborn.

A screen grab of Nishka Lulla's Instagram post

"This is the first baby from my side of the family, so she's getting pampered from day one," he adds. The story behind her name is simple - Nishka is a devotee of Lord Krishna, and Miraya means exactly that, Mehra tells us. So, will we be seeing her soon? "We don't want to share pictures yet. We want to keep things as private as possible for a while at least," he concludes.

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