Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Sameer Markande

Sri on my mind

Karan Johar is caught in a moment at the release of a book dedicated to the late Sridevi at a Bandra five-star. Pic/Sameer Markande

Glued to your phone?

You are not alone when you believe you couldn't live without your smartphone. More than half the respondents of a survey recently conducted by a smartphone brand in partnership with Cyber Media Research (CMR) think the same. With a random sample size, the survey also makes other disconcerting revelations like the average Indian spends 1,800 hours on the phone every year, and one in three people can't hold a conversation for five minutes without being compelled to look at their phones.

It doesn't end here; it is smartphones that are making people spend 30 per cent lesser time with family. The only silver lining comes from the fact that a good 73 per cent actually admit that these smartphone usage patterns can impact mental and physical health negatively. How about giving yourself a five-minute break from your device after you've read this?

A Dilli darbar for chef Kelvin Cheung

After helming the kitchen at Bastian in Bandra, one of Bollywood's favourite places to dine, chef Kelvin Cheung is finally making an entry into the country's capital. Kiko-BÄu00c2u0081, which opens in January, is an inclusive Asian gourmet restaurant bringing heirloom recipes from East Asia while Dadel will be a new-age bar where the menu fuses the East and the West.

"The ethos of Kiko-BÄu00c2u0081 and Dadel is intrinsically entwined with my culinary journey. Although the food I serve to guests has undergone an evolution of sorts, I still feel the best recipes are like heirlooms, passed down from one generation to the next," the Canadian-Chinese chef told this diarist. He also revealed that both spaces pay tribute to his father's legacy and will take patrons on a memorable journey back to his roots. "I'll be reviving a beautiful bygone era of my own cooking; my father's style of modern Hong Kong-style Cantonese cuisine, and folding in flavors from my travels and beyond," he added. We're pretty sure that like his successful innings in Mumbai, he'll also have Delhi's swish set eating out of his hands.

A record-breaking session

The last held karaoke marathon record in the Guinness Book of World Records came from China at 792 hours and two minutes. However, singer Virag Madhumalti set out on the task to break this, by a large margin at 1,000 hours. In a finale yesterday, they clocked in 895 hours at a mall in Kharghar. The exercise began on November 15 and witnessed over 800 participants singing in several languages like Hindi, English, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali and Rajasthani.

"We were to flag it off on November 9 but couldn't because of Section 144 in the city at the time, but we managed to break the record," Madhumalti told this diarist. Each week of the marathon also raised awareness about a social cause, from organ donation to global warming.

Poetic surprise

The Spoken Fest Mumbai is back and this edition is bigger than the previous ones. While you'll find musicians like The Local Train and Samar Mehdi in attendance along with thespians Amol Parashar and Jasmine Khurana, Canadian poetry slam champion Shane Koyczan is expected to make an appearance too.

He is known to use the medium to engage in social commentary and has performed at the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics back in 2010. We can't wait to hear them live in the city.

Funny business

An important role that stand-up comics play is to hold up a mirror to society and expose the powers that be for their injustices. That's why it doesn't come as a surprise that the latest episode of American comedian Hasan Minhaj's hit show, The Patriot Act, which aired yesterday, was centred on the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens.

Varun Grover, Sanjay Rajoura and Hasan Minhaj. Pic/Getty Images

Minhaj dropped the trailer for it last week, and as is his wont, takes potshots at the ruling dispensation. Meanwhile, local comedians Varun Grover and Sanjay Rajoura also based the last episode of their online show, Bharat Ek Mauj, on the same subject. Both sets of comics tackled the subject fearlessly in their trademark sarcastic manner.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates