Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Bipin Kokate

But first, a selfie

While patrolling the city, two CISF commandos stop to click a selfie at Marine Drive on Sunday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Let's get back to our roots

Last week, Priya Kapoor, Roli Books's editorial director, took to social media to announce the launch of Roots, the publishing house's newest imprint. Armed with a sepia-tinted video, it gave the viewer a fair glimpse into its essence - the research and publishing of family histories. Intrigued, this diarist reached out to Kapoor for details.

"We receive many queries from families and institutions to help them research and document their stories. After a few successful projects, we decided to formalise the genre with Roots. We will take on the research and writing to publish commissioned family stories through interviews, photographs and family trees. Every family has a story, but often, these stories become fragments with passing generations as they are not recorded. Our aim is to fill this gap." Kapoor adds that they've been approached to put together a multi-generational family cookbook. While the first title is expected by August, some may be privately commissioned and so copies may not necessarily be available for sale.

A song for river dolphins

While the country has been mourning the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala, musician Rahul Rajkhowa posted a picture of an endangered river dolphin in the Dibru Saikhowa National Park, Assam, that was burnt alive due to an oil spill and followed it up with a song on World Environment Day.

"The lack of awareness of what's happening in Assam is appalling. I knew I had to do something and the pictures didn't seem enough, so I sang," he said.

Astad's virtual tryst

Dancer Astad Deboo has only experimented with the online medium once before, while working on a piece with a New York-based composer. With the pandemic, he had to think about whether he will have to create work online, too.

"I knew I wasn't going to have my dancers in a specific place together. I took the cyber rehearsal route. I contacted my regular dancers [Shamsul Pradeep Kumar,Vicky Yadav, Govind Godiyal and Rohit Verma] and shared a composition with them. We worked on cameras in our locations and they gave me their interpretations. Then, I would tell them what I was happy with and what I wasn't," Deboo told this diarist adding that he urged them to select a corner in their personal space away from clutter "Synchronisation was important here too. Fortunately for me, one of my dancers [Pradeep Kumar] is also an editor and could put the videos together," he said.

A still from Boundaries

The result is a piece titled Boundaries, with multiple frames of dancers, displaying similar movements. Deboo has also dedicated the short performance to migrant labourers facing crisis in the country right now.

No to tobacco, musically

Some of the biggest mainstream musicians in the country came together for a concert this weekend that was aimed at advocating an anti-tobacco message, to support cancer patients during the lockdown.

The performers included Salim Merchant, Benny Dayal, Shaan, Vishal Dadlani, Jonita Gandhi and Kunal Ganjawala among others. Merchant is someone who has played a fair bit at online concerts already, and he told this diarist, "The joy of performing with a band is obviously missing with these, but I am beginning to get used to it, and even enjoy the idea. These are testing times, and I always believe in looking at the glass as half full."

Kamra believes in accountability

Following Kunal Kamra's campaign to procure RT-PCR kits (that can test 100 people) from Indian company MyLab by urging celebrities to donate their prized possessions; he was confronted by a troll on Twitter.

Though he isn't new to Internet trolling, this time, Kamra chose to engage and even issued a statement detailing the funds raised and their current status. "When someone seeks accountability in a fundraising effort, I am not averse to it, and I believe I am socially responsible to put it out there," he told this diarist, adding, "I wish though, people in our country demanded the same accountability from the powers that be during this crisis."

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