Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Arzan Khambatta helps a participant at the workshop as Brinda Miller looks on

Art for adults
You may have helped your kid or a nephew with endless school projects, but when was the last time you picked up the paintbrush for your own joy? Art 360°, a new initiative by CSMVS, aims to encourage art enthusiasts of 14 years and above to revisit their hobbies with a series of workshops to be held on a Saturday, every month. The first such workshop, by Arzan Khambatta, took place over the weekend, where the eminent sculptor taught participants to make engaging 3D objects using scrap. We hear. noted artist Brinda Miller, the coordinator for the workshop series, will conduct the next workshop.

Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Bedazzled!
Actress Bhumi Pednekar seemed mighty impressed by what she saw at a jewellery exhibition she attended at a Bandra five-star over the weekend.

Royal kitchen
This has got to be one of the most drool-worthy moments at the IIFA awards this year. Not just because there was food involved but also because of these two dishy men who got their aprons on.

Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna turned mentor to Saif Ali Khan to prepare a Lemon Rice filled in Avocado Roll dish. Khanna's wise words to the nawab: "Contrast is the key to a satisfying bite - crunchy or velvety smooth texture, and spicy or just a hint of flavour." With this masterclass, we wonder if Khan's next date night with Bebo will involve him rustling up a meal.

Ramsay for Emmy
He can drive adults to tears when he judges their culinary skills and trashes their dishes (literally, sometimes) if he feels they don't make the cut. But, with kids, Gordon Ramsay is different. It came as little surprise then that the celebrity chef recently got his first Emmy nomination in the Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program category for presenting MasterChef Junior, which he calls the best job in the world.

In several interviews, Ramsay has spoken about how he wants to send out a message through the young participants that cooking needs to be taken as seriously as the more conventional fields. A host with a cause. Cheers to that!

Have wings, will fly
The Godrej India Culture Lab premises turned into a melting pot of cultures over the weekend with Performing Resistance, an event that traced the caste history of Maharashtra through music and discussions.

Pics/Satej Shinde

One of the talking points of the event was the music of the mother-son duo Nishant Shaikh and Keshar Jainoo Shaikh (inset), the Yalgaar Jalsa Troupe (in pic, above), and Kabeer Shakya of Dhamma Wings - India's first Dalit rock band that operates from Mumbai.

While the troupe did an acoustic set of songs that spoke against violence and promoted art, Shakya did a qawwali and introduced the song, Mere Shivaba, which is on the heroics of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. There was also a screening of the powerful documentary, Shahiri, by Aashit Sable.

Dog gone matters
It will go down in India's social media universe, as arguably the most controversial frame filter from Snapchat. So after it's dog filter meme landed All India Bakchod in trouble, reactions from 'tweeple' ranged from the extreme, to the surprising. Among the flood of spoofs that took off from the disputed frame, we spotted this particular one by an Indian politician, and a familiar face on Indian television since the 1990s.

Known for his no-nonsense replies and debating skills in Parliament, he took a cheeky potshot at the entire controversy, when he superimposed the same filter against his face on Instagram, with the post: 'It's the weekend; time for a little bit of fun.' Any guesses who's the sporting neta? (Hint: Your time starts now!)