Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Kaho na yaar hai
It was a trip down memory lane for Ameesha Patel as she bumped into her first co-star Hrithik Roshan at a film's mahurat in Juhu on Friday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Kamat does tricks in the air
The buzz that the country's first Mallakhamb World Championship, held in Mumbai in February, created, seems to have spilled over. We hear that mentalist Shikhar Kamat attended a workshop last weekend, too. Kamat told this diarist, "Mallakhamb is an Indian sport, but people barely know about it. So, I thought of attending it and actually had a great time."

For Dadlani, trust is above all
Musician Vishal Dadlani is known to call a spade a spade. In his recent Instagram story and amid the current tensions between India and Pakistan, Dadlani shared a cautioning post. "Beware of the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into patriotic fervour, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword," he wrote, and soon followed it up with posts expressing gratitude about IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman's release. "I would like people to say no to war, to dial back the jingosim, to examine things with cool heads and open minds, and see beyond the advertising of war. I'd like us to be cognisant of people using our emotions for their personal gain and caution everyone to be aware," he told this diarist.

Have you "spotted" the glitch yet?
After months of speculation, Sweden-based music streaming app Spotify has finally made it to India, and users are going gaga over it. Not all users, though. For some, the music app is apparently already creating issues, with listeners pointing out that some artistes have no music or only a few singles and albums. While one user (@mestoichai) complained about not being able to access a few tracks which were greyed out, another (@itsalanbosco) complained that his 'selection of favourites keep disappearing'. When Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Maalavika Manoj started getting complaints about fans not being able to find her music on the app, she claimed it will be up and running. "Apparently, Spotify India is experiencing some kind of back-end trouble with recent releases for several artistes. This should be resolved in the next few days," she posted on Instagram. There are also complaints about too many ads on the platform. Well, you can opt for their ad-free premium tier, which comes with 320Kbps audio files to stream and download for offline playback, besides skipping tracks and allowing you to control your music across multiple devices.

Yet another French outing for restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani
Restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani is known to have his grip on the pulse of the young and the hip foodie and brings his A-game with every new property. Recently, when this diarist was discussing his latest pop-up with Parsi food caterer Tanaz Godiwalla, Amlani revealed a few new exciting plans for 2019. "We will be launching more Socials across India this year. We intend to reinvent the Smoke House Deli experience. And later this year, we will launch a French bistro in Mumbai," he revealed. Going by the success he has had with Worli's Slink & Bardot, his second French outing. We are certainly looking forward to it.

A glimpse from one of the cooking classes

Breaking boundaries with food
Breaking boundaries, the first ever batch of students from Culinaris Cookery Course were felicitated last week. What sets this collaborative venture by Veruschka Foundation and St Andrews College DHM, apart is that it focuses on empowering those with developmental disabilities, including students from special schools, vocational set-ups, sheltered workshops across Mumbai, and those who are homebound. They provide a six-month certificate course for free and don't demand formal academic qualification. "People with developmental issues are usually trained to do the basic, but they do need gainful employment, since the deal-breaker with families is who will take care of them once they are gone? And these students have overcome factors like stubby fingers that makes it difficult to work with dough or fatigue. Now, they can make pizza from scratch," Dr Tatyana B Dias, co-founder and CEO of the foundation, told this diarist. While one student is working with chef Sanjeev Kapoor, others are in the process of securing internships and employment in restaurants across Mumbai.

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