Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Mamma's boys
If we didn't know Twinkle was Aarav Kumar's mother, we would've thought… ahem! Shilpa Shetty could well be in school with that cutesy get up at son Viaan's Harry Potter-themed party. Pics/satej Shinde and Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Ministry of moves
After judging dance battles, choreographer Remo D'souza is set to showcase his skills in the kitchen. Come June, D'souza with wife Lizelle and partners Krunal Shah and Kiran Khabad, will launch a new restaurant, Ministry of Dance, in Andheri West. "My father was a chef at the Air Force mess and my childhood was filled with amazing dishes that he would make for us. Everything I know about cooking, I learned from him. So, this venture is my way of strengthening our connection," he says. The space will also house a dance studio to promote upcoming talent.

Abhi toh party shuru hui hai
Here's another reason to go for the airport look. Chalet Hotels Ltd and Inorbit Malls have launched The Orb next to JW Marriott at Sahar Airport, and filled it with as many dining options as they could. Spread across 120k sqft with about 40 eateries, the most exciting offering is going to be a club called Dragonfly, promoted by serial restaurateur Priyank Sukhija - whose First Fiddle owns the chain Lord of the Drinks - and rapper Badshah. The place will offer Cantonese cuisine and the new normal: signature cocktails. The Orb will also play host to Parsi diner Jumjoji, Zorawar Kalra's Farzi Cafe and the first Mumbai outpost of Asian canteen Nasi and Mee. CEO Rajneesh Mahajan says, "The Orb will redefine the experiential dining and weekend partying." Well, it's going to get a tough fight from Kittu Su at The Lalit in the same hood, which offers an experience unlike any other.

Tomy with Osiris and GGR officials

Want to bring a miracle home?
Last year, when Commander Abhilash Tomy, KC, NM, of the Indian Navy was hit by a storm in the South Indian ocean while on his boat Thuriya, he was not the only one to be rescued. Like other participants of the 2018 Golden Globe Race, Tomy had on board a SITraN teddy. SITran - Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) - is a UK-based organisation affiliated with the University of Sheffield and aims to fight against motor neuron disease and other common neurodegenerative disorders of the motor system. Each participant in the GGR is given a SITraN teddy that, at the end of the race, is auctioned to raise funds for the initiative. Tomy's has been named Osiris, after the French ship which rescued him three days after he was shipwrecked. Osiris, which is now being called the Miracle Teddy, is now up for auction on the GGR Facebook page and the last bid we heard was for 200 Euros. Now, would you like to own a piece of India's maritime history?

A verse for every emotion
Writing does help heal. At least, that's what Mumbai-based Aahana Mulla thinks. Mulla who runs Happy Quotient, which conducts interactive workshops that use techniques of creative writing as a healing tool, has now come out with a collection of poems, Behind The Light (Notion Press). "The book is very close to my heart because it deals with emotions, which is what I believe are the fabric that connects us. Spilling my heart out with 80 emotions got me through a topsy-turvy patch and allowed me to release pent up, misplaced energy. I realised the value of this process as I continued to write more and wanted to share the immense internal benefits that come from this," she told this diarist.

Ravi Shastri, the coach of the Indian cricket team, arrives at a hotel in London ahead of the start of the 2019 Cricket World Cup on Wednesday. Pic/AFP

Shaz has unfinished biz in England
Ravi Shastri, the head coach of the Indian team has some unfinished business left in England. Shastri was part of Kapil Dev's 1983 World Cup-winning team which stunned the world, but he was not part of the playing XI on June 25 when Clive Lloyd's West Indians were outclassed by India only to be denied their third World Cup triumph in a row.

Eternal competitor Shastri was not pleased to see his place in the team go to Kirti Azad and he earned some sort of solace by playing a major role in India's next big tournament - the 1985 World Championship of Cricket - where he was adjudged Champions of Champions in Melbourne. All-rounder Shastri turned in good performances in four of the five games India won during that Australian summer and was deservedly rewarded an Audi car.

Shastri will be as keen as his players on a World Cup title in England and, if Virat & Co lift the silverware on July 14, the tall man from Mumbai can't be faulted for doing a war dance at the spiritual headquarters of cricket. However, the odds of him replicating Sourav Ganguly's shirt-waving act of 2002 are low.

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