Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Suresh Karkera

Fiddler on the roof

A child fiddles with a phone while his guardian takes a nap on the roof of a shanty in Dharavi on Saturday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Lockdown deliveries

Ever since the lockdown was imposed in the city in March, many households have missed cooking fresh stock of fish. Almost two months into practicing self-isolation, some still miss the whiff of fish lingering in their kitchens. But, Ganesh Nakhawa, who also goes by the name The Last Fisherman of Bombay, is delivering happiness to your doorstep.

Nakhawa, chairman of the National Purse Siene Fishermen Welfare Association, is making it a point to deliver prawns and other fish to hardworking policemen. He drives around in his car late evenings to get this job done. A picture uploaded on his social media shows him handing over a bag of freshly cleaned prawns to a local cop, who looks evidently happy. The caption reads: "From one essential worker to another."

Why Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara is unique

Cricket runs in the blood for only one cricketer in the current India Test team - Cheteshwar Pujara - whose father Arvind was a first-class player. Arvind opened the innings for Saurashtra in the 1970s, well before his star batsman son was born in 1988.

But 50 seasons ago in 1969-70, there were several father-son examples in Indian cricket. Take for example, the fifth Test between India and Australia at Chennai where the India XI included skipper Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, whose father Iftikhar captained India in 1946.

Arvind pujara

Also present was Ashok Mankad, the son of legendary all-rounder Vinoo and Lala Amarnath's son Mohinder. There were more such examples in domestic cricket in that season. All-rounder Syed Gulrez Ali, the son of Syed Mushtaq Ali, was a key performer for Madhya Pradesh while Anshuman Gaekwad was taking his early steps on the first-class scene for Baroda six seasons after dad Dattajirao ended his domestic cricket career. Interestingly, Mumbai giants like Ajit Wadekar, Dilip Sardesai and Farokh Engineer played against Gaekwad senior and junior. Ranjit, the son of ex-India skipper Vijay Hazare, first played Ranji Trophy cricket in the 1966-67 season, but had to make a comeback after five years.

The 1970s were great for 'relative' cricket. You had the Mankads - Ashok, Atul and Rahul, Amarnaths - Mohinder, Surinder and Rajinder, all playing a high level of cricket while their dads watched on. Vinoo passed away in 1978 while Lala, who bid goodbye in 2000, used to be on tour with his sons due to his commentary commitments. As for Anshuman's father, he is still going strong at 91, having seen his grandson Shatrunjay make his first-class debut in 2003, an honour Mushtaq Ali lived to experience as well with Syed Abbas Ali.

Just give him a call for a job

Dilip Merala

In a world that's soon going to be flooded with resumes, how do you stand out? Dilip Merala, a 34-year-old student at The University of Texas, Dallas, has found the perfect tune to break the clutter. In a one-minute, 12-second video titled "Résumé Song - For Recruiters Looking to Hire Product Managers and Data Analysts" which is posted on his YouTube channel, Merala strums the guitar and tells recruiters over a song that "he's their guy".

A screenshot of Merala singing the Resume song

Merala, who is from Mumbai, is currently in Richardson, Texas. On why he made the video, he says, "There is nothing original about an International Master's student nervously looking for a job on the verge of graduation. So, one day when I was home thinking about approaching recruiters, some words came to mind and I put them together in a song. When I recorded it, I thought 'Hey, that's not bad! Let me share it and see what happens'."

No trash talk for this CEO

While most us of are locked up indoors, Anil Chowta, founder and CEO of Ecosac Utility Bags has been driving across the city in his car to personally deliver the eco-friendly garbage bags called kachra sack.

"As most of the delivery staff don't have their own vehicles, they would've been more vulnerable to the exposure of the virus, posing a risk to their own and customer health. I deemed it safer to fulfill the deliveries myself as I have the resources and access to all necessary precautionary measures," said Chowta, who has covered areas ranging from Cuffe Parade to Kandivli.

Reuben's roast about rappers

Comedian Reuben Kaduskar is serving his audience on YouTube fresh roasts every couple of weeks. Kaduskar's new series titled Rage Against features him ranting about things that annoy him and his audience. The first installment saw him take down diss tracks (a song where the primary purpose is to insult someone else) by desi hip hop artistes trying to verbally attack each other. "I have grown up witnessing some legendary beefs between rappers such as Tupac and Biggie, Nas and Jay-Z.

So, as a fan of hip hop, I was disappointed to see the quality of some of the Indian diss tracks. I decided to make a video about it because I want Indian hip hop to grow and evolve," he explained. The funnyman speaks about the toxic masculinity in these songs, their dismal lyrical quality, the use of playground insults, rappers bragging about their own success etc. He aims to help people take their minds off the Coronavirus crisis by creating content that is distinct. The next one in the series is going to be about TikTok videos. "I think it will be interesting to explore how they are entertaining and annoying at the same time."

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