11 November,2020 06:16 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
A sleepy cat makes innovative use of an advertising kiosk, outside a Bandra eatery on Wednesday
A sleepy cat makes innovative use of an advertising kiosk, outside a Bandra eatery on Wednesday. pic/Rane Ashish
There have been realms that have been written about Mumbai, capturing the intriguing history of the city in both fiction and non-fictions forms. The Asiatic Society of Mumbai is now organising a series of lectures where experts will shed light on some of these iconic pieces of literature. Dr Shehernaz Nalwalla, vice-president of the Society, told this diarist that the sessions will include discourses on colonial visitors writing about the city, and another one on Mumbaiche Varnan, a 19th-century travelogue in Marathi that was the first of its kind. She added, "We will also have a different feature that's a virtual walk, where [city chronicler] Alisha Sadikot will tell people about what authors like Rudyard Kipling and Salman Rushdie have to say about different buildings in the Fort area."
There is finally reason for Mumbai's independent music community to breathe a sigh of relief. Come November 18, and the city will witness its first live gig at a venue since the lockdown began in March, with Lower Parel hotspot AntiSocial opening its doors for patrons once again. They will host Chennai alt-rockers The F16s, and the interesting bit is that instead of one concert for roughly 500 people, the band will play two back-to-back shows for a limited audience of 150 members. Mayank Bhatt, brand head at the Social chain of pubs, told this diarist that they have also put all the other standard safety measures in place. "We have also installed a state-of-the-art UVC system, which continuously purifies the air within," he added, meaning that after a long gap, it's finally time to put your dancing shoes on.
When the global lockdown pulled the curtains down on the live music business, there was a curious trend of drive-in concerts that began to take off in the West. These gigs involved audience members sitting in small groups inside their own vehicles to minimise contact with strangers, even as they heard a live band or electronic act take to the stage to belt out tunes. Now, the same concept will be replicated in India. Percept, the events firm behind the Sunburn festival (which was cancelled recently amid a brouhaha about it being held on-ground in December), is organising a drive-in concert featuring DJ Sartek at the premises of a five-star property in Chennai on November 29. Percept CEO Karan Singh told this diarist, "We will have a maximum of 300 cars, with no more than three to four people in each of them."
To honour the world's best theatre talent who have performed online to a real-time audience, irrespective of boundaries, language barriers, and multiple crises, The Red Curtain International started The Good The@ter Festival and Aw@rds. Its organisers have announced that its finalists will perform live online at the end of this month for top honours. These include participants from Brazil, the US, the UK, Sweden, Germany, South Africa, Iran and India, among others. Sumit Lai Roy, festival co-director and founder-member, shared, "Too many people think that online theatre needs to be a pre-recorded broadcast. What you will see here is the imaginative way where directors across the globe have retained the essence of theatre. These plays are performances with no retakes. A whole new genre of theatre has emerged, and it will coexist with traditional theatre. Just like analogue and digital watches coexist and both tell the time accurately, the formats will too."
The winners from this year's edition of the awards show, held before the pandemic began
Toto Funds the Arts (TFA) is a xx-based organisation that hosts an annual awards function to honour creative voices in the fields of music, photography, films and literature. The longlist for its nominees in the creative-writing category has just been announced, and includes fresh voices from across the country. Fathima Zahra from Thrissur is on list with Tushar Rishi from Ranchi, on the list, even as Michelle Wendy D'costa flies the flag high for Mumbai. But the process of selecting these names was slightly different this year, given how things have shifted to the digital medium. TFA trustee Sarita Vellani told this diarist that while they would earlier send hard copies of the works to jurists, they had to send online versions this time. She added, "The entries first went to a jury of three people, who sifted through them to decide on the longlist. These will now be sent to another panel of judges, who will determine the shortlist and eventual winners. We haven't announced the date of the awards show or jury members yet, but it will be sometime next year." We wish all the nominated writers the best of luck.
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