Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Make plastic pollution passe
The campaign to spread awareness about plastic pollution in Mumbai just got an artsy touch when Mum­bai-based photographer Natasha Hemrajani co­llaborated with Cirque du So­leil recently. The Madh island re­s­i­d­ent, who takes the jetty every day from Versova to get home, co­uldn't ignore the appalling am­o­unt of trash and garbage accumulated there. "It's not a beach anymore. The sand is filled with plastic. The water is black sewage filled with plastic and the fishermen go out and fish in these waters. And they also chuck plastic right back in.

It amazes me that something that we are so reliant on - an ecosystem of water - is something that we have no trouble polluting and we don't see a crisis," Hemrajani told this diarist. And so, when she spoke to Cirque through a friend she's worked with before, the collective was quite keen to do something about environmental pollution in Mumbai. "The idea was to evoke the plight of the ocean and marine life. I want to tackle this problem as this is destroying us - getting into food, water and the air we breathe. There's no organised effort to control it. I don't think there is awareness at all outside of a few marginal citizen squads. There is no large scale support from the go­vernment when it has to be the go­vernment's re­sponsibility to ta­ckle awareness, and clean-up drives," she concludes.

Mumbai space odyssey
Astronaut and Purdue alumnus Jerry Ross will be in Mumbai at the International Ideas Festival, where the university will celebrate 150 years of Giant Leaps on Friday. The festival will focus on space, artificial intelligence, health and sustainability.

Ross is scheduled to speak on his journey as a NASA astronaut. He's the first person to be launched into space seven times. During his career with NASA, he logged more than 1,393 hours in space. This will be his first visit to India.

New stage for artistes
This Friday, yet another platform that curates and organises unique experiences, will launch with their gig at a Khar West venue. "We're kick-starting with our live division, GET BENT and want to extend our wings across multiple spaces that benefit the live entertainment sphere at large. We've entered into the market with one of our offerings and are looking to expand this into a lot more than just live IP's," founders, Jai Dev Gupta and Apoorv Agarwal say.

The idea germinated as one of them has a background in the performing arts. "We had been noticing gaps in the market and are tr­ying to work our way around th­em. We hope we'll be ab­le to of­fer our community of users that extra ed­ge," they told this diarist. The gig will feature Marshall & The Mischief followed by Koniac Net. They are also planning gigs in Delhi and Bengaluru.

Mic, camera, Marathi
Trupti Khamkar is no stranger to the microphone, and when she sp­eaks into it, her sharp satire is known to leave the audience in splits. While the stand-up co­m­e­dian and actor has dabbled in En­glish and Hindi content, cracking jokes in Marathi has helped her come into her own.

Trupti Khamkar and Shivani Tanksale

Taking the bond with her mother tongue forward, Khamkar launched the podcast Gol Gappa yesterday, which she describes as "part interview, part comedy". The first guest on the show was actor Shivani Tanksale, and both Marathi mulgis got talking about their love for theatre.

The difference of a decade
The latest distraction on social media is the #10YearChallenge, with Indian celebs and mere mortals now ap­ing Western icons in documenting their ageing across 10 years. It's all about uploading two photos of yourself, side-by-side, taken 10 years apart.

Diana Penty

At last count, over 1.5 million mind-blowing to LOL posts tagged under the hashtag had cr­owded Instagram. Following in the footsteps of Hollywood stars Reese Witherspoon, Jessica Biel and Ka­te Hudson, are Sonam Kapoor, Di­ana Penty and Shruti Haasan.

Vishal Dadlani

Also du­bbed the #GlowUp challenge, the trend is documenting how gracefully people have aged. You'll see what we mean when you look at Padma Lakshmi, holding a nariyal pani in hand, the pallu of her saree tucked at her waist. That was 1999. And then there is a 2019 image of her walking out of the ocean in a red two-piece.

Chef Guto Souza

Singer-composer Vishal Dadlani loves the challenge for giving him a "legit reason to go back and look at how sickeningly fat I was, and how much difference losing some weight has made". But our favourite is Mumbai-based Brazilian chef Guto Souza, behind the splendid South American eatery Boteco, who posted pictures of receiving an award for his Goa eatery Fusion long ago, and taking home the Best Restaurant trophy at mid-day's The Guide Restaurant Awards 2017-18 last year.

Mic check

Music composer AR Rahman,gives the mic a special place, with singer Anushka Manchanda at an event in Andheri on Wednesday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

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