Mumbai Diary page: Sunday shorts

Not enough, huh?
Actor Abhishek Bachchan has joined the league of sports team-buying celebrities. Only junior AB has bought the Jaipur team in the relatively low-key game of kabaddi.

Abhishek Bachchan at a city hotel where the Pro League Kabaddi auction was held. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Kabaddi saw the launch of the Pro Kabaddi League, going to be played on the lines of the Indian Premier League (IPL). At a conference post the auction, a journalist asked Abhishek, "Don't you think the Pro Kabaddi League needs more glamour, like perhaps the IPL, which has owners such as Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Preity Zinta..."

To which Abhishek quickly retorted: "Kyun? Main kaafi nahi hoon kya? Why, am I not enough?" as the press laughed. If there was a pro-humour league, AB would surely make it to that one.

Housie at Hooves
It is not about horses but Housie at the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) tomorrow. The Hooves Clubhouse, within the RWITC precinct will host a Housie or ‘tambola' as it is also called session tomorrow (Monday, May 26) at 6 pm. Open to both members and their guests, it is just one of a slew of activities on at the RWITC now that the Mumbai racing season has come to an end.

Nitish natter
Nitish Bharadwaj, former MP and best known for his role of Krishna in the TV series Mahabharata was part of the jury of the Kashish film festival, a Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) fest, which concludes today (Sunday).

The festival is being screened at two venues the Liberty Theatre and Alliance Francaise de Bombay. On opening night, Bhardwaj had made a thought provoking point. Called on stage as part of the jury, Bhardwaj was asked to speak.

He stated, "As a former politician I have seen how entire communities are made to come together as groups, for political gain. Sometimes, the groups remain where they are and the leaders have moved on.

What I mean to say is do not isolate yourselves. Once you achieve something, go back and mingle with the mainstream..." Political secrets… an LGBT stage is as good a place as any to spill them.

Mona darrr...ling with a difference
Ever since Narendra Modi swept the polls, one has been inundated with ‘Gujju' jokes that are trending on social media.

From entire songs (Hotel California now has a Gujju version, going something like Down Dark Desert Highways, Dhoklas in my hand…) to one-liners, Gujaratis are the flavour of this mirthful month, thanks to Mr Modi.

The original Mona Lisa

So, you may have heard this one, or may not have but here it is: ‘Thanks to Narendra Modi's win, as a gesture of international co-operation, Paris has decided to rename the Mona Lisa as Mona ben'.

It is Mona ben. Cartoon/Amit Bandre

The hallmark of Mona Lisa is of course its ambiguity, one does not quite know if the woman in the painting is smiling at all, but there's no ambiguity about our smiles for Mona ben.