Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Nimesh Dave

On a high

A young man performs stunts at the Madh Island beach, in Malad.

Concern over NSD's religious social media posts

Days after the National School of Drama's (NSD) social media handle started sharing posts on religious festivals such as Karwa Chauth, Eid and Navratri, over 200 artistes, former students and faculty members issued a letter to the chairman, objecting to the display of religious images and iconography. Actor and author Sudhanva Deshpande, shared, "I feel that it's an educational institution and is supposed to be autonomous of the government, so there's no reason for them to be putting out this religious iconography. We're still a secular country, and it's important for autonomous or government institutions to remain secular."

Threats force Munawar to cancel shows

Stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui has cancelled his shows on October 29, 30 and 31 at venues in Bandra and Borivali, allegedly owing to threats from right wing groups. The comedian shared on social media that he was calling off the shows considering the safety of his audience. In January, Faruqui was arrested in Indore based on a complaint that he was going to make objectionable remarks about Hindu deities at a show. Purnima Shah, owner of Rangsharda auditorium in Bandra, where one of the shows was scheduled, told this diarist that members of Bajrang Dal also threatened her, her staff members as well as the organiser. "Five to six days ago, some of them came and threatened my staff to call off the show, else they would burn the place down. I immediately filed a police complaint. A couple of days ago, three people came again. They urged me to listen to a tape to find out what the artiste has to say about Ram-Sita, but I told them to walk out. They kept threatening us so I had to call the police," she shared, adding that she informed them that the producer had given her the requisite censor certificate for the act. "In my 30 years of experience, I've never seen anything like this," she added.

Verses of love

Amrita Pritam and Vikram Seth

Eshgham is a Persian word that translates to my love. "Eshgham doesn't necessarily imply ‘my love' in the romantic sense, but love of all kinds. It can be love related to friendships, family, devotion to the divine and in any context," shared Omkar Bhatkar, co-founder of St Andrew's Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts (SAPP), who has curated an eponymous show celebrating this essence of inclusive love through two back-to-back evenings of Indo-Persian poetry. On offer is poetry right from the 3rd century BCE to contemporary verses. Viewers can expect to walk into a warm, intimate set-up and experience actors performing verses by Kalidasa, Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Pritam, Ghalib, Kabir, Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Tamil Sangam poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ruth Vanita, and Vikram Seth, among others from India and Persia, revealed Bhatkar. "As time passes, we see division everywhere, so we're going back to these poems to understand how poets have covered love in two different cultures across centuries. For the audience, it will be an experience that's between theatre and poetry," he shared about the performance which will take place at SAPP on October 30 and 31.

Biking high for the girls

Over the years, Baljeet Gujral, founder, Enfield Riders, a city-based venture that organises motorcycle tours, noticed that most riders who would come on the trips were men. "They would be accompanied by their partners, sisters, friends or daughters, who would want to ride but didn't know how to. We wanted to empower them to join us on trips," he told us. This led them to start motorcycle training camps for women. Starting October 30, they're hosting sessions across MMR. "They needn't have any experience," he added. Interes-ted women can head to their Instagram handle for details.

Office logic in the new normal

As Indians slowly return to their workplaces, 80 per cent of business leaders feel pressured to offer greater flexibility at work, revealed LinkedIn's Future of Work B2B study. The respondents to the study, conducted in September 2021, are from varied industries in the Asia Pacific region. The study found that nine in 10 business leaders agree that flexible work conditions help improve workforce diversity. "About 55 per cent believe that virtual interviews connect candidates with proximity restrictions. Nearly nine in 10 leaders have hired specialists to design stronger workplace policies, L&D opportunities, career progression and performance reviews through a new lens that puts people first, and not location," shared Ashutosh Gupta, India country manager-LinkedIn.