Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

Curious car obar

A man tries to fit a toy car into his SUV at Crawford Market while his child looks on

A lesson in lustre

When this diarist last visited Dr Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum, she was drawn towards A Hall of Wonder that included paintings and photographs, silkworm specimens, plaster of Paris masks and ancient postcards from art schools in the city. A set of lacquered pots and vases daintily sporting their intricate leafy patterns caught the eye in particular. Our museum guide shared that craftsmen in the Bombay Presidency were unfamiliar with adding lacquer. It was a skill taught to them by Muslim pottery painters from North India. A print on archival paper titled Mahomedan Pottery Painters At Work credited to Indian Pictorial Education, Bombay: Times of India Press, 1930 (in pic, below), testifies the narrative shared with us.

A sound idea

Brahmani, 10th C, Karnataka, grey steatite schist. PIC COURTESY/MAP Bengaluru

Can you listen to an artwork? Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bengaluru, explored this question in a digital exhibition, Sights and Sounds, when Mumbai-based BrandMusiq created sonic interpretations of six artworks, each evoking different rasas. Now, this thought-provoking exhibition will feature in The Wellbeing Summit for Social Change, taking place in Bilbao-Biscay, Spain. Director Kamini Sawhney shared, "Sights and Sounds invites viewers to approach an artwork from a slightly different perspective, encouraging them to ‘listen to the painting'. It's about using senses that you may not normally use while engaging with an artwork." Also part of the summit will be their slow-watching videos, which take a single artwork from MAP's collection and focus on aspects that might otherwise escape attention. Our congratulations.

No screen, only green

The phone takes over flower power at a Kandivali park

There are greens and there are mobile phones and, at times, the twain should not meet. As the city gears up to mark World Environment Day this Sunday, Subhajit Mukherjee, founder of Mission Green Mumbai, told this diarist, "We put in so much effort to make gardens and green nooks for citizens. Although people visit these spots, they are glued on to their devices instead." As World Environment Day sees a boom in tree plantations, beach clean-ups and re-forestation drives, we say don't keep off the grass, keep off your device.

BEST idea for sustainability

Mumbai's Ministry of Magic and No Footprints have curated a tour that joins the dots between commute in Mumbai and its need for sustainable transportation. Harshvardhan Tanwar, founder, No Footprints, told us that the tour organised with BEST, to celebrate World Environment Day (June 5), will delve into the need for eco-friendly travel.

"The spoken bus ride will cover the historic moments of the city and how the tram service evolved. We will also talk about policies that the government has put in place and why public transport is important." Sustainability, he shared, is a changing concept. "What was sustainable in the past may not be so in the future." The tour, which will lead participants through the history of public transport and its future, will end with lunch at the BEST Museum at Anik Bus Depot, where visitors can soak in nostalgia for this iconic means of public transport.

Kubbra's catharsis

Like many others, the pandemic-induced house arrest gave actor Kubbra Sait time to go on a journey of self-discovery. The result of this expedition is that the actor turned author to pour her life out on paper. Titled Open Book: Not Quite a Memoir (HarperCollins India), the book will hit bookshelves on June 27. In the pages, Sait has delved into her growing up days in Bengaluru, her experience with social anxiety and body-shaming, and the struggles, achievements and learnings of the actor and artiste. About the cathartic journey of penning the memoir, the actor told this diarist, "It was a realisation of many little things that have resulted in me being the person I am today. I've had the time to reflect upon the choices I've made, the cards that were dealt to me. The biggest learning through the writing of this book is to know that I couldn't have changed the past. But I know I am geared to write a new future. The book left me with a sense of catharsis but also gratitude."