18 August,2023 06:44 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Sameer Markande
Devotees visit Babulnath temple on the first day of Shravan yesterday
Earlier this week on August 16, the the Ballard Estate icon Britannia & Co. celebrated a grand 100th birthday. "It is an achievement; like a batsman scoring a century at the crease," said owner Afshin Kohinoor, revealing that the restaurant was founded on the same day in 1923.
The 61-year-old said that friends and patrons of the restaurant turned up with cake and joy. "We have customers whose forefathers ate here," Kohinoor shared over the phone, while rattling off another order for bombil fry and salli boti to table no five. Hail Britannia, we say.
Readers check out books at the Editions JOJO booth
At the recently concluded Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair held last week, Los Angeles could have played the popular track Bombay se aaya mera dost for Editions JOJO, an independent platform for visual arts in India founded by artiste Kaamna Patel. The platform was invited to the fair which was held at The Green Contemporary at MOCA, and they carried with them a mountain of titles that focused on India and our artists. Included in this list were Sheetal Mallar's Braided, Siva Sai Jeevanantham's In the same river, Zahra Amiruddin's We'll see the sea again, Party Office's Towards A Dalit structure of archiving, and Everyday India by Zeenat and Sameer Kulavoor.
They also opened international pre-orders for their latest publication Good morning. After spending a few days helming the stall, the team sold most of the lot they went with and returned with new titles. Patel shared, "We were the only representative from South Asia. We're now ready with new books for the library and bookshop including Anu Kumar's Ghar published by Perimeter Books and two latest books by Gauri Gill [Fields of sight and Acts of appearance] published by Editions Patrick Frey."
Weekends at a beach can offer an in-depth experience if aided with knowledge about the ocean and its resident creatures. To meaningfully connect Mumbaikars to our coast, Eco Folks will host their second edition of SEAmposium at Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan And Zoo in Byculla on September 2.
Organiser Alfiya Aslam Jiva (inset) explained that the event's aim is to broaden the imagination for exploration and not exploitation. She noted, "The event will host film screenings and speakers to involve younger folks [in ocean conservation]."
Captured moments from the series at Dadar flower market at 5.40 am
For the last three years photographer Suresh Naganathan (inset) traversed Mumbai every September with his camera from midnight to midnight capturing city sights. This exercise was part of the 24HourProject, an international photo walk for a cause.
Pipeline Road near Saki Naka at 2.15 am
Sharing his experience, Naganathan said, "The city reveals different aspects of itself, especially at night when Mumbai is a different beast." He continued, "After the first 12 hours, your energy begins to drop and you go into auto-pilot where you feed on the energy of the city."
Towards the end of the 24 hours, as the number of photographs taken per hour decreases, Naganathan acknowledges their impact, he told this diarist, "[These later shots] feel more like a dialogue between the city and myself."
