Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

High and dry at the terminus

A passenger naps beneath drying laundry against the relief of the CSMT station at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Kurla East

Dastan-e-Booker

Mahmood Farooqui. Pic Courtesy/Instagram

Theatre maker Mahmood Farooqui is faced with a new challenge. The writer-actor recently announced his next production, an adaptation of author Geetanjali Shree's Booker Prize-winning novel Tomb of Sand/Ret Samadhi. Produced by Anusha Rizvi, the performance will premiere in Delhi on June 8. "It is quite a challenge. I was asked by the publisher if I would be interested in it. I was hesitant to take it up because the stream-of-consciousness style makes it difficult to shape into a script," the dastangoi practitioner shared.

Geetanjali Shree. Pic Courtesy/Twitter

Over an email, author Geetanjali Shree revealed, "I am a great admirer of Mahmood's work. But my desire was that if he must do Ret Samadhi, it should be a full and proper dastaan, not just a reading for an evening. Once the publisher and he agreed on that, I was happy for us to go ahead with the project." The adaptation is the latest in a series of experimental dastans following the lines of Dastan-e-Raag Darbari based on Srilal Shukla's famous novel. Farooqui shared that he would like to bring the show to Mumbai later in June when they perform at Prithvi Theatre. "For now, nothing is set, but we will see how it goes," he said.

This vada pav is lit

The Mumbai vada pav just got hotter. This city-favourite street food was recently adapted as a candle by a Bengaluru-based Deepa Yashwini (below).

"I have been making realistic food candles for nearly two years now. I have many customers and students in Mumbai. So, the vada pav had been on my list for a while," the 29-year-old founder of House of Drip shared over a call with this diarist, Yashwini is best known among peers for her ladoo candles.

Red carpet for Dombivli's bookworms

Residents look through the collection spread out on Phadke Road in the 2023 edition

A different crowd will throng the shopping hub of Phadke Road in Dombivli. Usually empty on weekend mornings, the stretch will be taken up by Pai's Friends Library for a unique celebration of Book Street. "The event is to commemorate World Book Day that falls on April 23. A carpet will be rolled out with over 1,00,000 books for enthusiasts to choose from. However, since it would be impossible to block this stretch of the road on a weekday, we decided to host it early on Sunday morning," said event head Amey Ghaisas. This is the second edition of the event that started last year in the suburb, and will last from 5 am till 10 am. "The display will include books collected over the year through several book exchange programmes, apart from our own collection. It is an effort to encourage reading as a habit. All the books are free, and anyone attending can take home one book for free," Ghaisas revealed.

The game kicks off

A girl dribbles past the opponents during a match in the 2023 tournament

It is selection season at Govandi again. yesterday saw the beginning of the 13th edition of the Next Page Community Foundation's summer football tournament, with an auction and selection of teams. "The number of children participating has risen to 260 this year," shared founder Anoop Parik (inset). While the tournament officially kicks off on April 29, the kids are already busy taking on tasks.

"There are 24 teams [boys] participating this time. The tournament is managed entirely by the kids themselves. Many participants from previous editions of the competition take on roles in management, coaching, and even handling logistics for the season," Parik revealed. The surprising element has been the rise in the number of girls participating. "Two seasons ago, we had four teams of girls, and now have six teams," Parik remarked. Those interested in helping out can log on to nextpage.in for more details.