Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

One-hand wonder

A dancer shows off his moves at Five Gardens in Matunga

Hope for Westland authors

Ranjeet Pratap Singh; (right) Karthika VK

February 2022 dealt a big blow to the bibliophile community, when an e-commerce giant decided to cease operations of its home-grown publishing house Westland. While its existence as an Amazon-owned company ended last month, we're glad to hear that the folks at Pratilipi, an Indian language self-publishing platform, have invited the Westland team to join them. Ranjeet Pratap Singh, co-founder, Pratilipi, explained that their goal is to build a democratised and integrated storytelling ecosystem. "Published books are an integral part of this ecosystem, and Westland has been at the forefront of this. As soon as we learnt that there is a possibility to work with such a widely respected team, we jumped at the opportunity," Singh told us, adding, "The team will operate largely independently; however, we'll leverage our other formats [including online literature, comics, audio books, etc] to increase both the audience and the net earnings of our creators. We will speak with our existing authors [as well as new ones] and try to onboard as many of them as possible." An elated Karthika VK, publisher, Westland, confirmed that the teams are in talks to discuss the way forward. "We got talking and figured this would be the best solution for both of us - we want to continue publishing and they want to start and have a mainstream publisher. It's been so heartening to hear that so many from the reading community stood by us; it gives us a real push."

A big 50 for Janam

A play by JANAM in progress. Pic Courtesy/JANAM

Governments have come and gone, viral videos have died away, but Janam has quietly carried on. The theatre group, more like movement, turned 50 this year. True to their code, they will celebrate the milestone with a series of plays, discussions and exhibitions on theatre.

Where, you ask? "We will do street theatre. The shows will happen all over. In among the working class, school, colleges all over," director Sudhanva Deshpande (inset) told us. For its golden jubilee celebrations, artist Orijit Sen designed a new logo to go with the year-long line-up of plays that include works of Sunil Shanbag, Shaili Sathyu and Mallika Taneja, and art exhibits. Deshpande added, "We'll continue with our basic work - staging plays among the working people."

Queer connect

Whether you're a researcher looking to read up on the LGBTQiA+ community, or a queer youth seeking films on parental acceptance, Connect National Online Resource Center (CONNECT - NORC) is a new website that aims to consolidate resources for the community on a single platform. An initiative of The Humsafar Trust, supported by Amplify Change, the resource centre will bring together information across fields such as films, health, research, media, workplace and education. Tinesh Chopade, advocacy manager, The Humsafar Trust, said, "You'll find different sections on the website. We're also looking to curate information from different regions, not just metro cities, to reach the larger community."

That gut feeling

Gut health has emerged as a big talking point, but there are a host of terms such as microbiomes, prebiotic and probiotic that the lay person struggles to comprehend. To make such information accessible and guide a reader on understanding their gut by fusing principles of Ayurveda and yoga with gut microdata and traditional foods, celebrity nutritionist Munmun Ganeriwal has penned Yuktahaar: The Belly and Brain Diet, which recently hit the shelves. "The foods I've talked about are those that the reader will find in their kitchen no matter which part of India they're from. It also seeks to correct incorrect information floating around," she shared.

Masque up

Aditi Dugar and chef Prateek Sadhu

It is party time for Mumbai's Masque. The restaurant has ranked 21 on the prestigious Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list. It was followed by Delhi's Indian Accent, and Megu, by The Leela. Last week, Colaba-based The Table and Fort-based Americano had made it to the 51 to 100 list. Quite the star on the collars of chef Prateek Sadhu, who we hear recently moved on from the Masque team, and director Aditi Dugar. "The ranking is a huge honour and a welcome acknowledgment of the team's work, especially coming out of the last two years," Dugar told this diarist. She added that the aim is to keep working harder. "[It's] a privilege to be named among such good company, and more than anything, so motivating to see so many Indian restaurants on this year's full list!" While masks may be coming down the world over, this Masque is on its way up, and deservedly so.