Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Atul Kamble

Not a bed of roses

Two young flower vendors catch up on sleep on a bench in Marine Drive.

Cities in sync

Eros Cinema

Imagine Mumbai sharing a link with another city over 4,000 km away. Architecture Moderne: Mumbai and Tel Aviv, curated by Mustansir Dalvi, professor, Sir JJ College of Architecture, was a photo exhibition held in June to mark 30 years of friendship between India and Israel that echoed this connection. It will premiere in Tel Aviv in November, while Mumbaikars who missed it can catch it when it returns in October. The show revealed an introduction of the 1930s that led to uniform footprints and skyline-dominating building façades in both cities. "We collaborated with Tel Aviv's Bauhaus Centre for a common talking point. The cities moved from Art Deco to Bauhaus, an architectural style with cleaner designs. Cement also started being used in construction," shared Atul Kumar, of Art Deco Mumbai, co-organiser of the exhibition.

Tiferet Tzvi Synagogue in Tel Aviv. Pics/Art Deco Mumbai

She's got that classic New Jersey vibe

Charu Suri

September is turning out to be a month for jazz fans in the city. New Jersey-based award-winning pianist Charu Suri is heading to Mumbai's shores this month. She acquired the rare honour of being the first female Indian-born jazz artiste to perform at the hallowed Carnegie Hall in 2019. The concert, presented by NCPA in association with the Bombay Jazz Club, will also mark the debut in the city for the Global Music Award-winner. "I am thrilled to be performing my Mumbai debut concert," she admitted. For jazz fans in the city, the event will witness names such as Avishek Dey, Shreya Bhattacharya, Amandeep Singh Soni and Arjun Chakraborty, accompanying the author-pianist on stage. When we nudged her to reveal the itinerary for the performance, she said, "We will be bringing you classic jazz tunes along with some of my originals."

Take flight

World Wide Fund for Nature India (WWF-India) introduced a poster to raise awareness about endangered vulture species.Launched on World Vulture Awareness Day (September 3), Bring Back The Vultures aims to rouse people to the role these birds play in our food chain. They are often demonised for the way they look, but the poster reveals how they prevent the spread of deadly diseases from dead animals. The poster will be available in Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali.

Singapore swing

With their hyper-local and ingredient-driven approach in tow, Ekaa is now travelling to Singapore to celebrate the third anniversary of The Elephant Room, a restaurant that upholds culture. Coming together for a one-night-only event this week, the get-together will witness unique and unusual food in terms of produce from both the countries. Chef Niyati Rao, head chef and partner, Ekaa, shared with this diarist that the special tapas and cocktail menu will feature a confluence of flavours. "We intend to experience how far we can take this amalgamation of locally sourced ingredients. We are trying to carry as many Indian ingredients as we can by preserving them or by toting them in an oil format. Some include tomme de Bombai curated from the Cheese Collective; shisho, a native of India's mountains; Naga pepper oil from the Northeast. and Maharashtra's Malvani masala," she revealed. We can't wait to see how Singapor-eans warm up to desi flavours.

Slice, slice baby

Ayush Jatia and Rehan Mehta

The city's dough-getters are at it. In the span of a few days, the south and south-central parts of Mumbai got a taste of the upper crust from New York and Italy. While chef Rehan Mehta (ex-Ellipsis, Qualia and Masque) is whipping up pizzas and sandwiches at the delivery-takeaway stop East 7th Pizza & Deli in Colaba, Si Nonna's is kneading sourdough pizzas at Kamala Mills. The latter's Neapolitan pizzas are fuelled by a 500-year-old heirloom starter and recipe handed down to them by Nonna Galliano in Naples, in whose kitchen founder Ayush Jatia and his team learnt the ropes. "I think sourdough is the future trend because of its natural fermentation process," shared London-based Jatia. Mehta, meanwhile, draws his inspiration from his culinary school days in New York. "I used to frequent pizzerias in Brooklyn that served pizzas which were different from one-dollar NY slices. My pizzas are somewhere between the New York and Neapolitan styles," he revealed.