Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

My friend, sher khan

A girl rides atop a tiger statue at Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali.

Riding the wheels of inclusivity

Rajiv Mehta (right) tries out one of Voorman's (left) special cycles

Redefining courage in their own way, the city-based NGO Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust will launch a cyclothon on January 23 to raise awareness about the cause of orthopaedic disability. Spanning over 500 km from Mumbai to Wai with multiple stops along the route, the cyclothon will be led by the German paracyclist Stefan Voormans. "Stefan is an old friend, and has agreed to cycle with us to raise awareness and be an example for others. It is also proof of what mental strength can achieve and inspire," trustee Rajiv Mehta said.

See and smile

A close-up of the calendar with the Braille symbols embossed over the text

Inclusivity may be the buzzword in this digital age, for social media influencers, but in reality, many of them end up creating silos for those who are less privileged than the rest of us. It is why we love the 2024 calendar that was recently released by the Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC). This special version includes all the usual content seen in a standard calendar in English, but over it, the same text is imprinted in Braille, making it inclusive.

"We designed the calendar to spread the message that with a little out-of-the-box thinking, accessibility can be easily made a part of everyday life" says Dr Sam Taraporevala (above), executive director (XRCVC). With large font, transparent Braille printing using a specialised printing process and high-contrast elements that make it useful for every user, this one is sure to put a smile on our faces, at the beginning of the year.

Digest this idea!

The Reader's Digest copy comes with a ‘Damages' label referring to the bill

In the age of restaurants turning contactless with QR-coded menus and remote billing, it felt nice to end a meal at Bandra Born with the bill arriving in the folds of a backdated Reader's Digest. Culinary director and co-owner, chef Gresham Fernandes remarked, "I love physical copies of books over audiobooks, any day. I still use bills and airplane tickets as bookmarks. So, when the team was working out on the idea for a bill book, we decided to use throwaway paperbacks instead. It was an extension of Bandra Born being for the vandals and using sustainable material." The Reader's Digests, we learned, were the third series for the restaurant. "We started with Enid Blyton titles - which people would take away; next, we used books about restaurants from my collection, and now, these. Also, the Reader's Digest is a title that everyone loved to read," the chef told this diarist.

Parking the biodiversity idea

A board of Fruit Bingo at one of the activity stations (right) visitors on a trail inside the biodiversity park

Three years of efforts have come to literal fruition for city-based NGO iNaturewatch. The Ambivali Biodiversity Park, a CSR project commissioned by DCB Bank, will open to the public from January 20 to offer them a journey across over 10,000 plantations, and will include three walking trails spread across their KDMC-owned property in Ambivali. "We carried out the plantations in six zones based on the taxa of animals they attract.

Dr V Shubhalaxmi

Activity stations are peppered across the park with interactive games like fruit bingo, where visitors tick fruits off a list as they spot them," Dr V Shubhalaxmi, founder, iNaturewatch shared. This diarist was delighted to learn that the park is seeing a sustained rise in fauna in the area owing to these efforts.