Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Parineeti Chopra

Ladies first

Parineeti Chopra exits at Khar Gymkhana after badminton practice on Friday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

A thunderous third year

There has been many a time when Goila Butter Chicken (GBC) has come to the rescue of homesick north Indians here, offering the non-sweet, non-spicy blend of spices in the dish, rarely found in this city. And as they turn three, ch­ef Saransh Goila, owner of the chain, has big plans for it, including an apt celebration - opening three outlets in three days. Their Chembur outlet op­­ened yesterday, the Bandra West one opens today and the Powai venture, tomorrow.

They also have one in Vashi opening by August end. "We have revamped our me­nu, which now has a kebab and tikka section wherein we gi­ve classics our own touch - adding fried garlic to malai tikka, a dense kulfi made after a six-hour reduction period, and an orange-coloured chilli garlic na­an," chef Goila told this diarist. GBC is also going to launch in Pune and Bengaluru by the end of the year, and Goila is looking to test international waters in 2020. That's one yummy way of turning three!

City authors in the spotlight

The Valley of Words international festival of literature and arts in Dehradun is a si­gnificant regional literature event. They announced the shortlist for the REC-VoW awards, which had city authors on it.

Keki Daruwalla & Anjum Katyal last year

Strike a Blow to Change the World, by Eknath Awad, translated by Jerry Pinto and Abhiram Bha­d­kamkar's Balgandharva are no­minees in the translations category. Aditya Iyengar's The Conqueror has also been nominated.

An Italian job at SOI

When you step in for a western classical concert, chances are you will be in the midst of perfection. For, classical musicians are ine­­v­i­tably striving for perfection, gi­ven the strict diktats of their ge­nre of choice. And when we're talking about Italian pianist and composer Roberto Prosseda, then it gets even more interesting, not only because of his unique to­uch and in-depth research on ig­nored Italian composers, but also because he is one of the few musicians who has had a face-off against a robot pianist.

And now, this master of innovation is going to be in the city this year to open Symphony Orchestra of India's (SOI) autumn season. Prosseda has hosted lecture-concerts with robot pianist TeoTronico, to demonstrate differences between a literal production of music and human interpretation.

Gul's plane speak

After three flights - the last one being the Pune-Kolkata SpiceJet that veered off the runway while landing on Tuesday - almost had accidents in the rain-lashed state in the past 48 hours, actor Gul Panag, who is also a certified pilot, couldn't help but voice her concern about the safety and procedure audit at the airport during the monsoon.

Panag pointed out that one problem is that days after the flight overran the runway in the city, it's still there, making the primary runway 27 unusable while the shorter runway is in use. She also took to Twitter to say that it's important to examine airline procedures. "There needs to be regular assessment from the aerodrome ([AAI/ATC] of the condition of the runway and airport to proactively stop/suspend operations at the airport in heavy rain/wind," she wrote. AAI, are you listening?

A war of words

Things took a strange, funny and catty turn on Twitter yesterday when filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri and comedian Kunal Kamra snapped at each other on Twitter yesterday. It all began when Kamra replied to Agnihotri's tweet, where the filmmaker had asked people for suggestions to buy an electric car, with the slick jab, "If this world was a fair place, you'd be buying a second hand Activa with a third-party insurance." Not one to back down, Agnihotri replied, "In fact, I like second-hand stuff like your unfunny jokes. In all fairness, puncture tumhare se hi banwaoonga." Kamra then called Agnihotri the "Buddha who sold his soul to get an electric car".

Things became stranger when Agnihotri called Kamra a cry baby, saying, "Log wohi bechte hain jo unke paas hota hai. Aap bhi Kamra saheb kuch bech ke thoda humour khareed lein. Who all are ready to give some humour to an unfunny comedian?" to which Kamra asked the "Buddha" to shut up. Whatever happened to backing off gracefully?

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