Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Shadab Khan

The sky is pink
A couple enjoys the evening sun light up the sky at Mahim beach.

Farewell to Tinkle Belle

After 10 years of being the editor of Tinkle Comics and 13 years of being with Amar Chitra Katha, Rajani Thindiath has decided to move on to tell different stories. She is now pitching her first book and writing another. The journey has been a mixed bag of emotions. Thindiath says, "Tinkle was where I first fulfilled my dream of writing original fiction that reached thousands across the country. In these 13 years, 10 as editor, this dream has given me so much. I had the chance to get kids to think about values and concerns that I thought were important, as they enjoyed the stories. Values such as gender equality, diversity and acceptance of ‘the other' regardless of whether the other is of a different skin colour, community, region, or is someone with varying abilities and disabilities. Children shape our future and what kept me going was their overwhelming love and encouragement."

Writing about change

Mumbai-based social entrepreneur Elsa Marie D'Silva, who is the brain behind Safecity - a platform that crowdsources personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces - has added another feather to her cap. D'Silva has co-edited as well as contributed to an important new book, The Demographic Dividend and the Power of Youth: Voices from the Global Diplomacy Lab, published by Anthem Press. The compendium of essays, D'Silva says, explores the role young people can play as actors of change. "We need to relook at our education system to create space for critical thinking and provide a platform for young people to create change." This, she says, is what the books aims to do.

Congratulations are in Order for Greg Chappell

Australia captain Greg Chappell holds the B & H World Series Cup after beating New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground on February 3, 1981. Pic/Getty Images

It's nearly 40 years for the Greg Chappell-ordered underarm delivery, which his younger brother Trevor delivered to New Zealand's Brian McKechnie in a World Series Cup game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on February 1, 1981. Not many would have given the Australia captain any chance of receiving an honour then or even later because, simply put, that was a disgraceful act, performed to deny the NZ batsman from hitting a six. But, Greg has been honoured now with the Order of Australia for (according to the citation): "distinguished service to cricket as a leading player, captain, coach and administrator at the elite level and for a range of charitable foundations." Greg is thrilled that his charity work has come into the mix. "It is a great honour and a recognition for many years involved with cricket, but I am also pleased it includes the charity aspect because that is a very important part of my later life," he told The Australian newspaper. It's been four years since Greg and his Indian-born mate Darshak Mehta formed The Chappell Foundation which has raised more than AUD $3 million for homeless youth. Not long ago, this newspaper highlighted Greg's deeds in ensuring food packets reach the homeless in Queensland and it's time to say well played, Greg. You were never known to be satisfied with a century. You always wanted more runs from that Gray Nicolls willow, so don't stop scoring on the charity pitch. We need more of your kind.

An erotic balance

Rahul Mishra

For all the organza and tulle, haute couture is made of stronger stuff than it is given credit for. Rahul Mishra's The Dawn digital showcase, third couture collection as a guest member of the Paris calendar, brought up a spontaneous burst of powerful feelings, residing still in our pandemic-spooled solitude, melancholy and longing. It also nudged a realisation that this chapter in history is bigger than just this virus.

Model and drag artist Nitin Baranwal in Rahul Mishra haute couture, Spring 2021

To reconsider facts of life. Climate crisis is real. We need to act now or the consequences will be catastrophic. The opening drone view of a marble dump yard in Kishangarh, Rajasthan, so scorched and elemental, it immediately takes your eyes to engineered clusters of mushroom decidedly flannelling life on barren tree branches. Mushrooms, the only flowering bodies of fungi, is an allegory Mishra chose for life itself.

Directed beautifully by Keya Vaswani and Nidhi Kamath, the six-minute (5:55 to be precise) video has a kind of casual framing; in the way a karigar's jab at deft needlework patterns and punches vibrant colours in the outline of mushroom-striped motifs, adding a tactile human vignette to the polished, mega-event worthy outfits worn by a parade of three models. This collection is one of Mishra's most lyrical poems, musical in execution, metaphor, theme, and even title. But poetic couture was not the only thing waking in his collection. It was also the inclusive casting of the drag artist Nitin Baranwal as one of the fashion models to appear in the designer's lifelike embellishments.

Saying it with such amazing grace

This diarist was heartened to find out that a fundraiser by Luke Coutinho, a holistic lifestyle coach, for the construction of an old age home in Guirim, North Goa, has brought in 107 per cent of the Rs 40 lakh goal. Hosted on fueladream.com, the campaign hopes to help in the expansion of Amazing Grace, an old age home run by Josephine D'Souza, who according to Coutinho, shares her own family home with the elders. "On my trips to Goa to meet my parents, I have spent much time with Ms Josephine and the elders, consulting for them, and helping them with their health to the best of my ability. I saw their predicament get worse as more of them joined the home and the space ran out. This home deserved to be helped and I am glad that I could with the help of so many kind and generous funders," says Coutinho.