Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Atul Kamble

Tedha medha

Commuters queue up outside Dadar TT, thankfully with masks on, waiting for a bus.

Jar of happiness

To keep you cool in summers, Swasti Mehta has started making pudina punch, a refreshing mint and lemon cooler. That she has Down's Syndrome never got in the way of her love for experimenting in the kitchen. She first made the punch in December last year for her parents and brother Aarsh. Slowly, it became a ritual. It was, but obvious, this was going to soon turn into a venture. Speaking about his 26-year-old sister's journey, Aarsh tells us, "She has never let Down's Syndrome come in the way of her dreams." You can buy a bottle by DMing Aarsh's account @quillninja. It costs R200 and they deliver to Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane.

No need to be anxious

Singer-songwriter Ilina Hats has been keeping busy this lockdown. Her latest release is a club banger, Anxious, with Singaporean artiste Elsa Mickayla. Though the song is upbeat and groovy, there's a very personal story attached to it. "I wrote Anxious last year in the lockdown after having an argument at about 3 am. Anxious, simply put, is about hypocritical love. The insanity that surrounds love is what inspired the song," says Hats. Her main objective with this song, and her music in general, is to put the light on subjects we'd rather not discuss.

More on Love and Darling in cricket

Martin Love

Fredun E Devitre, a popular, pleasant and purposeful sports commentator, who appeared in our living rooms long before colour television sets hit the market, wrote to us the other day in response to our May 2, 2021 cricket item (When Australia had Darling, Sleep and others) on the Daily Dossier page. It had dwelled on the peculiar names of Australian players who toured India in 1979-80 for a six-Test series. Over to Fredun. "It reminded me of the tale I read many moons ago about Joe Darling, who captained Australia in 21 Tests and was skipper on four tours to England including the 1902 one with Victor Trumper playing under him.

Fredun E Devitre

"The story goes that he was batting in a first-class match with a cricketer called Harry Love at the other end. When Joe hit the ball into the covers and called for a single, the exchange between the two went thus: Batsman Joe: ‘C'Mon, Love.' Non-striker Harry: ‘No, not now Darling.' Perhaps the tale is apocryphal." Incidentally, says Fredun, three Darlings played Test cricket for Australia - Joe, Len and Rick - though in different eras. He also recalled Martin Love, the dashing batsman, who represented Australia in 2002 and 2003. "And in England, Harry Love played for Sussex and Jim Love for Yorkshire (besides three ODIs for England). And there was even a Ben Spendlove who played for Derbyshire," wrote Fredun. Cricket trivia at its finest and loveliest.

Stories about life on India's borders

In 2018, Samarth Mahajan, a young filmmaker, set out to explore how everyday people deal with the consequences of living along India's borders. His partly crowdfunded project, co-produced by All Things Small and Camera And Shorts Borderlands, is finally having its world première at DOK.fest München, Germany this month. The film has stories in five languages - Manipuri, Punjabi, Hindi, Bengali and Nepali - from across India's border areas. "Researching, shooting and collating such diverse stories, and that too authentically, took some time. We kept meeting people who found hope in the most dire of situations which was awe-inspiring. This would not have been possible without the unwavering support of our backers, and the warmth our crew received from people across the Indian subcontinent."

Tech to weigh babies is a winner

The Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence recently won big at @FastCompany 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards. The independent non-profit institute, with headquarters in Mumbai, has spent the last three years developing an AI-powered technology to detect low birth weight babies, millions of whom are missed each year due to a number of reasons. Once developed, it will record accurate, timely, geotagged and tamper-proof data, and support rural frontline workers in prescribing home-based care or medical intervention. The tech, which can eventually work as a feature on the mHealth app, was selected as the winner in the Best World Changing Idea APAC category, a finalist in the Experimental category, and also received an honourable mention in the Developing World Technology category. "There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it's important to recognise organisations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems," says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. "Our journalists have discovered some of the most groundbreaking projects that have launched since the start of 2020."