Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Anurag Ahire

Ready to rest

Wouldn't we all rather sleep than work out on an exercise machine early in the morning? A security guard in Jogeshwari West knows the answer.

Vayedas eye Mumbai

Earlier this year, Sunday mid-day got a peak into the thought, inspiration and effort that goes into indigenous Warli artists Mayur and Tushar Vayeda's art and practice at their home in Dahanu's Ganjad village. The duo has exhibited their works globally - last week, their "stories of creation" opened to the public at the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at Queensland Art Gallery. What, however, eluded them was a show closer home. That wait has finally come to an end. In the new year, ARTISANS' in Kala Ghoda will be presenting the Vayeda brothers' first-ever exhibition in Mumbai from January 7 to 23. Titled Regeneration, the Vayedas will use the vocabulary of Warli painting to reconnect with their ancestors; to reclaim and reconstruct their ancient legacy for a new generation; and to transform their collective lives. The idea is "to move Warli tradition forward, without diluting its essence". "We are practising the Warli spirit together and sharing our labour of love with the world," the
brothers said.

Instagram stamp for Colaba's singer

Colaba girl Natania, Mumbai's export to LA, has added another accolade to her already glowing resume. Her high-energy new song, Confidence, made its high-profile visual debut on Friday as the centrepiece of Instagram's new Reels campaign focused on empowering creators worldwide. "It's about the moment we truly accept ourselves as we are, loving all parts, we start to radiate from the inside out. We become the best versions of ourselves, striving for our greatest potential." The single, co-written with and produced by Ethan Roberts, is another clever piece of pop songwriting from the talented creative. The campaign also heralds a time when Instagram Reels will become even more central to the app's strategy going into 2022. Creators, pay attention.

Umpire Frank Lee's book and Mankad's brilliance

Umpire Frank Lee. Pics/Getty Images (right) India all-rounder Vinoo Mankad

Our in-house cricket nut's luck with rare books showed up again the other day when he found a coverless edition of Cricket, Lovely Cricket on a suburban Mumbai street. At first glance, he thought it was celebrated writer Ian Wooldridge's book on the exciting 1963 England v West Indies series. But a closer look revealed that the author was ex-Test umpire Frank Lee's autobiography written three years before Wooldridge's classic. Cricket, Lovely Cricket are words from a calypso made famous after West Indies' first Test win on English soil - at Lord's in 1950. In the book, umpire Lee dwelled on his county cricket playing days which were followed by a career in umpiring. Among the 29 Tests he stood in was the 1952 one which featured India at Lord's, where Vinoo Mankad scored 72 and 184 as an opener and claimed five wickets in England's first innings. It came to be known as Mankad's Test never mind if the Vijay Hazare-led team lost by eight wickets. Lee highlights an important aspect which is a tribute to the kind of stamina Mankad possessed for his wily left-arm spin. Over to Lee, who had the best view of the performance: "With India out for 235, Mankad was brought on second change to bowl 73 overs while obtaining five wickets for 196 runs. Even after this Herculean effort he was still fresh, and on opening the batting in the second innings he proceeded to flog the England bowling to all parts of the field - a truly wonderful knock which gave great enjoyment to everyone present." Indeed. And what a ‘wonderful' tribute to a truly great Indian.

Giving life to O2 concentrators

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, Vaibhav Chhabra, founder of Maker's Asylum and his team of innovators, have been manufacturing face shields for frontline workers. Now, they have set their eyes on saving oxygen concentrators from going to landfills. In collaboration with EU Resource Efficiency Initiative-India, they are repairing and reusing these machines.

"With the rise of consumerism, most of us do not think twice before discarding things. And this applies to medical grade equipment too. Flashback to the second wave in India, when thousands of oxygen concentrators were imported and a lot of them stopped functioning due to various reasons. But who is fixing them? We decided to address this gap," he said. If you have broken oxygen concentrators that need fixing, reach out to the Makers on https://bit.ly/m19-requestrepair.

When an artefact goes back to its OG owner

Reclaiming history from the oppressor by using augmented reality, Dentsu Webchutney has made an immersive interactive project, The Unfiltered History Tour, which went live earlier this week. As a result of a campaign that's been 18 months in the making, across 10 countries, with over 100 contributors, and involving hours of research and experimentation, visitors to the British Museum can now scan disputed artefacts using Instagram filters and immersive audio and unlock an AR experience that teleports the artefacts back to their homelands. "History belongs to its geography," wrote Aabhaas Shreshtha, creative director at Dentsu Webchutney, about the project. Of 10 disputed artefacts from the British Museum's collections that are part of the unfiltered tour, there are the Amaravati Marbles, once part of a holy Buddhist stupa in India, sent to the UK during British rule.
theunfilteredhistorytour.com/