Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Ashish Raje

Choti Choti Baatein

A game of kabaddi gets rough on Saturday morning at Girgaum Chowdary

Stripped of all judgement

Roshini Kumar

Photographer and activist Roshini Kumar's BARE series has over the last two years captured various people, celebrating raw beauty in their natural forms and highlighting how societal standards have skewed our perceptions of attractiveness. Of late, on her Instagram handle, the photographer has been sharing works from a new series representing real bodies and real people. "My main goal this year is to do as much activism as possible. I talk a lot about body image, mental health and queerness and wanted to do something that started the year on that note.

We didn't have make-up on, we were just being ourselves in a safe space and embracing our bodies for what they were, free from any judgment. I edited [the photos] like paintings because I wanted them to look like works of art that make people think," says Kumar who has plans to shoot more on men's body image, body positivity and toxic masculinity, this year. Actor Rytasha Rathore, one of Kumar's muses for the series, did her first semi-nude shoot with her in December 2020. "That was the first time I went one step further, but Rosh has been doing this since 2015," says Rathore. "She is a force to reckon with and I love her aesthetic and creative direction. More than anything, it is nice to be shot by a female photographer with a female gaze."

The write lines for Peter Pollock

Peter Pollock. Pic/Getty Images

Those who have watched the India v South Africa Test matches on television may have lapped up the smooth commentary of Shaun Pollock, the former South African captain. Now, Shawn has cricket in his blood. His father Peter and uncle, Graeme, are considered cricketing greats in and outside South Africa. Peter was a journalist by profession and he was still writing reports when he wasn't on the field. While summarising a match in the 1970 Rest of the World v England series at Edgbaston, celebrated writer John Woodcock found a delightful way to describe Peter's troubles with an unresponsive Birmingham pitch. "Peter Pollock found the switch from the press box to the middle rather too demanding. The wicket was as much use to him as a broken-down typewriter," wrote Woodcock. Two years later, when Peter provided ample support to Garry Sobers at the other end in the third Rest of the World v Australia ‘Test' at Melbourne, where the great West Indian scored 254, Keith Stackpole, a member of the opposition wrote: "As a journalist, what a dramatic story he [Peter] could send to South Africa about playing with a West Indian and virtually winning a Test' with him!" That must have been quite a story in South Africa's apartheid years!

Revisiting tales from Dharavi Bet

City chronicler and Catholic priest Fr Milton Gonsalves, who only last year published Kole Kalyan or Kalina: The Origin Story, a short biography on the suburban neighbourhood, is out with a new book. This time, Fr Gonsalves is revisiting the story of Dharavi Bet, which includes the regions of Manori, Gorai and Uttan. Titled Dharavi Bet: An Island Forgotten, the book has been printed and supported by the Mobai Gaothan Panchayat, as part of a project spearheaded by Gleason Barretto. "It has been divided into two parts. The first offers a general history of Dharavi Bet along with places of interest. The second part focuses on the Catholic community that resides here, its lifestyle, trade and the life centered around the church, its institutions and the outstanding people of the place," says Fr Gonsalves, who took over a year to write this book. This is the seventh book penned by the priest - his previous works cover the East Indian communities of Chuim, Sahar, Kurla and the erstwhile farming village of Bhayandar. You can book a copy at www.mobaikar.in.

A cross-border collaboration

Mumbai-based singer-songwriter and composer Utsavi Jha had her biggest fan moment recently. Jha got the opportunity to collaborate with Anthony Lazaro, an Italian-born and Germany-based singer-songwriter, someone the 26-year-old singer looks up to. Coffee Ki Pyaali is the Hindi version of Lazaro's popular song Coffee Cup. Jha had posted a cover of the original song in October 2020 and received positive feedback from the Italian singer on sharing it with him. This eventually led to this collaborative song which released on January 3 this year. In order to reach his local audience, Lazaro came up with a project of creating different versions of his songs in different languages and got in touch with Jha for a Hindi version. "I had to make it similar to the original, but at the same time it had to sound good independently as a Hindi song for someone who hadn't heard the original one," says Jha recalling how via voice notes she sent a line-by-line translation to Lazaro.

Ah, to be haunted by Gerson

Like so many who admired Gerson daCunha, filmmaker Ayesha ‘Pooh' Sayani spent Friday reminiscing about the stalwart of Indian theatre, who passed on at the age of 92. She said, "Everyone who met Gerson, fell in love with him. Since I met the daCunha brothers, Sylvie and Gerson, I have had a long life of loving. So, I didn't think twice when I asked Gerson, then 90, whether he'd take part in a play reading I was doing for Literature Live. The play was that year's winner of the Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Awards and the part he was reading was that of a ghost. ‘How appropriate!' said Gerson with a mischievous twinkle. And now, he is no more. But I hope to be haunted by him forever."