Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Anurag Ahire

Earn and learn

A young girl is seen studying as she sells vegetables at a Goregaon West market

Will they, won't they?

Pic/Instagram

Young actors Rohit Saraf, who is the star of Mismatched, and Aisha Ahmed, seen in shows like Adulting, are keeping their fans guessing about their relationship status. In fact, they are going ahead and causing confusion. Ahmed regularly uploads cute pictures of hers with Saraf on social media, but the captions are just a tad friendly. Ditto for Saraf. When Ahmed put a picture with her friend Uday Oberoi, with the same kind of cute caption to keep the mystery alive, the fans went crazy. "I thought you were dating Rohit!" was the sentiment echoed everywhere. The actors have never addressed these rumours, and are not starting now, and in complete Gen Z style, are living their life however they want to. More power to them.

25 years ago, a triple treat from Amit Pagnis

Amit Pagnis after his 316 for Mumbai U-19 on January 8, 1997. Pic/Mid-Day Archives; (right) Then coach Vijay Bhosale

India's U-19 cricket team are boundary-happy in the Caribbean, where the World Cup is in progress. And while slam-bang will have the desired effect in a quest to get their hands on the trophy yet again, occupying the crease will also be vital for the batsmen at times. Mumbai's Amit Pagnis provided a fine example of this 25 Januarys ago at the Wankhede Stadium, where he smashed an unbeaten 316 for an Ajit Agarkar-led Mumbai U-19 against Rest of India U-19 to help the city clinch the MA Chidambaram Trophy. "Pagnis knew that if he were to post a big knock, he would have to sacrifice the pleasure of going for those lofted shots often and wait for the loose balls to hit to the ropes. And that called for some mental strength," said a report in this newspaper. The young left-hander was armed with sound advice from Vijay Bhosle, the team's coach, who played first-class cricket for Baroda, Maharashtra and Mumbai. When we met Pagnis at the end of the second day's play on January 8, 1997, he dedicated his knock to his coach. Bhosle's "stay at the wicket" instruction was not lost on Pagnis throughout his 11-hour vigil at the crease. Pagnis was rewarded with a place in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team later that month. An apt reward for a special knock and one to cherish even after 25 years.

From graffiti to NFT

Mumbai-based graffiti artist Zake, who is a pioneer of India's graffiti scene, released his first NFT collection - The Regulators. The collection features five hip-hop artistes namely Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B.I.G, Tupac Shakur, Nas and Ice Cube, all of whom have personally influenced Zake because they broke down the barriers and brought the voices of people to the streets. "Graffiti doesn't have longevity as it is on a public wall. This makes it a valuable object as it doesn't stay for long and is taken away in some way or the other, for instance, when a building is demolished. But it's the artists' work. So, I thought that it would be a good idea to have a series of paintings that can be of much more value," he says. He painted the five hip-hop artistes on an 8'x10' canvas in the basement of Khar Social and later blacked it out for exclusivity. "It hurt, but I wanted it to be rare. The only document that exists are the final pictures of the artworks which I have put up as NFTs." The paintings also have his own style, which is inspired by the Indian art style. The hat, for instance, has elements that make it look like a mukkut (crown), which was inspired from Indian mythology.

Now on stage, the shape of grief

The Puchkoo Project, run by Rency Philip, Debosmita Dam and Nisha Abdulla, who come from artistic practices like storytelling, theatre, puppetry and performance making, has collaborated with citylamps, a group that performs playback theatre, for Grief Is A Mouse in My Pocket. These are two virtual playback theatre shows on loss and grief to be held on January 26 and 28. Playback theatre invites audience members to share personal stories which performers then play back using tools of theatre, music, metaphor and poetry. Across these two shows, the audience will share stories of how grief has sat in their bodies, answering prompts like "what are the words that grief reminds you of?" and "What is the texture of your grief?" "… [We] are all living in a collective moment of grief at various levels, and to be able to contribute in a way to create a space where people can reflect on it struck as a matter of privilege and urgency," says Laxmi, one of the co-founders of citylamps and a performer of the show.

Disabled artists pay ode to India

Vineet Saraiwala, founder of Atypical Advantage, a talent platform for Persons with Disabilities, got 10 disabled artists from 10 cities to visit Pepperfry studios and create art works, as a tribute to India's 73th Republic Day. "Art never divides but only unites and this is a tribute to the country from all the artists with disabilities. There are over 100 million+ persons with disabilities in India and the majority of them don't get the opportunity they deserve. This event is to celebrate human diversity and create awarness about disabled artists in the country," says Saraiwala.