Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Rane Ashish

Dry run

Slum residents take note of the shining sun and dry their sheets near Bandra Bandstand

Building an archive

Pic/Instagram

We spotted recently that Eka Archiving, led by Pramod Kumar KG and Deepthi Sasidharan, which collaborates with individuals and institutions to manage their cultural resources, has been assigned the task of creating a formal archive for one of the city's oldest art galleries Chemould Prescott Road. The Chemould Archives will capture the legacy of the gallery, particularly through the contributions of its founder gallerists Kekoo and Khorshed Gandhy. Both organisations will release more details about the collaboration soon. Watch this space for more.

A live tour turned album

The Darshan Doshi Trio ft. Varijashree Venugopa. Pic/Sachin Sacz

The Darshan Doshi Trio, formed in 2017, got back on the road in 2021 for their five-city tour in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru. Now, the jazz-fusion trio that consists of Mumbai-based drummer and composer Darshan Doshi, Rhythm Shaw on guitar and Avishek Dey on bass, has released the album, Live on Tour 2021. Doshi says, "After finishing the tour, I went through the recordings and realised it was album material and got it mixed and mastered by Abhishek Gattak." For their tour, they collaborated with an artist from every city they performed in. The trio also came up with an Instagram challenge for one of their songs from the album - Bandish Blues (Live). For this challenge they asked vocalist Varijashree Venugopal to make a remix reel. The challenge saw over 20,000 views and about 200 entries from musicians all across the world. Next, the trio will be working on their new studio album, which features a lot of guest artistes.

Jeh, a man for all seasons

Escaping war-torn Sri Lanka with his family as a teenager in the 1980s, Michael has followed his parents' example in forging his own path. Playing cricket around the world, studying at Oxford, creating a successful life-skills course for young elite athletes around Australia and becoming a Wildlife Ranger in Africa, he's an interesting dinner companion." The Michael referred to in the above description happens to be our Brisbane-based columnist, Michael Jeh.

Michael, or Fox to his mates, was interviewed on stumptostump.com by former first grade cricketer Dean Tuckwell, now a famous travel agent in Queensland. Dean got Jeh to open up on his fascinating cricket career. Being hit by Queensland star Glenn Trimble for the biggest-ever six at the Gabba in the 1988-89 A Grade final is not something Jeh is very proud of, but he has faced Shoaib Akhtar without a helmet and hit him for a six in a MCC v Pakistan ‘A' game at Shenley in 1997. "A complete fluke," Jeh stresses.

He recalls getting out for a duck in the 1993 Oxford University v Worcestershire game and while he made his way back to the picturesque New Road pavilion, his girlfriend, who had just arrived from Australia, remarked: "Well done, darling. Do you always bat for that long?" Humour is never lost on Jeh, but he is dead serious when it comes to exposing double standards, wildlife and of course, his mid-day columns.

Indie bookstores extend support to team Westland

Pic Courtesy/@bahrisons_booksellers, Instagram

The last week has been tough for Indian publishing. Retail giant Amazon's decision to shut down Westland Books, a homegrown publishing firm which it acquired in 2017, and put all its books out of sale after February 28, has shocked book lovers. What's come as a boon is the support shown by indie and family-run bookstores across the country. Many like Bahrisons Booksellers, Champaca, The Bookworm, Midland, The Bookshop and Storyteller have extended their support, offering to deliver titles across India and even the world. Rumour is that unsold books might be pulped. "We've been thinking of the highly ethical, intellectually driven editorial and sales team that has been putting out some of the most remarkable books of our time in recent memory. This, if nothing else, should be the final nail in the coffin for anyone who still continues to believe that @amazon stands for books or for a community in anyway whatsoever," The Bookshop shared on Instagram.

Helping couples make the write choice

A few years ago, Imran Baig, founder and CEO of Global Penmanship Academy, held a pop-up at a coffee shop for couples to get their handwriting analysed. Baig has since helped hundreds of couples figure whether they are made for each other. And so, expect Valentine's Day to be mighty busy for Baig. "In handwriting analysis for couples, we focus on awareness and acceptance. We make both of them aware of their behavioural traits, strengths and weaknesses, while giving them an understanding of why they behave the way they do through their writing. If they are willing to tweak their behaviour, we guide them on how to do this through their writing in subtle ways," he says.