Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Ber love

Young boys collect berries that are scattered on the road near Priyadarshini Chowk in Sion

Entering the world of voice-overs

Known for his mythological fictional books, author Anand Neelakantan has made his debut as a voice-over artiste. His own story, Nala's Damyanti, will release as a Storytel original, an audio book subscription platform, on March 14 in nine languages. Neelakantan has lent his voice to one of his characters from the story - Rituparna, the King of Ayodhya in the Malayalam language of the audio book. "I had no training [as a voice-over artiste], but since I knew the character and since I had written the character, I didn't have a lot of difficulty to emote it," he says. It wasn't a live recording as he was the only one recording in Mumbai. He recently made his acting debut and unlike that, this was very different and difficult as he was just in a small booth where he had to bring all the emotion through his voice. "There was no director for me as the people in the studio didn't understand the language, so I had to decide how to do it. It was difficult, but quite fun."

Ultimately, it's worth the wait!

Syed Kirmani (Right) Mitchell Swepson

Australia's leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson finally made his Test debut in the second Test of their Pakistan tour at Karachi after being within the group for two years. His captain Pat Cummins appeared more thrilled than him when he told the media, "he's pumped and to be honest, we're all pumped for Swepo." Swepson was first part of the Test squad five years ago, so his wait has been long and it does remind us about the career of our own Syed Kirmani. The Karnataka glovesman first toured with the Indian Test team to England in 1971 without getting a look in since Farokh Engineer was the No.1 choice wicketkeeper. Kirmani undertook yet another England tour four years later without getting a Test, but got his big break on the tour of New Zealand in 1975-76. Save the 1979 England tour, he stayed the first choice wicketkeeper for 10 seasons. We wish Swepson could enjoy similar longevity.

Kashyap's now an Insta creator

Her father, Anurag Kashyap, may be the pioneer of new age alternative cinema, but this Kashyap is out to win over Instagram. Aaliyah, who is now living in Mumbai, is a "digital creator" according to her Instagram bio. We caught her in a reel with another Mumbai creator, Avanti Nagral, where they were acting to Pooja Misra's hilarious fight with Shonali Nagrani on Bigg Boss. Kashyap has a sweet demeanour and seems at ease in front of the camera. A lot of her content also includes boyfriend Shane Gregoire, and they are quite endearing to watch. Here's hoping to see her on our TV screens soon.

As the world looks on, a few postcards from Ukraine reach India

Photo of Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine by Avantika Meattle

A little over two months ago, travel photographer Avantika Meattle spent about 10 days in Ukraine, largely exploring Kyiv and Lviv, and capturing the cityscape, street art and landmark places like Saint Sophia Cathedral, Motherland Monument and Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The pictures from the trip have been put up for an exhibition titled To Ukraine with Love: Untold Glimpses by Avantika Meattle at the ongoing Jaipur Art Week as well as on her website, avantikameattle.com.

"It was a lovely trip. Ukraine is a vibrant country with diverse cultures, historical monuments, a variety of food, interesting cocktail bars and restaurants and friendly people, though hardly anyone there knows English," recalls Meattle, who went for the trip a day after Christmas and returned in early January. Although Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, its military was stationed at the border from late 2021. "I was aware that thousands of troops are stationed on the East side of Ukraine, but didn't expect that there would actually be a war," shares Meattle, 42, who went along with her husband, Prashant Tandon, but left both her kids behind. "I wasn't willing to risk that," admits Meattle. When asked what took her to Ukraine, she adds that it was the fact that very few people have travelled to Ukraine and that it was in the news. A lot has happened in Ukraine since Meattle returned, does she ever wonder what if the war broke out during her trip? "Life is all about love and adventure, isn't it?"

Popular in the hood

Mahendra Verma holds out a page from the Sunday mid-day newspaper, featuring Vibha Kamat

Your local kiranawala can also be your biggest cheerleader. Vibha Kamat, French teacher with Alliance Française de Bombay and co-founder of MCubed Library in Bandra, who was featured last week in Sunday mid-day's Bambai Se Aaya Mera Dost column, would learn this in the cutest possible way. During a recent visit to her kirana store, High Shivluck, on Perry Cross Road in Bandra, the owner Mahendra Verma had a little surprise waiting for her. "I was out on my morning walk on Tuesday, and then I stopped by [the store] to buy flour. As soon as Mahendra saw me, he opened his ledger, and pulled out a folded cutout from the mid-day newspaper. He showed it to me, and said, ‘Aunty, it's you, right?' When I asked how he got hold of it, he said he'd seen the article in the newspaper the day before," shares Kamat, who captured the sweet moment on her phone. Thank you, Mr Verma, for being a mid-day supporter.