Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Just chillin'

A boy enjoys a welcome shower at Five Gardens, Matunga.

It's still AIR for Dolly

With news of All India Radio (AIR) now being called just Akashvani, we caught up with veteran theatre actress and news presenter, Dolly Thakore, about her journey with the Indian radio channel. Thakore started her journey with AIR in 1962. "I have always had a very special relationship with AIR and I did a few broadcast shows for them for their external services," she shares in a telephonic interview with mid-day. She recalls that her first audition was with actor Kabir Bedi and a few other people, including a painter and banker. "My association with AIR never ended," she shares. "One of the interviews I did was with Vijay Merchant, the cricketer, and as a result of that he made me the permanent member of the CCI [Cricket Club of India]. He was the president of CCI and it was only because of AIR that I got such opportunities". When asked about how she felt about the change in name, she shrugs, "That doesn't matter to me. It makes no difference what the name is. I have had lovely memories with AIR." One such lovely memory was the coverage of Sagar Samrat, the first oil rig in India. "I was asked to go and cover it and interview the people there," shares Thakore. "I was the second woman on the oil rig after Indira Gandhi who inaugurated it as women were not allowed. We were warned to get off the oil rig as per the tide and wing schedules but I really wanted to spend the night there," she recalls. "But we made sure we were back in the helicopter the same day. Exactly a week later, that helicopter and the crew that had ferried us, crashed. It was quite an emotional [moment for us]."

How we shop

People shopping at Linking Road. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Mumbai should feel sheepish about this. Bengaluru and Hyderabad have raced ahead as far as the best high street shopping experiences go, with MG Road topping the list in the Performance Index Table and Somajiguda market at second position. Our Linking Road comes at number 3, Lokhandwala at 11, and Colaba Causeway at 24. Lack of parking and store viability are our Achilles heel.

Gulam Zia

This and other interesting data about mall v/s high street shopping makes it to the latest Think India Think Retail 2023 report that observed that ‘high street' shopping was different in Mumbai because it's a mix of semi-luxury brands hawking in swanky stores on the same street where miscellaneous accessories and cheap fashion sell. Gulam Zia, Senior Executive Director - Research, Advisory, Infrastructure and Valuation Knight Frank India - which published the report - says, "Mumbai shoppers are unique because the street markets in areas like Linking Road or Lokhandwala have been growing organically and we are seeing that there are luxury brands also invading the space, because people are recognising that the Mumbaikar does a mix of shopping."

Malabar Hill or Matheran Hill?

A monkey enjoys his spoils after raiding a home at Malabar Hill

Malabar Hill is now as good as Matheran Hill, with the monkey menace arriving at the swish Mumbai residential area. Monkeys are being spotted climbing buildings on Ridge Road and further down all over Malabar Hill, trying to enter kitchens, perching on window sills and eating something they have snatched from kitchens, while cocking a snook at residents. Videos circulating on WhatsApp show the monkeys getting into homes while people exclaim in horror. A local said that recently, monkeys entered a home and the residents had to lock themselves in a room. Some say this is not new, and the monkeys will move on eventually. Yet another response is that humans have moved into their habitat as the Hill was theirs earlier. Finally, there is the theory that this is some kind of scam, where monkeys are deliberately trained to get into buildings and catchers are called who make a tidy sum for getting rid of monkeys. Whatever you believe, there is no denying that these Simians too want to perch on some of the priciest real estate on the planet.

Guru cool

Roxanne Chinoy, Creator & Public Figure Programs, Meta at the workshop. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

On Wednesday, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, held a special workshop for Instagram creators at its office in the Bandra Kurla Complex. Various office bearers of the tech giant's India arm spoke about new features added to Instagram and the most effective use of all the available tools for better engagement at the workshop, titled IGUxIndia. What gave this (single) diarist hope was the session where the speakers actively encouraged the act of ‘sliding into DMs' - sending direct messages to people on social media, which is now an accepted form of making the first romantic move. The experts even doled out tips on dos and don'ts for a great opening line. For example, in their 2023 Instagram Trends report, a certain percentage of respondents said that getting the wrong meme in their inbox as an opening gambit immediately put them off the person altogether. Some more interesting statistics: Harry Potter continues to be among the top four popular themes of memes, even 20 years after its release, while Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu are the reigning languages when it comes to regional memes.

Is Lyon aware of the 22-year Ashes gap?

Nathan Lyon. Pic/Getty Images

In a recent interaction, Nathan Lyon, Australia's most successful spin bowler in Test cricket with 482 scalps, came up with an incredible prediction, albeit a bit off the cuff. The master off-spinner indicated that Australia would beat England 5-0 in this summer's Ashes. "There's your headline," Lyon told this interviewer. Why is this incredible? Not because Australia hasn't done that to the old enemy recently (the last instance being in 2013-14), but because Australia haven't won an Ashes series on England soil since 2001. How far long was that? Well, Steve Waugh was still playing then and the late Shane Warne was at the height of his powers. Oh yes, that was also a good 10 years before Lyon played his first Test for Australia. Want to rethink that 5-0 prediction, Mr Lyon?