Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Nimesh Dave

Cat nap

A feline doesn't hesitate to occupy precious space at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport

Irani chai, with a side of Chembur

Mahim's authentic Irani cafe, Cafe Irani Chaii opened its second outlet this weekend. The place is bigger and swankier than the Mahim outlet, the OG vibe intact. "We have tried to maintain the same old world charm and feel with the help of architect Reza Kabul. We want people to connect with irani cafes, which once stood at every second corner in the city," says its owner, Mansoor Showghi Yezdi. The menu (and price point) is the same, with authentic Irani-Parsi dishes like brun maska, chicken-cheese poro, kheema fry ghotala, raspberry soda and of course, Irani chai. The decor has wooden wall cladding and mirrors, chequered stone flooring, original German milk glass lamp shades, which were very common around the 1900s, marble top tables with bentwood chairs, one wall with Persian tiles
and another with Persian bricks - all reminiscent of the glorious days of Iranian cafes in erstwhile Bombay.

Atherton laps up Mumbai cricket heritage again

A cricket match in progress at the Oval Maidan in Mumbai

England captain-turned-cricket pundit Mike Atherton is delighted to be back in Mumbai. He was at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday for the England v South Africa World Cup 2023 game, the first Mumbai-hosted match in the tournament. Atherton, England's 1996 World Cup skipper, is bowled over by Mumbai's cricket heritage.

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Mike Atherton. Pics/Getty Images

On Friday, he thought of "resurrecting" his 2016 article written for The Times (UK). This bit of the finely-scripted piece is especially worth reproducing: "South Mumbai is about as close as you get to the heart and soul of the game. A mile or two square, from the pukka gymkhanas at the north end of Marine Drive to the Oval Maidan, just inland from the southern tip of it at Nariman Point. An area that teems with cricketing history, has produced some of the greatest players, and remains home to the ordinary cricketer, no matter how wealthy or privileged, how poor or unconnected." Atherton sure has a way with words. Looks like he can also find his way anywhere in South Mumbai with cricket acting as his guide.

Just Uorfi being unfiltered

Uorfi Javed created quite a storm at the India Pod Day last week, which was co-hosted by Amazon Music and Westland Books. The cosy fireside chat with Kartika VK, publisher of Westland, was anything but. The daring fashionista arrived in an egg-yellow ruffled dress and a neck brace - a consequence, she casually revealed, of drinking too much the night before and falling off the bed. "I'm literally sh'''''g in my pants right now, but you'll never know," she bragged, when asked about how she was feeling at the moment. She also said her reputation was not about her image. "I don't give an f''' about my image. I am trying to be famous. Image is a perception that other people have of me, and I am done trying to make them understand what type of person I am." She said her only goal in life is to be famous - so famous that people fall over themselves for a piece of her attention, like the way they do for SRK.

A deer gets a weekend wash

Oh deer, look who is having a morning shower. The faux deer at the Tilak garden at Chowpatty are being washed down. Just thinking, it would be awesome if this deer came to life and ran its way on the Chowpatty stretch, next to all the early morning runners getting their distance runs in on the weekend. The elegance and grace, along with speed would make this a Kodak moment or a National Geographic one. Anyway, that is for daydreaming, or should that be doe dreaming? Right now, the weekend wash seemed a good way to cool off as the unforgiving October mercury hits humid highs.

On the road for cancer

The last few days have been surreal for Viji Venkatesh, region head for The Max Foundation, who is on a Chai for Cancer Road Show down south. Venkatesh, who launched the inaugural edition of the road show in Udumalaipettai in the Trippur district of Tamil Nadu, to raise funds for cancer patients, is travelling in a car, with her colleague Karthikeyan Kanagaraj behind the wheels. The duo will make pit stops in Kochi, Calicut and Bengaluru, before heading to Puducherry. The final event will be held at the Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai. "We are talking about cancer at these little tea shops, to labourers constructing roads, and even students, apart from the ‘addas' that have been planned," Viji told this diarist. While she hopes to raise R35 lakh by the end of the edition, what she says has been uplifting is the response. "I was in two minds about going on the road show," confesses Viji, who lost her husband to cancer a few weeks back. "But my children told me ‘Amma just go, appa would have wanted you to'. I honestly feel he has blessed this."