Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

'Tis The Season

With Christmas and New Year around the corner, people flock to Lohar Chawl, Kalbadevi to buy handcrafted flowers to brighten up their homes

Saddi galli

To walk each year on the night of December 16 is a matter of memory, resistance and ritual for the women behind the Why Loiter Campaign. This year, too, they embarked on a loiter-walk from Andheri East to the suburb's west side, in honour of Jyoti Singh - the survivor of the 2011 Delhi gangrape. "To send out a message that the streets, the cities, the roads belong to women as much as they do to men. We will exercise our right to risk and pleasure…. We refuse to be Cinderellas anymore," says Neha Singh (in pic), one of the campaign's participants. The idea is to normalise the idea of women loitering at any point of the day - or night. Singh says there is a sense of magic to walking together aimlessly as strangers come together.

Pawty at Cathedral

For the second year in a row, Fort's The Cathedral and John Connon School had a petting corner at their middle school fete. Nine certified therapy dogs took turns amusing the kids with their performance skills: 11-year-old Bugsy the Beagle put her hand up every time a finger gun was pointed at her, and also rolled over to play dead at "Dishoom". "Don't do that! It hurts my heart!" Madhav Kapoor from Class 5C exclaimed at the trick. Nine-year-old Maya the Labrador challenged and won most rounds of tug. Roohi the Weimaraner, at seven months, competed with the boys at leaping over outstretched legs. Luna caught tossed balls, while another Luna and Eli slept on laps and recognised toys. Angel the golden retriever spread smiles, and Theo the Irish Setter-Cocker Spaniel mix shook hands.
"Children and animals connect magically, in the most organic way," says Ms V. Pereira, Headmistress of the Cathedral and John Connon Middle School. "On a day celebrating fun in school, what better activity than to allow children time with pets! They loved every minute of their time with these adorable pets, who happily lapped up all the attention. It was heartwarming to see, and something we hope to host every year."

Once upon a time, wizards in Oz

Clive Lloyd

Die-Hard cricket fans Down Under aren't too excited about Australia's Test match opposition this summer. The already-arrived and playing Pakistanis will be followed by West Indies for a two-Test series. At one time, both these cricketing regions were a big draw in Australia; the Windies more than the Asian stalwarts. Our in-house cricket nut remembers following the 1981-82 Australian season when Javed Miandad's team played a series which ended with them winning the Melbourne Test after losing the first two at Perth and Brisbane.

Javed Miandad

Perth, where this summer's Test action between the hosts and Pakistan kicked off, was where Dennis Lillee kicked Miandad for blocking him. The West Indians didn't create a similar storm, but they did lose their first Test (home or away) in nearly two years at Melbourne, where Kim Hughes starred with the bat and Lillee weaved his magic with the ball. Not often did the great Viv Richards depart for single digit scores in both innings of a Test, but in December 1981 at the MCG, he did. Clive Lloyd-led side and Greg Chappell's outfit shared series honours 1-1.

Jaipur ab door nahin hai

You have to give it to the literati of this town - everyone was on time for the Mumbai preview of the Jaipur Literature Festival 2024 (which will take place between February 1 and 5) at the members-only club The Quorum. It was an evening of free-flowing wine and canapes as William Dalrymple (in pic), writer, historian, and festival co-director, announced the line-up and urged everyone to come "be a friend of the festival". As he harked back to the first time the festival was held in 2006, he joked that he remembers the organising committee pulling in people off the streets to come in. He announced this year's line-up, which has a heavy focus on historians - art historian Luke Syson will talk of Leonardo da Vinci's reputation as an inventor and historian Tom Holland will discuss often-uncertain representations of authority. This year's Pulitzer prize winner Hernan Diaz will also be there, and so will be Gulzar. Of course, as the organisers told us, there will be lot of folk music, and the happy soirees that the festival is famous for. Time to start booking your tickets?