Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Anurag Ahire

Time to work

As water levels recede, a fisherwoman puts her boat out to sea at the Marve beach in Malad

A wish for all festivals

In a telephonic conversation earlier this week, activist Sudha Bharadwaj recounted why prisoners at Yerawada Central Jail look forward to Christmas every year. Bhardwaj is currently out on bail after spending three years in prison, following her arrest in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence. "Yerawada has a booming bakery that caters to the outside world, and Christmas is the one time in the year when inmates can buy goodies from there," she told this diarist. There is, however, a common denominator for any festival inside any prison. "No matter what the occasion, when they hug, they only wish one thing for each other; lavkar sutoon ja (Get released soon)!" she said.

The beer all and end all of David Boon

Finally, we get to know more about Australia's all-time great cricket opener David Boon's consumption of 52 cans of beer on a Sydney to London via Singapore flight for the 1989 Ashes series. Boon, now seen often as an ICC match referee, said on the BackChat podcast recently that he regretted the beer marathon.

The Australians celebrate their win over England in the first Test at Headingley, Leeds, on June 13, 1989. David Boon is seated third from left. Pic/Getty Images

A few years ago, the late Dean Jones, who was Boon's roommate on that tour, said Boon got into trouble with management once the team reached their London hotel. If coach Bob Simpson had his way, Boon would have been sent home. Boon the other day revealed that it was swing bowler Terry Alderman who initiated the brew-spree and batsman Geoff Marsh played a role in egging him on.

Interestingly, Boon didn't let his love for beer affect his batting. Australia ended up winning their first Ashes series in England since 1975. And Boon was on the field when the Ashes-winning runs were hit in the fourth Test at Old Trafford. He amassed 442 runs in six Tests. And what about his allies Alderman and Marsh? The first mentioned Western Australian snarled 41 wickets while the effective batter scored 347 runs with a hundred in the Trent Bridge Test. We guess the overall performance indicated that all was forgotten and forgiven.

A silent night?

On a visit to the once-quaint Khotachi Wadi to look for festive lore, this diarist found signs of a changing neighbourhood instead. For one, iconic resident and musician Wilfred "Willy Black" Felizardo, who has roused the community's children with his Hindi-Marathi Christmas songs in the past, may put his guitar down this year. After a rendition of "Jingle bells, jingle bells, Santa aala re", Willy lamented how social media and city tourism have turned his stomping grounds hostile. "This is a wadi where we never locked gates or doors, but the rise in robberies and compromised privacy have changed that," he said,
as groups of selfie-takers passed by.

We run the world

A young woman learns to float, in the Indian Ocean, off Nungwi, Zanzibar, in a picture that's part of the exhibition. Pic/Anna Boyiazis

The consulate of Netherlands held an exhibit of iconic pictures over the last week featuring women standing up for their rights across the world. We were left inspired when we saw a few photographs that were featured - like a woman in Louisiana, USA, clicked moments away from being arrested by the police in tactical gear, as well as one from Ireland where women covered themselves in black cloaks to signify the dehumanisation of the sex, and finally a picture capturing the joy of a woman learning to float on water in Zanzibar, relishing the freedom a woman experiences when she has right to exercise agency over her body.

"We are proud we were able to get this World Press Photo exhibition to Mumbai. The Netherlands is a prominent advocate of human rights, and we consider gender equality, justice, as well as combating violence against women to be an essential part of it. As all of these photos tell dramatic stories, I think the exhibition has a powerful message," Bart de Jong, Consul General of the Netherlands in Mumbai said at the opening of the exhibition earlier this week, at the Ministry of New in Fort.

Guns blazin'

Team Godlike after their resounding victory

The festive season is here and five young Indians have given the country a wonderful gift by putting it on the global map in yet another domain. Team Godlike, comprising of five players from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, bagged the runner up position at the Call Of Duty Mobile World Championship held in the USA earlier this year. This is the best performance ever by an Indian team, and the team won a cash prize of Rs 1.4 crore. "We started playing CODM in 2019 and since then we have been rigorously practising in order to compete at the highest level. Our training sessions used to be 10 to 12 hours long before the championship, which consisted of aim training with our coach Ygor Simao. He also guided us on our gameplay and tactics," says team leader Jash Shah, who goes by Learn in the COD world.