Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Atul Kamble

What's that racket!

A child at Marine Drive shuts out the din on Saturday at the Indian Air Force aircraft rehearsal for the annual Aerial Display schedule for Sunday.

Fizzy Fazeer at his logical best

Fazeer Mohammed and Steve Waugh

West Indian cricket commentator Fazeer Mohammed makes a lot of sense each time he appears on the Caribbean TV show SportsMax. But he was at his logical best the other day while dwelling on Steve Waugh's recent concerns about the devaluation of Test cricket. Fazeer didn't disagree with the Australian great, but stressed that Waugh's country has not done great work either to promote the traditional game. He cited how Australia first played against New Zealand in 1946. When was the next series? Hold your breath… 1973-74. Apparently, the Kiwis were not found good enough to compete with the giants.

Impressed by Fazeer's point, our in-house cricket nut tells us that India too suffered when it came to opportunities to parade their skills on Australian soil long before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy rivalry, which now challenges India-Pakistan cricket in terms of popularity. India first toured Australia for Test matches in 1947-48. The next series there was 20 years later in 1967-68. It took another decade for the next contest to be held Down Under - in 1977-78 when Bishan Singh Bedi's Indians encountered Bob Simpson's bunch of rookies. Fazeer has a point and may his tribe of incisive pundits grow.

All dolled up

The Ulwe Belapur highway

You can argue about whether the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link will benefit anyone, but Ulwe is definitely grateful. The Navi Mumbai town was looking like a decked up bride on Friday, a stark contrast from the usual out-of-order streetlights and construction debris dumped right on the Ulwe Belapur highway like an obstacle course for motorists. And all because the Prime Minister passed through the town on his way to inaugurate the MTHL. Ulwekars are not complaining.

A birthday like no other

The city opens throttle at last year's Mumbai Marathon

The cake cutting and candles can wait, kilometres come first. At least 132 runners will celebrate their birthday at the Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) set to be held in Mumbai next Sunday. There are 99 men and 32 women turning a year older, running different categories on that sweat-for-it Sunday. The youngest, Aarav Gupta, who is 13 years old, will be celebrating by running the Dream Run (5.9km) while Pratibha Todankar, oldest of the birthday boys ‘n' gals at 71, will also be running in the same category. Four runners, meanwhile, are going to smash a half century, as they celebrated turning 50 by pounding the streets of the city that never sleeps. S Raina will be running the Dream Run on her 50th birthday. The other three in the half century club, B Shah, B Chopra and K Kaur are running the 21 km half marathon. They will be hoping for a Swiftie 50, we assume, in this "zara hatke" birthday.

When women come together

Soni Razdan and Manju Kapur

At the launch of author Manju Kapur's new book The Gallery last week, we got to know that actor-director Soni Razdan has been working on adapting Kapur's first book Difficult Daughters for the screen since 1999. Razdan, who read out an extract from Kapur's book, shared that she got writer Atika Chohan on board, and is confident of the script they have managed to rustle up. "Soni and I share the same birthday, so I do trust she will make it happen," jokes Kapur. Razdan's reading was no less than a one-act-play, and we got a glimpse of where Alia Bhatt gets her talent from. When we told her that we loved her in Monsoon Wedding, she quipped, "I had seven scenes in that movie, and they cut five. That's the story of my life and career!"

Bandish samapti

Pandit Satish Vyas with Dr Prabha Atre

Hindustani classical music suffered another blow with the demise of Dr Prabha Atre on Saturday. The 92-year-old doyen passed away in Pune following a cardiac arrest. One of the giants of the Kirana gharana, Dr Atre was a vocalist, kathak exponent, and one of the foremost academic voices in Hindustani classical music. Recalling the stalwart, vidushi Ashwini-Bhide Deshpande says, "She was an epitome of cerebral and bhav pradhan [emotional] gayaki. She had an immaculate academic background, but always balanced the intellect with the aesthetic." For Pandit Satish Vyas, Dr Atre was not just an artiste, but also an innovator and teacher. "She was equally passionate about imparting knowledge," he says. For all her magnificence, what stood out for Bhide-Deshpande was Atre's fierce independence. "I remember watching her drive by herself to the office, or to a concert in her Fiat. For some reason, I found it very admirable. Then again, this was 40 years ago."