Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

Bhool Bhulaiyaa

A woman makes her way through a maze of auto rickshaws that have come to a halt due to traffic at Kasturba Road.

Look, cricketing stars off the street!

Our in-house sports books scavenger was sold something interesting the other day. The book, Cricket Stars by Percy Mason gave him the impression of a compilation related to the willow game and astrology. And he was right. He shares some gems that appear on the back cover of this 1987 book, put together by Indian-born, Australia-settled Mason.

Here it goes…

#Don Bradman scored 334, 304, 254, 244 and 232 in England, yet it was in Australia, in the month of January, that he scored eight 100s.

#Only two of the 1743 Test cricketers were born on 29 February.

#In 51 Tests, Jeff Thomson took 200 wickets, Alec Bedser got 236, Imran Khan has taken 264 wickets.

#AG Ganteaume with a Test batting average of 112, played in only one Test match (for the West Indies)

#Sunil Gavaskar has played Test cricket during all 12 calendar months. December sees most runs come from his bat.

Cricketing Stars, "is the most comprehensive cricket records book with unusual statistics - batting, bowling and wicket keeping performances, according to Zodiac signs, highlights and lowlights," say the publishers.
Unfortunately, the book is out of print and it's unlikely to be revised, so for now, Mr Scavenger is happy with pre-1987 Stars, pun intended.

Love your clan, don't cut the girls

The Dilemma

What if healthy conversations about contentious issues were possible and encouraged? In the Gujarati short film, The Dilemma, a Bohra couple engages in one such conversation with an invisible narrator debating the practice of female genital mutilation in their community, as they struggle with the decision pertaining to their own daughter. "But it's done to maintain hygiene," says the mother, and the narrator says, "Isn't it done to reduce sexual pleasure?" The lady, now looking sheepish, answers, "No, no, it increases it actually", and the narrator says, "No, that's the misconception people are made to believe." We liked the way the film, made by WeSpeakOut, a survivors-led organisation working to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), tries to present a controversial, sensitive subject in a balanced, dignified manner. "Through this film we speak directly to our intended audience - members of the community. We want them to know that you can love your community and still choose not to cut your girls," WeSpeakOut founder and FGM survivor Masooma Ranalvi told this diarist. "The film has organically received over 5,000 views with so many people writing in to tell us that the film resonated with them. But some have said they need a farman [permission] to watch," she added.

Celebrating the ‘sisters'

Where desi-Japanese bonds bloom

Dil garden, garden ho gaya. As India and Japan are ready to forge new bonds next year. In 2025, Yokohama City Japan, will celebrate 60 years of its sister-city relationship with Mumbai. The Consulate General of Japan in Mumbai posted on X about the Consul General YAGI Koji's visit to the Japanese Garden at the Veermata Jijabai Udyan Garden (Byculla zoo) recently. Not many know that this garden was donated by Yokohama to Mumbai back in 1985. The garden was not only conceptualized and designed, but also built by Japanese experts and workers. Superintendent of Gardens BMC, Jitendra Pardeshi said, "The water body and wooden structure are typical Japanese elements." Well looks like the Raj Kapoor lines - Mera joota hai Japani, can be extended to Mera garden hai Japani, too.

Helping street vendors, one umbrella at a time

Method Art Gallery has launched a public art project, The Umbrella Art Project. This monsoon, get ready to spot designer umbrellas on the streets of Mumbai as the art gallery has collaborated with five artists to create unique designs. For every umbrella that is sold, a street vendor will be given a big umbrella for free.

Sahil Arora

The community-driven project has been a work in progress for the last six months. "The idea came to us four years ago", says Sahil Arora, founder of Method Art Gallery. The five artists brought together for the project include Ashna Malik, Kunel Gaur, Aniruddh Mehta from Big Fat, Zahra Baldiwala from Ruining Magazines, and Sid G from Toosid. "We simply wanted to add some colour to the streets. And, street vendors too need umbrellas", says Arora about the aim of the project.

Each umbrella features a digital print on a pongee canopy, stitched onto a fibre frame. The handles have a sturdy grip and are coated with rubber. Each artist's umbrella is available in a limited stock-100 each. As the response to the project has been quite enthusiastic, pre-booking has ended. You can purchase one at methodindia at R4,750.

Prague embraces Mumbai's spoken word

Simar Singh

Spoken word artistes from Mumbai-based platform UnErase - Helly Shah, Taranjit Kaur and Simar Singh - won three awards at Prague Fringe Festival. The awards were titled The Inspiration Award and Pick of The Fringe. Speaking to this diarist over the phone from Prague, Singh said that Europe by and large is not used to the culture of oral history.

"The culture of oral history telling or spoken word is known in the US and the UK, but Europe isn't exposed much to it," says Singh. "It was first time touring for Helly, Taranjit and I. But it was not just the format of the spoken word we wanted to spread; we wanted to make sure that we represented our country well.

So it was an hour of our stories of love, growing up, family, friendship and society," he said.