21 January,2021 06:28 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Shadab Khan
A boy does a somersault with the setting sun as the backdrop at Mahim Beach on Wednesday.
Every year, Ehsaas, a non-profit in Lucknow, organises a walkathon to raise funds to support underprivileged children. In its seventh edition, the walkathon, from January 31 to February 14, is going virtual, enabling people to join in from anywhere across the world, including the likes of celebrity chefs Ranveer Brar (in pic) and Pankaj Bhadouria. All you have to do is register, and record and submit your daily progress on their dashboard. The funds from the registration will go towards "ending hunger, transforming lives," which is the theme for 2021, shared Shachi Singh, its founder and general secretary. "With the walkathon going virtual, the crisis has turned into an opportunity. You can walk, cycle or run. We'll have challenges in between for participants, and it's a great way to shed some weight or stick to your fitness goal," she added. Log on to ehsaas.org.in/walkathon-7/ to lend them a hand.
Elysia Bangtawaensis. Pic/Prathamesh B Khedwan
Pradip Patade is a marine enthusiast who has spotted over 30 species of slugs around the coast of Mumbai over the past four years. But the one that had always been on his wishlist is called Elysia Bangtawaensis. That wish was fulfilled recently when he spotted it at the mangroves in Sewri. It's a unique species, since it looks like a leaf that has fallen from a tree, given its green colour thanks to the algae it feeds on. Patade shared that there is no written record of this species being spotted in Mumbai before. He said, "There is a similar species called Elysia Bengalensis that has been recorded here. But while the Bangtawaensis species usually congregates in large numbers, we could spot only three." Well, something's better than nothing, we say.
Call it serendipity. Back in 2019, Delhi-based musical project Antariksh had played a set at a music festival in Pune that also had heavy-metal giants Megadeth on the line-up. Then, while flying back to the National Capital, Varun Rajput (left) of Antariksh bumped into Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman (extreme left), a living legend, at the airport.
"All I could think of at that point was how we could get Marty to play on a song with us," Rajput shared. That dream has finally come true because Friedman has lent guitar parts for Quest, a new song by Antariksh. Talk about a happy coincidence.
One of the many reasons why fairy tales are so popular is because the manner in which they are retold keeps evolving with time. And this weekend, the CSMVS Children's Museum and the Tram Arts Trust (TAT) are collaborating to present a theatre festival where classic stories will be retold with object theatre and object puppetry. The event features three live performances by three object artistes, and Choiti Ghosh of TAT shared, "The event is free, and the artistes are those who have been mentored by us."
The tap station at Bandra
This paper has been consistently tracking the boom in the growler market in Mumbai, right from the time that beer distributors had been petitioning the state government to allow sales of the takeaway craft beer bottles to tide over the losses faced during the lockdown. Growlers have now become de rigueur in the city, with brands like Effingut even launching tap stations. Now, Drifters Breweries has launched its own tap station in Bandra, which serves Belgian wit, German lager and other varieties of the beverage. There's also a food menu with dishes including Harissa hummus and nachos, and Nayan Shah, managing director of Drifters Breweries, said, "We feel that there's a strong demand among our customers to have a sit-down place, where they can drink our beers along with some good food."
