10 June,2021 04:24 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Sameer Markande
A group of policemen take shelter from the incessant rainfall that brought the city to a virtual standstill despite the part unlocking of Mumbai.
During his lifetime, Bal Gangadhar Tilak was such a thorn in the flesh of the British colonists that they had dubbed him âThe Father of the Indian unrest'. No wonder that the government of the day arrested him thrice for sedition, in 1897, 1909 and 1916. A webinar this weekend will shed light on these cases, which stemmed mainly from the articles that he wrote in Kesari, the newspaper that he edited.
Did you know that Tilak once made submissions himself before the court, on his own behalf, when he couldn't find an Indian barrister to represent him? Rajan Jayakar, a Bombay High Court advocate who will present the virtual talk, added that Mohammad Ali Jinnah also represented Tilak twice. But he was up against a judge, Dinshaw D Davar, who was vehemently against Tilak. "He was acting just like a British judge," Jayakar told this diarist. Email contact.plea@gmail.com for further details and to register.
On June 8, Metro Cinema at Marine Lines turned 83. Built by one of the world's largest studios at the time, Hollywood's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Corporation, its inauguration was marked by the premier of the musical comedy Broadway Melody. The cinema is also noted for its Art Deco design, which was created by New York-based architect and noted theatre designer Thomas White Lamb, shared Atul Kumar, a trustee at Art Deco Mumbai Trust. "It was designed as a four-storey mixed-use building. The double height entrance foyer was an epitome of luxurious Art Deco aesthetics with Italian marble flooring, Burmese teak wood panelled columns, streamlined furniture and 15-foot-tall Belgian chandeliers. The cinema came to be known for the large murals in the auditorium, which were executed by students from the Sir JJ School of Art."
Bengaluru-based mixologist Rohan Matmary has won first place at the nation-wide World Class 2021 mixology event. He will go on to (virtually) represent the country at the global finals in July. Speaking about his preparations for the upcoming competition, Matmary said, "I want to change the way Indian cocktails are perceived internationally. While most come heavily laced with desi ingredients such as chaat masala, I want to combine modern techniques with indigenous ingredients such as sandalwood and turmeric to create world-class drinks." Three cheers to that.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's memoir titled Home in the World will hit bookstore shelves early next month. It chronicles his formative years in Dhaka, the village of Santiniketan where he was raised, Calcutta, where he first studied economics and Trinity College, Cambridge, to which he came at the age of 19. It also touches on key experiences that had a profound impact, including the Bengal famine of 1943 and his family members being imprisoned for their opposition to British rule.
Script House, an incubator by Soho House to support emerging talent, is inviting applications for their 2021 edition. Two candidates will get to turn their scripts into short films, with one of them eventually being announced as the overall winner. "Our goal is to help produce uplifting short films that resonate with a global audience. Our judges are all Soho House members from across the world, including Sikhya Entertainment CEO Guneet Monga [in pic]," said Jo Addy, its film and entertainment director.
