Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

Gone with the wind

A man struggles to hold on to his umbrella amidst heavy rains and wind near Reay Road Station.

There's a spider on the wall

Raj Pathare and Dhiraj Singh

Two friends went for a movie and left the theatre inspired. No new story there, but the city does get two new graffiti artworks at Ulwe, Navi Mumbai, from the latest Spider-Man movie done by the duo - graffiti artists Dhiraj Singh who goes by dKrypt, and Raj Pathare, known as Mooz. "Not many people know about the Indian Spider-Man, so it was amazing to see it on the big screen," Mooz shared. "I saw the movie a couple of times, and loved the style, animation and art [which inspired the graffiti]. We created the two graffiti works with complementing colours, and I fused Devanagari with the [Roman] script," dKrypt told
this diarist.

The graffiti artworks at Ulwe

The last bite

The Ballard Estate outlet was closed in February 2023; (inset) Carl Rebello

Eight years ago, when the city had a handful of home-grown burger joints, Howra Burger grew into a famous haunt that served burgers we only saw on American sitcoms. Their first outlet opened in November 2014 at Ballard Estate, and soon they spread to Bandra, Malad, Kharghar, Powai, Thane and Pune. "We were serving different dishes but our customers craved for our burgers," recalled co-founder chef Carl Rebello. While most of the outlets closed during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the last outlet in Bandra closed a few days ago. "We'll return by the year's end with a new concept for Howra that caters to changing preferences and the F&B landscape," he shared.

A Deewar twist to parking woes

Posters on Ridge Road in April where locals asked authorities to allow parking (right)

This dialogue is so iconic that you do not have to be a film fan to remember it. The lines in the movie Deewar ‘Mere paas maa hai' (Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor) continue to be repeated and in fact, are the subject of a million memes and jokes. Now, this has been used humorously on a SoBo chat group, which has been requesting authorities to allow them to park on the VIP road. Residents had been parking on the road outside their buildings for decades but since April this year, this has been disallowed. They had protested earlier with posters that read: ‘Stop harassment: Allow parking on Ridge Road', etc. Residents may have lost the usual parking spots but they still retain a sense of humour. A WhatsApp group dedicated to this issue had a takeoff on the famous Deewar dialogue: In this particular tweak focussed on the parking problem, Bachchan asks Kapoor: "Mere paas Ferrari hai, Lamborghini hai, Mercedes hai... tumhare paas kya hai?" to which Shashi Kapoor answers: "Mere pass parking hai." In these days of road rage and parking wars on our roads, life is so much better when we make light rather than fight.

It's a five-day life

Now here's a novel idea. You can start a petition for a five-day work week citing Bandra-based Art and Charlie as an example. They announced that they will be open from Wednesday, not Tuesday, till Sunday for their team's well-being. "Through my work as a consultant in people management working with [multinational companies], I learned that much of the success depends on the culture and employees. You can't quantify it, but lifestyle choices are important, and you need space to innovate. After a year, it made sense to take Tuesdays off," gallerist Ayesha Parikh shared.

Berlin calling

Dr Zasha Colah. Pic Courtesy/M. Ben Hamouda

On the art front, the Indian curator Dr Zasha Colah has been selected as the curator of the 13th edition of the Berlin Biennale in 2025. A curator and writer, she was based in Mumbai till 2017. "I feel a quiet joy; and am now rolling up my sleeves!" she told this diarist. Reflecting on what this means for the country, "To paraphrase the artist Ravi Agarwal: we, in India, have a lot to say, not just about India in a representative way, but to thoughtfully reflect on the whole of the world from our positionality," she signed off.