Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Pic/Atul Kamble

Shields up

Two female police constables use their umbrellas to shield themselves from the rain at Marine Drive

Curtis in da club

50 Cent performing on stage. Pic courtesy/Instagram

Nearly two decades since he broke out with In da club, rapper 50 Cents will arrive on Mumbai's coastal shores this year. The Queens-based hip-hop star will perform at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on November 25 as part of the ongoing The Final Lap Tour. It is the only India stop on his world tour that begins on July 21. "Namaste India, it's your boy 50. I got crazy news for you. I am coming to Mumbai, India in November. It's going down," said the rapper as he shared the announcement on his social media. This is not his first tryst with the Maximum City though. In 2007, the musician arrived to perform for a short one-day stopover in Bandra. For millennials in the city though, 50 Cent is the latest star performer to arrive this year after Backstreet Boys in May. While details are awaited, fans have already begun to sign up for the pre-registration of the tickets.

Snail ‘n' hearty at the park

(Left) A snail catches the attention of walkers; (right) a frog installation by the tree at Shivaji Park

It is raining cats and dogs and snails and frogs, too. That is the message at the Shivaji Park selfie-point festooned with umbrellas. While all eyes are drawn skywards to the colourful ‘chaatas' that beckon, walkers should keep an eye on the ground levels too. There are sculptures of snails and frogs with mushrooms, nestling against the massive trees just outside the Shivaji Park Open Gym. All of this goes very well with the monsoon theme. We wonder if the message is: walk at snail's pace, and sing in the rain (what do they say about singing in the shower?) even if you deprecatingly think to yourself: croon less, croak more. Monsoon madness: it gets to you in Mumbai.

A call to action on social media

The life of a writer is never easy. Ask poet and author Yogesh Maitreya (below) who has put out an appeal to readers asking them to pre-book his next work, Thoughts on Self as Caste and Deception, a reflection of the self as a construction of caste. While Maitreya planned to print 1,000 copies in the first print run, the project has run into funding trouble. He remarked, "In recent times, inflation has obstructed many things. For a Dalit publisher without any capital in the publishing industry in the English language, functioning across such circumstances has never been easy." About the long-term impact of his endeavour, Maitreya shared, "The viability of getting published without much struggle will encourage Dalit writers to write more. The absence of platforms and publishing avenues discourages them from writing."

Green glory for Navi Mumbai

The Vashi-based not-for-profit venture, NatConnect will be presented with the gold and bronze awards at the upcoming Globee Golden Bridge Awards to be held in the United States later this year. Director BN Kumar shared, "We received a bronze award for our campaign to save Parsik Hill. But the initiative to help the mangrove forests in Navi Mumbai (left) grow again after they were damaged by the construction work in the past four to five years was honoured with a gold award."

Dali-ance with greatness

(Left) Sneha Gautam (right) Horse Saddled with Time by Salvador Dali. Pics courtesy/AstaGuru Auction House

The city will witness a rare collection of modern masters come July 20. Fort-based Astaguru auction house's next presentation, International Iconic: Masterpieces & Editions, will bring together works by artists such as Rene Magnritte, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons among others. "The curation aims to present a comprehensive perspective on significant periods and movements in modern art. For instance, we included a piece by Pierre Auguste Renoir, as well as two more iconic French artists - Henri Matisse and Bernard Buffet," shared Sneha Gautam, a senior representative. The highlight would be the late 1980s Horse Saddled with Time by surrealist Salvador Dali. A bronze piece, the sculpture captures Dali's recurrent motifs of time and horses. "The motif of the melted clock, embodying the passage of time, is synonymous with Dalí's 1931 painting, The Persistence of Memory, considered as one of the most important works in the history of surrealism," she remarked.