Mumbai Diary: Friday frolics

LOL online
Since there are reality shows and talent hunts on TV for just about anything these days, we weren't surprised when he heard of this latest addition.

There will now be a Comedy Hunt on YouTube, which will be a digital search for budding talent. This will be backed by YouTube's very own comic sensations in India, including All India Bakchod, Kanan Gill, Jose, SnG Comedy, East India Comedy, Abish Mathew, Aditi Mittal and Shudh Desi Endings, who will shortlist top participants.

They will also work with them to help sharpen their skills before they're put through seven weeks of challenge rounds. The three-month-long contest kicked off on July 6, and will end on July 26. Keen to shine in the online universe?

Beti goes to Wimbledon
When Anu Ranjan the president of Indian Television Academy (ITA) and founder of Beti, an NGO that works toward helping acid-attack victims, child abuse and female foeticide received an invitation to watch the 2015 Wimbledon Ladies Championships Final, "it was a dream-come-true moment", she admitted to this diarist.

Global branding consultancy Honour invited her to watch the final, slated for tomorrow. Her hosts, Gerrie Smith, managing director of the organisation, along with business director Amjad Aly, came across Ranjan's charity work and short-listed her to fly her down a day prior, along with women from 14 countries, to share an evening of interaction today. "I hope to share my experience about our work at Beti," she added. Ranjan will join dignitaries like the Maharani of Baroda.

Sassy in Singapore
We're thrilled to hear that city eatery, Sassy Spoon's chef-owner Irfan Pabaney is the only chef from Mumbai, and one of the three from India who will be on the plane to Singapore to be a part of gourmet festival, SUVAI (Tamil: taste), organised by the Indian Chefs and Culinary Association (ICCA), Singapore, in association with the Singapore Tourism Board.

Irfan Pabaney will whip it up in Singapore

The idea of this four-day event that kick starts on July 30 is to inspire more interest in the local Indian culinary scene in Singapore. Chef Pabaney plans to showcase a few of Sassy Spoon's signature dishes including Crispy Chicken Tenders with Curry Leaf, Grilled Chicken dressed with Fresh Jalapeno, Mint, Coriander and Lime, and the Mango and Malibu Tiramisu.

The hitch pitch
With the blaze of publicity about Shahid Kapur's wedding, one is tempted to turn the clock back to those days when marriages and affairs (not in any particular order) in Bollywood were kept under wraps. It formed a part of what big mystery journalists needed to unravel: are-they-aren't-they (together or not)?.

Stars when asked about their liaisons would give the stock reply: "Oh! we're just good friends." Another reply, usually a woman actor simpering coyly, "When I get married, you will be the first to know." Marriages were shrouded in secrecy, with several stars claiming to be single, years after they were hitched.

This held true, especially for women, who were told that their Bollywood stock quotient would fall immediately. People whispered about so ‘n' so being already married at parties when Bollywood buzz did the rounds. All this, at a time when film mags called Dharmendra, ‘Garam-Dharam', Sridevi was ‘Thunder Thighs' and a million such interesting epithets were coined.

Today, in an age of much more scrutiny, shaadi no longer means barbaadi at the box office and stars actually ‘pretend' to have affairs and become coo-some twosomes, prior to their movies being released. It's Bollywood where nothing is what it is made out to be.

Move it like Menezes
Heard of the Menezes Method? No, we're not talking about our neighbours, Mr and Mrs Menezes, who whip up a mean, spicy Goan fish curry.

This latest fitness fad to hit town, is a method of pilates created by Allen Menezes, founder of Pilates Institute of Australasia; hence the name. Going beyond mats and medicine balls, this method involves using exercise equipment called Pilates Reformer, a supposedly effective way of increasing the intensity of your workout and building up strength.

And, if you're keen to give it a shot, drop by CORE, a new fitness studio at Santacruz (W) launched by sports nutritionist and Pilates mentor, Krushmi Chheda.