The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Chew on this!
This particular title will lead to smiles for those who have been looking for interesting back stories behind the great Indian food diaspora.
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Something to Chew On (Kalpavriksh) looks at the history, variety, production, cultural and environmental aspects of food in India. Written by Sujatha Padmanabhan, Tanya Majumdar, Shibha Desor and Sharmila Dey, it includes over 80 cartoons by Sunday mid-day cartoonist Rohan Chakravarty.
It’s refreshing to see new Indian publishers jump into the field, and even better, take risks in untapped areas of interest. We’ll keep you posted.
Mumbai’s Cama Building makes it to UNESCO award list
The news should bring cheer to the heritage brigade in the country, and Mumbai in particular. Yesterday, the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation announced 13 winning projects from six countries.
Cama Building bagged the honour in the Award of Merit category of UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage. Pic/Vikas Dilawari
India bagged an impressive four awards, with projects at Doon School (Dehradun), Mahidpur Fort, (Madhya Pradesh), St Olav’s Church (West Bengal) and Cama building (Mumbai) making it to the list. Conservation architect Vikas Dilawari’s project won an Award of Merit for repairs and restoration of the site in Mumbai Central.
Cama building is the first of 24 structures within the century-old Murzban Colony that was rescued from a state of serious deterioration. The project employed a physically and culturally sensitive approach, salvaging original fabric and retaining the building’s original architectural character.
Financed by the Garib Zarathostiona Rehthan Fund without cost to the long-time tenants, it is a fantastic model of preserving the city’s social fabric with affordable housing built for ordinary citizens. Speaking about the honour, Dilawari said, “It is always a proud moment to see international recognition and raises hope of conservation can work in the world of redevelopment locally. The clients and great team work made it possible.” May Mumbai witness many more such accolades.
Sting in sync
Iconic British singer-songwriter Sting announced that his new album, 57th and 9th, will release on November 11. It is his first Rock/Pop project after a decade. The album, available for pre-order, embodies a wide range of the legend’s songwriting styles and sounds.
He collaborated with old friends Dominic Miller (guitar) and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) on the tunes. Even Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses) contributed to a few tracks. The single, I Can’t Stop Thinking About You reminded this diarist of Message In A Bottle — the classic from his yesteryear group The Police.
The title of the album is taken from the Manhattan street corner that Sting crossed every day while walking to the studio. “It happened very quickly, very spontaneously. My idea always is to surprise myself and the people I’m working with — and, hopefully, the listeners,” he said in a press release.
Phone a friend, paranjoy?
Pic/Atul Kamble
Kumar Ketkar (second, left) gestures to Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (right) with his smartphone as fellow senior journalist Smruti Koppikar and author Ajit Pillai are in splits at the book release of Pillai’s Junkyard Journey at the Mumbai Press Club last evening.
The big, fat cycle ride
As our city roads and air chokes a little more each day with more cars and pollution, encouraging cycling and public transport seems the best immediate solution. Although occasionally, citizens have shown signs of hope with cycling picking up in the last few years.
To make things more interesting, a big fat contest always helps. So we are hoping that the 180-km-long cycling extravaganza from Thane to Vaitarna (It’s called Veloraid 2016 and is India’s longest team cycling event), will bring cheer to cycle enthusiasts. This team cycling event, in its fourth edition, will witness over 180 cyclists from India and abroad.
Jose George, Veloraid co-organiser and owner of Haybren Adventures, while the event said, “Our mission is to increase the number of serious cyclists in the region and offer a professional platform for amateur cyclists to participate in a race that has all the elements of a professional team cycling event”. Thumbs up for that.
The Rs 2 devotion
This festive season, welcome the elephant god with a few original and rare Ganesh aartis and bhajans sung by Lata Mangeskar, Asha Bhosle and Mohammed. Rafi. All you need to do is pay Rs 2 (per download) and get access to Ganpati aartis, Shiv mantras, Ram vandana, Hanuman chalisa, stotrams, aartis, and other devotional content.
This is being available by Saregama India, who claims to have one of the largest collections of devotional music on their website. This includes music from Suresh Wadkar, Anup Jalota, Lata Mangeshkar, Jagjit Singh among other names. The songs are available as mp3 files and there’s no limit to the number of downloads. Talk about Bhakti!
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