The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Payal Kapadia
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Not without my Kanta bai
We hear that author Payal Kapadia has found inspiration from the city's Kanta and Laxmi bais for her new novel.
The soon-to-release title, Maidless in Mumbai (Bloomsbury India), will take us through the journey of a mum, who wants only thing - a perfect maid to live happily-forever-after with. It's the quest for a hands-on maid for her two kids that led Payal to the plot of her new book.
"I realised that once you have kids, the need for a maid becomes an immediate necessity," she says, adding, "If you had to choose between the maid and your husband, it's going to be a tough choice." We can't wait to find out what Payal has to say about the maid-memsahib relationship. Truth be told, we may have to pick out help over husband.
Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
Saying it with gusto
Actress Kajol makes an animated point when she arrives at a kids event in Bandra on Saturday.
Bold on ramp, yet again
After her brave ramp act at the New York Fashion Week last year, acid attack survivor Reshma Banoo Qureshi is poised to do a repeat. The audience gathered at the Lokhandwala Gardens will see Qureshi as showstopper at the Walk for a Cause fashion show this evening.
Reshma Banoo Qureshi
She'll be wearing a long gown teamed with a long cape, both embellished with zardozi work on net, and laden with Swarovski crystals, designed by Richa Ranavat. Joining Qureshi are 10 acid-attack survivors from around the country, and among them is 23-year-old survivor Shabbo Shaikh.
Ranavat tells us she's prepping Shaikh for the Asiana Bridal Fashion Week, to be held in London. After Qureshi, it's now Shaikh who is poised to make her inter-national fashion debut.
A rose for every rogue
The city's clean-up marshals will soon have some interesting company. In an effort to stop Mumbaikars from littering outside railway stations, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has tied up with a kids' TV channel to launch a social campaign called Don't Be a Champu, Be The Change.
As part of the cleanliness drive, the cartoon characters will be seen using Gandhigiri, giving away roses to the crowd and Don't be a Champu badges to those who are caught littering. The campaign will be launched at CST, Churchgate, Bandra and Andheri.
Kiran Dighaonkar
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Assistant Commissioner, Kiran Dighaonkar, says he is happy with the initiative. "As part of the Swachh Bharat campaign, we are already making efforts to make people understand the importance of cleanliness and hygiene. This could be an interesting way to bring behavioural change."
A cricket legend by accident
Today, the cricket world commemorates the birth anniversary of iconic cricket writer Sir Neville Cardus. He was born in 1889, passed away 42 years ago at 85, but he lives on through his several books. Pundits reckon no one represents splendid cricket (and music) literature better than Cardus.
Sir Neville Cardus
Those who think the world of Australians Jack Fingleton and Ray Robinson may disagree, but Cardus is Cardus. We found an interesting passage in the Struggle chapter of his 1947 book, Autobiography. He dwelled on being interviewed for the job of a writer at the Manchester Guardian in 1917.
One of the first questions he was asked by his boss Haslam Mills was, "Have you any private life?" Cardus was taken aback and confused, so Mills got more specific: "What I mean is, are you married, or engaged to be married?" When the 28-year-old Cardus told Mills he wasn't, the response from the other end of the table was, "Good. It is advisable when one joins the staff of the Manchester Guardian to have no private life for at least six months."
Cardus got the job, but covered his first cricket match two years later. He suffered a breakdown in 1919 and when he returned to work, his editor WP Crozier felt he would recuperate better by watching some cricket at Old Trafford where Lancashire took on Derbyshire. Cardus wrote on that game and the readers of Manchester Guardian never had that wish-I-were-here feeling for matches they could not be present at.
A charming crooner called Dot.
We discovered musician Aditi Saigal recently thanks to Facebook recently, when musicians from Vishal Dadlani to Donn Bhatt shared a link to her song, Everyone Dances to Techno.
Aditi Saigal
And we fell for the talented young woman's songwriting skills, who goes by the name Dot. on YouTube. She sits in front of a piano and sings the captivating number in a nonchalant yet utterly charming way. And the lyrics will just make you sigh, "I gave love a chance, but I'm sick of romance, I just want to dance."
Talent runs in her blood. She is daughter to late Amit Saigal, who founded one of India's most influential music magazines, Rock Street Journal. If this is just a glimpse of her talent, we are waiting for more.
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