The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
The great Indian rope trick
If you cannot go to the adventure site, the adventure site will come to you. That is what this diarist learnt over the weekend, when we witnessed young men and women rappelling down a five-storied building in Prabhadevi.
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A trekkers group was conducting the activity, and we noticed plenty of enthusiasm from participants as well as the crowd that had gathered in the building compound taking pictures. It was interesting to see the city's infrastructure being put to use for adventure sport, a bit like parkour.
With all safety measures in place, there may be something to making the best of your immediate environment in order to promote adventure sport. The great outdoors may not always have to be the hills, lawns, trees and blue skies, after all.
Pic/Shadab Khan
Smitten, are we?
Industrialist Yash Birla (centre) and fitness expert Mickey Mehta seem pleased to meet actor Saiyami Kher at a holistic centre launch last night.
Can peace ever reign in South Asia?
Did you know that in 1985, a legislation was made in the US, which restricted financial and military aid to Pakistan if the US President did not annually certify that Pakistan was not building towards nuclear arms? Senator Larry Pressler, who championed the Pressler Amendment, was in Mumbai yesterday to discuss the nations and neighbours of South Asia from a historic and prospective viewpoint.
The talk, An American Senator's Quest for Disarmament, organised by Asia Society India Centre at CSMVS, featured Pressler in conversation with founding editor of The Wire, Sidharth Bhatia. "We did not get any help from Pakistan on Afghanistan because they are as much a terrorist state as Afghanistan.
They kept Osama Bin Laden and denied it," said Pressler at the event, adding that he was happy the new (Trump) administration is not treating India and Pakistan equally and has decided to keep closer ties with India. The engrossing discussion was attended by Anil Dharker, Pheroza Godrej, Sri Lankan consul general Saroja Sirisena and Milind Deora among others.
India's mammoth problem
If you've ever been to a circus, chances are that you've seen elephants dressed in ludicrous clothes doing even more ludicrous things like chucking balls into the audience. But did you spare a thought for the cruelty that these animals are often subjected to in captivity? If not, Wildlife SOS is an organisation that aims to prick your conscience.
The co-founders, Kartick Satyanarayan and Geeta Seshamani (in pic), will recount their experience of rehabilitating 20 jumbos at an event today, where fashion entrepreneur Sunil Jhangiani, and designer Krsnaa Mehta will be hosting them.
Satyanarayan informs, "The Asian elephant is India's heritage animal, but there are merely 25,000-27,000 of them in the country currently," revealing a statistic that should send alarm bells ringing.
Gul's advice to the youth
Several famous faces from the city were Delhi bound last weekend. Not for a big fat wedding but for the annual Sri Ram College of Commerce Youth Conference, a student initiative to bring together bright minds from different fields including journalism, music, corporate world, social activists, actors and more.
One of the youngest names on the list of speakers was Mumbai-based Aranya Johar, whose spoken word performance titled A Brown Girl's Guide to Beauty became hugely popular. "There's a fine line between equality and feminism. Feminism is not just for women. Even men promote feminism and it's heartening to see that!" said Johar at the event.
"People who build boundaries reach nowhere, people who build bridges cross rivers," said actor Gul Panag, based on her experience of trying everything from modelling to biking. Another Bollywood personality at the event was singer Mohit Chauhan, who spoke and sang about his musical journey.
Introducing Rocky and Mayur
Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma are exploring the sandy highways of Rajasthan on their latest culinary journey, and looks like they have taken a filmi detour. The foodie duo was spotted in Bikaner on the set of an upcoming film by Tigmanshu Dhulia, and they didn't just drop by to meet the filmmaker or the cast - they became a part of the cast.
Singh and Mayur, we hear, are doing a cameo in the film that revolves around a gangster, with Sanjay Dutt playing the lead. Their usual selves, the two kept everyone on the set - including Dhulia and cast members Kabir Bedi (in pic) and Nafisa Ali Sodhi - thoroughly entertained. This would be an interesting Bollywood debut.
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