The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
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A fitting literary tribute
For the lady who ignited love for the written word in generations of students, what could be a more fitting tribute than an annual literature quiz? The Bombay Quiz Club, a city-based platform for quizmasters and quiz enthusiasts, has launched The Eunice De Souza Memorial Literature Quiz. Its inaugural edition will be held on October 28, with three teams battling it out.
"The quiz is in honour of a great doyen of literary world who opened up different ways of appreciating literature to many of us," said Anannya Deb, whom De Souza taught in St Xavier's College. Deb, along with Sumant Srivathsan and Vibhendu Tewari, will play quizmasters for the event.
Pic/Satej Shinde
Sing along, baby
Who says mommies-to-be play it safe? Sunidhi Chauhan, in the news recently for expecting her first child, delivers a power-packed number at a concert held on Saturday.
The stairway to heaven
It is unfortunate when a person feels compelled to take his own life because of internal conflicts that saddle his being. What makes it even sadder is if the person is young and undeniably talented. That's what happened in the case of Karan Joseph, a Mumbai-based keyboard virtuoso who allegedly committed suicide on Saturday morning.
It breaks our heart to think of the struggles that he must have been hiding behind the smile that never seemed to leave his face. But his loss teaches us this - if you ever get a hint that someone is battling any form of mental agony, reach out and show him or her that you genuinely care.
Sadly, it is too late for that in Karan's case. But he used to play music at a church for many years while living in the US. So assuming that heaven does exist, we imagine him banging away at the keyboard there in front of a divine audience.
Shutting down humanity
'...Ultimately I realised that you guys are not worth a bullet in my f****** head,' and with these words, the anonymous male voice behind the popular satirical Facebook page, Human of Hindutva, called it quits. For five months, the page has called out violence and moral policing associated with the right wing in India. The decision arguably comes in the wake of senior Bengaluru journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder. Anonymity too, it seems, is no longer safe.
London canvas
The UK knows Owais Husain more as a filmmaker, where he debuted his documentary, Letters to My Son About My Father, about his father and legendary artist MF Husain, at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
But this Thursday, Husain, who works in film, photography, painting, sculpture, installation and poetry, is all set to reveal his artistic side to London where he will exhibit after almost a decade. The 50-year-old will be presenting a solo booth at the START Art Fair, at the Saatchi Gallery, for which he has produced a new series of works on paper.
"We live in an interesting time when the world is shrinking in so many ways in terms of communication and access to information," Husain said. "As an artist, I think it is most exciting to be living in these times because the role of an artist is to find relevance and create maps of relevance and of contexts of his or her time."
Size zero, what's that?
At 18, when Nisha Gupta was left paralysed waist down, she pushed herself to learn swimming and now, plays basketball as part of India's para wheelchair basketball team.
Gupta is among 46 women athletes and fitness enthusiasts, who are part of the two-minute anthem, Fit Is Not A Body Type, produced by Supari Studios. Uploaded last week on the YouTube channel, Vitamin Stree, the video shuns the perfect body stereotype, and celebrates women, who follow an active lifestyle, irrespective of age or body size.
The visuals are a collage of 14 activities that they perform -from home chef Dolly Singh practising yoga to coach Urmi Kothari trying kinetic exercises and 63-year-old ultramarathoner Pervin Batliwala going on a run. Pulsating music and poignant lyrics by artistes Su Real and Tanya Nambiar (also the vocalist), drive home the point, 'Don't believe the hype, fit is not a body type'.