The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
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Don't shoot
Producer Ekta Kapoor signals 'no photographs' to the mid-day photographer at a temple at Shivaji Park yesterday.
Anushka bats for sanitation
After Vidya Balan, who has been the national brand ambassador for sanitation, Anushka Sharma seems to have taken up the cudgels to keep India swachh. The actress has recently shot a campaign video, called Darwaza Band, against open defecation, where she urges fellow Indians to drop the unhealthy habit. In her usual perky avatar, she is seen telling women to exhort the men in their families to get a toilet built, as women are the worst-affected, for both health and safety reasons. The campaign, which was launched yesterday, is supported by the World Bank and will also feature Amitabh Bachchan. Here's to more famous faces adding heft to such causes.
The author meeting Mother Teresa. Pic Courtesy/Shared Tables
Food stories, from Poona to LA
Cookbooks can be quite the page-turner, especially with the thought that goes into piecing these together. Barely had we finished thumbing through Pankaj Bhadouria's The Secret's in the Spiced Mix, that we discovered Kaumudi Marathe's Shared Tables. The journalist and chef is better known for her stellar The Essential Marathi Cookbook. Her latest book reads like a memoir and features what she called 'aromatic souvenirs' of her life, from her roots in the Konkanastha and Saraswat clans to setting up a cooking school, restaurant and catering company in LA. We personally love the sepia-tinted photos, including one of her meeting Mother, now Saint Teresa. There are a few recipes too, reflecting different stages of her life. One cool regional culinary find, this.
A total eclipse of the heat
The city is reeling under some high temperatures and while everyone around is melting into puddles, one resident decided to have some fun. Natasha Vakil, better known for her parodies of English tracks using her own lyrics under the stage name, Gangsta Gudiya, has written a new summer song. It is dedicated to her AC and is set to the tune of Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. Vakil's lyrics feature gems about giving all her cash to Reliance Electricity, getting sweaty and being terrified of what the heat is doing to her. It was the chorus that has us chuckling. 'And I need you on tonight, seems like I need you more than ever, and if I don't eat at all this month, then I could escape this horrible weather... Once upon a time I was dying of warmth, but now there's only lovely cool breeze, there's nothing to be said, total dismiss of the heat.' We can't wait for this video.
A still from Ralang Road
Crystal Globe calling for indie flick
We love it when indie films, often with zero support and funding, and with little or no celeb quotient, make it big. The latest is a film, Ralang Road, by Mumbai-based production company HumanTrail Pictures, which consists of alumni from Film and Television Institute of India. The Nepali-Hindi feature film directed by Karma Takapa will represent India at the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in Czech Republic to be held from June 30 to July 8. It has also been nominated the 'Crystal Globe' award. Ralang Road is the story of a day in a small hill town, where a series of coincidences related to a mysterious robbery brings four people together. The neo-Noir film was shot in Rabong town in Sikkim and looks at cultural immigration and lifestyles in a social setup. The majority of the cast comprises locals, with no prior acting experience.
Ankit and Anshul Agarwal at the launch. Pic/Sameer Markande
Dhoni's prayer for success
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been roped in as the brand ambassador for Indore-based Mysore Deep Perfumery House's Zed Black agarbatti range. The cricketer was quoted as saying, “Prayers have always given me inner strength and confidence. I will be happy if I can infuse the value of prayer in the minds of Indian youth for the success of our country”. Well said, Mahi.
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