The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Satej Shinde
We are all in it together
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A group of friends get clicked outside a mall in Malad on the last day of the year.
Theatre meets literature
Theatre icon Lillete Dubey has secured the rights to stage five stories from her friend, bestselling author Shobhaa De's book Lockdown Liaisons (Simon & Schuster). "Ira and I did a performative reading for a story from the book last year [which was reported on this page]. At that time, I told Shobhaa that I would love to adapt some of these stories to the stage. We acquired rights for five of them and will be presenting them as monologues, a format that our theatre company hasn't explored with short stories. While I will be performing one of them, Ira and Joy [Sengupta] will perform two each."
The stories, Dubey adds, will have a universal appeal for being poignant documentation of a historic time of our lives with characters that belong to different socio-economic backgrounds and age groups. This is an interesting development because even though her theatre company had performed short stories in the past, they have never been performed in the monologue format. For over a year, Harper Collins had been coaxing her to write a book, and she has finally signed a three-book deal. She will be starting off with a memoir that weaves the stories of her personal life, and her work in the world of theatre.
Revolutionary read
Dr Usha Thakkar, president of Gamdevi's Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya, is readying to launch a book this year on a subject and person very close to her heart - freedom fighter Dr Usha Mehta. Titled Congress Radio (Penguin Random House India), the book is an account of how the underground radio was conceived, developed and implemented under the backdrop of the Quit India Movement in 1942, and the integral role Mehta played.
About what prompted her to write the title, Thakkar (inset) told this diarist, "It is one of the glorious chapters of our freedom struggle and not much has been written about it. Mehta was my professor, and she would often talk about it. So, I owe it to her to write about this. It would also be so nice for young people to know about this chapter."
Tech's going to be the way in 2021
The past year has been one of many learnings, and restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani is gearing up to implement the lessons to meet the needs of the post-pandemic world. The CEO and MD of Impresario Handmade Restaurants told this diarist that in 2021, he is throwing his weight behind technology. "A large degree of our focus will be on technology and digital transformation of restaurants. We'll try to see how technology can ease human interaction," he said, revealing that they will attempt to build an online food court where offerings from all their brands will be available under a single roof. While cloud kitchen concepts are also on the cards, Amlani wants to tap into the growing need for alternatives to work from home (WFH). "More and more companies are allowing people to operate out of their homes, but not everybody's home offers efficient WFH conditions. We'll be concentrating on building up work-from-Social to offer such professionals a safe option," he revealed. We wish him luck.
Take a queue from this vada pav stall
Should old edibles be forgotten, and never be brought to mind? Not even for the sake of Auld Lang Syne… or the outbreak? Street food favourite Kirti College vada pav, is still a hot number during the pandemic. This diarist witnessed an orderly queue at the outpost near Shivaji Park in Dadar, with loyal patrons taking away parcels of the snack that packs a crunch and punch with your chair after lunch. Signage at the stall also stated that no eating is allowed near the venue. Great discipline, which we would like to see emulated everywhere, now that Mumbai's street food scene is back to buzzing.
Food for thought
A food delivery app has just revealed the results of an internal study it conducted about consumer trends, and there are some interesting revelations. Mumbaikars, for instance, can take a bow for their generosity. They tipped the app's delivery partners a total of '4.6 crores, the highest amount compared to other Indian cities. People in the city also have a large appetite for gulab jamun, since that was the most popular sweet that customers ordered for. Among savoury dishes, biryani again topped the list, with 22 portions being ordered every minute across India.
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