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Women devotees pray in the holy waters while ducks soak in the February sun at Banganga Tank
My childhood with Betty Davis
Betty Davis. Pic/Getty Images
There was Bette Davis, and then there was Betty Davis. The former was an American actor who passed away in 1989, and the latter was a singer from the same country who passed away only last week. Davis, the singer, who is often described as the Queen of Funk, had been suffering from cancer, and died at her home in Pennsylvania aged 77, earlier this month.
Sherise D’souza
She represented a time that’s considered the golden era of funk and jazz music, being briefly married to celebrated trumpeter Miles Davis. Mumbai musician Sherise D’souza said that she was saddened to hear of the passing. “When I was younger, my mum used to listen to her music. For us, Betty was right up there with musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald, and her music brings back sweet memories from my own childhood,” D’souza reminisced.
Fostering hope for Mumbai’s felines
In a bid to encourage re-homing for the several stray cats that are rescued and treated by them, Sib’s Catty Tales, an Andheri-based animal welfare organisation, is offering cat lovers the chance to foster instead of adopting these felines. “Mumbai has traditionally been a dog-loving city, which makes it difficult for these cats to find homes. We’re offering to cover the costs for food, litter and vet visits — all we ask is that the foster parents net their windows to keep the cats from escaping,” explained Shibani Chavan (inset), its founder.
While foster-fails, where the fostered cats are eventually adopted by their new families are a best-case scenario, fostering in itself does benefit both the cat and the organisation in various ways. “Fostering frees up a spot so rescuers can divert their attention to another rescue that is really sick and needs undivided time. The foster cat receives the time and socialisation needed to be adoption-ready,” Chavan shared. To sign up as a foster parent, you can log on to
@sibscattytales on Instagram or text them at 9136127487.
Of weddings and the pandemic
Getting married has never been as complicated as it was during the pandemic, as WedMeGood, a wedding planning website and app found in a recently conducted survey. As per their data polled from 3,000 users, 82 per cent went ahead with and 18 per cent postponed their weddings in 2021. Only 42 per cent of couples mentioned they had under 200 guests at their wedding, and 32 per cent reported that they spent less on their wedding than planned. “We are continuing to see guest counts shrinking; even without curbs, people are opting for smaller weddings of 100 to 200 people,” observed Mehak Sagar, the platform’s co-founder.
AI designs on Indian fashion
The recently launched VisioNxt-Trend Insight & Forecasting Lab is India’s first ever Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Emotional Intelligence (EI)-enabled fashion trend insights and forecasting initiative. The NIFT project, which has been funded by the Ministry of Textiles, aims to identify, map, and analyse geo-specific trends that address the plurality of the nation. The focused insights will help the domestic fashion industry, including retail and handloom players, to create more desirable products.
Dreams for the city of dreams
The third session of Mumbai Charcha, which is a conversation with prominent city-dwellers about their dreams for the city, witnessed Rahul Kadri, partner and principal architect, IMK Architects, share his ideas for the city. “In the case of Mumbai, participatory budgeting can be achieved through a bottom-up system where municipal budget-making is decentralised to the neighbourhood level: where citizens are directly involved through all stages of the planning process,” Kadri told this diarist.
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