The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Satej Shinde
Water for Elephants
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A worker cleans the replica of Sanchi Gate at Chaitya Bhoomi in Dadar ahead of Dr BR Ambedkar’s death anniversary on December 6
Annus funny-bilis
A panel from the illustrated calendar. Pic Courtesy/Manjul
Well, they may talk of everything going digital, but some of us prefer old-school. Next week, this newspaper’s trusted mirror to our world, cartoonist Manjul, will release the fifth edition of his calendar. Featuring illustrations that highlight key events of the year, the calendar is the “nostalgia of a dinosaur for print,” shared Manjul.
“This was an important year in terms of elections in India and the USA, and they form the key subject. The bigger challenge was picking 50 of the 1,000 cartoons I drew,” he told us. The works will be available on manjultoons.com
All we imagine as Mumbai
Payal Kapadia in a moment from the walk. Pic Courtesy/X
Her film, All We Imagine As Light, might be creating a buzz globally, but filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s love for the city’s forgotten corners must also be appreciated. Last weekend, the filmmaker stepped out with Eshan Sharma of Karwaan Heritage for a walk centred on her film; the subject was Parel and Girgaon’s shift from a mill-centric, working-class neighbourhood to an upmarket destination. “She [Kapadia] lived here, and shared an anecdote of how people would wake up with the mill siren in the morning. Remarking on how Lower Parel was morphing into Upper Worli, leaving the former residents and mill workers behind, she spoke about the plot of her film where Chhaya Kadam (who plays the widow) struggles to retain her late husband’s kholi while former mill owners want to profit on the redevelopment,” Sharma shared.
How to take a Chile pill in Mumbai
A view of the township of Dharavi. File Pic
Pritzker Prize-winning Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, who visited Dharavi as part of his Mumbai trip earlier this week has timely advice for the city’s planners.
“There’s an economic, social, and cultural fabric that urban designs have to take care of. They must not repeat what the modern movement did — erase the human fabric of cities in the pursuit of hygiene. The scarcest resource in the construction of the built environment is not money, but coordination,” Aravena told this diarist. Hopefully, the city’s newly-elected decision makers are listening to this.
Early Christmas joy in Vasai
A moment between a guardian and a child during a previous edition at the cafe
Christmas cheer has already started around town and Vasai-based Catherine’s is the newest café to hop on the trend with a Secret Santa party. “We have kept a jar for people to drop chits with names at the café till December 7, along with three things that they like, so that it’s easier for the secret Santa to buy them a gift. We have also set a budget for the gifting to keep it fair,” owner Kadambari Lobo said.
Lend an ear
Two women engage in a discussion during one of the podcast sessions
While there might be an overload of podcasts in the digital space, few speak about the problems that women from marginalised communities go through every day. Nazaria Arts Collective’s podcast Sakhi Radio that recently premiered at the Gender Bender showcase organised by Sandbox collective in Bengaluru, provides an inclusive space for women from marginalised communities to engage with feminist ideas.
Paridhi Mundra (below), the project lead of Sakhi Radio shared, “We have co-created this podcast with 11 women who reside in the areas of Shankarwadi, Kandivli and Saki Naka. Most of them are homemakers but some of them are also engaged in informal labour.” With the motive to amplify the issues related to women from marginalised communities, the podcast aims to further expand into a community space led entirely by Sakhis. “Feminist discourses can be dominated by upper caste and upper class voices. With this podcast, we wanted to discuss what freedom means for someone from the margins,” co-founder Nandini Kochhar, told this diarist.
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