The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
No hands on deck
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In light of the weekend lockdown, the bustle of this stretch on Marine Drive comes to a halt.
Verse goes virtual
In 2014, Cappuccino Readings started out at a coffee shop in Horniman Circle in order to have literary café readings in Mumbai. Here, in contrast to literary festivals, senior poets would read with newer voices. Over time, the initiative evolved into private addas to build a literary community and have more meaningful conversations with poets.
But in light of its seventh anniversary this month, founder and curator Anjali Purohit (inset) is putting together The Cappuccino Adda Poetry Festival with virtual sessions that include noted poets like Keki Daruwalla, Ranjit Hoskote (in pic), Priya Sarukkai Chabria and Smita Sahay. The festival will be held today and tomorrow on Zoom, 5 pm onwards. “I plan on having a two-day poetry festival three to four times a year,” Purohit shared. For log in details, head to Anjali Purohit’s page on Facebook.
Mumbai bids farewell to two of its heritage guardians
For a city like ours whose urban heritage is a source of pride, the effort put in by countless silent custodians often slips away unacknowledged. A little over a week ago, this newspaper had written about the successful restoration of the 96-year-old Commissariat Building. It stood out as the first restored multi-tenanted commercial private building in Fort that adhered to internationally accepted conservation principles.
This was possible due to the support of the Commissariat family, who lost their patriarch, Homi over the weekend. Vikas Dilawari, the site’s conservation architect, recalled his interactions, “A thorough gentleman he was keen to see this heritage building restored. With great enthusiasm, he would keep track of updates via a WhatsApp group, and was looking forward to moving into his offices again in the restored building, which he maintained was very lucky for the family business.”
In Vasai, in the palm-fringed gaothans of Small Giriz, its residents bid adieu to Renald Sequeira, of Sequeira Art Works. Set up by Renald’s father, Michael, the famed master creators and restorers of statues and heritage furniture have contributed towards some of the city’s most famous landmarks, including UNESCO award-winning Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, the 15-foot cross at Salvation Church in Dadar, the crucifix at Mount Carmel Church, Bandra, the restoration of St John the Baptist in Thane as well as Christ Church, Byculla.
When this diarist visited their massive workshop in 2018, his sons Mingleshwar and Benzoni, recalled how despite being ill, the “boss of detailing” always insisted on sculpting the palms of hands of every statue that was being sculpted.
City gallery makes a green mark
TARQ will focus on better packaging of artworks to reduce carbon footprint
With their roster of artists alone, Colaba’s TARQ has gained recognition for initiating dialogue around the environment through art. Now, it has become the first Indian gallery to have registered as a member with the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), a charity founded by a group of London-based gallerists and professionals to tackle the impact of the commercial arts sector on the climate. The decision came about organically for TARQ’s founder and gallery director Hena Kapadia. She shared that she heard about GCC because of the other galleries associated with it, including international contemporary art galleries such as Pace and Gagosian, and Artlogic, one of their back-end service providers. “We can do simple things to reduce our carbon footprint. We can make changes to our shipping and packaging — be it through shipping by sea or using less plastic while packing,” she added. Good call, we think.
Portuguese flavours in Pali Market
While Soul Fry owner Meldan D’Cunha’s plans to visit Portugal last year were derailed for obvious reasons, the restaurateur has taken inspiration from his daughter’s visit to conceptualise a Portuguese café that’s going to come up in the al fresco section of his restaurant. “It will be called Café Porto Por Soul Fry. Porto is a place in Portugal that’s full of little cafés, and por means by. I wanted to offer something different in the open area from what we serve inside, so I thought why not do this,” D’Cunha told this diarist, adding that the past year has been a difficult time. The café will serve Portuguese prego rolls, cutlets, pizzas, Dalgona coffee, different kinds of horchatas, and the likes. We’ll be waiting.
And the award goes to...
Pune’s Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival (KVIFF) is the only event of its kind in India which comprises film screenings and activities on the environment, wildlife, energy, air and water. The festival has been organised for the past 12 years and every year, it confers the Green Teacher Award to educators in this field. This year, city-based entomologist Dr V Shubhalaxmi will be handed the honour. “It’s a good culmination of the 25-plus years I have spent in the field of environmental education, where I have done extensive experimentation,” she said.
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