The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Ashish Raje
The big picture
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Sachin Tendulkar’s fan Abhishek Satam made a mosaic to celebrate the master blaster’s birthday, which was yesterday.
Beloved JJ professor passes away
Vasudeo S Nibre, former head of department of photography at Sir JJ Institute of Applied Arts, passed away on Friday. He joined the institute in 1969 as an assistant in the photography studio, and is remembered by colleagues and students as a sincere, disciplined individual, who was highly devoted to his field. CM Uddhav Thackeray was among the students he taught in his 27 years at the institute. Students fondly speak of him as a devoted teacher, going beyond class hours to teach them about practical aspects like depth of field, how to develop the film roll and the use of various kinds of photographic paper, among many other things. He even stayed in touch with them after they graduated. Nibre retired from the institute in 1996.
Not without my staff
The hospitality sector is battling one of its worst storms. But, Bandra’s much-loved restaurant, Out of The Blue, is making sure their employees are not left to fend for themselves. The establishment has created a safe bunkyard for the backend staff to live in on the premises, along with lockers and bathrooms. They are even providing essentials for their families, and helping some with medical expenses. “Our first customer is our staff itself and so, any decision we take, affects them as much as it affects us. Ninety per cent of them are from Garhwal, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. Also, the ones who are from Mumbai have opted to stay on the premises as it’s safer,” said Rahul Bajaj, director and conceptualiser at Out Of the Blue. Once a day, nimbu paani is served as it’s an excellent source of vitamin C and antioxidants. “We also get them to do steam inhalation twice a day. These are just necessary steps we take to ensure they remain healthy.”
Dreams do come true
Singer and composer Nakul Abhyankar, known for giving us songs from Frozen 2, was recently part of a unique rooftop jamming with AR Rahman. This jamming session featured a team of artistes involved in Rahman’s film titled 99 Songs. Nakul played the keys along with singing some hit numbers. It was a dream come true, he said, adding, “It was Rahman sir’s idea to do a terrace jam with a medley of some of his old songs and some from the film 99 Songs. It was a superb idea and a very energetic session. If you ask me to sing, I can, but playing keys made me a little nervous, but it went really well and the whole energy really pumped us. You see the video now on YouTube and it looks so great. We never expected it to look so beautiful. It was a fantastic and fun initiative.”
‘We need our open spaces’
Tina Nandi (centre) and Anca Abraham (in white), LYPMumbai founders, in better times, show how people can safely use public open spaces
Through the pandemic, the one thing that kept us sane was being allowed to use open spaces. After last year’s lockdown, which saw everyone holed in for nearly two months, Mumbaikars, for the second time now, have been struggling to catch some fresh air. Keeping this in mind, LYPMumbai, which has been curating experiences in public spaces, in collaboration with local civic bodies, artists, entrepreneurs and community groups, recently started a petition on change.org, requesting that beaches, promenades, parks and gardens in Mumbai be open from 7 am to 8 pm. Addressing the petition to CM Uddhav Thackeray and the BMC, the organisation has suggested encouraging staggered use of these spaces, in a way that there’s no crowding, so that social distancing protocols are maintained. In the petition, LYPMumbai also shared scientific research, which has shown that SARS-Cov 2 is less likely to be transmitted outdoors. As of Friday, the petition had over 3,200 signatories. “As research shows, regular exercise, sunlight and fresh air makes us less susceptible to becoming seriously ill from SARS Cov 2. Mumbai’s public health plan should include ways to quickly increase available open spaces.”
When Stan was Australia’s main man!
Australian cricketer Stan McCabe
With a humongous amount of fours and sixes being hit every day in the ongoing Indian Premier League, our in-house cricket nut came up with a boundaries-related yarn. “Yarn?” we asked rather emphatically, to which he responded: “Yes, a yarn... that’s what they call an anecdote in Australia. And my story is true. I read it in a publication called Great Triumphs in Test Cricket by Ken Piesse.” The Australian team were touring South Africa in 1935 and one-drop batsman Stan McCabe spent a sleepless night, trying to cope with faulty breathing caused due to the high altitude in Johannesburg. The next morning McCabe told his captain Vic Richardson, grandfather of Ian Chappell, that he was in no shape to continue batting. Richardson was a tough man and said to his overnight batsman, unbeaten on 59, “you’ve got to bat. If the altitude gets to you, don’t run. Just hit fours.” McCabe obeyed his captain and whacked the ball to the boundary ropes 20 times before lunch was taken. McCabe ended the drawn Test with 189 not out. It was, as history tells us, a great innings.
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