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Two children play at the open gym in Shivaji Park, Dadar, as a grown-up fusses over their safety.
Cricket memorabilia world gets poorer
The world of cricket memorabilia lost a giant with the recent passing away of Coimbatore-born, Adelaide-based Srikantan Ramamurthy, 84. Ramamurthy was known to cricket personalities across the globe for his more-than-just-impressive private collection of cricket memorabilia.
The late Srikantan Ramamurthy (left) with Sunil Gavaskar and Sir Don Bradman at Adelaide during the Australian summer of 1985-86
As Marcus Couto, his Mumbai-based friend, wrote in a 2001 article for ESPN Cricinfo, “By 1996, Ramamurthy had all [signatures] but a handful of Australian and England Test cricketers from 1877 to 1995. These were in the form of signed photos, team sheets, group signed photos, caps, blazers, ties, bats, balls, signed dinner cards etc.”
A close friend of the late Sir Donald Bradman, who lived in South Australia, Ramamurthy was known to play instrumental roles in getting several Indian cricketers to meet the cricket legend. Apparently, Ramamurthy’s catalogue of his collectibles was a collector’s item itself!
Our in-house cricket nut just can’t stop imagining the kind of cricketing wealth Ramamurthy had accumulated. But for now, we must say our farewell to a true lover of cricket.
Simply worth a pillion dollars
Easy lies the head that wears the crown… or the helmet. That is the message electronics shop owner and Colaba local Gopal Panjwani is disseminating. Panjwani earned a certificate of appreciation on Thursday from the Traffic cops, who also took a selfie with him and his pillion rider, since both were sheathed in helmets. Said Panjwani who was riding his scooter with his worker Barkat as pillion, “We were going towards Lamington Road. I insist that my pillion wears a helmet.” He added that he always carries a spare helmet with him. “In case of an accident, can one guarantee the pillion won’t fall off along with the rider?” he asked. Panjwani has a physical certificate signed by the Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Mumbai.
Struck by lightning
Colaba boy and storm chaser, Ujwal Puri, who is on Instagram and Twitter as @ompsyram, was featured last week in a billboard at Times Square, New York which showcases artists from across the globe. Puri is a businessman but picked up the camera seven-years ago as a way to find something to do while overcoming an alcohol addiction, he says, “I have loved photography since childhood but when I was battling alcoholism, I turned back to this obsession and it helped me channel my energy positively.” The photograph is of the Taj Hotel, the vacant sky behind it lit up by lightning that seems to emanate from the tip of the iconic hotel’s dome, “I love Mumbai city. I think it’s the best city in the country and I wanted to feature something positive about it rather than the slums or something equally typical. I am also obsessed with lightning and storms and was waiting for a long time to get this particular click, because these pictures give me an adrenaline rush. At the same time, though, I always advice younger kids to be careful while photographing such moments,” Puri says.
Slovenia to read ‘aapli Marathi’
Marathi poetry is going to find pride of place at the upcoming Slovenia Live Literature Festival. In a first, three Marathi poets—Hemant Divate, Sanjeev Khandekar and Manya Joshi—have been invited to participate and present their works at the traditional translation workshop and Live Literature festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The workshop is being organised by ŠKUC, Centre for Slovenian Literature and Literature Across Frontiers, in June this year. “Slovenian poet Brane Mozetič and I had discussed this back in 2019. However, the pandemic hit and shook things up. I am elated that it is finally happening now, for the first time in Marathi poetry and literary history,” Divate told this diarist.
Family matters
Khalid Mohamed
Filmmaker-critic Khalid Mohamed is entering novel terrain. Mohamed, who has written a trilogy of films, Mammo, Sardari Begum and Zubeida directed by Shyam Benegal, will soon be penning fiction, which takes off from the last of the three films. The Imperfect Prince—to be released in October this year—tells the story of Shifa Syed Qureshi, an investigative journalist who sets out to unearth the mystery behind her half-brother’s death. It is based on real-life events—a hushed-up murder in the aristocracy, and writing it, he says “required all the courage I had in me because I was imagining justice through it”. “There are hundreds of stories inside me because of my mother’s family, which had several strong women and stories to tell. Obviously, I can’t tell them all, so I chose the comfort of fictionalising them,” says Mohamed.
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