The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Atul Kamble
See you on the flip side...
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Rohit Pande, a young choreographer practises a few moves at Versova beach
Baug-o mein ballot hai
The stair climbing chair (right) Voting venue within
The landmark Colaba Parsi Colony called Cusrow Baug, is trying to up voting numbers through some serious franchise facilitation. The Baug wants as many persons as possible to arrive at the voting centre within the colony premises on November 20. Hoshang Jal, Jt. Hon Secretary, Cusrow Baug United Sports & Welfare League, says, “We have taken up the challenge and have some initiatives to help residents.” Some of these initiatives are automatic stair-climbing chairs, wheelchairs, car shuttles and assisting volunteer groups. Groups like Darius’ Daredevils Group of Xtremely Young Zoroastrians (XYZ) has a kids volunteer force to help residents. “Involving kids is a great way of inducting a sense of good citizenship at an early age,” says Hoshaang Gotla founder, XYZ. More power to Cusrow Baug’s walk the talk to the ballot box.
Dance in the desert
A performance at a past edition of the festival
Mumbaikars can take a break next month and head to Rajasthan for the 10th edition of Magnetic Fields Festival being held between December 6 and 8. The festival is being held at the glorious Alsisar Mahal once again. Co-founder and music director Munbir Chawla describes the festival’s vision as one that “represents the best of modern India and talent around the world.”
Munbir Chawla, co-founder and music director of Magnetic Fields
“Collaborations with international partners like Resident Advisor, Boiler Room, and Goethe-Institute have long been a part of this ethos of ours, and this year’s partnerships with Refuge Worldwide and EyeMyth Festival continue this tradition,” says Chawla. “Our collaboration with institutions like Fieldlines and with EyeMyth this year help us shine a spotlight on arts and traditions that perhaps don’t get the same amount of eyeballs or are a new experience for audiences in the context of a music festival,” he adds.
Balancing heritage with innovation is key. “The aim is to highlight the creativity of today while also bringing out our heritage which often gets relegated to museums, dying art forms, and dilapidated ruins,” says Chawla. However, the challenge lies in ensuring “we are doing justice to the art and artists and not being performative.”
Good music trumps evil
Raghu Dixit, the Indie music powerhouse known for blending folk roots with contemporary beats, has dropped his visually striking music video, Patta, the latest single from his album Shakkar. “Patta is about a human’s inward journey—confronting, taming, or making peace with inner demons,” Dixit explains. Drawing inspiration from India’s diverse festivals, where “victory of good over evil” is a recurring theme, Dixit says this multilingual experiment expanded his creative horizons and opened new markets. “For me, learning new languages and flavors as an artist is as thrilling as connecting with Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, or Hindi-speaking audiences.”
Cricket like The Don would like it
In the midst of the build-up to India’s forthcoming Test series in Australia and all that talk about one-upmanship, the importance of playing truly attractive cricket for the spectators and viewers is probably not stressed enough. Sir Don Bradman, the greatest batsman that set foot on earth, always called for cricket that would be entertaining to the public.
Sir Don Bradman in 1974. PIC/GETTY IMAGES
When Test cricket needed to be more attractive to Australian spectators before the 1960-61 series against Frank Worrell’s West Indians, Bradman, the then chairman of selectors, asked captain Richie Benaud if he could talk to the team. When Bradman addressed them, he stressed that players who played attractive cricket would be looked upon in “kindly fashion” by the selectors.
The host team did well to fully understand the difference between playing positive cricket and being reckless, and produced what came to be known as the most entertaining Test series of all time which resulted in Australia winning 2-1 after the opening Test at Brisbane ended in a tie. The West Indians played attractively too and it showed that teams can be fiercely competitive without being abusive to each other. Hope we see the same from November 22.
Collecting Craftsman Tales
The meandering streets of Bhuleshwar have been a vibrant market for decades. As development is pushing craftsmen out, the heritage market stands to lose its identity as a hub of traditional crafts. Non-profit organisation, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Greater Mumbai chapter and its crafts and community division are commencing Project Heritage Bhuleshwar-Kalbadevi.
INTACH will record techniques and history, says Katyayani Agarwal
Speaking on what the project entails, Katyayani Agarwal, Convenor of Greater Mumbai, Chapter says, “We will be documenting the history, technique, stories of the craftsmen and where they came from, and their tools to be able to tell future generations about their crafts and the people behind them.”
Bhuleshwar has housed several crafts for decades, Agarwal lists 21 to 23 crafts found in the area, including silversmiths, goldsmiths, and garland makers, block printers, and more. To achieve this, INTACH is reaching out to four colleges across Mumbai. “We are looking at young history students because we need the next generation to come and participate in this project. So, students from the University of Mumbai, and St Xaviers College will be involved in research and documentation. A few experts from Delhi are coming to Mumbai for a two-day scientific training session, for the students.“says Agarwal.
INTACH hopes to be able to kick off the project entirely by December 10th and spend the next few months documenting the neighbourhood. The outcome will be a book available for anyone interested in the commerce of Mumbai. However, Agarwal says that INTACH hopes to find a sponsor to be able to publish the research as a coffee table book. “We are hopeful that people realise that these craftsmen have been in Mumbai, and it encourages some sort of a revival of the neighbourhood,” says Agarwal.
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