The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Satej Shinde
Ready for the road
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A masked-up man waits at a bus stop at Vasanji Lalji Road, Kandivali.
Riyaaz Amlani’s Asian affair
Restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani is making hay while the sun shines. With delivery becoming the top mode of revenue now as we’re locked in at home again, Amlani has been pushing for cloud kitchens. The latest, Hung-Li, is his first Asian cuisine-driven cloud kitchen brand. “We’ve doubled down on our delivery business. Hung-Li is our second cloud kitchen brand after BOSS Burger that we launched in February. Asian food is a crowd favourite and customers are always seeking high-quality, well-packaged Asian food from brands that they trust. Hung-Li will serve up exciting Asian flavours using fresh ingredients that are made to order. We’re currently delivering from Versova, Powai, and Lower Parel in Mumbai,” shared the CEO & MD of Impresario Handmade Restaurants.
Turning eight
The country’s first English lifestyle magazine in Braille, city-based White Print, completes eight years this month. Launched by Upasana Makati, the magazine also forayed into inclusive children’s literature by publishing titles such as Flowers for Sunaina and Run Saba, Run! While the pandemic has brought a halt to distribution and sales, Makati remains optimistic. “Readers have been extremely supportive but we’re hoping things will get better. We’re very sure that we’re going to write more in the coming month,” she told this diarist. In the meantime, Makati has started conducting online reading sessions with schoolchildren. “I feel like children are the worst affected in this crisis. A lot of them are clueless about why they can’t leave the house and how long this situation will last,” she added.
Big win for indie short
Samrat Parmar
Over 1,000 days have passed since the first lockdown. Grocery can only be delivered once a month. Medicos come knocking on your door for daily vitals checks. Video calls now allow you to smell the environment of the person on the other side of the screen. Sounds like a future not too far off? Well, this is the dystopian reality that Madh Island-based director Samrat Parmar’s short film, Ab-Normal, has captured, bagging him a special festival mention at the recently held Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival 2021. It’s also been selected for the Lift-Off Global Network Sessions 2021, and stands a chance to be screened at a studio in Hollywood and Pinewood Studios in the UK, shared Parmar.
Actor Ayesha Raza Mishra in a still from Ab-Normal
“At the start of the lockdown last year, I was mentally bogged down, so I started writing the story. I envisioned what the implication of the pandemic would be, not only on daily lives, but also human relationships,” Parmar told this diarist about the story centred around a couple. The film stars actors Dhruv Lohumi, Ayesha Raza Mishra and Neha Singh. “The main challenge was shooting it with all the restrictions, and on a shoestring budget, but writing, shooting and editing it made my lockdown worth it,” he admits. Well, we wish him luck, but hope the short doesn’t become our reality.
New avatar for restaurants?
On social media, Zorawar Kalra shared an interesting solution — to offer restaurants as vaccination centres. “The current Covid-19 situation in the country is heartbreaking. We wanted to come forward and provide support in whatever small way we could by providing access to our entire restaurant network across the country during the lockdown,” he said. He explained that it had multiple advantages. “The more the spaces available for vaccination, the lesser the crowding and hence, lower the chances of further spread. Psychologically also going to a neighbourhood restaurant for getting vaccinated is less intimidating for people than going to a hospital. Our restaurants tend to be centrally located and hence easy to reach and are currently not operational. So, they are ready for immediate use,” he suggested. For now, a germ of an idea, Kalra is confident the entire industry will come forward. “We are hopeful that a representative from the authorities will reach out to us so we can execute this,” he says. Tel Aviv’s Jenia restopub did this successfully, even offering free drinks to those who took the jab. Good intention, but how does any of this help unless we have enough vaccines?
Woof, what an idea
Members of the Thane-based non-profit Pet Owners and Animal Lovers Foundation have in the past year noticed that the majority of their calls for help come from low-income areas. Chairperson Aditi Nair shared that of late, these calls have increased with the rise in unemployment and pay-cuts, as people belonging to these areas aren’t able to care for their pets or strays. So, they have started a fundraiser to set up medical camps in such places. “People can come forward with their pets, cattle, and strays, and provide them with medication for free,” she said. Head to ketto.org/fundraiser/palmedicalcamp to pitch in.
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