The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Anurag Ahire
Come rain or shine
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Shielding himself from the rain with an umbrella, a boy walks past the picture of a clear Mumbai sky at Mahalaxmi.
Vaitarna on screen
Avicennia officinalis species found at Vaitarna creek
The recent film from the 100 short film series by The Habitat Trust and Maha Mumbai Tarun Bharat features Vaitarna Creek near Palghar, which is one of Mumbai’s water resources. “Despite the name being familiar among Mumbaikars, it is highly unexplored,” filmmaker Akshay Gandavkar told this diarist. “This rich biodiversity is home to several rare flora such as rhizophora mucronata and fauna such as jackals that cannot be spotted anywhere else in Mumbai,” he revealed. Rushikesh Chavan, head, The Habitat Trust, added, “The creek is an interesting place. This movie does two things: It brings to light the local communities protecting these species, and secondly, also inspires others.”
Lit? Not quite
Is it a light from a comet’s tail? Or a celestial spectacle? Those were some of the doubts that crowded the mind when this diarist stepped outside the Basilica of the Mount in Bandra. We are used to noticing the familiar outline of the stairway leading to the top where the statue of Mary is venerated by countless devotees. Especially at sunset, and set against the night sky, the scene makes for pleasant viewing. Now, imagine our surprise when we spotted a suspended beam of light exactly behind this frame. Soon, we realised it was thanks to the extension of a crane that brightly screamed the name of a builder of an upcoming highrise in the vicinity.
Notes from Hungary
(Left) The duo at the restaurant playing cimbalon and cello; (right) the restaurant manager performing
Music truly has no language. Two recent encounters by singer and music composer Shankar Mahadevan reiterate this belief. Mahadevan, who is currently on the 50th anniversary tour of Shakti with Zakir Hussain, John McLaughlin, Ganesh Rajagopalan and Selvaganesh Vinayakram, shared his experience on a call from Kongsberg, “While we were in Hungary, I met this lovely restaurant manager who was a student of music maestro Trichy Shankaranji. Another incident was of a father-son musician duo, who played the title tune of Kal Ho Naa Ho at a traditional Hungarian restaurant as soon as they spotted me. It was a special moment for me to see Indian music travel across all the barriers and reach those who appreciate it wholeheartedly.”
Shankar Mahadevan
A trip back to Dragon Ball Z
Mumbai-based artist Santanu Hazarika’s ongoing series Portraits of Childhood Trauma may take you back to those moments of watching anime cartoons on television. His first from the series, a portrait of Goku from Dragon Ball Z experiments with a different style than his usual monochromatic artworks. Hazarika revealed, “I am re-tracing my roots to when I started painting as a child. It has the impressionist colours of innocence and a touch of grunge for the sense of loss those memories bring.”
One for all, and all for one
A picture taken during the meet at CSMVS. Pic courtesy/Facebook
Last week, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) museum director Sabyasachi Mukherjee, called an informal meeting of the heads of over 30 cultural institutions from the city. Titled ‘Can we meet and talk please’, it was a step towards fostering creative relationships by collaborating with each other, Mukherjee told this diarist. “Meeting colleagues is always a pleasure for multiple reasons. A culture of innovation and collaboration needs a firm commitment from two or more participating institutes to engage with each other, to be able to create something new together. One of the things we learned during the pandemic is that no institution can grow in isolation. If we are together, many things can be done,” he remarked.
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