Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce

Kuchh pooch na hai kya?

A pet armed with rain gear on cyclonic Monday catches the gaze of a stray at Five Gardens in Dadar. 

Call of duty

Mayor Kishori Pednekar inspects the area around Gateway of India on Monday

“We can’t do work from home, we are on the field for you, stay at your home, take care.” With this tweet, the Mayor of Mumbai, Kishori Pednekar showed how to walk the talk once again; this time on a day when the city was reeling from the most severe cyclone to have hit it in a century. Unlike her immediate predecessors, Pednekar’s hands-on approach is there for all to see. From warning mask-less commuters to supporting her fraternity [she is a former nurse] across Covid-19 hospitals and her day-long patrolling yesterday across rain-ravaged Mumbai, it’s all in a day’s work for her. 

Woman power

“When any one of us has an ambition, a thought that runs contrary to the status quo, there will be nay-sayers. More so, when it’s a woman who is expressing such a view, perhaps because restrictive rules are higher on them than on men. In Colors: White, we are saying to a woman, ‘Let your soul guide you. When you break the mould, detractors will discourage. Keep going on the path you believe in. Find your truths, and you will find peace.” That’s what Bengaluru-based Bharatanatyam exponent Savitha Sastry shared with his diarist about the message behind Colors: White, part of a trilogy of dance-based films that has now won the Best Director award at Rosarito International Film Festival in Mexico. Sastry made the film with her writer-director husband AK Shrikanth, and it is available on YouTube for people to view across the world Our congratulations to the duo.

Here’s why Lydian is overjoyed

Music legend Stevie Wonder celebrated his birthday last weekend and British sensation Jacob Collier — a multi-instrumentalist who has a self-confessed ‘musical crush’ on Wonder — organised a global challenge where he compiled a set of harmonies, asking musicians to use them as the base to record their version of Wonder’s track Overjoyed. Several Indian musicians, including singers Benny Dayal and Vasundhara Vee, took part in it.

But the person this diarist was most surprised to hear was Lydian Nadhaswaram, the 15-year-old piano prodigy who doesn’t generally sing at his concerts. Yet, the sort of control that he displayed while singing Overjoyed showed his immense potential as a vocalist, too. Sathish Varshan, the youngster’s father, shared, “Lydian can sing really well, but he is shy since his voice hasn’t cracked yet, and it’s thus difficult for him to reach high frequencies. But you will definitely hear him sing more often in the future since he has an incredible voice.” We can’t wait. 

Reality check

The Internet has changed our lives so much that it’s hard to tell which is more real — our online lives, or offline ones. Natasha Malpani Oswal, founder of production house Boundless Media, has tried to capture this dichotomy in an alternate reality series called Brave New World, which has been selected for the Indo-French International Film Festival 2021 and Port Blair International Film Festival 2021. “The series takes a satirical look at how media impacts our lives,” she shared.

Art plays its part to provide relief

Ganesh Haloi, untitled, 2007

The Indian art community has come together for an initiative called Art Rises for India, organised by auction house Saffronart. It’s an online fundraiser that features over 120 works of modern and contemporary painters, including Ram Kumar and Amrita Sher-Gil. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to NGOs including Goonj and Khoj. “This fundraiser has come together thanks to the generous donations of several artists, gallerists and collectors. We hope to raise a significant corpus of funds and do our small part in helping those in need,” said Saffronart co-founder Dinesh Vazirani. Log in to saffronart.com on May 19 to purchase a piece.

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