Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Not another selfie
Going by the reaction of Fatima Sana Shaikh when she was spotted in Bandra on Thursday, it seems as if she has had her share of selfies for the day. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Brazilian salute
Malala Yousafzai is soaking up some sun in Brazil at the moment, where the activist is meeting girls from across the country. And while there, she has started an initiative on Twitter titled #AskMalala. It involves Brazilian members of the micro-blogging site asking Yousafzai any question under the sun. And the people who caught our eye with their queries were two of Brazil's most famous sons - Pele and Paulo Coelho. While the footballer asked, "What can we do to make sure we are giving girls the chances they deserve?", the author wrote, "I don't want to ask anything, but to say loud a clear THANK YOU. You are an example for children, teenagers and adults alike. May your path be blessed (sic)," which echoes our sentiments.

Season's greetings
Chef Thomas Zacharias has a penchant for experimenting with food and one glance at his social media profiles can well establish this. Dishes inspired from his #chefontheroad travels to combining ingredients and recipes most would have a hard time imagining going well together.

The hawk-eyed and thinking chef unleashed another trick up his sleeve when he recently shared an image of one of his new creations, the soft shell crab chota. He took it a notch up by throwing in phondshi - a seasonal green veggie that is as characteristic to Mumbai's rains as potholes are to Andheri. This diarist is now all stoked about grocery shopping this week because they can't wait to bring back home some good 'ol phondshi.

Anuvab, a hit among the Brits
His sold-out show at London's SoHo Theatre has been picked up for the 2018 edition of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and when a British radio show came to the city last year, he was among the select artistes in Mumbai to be invited as a panelist - it wouldn't be wrong to say that the Brits love Anuvab Pal. The stand-up comedian and writer is back in the UK, this time for the BBC's first showcase of Asian Comedy, which will be aired in August.

Pal performed to a packed auditorium in Leeds with nine other top British comedians of Asian origin for company. "I am obsessed with the British Empire. And the British and I seem to love misery. I guess that's what makes us click," Pal quipped on a phone call from London. Keeping up with the creative exchange, Pal also told this diarist that he is trying to get popular British-Indian comedians Nish Kumar and Sunil Patel to India. Among other things, Pal also witnessed the British suffer a heartbreak when England lost to Croatia in the semis. "I saw people crying and hugging in the streets. Their football fandom is much like our cricket fandom," he said.

Game of books
Even as the hype around Sacred Games' debut on Netflix continues to create ripples, courtesy a well-planned thread of promotional events, of course, ably backed by the star power acting in the series, the original book by Vikram Chandra seems to have found plenty of takers as well. And as the buzz on social media continues, we picked up one particular juicy anecdote that took us back to the original jacket of the book.

Turns out city based artist Jaideep Mehrotra created the artwork for it. He commented on the new flick, giving it a double thumbs up. Close on the heels of this discovery, this diarist learnt that the publishers of the book have also decided to publish (or shall we say, re-publish?) the same title in two parts using interesting cover artwork directly from the hit series.

Arabian Nights in Delhi
We rarely hear of mantris catching a play, but trust Arvind Kejriwal to stand out. The Delhi CM recently watched Aladdin, when the Broadway-style musical was staged in the capital after its run in Mumbai. Kejriwal, who watched it with his family and deputy CM Manish Sisodia, seems to have enjoyed the show. We wonder if he secretly wished for some magic with the lieutenant governor situation.

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