Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

What's age got to do with it
Actor Dimple Kapadia could give the younger lot a run for their money with the casual way in which she is rocking a jumpsuit and denim jacket, exiting a movie hall in Juhu over the weekend. Pic/Satej Shinde

Faezeh Jalali

In the true spirit of theatre
There may be numerous theatre companies in Mumbai, each pursuing their own subjects and creative styles, but when it comes to pooling in their resources for a fellow theatrewallah, the collaborative spirit takes precedence over all else. Recently, acclaimed actor and director Faezeh Jalali put out a call for vintage props and costumes - frocks, skirts, blouses, aprons, suspenders, etc. - for her upcoming play. And within a couple of hours, colleagues from across the city and even Pune had rummaged through their closets and storerooms to start sending their finds to her. The play, A Farming Story, is a dystopian fairytale. It has been written by Vineet Bhalla, and won the Sultan Padamsee playwriting award in 2016, Jalali tells this diarist.

Sanjay Gandhi in a still from the video. Pic/AP Archive on YouTube

A tech-inspired family memory
In times when it is second nature to capture every moment of our lives, it may be somewhat difficult to imagine that a national party wouldn't have a recording of one of its most well-known leaders. But that's how it was in the early '80s, and we got reminded of the times when BJP MP Varun Gandhi recently shared a video of his late father and Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi. "How surreal life is... I can't imagine I heard my father's voice for the first time two years ago at the age of 36," Varun recalled. The video is from the archives of a news agency, and shows Gandhi taking an electioneering trail in Uttar Pradesh in May 1980, two months before he died in an air crash. Varun was three months old then.

Sakhi Ben and Gauri Ben

Gujarat's craftswomen wow NYC
Last week, designer Anita Dongre launched her flagship store in New York. The launch was co-hosted by Fern Mallis (one of the most recognisable faces of New York Fashion Week), and the crowd included designer Bibhu Mohapatra and singer Monica Dogra. But the guests we were most happy about are Sakhi Ben, Saira Ben and Gauri Ben, three women from Baktura, a village four hours away from Ahmedabad. They are part of SEWA, an organisation that works towards women's upliftment through embroidery and craft, and which Dongre collaborates with. The women gave live demonstrations of their work to the crowd, and wowed them in the process.

A puzzle in BKC
This diarist has to confess that he has tried and tried, but never managed to match the colours in more than two or three rows of a Rubik's Cube, let alone solving the entire puzzle. But there are some people who seem to be able to do it with their eyes closed. A bunch of these whizzes will now congregate at a BKC venue soon to compete for a chance to take part in the Rubik's Cube World Championship to be held in Boston. And to generate buzz about the event, the organisers have created a logo of the championship made with - you guessed it - Rubik's Cubes. It's been put up at a coworking space in BKC, where the Mumbai qualifiers for the championship will be held.

Rahul Khanna

Bromance is in the air
We love it when celebs pull each other's legs in public, and that's exactly what Rahul Khanna and Sikander Kher did on social media recently. Khanna had put up a photo of a few oh-cho-chweet pooches, to which Kher commented, "Hi muffin," with Khanna replying, "Looking to be adopted too, Kher?" And what followed after that was an exchange steeped in so much bromance that it would make Jai and Veeru blush.

Sikander Kher

Kher called Khanna "munchkins" first and then "sweet cheeks". Khanna, in turn, told his pal that he would adopt him only if he became house-trained and neutered, and stopped his "embarrassing leg-humping", eliciting a chuckle from our end.

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