Mumbai Diary: Thusday Dossier

Pic/Ashish Raje

Something to crow about

A man offers a crow a crunchy snack near Dadar Chowpatty on Wednesday. Pic/Ashish Raje

View from a spiritual lens

After churning out titles like Breathless in Bombay, Waiting for Jonathan Koshy, and Fasttrack Fiction, city-based writer Murzban F Shroff is set to publish his fourth book, Third Eye Rising, with Spuyten Duyvil, a literary publisher in New York. Over 10 full-length stories, Shroff captures the neurodiversity of India through two of its most compelling aspects: family ties and spiritual faith. Born out of his travels to the villages of India, the collection explores issues such as greed, dowry, caste exploitation, child apathy, migrant identities, and personal loss. Four years in the making, the stories have been published in reputed journals, and three have received a Pushcart Prize nomination, the highest award for the short story in the US. "This is my attempt to showcase the spiritual strengths of India, to make visible the lives of the invisible, and therein show the eternal unity of humankind," Shroff told this diarist. The book will release on January 22, 2021, and is currently available for pre-order.

Lavani goes live in Pune

The performance at the Pune University campus. Pic/Kunal Vijayakar

Things are slowly looking better for lavani artistes, who are trying to stay afloat during the pandemic, as physical shows are starting to make a comeback. Theatre company Kali Billi Productions staged their popular piece Sangeet Bari in Pune earlier this week. The troupe was invited by Lalit Kala Kendra and performed at the Pune University campus.

Co-founder Bhushan Korgaonkar admitted that they were both excited and sceptical as it was their first ever post-lockdown show but the threat of the virus still remains. Yet, they received a great response. "It was held outside of the main city limits but people still came; only 100 were to be allowed but the organisers had to accommodate more, while maintaining safety norms. The crowd whistled and enjoyed."

A 24-hour arty challenge

It is hard to complete any literary project in 24 hours, let alone write and draw a comic book. But the Indie Comix Fest, a non-profit, artist-run festival of self-published comics in India, has thrown that challenge open to artists. For the first time, they've announced a 24-hour marathon to be held on December 19, where participants must make a 24-page comic. A list of themes will be announced two days prior. Explaining the idea behind it, Alka Singh from the organising team told us, "We wanted to come together virtually and do something creative. We got about 400 likes when we announced the challenge, so we're expecting at least 100 entries."

Star-studded opening

(Above) Kalpana Shah, Jaideep Mehrotra and Michelle Poonawalla

Worli's Tao Art Gallery is readying to open their doors to the public for their first physical show after the lockdown, on December 16, by appointment only. And they're exhibiting a line-up of six big names in the contemporary art world - Jaideep Mehrotra, Kalpana Shah, Michelle Poonawalla, Revati Sharma Singh, Kisalay Vora and Shruti Jhaveri. The show titled Textures and Layers has been curated by Sanjana Shah, who told this diarist that she was keen to do a physical show before the year ends. "I'm a firm believer in the fact that art is best experienced in person. All precautions are in place, from an invite-only 50-person preview to the necessary venue sanitisation and social distancing measures," she added.

Three cheers for city brewery

Here's a feather in a brewery's cap. Effingut recently became the only Indian brand to win awards at the Asia Beer Championship 2020. It won medals in three different categories. Hefeweizen was honoured for wheat beer, Sorah Ace Saison in the saison - or pale ale - category, and Barrel Aged Hefty Braggot for experimental beer. Speaking about hearing the news, owner Manu Gulati told this diarist, "Elation evolved into emotional pride - we now know what athletes truly feel when they make their countries proud. There's plenty more creativity in us and plenty more awards to win in the world, and we are raring to go!"

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