Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Twinkle Khanna

And Twinkle shines on
Female hygiene has been on Twinkle Khanna's mind for some time now. First came her book of women-centric stories, one of which was dedicated to Arunachalam Muruganantham, who devised a mechanism to produce low-cost sanitary napkins.

Then came a film based on his life, which she produced. Now, the author and former actor has joined forces with Save the Children as artist ambassador to promote adolescent health and menstrual hygiene in the slums of Mumbai.

Child champion Saleha (right) interacts with other adolescents at a workshop

To kick off her association with the organisation, she will visit slums in Govandi today as part of an awareness programme, where she will interact with adolescents and felicitate hygiene champions from the community. In a state where over 60 per cent girls skip school during periods, a known face should help lend heft to a worthy cause.

The drive to drive
In a bid to augment the self-confidence of the visually-challenged, a women's-only Rotary Club of Mumbai has partnered with a racing and a motor club and the National Association for the Blind to organise a car rally this Sunday. To be flagged off at the rate of one car per minute, each team in the rally will comprise a driver, a navigator and one co-passenger.

Representation pic

The visually challenged individuals will play the role of navigators and guide the driver along the route, using a road book or tulip chart in Braille. Based on the concept of time, distance and speed, the rally aims to hone the sense of direction, and co-ordination of skills such as listening, visualising and calculating. Two vintage cars will also be showcased at the event.

Only time will tell
As Bandra's foodscape continues to expand, another restaurant joins the list. This time, a passion project between three friends. The Peppermill, is owner Sudhakar Sunkari, partner Vinod Mishra, and chef partner Paraag Nayak's brainchild. "We will be serving food I perfected and dreamt of reimagining during my training years. We will be doing a seasonally changing menu with fresh ingredients and feature home-style dishes from all around the world," Nayak said.

Even so, the 90-seater restaurant will be serving global food with a menu ubiquitous in city restaurants that, more often than not, haven't been able to make up their minds. Is this another grub spot for Mumbai's foodies or just another chink in Bandra's culinary armour? Only time and for how long the joint stays open will tell.

Another day, another manel
It is saying something when the only time you see women fit on a panel is when you have them talking about gender. Mumbai Assembly's two-day festival EARS on Mumbai that begins today is making quite the statement - with four all-men panels, or as they are called, manels. These feature professionals from independent filmmaking and music industry speaking on topics ranging from the freedom of expression to social media. Hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani took to Twitter to voice her protest.

"They have one all-women panel which is some cliché s'''. It's like a Women's Day present! And they even have men repeated across panels. I don't know what this means for potential indie musicians and filmmakers attending, to start out like that. But I'm proud of Kabir Chowdhury for opting out of one panel on principle," she told this diarist.

Salute to a sandwich
If there were a glossary on urban culinary discoveries, the Bombay sandwich would easily make its way into that list. Bombaywallahs swear by it, and its piquant variations would make the discerning street foodie give it a double thumbs up.

Recently, as part of his India book tour for The Twice-Born, Aatish Taseer did a whistle-stop visit to Mumbai. A delayed flight, an unannounced Ola-Uber strike and several other logjams meant that the original plan of interviewing him over a working lunch at a restaurant had to be canned. With an impending cancellation lurking in the horizon, the unassuming author decided to swing by the office for the chat instead.

Pressed for time, we took the liberty to order for a Bombay sandwich from our local sandwichwallah. And guess what? Another fan was won over. Taseer chomped on the snack with relish, "This is so good; and it's really filling; I'm going to try it the next time I am here." And now, that he is back in town for his sessions at Tata Lit Live, we're curious to know if he did try it out, maska maar ke.

Around the bend

Kiran Rao and son Azad duck to avoid blocking the view as cameramen shoot television actors Divyanka Tripathi and Vivek Dahiya (not in frame) at the opening of acrobatic show Cirque Du Soleil on Thursday. Pic/Bipin Kokate

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