Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Odd one out
Malaika Arora keeps an eye on the camera as Dabbo Ratnani, Vikas Gupta, Anusha Dandekar, and Neerja Gaba frolick at the launch of a new TV show. Pic/Satej Shinde

Ungermann comes to India
Do you remember Ben Ungermann from Masterchef 2017 who lost to Diana Chan in the grand finale? The Dutch-Indonesian chef went on to open his own ice cream brand soon after and trained under culinary luminaries like Heston Blumenthal. Last week, the chef was in the city to curate a dessert menu for the Lake View Café in Powai. Turns out, Ungermann had a fun stay. "It's my first trip to India, and it has been a wonderful experience because people are always feeding me," the chef told this diarist.

Kiran's a cool cat
Over the weekend, we had attended one of the best musical gigs we have been to in a long time. Christophe Hetier aka Antipop - one of the founding members of French electronica giants Telepopmusik - absolutely slayed the packed audience with such infectious dance music that it was impossible for us to keep our feet still. And that applied not just to us, but also to Kiran Rao, who, too, was soaking in the good vibe. And this isn't the first time that we have spotted Rao at a gig with alternative music. A couple of years ago, we had seen her at a techno party in Café Nemo, when the venue still existed. There, too, she had mingled freely with the crowd, fitting in to the T. So to sum things up, if we ever find ourselves in the same house party as her, we'd be happy to let her take control of the music.

Mid-day knows how to recycle
Years before the plastic ban was imposed in Maharashtra, the mid-day Infomedia press in Navi Mumbai had been putting its ink drums to good use. A recent trip to Rabale revealed a happy surprise, wherein potted plants could be seen swaying in the blue drums cut into half. With efforts made to clean and recycle every used drum, the compound now boasts of rows of huge planters, doing away with the need to purchase pots.

On the right track
The 33.5 km Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ line is to be completed by 2021. But it is difficult to keep track of its progress beyond the green and blue 'Mumbai is Upgrading' hoardings around the city. To keep Mumbaikars updated, the Mumbai Metro Rail Cooperation Limited announced a new #Knowyourstation series on Twitter and promises to post relevant images of ongoing work on single metro stations.

What a sorry sorry, Chetan
As a lot of people ask the question, "Is this India's #MeToo moment?" the bigger question is, what does the exhaustive list of male assaulters in the country say about our society? Around the same time last Saturday that we learnt of Kanan Gill's inappropriate behaviour towards a woman, another one shared screenshots of her chat with Chetan Bhagat. The conversation that would have otherwise qualified for just bad flirting, clarified exactly how uncomfortable Bhagat made the woman concerned who repeatedly asked if the writer was kidding. Soon after, Bhagat shared an unmoving apology that was directed more to his wife than to the survivor. "Once again, I am sorry to the person concerned, and of course most of all to Anusha. I hope you can forgive me," Bhagat wrote. Our message to him, the next time you apologise to a survivor it might be a good idea to mention that you mean it most of all to them!

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