Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

A fruit vendor waits for customers at a neighbourhood in Jogeshwari on Friday

Hope of fruition

A fruit vendor waits for customers at a neighbourhood in Jogeshwari on Friday. Pic/Satej Shinde

Tell the kids a story

At a time that can be harsh on children, NGO Save the Children has launched a new initiative to help kids from marginalised communities get continued access to an array of services, including nutrition, health, education and social protection. It's called #SavewithStories and features B-Town celebs like Dia Mirza and Soha Ali Khan joining hands with Hollywood actors Jennifer Garner (in pic) and Amy Adams on social media to share their favourite children's story. After Mirza shared a post about Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, she nominated Khan, Neha Dhupia, Varun Dhawan, Bipasha Basu, Gul Panag and Karan Johar to take the challenge and asked her followers to donate to the charity and #SlowTheCurve.

Speaking about the initiative, Pragya Vats, head of campaigns for the NGO told this diarist, "All we have to do is read a story, share it with friends, and support children through the charity as they will be the worst-hit, especially those living on the fringes. Words can help us tide over this time."

A jigsaw for you

People have been getting really innovative when it comes to thinking up with ways to make use of their time. The Heritage Lab, a digital platform connecting museums and citizens, recently started a series called #MuseumJigsaw, sharing puzzles of artworks and photographs from different museums. These include works like Feeding the Parrot by Pestonji Bomanji and a photograph of Sir David Sassoon Library by late city historian Foy Nissen. "We came up with museum games as we thought this would be a good time to talk about masterpieces. As part of these games, I thought we could do jigsaws. I got in touch with a couple of museums for sending their artworks across. More than the museums and their enthusiasm, it's the people who got really excited. We felt it was a good way for kids to engage with masterpieces, but even adults took to it," says founder Medhavi Gandhi.

Bhardwaj's Bengali conquest

By the looks of his Twitter account, director and composer Vishal Bhardwaj has been cooking up a storm these days. His latest kitchen conquests include dishes from Bengal like chholar daal and jhinge aloo posto. While posting pictures of these dishes, Bhardwaj thanked popular YouTube food channel Bong Eats, which many Bengalis living away from home swear by.

Speaking to this diarist, co-founder Saptarshi Chakraborty said, "It is Vishal Bhardwaj! It's strange to even imagine that someone like him is watching our videos, so it was a great moment. We'll also add a shorshe begun recipe soon."

Our daily bread

Here's some good news for those who have been craving goodies from their favourite eateries. Mag Street Bread Co and Iktara are restarting home deliveries for SoBo. "We started operations at the bakery five days ago and with Iktara, we began yesterday. It's a small team at the moment. Mag Street Kitchen has enough space to operate; we have converted our dining room into a living area for the staff, with showers, to prevent movement of staff outside. Essentially, we have put people up in the kitchen. The whole reason for starting the bakery was the many requests I received for bread that wasn't easily available at local stores," Gauri Devidayal, co-owner, Mag Street Bread Co and Iktara, told this diarist. So whether it's your daily bread fix or desi khana by chef Amninder Sandhu, you know who to call.

Panna's caretakers need your help

Pic/last wilderness foundation

Panna's Pardhi community, traditional hunters, find themselves in a crisis during the lockdown. Having facilitated eco-tourism in this region of Madhya Pradesh, their source of income has been cut off. Now, Last Wilderness Foundation (LWF), a non-profit working with forest communities in Panna for a decade, is reaching out to people to support them financially. Contributions can be sent via bank transfer to the foundation. Elaborating on the contribution of the Pardhi families, Bhavna Menon, programme manager of LWF told this diarist, "We don't want them to feel demotivated due to the lack of income as ever since they started working with us, there have been no cases of tiger poaching in Panna."

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