Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Raiheth Rawla

A guilt-free bag
New York-based fashion designer Raiheth Rawla believes in "art with utility", where she reinterprets everyday objects in striking sculptural forms. Last year, her premier handbag collection, Roadside, that launched in Soho, was inspired by traffic cones, jute baskets and stacked pots found on the streets of New York and India.

Now, Rawla is gravitating towards a more sustainable line-up. "I'm creating a biodegradable bag using banana leaves with the help of a biochemical engineer and florist. We are aiming to have the leaf bag last the user a period of 10 years, before disintegrating entirely," said the Parsons School of Design graduate.

The best of India's verse
Just when we were complaining the lack of platforms to showcase good poetry, Linda Ashok, who is most known for spearheading the annual RL Poetry Award, has announced her new pet project - The Best Indian Poetry anthology. The series, which is slated to debut this year, is modelled after the famed Best American Poetry series running for over a decade in the US. Ashok, who is going to be the editor of the series, has already solicited literary magazines to submit the best works by resident Indians written in English or translated into English from any regional language, published during January to December 2017.

"This is an attempt to raise the exposure for poetry produced in this subcontinent. Although there are many anthologies published in the country, there is no one anthology that brings the published works of the established, the fairly new and debutant poets together for a foreign reader's speculation," said Ashok. The last date for sending entries is August 15. You can submit your entries to bit.ly/ BestIndian Poetry.

India ‘figure' well in run outs
The Cricket Stats Journal (Figures are Fun) published every quarter by The Society of Cricket Statisticians of India is nothing short of a delight for lovers of cricket facts and figures. The latest issue plays true to form. One particular chapter - Batsmen Run Out in Each Innings of Test match by Amit Kumar - will not exactly endear itself to fans of India's one-drop batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, but the details make for interesting reading. Pujara is listed as the last batsman to be run out in both innings of a Test match when he failed to make his ground in the Centurion Test against South Africa earlier this year.

South African bowler Morne Morkel (right) celebrates the dismissal of India's Cheteshwar Pujara (grounded) during the second day of the second Test at Supersport Park in Centurion on January 14. Pic/AFP

Pujara is the only Indian to suffer such a fate in a list of 25 batsmen but what is also heartening is that Indian fielders have ran out batsmen in both innings twice. That's a fair record considering Indians were considered slow movers on the field. The opposition batsmen to suffer at the hands of our fielders were West Indies' Clive Lloyd (in Kingston, 1971) and a few months later, England's Bombay-born batsman John Jameson at the Oval in that victorious 1971 Test match. All the same, Pujara needs to be more swift between the wickets during the Test series against England that kicks off next week. Can't afford to slip here, Chintu!

All clay and all play
This year may be the one that belongs to ceramics, as the first Indian Ceramics Triennale is set to prove. The year began with much talk, in fact, about Breaking Ground, the triennale's debut edition, which is set to open on August 31 at the Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK), Jaipur.

The six-member team behind it has mid-career ceramic artists, including Anjani Khanna and Madhvi Subrahmanian, and enjoys the support of gallerist Peter Nagy, Ray Meeker, and Pooja Sood, the director general of JKK. Breaking Ground will feature more than 50 artist projects. We are waiting to see what comes forth from Adil Writer, Thukral and Tagra, and Meeker himself.

A dance for dosti for India and Israel
Choreographer Ashley Lobo, who's known experiment with dance forms, recently had an interesting crossover experience. His dance company Navdhara India Dance Theatre had been invited by the Indian Embassy in Israel and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) for a performance to celebrate Indo-Israel ties.

The piece titled, Agni, centred on the power of fiery emotions that can create and destroy all at once. Lobo said, "This performance was a privilege as it commemorated a very special friendship."

Runaway train

Actor Kangana Ranaut fixes the errant train of her ethereal dress at an event held at a Santa Cruz five-star on Friday. Pic/Sameer Markande

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