Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Ruk, ruk, ruk
A little girl waits for her turn for a picture as Malaika Arora takes a selfie with security staff at a wedding show at Bandra Kurla Complex on Saturday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Rajni George

In solidarity with the #metoo wave
In a sweet victory, former editor of Penguin, Rajni George, managed to get the organisers of the Jaipur Literature Festival to support the #MeToo Movement in India. After getting Gurcharan Das, Wendy Doniger, Shobhaa De, DW Gibson, Sonam Kapoor, Rosanna Arquette, Dayanita Singh, Lisa Ray and 1,000 more to sign this petition on change.org, the festival organisers have assured that their speakers' list will not feature those called out by sexual harassment survivors on social media. With the next few months pegged as the lit fest season, it will be interesting to see who follows in JLF's footsteps.

Fahad Ahmad

All's well that ends well
Nearly two months after mid-day reported how Fahad Ahmad, who had spearheaded the TISS protest earlier this year, didn't get admission to the PhD programme, as his registration was put on hold, there is finally some good news. The former general secretary of the students' union told this diarist that he was finally given access to his MPhil degree along with admission to continue his PhD. "With this, I would like to say that the fight for social justice will continue. I extend my gratitude to all those who helped me ," he said, while thanking this newspaper.

Datta Gaekwad, former captain of India, seems to be in a spot of bother in finding a suitable pair of boots. (Photo by S&G/PA Images via Getty Images)

DK Gaekwad is 90 and it's celebration time
Who is India's oldest living Test cricketer? Is it Madhav Apte, or his fellow Mumbaikar, Dr Chandu Patankar? Perhaps, it's CD Gopinath from Chennai, who went on the 1952 tour of England. What about Nari Contractor, who made his Test debut in 1955? It could well be that ultra economical left-arm spinner Bapu Nadkarni too. Although these cricket stalwarts are well above the age of 80, none of them can be called India's senior-most Test cricket citizen.

That honour belongs to Dattajirao Gaekwad, the Baroda-based former India captain, who turned 90 on Saturday. His son Anshuman, the former India opening batsman and coach, threw a semi-surprise party for his father at his impressive farm house in Sevasi, Baroda, on Saturday.

Dattajirao was told that the party would be a family affair, but Anshuman quietly managed to get Pune-based Chandu Borde and Apte (both of whom played with his father) to travel to Baroda.

Dattaji captained India on the 1959 tour of England where Abbas Ali Baig scored a hundred on Test debut at Manchester. Baig couldn't make it for the Baroda celebration since he is in Singapore. Anshuman also rued the absence of Contractor and Patankar.

He was proud to tell us that his father is active at 90 and insists on driving his Maruti 800 around Baroda. Gaekwad may have played just 11 Tests, but his contribution to Baroda cricket is nothing short of immense. His family and friends have good reason to believe that he will stay as solid and steady like his batting. And, being an alert fielder, he'll keep a good watch on them, too!

Ayushi Kanodia; (below) The Greek-style duplex that the duo designed

A German win
Mumbai-based duo Ayushi Kanodia, 29, and Parakh Jindal, 27, of Ayushi Kanodia Designs, have secured a win for themselves at the prestigious German Design Award, 2019, in the category of Interior Architecture, for a Greek-styled duplex they designed in the city earlier this year.

First created by the German Parliament around 65 years ago, the award is said to be one of the most renowned design competitions worldwide. The designers will receive the award at a flashy ceremony in Frankfurt next year. "When we started the project, the idea was to design a home that made you feel cosy and calm," Kanodia told this diarist. "Right from the aqua blue colour to the white walls, and furniture, the place reminds you of a home away from the city."

Let's #Boycottdesignfabric
After Design Fabric and Taxi Fabric's founder, Sanket Avlani, was outed as a serial harasser by a number of women designers (he liked sending unsolicited pictures of his member to women), under #MeToo, the design agency took a break for a week and came back with a new head, Madhuvanthi Senthil Kumar, and the most tone-deaf apology. It neither acknowledged Avlani's transgressions nor expressed any solidarity with those who spoke up. After several artists and designers protested, a call to boycott Design Fabric was taken, and close to a hundred artists responded. Artists such as creative director Mira F Malhotra, Studio Kohl; textile artist Sarah Naqvi; illustrator Priya Kuriyan, artist Sajid Wajid Shaikh, and several others demanded that their work be taken down from the website and Instagram handles. The message is clear: the words you speak after a storm need to show you have truly weathered it.

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates