Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Baking into a sweat
Actor Ayushmann Khurrana seems bogged down by the heat before cutting a cake at an event meant to mark Kishore Kumar's birthday, in Andheri on Monday. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

Virat Kohli

Where there is a Willis, there is a way
We've not heard from Bob Willis now that Virat Kohli will take on the England Test bowlers without the help of a county stint. The former England fast bowling great and captain expressed his displeasure when Surrey got Kohli to play for them as part of the India captain's preparation for this week's Test series. Willis felt overseas recruitments hamper the development of local English talent. In the end, Kohli's county ambitions were shot down due to his injury. All the same, Willis's view was not a popular one and was viewed cynically even by his fellow countrymen. However, he has always been obsessive about England finally gaining and winning.

Bob Willis

Here's an example. Willis spent four months in the Subcontinent as a senior member of the England team in 1981-82. After losing a boring six-Test series in India, the Englishmen flew to Sri Lanka for the island nation's inaugural Test at Colombo. The hosts competed well in Colombo and even stood a chance of beating England. But Willis wouldn't have any of it and lectured his team before they went out to field on the final day. He remarked: "After four months out here I don't want to go home losing to this lot. If we lose to Sri Lanka, then you won't want to go home." The verbal tonic worked and England ensured they won the Test. As for Willis, he became England's next captain. Kohli should be "made to suffer", Willis recently emphasised. Extra motivation for you, Virat? Over to Birmingham.

A building with Art Deco architecture features on Marine Drive

What's on the table? Art deco
The euphoria around the Art Deco buildings in Mumbai being included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list hasn't settled yet. And proof of that lies in an upcoming auction to be held in the city.

The highlight of the collection is a set of furniture in the Art Deco style, including chairs (Above), tables and cabinets. The starting price for these gems is Rs 15,000, going up to Rs 6.3 lakh. It's an online auction, though, so stay glued to your smartphone or computer on August 8 and 9 if you want to pick up a piece.

Kanika Kapoor and Cesc Fabregas

Having a ball
Away from the city's gloomy weather, singer Kanika Kapoor is happy holidaying in Spain with family. The highlight of her trip, though, was attending the wedding party of Spanish footballer Cesc Fàbregas and Daniella Semaan in Ibiza. Dressed in an embellished Monisha Jaising gown, the Baby Doll singer partied with football greats and their spouses including Thierry Henry, Luis Suárez, Mathieu Flamini, and Lionel Messi (Kapoor is friends with his wife, Antonella Roccuzzo). Kapoor tells us that Fàbregas and Semaan are old friends from London. Partying goals, indeed!

Donald Trump

Trump gets newspaper treatment
Trust Donald Trump to be a never-ending reservoir of entertainment on Twitter. The latest piece of drama that the US President has provided involves an "off the record" meeting he wanted to have with the publishers of New York Times in the White House. Instead, he tweeted about how the two parties had apparently discussed "fake news" and "the enemy of the people" aka the media. In response, NYT put out a statement rubbishing these claims, saying what they had actually discussed was how Trump's demonisation of the press is unhealthy for democracy. We'll leave it to you to figure whose version is closer to the truth.

Pankaj Udhas feeds Anup Jalota his birthday cake at the festival

Time for number crunching
You have heard of the adage, "Saying it with flowers." Here, we say it with figures. Numbers packed a punch at the two-day annual Khazana ghazal festival in aid of cancer and thalassemic patients held at a Nariman Point five-star over the weekend. Here's a look at some of them. 17: Number of years the festival has been held. '1 crore: The amount collected this year for charity, the highest ever. 200: The number of thalassaemic children helped over the years. 75,000: The number of cancer patients treated thanks to the festival.

Ghazal maestro Pankaj Udhas said about the festival, "I had never expected that Khazana would sustain for so long. Anup Jalota, Talat Aziz and I thought about hosting a ghazal festival in India, with a two-pronged approach - popularising ghazals and supporting those in need."

And another happy number that day was bhajan maestro Anup Jalota celebrating his 65th birthday. We hear Jalota flew in from Auckland and went straight to the hotel to mark the occasion. The clock struck 12 when the ghazals stopped and "Happy birthday" broke out on the speakers. Now that's a proper celebration.

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