Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Pic/Ashish Raje

The neigh sayers

An artist retouches a horse sculpture at JK Kapoor Chowk near Worli sea face on Monday.

Sailing in

A model of INS Mumbai at the Worli traffic island

Highlighting the rich maritime traditions of Maharashtra, a model of Indian Navy's warship, the INS Mumbai was dedicated to the city last weekend. This model is located on a traffic island in Worli, next to the mouth of the Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL). History tells us that the INS Mumbai was built indigenously by Mazagon Docks Ltd. She is a guided missile destroyer and has been the flagship for various combat operations like Operation Parakram and several relief operations across the globe in the last two decades. The next time your car exits the BWSL at Worli en route SoBo, you know where to stop and snap a salute.

This Mumbaikar is making a change

The pandemic has affected each one of us, but some people have it worse than others. They include the children of convicted prisoners, whose other parent lost their jobs during this time. Mariya Danawala, a Mumbai-based strategy consultant, has now started a crowdfunding campaign to help 27 such kids, aged between four and 13 years, and identified by NGO India Vision Foundation. The idea is to provide them with ration kits that include rice, wheat, oil, sugar and pulses, apart from giving them a gas cylinder. Danawala told this diarist, "Children are the collateral damage when their parents are incarcerated. They experience social stigma not only from people in their communities, but also from close relatives. While the active intent of this campaign is to raise funds to provide these children with basic essentials, the passive intent is to raise awareness and break the chain of social stigma around them." Log on to ketto.org to lend a hand.

Creating a dialogue

In a world which largely sees sexual violence in strict binaries of black and white, Allegedly, an online theatre performance directed by Delhi-based artiste Mallika Taneja (in pic) recently opened up a conversation regarding consent, justice and our personal predicaments in the era of #MeToo. The piece, which was performed over the weekend, was originally commissioned by publishing house Zubaan, and the adapted version has been co-produced by international arts platforms Beursschouwburg Brussels, Kunstencentrum Vooruit Ghent, and Khoya Paya. About the participatory performance that has been gaining traction and peeking curiosity, Taneja shared, "The play was originally performed by two people, and now it has an ensemble cast of over 20. To adapt it for Zoom, it was structured as a three-layered conversation between two friends about a case of sexual assault one underwent 16 years ago; a chorus that discusses and opines on this process; and a constant poll that we engage the audience in. Through it, we wanted to get a dialogue going on rape, assault, consent, opinions, etc."

When music impacts society

Toto Funds the Arts is a Bengaluru-based organisation that honours musicians at an annual awards show, with the criteria being that the artistes must have effected some sort of beneficial social change through their music. The longlist for 2021 has now been announced and it includes 18 names from across the country. Sickflip, 4lienetic and Kaali Collective (in pic) are the three acts that are holding the flag up for Mumbai. Speaking about the music they have made, Abhishek Shindolkar from Kaali Collective told this diarist that they have written songs like Jungle bachao, which is about the deforestation at Aarey, and Asia, about the Hathras rape case. He added, "We have also recently released Dena na bahane, which has a self-explanatory title."

They are all ears

Podcasts have become all the rage in India, especially in 2020. A new survey that Spotify commissioned across the country, with 1,035 respondents, has revealed people's listening habits. Sixty per cent felt that listening to podcasts that celebrities host makes them feel closer to that person. Sixty-two per cent have listened to a podcast at least once in their lives, while 50 per cent listen to at least one episode of a podcast every week. Also, the night time is the most popular slot for people to tune in.

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