Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Paver shot

A woman photographs a vada pav bought from a popular streetside shop near Capitol Cinema, opposite CSMT

Cause and effect

Doesn't the charm of handmade products lie in imperfect finishes? It's no surprise then that when Mumbai-based Pashoo Pakshee, a social enterprise that offers handcrafted goods by communities living in wildlife conflict areas and provides them an alternative livelihood, hosts its annual month-long Overlook and Forgive sale, the response is reassuring. Founder Savini Sonavaria shared that initial production sets may have small mistakes owing to human error or transportation damage that aren't irredeemable with a few mends but cannot be sold at full price. She shared, "The idea is to be honest with customers and ask them to purchase such products at a discount. We sold out such a stock at our first sale in 2018. It has become a ritual since then."

A theatrical ode to Shiv

Shiv Subrahmanyam and Vivaan Shah. PIC COURTESY/INSTAGRAM

Much like Arun Kolatkar's poetry, late actor, writer and theatrewallah Shiv Subrahmanyam's works were inherently Bambaiyya, actor-author Vivaan Shah believes. And this month, his beloved city will gather at Prithvi Theatre to celebrate him and his works at a four-day festival fondly titled, For you, Shiv. Kicking off on December 20, the festival will be presented by his theatre company Playtrix Players, which he co-founded with actor and partner, Divya Jagdale. It will also mark the launch of a book of his plays, titled Irani Cafe and Other Plays (Dhauli Books). Shah, who worked on the book, shared, "It's a joy to be able to share these plays with the world. His writing is so specific to the milieu of Bombay that he and I grew up in," he told us. The festival will also see performed readings and staging of plays like Clogged Arteries, Snapshots from an Album, Irani Cafe, Coffee in the Canteen, The Way I See It, along with film screenings and discussions. While Irani Cafe is a zany, madcap tribute to our cultural heritage, Snapshots from an Album is an evolving mural of an entire era, depicted through the story of a couple, and Clogged Arteries, Shah added, is a fun satire. "I'm fortunate enough to know him since I was an infant. I've looked up to him as a mythic figure. It's important to document these plays for posterity but also so that people in other parts of the country discover them," Shah reminisced. We hope, Subrahmanyam, wherever he is, is breaking into a smile.

A worthy mention

Some wins are special. Odissi dancer Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, who heads dance programming at NCPA, recently won the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from the Sangeet Natak Akademi. Dasgupta shared, "I believe there are two kinds of honours - one that you receive later in life for what you have accomplished over the years; and one that encourages you to work harder and make yourself worthy of the award. This award is my community's blessings for me, and of all those people who have contributed to my becoming."

An opportunity in mystery

As the world moves from print to digital, an online reading platform will move the other way. Varun Gwalani's (below) book, The Only Way Out Is Death - releasing this weekend at a Kemps Corner bookstore - marks the debut of the mobile fiction-reading platform Saga Fiction in publishing. Pranika Sharma, its co-founder, told us, "The fast-paced writing style and the popularity of the genre were factors that helped us choose the title as our first venture." Co-founder Aakriti Patni noted that there is a demand for crime-thrillers that affirmed their belief in the decision, adding that there is more to come. About the new title, Gwalani shared, "This book allowed me to write a murder mystery while answering several questions, such as, ‘What if the people who were responsible for global crimes were held to account?'"

A green chapter

The Chipko Movement made modern environmentalism cool in India, way before trending hashtags, Fridays for Future or sloganed T-shirts took the mantle forward. The Chipko Movement: A People's History is a tale of the historical agitation, told through the voices of the local communities, by activist, historian and writer Shekhar Pathak (in pic). The book, translated from Hindi by Manisha Chaudhry, has won the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2022. The award celebrates excellence in non-fiction writings on modern India and the winner receives a cash prize of R15 lakh, along with a trophy and a citation. "This is the definitive history of the Chipko Movement by a scholar who has practically lived it," the jury cited, adding that the book is a salutary reminder of the transformative power of collective action.