Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Find your circle

A tourist lies on the ground to shoot a video of his friends at Gateway of India.

Aam duty

Subhajit Mukherjee plants a mango tree with a farmer (right) seeds are required to be dried in the sun for three to four days before sending them for plantation

Sow the seeds of greenery, quite literally, as the city joins hands with Subhajit Mukherjee in his Mission Mango. The founder of initiative Mission Green Mumbai has announced the beginning of his plantation drive with the arrival of the mango season. "We first started collecting mango seeds from across Mumbai in 2020," Mukherjee told this diarist over a phone call, "But as soon as we announced it, the entire country went into a lockdown." The aim was to plant one lakh mango trees. However, they could only plant 4,000 that year. "We have planted 44,000 mango trees till now from the seeds. The aim to plant one lakh trees continues this year as well," he added. The ratio of successful germination of seeds is 10:1 due to increase in unnatural methods of ripening mangoes, he shared. Drop a message on 9323942388 to send your seeds for plantation.

Marching into poetry month

It's that time of the year again. The National Poetry Writing Month is here, and as #NaPoWriMo begins to resurface on social media platforms in April, city-based art community 3 Art House has bigger plans. The community, led by co-founder Jasmeet Kaur Bagga (right) will host a special open mic for poets on April 7 at their Khar venue. "Even though anyone can pen down a few heartfelt lines, it takes a lot more to polish the skill of writing and performing poems. The special open mic is a celebration of poets and their craft," she shared. The event is open to all poets across languages and styles.

Hanging around at Hanging Garden

Participants at a recently held nature walk in Dahisar

Put on your Easter-themed walking shoes this Sunday. Sprouts, a Mumbai-based environmental awareness and conservation organisation is holding an Easter Nature Walk at Hanging Garden on Malabar Hill, on March 31. This will be led by green warrior Anand Pendharkar, who told this diarist, "The walk is being planned as an exploration and learning adventure. We will be looking at and learning about specific trees; what a topiary means; engage in some bird-watching and hopefully, some butterfly-watching as well." The walk has a fun element with bunny hops and an egg hunt, which have been woven in, to bring out the Easter bunny in children, and the child in adults. Reach out on 9820140254 if you'd like to hop along.

A new chapter

A gathering of the book club in 2023. Pic courtesy/Tejasvi Khatry

In April of 2016, Nirav Mehta hosted 11 book lovers at a Bandra venue as part of the first-ever event by his book club Broke Bibliophiles Bombay. "In 2019, we recorded more than 120 readers at a meet-up, that too on a day when India was playing against England in the [ICC] World Cup," Mehta reminisces about one of the many days he realised how fast his reading community was growing. The book club will celebrate its eighth anniversary on April 14. Head to bit.ly/b3c-mayanagari to learn more.

An animated you

Anupam Sen as Ghost-type Pokemon trainer. Pics courtesy/@jazyldraws

As the city gears up for Comic Con in April, artist Jazyl Homavazir (inset) is busy turning Otakus into anime characters.

"I used to do this annually - select a follower on a lucky-draw basis and turn them into a character based on the photos they'd send. I plan on making this a weekly practice now," he shared.

A work by Homavazir features follower Titas Ghosh as an anime character

His recent artwork featured an anime avatar of follower Anupam Sen in a Gengar-inspired suit. "Co-incidentally, it was his birthday the day I posted the artwork. He told me that it was the best gift he could receive," the artist beamed.