Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Sameer Markande

A different ball game

Youngsters engage in a game of rugby as their cricket counterparts look on at Oval Maidan.

Walk like a king

Participants measure the bollard distance in Matunga

Earlier this week, the Walking Project, a community aimed at making the city pedestrian-friendly, pulled out some new strings, quite literally, to measure the distance between bollards posted on the footpaths around King's Circle, Matunga. "Instead of having to use a machine to measure distances to see if they met the IRC [Indian Roads Congress] mandates, we handed participants a 900 mm-long string for measuring," shared programme manager Vedant Mhatre, who added that while some bollards had sufficient distance, enough for wheelchairs to pass through, others did not. Another problem along the route was the lack of tactile pavements for the visually impaired.

One month of anti-caste stories

Dr Ambedkar laid groundwork for RBI; (right) Gautam's artwork compares a Dalit to a buffalo

April 1, a day popularly associated with April Fool's Day internationally, is also the day when the Reserve Bank of India was established in 1935. And for the Dalit community, it is the beginning of 30 days of celebration. "Dalit History Month is a movement that runs parallel to the Black History Month, where people celebrate the stalwarts of the anti-caste movement. April was selected as Dr BR Ambedkar's and Jyotirao Govindrao Phule's birth anniversaries also fall in this month," shared artist Siddhesh Gautam (inset), who is on a quest to bring to the fore notable works by the people of the community through his visual essays.

"I will share one such essay every day, offering a peep into how as a contemporary artist, I view our history," he shared. An artwork shed light on how Ambedkar's principles laid groundwork for the RBI, while another built on writer Kancha Ilaiah's comparison of a Dalit to a buffalo in India. "There will also be an artwork focused on the women of the community and their fight against patriarchy. It will celebrate women writers Kausalya Baisantri, Urmila Pawar and Babytai Kamble," he revealed.

K-coolness in Juhu

The store is set to host a K-pop and K-drama-themed event

The new Crossword outlet at Juhu is paradise for Mumbai's anime community, with dedicated sections for manga and anime-inspired merchandise. On April 14, the bookstore will extend its arms to the K-community, as it invites Mumbai BTS to host a gathering, Korean Secrets. "This is along the lines of a new book launch, The Power of Nunchi. It will include K-pop and K-drama-themed games, songs streaming, and many surprises! It is free and open to all," Mumbai BTS co-founders Ayushre A Tari and Soham Haldankar told us.

Park and pedal

Dabbawalas on cycles. File pic

Mumbai's dabbawalas saw a ray of hope on Wednesday for their long-standing demand of making parking spaces for their cycles outside railway stations. "Their cycles need safe spaces to park in, lest they face dangers like theft and damage," shared Priyanka Kumble, lead project and operations at Waatavaran Foundation.

The group with (fourth from right) Dr Sudhakar Shinde

The initiative, along with IIFL Foundation, managed to arrange the dabbawalas an audience with Dr Sudhakar Shinde, Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Municipal Corporation. "They put across their demand of making these parking stations outside Churchgate, Lower Parel, Bandra, and Andheri stations, where there is maximum activity. Dr Shinde found these demands reasonable. We will meet again on April 12 to take these discussions, including that of EV charging stations, further," she revealed.