Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Pic/Atul Kamble

Making a Splash!

A few kids make the most of a rainy day at Shivaji Park.

Music to their ears

Exactly a week ago, we had written in this section about how different stakeholders within the independent music industry could step in to help out artistes in their time of need. One of the solutions that cropped up was offering them funding platforms. That's exactly what online platform The Indian Music Diaries (TIMD), digital distribution company OK Listen! and audio production firm Nuke Sound are doing with Udaan, a monetary benefit and mentorship programme that will provide one participant, selected each month, funds worth Rs 70,000 till January 2022, to help master, market and distribute two tracks. "We wanted to pool in our combined resources to propel the careers of the artistes forward," TIMD founder Akshay Kapoor told this diarist.

Farewell Giraben, the design visionary

Gira Sarabhai. Pic Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons; (left) Radhi Parekh

Pioneering institution builder and architect, Gira Sarabhai, who played a foundational role in establishing the National Institute of Design (NID) and the Calico Museum of Textiles, passed away this week in Ahmedabad. Radhi Parekh, founder-director of Kala Ghoda-based ARTISANS', shared that Giraben, as she was fondly known, trained at Taliesin West studio in Arizona with architect Frank Lloyd Wright. "She designed not only the culture and curricula at NID, but the campus as well, which she and her brother Gautam envisaged. She established foundational resources for design in India. At NID, global design thinkers trained the emerging designers of independent India; and at Calico Museum, academic researchers documented India's textiles for publication. Her pioneering vision lives on through generations of educators, students, artisans, researchers and collaborators who've come through these doors," she revealed. Parekh reminisced about meeting Giraben at the Calico Museum. "When I finally met the formidable Giraben, she was dressed in her signature mismatch of modest handmade textiles, and peered at me from behind a book. To me, she embodied the eclectic appreciation for art, craft and design that I encountered at NID," she recollected, adding that Giraben left us the unique legacy of holding dear the traditions of India, while embracing contemporary technologies, and addressing the universal concerns of our time.

Obama's dreams for YA readers

The life of former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, has been anything but ordinary. In his book Dreams from My Father, the politician deep-dives into his personal journey, beginning with New York, where Obama learns of his father's death in a car accident, then to a small town in Kansas from where he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, and many other emotional pit-stops on the way to understanding his identity. Now, we're happy to learn that the memoir is being adapted for young adults, and will also be available unabridged as a new audiobook read by the author. That's a journey to look forward to.

Wildlife lensman turns his focus on kids with cancer

Sloth bears at Daroji, Karnataka. Pic/Ramki Sreenivasan

When Bengaluru-based entrepreneur, conservationist and wildlife photographer Ramki Sreenivasan was recovering from stage-four lung cancer, he realised that he had access to valuable support systems. He also understood that a large section of the population had little or no access to prohibitively expensive cancer treatment. "I've been looking for ways to pay back and figured that I could use two things I know best to try and help the cause - wildlife and photography," shared Sreenivasan about his website, Wildlife for Cancer. It offers a wide variety of wildlife photographs, proceeds from which are sent to Iksha Foundation, which helps underprivileged children affected by retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer. To lend him a hand, log on to wildlifeforcancer.com.

Bus ka dum

As part of its campaign to address the importance of urban bus-based public transport in protecting the environment, Pune-based NGO Parisar is inviting artists to create art to help them spread the word. They are looking for artworks, videos or photographs that underline the issue, and selected entries will be shared with the state environment minister, said Swati Pathak, senior project associate and campaign manager. "It's a continuation of our Lakh ko 50 Bus campaign. We're working on a report to highlight this link between buses and the environment which is often ignored." Head to @parisar_org on Instagram for more details.