Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

What are you hawking at?

A hawker at his stall in front of a Lamassu sculpture at the Bomanjee Hormarjee Wadia Clock Tower on Perin Nariman Street.

Little Master Sunny Gavaskar's big bash

He's the Little Master in cricket's big, beautiful world, but when Sunil Gavaskar decides to get all his friends, teammates - past and present (yes, present since he is part of a commentary team) - under one roof, it can never be a little celebration of friendship. It was "a soirée of close friends" as a long-time pal put it after he left the Indus Club at Bandra Kurla Complex on Thursday night.

Host Sunil Gavaskar shares a lighter moment with a friend as ex-India teammate Mohinder Amarnath (right) joins in the fun. Pics/Clayton Murzello

If one carried a list of first-class players who donned Mumbai and India colours, to the party, it would have been filled with ticks to mark them present. Chandrakant Patankar, 92, and Nari Contractor, 89, were the senior-most Test players to make it.

Of course, there were a few absentees, but from Mohinder Amarnath to Yajurvindra Singh and in between, they were all there from the Test players' lot. A host of former teammates from Gavaskar's domestic, club and even school and college cricket days didn't miss being part of a good day for cricket. A handful from the media too came along and one spotted actor Nana Patekar enjoying the evening.

Ex-India players Kiran More and Balvinder Singh Sandhu strike a pose

Nostalgic runs were scored, wickets were taken in the form of leg-pulling and a sudden shower of rain made the wicket livelier. Anshuman Gaekwad and Yajurvindra Singh looked like the last pair to make their way to the centre (straight from the airport after their Bengaluru trip for an Indian Cricketers' Association meeting), all confident and bubbly to hit the winning runs. BKC was the place to be on Thursday evening.

Bronte or Hoover?

A previous event at Scribbler's Tribe

Lest you forget that it's Women's Month, Scribblers Tribe, a literature tech company, will be hosting a Women in Literature online discussion with St Xavier's Language Lab head, Jyoti More, this Sunday. It will highlight how women authors have impacted literature, and the distinction in their writing across different periods. An interesting point of discussion that the event will dive into, ponders whether Charlotte Brontë would write like Colleen Hoover if born in this era.

Offering a snippet of the session, founder Sharon Lobo (inset) said, "I think Brontë's writing would be more challenging than Hoover's. If Brontë wrote today, she might have incorporated diverse perspectives and identities like people of colour, LGBTQiA+ individuals, or people with disabilities and explored their societal experiences and challenges, considering she advocated for women's rights during those times. Talking about language and structure, Brontë's writing tends to be more ornate and complex, while Hoover's is more direct and conversational."

Finding some sukoon in the busy city

Pic courtesy/Karan Mehta

Hubbub of honking cars and people talking over each other filled the room while this diarist sat down to write. As everyone says, Mumbai never sleeps; we can also agree that the city never takes a breather from its continuous commotion. Hence, the search for a peaceful hideout in the city made us smile when we learnt about a new art studio, Sukoon that opened in Versova by content creators Manav Chhabra and Unnati Malharkar.

The space displays pottery and paintings of small-scale artists. Pic courtesy/Shwet Parekh

"At Sukoon, we will be curating a lot of art specific events at the studio to offer artists a platform to showcase their talent. It will also be open for exhibitions, shoots, events and screenings among others," the creators explained. Its walls are donned with murals and paintings, while shelves are laden with pottery work of small-scale artists who attended the launch on Wednesday. The founders called it a safe space for every art medium: "Whether it's magazine or influencer shoots, art exhibitions, workshops, events, brand shoots, dance or singing practice and recordings, it is open to all."

It's back after 50,000 years

The comet was first spotted in November 2022. Pic courtesy/Paresh Kokate

While many completely missed the rare phenomenon, Stargazing Mumbai, a stargazing events company, revealed that Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is no longer visible in the Mumbai skies from now on. The celestial body has an orbital period of 50,000 years and was last visible to the naked eye in the Ice Age. "This comet is considered a long-period comet, which means it has most likely come from the outer reaches of our solar system called the Oort Cloud.

The place has only been theoretically predicted due to the existence of comets like C/2022 E3 (ZTF)," Mandar Paripurna (inset), chief technical officer, told us. Suggesting more such occurrences, the young astronomer said that Mumbaikars can spot the Venus and Pleiades Conjunction on April 11. The platform will also conduct special events for the Geminids Meteor Shower on December 13.

The next act

Divya Palat and Aditya Hitkari know something about being relevant. Their content agency Balancing Act completed two decades this year. Their secret? Foraying into new formats and films, with the aim that Palat and her husband started the company - to tell a damn good story. Palat shares, "When you step into new forms of content you become entrepreneurs all over again." Among films in progress, Palat reveals she's writing one called Jee Le Apni Zindagi. And it all started with marketing her parents' (authors Pushpa and Raghu Palat) book The Case That Shook The Empire. It's now being made into a Karan Johar film featuring Akshay Kumar. "The lovely thing about a story is when people [engage with] it," Palat says, en route to shoot an ad with Ranveer Singh. In our books, an afternoon with Singh is a fab way to celebrate their 20th.