Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Anurag Ahire

Love, love me do

Friends wait for a local train to arrive at Goregaon West station on Saturday.

Gabriela Sabatini, the Argentine we forget?

Gabriela Sabatini during the 1990 edition of Wimbledon. Pic/Getty Images

In the midst of all the hero-worship for football icon Lionel Messi and the reverence towards the late Diego Maradona, sports buffs may have forgotten another Argentine sporting great - tennis player Gabriela Sabatini. In her prime (late 1980s to early 1990s), Gaby endorsed big brands and her popularity was only second to Maradona in Argentina. But what happened before all that? Rohit Brijnath, that fine sports writer, in a 1990 issue of Sportsworld magazine, wrote of 1985, the year Sabatini's career was taking off in sterling fashion: "Prince said please use our racquets. Sergio Tacchin said please use our clothes. Add to that a ring, a bracelet, a slim watch, a gold chain and pretty earrings and the dusky debutant was a stunning vision. So what if she brooded a little, she was talent with a capital T." Indeed, Sabatini was more than just a pretty face although she was never the World No. 1 women's singles player.

A homage to stomping grounds

Till the last decade, a steady swish set always landed up at Indigo, Colaba, looking for a good time. So, when the iconic restaurant shut its doors in 2018, it left behind a social void and a striking heritage bungalow. For entrepreneur Suved Lohia, whose first nightclub was Red Light at Kala Ghoda, this served as the perfect spot to bring back boutique dining and day-long brunches. Rumour has it that cricketer Virat Kohli is a partner here, while London-based chef Rishim Sacheva will be whipping up an international menu. We hear things will firm up by December. Watch this space.

The holder of many hotel keys

Prachi Kagzi

Mumbai-based Prachi Kagzi, who calls herself a travel evangelist and runs Little Passports, a company that organises trips for kids, recently made it to the Limca Book of Records 2020-22 for the largest hotel key cards collection in India. While Kagzi's record of 120 cards from the year 2018 was featured in the record book, she currently has close to 200 of them. "Collecting memorabilia was a constant from my travels even as a child. After I was married, I starting saving keepsakes from my travels with my husband, such as tickets of transportation, matchboxes from bars and other such bric-a-brac.

Hotel key cards were gaining popularity and the attractive designs caught my eye. I started building my collection in 2007," shares Kagzi. She adds that often, hotels have expected her to return these cards. "I have to explain that I am building a collection. Every card in my collection is from a personal journey and I can recollect the hotel each key belongs to. There have been times when I missed collecting some in the rush of an early morning check out." Her collection includes custom-printed ones from destination wedding hotels as well.

A new feat

Despite being tough, this pandemic has been a blessing for startups. Government initiatives have helped them grow and showcase their ideas on global platforms. One such competition is SHE LOVES TECH, where startups from 40 different countries compete. GoodLives, started by Lawrance Bamania and Sakshi Shah, will be representing India in the global round of the competition. Started in the lockdown, GoodLives helps people find the right guidance to achieve sound emotional and mental health. Bamania says, "Representing India on a global level after getting selected among 4,000+ participants is quite overwhelming. We are now preparing for the bigger win." Shah adds, "It is an achievement for everyone who suffers in silence and fights alone every day. This win represents that mental health will now be at the forefront of wellness and will help us create a social impact."

The observer in a disaster

Devadeep Gupta

Visual artist Devadeep Gupta's video work, Normalisation of a Disaster, selected for this year's Hong Kong International Photo Festival, is a personal enquiry into the Baghjan Oil Blowout in Assam that occurred on May 27, 2020, the artificial disaster in an Oil India Limited-owned site causing the displacement of more than 1,600 families. The work explores the reaction of people close to, but unaffected by the disaster, becoming a reminder of the hyper-normalised stance of observers towards calamities. "There are the victims and the survivors of the disaster, and the front-line workers. There are also the curious onlookers, the ones who make such disasters an object of spectacle to be posed, pictured, and shared with their digital network: the disaster tourists." Gupta also questions through this work his own position as an ‘observer' juxtaposed over the position of being an artist.