Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Ashish Raje

Pop it!

Ignoring the sea view, a young boy on Marine Drive is busy trying to pop soap bubbles

A soulful yatra

Azaan Ansari, Aanchal Shrivastava and Lakshya Shrivastava

The Yatra Project is an IP of Socially Lucky, a music marketing and artiste management agency run by Lakshya Shrivastava and Azaan Ansari. They are launching the first leg of their project with Yatra to Indiestan, which will have Aanchal Shrivastava, Kanishk Seth and Vidhya Gopal together for the first time on August 20. "As an indie musician, there are original songs that I want to perform but there are hardly spaces and opportunities to put them out there. This is the reason I wanted to be a part of the project," says Aanchal. "We [Socially Lucky] wanted to give back to the community," says Lakshya. Aanchal explained how this won't be like most acoustic house gigs with just a guitar and ukulele; this one would "be a full live sound of what is heard in our originals with percussion like cajon and darbuka." The first show will be a two-hour-long set and they plan on being as consistent as possible in the future. "Yatra is more about the curation and the right kind of acoustic experience," says Ansari.

Here's to many more!

Certain things give you a sense of community accomplishment, and Kainaz Messman's Theobroma opening its 100th outlet was one such moment for this diarist. Opened at the iconic Cusrow Baug on Colaba Causeway on a rainy day in 2004, it was a family business - the restaurant was opened using seed fund of about Rs 1.5 crore that came from the patriarch Farokh. While Kainaz, the chef and founder, ran the kitchen, the counter was manned by her mother Kamal with her sister Tina handling the backstage work, including business, PR and social media from London. Since then, the patisserie has grown and how! After two rounds of funding, the patisserie, which specialises in pastries, cupcakes and their signature brownies, has opened its 100th outlet and has presence in cities like Pune, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad and Bengaluru besides the home city Mumbai. In an earlier interview with mid-day Kainaz had said, "I know our products are old fashioned, but I am happy with them. I don't want to be part of a customer's special occasion alone. I want us to be part of their daily lives, serving them their cravings."

Aunty Rheea, the matchmaker

Author Rheea Rodrigues Mukherjee has always loved to play matchmaker to her friends - she also remembers meeting with some success in this department. Mukherjee is now taking this past-time hobby a notch higher as "Aunty Rheea" with her new Insta Matchmaking initiative. The author of The Body Myth, which was shortlisted for the TATA Literature Live First Book Award in 2019, recently posted about helping people seek love, friendships and dates. It's for everyone from cis-gender, queer, gender non-conforming to gender queer, trans, and genderless. All you need to do is email or DM your cute bios to Rheea, and she'll share it on her stories on her Instagram handle @rheealization. "I think people are really distraught with these dating apps, because it makes them look like products more than anything. There doesn't seem to be a space for millennials and Gen Zs to really express who they are and how they relate to people... I know of people who are seeking friendship and partners in both, traditional and untraditional roles. Which is why I thought of something like this. So far, it's been successful, and I have got notes saying that people are happy," she told this diarist.

When defence was Tavare's form of attack

England batsman Chris Tavare blunting the Australian attack in The Oval Test of the 1981 Ashes series. Pic/Getty Images

An array of international batsmen are deservedly hailed for an attacking style of play and their ability to make runs swiftly, which helps in shifting momentums in games. However, there are times in Test cricket when batsmen are admired for their ability to stick around albeit scoring at a slow pace. Once such player was England's Chris Tavare. Kent's Tavare had his share of detractors, but there were many who were quick to admire his stubborn ways. Forty Augusts ago at Lord's in 1982, Tavare was England's top-scorer in the second innings. Tavare batted for 404 minutes and faced 277 balls to score 82 and took 350 minutes to reach his half-century. He took one hour to open his account. Pakistan got the better of England in that Test through Mohsin Khan's double century while Abdul Qadir and Mudassar Nazar were their bowling heroes. By the way, Mudassar was also known for his slow batting. Against India at Bangalore in the opening Test of the 1979-80 series, Mudassar took nearly six hours to reach his century. Fast men, slow men… they are all part of the canvas of cricket.

Hamlet heads to America

The other day when we ran into Neil Bhoopalam at a special screening of Masaba Masaba, we asked him when would we see him on stage next. This diarist had first watched Bhoopalam act out Fido, King Claudius and the ghost of Hamlet's father in Raj Kapoor's Hamlet-The Clown Prince at Prithvi Theatre many years ago. Apart from telling us that we would see him in a new play before the end of the year, he also mentioned that the crew is taking Hamlet to America soon. It's a play with stellar performances, especially by Bhoopalam, and anybody who catches the show in the US, will be a lucky soul. Let's hope they take out time for another encore in Mumbai too!