Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

It's a cultural thing

Dressed in traditional attire, a foreigner participates in Gudi Padwa celebrations in Girgaum.

There is a fish in my dish

Mogan Rodrigues

Food blogger Mogan Rodrigues has got us curious about kolim, dubbing it the East India balchao, (inset). "It is a tiny shrimp caught using a saree, not a net since these are just half a centimetre long." He explained that people begin catching kolim in December and January, and then age the salted kolim and preserve it in oil with garlic, bottle masala and ginger for the monsoon. Going against the East Indian norm of never sharing recipes, Rodrigues told us that a tablespoon of kolim and bottle masala can make for a delicious curry. If you're intrigued, Rodrigues is taking orders for kolim @dharavi_island and will ship them out by May-end.

Marine mosaic in Colaba

Ways of Water mural at Sassoon Docks. Pic Courtesy/Instagram

A vital addition to the city's public art is the Vayeda Brother's Warli art mural at Sassoon Docks that was created during the recently concluded Mumbai Urban Art Festival. If you missed the festival, head over to the southern tip of Mumbai for a full view of the mural that brings together Warli elements and colours outside its traditional scheme. "We tried to bring in a contemporary effect to this traditional art form," Mayur Vayeda told us.

Tushar and Mayur Vayeda

The mural incorporates a current in the Arabian Sea and diverse marine life that move through it, alongside piles of plastic. Discussing the concept behind the work, we learned that the current showcases how we're all interconnected and interdependent, and our actions affect each other - like the plastic used by people ends up in the ocean, affecting both marine life and us. Vayeda shared the vision with which they approached the mural, stating, "We're excited to reintroduce our work in Mumbai after our previous exhibition a few years ago. For this piece, we thought about what was happening within the Warli community and other local communities in Mumbai - the environmental threat, change, development, politics and more." The work, which took nearly five weeks to complete, is one of the most intricate Warli artworks in the city. And we're all the better for it.

These walls see beauty within

Coming together for a noble cause, Samwad, a school for specially-abled children and Manasvi Bhatia, founder of social enterprise Lonavala Local, invited artist Harshit Manocha to paint the walls of their school in Lonavala. But what added to the thoughtful initiative was the participation of the students and locals. Parmeshwari Damle (right), secretary and administrator of the school shared, "I wanted the paintings to be something that can inspire and be relatable to the kids.

The children were thrilled about it, and treated it as their wall and their work." Manocha added, "The Sab Sundar Hai initiative has positive elements that reflected the school's vibe and communicated our vision of the project. The mural took two days to complete with some help from the staff and locals, and includes handprints of the children."

When Mumbai's bada dil was on display

Dignitaries, including Governor of Maharashtra, Ramesh Bais (eighth from left) , salute the philanthropic effort of TMM on Tuesday night

Money, money, money… it ain't so funny in the running world. That was the message of the Tata Mumbai Marathon (TMM) on Tuesday night at a SoBo five-star, where philanthropy awards for the event were announced. Mumbai's premier long distance running event raised R40.68 crore for social good this year. If that makes you gasp, read this: Since its inception, the TMM has raised over R357.12 crore in charity. Here, numbers speak and so we are saying it with figures: This year, the highest and first-time fundraiser was the father-daughter duo Navya and Gagan Banga, who raised R1.13 crore from 112 donors. The second highest - Sadashiv Rao, raised R1.12 crore from 217 donors. Rao is a veteran fundraiser at the TMM and has been collecting funds since 2011. He became the highest fundraising individual over the years with a record-breaking cumulative total of R5.88 crore. Four individuals raised R1 crore and above. Three of them are first-time fundraisers. The Governor of Maharashtra, Ramesh Bais said pointing to the dazzling philanthropy effort, "The TMM has ignited hope in the lesser privileged…" Wallets may have shrunk during the pandemic but not the size of hearts. #HarDilMumbai, was the official race catchline, and what better way to live up to it, as the soul-stirring numbers proved.