Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

One by two

Two men are all smiles despite the scorching heat while a woman behind them finds respite in an ice gola on Juhu beach.

A mix of Mumbai magic

Students and participants pose with celebrity guest Daisy Shah after her performance at a previous edition of the event

In 2018, St Andrew's College had combined three long-standing inter-collegiate festivals of literature, sports, theatre, music and dance into an annual event aptly titled Mosaic. After exploring internationally trending themes, this year the festival, which is scheduled for this weekend, turns to a local flavour with its theme Kasa Kai, Mumbai? "We want to embrace our roots and the city's [mixed and varied] cultures," Joanna Fernandes, student and vice chairperson of media, shared. Giving us a sneak peek into the planning, Fernandes revealed that the cast of the upcoming film Tumse Na Ho Payega, including Mahima Makwann and Ishwak Singh will be in attendance.

Joanna Fernandes

Cyclists, cakes and collages

Nearly 100 cyclists gathered at a Dadar eatery in their cycling jerseys to celebrate their friend and cycling enthusiast Ravi Agarwal's 50th birthday on Tuesday. But one of the key moments for Agarwal was when his friends Jay Shankar, Jyoti Kolhe and Ajay Khalde presented him with a collage that reflects the SoBo cyclist's favourite things in the city including places like Bandra Station, Badshah Falooda, Gateway of India, and even his favourite IPL cricket team, Mumbai Indians. "We took two hours to complete this collage. We have specially included spots that are loved and frequented by cyclists in the city and of course, by Agarwal," said Kohle.

Bole toh... mumbai

Vir Saini demonstrates how a Mumbaikar feels ‘hawa tight' when in a crowded local train

Tired of paraphrasing conversations for his Delhi friends, Mira Road boy Vir Bhaan Saini recently released a three-part series explaining at length how to ace Mumbai's local slang. "I was going to create it as a three-part series, but now people liked the videos so much that they're asking for a part four. The good thing is, there is still a long list of words left to cover," he told this diarist. His videos (over two million plays), which are a complete guide of when to use what slang, gets a "jhakas hai bidu" from this diarist.

Also read: Keeping tradition alive: Carvalho Sweets' 80-year journey at Bandra Fair

Imprinting legacies

Students practise print-making at a session of the workshop

Pablo Picasso. Andy Warhol. Raja Ravi Varma. The art of print-making ties these great names together. Since the last week, 30 printmaking artists from across 17 states in the country have gathered at Sir JJ School of Arts in a workshop that seeks to unify the art form. "The effort was to build a collective that brings together the many printing art forms from the woodcarvings of Santiniketan, to lithographs of Baroda," curator Gourmoni Das said. On Friday, the artists will come together to showcase, and take home their mini-portfolio in an event chaired by Dr Pheroza Godrej. "It is a wonderful gesture," shared Dr Godrej, adding that she had hosted one of the early workshops in the city with Cymroza Art Gallery and the Glasgow School of Printmakers. "The international market of printmaking is at its peak right now. It is wonderful to see it happen in India as well," the gallerist remarked.

Gourmoni Das and Pheroza Godrej

Animation X social investment

A still from an upcoming video aims at drawing in younger audiences

In order to encourage social investment in an engaging manner, Rang De, an RBI-registered social investment platform, recently released a teaser suggesting that something interesting is lined up. In a full disclosure to mid-day, Sukhada Chaudhary, its vice president, shared that they are collaborating with comics and animation platform Bakarmax, whose founder, Sumit Kumar confirmed the same with this diarist. "We hope to reach a new audience and do it with a dash of humour. The collaboration is especially aimed at younger audiences. A social investor with Rang De, Kumar was keen on exploring animation through ads to spread our message," Chaudhary revealed.