28 September,2021 07:10 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Shadab Khan
A youngster inspects an art installation at the newly opened Mahim Beach promenade on Monday.
The protest being staged at Powai Lake on Monday
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A bunch of citizens got together to stage a protest at Powai Lake over the weekend, because they have concerns about a cycle track that is proposed to be built there. "It's part of a larger route, a small section of which encroaches upon the lake," shared Nishant Bangera, co-founder of Muse Foundation, which organised the walk along with Youth for Aarey. He added that the BMC's plan is to reclaim a portion of the lake by putting up cement, which will be catastrophic for the biodiversity there that includes crocodiles, a Schedule I species under the Wildlife Act. Fishermen who depend on the lake for livelihood will be affected as well, Bangera said.
Nelly Sethna. Pic courtesy/Cranbrook Archive
Nelly Sethna (1932 to 1992) was a fibre artist, textile designer and crafts activist who was known for her versatility, her work sometimes inspired by Nordic modernism. An upcoming lecture ahead of the first-ever retrospective on her, titled The Unpaved, Crusty, Earthy Road, will witness cultural theorist Nancy Adajania sharing deeper insight into Sethna's life. Adajania (inset) has also curated the retrospective and she will talk about how she pieced together a mosaic of fragmentary memories and un-catalogued information to develop a chronology for Sethna's practice. "This curatorial research also opens up new possibilities for art history as well as crafts history, and the history of textile design in India," Adajania shared. Those interested in attending the lecture can write to museumsocietyofbombay63@gmail.com.
Participants at the contest
The East Indian Singing Contest was an event held over the weekend to celebrate one of the city's original inhabitants. It was organised by the Mobai Gaothan Panchayat and featured three different categories - serious solo, comedy solo and udta duet. "The serious solo section involved songs that have a story to tell, while the other two featured upbeat tracks with a fun element. It was also a live competition, meaning that the participants didn't get a second chance if they forgot a song," shared Gleason Barretto, one of the organisers. Eventually, the list of winners included Jacinto D'Souza from Worli, and the duo of Rocky and Shalini from Thane. Our congratulations to all of them.
Even if your knowledge of mathematics is close to zero, you will know the equation for Albert Einstein's theory of relativity - e=mc2. And sports broadcaster Joy Bhattacharjya reminded us with a tweet that it was on September 27, 1905 that Einstein submitted the paper that contained his theory, which marked 116 years yesterday. He was working at the Swiss Patent Office at the time, aged merely 26. And yet, those numbers became the most famous mathematical equation of all time.
The Neev Book Awards announced the winners for its 2021 edition in a digital ceremony over the weekend, which was inaugurated by celebrated children's writer Ruskin Bond. Those awarded this year include Devika Capria, William Dalrymple (in pic, below) and Anita Anand for The Adventures of the Kohinoor; Nandita da Cunha for The Miracle of Sunderbaag Street; and Devashish Makhija (inset) for Oonga. Speaking about his title, Makhija told this diarist, "It's about a 10-year-old adivasi boy who becomes so obsessed with Ram Leela after watching a play that he begins to believe that he is Ram himself. Meanwhile, there is a company that wants to take over the land of villagers to mine on it, and the story deals with how, as Ram, the boy can save his people."
