Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Pic/Ashish Raje

Picture perfect

A glorious sunset captured from near the Gateway of India, on Monday.

The pandemic zine

Artwork by Srishti Guptaroy

In the past year and a half, everything from our family lives to work scenarios changed. While some struggled with the technicalities of WFH, many were compelled to leave work and walk miles to their hometowns. In a new digital magazine that was launched yesterday, titled Proximity and Distance, the Goethe-Institut explores the many sides of the pandemic in Brazil, South Korea, India and Germany, through a cross-cultural exchange between authors and artists working with the written word and art. Dr Berthold Franke, regional director, Goethe-Institut South Asia, said, "There are certain universal parameters that exist in all cultures and act as the binding force for a multi-perspective project. We found distance and proximity to be one such fundamental parameter that enables us to understand the Covid experience across the globe, albeit in different forms."

Virgil, the change-maker

Virgil Abloh. Pic/Wikimedia Commons and Kunal Rawal

The week began on a sombre note for fashion lovers across the world, with the untimely passing of maverick American designer Virgil Abloh at the age of 41. Abloh, who served as the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection and the head of Milan-based fashion house Off-White, was celebrated for his novel outlook on menswear, which fused elements of streetwear with luxury clothing. Describing Abloh's legacy, designer Kunal Rawal, who cites him as an inspiration and mentor, said, "There's only one way to describe him - a complete legend. His approach to fashion was transformative - in that, he's not only redefined menswear but also standards and expectations in the world of fashion. I personally connected a lot with his style of working - coming from a non-fashion background himself, he drew in cultural icons from outside the industry, into fashion. He made the notion of being able to have a flourishing career in fashion, even if you haven't been to fashion school, more mainstream. Virgil has had so many marquee moments in his career. For the longest time, menswear runways were a lot less exciting than women's runways. Virgil showed that it's okay for men to have fun with what they wear, through his work with Louis Vuitton. Personally, it took me 15 years of waiting for my aesthetic to become commercially viable. I believe that people like Virgil had a huge role to play in changing the prevalent mindset of consumers."

Riding higher

Amrit Raj's Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield has been announced as the winner of the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2021. The book has been described as a lively, honest, exhaustive, and well-narrated story of a British motorcycle brand from the 1950s. It traces the brand's origins, its near-collapse and eventual revival.

"This is an enormous honour and I am humbled with this recognition. The award is a powerful platform to promote stories of Indian businesses and entrepreneurship and share them with the world. The story of Royal Enfield is a testimony to the grit, determination, passion, and resilience of our people and a fine example of Indian management chops that are recognised globally," Raj said.

Celebrating lit's green thumb

In the run-up to the first edition of the Green Literature Festival, which is scheduled virtually from December 8 onwards, the organisers have shared 10 books that they've long-listed for the general category. The list is a mix of fiction and non-fiction titles and includes Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh (Penguin Hamish Hamilton), Patriarchy and the Pangolin by Aditi Patil (Hachette), and Aranyaka: Book of the Forest by Amruta Patil and Devdutt Pattanaik (Westland), among others. "Our selections are based on the titles' popular rating and the jury's decision. Three titles will receive an award and a cash prize," shared Benedict Paramanand (in pic), its founder. To maintain impartiality, the jury members will be revealed only after the shortlist is announced. They are also putting together long-lists for the children's books and green business books categories.

These are words to remember

In a year that's seen digital artworks and memes sell for millions, it comes as little surprise that NFT (Non-Fungible Token) has been declared by Collins Dictionary's word of the year. The entry beat out other popular lingo such as cheugy (defined as no longer cool or fashionable), climate anxiety, crypto, double-vaxxed, metaverse and neopronoun to emerge as the winner. Other contenders included Regencycore, a fashion trend inspired by high society during the Regency period (1811-20), and hybrid working, a term that relates to the pandemic-born trend of alternating between traditional office spaces and work-from-home environments.