Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

28 November,2023 04:20 AM IST |  Mumbai  |  Team mid-day

The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce

Pic/Nimesh Dave


Love for the local

A mural at Goregaon railway station inspired by an iconic scene from the Raj Kapoor-Nargis Dutt film, Awaara, mirrors the recent rainfall in the city.

Through the lens of Miyazaki


A frame from Makoto Shinkai's Suzume that was last year's theme

Any mention of Japan transports this diarist to the idyllic scenes from Studio Ghibli movies. Leading up to the Japanese Film Festival in Mumbai next month, the organisers recently announced an art contest that will pay tribute to Hayao Miyazaki, the man behind the illustrations.

Participants can paint a frame from one of the three selected movies, upload it to Instagram and tag @jff_in_india before December 5 to win tickets and merchandise. "The goal is to get the enthusiasts pumped up for all the action that awaits them at the festival and what better way to capture the true essence of Japanese anime than art?" Jay Tilak (inset), an organising team member, told this diarist.

Vote of thanks


Students perform for the staff

The students of St Xaviers' College decided to usher in Thanksgiving season with a difference this time around. As part of the pre-event of the annual Zeitgeist festival, organised by the mass media department, students went around campus serenading non-teaching staff with music, hand-written notes and goodies to appreciate their work, shared Neel Khullar, COO, Zeitgeist. "Throughout the ideation of our conference, our non-teaching staff played an integral role in catering to our every need, so we took it upon ourselves to go the extra mile and give back to them on the occasion of Thanksgiving as conceptualised by our networking director Akshada Sinha and her team," said Jennifer Padathukatil, the festival's chief executive officer.

Phoenix rising


Students at a previous edition of the fest

Churchgate's Kishinchand Chellaram (KC) college is set for its annual intercollegiate cultural festival that begins on December 21. This diarist learnt from the student committee that this year's theme is the phoenix - a sign of new beginnings. "We look forward to welcoming over 50 colleges from around the city with a footfall of over 10,000 people," the committee shared with us.

Roll out the pink carpet


Brown-headed gulls and waders at the wetland. Pic/Asif Khan

As the unseasonal showers hit Mumbai, they are in time for Flamingo season. The first visitors of the wetland migration season this year have already arrived. Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) hosted their first bird walk of the season last weekend to welcome the new visitors at the TS Chanakya wetland in Navi Mumbai.

Director Kishor Rithe (inset) shared, "The migration is an annual occurrence. It was also nice that the attendees saw the tagged birds like gulls and waders, and learnt the significance of the work done by BNHS." Asif Khan of the programming department, who led the walk with assistant director of conservation Raju Kasambe, told us, "The first birds arrive by October. The peak season, and the best time to spot them is between December and January. There are also tagged birds that are part of our study. Their re-sighting helps us to track their journey through the course of the migration."

Celebrating our shore heroes


An illustration from Mehta's book

City-based author Sejal Mehta's Superheroes on the shore won the Honour Book award at the recently concluded Greenlit Festival in Bengaluru. The book about inter-tidal life on the shores of Mumbai was the result of the writer's regular walks down the coastline.


Sejal Mehta

"It's unique, and the creatures there adapt using skills no less than superpowers, like shape-shifting sea slugs, ninja fighter type of cone snails, house-hunting barnacles and regenerative worms," she said. The writer is now determined to stick with the theme. "I am also working on fiction around nature. The idea is to create for wider audiences, not just those working in conservation."

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