Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

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

Star sign

Kriti Sanon indulges an old-school fan as she signs her autograph on his forearm at Santacruz on Wednesday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Keeping it queer

A book titled Behold, I Make All Things New (HarperCollins) delves into how Judaism, Christianity and Islam affirm the dignity of queer identities and sexualities. The book comprises an introductory essay by author and Sunday mid-day columnist Devdutt Pattanaik and has been edited by Reverend JP Mokgethi-Heath, who works with the Church of Sweden and Reverend Loraine Tulleken, freelance journalist based in South Africa. In the introduction, Pattanaik writes, "The conventional and popular understanding is that God wants humans to be heterosexuals. That makes non-heterosexual behaviour a sin, or 'haram'. However, this has been challenged by the authors of this book, who have a deep understanding of the scriptures themselves and of the world around them. They show that people have misunderstood, deliberately or otherwise, the scriptures and that there is no dissonance between scriptures and the queer life."

Go Goan in NYC

If you're in New York in February and craving Goan food, head to Intersect by Lexus, for Mumbai's own Goan gem, O Pedro will be serving their fare there. They will feature at the restaurant-in-residence programme at Intersect by Lexus in February 2020. The programme introduces a new dining concept every four to six months from around the world. Known for rev­iving forgotten Goan culinary tra­ditions, executive chef Hussain Shahzad will share his techniques and flavours in NYC for the first time. "We are excited to be part of the Restaurant-in-Residence programme, run by Danny Meyer. It's an amazing opportunity to take what we have been doing here to create dining experiences inspired by Goa and Portugal to New York city," he told this diarist. 

Will sign, for street food

Those of you who think that Mumbai's street food could do with more variety, join a campaign by Bombay Food Truck, the city's first food truck, that's hoping to legalise them in the city. "Food trucks are not yet accepted in many parts of the country, especially Mumbai, where there is high consumption of cosmopolitan street food. We want to raise awareness and make the authorities understand the benefits. The #FoodTruckwithSign Campaign was inspired by the viral picture of the 'dude with the sign' from Instagram and the current protests going on in the country.

We thought about it and started a silent and humble signature campaign. Mumbai is ready for it and has a lot of open spaces. Food trucks are a hygienic and safe option for fast street food," says Ashish Sajnani, director, OPA Hospitality Pvt Ltd. Here's hoping the mission vrooms ahead.

Got the Blues?

We live in an age when electronic music rules the roost. DJs command a bigger audience than live bands. Genres like funk, soul and glam-rock hardly figure in the modern lexicon of Indian indie music. And that's why it was heartening to spot a trend on Instagram called the #R&Blickchallenge. It involved both popular and not-so-famous musicians singing a short version of their favourite R&B, or rhythm & blues, songs. Benny Dayal (in pic), Vishal Dadlani and Shalmali Kholgade, all gave it a shot. Briefly, they brought alive songs by Alicia Keys and Whitney Houston, and we doff our hat to an online trend that actually takes us back to the pre-Internet days.    

Sanjna wins big

It was on social media that this diarist learnt congratulations were in order for arts and theatre personality Sanjna Kapoor. The news is that she is being conferred with the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts (Knight of the Order of Arts), a French honour to recognise her contribution in the field of the arts. Indians who have received the award include Kamal Hassan, Wendell Rodricks and most recently, Kalki Koechlin. 

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