The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Kiran Rao with son Azad
A wild hit
This newspaper had recently reported about an initiative by four Mumbaikars, who gave up their corporate careers to promote organic methods of farming in the Ahmednagar district, so its tribal population could continue growing traditional grains and vegetables.
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To acquaint citizens of Mumbai with the nutritional value of this almost unknown produce, Shailesh Sakharam Awate, Abhay Bhatia, Pranav Khandelwal and Karan Khandelwal organised a wild food festival last weekend. Complete with talks, musical performances and an elaborate lunch menu featuring indigenous dishes, the festival was a runaway hit, attended by some well-known faces.
Filmmaker Kiran Rao dropped by with son Azad, as did chef Thomas Zacharias of a popular Lower Parel restaurant. Nutritionists and food bloggers were seen sampling the dishes, too. "By the end of the festival, we were just left with some rice to spare," a happy Awate told this diarist.
Hillary looks East for fashion
Back in March, when American politician Hillary Clinton visited the city, she made a stop at designer Payal Khandwala's Colaba store. While here, Clinton was seen in a colour blocked kurta by Khandwala.
Six months to that day, once again, Clinton was seen in a brown handwoven silk kurta by the designer that she wore as a dress to watch a play in Manhattan along with former US president Bill Clinton. A delighted Khandwala tells us, "It was such an honour to meet her and spend time with her.
I discovered that she is, equal parts strong and soft, smart as we all know her to be, warm and funny. I'm thrilled that she wears my clothes and looks so comfortable in them. I'm deeply humbled that my clothes resonate with her in some way, across borders and cultures."
A basket of pride
Early this month, the country celebrated when India did away with section 377. And the celebrations around this landmark judgement are still in full swing. One such treat is the dimsum pride basket by Shiro, which includes vegetarian and non-vegetarian options in the colours of the pride flag.
"We could not be more delighted on the verdict passed by the Supreme Court. The historic move called for celebration, and we wanted to do it in our signature style. We therefore, thought of giving a queer facelift to our dim sums and came up with the idea of the pride dim sum basket. This is our way of saying out loud that we strongly believe in one love," says Priyank Chouhan, senior brand chef, Shiro. In case you wish to celebrate the dim sum way too, book your own platter 24 hours in advance.
A party ride
We've heard of party buses in Ibiza where fun starts as soon as you exit the airport and head to your destination, with banging music from the word go. But we hadn't heard of a similar concept in Mumbai. Yet, the same experience will now be available thanks to Todi Mill Social in Lower Parel.
The establishment is all set to launch a shuttle bus service –#SocialSquad – that will do the rounds of the corporate offices in the area, ferrying office-goers from their workplaces to the watering hole and back. Commenting on the idea, Riyaaz Amlani, CEO and MD of Impresario, which runs Social, adds, "As a bonus, the car also has fun to-dos galore with F&B ordering, free Wi-Fi and an exclusive SOCIAL playlist for the win!"
Poor press
Recently, the state government had a reason to get miffed with the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Mumbai, as it felt that a press release that PIB issued on the Finance Commission's visit to Maharashtra was erroneous and painted a bad picture of state economy. This gave the opposition ammo to launch a scathing attack on the Fadnavis government. A formal complaint was lodged at PIB and their bosses in the I&B Ministry, after conducting an inquiry.
Sources at Mantralaya told this diarist that a reporter at PIB, Mumbai was blamed for omitting a crucial bit of information that would have given a clear picture of BJP government's improved performance in tax collection, which saw a quantum jump in the past four years. The CM and Finance Minister's offices did react to the opposition, telling the media as to how the state finances were much better and that Maharashtra continued to have the top spot in the country. In the meantime, the fate of that particular reporter in PIB lies undecided. But sources tell us that his days at PIB might be numbered. Ouch.
Too much to handle
Minister of Railways, Coal and Corporate Affairs Piyush Goyal laughs as actor Anushka Sharma stays composed at an awards function at a Nariman Point five-star on Wednesday. Pic/Atul Kamble
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