Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

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

Wheeling in change

For students in metro cities, online classes were just another adjustment that had to be made. But only 15 per cent of rural households have access to the Internet and 29 per cent of Internet users in India are women. To bridge this gap, five 20-somethings have embarked on a unique fundraiser — a 1,700-km-journey from Bengaluru to Mumbai by auto.  The Ashoka University alum  planned the initiative titled Auto for Impact in collaboration with the NGO, Project Nanhi Kali. They’ve already raised over R20 lakh. The team comprises Vidur Singh, Preetha Datta, Anshul Rai Sharma, Venkatesh Thapan, and Paul Kurian; three will be in the rickshaw, while two will be travelling by car. They will leave from Mysuru on Saturday and arrive in Mumbai on April 19.  “Borders are open for the most part but we have factored in the Maharashtra lockdown and kept buffer days for every time we need to do an RT-PCR test,” Singh informed. Support them at autoforimpact.com. 

Young ideas

From 3D printing of street furniture with recycled plastic waste to a boat that cleans water bodies and houses a cruise, kids and young adults from across Maharashtra have come up with a variety of solutions to combat environmental challenges as part of Project Mumbai and the state environment ministry’s essay contest, Ideas for Action. The selected participants include Shreyas Kulkarni, Abhijit Raut, Devanshi Gupta and Sana Rao from Mumbai. Founder Shishir Joshi shared that they’ll get to share their ideas directly with state environment minister Aaditya Thackeray. “Environmental issues are generally discussed at the leadership level. We felt that why not involve youngsters in our planning.”

Taking a stand

The state-wide hospitality industry yesterday kicked off a protest against the Maharashtra government’s decision to shutter restaurants and for not providing them with compensation. Indian Hotels and Restaurants Association (AHAR) president Shivanand Shetty told this diarist that staff members of over two lakh restaurants demonstrated silently outside their establishments, while maintaining safety protocols. This is a part of Mission Rozi Roti, a campaign put together by restaurant associations from across the state under the banner of United Hospitality Forum of Maharashtra, to highlight their desperate situation. “Let us see how they respond, or else, we’ll keep intensifying our protest,” he added.

The jury is out

Mita Kapur; (right) Sara Rai. Pic/Wikimedia Commons

Known to be India’s richest literary award, the JCB Prize for Literature has announced its jury for this year. And we’re happy to see names from a range of fields. Author and literary translator Sara Rai will chair the panel consisting of Dr Annapurna Garimella, designer and art historian, Shahnaz Habib, author and translator, Prem Panicker, journalist and editor, and Amit Varma, writer and podcaster. “Our aim while selecting a jury is to find people who would appreciate this diversity of talent. This year, our jury members are all authors, with three of them being award-winning translators as well,” said literary director Mita Kapur. We look forward to the longlist announcement on September 6.

Regional lit gets leg-up

Manish Sharma; Sumit Menaria

Pratilipi, India’s largest digital literature platform has entered into a partnership with Manjul Publishing House, known for their translations of the Harry Potter series into Indian languages. They’ve launched a new imprint called Ektara, which will carry both print and e-books in regional languages including Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and English. It will be a 50-book series and four titles have been launched; chosen ones include books by Sumit Menaria, Manish Sharma, Sanjay Vaidya and Kanishk Hivrekar. “The aim is to apply Manjul’s expertise in the Indian languages translation segment and the significant, interactive pool of authorship and readership that Pratilipi has, to potentially provide a new dimension to the art of storytelling and reading,” said Vikas Rakheja, managing director, Manjul Publishing House. We wish them luck.

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