The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
Daredevil pati vratas
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Women across the city shunned Covid-19 appropriate behaviour and gathered in crowds with no masks to celebrate Vad Savitri, a festival where married women pray for the long life of their husbands.
In line for a win
“The Neev Book Award recognises outstanding writing that leads to a fuller understanding of Indian lives and stories. It promotes children’s books with Indian characters and settings so that children can see aspects of themselves and their world reflected in the literature they read,” Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, co-founder of Neev Literature Festival, told this diarist about the Neev Book Awards, an ancillary event of the festival that was launched in 2018. The shortlist for the 2021 edition is now out in four different categories — Early years, Emerging Readers, Junior Readers and Young Adult. The nominees include Devashish Makhija (in pic) for Oonga, Paro Anand for Nomad’s Land, Harshika Udaasi for Friends Behind Walls, and Nandita Basu for The Piano. May the best person win.
Natural take
This photograph by Soumabrata Moulick was one of the winning entries in 2020
Here’s a contest that’s all natural. Nature in Focus, a web portal that highlights India’s diverse wildlife and the need for conserving it, is organising a contest where they are calling for entries from photographers and filmmakers. The themes are natural history and conservation issues, and the deadline is June 30. “The entries will be judged on technical excellence and how unique the participant’s approach is to the photo or film. The jury will check whether the people actually thought differently or simply aimed and shot a random thing,” shared Radha Rangarajan, the portal’s editor. Interested? Log on to natureinfocus.in to know more.
Thali time in the suburbs
With dining out restricted for a long time, cloud kitchens started mushrooming during the pandemic like never before. But now that restaurants can function again, there are some new entrants who are braving the situation, and opening their doors. One example is Rasotsav, a thali-only eatery that will launch in Andheri West on July 5. The menu will focus on Rajasthani and Gujarati cuisine, and each thali will have about 30 dishes, available in unlimited quantities. “We had planned to launch the project nine months ago, but had to put it on hold due to the pandemic. When we realised that we are going to have to live with the virus for a while, we decided to go ahead anyway,” its owner Aji Nair told this diarist.
Eating to give
In January this year, Ensue, a fine-dine restaurant in China’s Shenzhen city, started an initiative called Eat Give Revive. The idea was for six celebrated chefs from across the world to contribute one recipe to the menu. The ticket sales would be donated to a chosen charitable cause. The next edition, scheduled for July 1, features Indian stalwarts Gaggan Anand, Manav Tuli, Garima Arora and Prateek Sadhu, with the proceeds being donated for Covid-19 relief in India. Now that’s a meal we wish we could devour.
Jamsetji Tata is most generous
India’s most visionary industrialist of the last century, Jamsetji Tata, founder of the $200 billion Tata business empire, has been ranked the world’s no. 1 philanthropist of the last century. The list created by Hurun Research and EdelGive Foundation, was released earlier this week, and included 50 of the world’s most generous citizens. The US led with 39 philanthropists, followed by the UK (5), China (3), India (2) and Portugal (1). The current estimated value of Tata’s philanthropy amounted to $102.4 billion. This is the first year that such a ranking system has been created. Tata established textile mills, and steel and power industries, leading to technical education that helped India achieve industrial growth in the 20th century, the Tata official website shared, while citing this honour. In their statement, the Foundation mentioned that ‘Tata had set up the JN Tata Endowment in 1892 for higher education, which was the beginning of Tata Trusts.” In second place was Bill and Melinda Gates ($74.6 billion), followed by Henry Wellcome ($56.7 billion), Howard Hughes ($38.6 billion) and Warren Buffet (US$37.4 billion) who rounded off the top five. Azim Premji of Wipro was ranked at no. 12. Will this news call for some introspection from India’s ever-growing breed of crorepatis? Your guess is as good as ours.
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