Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

All work and no playA man types away on his laptop sitting near a statue of a woman and her furry friend at Matunga GymkhanaBreathe easy in the cityIf you ever need a breather from the endless Mumbai versus Delhi debate yoursquod be better off taking it in Mumbai Walking Project a grassroots advocacy campaign that logs the cityrsquos AQI recently revealed that the average AQI during a fire situation in Mumbai still sits lower than the average reading on a normal day in Delhi ldquoWhen we reached Five Gardens in Dadar during our walk we noticed fire engines assembling at the spot We sat near the garden for 30 minutes until the fire was doused and recorded our observationsrdquo Vedant Mhatre programme manager shared While the average AQI was 47 ugm3 before the fire it shot up to 211 ugm3 by the end of the recording Mhatre revealed adding that the average AQI in Delhi on the same day was 411 ugm3Winning with the cityThe recyclothonNGO Project Mumbairsquos recent achievements at the Global Anthem Awards in New York have proved that no good deed goes unnoticed The organisation bagged a gold for their initiative Samavesh which most recently worked towards making the Mumbai Festival accessibleAn inclusive basketball eventAnother initiative Plastic Recyclothon under which waste plastic was turned into benches for BMC schools was honoured with a silver ldquoWe were delighted to find out we were chosen out of 2000 nominations across 30 countries We will continue to work with our volunteers to make the city cleaner and more inclusiverdquo Shishir Joshi its founder sharedFraming new frontiersBalaporiarsquos The Matriarch of Dah right Zubin BalaporiaRock music might be his first love but seasoned musician Zubin Balaporia inset is now focused on his skills as a lensman starting today ldquoPhotography is a hobby for merdquo he clarified about the exhibition alongside close friend Nandita Badiani at the Durbar Hall of Asiatic Society Badiani will showcase her watercolour canvases about animal life Balaporia added ldquoThe photos are shot in natural light and feature people landscapes and even architecture from places as far and wide as the Amazon jungles Morocco the Arctic Circle and NagalandrdquoFor the recordEnthusiasts at a community event organised by the clubThe Revolver Club TRC is on a mission to make trading physical music records a breeze with its new TRC Consignee Program ldquoWe will evaluate the records we receive and price them optimally to make sure itrsquos a winwin for all parties involved The primary goal is to introduce more people to the culture of owning physical copiesrdquo Jude de Souza founder shared Those interested can log on to therevolverclubToo cool for schoolLeft The entrance of the government school is painted with a mural of a girl child right volunteers paint quirky and vibrant motifs on a wallCitybased content creator Siddhesh Lokare seems to have cracked the code of making attending school interesting Partnering with artist Naitik Jain and Create Together Foundation Lokare revamped a 75yearold deteriorating government school in Kalamboli Panvel into a vibrant conducive space ldquoWe noticed that the school hadnrsquot been renovated since its establishment in 1948 Not only was the paint wearing off but the walls also had cracks in themrdquo Lokare shared The team began with fixing the walls with a coat of POP to fill the cracks and followed it up with painting murals The ground floor features educational art while the first and second floors sport freedom movement and space themed artworks respectively Lokare added that the school still lacks basic amenities like clean drinking water and that plans to send a water purifier to the school are in the works