Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Slow OutfieldWeary Mumbaikars lounge and pore over their smartphone screens on the lawns at Bombay Gymkhana in FortPastel dreamsA pastel artwork from the collection PIC COURTESYPARAG BORSECome September and New York will be introduced to the Dhangar shepherds of Maharashtra Navi Mumbaibased pastel artist Parag Borse below known for his portraits depicting members from the shepherd community will head to Manhattan for a live demonstration Borsersquos invitation comes a year after he was awarded the Flora B Giffuni Memorial Award in New YorkldquoI have been invited by the Pastel Society of America as a visiting international artist to showcase my works as part of the Annual International Showcase Staying true to my style of capturing the unfiltered magic of rural India I will be demonstrating my workflow through the portrait of an old man sporting a bright turbanrdquo the Sir JJ School of Art alumnus told this diaristA Sojourn to Rememberrsquos evening to rememberItrsquos hard to ignore a sporting connection to Khalid AH Ansari the former chairman of the midday group After all he founded Sportsweek magazine in 1968 before your favourite tabloid newspaper rolled out for the first time in 1979 Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar did the honours of releasing Ansarirsquos first travel book last November just before he left to commentate on the 202425 BorderGavaskar TrophyFrom left Khalid AH Ansari Ashwini Kakkar Dr Sultan Pradhan and Ayaz Memon at Ansarirsquos travel book launch in Tardeo on Wednesday PicFotocorpAnsari launched his second travel book on Wednesday a little over a week before the start of the India vs England Test series A Sojourn to Remember Southeast Asia Australia New Zealand was released by Dr Sultan Pradhan the renowned oncosurgeon at the Willingdon Sports Club TardeoCricket greats Gavaskar Farokh Engineer Kapil Dev and Sandeep Patil sent videos to be aired at the function Old friends Dolly Thakore Sabira Merchant and Nisha JamVwal read out chapters from the book Accomplished sports journalist and editor Ayaz Memon played an erudite Master of Ceremonies And at the end of it all the guests were happy to take home A Sojourn to Remember on an evening to rememberListed for a winA still from the nominated video PIC COURTESYPBS MEDIA ON YOUTUBECitybased animator Jazyl Homavazir inset has a new feather in his cap Blacklisted a short animated video Homavazir created for American comic artist Naseed Giftedrsquos eponymous series has been nominated for the best animated promotional video award at the LA Black Film Festival this yearldquoIn the USA comic creators follow an interesting practice where each comic is supplemented by a promotional video I joined hands with Gifted in 2023 to animate a minutelong teaser The book was eventually launched Hearing about the nomination two years later was a fun surpriserdquo the Byculla resident told this diaristJust like the East Indians doWith the Sao Joao Festival June 24 around the corner Vile Parlebased rapper Yung Clyde is whipping up a musical East Indian treat ldquoSao Joao is widely recognised as a Goan festival but Mumbairsquos East Indians arenrsquot far behind My new song Bai Bai is an attempt to show the world how we do it down here in our gaothansrdquo Clyde saidRapper Yung Clyde centre in the music video PIC COURTESYYUNG CLYDECelebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Saint John the Baptist Sao Joao is a vibrant convergence of food music dance and traditional rituals such as taking a plunge into a lake or a community well ldquoWe set out to the beaches of Uttan to shoot dance sequences and in gaothans across the city we recreated the ritualsrdquo shared Clyde who released his first track in the East Indian dialect earlier this yearIn this city that never sleeps Clyde revealed that the inspiration for the song ironically came to him in a vivid dream ldquoIt was an overcast afternoon in the dream where I was dancing in the rain with a group of friends It instantly reminded me of Sao Joao I sat on the idea for six years before bringing it to liferdquo Clyde revealed Well dreams do come true we guess