Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Govindaa aala reAhead of Janmashtami students at the Shrikrishna Balmandir School in Borivli dress up to present a dahi handi enactmentFrom a teenagerrsquos eye viewA photograph from the upcoming coffee table book titled More Than a Book PIC COURTESYAhaana JhaveriFor 16yearold Ahaana Jhaveri a walk to the market is more than just a fun outing Having picked up the camera as a hobby the teen photographer has now documented her portraits of street vendors across Zaveri Bazar Grant Road Dadar Flower Market and other neighbourhoods into a coffee table book titled More Than a Book that will be released in OctoberldquoWhat began as a creative pursuit soon turned into something far more personal Meeting these vendors and hearing their stories made me realise that I didnrsquot just want to photograph them mdash I wanted to support themrdquo shared the Lower Parel resident Jhaveri added ldquoIrsquove committed to supporting six different street vendors every month by identifying and fulfilling the tools or resources they need to improve their livelihoodsrdquoFastest finger firstSt Xavierrsquos College Dhobi Talao FILE PICCollegians in Mumbai nearly had deacutejagrave vu of the Coldplay concert madness thanks to St Xavierrsquos Collegersquos Autonomous cultural festival Malhar Passes for the annual crowd puller went live on Wednesday and had youngsters glued to their screens to get their hands on passes that flew off the shelves in minutes We canrsquot blame the hopeful attendees to be fair With names like actors Aditya Roy Kapur and Saiyami Kher artistes Sanjeeta Bhattacharya and Pia Sutaria and literary personalities such as Arundhathi Subramaniam on the lineup wersquod want a piece of the cake tooLife hacks at SGNPVisitors at SGNP on a busy weekend FILE PICSHADAB KHANJust what the doctor orderedrsquo would be the best way to describe Sanjay Gandhi National Parkrsquos SGNP Independence Day plans Planned by doctors from the parkrsquos morning walkersrsquo group led by Dr Hemangi Dave a basic CPR training session will be held at the Nature interpretation Centre at 10 am today ldquoThe session comes in time with the rise in untimely cardiac arrests among young individuals A live demonstration and practice session will make it a memorable morningrdquo shared SGNP nature education officer Shubham HadkarAn urban trekDivesh Salgaonkar at Apollo Bunder PIC COURTESYDIVESH SALGAONKARDivesh Salgaonkar a photographer on a recent trail through the heart of Mumbai documented his 36 kmwalk from Borivli to Gateway of India spanning 12 hours ldquoThe city needs a walkablilty revamp with a focus on dugup roads and illegal hawkers on footpaths The people I met along the way shared the frustrationrdquo shared Salgaonkar Watch his latest vlog on kalaakaarA Cappella party in the USAFrom left Khayla Samuel Rob Dietz Avi Kaplan Leena Rajan Ben Bram and Srujan Salian PICS COURTESYLEENA RAJANEver wondered what the popular 2017 Grammy Awardwinning A Cappella group Pentatonix is up to nowadays So did we before citybased vocal coach Leena Rajan reached out to this diarist with some chirpy news Her students Khayla Samuel Meher Taneja and Srujan Salian have just returned from training under the wings of Pentatonix members Avi Kaplan and Ben Bram at the duorsquos cofounded venture A Cappella Academy in California ldquoThe process was challenging with only a handful of young artistes getting through the auditions Our students were the only Indians in the batch of young international talentrdquo Rajan told us Itrsquos a busy week for the vocal coach who recently returned from a week of training with cast members of Broadway musicals like Wicked Hamilton and Aladdin at the Broadway Teachers Workshop in New York City Rajan now has a recital at the NCPA to pull off later today Phew