Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Flower ChildAn infant sleeps peacefully as its flowerseller caregivers go about their daily routine on SV Road BorivaliBig little worldThe Childrenrsquos Museum Contest is an annual feature of the Childrenrsquos Museum at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya CSMVS The theme this year is lsquoThe world through my eyesrsquo and the museum is inviting kids to send in their perspective be it through paintings sketches photographs comics videos or any other form of expression Vaidehi Savnal assistant curator international relations and incharge education shared that the world itself that children inhabit is constructed mostly for and by adults ldquoWe are very aware that it is a bunch of adults running the Childrenrsquos Museum And adults often tend to assume things from a childrsquos point of view We have made conversations with kids a regular and important part of the process of planning the activities of the Childrenrsquos Museum Through the theme we want to understand how children perceive the world and their unique experience of itrdquo Savnal elaborated Head to their social media handles to check out the steps of the contest Let your little onersquos imagination soar and send in their entry to educationcsmvsin by May 20Anthem for our timesTherersquos no denying that the political rallies and religious festivals such as Kumbh Mela held recently actively contributed to the traumatic second wave that Indiarsquos battling now Lashing out at the governmentrsquos lack of political will to put things in order and capturing the tragedy thatrsquos unfolding every day is The Super Spreader Anthem created by Varun Grover Rahul Ram and Sanjay Rajoura thatrsquos gone viral Set to the tune of the Lata Mangeshkar classic Main chali main chali the hilarious and stinging lyrics are accompanied by a creative Mariostyle video game visual Ram whorsquos sung the song in his inimitable style shared ldquoIn India this happens a lot with folk songs where one tune is adapted in various ways to suit the current situation We had done a version of this after demonetisation too With the rising numbers infections struggle for survival and the stupidity around us causing so many deaths therersquos a lot of anger and rage mdash but that doesnrsquot get you anywhere So all we can do is write and singrdquoSafe state of mindConcurrent to the Covid19 pandemic is an epidemic of mental illness as millions of Indians grapple with stress loss and anxiety Of these there are several who also lack the financial means to avail of professional counselling services This realisation led artist Nupur Saraswat to incept The Therapy Fund ldquoI started out with only Rs 20000 that I had collected from my friends and family members which funded 10 to 11 therapy sessions Today we have over 250 applicants and have matched 20 per cent of them with a trusted counsellorrdquo she explained To donate to the fund or seek help visit nupur_speaks on InstagramBridge the plasma gapEarlier last week citybased firm Sapio Analytics launched Sutra a WhatsApp chatbot to combat the growing demand for plasma donors across the country The idea is to connect plasma donors with receivers especially for those residing in smaller towns with lesser access to social media ldquoThis concept was formulated because there are multiple NGOs that are working hard to enable better resource optimisation However while doing that we have to recognise a bigger problem mdash not all people are that techsavvy or have access to social media platforms This is why we developed a WhatsApp number to ensure that even people in rural areas get helprdquo shared Hardik Somani its COO They are currently operating in two languages Hindi and English but hope to incorporate 12 regional languages at least Somani added ldquoWersquore not promoting or encouraging plasma therapy wersquore just trying to meet the emerging demandrdquo he said For inquiries on plasma donation send a WhatsApp text to 7977358349Got a shellfieIn the run up to World Turtle Day on May 23 citizensrsquo science initiative Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises of India FTTI is hosting the Chelonians of India Photo Contest with Marine Life of Mumbai Coastal Conservation Foundation and Sea Turtles of India Chelonia comprises landdwelling tortoises terrapins and turtles including freshwater and seainhabiting turtles shared cofounder Anuja Mital ldquoTo ramp up awareness about turtles we conduct a lot of activities this month We decided to hold this contest to focus on both freshwater turtles and chelonians as a lot of wildlife contests are mostly mammalcentric We thought itrsquod be fun to see what kind of turtle photos people hadrdquo she said adding that the winners will be declared on May 23