Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Still mans best friendThis beauty of a dog enjoys a view of the sea at Marine Drive on a hot dayFor the love of UPMusic composer Vipin Patwa who most recently composed Matlabi Yariyan for the Parineeti Choprastarrer The Girl On The Train has now created a special track for the Uttar Pradesh government The song Aao UP Chale has been dedicated to UP tourism and was recently launched by Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath Mumbaibased Patwa says ldquoI was given an opportunity to do something to help attract tourists to the state Uttar Pradesh is a very spiritual place and I can understand this as I hail from there Incidentally Yogiji liked the song toordquoDrop those dog collarsSo far the NGO has strapped nearly 1000 dogsThe next time yoursquore out on the streets of Mumbai yoursquore likely to see the cityrsquos stray dogs with swanky reflective collars Itrsquos part of a campaign by nonprofit organisation Awaaaz Voice of Strays to reduce roadkill So far nearly 1000 stray dogs have been strappedAmit PathakldquoWe have distributed the collars to the feeders But the unfortunate part is that people are stealing the collars In fact one of the feeders caught a person redhanded His defence was that he liked it and wanted it for his pet at home We are trying to find a way around thisrdquo says founder Amit PathakWhen a manga character highlights a green issueCelebrity endorsement is one of the fashion worldrsquos most common tools But UNIQLO has taken a big leap forward and appointed a widely popular anime robotic cat character Doraemon as its global sustainability ambassador In Japan where Doraemon first appeared in manga form 50 years ago in a blue avatar has been considered an example of the power of technology to improve peoplersquos quality of life UNIQLO an everyday fashion company also founded in Japan hopes their version of the green cat will do just the same for its sustainability message of ldquochanging our future through the power of clothingrdquo Doraemon cartoons ironically are not without their share of controversies in India In 2016 activists had campaigned for a ban on the cartoon show on account of being a ldquobad influencerdquo on kids and adults alikeVirtually connectedRhema ChaudharyArtist Rhema Chaudhary has come up with a visual narrative Alone Together through which she shares her experience when the world went into a complete lockdown As a selfproclaimed recluse the artist expresses her craving for human connection during this time which compelled her to connect with her ex and eventually transformed into a series of 300 screenshots based on their daytoday conversations in isolation ldquoIrsquove always considered myself somewhat of a recluse but the lockdown left even incorrigible hermits like me craving human connection So I decided to reconnect with an ex Typical I know but our daily calls offered a welcome dose of sanity in a strange new reality At first wersquod simply check in on each other every day but later as time passed our calls evolved into more watching and less talking Having our need for human connection met virtually we felt freed of our anxiety to look for it physically Taking a screenshot is spontaneous and mostly us just telling ourselves lsquoRemember thisrsquo Unaware of the fact that we were building an archive we continued this practice for the next six months Almost 458 screenshots later my mind canrsquot help but create narratives What I hope to have captured is not salacious voyeurism but two people fulfilling the very human need of wanting to be witnessed in our most raw and unfiltered statesrdquo says Chaudhary The installation will involve taping up more than 300 screenshots from something many of us would have thought about entertaining during the lockdown rekindled interactions between exes These screenshots will be taped all across Method Bandra from April 3 onwardsOh brother there are differences tooA 2003 image of the late Jeanne Chappell with her sons Ian Greg and Trevor right in Adelaide PicClayton MurzelloCricket lovers yet again saw two sets of brothers figure in an international match Indiarsquos Hardik and Krunal Pandya and Sam and Tom Curran of England on Friday The Currans are unique because their father Kevin too played international cricket albeit for Zimbabwe Hence cricket is in their blood Hardik Krunal Sam and Tom remind us about the Chappell brothers Ian Greg and Trevor Ian and Greg first played against each other in the 197374 season when Greg shifted from South Australia to Queensland Both brothers led their state teams and in their first game against each other they argued over Greg bowling bouncers to Ianrsquos tailender teammate Barry Hiern Ian who was batting at the other end in this Sheffield Shield match told Greg what he thought of this ruthless attitude ldquoIf you are going to bowl bouncers bowl them to me not our No 11rdquo Ian was quoted as telling Greg in Ashley Mallettrsquos book Hitting Out That evening Ian rang his mother Jeanne in Adelaide to tell her Greg has settled well in Brisbane He also slipped in the scrap they had on the field in their very first Shield game as opposition players ldquoWhat took you so longrdquo asked JeanneObviously she knew what to expect