<h2>Game face on</h2>
<p>Football players take cover as sudden downpour impedes their game at St Francis D&rsquo;Assisi ground, Borivali West.</p>
<h2>Elphis create a mighty stir</h2>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2024/jul/Appu_e.jpg" alt="The 1982 Asiad mascot" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>The 1982 Asiad mascot</em></strong></p>
<p>France piled on ze chic for the Paris Olympics opening ceremony which ended Saturday morning for India. Watching that transported one back to 1982 when India had hosted the Asian Games. Some with more salt than pepper in their hair may recall being at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national capital that day. This diarist remembers a spectacular, colourful opening ceremony where teams marched into the stadium to roars. While each delegation finished and stood at their appointed spot, excitement reached fever pitch as elephants were brought into the stadium as part of the opening ceremony. Many foreign athletes broke free from their delegation spots, in a frenzy as they saw the bedecked elephants. The athletes started clicking wildly with the little cameras they were carrying. Remember this was before cell phones, otherwise, we have no doubt that the adrenaline-pumped athletes would be running for selfies with the Elphis. The Game&rsquo;s mascot too was Appu the elephant. Today&rsquo;s generation may be more familiar with political digs like Pappu rather than Appu, but we will let that go. As for the elephants, seeing the craze, awe and admiration they evoked, who could blame them for blowing their own trumpet?</p>
<h2>A call to save our mangroves</h2>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2024/jul/Rohit-Varma_e.jpg" alt="Rohit Varma" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>Rohit Varma</em></strong></p>
<p>The idea was born out of recognising that mangroves, despite their crucial ecological role, are often overlooked,&rdquo; says Rohit Varma, who has made the film, The Last Frontier: An Ode to the Resilient Mangroves, which was released this Friday on International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem. Made in collaboration with Godrej &amp; Boyce, the film highlights the essential role of the mangroves as blue carbon ecosystems. &ldquo;Nature was an inseparable part of my childhood. Visits to the jungles were routine; crossing a forest patch was essential for reaching almost any destination, even the nearest river,&rdquo; the filmmaker says as he remembers growing up in Balaghat, a small town bordering Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh that eventually shaped his career path. &ldquo;Filming in mangrove forests, especially during the monsoon season, is a logistical nightmare,&rdquo; he adds. Despite these challenges, the dedicated crew managed to capture breathtaking footage that accurately conveys the beauty and importance of mangroves. The film is available to watch on Godrej Design Lab&rsquo;s YouTube channel.</p>
<h2>Walking in support for Pune&rsquo;s restaurants</h2>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2024/jul/Jyoti-Kumari_e.jpg" alt="Jyoti Kumari (right) Ilvika Chandawarkar" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>Jyoti Kumari (right) Ilvika Chandawarkar</em></strong></p>
<p>Jyoti Kumari, who runs a digital production company, was doom scrolling when she came across Ilvika Chandawarkar&rsquo;s Instagram post. The post discussed the restaurants&rsquo; struggle following the infamous Pune Porsche crash. Chandawarkar, second-generation owner of Malaka Spice, a popular pan-Asian restaurant in Pune was asking for the city&rsquo;s support by simply stepping out for a coffee. &ldquo;People were hating on restaurants and restaurant owners. It [the Instagram post] kind of stayed with me. I started posting about it on my account also,&rdquo; says Kumari.</p>
<p>A month after the two first began talking, they put their heads together to organise a restaurant food crawl for the hospitality community. The walk is being hosted on Wednesday, July 31 at 7 pm. For a fee of R2,000, it will take participants across five restaurants in Koregaon Park including Qora, The Sassy Spoon, Swig, Malaka Spice, and The Daily All Day. At each spot, participants can enjoy a bite. Kumari says, &ldquo;The main idea behind this is we want others to do the same. If others want to plan their walk or want us to do one in their neighbourhood, then we can do that too.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The other reason to organise the walk is, &ldquo;To bring all the restaurants and chefs together. What happens is individual pop-ups usually end up being about one place. So here we have five restaurants participating, where all of them are promoting each other. It&rsquo;s also community building.&rdquo; As more accidents are being reported in Pune and Mumbai, Kumari hopes this walk encourages others to step out and visit their favourite restaurants. &ldquo;It [the Porsche crash] was an unfortunate accident. We all know the reasons behind it, rules were broken. But what happened as a domino effect, a lot of restaurants and cafes that were following the rules suffered. Gig workers have been massively affected. The live music scene has stopped.&rdquo; Chandawarkar adds, &ldquo;If this continues for a month or two, places might have to shut down.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Maths whizzes!</h2>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2024/jul/Olympiad-Winners_e.jpg" alt="The winning team" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>The winning team</em></strong></p>
<p>In a remarkable feat overseas, a six-member Indian student squad has achieved its best-ever performance at the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) last Sunday. Held in Bath, UK, the competition saw the Indian team secure fourth position globally, hauling four gold medals, a silver medal, and an honourable mention. The squad consisted of students from Classes X to XII from across the country. Professor Krishnan Sivasubramanian of IIT Bombay, who served as the team&rsquo;s leader, said the fixed syllabus and the Olympiad&rsquo;s set pattern gave participants a defined roadmap for their preparation. &nbsp;&ldquo;This year, the team&rsquo;s cohesion also contributed significantly to their success. The students can&rsquo;t talk to each other while writing the Olympiad, but the friendships they build help with their overall stress levels. This was not the case with every team; for example, the Finland team was quite individualistic,&rdquo; added Professor Sivasubramanian.</p>
<h2>Mumbai&rsquo;s Sunday cricket league will miss them</h2>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2024/jul/Kanga-League-aa_e.jpg" alt="Kanga League action under significant cloud cover at Cross Maidan in 2023. Pic/Shadab Khan" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>Kanga League action under significant cloud cover at Cross Maidan in 2023. Pic/Shadab Khan</em></strong></p>
<p>Club cricketers Sameer Samant and Kedar Hudlikar, who represented New India Assurance on the inter-office circuit, will not be around to follow this year&rsquo;s Kanga League club cricket tournament which should kick off soon. Opening batsman Samant passed away while travelling to America last October while Hudlikar lost his life through health complications the following month.</p>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2024/jul/Sameer-Samant_e.jpg" alt="Sameer Samant and Kedar Hudlikar" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>Sameer Samant and Kedar Hudlikar</em></strong></p>
<p>Samant, a hard-hitting batsman, smashed the first &lsquo;A&rsquo; division century of the 1989 Kanga League for his Matunga club Dadar Parsee Zoroastrians against Young Comrade CC. Hudlikar was a useful all-rounder, who on the same day (July 30, 1989) claimed four wickets in a drawn &lsquo;B&rsquo; division fixture for Young Maharashtra against MB Union. &nbsp; Samant was later a member of Sunder CC&rsquo;s &lsquo;A&rsquo; division Kanga League-winning team in 1990. The cricketing fraternity of Mumbai will continue to miss these two wonderful characters. Meanwhile, suckers for club cricket can&rsquo;t wait for the action to begin in the Kanga League.</p><p>
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