<h2>Balancing act</h2>
A pair successfully execute an acroyoga pose in Dadar on Wednesday.
<h2>UNESCO honour for Gamdevi's Malabari Memorial Hall</h2>
<img title="The front facade of the Malabari Memorial Hall" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/2020/dec/dos-dec-seventeen-c.jpg" alt="The front facade of the Malabari Memorial Hall" /> The front facade of the Malabari Memorial Hall
"It's wonderful to sign off 2020 on a high," shared an elated Brinda Somaya, architect, urban conservationist and founder of Somaya and Kalappa Consultants (SNK), as she and daughter, fellow architect, Nandini Somaya Sampat, revealed to this diarist that their project &mdash; Malabari Memorial Hall, Seva Sadan Society &mdash; had just won the Award of Merit at the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation 2020.
The Seva Sadan Society was founded in Mumbai, on July 11, 1908 by Behramji Malabari and Diwan Dayaram Gidumal with the motto of liberating, educating and empowering underprivileged women. Nandini shared that the building was one of the earliest multipurpose halls within Gamdevi that catered to the emerging middle-class community, where women began to be recognised for their contribution towards the society.
<img title="Brinda Somaya and Nandini Sampat" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/2020/dec/dos-dec-seventeen-b.jpg" alt="Brinda Somaya and Nandini Sampat" /> Brinda Somaya and Nandini Sampat
The hall, inaugurated in 1924, took a year to be restored. Both reminded us that the conservation efforts for this building raised awareness for the need to preserve such gems of urban local history. Other winning entries from India across categories included Sunder Nursery (Delhi), Koothambalam at Guruvayoor Temple (Thrissur) and Amar Singh College (Srinagar).
<h2>Art for a reason</h2>
<img title="Art for a reason" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/2020/dec/dos-dec-seventeen-d.jpg" alt="Art for a reason" />
Living as we do in a time when we're constantly questioning everything, including our lives, and must confront fears such as those about our own mortality, what role does art play in our quotidian existence? This is the central theme that Delhi-based Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is attempting to decode with celebrated British sculptor Sir Antony Gormley, by way of a webinar that will take place later today. The conversation will be led by Roobina Karode, director and chief curator of the museum.
<img title="Art for a reason" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/2020/dec/dos-dec-seventeen-e.jpg" alt="Art for a reason" />
"Sir Gormley's life-sized sculptures and sculpture-based installations (in pic) have inspired and influenced subsequent generations of artists globally. This conversation will explore his intense practice, his acknowledgement of a visit to India in his twenties as being deeply influential to his artistic thought process, and his musings about what art can do for us, as a race that has been grappling with crises worldwide," she said. Log on to KNMA's Facebook page to tune into the session.
<h2>Stars for Fr Stan</h2>
<img title="Stars for Fr Stan" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/2020/dec/Stan-Swamy.jpg" alt="Stars for Fr Stan" />
Celebrations may be in full swing for Christmas. But we cannot turn a blind eye to the number of activists who have been arrested and denied human rights like Fr Stan Swamy, 83, who ardently worked towards the upliftment of the marginalised in Jharkhand. That's what the Bombay Catholic Sabha is reminding people of. They've reached out to all their parish units in Mumbai to spread the message of lighting stars to stand with Fr Swamy, and others. "Our appeal is that the trial for Fr Stan and others who have been incarcerated in the Bhima- Koregaon case must be heard on a day to day basis," spokesperson Dolphy D'Souza told this diarist.
<h2>Sanchez hits 10</h2>
<img title="Sanchez hits 10" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/2020/dec/Chef-Alex-Sanchez.jpg" alt="Sanchez hits 10" />
Chef Alex Sanchez shared recently that he's completed 10 years of staying in India after stepping out of the international airport and facing the sounds and smells of Mumbai. Recalling the journey, he told this diarist that his fondest memories are of the initial period of initiation into the city, where he had come to head the kitchen at The Table, the fine dine in Colaba, and then of launching his own restaurant, Americano. "Almost 80 per cent of the cooks at The Table spoke no Hindi, and I hadn't ever heard Hindi before," he shared. How far things have come.
<h2>Remembering Nissim Ezekiel</h2>
<img title="Pic/mid-day archives" src="https://images.mid-day.com/images/2020/dec/Nissim-Ezekiel.jpg" alt="Pic/mid-day archives" /> Pic/mid-day archives
Yesterday, December 16, marked the 96th birth anniversary of Nissim Ezekiel. Hailed as the father of modern Indian English poetry, few might know that he took over as editor of The Indian PEN in 1986, after the demise of its founder, Sophia Wadia. Even fewer might be aware that when the Padma Shri winner passed away in 2004, he was laid to rest in the Jewish cemetery on E Moses Road, Worli. This diarist was lucky to visit the gravestone of this famous Bene Israeli a few years ago while on assignment, only to spot these words by the poet on his epitaph: "Suppose I were a shooting star, I would want to be seen, that would be my only meaning, what is there, after all, in shooting across the sky and being burnt up? But being seen! That would be another thing."
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