Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Rising up back on their feetYoungsters make their way up a wall after taking a dip in the sea near Banganga Tank in Walkeshwar on WednesdayTo his guru with loveldquoI was working with a huge baggagerdquo Thatrsquos what tabla maestro Bickram Ghosh told this diarist while explaining the immense responsibility he felt while composing the music for a film called Avijatrik The Wanderlust of Apu His feelings are understandable Avijatrik is a sequel to the Apu trilogy Satyajit Rayrsquos masterpiece which the legendary Pandit Ravi Shankar inset had composed the music for Those are huge shoes to fill but Ghosh has evidently done it with aplomb considering he has now picked up the Best Composer award at Montreal Independent Film Festival in Canada for the moviersquos soundtrackGhosh below shared ldquoDirector Shubhrajit Mitra filmed it keeping in mind Rayrsquos sensibilities shooting it in black and white I think the challenge was to adhere to what had already been achieved by Ray as a benchmark and keep his own voice as a filmmaker at the same time It was pretty much the same for me because Pandit Ravi Shankar was my guru I have done other films with world music but I couldnrsquot do that here The one thing I decided was to focus almost 90 per cent on Indian classical music with nuances of folk and a touch of western classicalrdquoBack on stageThrough the lockdown the Bombay Theatre Company BTC made waves for hosting live plays on a rather unusual platform for theatre mdash Instagramrsquos IGTV Only in February did they manage to pull off an international production featuring American actors and on April 25 theyrsquore preparing for their first physical production at Veda Factory while hoping that another lockdown doesnrsquot play spoilsport The play titled The 6pm Struggler has BTC founder Raveesh Jaiswal exercising multiple roles mdash that of a writer director and performer Inspired by Jaiswalrsquos own journey itrsquos a oneact play that revolves around the dilemma of passion versus profession ldquoThis was due to be staged in April 2020 but was halted due to the lockdown Although there is much uncertainty rehearsals are underwayrdquo he told us We wish them good luckThis skier faces a slippery slopeGauri Devidayal met Arif Khan when she had gone for a skiing trip to GulmargGulmarg is a favourite holiday destination for restaurateur Gauri Devidayal and over the years she has developed a deep bond with a teashop owner there named Yaseen Khan But itrsquos only this March that she realised that his son Arif is a champion skier who is attempting to represent India at the 2022 Winter Olympics in BeijingBut he is facing a financial crunch Devidayal has thus started a fundraiser for him with other wellwishers ldquoWe are nowhere near the target yet but the idea is to spread awarenessrdquo she shared Log on to gogetfundingcom to lend a handKhanna khazanaWhat more encouragement can one want for a culinary venture in New York than for ace chef Vikas Khanna to dub it as a ldquonew era for Indian cuisinerdquo Thatrsquos how he described Sona the new eatery in NYC that actor Priyanka Chopra launched recently with chef Hari Nayak and restaurateur Maneesh K Goyal The restaurant is already the talk of the town what with Choprarsquos celebrity status lending it a celebrity tag ldquoPriyanka has broken every barrier in the US to showcase the power of an Indian woman who is the queenrdquo Khanna saidCalling all childrenrsquos publishersChildren reading at Parag centreParag is a New Delhibased platform that fosters the habit of reading among children and young adults Every year it publishes the Parag Honour List which is a curated collection of titles meant for those age groups published that year Today is the last call for entries for the 2022 edition and the organisers are hoping for a better response than what they received last year ldquoWe are hoping that now that things are likely to be more settled publishers will have the chance to get back on their feet and that they can contribute entries to the next edition in a larger way Specifically we are hoping to see a wider set of entries from Hindi publishersrdquo said Parag head Swati Sahoo