Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

A bullish moveAcrylic replicas of animals keep a young boy company on the MumbaiGujarat highway on MondayKeeping it shortFrom Chekovrsquos Raincoat to Tagorersquos Kabuliwala short stories have had an enduring impact on the minds of readers perhaps because their more concise format packs in a stronger emotional punch A virtual creative writing workshop at this yearrsquos Kala Ghoda Arts Festival will help aspiring writers to master this craft Indira Chandrasekhar founder of Out Of Print mdash an online quarterly journal that curates short fiction mdash is organising the workshop and has put out a call for submissions ldquoThe theme is Love and Plurality and explores love in its various facets The stories should be about 2000 words in length We will work with the shortlisted participants to identify areas where their stories can be refined to make a greater impactrdquo Chandrasekhar told this diarist The deadline for submissions is January 31Dhaka callingStaff outside the newly opened outlet of Farzi Cafeacute in DhakaThere is another feather in Zorawar Kalrarsquos cap The restaurateur has launched an outlet of Farzi Cafeacute in Dhaka This makes it the eighth international branch of the eatery which is also present in England Dubai Saudi Arabia Kuwait Qatar and Oman among other places ldquoThe cuisine in Bangladesh is quite similar to that in some parts of India and we felt that there is huge potential in Dhaka since there is a burgeoning market It was my fatherrsquos the late Jiggs Kalra and my personal crusade to put Indian food on a global palate and itrsquos a matter of great pride that Farzi Cafeacute is our vehicle to do thatrdquo Kalra told this diaristThe reel deal about designldquoNearly 999 per cent of everything we do in our existence as humans is in and around something that someone built for us which we often take for granted For example our valuables cars boats and planes our buildings and cities exist because someone designed themrdquo pointed out interior designer Saket Sethi ahead of the screening of his short film Palazzo Utopia at Soho House which revolves around a day in the life of an architect whorsquos building a new house which merges a sustainable green design with classic Italian architecture The film that the owner of Saket Sethi Design shot is an attempt to highlight the blood sweat and tears that design professionals put into their creations Sethi said ldquoPeople rarely understand this This is a story of the love passion and devotion that goes into our creations I hope this short film will help people understand and appreciate the works of creators everywhere just a little bit morerdquoThe stage is setThe Alkazi and Padamsee families have contributed immensely to the growth of theatre in India in the 20th century and a new book mdash Enter Stage Right The AlkaziPadamsee Family Memoir Speaking Tiger mdash sheds further light on them Feisal Alkazi has penned it and he writes about how Roshen Padamsee marrying Ebrahim Alkazi in 1946 shaped the destiny of Indian theatre The author shared ldquoWriting this book was like opening an old cupboard stuffed full with memoriesrdquoRaising a voice for MollemThe Goa government passed three humongous infrastructure projects last year mdash namely a transmission line highway and railway project mdash which pose a significant threat to the ecology of Mollem National Park an important green lung in the state This led to widespread protests with activists and citizens filing petitions against the governmentrsquos plans A film called My Mollem Goarsquos Green Heart now acts as a tool that will make the clamour of protest grow louder It features a child narrating the importance of the area and locals voicing concerns about their loss of livelihood ldquoThe film seeks to focus on the plight of the most vulnerable sections of the local communitiesrdquo a representative of Future Films the collective behind the film shared with this diarist