The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Getting down and dirty
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Two boys try to catch fish swimming in a roadside drain near Tilak Nagar railway station on Monday.
Sniffing trouble
The wildlife sniffer dogs in training. Pic courtesy/Siddaramanna RG
Wildlife smugglers in the state now need to cover their tracks better after three sniffer dog squads were inducted into the Maharashtra Forest Department after completing their seven-month training that the NGO Traffic and WWF India had launched over a decade ago. These smart pooches were taught to detect tiger skins, elephant tusks and the antlers of spotted deer, among other things. “We are hopeful that in the coming years, sniffer dogs will be used by even more enforcement agencies that are mandated to protect and conserve India’s wildlife,” shared Dr Saket Badola, head of Traffic’s India office.
Dishing out hope
“Barkat bani rahe [may you always be blessed]” — these were chef Vikas Khanna’s biji, or grandmother’s favourite words. And now, Barkat (Penguin Random House India) is also the title of his upcoming book, in which he has chronicled the story behind one of the world’s largest food drives, Feed India, which he undertook during the pandemic. The title will give readers a glimpse of the masterchef’s journey, taking them back to where it all started — in his biji’s lessons to share food and in the langars of the Golden Temple. “I love the word ‘barkat’, which means abundance, but there are more emotions [associated with the word] like happiness, blessings, life and more,” he told this diarist, adding, “Writing the book was like reliving those months between April and December, when every single day and night was dedicated to Feed India, which was not just about food; it was about hope, light and standing up for one’s country.”
Chal, hawa aane de
If you have ever wondered how much, or rather how little, open space there is per person in Mumbai, the answer is just 1.24 sq m. That’s what the findings of a study reveal, conducted over the course of this year by 84 people, including architects and urban planners, who were part of a fellowship called Harita: The Green Footprint. They mapped and graded 500 parks in the city, only to find that 70 per cent of them are in average condition. The parks were rated after taking into account physical parameters including maintenance, accessibility, amenities, and safety and lighting.
A clean victory
Here’s news that would have made legendary architect Charles Correa (in pic) a happy man had he been alive. He was part of the team that created the blueprint for Navi Mumbai, which has now earned the honour of ‘India’s cleanest big city’ as part of Swachh Survekshan, an annual survey that the Union government conducts across cities and towns in India to check for their cleanliness levels. In doing so, the satellite city left Mumbai behind and earned bragging rights over its more illustrious neighbour.
All that jazz in Mumbai
Mumbai’s deep association with jazz music goes all the way back to the 1940s when African-American artistes arrived in the city after facing racial persecution in their home country. Soon after, Churchgate Street became the epicentre for jazz music, with venues mushrooming for bands to enthrall the city’s swish set. There was a dip in fortunes for some time after Bollywood co-opted the Goan musicians who carried the mantle forward from the African-Americans. But then events like Jazz Yatra in 1978, an iconic festival, revived the scene and jazz music in Mumbai was on the upswing again right up until early 2020, when there was a gig taking place in venues almost every week. The pandemic put a stop to that, of course, and the sound of jazz fell silent in the city. But last Sunday saw The Bombay Jazz Club organise a concert at a members-only club in Lower Parel. It signalled a comeback for the genre in Mumbai, and Rahul Wadhwani, one of the musicians, told this diarist, “The venue has a New York-jazz-club kind of vibe and I spoke to the organiser, asking her to make it a weekly affair since it calls for it.” We agree.
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