The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
MJ in town?
Move over Coldplay, there's a bigger concert coming to Mumbai this November. On Friday evening, while stalking the world on Facebook, we came across an event listing that would surely knock the socks off the fans of the King of Pop. Hosted by a city-based choreographer, the event has been titled Michael Jackson India Tour, his first after 21 years.
King of Pop Michael Jackson
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Of course, the event slated to be held on November 17 at Juhu's Prithvi Theatre (will there be enough space?) is a prank and the website for booking tickets doesn't exist either. When a friend asked the host if MJ would be there in person, the host said, "Most probably. Can't say for sure though. He is a busy SOUL."
The host hasn't responded to our FB queries, we fear it may have gone into his filtered folder. And, while it is (obviously) a prank with (hopefully) no harm intended, it did provide us a few chuckles.
Always a bag of surprises
We are all ears for Delhi-boy Prateek Kuhad's upcoming Mumbai show. And, it's not just because he sets our hearts racing, but also because he has some 'surprises up his sleeve'.
Prateek Kuhad
While this singer-songwriter is known for numbers like Tune Kaha and Raat Razi, he tells us that there will be choice pieces that he has never played before. Of course, Kuhad doesn't want to reveal too much right away, so we are marking our calendar for his September performance.
No conflict of interest
Former cricketer, Ajit Agarkar's son might have inherited his father's chocolatey looks, but not his love for cricket. Turns out, the 11-year-old, who represented his school's football team in Barcelona, has been missing out on important family functions for the game.
Ajit Agarkar with wife Fatema and son, Raj
Agarkar's attempts to get him interested in cricket have proven futile. "After school hours, I would always play cricket with him. But, football is his passion, and it's nice to see him stay committed to the game," he smiles.
Sarfaraz and Musheer Khan savour Lord's museum experience
Mumbai-based cricket brothers, Sarfaraz and Musheer Khan got featured in the 2012 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack for their respective exploits in school cricket.
Musheer (left) with elder brother Sarfaraz Khan in the Lord’s museum at Lord's Cricket Ground in London recently
Spinner Musheer claimed six wickets for 11 runs on his U-14 Giles Shield debut for Anjuman-I-Islam (English) while Sarfaraz, now more famous for his stint with Indian Premier League team Royal Challengers Bangalore and his form in the last under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh, got a Wisden mention for his 439 for Rizvi Springfield in 2009, an innings which saw him go past Sachin Tendulkar's school record of 326 in the Harris Shield.
In an effort to encourage the young guns, this newspaper presented a copy of the 2012 Wisden, also known as the bible of cricket, to the duo. They had not heard of Wisden before. On a recent cricket tour to the United Kingdom, Sarfaraz and Musheer visited the museum at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London and were fascinated by all the memorabilia displayed which included the Prudential Cup that Kapil Dev held aloft at the Lord's balcony on June 25, 1983.
They then noticed a Wisden board and immediately remembered the copy they possessed. The next thing they did was pose against a backdrop which promoted cricket's most famous book. Going by their talent and progress, the brothers could some day play on the hallowed turf of cricket's spiritual home. Their enthusiastic father Naushad was happy to share the Lord's image with us.
Unveiling the politics of chaos
After nearly 40 years of being part of the Indian Foreign Service, when Hardeep Singh Puri finally decided to pen down his experience of working as a diplomat, it had to be about the years he spent as India's representative to the United Nations. Puri, whose non-fiction Perilous Interventions, released last week, says the intent behind the book was to inform the public regarding the politics of chaos in the UN.
Hardeep Singh Puri
"This book was shaped by my experience in the UN security council. Even when the interventions in Libya were being planned, there were many opposing voices, including my own, saying that the use of force invariably results in terrible consequences," he says. Puri, who joined the BJP in 2014 after retirement, however, still has only fine things to say about the Congress-led government that he represented between 2009-13 in New York. "India was mostly on the right side of the debate," he says.
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