16 August,2025 07:25 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Kirti Surve Parade
The stage comes alive on the second day of the cultural festival, Malhar at St Xavier's College (Autonomous) in Dhobi Talao.
Are you nuts about your favourite football club? Probably not as much as Mumbai's Sunil Thakur, who recently cracked open a coconut in proper Bambaiyya-style, outside Old Trafford to welcome the new English Premier League season. While Manchester United might need that extra edge to bounce back from their appalling 15th place finish last season, Thakur had a tale of his own to share. "The last time I was here in 2018, the team got kicked out of the UEFA Champions League. Manager Jose Mourinho's exit followed soon after. Ever since, my friends believed I had jinxed the team. This was my way of breaking the curse," Thakur shared from Manchester, where he will witness United's first match on Sunday.
Viewership is looking up, quite literally, for Jogeshwari's Aryans Govinda Pathak (AGP) this year. Marrecs de Salt, a Spanish group of castellers (a form of human pyramid popular in Catalonia) were all eyes as the pathak practised their nine-level pyramid ahead of Janmashtami on Wednesday. "The group is in Mumbai on a nine-day tour to study dahi handi pyramids. They were keen on observing our style when they arrived in Jogeshwari. While our pyramids are built on the basis of human ladders, castelling relies heavily on its core structure. Our approaches are quite different in that sense, yet the essence remains the same," Ronit Nandgaonkar, secretary of the group, told this diarist. While the Spanish group treated the locals to a striking seven-tier pyramid in their own style, Nandgaonkar recalls the awestruck reactions to the AGP's towering exhibit. "They were astonished by the agility of our boys. Some of them stared at the spectacle with their mouths agape," Nandgaonkar recalled. The group has little time to bask in the tall praise. With Janmashtami celebrations in full swing, the group now eyes a win at a dahi handi competition in Thane as their final test.
Word reached this diarist that the familiar installation of a seahorse made using plastic waste at Chhatrapati Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) is bidding the city adieu. "The installation came to our Children's Museum during the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival earlier this year. Immediately, we knew that it should have a life beyond the festival as it was so much more than just an art installation. It was a call for action. The Living Waters Museum worked with artist Vyom [Mehta] to craft an installation out of plastic waste, as a reminder of the catastrophic effect of microplastics on the environment, marine life and the food chain. It urged visitors to find the seahorse within themselves, a symbol of resilience, and embrace sustainability," Vaidehi Savnal, curator (education and public programmes) at CSMVS, told us.
Mumbai is in for a tipsy tryst with Japan when Loya Qissa, a culinary series by The Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai will host Okinawa-based bar El Lequio, led by award-winning mixologist Satoshi Sugiura, on August 20. "It's an event inviting Mumbai to savour a once-in-a-lifetime exchange of flavour," shared Akshay Sikri, director of Food & Beverages, The Taj Mahal Palace.
