07 June,2026 07:25 AM IST | Mumbai | Team SMD
PIc/Shadab Khan
Hundreds of flamingos leave Mumbai as the monsoon season approaches.
Singer and songwriter Trishita Recs approaches the creative making of her upcoming album Apsara, as an extension of herself. With two singles - Tijori and Jhooth - already out, Recs talks about the grueling yet liberating process of making the album through complete freedom. "I wrote the records, gave the visual direction as well; it is a fully self-funded project," she explains. "The focus of Apsara is to be myself while exploring narratives around womanhood, my own experiences," she adds.
Coming out in October, work on the album is still ongoing. "I still have to mix a track or two," she informs.
Picture this: it's 10 pm, your friend just texted in the group chat, "Who wants a beer?". You really do, but you don't have the money to sit in a bar and buy a single beer worth R500. So you decide to hit up a liquor store and pre-game before you go. But, you cannot, for the life of you, find a liquor store nearby.
Here's where Soubhagya Daspattanayak comes in. The 22-year-old has developed an app called Theka Locator, which finds the nearest liquor store to where you are. "We've already got users in 24 countries," he's beaming when he tells us. Daspattanayak's frustration lies in unverified liquor stores on the Internet. "Half the time, when you go there, the store doesn't exist." So, other than Google Maps data, "We also use government data. We put up those liquor stores that are registered with the goverment," he adds.
The title Lord of Lord's for India's former cricket captain Dilip Vengsarkar can be attributed to what happened 40 years ago on this day. June 7 was Day Three of the 1986 England vs India Test at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London. And Vengsarkar walked in to bat to boost India from a 90-2 position with Mohinder Amarnath at the other end. Vengsarkar went on to stay unbeaten on 126 in India's total of 341. He became the first overseas batsman to score three consecutive Test centuries at Lord's; the earlier two coming during his 1979 and 1982 visits. The 1986 ton helped India win a Test at Lord's for the first time since 1932.
While expressing his expert view on Vengsarkar's "most complete innings," former England fast bowler and captain Bob Willis wrote in Wisden Cricket Monthly: "His three Lord's centuries are a tremendous achievement that should not be underestimated in any way." The late Willis also knew that the feat belonged to a deserving batsman. After all, he was England captain in 1982 when Vengsarkar lit up Lord's with his 157.
Meanwhile, in-house cricket nut insists this piece of trivia should make it in this item. He says Vengsarkar used three different bat brands in his hat-trick of centuries - St Peter in 1979, Symonds in 1982, and Gunn & Moore in 1986.
Most of us are constantly stuck in toxic circle of uninstalling and installing dating apps on our phones. But here is one that is hatke. Vasudha Khatuwala has founded a conversation-led matchmaking service built around thoughtful introductions rather than swiping. "We start from a different premise: that understanding a person is not the same thing as classifying them," she adds.
"The way people approach dating in Mumbai is different from Delhi, Bengaluru, or New York. One of Romeo's advantages is that it can learn from conversations with members and adapt over time," she says. To try it out, log on to www.romeojuliet.love
For mediapersons everywhere, AI presents one of the greatest professional dilemmas. Do we fight it tooth and nail and keep journalism sacrosanct, or do we adopt and adapt to prevent becoming obsolete? Either way, it is not the journalist's way to pretend something is not happening. Whether we choose to adopt AI or not, none of us can afford to not understand how it works. So this scribe, too, takes it as a sign of the times that the Mumbai Press Club is hosting a certificate programme in generative AI jointly certified by Microsoft and upGrad. Members can complete the online course of six hours on at their own pace, covering tools such as ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Midjourney. The deadline for registrations is June 15.
