12 July,2026 07:18 AM IST | Mumbai | Team SMD
Pic/Ashish Raje
Clouds part dramatically to welcome this aircraft into the city
Humsafar Trust has started the DHANAQ film grant and announced the first recipient in a long line of expected winners for the grant. The initiative is being supported under the TRANScend initiative, with support from the CSR initiative of Publicis Sapient India, and aims to empower queer and trans filmmakers to bring authentic, community-led stories to the screen.
Vivek Anand
Co-founder of the trust, Vivek Anad says, "It's first of its kind queer film grant. It's for, of and by the communities. In the first round we had around 18 entries. The selection process had members from the LGBTQIA+ community and the first round was awarded to Mesak Takhelmayum, a young transperson from Manipur for their fiction film âPonies Don't return Home' that highlights trans dilemmas in the Northeast."
This week, when we stepped out of our office for a well-earned chai break, we spotted something we've never seen before in this city: a chaiwallah wearing a hair cap. Curious, this diarist asked the man about it and his answer delighted us even more.
Vishwanath Vittal Devadiga wears a hair cap while brewing tea at Sai Nath Tea Stall in Bandra East. Pic/Debjani Paul
"I'm wearing it for hygiene while I make tea," he tells us. "Ever since the new FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe has come, he has been cracking down on eateries for breaking food safety norms. Nothing has been said yet about tea stalls, but we'd like to be on the right side of the law, and this is a small, easy change to make for our customers," he adds.
Ain't that the tea!
If your playlists happily jump from meditative Urdu poetry to late-night electronica, this one deserves a spot. Grammy-winning Pakistani artiste Arooj Aftab has teamed up with British producer Bonobo for Fire on the Water, a dreamy new single from his upcoming album Distance in Static, out in September.
Arooj Aftab (left) and Bonobo (right) took a walk when they hit a wall during making this song
The track came together at Neil Young's iconic Broken Arrow Ranch studio in California, where what began as a throwaway guitar loop slowly transformed into one of the album's defining moments. Aftab sings in Urdu, stitching together verses by her friend, poet Yasra Rizvi, into a meditation on desire and distance.
"It just wasn't flying," Aftab recalls of an earlier version. A lunch break and a walk later, Bonobo returned with a new beat. "I was like, âWait... this beat is inviting something,'" she says. The result is a hushed, atmospheric collaboration that both artistes knew was special almost as soon as they finished it.
Wonder whether the television commentators during today's Wimbledon men's singles final will bring up the fact that Sweden's Bjorn Borg won the first of his five straight Wimbledon titles 50 years ago in 1976. Borg defeated Romania's Ilie Nastase 6-4, 6-2, 9-7 to lift the silverware just like he went on to do in 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980.
Sweden's Bjorn Borg holds his Wimbledon trophy after defeating Romanian Ilie Nastase in London on July 3, 1976. PIC/AFP
Borg didn't have high hopes of emerging the champion considering his past record there. But he gained confidence with each passing match. He felt Nastase had the edge in the final because he was a finalist in 1972. That apart, Borg lost the first three games. But Borg grew in confidence and his strokes got better and better to win the tournament without dropping a set.
We read that Borg took three painkilling injections for a stomach muscle injury to be at his best in the final. Nastase heard about that too and his post-match utterances sounded like sour grapes.
"I can't say that he [Borg] didn't have the injury, but I didn't have any pain and I could not serve that powerfully. Maybe a doctor gave him some miracle cure," said Nastase, who was known to be controversial. Meanwhile, Borg's stomach muscle tear took a while to heal and the next big event he could be part of was the US Open, where he lost to Jimmy Connors in the final.
