06 September,2026 07:15 AM IST | Mumbai | Team SMD
Pic/Ashish Raje
Percussion shops prepare for the festive season
Fitness and lifestyle creator Akshada Patil, better known as OverlyDaa on Instagram, traces her dream of running the Berlin Marathon back to a bucket-list moment in Mumbai. In 2023, while watching marathoners, she found herself thinking, "One day I want to run this marathon as well." She immediately added Berlin to her list, only to discover that getting into one of the world's major marathons was not as straightforward as she had imagined - she'd need a timing certificate to qualify.
Akshada Patil plans to run the Berlin Marathon on September 27
Luckily, she got an invite to join the race. "The more I run, the more I discover myself," she says. Training in Mumbai, with its humidity, traffic and crowded streets, has its own challenges, but it also became an important part of her journey. As she prepares to run the 2026 Berlin Marathon this month, Patil is also taking along a larger purpose that has shaped her content. She has seen people begin running after watching her journey online, something she considers one of the most rewarding parts of being a creator. "My whole agenda was to make running fun," she says, "And if I can do it, you can do it as well."
An Indian cricket review meeting held earlier this week in Mumbai, as expectedly, created a buzz among media persons. Our in-house cricket nut remembers one such meeting in New Delhi after Sourav Ganguly's 2001-02 Indian team returned from South Africa without a series win, but triumphed against England in the opening Test of the home series at Mohali.
John Wright (right) with Sourav Ganguly at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. PIC/AFP
India were coached by John Wright then and the BCCI was headed by Jagmohan Dalmiya. The meeting was held after the Mohali Test. The media contingent gathered at the Taj Palace hotel.
Wright spoke to them, not revealing much about what transpired with Dalmiya, but didn't hoodwink the reporters. He revealed more in a book he wrote after his term ended. In John Wright's Indian Summers, the New Zealander wrote: "I told Dalmiya that if he wanted to get Indian cricket right, there were issues that had to be tackled whether I remained the coach or not. I suggested he should give me some of the things I was asking for and if he was still unhappy in six months, show me the door.
At the end of the meeting he said that a lot of what he'd heard about me on the grapevine seemed to be off the mark. You're quite tough, he said, âand I think perhaps we may be able to work together.' "India went on to win a one-day competition in England before being runners-up at the next World Cup in 2003. It all turned out to be Wright for India (pun intended).
As this diarist went about researching for her article about Bandra residents, we began to miss our old neighbourhood around Maratha Mandir theatre, Minerva Theatre where a 91-storey luxury home has taken its place. The first Monginis bakery was a few minutes from Minerva, where buying a birthday gift for a friend's party was a luxury only the really rich kids could afford.
The Minerva theatre in all its glory. FILE PIC/NIMESH DAVE
We think of Chowpatty back in the day, and the absolute chaos of little children running on the beach and flying kites. We were saddened to find out that this activity had been banned almost a decade ago. Now, living in a suburb, this diarist misses all those things. But a new city is always built over the old ones.
It all started with a visit to Pakistan," says author Sachin NG, "It gave me a good perspective about how the people there look at Indians. I was buying water and there's a tradition in Pakistan: if they find out you're Indian, they don't charge you money. They say, âYou're our guest. We can't charge you'," the author says.
Sachin NG is the author of Dear Zahira, With Love
A few years later he witnessed a dastangoi - 13th-century art of Urdu oral storytelling - named Dastan-e-Taqseem-e-Hind, which tackled the partition of India. "That's where I first heard of Hawaldar Ghulam Ali. After the Partition, he kept swinging between India and Pakistan because neither accepted him. The story really stuck with me; so much so that I thought there's something here to be novelised," he says.
And with that, he started writing Dear Zahira, With Love, a novel that is written entirely as letters between Hawaldar Ghulam Ali and Zahira. It took him nearly 10 years to finish the book. "I learnt a lot about how people look at religion, their identity. I learnt a lot about how to write love letters actually," he says. Now who doesn't love love letters?
One of the oldest Zoroastrian creation myths harks back to a time before humanity, when the Persian paradise was inhabited by birds, beasts, and mythical creatures. There, the first woman and man, Mashyana and Mashya, emerge from a single seed, their unified form gradually transforming into two distinct beings, with souls bestowed by Ahura Mazda.
Ashdeen Lilaowala's new collection combines mythology with Parsi Gara craft. Pic/Adil Hasan
This fable serves as the starting point for a new collection from Ashdeen Lilaowala's atelier. Titled The Divine Kingdom, his new work weaves mythology into the Parsi Gara craft.
"For this collection, we've returned to the myth of creation in the Zoroastrian cannon with Mashya and Mashyana - the first man and woman on earth - at the centre. The pieces feature detailed renderings of the animal, plant, and bird kingdoms like never seen before. For instance, we have a saree inspired by the Shikargah design showcasing intricate scenes of wildlife. The garments are rich but not in the usual heavily gilded way. We've also introduced newer silhouettes like corsets which are popular with Gen Z brides," says Lilaowala.
