19 April,2026 09:36 AM IST | Mumbai | Team SMD
Pic/Shadab Khan
Kids and a puppy enjoy an evening on the steps of Mount Mary in Bandra West
After six years of reading neurosurgeon Dr Mazda Turel's columns every week in Sunday mid-day, we are glad to once again read his stories from the operation theatre and beyond in his new book, Bheja Fry (Juggernaut, Rs 499). Week after week, Dr Turel kept us enthralled with stories and teachings from his clinic, some downright comical, some heartwarming, and others more sobering. Bheja Fry takes us down nostalgia lane, and Dr Turel takes us inside the mind of a doctor, where medicine meets morality, and healing meets heartbreak.
Dr Mazda Turel's new book, Bheja Fry, is out on April 21
"Sunday mid-day gave me a rare kind of freedom - to write as a doctor, but also as an observer of people," he says, "What started as columns gradually became conversations with readers. Over time, I realised that these weren't just articles; they were fragments of a much larger story about how we experience illness, fear, and decision-making. The book is really a continuation of that relationship."
It's hard to choose a favourite, "because each story stayed with me for a different reason". "But if I had to choose, I had the most fun writing about a dream I had about operating on the Pope. My piece on loneliness resonated with a lot of people⦠and there is the last essay on grown up soulmates - a story about why friendships keep us alive," says Dr Turel, consultant neurosurgeon, at Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai Central.
We ask how he manages a busy neurosurgical practice and still makes the time to write. "Writing became a way of processing what I see every day. Neurosurgery is intense, precise, and often emotionally charged. Writing allows me to step back and make sense of it - to find patterns, meaning, and often with humour in situations that are otherwise overwhelming. In a way, one makes the other possible," he tells us.
Even the speediest thoroughbreds cannot outpace inflation. Recently, former chairman of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC), billionaire-businessman and large benefactor of Indian racing, Zavaray S Poonawalla was amused to get a "forward" on his phone of a picture of the popular racing book "Cole" of 1961 with a picture of the queen being welcomed to the Bombay races.
Cover of the racing book
(Race books are used by punters for information on race day). Poonawalla said, "I was struck not by a picture of the âCole' cover but by the fact that the 1961 book was priced at â50 naya paisa'. Especially since at the time I got this on my phone, I was holding a current race book priced at Rs 40!" he laughed.
Businessman Zavaray Poonawalla
"I told the sender to send me a physical copy of the book if he had it. That book will make a nostalgic edition to my collection of racing cups and trophies," said ZSP as Zavaray Poonawalla is known. "If a youngster goes through my collection, they will get an idea about what 50 naya paisa could buy in the good ol' days," he signed off.
Over 75 years of the Indian constitution are coming to 47 A at Kotachi Wadi in Girgaon in the form of textiles. Called Hamari Virasat, the exhibit turns to India's textile traditions to interpret its core values. Curated by Shibani Dasgupta Jain, the founder and director of the Hand for Handmade Foundation, it brings together 75 handcrafted artworks by artisans across the country.
Shibani Dasgupta Jain
Each artisan's work responds to the visual and philosophical language of the Preamble. "The Preamble of the Constitution is a visual document in itself," says Dasgupta, pointing to its recurring motifs such as animals like the bull, horse, elephant, and peacock, alongside lotus-like vines. "Some used these visual ideas, some used words like fraternity and liberty and tried to express their version of what they felt was liberty for them."
From Porgai artisans in the South depicting a Sambari woman freeing a bird, to Ajrak works that cleverly read "Bharat" even in reverse for a phone selfie, each piece reflects regional craft and individual interpretation.
Copy of A-9 Tanisha Agarwal
"Different groups came up with their own thoughts and ideas," she explains, adding, "There are so many different forms of craft like Ajrak, Applique, Kutch embroidery, Kantha embroidery from Bengal, Fard painting, and Goan painting-based Applique work. It's a variety of crafts, including weaves from various parts of the country that came in."
Having travelled across four cities, the exhibition now concludes in Mumbai. As it's the final exhibit, this time it is also a sale with proceeds going back to the artisans, closing the loop between craft, livelihood, and the idea of India. The exhibit starts on April 25 and will be on till May 10.
We stumbled upon something featuring Matthew Hayden, the former Australia opener, who is now the batting coach of Gujarat Titans (GT). The November 1992 issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly carried an item on young Hayden, who hadn't played for Australia by then, but was recommended by ex-Test captain Greg Chappell to be blooded against the 1992-93 West Indies tourists.
"There could be a no more daunting sight for a rookie opener on a juicy Brisbane pitch than a pace attack of [Ian] Bishop, [Curtly] Ambrose, [Patrick] Patterson, and [Courtney] Walsh. And that's exactly what he'll face, if he [Hayden] gets the nod. He's big, strong, has courage and confidence, a good range of shots and also that X-factor, that unknown something that just might work," said Chappell.
Hayden didn't make his debut that summer and had to wait for the 1993-94 tour of South Africa to be given his baggy green Australia Test cap. Of course, he was picked for the 1993 tour of England without getting picked in the Test side. He went on to become a gun player for Australia and didn't look back after his 1999-2000 comeback, ending up with 8625 runs in a 103-Test career that ended in 2008-09. Members of the Gujarat Titans team can be reminded that amongst them is a big hero - literally and metaphorically.
