22 October,2026 08:54 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Ashish Raje
Women revel in the traditional ritual of Sindoor Khela on the final day of Durga Puja at the Bombay Durga Bari Samiti in Tardeo
While recent reports of the growing exclusion at garba events this Navratri had us alarmed, good news was just a stone's throw away in our own city. An inclusive celebration organised by Team Vision Foundation in Sion on October 19 saw nearly 60 visually impaired individuals show off their best garba steps with great enthusiasm.
"Visually impaired or not, everyone in this city deserves to celebrate festivals in full fervour. Our team of 70 sighted volunteers guided the participants in every step, from reaching the venue to helping them find their space in the garba circle. With some support, they soon found their element," shared member Siddesh Nayak.
Participants put their best foot forward at the inclusive garba event
Dressed to the nines would be an understatement for the group, who contested for the highlight of the night - prizes for the best dressed and the best performers on the dancefloor. What's more, we learnt that the band that set the tone for the night on the pakhawaj, octopad, drums, and keyboard, also came from the city's talented community of the visually impaired. "The musicians are supremely talented. Some of them also play professionally across the city. There is no dearth of talent in the community," Nayak added.
Visually impaired musicians play a festive tune. PICS COURTESY/TEAM VISION
With the nine-day celebrations behind us, the foundation is now brainstorming for ways to make more community festivals inclusive. Those keen to join the growing team of volunteers who become the participants' eyes at such events, can write to @team.vision on Instagram.
City-based âclownselor' Sheetal Agarwal, known for bringing smiles to hospitals and old age homes in the city, is in jolly company far from home this week. In Italy to attend a workshop at Napoli's Gesundheit! Institute, founded by the famous Dr Hunter âPatch' Adams, the Mumbaikar is glad that a hearty laugh doesn't need a translator.
Sheetal Agarwal (right) with the group at a home for the elderly in Italy
"One of my favourite moments was dancing to "Pyar Hua Iqrar Hua Hai" [Shree 420, 1955] with a woman at a home for the elderly. We started dancing and then she gestured for me to wait and got up from her chair and started dancing. When I stopped, she wanted to continue, so we danced some more. And then there were little moments. A woman poking me and laughing at my reactions, dancing with a walker, playing with puppets and making silly faces just to get a smile," she wrote from Italy.
After a productive day in the company of clowns from around the world, new plans might be in the pipeline. "Over dinner, we started talking about the possibility of bringing clown practitioners from different parts of the world to India to learn and clown together," she added. Here's to more laughs and giggles.
Fans set up posters for players
Mumbai 's obsession with Bollywood was on full display at the screening of the much-awaited FC Barcelona vs Paris Saint Germain faceoff late night on October 20. While fans of the Spanish giants didn't have much to celebrate after the 4-2 loss, we'd say they took the cake with the imaginative posters at an Andheri venue.
Anthony Gordon and Lamine Yamal. PICS COURTESY/@FCBMUMBAI
English winger Anthony Gordon featured as the angry young man in the poster of âGor-Don', a hat tip to Amitabh Bachchan's 1978 hit (Don); although the Brit wasn't nearly as elusive onfield as Big B's iconic character. Another tribute sported the Hinglish chant "Sabse kamaal, sabse dhamaal, Lamine Yamal." Big talk for a team crumbling under pressure? Not really. "Win or lose, we're Barca till we die," shared founders of FCB Mumbai Sagar Shinde and Anand Mishra.
PIC COURTESY/MANJARI CHATURVEDI
From the old walls of Nizamuddin in Delhi to the plains of Lucknow and Punjab, and to the ever-popular Bollywood of Mumbai, qawwali has traversed timelines and cultures. For danseuse Manjari Chaturvedi , the genre became more than just a part of her performance.
Having spent over 14 years as part of the Qawwali Project, Chaturvedi has now compiled her research and studies into a new title, Qawwali: The Call of Hearts in Love (Om Books International). The book brings together immersive research, scholarship, oral histories, visual memory, and lived performance. Calling it "a new dimension in research within the field of music", she added that the new book opened up conversations on tradition, memory, and inheritance.
