29 October,2026 08:58 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Atul Kamble
A young couple takes in the view at the Worli Coastal Promenade along the Mumbai Coastal Road
Whether it is a full drum kit, musical basslines or complex electronic special effects, Mumbai Beatbox Hub, along with The Dharavi Dream Project, is ready to bring out the artist in you, starting this December. Organisers Ramon Bakuri and Benjamin Arockiaraj from Mumbai Beatbox Hub have been discussing the championship for quite some time.
Performers from the afterschool get into a friendly beatboxing battle. Pics courtesy/The Dharavi Dream Project
Sharing more details about the championship, Dolly Rateshwar, co-founder of The Dharavi Dream Project, said, "When we started this (The Dharavi Dream Project), the idea was to make this an after-school programme, keeping in mind other aspects like rap/lyrics, breaking (B-boying), beatboxing, DJ-ing, graffiti, skateboarding and music production.
Dolly Rateshwar
Given the lack of representation for beatboxing, this seemed like the right next step. I think the last time we saw something similar was last year during the Waves International Festival in Goa, where TDDP shared a performance with the Korean co-ed beatbox and a cappella group Beatpella House." For more details, check out @tddp_in.
The just-announced shortlist for the 2026 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize is giving us more reason to update our bookshelves.
Narayani Basu and Sam Dalrymple
Narayani Basu's A Man for All Seasons: The Life of K.M. Panikkar finds a spot alongside Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia by Sam Dalrymple among the five shortlisted titles.
While we'll have to sit tight till December 1 for the announcement of the winners, jury member Srinath Raghavan (inset) gave us a peek behind the scenes, "Together, the five titles help us understand the breaking of an empire, the creation of nation-states, public participation in the making of our Constitution, and India's distinctive development trajectory. They remind us that the story of modern India is far more contested, than any single narrative can hold."
Jeet and Malavika Banerjee
Mumbai's art aficionados can block their calendars for the Bengal Biennale, which returns for its second edition in Kolkata and Santiniketan from November 25 to January 2, 2027. This edition centres on Banalata, based on Jibanananda Das's 1942 poem Banalata Sen and the Bangla term for a forest creeper or vine in the woods. It features heavyweights including city-based Atul Dodiya and Jitish Kallat, art collectives and shows by Bengal's finest.
Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat and Ritika Biswas
Co-curator Ritika Biswas described it as "a slightly strange, slightly dissonant, slightly dark ecology" that entwines poetics and politics, while organisers Gameplan Foundation trustees Jeet and Malavika Banerjee add, "The more polarised our world seems, the more urgent is the need to acknowledge the lessons of resilience that nature offers us."
People's Orchestra by Rutuja Sonawane. Pics courtesy/artist
Artist Rutuja Sonawane has struck a new note with her selection for the Raza-Students' Biennale Scholarship 2026 at Beaux-Arts de Marseille, France. Her installation People's Orchestra, showcased at the Students' Biennale in Kochi, celebrated Swar Samrat, the brass band her father, Bhagwan Sonawane, founded nearly 50 years ago in Satana, Nashik.
Rutuja Sonawane
Its original compositions champion education, equality and social empowerment. During her semester in Marseille, which runs until January 29, 2027, Sonawane hopes to experiment with new materials and installation formats. "I would like to explore how sound, music, archives, and collective memory can be translated into contemporary visual and spatial forms," she said.
