21 April,2026 07:39 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
A family feeds pigeons near a temple compound in Goregaon West
Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah in a lighter moment. File Pic/Shadab Khan
Come April 25, and members and guests at Bandra Gymkhana will be in for a star-studded performance. Bandraites Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah will lead the Motley crew with Daughter Heeba Shah, and Kenneth Desai at the popular venue for a playful enactment of fables and lyrical poems from Vikram Seth's Beastly Tales, alongside some stories by the American humorist, James Thurber. The performance will feature poems by Vikram Seth, accompanied by short stories by Thurber narrated and performed by the quartet. While the showcase has been performed before at multiple venues, the choice of the esteemed Bandra Gymkhana adds to the surprise. But it is all about the stories for the troupe. Shah said, "Motley believes that the spoken word alone should be enough to convey a writer's thoughts to an audience. Beastly Tales combined with Thurbers' animal stories raises a very pertinent question. What would the world be like if animals behaved as humans do?" Now, that's a question worth pondering about.
Sandesh Pawar during a performance
How does a man without a taste develop one? And no, this is not one of those Carnegie Hall jokes. For theatremaker Sandesh Pawar, this question set the tone for his ongoing performance, Taste Nahi Aa Raha at the Sira Bungalow in Versova on Saturday. "The performance is the story of a man who has lost all his sense of taste, and how he goes through the world to rediscover it," Pawar shared. The difference is that the theatremaker does this while serving the audience food. Since 2025, Pawar has been touring with the immersive-performance across India. "The performance speaks about mindfulness. It is a response to the media overconsumption prevalent today. The food acts as a stimulating device," shared the Versova resident. So, what's on the menu? "It keeps changing, as does the performance," Pawar said.
The new outlet. pics courtesy/ Dessert therapy
Dessert Therapy Kitchen has come a long way from a small home kitchen in 2016 to a go-to premium dessert spot. It's now stepping into something bigger with its sixth outlet in Oshiwara. This new space isn't just about desserts. They've expanded by introducing a café-style menu with pasta, ramen, small plates, and indulgent drinks. It's designed to move effortlessly from savoury to sweet, rounding out the experience, informed founder Harsh Shah reminding this diarist that it was, "â¦never built to be a quick dessert stop."
Cheryl Bains (standing) leads a previous rendition of the performance
Indian soprano-composer Cheryl Bains will lead an all-female, Starry Night-themed Western Classical concert on April 27 at Juhu's Prithvi Theatre. It will bring together a dynamic pan-India ensemble. What sets this all-woman line-up apart is that it features artistes across generations and musical influences reinterpreting classical, crossover, and film music, alongside Bains's original work.
Nadine Jo Crasto and Cheryl Bains
Pianist Nadine Jo Crasto captured the mood, "I'm looking forward to experiencing a unique sense of camaraderie, and the joy to share the stage with these amazing women." As Bains said, "Putting this concert together for me has been a dream come true; there's truly something for everyone to enjoy."
