19 May,2026 08:58 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Ashish Raje
Roshan Diware (left) plays against Pragti Tupe while sisters Sarita Karde and Vaishali Savarkar watch, at the Mind Over Sight Chess Championship in Churchgate on Sunday
Traces, Sabiha Dohadwala. PIC COURTESY/ARTIST
While the city reels under the fierce summer, gallerist Joe Cyril seems to have taken time off to head towards the Malabar coast. The director of Colaba-based Muziris Contemporary opened their Mattanchere Summer Salon exhibition in Kozhikode last weekend.
"This is our second salon series. It is lighter in theme, and spread across diverse styles," he shared. With artists from Vadodara, Kolkata, Kochi, and Mumbai showcasing their works, Cyril called it âa series that is free of a defined curatorial theme'. Mumbaikars might find a familiar presence of city-based artist Sabiha Dohadwala's works that use textile as a medium to search for meaning in memory and places. "Our mission is to bridge artists with discerning audiences, fostering a deeper appreciation for contemporary art in India and beyond," he shared.
The towering grafitti (right) artist Carter pulls off the high-altitude act in Goregaon East. PICS COURTESY/DKRYPT Note: Readers are requested not to imitate such actions
Do you know what pixacao means in the world of graffiti? You can see it for yourself now in the Royal Palms area in Goregaon. The first of its kind in the city was painted by visiting Brazilian graffiti artist Foska Doidera. Originating in Sao Paulo, pixacao refers to cryptic graffiti splashed on vacant buildings. Doidera rappelled from the eighth floor of the abandoned building, followed by city-based graffiti artists DKrypt and Carter, who left their own tags. Is it scary up there? "Absolutely. But you've got to do what you've got to do," the trio says.
Previous efforts in Mira Road. PICS COURTESY/TRIMURTI PAWS
You show them how it's done, Mumbai! This diarist was delighted to learn that the water bowl for strays initiative by NGO Trimurti Paws, that was featured in this section in March did so well, that the efforts will now be extended to Navi Mumbai. "Along the way, we spread awareness about refilling the bowls, so our efforts go beyond a symbolic act," founder Rahul Pachupate told us. To join the initiative, message @trimurti_paws.
Our in-house cricket nut is not prone to be boastful of his following of other sports, but the other day, he did walk into our bay excitedly to say he finally found a photograph in his magazine collection of a famous businessman who used to be a table tennis champ - Niraj Bajaj.
What made our man look for that picture? Bajaj, he says, was part of a video clip he received of the recently held IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Awards, where cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar was the chief guest. Ah, the cricket connection had to come in, we thought.
A dated picture of Niraj Bajaj
Back to the photograph. It's from a February 4, 1972 Sportsweek magazine issue after Bajaj was crowned the national Table Tennis champion at just 18. A report on the Ahmedabad championships in an earlier issue of the magazine said: "For a loose-limbed six footer, Bajaj manages himself pretty well close to the table. He is not gawky and all arms and legs, as one might expect. Instead, with a combination of consistent forehand hitting and shrewd backhand jabbing, he is not only able to withstand the tempo set up by an opponent but also turn the pressure on him."
Bajaj is still involved with sports as one of the directors at Olympic Gold Quest, and this is a photograph our in-house sporting nut says he'll treasure. Hope you see this, Mr Bajaj.
