28 October,2026 09:37 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Ashish Raje
The Full Moon on Monday paints a stunning celestial spectacle against the silhoutted facade of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus
As kids, we couldn't wait to get our hands on sticker sheets from the stationery shop for school projects. Illustrator and naturalist Sefi George is giving this childhood favourite a wild twist with hand-painted watercolour stickers featuring lesser-known Indian wildlife.
A Great Indian hornbill takes shape in the sketchbook (right) wildlife sticker sheets. Pics courtesy/Sefi George
"Whenever we visit wildlife sanctuaries, the focus is always on spotting a tiger or a lion, while so many other animals go unnoticed. I wanted to bring these species into the spotlight," she told this diarist. Over two months, George researched and painted three sets featuring 18 species, including mammals, insects and birds.
Sefi George
The Great Indian Hornbill, Ruddy Mongoose, Fan-throated Lizard and Indian Pitta are among the creatures featured. She wanted to move away from the usual animal stickers found in stationery stores and introduce children to wildlife they might otherwise overlook, giving nature's lesser-known stars their moment in the sun. @ summe rscribbles.in.
It's that time of the year when readers get to vote for their favourite written works from India. Ruskin Bond, Arundhati Roy and Chetan Bhagat are among the big names shortlisted for the 20th Crossword Book Awards' Popular Choice category, where readers get the final say.
Ruskin Bond, Arundhati Roy and Chetan Bhagat. Pics courtesy/Wikimedia
Bond's Life's Magic Moments (above, left), Roy's Mother Mary Comes To Me (above, centre) and Bhagat's 12 Years are in the running (above, right), alongside Amish's The Chola Tigers, Sudha Murty's The Magic of the Lost Earrings and Twinkle Khanna's Mrs Funnybones Returns.
The shortlist has 25 titles across five categories, so there's plenty to browse before casting your vote. Fiction picks include Ashwin Sanghi's The Ayodhya Alliance, Ravi Mantri's Amma's Diary, translated from Telugu by Sameera, and Rithvik Singh's I Cannot Say Goodbye To You.
The non-fiction list features comedian Vir Das's The Outsider, Shantanu Naidu's Thinking Of Winter, illustrated by Sumouli Dutta, and Lt Gen KJS âTiny' Dhillon's Operation Sindoor. Khanna's Mrs Funnybones Returns also makes the cut in this category.
There's a lot to read for younger minds, too, with titles such as Lightning Kid by chess Grand Master Viswanathan Anand, Sneaker Paati by Anita Nair and A Girl, a Tiger And a Very Strange Story by Paro Anand, illustrated by Priya Kuriyan.
Business and management titles include Harish Bhat's Doing the Right Thing, Nitin Seth's Human Edge in the AI Edge and Sarthak Ahuja's The Money Ball. The Mind, Body and Spirit category features books by Ankur Warikoo, Jaya Kishori and Gaur Gopal Das.
Voting opened on October 26, and closes on November 23. The winners of both the Popular Choice and Jury Awards will be announced in early December. Given this heavy-duty list, we're sure bibliophiles have a lot of catching up to do.
Every once in a while, a blast from the past blows us out of our seats. When Alok Sharma put up the picture of a Hindi comic cover featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse at a temple, we were hooked.
A Chandamama comic cover featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Pics courtesy/Alok Sharma
"This was from the 1980s, when Chandamama published a limited series of Disney comics. They featured Disney stories translated to Hindi. I stumbled upon them now while cleaning and organising my collection," shared the avid collector, and writer. Titled Walt Disney Ki Vichitr Puri, the comic also has Minnie in a stylish pink saree.
Alok Sharma
But Sharma worries about this treasure lasting another generation. "Unfortunately, the paper quality in Indian comics back in the day wasn't great. They are thin, and get easily damaged," he rued. We certainly hope these quirks outlast the AI rot on our feed.
For years, the Marine Life of Mumbai (MLOM) has been engaged in an effort to draw eyes to the colourful, invisible world that lies within the tidepools of Mumbai's coasts. Now, the non-profit is undertaking a fundraiser that seeks to push their education programme further.
Highfin Moray Eel and Pearly Sea Anemone. Pics courtesy/tidepooling
Co-founder Shaunak Modi shared, "We will complete 10 years in February 2027, and in the lead up to it, we began the fundraiser as an effort to offer impetus to our education programme. We plan to introduce a number of activities, along the lines of the ongoing Tidepool Tamasha for children."
Shaunak Modi
While it might seem ambitious, Modi pointed out that the initial walks of the non-profit were entirely free. "The fundraiser will not only help make it free for children, but also scale up the programme to reach out to schools for the underprivileged, in addition to supporting marine researchers who are much needed to monitor the rapidly changing Mumbai coast," he added. Readers keen to help can check @marinelifeofmumbai for details.
