Mumbai - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
RIP Jayashree Singh
When Don Mclean sang the line, "The day the music died," in his classic hit American Pie, he could have inadvertently referred to January 12, 2018. For, the country's music industry lost one of its strongest guiding forces yesterday, when Jayashree Singh of the Kolkata-based bands Skinny Alley and Pink Noise succumbed to cancer, after having battled the disease for a while.
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The city's music community - for many of whom she had been a mentor - has gone numb dealing with her loss. Rohan Ganguli, the guitarist for the erstwhile band The Supersonics, struggles for words when this diarist give him a call. "Not only was she a lovely person, she was also a loving person. Everyone was a kid for her, musician or not. So, it's like losing one of your own parents," he finally tells us.
Pic/Bipin Kokate
Lean on me
Industrialist Mukesh Ambani lends a shoulder to honcho Ratan Tata at a press conference at Malabar Hill.
Seven rivers in a metro
Taking a cue from other world cities, Mumbai's underground Metro Rail tunnel, which is under construction, will introduce names for each of the tunnel-boring machines that are building its first underground line. Since the construction is divided into seven packages, the tunnel boring machines have been named after seven rivers of Maharashtra.
This will make them easier to identify and capture the progress of construction. The seven rivers building Mumbai's Underground Metro are Package 1: Surya, Package 2: Vaitarna, Package 3: Tansa, Package 4: Krishna, Package 5: Godavari, Package 6: Tapi and Package 7: Wainganga. Novel way to learn more about our state, no?
Pao wow in NYC
It's been a little over a year since Goan chef Floyd Cardoz has been serving bagfuls of flavour from India to New York's foodies at his critically acclaimed restaurant, Paowalla. And with The Bombay Canteen and O Pedro continuing to win accolades in Mumbai, Cardoz sure seems to have got the formula right to please the tough-to-please foodies and critics across both cities.
The latest bit of cheer for Cardoz is that Paowalla has now made it to the coveted list of NYC Restaurant Week, where his baby will be representing Indian food, among a smorgasbord of world cuisines. The fragrance of warm breads in the snow-covered city sure smells good in our heads.
Swedish ode to India's b#&f!
Now this one caught us by complete surprise, purely for its geographic significance. A globetrotting desi friend of this diarist, who happens to have a job one would give a hand and leg for, was exploring Stockholm, and had stopped by a hostel for water break. While skimming through its menu, he stumbled upon a surprising inclusion.
It was a dish called Indisk nötköttsgryta med apple & vitkal och ris, which when translated from Swedish means: Indian b#&f stew with apple and cabbage and rice! Sadly, being on a tight schedule, he was unable to tuck into this intriguingly titled albeit controversial meat-based dish. Surely, this will be noted down as one more reason to plan that elusive trip to the Land of the Midnight Sun.
In quest for quality cinema
Independent cinema is slowly but surely making its presence felt in India. This diarist recently learnt of a motley crew of individuals, all passionate about content-driven cinema, who have teamed up to make a film on a rather unusual but pertinent issue.
"The film is called Unwanted and is inspired by true events. There are approximately 50,000 people who have been declared dead by their family members in eastern UP, Bihar and West Bengal for vested interests, when they are very much alive," says Dilip Deo, who has been a film editor for 17 years, and is making his directorial debut with the social drama.
Dilip Deo
Madhumita Roy, a qualified company secretary, who quit her government job before taking the plunge, is the film's producer, while writer, poetess and historian Vibha Rani is making her acting debut. "The film is a comment on the decline of human values and lust for wealth. We were looking for actors, who would be fresh for the industry, and do justice their roles," Deo adds. In its post-production phase, the film is likely to be released in March this year.
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