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Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Updated on: 30 December,2017 08:45 AM IST  |  Mumbai
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The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce

Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

CM Devendra Fadnavis. Pics/Ashish Raje
CM Devendra Fadnavis. Pics/Ashish Raje


A study in expressions
CM Devendra Fadnavis gives us a glimpse of his many moods at a function that the Indian Education Society had organised at its Dadar compound yesterday.


Manjrekar plays it safe in his memoirs
With former India and Mumbai batsman Sanjay Manjrekar's memoirs to be released soon, some cricket lovers are keen to know whether there is an element of controversy in his views on Sachin Tendulkar. Remember, Manjrekar agreed with stand-in captain Rahul Dravid's decision to declare when Tendulkar was six short of a double century against Pakistan in the Multan Test of 2004.


Sachin Tendulkar and Sanjay Manjrekar
Sachin Tendulkar and Sanjay Manjrekar

And Tendulkar made a mention of Manjrekar's chat with him in his autobiography, released in 2014. Tendulkar told Manjrekar then that he disagreed with his backing of the declaration and that he was not in the dressing room to know what had happened.

For those wanting to know whether Manjrekar has touched upon this incident in his book, Imperfect, from what we know, he hasn't. The book has some amount of spice, but not so much that it will cause cracks in his friendships with fellow former players.

The dark side of Winston Churchill
This diarist recently came across an article by William Dalrymple's son Sam, and going by the content of the piece and the fact that he studies Sanskrit at the University of Oxford, we have every reason to believe that he is ably carrying forward the legacy of his famous historian father.

Sam

Titled The Shameful Truth About Churchill, the article discusses how the Brits in their unconditional love and admiration for the political leader "woefully" turn a blind eye towards his role as leader of the British Empire. The piece, which appeared in Cherwell, a newspaper published by the students of Oxford, goes on to elaborate Churchill's role in the Bengal famine of 1943-44.

Sir Winston Churchill

"Indeed, Churchill, the British Prime minister at the time, ordered that the Indian food reserves be diverted to buffer reserve stocks in countries such as Greece instead," Sam (above) writes, referring to works by various historians. And just when we thought he would strike an interesting conversation with Shashi Tharoor, we found the latter's comments on Churchill quoted in the article, too. We are keeping our eyes peeled for this young historian.

Much-needed clarification
We reported on this page yesterday that Humans of Hindutva, a popular Facebook page that slings mud at right-wing extremists, had been taken off the social media site. We had also reported that the admin for the page had released a statement saying that he had taken the decision voluntarily because of death threats.

Humans of Hindutva

But, it seems that the news did not reach Facebook, because a screenshot of the site telling a member that it had taken heed of his complaint and taken the HoH page down went viral. This prompted the HoH admin to make a brief comeback and set the record straight, clarifying that he himself had done the vanishing act fearing for his life. All in all, it seems to us like a case of adding insult to injury.

Talent missing from SoBo
Talent Street Kala Ghoda is a collaborative initiative that Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai began on November 19. As part of it, every Sunday, the streets at the busy commercial hub become a platform for aspiring artistes to display their talent.

Talent street

And in a city where space is at a premium, Talent Street is a welcome window for creativity. But this Sunday, however, there will be no talent on display since the authorities are on edge as Mumbai gets into party mode on December 31. The powers that be cite 'security reasons' for the cancellation, with Mumbai being on 'high alert'. But those who fall on the philistine thorns of life and bleed, fret not.

Talent Street will be back the Sunday after December 31, and is expected to go on till May next year. Meanwhile, we hear that the MTDC is planning to add more such streets in the city, which gets a definite thumbs-up from us.

St+art to finish
When the St+art festival was kicked off in Sassoon Docks in October this year, we had spoken to the initiative's co-founder Giulia Ambrogi. She had told us then that they are in nascent talks with the various stakeholders to possibly extend the time period for the festival, slated to run till December 31.

This would have meant that all the wonderful installations and art pieces that bedecked a run-down warehouse at the docks would have got a home there for a longer period. But we now hear that no such extension is forthcoming, and all the artwork will be cleared from the warehouse on January 1. Not the best piece of news to end the year with, we are afraid.

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