The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Ashish Rane
Every dog has his day
Churchgate's Oval Maidan sees the return of its frequent visitors on a rain-soaked Saturday. Pic/Ashish Rane
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Still serving during COVID
Simona Terron
How are small food businesses and restaurants coping during the pandemic and lockdown? Food journalist and podcaster Simona Terron has spent the last few weeks trying to find answers to the question. Her new series on her podcast, THC HeartBytes (Spotify), had seen her reach out Melwyn D'Sa of Hearsch Bakery, Lee Anne of Lee Anne's Kitchen in Andheri, and Atul Sahni of Pali Hill's famed Khane Khas, to understand what it takes to keep food businesses afloat in these trying times.
"Having covered the food scene for over 20 years now, I've made a lot of friends in the industry. Many of them have been hit the hardest. When I reached out to check on them, I was getting unnerving and dismal reports. I just wanted to put this message out there, and exhort people to support these businesses by ordering from them," says Terron. One of the persons she reached out to for her upcoming show is Mavourneen Peter of Mav's Cajes & Bakes in Bandra. "Despite making terrible losses, she has refused to cut the salaries of her staff."
Mapping the history of India's art residencies
Rober Rauschenburg with fabrics at the Sarabhai Foundation in Ahmedabad in 1975. Pic/Suhrid Sarabhai
The history of art residencies in India has, by and large, been an oral one. However, this will soon translate into a book, thanks to eight years of research by Saloni Doshi who runs the Space 118 studio. Speaking to this diarist, Doshi says, "I have been running this residency for over 10 years now, and when we started in 2009, Feroza Godrej told me that it reminded her of the Bhulabhai Desai Memorial Institute at Breach Candy. As a collector and later as a patron, I had no idea about what had existed before me." She then started researching these studios—the Sarabhai Foundation, Chennai's Cholamandal Artists' Village and others across the length and breadth of the country.
Saloni Doshi
They were not known as residencies, perhaps, but they created the infrastructure for building confidence among the artists, a place where they could have a dialogue with each other, and without much monetary profit. The book, which is currently being put together by her, and a team of writers, has the working title of Mapping Residencies of India with 46 residencies. It's full of anecdotes and first-person interviews. With the lockdown in place, some of these stories are also being shared online, on the Space 118's Instagram and Facebook handles and its website. Head there for an art history lesson.
Let's not forget Sir Frank!
The death of Sir Everton Weekes brought back memories of the other two Ws of West Indies cricket—Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Clyde Walcott.
The more popular among the former and latter was undoubtedly Worrell, who succumbed to blood cancer in 1967. He is also known as the Nelson Mandela of cricket.
KN Prabhu the doyen of Indian cricket writers, once best described Worrell's good nature in a piece for Sportsweek's World of Cricket way back in 1983: "As I write these lines, I can see him [Worrell] rebuking [Wes] Hall for joining [Charlie] Griffith in a bumper attack the day [Nari] Contractor was injured [in 1962]. I can see his agonised face as we sat through the small hours at the Barbados hospital, lessening the tension with a jest: 'They'll find more alcohol than blood in my veins' when he had to make his contribution [donating blood for Contractor's recovery]. I can see him sporting through surf on Barbados' lovely beaches and his husky voice asking, 'are you guys organised?' He was solicitous about everyone's welfare. And I remember him, too, that morning at Palisadoes airport [Jamaica in 1962] unashamed to show his tears as he bid farewell to the Indians."
Worrell was the perfect gent and Prabhu a perfect writer on his day. Cricket misses them and now we'll miss Weekes.
This Mumbai girl is a lot like Princess Di
Meera Mehta, a 21-year-old volunteer with non-profit Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care, has been felicitated with The Diana Award for her humanitarian activities. Established in memory of Princess Diana of Wales, the award recognises the efforts of youngsters between nine and 25 years for their social action or humanitarian work and is supported by both her sons.
Over the past 10 years, Mehta has raised Rs1.5 crore for initiatives of the NGO, including tertiary healthcare for a rural charity hospital, a science college for the tribal students, and primary and secondary education for indigenous communities. During the lockdown, Mehta raised over Rs33 lakh to support vulnerable communities. "This award is an apportunity through which I can to connect to more people."
Remembering a tragic prince
Poland Ambassador to India, Adam Burakowski, has been using the lockdown period to explore India's rich and vibrant history. Burakowski recently finished Avik Chanda's book, Dara Shukoh, and took to social media to share the impact it had on him. Speaking to this diarist, Burakowski said, "There are tales that I can hear again and again, such as about Mark Antony and Cleopatra, the Great Siege of Malta or the establishment of the Maurya Empire.
One of these stories is the tragedy of Dara Shukoh, the beloved son of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. This is a tale of a talented intellectual and brilliant religious thinker who wanted to find common traces in various traditions. He wrote the book, Majma-ul-Bahrain—The Confluence of the Two Seas. Unfortunately for him, he had no expertise in war, politics and intrigue, and because of this he was defeated and killed by his younger brother Aurangzeb. What a biography!"
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