The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Shilpa Shetty with Shiamak Davar in Bandra
Aa gale lag jaa
The camaraderie between Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Shiamak Davar is evident as they exchange a hug during the choreographer's academy's dance show in Bandra. Pic /Bipin Kokate
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Stray melodies
The Welfare of Stray Dogs (WSD) has now released a fun jingle on YouTube that not only captures the essence of their work but also of the community that adopts. According to Abodh Aras, CEO of WSD, the idea came from an active volunteer Leron D'souza who is also an ad filmmaker and music composer. He then volunteered to make a video, too. "We were brainstorming about it when we thought that it should communicate the message about encouraging people to adopt a street dog either by welcoming one home or just taking care of him/her in your area.
It gels well with the WSD Calendar 2020 - Happy Tails, that features dogs and cats who were adopted from WSD," Aras told this diarist. While D'souza wrote the jingle, many well-wishers pooled in with music, cinematography, editing, sound, mixing and providing an editing studio — all pro-bono. Aras concludes, "We are thankful to all of them including our doggie and hooman models. We hope the jingle will melt people's hearts and nudge them to adopt a stray!"
Duflo's Nobel move
Leading non-profit publishing house Pratham Books (PB) has now occupied a special place in Stockholm's Nobel Prize Museum. After kicking off a week of festivities that ends today with the awards ceremony, the Nobel laureates visited the museum to sign chairs at the museum cafe. Turns out that the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Esther Duflo donated PB titles as artefacts to the museum. The children's books included I Want That One, written by Mala Kumar and illustrated by Soumya Menon; Angry Akku, written and illustrated by Vinayak Varma; and A Butterfly Smile, written by Mathangi Subramanian, and illustrated by Lavanya Naidu. Well, sounds like Duflo is quite the reader!
Stage is set
City-based Five Senses Theatre Group has a new project under its wings. They've got a grant to collaborate with the University of Florida and will be putting up an interactive play that revolves around the LGBTQIA+ identity and stigma in India. The creative team includes Will Weigler and Vikram Phukan, directors Jeff Pufahl and Victor Thoudam, community liaison Shobhna Kumar of Queer Ink, and project coordinator Hardik Shah, who is also the founder of the theatre group. The play will draw from Weigler's book The Alchemy of Astonishment. "We're going to be making a documentary based on things happening behind the scenes as well. We hope to stage the play in March at multiple venues across Mumbai. The auditions have started and we have also approached historians and activists for sensitisation programmes," Shah told this diarist.
Gino Banks's January wedding
It's not just season time for Mumbai drummer Gino Banks but a doubly busy time since come January 18 and the son of legendary pianist Louiz Banks will be tying the knot with fiancée Eden Kesang Alexander, a Mumbai-based vocalist and air hostess.
Calling it a "big, intimate wedding," Banks shared details with the diarist, "We'll have a court marriage in Mumbai, followed by a ceremony at a chapel and a traditional Tibetan ceremony, complete with the Kesang wearing the bridal bakkhu [traditional Tibetan dress]. This will be followed by a party, of course." But this is also one day that the musical duo will not be singing or performing, "because that's what we deal with every day in any case," he revealed.
A Christmas for sustainability
Founded by Ritu and Surya Singh, Wolf Jaipur is a platform that seeks to bring like-minded artists together with a focus on art and installations made of scrap. Their latest collaboration with BKC-based modern Goan restaurant, O Pedro, is an extension of that philosophy. Made with glass bottles, teaspoons and other items used in past meals, The Miracle of Christmas tree, which will be lit at the diner on December 13, is a 20-feet-tall tree and an ode to sustainability. "A few months ago when we visited Wolf's installation, we realised the ability and power of storytelling through waste and discards and wanted to knit that into our Christmas festivities to be able to give back to our community by bringing to life a sustainable tree made with props and discards that were once a part of someone's happy meal," Sameer Seth, co-partner, told this diarist.
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