The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce.
Pic/Atul Kamble
I didn-t furget you
A youngster cuddles her canine by Carter Road, Bandra, on Monday. Pic/Atul Kamble
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Bring out that journal
Ruchi Dar Shah and Lubaina Bandukwala
The Peek A Book Literature Festival for Kids and First Mom-s Club FMC is working to launch an e-magazine where kids between seven and 16 years can share their experiences from this moment in history via features, interviews, poems or cartoons.
"All week we will air tips from professionals like journalist and author Shabnam Minwala on feature writing and cartoonist Abhijit Kini on news cartoons. Entries have been requested in specific categories like -people- stories, features, school, etc," festival founder Lubaina Bandukwala told this diarist, while Ruchi Dar Shah of FMC added, "This not only acts as a chronicle of these rather unusual times, but also assures kids that they aren-t alone."
Stepping in at the right time
Farokh Irani, partner at WIBS and Honeybell, distributing free cakes and bread in his personal capacity at Borivali station for the Shramik train heading to Villapuram
Since the past couple of weeks, the alumni of National Law School of India University NLSIU, Bengaluru, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science BITS, Pilani, in partnership with the Akshaya Patra Foundation have managed to distribute over 80,000 packets of food and water to migrant workers who have boarded trains from Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram and Ahmedabad. The initiative, Serving the Shramiks, includes a team of eminent lawyers Rabindra Jhunjhunwala, Poornima Sampath, Yash Ashar, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sameera Vasudeva and Sai Krishna Rajagopal.
"The biggest challenge is that the Shramik Special schedule is typically known six to eight hours in advance — both to us and the travellers," Sampath told this diarist, adding, "Although it is an effort to organise and deliver food kits at railway stations in this time, I would imagine this is much harder for those who have to pack everything they have in this time and leave. When we arrived at Borivali station where 1,800 passengers were boarding a train to Gorakhpur, it seemed like there were hundreds or thousands more. So the other priority is to ensure social distancing while distributing food kits. For now, we will continue to support the Shramiks. We hope this initiative will be the first of many."
Missing the movies
Ever wonder if people would want to step into a cinema hall again?According to a recent survey by a leading ticketing platform, the answer is yes. With responses from over 4,000 people across 235 cities and towns in India, 54 per cent Indians said they were eager to step out and watch their favourite films within 15 to 90 days of the lockdown being lifted.
People aged between 55 and 64 were more eager than the rest. The top two safety measures expected, though, are seat sanitisation and disinfectant tunnels. And 99 per cent respondents want the staff to be trained in safety and hygiene guidelines. It also looks like e-ticketing is the way forward.
Daldry in the house
If you-ve watched movies like Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader, you-d know the sort of master auteur that Stephen Daldry is. But the man doesn-t restrict himself to directing movies, and has helmed TV shows and Broadway and West End musicals including The Inheritance and An Inspector Calls, too.
Daldry will share some of the wisdom he has gained in the process at a talk that the NCPA will screen on June 19, titled Straddling Three Spheres: Working in Theatre, TV and Film. "In this session, he will be highlighting aspects such as change in audience expectations with a change of medium, and focus on technicalities involved in all the three mediums," an NCPA spokesperson told this diarist. Log on to the centre-s YouTube channel to listen to the talk, which will be available till June 26.
LOL, it-s a quiz
Rohan Joshi and Kumar Varun
We had reported in these pages in May about Kvizzing, a unique quiz contest for comedians. In its second edition, comedian Rohan Joshi was declared winner in a close final over the weekend.
"We had 32 participants in this tournament. This edition was about Hollywood and Bollywood," quizmaster Kumar Varun told this diarist. "I-ve been a quizzer since I was a child. When the lockdown was imposed, I had to take the offline quiz with comedians online. For me, quizzing is about awareness and deducing answers and not simply about cramming answers," he added.
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