The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Kaifi Azmi with wife Shaukat
A mehfil for Kaifi Azmi
The 98th birth anniversary of poet lyricist Kaifi Azmi will see an informal mehfil of music and poetry at his cottage 25, Janki Kutir opposite Prithvi theatre today. His son Baba Azmi recalls, “This small cottage was where greats like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Begum Akhtar, Guru Dutt and MF Husain would drop by.
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Shabana Azmi
This is my modest attempt to restore my parents’ home to its former glory.” Jaswinder Singh, Shibani Kashyap, and young singers like Kaveri Kapur (Shekhar Kapur’s daughter), Surshree Rathod (Roop Kumar Rathod’s daughter), will sing Kaifi Saheb’s songs. Also in store is a special show by saxophonist Abhay Sharma who will play Kaifi Azmi’s songs. Poets Javed Akhtar, Shakeel Azmi, Vijay Akela and Obaid Azmi will recite their poetry.
Back to basics
Pic/Satej Shinde
We loved the expression on Ajay Devgn’s face as he glanced at Arjun Rampal at the launch of a new sporting league at a Bandra five-star yesterday.
It’s time for Africa
There have been moments when we imagine a world without borders. The Global Art Jam by The Great African Caravan that starts today at IIT Mumbai aims to give it a shot. The Great African Caravan is a confluence of world artists who will set off on a journey to explore the idea of a world without borders.
In an event along with Kranti, an NGO that works to empower girls from Mumbai’s red-light areas, 40 artists will create a collaborative art jam to explore the complexities of gender and sexuality through art forms. The Common Thread series to be held at IIT Mumbai (hosted by IDC (Industrial Design Centre), will feature public art events as well.
Can Farah Khan dance?
In a recent chat, dancer Salman Yusuff Khan, who shot into limelight with a talent hunt on television and then went to debut in choreographer Remo D’Souza’s film, revealed to this diarist on the difference between a choreographer and a dance director.
Salman Yusuff Khan and Remo D’Souza; (right) Farah Khan
“Unfortunately, India has one role for the two completely different profiles. Everybody is a choreographer in Bollywood. In the West, it doesn’t work like that. For example, Farah ma’am (Khan) can’t really dance, so she’s not a choreographer in that sense, but the way she shoots a song, with her sense of camera angles and movement, makes her one of the finest dance directors we have.” We are not sure if the dancer-choreographer-director would be thrilled with this comment by someone from the fraternity!
Portal in the city
If you drop by Azad Maidan this week, you will find a shipping container, covered in gold. Don’t be fooled by the size because the portal is equipped with immersive audiovisual technology and connects Mumbai to 20 other cities worldwide, including refugee camps in Berlin, Gaza, Erbil (Iraq), Amman, art centres in Rwanda, Yangon and Mexico City.
The container has been painted by four artists from the JJ School of Arts
A Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon initiative, the Mumbai Portal has been created by Chlorophyll Innovation Labs and Shared Studios in New York. On entering the portal, you will see a person in another portal live and in life-size. There are five to six hours of interactions, programmed interactions and open hours, planned daily, till Sunday.
The programmed interactions include Major DP Singh, India’s first blade runner and marathoner who will talk to a Syrian refugee hero based in Berlin; Harish Iyer, a gender activist who will share his story of grit and determination with Maria Bashir, the first woman prosecuter in Afghanistan and cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, who will connect with a cricket star from Afghanistan.
Honour for Kaps
The Legends’ Club, an organisation of cricket enthusiasts, will make Kapil Dev their legend on Tuesday and have invited another legend — Sunil Gavaskar — to do the honours at the Cricket Club of India.
Being honoured at the erstwhile Test venue will be significant for India’s 1983 World Cup-winning captain. It is here where he attended a junior National camp under the guidance of former Test batsman Hemu Adhikari in 1974. Kapil and 23 other trainees were at the receiving end of Mumbai’s heat and humidity; no water breaks too.
Lunch, according to Kapil in his autobiography Cricket My Style, consisted “two dry chapatis and a spoonful of vegetables.” The livid budding fast bowler refused to have his lunch. When word got around about his refusal, an official in charge of the camp asked him, “So you don’t like the food we give you?” Kapil replied, “No Sir, I am a fast bowler and I need more nourishment.”
The official burst into laughter and exclaimed, “There are no fast bowlers in India.” Holding back his tears, Kapil strengthened his resolve to be India’s best fast bowler. There’s a good chance the great man will recall this incident on Tuesday and The Legends’ Club will do well to include chapatis on the menu.
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