Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

The Ultra gets antiterror taglineThe running bug bites big in the monsoon with this season becoming huge for Indian running So with Independence Day approaching the Shivaji Park Marathon Club SPMC supporters and friends are cranking up the enthusiasm for their annual 12hour Ultrathon being held for the third timeThe Ultrathon which is becoming a fixture on the local calendar comes with a twist this time Started with the idea of encouraging more people to embrace a healthier lifestyle by incorporating running into their daily lives the Ultra which comprises taking loops of Shivaji Park to Worli Sea Face and back for 12 hours gets serious this timeRunners will run to a theme lsquoDonrsquot be Terrorized but Run for Funrsquo with a top cop saying that it makes more of an impact when the common man spreads the antiterror messageWhoever said the salt nrsquo pepper look is passePicAtul KambleWe were tempted to guess what the woman whispered into Milind Somanrsquos mumrsquos ears about her evergreen son at an marathon event at the Radio Club yesterdayMake way for bongtailsIf yoursquove been to Raasta a kitschy Caribbean lounge in Hauz Khas in Delhi yoursquoll be aware of their signature Bongtails For the uninitiated these are boozy concoctions served in large containers that resemble a bongBongtails at Raastarsquos Delhi outletNow get ready to enjoy them in Mumbai as the rastafarianstyle lounge makes headway into Khar in the later part of August Spread over four levels Raasta Bombay will offer world cuisine with a variety of seafood while retaining some signatures from the Delhi menu Already popular for Reggae and Dubstep nights and a threeday music fest known as Ragadub it will also host a number of gigs here too In fact we hear the team is bringing down BLOT from Delhi who will present an audiovisual act for the opening nightKainaz Messman HarchandraiMeanwhile in other foodie news while Theobrama continues to be on an expansion spree not that we are complaining the team behind the patisseriebakery chain are set to open a new joint in Lower Parel sometime later this month Christened Three Chicks And A Bear the space will offer burgers milkshakes appetisers and beer The menu has been helmed by Theorsquos flagbearer Kainaz Messman Harchandrai left in pic whorsquos currently gearing up for the food trials Well with a name that cute wersquove already begun conjuring ohsotasty images of chunky burgers and shakesArt on his mindAt a symposium on the institutionalisation of private art collections hosted by the Piramal Art Foundation we were all ears for Abhishek Poddar The industrialist who founded Tasveer is fresh out of controversy around Venkatappa Art Gallery which he intended to turn into a private museumAbhishek Poddar in black at an earlier event at Targ Gallery PicShadab KhanNews from the South spoke of how Bengalurursquos artists were unhappy with the ldquoprivatizationrdquo of this public art gallery Poddar withdrew the bid a tad miffed He steered clear of the debated space in his talk Instead he focused more on moving on with a clear vision for Musuem of Art and Photography MAP what he said would be a ldquoa quality space for artrdquo elaborating ldquoIt is designed very much with the public in mindIt is the right time to bring such a museum to Bengalururdquo He added that he had deliberately kept his surname out of the museumrsquos name While we wait to see where MAP will be housed a major digitisation programme of Poddarrsquos collection is on where he hinted at tieups with Google Cultural Institute and other private collections He signed off ldquothe agenda for a private collection is different from a museum for the public with a right curation it can still workrdquoA film from memoryWith their reputation one can easily expect a union of poetic visuals and a powerful narrative in Events In A Cloud Chamber a film remade by Ashim Ahluwalia the director of awardwinning Miss Lovely Akbar Padamsee a pioneer of Indian modern art and Jhaveri Contemporary StudioAkbar PadamseeEvents In A Cloud Chamber was originally made in 1969 by Padamsee and was one of the earlier works of experimental cinema in the country For the new 20minute short Padamsee recalled the details of the film from memory as no prints were available and Ahluwalia added his touch Can memory of things lost add to creativity We await eagerlyRecap for the birthday dayIt was US President Barack Obamarsquos 55th birthday yesterday his last in The White House and so we decided to do a bit of digging up of our photo archive only to find this candid frame of him during a Town Hall with students at St Xavierrsquos CollegeUS President Barack Obama addresses students at St Xavierrsquos College during his India visit in November 2010 PicShadab KhanThose who were lucky to be a part of this select audience or the rest of us who watched the live session on our television sets will recall his charisma and energy that had the audience rivetted and speaking of the session for days to come