Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Daredevil pati vratasWomen across the city shunned Covid19 appropriate behaviour and gathered in crowds with no masks to celebrate Vad Savitri a festival where married women pray for the long life of their husbandsIn line for a winldquoThe Neev Book Award recognises outstanding writing that leads to a fuller understanding of Indian lives and stories It promotes childrenrsquos books with Indian characters and settings so that children can see aspects of themselves and their world reflected in the literature they readrdquo Kavita Gupta Sabharwal cofounder of Neev Literature Festival told this diarist about the Neev Book Awards an ancillary event of the festival that was launched in 2018 The shortlist for the 2021 edition is now out in four different categories mdash Early years Emerging Readers Junior Readers and Young Adult The nominees include Devashish Makhija in pic for Oonga Paro Anand for Nomadrsquos Land Harshika Udaasi for Friends Behind Walls and Nandita Basu for The Piano May the best person winNatural takeThis photograph by Soumabrata Moulick was one of the winning entries in 2020Herersquos a contest thatrsquos all natural Nature in Focus a web portal that highlights Indiarsquos diverse wildlife and the need for conserving it is organising a contest where they are calling for entries from photographers and filmmakers The themes are natural history and conservation issues and the deadline is June 30 ldquoThe entries will be judged on technical excellence and how unique the participantrsquos approach is to the photo or film The jury will check whether the people actually thought differently or simply aimed and shot a random thingrdquo shared Radha Rangarajan the portalrsquos editor Interested Log on to natureinfocusin to know moreThali time in the suburbsWith dining out restricted for a long time cloud kitchens started mushrooming during the pandemic like never before But now that restaurants can function again there are some new entrants who are braving the situation and opening their doors One example is Rasotsav a thalionly eatery that will launch in Andheri West on July 5 The menu will focus on Rajasthani and Gujarati cuisine and each thali will have about 30 dishes available in unlimited quantities ldquoWe had planned to launch the project nine months ago but had to put it on hold due to the pandemic When we realised that we are going to have to live with the virus for a while we decided to go ahead anywayrdquo its owner Aji Nair told this diaristEating to giveIn January this year Ensue a finedine restaurant in Chinarsquos Shenzhen city started an initiative called Eat Give Revive The idea was for six celebrated chefs from across the world to contribute one recipe to the menu The ticket sales would be donated to a chosen charitable cause The next edition scheduled for July 1 features Indian stalwarts Gaggan Anand Manav Tuli Garima Arora and Prateek Sadhu with the proceeds being donated for Covid19 relief in India Now thatrsquos a meal we wish we could devourJamsetji Tata is most generousIndiarsquos most visionary industrialist of the last century Jamsetji Tata founder of the 200 billion Tata business empire has been ranked the worldrsquos no 1 philanthropist of the last century The list created by Hurun Research and EdelGive Foundation was released earlier this week and included 50 of the worldrsquos most generous citizens The US led with 39 philanthropists followed by the UK 5 China 3 India 2 and Portugal 1 The current estimated value of Tatarsquos philanthropy amounted to 1024 billion This is the first year that such a ranking system has been created Tata established textile mills and steel and power industries leading to technical education that helped India achieve industrial growth in the 20th century the Tata official website shared while citing this honour In their statement the Foundation mentioned that lsquoTata had set up the JN Tata Endowment in 1892 for higher education which was the beginning of Tata Trustsrdquo In second place was Bill and Melinda Gates 746 billion followed by Henry Wellcome 567 billion Howard Hughes 386 billion and Warren Buffet US374 billion who rounded off the top five Azim Premji of Wipro was ranked at no 12 Will this news call for some introspection from Indiarsquos evergrowing breed of crorepatis Your guess is as good as ours