<h2>Aak-thoo!</h2>
<p>A police official suspends civic sense and flouts Covid-appropriate behaviour guidelines to spit in the open at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus station on Thursday. Under the Disaster Management Act, spitting in public invites steep fines and in some cases even a jail term in the state</p>
<h2>This is the write list</h2>
<p><img src="http://origin.mid-day.com/images/2021/dec/Deepa-Agarwal-a_e.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p>
<p>The list of nominations for Delhi-based PragatiE Vichaar Literature Festival&rsquo;s PVLF Excellence Awards was recently announced. It features the likes of A God at the Door by Tishani Doshi, Where Stories Gather by Karuna Ezara Parikh, Forgotten Kaleidoscopes by Deepa Agarwal, A Mirror Made of Rain by Naheed Patel, and The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, among others. Children&rsquo;s author Agarwal (in pic), whose book of poetry was shortlisted in the Best Poetry category, shared that it felt good to be recognised. This is her second volume of poetry in around 15 years. &ldquo;The book has poems across several themes, including women&rsquo;s issues, childhood, cityscapes, love poems, memories, random utterances and more,&rdquo; she shared with this diarist. Readers can vote for their favourite writers by heading to frontlist.in.</p>
<h2>Big honour for book on Sher-Gil</h2>
<p><img src="http://origin.mid-day.com/images/2021/dec/Anita-Vachharajani_e.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p>
<p>City-based author Anita Vachharajani (inset) has a feather in her cap. She has won the Sahitya Academy Children&rsquo;s Literature Award 2021 for her book Amrita Sher-Gil: A Rebel with a Paintbrush. Speaking about the title, she told this diarist, &ldquo;I am not an art person. I am a literature person and I approached this book as an absolute lay person, perhaps like a child would. For me, [writing it] was like education because I had to look up a lot on geography, history and art.&rdquo; She added, &ldquo;I would also like to thank my illustrator [Kalyani Ganapathy] and HarperCollins India [the [publisher]. When people write about art, they use a lot of jargon. But my publishers supported my decision to use the original paintings and made it happen. That kind of support is really rare.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>A result that&rsquo;s fit for a queen</h2>
<p><img src="http://origin.mid-day.com/images/2021/dec/Sushant-Divgikar_e.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p>
<p>Earlier this month, we had written on this page about how Sushant Divgikar aka Rani Ko-He-Nur was taking part in Queen of the Universe, an international TV show that involves a singing contest for drag artistes. This year marked the show&rsquo;s first edition and 14 contestants from different countries took part in it. The show was produced by the same firm that produces RuPaul&rsquo;s Drag Race, arguably the most prestigious such TV programme in the world. Divigikar was the sole Indian representative and he had told us how he hopes that his participation opens up doors for queer artistes for India. The final results have now been announced and Divgikar has got the respectable rank of third runners-up (Grag Queen from Brazil, and Ada Vox and Aria B Cassadine, who are both from the US, occupied the top three spots). &ldquo;I have learned a lot from my fellow contestant queens, and I look forward to a long-lasting working relationship with them as well as the makers of the show,&rdquo; he shared about his experience.</p>
<h2>Pav-wow facts</h2>
<p><img src="http://origin.mid-day.com/images/2021/dec/Vadapav_e.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p>
<p>How many plates of momos do you think Indians ordered in 2021? Maybe 10 lakh? Or 50 lakh? The answer, instead, is a jaw-dropping 1 crore plates, according to a report that a food aggregator app has released. It shows how the Tibetan dish has grabbed the imagination of this country, leaving behind competition from staples like samosa (73 lakh) and Mumbai&rsquo;s very own vada pav (32 lakh). The combination of paneer butter masala and butter naan, meanwhile, was ordered 11 lakh times. But none of these dishes came close to India&rsquo;s biggest food obsession &mdash; the mighty biryani &mdash; two plates of which were sold every second on the app. Among individual buyers, someone from Ahmedabad placed the single-most expensive order of food worth '33,000 in one go. And another user placed 12 ice cream orders in a single day. Safe to say that that&rsquo;s the sign of having a sweet tooth.</p>
<h2>Equal news</h2>
<p><img src="http://origin.mid-day.com/images/2021/dec/Likho_e.jpg" alt="The winners of the previous edition of the awards event" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>The winners of the previous edition of the awards event</em></strong></p>
<p>NGO The Humsafar Trust held the first edition of the Likho Awards for Media Excellence in 2016, in order to honour journalistic endeavours that promote the cause of the LGBTQiA+ community. After a gap due to the pandemic last year, the event will return for its next edition in 2022. The organisers are calling for entries for the same, and Tinesh Chopade, advocacy manager at The Humsafar Trust, told this diarist, &ldquo;We believe that the media will play a crucial role in our effort for an equal society.&rdquo; Those interested should visit @thehumsafartrustofficial on Instagram to apply, but hurry, because the deadline is tomorrow.</p><p>
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Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

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