The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
An impactful road trip
The signage on Rajesh Khandekar’s cycle
AMID worsening global warming, Thane-based businessman Rajesh Khandekar chose a quiet yet demanding path to raise awareness regarding the deteriorating climatic conditions around the world. On March 10, he ended his year-long transcontinental cycling journey from Argentina towards Canada, covering nearly 14,000 kilometres and 15 countries. This marked his third expedition, following earlier rides across Asia, and from Bangladesh to New Zealand. En route, he engaged with local communities and cyclists and spread his word. “I didn’t want protests or noise; I wanted to show that even one person can travel, connect, and remind others that the planet needs urgent care,” Khandekar told this diarist.
United in their voice
A performance by the choir in 2025. Pic Courtesy/Terrence Rushin
A group of talented singers are set to take the city by storm. The Uniting Voices Chicago choir (formerly Chicago Children’s Choir) will perform at the Willingdon Sports Club in Tardeo on March 22, as part of their ongoing tour through Asia. “This tour is more than a series of performances. It is a shared journey of connection.
Our singers are bringing a repertoire that reflects both who we are and what we believe, that music can bridge cultures, languages, and lived experiences,” shared president Josephine Lee (inset). A Grammy Award-nominee, Lee will travel with the choir that was founded as part of the Civil Rights Movement in 1956, to Dharamshala and McLeod Ganj too. “At a time when the world can feel increasingly divided, moments like this matter,” she said.
Great going, Garima!
After entering Bandra’s foodscape with a bang last year, chef Garima Arora (below) has an eye on Kuala Lumpur next. Yaari, her new modern Indian venture is set to open doors late this year at a luxury hotel in the Malaysian capital. The Mumbai-born chef, who became the first Indian woman to bag two Michelin stars for her Bangkok restaurant Gaa in 2024, has plans to dish out some surprises at the new restaurant. We learnt that the menu will feature ‘refined chaats’ as a hat tip to India’s street food culture, alongside classic kebabs and curries. “Yaari is born from my passion for storytelling through food, celebrating heritage, creativity and the joyful experience of sharing a meal,” Arora shared.
Return of the native
Subodh Gupta at the Nature Morte Gallery in 2024. File Pic Door, 2007; School, 2008. Pics Courtesy/artist; NMACC
When we last spoke to Subodh Gupta on the opening day of his exhibition, A small village, around the corner, up in a mountain, in January 2024, we hardly thought it would take two years for the artist to return to the city. But it did, and the artist will break his long hiatus with the city this April with his new show, A Fistful of Sky, at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC). Opening on April 3, the exhibition presented by Nature Morte Gallery brings together immersive environments and installations, including some that are being showcased in India for the very first time.
Curated by Clare Lilley, the exhibition examines ritual, migration, labour, aspiration, and deep time. Alongside works like School, and Door that symbolise ritual and collective order, the exhibition will also mark the debut of his creation, Nine Stupa — used and flattened stainless steel utensils assembled into devotional forms. The work, Lilley wrote, “expands the discourse of Indian contemporary art towards a complex meditation on vulnerability and continuity.” “Objects contain the meaning — migration, memory, ritual, celebration… as though they carry the weight of entire civilisations,” added Gupta in the curatorial note.
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