Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Couple GoalsYoung players catch a break after a game of football at Juhu beachReel life by the GangaChildren from a fishing community play in the river in Bengal Pics courtesySiddharth Agarwal Shridhar SudhirThe river Ganga is synonymous with Indias identity flowing into a large part of the populations belief system and raising generations and ecosystems along its nearly 3000kmlong course Siddharth Agarwal founder of the Kolkatabased Veditum India Foundation a research and media organisation spent nearly a year walking along the river from Ganga Sagar West Bengal to Gangotri Uttarakhand as part of Moving Upstream a project to chart the course of rivers in India The journey will now be released as a film Moving Upstream Ganga he told this diarist The idea behind the project was to capture the river and the people thriving on its banks beyond the popular notions of the Ganga It highlights the voices that are generally not taken into account during policymaking decisions he shared about the film whose trailer releases this week To take a peek into this journey head toveditumorgPolo is backAction unleashed at the green emerald of SoBoHooves that Horses of course The Amateur Riders Club ARC a civilian horse riding and equestrian centre at Mahalaxmi Race Course hosted the first match marking the opening of the polo season a couple of days ago Polo like so much else came to a screeching pandemicinduced halt in March last year The polo season is usually held in March and April in the city as the Mumbai racing season tapers off The Mumbai racing season was called off in the city centre last year and is being conducted at Pune instead We have revived polo though and will be having tournaments through this month ARC president Shyam Mehta confirmed with this diarist As for safety and social distancing you have eight players on nine acres and that too on horses You cannot get more distanced than thatLive by spicesWhen food chronicler and writer Rushina MunshawGhildiyal shut her Mumbai studio in 2019 she had imagined 2020 to be a year of travelling Of course the pandemic derailed her plan Considering masala dabbas were the centre of culinary activity during the lockdown she decided to dive into this world with the Instagram Live series SpiceChroniclesWithRMG The series where she delves into the usage and stories behind Indian spices is clocking 100 episodes this week Her virtual trail from Kashmir to Mangalore not only brought to light several lesserknown spices but also created a community of foodies often found exchanging notes in the comments Indian cuisine is so vast that I thought it was best to concentrate on one thing but be thorough The live platform allowed me to travel to nearly 100 kitchens Weve always showcased our diversity but I truly realised the influence of geography and communities on food she said adding she made friends out of followers who enriched her repertoire of knowledge In the runup to the 100th episode she will discuss what defines cuisine how flavour profiles of communities evolve and the way food affects identity with Shylashri Shankar Krish Ashok Ragini Kashyap and Himanshi Munshaw Luhar Tune in for some food for thoughtMaking a noiseThe lockdown brought forth a range of emotions in people considering how cut off we were Social Desolation is a compilation of Indian independent songs that sought to capture that mood in a sonic form The album has now been featured in British music magazine The Wires top 10 albums of last year in the Noise industrial and beyond category of genres Varun Desai who curated the compilation said We were looking to bring together a sound that the mainstream normally doesnt acknowledge as traditional electronic music or even as music sometimes But the sounds are not only relevant to what individuals go through emotionally but also what we as a society are going through Heres hoping that more people wake up to this music that exists in the marginsGreen datesWhile we may be occupied with ushering in 2021 with pomp it is also important and high time for us to take note of the environmental damage that increases with every passing year To help acknowledge what is at stake and spread awareness about it citybased nonprofit iNaturewatch Foundation has released an ecothemed calendar to remember important dates such as Animal Welfare Fortnight and World Wetlands Day We are trying to highlight that there are dates as important as the festive ones which need to be recognised At the same time we needed to give people a ready reference founder Dr V Shubhalaxmi shared about the online calendar