Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Take a breath but safelyA young girl with her mask intact enjoys a ride atop a ferris wheel in MatungaHeritage Olympiad set for April debutAnjchita NairHeritage and history enthusiasts can finally put their knowledge to test at a firstofitskind Olympiad which is being held on April 18 The Heritage Olympiad which midday had first reported about has been created in collaboration with experts in the cultural and education sector and will deal with all aspects of cultural heritagemdashtangible intangible and natural The curriculum is broadly aligned with the syllabi followed by the major national and international boards and integrates concepts of global citizenship with protection of traditional knowledge heritage sites and historic cities and the UNrsquos Sustainable Development Goals SDGs ldquoOur vision is to strengthen heritage education and sensitise young minds to Indiarsquos rich and multifaceted cultural heritagerdquo Anjchita Nair cofounder and COO of Cultre the heritage and culture consultancy behind the event told this diaristKem choRecently Mumbai comedian Manan Desai created a short crisp video for Tinder on online dating within the Gujarati community It stars National Awardwinning actor Shraddha Dangar and Mitra Gadhvi of Chello Divas fame ldquoI was always sitting on this idea and coincidentally Tinder happened to approach me I feel the more regional you go the more hesitation there is in establishing communication with strangers We wanted to break that barrier or mind blockrdquo says Desai who has done the sound design and produced the background score for the video as wellA beautiful tribute to lifeRAM Varma was born in a bricklayersrsquo family to unlettered parents in a small town in Jaipur Motivated by his mother he did Intermediate Arts from Jaipurrsquos prestigious Maharajarsquos College and graduated from Rajasthan College in 1960 In 1964 he joined the IAS and was posted in Punjab His life journey has been nothing but inspiring and his latest book From Gillidanda to Golf is proof Published by Rupa this book is a memoir about a young boy who went on to become a seasoned bureaucrat When this diarist asked why he decided to write this book Varma said ldquoIn my previous book Life in the IAS I spoke about my bureaucratic experiences However details about how I grew up and my overall childhood were missing I felt the need to go back to those old days and share where I actually come from how much I struggled and became what I am today From Gillidanda to Golf is for anyone who dares to dream bigrdquoA tale from Bombay 400003Journalist Jitendra Dixit whose last book 35 Days How Politics in Maharashtra Changed Forever looked into the political drama that unfolded soon after the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections has now made his debut with his book Bombay3 Bloomsbury India Set in a locality of old Mumbai with the zip code 400003 the novel tells the story of a Hindu boy and his two Muslim friends and how their mutual relationship gets impacted due to events in the neighbourhood ldquoI was born and brought up in Masjid Bunder an area with the same zip code It was only when I grew up and became a crime journo did I realise what place this locality held in the megapolis It was where Dawood Ibrahim and others resided till 1986 It is also that part of the city which has seen tremendous violence in the form of gangwars communal riots and terrorism One of the blasts on March 12 1993 ocurred here I have seen many real stories of conflicts struggle for survival and have witnessed the complex interrelationships of various religious regional and linguistic communitiesrdquo says Dixit Itrsquos these that he has intertwined into fictionWe need more media pros like MurgersEnglandrsquos media manager Brian Murgatroyd PicAFPThe cricketing fare that the India v England series dished out across all formats recently will not be easily forgotten when it comes to engrossing and engaging home seasons for India The media who covered the series on the ground and virtually depending on which way the COVID19 danger needle moved also had something to savour the efficiency of the England teamrsquos media manager Brian Murgatroyd Murgers as some like to call him played true to potential as it were with his constant and elaborate updates There were a few apologies too When there was no option but to organise a skipper Eoin Morganrsquos preODI series press conference as early as 8 am from Pune on Zoom Murgatroyd wrote ldquoApologies for the early hour for this tomorrow but we are going straight to the stadium afterwards and itrsquos an hourrsquos drive away we then are training until midevening and then itrsquos an hourrsquos drive back This is the only real optionrdquo Murgatroydrsquos professionalism comes as no surprise to us Wersquove been seeing it since the year 2000 and with due respect to other good media managers we need more like Murgers