Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Chhutta Nahi HaiA woman shows her purse to a fruit seller in Lalbaug to prove her pointItrsquos showtime at KrasznaKrausz AwardsThough the Hindi film industry has taken a beating in the pandemic therersquos some good news for cinema lovers Researcher Debashree Mukherjeersquos 2020 book Bombay Hustle Making Movies in a Colonial City Columbia University Press which offered a striking portrait of the Bombay film industry from the 1920s to 40s and the studios that helmed it was recently longlisted for the KrasznaKrausz Book Awards The longlists were chosen from over 180 submissions ldquoIrsquom quite thrilled to be in such wonderful company with conominees such as Salomeacute Aguilera Skvirsky and Eric Smoodinrdquo says Mukherjee who is assistant professor at the Department of Middle Eastern South Asian and African Studies at Columbia University ldquoItrsquos nice to be recognised for writing about popular cinema especially from a century agordquoA cricketloving PM called John HowardThen Australia Prime Minister John Howard at the Heritage Cricket Match in Canberra to celebrate a century of Australian cricket on January 26 2001 PicGetty ImagesAustraliarsquos Prime Minister Scott Morrison has attracted the ire of several cricketers Down Under for sticking to his stance of not allowing them to arrive in the country till May 15 in a quest to minimise Covid19 cases As a result Aussie players and coaches canrsquot get home as early as they expected after IPL14 was suspended All this doesnrsquot make Morrison one of the most popular Australian PMs in a cricketing context He is surely not a Sir Robert Menzies who served in two terms 1939 to 1941 and 1949 to 1966 Wersquoll dwell on Menziesrsquos cricket passion on another day but we can talk about John Howard who was often called a cricket tragic Howard held office from 1996 to 2007 and this diarist remembers being in the same elevator as the PM at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the January 26 India v Australia Test in 2004 We started talking cricket and he was asked who was his favourite Indian cricketer When one expected him to say Sachin Tendulkar for obvious reasons Howard picked VVS Laxman for his batting style If Laxman is reading this he should remind himself of his Very Very Special VVS status in world cricketMalvan comes to BycullaLast year has possibly been the worst for the hospitality industry All restaurateurs could do was make sure their businesses survived For former photojournalist Amit Haralkar however it has been a great run He started Masolimdasha restaurant that serves a Malvani menu dominating seafoodmdashin Nagpada just a few weeks before March 2020 Instantly his venture was a hit on Sofia Zubair Road A few days ago Haralkar has opened up a second branch in Byculla bringing Malvan coast to this neighbourhood that otherwise loved kebabs and yakhni pulao He tells this diarist ldquoByculla is dominated by Middle Eastern cuisine So we thought we should introduce the people here to seafood as well The response has been greatrdquoInsta grief page remembers those who lost fight to Covid19Itrsquos been a hard few months with many of us losing loved ones To show their support for the victims and families who have lost loved ones an online memorial known as the ldquo2nd wave memorialrdquo has been created on Instagram Every day they post beautiful stories about people who have died as a result of Covid19 ldquoBeing witness to mass deaths every day as a result of a lack of healthcare resources and government negligence is what prompted us to create this page People are frequently memorialised after mass tragedies In India however this is uncommon In contrast to other countries where people learn the names and faces of tragedy victims we only hear numbers We are more than numbersrdquo says one of the spokespersons of the group which wants to remain anonymousThey have received such a positive reaction that now they are receiving stories from strangers and not just curating information from news articles and Twitter ldquoWe hope that people can find some solace in the collective expression of grief and outrage Even if we donrsquot achieve anything itrsquos still important to recognise and speak out against injustice when it occurs Itrsquos possible that with timely access to healthcare some of them would have beaten Covid19rdquo adds another memberYour vax assistant is hereThat a little help in booking vaccination appointments could help expedite the inoculation programme is what prompted Tushar Vashisht cofounder and CEO of HealthifyMe to launch Vaccinatemein The platform uses the CoWIN API Application Programming Interface to help people find the available slots in real time in their area or district In the case of unavailability of the slots the platform will notify the users when a slot opens up via SMS email or WhatsApp Users can access this service either on the HealthifyMe app or by visiting Vaccinatemein You can even customise the search on the basis of pin code district age choice of vaccine and free or paid vaccination centres