Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Aaja meri gaadi mein baith jaaA 1928 Ford owner takes his prized possession for a spin at Masjid BunderChampagne and Ginny in 1985Virginia Wade during the 1977 edition of Wimbledon PicGetty ImagesAs we try and understand more of tennis champion Naomi Osakarsquos mental plight and her aversion to press conferences we stumbled upon a delightful piece written by David McMahon for Sportsworld magazine in 1986 McMahon recalled a press conference at Wimbledon 1985 after British tennis player Virginia Wade the 1977 ladies champion lost her thirdround match at Centre Court to young American Pam Shriver Wade then 39 finished saying her bit to the media and as she was about to leave the British journalists asked her to stay on In came some champagne with glasses in honour of Wade who had played her last match at Wimbledon Wade or Our Ginny as her fans liked to call her accepted the champagne and also served it to some pressmen We wish you well Naomi and if you are reading this yoursquoll realise that those probing writers have a heart tooFor the greater goodKaran Singh Prince is out to do good Founder of the NGO Power of Youth the philanthropist is helping frontline workers in the pandemic By offering relief in whatever way possible his aim is to make a difference on the ground in these trying times Speaking to this diarist he says ldquoFrontline workers like doctors and cops have been working day in and out to ensure that we remain safe We always wanted to do something to give back to them Hence we provided immunity and energy boosters to the Mumbai Police which are required to keep them physically fit The police were overwhelmed by our gesture and were thankful to usrdquoA journal of a cancer survivorPicRane AshishBack in 2018 when Mumbaibased entrepreneur Shormistha Mukherjee was diagnosed with breast cancer she did the unusual Mukhejee who goes by the handle agentgreenglass on Instagram decided to journal her battle with the disease from diagnosis to chemo to postsurgery recovery online Three years on Mukherjee now cancerfree is set to release her book Cancer You Picked The Wrong Girl HarperCollins India that she describes as a ldquobrutally honest tellingrdquo of that journey ldquoI feel like I packed in a couple of life times in the 10 months that I was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer From having to learn cancer jargon that I became so familiar with to breaking the news to everyone to freaking out and finally accepting that I needed chemotherapy every day was a new day The thing that kept me sane was my brain just flipped a selfpreservation switch and I kept feeling like I was watching myself from the outside and being able to look at the funny side to so many things That made it easy I made it through and I hope that if anyone ever needs the courage this book gives them the hoperdquoA novel food incubatorThe Covid19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the nationrsquos hospitality industry affecting both large chains and small businesses Since the pandemic nearly 40 per cent of restaurants shuttering due to the outbreak last year With the goal of assisting small businesses the cityrsquos awardwinning restaurateurs Dhaval Udeshi and Pawan Shahri of Lower Parelrsquos London Taxi have developed a cuttingedge Incubator Programme for home delivery inviting aspiring food entrepreneurs to realise their lifelong dream of starting their own business This programme will enable five entrepreneurs to launch their ideated brands from its 650 sq ft kitchen space while utilising the restaurantrsquos existing resources experienced head chefs RampD and vendor management teams They will also receive 100 per cent funding ldquoWersquove been getting a lot of calls lately from entrepreneurs who always wanted to start their own ventures but had hiccups like shortage of funds infrastructure marketing and brandbuilding issuesrdquo say Shahri and Udeshi ldquoThe idea behind the programme is to mentor young entrepreneurs bring in good concepts and create jobsrdquoA safe periodWho knew a year ago that the police would arrive at home to pick up pads for prison inmates Happy 1st birthday padssquad I hope the women and girls in prison are more comfortable with theserdquo wrote Chhitra Subramaniam cofounder of Pad Squad on Instagram The film producer says it was heartening to have the police spend their duty hours collecting sanitary napkins for prison inmates ldquoI had given pads earlier to one of the prisons in Mumbai which has many women inmates and they contacted me for another batch As soon as the lockdown is over I will go there to fulfill further requestsrdquo she said