Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Who needs the mask moreA driver lounges with his mask pulled down at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus even as the graffiti next to him serves as a reminder to not do thatWhat an idea DarshakDarshak Mehta with Greg ChappellDarshak Mehta is one of the most wellknown Indianborn cricket personalities living in Australia Sydneybased Darshak 63 is also involved in various charities and was chosen by Greg Chappell to write an Introduction to his last book Fierce Focus Recently Darshak was interviewed by an Australian website stump to stumpcom and his answers revolved around his background in the gamemdashplaying as a legspinner for Matunga Gymkhana Dadar Union and of course Cricket Club of India mdashwho he represented on tours Down Under He was also asked about his format preference and as expected it is Test cricket ldquoEverything else is mostly rubbishrdquo he says But Darshak also had a view on franchisebased Twenty20 cricket and urged the men who run Australian cricket to ldquostand up to the BCCI and permit Aussie cricketers to play in the Indian Premier League only on a reciprocal basis if Indian cricketers are allowed to play in our Big Bash Leaguerdquo Now that will be a big wicket to claim but a good idea all the sameDocumentary on cow vigilantism bags international nominationTwentytwoyearold Mumbaibased filmmaker Maitreya Sanghvirsquos college project on cow lynching took on a life of its own when it was recently nominated for Best Documentary in the Indie Shorts Mag Short Film Festival Indie Shorts Mag is an international publishing agency which celebrates the best of cinema As part of its sixth anniversary it launched a short film festival taking in entries from across the world Sanghvi started working on his film titled Gau Premi a couple of years ago while still in degree college ldquoAfter my graduation I got the time to return to the editing table and it became the short it is today The reason for picking the subject for our film was the political climate and the rise of cow vigilantism that followed With the recent fatal lynching of Pehlu Khan in Alwar on our mind we decided that this was an issue worth digging intordquo he says The documentary follows a group of gau rakshaks in Rajkot who conduct ldquoraidsrdquo on suspected cattle smugglers and dissects how and why they do what they do Sanghvi says the nomination was an ldquoabsolute honourrdquo I really couldnrsquot have expected morerdquoThe power of love lettersNikhil KataraMumbaibased writers Nikhil Katara and Himali Kotharirsquos theatrical production Letters of Love by Readings in the Shed has been selected to be featured in the online lineup of Clevelandbased BorderLight International Theatre Fringe Festival to be held from July 22 to July 31 In the show a group of thespians read out the private love letters of famous people including Scott Fitzgerald Oscar Wilde and Albert Einstein ldquoThis last year has been so stagnant in terms of performance and being able to put our work out thereHimali KothariAmid that to be selected for an international theatre festival with the scope of viewers that could be anywhere in the world watching from their homes on their screens is exciting It motivates us to keep creating with the belief that it will reach the audiencerdquo says Kothari Letters of Love was recorded at the NCPA during its live performance on February 14 2020 As a part of the Borderlight Festival the show will be available for online viewingCheck out this wild wild podcastIshika RamakrishnaIshika Ramakrishna and Akshay Surendra have started The Thing About Wildlife a podcast that brings to life behindthescenes stories of ecologists researchers and educators digging deep into their lived experiences from the field of wildlife biology and conservation Their aim is to turn away from facts and figures and work their way towards deeper conversations not just about animals plants and landscapes but also about personal issues faced by these individuals like early motivations sense of place their experiences working in the field and encounters with sexism harassment mental health mentorship and education So far they have episodes dedicated to the Asian elephant in which they speak to Dr Nishant Srinivasaiah a behavioural ecologist who has worked with the animal for over a decade and who has stories to share from his fieldwork and others on the conservation of otters and inclusive ecologyUp and upThe New York artiste based in Mumbai Jay Kila has released his new EP No Free Tracks and it is the first Indian hiphop EP to be released as NFTs nonfungible tokens This threetrack bilingual EP has been created by Kila rapper KNav New Delhi and producer NLYTN Mumbai The EP is meant to spread awareness about the opportunity that the NFT space provides for artistes to take back control and gain financial freedom Kila tells this diarist ldquoWe created this EP because we believe that NFTs can provide an answer to the ageold question of how do you earn a living as an artiste Musicians and content creators are burning themselves out damaging their mental health trying to get a million streams or views but that still may not be enough to cover the rent This needs to changerdquo