Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

I want a billboard tooA frisky husky in the front of a scooter snapped by the midday photographer at Marine Drive has dreams of making it bigAlec was smart thenAlec Bedser right with Englandrsquos then captain Mike Brearley in 1979 PicGetty ImagesThe recent Lordrsquos Test which was won by Virat Kohlirsquos bunch of driven determined and dashing men will go down as Indiarsquos finest Test wins at the spiritual home of cricket Lordrsquos the spiritual home of cricket Maybe but there was not much seen across those five days to indicate that the spirit of the game was being adhered to by both teams There was far too much ugly chatter for the liking of purists although Indiarsquos outstanding cricket came shining through We stumbled upon a 1980 interview of the late Alec Bedser who bowled fast for England in the 1940s and 1950s He did so with great successmdash236 scalps in 51 Tests Bedser was Englandrsquos chief selector when he accompanied Mike Brearleyrsquos Englishmen for the BCCI Golden Jubilee Test match held at Mumbairsquos Wankhede Stadium in early 1980 In that interview Bedser wondered why cricketers had started to behave poorly He said ldquoTrue cricket is today played under a great deal of pressure with money also beginning to flow in But take a game like golf There is more money in it than in cricket but golfers certainly know how to behave themselves Why should cricketers not do sordquo Bedser had a point Itrsquos something all those supporters of ugly behaviour should think aboutMMA for the pandemicGiven that social distancing is no longer an option but a necessity Indiarsquos Jiu Jitsu champ Siddharth Singh has launched Crosstrain30 Indiarsquos first sociallydistanced MMA fitness training There will be no sparring or any sort of contact between participants ldquoPost the pandemic there was a need for sociallydistanced training while maintaining the essence of combat sportsrdquo he says adding that the 30minute long workouts are aimed at burning up to 500 calories ldquoThe USP of Crosstrain 30 is that every individual gets personalised training based on their own level of fitness The idea is to get a professional fighter training next to an amateur who has enrolled to learn self defence In short it is for everybodyrdquoThe unmaking of a democracyWriterjournalist Josy Joseph whose powerful debut A Feast of Vultures The Hidden Business of Democracy in India won the 2017 Crossword Award for best nonfiction book is all set to release his new book The Silent Coup Westland which he describes as a companion to his first work A Feast of Vultures he says examined the manipulation of the marketplace the rise of intermediaries and the reality that almost everything is on sale in this country ldquoIn this new book I am exploring and documenting one of the gravest threats to our democracy which emerges from the Indian deep state We have a unique challenge while our military remains apolitical the rest of the security establishment and most other arms of the government are being deployed by the political executive to subvert our democracy intimidate political opponents muzzle the free press and create false narratives against critics It is what happened during the Emergency of 197577 and it is what is continuing to happenrdquo he saysFrom trucksto trinketsThe only trinket associated with the evil eye is the traditional taaveez But a Chandigarhbased visual artist is now bringing the theme of nazar to fashion jewellery Surabhi Sahgal has been exploring the different kinds of gaze in our society and using identifiable public Indian iconography such as truck art to subvert both the male gaze as well as the superstitions surrounding the common lsquoBuri nazar wale tera mooh kalarsquo slogan The idea she explains was that through the ornamentrsquos placement on the female body it would be equated with the vehicle the driver was attempting to protect while challenging those objectifying her The architectturneddesigner has been associated with the jewellery design programme MASieraad in the NetherlandsAn ode to UP BiharDocumentary filmmaker Simit Bhagat started The Bidesia Project to conserve Bhojpuri folk culture by archiving reviving and promoting oral music traditions The Mumbaibased writer has recently released a podcast on Chaiti which caught this diaristrsquos eye Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have a rich cultural history of folk music These oral forms have been passed on from one generation to another Unfortunately many of these folk forms are becoming extinct as there are no written records One such form is Chaiti He shares ldquoThis year is a culmination of my effortsmdashmy first feature length documentary film In Search Of Bidesia on Bhojpuri folk music and indentured migration premiered at the prestigious Dhaka International Film Festival and recently won the best documentary award at Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival in Britain My bike journey and my interactions with folk artists from the region laid the foundation of this film but my endeavour wasnrsquot limited to a film I started Indiarsquos first digital archive dedicated to conserving oral folk traditions from the Bhojpuri region and called it The Bidesia Project Starting with recording five artists the archive has grown to include over 25 folk artists and over 125 songs in the last two yearsrdquo