Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Danger zoneIn a toocloseforcomfort situation a man takes a nap next to the parking point of a train at Churchgate stationSeen and heardThere is good news for all food and coffee lovers on the suburban side of the sea link A little birdie who himself owns a Worli restaurant told us that supposedly Bastian has bought space and will be up and running in BKC soon It will be stationed next to the verydifferentinvibe Tru Tramm Trunk Meanwhile this diarist during a walk in Juhu last Sunday spotted construction work going on opposite Prithvi Theatre When we probed a little we found out that it was a branch of Bangalurursquos Third Wave Coffee The brand already has two outlets in Andheri and Bandra and the Juhu one will be a good spot for collegegoers and theatre watchersSixty at 60Bestselling romance author Sundari Venkatraman is celebrating turning 60 with another writing milestone The Mumbaibased writer who selfpublishes her books on Kindle Direct Publishing will be releasing her 60th title Call of the Heart this week The journey we admit is incredible considering Venkatraman only began putting pen to paper in 2001 ldquoThe idea to publish my 60th book in my 60th actually came from my daughterrdquo Venkatraman told this diarist Her new book she says has characters she has already written about before but it can be read as a standalone novel too ldquoItrsquos about a man who has become bitter in life and falls in love with a woman on a European cruiserdquo At 65000 words the book is a fat one ldquoI let my characters tell the story If they have more to say the novel becomes longer and if they have little to say I keep it shortrdquoPutting the cool into this poolGoing from length to strength The soontobeopened poolIt may be water water everywhere thanks to very wet past few days but the Malabar Hill Club members are waiting to get into the swim of things in a new way The Club located close to the Hanging Garden is all set to open its swimming pool undergoing renovation since the past year Anand Khatau club president said ldquoThe new pool will be 25 metres in length half the Olympic size We have also increased the width so that at least nine persons can swim at one time It was a real crunch earlier especially in summers when the pool used to become quite fullrdquo Adil Engineer club treasurer driving force behind the facility who was monitoring its construction and and Khatau added that they were able to extend the pool length by doing away with the rarely used diving board ldquoWe are looking at opening on August 15rdquo Khatau explained Club swimmers will have yet another reason to celebrate IDayThe real story behind Dadarsquos shirtwaving antics in 2002Sourav Ganguly and team celebrate on the Lordrsquos Cricket Ground balcony after India beat England to claim the NatWest Series trophy in London on July 13 2002 PICPRADEEP MANDHANI MIDDAY ARCHIVESWednesday will mark 20 years since Indiarsquos epic 2002 NatWest Series title triumph achieved by beating England at the Lordrsquos Cricket Ground in London It was an incredible win which was made more memorable by then India skipper Sourav Gangulyrsquos shirtwaving antics on the balcony of the fabled ground after India beat the home team by two wickets in a thriller Gangulyrsquos mode of celebration came as a surprise to many but not to our Group Sports Editor Clayton Murzellomdashour reporter on tour as well as Gangulyrsquos collaborator for his columns mdashwhich appeared in this newspaper during that series Clayton remembers going over to Gangulyrsquos room at Birmingham one wet evening to discuss the next column and the India captain telling him that he just couldnrsquot forget the sight of Andrew Flintoff waving his shirt while running to the Wankhede Stadium dressing room five months prior when England beat India to end the sixmatch ODI series 33 ldquoI had just put the finishing touches to my report when I looked up to the right of the pavilion end from my seat in the press box and noticed Ganguly doing a Flintoff It rang a bell I immediately remembered what Sourav spoke about on that wet evening in Birminghamrdquo said ClaytonWhen all was wealth for BorisBoris Becker during the menrsquos singles final at Wimbledon against Ivan Lendl in 1986 PICGETTY IMAGESHad Boris Becker not been behind bars for hiding pound25 million of assets the German would have been part of the recent parade of Wimbledon champions at Centre Court Among the greats were Rod Laver Bjorn Borg John McEnroe Pat Cash Rafael Nadal and of course Roger Federer The group of women greats consisted of Angela Mortimer Ann Jones Margaret Court Chris Evert and Billie Jean King Becker won Wimbledon in 1985 1986 and 1989 triumphs that contributed in no small measure to his career earnings And while we are on the topic of money we found an article which said that even before he stepped on court for his first match in defence of his first Wimbledon title he had signed a pound100000ayear deal with an Italian clothing line pound150000 for using German shoes and racquet and pound25000 for wearing a Swiss watch Becker went on to grab the silverware in 1986 as well facilitating new deals and keeping his then sponsors happy Who would have imagined his current state