The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
PIC/NIMESH DAVE
Who will be ace of clubs at Mahjong?
Bombay Gymkhana president Sanjiv Saran Mehra with the Mahjong team representatives
The great Mahjong wave has now acquired tsunami-esque proportions, sweeping over clubs especially in South Mumbai. This game played with tiles, which now sees waiting lists for top coaches etc is in boomtown mode. Many South Mumbai clubs have Mahjong tables, teachers, dedicated time slots etc. for the game. Now, the Bombay Gymkhana at Fort, opposite Fashion Street, is all set to host the 1st Bombay Gymkhana Inter-Club Mahjong Tournament on Wednesday, August 20. Participating clubs are: Bombay Gymkhana, the host with the most, the Cricket Club of India (CCI), Willingdon Sports Club and the Woodhouse Gymkhana. There are glittering trophies for the same and these were unveiled recently by Bombay Gymkhana president Sanjiv Saran Mehra. As the great Mahjong phrase goes, “Let the tiles fall where they may!”
The sound of UP
Dhruv Ghanekar, who has composed the just-released track Dear Country for the film Nishaanchi
Anurag Kashyap’s new film Nishaanchi will hit our OTT screens soon. It’s going to be a slice of Uttar Pradesh but the soundtrack is composed by Mumbai boy Dhruv Ghanekar. An acclaimed composer, producer, and guitarist, Ghanekar is known to blend Indian forms with global sensibilities. So, echoing the rustic-urban mood for the film wasn’t hard. The five original tracks draw from the streets and sounds of UP, complete with broken-English lyricism and unpredictable rhythms. All we know is that it aligns with Kashyap’s raw, irreverent storytelling. Speaking about composing for Nishaanchi, Ghanekar says: “For the number Dear Country the idea was simple: Make something that smells of UP the moment you hear it. You know, that rustic-urban mix you get when a dholak meets a loudspeaker at a political rally. We started with a sound that feels extremely traditional, and then flipped it by throwing in these desi, broken-English lyrics, the kind you hear in small towns, straight from the heart, grammar be damned.” Ghanekar says Kashyap gave him complete freedom to create songs that matched the “madness and soul of Nishaanchi’s script.” He adds, “Anurag’s films always have a very distinct sonic identity, so I wanted to make something that you haven’t heard before in Indian cinema.”
Stories of the city
REPRESENTATIONAL PIC/ISTOCK
If all things Mumbai fascinate you, find out what cricket maidans, railway tracks, and historic forts have to do with one another, in a panel discussion including rail historian, author, and senior mid-day journalist Rajendra B Aklekar, and former mid-day editor and cricket maven Ayaz Memon, among others. Uncovering Urban Legacies is on August 20, 6.30 pm to 8 pm, at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Fort. It’s free; register at avidlearning.in.
Chalo Salon
At the exhibition, one can see Pablo Picasso’s Le guéridon side by side with FN Souza’s untitled depiction of a tribal figure. Pics courtesy/Nature Morte
Imagine art by FN Souza next to Picasso, or Renoir next to Tyeb Mehta, all together on a gallery wall here in the city. It’s a powerful thought, one that Colaba gallery Nature Morte has made its mission with its new Salon Series, spearheaded by gallerist Devashi Jain. The vertical, which borrows from the famous Paris Salon, will unfold through curated sales, salon-style shows, and advisory services, with its inaugural exhibition, Salon: The India Way, curated by Poonji Nath.
Featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Manjit Bawa, Zarina Hashmi, Tyeb Mehta, and Sadanand Bakre, among others, the show invites viewers to see modernism as a shared, simultaneous movement rather than a one-way inheritance from West to East. The gallery, on its part, is excited to introduce international modern art to the maturing Indian market. “Few platforms within India offer consistent access to blue-chip international artists. This challenges that gap, showing that a Pablo Picasso can hang alongside a Bharti Kher in the same home,” says Jain.
Ranji could bat, and win fantasy contests too
By the time the monsoons bid an all-India goodbye, the domestic wings of Indian cricket will start to fly. In other words, the Ranji Trophy will be the tasty pie for our domestic cricket toilers. Not often do we hear about the man who the trophy is named after — KS Ranjitsinhji.
CB Fry of Sussex illustrated on a cigarette card from 1908
Ranji, the Indian prince, played 15 Tests for England and some pundits reckon his contribution to the development of Indian cricket was too limited for the national championships to be named after him. We’ll leave that debate for another day. Meanwhile, our in-house cricket nut came up with a nugget that underlined Ranji’s ability to score big runs. In 1980, cricket enthusiast called GJ Dabholkar sent Sportsweek magazine an extract of Sir Learie Constantine’s book Cricketers’ Carnival in which the great West Indian spoke about Ranji’s batting greatness. Constantine, the West Indian cricketing great, lawyer, thinker, and politician, wrote: “At the height of his [Ranji] fame, a London newspaper offered £250 to the reader who could guess the highest scorer of the forthcoming week, and name in advance the number of runs he would score.
KS Ranjitsinhji (1872-1933), who captained Cambridge, was a star batsman for Sussex and England. Pics/Getty Images
“Miss Fry, daughter of [English cricket legend] CB was intrigued by the competition and boldly sent in an entry: ‘Ranjitsinhji, 178.’ When Fry met Ranji, he told him about it and the Indian Prince’s reply was typical: ‘Right! I will see to it.’ “Sussex were playing South Africa that week [August 1904], and Ranji scored 178, after which the innings was declared closed [by captain Fry]. There was an amusing sequel. Miss Fry received only half-a-crown. Some 2,000 other people had guessed as she did. Which just shows you what they thought of Ranji in those days.” For someone who was famous for his leg glance stroke, this anecdote was worth our glance, much to the delight of our in-house cricket nut.
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