Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Having a flippinrsquo good timeA boy does a somersault with the setting sun as the backdrop at Mahim Beach on WednesdayWalk in the right directionEvery year Ehsaas a nonprofit in Lucknow organises a walkathon to raise funds to support underprivileged children In its seventh edition the walkathon from January 31 to February 14 is going virtual enabling people to join in from anywhere across the world including the likes of celebrity chefs Ranveer Brar in pic and Pankaj Bhadouria All you have to do is register and record and submit your daily progress on their dashboard The funds from the registration will go towards ldquoending hunger transforming livesrdquo which is the theme for 2021 shared Shachi Singh its founder and general secretary ldquoWith the walkathon going virtual the crisis has turned into an opportunity You can walk cycle or run Wersquoll have challenges in between for participants and itrsquos a great way to shed some weight or stick to your fitness goalrdquo she added Log on to ehsaasorginwalkathon7 to lend them a handA rare slug festElysia Bangtawaensis PicPrathamesh B KhedwanPradip Patade is a marine enthusiast who has spotted over 30 species of slugs around the coast of Mumbai over the past four years But the one that had always been on his wishlist is called Elysia Bangtawaensis That wish was fulfilled recently when he spotted it at the mangroves in Sewri Itrsquos a unique species since it looks like a leaf that has fallen from a tree given its green colour thanks to the algae it feeds on Patade shared that there is no written record of this species being spotted in Mumbai before He said ldquoThere is a similar species called Elysia Bengalensis that has been recorded here But while the Bangtawaensis species usually congregates in large numbers we could spot only threerdquo Well somethingrsquos better than nothing we sayWhen a Mega dream comes trueCall it serendipity Back in 2019 Delhibased musical project Antariksh had played a set at a music festival in Pune that also had heavymetal giants Megadeth on the lineup Then while flying back to the National Capital Varun Rajput left of Antariksh bumped into Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman extreme left a living legend at the airportldquoAll I could think of at that point was how we could get Marty to play on a song with usrdquo Rajput shared That dream has finally come true because Friedman has lent guitar parts for Quest a new song by Antariksh Talk about a happy coincidenceObjects matterOne of the many reasons why fairy tales are so popular is because the manner in which they are retold keeps evolving with time And this weekend the CSMVS Childrenrsquos Museum and the Tram Arts Trust TAT are collaborating to present a theatre festival where classic stories will be retold with object theatre and object puppetry The event features three live performances by three object artistes and Choiti Ghosh of TAT shared ldquoThe event is free and the artistes are those who have been mentored by usrdquoTapping it up for BandraThe tap station at BandraThis paper has been consistently tracking the boom in the growler market in Mumbai right from the time that beer distributors had been petitioning the state government to allow sales of the takeaway craft beer bottles to tide over the losses faced during the lockdown Growlers have now become de rigueur in the city with brands like Effingut even launching tap stations Now Drifters Breweries has launched its own tap station in Bandra which serves Belgian wit German lager and other varieties of the beverage Therersquos also a food menu with dishes including Harissa hummus and nachos and Nayan Shah managing director of Drifters Breweries said ldquoWe feel that therersquos a strong demand among our customers to have a sitdown place where they can drink our beers along with some good foodrdquo