Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Fishing for a biteA flock of egrets stare expectantly at a fish seller slicing her catch at the Malad fish market on WednesdayWheel you payAt a time when most of society is struggling to meet economic needs a oneofakind event offers cyclists an opportunity to help out while pursuing their fitness goals This Friday a virtual cycling event called Cycle for Good is being organised by the sports management company YouTooCanRun Affiliated with over 30 nonprofits the event will see participation from renowned cyclists CEO P Venkatraman said ldquoMany lessfortunate people rely on nonprofits to thrive and in turn nonprofits rely on donations or CSR Itrsquos a cycle that was severed during this pandemicrdquo Head to youtoocanruncomracesee2117 to registerRole reversalTheatre shows usually entail the actors performing on stage and the audience soaking in the show from their seats But there are also some plays that turn this equation on its head making the audience direct participants in the dramatic process An Oak Tree a play directed by Atul Kumar of The Company Theatre that was staged at Prithvi yesterday and which will run till March 14 is one such example It stars two people mdash actor Danish Husain in pic and one predecided member from the audience Kumar explained ldquoThe audience member might or might not be an actor and they are required to not read or see the play beforehand They should be able to think on their feet though I hold their hand through the show The central theme deals with grief and loss and how we find different ways to come out of it A lot of us went through the same last year and thatrsquos why I felt that it was an apt playrdquoThe sound of silence in SoBoIt seems like we are back to square one as far as live gigs being disallowed in Mumbai is concerned at least for the time being Cuffe Parade eatery Hammer and Song had planned to launch a series of jazz gigs every Thursday starting today The inaugural edition was supposed to have saxophonist Ryan Sadri in pic perform with his quartet Soul City But then owner Ayush Arora received a government circular last morning which said that live entertainment is being barred at venues in light of the rising COVID19 cases in the city ldquoEven Lower Parel venue AntiSocial has cancelled the gigs there I spoke to Riyaaz Amlani who runs AntiSocial about it We are going to play it by ear going aheadrdquo Arora told this diarist He added that the plan for this jazz series was born out of a dearth of venues that offer the genre in South Mumbai an area where there is a high demand for itCook it up like mumIt of course doesnrsquot have to be that mothers do all the cooking in the kitchen But it so happens that many of us fondly recall the dishes that our mums would make for us in our childhood and which they continue to specialise in A new competition organised by culinary group Food Konnect Inc seeks to honour these recipes Called Mumrsquos Special Recipe Contest the event entails people sending in a 250word writeup about a dish that reminds them most about their mothers The entries will be judged on the power of storytelling ldquoYou donrsquot need to send an actual reciperdquo organiser David Vaz told this diarist Interested Mail your entries to foodkonnectincgmailcomObjective learningChhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangrahalaya CSMVS is organising an online seminar starting March 20 as part of its Museum on Wheels project called Teaching with Museum Objects The idea is to give educators an opportunity to use museum objects as tools of teaching their curriculum The seminarrsquos theme is world civilisation ldquoWe also want educators to understand that teaching with our objects can make education crossdisciplinaryrdquo shared Joyoti Roy head of strategy and marketing at CSMVS