Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Combing OperationsA shopkeeper in Malad ensures his hair is in order with the help of a hand mirrorFor our pandemic warriorsBandrarsquos Linking Road has got a large installation that pays homage to frontline workers Appropriately named COVID Warrior Memorial the piece was unveiled on June 29 Its auteur Minali Thakkar an art consultant and director of the art advisory firm Art Approach shared that she was inspired by the valour displayed by frontline workers during these grave times ldquoDoctors nurses the police safai karmacharis media professionals and engineers mdash they stood like a rock for mankind working selflessly for the greater goodrdquo she told this diaristThakkar added that her concept has a globe as the central element while her sense of gratitude is expressed by etching out the words Thank You in various languages There are also hand symbols that depict the contribution of everyone who joined hands in this battle while the leaves are symbolic of life Keeping in mind various factors such as traffic rules Covid19 protocols vandalism footfalls detailing and permissions from civic authorities the 17foottall project was completed in a span of nine monthsHail this innovatorShiv Kampani a 17yearold Prabhadevi resident has been honoured with The Diana Award in recognition of his contributions towards creating positive change Kampani a prodigious innovator is the founder of several remarkable products that address pertinent social challenges ldquoI first created an IoTenabled gas detector to protect homes from fires caused by such leaksrdquo he shared He then turned his sights to manual scavenging and has created a robotic solution for sanitation workers to clean drains This he believes addresses the dual challenges of caste and hygiene given that most workers are from lower castes During the pandemic he created a virtual visual map to depict hotspots and facilitate contact tracing and has joined hands with an NGO to create a learning solution About the award Kampani believes that it will enable him to collaborate with likeminded organisations to make an even larger impactSixteen years of a deli good ideaAllday cafeacute and restaurant Indigo Delicatessen yesterday marked 16 years of service since its first outpost cropped up in Colaba in 2005 At the time it was among the first to offer an informal quintessential deli experience in the city Since then the team has ferried the deli vibe to Pune New Delhi and Gurgaon shared Anurag Katriar ED amp CEO deGustibus Hospitality which runs the restaurant It also launched a new global menu in 2019 moving away from typical deli fare Looking back at their journey Katriar recalled ldquoOver the years the biggest takeaway for us has been that consistency is key We achieve that by creating most of our base products inhouse such as sauces breads jellies and icecream As long as you promise consistency it helps to build your brandrdquoOh fish thatrsquos bigEarly on Wednesday a big fish had washed up near the Girgaum Chowpatty shore sometime between late morning and early afternoon Fisherman Hiralal Wadkar said the fish was not snared in any fishing nets it had washed ashore close to where work is underway for the Coastal Road project ldquoIt looks like a dolphin and is at least three feet in length but I cannot be certainrdquo said Wadkar who has spent close to five decades in the sea ldquoThe civic authorities should be carting it away shortlyrdquo he sharedVax woes run high in the cityThe Akanksha Foundation a nonprofit has conducted a twocity survey to better gauge the proliferation and reasons underlying vaccine hesitancy in the urban slums of Mumbai and Pune ldquoWe have been engaged in vaccination drives in several wards Early in May we anecdotally picked up some reluctance in taking the jab and wanted to establish if this was a pertinent concern We joined hands with seven other NGOs to conduct a quantitative and qualitative survey involving 3500 peoplerdquo said Saurabh Taneja its CEO The survey found that 17 per cent of the respondents had taken at least one dose which was less than the city average of around 26 percent at that time Nearly one in two people were fairly underconfident and unwilling to take the vaccine Once the supply has picked up taking the number of vaccinated people to the critical threshold of 7075 per cent will be an uphill battle for the administration Taneja explained They have proposed a citywide awareness campaign in partnership with the government that will ensure that the right messages are disseminated by local influencers to these communities