Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

A viral pictureA woman carrying water walks past a wall with a mural themed on the Coronavirus vaccine at Kandivali on MondayPride pausedMembers of the LGBTQAi community at an earlier edition of Mumbai PrideItrsquos around this time of the year that members and supporters of the cityrsquos LGBTQAi community turn out in droves for the Mumbai Pride parade to assert their rights and strive for a more equal society But that wonrsquot happen this year since the event has been called off It wonrsquot even take place virtually and Harish Iyer a member of Queer Azaadi Mumbai which organises the parade shared ldquoThe reason is simple mdash itrsquos because of the pandemic We are not doing anything online since there is already a deluge of stuff happening in the digital space We are open to the idea of holding it again next year but nothing is confirmed yetrdquoFresh out of the oven in OshiwaraAfter doling out sushi dim sums baos and other Asian delicacies for two years the Oshiwarabased Yazu Pan Asian Supper Club is off to a sweet start in 2021 The brand is set to launch Yazu Patisserie a onestopshop for creative bakes including dessert gifting next week Think pullmeout pintildeata keto and guiltfree cakes to cookies cakesicles and hampers head of design Shreya Nagpal told this diarist ldquoThe gap in the industry for an exquisitelooking product in the desserts space something that is also great in terms of quality led to the creation of the patisserierdquo shared Nagpal who is running the show The brand is set to operate as a standalone shop next to the restaurant near Infiniti Mall Nagpal believes that what will set them apart in the slowly saturating gourmet dessert brands space is the use of pure Belgian chocolate and quality control ldquoWersquoll make sure to bring out the freshest cakes and conceptsrdquo she promised We wish them luckShow us the money will youItrsquos one of the worstkept secrets of the music industry Online streaming services and digital distribution platforms often cut such a large slice of the pie from sales that artistes are invariably left with only the crumbs Heavymetal veteran Sahil Makhija found this out recently when he received a shocking amount of 003 from one such platform which was credited directly to his bank account His social media post regarding it opened up the can of worms further with more musicians recounting similar horror stories Makhija told this diarist ldquoIrsquom not sure what this particular amount was for but generally speaking payments for music are rubbish you get 0000001 or something for every streamrdquo Thatrsquos grossly unfair isnrsquot itSing it to win itMusic platform Sing Dil Se is hosting a competition where applicants have to send in a video of them singing a song with the top 10 winners getting a chance to have a video of theirs shot and uploaded on the sitersquos YouTube channel which has over 17 million subscribers CEO and founder Munmun Joshi in pic shared ldquoOne of them will later be offered the opportunity to record an official song for usrdquo Log on to singdilsecom if you think yoursquove got the right notesLook whorsquos set for BroadwayIn whatrsquos a significant development for singerdirector Isheeta Ganguly her play Shakuntala Awaits will be staged at Here Theatre on Broadway in New York on January 31 The plot is an adaptation of a tale from The Mahabharata and deals with the chance encounter of two people at a Mumbai bookstore in 2019 before they are torn apart from each other The play had premiered at NCPA in 2016 before being performed at the Indian Consulate in New York the next year Speaking about how the play got picked up for Broadway Ganguly in pic told this diarist ldquoPurva Bedi one of the actors in it is affiliated with Here Theatre and they heard about the play from her They later got in touch with me and said that they would love to stage it It will be performed live and streamed digitally and though I am not a big fan of Zoom screenings I thought this would be the best way to premier it on an online platform given the prestige that Here Theatre hasrdquo