Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Train for a fitter tomorrowWomen passengers squeeze in some yoga on the way from Borivali to Churchgate on International Womenrsquos DayIn the spotlightDanish Husain will be part of the festRegional writers add a multicoloured dimension to the vast bouquet of Indian literature An event called Spotlight Literature Festival now aims to highlight their contributions The virtual fest from March 12 to 14 will feature 70 writers including political analyst Preethi Nagraj poet Nabina Das and Danish Husain a practitioner of dastangoi The eventrsquos theme is Breaking the regional barrier Speaking about what the key takeaways for the audience will be Dr Shilpa Ramesh Ramani cofounder of One Page Spotlight that is organising the festival said ldquoThey will gain firsthand insight and observations from our authors and speakers in a format that is no less than a masterclass This will also help individuals to boost their morale and be more creative enabling them to chase their dream of becoming a writer and pursuing it to the next levelrdquo Log on to openpagespotlightcom to book a seatArt on the roundtableThe first Open Circle discussion at G5AOpen Circle is a new initiative by the Mahalaxmibased G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture that attempts to encourage a dialogue to build an arts and culture ecosystem that is vibrant safe and resilient Their first edition which took place ahead of International Womenrsquos Day brought together women leaders from diverse fields including Stefania Costanza Consul General of Italy Mumbai founder Anuradha Parikh Manisha Mhaiskar chief of protocol Maharashtra government dhrupad vocalist Pelva Naik actor Rytasha Rathore Manjeet Kirpalani cofounder Gateway House Swati Apte founder The Arts Foundation and Priyanka Patel from G5A Together they discussed how art and artists need to be supported Costanza shared ldquoArt is about complexity It is about understanding things in a way that there is an emotional connection Women most of the time are complex We bring our own complexities without labels with only articulation onto the floorrdquo Rathore meanwhile pointed out that as artists and educated privileged women ldquothe onus lies upon us of where we take the conversation as a generation and the main struggle for us to find that balance between culture craft and commercerdquoKunalrsquos packed it all in a bookIf yoursquove been following celebrity chef Kunal Kapur on social media yoursquoll know that his culinary style is one that draws from our desi domestic kitchens The chef is now going to offer us a peak into the dining table conversations and the tips and tricks he picked up from his grandfatherrsquos kitchen in a new book that packs in 15 family recipes Titled Kunal Kapur In The Kitchen Om Books International itrsquos set to hit the shelves on March 15 About the title he told this diarist ldquoI am somebody who loves to travel and research on food ingredients and the different styles of cooking Indian food is all about sitting down and having meals together and the best way to represent this was to develop meals that a family could enjoy cooking at home together These 15 meals are sure to excite you and at the same time show you different flavour combinations that are possible using common ingredients available in your kitchensrdquoWord on representationArtFeminism is an international community that works towards bridging the information gap about gender feminism and arts on the Internet through an annual editathon This entails adding content on Wikipedia about female artists who arenrsquot as represented as their male counterparts In India digital platform The Heritage Lab is taking on the mantle as the South Asia ambassador inviting people to join in on an online editathon throughout March On March 20 a physical event with limited participation will also be held in the city at the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation at CSMVS Speaking about the idea behind it founder Medhavi Gandhi in pic said ldquoAs a platform Wikipediarsquos gender gap problems are welldocumented Because they have few female editors and even fewer from the arts space women artists are hardly featured on it In the last three years wersquove actually had to create pages for renowned artists like Mrinalini Mukherjeerdquo