Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Bowled overA hiphop dancer finds unwitting admirers in a pair of onlookers at Five Gardens in MatungaLearning for allLearning platform grade1to6com has developed a set of lowcost PDF workbooks for English and Maths that can be accessed by learners across the country to strengthen their basics ldquoWe started catering to the IB and CBSE curriculum However during the pandemic we realised that digital learning would continue to be a reality for children for a while and wanted to extend our reach to a wider category of learnersrdquo explains Balaji V its founder and CEO The idea behind creating PDFs was to minimise the use of data for students once the workbooks 100 to 200 pages each are downloaded Theyrsquore priced at Rs 10 At present workbooks up to class seven have been released which will be followed by material for students up to class 12Grab a sustainable cuppaBandrarsquos Subko Cafe offers a 10 per cent discount to patrons using their own mugs PicInstagramBegun in 2011 the plasticfreejuly challenge has expanded across countries and continents with 2020 participants reducing their household waste and recycling by almost 21 kg per annually shares Restore a Mumbaibased sustainable products company In keeping with their theme theyrsquove shared a list of 10 coffee shops in the city which allow you to take away coffee in your own mug Topping the list is Kala Ghoda Cafe which incentivises this with a 15 per cent discount Subko Cafe and Boojee Cafe come second with a 10 per cent discount Check out the list at join_restore on InstagramYou can take Billiersquos word for itWith her distinctive visuals and poignant lyrics Billie Eilish is one of the most influential musical icons of the 21st century Her 2019 album When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go debuted at No 1 on the Billboard 200 in the US as well as 17 additional countries And now fans across the world have a chance to peek into her journey via a book titled By ndash Billie Eilish Hachette In it the singer has put together a visual narrative with hundreds of photos She says that the book offers glimpses into her childhood her life on tour and moreVaseem Khanrsquos whodunnit winsLast year we introduced our readers to the adventures of Indiarsquos female inspector Persis Wadia who writer Vaseem Khan brought to life in his whodunit Midnight at Malabar House Hodder amp Stoughton Khan is best known for his fivepart Baby Ganesh Detective Agency series and this crime fiction thriller set in the late 1940s was the first of a threepart series It followed Wadiarsquos adventures in solving the murder of a British diplomat Last week the title won the coveted Sapere Books Historical Dagger the biggest historical crime fiction prize in the world ldquoIrsquom gobsmacked but grateful to all whorsquove made me feel welcome in this industry 30 years after I wrote my first unpublished bookrdquo he said over the win Khan also works at the Department of Security and Crime Science at University College in LondonOur congratulationsA rocking birth anniversaryThe independent music business in India is now big enough for corporate brands from clothes to motorcycles to start investing in it But that wasnrsquot the case in the early 1990s when a young man from Allahabad Amit Saigal would get shunted out of venues if he played originals instead of covers Saigal realised that there was an untapped market for indie music which was still in a nascent phase in India So he launched the countryrsquos first magazine for independent music Rock Street Journal RSJ organising the Great Indian Rock festival which encouraged bands to play original compositions and later hosting India Music Week That sowed the seeds of the burgeoning indie scene today and on his birth anniversary today Saigal passed away in 2012 a Clubhouse meeting will be organised by RSJ in his memory ldquoWhatever you see in the Indian scene today is all thanks to himrdquo its executive editor Bann Chakraborty told this diarist All we can say is thank you for the music