Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Free WheelingTwo children show off their bicycle stunt skills at Tilak Nagar ChemburMissing the cafeThis Kalaghoda eatery was a favoured hangout that sported a mix of patrons from motherdaughter duos catching afternoon tea to septuagenarian friends meeting for a teteatete and whitecollared folks brainstorming over work For many Fab Cafe was a picturesque oasis of calm in busy chaotic Fort In the mood for a quiet Sunday lunch this diarist and her companion got a rude shock when a staffer informed that the popular adda had been shut since last yearrsquos lockdown and is unlikely to reopen The Tardeo outlet we were told was operational With Cafe Samovar being long shut Pantry no longer in its brickandmortar avatar and Kalaghoda Cafe still doing only takeaway deliveries the hunt for a relaxed cuppa in this SoBo neighbourhood will need some serious RampDBandrarsquos ecofriendly cleanup actLast January dismayed by the sight of locals dumping garbage into Bandra Talao Sanket Jalgaonkar and Gaurav More founders of Clean Sweeps rolled up their sleeves and cleaned the lakeldquoOver six months we removed more than 1500 kg of plastic with the help of volunteers Our efforts were amplified by the BMC We are now working on cleaning up the mangroves along Carter Road and Chimbai over the weekends This was our second weekrdquo shared Jalgaonkar To volunteer contact 8652646064Help is a call awayLast week Mumbaibased NGO Khaana Chahiye launched a WhatsApp helpline chatbot which enables citizens to reach out for support with groceries The bot delivers services in Hindi Marathi and English ldquoPeople can reach out to us or report families in distress Once they let us know we deliver grocery kits These include items like rice flour oil pulses and more There are 15 items in totalrdquo said Neeraj Shetye of Khaana Chahiye To use the service message 7669800470 on WhatsAppOf dosas and Dravidrsquos gyaanPicsTwitterEven as the Indian cricket team locks horns with its English counterparts and battles the notoriously erratic British weather the British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis has been taking this opportunity to share his insights into the culture cuisine and language of his host nation While on a visit to Bengaluru he shared a photo of himself savouring the Mysuru masala dosa and posted a poll inquiring about the best way to devour the Southern delicacyWith Twitter weighing in he switched to his hands and reported satisfactory results In keeping with the flavour of the season he also enlisted the help of Indian cricketers including India A team coach Rahul Dravid to learn a few cricketrelated expressions in Kannada and HindiBeer with usNews that Old Monk a name synonymous with dark rum and nostalgia has ventured into beer has taken social media by storm Beer lover Chatty Girija who also runs a podcast on the beverage had a mixed responseldquoOld Monk will always be dark rum for the majority of Indians I would like to try it out just because the brand has so much nostalgic value for me With eight per cent ABV itrsquos likely to be wellreceived in the Indian marketrdquo she told us