Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Tackling the oddsA girl tries to stop her opponent during a rugby game at Tilak Nagar in Chembur on MondayThese dancers break new territoryBgirl Jo will head to Poland in November to represent India at the finals of the competitionThe past year has seen Bboys and Bgirls being robbed of open spaces like parks and gardens where they can practise their moves in and also witnessed dance institutes and venues shuttering due to the pandemic Itrsquos thus been a tough period for them but two of them mdash Bboy Wildchild and Bgirl Jo mdash have overcome these obstacles to emerge as the winners of BC One Cypher India 2021 which is the national leg of one of the biggest breaking competitions in the world The duo will now travel to the finals titled Last Chance Cypher which will take place in Gdansk Poland in NovemberBboy WildchildSpeaking about her training process during the pandemic Bgirl Jo shared ldquoI think I got better at being a breaker in the lockdown the second time around The first time I kind of burnt out trying to train as hard as I could without a goal in sight and without taking care of my mental and spiritual health through what the entire world was going through In the second lockdown I took time to build my training in a holistic manner I kept my nutrition clean practised yoga and put in hours of training even though there was no announcement of any upcoming jamrdquoShake lit upYesterday the longlist for the 2021 JCB Prize for Literature was announced Titles were selected by a jury of five that included author Sara Rai designer Dr Annapurna Garimella author Shahnaz Habib editor Prem Panicker in pic and writer Amit Varma The list of 10 titles includes works like What We Know About Her by Krupa Ge AntiClock by VJ James Gods and Ends by midday columnist Lindsay Pereira and The Dharma Forest by Keerthik Sasidharan Five shortlisted authors stand to win Rs 1 lakh eachFunnier side of natureSarosh Lodhirsquos photograph selected for the longlistTherersquos a reason why many people can spend hours watching online videos featuring cats dogs farm or wild animals Itrsquos because of the reason that apart from being cute they can also be hilarious Thatrsquos the same premise with which the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards were started in the UK in 2015 The aim of the global competition is to celebrate the hilarity of our natural world and the 21 finalists of this yearrsquos edition have just been announced They include three Indians Siddhant Agrawal Sarosh Lodhi and Aditya Kshirsagar ldquoWe received well over 7000 photos submitted from every corner of the globe It was an amazing turnout especially given the impact of the pandemicrdquo shared Paul JoynsonHicks the awardrsquos cofounderJoining forcesAccording to the new National Education Policy different states are being paired in educational activities to understand each otherrsquos culture wildlife etc Maharashtra has been paired with Odisha and as part of this tieup Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya CSMVS has joined forces with Bhubaneswarrsquos Regional Museum of National History for a series of workshops aimed at school kids which starts today ldquoWe have three different sessions that will focus on subjects like wildlife and wetlandsrdquo shared Meagan Vaz education officer at CSMVSChemburrsquos allnew canvasFampB company Impresario Handmade Restaurants is about to launch the newest outpost of Social its chain of restaurants at Chembur But ahead of that launch they have announced a competition where they are inviting artists to paint miniature models of the outletrsquos faccedilade with the picture depicting what their memories of the neighbourhood are and what it means to them Selected artworks will be included in an installation that will be on display at the venue and three winners will also get prizes apart from food and drinks on the house ldquoEach of our outposts is a representation of the neighbourhood it resides in and imbibes hyperlocal influences The Chembur outpost is no different Nurturing local communities is at the heart of every neighbourhood Social and what better way to bring that alive than by tapping the local artist communityrdquo Alexander Valladares chief marketing officer of Impresario Handmade Restaurants told this diarist