The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Satej Shinde
Seat mil gaya
A woman commuter rests on the dead-end of a platform at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus as she awaits for a local train to arrive
Sachin statue imperfect again!
The fallen letters on the plaque in 2024. Pic/Kirti Surve Parade (right) The missing letters that were fixed. Pic/Clayton Murzello
In November 2024, while covering the India vs New Zealand Test match, mid-day photographer Atul Kamble, noticed that the letters in Sachin Tendulkar’s first, second, and surname had begun to drop off from his statue erected at the Wankhede Stadium only the previous year.
A week after the Test, another mid-day photographer — Kirti Surve Parade — discovered that the missing letters had not been fixed. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) acted on our observations and fixed the letters the very same month.
Missing letters on the Sachin Tendulkar statue on the first day of Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and Puducherry at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai recently. Pic/Atul Kamble
Now, while covering the ongoing Mumbai vs Puducherry Ranji Trophy game at the Wankhede Stadium, Kamble noticed that the letters have either fallen off or some miscreants have been at play. The MCA needs to play out Act 2 in quick time and also ensure no further damage to the cricket icon’s statue. Watch this space for updates.
Little library box
The little library box with stocked books inside it. Pic/Brian Dsouza
Want a book? You must leave one behind. This free library initiative, started by Brian Dsouza, is located near El Dorado on Convent Road in Bandra. “I first spotted something similar during a trip to the USA; it’s how the idea was born. So I hired a carpenter, while my nephew and his friends painted the box with pure intentions,” the Bandra resident told this diarist.
Blooming beauties
Krishna Kamal or Passiflora Incarnata. Pic/Abhishek Khan
“I had noticed that many people are unaware of flowering patterns. It led me to create an Excel sheet. That eventually inspired the digital calendar, designed around blooms and cycles, now available through the Google form on Mumbai Vann’s Instagram page,” said researcher Abhishek Khan. He elaborated that, this initiative was started for people to be more self aware about what is blooming around them, because, sadly, very few flowers are native to India, and most are colonial imports. Khan has worked hard to ensure the calendar is a vibrant, well-balanced one.
Mumbai answers a soldier’s call
Now, this is a story that can happen only in Mumbai. Meeting us on the sidelines of the just-concluded Dehradun Literature Festival (DDLF), author Gautam Hazarika (below) shared an anecdote that shows how the city always answers a call for help. Hazarika’s latest book, The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II (Penguin Random House India) delves into the lives of the forgotten prisoners of World War II across Europe and Asia. “One of them is Mohan Harishchandra Hanawar. He was executed in Japan. The only detail on the cemetery was of his residence, Matunga,” the author shared.
Having exhausted his usual sources, Hazarika decided to use the forum of his talk at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai on November 11 as a platform to find a connection. “As chance would have it, a member of the crowd knew the family. They introduced me to some members in Pune and Delhi, and it has been an emotional moment. It helps to bring closure to this mysterious memory that has lived through their family,” he shared. Mumbai always answers, Mr Hazarika.
Vishal Bhardwaj’s traffic woes
Vishal Bhardwaj at the Dehradun Literature Fest. Pic/Shriram Iyengar
You can take the man out of Mumbai, but not Mumbai out of the man. Vishal Bhardwaj might be the second-most famous personality in the quaint neighbourhood of Landour, after a certain Ruskin Bond, but he still seems to face very Mumbai problems. At the Dehradun Literature Festival, we suppressed a chuckle when the filmmaker shared, “I have a small place up there, and I know the hours it takes to make my way down [to Dehradun] on the weekends. I can only imagine how bad the traffic gets in the city,” he shared. Incidentally, at the session helmed by his mentor and poet Ambar Kharbanda, Bhardwaj’s ‘modern’ technological poetry also touched upon the same problem. In one verse, the filmmaker said, “Sadiyon se kehte ho pahunche, ab pahunche/ Ab toh apni live location bhejo na’. Touché, shall we say?
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