The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Rane Ashish
Early bird perks
A Painted Stork fishes in the shallow waters of the Bhandup Pumping Station wetlands
Bus routes and Bombay gupshup
Heta Pandit, Kiran Rao, Paul Fernandes, and Rahul Mehrotra; (right) Fernandes signs a copy on a tabletop of his illustrations
In a city that often gets a bad name for showing up fashionably late for events, the packed aPaulogy Gallery in Worli, on a Sunday morning, made for a pleasantly surprising sight. Perhaps, it had something to do with the fact that two personalities who adore the city, the illustrator-writer duo of Paul Fernandes and Rahul Mehrotra, were in town for the launch of 11 Limited: Colaba to Bandra, Life in Mumbai.
Hosted by Heta Pandit, historian, heritage scholar and former mid-day columnist, the book was released by filmmaker Kiran Rao amidst applause, laughs, renewed friendships, and chatter about everything from traffic jams to Turf Club goings-on, over wine and hors d’oeuvres. The mini coffee table book is a treasure trove for cityphiles, with 29 stories and 285 illustrations inspired from halts and landmarks along this bus route between Colaba and Bandra East. Later, with a bit of prodding from this diarist, the heroes of the day, both extremely low-profile, revealed that another book is in the pipeline, based on stories and conversations around food in India. We’re sure it will be a lip-smacking collaboration.
Just what the Ustad ordered
Ustad Zakir Hussain. FILE PIC/RANE ASHISH
On Ustad Zakir Hussain’s first death anniversary yesterday, his love for a hearty Yakhni Dum Biryani, Fillet Mignon, and Brioche French Toast came alive through a tribute menu at Waarsa in Nariman Point.
Chefs Mukhtar Qureshi and Rahul Akerkar
“I share a close bond with the maestro and his family. They have always cherished simple, home-style food. Ustad loved cooking and offering warm hospitality to those around him,” said chef Mukhtar Qureshi, who crafted the menu with chef Rahul Akerkar and chef Jaydeep Mukherjee.
A section of the spread
To this delicious tribute, we say, “Wah, Ustad!”
Raj Kapoor’s mehfil at Haji Ali
On cine icon Raj Kapoor’s 101st birth anniversary (December 14), this diarist learned that the great showman shared every Mumbaikar’s timeless obsession with the sea. Urdu Markaz director Zubair Azmi, who is compiling a book of Mumbai’s untold oral histories, revealed to us, “As an anecdote shared by the actor’s assistant Riyaz Khan goes, in the early 1980s, the actor was travelling past the Haji Ali promenade when he signalled his convoy to make a halt. What followed was an impromptu mehfil of Urdu poetry and literature by the sea. His companions started reciting their best poems, and Kapoor lit a cigarette to soak in the atmosphere.”
Raj Kapoor. FILE PICS
It was one such poem on lost love — ‘Veh suraten Ilahi kis des bastiyan hain, ab jinke dekhne ko aankhen tarastiyan hain’ — that seemed to have hit a nerve. “He took a deep puff of his cigarette and gave the group an earful before asking to move on. In that sense, you could say Raj Kapoor didn’t just read poetry, he quite literally imbibed every word of it,” Azmi summarised.
When Messi got a GOAT’s welcome
Fans at the parade; (right) a local train is decked up. PIC COURTESY/FCB MUMBAI
The stands at Wankhede Stadium that usually root for a certain Master Blaster, welcomed Lionel Messi with roaring chants last weekend. From a parade on Marine Drive with a banner that read ‘GOAT Messi yanche Mumbai madhe swagat aahe’, to a local train takeover from Borivli to Churchgate, it was fan club FCB Mumbai helming the Messi mania. “We even started a chant for Mumbai Police to thank them for the arrangements,” shared co-founder Anand Mishra.
A futuristic vision
Freedom is at your fingertips, suggested Tanya Balsara (inset) as she helmed the 14th Convocation Ceremony of her initiative Tanya Computer Centre in Mumbai — an initiative that enables visually-impaired people to be computer-literate. “Once you are computer literate, you are almost as active as a person with eyesight,” she said in her address.
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