Mumbai Diary: Wednesday Dossier

DoubleclickA woman poses for two eager shutterbugs at a beach in Malad WestMeet Rani SolomonMost of us know of advertising and theatre personalities Alyque Padamsee Dolly Thakore and their son Quasar Thakore Padamsee But Quasar recently shared a photo of a comparatively lesserknown but equally prolific relative of his mdash Rani Solomon his motherrsquos aunt Solomon is 97 years old Now herersquos a cool fact she once used to be Rahul and Priyanka Gandhirsquos Hindi tutor after they started being homeschooled once Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister Dollyrsquos recent book mdash Regrets None mdash is partly dedicated to her and Quasarrsquos photo was one of Solomon holding a copy ldquoI recently got to know that she knew about the book a year before I did and even read a draft Thatrsquos how important she is to my motherrdquo he sharedThe writing is on the wallSince 2019 graffiti agency Wicked Broz has been organising the Ladies First Street Art festival a womenonly art initiative that invites female artists and illustrators from around the world to draw murals and artworks in public spaces In 2022 they will host the next edition of the festival and this time the event spans 10 Indian cities To get things rolling the organisation has put out a call for volunteers to help build the foundation of the festival curation process ldquoWhen we did this for the first time it was a really cool experience because the people who lived in the buildings were painting and stepped up to volunteer Because of the pandemic we were unable to do this last year so to make up for it wersquove expanded our plans this time We already have artist communities in Mumbai Dehradun and Gurugram and now wersquoll be adding more to the list We want people who run artist communities to join us as well as volunteers who are able to help us raise funds and create artist communitiesrdquo said Omkar Dhareshwar cofounder of Wicked Broz To register send an email to ladiesfirststreetartgmailcomCafe Mysorersquos newest fansMatungarsquos iconic South Indian eatery Cafe Mysore has found two more additions to its alreadylarge fan base which has in the past included the likes of Mukesh Ambani The newest fans seem to be Union Ministers Smriti Z Irani and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi who dropped by on Monday afternoon from Dharavi Naresh son of owner Shanteri Nayak confirmed the visit ldquoI think Irani heard of Cafeacute Mysore as I believe her husband is from Parsi Colony Both ministers ordered Mysore masala dosa rava dosa pineapple sheera rasam vada and coffee They picked a table and had their meal just like our regular patrons They were very happy with the experiencerdquo Nayak revealed Before leaving Irani also grabbed a pack of their wafers50 shades of musicIndependent musicians itrsquos time to set your clocks in order The India Music Project mdash an offshoot of the annual India Film Project mdash is calling for entries for its 50hour musicmaking challenge Those who sign up will be given a theme on which they have to make a track in one of five genres mdash pop rock folkfusion hiphop and electronica mdash within that stipulated time frame ldquoWe are expecting about 20000 entries and the jury consists of people who independent musicians look up tordquo shared IFP founder Ritam Bhatnagar Those interested can register at indiafilmprojectco50hourmusicBook this libraryThe Share A Book India Association SABIA in collaboration with Instagram artist smishdesigns is conducting a flash book sale this Friday to raise money for setting up free community libraries across the country SABIA director and cofounder Srishti Parihar told this diarist ldquoWe used to have physical book sales to raise money for this but because of the pandemic wersquove had to shift operations online This set involves 10 to 12 books We have collaborated with Smish before and for this flash book sale wersquore hoping that her social media presence will help us sell the titlesrdquo To purchase the books check out shareabookindia on Instagram