![Save Aarey: Metro III no longer needed, feel environmentalists]()
The Rail Budget, announced by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday has left Mumbai's environmentalists with some room for argument against the proposed Metro III.
In his budget, Prabhu announced the construction of an elevated corridor expected to run from Churchgate to Virar. This, transport experts and environmentalists feel, negates the need for the Metro III line, also expected to ply along a similar route, which in turn ensures that there is no move to construct a Metro III car shed at Aarey Milk Colony as had been proposed.
The proposed third line of the Mumbai Metro, helmed by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), would run from Colaba to Seepz via Bandra underground. A new line will run from Andheri East to Dahisar via the Western Express Highway. In 2014, MMRC and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (which is constructing the Andheri-Dahisar line) had proposed construction of a car shed at the green belt. At that time, various environmentalist groups had come together to launch the Save Aarey campaign. In 2015, construction of the car shed was halted after the chief minister intervened, following public agitation.
An activist who did not wished to be named, said, “While the Metro will provide a quality journey, its fare structure will also be high. Dropping the metro line will also ensure that the negative environmental impact on Aarey is avoided.”
Speaking to sunday mid-day on the day the Railway Budget was presented, MMRC Managing Director Ashwini Bhide, said, “While the elevated rail corridor will help solve commuting problems on the suburban railway line, the metro corridor “serves a different purpose”. “Both are right in their own perspective,” he added.
http://images.mid-day.com/images/2016/feb/Fizzah-Shah-s.jpg*The bike animal activist Fizzah Shah says she donated to the Myvets Charitable Trust*
Well-known animal welfare activist, Fizzah Shah, has alleged that the bike in question was donated by her to Myvets Charitable Trust, a Khaghar based non-profit. The Trust donated the vehicle to the Forest Department without her consent or knowledge. On Friday, she served a legal notice to Dr Yuvraj Kagnikar, Dr Madhurita Gupta, and the Myvets Charitable Trust for breach of trust and wrong utilisation of the donated vehicle, which was originally meant to be used by volunteers working in snake bite rescue missions.
Shah told sunday mid-day, “I had donated two bikes to the Trust, and I thought they would be used for snake bite rescue. But the bike has been converted into an idiotic cage and handed to the Maharashtra Forest Department by Madhurita Gupta and Dr Yuvraj of Myvets. I feel cheated. They didn’t take my consent.” Shah had donated R1.5 lakh for two bikes (SMD is in possession of the donation receipt) in October 2015. Till date, she has donated close to R1 crore towards the cause of animal welfare, she says.
Shah is now concerned about the second bike, and shared her concern with friends on her Facebook page. The Myvets Charitable Trust posted a photo of the bike on their social media. Although her name is mentioned on the picture, she says, they should have come clean about her being the donor.
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*Script a movie*
*5.30 PM: *Always wanted to write a screenplay but didn’t know where to begin? Join this screenwriter’s lab with National Award winner Rajashree. The course will also include master classes by Sudhir Misra and Paromita Vohra.
WHERE: Rajashree’s Film & TV Courses, SV Road, Near Andheri West
*COST:* Rs 29,900 for 14 sessions over 4 months
*CALL:* 9769449556
*Learn how to bartend*
*12 PM:* Pick up tips and tricks that will help you create cocktails like a pro and be remembered for your house parties. This workshop is for those who have long wished to have a well-stocked bar at home and the skills to create professional cocktails with flair. Get a crash course in mixology in less than four hours.
WHERE: Flairmania Bartending, Kandivili West
*CALL:* 9819564768
*ENTRY:* Rs 2,000
*Have conversations over coffee*
*11.30 AM:* If you have always wanted to be like the gang in FRIENDS that keep talking over coffee, then Espresso Talks are for you. Listen to speakers talking about their life-changing, or not, experiences and their struggles and joy. It’s about everyone having a story and a platform to tell it. Come share your life?
*WHERE:* 101, Juhu Tara Road, JVPD, Juhu
*ENTRY:* Rs 600, beverage and snacks included
*CALL:* 9967805996
*Join an ‘upcycling’ workshop*
*11 AM:* Learn how to hand-paint your existing ceramic crockery and bake them in your oven at home. This 3-and-a-half-hour workshop will be your first step into the wonderful world of upcycling. Everything you learn at the workshop will be techniques you can repeat at home. So, you can stop popping toxic plastic dishes in your microwave and go natural.
*WHERE:* Blue Blub, Matunga
*ENTRY:* Rs 1,599
*CALL:* 32270033
*Enter a food coma with BBQs and beers*
*5 PM ONWARDS:* With the lovely Mumbai weather entering its last leg, this could be the last Sunday you can enjoy a barbecue sundowner without sweating it out. And, it promises to be a meatfest. There are rump roasts that will come straight from the lava stone onto your plates. Chef Gracian D’Souza, who has served up tasty treats at London’s Landmark Hotel and Harvey Nichols and Mumbai’s Tasting Room) will be firing up the grill. Fill up your plates with tender, mouthwatering BBQ beef burgers with bourbon bacon jam and duck fat roast potatoes or indulge in BBQ halloumi with butter stewed beans and lemon olive pistachio salsa. Or, try the fennel-flavoured pork sausages with smoked mash and caramalised onion gravy. And, don’t forget to wash all of this down with some beer! We bet you can’t wait.
*WHERE:* PDT Mumbai, Kamala Mills, Lower Parel
*ENTRY:* Rs 250 onwards
*CALL:* 8082738738
*Talk about sex*
*6 PM:* In the times that we live in, it’s imperative for a woman to find her voice. Watch The Vagina Monologues, where women talk about orgasms and menstruation, among other things with abandon.
*WHERE:* Canvas Laugh Club, Palladium Mall, Lower Parel
*ENTRY:* Rs 750
*CALL:* 9004603115
*Watch a musical*
*7.30 PM:* Raell Padamsee presents Knock Knock Who’s There?, a farcical musical comedy. Find out what happens when two girls tell a tiny lie that snowballs into many more.
*WHERE: *Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA, Marine Drive
*COST: *Rs 500 – Rs 2,500
*CALL:* 23823644
*Block a seat*
*Grow a green thumb
*
Eartholics presents a class on growing your very own vegetable garden in the comfort of your terrace or balcony. The four-hour class by urban agriculturalists takes you right from the basics to the complexities, starting with an understanding of sunlight and Mumbai’s seasons. Next, get the lowdown with a step-by-step guide on turning your kitchen waste into compost. Moreover, what’s a garden without learning some nifty hacks on protecting it with natural pesticides. A highlight of the workshop is its session on micro-greens, a trending component in gourmet salads across town. For the newish-gardeners, micro-greens are freshly germinated plants which sport the first set of “true leaves”. The workshop will also provide you with your very own starter kit of seeds, and help you understand seeds that work best in your
micro-green patch, which means you can put your newly-acquired skills to test. Registration is a must, so hurry.
*WHERE:* Salvation High School, SK Bole Road, Dadar West
*WHEN:* March 6, 11 AM – 3 PM
*REGISTRATION FEE:* Rs 2,000 (inclusive of materials and snacks)
*CALL:* 9833251324
*Order of the day*
*Enjoy a 3-course meal *
*12 PM – 3 PM:* Start your day by gorging on a delicious, healthy three-course meal at Serafina Mumbai for R499. The restaurant has introduced pocket-friendly lunches on weekdays ranging from soups, salads to main course. Begin your meal with a classic minestrone, moving on to their signature, D Chopra salad and work through other greens to head to pastas or pizza. We say, try the smoked chicken sausages for a hearty main course.
*WHERE:* Serafina, Rampart Row, 30K Dubash Marg, Kala Ghoda, Fort
*CALL:* 49150050
*29 monday*
*Turn up the heat with salsa *
*10 PM- 1 AM: * The eight-time Salsa world champion, Oliver Pineda is in India. And next week, he’ll be in Mumbai for one of the biggest salsa of the year. Born in Australia and of Chilean descent, he has been dancing Salsa for 15 years and is without a doubt Australia’s most undisputed talent. So get ready to watch him scorch the floor. The evening will also see DJ John Anthony spinning some cool Salsa, Bachata and Kizomba tracks.
*WHERE:* La Ruche Bar & Grill, 33, Link Corner, 3rd Floor, Linking Road, Bandra (W)ENTRY: R500
*LOG ON TO:* www.performza.in
*01 tuesday*
*Create your own reality*
*4 AM: *According to the law of attraction, you attract whatever you think about, good or bad. So how do you control what you think? Sign up for a three-day introductory session to the law of attraction workshop — Secret, Beyond the Secret. Business coach and author Mona Arora will talk ways to develop more an effective thought process, build better relationships and creating abundance.
*WHERE:* Sol Essence Center For Well Being, Sundervan Complex, Andheri (W)
*ENTRY:* Rs 700
*CALL: *9818181991
*02 wednesday*
*Attend an album launch*
*9.30 PM:* Karsh Kale, described by Billboard Magazine as a “visionary composer and producer”, will be launching his fifth album UP. He has produced five internationally released solo albums (Realize, Liberation, Broken English, Under Water
& Cinema), of which his most recent CINEMA, debuted at #1 on the iTunes World Music.
*WHERE:* blueFROG, Zeba Centre, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Lower Parel
*ENTRY:* Rs 600
*CALL:* 61586158
*04 Friday*
*Own a three-shuttled saree*
After working with the weavers of Gadwal, a small town in Andhra Pradesh, corporate lawyer-turned-textile designer Vinay Narkar will display a new collection of sarees uses the three-shuttle technique that he is known for. This kind of weaving technique uses three shuttles and is practised by weavers to create solid body and borders. He has also
added an element of painting and embroidery in the sarees.
*WHERE:* ARTISANS’, 52-56 Dr V B Gandhi Marg, Kala Ghoda
*CALL:* 9820145397
*FREE*
*Enjoy a Chekhovian play*
*MARCH 5, 7.30 PM:* Whatever Works is a comedy by Neil Simon based on Chekhov’s Seduction and A Good Doctor. The two plays have been woven together in this slice-of-life comedy. It depicts the lives of ordinary people, revealing their myriad moods and shades of mind. The common thread that binds them together is the inherent conflict between what should be and what is.
*WHERE:* The Jeff Goldberg Studio, Gazebo House, 133 Hill Road, Above Mamagoto Chinese Restaurant, Bandra (W)
*ENTRY:* Rs 200
*CALL:* 7506906927
*Take to Bandra’s streets *
*MARCH 4, 7 AM:* There’s certainly more to Bandra than all the cool places to hang out. Sign up for a walk where you can learn all about Bandra’s multicultural history, the forgotten villages, the unique local food, beautiful basilicas, modern graffiti art and seaside promenades. Visit the original fishermen inhabitants and get a taste of the colonial past.
WHERE: Meeting point will be Safe caterers, 43/ a, Noor Manzil, Bandra (W)
*ENTRY:* Rs 500
*CALL:* 9643982934
*Make your own cat video*
There’s a reason why cats are Internet’s favourite animal. Their antics are stuff of legend. To showcase the awesomeness of felines, filmmaker Gitanjali Road has started a contest called The Big Meowbai Cat Video Fight. So, if you have a great video of a cat doing something crazy or funny, submit it to meowmbai@gmail.com. The screening will be held at Leaping Windows, Versova, on March 13.
The duration of the video needs to be 60 seconds or less. You can use any device you want to record. The first prize is lunch for two plus 90 days membership plus a Kitty Hamper. Second prize will be lunch for two plus Kitty Hamper. Third prize will be the Indian Bean Coffee hamper plus Kitty Hamper.
*WHERE:* Send the entries and queries to meowmbai@gmail.com
*Celebrate secularism*
*MARCH 5 – 6, 11 AM –*
*8 PM:* There might not be a better time to remind Indians of the concept of pluralism. Mumbai Collective has organised a 2-day session called Celebrating Freedom and pluralism; In Defense of Secularism. The event will see sessions by noted personalites like P Sainath, Nandita Das, Ram Rehman, Teesta Setalvad and more. The topics will range from sedition in the 21st century to appropriation of secular icons and more. There will also be an exhibition titled, Awaz Do: A Call to Resistance by 35 artists on intolerance.
*WHERE:* YB Chavan Centre, General Jangannath Bhosle Road, Nariman Point, Opp Mantralaya
*CALL: *22028598
*FREE*
*Shake it like Beyonce*
*MARCH 2, 6 PM – 7 PM:* You might have seen Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears dance to commercial jazz in their music videos. But, here’s a chance to learn what is genre is all about. Instructor Indiana (in pic), who is associated with a top UK based Dance Academy Love Rudeye headed by Stuart Bishop, is in the city for a workshop on commercial jazz. The dance is a mix of hip hop, jazz and the latest dance steps, choreographed to pop songs.
*WHERE:* House of Wow, 10, Natraj Building, Hill Road, Opposite St. Stanislaus School, Bandra (W)
*ENTRY:* Rs 400
*CALL:* 9930246031
*Book ahead*
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Flight attendant Avantika Mohan, 30, became as famous as her writer boyfriend, Durjoy Datta, this week. This happened after romance author, 30-year-old Datta, who has written 13 books in eight years, including Someone Like You, the recently released Impossible Love, asked his fans to help him propose to her through all his social networking accounts.*Durjoy Datta*
The gesture, which Datta says he meant as a “cute thing”, snowballed into hundreds of fans, readers and non-readers, going into a tizzy on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Datta says in three days he got 15,000 comments across all platforms. “I don’t like this kind of attention. I am not the writer. He deserves all the attention. Even at book signings, when I go along, people ask me to sign the book and I just say, ‘I am not worthy of signing this book’,” says Mohan over a con-call from her hometown Dehradun, with Datta calling in from Kolkata.
That doesn’t mean she said, no. She said, “Of course, I love you. Yes.” But the two lovers, who are slated to get married on March 1, say that they didn’t expect this overwhelming a response. Though the marriage date had been set, Mohan used to keep poking Datta, saying he hadn’t really proposed. “As a flight attendant, you don’t meet writers. So, when I tell people, I am marrying a writer, they say, ‘how did he propose? He must be romantic?’ And he is not! So, I would keep hinting.”
Datta laughs, “She thought I was SRK and I turned out to be Suniel Shetty.” But he finally took the bait and decided to ask his readers help him pop the question. “I usually don’t do Twitter. And I thought that a few hundred people who always respond to my tweets — which usually have around 20-30 retweets — would respond. Instead, people started reacting, most of it positive. But, a lot of it was negative as well.” When he tweeted “She’s on a flight that’s going to land in another two hours.
Let’s bully her into saying yes to my proposal? #marrymeavantika”, many turned around and objected to the word “bully”. “Someone said, ‘Tell your kids how you bullied their mother’ and I said, ‘I will also tell them how to take things in context. It made me angry,” says Datta. Trolls could go take a hike because soon #avantika and #marryavantika was trending in India.
When Mohan got off her flight and saw the messages, her first reaction was to cry. But, she says, it was what happened later that mattered more. “When we went home, he proposed to me in schoolboy style — with flowers and hand-written placards and cards. And that’s was more important. This online proposal — that newspapers are writing about — does not count for us,” says Mohan.
The two met on Orkut first, when Datta found out that Mohan used to visit his page thanks to the now-unthinkable feature called “last visitor on your page was…” When they shifted to Facebook, Datta found her out and start messaging her. He didn’t ask for her number, since he found it too intrusive. They started chatting on BBM messenger and then, dating. Four years later, as they get ready to tie the knot, they seem in sync.
“The worst thing is the pressure — now people will want to know stuff about the wedding. Neither of us reacts well to pressure. For example, we are going to Peru, and there was so much pressure about what to do there, where to stay. Now, we are like ‘when we reach there, we will decide’. We are hippies at heart.”
The easy-going couple, though, has faced a different kind of allegation after the online fame. People have asked Datta if he did it as a publicity stunt. “If I could orchestrate something like this, I would have done it for many other books. But I don’t blame them. I would have thought the same.” But he says that what really got his goat was “people who didn’t know him through his books” attacking him. “That’s what I didn’t like, because such a gesture gets noticed by all the wrong people.”
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The line that tour guides use to introduce foreigners to Imran Wahaj Khan identifies him as the "local leather trader who launched a unique brand of leather goods; a 'real desi' one."
Khan, 32, gets 150 of these tourists every day at his air-conditioned store in Mohammed Ali Ismail Compound, adjoining his tannery and workshop, off 60 Feet Road in the shantytown of Dharavi. His newfound identity springs from the proprietary rights he has acquired over the 'Dharavi' logo granted by the Registrar of Trade Marks last December. The logo is now an important highlight of the educational tours that groups around Mumbai run to showcase Dharavi's small-scale industry to outsiders.*Imran Wahaj Khan with his father Mohammed at their Dharavi store. Pics/Sameer Markande*
The youngest of tanner and leather manufacturer Mohammed Wahaz Khan's seven children, Imran admits he was the spoilt brat. He has a faint recollection of making it to KJ Khilnani High School in Mahim because he would spend most days with a bunch of errant friends in the narrow lanes of his Balika Nagar residence. "As we grew older and bolder, we loitered around Girgaum Chowpatty and Marine Drive in the eight hours of school. From among the movies we caught on Fridays by pooling in our funds, Arshad Warsi-starrer Hogi Pyar ki Jeet (1999) impacted me for a long time," he says.
Out of school, he was enrolled in a private institution but two failed attempts later, at 18, he was absorbed into the family business.*With the enthusiastic response of tourists to the Dharavi brand, Imran recognises the responsibility he shoulders of converting the slum’s image into one of an incubator of original ideas*
His father, a prominent voice in the leather manufacturing sector, was often approached by authors researching Dharavi's resilient work culture. In the post Slumdog Millionnare era, Dharavi assumed a larger-than-life global image. Khan's tannery prospered, especially when, giant like Western Indian Tanneries shut shop.
Imran was a skilled tanner with an inherited flair for washing, softening, colouring and polishing, but he wasn't inclined to follow the system that Khan's elder sons and 50-odd disciplined assistants had accepted. "I was the nakchadha baccha talking big deals," Imran laughs. The bragging didn't affect Senior Khan, who after arriving in the 70s from Kanpur had worked as daily wage labourer in tanneries. He knew that humility, perseverance and experience were on his side.
While Khan perceived accessories like bags and jackets as untried business risk, Imran dreamt of diversifying into the manufacture of leather goods, using top quality hide to manufacture originals, not counterfeits. Finally, the family agreed to test waters. He bought wallets from a manufacturer and showcased them to tourists, who came asking for more. Confidence boosted, Imran employed a group of designers and mestris to manufacture a similar range, which he displayed in two glass cabinets outside the tannery. Gradually, a wooden bench became the platform to exhibit the products. The tannery, like all tanneries, was crummy. "We have none to blame; we are in the heart of a sprawling slum settlement, packing in over a million people," says Imran. Those around him wondered why tourists would buy what was hawked outside a tannery. But when they did, the Khans devoted a nook of their 5,000 sq ft workshop for tourists to come and survey the merchandise.
This space is now an air-conditioned retail shop with six close-circuit cameras, and the birthplace of the Dharavi brand.
Imran's idea to brand came from his belief, Bambai mein mitti bhi bikti hai; bechnewala chahiye. The guides behind Dharavi reality tours, who are in the business of showcasing the 'non-hyped slum experience', believed the brand was directed at the buyer, and spoke of indigenous manufacturing. Fellow manufacturers, though, didn't share the excitement. Why would you associate your goods with a slum renowned for poverty and cheap labour? "Fortu-nately for me, the buyers were in favour of 'Dharavi' since the goods truly belonged to the slum."
Imran recognises the responsibility he shoulders now. He is now equated not with those who make knock-offs of Michael Kors and Mulberry, traditionally enjoying a lion's share of sales at Dharavi.
Eli Beer, a New Yorker who visited his shop recently, says, "As people travel more, they are less enamored by Gucci and Louis Vuitton." Beer compares Imran to Reese Fernandez-Ruiz, the founder of Rags to Riches, an enterprise that creates eco-ethical fashion out of recycled scrap cloth from Philippines' rubbish heaps.
However, Rajkumar Gupta, a tailored garment supplier from Dharavi, sees it a bit differently. He feels Imran can monetise the slum's credentials because the leather industry has a prestigious history. The same is not true of all small-scale manufacturing (Dharavi produces everything from pillows to dog feed, raincoats to petticoat lace) and doubts over quality control and standards often arise in the customer's mind. Which is why most food product manufacturers avoid being associated with Dharavi, choosing to call Sion and Mahim their base. "If a chikki maker flaunts the Dharavi logo, he will only lose buyers," says Gupta, who finds a supporter in Shaikh Azarul Haq, who manufactures surgical threads and is a catgut provider for Johnson & Johnson. He says, "Dharavi's leather industry thrives on foreign purchasing power. The minus turns into a plus, because leather accessories are non-edibles. Factory hygiene is not central [to the product's success]."
While Imran's branding is a "client-appropriate business strategy," there is a hint of the positive Mumbai spirit in his worldview. Rahul Srivastava, co-director of The Institute of Urbanology, which has an office in Dharavi and researches issues of urban development and neighbourhood life, says, "The Dharavi-branded line is a proud style statement, asserting the original production that occurs within on an impressive scale. The logo is a sign of Imran's pride in one of the oldest leather workshops in the city."
As is evident from the just-launched Dharavi Museum, a project that looks to offer design interventions to boost the settlement's skill and entrepreneurship spirit, Imran's brand is also an unapologetic expression of the slum's self-image. "Who knows," he says, "one day someone will make a fake 'Dharavi'."
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It was with bitter-sweetness that installation artist Nitant Hirlekar saw the end of this year's edition of Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (KGAF). The public-art starved crowds at the festival went gaga over his work, Borders of Grid.*Akshay Utekar and his friends pose against an Eiffel Tower installation at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Pic/Akshay Utekar*
How did they show it? With selfies, selfie-sticks and photo-ops destined to make their way into social media paradise. When KGAF wrapped up, Hirlekar's seven-and-a-half-feet high installation, built on the idea of tesseracts (Marvel and Interstellar fans will know about the cosmic cube-within-a-cube) lay reduced to a pile on the ground. The mob was ecstatic, interacted with it, Instagrammed and hashtagged it, and then, simply walked all over it.*Festival-goers take pictures with Nitant Hirlekar's installation at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival*
"Art has become a means for people to take selfies. They no longer want to deliberate on an artwork; art has become an accessory," he says.
The selfie, and the pressure to perform on social media, have spelled absurd and tragic deaths in India, which accounts for 19 out of 49 selfie-related fatalities worldwide since 2014. The city's seafront has inadvertently become a death-by-selfie zone, with enthusiastic teenagers falling prey. The obsession with photos now raises a grim concern with the life span of artworks, especially those in public spaces.*However, by the end of the **week-long fest, his seven-and-a-half-feet high installation, built on the idea of tesseracts, had been torn apart*
*A different psychology*
Hirlekar adds, in a tragic-comic vein, that visitors engaged with his installation even after it was reduced to what looked like a bonfire set-up. People picked up pieces of the tesseracts, used them as frames, and the selfie-games continued, uninterrupted. "They loved it so much that they pounced on it," Hirlekar chuckles.*PM Narendra Modi on a visit to China last year where he was caught touching the terracotta armies of Sin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, at the famous Terracotta Warriors Museum. Subodh Kerkar, installation artist and founder of the Museum of Goa, says a better attitude towards art needs to be inculcated right from school. Pic/AFP*
Could the demand to constantly 'feed' the insatiable appetite of social media mean that the way we interact with art changed? Artists and gallersits who attended art fairs held this year, observe that the number of people who indulge in self-portraiture is absurd. Artist Reena Saini Kallat says with reference to the selfie culture, "What kind of meaningful engagement can be expected from those obsessively taking selfies whose backs are constantly turned towards works of art?" Then there is the story of a gallerist, whose name we will not disclose, who screams at selfie-takers at art fairs. 'Why don't you turn around and look at the work?' is the person's warning in the face of a selfie-fuelled apocalypse of art.*Krsna Mehta*
"I do feel that more visitors to public art events look at art from the perspective of a selfie," says Tarana Khubchandani, the visual arts curator for KGAF. She recalls a couple of visitors who were overheard approving of KGAF because "there are lots of places here to take photographs". "There was an organic designation of selfie zones at the festival. The social message that comes with visual arts at KGAF gets sidetracked in this process," she says. In the last few years, the rise of good phone-cameras, especially the front-facing cameras (which have the designated task of capturing selfies) has equipped the trend.*Designer Krsna Mehta illustrates the downside to selfie-dom with this photo-collage. A broken down installation of obseliks, but selfie-takers carry on. Pic/Krsna Mehta*
*Public versus intimate*
Public art installations are the first to get hit by selfie-crazed mobs. The situation is better controlled in galleries and museums, where there is more scrutiny and streamlining of visitors. Last year, the New York Times reported how the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for instance, politely dissuade the use of the "wand of narcissism" (the poetic epithet to the monopod that is the selfie stick), citing invasion into other visitors' personal space, damage to exhibits, and potentially falling from balconies and stairs. Selfie sticks belong in the great outdoors, is the general consensus among museums.
But the likes of Hirlekar, who found people prodding about his installation with their selfie-wands, will not agree. Kanika Bawa, who recently made it into the Limca Records for her installation art, found similar enthusiasts. Her Kismat Konnection (a towering chair with Kathakali elements) was meant to be interactive, an installation with Kolhapuri chappals was not. Apart from ruing over vandalism (read missing LED lights and digtal equipment), she found eager visitors fiddling with the installations in the name of taking photos. Another installation, outside Churchgate station, the Art Yogi placed on a podium, found better treatment, with security guard monitoring it.
*Brownie points*
Bawa however feels that social media and selfies are double-edged swords. "It is a thrill to see people share your work and hashtag it. It has a positive vibe," she says.
The Mumbai police announced "no-selfie" spots in the city last week. Should the art world follow suit, then and keep public art off limits? Bawa suggests that exhibition and fair organisers need to keep in mind the selfie-happy crowds and incorporate that into the layout. Kallat feels that public art however, should at the end of the day, remain accessible. Barricading them defeats the purpose.
Subodh Kerkar, founder of the Museum of Goa, suggests that a culture of respect for art be inculcated right from school where kids are taken on visits to art spaces. "But look at our behaviour," he begins, alluding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's moment in China in May 2015. Sporting sunglasses, Modi was caught touching the third century BCE standing armies at the Terracotta Warriors Museum. "We don't have the culture of understanding art," he says.
Designer Krsna Mehta Instagrams regularly, and loves selfies with his works. "The trend with selfies is not just in Mumbai. Everywhere, be it Hong Kong or Seoul, the pressure to post, and engage with social media is there," he says. Stating that artists need to design with responsibility, and use sturdier material. But Mehta is far from threatened by the selfie.
"It is a way for people to state 'been there, done that', and, when shared on the Web, it generates more eyeballs. It is especially great for emerging artists who exhibit at fairs and want to get the word out."
http://images.mid-day.com/images/2016/feb/Queens-Museum-s.jpg*Subodh Gupta’s installation, What does the room encompass that is not in the city? (2014), was shown at the Queens Museum in March 2015 as part of After Midnight. The show was scheduled to open at Byculla’s BDL museum last month. Pic/Hai Zhang & Queens Museum*
An ambitious exhibition curated by gallerist Dr Arshiya Lokhandwala that opened to critical acclaim in New York last March, and was meant to set up base at Byculla’s Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum last month, has been cancelled. Sources say the administrative controversy surrounding the running of the iconic cultural institution could be behind the decision. The show titled, After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary India 1947 -1997 involved the works of 26 Indian artists and traced the last 50 years of the country’s art history, ranging from Modern to Contemporary.*Works by artists from the Bombay Progressive Group such as MF Husain, FN Souza and Tyeb Mehta were part of After Midnight, first shown at Queens Museum, New York. Pic/Hai Zhang Queens Museum*
Since April 2015, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), under whose purvey the museum falls, has been indecisive about the role that its honorary director and museum trustee, Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, will play. That same month, a proposal was passed to revoke the 17-year agreement signed in 2003 between the BMC, the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation and the Indian Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. A six-month time frame was set to frame fresh regulations on the museum’s running. The tussle was essentially one involving the civic body fearing a lack of control and Mehta, due to her cutting edge initiatives, becoming the face of the institution. In January, this paper reported that it was announced at a BMC meeting that powers would now rest in a trust headed by the mayor, who belongs to Shiv Sena, the party that enjoys a majority in the civic body currently. When we had contacted Mehta, she had said it was up to the Municipal Commissioner to take the call and she was unaware of any such move. Strategic decisions, she had said, are taken by the Board of Trustees chaired by the Mayor.*Tasneem Mehta, honorary director, BDL museum*
*The show that could not be*
After Midnight opened in March 2015 at the Queens Museum, New York, as a juxtaposition of two historical periods in Indian art – the Moderns and the Contemporaries. It was well-received by critics and visitors.
When SUNDAY mid-day had spoken to the curator last December, she said she was tweaking her exhibition to suit the Mumbai audience, and that it was scheduled to open on January 21, 2016.
A week before its opening, there was chatter in the art community about problems surrounding the exhibit. This paper had called the museum to inquire right before Mumbai Gallery Weekend (January 22-24) and a staffer had said the show was postponed. A discussion surrounding the show between Mehta and Lokhandwala at Delhi’s India Art Fair on January 31 made no mention of the cancellation.
A private email sent out last week alluded to the critical juncture the BDL was at and informed participating artists about the cancellation. When Mehta had agreed to the exhibition, circumstances had been different. She apologised for the inconvenience in the mail.
“I don’t know about the circumstances for the cancellation, but I do know that both, Tasneem Mehta and the institution have been going through an unnecessary hard time,” said Shaina Anand, participating artist. “Mehta rescued the institution and the staff takes pride in the conservation it carries out, and also in installing the contemporary art exhibitions. While it’s unfortunate that the exhibition has been cancelled, the concern is larger; it’s about how and why educational and cultural institutions are at stake.”
Insiders say it’s not just After Midnight. While educational programmes continue to run in the museum, art exhibitions have been put on hold until further notice.
In January, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had said that a thorough review of the museum’s running will be put into action. Now, sources indicate that funding is getting hard to come by, and future shows and events depend on the outcome of an upcoming board meeting.
Shilpa Gupta, whose work of marble slabs referring to the unlawful killings in Kashmir, was to be exhibited at the show, said, “The situation at the museum is not easy, and one hopes that it will pass. Tasneem has been one of the few to bring contemporary art to a wider audience and we are aware of the many challenges she is facing.”
Prajakta Potnis, the youngest artist in the show, said, “It is a reflection of today’s times and it is tragic that the show got cancelled,” she said. Mithu Sen, who was to show her installation, Museum of Unbelonging at the exhibition, said, “We got to know of the cancellation over email, and we are still not sure of the exact reasons. This show celebrated India.”
The artworks are now being returned to the artists, and some being shipped back to New York. It is plain irony that a show spanning the history of Indian art could not be shown at a premier India art institution. “It is a loss that a critical exhibition like After Midnight that presented a comparative study of Indian art in the wake of two defining moments in history, a show well-received in New York, could not be shown here,” said Lokhandwala.
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This weekend, Rajat Kapoor returns to the stage with I Don’t Like It. As You Like It. He is doing what he loves best — reinterpreting Shakespeare, using clowns as a tool. “This is a play that I have had a fondness for, for a while actually. I have even written a film script around a theatre troupe trying to put up As You Like It in Mathura. The script is titled Mathura Mein Ta-Ta-Thaiyya,” he says over email.
Rosalind is the protagonist of the play. The daughter of the exiled Duke Senior, she leaves her uncle’s court for the Forest of Arden where she lives disguised as a shepherd named Ganymede, with her cousin, Celia.
He is intrigued by the idea of Rosalind going into a forest and becoming a man. “I thought, what if a man is playing Rosalind. Then, we’d have a man playing a woman playing a man… and that kind of got me into the play. And the fact, that in the process of becoming the other, one might find some other truth, which brings you closer to yourself.”
On using clowns to interpret Shakespeare, he says they are a handy tool. “They can be irreverent. Nothing is sacred for a clown — not even Shakespeare,” he says, ending the sentence with a smiley.
“Over the last four plays — Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth and As You Like It — we could edit the text, turn things around, throw out chunks of it that did not interest us, and delve deeper into the parts that were exciting for us.”
On writing comedy, he says, “You have to start with an idea and see where the idea wants to go. You cannot impose your will on it. And finally, what it reflects, is who you are.”
But, comedy must come with subtext. “Comedy does not, and should not, deal with trivial things. Great comedies have always taken on the gravest issues — look at Chaplin’s Modern Times or Gold Rush — or how a film about Hitler could be fodder for a comedy. But, maybe it is not even fair to call his films comedies. May be they are not comedies — but we can not run away from the fact that Chapin was a clown. The greatest of them all. And being a clown he could take on anything!”
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Classical singer Neela Bhagwat’s wake-up fix in the mornings isn’t filter coffee or chamomile tea. She has half a teaspoon of ‘chatan’ a paste of honey, turmeric and cinnamon that in Marathi means ‘lick’, mixed in hot water. Then, there are four Ayurvedic kaadas, remedies for coughs and colds, that she has as well, one made of bajra flour, and another of betel leaves called "paan pani".*Aramendra Dhaneshwar*
The daily regimen for classical singers — for voice, posture and mental health — is the theme of Singing and Indian Medicine, which will be hosted on the lawns of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya this evening. As part of the museum’s ongoing exhibition, Tabiyat, the event will see the dhrupad-style nom-tom aalap performance by Bhagwat, and classical singer Amarendra Dhaneshwar, interjected by a conversation with Ayurveda expert Dr Swati Mohite, and Unani expert Dr Jalal Siddiqui. Expect music and lyrics, with a generous dash of health science.*Neela Bhagwat*
"The strange phenomenon of the human body is that the voice is the last to age," says Dhaneshwar, who is now in his mid-60s, and starts his day with a practice session of the lower octaves. Did his guruji pass on this knowledge to him? "Mostly, yes. In my case, Neelaji [Bhagwat] is my guru, and my wife," he says. However, in a reversal of roles, it was Dhaneshwar who introduced the ritual of Shivambu Shastra or auto-urine therapy into their lives. "Shivambu can also be used to clear the nasal passages. When my husband and I started doing this, no one teased us," quips Bhagwat.
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Pavlovas are really sweet," Reshma Mane warns us about the Australia-New Zealand dessert which requires five ingredients — egg whites, castor sugar, a teaspoon of corn flour, vanilla essence and a cap of vinegar — and a lot of beating. Named after Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, the pavlova is a dessert consisting of a meringue base or shell filled with whipped cream and fruit.
And, in the few months that the homebaker has been experimenting with it, she says, it has seen great success.*Classic pavlova cake with fresh cream and strawberries*
The 30-year-old Vakola resident, who runs Every Aroma Caterers and Classes, sold out at the Dessert Garden, a pop-up for desserts held in November last year, and did fairly well at the Farmer’s Market last week.
"A friend staying in the US suggested I try a hand at pavlovas. The classic pavlova is served with fresh cream and strawberries.*Reshma Mane*
I also do tiramisu, banana and caramel, chocolate-strawberry and a Turkish delight with rose, cream, pomegranate seeds and pistachios," says Mane, adding, that "following the recipe is the key. The Pavlova, has a crunchy outer crust and a marshmallow-like filling."
*Fresh batch*
To help us understand how it is made, Mane breaks an egg and separates the egg white in a mixer, and switches the beater on. Between the drumming of the machine, and the rising of peaks, she tells us that it is not possible to reduce the amount of sugar, as it is the catalyst for the meringue.
Once the eggs and sugar are blended, she adds vinegar and corn flour and repeats the process. She takes a whisk on her finger.
"Check the peaks, they are smooth. Now we can prepare for baking," says Mane, placing butter paper on a baking tray. She puts dollops of batter and pokes a spoon in the centre. "I want a slight crater at the centre, for the filling," Mane explains.
Once she sets the oven at 150°C, she pushes the tray into the middle tier. "We don’t want to burn them," says Mane, turning the time knob to 30 minutes.
Mane, who got into baking "for the love of it", followed up a course in management with a course at Dadar’s Institute of Hotel Management. While she has been baking mini pavlovas, she baked her first pavlova cake last month, which she sold for R1,000 a kg.
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Imagine the scene: two Indian girls in Kuwait, crossing an empty road, waiting for their parents to pick them up. A gang of boys heckle; they ignore. They then notice a pool of water collecting next to them. The boys are urinating pointing towards them. They scream, and a Pakistani hawker across the road runs away. But then he is back, with five more hawkers and they chase the street harassers away.*Neha Singh and Satchit Puranik’s play, Loitering, follows the experiences of six women and four men, who recount what happened when one day, they decided to loiter. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar*
This a true story about what happens when people "loiter", and more experiences like these are part of a play called Loitering, produced by NCPA Edge and production house Sur owned by Amrita Dodani. Director and actor Satchit Puranik, 34, decided to make a play based on the Why Loiter campaign run by friend, writer and actor Neha Singh, 32.
In 2014, after Singh read Why Loiter?: Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets by Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade, she decided to take the Why Loiter idea to the streets. The aim was to take women to open, public spaces to roam so as to spread awareness about what is safe and unsafe, and allow women could reclaim their city. When Puranik first asked if he could come along, he was told it was only for women. But when he suggested, he dress up like a girl, Singh agreed. "It was later that we realised that it's not just a gender problem, it's also a minorities problem, like the one facing transgenders. People of different castes and classes also face problems when they loiter," says Singh as we chat at a cafe.
The play includes experiences of six women and four men, who recount what happened when one day they decided to loiter. Puranik, who was also casting director for critically acclaimed film Court, has chosen the "documentary theatre performance" approach so that everyone in the audience can relate and know that their experiences also count. "We have taken people belonging to different ages, life situations, religions — so a 65-year-old woman says that one day, during a random picnic with her neighbours, as she loiters, she notices a sign that needs typists to type out PhD projects. She then calls up her home and says she isn't going to return as she has a new job now. Another story, Neha's, is about what happened when she decides to cycle in Mumbai as she used to when she was a kid growing up in Army cantonments." What happened was that she got bullied and teased by a bunch of goons, who worked for a regional political party. "When I questioned them, they just gathered around me and started fighting," says Singh.
The play is an extension of the campaign that's been finding resonance across the world. Some women from Pakistan who came across the Why Loiter blog, decided to do something similar and started Women in Dhabas, where girls would go, sit chat at dhabas, traditionally male hangouts. "Many people who call and want to be part of the movement also say, 'since it was a midnight loiter, I wore a salwar kurta'. But that's changing. Some come and say, 'I wore red lipstick, because I have never done that'. We once loitered on to the last train of the day at 1.40 am, and all the girls wore shorts. It was about saying, 'we can do this. This is okay'," says Singh.
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It has been touted as the touch of magic your foodgrams needed to hit never-seen-before levels of oomph on social media. A camera app, called Foodie Delicious Camera, hit the iOS and Android markets last week, and has gathered excitement globally, right from the casual diner to the compulsive foodstagrammer. The app comes with food-specific filters and angles, meant to turn your smartphone shot into a magazine cover shoot. At least, that’s what’s on Foodie’s menu. Is it as good as its claim? We checked with the town’s virtual culinary community to see if they have given into Foodie yet, or if Instagram remains food-porn ruler.*Chef-restaurateur Nachiket Shetye tried Foodie, and here are the before and after results. Foodie makes dishes go pop*
Chef Manu Chandra of Monkey Bar thinks Foodie is “a nifty app” that gives your food-shots a “dreamy” edge. “The conventional food Instagram shot does not come out well in mood lighting. The chef might send a good-looking plate out of the kitchen, but, without good lighting, it will end up looking drab. But Foodie fills the gap.”
Pooja Dhingra, founder of Le 15 Patisseire, has been fiddling with Foodie’s filters that cater to specific categories like sushi, meats and cakes. Spending a morning shooting her cup of coffee, brownies and cupcakes, she reports with this verdict, “I tried the Sweets filter on a cupcake, and it was all right. But, I used the BBQ filter on brownies, and I loved it.” Dhingra, who has a following of 70.6K on Instagram, got 1,164 insta-hearts for her brownies-and-cuppa Foodie shot — one of the highest hits she’s got for a foodgram.*Pastry chef Pooja Dhingra’s Foodie filters: Yum, BBQ and romantic. BBQ worked best with brownies, she says*
But, Dhingra is not sure she is going to use it often. “It requires you to save the photo, and then post it on Instagram. That’s too much work for someone like me who takes shots on the spur-of-the-moment and posts instinctively. It may be great for those who spend time styling their photos.” Other things that Dhingra liked on Foodie: its Fresh and Yum filters. What puzzles her about the app: the small variations in filters, such as Romantic One, Romantic Two and Romantic Three. “There are three variations of each filter. That’s too many options!” she says. People with poor decision-making skills will find Foodie a maze, this way. But Chandra takes Foodie’s side, and says, “Small variations and minor differences go a long way, as is evident when you work with Photoshop.”
“It’s not better than Instagram, but it is really focused on food,” says Ronak Rajani, the founder of Instagram food-guides, Mumbai Foodie, Pune Foodie and Drink Mumbai. The filters know which elements need to pop-up, and which others need to be hushed for a better tone to your picture. Rajani is certain that he is going to use the app regularly in the days to come.
Chef Nachiket Shetye, who posts daily on Instagram, has experimented with Foodie’s angles feature, essential for getting perfect, well-aligned top shots of dishes. The app assists you in understanding which way to head — right, left, closer or farther — to get a food-flattering shot. Shetye is not sure what the big deal about Foodie is, though.
http://images.mid-day.com/images/2016/feb/Silk-Cotton-Bug-s.jpg*The cotton pyrrhocorid bugs get the name of Red cotton stainers since their red bodies get crushed when the bolls of cotton they eat are harvested*
This scenario reminded me of a similar nature-cum-photowalk I had led last year for a bunch of collegians in the Aarey Milk Colony. Some of my outdoorsy friends had joined, along with their kids, and we were under a flower and bird-laden Semal tree. All those with cameras were going click-click, but the kids were on their own trip. Their eyes were searching for the waxy Semal flowers and twigs to play with. A shriek from one broke this peaceful excitement. He screamed, “Run, there are blood-sucking bugs here”. The statement confused me and the team momentarily. But, within a fraction of a second I realised that the kid must’ve seen a bunch of red silk cotton bugs.
The nervous laughter from the kids broke the tension. Everyone rushed closer to me, when I picked up a bug and let it calmly wander around on my hand. I complimented the kid on identifying the creature as a bug, (Order Hemiptera), and that led to some high-fives. I followed this up with a long monologue informing the group that these insects belong to the Family Pyrrhocoridae. They are commonly called Pyrrhocorid bugs, firebugs, red bugs, silk cotton bugs or, most accurately, the cotton stainer bugs. There are over 300 species of these gregarious (group-living), plant-feeding insects, found mostly in the tropics and subtropics. They are fairly common, bright red coloured and oval in shape, ranging from 8 to 18 mm in length. They all exhibit polymorphism, wherein two or more visibly different forms exist, such as winged or wingless. Their eggs look like miniature chicken eggs. The nymphs or young bugs (instars) are wingless.
The name cotton stainers is prevalent as their red bodies get crushed when the bolls of cotton they eat are harvested. These stains are difficult to remove and their feeding cuts the cotton fibres. The Genus Dysdercus is deemed as one of the most destructive cotton pests in North America and India. Historically, piles of sugarcane were laid between rows of cotton, Ocra, Hibiscus and orange trees to attract the red bugs and then destroyed with hot or soap water. Now, dusts and sprays are used for control.
But, one must realise, not all red bugs are destructive. In India, the Dindymus larvae feed on termites and adults prey on flies. Most commonly, we sight the black or brown-winged adults in mating pairs attached end to end, walking around like coaches of a tram. Sadly, besides their impact on agricultural produce, their role and ecological associations are poorly documented. So, here is your opportunity to spend this summer vacation observing, photographic and finding out the predators of the cotton stainers.
*Write in to Anand Pendharkar at sproutsenvttrust@gmail.com*
Reported by Mid-Day 21 hours ago.
On March 8, for students who use school buses, parents will have to look for an alternative arrangement. 
The Rail Budget, announced by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday has left Mumbai's environmentalists with some room for argument against the proposed Metro III.
This monsoon the people staying at Aarey Milk Colony won't have to face the problem of pothole-ridden roads that rickshaws and taxis are avoiding while going to Aarey as the Public Works Department has decided to undertake repairs worth Rs 1 crore on the roads.
*Ratnagiri:* A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) trooper deployed at the Ratnagiri power plant gunned down two of his colleagues and injured himself and his pregnant wife, officials said here on Wednesday.
A small, seven-race card is featured at Mahalaxmi for the first and only Wednesday racing this season. The A Campbell Cup, for 3y-old horses yet to win, is the feature event. Nine juveniles are in the fray, three of them first-timers. Going by the form of the six with experience Ladislaus, consistent place-grabber in all his three outings so far, is tipped to win the event. Ladislaus is trained by SK Sunderji and will be ridden by Trevor Patel.