Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Goodbye to Colaba's meaty hub
It's Day of Mourning for SoBo's meat-lovers as news of Imbiss, Colaba shutting down breaks out - an iconic joint that is almost symbolic of the city's gastronomical landscape. This diarist spoke with food critic, Antoine Lewis, who shared the news on his social media handle.

"I live a few buildings away from the eatery and on my way back home on Thursday night I saw that the interiors had been demolished and the place was being cleared out. So, I returned to find out what had happened and spoke to the staff present there. They said that June 30 was the last working day and that the five-year lease had expired. They also said that it had been taken over by a new owner and that another place will be coming up in its place. I guess it wasn't doing too well," Lewis said.

The owner, Alf Peter, was unreachable till the time of going to press, and upon connecting with Bruce Rodrigues, owner of the Imbiss' Bandra and Vakola outlets, he said, "We will be open and running as usual, though I guess we'll be getting a lot of patrons from town coming to Bandra now."

The other
While most literary buffs in the city would be familiar with the fact that Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling was born here, few might know that Kipling's dad, John Lockwood, left quite a mark on its landmarks. On his 181st birth anniversary yesterday, this diarist decided to dig up some more about his connect with the city.

Bas-relief by John Lockwood Kipling and JJ School students

He arrived as a professor of architectural sculpture at the Sir JJ School of Art. It was during his time here that Rudyard was born (December 30, 1865) on the premises.

His inspired ideas can be seen across some of the city's most famous Gothic landmarks including Crawford Market and the University building complex in Fort.

JL Kipling

Draw a happy end
The closest we've come to experiencing a food coma-type scenario in a city home was during our lunch at The Bohri Kitchen. After a nine-course meal whipped up by Nafisa Kapadia (‘Nafisa aunty' to most beneficiaries), most survivors are barely able to stir from their seat, let alone attempt dinner, and breakfast the following day, as what transpired with this diarist.

One such patron, Vikas Sabnis, was so thrilled with the meal that he made a sketch of the genial home chef, whose fans range from Farah Khan to Hrithik Roshan. "I loved the gesture. We've been fortunate to have guests who have been very appreciative; some have given handwritten cards, while others have praised the food on social media," says Nafisa aunty, who is an artist herself.

Varun Grover has a request
As the much-awaited web series, Sacred Games, starring Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte was released yesterday, Varun Grover, who is part of the writing team, made a special request to the viewers. "This day has been made possible because of the hard work of an immensely dedicated team... Netflix has a consumer-driven design to skip the credits in the end - so at least for one of the episodes, don't let the machine decide and you pay attention to every name in the credit.

Varun Grover

These are the people who have taken our black courier-new text and interpreted it in audio-visuals-texture in all seriousness," said the comedian, lyricist and scriptwriter in a social media post, while also recounting the rollercoaster experience of writing for the series. "All ambitions of making any kind of cinema have the universe's dice auto-loaded against them, but this one, based on a 1,000-page atmospheric novel by Vikram Chandra with a Mandala-like structure and multiple themes, looked even more difficult to scale," he said. Given the rave reviews the show is receiving, we'd say the ride was worth it.

A musical journey
A new song by the Mumbai-based DJ duo has given us a new definition of EDM - emotional dance music. Faking It, in collaboration with Matthew Steeper, is an electronic track that is dripping with pathos about a failed romance. Sample the lyrics: "Faking it/ I've been faking it too long/ I'm waiting to fall in love again".

That's a far cry from the "put your hands in the air" kind of feel that most electronic dance music (the conventional full form of EDM) has. But do we like it? It's not bad, TBH.

Band, baaja, Mr India

Actor Anil Kapoor plays his part along with a brass band that were in full flow at an event in Bandra Kurla Complex on Friday. Pic/Satej Shinde

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