Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Atul Dodiya

Of homes and belonging
The questions of shelter and home haunt the world today as millions of families torn by conflicts move from one place to another seeking home. Many others forced into exile are faced with hostility. And then, people from villages are migrating to the cities and those from smaller towns to metropolises like never before.

This idea of dwelling is the binding theme of Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke's 10th anniversary exhibition that opens tomorrow. Curated by Ranjit Hoskote, the exhibition will host works by 24 artists like Gieve Patel, Atul Dodiya and Varunika Saraf among others, who will in their own way bring to life the idea of a dwelling.

Mile sur mera tumhara...

Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Singer Shankar Mahadevan (centre) with Purbayan Chatterjee (on the sitar) and Sheldon D'Silva during a rehearsal in Santacruz yesterday.

And thus begin the laments
It is not often that you get a sense that the writer of a piece was on the verge of smashing his monitor while typing the copy. But then the New Yorker's article on the victory of the newly elected American President Donald Trump certainly does use the word con to introduce him. This piece shared widely on social media, more or less set the mood for the day - liberals fearing the apocalypse, the conservatives all cheery, and Bernie Sanders supporting leftists in I-told-you-so mode.

Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump. Pics/AFP

But given the way things are now, even apocalypse, one wonders, will come with some witty tweets and gallows humour. Music icon Mick Jagger set the mood with his tweet, Just was watching the news... maybe they'll ask me to sing ‘You Can't Always Get What You Want' at the inauguration, ha!

And then of course, there was this rush of announcements to move to the neighbouring country. Here, Canada's Justin Trudeau as president will forward Obama's legacy of grace apart from having incredible core strength as demonstrated on Youtube. And so we've read tweets like, Oh #Canada time to start building a wall #BuildTheWall #Trump #FML.

Punjab diaries
Actress Divya Dutta recently started shooting for a Punjabi thriller and was in the northern state last week.

Looks like, the bubbly Punjabi kudi made every minute of her stay count. While she posed happily for a selfie when she bumped into fellow actress Seema Biswas and comedienne Bharti Singh in Chandigarh, Dutta turned into a toughie for an action sequence shot in the dead of night.

The actress also took a trip down memory lane and visited the town of Sahnewal in Ludhiana district, where she spent her childhood.

No money troubles here
So, you just withdrew a couple of thousands from the ATM and all hell broke loose. Well, if you don't mind having pav for breakfast, lunch and dinner, here's a solution: Pack-a-Pav, a takeaway outlet in Pali Hill, is accepting '500 and 1000 currency notes today. By now, you would have also received a barrage of messages from e-wallet companies and cab aggregators reminding you to make fat transfers to their accounts. A home services provider has now joined the bandwagon too, and this is what it had to say to its customers: "Modi'd? Relax, we accept online payments, too…" Let's just say we are far from running out of witticisms any time soon.

Dalrymple goes Magnetic
Magnetic Fields, a festival of music and the arts, has introduced storytelling as a new element, and Author William Dalrymple is one of the handpicked names in the new addition called Magnetic Words. The 51-year-old Scottish writer will talk about his soon-to-be released book, Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Famous Diamond, at the event.

The jamboree, curated by British-French writer Rebecca Hobson, is an intimate and inspiring space for India's finest writers, performers and artists to come together and share stories about heritage arts and contemporary culture. The festival will be held from from December 9-11 in Alsisar, Rajasthan.