Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Winging it
Malaika Arora keeps her balance during a fitness session in Bandra on Wednesday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Stunt bikers get ready to fly high in Mumbai
This Saturday morning if you happen to be at the Gateway of India, you might be in for a surprise. For, vrooming down the streets and darting across the air will be top international freestyle motocross athletes who will be in town for an FMX showcase. FMX is a variation on the sport of motocross, in which motorcycle riders attempt daring jumps and stunts. The line-up includes Robbie Maddison, the stunt double for Vin Diesel in xXx: Return of Xander Cage, and Daniel Craig in Skyfall.

Robbie Maddison performs a stunt

Joining him are Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour Champions, Tom Pagès from France, who recently jumped a 10-storey replica of the Arc de Triomph in Las Vegas, and Alexei Kolesnikov, the first rider to have landed a back flip in Russia. "I am excited to be part of the show and to perform at the iconic Gateway of India in front of the Mumbai crowd. I have heard a lot about how enthusiastic Indians are [about FMX] and I hope I can put up a special show," Kolesnikov told this diarist.

A rap on the knuckles
Someone needed to say this. And now, Anmol Gawand has. With the hype around Gully Boy, there was always a fear that the mainstream would co-opt hip-hop without sticking to its true ethos. This fear had largely been restricted to living-room conversation thus far.

But Gawand, a rapper who is part of spoof comedy group Tadpatri Talkies, has now voiced it in public. In a long and heartfelt social media post, he has lamented, "It looks like these days all you need is a music video to be a rapper and more views than a skilled emcee to be better than him." Agree?

Wheeling in all the way from UK
The way sports can bring people together is becoming more apparent every day. Take, for example, a skating park in Jamwar, which has helped empower little girls in a steeply patriarchal society, or a bicycling trip spanning 9,000 km that concluded recently at the Bombay Port Trust. Joe Andrews and Verity Ellis embarked on this larger-than-life journey, starting in London, in a bid to raise funds for Magic Bus, an organisation that works towards educating and uplifting India's neglected youth.

Joe Andrews and Verity Ellis interact with Mumbaikars

At a rate of '50 per km, Ellis and Andrews might just have changed the lives of many, considering they crossed over 17 countries on two wheels, collecting almost '4.7 lakh in the process. "We cycled all this way not just for the sense of adventure, but also to help thousands of children and young people in India get the support they need to escape poverty for good," Ellis shared.

On the cards
Cardboard, a new venture by Bhavna and Amit Dhanani of Bandra's shuttered BAD cafe in collaboration with Vishal and Shilpa Shetty of Thyme and Reason Hospitality, launches this Sunday. Designed by architect Nuru Karim, the interiors are built entirely out of cardboard with branding by illustrator Tanya Eden.

Speaking more about the menu, Dhanani told this diarist, "Our menu is focused on retro classics with a playful touch and an expansive selection of coffee made with beans we source and roast ourselves."

We bet you can't beat this
This year's Derby to be run on February 3 at the Mahalaxmi Race Course offers a '2-crore bonanza. Punters have to correctly predict the winners of five consecutive races, and they qualify for the windfall. These five races are called five legs of the jackpot pool, and are declared in advance. It often happens that what is called "beginner's luck" works in favour of first-timers. They have been regularly winning huge prizes at the race course, as this paper's racing correspondent has witnessed.

The biggest ever jackpot in the history of Indian racing - '48 lakh - was won by Hindi film lyricist, the late Rajendra Krishan, in 1971. Remember, this was 1971 and '48 lakh was a princely sum. He had bought over 600 tickets (of '10 each) to take a shot at the mega prize, and one of them clicked. Many years later, on a television programme called Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan, hostess Tabassum, referring to the five legs of the jackpot, asked him, "Hamne suna hai ghode ki to char taang hoti hai, ye paanchvi taang kaunsi hai [We have heard a horse has four legs, so what's this fifth leg)?" The lyricist answered, "Ye paanchvi taang taqdeer ki hoti hai, Tabassum, aur ye jab bhaagti hai, tabhi rupaye ki barsaat hoti hai [This fifth leg belongs to fate, and only when it gallops is there a windfall]."

Interestingly, in those days, there was no income tax on winnings from the races, and Krishan took home the entire '48 lakh in cold cash. However, the astronomical amount became a national headline the next day in newspapers across the country, and soon the law was changed to slap 30-per cent tax deduction on winnings from horse racing.

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