Mumbai Diary: Wednesday Dossier

Pic/Anurag Ahire

Taking a back seat

A worker whiles away time in his partly shuttered godown in Goregaon West on Tuesday. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Finding treasures

A template of Treasure Hunt Tuesdays with the clue from BDL Museum's stories on Instagram

Every Tuesday, Byculla's Dr Bhau Daji Lad (BDL) Museum has something in store for its followers on social media. A post with #TreasureHuntTuesdays (THT) appears on their Insta stories with a snippet of an artwork in their collection with a clue for people to guess what it is. "Our treasure hunt sheets during certain activity weekends at the museum were always very popular and we brainstormed to translate this experience online," shares managing trustee and honorary director Tasneem Mehta.

She adds that in the future the museum aims to offer diverse activities online. Yesterday, they launched #TuesdayTalks on social media to revisit some of their earlier talks by scholars which are available on the museum's YouTube channel. "These will alternate with THT. We are experimenting with the treasure hunt in different formats but the focus will be to help people explore the collection and its varies aspects in new, fun ways."

Getting the job done in time

May 1 is observed as World Labour Day. But this year will see most of the working class being confined to their homes. In light of this, a new title Reviving Jobs: An Agenda For Growth (Penguin) by renowned economist and professor Santosh Mehrotra examines the unemployment epidemic, bringing together India's foremost intellectuals, activists and policymakers like Saarthi Acharya, Vijay Mahajan and Madan Pataki.

Mehrotra, who took a year to put it together, told us, "India was facing a jobs crisis in early 2020. Post the pandemic, it will worsen. Since 2012, numbers of young, better educated entrants entering the labour force increased, but new job-creation fell - threatening India's demographic dividend. Between 2020 and 2030, labour force growth will accelerate. By 2040, India will be an aging society. This book suggests how India grows rich fast by creating non-agri jobs. [Its] Failure will cause millions to suffer poverty for decades."

How to box memories of a pandemic

How will we look back at this time when it's all over? Will we remember how much we missed our loved ones, or how we marvelled at the clear blue skies? In an attempt to document personal histories as a community, The Alipore Post, an online journal, is inviting anonymous entries across music, artwork, poetry and other genres.

"The project was inspired by a poem in response to my poetry challenge. The idea is to have a box of memories so we can tell coming generations, 'Hey, we saw this and lived through it.' It's like collective hope. The responses will remain in my mailbox till it's officially declared that the world is COVID-free. Then, I'll see how to publish it," curator Rohini Kejriwal told this diarist.

A two-way loss

When an artiste passes away, it's not just the loss of a human being, but also of the art form. That's how people felt when Ebow Enyan Graham aka Metropolis passed away this week. A member of Indo-British hip-hop/dubstep group Foreign Beggars, he had a legion of fans here especially after a spanking performance at a music festival in Pune in 2014.

These fans include guitarist Randolph Correia who told this diarist about how it's hard to hear the news of the death, of someone you have met, and how much harder it must be for Graham's band mates and family. "Musically, he had a proper underground hip-hop, grind kind of sound we are all going to miss," Correia said.

Eat the clean way

Tilak Goswami and Supriya Sarin

While the lockdown has compelled many businesses to shut shop, organic grocery chain, The Farmers' Store, opened a new outlet in Juhu this week. Helmed by husband-wife duo Supriya Sarin and Tilak Goswami, who began their journey with organic nourishment after one of their pets was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, the new store will deliver 100 per cent organic vegetables, grains, spices, beverages and dry fruits.

Their reason for the move, Sarin told this diarist, was "to make organic food available to as many people as possible across the city, especially at this time where clean eating is of utmost importance."

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