Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

An eggs-ceptional sweep

A housekeeping staffer goes about her day at Oberoi Mall, Goregaon.

Park-happy

Artist's impression of the Bandstand park

In a city starved of open public spaces, the Taj-end of the Bandstand promenade is set to get a small children's park. An effort of Bandra-based architect Rinka D'Monte, her firm Atelier ARBO (OPC) Private Limited and local civic officials, the park was prompted by her desire to take her four-year-old son to play in open public spaces designed for children. "When my son was around two years old, I started wondering if I could share my point of view on parks and public spaces as a mother and architect with the local authorities.

Rinka D'Monte

Luckily, they have taken my suggestions into account. I'm working on three parks at Bandstand with them," she shared. This particular park is on a 10,000-11,000-sqft plot, which will have a dedicated play area. "I feel that if a park doesn't have a purpose or interest for the public, people won't show up and it won't get maintained. We've finally acquired play equipment that's designed for ages two to around 12 years; the idea is to give the people who come to the park a sense of ownership so that they take care of it," she added about the space which is set to open by the year-end.

All for the sake of sit-i-zenry

A broad-by-Mumbai-standards footpath at Prabhadevi got a reading corner and a table with a couple of seats, thanks to Dadar Shiv Sena leader Sada Sarvankar, some time ago. It is a pleasant spot outside the Reliance showroom at the corner of a buzzing intersection where three roads meet. A chair had upturned and was broken for a while now, and needed attention. When Sarvankar was alerted about the broken infra, he claimed he was reaching the ‘spot' at once and will ensure it is fixed soon, as it is his duty to do so. It reminded us of political leaders rushing to the spot, post disaster. Well, whatever. Just a reminder that promises are meant to be kept, sirs, and seeing is believing, or in this case, we must say, seating is believing.

Greener SoBo

#NoPlasticJuly may be drawing to a close but the spirit of recycling and reducing plastic waste is alive. Giants Group of Chowpatty and Rotaract Club of Mumbai Downtown, who have been conducting monthly drives to collect plastic waste for three years now, recently joined hands with Urvari, an NGO that we had recently written about on this page. They create shelters for strays using eco-bricks made of discarded plastic bottles. "We have already been taking plastic waste to a bottled water manufacturer's plant to have them converted into benches, which are then installed at railway stations and schools for underprivileged children. The shelters for strays are a step forward in this direction," said Toral Mazumdar, its joint director of administration.

Capturing the end

A still from the film

​Intrigued by the existence of a photographer who captures last rites in Varanasi, Mumbai-based filmmaker Gaurav Madan, along with friend, cinematographer and co-producer Sunny Lahiri, set off on a journey to meet the fellow who worked at Manikarnika Ghat in 2019.

Gaurav Madan

Madan's debut feature film Barah by Barah, which has been making a buzz at film fests, is inspired by this photographer. It recently got selected at the Indian Film Festival Stuttgart. "We tailed him and found that he's one of the last few of his ilk because everyone has smartphones these days and aren't keen to avail of their services anymore," he said.

Support for India's students

One of the prints that @thebigfatbao is offering for the fundraiser

Earlier this month, Instagram-based illustrator @thebigfatbao, along with a few other artists had posted an open call for illustrators and digital artists to put their work up online. The intent was to raise funds for students from marginalised communities who were racing against time to generate money to be able to further their foreign education. Instead of paying the artists directly, the proceeds would be sent to the students' fundraisers. The open call that closed on July 12, has currently amassed 18 artists who are set to sell their prints and artworks till July 31. "We've priced the artworks in US dollars. It's completely unethical to price these in rupees and sell 30 A5 art prints for Rs 500 each. The cost of printing itself is expensive. People can pick whichever set they want from the five sets, some of which we've tried to make into collages. They can also identify and pick which student or candidate they'd like to donate to," said @thebigfatbao. "Our Prime Minister says ‘beti bachao beti padhao', so we want to ‘padhao' our girls and ‘bachao' our country," she added. To support the initiative, visit @thebigfatbao on Instagram.