Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Satej Shinde

Light amidst darkness

A man walks past decor inside a reopened mall in Malad as it readies for Diwali.

RIP Felix Flor

Mumbai lost an artiste last week who, in his own way, helped shape the city's music. Felix Flor (in pic) was not only a talented musician, but also helped give a platform to budding talent. He was part of an initiative called Have a Heart Club that organised a talent show for budding musicians in Bandra. "Felix would then produce and put together shows where the best of the lot could showcase their skills," shared David Vaz, who runs a group called MusicKonnect and was associated with the club. Vaz added that Flor also produced sold-out shows for organisations like Kripa Foundation, apart from releasing albums of his own that comprised love songs. He died of a heart attack, Vaz lamented. The man will be missed.

Pushing for local produce

A scene from one of the markets in Darjeeling shared by a user

NGO Zero Waste Himalaya has launched a unique digital platform that shines the spotlight on the produce of local markets, to promote diverse food cultures and help people make sustainable and healthy lifestyle choices. Through Google Maps, they are building a repository of local markets in mountain regions.

"The idea is to push back on things like junk food and plastics and look at how we can bring local markets to the fore. We started with the idea of mountain regions, but we believe that people all over can participate in this," shared Priya Shrestha, core team member at the NGO.

Championing inclusivity

The PanAcea: Asexuality Asia Conference 2021, a week-long conference that aims to examine, highlight and celebrate asexual identities across Asia, will begin from today. The conference will feature panel discussions, talks, debates and presentations that highlight topics like desexualising nudity, queer and socio-cultural identities, disability and asexuality, and more. "We, from the Revival Disability Community, will be talking about navigating the world as asexual and disabled individuals, lived experiences of queer people, rejection of the asexual community from the larger queer community and how to create a disability affirmative queer space through our initiative," shared Anusha Misra (in pic), founder of the Revival Disability Community and one of the speakers at the event.

Films with purpose

Stills from Feathers

The Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) is all set to be held from November 4 to 10. This year's edition, unlike the previous versions, will be held online.

Laila Aur Satt Geet

"This is the 10th anniversary of DIFF, and a landmark edition for us. The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed the landscape for film festivals across the world - the online festival was something we did not predict going into 2020, but the pandemic forced us to adapt quite rapidly," said Ritu Sarin, one of the festival directors.

This one's a real lit list

The shortlist for this year's edition of the Gaja Capital Book Prize, a prize honouring the best non-fiction literature on contemporary Indian business, has been announced. Five titles have made the cut - Azim Premji: The Man Beyond the Billions by Sundeep Khanna and Varun Sood, Getting Competitive: A Practitioner's Guide for India by RC Bhargava; Indian Icon: A Cult called Royal Enfield by Amrit Raj; Overdraft: Saving the Indian Saver by Urjit Patel; and Yes Man: The Untold Story of Rana Kapoor by Pavan C. Lall. "This is an enormous honour. This prize has emerged as a powerful platform to promote stories of Indian businesses and entrepreneurship and share them with the world. This shortlist is a bout of encouragement for me to continue writing, and in that process document untold stories of great Indian brands and those who build them," Raj (inset) told this diarist.