Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Pic/Kirti Surve Parade

Mid-air manoeuvre

A helicopter adds a different perspective to the maze of high-rises in Mahalaxmi.

Aromatic flavours from Manipur

Hem at the stall in Bandra

Starting your own food enterprise is a challenge, let alone doing it in a city like Mumbai. For non-binary
entrepreneur Hem, founder of Hem's Kitchen, it is the only way of reclaiming their place in society. Having grown up in Imphal, the home chef brought their own collection of delights from rice bento to tauh (Burmese salad), wai wai singju and mohingya dry noodles to Tinder's Queer Made Weekend in Bandra last weekend. "When I say I represent Manipuri cuisine, it is not limited to one community. For the event, I curated a menu that reminds me of my hometown and Imphal," they shared. Growing up as a queer person, the art of cooking was an escape. "I wouldn't fit in with the boys or the girls either. I would sit with the elders, and that's how I found myself. Cooking became my hobby and my solace. I didn't care about the gender binary system that said only girls should cook. It was my way of reclaiming a space," they told this diarist.

Marine life meets hip-hop

Green button polyps; (right) Sahir Doshi

Ocean month in Mumbai, the sea is in your kundali; every day we meet a new samudra sundari," raps conservation-educator Sahir Doshi in his new series, where every day till June 30, he will introduce one of Mumbai's over 600 marine species using hip-hop. "Mumbaikars grow up with a strong relation with the ocean. As June is celebrated as Ocean Month, I thought of introducing the diverse marine species in the intertidal zone by rapping," the former wildlife policy-maker told us. "I have always been engaged with nature. But I found my calling in marine life," he said. The raps are in English, Marathi and Hindi. "After all, this language-mix is spoken by the city," he shares. The species he has covered include arrow worms, hydroids, green button polyps and cowries, among others. "There are so many species in Mumbai that have not been scientifically identified. There are others too that once you learn about, will blow your mind. Take green button polyps, for instance. These are corals that are believed to have anti-viral properties against dengue, and could become a potential cure in the future. We keep looking for cures everywhere for diseases, but may end up destroying the ones readily available in nature. These small facts help people connect with nature. And I turn them into simple raps for resonance," he reasons. Head to @sahirdoshi to view the series.

Cameras for a cause

Black panther at Pench Tiger Reserve. Pic Courtesy/Neeraj Gade; (right) Rajnish Kumar Singh

Madhya Pradesh's Pench Tiger Reserve has put out a nation-wide call to donate old digital cameras for conservation. "Tourists visit the park from across the world. But they have limited access to the park. It is not possible to depend on them for documentation for conservation. Whenever they spot a lesser-known species in the park, it becomes a big deal. But locals have known about the existence of these species their whole life," shared deputy director Rajnish Kumar Singh. While the park has installed many camera traps, he says that they come with their own limitations. "Eight hundred staffers reside inside the park. We have trained them in photography but are unable to give cameras to each of them due to budget issues. Hence, if you have old, operational cameras that are not being used, send them to us to help these locals use them for conservation purposes," he explained. Drop a message on 9922951184 for more details.

Shake to reveal, Mumbai edition

A still from the video features the BMC headquarters; (right) Omkar Korade

As people across the world use Instagram's new feature of shake (phone) to reveal photo, Dombivli's 28-year-old filmmaker and digital creator Omkar Korade (@omkarkorade) decided to give it a Mumbai twist. In his latest video, if you shake your phone, parts of Mumbai's heritage buildings will detach to shake with the screen. The video features the BMC building, RBI building in Fort, an installation near Churchgate Station and some pigeons near the Gateway of India. "Instagram has been flooded with stories using this feature since the past two weeks. So, I decided to reimagine this feature in reality," he said. The creator recently also went viral for his series Mumbai in Motion; one of these videos crossed 5.6m views.

Lil DJ's solo act

(Centre) DJlil Aarohi with (first from right) Nikhil Chinapa

At a recent gig at Bombay Exhibition Centre in Goregaon, eight-year-old DJlil Aarohi gathered crowds as she took to the turntable. The highlight for the Guinness World Record Holder, however, was to be able to jam with other established DJs like Nikhil Chinapa, Clement Dsouza and DJ Kan-i. "I had fun playing with them. We all performed solo, and then I joined in with them as well. It was a memorable jamming session," she told this diarist.