Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Pic/Sameer Markande

Winging it
A senior citizen goes about his day outside CBD Belapur station.

Making a splash

When Goa Sunsplash debuted five years ago, it gave reggae fans in India a festival where they could soak in a genre that is still largely ignored in the country's independent music circuit. It's back again today and tomorrow, but in a digital avatar for this edition. The line-up includes Jamaican veteran Clinton Fearon, British-Indian star Apache Indian and local boys Reggae Rajahs (in pic). Zorawar Shukla, one of the organisers who is also part of Reggae Rajahs, shared that it's been a challenge to adapt to the digital format. "But our festival has a tight-knit community, who really rallied around us. We got so many mails and messages from people telling us that they were sad that it won't take place this year that we realised how much joy music brings to people. It's literally for them that we are making it happen," Shukla said.

Gaadi bula rahi hai

An edition of the rally in pre-lockdown times. Pic Courtesy/VCCCI on Facebook

Several city events were held virtually or shelved because of the pandemic. The Mumbai marathon that usually takes place on a Sunday in the third week of January, is on hold. Yet, if our roads cannot have heels, they will have wheels. The Vintage and Classic Car Club of India (VCCCI) will hold its annual car rally on Republic Day. The classy cars will head to Thane and back, in what is dubbed as the Republic Safety Drive. The key word here is safety - with all distancing protocols maintained. We must remember now though that drivers do not have to wear masks in their private vehicles, vintage cars included. Also remember that many of these cars do not have hoods, so open-air driving is certainly safer for all occupants rather than in the confines of the vehicle. Many of these classics have been bought from royal families by our passionate vintage collectors. Watch them roll past with grace and style on January 26, giving us some-thing to smile about after a painful time. With the present tense and the future a little uncertain, a whiff of the past is more than welcome.

Sail again with Sinbad

Growing up, Gurugram-based author Kevin Missal had always been a fan of the Percy Jackson series and fascinated by the story of Sinbad, the sailor, too. And driven by this childhood fascination, Missal has re-imagined the story of the sailor as a novel, Sinbad and the Trumpet of Israfil (Penguin), which hits the shelves on January 25. "I wanted to do a different spin on this character. So, this book is like a love-child of Percy Jackson and an age-old fable. I worked on the book for about three years," he said, adding that at the heart of it, the book is a love story. "It takes you through how Sinbad overcomes obstacles, and underlines the spirit of not giving up."

A museum of our own

"When we look at our heritage, we find that there are so many gaps which can be filled with untold stories if you look at it from the lens of gender. Womxn [an inclusive word that refers to anyone who identifies as woman] and gender minority groups have carried their heritage forward in intangible ways," shared Mallika Dabke (in pic), an art professional, who, along with Charulatha Dasappa and Aakriti Chandervanshi, is exploring these narratives by curating an online repository called Museum of Memories. For the project, that's being steered by Bengaluru-based arts organisation Sandbox Collective and is aided by a British Council grant, the curators encouraged people who identify as womxn or queer in the age group of 18 to 25 to find stories through recordings, heirlooms, photos, art or writings inspired by the history of their families/communities. "We got some interesting contributions and are curating them. We plan to set it up as a website in March," Dabke added. We'll be waiting.

Women on top

Despite how 2020 panned out, a report by Spark.Live, which is a multilingual live online services marketplace, has found that women professionals "led from the front during the pandemic". The survey, based on two lakh sessions on the platform from March to December 2020, indicated that over one lakh women signed up for some online class or the other to upgrade their skills to bring home extra income, or manage their well-being. It also revealed that over 20,000 young and middle-aged women from Tamil Nadu learnt skills such as sewing, stitching, and embroidery to support their homes. The report stated that women took control of their health, too, as over 60,000 from middle-income families attended lifestyle classes. We like.