Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Sameer Markande

Saathi haath badhaana

Not that we condone track-crossing in the least, but the sight of the young man helping a senior citizen up on the platform still warmed our heart

From a son, to a father with love

Mumbai-based singer-songwriter Tejas has served up a different side of his artistic personality in his latest EP, Museum. Inspired by stories like The Lion King and Hamlet, and his own complex relationship with his father - who passed away in 2021 - Museum is an exploration into Tejas' past to better understand his present, and is a deeply personal introspective look on loss and redemption. "Museum has been an attempt at not just a reconciliation with the memory of my father, but also the exploration into my identity on a more literal level… Who I am as an Indian, as an immigrant, and to study my own history," Tejas told this diarist.

You can't be serious, Rohit

Rohit Sharma during the Asia Cup in September 2023. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

We watched a recent podcast interview in which India captain Rohit Sharma chatted with his former Deccan Chargers captain Adam Gilchrist, the Australian great and 2005 Ashes-winning England captain Michael Vaughan, who now is a leading commentator. Rohit given a good platform to debunk a recent newspaper report of himself, head coach Rahul Dravid and chief selector Ajit Agarkar meeting in Mumbai to discuss the composition of India's squad for June's T20 World Cup in the West Indies and America. A laughing Rohit denied the story by saying, "in today's day and age unless you hear it from either myself or Rahul himself or Ajit himself or someone from BCCI coming and talking in front of the camera, everything is fake." That amused Messrs Gilchrist and Vaughan. Wonder if Rohit realises that the BCCI sends out press releases and even tweets about certain decisions, so does he deem all that information fake too, since there is no camera involved in those activities? Without getting into whether the published story is true (just like all stories may not true, all denials don't end up being legitimate), the captain of India has probably played down the wrong line here.

Green goals and polls

Walk the voting talk, as this poster says

It is green goals for gardens and plots across the city, as these spaces become part of the election fever. Recreation Grounds and Play Grounds will now sport election awareness standees, as the clock starts ticking for Mumbai's May 20 voting date. "We have nearly 11,000 plots and the BMC Election Department has given us 1,500 posters. We have started placing them across to educate people about the polling process. We have a ready audience in the form of the city's early morning and evening walkers, and all the others who frequent these places, even if just for a bit of fresh air," Jitendra Pardeshi Superintendent of Gardens tell us. The initiative falls under the Systematic Voter's Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) initiative umbrella. Now, there is one more exercise in these grounds, besides your regular cardio dose - exercising your right to vote.

Bandra, in solidarity

This diarist has always defended Bandra against those who called it bougie - and for good reason. Over the last few weeks, graffiti in support of war-struck Palestine has appeared on Carter Road's walls. Calling for a ceasefire and freedom, this graffiti has stopped social media users in their tracks. Poetry by Gazans like Mosab Abu Toha has also appeared on promenades, with moving verses, like "Don't ever be surprised/to see a rose shoulder up/among the ruins of the house /This is how we survived."