Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Pic/Aditi Haralkar

Everything is better with a DOG

A child and her canine companion enjoy the evening at Bandra's bandstand.

Is Russell mania coming soon?

Andre Russell, the strapping Jamaican all-rounder, has been more than just a useful player for the Kolkata Knight Riders. He can dismiss well-set batsmen and be a destroyer of the best of bowling attacks. Save the 2012 and 2013 seasons (in which he represented Delhi Daredevils), Russell, 36, has always been a Knight Rider. He is in the West Indies squad for next month's T20 World Cup to be held in the West Indies and America. And while this is no sweet music to the ears of the two-time champions' opponents, his T20I record is not very impressive. In 75 games under the maroon West Indies cap, Russell has scored 955 runs at 21.70 although his strike-rate is good at 163.53. With the ball, he is one short of hitting the 50-wicket mark. Clearly, Russell is not as devastating on the international scene as he is in the IPL. Here's his chance to be the player he ought to be for his region. And if West Indies are going to claim their third T20 silverware then Russell must be in thick of things. Doubtless, the players who have been picked to be part of their country's squad in the West Indies and America will be watching him closely.

Creating a level-playing field

Balram Vishwakarma, aka the man behind Andheri West Shit Posting, writes scripts as his day job. And so, Vishwakarma and his friends Rohan K Mehta and Varun Kumar, have started an initiative called Versova Homage Screenings (VHS). On Saturday, VHS screened the movie Pine Cone with director Onir at the Star Preview Theatre. "We found that many people from the industry don't have a platform for networking. Most struggling artistes cannot afford Soho House membership to benefit from networking there," says Vishwakarma. "Which is why Rohan, Varun and I organise these screenings with directors and allow people to come, free of cost. We usually have 40 people who are connected to the industry, and 10 complete outsiders," he signs off.

Piano tunes from a child's heart

These tiny tots will win your heart. The students of Shivani Patel Vissanji and Vivek Patel's 88 The Piano Academy in Haji Ali are performing a musical called - Through the Ages - today at G5A. The play will showcase various styles of music from the 60s to the 2000s, with a script that deals with children talking to their teachers, and grandmothers, across time and generations. "Children have either no or very limited opportunities to showcase their talents in this part of the world. We have been doing regular concerts every year but this one is special as it incorporates acting, singing, and playing instruments all in one," Shivani Patel told this diarist. The past few months have been a flurry of excitement at the school. "During the prep, the kids were so excited about balancing their music with acting and singing that they kept running around from one jam room to another. To see the excitement was the best part." Best of luck!

What would Mumbai say about itself?

A photograph from the book, which features different kinds of couples, including a pair of crows. Pic/CY Gopinath

Author and mid-day columnist CY Gopinath is busy working on a new book tentatively titled Bombai: The Many Lives of a Megapolis. He calls it a "defining urban biography" of Mumbai, combining his own experiences and insights with interviews and stories of Mumbaikars from different walks of life, woven in with history and an envisioned future. "The city is a giant, empty canvas that I will flesh out in the next 12 months.

CY Gopinath

Of course, the book's themes come from personal threads and memories from my 25 years here - it's chaotic body; its endlessly innovative mind; its soul, where crime, compassion and collaboration walk together; and its resilient spirit that always rises above its own mess to reach for something more luminous. But it's not a lookback or an ode to the past. It's a journalistic exploration. I hope to literally rediscover the city I grew up in." If all of his interviews and explorations go as planned, the book (being published by Aleph) should be out in bookshops by April next year.
If any Mumbaikars want to share their Mumbai stories with the author, please mail
bombaistories@gmail.com.