Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Pic/Sameer Markande

Just hanging out with the big cats

A man appears to be in conversation with an installation of tigers near Hindmata Cinema in Dadar.

Top of the Kop with Klopp

(From left) Rahul Subramaniam, Jurgen Klopp and Kumar Varun

City stand-up comics Kumar Varun and Rahul Subramaniam might never walk alone again. The duo fulfilled a lifelong dream of watching their favourite team, Liverpool, live at last weekend's game against Brighton. "I have been a fan since 2002 when I saw Michael Owen score at the FIFA World Cup. To watch [Mohammed] Salah score at the Kop End, and sing ‘You'll never walk alone' along with thousands of fans in the stadium is a dream," Varun shared. The actor-writer noted that he had earlier travelled to Liverpool in 2021. "Unfortunately, it was the same week when Queen Elizabeth passed away, and all matches were cancelled. Perhaps, I was destined to watch it with Rahul," he told this diarist over a phone call. The duo was particularly motivated by the fact that manager and coach, Jurgen Klopp was set to leave the club at the end of the season. "At the end of the game, we managed to meet him. He was kind, and gave me the famous Klopp hug, and signed my jersey. I am getting that framed once I return," he gushed.

Let's make it count

A volunteer marks trees at a previous initiative at IIT Bombay

If trees could speak, what would they tell us? A whole lot about the conditions of our forests, according to city-based green organisation Greenline Mumbai. A month-long tree mapping initiative by the organisation is aiming to record data about the species of trees at the North Division of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. "We have enough data about the fauna in the forest. But trees can be excellent markers of underlying concerns and the overall health of the region," Aniket Desai, a team member shared.

Weaving East Indian traditions

A vintage lugra

Textile researcher Savitha Suri, who is on a mission to build a textile map of the country, has found yet another piece to the puzzle. Suri presented the findings from her research titled Traditional Textiles of the East Indian (EI) Christians of Bombay earlier this week at the Asiatic Society Mumbai. "I had previously studied the textile traditions of North Karnataka and Goa.

Women in traditional EI attire

The study of EI traditions brought it all together," she shared, adding that the research progressed in three phases starting with studying the history of Christianity in the community. While the second phase involved studying the textiles to understand their utility in the community's way of life, Suri concluded the study by exploring the challenges in the way of reviving these traditions.

"Unfortunately, the study highlighted that not only are the markets for these textiles shrinking, but they are also slowly disappearing within their culture with modernisation," she revealed.

E-biking in Byculla

Participants at a previous e-bike ride

No Footprints, a city-based travel community is leaving city folk short of excuses to not step out this summer. An upcoming ride organised by the team will witness participants gliding and zooming past heritage sites like Mukta Cinema, Gloria Church, Masina Hospital, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum and Matharpacady on mini e-bikes called yulus.

Gloria Church

"We began with bicycle tours, but noticed that the e-bikes were a win-win for everyone involved. They align with our goals of sustainability, and because you need no special training to ride one, they're a great pick for participants too," Disha Shah (inset), an organising team member, shared.

A city that paints together

It's easy to lose sight of the privileges that come with living in the Maximum City. For us, the latest reminder came from Noel Murmu (inset), a Kolkata-based graffiti and tattoo artist who is in Mumbai for an artistic excursion.

A wall in Marol sports a tag and a caricature painted by Murmu and SMACK

The artist, who collaborated with SMACK, one of Mumbai's first graffiti artists yesterday, shared his excitement about finding multiple hubs for graffiti around the city with this diarist. "Mumbai is a graffiti artist's heaven. I was surprised to see graffiti lining the walls in every corner of the city," Murmu shared, adding, "I realised that the people of a city play a huge part in that. Mumbai is welcoming to street artists and they view us as decorators of the city's walls."

What truly makes the city special, in his view, is the sense of community among graffiti artists. "I noticed how members, both experts and novices, come together often to work on walls here. There is no segregation within the groups which is great for a relatively newer art form like ours to flourish," he told this diarist.