25 December,2024 07:12 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Atul Kamble
A lady picks flowers from a cart full of Christmas decorations at Crawford Market
Rahul Deshpande performs at the event
The walls of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) echoed with Hindustani classical ragas as Rahul Deshpande performed for a celebratory evening last week.
"The event was a celebratory moment for our Mumbai City Gallery space. While we opened the space in October, it was the time just before Diwali when our artiste friends were unavailable. So, we did not really have a chance to celebrate the occasion. This was an opportunity to remedy it," Joyoti Roy, assistant director, informed this diarist.
Participants collect books for the library building drive
Mumbai Bookies is on a mission to make the world a better place, one book at a time. With their library building drive, the club is aiming to crowd source books and donate them to schools with lesser-privileged children. "We called this campaign Old Books, New Bookies. In Mumbai and Pune, we've collected over 7,500 books in Hindi, Marathi, English, and Gujarati. These books will be donated to schools, ensuring that students gain access to a diverse collection of stories. Our goal is to introduce young minds to the joy of stories and the power of reading," Shantanu Naidu, co-founder, shared with us.
An artwork by Christopher Kulendran Thomas. pic courtesy/experimenter
The Mumbai Gallery Weekend is returning to the city on January 9 with a host of new artworks and exhibits. As part of the exhibition, Exhale, British-Sri Lankan artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas will bring his artworks to the country for the first time at Experimenter in Colaba.
Speaking on the same, the director of the gallery, Prateek Raja (inset) said, "The works on view are rooted in material processes that touch upon a range of Kulendran Thomas' interests, which include re-interpreting modern history of art, retelling of lived and narrated memories and thoughts on identity through a diasporic reference to Sri Lanka's civil war."
Artists create graffiti on the walls of the campus as part of the Street Art Project at Mood Indigo festival
The buzz at the IIT-Bombay campus rose by several levels as the 54th edition of the Mood Indigo festival kicked off yesterday. The 2024 edition will witness the addition of stand-up comedy acts to a lineup that includes artists like Raftaar and Karan Kanchan and Amit Trivedi among others. Director Anubhav Sinha and chef Sanjeev Kapoor as well as standup comics like Harsh Gujral, Biswa Kalyan Rath and Ravi Gupta are among the guest list. For visitors, The Street Art Project might be a key highlight. The featured line-up of artists such as Mandy Schone-Salter (Australia), Muebon (Thailand), Edoardo Ettorre, Alessandro Etsom (Italy), 2flui, Yelow (France), Nitikesh Rajan Patil, Mamta Singh (India), Carolina Adancaro (Spain), Outer Source (NYC), and IGK | Danny (Germany) will revamp the campus walls. "By transforming ordinary spaces into extraordinary canvases, the project enhances the visual appeal of the campus while creating a shared experience that connects artists and audiences," festival media head, Sarthak Kulkarni, told this diarist.
The community crib with LED lights highlight the Nativity scene at Hull Village in Kurla West
There are cribs and Nativity scenes across the city for Christmas. While all exude the season's wishes, its warmth and wonder, some are especially eye-catching. Like the Hull Village, in Kurla West has a community crib with Line Art LED Nativity scene. The dimensions of the figures - Showing the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the three wise men: Melchior, Gaspar and Balthazar, are all stunning as much for the size as for the shine. Perhaps most heartening is local resident Anita Shetty's statement, "Years ago, this was a dumping ground, a convenient rubbish bin. A citizen's movement reclaimed the space, and the garbage disappeared." This then is about spreading festive cheer and joy. Take a bow, the team of Clive D'Mello, Denzil D'Souza, John Sequeira and Christina Saldanha. For all the citizens who reclaimed the space, and those behind this crib, we think a round of applause toh Santa-banta hai.
