The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
ADVERTISEMENT
Didi mat kaho na!
Legendary singer sisters Asha Bhonsle and Lata Mangeshkar at an award ceremony at the latter's residence, Prabhu Kunj, at Peddar Road on Saturday. Pic/Bipin Kokate
Manu Chandra
When the top chef met a cockroach
This diarist was recently at BKC's Toast and Tonic for a seafood special meal organised by chef Manu Chandra. While chatting over gin cocktails and smoked oyster salad, a guest casually asked the chef about his favourite restaurant, and much to our surprise, he had none. That's because, he never eats out! "I never eat at restaurants, but I do order in a lot," he said. Recently, though, Chandra was in for a nasty surprise when he found two roaches in his order. But it is far from putting him off ordering. "It was a one-off," he smiled.
(Left to right) Arul Singh, Ashwin Shah, Keshav Mohta, Anav Agarwal, Rivaan Vaghani
The fantastic four ring masters
A team of school children from Mumbai has bagged the highest honour at VEX IQ, which is touted as the world's biggest robotics competition according to the Guinness Book of World Records. The team that includes members from various schools comprises of Anav Agarwal, Arul Singh, Keshav Mohta and Rivaan Vaghani, all Std VI students, except Agarwal, who is in Std VII. The boys as part of Team Yantraman won the Best Build award, leaving behind participants from 3,200 countries including USA, Japan, Korea, China and Australia. This year's challenge, Ring Master required the robots to take rings and stack them according to their colours. Ashwin Shah, who mentored the team, said, "The journey was exceptional. Each child was so engrossed, right from building ti coding; they were an inspiration to me. The team divided their roles and prepared the project in five days, working 12 hours daily. They built a robot that could grab rings from a five centimeter height and place them uniformly on 15-inch high poles."
Divya Unny. Pic/Sejal Purohit
Of a little girl's first time
Journalist and actor Divya Unny, who you may have seen in movies like Aligarh and Traffic, has come out with her first short, Her First Time. "I was shooting last year for a movie, and was chatting with a fellow actress. She was telling me about how her daughter got her period when she was in Germany for work, and I could see the emotion in her eyes," Unny tells us. She sees her eight-minute short as important for two reasons — one to address the guilt that working mothers feel when they miss incidents in their kids' lives, and secondly, to try and dismiss the taboo attached to menstruation. Unny is also over the roof about the reactions that have come her way. "Juhi Chaturvedi [writer of October] messaged me today saying she cried when she saw the movie, since she too has a young daughter!". The actor is now working on her second movie, Dancing Queen, which is about a young girl who is passionate about dancing, but is married off too early.
Mike Gatting and Graham Dilley
Landmark Test, but not for Gatt and Dilley
While Ireland's inaugural Test match being held in Malahide against Pakistan is causing excitement among cricket fans, the match is more engrossing for both opponents, and that includes the reserve players.
However, it was not so important to be at the ground for England reserves Mike Gatting and the late Graham Dilley when England gave Sri Lanka their first taste of Test cricket way back in February 1982. Both players were not in captain Keith Fletcher's playing XI at the P Sara Oval and sought permission from the England team management to spend some time with their wives.
The team bosses which included manager Raman Subba Row agreed, and so, Elaine Gatting and Helen Dilley accompanied their husbands to the beach often during that Test. Dilley said the break was the best thing to happen to him. Being away from the pressure cooker situation worked and when he bowled next, he was far better than he was on the 1981-82 tour of India which preceded the Lankan leg of his journey. A break is always good. A break spent on the beach seems even better.
Sanjay Dutt
Dutt to bare it all
Barely two months after Sanjay Dutt cried foul over an unauthorised biography on him by Yasser Usman, Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood's Bad Boy (Juggernaut), the actor appears to have taken matters in his own hands. Upset over the "hearsay" material in Usman's book, sources told this diarist that Dutt has begun work on his "authentic" autobiography, and that bidding for the book has already begun among leading publishers. While we aren't certain of who has been roped in to help Dutt pen the chapters from his tumultuous past, the actor seems to be leaving no stone unturned to tell his story and well. After the upcoming biopic, and the soon-to-be published book, will there be anything else left for Dutt to say? We'll have to wait and watch.
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates