The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Nimesh Dave
Travelling back in time
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Two men lounge on a vintage car atop a van on the Western Express Highway in Vile Parle.
Technology for inclusivity
A moment from a previous session of the assistive technology exhibition
The Xavier’s Research Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) is organising an assistive technology awareness exhibition on December 3, in recognition of International Day of Persons with Disabilities. The session will explore how the latest assistive technologies can help in creating a more inclusive environment for people with disabilities. “We have conducted this exhibition in cities across India. The idea of the exhibition is to showcase a whole range of assistive technologies that can help people with disabilities in leading a more fulfilling life. For people who are visually challenged, we have tools that can help them work efficiently with technology, especially phones and computers. There are also exhibits that explain how banking and financial services can be made more inclusive for people with disabilities,” Dr Sam Taraporevala, the executive director of XRCVC told this diarist.
Dr Sam Taraporevala
Ed Sheeran returns to India
Ed Sheeran performs during his Mumbai concert in March this year. Pic Courtesy/Instagram; Abhijit Jejurikar with Sheeran
There is no denying that concert season is finally upon us, and as the city prepares to welcome an impressive line-up of artists scheduled to perform in the upcoming months, English pop-star Ed Sheeran is the newest artist to join the queue. Keeping the promise from his last act in Mumbai earlier this year, Sheeran is returning with a line-up that will open in Pune with performances scheduled in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Shillong and Delhi. We caught up with Abhijeet Jejurikar, the founder of Dharavi Reloaded, to take a trip back in time when he performed with Sheeran in March 2024. “It is great news that he is returning. I just got to know about it and I am already so excited,” Jejurikar told this diarist. Sheeran’s previous tour saw him collaborating with Jejurikar’s band where a group of kids from Dharavi perform junk percussion. “He is very rooted and connected with music communities. Meeting and performing with Ed was like a dream come true. I was a backstage artiste in Ed’s 2015 India concert when I had expressed the wish to collaborate with him one day and it all came true last year. We had a lot of fun performing with him. We would love to collaborate with him again,” Jejurikar told this diarist before signing off.
A century’s worth of histories
A lithograph of Watson’s Hotel building, from the collection
How did a city-scape that evolves with every passing moment look a 100 years ago? The answer lies in the lithographs from the Bombay 100 Years Ago collection on display at the Nehru Centre till December 1, as part of the ongoing Kalaa Spandan exhibition. Among the collection are lithographs of St Thomas Cathedral — once the tallest structure in the Fort precinct — built in memory of Jonathan Duncan who took over as the Governor of Bombay in 1795, and the famous Watson Hotel (today’s Esplanade Mansion) erected in the late 1800s in Kala Ghoda. “This is the first time we are releasing these creations that have been carefully printed on archival paper,” shared Kamlesh Shah, managing director of Magnate Publishing. While the original lithographs that date back to 1833 are housed by various museums across the United Kingdom, these rare reprints by the publishing house might be an exciting time capsule for those with a penchant for everything vintage and everything original.
Tabling desire
A still from Jyoti Dogra’s performance
Artist Jyoti Dogra’s upcoming performance, Mezok, reflects her journey of trusting the theatrical rigour. “Mezok is a devised piece with a 6x4 table. I knew I wanted
to work with a table, but we began without any pre-conceived notions about the form or the subject,” she explains. Developed as part of the G5A artist in residence programme, the work also features artistes speaking Kannada, Hindi, Ladakhi, Garhwali, Sirmauri and English she said. The table’s physicality stabilises the abstract idea of desire and its nature at the heart of the performance, the theatre maker pointed out. “The title ‘Mezok’ is the name of a fictional mountain, inspired by the Hindi word for table, ‘Mez’,” she added. The show runs from December 5-8 at G5A. For more details, log on to g5afoundation.org.
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