The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
Pic/Ashish Raje
Sharpen my skills
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The Marathi text on this boy’s T-shirt that translates to ‘Ask me about anything but studies’ is a cheeky contrast to the mood as he prepares to attempt the SSC Board examinations at Saraswati Mandir High School in Mahim.
Rajasthani folk tunes in Mumbai
The group during a folk performance at Silvassa in 2024
Bringing the folk music of Rajasthan’s Merasi community to Mumbai, Gay Gaze Bombay and Hava, a rooftop space of community activities are hosting a special performance by the group, Sand Dune Symphony today. Known as the ‘keepers of secrets’, the community is known for their folkloric storytelling and traditional singing style. Visiting the city for the seventh time, the group will perform Rajasthani folk songs, popular Bollywood tracks, Sufi tunes and an instrumental jugalbandi for Mumbai’s eclectic music aficionados. “The community has almost 400 years of legacy in the music culture of Rajasthan, and they usually remain clustered in small villages with very little exposure to the outer world. Throughout the course of time, they have battled with urbanisation and digitisation. We wanted to create a bridge between the singers and today’s audience,” Hanover Wadia (inset), head of Barefoot Explorers, the group’s managing company, told this diarist. The performance will be followed by a film screening as well. “Through this event we wanted to bring together communities and nothing better than music to bind people,” Winnie Chopra, co-founder of Gay Gaze Bombay, added.
Hanover Wadia
Husain’s happy homecoming
MF Husain, Birth of Buddha, acrylic on canvas, 1992. Pic Courtesy/DAG; Late MF Husain. File pic
A master will return to his hometown in March. After a successful showing in New Delhi, DAG will open the retrospective, Husain: The Timeless Modernist, to the city on March 7. Spanning a period of six decades, the exhibition brings together a rare collection from his mythological influences, fascination with horses, works that explore the idea of nationhood, and self-portraits. The exhibition will include Husain’s works beyond the canvas like toys and sculptures, acrylic sheets used as props for his film sets, and a rare edition of photographs taken in Madras (now Chennai). Ashish Anand, CEO and MD of DAG, revealed about the exhibition, “No one chronicled India and the Indian civilisation like Husain did. He breathed deeply of its culture and his paintings penetrated the heart of his subjects with just a few deft strokes. I am honoured at being able to show his legacy in the correct spirit with a display extending across a career that was as long as it was varied. That this retrospective is now being shown in Mumbai, the city he loved and called home — and missed most while in exile — is a homage to the people, ideas and environment that shaped his practice.”
Ashish Anand
Matters of the environment
Late journalist Darryl D’Monte. File pic
The third annual edition of the Darryl D’Monte Lecture today will bring author and historian Ramachandra Guha to the city to discuss a topic that resonates with Mumbaikars — environmentalism. Echoing his recent work, The Three Waves of Indian Environmentalism, Guha will speak on the history of Indian environmentalism at Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh in Fort. The session will trace the history of Indian environmentalism from the time of Rabindranath Tagore and Narmada Bachao Andolan and Chipko Movement, to the global climate crisis. “He [Darryl D’Mento] was closely involved with the environment and the issues related to it, and we thought it would be wonderful for Ramachandra Guha to bring in an overview of the history of the environmental movement in the country,” Zarine D’Monte, wife of the late journalist, shared with this diarist.
New nazaria
Workers set up the interiors of the new space in Shankarwadi, Jogeshwari; (right) Nandini Kochar
To observe World Social Justice Day (February 20), city-based Nazaria Arts Collective is hosting a three-day programme for the launch of Kahaani Lab 3.0, a new community-led space dedicated to multimedia arts education among marginalised communities in Shankarwadi in Jogeshwari. With the launch of the space, the collective has plans to host screenings and an open house discussion for the other two days of the event. “The youth of the community will take complete ownership of this space and they will be provided with the resources to work on their own freelance media projects. The idea is to open up avenues of alternative learning, and to recognise the power of visual storytelling,” Nandini Kochar, co-founder, told this diarist.
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