Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

A mother-daughter duo in Kandivli's Thakur Complex make good use of their time as they film a dance video

Let's do the quaran-dance

A mother-daughter duo in Kandivli's Thakur Complex make good use of their time as they film a dance video on Thursday. Pic/Satej Shinde

This exhibition is a click away

Nibha Sikander, Purple Rumped Sunbird, 2019

For art lovers who can't wait to step into a gallery, Colaba's TARQ is coming up with an online exhibition next week, aptly titled Resurgence. It features one work each by acclaimed artists Sameer Kulavoor, Apnavi Makanji, Aaditi Joshi, Clare Arni, Nibha Sikander, Parag Tandel, Ronny Sen, Savia Mahajan, and Soghra Khurasan. "What struck the team the most was how the world around us has changed irreversibly, and this pushed us to take a look once again at the practices of the artists that we represent through this new lens. We've made a small selection of just nine works that we feel will resonate with our current situation," gallerist Hena Kapadia, told this diarist. The works will be available through an online viewing room on TARQ's website, starting at 11 am on Tuesday, April 21.

Making the most of work from home

A 24x7 delivery platform put out a graphic on social media stating what people are ordering from pharmacies in cities across the country. While hand wash was the most ordered item in Jaipur and Chennai, the people of Hyderabad were busy ordering the i-Pill while Banglaoreans and Punekars called for pregnancy kits. And what about Mumbaikars? They chose condoms. We'll give a thumbs up to the Twitter user who, in the comments, reckons that WFH is making everyone productive.

Let the music play this week

Indian Music Experience, the country's first interactive music museum, is taking a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling the lockdown. They are starting online session where members from Bengaluru's Kathalaya's International Academy of Storytelling will narrate tales via the Zoom app for participants, using a fair bit of action and music to add to the entertainment. This follows a sound spa that the museum hosted online, and director Manasi Prasad tells us, "Having a continuous engagement with our audience gives them something to look forward to with all the dire news around. The idea is to have one engagement every week [across different art forms]." But given the museum's expertise, every session will include an element of music, of course.

Stay home, it's Friday

As India hurtles into an extended lockdown, bright minds across the city are thinking of innovative ideas to bring the party home to stay-in Mumbaikars who are missing their weekend night-crawls. Latest on the block is Bandra hangout, Bonobo that will launch their debut edition of The Hometurf Gathering. It will feature Rafiki, the solo project of Sohail Arora (Founder of KRUNK) who will be belting out the best in cutting-edge techno, house, acid and breaks from across the globe. Speaking about the idea, Nevil Timbadia, partner at Bonobo, told this diarist, "We have a lot of regulars at Bonobo, so when we met Noesis Tech who could get the back-end working, we threw a trial online party with a couple of regulars and friends last week, and it went really well, So, we decided to bring it to a bigger audience. The sessions will have live DJs, challenges and familiar faces from Bonobo." To join the online party, you need a live streaming music device and another for the gathering with the Zoom app on it.

Ranjit, you will be missed

When the news of actor Ranjit Chowdhry's passing reached, theatre person Quasar Thakore Padamsee and writer-actor Kunal Vijayakar, took to social media to express their grief. Padamsee's post recounted their time together. It read, "As a child, he was my 'big bro', who was in films, worked on Malgudi Days, and acted in theatre. When I was a teenager, he showed me the magical Big Apple from the top of the Empire State Building."

Vijayakar spoke of a rekindled connection and told this diarist, "We've known each other forever. His mother Pearl [Padamsee] would teach us acting; Ranjit was much older than me. By the time I began theatre, he was far away in New York. This January he was in the city for dental treatment, and it was while he was staying with Raell Padamsee that we reconnected," recalls Vijayakar. "I remember him for his unique sense of humour," he added.

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