Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Pic/Ashish Raje

Divine heights

Sculptures resembling those from the bas relief at Persepolis' Apadana Palace dating to the Archaemenid empire, watched over by the winged Farohar, on a building's facade in Lalbaug lend an air of antiquity to this otherwise gentrified cityscape.

Reimagine the wheel on Elephanta

An artist paints on a wheelbarrow (right) Jasmeet Kaur

Elephanta Island's newest attraction comes courtesy of seven young artists from the city. Armed with paintbrushes, the team from 3Art House, Khar, transformed wheelbarrows into vibrant displays of environment-themed art over the last weekend. The wheelbarrows will be used by city-based NGO Ek Saath Foundation at an upcoming clean-up drive on the island. "Since we were short on time, we sent our young artists, many of them students, to get the job done," shared (inset) Jasmeet Kaur, founder, 3 Art House. Pari Mhatre, one of the artists, revealed to us, "We took inspiration from the Madhubani style for the motifs and blended it with truck art style. Working in Mumbai's unforgiving heat over the weekend was a challenge, but we're proud of how it came out." The handcarts will be displayed at Elephanta Island as a reminder to locals and tourists to keep it clean.

By women, for women

Annika Agarwal and Meher Kaur

Following Menstrual Hygiene Day on May 28, researchers and Fulbright Scholars Annika Agarwal and Meher Kaur will present an open-for-all multimedia exhibit titled Navigating Menstruation, Sex, and Womanhood: Stories from Five Slums in Mumbai, at G5A today. Agarwal, who hails from New Jersey, has worked on a short film, which has been directed and shot by the girls and the women of the slums. Kaur, who was born and raised in Maryland, will present her research as a photo installation.

A still from the participant-shot short film shows the slums of Dharavi

"I was keen to find out how menstruation sanitation works for the women in the slums. A statistic showed that nearly 100 women use the same community toilet daily," shared Agarwal, who after training women from the slums of Dharavi, Kandivali and Kalwa, handed them cameras for a week to record their own experiences. Kaur, on the other hand, worked in and around Khar East and Govandi. "My research was based on finding a solution to making mobile [phone] health apps more accessible to women. It will be presented as an installation with anecdotes and photographs," she told this diarist. While Kaur invited 16 women to participate, Agarwal's film was made by 25 of them; four of whom will be present today between 6 pm and 8 pm at the Mahalaxmi venue to share their experience.

Parkour with Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar with Rishi Prasad. Pic Courtesy/Youtube

Best known for performing his own stunts, Akshay Kumar joined parkour coach and co-founder of Mumbai Movement Academy, Dr Rishi Prasad (inset) in his recent roof-jumping adventure. "It was for an advertisement that was recently released," Prasad revealed. In the video, Prasad steals a woman's necklace, and the hero of the hour, Kumar, chases him from one roof to another.

"I often take up projects where they require someone trained in parkour. The most popular one was with Hrithik Roshan for Vikram Vedha," Prasad told this diarist, adding that this time, they were looking for someone who could fit the role of the Joker. "There is a small community of people who practise parkour in Mumbai. And from us, they felt that I fit the role well," he revealed, adding that Akshay Kumar lives up to his name of performing most of his stunts, "He is also extremely involved with the script; he will suggest changes, and try to make scenes humorous in his own way."

Croaking good news

After discontinuing print editions of the crowd-funded Sanctuary Asia magazine, editor Bittu Sahgal announced on World Environment Day that they will now resume printing. "We kept publishing the magazine in its print avatar without missing a single issue, but during the pandemic we were only able to circulate it digitally. I was heartbroken not to be able to reach print copies to our loyal subscribers. I am feeling overjoyed today," he told this diarist.

Schneider's dwarf toad is featured on the cover. Pic Courtesy/Seshadri KS

The June edition features a cover story on amphibians that have begun heralding the arrival of the monsoon, among others revolving around wildlife and environment in India and abroad. Existing subscribers can write to subscriptions@sanctuaryasia.com to get a print version.