Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Pic/Ashish Raje

Two of a kind

With the vaccine yet to arrive, a variety of masks continue to flood the markets.

Artful solidarity

Abandoned Farmlands at Bandra Steps by Vikram Arora

It's ironic that while we've all turned to food for comfort throughout this tumultuous year, the people who put produce on our tables are fighting for survival across India. City-based artist Vikram Arora has mirrored the way the farmers have been left abandoned in their fight through an interesting artwork at the Bandra Steps. "I feel art should reflect what's going on around us. I know it doesn't change anything overnight, but after a while, say you are at the spot and see Abandoned Farmlands [the artwork], you correlate it to the agitation," he said, adding it gets people talking at a time when the society doesn't seem bothered by it.

Chronicles of an Ambedkarite family

Paikabai Khobragade was possibly the first Dalit woman entrepreneur in Vidarbha, and in Maharashtra, who, after her husband's death took over his fruit business and expanded it, while her son, Dewajibapu Khobragade, was one of the most trusted aides of Dr BR Ambedkar and a champion of his principles. The story of the Khobragades (in pic), who helped further the movement, has now been documented by writer and Dewajibapu's great grandson Dipankar Kamble, in Dewaji: Making of an Ambedkarite Family (Panther's Paw Publication). Founder Yogesh Maitreya shared, "Paikabai felt that only economic independence can break the shackles of oppression for oppressed castes, [while] Dewajibapu became an established politician and businessman, and stood by Dr Ambedkar always."

A plated cause

Monochromatic doodles replicated on handcrafted marble inlay plates

Last year, architect and designer Rooshad Shroff launched the Gyaan Project with Citta Foundation, to facilitate the construction of the Rajkumari Ratnavati School, a girls' school in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. "While we raised enough money to keep the school running until December, we wanted to create a platform for a steady source of funds for the school. We also wanted to involve craftsmen," Shroff told this diarist. This prompted him to incept the Doodle For Education initiative, through which parents can have their children's drawings translated on marble inlay plates. The profits from the sale of one plate can help sustain the education of one girl for a whole year. Give it a shot.

20/20 vision

For humans, access to the natural world has been harder than it has ever been in the recent past. But #My2020moment, an initiative by Nature inFocus, a platform for all things nature, is encouraging folks to share their best wildlife moment this year via a photograph, video, audio or a story. All you have to do is upload it on Twitter and tag them. "Submissions could be anything - from a bee that entered their house to a safari they went on after restrictions eased," Radha Rangarajan, its editor-in-chief, said.

There's good news for artistes

To mark 25 years of grant-making as well as 25 years of the Internet in the country, the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) had announced a call for proposals. The initiative, 25x25, got 129 proposals, from which 25 grants of R25,000 each were awarded. Menaka Rodriguez, head-resource mobilisation and outreach, told this diarist that these projects will now come together as an online showcase in the new year. "The idea was that given the tough year, we award small grants to many artistes as that's the need of the hour. The proposals range from women on the Internet and evolution of online dating, to looking at queer expressions on the web. There's one project inviting women musicians to perform at night online; another looks at a dystopian world without the Internet. We'll do a marathon showcase in February," she added.