Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce

The real canvas

The art world had its hands tied in terms of art fairs being held physically, what with the pandemic doing away with that possibility. But in what constitutes signs of change, India Art Fair (IFA) has announced that it will be held in New Delhi between February 3 and 6, 2022, after being organised in a digital avatar last year, and in 2021. The details of the event haven’t been announced yet; only the announcement that the physical edition will return has been made public. Mortimer Chatterjee (in pic), co-founder of city gallery Chatterjee and Lal, who is also part of the selection committee for IFA, confirmed this news with this diarist. “The art ecosystem is a social beast and the act of being physically in the same room as one’s colleagues and collectors is always an important spur for the market, however much we enjoy the virtues of the online space,” he explained.

Taking flight

Two of the rescued white-backed vulture chicks. Pic/Yogesh Gurav

When Cyclone Taukte hit the state in May this year, four white-backed vulture chicks fell from their nest in the wild in Maharashtra’s Shrivardhan. The folks at Mahad-based NGO SeesCap then rescued and rehabilitated them with help from forest officials, and now, on the occasion of World Wildlife Week, will release them on October 3 since they have recovered. “We looked after them in a cage for about four months where they were fed, and now they are ready to fly,” shared Yogesh Gurav from the NGO. Good job, we say.

When ahimsa takes a U-turn

With Gandhi Jayanti being observed tomorrow, it’s the appropriate time to revisit the Mahatma’s philosophy of ahimsa, or non-violence towards others. However, an event being held to mark the occasion has a different take, since it’s titled Ahimsa for the Self. It entails music therapist Ashwini Kamath in conversation with yoga expert Ritu Petkar Palve. Indira Bhojwani, founder of music platform SaazIndiya, who will moderate the talk, told us that the aim is to direct the idea of non-violence within, towards one’s self. “We are busy pleasing other people most of our lives, forgetting about ourselves. I felt that ahimsa as propagated by Gandhi was about non-violence towards others, but why not direct it the other way. Why are we not healing or being nice to ourselves? We have so many instruments to do that today, and since my passion is yoga and music, I tried to build a synergy between the two through this presentation,” Bhojwani (in pic) said. Those interested in listening in can visit skillboxes.com. 

Shankar on song

After winning a slew of awards, Decoding Shankar — a film on the life and journey of singer Shankar Mahadevan — now has another feather in its cap. It has won the gold award for documentary shorts at the International Independent Film Awards, a global event that invites applications from across the world. Filmmaker Deepti Pillay Sivan has directed it, and she traced Mahadevan’s journey from being a trained veena vocalist to eventually making his mark in Bollywood. Our congratulations.

Time to attend live gigs again

Fans of live music, here’s something that will make you dance. Live bands — and not solitary DJs or producers — are starting to tour again after the second wave, with Bengaluru-based act Parvaaz travelling across India next month, with a pit-stop in Mumbai as well. “It’s been a year and seven months since we have been on the road. We did try to make it happen earlier, but it didn’t work out since even if people were being allowed into venues, there was restricted entry, which didn’t make sense logistically. We had been waiting for the right time and looking at the drop in cases, and how many people are fully vaccinated, we felt that this is it,” shared the band’s drummer, Sachin Banandur.

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