Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

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

Role Reversal

A little girl inspects her mother’s hair, even as the latter expertly weaves garlands

Cyber safety at your fingertips

Nirali Bhatia

Cyber psychologist Nirali Bhatia, founder of the non profit Cyber B.A.A.P, is launching an app for easy and quick action against online harassment. Bhatia is one half of a “cyber couple”, her husband Ritesh being a cyber investigator, and has been working against cyber bullying and other forms of internet enabled harassment for the last six years. “Having worked with thousands of victims, we realised that the fight needs real time awareness and immediate action. Having a ready solution on our devices will empower the people in their time of need,” she tells this diarist. The app has three sections, one where you can report cyber harassment, a second where you can read up on latest news about the issue and a third where you can contact a wide range of cyber experts for specific queries.

View from the past

Photographer and writer Chirodeep Chaudhuri recently posted two pictures of 1990’s Bombay, showing the city from another era. The photographs depict the Null Bazaar junction and Essabhai Fire Works crossing in Masjid Bunder. “At the time, I lived in Mazgaon, at my father’s company quarters. My office was near Metro cinema, and took the Bus No 3 to work,” he reminisces.

Back then, Chaudhuri was working on a book on Muslim neighbourhoods of the city, and was worried that the upcoming JJ flyover would change the vistas of the locales he was documenting. “I took these pictures from the front rows of the upper level of the No 3,” Chaudhuri recalls.

Brilliant one day, benevolent on another. That’s Pak cricket for you!

Pakistan captain Babar Azam (left) in conversation with former skipper and 1992 World Cup star Wasim Akram during the Asia Cup Super Four match against India at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on September 10. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

The Pakistan cricket team have endured yet another heartbreak — losing both their games to India in the ongoing Asia Cup—and bowing out of the tournament through Thursday night’s loss to Sri Lanka. What does this mean for the 1992 champions’ World Cup chances? Well, the Pakistanis have proved over the years that the thick ring of unpredictability is inescapable in their cricket. They could be brilliant one day and benevolent the next. There are not our words, but our columnist’s Ian Chappell way of describing them. We first heard it in the build up to the 1996 World Cup in the sub-continent when Harsha Bhogle interviewed him in Sydney for Nimbus. Chappell reckoned that Pakistan never put out a bad side on the field. But if you ask him whether he’d put his money on Pakistan, there’s every chance the irrepressible former Australia captain would utter, “Not with my trousers on.” Pakistan have the talent to go the distance next month in India. How hungry they are will be the key. 

Love actually

Priya Malik

Poet Priya Malik, whom we know most for her viral Hindi performance poetry, will be releasing a new collection of love poems with Westland next year. For Those Who Love Too Much will comprise contemporary love poems that celebrate vulnerability and love in its purest form. “Growing up, I was always told that ‘I love too much’… I have written these poems for people like myself because that’s the only way I know how to love. This set of love poems will make you laugh, cry, chuckle, reminisce but most importantly they’ll teach you that it’s okay to love the way you do, too much or too little,” shares Malik.

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