Mumbai Diary: Monday Dossier

Khadi Bhavan

Khadi to make a mark on the ramp
This diarist remembers the first time she walked in to Khadi Bhavan in Fort. After a quick scan, our mind raced at the possibilities of the change that a design intervention would bring to the rich handwoven pieces available at dirt-cheap rates. It seems our wish has come true. The opening show for the Sustainable Fashion Day at Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2018 will be presented by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

The organisation has collaborated with four designers to showcase collections created with hand-spun and hand-woven khadi fabrics made by artisans in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Punjab. The designers include Lars Andersson, Buna, The Third Floor Clothing and Jewellyn Alvares of Jule Bridal.

The Modi script gets a leg-up
Language forms an integral part of our lives - the linguistic reorganisation of our state in the '60s points towards that amply. In that light, it makes sense that the History Department of Sathaye College has introduced a beginner-level certificate course in the Modi script.

Recently, this newspaper had reported about an over 150-year-old scroll in this script that landed in the custody of local conservationists in Vasai. City historians and educationists were thrilled, naturally. Let's hope that such courses help revive the interest in the country's forgotten scripts.

Lavani moves in Bengaluru
The dance is sensuous, the music, a melodious energetic trip, and the performers, all grace and charm, irrespective of their age. The lavani production, Sangeet Bari, focuses on a lesser-known style of the dance form, one that's more intimate. This production, now it its third year, has managed to travel beyond Mumbai and Pune; this time around, we hear they are headed to Bangalore for the Gender Bender festival later this month.

Shakuntalabai Nagarkar

"Akanksha Kadam and Shakuntalabai Nagarkar will be performing. Savitri (Medhatul) and I will be its narrators. We will showcase a glimpse of lavani, and how it bends gender norms along with live performances on recorded music aided by a few video clips," Bhushan Korgaonkar, its writer, shared with this diarist. He and the director, Medhatul, have taken the show to Bangalore previously too, where they did a two-day workshop as well as a smaller version of this act.

Bhushan Korgaonkar

"The response was amazing. We had 25 participants [for the workshop] and a full house for the show. Let's hope it's the same this time as well," says Korgaonkar. And for those who are yet to catch this show, there will be two shows slated for late September at Prithvi Theatre, with the full caste and crew as well as live music.

Menu tales
This weekend found us asking ourselves what the hell "coconut and squash dhansak" tastes like. That's after the BCCI posted the lunch menu for the second Test match at Lord's between India and England, which included the dish that had us scratching our heads.

The cricket body might have found a better time to reveal the team's lavish spread, however. This is because people on social media wasted no time in poking fun at the players, who are getting hammered on the field. One person wrote that the dish that suits them best is humble pie. Another wrote that it's mincemeat. And yet another wondered, "No batting lessons on the menu?" None, we are afraid.

A saree state
Last year, around Independence Day, US diplomat MaryKay Carlson had embarked on a saree search, asking her Twitter followers to help her pick a saree for the occasion. A year later, Carlson is deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Delhi and even more in love with the elegant Indian attire.

MaryKay Carlson

"I love the kick of the pleats, and the fall and draping. If I have a tough day at work, I wear a saree so that I feel better all day long," she said in a video, dressed in a saree she had draped herself. That's an achievement not many young Indian women can boast of!

Which gate, bhidu?

Actor Jackie Shroff's swag manages to turn heads as he engages with a security personnel at the airport. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

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