Mumbai Diary: Saturday Dossier

Sonali Bendre Behl

Sonali gets her way with words
Here's some happy news for bibliophiles thanks to Sonali Bendre Behl. The actor took to social media recently to announce that a book club she has started now has its own website, which is live.

And a quick scan through sonalisbookclub.com revealed that she is making a genuine effort here to put new and young authors in the spotlight. She even roped in glamorous pals Gayatri Joshi, Dia Mirza and Suzanne Khan for a discussion.

This #MeToo case is for the record
For someone who is the co-founder of a progressive youth media company, Varun Patra now finds himself caught on the wrong foot, or rather, caught performing the wrong act. For, a woman has accused him of making audio recordings of her while they were in bed, without him telling her about it. In a long social post, she has detailed how, after they had finished copulating, she found Patra - who started Homegrown - trying to save an audio recording on his phone of them in the act. The post includes screenshots where the accused owns up to the fact that the recording was made without consent.

He apologises for the same, and admits that he had done the same with two other women. The reason Patra gives - which he also outlined in a statement he has released on Facebook - is that he was afraid that after the #MeToo movement took off, people would wrongly accuse him and he was thus keeping evidence handy just in case. But it seems like this apology has fallen flat, considering the British Council has announced that in the light of this allegation, it is reconsidering partnering for an event that Homegrown is organising soon.

In memoriam
When the news of artist Tushar Joag's demise reached Mumbai on December 18, the city's art community was so shocked that every gallerist, art critic or artist this diarist reached out to, failed to gather words to define the loss.

Twenty days later, the news seems to have sunk in. On January 8, Gallery Chemould, and friends and family of Joag, will be organising a memorial at the National Gallery of Modern Art. "Tushar's 21-year-old daughter Katyayini has taken the lead in piecing together the many lives he led - he cared deeply for social issues, and was an artist-activist. The memorial brings together people from the Narmada Bachao Andolan he worked with, as well as art projects he was associated with," gallerist Shireen Gandhy said.

Artist draws paralelles with the past
On the 186th birthday of Savitribai Phule this Thursday, there were many tweets that celebrated the social reformer - and most were accompanied by a moving Madhubani artwork by Delhi-based artist Malvika Raj.

She told this diarist, "I painted this on her birthday last year. One half depicts her work while on the other half depicts the present-day scenario. My idea was to say that all that we have is because of her."

Have a laugh with these funny families
It is often said that you don't just marry "the one", you marry the family. This evening, a play staged at the Sophia auditorium presents a unique twist to the adage.

Directed by Tirthank Shah, Khandani Golmaal is about the Kamdars and the Poddars pretending to be people different from who they really are, only in order to get their children married to each other ( which is something Indian families are often wont to do).

But they keep ending up in tricky situations. The play stars Zervaan Bunshah, Raj Sejpal, Nandinee Khosla, and Dhwani Mehta, all attempting to make you laugh your head off.

Lapping him up

Saina Nehwal has a laugh as an actor picks her husband up, while Farah Khan has her attention elsewhere at a Goregaon studio on Friday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

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