Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Prithvi Shaw

He's Shaw cool!
Cricketer Prithvi Shaw shoots for a television commercial at a sports club in Goregaon on Wednesday. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

No stage too big for Advika
Inspiration is easy to find on the Internet - all you need to do is watch a good TEDx talk. There are pages of videos available, and in the near future you may stumble upon one where a nine-year-old Advika Nair takes the stage. At the TEDxYouth@HFSI event held yesterday, Nair, a student of Hiranandani Foundation School - International, became the youngest to speak at a TEDx forum in India.

Her talk themed around "possibilities" highlighted the day-to-day issues faced by children, ranging from parental discouragement to the educational system. She also finished off by singing The Fools Who Dream from the movie La La Land. Speaking to this diarist on the importance of listening to children, Nair said, "Everybody loves attention - while some get more, others don't seem to get enough. I feel there should always be parent-and-child time - no phones, no office work, nothing except time for parents to speak with their children. If parents and adults want to be better listeners, they should become our best friends."

Blast from the past
If you utter the line, "Meri neend ud gayi hai," chances are that it will evoke nostalgia in most '90s kids, and they will hum along with the next line, "Mera chain kho gaya hai," without a second thought. In 2002, A Band of Boys (ABOB), a group comprising five members -Sudhanshu Pandey, Siddharth Haldipur, Sherrin Varghese, Karan Oberoi and Chin2 Bhosle - released the song Meeri Neend and it became a cult classic and the group was labelled an Indian version of the Backstreet Boys.

Reduced to four members after going off the radar, the group will now perform this Republic Day at the fifth edition of the Celebrate Worli Festival, which will feature 14 live performances in addition to special community zones celebrating the Kolis. So, all in all, Mumbaikars can get ready for a heavy dose of nostalgia.

Entertainment reins
The curtains will be raised for the Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby to be held on February 3, 2019 at Mahalaxmi Racecourse. At a conference on Wednesday where the plans for the blue riband of Indian horse racing were announced, the focus was on entertainment. The Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) has announced a two-day extravaganza beginning February 2, which involves night racing and musical performances. Zinia Lawyer, marketing chief of the turf club, said at Mahalaxmi yesterday that horses and then music (in that order precisely) will be the big draw for the Derby weekend. Musical acts like Forefront and DJ Chico are expected to perform.

The live concert spills on to the next day, with Derby day featuring ONEmpire closing the evening with a cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. The oh-so-traditional turf club is also galloping with the times. Tickets can be bought on an online aggregator, rather than only at the club's ticket windows as was the case earlier. Eyebrows were raised about the steep ticket price of R1,250 for the members' stand on Derby day. The club, though, maintained that there will be promotional vouchers and coupons thrown in and insisted that the price is not too high as this is a weekend that racing newbies and Derby debutants cannot say "neigh" to.

Wheels of change
Don't get us started on Mumbai's pollution problems. Let's just say that we really need to rethink our carbon footprint. Even children are aware of this fact, as we realised when we heard that students from 11 schools came together at a workshop recently to brainstorm on ideas for the city's first ever solar-powered electric cargo bike.

Faisal Thakur of Pro9 Bicycle Studio in Bandra took the initiative and the bike will be ready by tomorrow. Good job all around.

A tale of inclusion
Actress, author and activist Nandana Dev Sen has released a new children's book that revolves around a topic many steer clear of talking about - adoption.

In My Heart (Puffin Books) tells the story of Mia, a little girl who is on a journey to find her "tummy mummy". The book features illustrations by Ruchi Mhasane.

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