The city - sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
The joke is on who?
(From left) Actors Manav Kaul, Vidya Balan and Neha Dhupia crack up at their upcoming film's trailer launch in Andheri on Saturday. Pic /Shadab Khan
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Meet Mirani, the funniest guy
When Nitin Mirani was selected to compete in Laugh Factory USA's Funniest Person In The World, where he represented India and UAE, little did he expect to make it to the top five. "It was an absolute dream come true to be able to stand on one of the most recognised stages in the world and show my talent to comedy legends such as Shawn Wayans, Maz Obrani and Richard Lewis," he told this diarist. Like many stand-up comics, the 39-year-old's jokes are inspired by everyone and everything around him. "It's one of the reasons why I don't have many friends left," he laughs. Tomorrow, Mirani will be in the city for a charity event titled Dishoom To Cancer at Kaama, where cancer survivors will perform a five-minute comedy set. The funds raised will be donated to ACCESS LIFE, that provides shelter and cure to children suffering from the disease.
"It's my little attempt to put a smile on the faces of these kids."
One for the art community
Preparations are on in full-swing for the fourth edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB). We hear that the upcoming edition's curator, Anita Dube, has been busy travelling, cherry-picking artists for the 2018 edition. While the curator goes about her job, over here in Mumbai, the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) and auction house Saffronart will host a fundraiser with 41 works — an exciting mix of photographs, paintings and sculptures — all donated by leading artists such as Gauri Gill, Bharti Kher, Thukral and Tagra, and Himmat Shah. These works, some of which were shown earlier at KMB, will go under the hammer on October 31. This will be the second such fundraiser art auction by KBF in collaboration with Saffronart. With no buyer's premium on the auction, the net proceeds will go towards supporting the KBF's resources. Manju Sara Rajan, the CEO of the KBF, says that it's great to see the art community helping its own. "The Biennale was founded by artists and has always had artist-curators, so our art patrons coming together shows how important this festival is for the community," she said. Rajan also added that while the festival itself gets donations, this fundraiser is the only occasion when the foundation gets revenue, a big push to gather together their resources.
How Dougie raised the fitness bar
All this talk about how Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina failing the Yo-Yo test which proved their fitness was not good enough to get near the Indian team made us wonder how would a player like Australian batsman Doug Walters cope with modern techniques to measure fitness.
Walters, who formed an integral part of his country's team of the 1960s, 1970s, was not stout, but he disliked training. For him, the best preparation to bat in a Test was a game of cards with teammates and several drags of Rothmans cigarettes. And just before he left the dressing room door, he'd have a shot at the dart board.
Yet, he performed as the best and pundits rated him the finest Australian batsman against off-spin bowling. He also liked his drinks. When Greg Chappell's team arrived for their 1976-77 New Zealand tour, they planned sprints to increase their mobility levels. Walters reckoned he had something better to do and said, "I'll confine the sprint work
to between the foyer and the bar. The long distance stuff will
have to be from the restaurant
to my room."
A sequel is on the way
After getting a good response for his first book F?@k Knows, we hear that Shailendra Singh has started to pen a sequel, tentatively titled F?@k Knows 2. His first book, a self-help tome of sorts, had Singh delve into his own personal and professional experiences to dole out advice on the googlys life throws at you. But has he been following what he preached? The second book will have the answers, we are told. Singh, former joint MD of Percept, had in his first book invited readers to share their personal stories with him. There's a good chance that some of them might make it to the sequel. Speaking to this diarist, the author said, "In the second book, I want to be honest with readers and tell them that it's not always easy to follow your own advice. But, I've grown up a lot in the past three years, and have some new stories to tell." And to know what they are, we'll have to wait till the end of January, when the book is slated to release.
G for Ganesha
It was in February 2012 that Parel-based artist Abhishek Chitnis made his first Ganesha painting using letters from the Devnagari script. After uploading the sketches on social media, the 29-year-old began getting requests from people who were interested in buying the artworks. "I started it as a hobby after watching sand artist Nitish Bharti make a ganesha using a single letter on a TV show," he says. Chitnis has sold over 10,000 works and has gifted some to actors Alia Bhatt, Arjun Kapoor and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Last year, he launched an Android app, Akshar Ganesha. His latest experiment is to use English alphabets to
draw Ganesha. "I plan to try my hand at Shiva and Hanuman, too," he says.
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