Perch-side view
A bird is spotted atop a traffic signal at sunset on the Marine Drive promenade.
Young builders of the future
Students work on a smart drone; (right) a girl works on a hug skirt
If anyone is interested in finding out how the coming decade is expected to shape up, all they have to do is pay a visit to the Museum of Solutions on March 16. The museum has teamed up with Maker’s Asylum to enable 10 Indian teenagers to prototype solutions for real world problems. As part of the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) School programme, and in association with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the project will take forward the technological creations like smart drones, air quality measuring devices or airbags for accidents for a pilot and funding. Vaibhav Chhabra, founder, Maker’s Asylum shared, “The teens that have been invited this time for the programme have been working with us over a year now on some of these problem statements and they also get to meet more interdisciplinary folks to broaden their perspectives.” MuSo’s chief museum officer Michael Edson said, “It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the world’s problems, and words like innovation and climate emergency can be intimidating to ordinary people. Young people have the honesty to see the world as it is. They have the imagination to see the world in new ways, and the skill and courage to act.”
Lebanon aromas for Mumbai
Nathalie and Zein Soubra
While shawarmas and falafels have found a way to impress the Mumbaikar’s palate, there is a new wave of flavour coming in from the streets of Lebanon. Lebanese entrepreneurs Zein and Nathalie Soubra have already opened Sunbun, their space in Powai, and a cloud kitchen in Andheri East, with another in Versova to follow by the end of the month.
Sunbun labneh (right) tabbouleh salad
Co-founder Zein remarked, “The connection between Mumbai and Lebanon through their love of food highlights how culinary tastes can bridge cultural divides. Both Mumbai and Lebanon serve as examples of how food can serve as a common language that transcends borders and brings people together.” The couple added that they would love to head over to Marine Drive, as well as try the local street food.
US calling for Tewari
Ankur Tewari at a performance. File Pic
It is all kicking off in Austin for composer-singer Ankur Tewari this week. Tewari is part of the big-ticket line-up for the indie music festival SXSW that kicked off earlier last week. The festival will witness some prominent names such as Adaline, The Black Keys, Chiaki Mayumura, Tokyo Calling and Pink Pablo, among the list. Tewari will be performing today for his debut at the indie music fest, followed by a cross-country tour of North America. “This is the first time that I am taking my music to North America, and I’m excited to play tracks from my album Akela to an audience that may just know me for my work on Bollywood films,” the composer shared. Covering a tour that travels to seven cities across North America and Canada till April, the composer will be performing at prestigious venues including The Mercury Lounge in New York, Madame Lou’s in Seattle, and Cafe 939 at Boston. Over WhatsApp messages from Austin, the singer said, “Tomorrow and next month are the start of a lot of firsts for me — first time ever at SXSW and the first-ever tour of North America, that too with my new album Akela.” Yet, it is the chance of reaching out to a new audience that offers promise, Tewari added. “It’s a tremendously exciting time as a South Asian artist to be able to take your music and art to new audiences in the West. And I’m looking forward to seeing how people respond to my music, some of which they may only be aware of through my work with TV shows and movies.”
From patriarchy to masculinity
Dipankar Gupta
If you read in between the lines of many Punjabi songs, closely study male-dominant Hindi movies or simply hit a gym, you will be able to gauge what Indian sociologist Dipankar Gupta means when he says that there is an urban shift from patriarchy to masculinity. “Masculinity is not against patriarchy, it is just different from it,” he told this diarist an hour before he would go on to deliver a housefull lecture on the same subject at the Asiatic Society of Mumbai (ASM) earlier this week. “The men, especially migrants who come to the cities, have lost the support and comfort they would find in patriarchy once. They are now left to fend for themselves in an extremely competitive world,” he noted, adding that you can see traces of this insecurity in the need to take supplements, build bodies, and release songs and movies filled with guns and violence, and devoid of love and women. His lecture was attended by sociology students, textile artist Monika Correa and ASM trustee Cyrus Guzder, among others.
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