Taking cover

A boy seeks respite from the heat in the shadow cast by a statue at Bandra Reclamation

Humour in uniform

Vinoy Choubey

In his first Q&A session via his newly-started official Twitter account, Pimpri Chinchwad Police Commissioner Vinoy Choubey, while fielding serious questions earnestly, also gave a befitting response to a tongue-in-cheek question. A citizen, Nilesh Borate, tweeted pictures of a page with 50 questions, including ‘How are stars formed?’; ‘How do birds recognise each other?’ and our personal favourite, ‘How much does a human’s shadow weigh?’. Choubey quote-tweeted it saying, “..?!.. You have landed at the wrong handle Nilesh..try NASA, Elon Musk or maybe..Chat GPT ..(sic)”. Choubey told this diarist, “We made sure there was no policing-related question in the list. Once we were certain, we replied to the gentleman.”

Also Read: Mumbai Diary: Friday Dossier

Delhi on your wall

For those who’ve loved Mayank Austen Soofi’s captures of everyday moments on social media, you can now buy a print of your favourite clicks by the Delhi-based writer and photographer. The prints were curated and designed in Venice before being printed in Delhi, and Soofi already has orders from as far as Warsaw and Seattle.

Pic Courtesy/Mayank Austen Soofi

“People seem to love one photograph in particular, of a dog sitting in an alleyway, under a tree with almost fuchsia-coloured flowers,” the artist tells us over the phone from Delhi. You can check and order Soofi’s work on his website; delhiwalla.com

When all was forgotten at stumps

The Virat Kohli v Gautam Gambhir scrap in Lucknow on Monday night provided a perfect example of how a sporting contest between two IPL teams turned confrontational. It put off our in-house cricket nut who reminded us that there was a time—many years ago—when both teams mingled in the winning side’s dressing room after a Test match.

Rival captains Ian Chappell (left)of Australia and England’s John Edrich in a dressing room after the Sydney Test of the 1974-75 Ashes series. Pic/Getty Images

As Australia captain from 1971 to 1975, our columnist Ian Chappell encouraged a drink with the opposition, however hard both outfits competed with each other on the field of play. And yes, like now, there were on-field controversies.

Cricket is a different game now in many ways. It was always played hard, but all that one-upmanship ended as soon as the last ball was bowled. Some of us liked it that way. Some enthusiasts probably want similar drama to what was dished out earlier this week. Different strokes for different blokes! The game goes on and no one can rule out an ugly incident like the Kohli-Gambhir late night show.

Crowdfunding a mime movie

Actor and voice-over artiste Gavin Methalaka has a film inside of him, and he is now going the crowdfunding route to make it a reality. Since the last few days, the Mumbai-based artiste has been reaching out to friends and colleagues, to talk about his dream project, Sunn Toh. “This story was conceptualised more that six years ago with an idea to do a sketch about two friends annoyed with each other and arguing in mime [a theatrical technique of suggesting action, character, or emotion using only gestures and movements],” Methalaka told this diarist. While the cast—Pranab Jyoti Das and Drupad Gaonkar—was in place, production houses weren’t keen on it. “The only question was what is the return on investment? Which is fare. I had maxed out my credit card to book flights for the actors and book equipment. Then Gaurang Bhati, my cinematographer and friend, recommended that I crowdfund it,” says Methalaka, “The response has been overwhelming, especially to see someone [in their own capacity] believe in me.” For more details, you can follow the Instagram page @sunn.toh.

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