It is the first weekend in Matheran and we hope to see a number of visitors sporting helmets while horse riding. The paper had reported about how a Mumbai resident had donated a sizeable number of helmets to the hill station, after a little girl suffered head injuries after falling from a horse in Matheran.

Horse owners have also bought helmets and will be providing it to the tourists while horse riding. We appreciate that a start has been made towards ensuring safety for riders. Yet, one hopes that the helmet rule does not run parallel with the helmet rule for bikers in the city. Here, we see that constant vigilance is needed to ensure that bikers wear a helmet. Police nakabandis are set up to catch those riding without a helmet and fines are imposed for the same. One should not need a supervisory body to ensure that riders actually wear a helmet. Horse owners need to be held accountable if their horses are being ridden by visitors without a helmet.

Tourists must understand that the rule is made in the interests of their safety. Good counsel needs to prevail and common sense must rule. Having said that, visitors must go slowly on horses. They should refuse to ride if there is no dedicated helper who will walk along with the animal. Wear closed footwear when you are riding as sandals and slippers are hazardous, especially when mounting a horse, and in case your feet slip out of the stirrup. Parents need to see that their child is with a helper who is in control of the animal.

Matheran horse owners want better roads, which is out of the control of visitors. Tourists and hordes of Mumbaikars who believe if-it-is-May-it-must-be-Matheran should take onus for their safety as far as possible. Wearing a helmet is a good beginning.

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The saddest thing is how the people responsible for moral policing are allowed to get away with it. Representational Image

I didn't watch the viral video featuring that young couple being abused and attacked by commuters on the Kolkata metro. I knew it would only upset me, like so many videos populating a million WhatsApp groups now do with depressing regularity. I also expected the faux outrage, followed by young men and women hugging each other publicly in acts of defiance to be documented for their Facebook pages.

That this didn't raise eyebrows a few hours after the furore died down is proof of how insensitive we have all become towards any attack on perceived acts of love. We live in a city that once routinely saw couples being attacked on Valentine's Day until the regressive folk responsible for the attacks realised it didn't get them brownie points. We also live in a city where couples holding hands have to deal with thousands of people eyeing them warily, as if the act of holding another human being's hand is alien to our culture. That this is the same culture that gave birth to the sculptures of Khajuraho is lost on millions of our countrymen who scan the streets for acts of intimacy that make them uncomfortable.

In 2015, a young man was stripped and brutally assaulted in public by right-wing activists in Mangalore who had a problem with him being in the company of a girl with different religious beliefs. They couldn't stand the idea of two young people choosing to ignore something as inane as religion in order to find a human connection. That same year, another young man in Kerala was beaten to death by a mob after being found in the house of a woman. To put this into perspective, there were a lot of people offended by what two adults were doing in the privacy of their own homes.

There's a streak of misogyny that runs through these attacks, too, of course, as anyone who remembers the 2009 attack on a pub in Mangalore will attest to. Young men and women were drinking alcohol, which, according to the clowns who routinely become spokespersons for our culture, was an insult to traditional Indian values. It's interesting how all these values involve men making decisions on behalf of women, worrying about their morality, taking it upon themselves to decide how women ought to behave in public for their own good.

What happened to the 13 couples and 35 other young men and women who were rounded up by the Mumbai police a couple of years ago following raids at hotels? They were all consenting adults who had simply checked into several hotels in Madh Island and Aksa. How can a supposedly civilised country justify the idea of policemen knocking on doors and taking couples into custody for choosing to spend time in a room together?

How do we reconcile something as barbaric and regressive as an 'anti-Romeo' squad? How do we make sense of people claiming to be offended by men and women kissing? How do people doing what evolution compels them to do offend other people? How do we explain to visitors that we live in a country where it's perfectly okay for policemen to ignore criminals and spend time patrolling public spaces in order to prevent men from being anywhere near women? And if this is how authorities believe they are protecting women from sexual harassment, what does that say about how millions of Indian men are taught to behave around women?

The saddest thing about these incidents is how the people responsible for them are allowed to get away with it. There aren't even slaps on the wrists, let alone repercussions that lead to any genuine change. People believe it's perfectly okay to harass a couple for hugging in public because they know that a mob can get away with murder. It's also why mobs do get away with murder so often in the world's largest democracy.

People who have problems with couples indulging in public displays of affection probably behave the way they do because they have never received much affection themselves. If you want to leave this country a better place than the way you found it, please do the right thing and hug your children, partners and loved ones more often. Also, please do it in public.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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Jagadamb refers to the ancestral deity Tulja Bhavani whose shrine sits in the mid-size city of Tuljapur in Osmanabad district. But, in present-day Maharashtra, the term Jagadamb rises above the geographical address. It is an embodiment of the feisty street-fighting youth, belonging to the Marathas or other backward castes, who owe their allegiance to a goddess who was also the motivation for Maharashtra's most-revered Chhatrapati Shivaji. Flashed on hooded T-shirts and pullovers, 'Jagadamb' has emerged topmost among the potent watchwords currently dominating popular discourse. Online sales and offline retail purchases across the state speak for the all-seasons connect of Jagadamb, which has takers irrespective of commemorative days and morcha schedules.

Abhijit Tarphe, a Dadar-based calligraphy artist, creates tees that occupy the fun space between political discourse, street lingo and social commentary. Pic/Ashish Raje

Apparel carrying longer mantras of Maratha loyalty — Ek Maratha Lakh Maratha, Hoy Maratha and Amhi Shivrayanche Sainik — have enjoyed cyclical demand, corresponding with the calendar of the 58 silent marches held last year. As the anecdote goes, Maratha T-shirts are in a "politically dormant" state at the moment. But fiery speaker (at the Maratha Kranti Morcha) and advocate from Aurangabad, Swati Nakhate Patil, feels T-shirts are effective communication tools. "What better reminder of the time when we took to the streets for reservations and equal terms? The identifiable catch lines recap our journey so far." T-shirt messages, she thinks, help in creating a family of volunteers. She'd know considering she is head of the Akka Foundation which has initiated a reform movement against socials ills like dowry and superstition among the Marathas. The foundation's signature T-shirt, wears a generic slogan – Sarvansathi Sarva Kahi – which indicates a wider fight for everyone's rights.

Swati Nakhate Patil, seen here with volunteers wearing their signature tee with the slogan, Sarvansathi Sarva Kahi. She heads the Akka Foundation which is fighting against socials ills. She has been one of the main speakers at the Maratha Kranti Morcha over the last one year

"The Marāthās" is a collective term referring to an Indo Aryan group of Hindus, Marathi-speaking castes of warriors and peasants who created an empire, covering a major part of India. They are not alone in the fight for rights. Another rights movement that's currently finding a reflection on T-shirts through creative slogans, photographs and graphic designs concerns the Lingayat community. They are seeking legal recognition as a religion distinct from Hinduism. Inspired by the success of their counterparts in Karnataka, the Lingayats in Maharashtra (some of whom have thronged Mantralaya too) are pressing for their religious minority status on T-shirts, which sing paeans to 12th century social reformer, philosopher and statesman Basaveshwara.

The Killa brand of tees focuses on Maratha pride associated with Chhatrapati Shivaji, and his various forts

He rejected temple worship by replacing it with direct worship of Shiva in the form of the Ishtalinga necklace, the image of the linga set in a silver casket, to be worn at all times close to the heart. Little wonder that both, Basaveshwara and the Shiv linga prominently feature on the T-shirts. As a professor of history and a keen observer of progressive movement slogans, Satara-based Amrut Salunkhe points out an interesting contradiction in the Lingayat factions. Not all sub-sects recognise Basava as the founder, but they don't seem to mind the T-shirt — available in Kannada and Marathi typography — carrying the phrase, Jai Vishwaguru Dharmsansthapak Basaveshwar! "The dissident factions have not yet come up with a counter icon. At this point, two different T-shirt creatives wouldn't have helped in lobbying for the larger Lingayat brotherhood," Salunkhe feels.

Theme T-shirts honouring the men of letters in the Marathi cultural world have been in currency for two decades; a recent manifestation was seen during a death anniversary of late Namdeo Dhasal whose fans wore the poet-ideologue's world view on a memorial T-shirt. The Bharatiya brand made use of faces of popular litterateurs like PL Deshpande and Narayan Surve, just as it made good use of the Marathi Abhiman Geet, and distributed T-shirts on Ashadi Ekadashi, Holi and Ganesh Chaturthi. They fashioned kid-centric lyrical sequence tees on monsoon joys too. Bharatiya has now extended its T-shirt ideation to Hindi and is soon to come up with Tamil messages. Their fare was earlier vended at literary summits, before it grew popular online, somewhat in the provincial cosmos where the Killa T-shirts thrived. Designed by Malvan-based artist and JJ School of Applied Art alumnus Arun Amberkar, Killa garments focus on the fortresses built by Chhatrapati Shivaji. The iconic rajmudra (official signature) T-shirt has been a hit for over a decade. Amberkar calls the line "lovingly crafted, wearable and usable slivers of history."

Dadar-based calligraphy artist Abhijit Tarphe feels customised tees are a fun zone for current affairs to find a rightful space. His T-shirts displayed apt word play (Sonu, tuza mazhyavar bharvasa nay ka?) when RJ Mallishka had attacked the BMC. He captures the Mumbai commuter spirit in the line, Mili to BEST, Nahi Toh Next.
Tarphe also has a range of occasion-based T-shirts like the tricolour-filled Independence Day special or Gokulashtami's Aya Makhan Chor creative. It is another story that T-shirts for Gokulashtami and Holi usually are gifted by political party leaders, chiefly Shiv Sena Shakha Pramukhs.

Jai Bhim T-shirts as a community-building tool have worked well over the years, not just for the April 14 Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti or the December 6 Mahaparinirvan Din. The apparel also comes in handy for Buddha Jayanti and during any political rally Dalit groups organise. This year, a Goregaon-based youth association, designed a special T-shirt declaring Mazhi Chaityabhoomi, Swacchabhoomi (My clean Chaityabhoomi). It served two political purposes; an affirmation of the Swacch Bharat mantra, challenging the stereotypical notion of Dalits arriving from rural Maharashtra who converge at Dadar's Shivaji Park Chaityabhoomi and litter.

T-shirt messaging extends to a range of causes — Separate Vidarbha; Who Killed Judge Loya?; Make (Women Safe) in India; Rape Roko; India Against Corruption; Donate Eyes; Pinkathon run against breast cancer. It has also been used to add cohesion to groups (I am with Anna Hazare; Desh Me Narendra/ Pradesh Me Devendra) or merely declare strength (Dr B R Ambedkar: King Number 1) or sport a vibe (Dude Please, Thane is not Bombay!/ Delhi is about Mera Baap Kaun Hai, Mumbai is about Who I am). T-shirts can help start a conversation, from the polite to the political.

Sumedha Raikar-Mhatre is a culture columnist in search of the sub-text. You can reach her at sumedha.raikar@gmail.com

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Illustration/Uday Mohite

Believe it or not, exciting things are happening in Konkani cinema. I am familiar with Indian films in at least 10-12 languages, but it was a real discovery watching the best Konkani films on the jury of the 9th Goa State Film Festival Awards, that was given last week. To know who the top Konkani stars are, what subjects interest them — the church often looms large. The Best Film (Konkani) went to Nilesh Karamunge’s Mahaprayan (The Last Journey), Best Director (Konkani) to Rajiv Shinde’s K Sera Sera (Ghodpachem Ghoddtelem, Whatever Will Be Will Be), and Best Film (Marathi) to Sainath Parab's Disha (Direction). Mahaprayan was a real discovery, of which more anon. K Sera Sera, which swept nine awards, told two parallel stories of an ambitious career woman and a retired man, struggling to keep his family together, starring actor-producer Rajesh Pednekar and Palomi Ghosh. It had rich technical and acting credits, some ‘imported’ from outside Goa. Sadly, Miransha Naik’s powerful Juze was not in competition, but Nilesh Malkar’s Soul Curry smartly ‘imported’ Bollywood star Jackie Shroff for wider appeal. Shroff even dubbed for himself in Konkani and won a Special Jury Award for Best Actor.

Mahaprayan is one of those rare films, that makes a powerful social critique while accomplishing an amazing technical feat: the whole 83 minute-film is a single take, shot by Sameer Bhaskar. What’s more, it is the debut feature of an ex-army man, Nilesh Karamunge. Inspired by a real incident in Odisha, the film is about Tulsidas (Dhananjay Amonkar) who, unable to afford a hearse to take his dead wife from the hospital to his distant village for cremation, walks home all the way, carrying her corpse on his shoulders, accompanied by his young daughter Kaalika (Aarya Ghare). The pair meet many people who refuse to help — hospital staff, passengers in a bus, the police, and when a kind forest official finally helps them, the media pounces on him for ‘misusing’ a government jeep. The crew did many rehearsals, shooting in real time as they walked 3.5 km in the noonday sun. The film is a scathing attack on the government and our society. The charming and mature Aarya Ghare, just nine, won Best Actress.

Mahaprayan vaults to one of the year's most gratifying discoveries in Indian cinema, its accomplishments far exceeding its modesty and flaws. K Sera Sera is a polished work, given Konkani cinema’s constraints. And let's get some perspective here: while most regional Indian cinemas started in the 1920s or earlier, the first Konkani film, Mogacho Anvddo, was released only in 1950. The Hindi and Tamil industries make, on average, 250-350 feature films a year, but the fledgeling Konkani industry makes barely five to seven features a year. And there is no doubt that Konkani cinema got kick-started since the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was held in Goa since 2004, and the locals were consistently exposed to world cinema. And look what it's offering now — you do a double take.

Meenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival, award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshishedde@gmail.com.

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The Sena chief says if BJP opts out in Palghar, he will support the ally in Gondia-Bhandara, which too will go to Lok Sabha bypoll on the same day (May 28).

Shiv Sena may have discovered a way to bend the BJP its way. The political precision with which the party snapped up the disgruntled son of a late BJP parliamentarian for fielding in the Palghar Lok Sabha bypoll has taken Uddhav's resolve of outsmarting the saffron frenemy to a decisive level. Uddhav wants to fly solo, escape BJP's trap for emerging as the single largest party in the state next year.

Palghar, a testing lab, may decide the fate of the strained relation between the two partners, which the Sena is using to try and carve a niche for itself by playing a detractor within and outside the government.

Uddhav has a spring in his step, as Sena prepares to run Palghar, and the guts to ask the BJP to withdraw from the race. It would be interesting to see who blinks first in a barter proposed by Uddhav. The Sena chief says if BJP opts out in Palghar, he will support the ally in Gondia-Bhandara, which too will go to Lok Sabha bypoll on the same day (May 28).

But will they reach a compromise? The possibility of the two parties backing out seem remote. There are others in the fray who too want the BJP defeated. The BJP has fielded a former Congress junior minister, Rajendra Gavit, who had started his political career with Janata Dal. Gavit came in amid high drama after Sena's nomination of BJP's late MP Chintaman Wanga's son Shrinivas surprised all. Gavit had lost two Assembly elections in a row for the Congress, and before that, he was unceremoniously asked to pull out for a BVS candidate in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

'Well played, Sena'
The BJP camp does not admit it openly, but insiders say the Sena was tactically much superior this time. Sena explored the emotional turmoil in the Wanga family, which felt ignored by the BJP. The family members accused the BJP high command, including the CM, of not giving them audience. In response, Fadnavis blamed the poaching on Sena. He said it was unexpected of the ally, and that the BJP would win, with or without Sena.

The Palghar bypoll is important for the BJP to reaffirm its influence in the tribal belt. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, four out of the 48 seats were reserved for Scheduled Tribes, of which all went to the BJP, an unprecedented result. BJP had been contesting Dahanu (delimited and named Palghar) for many decades but with limited success.

In the Assembly, 25 of the 288 seats are reserved for STs. Of these, BJP won 11, followed by Congress's five, NCP's four, Sena's three and one each by CPI(M) and Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA).

The results of Lok Sabha bypolls in Maharashtra should measure BJP's influence in the four years of government. Sena hasn't fielded in Gondia-Bhandara because its poor strength will never secure it a prominent place. Knowing his weakness in the region well, Uddhav paid an impromptu visit to Nagpur last week. Again, his was an attempt to create some nuisance for the BJP, where they expect BJP and NCP to fight straight.

Other factors in Palghar
For Sena, Palghar has turned out to be a sharper tool to cut the BJP to size. Uddhav has nothing lose in a skirmish that will be four-way in case some candidates don't pull out, while a victory would be a shot in the arm for Sena.

Former allies Congress and influential local outfit, led by Hitendra Thakur, BVA are also in the fray. BVA's role will be significant in splitting votes because it had won the LS seat in 2009, and lost the next to BJP, despite having its vote share of 30 per cent intact. In 2014, BJP increased its vote share by a whopping 25 per cent. BJP and Sena were together then, while Congress had withdrawn Gavit (now BJP's candidate) for supporting Thakur's candidate. BVA continues to be a big player in two urban Assembly segments of Vasai and Nalasopara, which Thakur and son represent.

If it were to ensure BJP's defeat, will Congress withdraw the candidature of former MP Damu Shingda this time? Congress insiders say supporting BVA may not be a good idea, and instead, the party should have a tacit understanding with the Sena for beating the BJP at the hands of the ally. But will that be acceptable to Congress, which is working to emerge as a strong alternative to BJP?

All eyes will be on developments taking place on Monday, the last day of withdrawal of candidatures.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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Just months after the newly revamped Kamala Nehru Park reopened, a little girl was left with a crushed thumb after she fell from a broken swing in the handicapped section. While the girl's parents alleged that the play area is not maintained properly, the authorities claim that the handicapped section was off bounds and the parents ignored the guards' warnings.

The park was reopened on February 23 this year, a little less than a year after it shut for a makeover. While the main section of the park was being renovated, the handicapped section remained shut. When the park was opened again, the children's facilities earned high praise. However, in mid-day's report on Saturday, a few parents came forward to say that the swings and see-saws were not well-maintained either.

Let us put the accent on quality at our parks. We have to remember that given the paucity of outdoor play venues for kids, there is a great rush to use parks that are available, and equipment is stretched thin because of the sheer traffic of children.

From the very beginning, the authorities need to focus on play facilities with endurance. They must also ensure that the rides are kept in top order, leaving no risk of such horrific accidents. Park authorities must keep a medical kit with basic supplies.

Having said that, children and their parents, too, need to respect park rules. They must follow instructions issued by the park officials and security. Parents must also ensure that facilities meant for differently abled kids are not used by everyone, as that defeats the purpose. Guardians have to remain alert and stop their wards if they try to access parts of the park that are not meant for them.

Blame games are counterproductive. Only quality rides, maintenance, security and respect for rules can ensure a great outdoors experience.

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A vacation brought nightmare news to a 26-year-old Shillong man's family. The man drowned in the Bhatsa River near Shahapur. He was in the city to spend his summer vacation with his cousins at his aunt's place. He had accompanied his cousins who went to the river to beat the heat. Though he was a good swimmer, he was sucked in by the current and drowned. In fact, the drowned man helped his cousins escape, but could not do so himself.

This report comes just days after the a 24-year-old techie allegedly drowned in a swimming pool in Pune. The deceased hailed from Andhra Pradesh and was a resident of Pune's Hinjewadi. He was taking swimming classes since the past one month.

Reports say the lifeguard realised that the techie had not resurfaced for a while when he jumped in and found the man unconscious. Though he was rushed to hospital, he was declared dead. His post mortem report also mentioned death due to drowning.

Both reports show us that swimmers tend to underestimate the power of water. They tend to overestimate their prowess in the water and end up paying a heavy price for that.

In the former instance, where a Shillong-based man died, people need to desist from jumping into rivers, lakes, ponds to cool off. The waters can be deceptively calm. If you are on a picnic, be content with simply submerging your feet in the water, instead of jumping into it. These lessons must be learnt well. The monsoon will bring with it revellers, who cavort in gushing waterfalls and water bodies at green getaways. Some of these picnics end in tragedies. Take extra caution when you swim, and do not enter a deep pool if you are a beginner or still learning. It must be action caution when it comes to water.

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Controversy and fracas is heating up over sugar imported from Pakistan. Reports have emerged about an NCP MLA from Thane district and party activists tearing sugar bags stored in a godown in Navi Mumbai. The MLA, who represents Kalwa-Mumbra constituency, said hundreds of NCP activists raided the godown, located in Dahisar Mori area of the satellite town of Mumbai, and tore the bags containing the imported sugar.

This comes on the heels of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which had already opposed the sale and distribution of imported sugar. MNS leaders from Navi Mumbai visited wholesale traders in the Vashi agriculture produce market committee (APMC), and warned them against the distribution of sugar.

While sentiment and belief is one thing, we hope that these sugar raids will not disrupt the ordinary person's life or schedule. Every political party has a right to credo and action, but it should not come at the cost of citizens.

The relevant party and its workers can hold a peaceful protest outside these godowns if they so desire, to raise awareness. They could also put up their resistance on social media and create awareness about why they oppose the Pakistani sugar. Do voice your opposition, do give vent to your anger or ire and do reinstate your stand. That is your right as citizens of a democracy.

Yet, one must always do so with a respect for people and violence should play no part in these protests. Beware of political shenanigans, which aim to capture eyeballs, rather than espouse the party line or philosophy. Actions like this must not snowball into confrontations with innocent people caught in the crosshairs.

Say no to Pakistani sugar if you wish, but do not disrupt daily life. Respect the law and the people, otherwise you fear losing sight of your cause in a spiral of violence and hooliganism.

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QSQT - perhaps the first Hindi film to be referred to by its abbreviated title - finished 30 years of its release this week

If you think about it, the reason the girl (Juhi Chawla) can't be with the boy (Aamir Khan) in Mansoor Khan's directorial debut Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) - path-breaking romance for its time - is rather simple. Years ago, the boy's father had killed the girl's uncle. This is because the uncle had impregnated the boy's aunt, but forced to marry someone else - abetting her suicide.

Now, why this uncle and aunt couldn't get together isn't quite clear in this adaptation of Romeo And Juliet. Unlike the couple in Sairat (2016), both belonged to rich, neighbouring families, from the same (Rajput) caste. The thorn in their backsides was the khadoos patriarch (Goga Kapoor). He enjoyed the sole right to decide who his son (and later his grand-daughter) would marry. Also, that girl had slept with his son out of wedlock.

For a movie mirroring such rigid, patriarchal values, it's amazing that it remains, up until 2018, a rare occasion where the heroine (Juhi) falls for first, and actively chases the hero (Aamir) - a sign of ultimate gender equality (to my mind), making it one of the most feministic films I know. QSQT - perhaps the first Hindi film to be referred to by its abbreviated title - finished 30 years of its release this week. Aamir, who also shared writing credit for the movie, organised a special screening with cast and crew to mark and discuss the moment.

I just saw QSQT myself, after several years, to observe with much relief that the film hasn't aged much (certainly not as much as humans have, since), although it's not as young as the all-time favourite, Mansoor's Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander (1992), which still looks as fresh as last Friday's catch.

One of the things that Mansoor revealed after the QSQT screening, which is rather ironic given the film's subject, were the constant creative differences/fights he would have with his late father, producer-writer Nasir Husain, during the making, making others worry if they could ever move on. That way, QSQT is full of ironies.

To begin with, for a 2-hour, 43-minute movie, there are only four-and-a-half songs. This, coming from Nasir, king of Bollywood musicals, who produced, among other great soundtracks, the 10-minute-plus medley in Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977; best piece of music ever).

Once, being told that a track in QSQT had been composed, while it hadn't been, Nasir decided to hop over to the studio of music composer sons of Chitragupta, Anand-Milind, giving them only a 15-minute heads up. In that interim, Anand-Milind came up with the song, Aye Mere Hum Safar.

Don't know if the pressures were equally high throughout, for I recently discovered the track, Return To Alamo (1977) by The Shadows, which even by Bollywood's liberal standards for 'inspiration', seems shockingly lifted, note for note, even tempo intact, for the number Akele Hain Toh Kya Gham Hai. The only stroke of genius being that a war-cry has been turned into a romantic melody!

In 1995, Mansoor and Aamir teamed up to unofficially remake Kramer Vs Kramer (1979), even picking up scenes from the original, while one of the main songs was copied from The Godfather score. I once asked Aamir if he thought this was a complete, creative low. He didn't agree.

What young Mansoor, and indeed Aamir, did with one foot firmly on traditions and family customs/values, and the other on relatively modern sensibilities/outlook with QSQT, is take baby steps out of the shadows of the veteran Nasir Husain. This is very similar to how the Barjatyas' reticent scion Sooraj, 25, made his directorial debut with Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kiya (MPK, 1989), and Yash Chopra's son Aditya, 24, smartly, gently pushed the mainstream bar with Shah Rukh Khan in his first film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ, 1995).

Together, with soft romances involving hardened parents, the three newbie Khans invaded Bollywood, gradually extricating it from the '80s 'Angry Young Man' hangover, rape-avenger actioners, and family melodramas driven by baffling sensibilities of the money-making, assembly line movies, adapted from the South. QSQT, originally titled Nafrat Ke Waaris, was as much 10 years ahead of its time, as comforting for mainstream audiences from 20 years before. I remember older family members (and teenage girls alike) being struck by Aamir and Juhi, who were formally "introduced" in the film, although Aamir had earlier already starred in Ketan Mehta's Holi (1984).

Leading up to QSQT's release, a hoarding teaser campaign had been launched across Mumbai (and perhaps other cities), with just the question, "Who's Aamir Khan? Ask the girl next door!" The billboards turned into QSQT's posters upon the film's release. Yup, it's been 30 frickin' years. Of course, we know who's Aamir Khan. What film-buffs have always been curious about ever since, and for good reason, is what's he up to next! We always inevitably remember his last film. Which is why, I suspect, QSQT, unlike MPK, DDLJ, if you think about it, hasn't actually got its due.

Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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The desire to stream his speeding stunt live on social media cost a 20-year-old engineering student his life, while his cousin, who accompanied him, is battling for his life in hospital. He had stolen the keys to his uncle's car. This report highlighted once again that social media distractions and driving are a lethal mix.

The police have identified the deceased as Shivam Prakash Jadhav from Kharadwadi in Pimpri. He died on the spot. His cousin Hrishikesh Vilas Pawar, 22, was cited as critical and undergoing treatment in a Pimpri Chinchwad-based private hospital.A senior police officer was quoted in the report as saying that the car was speeding at 120 kmph. The passenger was streaming live on Instagram when the driver asked him to show the speedometer. Later, he lost control of the car, and it rammed into a grid separator.

The thrill of speed coupled with the thrill of likes, adulation and congratulatory messages is so potent that there can never be enough said about desisting from using social media while driving. Even earphones are a no-no when driving because your hands may be free, but the mind is elsewhere on the conversation and your focus and attention is compromised.

Here, we also had another factor thrown into the tragic cocktail. The driver was speeding. It was the passenger who was streaming live on Instagram, but the driver's attention was compromised as he was distracted by Instagram. It was evident that the young men were on a suicide mission unknown to them.

Let there be more awareness and we want to see a blitzkrieg on social media how it is not cool to drive and be on social media at the same time. Speed should be similarly panned. Youngsters, this is so not cool. Losing a life for some likes? Certainly not.

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The mystery behind the death of a group of brothers seems to have been solved, said a report in this paper. The Chavan cousins were found dead between Kandivli and Borivli stations earlier this week.

A day after their death, an eyewitness informed the police he saw them jumping from the train to cross the tracks when it had stopped at a red signal between stations.

An inspector stated in the report that when the train halted, the boys tried to jump to cross the tracks. In doing so, they missed seeing a train coming from the opposite direction and were hit by it. Investigations are on and eyewitnesses are being sought to corroborate the version. Yet, it looks quite certain that this is yet another track death amongst the many in the annals of railway track death history.

We need to see signage on stations warning people not to cross tracks. Even some signage inside train bogies about the danger of crossing tracks will be helpful. This may not be an absolute deterrent, but will at least make people stop and rethink before crossing tracks.

Maybe passengers' unions can put up warnings on social media. A track crossing survivor, who has had a narrow escape, could recount his experience. He could even speak about how lucky he was to escape with his life and exhort the lakhs who use the service not to endanger their lives.

From riding rooftop of trains to crossing tracks, there are so many dangers that commuters bring upon themselves. A service that is already strained to a breaking point is inherently dangerous because of the sheer numbers. It is safety first, when it comes to this service, commuters must realise there is a greater onus than ever on them to ensure their own safety. Crossing tracks is an invitation to a grievous injury or a tragic end.

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A day after this paper published a report about a couple who has been left in limbo because a financial institute has misplaced their Sale Deed or Sale of Agreement papers, there have been a few readers who have written in claiming that they experienced a similar situation. They, too, had a harrowing story to tell.

According to our report, an Andheri couple who had taken a loan from a financial institution years ago to buy a home and were paying it off over years, finished paying their loan. They asked the institute to return their documents and that is when they learnt that the Sale of Agreement has been misplaced. Their nightmare began, but it has been months the paper has not been found and they have subsequently been unable to sell a home on the outskirts of the city because buyers are wary of buying a home without the original Sale Deed.

Finance institutes cannot afford to misplace such important documents. Institutes might have misplaced the documents while shifting or the file has been lost when being transferred from one centre to another.

If this happens, and from the responses we learn that this is unfortunately not very rare, it is the organisation's responsibility to give the affected a way out. There has to be a redressal mechanism. If the true copy of the document does not work for certain people, the institute has to step in and provide them a solution.

They need to be held liable and accountable. You cannot expect the affected people, who are already suffering considerably and have also spent time and money, to do all this on their own. Those who have erred cannot wash their hands off the matter. They need to be there with the people, whose papers they have irresponsibly, though inadvertently, misplaced, right till the bitter end.

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Actress Keerthy Suresh as Savitri in Mahanati

Telugu cinema — specifically Baahubali 1 and 2 — knocked the daylights out of Bollywood. Now comes the ravishing Telugu-Tamil film Mahanati (Great Actress, in Telugu; Nadigaiyar Thilagam in Tamil), directed by Nag Ashwin, a biopic on top film star Savitri garu (a Telugu honorific). This sensuous, period, feminist film, starring Keerthy Suresh and Dulquer Salmaan, rivals Bollywood's best. Kommareddy Savitri (1937-1981) was a remarkable female superstar of Telugu and Tamil cinema, who acted alongside top Tamil and Telugu stars such as Sivaji Ganesan, MG Ramachandran (MGR), Gemini Ganesan and Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR), often got paid more than the heroes, and even produced and directed six films in the 1960s and 1970s, some with an all-female crew, featuring these top heroes — all practically unthinkable today. Savitri acted in nearly 200 films in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi, including Pelli Chesi Choodu, Devadasu, Missiamma, Maya Bazaar and Pasamalar, peaking in the 1950s and 1960s, and the films she directed include Chinnari Papalu. Her career spiralled downwards after she secretly married co-star Gemini Ganesan (then already married to Alamelu and in another relationship with Pushpavalli with whom he had Hindi film star Rekha), and his jealousy and alcoholism drove her to drink; she cut back on her career to appease him, turned alcoholic herself and went to ruin. The film has released worldwide, including in India; it is currently also showing in Mumbai with English subtitles.

Indian biopics on women film stars — including Milan Luthria's Dirty Picture on Silk Smitha with Vidya Balan (Hindi); KG George's Lekhayude Maranam: Oru Flashback (Lekha's Death: A Flashback) on actress Shobha's alleged affair with a top director (Malayalam), and Ranjith's Thirakkatha (Screenplay) on Srividya and her alleged affair with a top Tamil star (Malayalam) — are mostly tragedies. What is remarkable about Mahanati is that while it shows Savitri's courage, feistiness, stardom and generosity, it also shows her poor decisions in love, marriage and finance. She is a homebreaker and an alcoholic who also neglects her children. Yet, the film valourises her as someone who believed that life is short, and so made the best of it. In fact, the film, presented by Vyjayanthi Movies, is produced by two women, sisters Swapna Dutt and Priyanka Dutt of Swapna Cinemas.

The film is told through Madhuravani (Samantha Akkineni), a journalist in the 80s, investigating Savitri's story with her photographer boyfriend Vijay Anthony (Vijay Deverakonda) after Savitri is found in a hospital, after being in a coma for a year. Nag Ashwin, in only his second feature after Yevade Subramanyam, shows outstanding assurance and craftsmanship. Throughout, there are scenes switching seamlessly from Savitri's real and reel life; and the period sets have been gorgeously recreated, including a 'stairway to heaven'. Keerthy Suresh carries the film with aplomb: sparkling, yet dignified, even in her despair. Top Malayalam star Dulquer Salmaan sportingly plays second fiddle and charming rake. Sai Madhav Burra's screenplay packs in a lot. LA-based Spanish cinematographer Dani Sanchez-Lopez's cinematography is marvellous: ironically, he digitally shot the period parts and used super 16mm film stock for the more recent 80s. The costumes by designers Gaurang Shah, Archana Rao and stylist Indrakshi Pattanaik are exquisite, as are Shivam Rao and Kolla Avinash's sets. Mickey J Meyer's music is versatile and soulful. At 2h 57mins, the editing by veteran Venkateswara Rao Kotagiri flags a little, yet keeps you engaged till the end.

Meenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to Berlin Film Festival, award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshishedde@gmail.com

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Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, the first citizen of Mumbai, recently visited Metro III construction sites, and a front-page report in this paper has already highlighted how he blamed the wrong agency (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority rather than the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation) for the possibility of flooding in the city.

While that was one aspect of the mayor's tour, it was his answer to our reporter's question about his view about the Metro work, that is cause for concern. The mayor said that although the BMC is the main planning authority of the city, the Metro authorities did not take permission from them before starting the Metro 3 work. They allegedly did not even take the civic body into confidence before beginning the project.

The mayor's answer was especially disturbing, considering the damage caused by the work to BMC's stormwater drains and sewerage lines. Because of this, there will be flooding if there is a rainfall of more than 300 mm. The state government will be responsible for the same, said the mayor.

Citizens are tired of the blame game that seems to have ensued even before the monsoon. They do not care which agency has done what, they only want to see that there is no major flooding this monsoon. If there is, the authorities need to work swiftly to ensure it is dealt with. Other service arms have to work to ensure the city does not go off the rails.

Every authority must be geared to if not prevent, then at least combat, all the challenges that the monsoon is sure to bring with it. We want to hear and see actions that reassure the public, rather than discouraging finger-pointing and statements loaded with ominous portent.

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This paper ran a disturbing front page story on the weekend. It cited how, for several months, the Mumbra Police have been at their wits' end over bikes and scooters going missing from various parts of the suburban township. Last week, however, the police tracked the culprits, who were a gang of 10- to 15-year-olds.

All the nine boys who were apprehended by the police were minors. All of them hail from poor families in Mumbra and they are passionate about bikes and just wanted to ride them for fun. While the boys have been put in a home, what is worrying is that a couple of parents are in denial about their boys being involved in the theft.
The report said that Mumbra residents had complained to the police about rash driving by young children, who didn't have a driving licence. A social activist in the area had even said that many children here start riding bikes when they are as young as 12.

Most of these kids have not been to school. There is also the prospect that this crime may be a stepping stone for them and it may escalate to bigger crimes once they are out of this home. Parents need to pay much closer attention to what their children have been doing. They may not know about the crime, as it is natural these children will hide this from their parents. But, as a parent, they must try to investigate and question their children in case they suspect an unusual pattern in their behaviour.

It is unacceptable that 10-year-olds are riding bikes, putting not only themselves, but also other bikers and pedestrians in danger. Report them, if you suspect it's an underage boy riding a bike.

Finally, much more social awareness, sustained campaigns, and acceptance rather than denial by parents, can counter this menace. The bike robberies are not all innocent fun, it has grave ramifications for the future.

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The lull in incidents involving doctors and relatives of patients has been broken once again. An indefinite strike called by resident doctors of the civic-run JJ Hospital entered its second day on the weekend. The doctors held a candlelight march to protest the attack on their colleagues and to pressure the management to take action to ensure their safety.

Doctors from other hospitals were supporting the protest as well. It started with over 400 resident doctors from JJ Hospital going on strike over the weekend after two were attacked by the family of a deceased patient.

We had seen these flare ups and thought that a long lull may spell the end of the doc-patients' fracas, which has been a very worrisome aspect of the health service sector in the country. It was not to be and the latest incident shows that measures have to be in place to tackle these incidents before they spiral out of control.
Doctors must have adequate security at hospitals. Fears for safety can inadvertently crop up in medical decisions or diagnosis, where sometimes a professional's judgement may be compromised if they think that their workplace does not care enough to protect them.

Violence is not the answer even if the relatives think that the doctors have neglected them or are shocked by the death of their family member. Our civic hospitals have too many patients, but staff is small is comparison. Awareness campaigns, an intermediary between doctors and patients' family, security measures, counselling, and somehow bringing the sense that patients' relatives and doctors are on the same side, could defuse volatile situations. The time for talk, discussion and clucking in disappointment is over. This is a medical emergency at our hospitals. An antidote needs to be found.

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A still from Bioscopewala, featuring Danny Denzongpa in the lead

When we dial up Danny Denzongpa's number on a Friday evening, we are greeted with a faint "hello". The network is choppy, his voice drifts in and out. "I am in a cool place," he says, referring to Sikkim, where the actor is at the moment. His film, Bioscopewala, based on Rabindranath Tagore's renowned story Kabuliwala, is prepping for release, but Denzongpa chooses to stay far from the hustle and bustle of promotion. "I like it here," says the man of few words.

The 70-year-old actor was a little boy when he saw the Balraj Sahni-starrer Kabuliwala (1961). He had also seen the Bengali film earlier, starring Chhabi Biswas. The Sahni film, however, had an impact on him altogether. "I remember our teacher had taken us to see the film and I was howling in the theatre," Denzongpa says. When he first read Tagore's story in school, he made a drawing inspired by it. "There was a man with a pagdi, standing in a hilly backdrop. There was a stream flowing by, and across it, was a little girl." Bioscopewala, he tells us, was originally supposed to star Amitabh Bachchan. "But somehow, that did not materialise. I have always been a huge fan of the film, so, when Sunil (Doshi, producer and co-writer) approached me, I jumped at the chance," he says.

Doing the film was like going back to his college days. "Most of the crew was from my film institute (FTII) — the director, writer, sound designer Resul (Pookutty). I was the senior most among them. I remember when we were shooting in Ladakh, and I would go jogging at early morning, they'd be surprised and tell me 'you're supposed to rest for two days'. But, I am from the hills!" laughs Denzongpa. He also knew his co-actor Geetanjali Thapa, who plays Minnie, well. His other co-actor Tisca Chopra also doubled up as his Afghani tutor. "I had a tutor on sets to correct my diction, but I would always turn to Tisca. She has stayed in Afghanistan for over 10 years and is fluent in the language."

Unlike the original film that was set in the 1940s, Bioscopewala comes forward in time, in the '80s, during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Having also wrapped up shooting for the Kangana Ranaut starrer Manikarni: Queen of Jhansi, where he plays an army general who was like a father to the queen, the actor is now enjoying the quiet. He is not Mumbai-bound anytime soon, not even for the premiere of Bioscopewala. "This is the person I am. I'm very shy, I don't party, I stay away from events, I have not had a PR in 45 years. You don't see me talking to the press either, nor I am on television. It's not on purpose. I just don't like attracting attention towards myself." And of course, he's not on social media either. "The only thing I am on is my phone, and that also I forget about at times," he laughs.

Also Read: 7 Memorable Roles Of Danny Denzongpa

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Have a love for ice-creams but don't want the calories to settle it into those arms? Perhaps slurping on a Michelle Melt might be more appetising. In 2009, a Washington based restaurant named a ice-cream after the then First Lady. But, why look as far as America? Here in Mumbai alone, various restaurants have named dishes after not just Bollywood celebs but even famous painters. Here's where to go celeb-hopping for your tummy.

The Big Bachchan Slider Bombay Bronx, Breach Candy
The Bombay Bronx at Breach Candy is known for all things Mumbai. Apart from the community table inspired by the dabbawalas, a railway map and a huge painting of Amitabh Bachchan on the wall, the food too is an ode to the city and its people. Therefore, it's not surprising to see a chicken slider dedicated to Big B.

Pic/Bipin Kokate

"The idea came to us when we were making a wall poster dedicated to him," says owner Nakuul Kumar. The grilled slider is made with chicken keema, caramalised onions, tomato slices, cheese, lettuce and served with gun powder mayo. Having named it after one of the biggest names in the country, naturally makes the appetiser a crowd puller. "It gives you a direct hint that it's going to be big and fabulous just like Bachchan," he laughs.

Da Vinci Tini Hoppipola, Khar
No prizes for guessing that  Hoppipola's dessert cocktail, made with Baileys, cream and vodka espresso, is inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci. The drink is served with a painting brush and palette, where the "colours" include three types of chocolate — dark, white and caramel. Patrons are encouraged to paint inside and outside the glass, in a manner of getting playful with chocolate.

Rs 495

Sandeep Sharma, bartender, says, "The idea is to engage our customers, be it through games, or through our drinks?" Initially, they would ask customers to slip in behind the bar counter and try out the activity. "But, that proved tedious. So, we came up with this concept. And because it's to do with painting, who better than Da Vinci, to salute?"

RajiniKhanth Dosa The Junction, Mahim
Formerly an economics teacher at HR College, Vikram R Jumani has always been a huge film buff. When he introduced a line of experimental fusion dosas at his restaurant, he was clear that he wanted to doff his hat to the cinematic greats of Bollywood and also down South.

Rs 99

"In the South it's of course Rajinikanth and here, it's the three Khans. That's why the name is RajiniKhanth." The dosa in question is a spin-off on the pav bhaji dosa, wherein the bhaji is cooked on the dosa and the process is a spectacle for the customers to see. Jumani was aware that the name would catch on. "The taste was a deciding factor in the popularity of the dosa. It's a superhit item," he says.

Sonam Kapoor's cake Healthy Treats, Pali Hill
Divya Ranglani's patrons include Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Shahid Kapoor and Farhan Akhtar. But it's a Sonam Kapoor cake that made her go viral in 2016. "She would order cakes from us quite often. And one day, she decided to post a testimonial where she said the orange and dark chocolate cake is to die for. This was when nobody knew about us," she says.

Rs 1,200 per kg

After that, calls started pouring in to order the 'Sonam Kapoor cake' and before they knew it, the orange and dark chocolate cake had been rechristened. Now that Kapoor has turned vegan, Ranglani has started baking gluten-free and vegan version of the same.

Dylan's Galouti Kebab Raasta, Khar
Since music is second nature to Raasta, owner Joy Singh wanted a dish named after American singer-songwriter, Bob Dylan.

Rs 355

"He is a revolutionary artiste. But we wanted the dish to be of Indian origin, because he loves the country," he says. Singh chose the galouti kebab and gave it a vegetarian twist as Dylan is rumoured to be a vegetarian. "His love for 'magic mushrooms' — fungi famed for their psychedelic effects — led us to choose mushrooms as the main ingredient. After a number of trials we finalised this galouti and named it as Dylan's Galouti," he says.

Lord Brown's Gift Gymkhana 91, Lower Parel
At Gymkhana 91, you can drink to Lord Burdoch Brown's legacy. Concocted using Jim Beam, pineapple juice, peach juice and smoked cinnamon, it is a refreshing and not-too-potent drink dedicated to the British officer for his contribution to spices.

Rs 595. Pic/Ashish Raje

"Brown established the Ancharakany Cinnamon Estate in 1767 under the East India Company. It's reputed to be Asia's largest Cinnamon estate," says owner Aditya Hegde, who introduced the cocktail last September. Since then, it has naturally got guests curious.

"They do ask about the name and story behind it as the drink also involves drama and theatre, because the smoking of the drink is done in front of the guests at the table," he adds. Hegde says it is common practice at Gymkhanas to dedicate dishes and drinks to somebody iconic, but not so in stand-alone restaurants. "We believe in giving due credit to the person to whom the dish belongs and that's how the trend started," he says.

Dara Singh Thali Mini Punjab's Lake Side, Powai
The Dara Singh thali is not for the weak-hearted. It packs in the best of unlimited eating. It has aloo paratha, chur chur de naan, makki di roti, murg mussalam rice, lamb  yoghurt curry, chicken Amritsari and lot more.

Rs 1,600 (non-veg) and Rs 1,200 (veg)

The accompaniments include four types of beverages, three chaat options, a soup, pickle, chutney and seven desserts. In all, the thali packs in 40 items. Jagjit Singh, co-owner says, "It needs a champion to finish it. And who better than our famous Indian professional wrestler Dara Singh.

Indians looked up to him as a role model." From Uttar Pradesh, to Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan, the thali brings together the best of North Indian flavours. While they have not met Dara Singh, his son Vindu Dara Singh has sampled this thali. "He was happy to see a thali named after his father. While eating, he was remembering nuggets about him and his father eating together from one plate during his childhood. Vindu loved the lamb yoghurt curry in the thali,"  adds Singh.

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Pics/Crossing lines

On a fine April morning, when Mumbai-based slackliner Samar Farooqui drove into Settlement Number 63 in Chtaura, a town wedged between Beirut and Damascus, all he could see was a sea of white tents glistening in the sun. Under the plastic tarps lived thousands of displaced Syrians who had fled to the Bekaa Valley, the largest affected area and temporary home to over 3,00,000 Syrian refugees, when a brutal civil war broke out in 2011. Lugging the nylon webbings, carbiners and other slacklining equipment, Farooqui and 14 other volunteers, stationed themselves at the nearby parking lot waiting for the refugee children.

This was to be their playground for the next two weeks. Life on the line Slacklining is the art of balancing along a narrow, flexible piece of portable fabric which is usually anchored between two points, mostly trees. "Apart from being a fun fitness activity, it has an incredible ability to connect people, start conversations and change lives," says 27- year old Farooqui. It's the reason he booked a flight to Beirut and signed up for the Crossing Lines Project, an initiative launched in 2013 by Sonya Iverson, a scientist from San Francisco, who uses slacklining to change the way we see and talk about refugees. "I had met Sonya several times at different events. The last time we interacted was at the Move Copengagen festival in Denmark, when she mentioned her plan to introduce slacklining to Syrian refugees and organise a highline festival in Lebanon. It was just the kind of inspiration I was looking for," says the Neral resident who made a career out of slacklining when he founded Slacklife Inc. — a sport and recreation company — in 2014. A level playing field At the Chtaura parking lot, the lines are hooked to the cars in the absence of trees. It's one of the things the sport has taught him — to make the best use of whatever is available at hand. "In Mumbai, I've slacklined in building compounds, garden and promenades. In fact, I was even been arrested for slacklining at Marine Drive," he laughs. Once the line was set up at the camp, Farooqui says the excitement among kids was palpable.

"Children everywhere are the same. You don't have to be concerned about the language or the way you look. I didn't speak Arabic but we managed to communicate fairly well through non-verbal cues in those two weeks. With hand gestures, I would tell them to slow down or stop or move ahead," he says. It was through two local volunteer-based NGOs Salaam and Sonbola that provides education and recreational facilities to those living in the camps in the Bekaa Valley, that the team got access to the children. Forging a personal rapport with each child — there were nearly 400 of them — was difficult for the volunteers who hailed from Iran, America and the UK.

"On the face of it, you couldn't tell that the children had gone through so much trauma. There were some who were more reserved and took time to open up," he says. Periodically, the team would sit down and discuss the day's progress. "If one of students perhaps struggled through the slacklining experience and we noticed it, we discussed it and psycho-analysed it till we came up with a solution to make sure that we didn't leave with someone feeling demoralised," he says. In the two weeks, Farooqui picked up a couple of Arabic words from them, and in turn taught them English. What was most interesting, though was how the sport changed the dynamics among the children themselves. "When you are standing on the rope, wobbling and holding the hand of the person standing on ground, you are opening up to them. So the bullies in the group ended up bonding with the rest. Everybody was on the level playing field," he says.

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A result of the 2013 floods, which wreaked havoc and killed thousands of people, is that the river Mandakini, which passes the temple area disappears after a stretch

I happily strut on through the Gaurikund market where vendors pour hot chai and roll parathas for eager yatris freezing under their overalls. It is April 29, the first darshan of the season. I have set out at 4.45 am, dodging horses and men wearing pithoo baskets ready to carry pilgrims to the top. I am in the company of a rishi, who grins at my woollens. "It is going to be sunny today," she says, wrapping a rice-paper thin shawl over her white skirt and blouse.

The path is peppered with signboards advising yatris to check their pace

Trek record
A cobbled path begins where the kaccha road ends. A green signboard reads: Kedarnath 16 km. The 2013 flood washed away the old route. Uttarkashi's Nehru Institute of Mountaineering re-charted the route via Gaurikund and passing Jungle Chatti Bheembali and Linchauli to reach the basecamp. Then, another kilometre leads to the temple. Rain shelters, medical camps, bio toilets and potable water fountains appear frequently.

The path has toilets and food stalls and medical camps are regular intervals

When the going gets tough
Uphill, at gradient 8, I set a steady pace, holding onto an orange railing; matching the sparse spotting of crimson-red Buransh flowers in an otherwise green flora valley. The gushing of a waterfall and a dawn in the breaking lend a quietude broken by enthusiastic cries of "Jai Bhole!" and "Har Har Mahadev!". I stop at each signboard that advises walkers to take regular breaks. An hour of evening walk in the city, I realised, was not enough training to adjust to the thin air quality and keep the body supple.

The flood had washed away the old route

Giving up is easy
Ahead of me, a couple plonks onto a bench. "Aur kitna dur hai," the wife asks. A sweeper, cleaning the tracks, laughs, "Bas che ghante chalte jao. Upar mat dekho (Keep walking continuously for six hours. Don't look up to see how far it is)." By now, I have lost sight of my 58-year-old companion, who has kept a steady lead.
I stare at the green board that reads 14 km, the time is 5.30 am. A tendency to get cramps on my right leg, I am surprised it hasn't revolted yet. But there's a sharp pull in my thigh, a new pain on this new adventure. I think to myself: "Why did I sign up for this? Turn back. Just turn back." Probably from the distress look on my face, a woman on horseback sees me and screams from afar: "Don't give up. You will make it."

The tough get going
This is my first victory. To turn a deaf ear to my feet's pleads. By the time I make it to Bheembali, the road steepens. People who have finished their darshan shower encouraging words and promise the ever-winding road will smoothen. By the time I reach Kedarnath basecamp, the clouds have covered the peaks, and there's a light rain splatter. I follow a group through steep patches that help you cut the road time. Sometimes, I find myself on all fours, holding onto branches. My inspiration pool is slowly evaporating.

Miracles find you
In that moment, the clouds clear and the snow peaks make an appearance. It fills me with gratitude — for everything that is right and wrong in my life. The walk down to the confluence of the Mandakini and Saraswati and dip my hands in the icy cold water. I skip the line to the temple, bow to the dhwaj on the temple and turn around for the road downhill.

A walk to remember
The rains have washed the muddy road and turned it into a sludge fest. I follow a couple and their son down a 'short cut' which catches me off-guard. It is open to the valley, and one wrong step will have me tumbling down. This descent is long but we walk it with a joyous gait. The burden was my own uphill, but now, it is ours to share.

8
No. of hours it takes in a state-run bus from Rishikesh to Sonprayag

Adventure & Religious
Tour & taste
Food and Leisure
Relaxing
Educational

Eat with your hands, please," Lloyd Braganza who runs one of Goa's most popular restaurants, tells us, rolling up the sleeves of his floral shirt, revealing a koi fish tattoo. We are at Copper Leaf, one of the best fish thali destinations at Porvorim, and for company we have chef and restauranteur Braganza, his wife Nerissa and their seven-year-old son Naethan. Llyod stops talking when the thali arrives. A mound of rice and a crispy fillet of matzo are skirted by coconut curry, clams masala, kismuri (dried fish and coconut salad), bhindi fry, gulab jamun, sol kadi and banana.

"This is Goa's most authentic thali, and locals as well as tourists come here for their fill," Marissa tells us. The fish has a sweet freshness, and the curry is hearty. The meal switches on our sussegad mood. But, there's more to this stop than indulging in gluttony. Six years after enticing Goans with delicious meals at his eatery, House of Lloyd, the family is set to open shop in Mumbai and ahead of its launch, the Braganzas are happy to give us a tour of their Goa-inspired menu.

The pork chops

Fish Market: The next stop is the Malim jetty where most of the fresh catch of the day coming in from along the coast is sold. Scenes of women haggling over prices, to fishermen unloading their catch and slicing the guts, greet us. We see ribbon fish, ponies and sole fish drying in the sun, apart from mud crabs piled in open crates.

Yeast Ecpected, Poie: We are at a nameless bakery. We enter a small room that opens into a dungeon-like opening with a woodfire oven burning a crimson orange. In a corner, a mixer is folding dough. One of the bakers, Gajanand Naik, shows off a basket full of poie. "At midnight, we start making poie. The dough is mixed for 30
minutes and left to rest for three hours," says Naik. Made from husk and wheat, the art of poie has lost a prominent ingredient — the toddy. When the Portuguese introduced the bread in Goa, they replaced yeast with locally available toddy.

Plum and white chocolate with vodka

Rassa Omelette: Our next stop is, again, an unnamed snack stall. "You are known by your product. There's no need for a name," Braganza laughs. A server puts a fat chunk of omelette on a plate and drowns it in rassa. We tear a piece of poie, that soaks up the gravy. The fluffy omelette and poie do little to douse the spice notes from the Kashmiri chillies and garam masala giving the curry its kick.

Fruit Cocktails Pork chops and Serradura: Our final stop is at House of Llyod, situated on the veranda of his 150-year-old ancestral home. Braganza has thrown over a chef's coat over his shorts and is busy behind the bar. Christmas seems to have come early as we alternate between a green jalepeno-passion fruit cocktail and a vodka-spiked plum and white chocolate. No sugar, juice or additives, the cocktails are blitzed on order. Braganza's food sings a melodious tune, one whose lyrics have been written over years oscillating between struggle and success. In 1996, his first venture was Chopsticks, a Chinese restaurant at Baga, which put him on the Goa culinary map. "I had no culinary degree and brought on board a chef from Royal China in Mumbai, to help. By 25, I had money and luxury cars. Then, I had to shut shop because of losses, " says Braganza. He began at the lowest rung, again, as waiter. In 2003, he opened Lloyds, a five-table Goan and barbeque restaurant in Calangute. Partners drove his business to closure in 2011. "Nerissa coaxed me to give it one more try. It would be my last one, I told her," Braganza recalls. The same year, together they rebuilt the restaurant on the current premise — a tile-roof open-air tent that gives the feel of a garden setting overlooking the heritage property. She took charge of the front of the house, and he revisited his childhood to master family recipes with his mother.

The Juhu outpost. Pic/Ashish Raje

Soul Food: Goan food, says Branganza, is meant to be consumed two days after it has been cooked. The gravies thicken from concentration of flavours. We understand this when we dip a garlic poie into a bowl of bloody red sorpotel. The spares have merged with the spices and transformed the curry with meaty flavour. This dish is one of the most tedious to make, Braganza says. "First, you boil the meat, dice it, and fry the parts separately. After frying the onions, you add the meat that will hold the masala," says Braganza. While it is best served three days later, chef has a serving reserved for himself that is two years old. For the Mumbai outlet, all the house curries and sauces, along with poie, will come from Goa. The most awaited dish — the barbeque grilled pork chops — makes an entry. "This takes me back to my heydays. At Lloyd's, when I fired the grill, people would follow the aromas to order the dish that was smelling so delicious," says Braganza, falling silent when the dish arrives. The meal ends with Marissa's serradura, a classic cream and biscuit pudding. The dry powder is soothed by the creamy condensed milk mush and we lick our spoons clean. We can't wait to have the next serving back home. Mr and Mrs Braganza, welcome to Mumbai.

Chef Lloyd Braganza with wife Nerissa and son Naethan

Also read - Mumbai Food: Chef Raji Gupta's pop up offers flavours from Kerala to Goa

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Accepting the futility of genres, of boxing songs into different compartments like stacked products in supermarket shelves, seems to be at the forefront of Rafiq Bhatia's musical endeavour. The 30-year-old American of Indian descent is the guitarist for a New York-based indie outfit called Son Lux. But it's his recent solo album, Breaking English, which makes the listener really question the need for musical boundaries, of sticking labels to a composition as if it's packaged meat.

The title track of the album, for instance, is not jazz, is not electronica, is not lounge, but all of these generic classifications rolled into one lush sound with a coherent narrative, where Bhatia's melancholic guitar plays the role of the protagonist. Each sonic detail in the track is well-defined, to the point where even though fellow Son Lux member Ian Chang's drum beats seem dissonant, they fit like a glove into the overall musical fabric. Bhatia describes this sensibility when he tells us over the phone from Berlin, where he's on tour, "Ryan (Lott, the vocalist for Son Lux) would say that instead of building a house, designing a room and then placing a chair in it, why don't we start with the chair first, and then design the room around it before building the house. There is a theory in poetry called organicism, where the poet lets each individual verse define the form that the poem will take. That is kind of similar to what I'm trying to do with my music."

He further explains his musical process when he narrates a story about one of his influences, Sam Rivers, the late American jazz great. "I've read that he would attend the concerts of all his peers, and purposely study their music to understand what they were trying to do. But this wasn't to replicate what they were playing. Instead, it was to consciously avoid it. Similarly, John Coltrane took the music of his predecessors and retooled the entire musical vocabulary keeping a similar underlying foundation, but with new pathways built on top of it," he says, giving us an indication of how he doesn't hesitate to flush rule books down the toilet.

Hybridity, in fact, lies at the core of Bhatia's creative evolution. The basis for this, he says, might well be his mixed identity. Born in North Carolina, he has never really fit in to any particular community. For, even though his parents are of Gujarati origin, they grew up in Tanzania, before moving to London and then finally to the US. So, while his brown skin stood out among the white kids in his school, he didn't feel completely at home among the Indian community either. "Everybody thinks that I am something else. So, my music is a result of a need to express my identity. It's a form of therapy at some level, because it's also a way of accepting who I am," he says.

He adds that this therapy started early. When he was about eight or nine, the older desi kids in Bhatia's neighbourhood would pick him up in a car and stop at a parking lot, listening to the hip-hop albums that became one of his earliest influences. Was he drawn to them because of the political overtones that such songs often embody? "Not really," he answers, adding, "I was only in the third grade at the time, and I couldn't even understand the words. So it was the musicality that I fell for. But the deeper question is, why were a bunch of brown kids sitting in a car in a parking lot and empathising with hip-hop music? What is it that was drawing them to the words? So you see, it's difficult to disentangle the politics from the music."

It follows thus that an intertwining of politics and music sometimes features in his own compositions. For example, Hoods Up, a complex instrumental piece, drew its inspiration from Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who was cruelly shot down because of a case of mistaken identity. The guitarist says, "I feel some amount of compulsion to express my [political] ideas. But sometimes, it's easy to get carried away with being overtly political because there is so much to be angry about, and often the responsibility falls on artistes to emphasise it. So I would say that politics is a general part of what inspires my music, because there are so many other facets of my personality that also make their way in."

Essentially, then, what Bhatia wants to keep doing is create genre-defying tracks where attention to detail is of paramount importance. "When you take the details and all the generalities of music for granted, that's when your songs start sounding more like other people's music. That doesn't mean you can't make great tracks. It's just that the less you consider those things, the less is the chance that you will make music that departs from convention. The flip side is that when you think actively about each decision, and each one comes from a place of individuality, it becomes hard to find a coherent logic that ties all those things together. And that ends up being the riddle that I am constantly trying to solve with my music."

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A hot and humid climate is not your make-up's best friend. To prevent it from melting and make it last longer, stay away from liquid or cream bronzers and invest in good powder eyeshadows, suggest experts.

Annanya Sabarwal, Country Head at Kiko Milano India and Davinder Kaur, make-up expert at MyGlamm, have listed tips for a tension free time at a summer wedding:

Cleanse the skin with a gentle cleanser and rub ice wrapped in a clean cotton cloth, all over your face. It refreshes and hydrates the skin. Follow with a moisturiser as per your skin type.

Opt for an oil-free primer before applying make-up as it helps it last longer and holds your make-up up through any condition. If you use foundation, apply an oil-free formula with a foundation brush. After you've applied your liquid foundation, powder your face with a small brush.

Take caution with bronzers. Stay away from liquid or cream bronzers, as they will not hold up in the heat; try a matte powder instead.

If your eyelids are extra oily, apply a mattifying product first, as it gives a perfect finish to any texture of eye shadows and makes it stay longer without creasing the eyeshadow. Stick to powder eyeshadows over creamy formulas.

As for liners, waterproof liquid liner is the best idea.

A waterproof mascara is a must for every bride, especially for a summer one.

Opt for soft, powdery formula over cream blush that will look fresh and absorb oil. For more staying power, apply cheek stain, then dust a matching powder blush on top of it.

Complete your look with a matte lipstick in coral, peach and pink colours. Before you do that, start off by using a good lip scrub and then moisturise your lips with balm so your pencil will glide along easily. Take your lip pencil on your entire lips as this will prevent your lipstick from bleeding and supply more holding power. Cover your lips with the lipstick once the base is set.

Make sure to use a fixing spray. If you don't have one, rose water is a good substitute too.

Do not to forget to carry a kit for quick touch ups, it should include a compact, a lipstick, powder-free blotting papers to remove shine, and a small tube of concealer with a tiny synthetic brush for quick touch-ups.

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This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever

Dress up in light and bright outfits for a summer wedding. At the same time, do not forget to play with appropriate fabrics. To look bright and beautiful, experts suggest minimalistic embellishments and soft Maheshwari and Chanderi fabric for your attires. Designer Sweety Arora, and Renu Rana, Founder at Sihali Jageer, have listed what to wear under the sun, literally.

1. During summer, go with cool fabrics suited to a sizzling day. Think feather-light hand woven silks, fluid modal and cottons. A flowy dress from the traditional Maheshwari cottons and matching Coimbatore cotton silks with Chinese collar will add the extra glam to your look. You can also try Tangail fabrics beautiful cape tops with ikkat pants that look extremely trendy.

2. Colours like pink, blue, and yellow exude charm and tenderness. So, go for delicate pastels, soft maheshwari and Chanderi with a hint of metal, with gold and silver jamdani hand embroidery and booties. It is a perfect synthesis of traditional fabrics for contemporary needs and style.

3. To create an ethnic look, pair chanderi kurta and silver pajama with heavy Dhakai jamdani dupatta. You can also add an angrakha jamdani wraparound kurta over it for a dramatic twist.

4. For a beautiful fusion of traditional and contemporary look, the clothes must blend different styles from various parts of the country, from Rajput to Afghani traditions to our own Indian heritage, thus creating looks which are classy, glamorous and reflect one's signature style and love of colour. This mixture of different influences only helps in creating unique designs, clean cuts and modern style.

5. Rely on breezy prints with minimalistic embellishment.

6. Go for silhouettes that don't bog you down. Go for sheer skirts and wrap tops, cowl dresses, draped saris, light lehengas and anarkalis.

7. Keep your footwear as quirky and off-beat as the rest of your ensemble. Go for customised jutis, or blingy canvas shoes.

8. Invest in nice statement neckpieces and layered neckpieces as they look elegant, comfortable and unique. Try double rings with pearly strings, palm rings and pearl kadah.

9. Try to explore new designs and shapes in bags like bucket bag-inspired potlis, give an indo twist to messenger bags. You can also opt for customised miniature bag packs as those will make you stand out from the crowd.

(Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from IANS)

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Voting day is here, but not all of us remember how exactly to go about it. Don't worry, mid-day's refresher has it all covered. Among the most important things to remember is to not forget to carry any one of the 11 accepted identity proof documents (see: Valid proof of identity) and to not use your mobile phone in and around the polling booth. Voting begins at 7 am sharp and will last until 6 pm.

While some of us may have got the voting slips, those who haven't got theirs need not panic. All you need to do is go up to one of the helpdesks set up at street corners and look for your name. If your name is on the list, the corresponding voting booth number and other details will be mentioned there. You can also look for your name online before leaving the house on https://electoralsearch.in. If your name is not on this list, you cannot vote. No argument. Do remember to register yourself on https://www.nvsp.in before the assembly elections.

Police officers being briefed about bandobast duty a day before voting day in the city. Pic/Sameer Marakande

No mobile phones

Mobile phones cannot be used within 100 metres of the polling booth, but for the working population of the city, who either votes on its way to or from work, you may carry your phone with you but must remember to either switch it off or keep it on silent mode. Cars and bikes, too, will have to be parked 100 metres away from polling booths. Only designated vehicles carrying people with disabilities will be allowed close to polling booths.

Only 11 valid ID documents

Please remember that the voter slip is not proof of identity. You have to also carry any one of the 11 identity cards. If you have none of them, once again, you cannot vote.

Please do not argue with the election duty staff, they have no role to play in this.

Shivaji Jondhale, Mumbai City Collector, said, "If there is no name on the electoral list, then people cannot vote. It is very important to be a registered voter. Further, if there is no voting slip but your name is on the electoral list of the Election Commission and you have a valid ID card, then by checking with the help desk you can find out the polling station and can exercise your right to vote."

Wait for the beep

The confusion about the long press while registering your vote on the electronic voting machine was cleared by Collector officials. They said your vote is considered registered once the long beep is heard. Do keep your finger pressed on the button until you hear it or your vote will not be registered.

Live Blog: Elections 2019 Phase 4 Live Updates: Anil Ambani, Rekha cast their vote

Come out and vote!

The Election Commission has taken various measures to ensure citizens come out and vote. The total number of voters in the city, is 96.39 lakh. The EC and Collector offices of the city are aiming at a voting percentage of at least 61% this time from 41% in 2009 and 51% in 2014.

Citizens, too, have come forward to help increase voter turnout. An ALM from Juhu has organised a pick-up for senior citizens to the polling booths. The EC, too, has organised help for people with disabilities. Further, in order to ensure proper transport system during the voting process, the Collector offices have organised 2,985 vehicles in Mumbai suburban district and 1,769 vehicles in Mumbai Island City.

There is a staff of 15,000 working in the island city and over 60,000 in the suburbs on election duty. There are 2,601 polling stations in the island city which has two constituencies, and 7,472 polling stations in the suburbs that have four constituencies, said officials.

Also read: Elections 2019: Mumbai Police to deploy 40,000 cops on election duty; issue guidelines

Students, take that selfie!

This year, the EC and government officials have been explaining the electoral process to young students in the hope that it reaches their parents at home. One of the initiatives is the 'selfie' movement, where students have been urged to take their parents to polling booths and put up selfies on social media with their parents after voting.

96.39l
No. of voters in Mumbai

61
Voting percentage that the Election Commission is expecting in Mumbai

Also read: Elections 2019: 422 polling stations in Mumbai declared 'critical'

Valid proof of identity

• Passport
• Driving licence
• Identity card issued by the Election Commission/Central and state government/ Public Enterprises / Local Body Institutes
• Bank passbook with photograph
• PAN card from the Income Tax Department
• ID card given by the Census Commissioner
• Job Card under Employment Guarantee Scheme
• Health card from the labour ministry
• Pension passbook or pension payment order with photograph of the retired employee
• ID card of MLA/MP
• Aadhaar card, too, will be considered as identity proof

Also read: Elections 2019: Popular politicians and key battles in Mumbai

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With the city going to the polls today, a total of 422 polling stations has been declared 'critical', which includes 65 from Mumbai suburban and 357 from the Island City. As part of the special arrangements made at polling stations, live web-casting and video-recording will be done. The procedures will be monitored closely and immediate action would be taken in case of any suspicious activities.

As per the instructions given by the Election Commission (EC), the booths that polled more than 75 per cent votes in the last elections or where the same candidate got 75 per cent votes have been marked as 'critical'. Even the law and order situation of the last election has been taken into consideration before deciding on this.

According to sources, live web-casting will be done at more than 10 per cent (763) of the total 7,472 polling stations in suburban Mumbai. The procedure will be carried out based on the terms of the 65 'critical' polling stations out of the 763. Whereas, in proper Mumbai, of the 357 polling stations declared critical, web-casting will be conducted at 260. As part of the security arrangements, additional force, including teams of the Central Industrial Security Force, will be deployed within a 100-metre radius of polling centres.

Live Blog: Elections 2019 Phase 4 Live Updates: Anil Ambani, Rekha cast their vote

Speaking to mid-day, a senior official said, "No polling station has been found to be sensitive even after a detailed study, but even the critical ones will be monitored closely by us. The live web-casting will be continuously monitored by the EC-appointed observers."

Also read: Elections 2019 in Mumbai: Everything you need to know before you vote

763
No. of polling stations in suburban Mumbai where web-casting will be done

260
No. of polling stations in Mumbai where web-casting will be done

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An auto driver has been arrested by the Mumbai police for looting a senior citizen in Chembur last month. According to the police, the arrested accused has been identified as Subedar Bind, 34. An officer said that on March 23, 72-year-old Kalawati Pednekar was looted by Bind and a friend. Pednekar told the police that on that day she had visited Chembur Gymkhana to attend a wedding.

However, owing to her advanced age, she had become tired and left the reception around 9pm. Outside, she found Bind's auto and got in. On the way to Pednekar's residence in Kalina, the driver stopped his auto near Kurla, where his friend, whose name is not known, got into the auto. Bind told Pednekar that the friend wanted to be dropped off at Kalina.

On the way, he stopped the auto and told Pednekar that because he had some work, the friend would drop her home. Bind's friend drove the auto for a few kilometers when he stopped the auto and told her that the fuel was over and hence he could not drive any further. Pednekar paid him and took another auto home. Once she reached home, she found all her valuables missing from her bag.

She approached the Chembur police and lodged an FIR against the auto driver. An officer said, "We scanned CCTV footage and spotted the accused. On April 26, we arrested him from Uttar Pradesh. We are looking for the other accused." During investigation, the police came to know that Bind had arrived in Mumbai one month ago and had been driving the auto of one of his friends.

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Busy Mumbaikars who cannot stop at the local vegetable vendor have found increasing comfort in stocking up their groceries from online portals offering attractive discounts and home delivery, a recent study has found.

The study, titled, Assessing the Impact of Online Grocery Shopping in Mumbai found that middle class citizens spent the highest amount of time shopping online due to time constraints.

The study found that people between the age group of 35-45, primarily married couples, are regular user of online grocery shopping portals. Representation pic/Getty Images

The survey, conducted among 117 respondents in Mumbai, found that people between the age group of 35-45 are regular user of online grocery shopping portals like Amazon Pantry, Grofers, Nature's Basket, Big Basket and others.

Married couples are more regular on the sites as well, due to their nature of their jobs. It also observed that websites combining offers or discounts on products along with home delivery services were the main attraction for customers.

Pick-up points to collect groceries ordered online, like this one by D-Mart in Bandra east, have also proved to be a hit. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Dr Rupali Rajesh, associate professor at the Vivekanand Education Society Institute of Management Studies and Research, who published the paper, said accessibility and discounts offered are the main attractions for buyers.

"Mumbai is considered as one of the busiest cities where people have to commute for hours. It becomes really hectic for people to go for grocery shopping, which is why the demand for online grocery shopping is growing. I found out through my study that discounts and saving time were the two biggest parameters for deciding the mood of the buyers," Dr Rajesh said.

Dr Rupali Rajesh

"Our data shows that as many as 41.9 per cent of the surveyed people who regularly use online grocery portals are in the age group of 35-45 years. This is followed by the age group in 25-35, who have a daily usage rate of 31.6 per cent. While interviewing respondents, it was observed that 68 per cent of the users who fall into these two age categories were married. They have to handle office work along with domestic activities, which hardly laves them with enough time to go to the markets," added Dr Rajesh.

The study also revealed that citizens earning in the range of R1 lakh to 5 lakh annually did the highest amount of online grocery shopping, mainly due to discounts provided there. Most of these sites provide discounts on groceries, with several offering the highest discounts on weekends. It also pointed out that the possibility of replacing products, wide variety and availability also proved to be a factor for online shopping.

41.9% People in the age group of 35-45 who shop for groceries online

31.6% People in the age group of 25-35 who shop for groceries online

68% Married couples in the two age groups who shop online

Rs 1 lakh -Rs 5 lakh Income range of middle class online shoppers

(The survey was conducted among 117 participants)

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A teenager lost his hard-earned money that he was taking home to Bihar, when four to five people looted it. The accused, one of whom attacked him with a knife are at large, and he feels it is God's grace that he is alive and with his family.

Dharmesh Sharma, 19, a resident of Kalyan, works as a JCB operator. According to Sharma, on April 23, he wanted to go to Bihar by a train which starts from Kalyan railway station. At the inquiry window he was told it would arrive at 11 pm.

A person standing nearby claimed he was also going to Bihar and took him to platform 6. Later the man told him the train would start from Kurla (LTT) and after convincing him, took him there on the pretext of better seats.

But at Kurla the accused took him to an isolated spot, and threatening him with a knife, asked him for his valuables. "I pushed him and started running away. But he attacked me with the knife," alleged Sharma.

Soon, the man was joined by four-five more men who stole Rs 7,000 from Sharma, and his mobile. Senior Inspector Kalyan GRP, A Bartakke said, "We have registered the offence. We waiting for Sharma, so we can get details on the suspects' appearance etc."

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A missing platform stands between Mumbaikars and the restored tram the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had promised to set up for display at Bhatia Baug, by the first week of April. While the tram coach is nearly ready, the tender for construction of the platform, which will serve as its base, didn't receive an adequate response, and a second tender cannot be floated until after the Lok Sabha elections in the city.

The BMC floated a tender last month to appoint a contractor who will construct a 3 feet tall platform. The tram, as well as part of tracks, will be installed on top of it. The overall of cost of restoration of the tram and construction of the platform is estimated to be R28 lakh. "We received a response from a single bidder so we have to float another tender. However, since the model code of conduct is in place, we will have to wait for the elections to get over," said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of A ward. He added that they will float the tender next week and it will remain open for a period of eight days.

Also read: Elections 2019: 422 polling stations in Mumbai declared 'critical'

Based on the plan, the BMC is considering letting people enter the tram under certain conditions. Before the final setup, however, the BMC will need the approval of the heritage committee. Unlike most projects that are approved based on documents, for this project, the committee members will have to inspect the tram. On April 24, A ward officials wrote to the heritage committee asking them to inspect the tram and give their approval for the project. Dighavkar added that the tram will be brought to a godown in Cuffe Parade from Rabale sometime this week.

Over the past couple of months, the tram was restored in a workshop in Rabale using the parts of another tram that was functional in Kolkata between 1874 and 1907. Once the tram has been assembled at Bhatia Baug, the BMC is planning to set up lighting in the area to attract visitors. Civic officials are also planning to install LED screens inside the tram which will display information about the history of trams in Mumbai from the horse drawn ones till the electrical ones which were taken off the road around 50 years ago.

Also read: Elections 2019: Netas appeal to citizens to vote

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The Juhu police have arrested a 37-year-old man for allegedly flashing and making vulgar gestures at women and college students while riding his bike between Juhu and Khar. According to the police, he has been identified as Nitin Bharadwaj, a resident of Malad.

Requesting anonymity, a police officer said, "Bharadwaj used to target women and students near malls, gyms and other public areas along the Santacruz-Juhu-Khar stretch. To avoid being seen in CCTV footages, he would wear helmets all the time."

Speaking to mid-day, Pandharinath Wavhal, senior PI of Juhu police station said, "We have been receiving several complaints about the same type of offence. A team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Paramjit Singh Dahiya, and after working on the case for 90 days, we finally caught hold of the accused."
Police sources said that Bharadwaj was an estate agent and he runs a family jewellery business. Till now, a total of seven cases have been registered against him, of which the Juhu police have five.

A police officer said, "A team of 15 police personnel headed by two senior officers was formed. In the course of the investigation, police checked more than 300 vehicles and 100 CCTV cameras. It was getting all the more difficult for them as the accused used to change his number plates whenever he travelled between Malad and Juhu."

Meanwhile, the cops were working on the details of the accused provided by the victims, and this, apart from human intelligence, helped them nab the culprit. Speaking to mid-day, Dahiya said, "The accused has been arrested under relevant sections of the IPC and POCSO Act. We are checking whether he has any criminal records in other police stations. After being produced in court, he was sent to police custody till April 30."

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As Mumbaikars set out to vote in the Phase 4 of Lok Sabha elections 2019 a glitch in the EVM machine led to delay in voting at a polling booth in Malad west.

Voting was yet to begin at booth number 162 of Malad West, Daulat school in Mumbai when this report was being filed. A technical glitch was detected in the EVM machine that led to the delay.

#LokSabhaElections2019 : Voting is yet to begin at booth number 162 of Malad West in Mumbai after a glitch in EVM was detected. #Maharashtra

— ANI (@ANI) April 29, 2019

The machine was being replaced by the poll authorities.

Also read: Elections 2019 in Mumbai: Everything you need to know before you vote

A total of 422 polling stations have been declared critical which include 65 from the suburbs of Mumbai and 357 from the Island city. 

The instructions given by the Election Commission said that the booths that polled more than 75 per cent votes in the last elections or where the same candidate got 75 per cent votes have been marked as critical. Law and order situation has also been kept in mind. 

Meanwhile, veteran actress Shubha Khote, BJP MP Paresh Rawal and his wife Swaroop Sampat have already cast their vote.

In yet another constituency, voting got delayed at booth no 19 in Sion Koliwada in Pratikshanagar as the EVM machine was not working. The voting process got delayed by an hour by the time the glitch was fixed. 

However, a senior official who spoke to mid-day said, "No polling station has been found to be sensitive even after a detailed study, but even the critical ones will be monitored closely by us. The live webcasting will be continuously monitored by the EC-appointed observers."

(with inputs from Samiullah Khan)

Also read: Elections 2019 Phase 4 Live Updates: Anil Ambani, Rekha cast their vote

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Polling for the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls began on Monday in 71 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across nine states. Over 12.79 crore voters will decide the fate of 945 candidates today. Mumbai Police on Twitter shared a heartwarming post of senior citizens at the polling booths. 

Mumbai police on Twitter known for their quirky yet remarkable tweets, share an impactful message of senior citizens of Mumbai setting an example for the youth of the city with their active voting.

Leading by example, they vote till this age so that democracy lives longer and healthier! They have fulfilled their responsibility of creating a legacy, it is our responsibility to keep it alive. MRA Marg policemen assisting senior citizens to vote comfortably #LetsVoteMumbai pic.twitter.com/lDUkJyJSVm

— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) April 29, 2019

The Mumbai police is also seen helping the elderly voters at the polling booths by holding their hand and offering them assistance as they walk towards the booth.

Raising the bar for the youth, senior citizens across the city are turning out in large numbers at the polling booths to vote. It is our pleasure to help them in every little way we can. #YourChoiceMatters #LetsVoteMumbai #LokSabhaElections2019 #लà¥Â‹à¤Â•à¤¸à¤­à¤¾à¤¨à¤¿à¤µà¤¡à¤£à¥Â‚à¤Â•à¥¨à¥¦à¥§à¥¯ pic.twitter.com/jH2KAO0IcS

— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) April 29, 2019

As many as 40 polling booths in these constituencies, including 26 in suburban Mumbai, are being managed women. As many as 3.11 crore voters spread across the Mumbai metropolitan region and northern and western Maharashtra are eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the fate of 323 candidates in the fray in these 17 seats.

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Thane: A day after six people on election duty were rescued from a lift at a school in Maharashtra's Thane district, three more poll staffers got stuck in the same elevator as it malfunctioned again on Monday, an official said.

The three poll staffers were using the lift in Sahakar Prasarak Mandal School at Kalwa town in the morning when it got stuck on the building's fourth floor after developing a technical snag, Thane civic body's regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam said. The fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and managed to rescue those stuck in the lift after around 15 minutes, he said. The lift was being used by the poll staff to reach the classrooms where the election material was kept, Kadam said. On Sunday, six poll staffers got stuck in the school's lift for around 40 minutes before being rescued, he said.

An average 18.39 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first four hours in Maharashtra's 17 seats on Monday as polling for the fourth and last phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state was underway. Polling began at 7 am and long queues were seen outside many booths, some of which were decorated with balloons and 'rangolis'. So far, Nandurbar Lok Sabha seat recorded highest polling at 24.59 per cent while Kalyan constituency saw the lowest voter turnout of 13.91 per cent, according to an official statement. The voting figures till 11 am in other constituencies are as follows: Dhule- 18.26 per cent, Dindori - 21.06 per cent, Nashik- 17.22 per cent, Palghar- 21.46 per cent, Bhiwandi- 17.25 per cent, Thane-17.43 per cent, Mumbai-North- 19.46 per cent, Mumbai-North West 17.64 per cent, Mumbai-North East-18.39 per cent, Mumbai-North Central- 16.21 per cent, Mumbai-South Central-16.80 per cent, Mumbai- South 15.51 per cent, Maval- 18.23 per cent, Shirur- 18.65 per cent and Shirdi 20.55 per cent.

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A dog with pro-BJP stickers on its body was detained along with his master in north Maharashtra's Nandurbar town where polling for the Lok Sabha elections took place Monday.

Eknath Motiram Chaudhary (65), a resident of Navnathnagar area, was spotted with his dog near Andhare hospital Monday afternoon. The dog's body was found covered with stickers bearing the BJP's symbol and the message "Modi Lao, Desh Bachao" (Vote for Modi and save the country), a local police official said.

As the polling was underway, police had received a complaint about the dog and his master who were roaming around the town, he said.

A case was registered against Choudhary under section 171 (A) of the IPC for violation of election rules which prohibit campaigning on polling day. The police have asked the municipal corporation to take custody of the dog, the official added.

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While many polling stations were bereft of facilities for the physically challenged and senior citizens, the situation was refreshingly different in Palghar district, where arrangements were made to bring in physically challenged voters and drop them back to their homes.

The voters had a car to take them to the polling stations, where they didn't have to wait in queue to cast their votes, and drop them back home once they were done. This process had begun as a part of the run-up to the polls.

Explaining the same, the district's social development officer Vibha Jadhav said, "We had conducted a survey and made a list of physically challenged voters before the election. Now, we have been calling them to know when they would be able to come to the polling stations to vote."

Election 2019: Prominent personalities, other Mumbaikars come out to caste vote!

The voters had a car to take them to the polling stations, where they didn’t have to wait in queue to cast their votes, and drop them back home once they were done

Virar resident Suresh Pawar, 43, thanked the government for the initiative, "I am visually challenged person, as is my wife. Until last year, we had to take an auto rickshaw to reach the polling booth. But this time, the government has given us relief by arranging vehicles for us.

The polling booths also had representatives stationed to help physically challenged voters. Jidnyasa Polekar, from the National Service Scheme, who was one of the assistants, said, "We kept wheelchairs for physically challenged and senior citizens. We also assisted visually challenged voters to understand the process of voting so that they can cast their ballot sans any hassle."

Bolstering voter turnout

Palghar collector Dr. Prashant Narnaware told mid-day that they had taken a number of initiatives to bolster voters' turnout in the district. "We had carried out campaigns to spread awareness among voters. We reached out to 13 lakh voters during our 25-day campaign titled 'I Shall Vote.' We also involved school students in the initiative by asking them to write letters to their parents, urging them to cast their vote," said Narnavare. On voting day, however, the district was hit with a slight EVM glitch. "There are 2,170 polling booths in Palghar, out of which the EVMs of 50 booths faced glitches. But they were changed within 10 minutes, as all the zonal officials were given additional EVMs to tackle the crisis," said Narnavare.

Salman Khan, SRK, Ranveer Singh, Kangana, Bachchans step out for voting

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The 'No Mobile Phones' diktat issued by the Election Commission for voters at polling centres had a rather ambiguous implementation. While some carried it along inside the polling booth, others were asked to keep it out. With directions about phones not being allowed in the 100 meters vicinity of polling stations, the Election Commission had not made any provisions for safekeeping of phones.

Also Read: Election 2019: Mumbai scrapes through in voting report card

The rule ended up confusing voters across the city. Many were unaware of the 'no phone' policy and were left waiting outside the polling centres. The EC had issued such orders after some voters were found clicking pictures while voting during the last elections.

Salman Khan, SRK, Ranveer Singh, Kangana, Bachchans step out for voting

While most polling stations had police officials preventing voters from carrying their phones inside, there was no security checking of the bags that some voters carried, "thus making it difficult to ascertain if they were carrying a phone or not," said officials. Some centres also saw the police asking voters to hand over their phones to people standing behind them in the queue.

Dhanraji Yadav, who was at the Manohar Joshi Mahavidyalaya in Dharavi along with her family, said that police officials at the gate asked them if they were carrying any phones. "I waited with all the phones while my family voted. But while I was waiting there, the same police officials allowed other people to carry them by switching them off," Yadav said. An official said that the directives had come from the Election Commission of India. "We couldn't be responsible for everyone's phones and asked them to not bring them."

Also Read: Elections 2019: Regular voters find their name missing at polling booths

100m
Distance around polling booth where phones were not allowed

Election 2019: Prominent personalities, other Mumbaikars come out to caste vote!

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Despite the Election Commission (EC) announcing several initiatives to help the physically challenged and senior citizens during the voting process, no such arrangements were visible at many of the polling centres on Monday. Contrary to claims made by EC, no volunteers were present to guide the physically challenged or senior citizens to their polling booths, leaving them to either find a way on their own or rely on their family members.

No one came to help

Bagubai Shirwale, 70, who has a hunched back, had to inch forward using her walking stick as she tried to find her polling booth. She only had the help of her brother, Trimbak Shirwale, 72, who, like her relies on a walking stick. "We come to vote every time without fail. But I have diabetes, due to which I am not able to walk properly. My sister has chronic backache and can't walk much either. No one came to help us; we had to find the way around ourselves," he said.

They had to walk nearly 1 km to reach the polling station. Even after they successfully reached their venue, SK Pantwalkar Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Kurla west, finding the booth took some time. After asking around, they were pointed in the right direction.

In the absence of a wheelchair at the St Judes High School in Malad West, local Antony Roasario, who is physically challenged, is forced to crawl over a gutter under the burning sun. Pics/Suresh Karkera

Despite the sweltering heat, Sayaji Mokashi, 50, a visually challenged man, walked to his polling station, the Mahatma Gandhi Vidya Mandir in Bandra east, along with his wife Prajakta who also has problems with her eyesight, and their seven-year-old son. Mokashis, residents of the government colony in Bandra east, recall walking to their booth back in 2014 as well.

"It is our responsibility to vote and we take it seriously. We don't mind the walk but it would help if EC could arrange for some transportation," said Sayaji. Sudha Shantaram Nadkar, 75, who requires a walking aid, is thankful that her polling station is just across the road from her building in Kurla. However, she too has to rely on her neighbours to help her reach her booth.

"I have been voting since I turned eligible and I don't miss any election. But I fell three years ago, which made it difficult for me to walk. There is no one to help us find the booth and no one came forward to help me walk in either," she said.

Where are the ramps?

EC had also promised to provide ramps at all polling stations, as well as dolis (chairs with poles). Many of the polling stations across the city neither had any ramps for wheelchairs nor dolis. The police personnel stationed at the Central Railway Social Welfare Centre in Kurla east said no volunteers had showed up at the venue and no dolis were sent either.

"We are allowing senior citizens to go in directly; they don't have to wait in line. But their family members are helping them," said a policeman. Similarly, at L S Raheja College, an elderly man with an amputated leg walked to his booth with the help of crutches and his relative. Another aged man at the same venue had been brought inside by his family on a wheelchair, but had to walk the rest of the way with the help of his walking stick, while leaning on his son for support.

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The 'glamourless' north east Parliamentary constituency saw a lot of drama on voting day since morning. Comprising six assembly constituencies, it saw 55.35 per cent voter turnout. In 2014 the constituency had registered a 51.70 per cent turnout. Of this Ghatkopar east topped the list with 60.30 per cent followed by Mulund at 60.10 per cent, Vikhroli at 59.03 per cent, Bhandup west at 57 per cent, Ghatkopar west at 53.81 per cent and Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar at 44.02 per cent.

'Polling centre goes missing'

The day started with voters at Bhandup east complaining of an entire polling centre gone missing and alleged that it had been shifted two km away without prior notice. Citizens said they realised it only after reaching the spot and did not know what to do.

Bhandup resident Chandra Sreenivasan alleged that it was a ploy to discourage voters. "I wanted to vote. I fought with the election officer on duty and said that such tricks would not put off voters if they intended to do that. We have been voting at the same BMC garden every time and this time when we got the election slip, it had the same address but when we reached the spot, there was nothing there. A few locals then told us that it had been shifted near the old Bhandup phatak which is about 2 km away from the location," she told mid-day.

"The old and ill will not travel 2 km to an unknown spot, but I did not give up. I took an auto and went all the way there and fired the election staff on duty. When I questioned them, they said that they had just received a message in the morning to report here," she added. Election officials, however, said that it was decided to shift the polling centre from the garden to a building and a notice had been put up in the garden, though Sreenivasan said there were no notices.

Candidate posters put up

The BJP's secretary Vivekanand Gupta said they had reported a complaint against the NCP candidate after they found a banner with his photograph within 100 metres of the polling booth in Bhandup. He requested the EC to direct police officials to remove it immediately.

Faulty EVMs

Several complaints of faulty Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) came to the fore during voting throughout the day, delaying the processes from 45 minutes to one hour. At some centres, there were issues with the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slip as it was not visible after voting and in some cases there was an error displayed. At booth 93 at Sharon English School in Mulund the voting had to stopped after the EVM developed a snag and an engineer had to be summoned to fix it. Voting restarted after 45 minutes.

Also Read: Elections 2019 in Mumbai: Voters, poll officials confused over ban on mobile phones

Candidate's switch disabled

An independent candidate, Anil Hebbar said his name was disabled on EVMs, and after his complaint the machines were replaced. "At booth 155/272 in Mulund, button no 14 next to my name was disabled. The officer in-charge discovered it before polling started and changed the ballot unit leading to a delay of 1 hr and 15 min," he said.

Voted, but not inked

A voter, Reena Verghese, alleged that she cast her vote in booth 243 at St Pius School in Mulund west, but her finger was not inked. She went again inside the booth to get the mark on her finger when she realised this.

Sr citizen's name missing

Kalawati Tambe, 86, missed out on voting as her name was missing from the electoral list. A resident of Kannamwar Nagar building 14, all her neighbours' names were on the list but her's did not figure. She said she came to vote though she was in her hometown for past few days. She complained that she had to climb onto the first floor, her legs were paining and she was very unhappy that she could not vote.

Jugaad chairs

At many places the election commission had put up jugaad chairs tied to sticks like a palkhi to carry senior citizens to upper floors in buildings where there were no lifts. "They showed videos of all those fancy automatic chairs, but they assembled such jugaad plastic chairs," Harkishan Rai, a senior citizen said. The rule of not allowing mobile phones was also leniently followed with cops telling voters that they could carry phones, but requested them to switch them off.

55.35pc

The voter turnout in North East

Also Read: Elections 2019 in Mumbai: Physically challenged, elderly, get little help at polling stations

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Twice as nice

Thanks to a happy coincidence, Ustad Zakir Hussain is the biggest draw at this year's edition of the annual International Jazz Day celebrations at the NCPA. The tabla maestro is usually abroad at this time of the year. But this summer, he is in Mumbai to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of Ustad Allarakha Khan, and he performed at the Abbaji Festival yesterday, held to mark his legendary father's path-breaking contribution to Indian classical music. Tonight, Hussain will take the stage again — this time with city-bred stalwarts including pianist Louiz Banks and guitarist Sanjay Divecha — and play a set that falls under the genre of jazz fusion.

Neil Banks, the show's producer, tells us, "We'll have a longer slot for him as compared to the other musicians, since a lot of people are coming mainly to watch Zakir Hussain play. So, the second half of the event will mostly have him on stage, and we cut down on two acts just to accommodate that kind of time frame."

Isheeta Chakrvarty

Banks adds that another distinguishing feature of this year's edition is the inclusion of a bunch of relatively younger musicians. They include Vinay Kaushal, who'll play tracks from a funk jazz album he released recently, and Rahul Wadhwani, who'll perform a short piano set. Then there's Isheeta Chakrvarty and her band — comprising Rohan Ganguli, Clement Rooney, Sambit Chatterjee and Raghuraman Ramasubramanian — who will play an original list of songs that, like Hussain's gig, also fall under the jazz fusion bracket. We ask Chakravarty how she feels about sharing the same stage as the maestro, and she tells us, '"Oh my god!'

That's how I feel. It's of course an honour to be in the same space as him to begin with. But when dreams like this come true, there's also a bit of fear involved, so there's a mix of nervousness and excitement," which, in our books, are understandable emotions given the fact that her band will play right before Hussain takes the NCPA stage a second time in two days, thanks to the fortunate coincidence.

Ustad Zakir Hussain

Time 7 pm to 10 pm
At National Centre for the Performing Arts, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point.
Log on to bookmyshow.com
Entry Rs 300 onwards

Getting back to the roots

You'll be short-changing yourself if you approach jazz music only through an American prism. Yes, the genre did originate in New Orleans at the turn of the last century. But since then, many influences from across the world have seeped in, making it like a packet of M&Ms where each sweet is a different colour, even though the core flavour is the same. Now, a gig at Lower Parel will showcase some of these styles with a line-up of four acts.

The Many Roots Ensemble performs at a SoBo venue

The Adil Manuel Collective, for example, will play a jazz fusion set. Ahora Flamenco, on the other hand, will bring a taste of Spain to the proceedings. And while Da Trio will stick to American jazz standards by the likes of Chick Correa and Wayne Shorter, The Many Roots Ensemble will spice things up with a set of originals that — as the band's name suggests — have their roots in a variety of sources such as folk, disco and reggae. "We will also have a bunch of guest artistes performing with us who will add their own original music," informs Subid Khan, the outfit's guitarist.

Time 9.30 pm onwards
At FLEA Bazaar Cafe, first floor, Trade View Building, Oasis Complex, PB Marg, Lower Parel.
Log on to insider.in
Entry Rs 1,000 with full cover

Let's talk about sax

One of the ways in which a person can view jazz music is to see it as a conversation between different instruments. The drums rattle off something. The guitar adds two bits to that. The saxophone then chimes in with a sensual voice, and so on and so forth. That being the case, an ability to improvise becomes a key quality that the musicians need to possess, given the genre's free-flowing nature.

Rosen Gonsalves

And Rosen Gonsalves will display just that at a gig in a Lower Parel restaurant, where the saxophonist will play a completely impromptu set along with guitarist Vernon Misquita.

"I usually perform with just one other person, who is different almost every time. And for this gig, Vernon and I will meet straight at the venue without having practised together," Gonsalves says about a concert that will essentially involve a two-sided conversation between a wind and string instrument.

Time 7 pm onwards
At TYGR, Level 1, Palladium Mall Pedestrian Walkway, Lower Parel.
Call 9136921735 to RSVP (making a reservation at the restaurant is mandatory)
Free

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Haitham with Shah Rukh Khan on the sets of Dil Hai Hindustani where the two sang SRK’s chartbuster Jabra Fan

When we meet Haitham Mohammed Rafi inside the dimly-lit sets of a popular music reality show, he stands out from those sitting beside him. The white of his traditional dishdasha and the colourful turban — called the massar — make him look like an anomaly. The 23-year-old appears to be closely observing his fellow singer — a girl half his age — who is on stage and singing the famous DDLJ-towel song, 'Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye,' when we raise our hand and call for his attention. There is instant recognition.

"Wallah!" he yells out in Arabic. "How come, you here?" he goes on, in his Middle-Eastern accent.

It has been three years since we first met Haitham. The last time it was in his hometown Muscat, the capital city of the Sultanate of Oman. "I will sing in Bollywood, someday, Inshallah!" he had then rapped, much to the amusement of this correspondent. At the time, we had wished him luck, without mocking his expectations or pointing out the risks.

Last week, when a video of filmmaker Karan Johar sitting in stunned silence after Haitham’s performance of Naina Thag Lenge, went viral on Arab social media, this writer was glad she had kept mum then.

Haitham, an Omani national, has just made it in the final 11 of the first season of music reality show Dil Hai Hindustani. Being an Arab, has only worked in his favour. For the judges, Johar, Badshah, Shalmali Kholgade and Shekhar Ravjiani (of Vishal-Shekhar fame), the first question on their mind was, “Can an Arab sing in Hindi?”

"Okay, maybe!" "But, that good!"

"I have Mohammed Rafi’s blessings," Haitham jokes. Not like, we hadn’t been meaning to ask him the story behind his namesake. Haitham al Balushi takes his middle name, Mohammed Rafi, from his father, who was surprisingly christened by the veteran Hindi singer himself. "Though Omani, my grandfather was a huge fan of Mohammed Rafi," he recounts. “When my father was born, Rafi saab was performing in Bahrain. My grandfather, who was working there, went for the show and managed to have a quick chat with him backstage," he says, adding, “He told Rafi saab, I want you to name my newborn.” The rest, as the Balushi family recalls, is history.

Until seven months ago, Haitham worked as a personal banker with a leading national bank in Muscat. “It was so boring. I hated going to work...it was suffocating," he says. Unable to take it anymore, Haitham put in his papers, and ferociously started looking for opportunities to sing. "I wanted to pursue my passion," he says. We ask him what that is? And, pat comes the reply, "I want to become the first Arab playback singer and composer in Bollywood." Haitham has been harbouring that dream since he was 11.

In Oman, Haitham says, there is no concept of vocal training. "If you're a good singer, you're a good singer." His only source of Bollywood music was audiocassettes and CDs as a child, and later YouTube. "So, when I told my Omani friends that I wanted to become a singer, they laughed. They said, 'You can’t make it big in India…it is so tough'."

On an Indian friend’s advise, he started listening to a lot of ghazals. "I was told that it would help me get my nuances and accent right," he says. His favourite ghazal singers are Jagjit Singh and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. But, that's how Haitham’s Bollywood dreams first took flight.

In 2012, he became the first Omani to win Muscat Idol, which sees participants mostly from the Indian Diaspora. From there on, due to dearth of a great body of work, Haitham started composing music for Omani TV shows. “But, I realised that I wasn’t enjoying Arabic music. Each time, I sang in Hindi, I was happier,” he says. Of the 500 songs he has composed, 450 were in Hindi. “My mum knew I wasn’t meant for Oman. So, she kept pushing me to try my luck at Indian reality shows,” he says. He tried thrice and failed. The fourth time, he decided to think practically and opted for 'The Voice Ahla Sawt', the Arabic version of the international music show. “Even there, I could not fit in,” he says. This December, after five years of working towards his dream, he got the call. And, that too, from India.

Here, he is still just another contender at the show. But, back home, things have changed for Haitham. After a video of his performance went viral, Omanis in Muscat, who he claims love Hindi cinema, have gone into an overdrive. “I’ve already signed 13 shows in Muscat and Dubai,” he says. “My friends are buying the Indian digital channels, just to watch my show.”

"I think it's a proud moment for my country," Haitham says. Just as we end, he gets his cellphone out, and shows us a photograph of his, clicked with Shah Rukh Khan, where the two are facing each other, striking the latter's signature pose. “India has already opened its arms to me," he gushes.

RD Burman composed for more than 300 films in a career spanning 30 years

This weekend, a group of music enthusiasts is going to deconstruct the thin line between imitation and inspiration at a talk on Hindi film music. The works of RD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan and OP Nayyar will be discussed at the event.

Shankar-Jaikishan ruled from 1949 to 1986

“Many tried to imitate a sound that worked well with listeners in that period. In fact, film producers would encourage music directors to do so. The music of Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji was close to the sound created by Shankar-Jaikishan and Burman,” says Ramesh KV, one of the speakers. “If you listen to the orchestration of a song, you will think it belongs to Burman, but it actually is by someone else,” he adds.

The full panel includes R Balaji, Shankar Iyer, Archisman Mozumder and Subramanian Iyer.

On: April 15, 7.30 pm
At: Pitaara – The Art Box, Yashwant Nagar, Goregaon (W).
Call: 9820393001
Entry: Rs 250

Uncharted has dropped its latest installment and it is significant simply because there is no Nathan Drake, the protagonist of the previous Uncharted games. Instead, this time, you get to play with Chloe Frazer backed with Nadine Ross, who are in India searching for the Tusk of Ganesh. We don't know if Naughty Dog planned this, but a game featuring a Ganesh related artifact releasing just around the time of Ganpati Utsav is pretty good timing.

The game unfolds in the mountains of India during a civil war, with everything you would expect, in an Uncharted game — lots of fast paced gun play, spectacular ancient ruins, overgrown jungles and easy to solve puzzles. It is a formula that has worked well for the series in the past and why would you mess with something that works.

You may find both Chloe and Nadine familiar if you have played Uncharted before, they have appeared in the previous games. Chloe as a sidekick in two games and Nadine as the antagonist of the last Uncharted. To get the artifact that leads to the Tusk of Ganesh, Chloe infiltrates the war-torn city dressed in a kurta, she looks very Indian in the outfit. This is very different from any other Uncharted game because it deals with claustrophobic, garbage-filled city streets instead majestic jungles the game is used to. It's a nice change but a short one, once you manage to find the relic it is straight off to the jungle for you.

The Lost Legacy is a lot like Uncharted 4, it plays almost similar, some of the guards look familiar and even some of the ruins. The game is comfortable with what it is and there aren't any new surprises that push the gameplay forward. What it excels at is the ride and that is an action-packed ride that would put Indiana Jones to shame. What you can do is enhance the experience with their new photo mode, it makes everything a little more fun. The photo mode lets you change the expression of Chloe's face temporarily. This, of course, can be used to take hilarious screengrabs.

The game looks amazing on the PS4 Pro, the jungles and the ruins are grand to say the least, enough to make you want to go a nearby forest in search of ancient picturesque monuments. It's a nice use of local mythology to create a brilliant fantasy world.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is great for newbies. Since it doesn't require you to have previous knowledge of the characters or any hard to play sections, it is pretty much a no-brainer for any gamer.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Rating: 4/5
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PS4
Price: Rs 2,499

The Mule
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest, Andy Garcia, Alison Eastwood, Taissa Farmiga, Ignacio Serricchio, Loren Dean, Eugene Cordero, Robert LaSardo
Rating:

Eighty-eight-year-old Clint Eastwood’s 37th feature has him directing and acting in a drama about an elderly man whose late-life drug running — egged on by desperate circumstances — becomes a tool for heavy rumination regarding conscience, morality, and reclamation. Nick Schenk (of Gran Torino fame) fashions this screenplay inspired by the New York Times Magazine article The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule, about a true event, written by Sam Dolnick.

The original mule was Leo Sharp, a World War II veteran and great-grandfather. But, for this film, Eastwood and Schenk take some creative liberties to present a sensibility that is more Eastwood than the real-life event would oblige. The experience delineates the nearly destitute senior Earl Stone’s (Eastwood) tryst with criminality conspired by an alienated family construct, and a flagging business. Earl was never there when he was needed by his family, ex-wife Mary (Dianne Wiest) and, especially, daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood). Their rejection of him when he runs out of money may be painful to watch, but it is fairly justified in the schema of broken relationships damaged by ego trips.

Eastwood, of course, lives the part. He fits the role, but as far as the fan-image goes, he seems frailer and less imposing than he did in his last cinema outing. But that physical deterioration doesn’t take anything away from the manner in which he has constructed this slow-burning, contemplative, engaging, humorous tale, which appears to be somewhat autobiographical in the manner in which it deals with relationships that are central to the story here.

We can see that Federal agents, led by a DEA Special Agent in charge (Laurence Fishburne), and newbie Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper), trying to nail some cartel drug runners out West, are eventually going to come across this unsuspicious drug-runner. But the film is not about that cat-and-mouse chase as much as it is about a conscience finally coming awake, and Earl making robust efforts to atone for his past mistakes.

Eastwood’s mule seems to bask in the freedom that easy money brings him, and appears to be unaware of the hellish depths that the murderous cartels would reach — and that’s precisely how the film plays out. With every film, like in this one too, Eastwood’s politics also comes out, loud-and-clear. He may be intriguing as a person, but not always politically correct as an actor-director voicing his personal world-view.

Earl’s eventual redemption also comes a little too easy, given the havoc he may have engineered by his flirting with the cartel. The tone shifts are jerky, the narrative veers to the ponderous and the experience doesn’t come across as entirely fulfilling — even though the cinematography and minimalistic appurtenances lend shadowy depth to the experience.

The supporting characters don’t get much screen-time, even though they are integral to the plotting. Eastwood hogs the show here. His apparent disconnect with the consequences relating to his actions is a hurdle that’s difficult to overcome. And that’s also because Eastwood’s image still manages to over-power his latter-life performances. As an audience, we are more likely to be distraught over his real-life physical deterioration than we are about the reel life character’s disempowerment.

Watch The Mule Trailer

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The Second Act

U/A: Comedy, Romance
Director: Peter Segal
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Leah Remini, Vanessa Hudgens
Rating: 

Jennifer Lopez probably fancies herself as a 'Working Girl' and that explains her producing and acting in a film that has shades of the Oscar winner mashed up with done to death romcom elements. The script credited to Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Justin Zackham transforms an uneducated, street-smart 40-year-old woman, Maya(Jennifer Lopez) into a winning corporate consultant – and to get there she jumps the truth about her background, gets a resume makeover and wins the confidence of the head honcho. The boss (Treat Williams) sets up two teams, one lead by Maya and the safer one led by his daughter, Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens). But no prizes for guessing who won that battle. The usual alienation from old friends is followed by a redemptive effort at truth-telling.

Peter Segal's Second Act tries to do too much. The impetus for Maya's cheat makeover comes from professional rejection - We meet Maya the day she loses out on a big promotion at Value Shop, because of her lack of an MBA and a dopey idiot gets it because he does. We see Maya reconciling with the daughter she gave up for adoption and then losing her again for a bit before they reconcile again. The same happens with her friends and colleagues from her former workplace. They are the ones who support and encourage her (to hilarious results sometimes). Corporate skulduggery notwithstanding there's also the romantic interest whom she failed to confide in. It's all too complicated rather than complex.

Check out the trailer here:

The few times the film manages to perk you up involves an impromptu dance with Maya leading her office nemesis (Freddie Stroma) onto the dance floor in an attempt to sideswipe his attempt to expose her. And another time you feel the passion is when she and her girlfriends (Remini, Lacreta, Dierdre Friel) do a "Push it REAL good" dancing sing along. The writing is not without its frivolous light-hearted banter but much of it is lost in the attempt to paint Maya in a gratifying light. This romcom is fairly bearable but not exactly likeable.

Also Read: Jennifer Lopez explains why she did Second Act

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One Less God

U/A: Drama, Thriller
Director: Lliam Worthington
Cast: Joseph Mahler Taylor, Sukhraj Deepak, Mihika Rao
Rating: 

As a film that hopes to capture the terror heralded by the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, 'One Less God' is rather feeble, nondescript and ineffective. The scope is narrow and the budget too small to do justice to a disaster that is amongst the most unforgettable in recent history. This is drama written around a real-life crisis but at no point does it feel real. The 2008 Mumbai attacks included a series of terrorist strikes that felled 164 people across south Mumbai - carried out by 10 members of the Laskar-e-Taiba, an Islamic terrorist organisation based in Pakistan. But none of that drama or tragedy is captured here with any grit or enticement.

The Mumbai siege is presented in a slap-dash fashion that never really gets the audience involved. The focus is largely on the Taj Mahal hotel and what it's guests went through in the final hours before their falling victim to the terrorist onslaught. The film focuses its efforts on the men and women attempting to survive, while intermittently cutting across to the two men perpetrating the attack. The bits of humour that creep in at odd times appears to be in bad taste.

Check out the trailer here:

Everything here seems rather pretentious and ineffective. The general cross-national mix of characters, their touristy experiences and the aftermath of the siege may have some diverse moments but we never feel attached or interested enough to be affected. There are barely any validating moments here. The performances are bad, the direction is sloppy, there are continuity breaks that look ridiculous, the art direction and production values leave a lot to be desired. Even the attempt to go one-up on the much awaited Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Jason Isaacs starrer 'Hotel Mumbai'- (a film that covers the same territory), by releasing earlier, reeks of Opportunism.

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Glass

U/A: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Sarah Paulson, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy
Rating: 

Shyamalan’s earliest films (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) were brilliant, they intrigued, shocked and entertained all at the same time. The same cannot be said about the films that came later. The big budget ones especially were all jumbled up and schlocky. It felt as though the director never really achieved his vision. ‘Glass’ is a far better effort in terms of visual context but it fails on cohesion and lucidity – especially in the third act dominated by Shyamalan’s signature twists.

Glass, a sort of sequel to both Unbreakable and Split, spends its two hours plus without a strong story to tell. It is every bit as inconceivable and snaky a film as his worst but it still has a psychological depth that could have amounted to much more - if only the director had been a little more focussed. There’s so much he is wanting to say that it all gets lost in the confusion and incoherence brought on by a lack of emphasis.

Glass opens with Dunn(Willis) tracking down Split's villain, Kevin Wendell Crumb aka 'The Horde' (James McAvoy), a serial killer suffering from multiple personality disorder who has been preying on girls in the Philadelphia area. After some visceral action Dunn and Crumb are captured and taken to a secret wing of a psychiatric hospital also housing Mister Glass(Jackson) – to be studied by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), a psychiatrist obsessed with decoding the phenomenon of men who believe themselves to possess the powers of comic book characters.

Check out the trailer here:

This is an indie film (in partnership with Blumhouse)with no big studio backing it so there are budget constraints which Shyamalan could have overcome by running a tighter ship. Shyamalan manages to get close to poignant and memorable but the third act(rather threadbare) pulls you off that track all the way through. The twists don’t make much sense and in fact renders the entire work rather directionless.

The build-up is pretty good even though the action is all visual, internalised and verbose but the third and final act fails to make something out of that. The director and DP Michael Gioulakis manage to compose some fascinating and striking visual mayhem but it doesn’t amount to anything powerful. If you followed ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split’ then there is a chance that you might cotton on to Shyamalan’s wavelength but for a large part of the audience this is going to be a film without a strong sense of purpose.

James McAvoy is simply the best thing about this movie. His enthusiasm and effort in playing out multiple personalities is extraordinary. Jackson wakes up from his stupor a little late and loses out on creating an impact while Willis looks on strategically- the thing he does best I guess. This is at best a baffling and inconsistent exercise in cinema!

Also Read: James McAvoy on Glass co-star Bruce Willis: He is most chilled dude

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Total Dhamaal
U: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Director: Indra Kumar
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaaferi, Riteish Deshmukh, Sanjay Mishra
Rating: 

The first thing you notice about this Hindi film (or at least I did) is that it plays with English subtitles. Not that most need it; but great relief, nonetheless. For I had returned from the same Mumbai theatre only the evening before, within the first minute of a Malayalam film (a heavily recommended Kumbalangi Nights), having realised that the pic had no English subs, and people were laughing at jokes (presumably), that I couldn't access.

Would Total Dhamaal, in a language you didn't understand, be watchable still? Technically there is hardly a plot/story. So you'll follow what's going on, regardless. But this is the sort of deliberately-sasta, kaam chalau comedy that works on simplest set-ups, and pay-offs - or punch-lines - that you ought to be in sync with. Some jokes work - at a pure comic timing level. Several don't. But that's really what you walked in for. For the record, the first Dhamaal (2007) had entered theatres hot on the heels of the fab Golmaal (2006), with Arshad Warsi common to both - making the former seem like pretty much a sequel to the latter. Modelled along the lines of the Spencer Tracy epic It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Dhamaal actually had a lot of dhamaal going for it.

Ever since, Golmaal has turned into a four-part, money-spinning franchise (or as Devgn calls it, his "retirement plan"). As have similar all-star comedies from the time - Housefull (the fourth instalment is on its way), Kya Kool Hain Hum (in the screwball, sex-com space), Masti (there've been three so far - directed by Indra Kumar, as well).

This is the third in the Dhamaal series, and as a ride, perhaps mainly intended for kids, if you consider the amount of slapstick (instead of adult) humour, stereotyped 'Madrasi', Bihari, Gujju kinda gags, and tonnes of fine VFX paraphernalia - collapsing bridge, rickety helicopter, cute animals bumbling around in the farm, folk either hanging or flying off ledges… This is besides a lot of self-referential Bollywood one-liners that appear as stuck in time as, of course, the picture itself.

And so the password to open a door is 'one-two ka four; four-two ka one' as Lakhan, or Anil Kapoor, jumps off a wall. 'Ek do teen' as in the Madhuri Dixit Nene song is referred to, since Dixit is in the movie, along with Kapoor. Rohit Shetty is summoned in a line while cars fly. Ajay Devgn is of course the dude. His sidekick, Sanjay Mishra, whose refrain, "Dhondu, just chill," made him a superstar with Shetty's All The Best (2010), a similar mad-cap comedy, gets, "Bro," a new takia-kalaam here.

But my favourite guys in this movie have got to be Adi, and his man-child partner Manav (Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaaferi). Glad they've survived the franchise's original line-up (the only ones to, besides the perennial ensemble-com favourite, Riteish Deshmukh).

The entire lot is after a Rs 50 crore booty. All they know is that it's kept at a zoo. And with presumably someone called OK, which is what you must feel like - never mind what happens in the movie thereafter. Anything I say about this expectedly total dumb maal, should be construed as boring old me, coming in the way of your heightened, harebrained entertainment. Already have; read no further!

Also Read: Exclusive: Ajay Devgn on Total Dhamaal: It's very difficult to make people laugh

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