Mumbai Diary: Tuesday Dossier

Unexpected flight delayAn Alexandrine Parakeet perches upon a tree amid heavy rains in Thakur Village in Kandivli EastThe word according to Gulzar SaabThere was something in the air last nighthelliprdquo This diarist has shamelessly borrowed a section of the lyrics from ABBArsquos hit Fernando to sum up last Saturday nightrsquos tribute to literary icon Gulzar by HarperCollins India The session was to celebrate him being conferred with the Jnanpith Award Mumbai turned up on time at the Royal Opera House braving weekend traffic and threatening rain clouds to listen to the master in conversation with Prasoon Joshi lyricist poet and screenwriterFrom left Gulzar and Prasoon Joshi in conversation at the eventIn his keynote address Joshi began by sharing with the audience that at 91 Gulzar Saab still writes a page a day Reminiscences flowed effortlessly quite like his poetry and prose From his discovery of Tagorersquos works via Urdu translations he learnt Bengali later to his preference for original words with translations and his experiences of reading another icon PuLa Deshpande When Joshi expressed concern about a rapidly changing literary ecosystem he merely said ldquoDonrsquot limit literature to compartments Allow it to evolvehelliprdquoMumbai fans had some good news too Amchi Mumbai HarperCollins India a citycentric bilingual collection of his short stories and poems with Rakshanda Jalil will be released in January 2026 ldquoIt will reflect my sevendecadelong journey hererdquo he said before reading a few lines from the unreleased title The line ldquoSattar saal pehle yeh sheher fikramand thardquo elicited the loudest applause ldquoUsually when the whistles and coughing increase itrsquos my cue to wrap uprdquo he told Joshi and brought the house down The audience had their fill of the great Gulzar Saab the unplugged version Itrsquos true We are blessed to live in his lsquoyugrsquo as Joshi saidTaken like a champ SiddhantActor Siddhant Chaturvedi doesnrsquot mind some good old banter between his hectic Bollywood schedule we learnt Comedian Kashyap Swaroop right recently reached out to the Gully Boy 2019 actor for a green flag before dropping a joke about his school time shenanigans in an online video ldquoWe were schoolmates at Gokuldham High School in Goregaon I vividly remember him fussing over free kicks during football matchesrdquo Swaroop recalled over a chat with this diaristSiddhant Chaturvedi PIC COURTESYSIDDHANTCHATURVEDIIn the nowreleased video Swaroop quips ldquoI told him he acts so well on the field he should become an actor one dayrdquo Chaturvedi who played a standup comedian in the popular 2023 film Kho Gaye Hum Kahan was up for some lighthearted humour ldquoHe actually enjoyed the material and urged me to go ahead and put it out in the world As for me I was just trying not to burn any bridges you knowrdquo Swaroop confessed to this diaristA sweet endingLaddu is all smiles on his ride back PIC COURTESYADITYA NATARAJANLast week this diarist had made a request in this section to keep an eye out for the missing lsquoMarathon Dogrsquo Laddu Caretaker Aditya Natarajan gladly informed us of Laddursquos return last Saturday following a social media tip about several dogs abandoned in the SionChembur area ldquoOne of the dogs was Laddu A few of us drove down to the location and found him at a bus stop opposite Everard Nagarrdquo he said The search for the owners of the other streeties abandoned in the area continues on gullyboisA new methodThe nowshuttered space in Bandra PIC COURTESYMETHOD BANDRAArt cafe Method Bandra is having a makeover rebranding itself to Haiku The place shut down for renovation yesterday and is expected to reopen sometime next weekldquoThis move is mainly to avoid all the confusion between our Kala Ghoda and Delhibased galleries Visitors often end up at the cafeacute seeking an extensive gallery or at the gallery just looking for a coffeerdquo Sahil Arora left founder revealed to this diarist ldquoWersquoll keep sharing updates on our social media platforms regarding our reopening date as therersquos always a chance of delays with renovationrdquoOnce in a Moon Moth at BNHSMoon Moth sighted at BNHS PIC COURTESYBNHSThe Bombay Natural History Societyrsquos BNHS 142nd Foundation Day celebration was gatecrashed by an elusive winged visitor yesterday At around 11 am a Moon Moth famously known for its short lifespan of not more than ten days was spotted on a trail at the BNHS Nature Reserve area ldquoWhile the species itself is not rare sightings are uncommon It was undoubtedly a timely surpriserdquo a BNHS education officer shared with us amid celebrations at the Hornbill House in Fort