Mumbai Diary: Wednesday Dossier

Getting all folksy on stageArtistes groove to a Marathi folk song during the show Folk Akhyan at a performance venue in MulundClowning is coolAparna Mapuskar during her session in Dongri Pic Courtesyclowning_wali_baiWhy should boys have all the fun To challenge the notion Aparna Mapuskar a theatre artiste conducted a session at a childrenrsquos home in Dongri in early July alongside G5A and Ashiyana Foundation as part of their Theatre for Change initiative Though she noticed hesitation among girls and a stigma around their own body and clowning Mapuskar said ldquoItrsquos instinctive to be messy and laugh at onersquos sillinessrdquo She shared that despite their hesitancy the girls were drawn to physical comedy as they grew more comfortableShowdown in KawasakiA member of the Indian jump rope team performs in the speed relay Pic CourtesyAman VarmaThere might be more in common to Dombivli and Japan than their busy rail networks A small team of eight athletes from the collective Rule The Ropes is part of the 30member Indian contingent at the 2025 World Jump Rope Championships in Kawasaki this week ldquoWe are part of multiple events across the categories of the International Open competitions before the finals take place on August 3rdquo shared Aman Varma below coach and founder Rule The RopesThis is not Varmarsquos first tryst with the championship either He had earlier travelled to Paris in 2015 for the same ldquoBack then I did not have a teamrdquo he shared This time though the Indian contingent has been doing well Having clinched medals at the International Open Tournaments in categories such as double unders relay skipping the rope twice for every jump and a silver in the double dutch speed relay a threeman relay jump with two ropes and finishing third in the speed relay jogging jumps ldquoWe have dominated the double unders and have put up a good performance this time If we continue we will make it to the finalsrdquo Varma sharedA marathon book runAuthor Jeet Thayil below has taken on quite a project with his latest series Thayil Editions HarperCollins The series will feature 20 books curated by Thayil releasing over a period of five years ldquoThe project was first brewed in my mind over six years ago It was not till recently I began sounding out to find the right publisherrdquo revealed the author The first of the series Soliloquies by Adil Jussawalla will be released on August 11 followed by three other books later this year Post these mdash Buku Sarkar Kamal Trilok Singh and Karthika Nair completing the list mdash Thayil admitted they will reveal the other names in time ldquoThe names for the first two years are set As we get closer to the end of the year we will firm up the list furtherrdquo he sharedTiger Tiger burning brightIt was the largest nature conservation project in India On International Tiger Day July 29 Nature InFocusrsquos featurelength documentary Project Tiger commemorating 50 years of the campaign to protect and rehabilitate the species in India made it on airA moment from the trailer of the 2023 documentary Project Tiger Pic courtesyHombale Films on YoutubeldquoIndia is a very unique country In our culture we protect wildlife unlike other countries Project Tiger was an ambitious project but I believe India was the only country capable of running this projectrdquo elaborated producer and Nature InFocus founder Rohit Varma right Narrated by conservationists such as Bittu Sahgal Dr Ullas Karanth Belinda Wright and the late Valmik Thapar among others the film involved voices actively participating in the programme ldquoWe wanted to show the real story and that is why this film is narrated by not one person but many people who were directly involved in the conservation of tigers It took more than three years to completerdquo he revealedReleased on the 50th anniversary of the project the film is also a document of lesser known facets in conservation Varma pointed out ldquoWhile doing research for this project we were not aware of certain facts which were eye openers for us itself For example how big the poaching mafia was and the role which the Dalai Lama played in making sure people of Tibet stop using tiger skinsrdquoEvening interlude on stringsNiladri Kumaar at a previous performance File picSatej ShindeSitarist Niladri Kumaar will headline the upcoming Durbar Evenings by Godawan Estuary Water The multicity event is scheduled to move from Delhi August 2 Kolkata Mumbai Hyderabad and Chandigarh ldquoThe tour is designed to offer audiences that exclusive upclose feeling Each location will have a specially curated performance combining tabla percussive textures and melodic themes on sitar and Zitarrdquo shared Kumaar The events will shed light on Indiarsquos artistic legacy as well as conservation of the Great Indian bustard Godawan ldquoI will look to explore themes of centuriesold India meeting todayrsquos innovation I will also be exploring some lesserplayed raags which I can only really bring forth in an upclose personal settingrdquo he summed up