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Slow Outfield

Weary Mumbaikars lounge and pore over their smartphone screens on the lawns at Bombay Gymkhana in Fort

Pastel dreams

A pastel artwork from the collection. PIC COURTESY/PARAG BORSE

Come September, and New York will be introduced to the Dhangar shepherds of Maharashtra. Navi Mumbai-based pastel artist Parag Borse (below), known for his portraits depicting members from the shepherd community, will head to Manhattan for a live demonstration. Borse’s invitation comes a year after he was awarded the Flora B Giffuni Memorial Award in New York.

“I have been invited by the Pastel Society of America as a visiting international artist to showcase my works as part of the Annual International Showcase. Staying true to my style of capturing the unfiltered magic of rural India, I will be demonstrating my workflow through the portrait of an old man sporting a bright turban,” the Sir JJ School of Art alumnus told this diarist.

A Sojourn to Remember’s evening to remember!

It’s hard to ignore a sporting connection to Khalid A-H Ansari, the former chairman of the mid-day group. After all, he founded Sportsweek magazine in 1968, before your favourite tabloid newspaper rolled out for the first time in 1979. Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar did the honours of releasing Ansari’s first travel book last November just before he left to commentate on the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

(From left) Khalid A-H Ansari, Ashwini Kakkar, Dr Sultan Pradhan and Ayaz Memon at Ansari’s travel book launch in Tardeo on Wednesday. Pic/Fotocorp

Ansari launched his second travel book on Wednesday, a little over a week before the start of the India vs England Test series. A Sojourn to Remember (Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand) was released by Dr Sultan Pradhan, the renowned oncosurgeon at the Willingdon Sports Club, Tardeo.

Cricket greats Gavaskar, Farokh Engineer, Kapil Dev and Sandeep Patil sent videos to be aired at the function. Old friends Dolly Thakore, Sabira Merchant and Nisha JamVwal read out chapters from the book. Accomplished sports journalist and editor Ayaz Memon played an erudite Master of Ceremonies. And at the end of it all, the guests were happy to take home A Sojourn to Remember on an evening to remember!

Listed for a win

A still from the nominated video. PIC COURTESY/PBS MEDIA ON YOUTUBE

City-based animator Jazyl Homavazir (inset) has a new feather in his cap. Blacklisted, a short animated video Homavazir created for American comic artist Naseed Gifted’s eponymous series, has been nominated for the best animated promotional video award at the LA Black Film Festival this year.

“In the USA, comic creators follow an interesting practice where each comic is supplemented by a promotional video. I joined hands with Gifted in 2023 to animate a minute-long teaser. The book was eventually launched. Hearing about the nomination two years later was a fun surprise,” the Byculla resident told this diarist.

Just like the East Indians do

With the Sao Joao Festival (June 24) around the corner, Vile Parle-based rapper Yung Clyde is whipping up a musical East Indian treat. “Sao Joao is widely recognised as a Goan festival, but Mumbai’s East Indians aren’t far behind. My new song, Bai Bai, is an attempt to show the world how we do it down here in our gaothans,” Clyde said.

Rapper Yung Clyde (centre) in the music video. PIC COURTESY/YUNG CLYDE

Celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Saint John the Baptist, Sao Joao is a vibrant convergence of food, music, dance and traditional rituals such as taking a plunge into a lake or a community well. “We set out to the beaches of Uttan to shoot dance sequences, and in gaothans across the city we recreated the rituals,” shared Clyde, who released his first track in the East Indian dialect earlier this year.

In this city that never sleeps, Clyde revealed that the inspiration for the song ironically came to him in a vivid dream. “It was an overcast afternoon in the dream where I was dancing in the rain with a group of friends. It instantly reminded me of Sao Joao. I sat on the idea for six years before bringing it to life,” Clyde revealed. Well, dreams do come true, we guess.