Malavika’s Mumbaistan: The Coast Is Not Clear

“We will assemble at Tata garden and walk to PDP, to peacefully protest against the coastal road and raise our voice against such senseless reclamation,” the WhatsApp message had said. And so, to register our protest, we too had shown up at the appointed site on Sunday morning, only to be dismayed to find that far from a peaceful protest, the 100 or so contingent of protestors including Susie Shah, general secretary, Malabar Hill Citizens Forum; restaurateur AD Singh with wife-designer Sabena Singh; photojournalist Sooni Taraporewala and golfer Rahul Dewan, were being energetically disallowed by a heavy police contingent.

“We will assemble at Tata garden and walk to PDP, to peacefully protest against the coastal road and raise our voice against such senseless reclamation,” the WhatsApp message had said. And so, to register our protest, we too had shown up at the appointed site on Sunday morning, only to be dismayed to find that far from a peaceful protest, the 100 or so contingent of protestors including Susie Shah, general secretary, Malabar Hill Citizens Forum; restaurateur AD Singh with wife-designer Sabena Singh; photojournalist Sooni Taraporewala and golfer Rahul Dewan, were being energetically disallowed by a heavy police contingent. “But we only want to march peacefully! How can you stop us?” they argued, but to no avail. Seeing how intractable the cops were, a few protestors decided to sit in the middle of the road opposite Tata Garden, stopping the flow of Sunday morning traffic as a point of leverage, until the police gave in. That’s when, to our great surprise, we noticed that sitting quite determinedly, in the middle of the road, under the hot sun, and resisting all attempts to get him to budge was none other than vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra, billionaire, real estate developer and MLA from Malabar Hill – Mangal Prabhat Lodha! Meanwhile, after conferring with other protestors, the redoubtable Susie Shah decided to abandon the idea of the march and instead raise slogans and banners at the Tata Garden itself.

Mangal Prasad Lodha (Malavika Sangghvi)

“How does the coastal road decongest Mumbai? Why do we need to reclaim 200 acres? Is anyone at all concerned about the harmful impact it will have on the environment and ecology?” were some of the concerns heard, amidst the milling voices. The protestors then decided to regroup and plan the next steps at another meet. By the time we left, around an hour later, Lodha still remained stoically seated on the hot tarmac in the middle of the road. But, such was the atmosphere of suspicion and the conspiracy theories around the controversial construction of the coastal road, that later on, hearing of Lodha’s presence there that morning, many (including a top politician and senior cop) couldn’t believe it to be true. “Mangal Prabhat Lodha? You’re joking! Was he protesting against the protestors or against the construction of the coastal road?” they wanted to know.

Wild Geese
We have been an admirer of the reclusive Mona Anand for over half a century. A fellow resident of Juhu during our growing years, the enigmatic wife of the late screen-legend Dev Anand has been one of the film industry’s best kept secrets. Our mother, the late Usha Rajbans Khanna had been a friend of hers and used to regale us with stories about ‘Monaji’. The complete opposite of her gregarious and celebrated husband, she shunned the ersatz, glitzy world of showbiz, to live a rich and colourful, private life on her own terms. From the stories we heard, she would often don a burkha and slip in and out of busy markets and crowded streets, in order to quietly observe ordinary people and engage in quotidian pleasures. Here, for the first time, she is captured in this striking image posted by her grand-niece, the noted makeup artist Natasha Nischol, daughter of the late actor Navin Nischol, who was once married to Dev Anand’s niece Neelu Kapur, director Shekhar Kapur’s sister. “My beautiful grand-aunt, Mona Anand, aged 87,” Natasha had posted over the weekend, affording viewers this portrait of a lady of great style and substance, whose eyes hold infinite compassion, mystery and depth. Incidentally, so inspired had our own mother been by her friend Monaji, that she too had acquired a burkha in order to roam around Mumbai’s streets, unobserved and incognito. The thought of them together brings to mind a stanza from Mary Oliver’s poem, Wild Geese: ‘Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting, over and over announcing your place in the family of things…

Separated At Birth?

Vir Das (HT File )

Ayushmann Khurrana (HT FILE)

Stand Up Comedian: Vir Das

Bollywood Actor: Ayushmann Khurrana

Ostrich-like Modi?

Nirav Modi (HT File )

It’s been quite a week for high-living diamantaire Nirav Modi. Even before the video of the curiously-hirsute beleaguered jeweller, clad in the now infamous ostrich hide jacket, while trying to evade a reporter’s pertinent question in London, went viral, there was already trouble as his illegal weekend getaway mansion in Alibaug, was being razed by authorities. The estate, which had been witness to many high-profile parties in the past, was said to have flouted a host of environmental guidelines during its construction. But there’s even more embarrassment for Nirav Modi. His humungous and enviable art collection was seized and put up for auction by the Income Tax department last week.

“The auction of the movable property (68 paintings/artworks), specified in the schedule hereunder has been ordered by the tax recovery officer (Central)-3, Mumbai, for the recovery of the outstanding Income Tax Arrears of ₹95,91,82,589, excluding interest and cost, charges and expense of the proceedings for the recovery thereof in the case of M/s Camelot Enterprises P. Ltd,” read the public newspaper announcement placed by the I-T department.

To be conducted physically and online on March 26 by Saffron Art’s Dinesh Vazirani, the collection features works by the likes of Jogen Chowdhury; Raja Ravi Verma; Akbar Padamsee and FN Souza amongst others.

One more thing: After watching the clip of the hide-bound Nirav Modi in London this week, it is good to know that London’s taxi drivers are just as stubborn as Mumbai’s!