11 May,2025 07:01 AM IST | Mumbai | Team mid-day
Pic/Kirti Surve Parade
Mother's Day for this mother and daughter is mutual support and strength, as they practise rope mallakhamb together at Samarth Vyayam Mandir in Shivaji Park.
Veteran photojournalist Pradeep Chandra's latest exhibition, Bombay Through the Eyes of Pradeep Chandra, opened on Friday at Floor One in Juhu. The showcase, spanning Chandra's five-decade-long career, presents a visual archive of Mumbai's cultural, cinematic, and political life.
Chandra began photographing faces when he was very young. It all began with a gifted Sure Shot camera and afternoons spent outside Filmistan Studios. "I love shooting people⦠The first photo I shot was of Waheeda Rehman, and it was published thanks to my brother. I was schooling at the time, but I had seen Devanand, Madhubala, Ragini because their director-producer used to live beside my home," he says.
Waheeda Rehman's image from Baat Ek Raat Ki became Chandra's first published feature. Later, he has photographed everything from the riots of Mumbai to portraits of icons like Ratan Tata, MF Husain, Shah Rukh Khan, and Gulzar, and new-age actors too - Chandra's lens has quietly chronicled India's evolving identity.
Ask him how he has managed to always capture unassuming expressions; he says, "Earlier, you could travel with them. Today, you cannot even see an actor at their home or meet them one-on-one. You have to go through somebody. When I was shooting, there was a lot of freedom."
He remembers when he met JRD Tata to shoot some of his photos. JRD's assistant told Chandra to leave after three or four photos. "I asked JRD if it was ok if I shot more. He said, âShoot as many as you want'... I shot 72 pictures that day. You can't do this today," says Chandra.
It's why this exhibit stands out. Each portrait reflects the grace, grit, and glamour of the city. The exhibition is open to the public until May 21.
For many here, blackouts and sirens bring back years and wars gone by. Mumbai's Dr Ashok Kothari, 82, recalls the Indo-Pak war of 1971, "when I was nearly 30 years old. I was looking after my friend Capt V Malhotra's parents when he was fighting a tank battle on river Basantar. Even then, we got a lot of âfake news' and I remember the atmosphere was fear-filled. During the 1962 Indo-China war, I had seen a âplatoon' of civilians marching down the road in a place called Deesa in North Gujarat." So how was the josh, we ask. "Even in those days one could say: it was high sir!" ends the doc.
What if your school decided to reduce the sweetness in your life? Not as punishment, but for better health.
The American School of Bombay (ASB) has done just so - a four-day sugar-free challenge for its students, a collaborative initiative with integrative nutritionist Payal Kothari, who links poor nutrition and sugar overload to rising anxiety, fatigue, irritability, and digestive issues. A routine staff blood report triggered the concerns, and last week, from May 6 to 9, students, staff, and parents ditched food with added sugars while learning to decode food labels, swap processed snacks for gut-friendly alternatives like beetroot kanji, and understand the gut-brain connection.
"This isn't about restriction - it's about education," says head of school Paul Richards. "When kids see how food affects their focus and mood, they make better choices."
Top-order IPL batsman Jos Buttler had a perky little gully cricket interaction with some street children on a pavement at Apollo Bunder, Colaba, last week.
"Great Yorker! Followed by a flat one! Nasty fasty on the streets of Mumbai!" the viral video is captioned.
Buttler is not even wielding a bat - it's a piece of dealwood! We love his sporting spirit.
Every time Rohit Sharma played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, viewers would be reminded that the Mumbaikar was born in the Orange City (in 1987). Doubtless, spectators at Jamtha won't see the classy batsman in India whites anymore, thanks to his recent decision to retire from the longest form of the game. So, how did Rohit fare in red-ball cricket at Nagpur? He didn't hit the high notes in his first Test outing there - against South Africa in November 2015, with scores of 2 and 23 in a low-scoring game that India won by 124 runs. But two years later, against the Sri Lankans, Rohit smashed an unbeaten 102 to join Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and skipper Virat Kohli as three-figure scorers in India's first innings total of 610. And when the Australians came to Nagpur in 2023, Rohit, now captain of India, clubbed 120 with 15 fours and two sixes for yet another match-winning Test ton at his birthplace. Rohit averaged 82.33 in Tests at Nagpur. Opposition teams will no longer be tested by him in Tests and that's a bitter pill to swallow for his supporters, who lapped up the sweet sound of his bat.
