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Menka Shivdasani

It was a mixed week for Mumbai, with gay and sombre moments, besides cookery shows and night shopping.

Mumbai's celebrities have been rather busy this last week, except perhaps for, Kaizad Gustad who has found himself with more time on his hands than he ever bargained for. The film-maker, who seems to have gone from Boom to bust, has hogged the headlines, following the tragedy that took place during his shoot, and his subsequent arrest.

The pity is that Kaizad had so much going for him. I knew Kaizad in Hong Kong as a 19-year-old hugely talented script writer with an impish sense of humour. "If you're going to the Philippines," he once told me, hours before the flight, "why don't you drop in at my home?" When I asked him where home was, he burst out laughing and said, "Sydney!"

Years later, after returning to Mumbai, I was at the National Centre of Performing Arts, and walked past someone who looked vaguely familiar. Then I felt this tap on my shoulder, with the words, "Don't you remember? Kaizad? Hong Kong?" His book, Of No Fixed Address, had just been published and celebritydom hadn't hit him yet. But this was not the person I knew; the smile in this Kaizad's eyes had disappeared. After the terrible incident that took place last week, I suspect it will take a long time to return.

Mumbai has a way of propelling you to instant stardom and then being vicious at the first sign of trouble. While there is certainly no justification for the lies Kaizad told about the death — a panic reaction, I would imagine — there are people in this city who get away, literally, with murder. In the film industry, safety standards are almost unknown, and the horrific incident has drawn attention to a much larger issue that needs attention.

Celebs tee off

While Kaizad was cooling his heels in jail, other celebrities in the city were playing golf for Sunil Gavaskar's Champs Foundation, which provides financial support to sportspersons of yesteryear. Despite his stardom, Gavaskar's heart has always been in the right place; while he was still actively playing, one had met him at the Spastic Society in Mumbai. The children recognised him as "the man who drinks Coca Cola on TV" — he was in a cola ad at that time — and were thrilled when he actually played a game of cricket with them. "But don't make me lose," he grinned, "otherwise I will lose my confidence!" Then he let them win.

Last week's McDowell's Signature Celebrity Golf 2004 for a completely different cause, was being held for the second time. As part of the event, there was a putting championship at the US Club, with various assorted celebrities trying their hand — from TV star Mandira Bedi, to sprint queen Ashwini Nachappa and model turned actress Malavika Tiwari.

The grand finale was on June 6, and the star-studded line-up included former Australian captain, Allan Border, Rahul Dravid, Geet Sethi, Mandira Bedi, Manpreet Brar, Shobhaa De, Marc Robinson, Charu Sharma and golfer Digvijay Singh. Pawan Munjal of Hero Honda, Neeraj Roy of Hungama.com, Romesh Sobti of ABN AMRO, Bob Hoekstra of Philips, Sanjay Sharma of Swarovski and Sanjay Krishnamurthy of BPCL were there as well.

Lip smacking prune delights!

Mumbai's celebrity chefs were also rather busy last week. Cookery show host Sanjeev Kapoor gave a lecture-cum-demonstration on prunes for the California Prune Board and Chef Hemant Oberoi of the Taj did a live demo for the food fest that formed part of Indo-American Chamber of Commerce's AmFest, a consumer products exposition at Taj Lands End. Chef Roy Lyons from Louisiana, recipient of not one but two Living Legend awards, was also there.

The thought of people actually taking time out in the middle of a working day to listen to the many delights of prunes was fascinating. So one went across to hear Sanjeev Kapoor. The hall, which was full, had an equal number of men and women, and as it turned out, it was a working day for quite a few of the people there; many of them were bakers. So over the next few months, expect to find the confectioners' stores flooded with prune-enriched goodies; the prune cake I tasted was delicious and Kapoor even had a recipe for prune kababs.

One for the night birds!

Since Mumbai is known as a city that never sleeps, and one that has money to burn, it is surprising that shops close so early. A couple of years ago, a bright spark from the Municipal Corporation wanted all shops to close by seven p.m. His justification — a law enacted over a hundred years ago. And this when all over the world shops are open till late at night.

Herbertsons, however, organised a Kingfisher Sunday Night Bazaar on June 6. Inspired by the Sunday Bazaars in Goa, this event had tattoo artists, caricaturists, tarot card readers, and mehndi walis. There was also music and revelry, plus activities involving fondue and pasta, a dessert counter, and, of course, the handicrafts and jewellery that were on sale.

As a working woman and mother who rarely finds time to shop during the day, it is a development I welcome. Though — and I know this is not very glamorous — night bazaars should also have more mundane things like offering dal on sale!

A quiet tragedy

Through all this cacophony, a quiet tragedy took place last week. Just a few months after the death of Nissim Ezekiel, Mumbai lost another great writer Dom Moraes. Dom had been unwell for years, but always a survivor, he never let it show. In fact, in his last days, he wrote several books, and though he was weak and in pain after falling down the steps just before the launch of a book at the British Council, he still managed to get the better of his celebrity interviewer on the dais.

In the midst of the daily din of Mumbai, there are some losses that are irreplaceable. It may not seem so on the surface, but for some people at least Mumbai will never be the same again.

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