Decoding The City Through Stories

Mumbai is certainly the most mystical and mysterious city of our country. For years people have been trying to understand this city. Various means have been adopted by them and a lot has been written about the city. But still there is no absolute clarity as to what makes this city so unique. Mumbai still lures the explorers to come and explore it. Discovering Mumbai itself is one such experiment and so we were very happy to come across another great experiment in the discovery of the city. ‘Katha Cues’, a group of people who gather to share stories, founded by Tarun Durga, is an on-going experiment to understand the city through the stories of its inhabitants.

  

Improvising Theatre

The vibrant theatre culture of Mumbai has been witnessing a steady stream of talented and innovative actors which are bent on changing the old ways. Their penchant for travelling on the path less travelled has resulted in creation of an innovative theatre scene in Mumbai. ‘Improv’ has been the talk of town in recent years. Improv theatre has changed the way we watch and experience theatre by making the audience a part of the action. Discovering Mumbai presents Adam Dow, founder of ‘Improv ComedyMumbai’ (ICM), a group dedicated to pushing the boundaries of Improv theatre and taking it to the masses. Time for some improvisation!

Adam Dow

In chat: The Narrators

So you love books? You have many, adorning those shelves in one corner of your home. Do you wish if there was a better, beautiful and artistic way of displaying your book collection? If you can relate to all of the above then the ‘The Narrators’, an initiative by Reshma Jain, has the right recipe for you. They have just converted literary masterpieces into beautifully designed posters. So now you can have the entire text of the book in the form of a poster, decorating the walls of your home. Excited? Read on, for our interview with Reshma Jain and you can also check out a few of their works here. For the entire collection, head over to their site -here

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle

The Breakfast Projekt

How far can you push yourself for your passion? Setting ambitious targets is easy, but getting up every day and sticking to it is tough. We start out with much gusto, but somewhere down the line the fire fizzles out, the target becomes an insurmountable peak, and we just quit. How about setting yourself a target of preparing a new breakfast every morning, throughout the year? Sounds ambitious? Well Pratishtha Khan, has set herself this ambitious and rather unique target. Discovering Mumbai presents Pratishtha who has started ‘The Breakfast Projekt', through which she aims to cook up 356 different breakfast recipes in 365 days!

Pratishtha Khan

The Online Banya

You must have heard all the views about how FDI in retail will lead to disappearance of your local kirana shops. We don’t really know if that is going to happen or not. But even before Walmart could step into the country, one Mumbai based grocery store has already disappeared! Where did it go? Was Walmart behind its disappearance? Well, it didn’t really disappear, it just went online. Discovering Mumbai presents ‘Local Banya’, an innovative online grocery store started in May by Karan Mehrotra, Rashi Choudhary and Amit Naik, which wants to change the way you shop for grocery, one click at a time!

The Local Banya Mascot

A Project to Save the Environment

Lot has been said and written about the impact of human civilization on the environment. The pace at which modern human civilization has grown in the last fifty years is amazing. This growth, however, has come at a cost. To feed the needs of the growing human race, forests across the globe have been cut down at an alarming speed. India, especially, is at crossroads thanks to its ambition to develop and the impact our growth is having on the country’s natural resources. Its lack of forest cover is a well-known problem. Discovering Mumbai presents Hari Chakyar and Anthony Karbhari, two Mumbaikars on a mission to create awareness about the environment and encouraging people to plant trees, called 'Project 35 Trees'. It’s time to Go Green!

Protecting Innocence

Almost everyone who has an internet connection has a Facebook or Twitter account. Vast amounts of data shared by people on these websites. Even kids have taken to these sites with much gusto. They are born digital citizens. But how safe are children on these sites? It’s not just hacking that’s a threat to children. A new menace is on the rise, mostly unnoticed so far. ‘Cyber bullying’ the virtual version of bullying is widely prevalent amongst children. Three Mumbaikar’s have taken up the task to protect children from this cyber threat. Discovering Mumbai presents ‘CyberSmartie’, a start-up founded by Shekhar Tripathi, Sayantan Sen and Neha Doshi, the people on a mission to protect children from Cyber Bullying.

Cybersmartie at work

Crazy for Food

Mumbai has many treasures for the foodie. From high end restaurants serving international cuisines to the budget restaurants serving amazing Indian delicacies, there is a lot to explore and relish. But given the sheer size of the cities it often becomes difficult for one to travel from one corner of the city to another to try a new restaurant. Also it’s sometimes difficult to convince people to come along to a far flung place. A few Mumbai foodies, however, have found a solution to this problem. They have come together and formed a group 'Pet Pujari’s', a group of people who will do anything for food! Discovering Mumbai today features Sushil Cherian, the founder of this fabulous foodie group Pet Pujari’s.

Pet Pujaris at 'Bagelwala'

Creating Magic on Stage

The theatre is an integral part of the city of Mumbai. Its roots can be traced back to the days of the British Raj. The Parsi style of theatre dominated during the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Post-independence, particularly in the 60’s and 70’s, the golden period of Indian theatre, a lot of changes were seen in the way theatre had been functioning. But post 80’s theatre started to lose its charm. However, over the last decade or so it has been making a comeback. And this comeback has been led by the youth who have taken to theatre with a new approach. Discovering Mumbai presents Divya Palat, an actor, playwright and director, who pioneered the improvisation style of theatre in the Mumbai theatre scene. She also started the ‘Balancing Act Productions’ which has won numerous awards for their plays.

Divya Palat

The Classical Sound of Harp

For quite a long time, for most of us Indian’s music began and ended with Bollywood. The sound, or rather noise, of Bollywood drowned out everything else. Even today, all day long, through the Television and Radio we are constantly bombarded with Bollywood music. However, now we have a large chunk of population that is exploring and listening to different kinds of music. It’s not just the new age punk or alternative rock but even classical music, both Indian and western is seeing a revival. Discovering Mumbai presents to you Nush Lewis, a popular harpist, singer and songwriter; whose work with the strings will definitely make you fall in love with the harp!

Nush Lewis

Bridging the Gap

The Indie music scene has been steadily gaining strength over the years. Indie bands and music are slowly making inroads into our taste of music, which was previously predominantly ruled by international or Bollywood music. More and more people are being exposed to indie music through various mediums like live shows, radio, online music stores etc. Today we feature ‘OK Listen’ an online music store started by Vijay Basrur with the vision of bridging the gap between musicians and their fans.