The Dover Lane Festival in Kolkata is one of the most well-attended outdoor classical music events in the country. In order to encourage young talent, a competition is held every year for musicians under the age of 25. Sitar player Sahana Banerjee was only 17 when she won the first prize at the festival in 1990. Now based in Mumbai, Banerjee has lived in France, Germany and Switzerland over the past decade. Her time in those countries enabled her to participate in fusion projects with Italian flautist Mashimo Marchelli and French pianist Shani Diluka. However, her concert will only comprise raga music.
5.30pm. Shivaji Park Nagrik Sangha, Shivaji Park, opposite Vanita Samaj, Veer Savarkar Road Dadar (W).
Books
An Evening with Bei Dao
20 February
Chinese poet Bei Dao has been banished from his homeland since the Tiananmen Square massacres of 1989, living proof that words can indeed be more powerful than weapons. Bei Dao’s poem ‘Huida’ (The Answer) was, in the words of one commentator, the ‘Blowing in the Wind’ of the democracy movement and appeared on wall posters everywhere. The poet was away in Berlin when the demonstrations broke out and was not allowed to return home. Dao will read some of his poems in Mumbai this week; a conversation with fiction writer Sharmistha Mohanty will follow.
6.30pm. Jnanapravaha, Queens Mansion, third floor, AK Nayak Marg, Fort (22072974/2975).
CONNECT
STRETCH
What happens when two yoga teachers, one of whom is also a professional clown, decide to improvise? Circus yoga, but naturally. Yoli Maya Yeh, who completed her own circus yoga teacher-training course in Chicago in 2006, teaches the fundamentals of flying partner yoga in her workshops every Sunday. She also teaches traditional Hatha yoga, and holds prenatal and post-natal classes.
998, 1st Main, 1st Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. Call 9980456679 for details
JOIN
Mango Tree in Mumbai, which supports farming communities across India, has launched a membership scheme called The Hive. Subscribers will receive a new variety of honey every month. Their collection of single-flora honeys includes Wild Forest honey from the Narmada valley, Litchi honey from the ‘litchi’ orchards of Bihar and Sweet Clover honey from the Chambal area of Madhya Pradesh. Pay Rs1,200 to subscribe to The Hive.
Call (0)9833154478 or visit honeyetc.blogspot.com or www.utmt.in
KNOW
Two places can now be served up in a Martini glass: Manhattan and Dharavi. The Manhattan—strong, sweet, sometimes fruity—was most recently adored by the girls of ‘Sex and the City’ and previously preferred dry by Frank Sinatra. The Dharavi, on the other hand, is briny, murky and not dry. It was certainly not invented in the neighbourhood it is named after. The drink is Soul Fry Casa’s name for its dirty Martini, made dirtier (with muddled olives). Rs200.
At Soul Fry Casa, 111, Karimji Building, MG Road, Mumbai (66720743)
READ
Ar first glance, it seems like Sharada Dwivedi and Rahul Mehrotra’s ‘Bombay Deco’ (Eminence Design; Rs3,000) has more pages than the city has Art Deco buildings. Surely a handful of cinema halls, offices and curvilinear balconies built in Colaba, Churchgate and Marine Drive between 1930 and 1947 can’t fill 312 glossy pages? They don’t. ‘Bombay Deco’ stretches beyond the usual, covering print advertisements, mini-mansions on Nepean Sea Road and Malabar Hill, and middle-class buildings in Dadar’s Hindu and Parsi colonies, plus several instances that blend local and Western styles.--Rachel Lopez