Eyes on the ball
A young boy practises his shots in a parking lot in Kandivli.
Playful prestige
Participants play board games at Table Top Expo in Bangalore. Pics Courtesy/Pratik Sohani
Last weekend, Bengaluru hosted Table Top Expo (TTOX), one of India’s largest table-top gaming conventions, bringing together board game enthusiasts, designers, publishers, and, café owners under one roof. The three-day event, which concluded on June 21, featured game demonstrations, play-testing sessions, industry discussions, and, for the first time, awards across several categories.
Pratik Sohani
Dombivli’s based Mind Games Café secured third place amidst competition from across the country. “When we started, many people here only knew games like Monopoly and Uno. Over the years, we have seen a growing interest in modern board games, and this recognition shows how much the local gaming community has evolved,” said founder Pratik Sohani.
The cup runneth over
Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev during the celebrations at Indus Club. Pic/Special Arrangement
The gang of 1983 were at the Indus Club, BKC, where cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar threw a party on Thursday to celebrate the 43rd anniversary of India’s very first cricket World Cup win.
Kapil Dev, the captain of the outfit which stunned the West Indies at Lord’s, was around and so was vice-captain Mohinder Amarnath, looking fit enough to grace the greens again. Unfortunately, other team members such as Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri are in England, while wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani and manager PR Man Singh couldn’t make it. And of course, the team also missed the late Yashpal Sharma.
The film ’83 provided a fillip to that defining moment in Indian cricket and some of the actors joined in. Chirag Patil, who played his father Sandeep was spotted. Ditto Jatin Sarna (Yashpal Sharma) and Dinkar Sharma (Kirti Azad). And director Kabir Khan couldn’t be missed. There were whispers that Ranveer Singh, who played Kapil Dev might drop in, but he didn’t.
Amidst bright lights, drinks and eats, the World Cup heroes spread the good anniversary cheer. Gavaskar as usual, played a gracious host while friend Anil Joshi attended to everyone’s needs. And venue boss Harish Thawani even showed willingness to continue the party deep into the night at his residence. We don’t think the clock advanced that far, but what a great time we all had.
Booked for Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro
Bibliophiles would do well to make some space in their bookshelves. Nobel laureate and Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro is set to return with a new book, Miss Lambert Steps Aboard Danger (Faber) in March 2027. The title will add to Ishiguro’s decorated body of work, including Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning classic, The Remains of The Day. We learnt that the author has drawn from his love for music, art and Golden Age cinema in the gripping 1930s-inspired page-turner.
Raining peacocks in Mumbai
It is carbs and cars as the bird pecks at rice grains. Pic Courtesy/Nikita Advani
It is raining peafowl as peacocks or peahens have been spotted in the city. Two days ago, South Mumbai WhatsApp chats whirred with a message stating: Peacocks on Peddar Road. A video showed two birds, near the Jaslok hospital with traffic slowing down as the birds stood obviously flummoxed.
On Wednesday late evening, a Breach Candy resident Nikita Advani saw a peacock/peahen (we will let the experts decide) standing atop a car at the Shyam Nivas building compound. This building stands diagonally opposite Breach Candy Hospital. Advani laughed as she said, “There was great excitement and finally, we gave the bird some rice grains to feed upon. I managed to take these pictures. In an often grim world, it is moments like these that break through and give us an opportunity to smile. There was so much happiness. The bird stayed there for about 15 minutes till it flew to another lane,” she signed off. Peddar Road and Breach Candy Mumbai peafowl are oh so SoBo really.
* This article was originally published here
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