Mumbai Diary: Sunday Dossier

Swirled Wide WebWith the monsoons raising water levels in city lakes again a fisherman casts his net at the Hariyali lake in Daulat Nagar Thane EastHello Dickie good to see you againThatrsquos Dickie Birdrdquo some of us exclaimed as the famous cricket umpire appeared on our television sets as we followed the third Ashes Test played at Leeds Yorkshire on Thursday Bird 90 still loves his cricket and while he earned the admiration of cricketers the world over throughout his 19731996 stint in international cricket he was always happy to share his memorable onfield experiencesUmpire Dickie Bird acknowledges the crowdrsquos applause as he steps onto the Lordrsquos turf for the opening day of his last Test in the England versus India game at Lordrsquos in 1996 Current India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey is on the right Pic Getty ImagesIn My Autobiography a book he wrote in 1997 he mentioned how Kapil Dev played the perfect optimist when India had the mighty West Indies on the run in the 1983 World Cup final which was supervised by Bird and Barrie Meyer at Lordrsquos ldquoWersquove got them now Dickie wersquove got themrdquo the India skipper kept telling him with each passing wicket while the West Indies tried to go past Indiarsquos score of 183Bird enjoyed a good final which changed the face of Indian cricket but one decision from him caused some debate He ruled a West Indian batsman not out although he didnrsquot make his ground Bird reckoned that the Caribbean batsman was obstructed by India medium pacer S Madan Lal Bird wrote that Madan had no issue with his decision and even admitted that he had come in the way of the batsmanBirdrsquos call also earned approval from Richie Benaud known for his precise observations from the commentary box Forty years ago cricket was a lesser demonstrative sport which often witnessed acts of fairness and honesty The game had more characters too Like us you may have seen one of them watching Thursdayrsquos Ashes action at a ground that he likes to call homeA motherrsquos journeyThey say a mother can move heaven and earth for her child and few people embody this spirit better than Vahishtai Daboo a certified audio visual therapist for people with hearing differences When her son now 26 years old was born with hearing loss Daboo went back to school learning audio visual therapy at the Bell Academy in the United States of America and is now a certified professional in the field ldquoI saw what the therapy did for my son and I wanted to be there for others facing similar situations I wanted to make a difference in the lives of other families with members facing hearing differencesrdquo Daboo tells midday over a call This week marked another milestone in her journey Daboo had founded Integrated a consultancy service for children with hearing differences their families professionals and centres five years ago and on Friday Integrated shifted from its original office in Colaba to a larger space in Opera House ldquoAll we are doingrdquo she says ldquois empowering children and adults with hearing differences so that they can become contributing members of the societyrdquoSoleful 13th anniv for running clubThe Mumbai Road Runners MRR a running group that found its feet in 2010 celebrated 13 years with a festive run in the city The club holds 10 km and 21 km training runs on the first Sunday of every month and currently has 15000 members on Facebook ldquoSome leave the city but many new runners keep joining in Some runners sacrifice their long runs and stand at the MRR water stations volunteering to serve or support the runnersrdquo says a club memberThe future is queerDrag just went mainstream with the firstever event held last week in Mumbai where drag performers took the stage in a mainstream location It Events founded by Mumbaibased transgender influencers Luna Rayyan Monkey and Deedee hosted a drag ball extravaganza Welcome to the Future at antiSOCIAL on July 2 The company which first began hosting online drag events during the pandemic is now taking drag performers out of the restriction of queer venues only and placing them firmly in the public eye Queer public figures like trans fashion designer Saisha Shinde and nonbinary filmmaker Faraz Arif Ansari were the judges ldquoQueer spaces tend to be gendered but we are aiming to create a genderless community The idea was first and foremost to create a safe space for ourselves the founders as we felt there wasnrsquot one before We wanted a space where we could celebrate fantasy freedom and fashionrdquoLuna tells this diaristAnd Drsquosa how you do itContent creator Larissa DrsquoSa has become the first Indian creator to be invited to attend Wimbledon this year In fact she manifested it DrsquoSa put up a story on her Instagram which showed a scrapbook from 2008 where she had pasted pictures of her favourite tennis star Roger Federer She was there on July 6 to watch the Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas match and also hung out with Indian legend Sania Mirza DrsquoSa told us ldquoBeing hosted by Wimbledon was a dream come true I grew up being a tennis fan and I love how the game is not just about physical strength but also mental agility It is about two individuals at war so thatrsquos what I am so fascinated about I watched Murray and Tsitsipasrsquos match and that was intensely satisfying I really wanted to watch Djokovic but he was not playing on the day I attendedrdquo