Memorable centenary
PM Narendra Modi chose to visit the Ganeshotsav at Lokmanya Seva Sangh at Vile Parle during his recent visit to the city. He wanted to visit a Ganesh Mandal with a long-standing tradition of socio-cultural activities during his short trip and the Tilak Mandir — the centre of cultural activities in the suburb. Luminaries like Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar have visited the Ganeshotsav, which is celebrating its centenary this year. Pt Bhimsen Joshi, Kishori Amonkar, P L Deshpande are associated with the institute.
Cultural pathway from Prabhadevi to Mahim
Mumbai has few places such as the Marine Drive and Worli where one can enjoy a walk on the encroachment-free footpath. Sensing the need, the city administration has now proposed a ‘cultural walkway’ from Prabhadevi to Mahim. Several places of historical and religious importance like the Siddhivinayak temple, Chaitya Bhoomi, Shivaji Park, Mahim Durgah and the city’s oldest St Michel’s Church will be connected by this 4-km-long walkway at the cost of `6.5 crore.
The civic authority has also revived the proposal of 39-km-cycle track along the Tansa water pipeline. While the work is already underway on the two ends of the track, for the middle stretch between Sahar and Santacruz, the administration is now mulling over the idea of having an underground walkway. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation floated a tender for the project earlier this week and plans to start work by November.
Literary treasure recovered from scrap
An archivist recently recovered legendary Urdu poet and Hindi lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi’s handwritten poems, letters and photographs from a scrap dealer’s shop in Juhu. The photographs included some from his childhood and college days. Also, there were reminiscent of the scenes from the classic ‘Pyaasa’. The priceless treasure for any literary art or the cinema was purchased by the filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur for `3,000.
Kamathipura is changing
One of Asia’s largest and oldest red-light areas Kamathipura has been known as a crumbling neighbourhood for ages. The area was dominated by tens of thousands of commercial sex workers till a few years back, which kept others away from the area though it had very low rents for residential quarters. The area remained neglected in spite of being at the heart of the commercial capital. Thrust on the redevelopment of old buildings has now forced it to change and this has brought down the number of commercial sex workers in this area only to about a few hundred.