What: Kick - futsal (indoor football) arena, Supreme Business Park, behind Lake Castle, Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, call 32276565, Rs 2,000 for an hour long session.

Why: A garage doubles up as a basketball court, a parking lot turns into a football field and a strip of street is also a cricket pitch. The lack of space in the city has always been an issue for sport enthusiasts, which is why you’ll like Kick. This fun futsal arena in Powai – supposedly Mumbai’s first – isn’t in your friend’s garage and features a FIFA-rated astroturf field that can be booked for practice sessions by the hour and also organises coaching facilities and tournaments.

When: You want to Foster the People with Pumped Up Kicks.

What: IDfy.com, an online trust establishment platform for employees and employers, free and premium services available.

Why: A night of partying on the town can take quite a toll on your liver and Facebook feed. The picture of you dancing on the bar? Oops. And that close up of you with a cigarette. Burn! A dodgy digital presence can work against you in a professional setting, especially if you have nothing to back you up or verify the claims on your resume. IDfy.com, a trust platform started by friends Ashok Hariharan, Hatim Baheranwala, and Vineet Jawa offers to set up a suitable online profile and resume that can be verified by your peers, business partners and reviewed by potential employers, investors and even a landlord. ISB and Namma Bengaluru are some of the organisations that use IDfy’s services.



When: You need a new (pro)file cabinet.

This advertorial has been sponsored by Amrapali Jewels

Amrapali’s New E-Store: Tales of the Travelling Trinkets (view the slideshow version here)

Have a conversation with one of Amrapali’s jewellery pieces, and you’ll think they’re name dropping. But keep the conversation going and you’ll find that these trinkets have truly travelled all over, from the Cannes and Grammys to the Oscars and IIFA awards. A Jaipur-based jewellery brand – named after a legendary courtesan from the time of Lord Buddha – it features earrings that have been to Angelina Jolie’s bedroom and brooches that have been designed especially for the brand by couturier Manish Arora. And you thought you were bright!

The cool thing though, is that Amrapali’s new e-store features pricey jewellery, but also collections modeled after gazelles and Bihar tribes that won’t break the bank (starts at Rs 2,000). We introduce you to the travelling trinkets that have been places. Come say hello. They’re not stuck up, we promise.

The Gazelle Brooch: Like a deer caught in the spotlight, this gazelle brooch is perfect for the rebel who has no place on her dresser for conventional jewellery. Last spotted on actress Freida Pinto.

The Jhumki Earrings: Vidya Balan wore these silver earrings that can seamlessly go from day to night.

Gold Pated Dholki Beads: Inspired by the tribes of India and favourited by the tribe of Bollywood, several women have put their necks on the line for this one, including Diana Penty, Rani Mukherjee, Kajol and Kiran Rao.

Filigree Earrings: This contemporary pair of gold plated earrings have been to Hollywood actress Halley Berry’s dressing table. Two tickets to the Monster’s Ball, please.

Food Bulletin

During a walk around Kala Ghoda, we noticed the board for Chao Ban, the new restaurant that will be replacing Joss in about ten days. A quick peek around revealed interiors as simple as its predecessor - all wood and white.

From the guys behind Serafina and Irish House, we're told that Chao Ban will not be a Pan Asian restaurant but only serve Chinese cuisine, so Joss hopefuls, no more Thai Curry and sushi. Expect traditional Chinese cuisine with a contemporary twist, a separate dim sum menu and no famous chefs.

We'll let you know when it's up and running. Pak joy!

Getting there: 30, K. Dubhash Marg, Next to Chetana Restaurant, Kala Ghoda

“Pale green? Boyish? Well, yes, kind of. Newson, 45, who has always been fascinated with pale green, read how a couple of scientists had determined (incorrectly, it turns out) that this was the real shade of the universe. He had his vintage Aston Martin DB4 painted in that hue.”

William Shaw writes this and other lovely design stories about space age bars and people who build their own homes for New York Times’ T Magazine. Shaw – he’s also written extensively for The Sunday Telegraph and the Observer - is coming to India (Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore) with The British Council, to teach you to care about pale green.

In a workshop for writing about design, Shaw and other international writers will teach and mentor participants. Titled Create Change, the design writing workshop aims to capture inspirational stories and help develop skills to document how design has had an impact on Indian society. This will be done through discussions, exercises and assignments. The bonus is that participants of the workshop will be given a chance to contribute entries to an independent publication produced by Kyoorius, which will be released at the Kyoorius Designyatra conference from August 29-31 2013 in Goa.

The best part: it’s just Rs 1,000! So if you’ve been complaining about how there are no good creative writing courses in India, go and write this wrong.

Getting there: To participate, send in your details with a sample of your writing on design to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with KDY Design Writing as the subject.

Mumbai: May 17, 2013 from 10 am – 5 pm, British Council , 901, Tower 1 , One Indiabulls Centre ,Elphinstone Road (West).

Delhi: May 19, 2013 from 10 am – 5 pm, British Council , 17 Kasturba Gandhi Marg

Going through the list of Dolch words, we realize Norah Jones could have been singing to someone with a learning disability. “Come away with me in the night.” All on the list. A writing challenge after our own hearts, the Dolch Project is collecting stories for children (aged 6 to 14) with learning disabilities, but the trick is you have to stick to the 220 words on the list.

Dolch & Gabbana

Maybe you’re a bit confused. Dolch words are essentially another name for ‘sight words’. Learning disabled kids don’t learn phonetically like other children because they have a tough time with vocabulary and need words that can be understood on sight, or instantly. Like ‘school’ or ‘play’ or ‘yellow’. They learn to recognize these words in sentences, and when put into a context—like a story—they’d be able to have “more control” over the language, as an image on the Dolch Project Facebook page says.

That’s where you come in. Submit a story using the sight words we’ve linked to above (you can also use a few other words if you like, but it’s recommended to keep them short and easy to understand) and your story could be part of a collection used by schools to promote reading among learning disabled children. Word!

The idea for the Facebook page and project comes from 29-year-old Bodhisatwa Dasgupta, who lives up to his name by being a rather enlightened copywriter at an ad agency. A year ago, a friend approached him, asking if he could do something for some kids he knew with learning disabilities. Bodhisatwa says it took him a year to get back to his friend, because he was trying to figure out a way to make it work. Which is when it hit him—curating literature from other people using only the sight words, so that kids would have more reading options.

Up to now, the biggest user of Dolch words in kids literature is Dr Suess, but there’s only so much Cat In The Hat that one child can take. Bodhisatwa plans to use as many stories as he can—maybe even spread them out into volumes. Working title: Dolch Book Of Fantastic Tales.

No Kidding

It began with just the idea and the Facebook page, but now, just over three weeks later, the likes are pouring in, and Bodhisatwa has had some interest from publishers. New plans include selling book in stores, not just schools and developing a website with an app you can type directly into, which will highlight all the non-Dolch words in red.

Submissions should be between 600 to 1000 words long and submitted through Facebook or email. One day, yours could be the first story some lucky kid gets to read in its entirety, so make it good.

Getting there: Email submissions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or submit via Facebook message here, use words on the list from here.

After a big night of drinking in Hong Kong, this writer remembers climbing many, many stairs, long and winding, which finally led to a 24 hour neon canteen-like space, where revelers were grabbing a bowl of noodles before heading home.

We were reminded of this strange Murakami-ish place when we went to check out Pallette, The Urban Kitchen last night, a self service restaurant located at Kamala Mills. With all white interiors that are perhaps too bright on the eyes for a post work meal, the restaurant offers a hygienic set up with numbered tables, no fuss cutlery and a medium sized menu.

Juicing It

Armed with a perpetually hungry friend who works in the area, we got straight down to ordering. The peach iced tea and a freshly squeezed watermelon juice were prepared while our eyes adjusted to the interior and scoped out the rest of the menu. The juice was just the right amount of sweet, but the watery iced tea was a disappointment with no real taste.

Slurping on, we checked out Pallette's list of options that offers mainly snacks like burgers, wraps, sandwiches and salads, but also caters to the afternoon rush with Indian, continental and Chinese meal combos. Here's what we ordered: a smoked salmon bagel, a crispy chicken hamburger, a pepperoni pizza and a chicken mint wrap.

Patty Smith

The generous serving of fresh salmon was cause for great excitement, but the bagel was a little too doughy for our liking. This six inch pizza with a thin layer of cheese and pepperoni, was tasty, arrived quickly and at Rs 149, was good value for money. The crispy chicken hamburger came next, served with a bag of Lays chips. Your regular burger, it had the usual suspects: mayo, lettuce, a slice of tomato and a juicy patty. While the first bite into it tasted pretty good, we were disappointed to note that it featured a pre-frozen patty. Finally, the chicken and mint wrap was a fancy kathi roll with diced bits of chicken and onion in mint sauce that was full of flavor and fancily presented on a plate with chips on the side. We finished the meal off with some caramel custard that was yum and a very creamy chocolate mousse.

Now Pallette isn’t a place you’d make a trip to Lower Parel for, but if you work in the area and are tired of your office canteen, stop by here for a change. Maybe after dark it turns into that noodle slurping all-night diner where Murakami-coloured characters drift in and out of reality. One Hard Boiled Wonderland, please!

Getting there: Trade World, C Wing, Kamala City, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, call 6749700, 10 am to 11 pm, Rs 850 for a meal for two(without alcohol).

bpb reviews anonymously and pays for its own meals.

As the week inches by, slow and so hot, here's something to look forward to at the end of it: alcoholic ice popsicles that only surface at a bar on the weekends.

Recently launched at Woodside Inn, these have so far been available in two flavours - Green Apple and Beer and Watermelon and Mint - but will be rotated on a regular basis.The colour of leaves and flowers, Sitting in wine glasses, look how pretty the popsicles are! Freeze frame, please.

Getting there: Oriental Mansion, Wodehouse Road, Opposite Regal Cinema, Colaba, 022 2287 5752.

Available on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for Rs 250 plus

We've all been there. The silence of the conference room. The pointless power point. The endless brainstorming session. The loud rumble of the tummy.

It's way past lunch time and through the all-glass conference room, a shiny steel dabba on your desk wears a gleaming smile, mocking almost. But duty calls and lunch might have to be skipped. Suddenly that pie chart seems edible.

While this writer can't count the number of times her dabba has been ignored at her previous TV channel job, she's always felt a strong pang of guilt about letting her food go to waste. Which is why Share My Dabba seems like such a super concept. An organic campaign by the Happy Life Welfare Society and the Dabbawala foundation, Share My Dabba aims to kill two birds with one dabba – food wastage and the hunger crisis in Mumbai.

Read more to find out how you can be a part of the process:

So what is Share My Dabba?
Share My Dabba is an initiative to get uneaten food left behind in dabbas to hungry children on the street.

Why should I Share My Dabba?

Everyday, two hundred thousand children in Mumbai go hungry, with two starving to death. In the dabbawala system, of the 120 tons of food transported, approximately 16 tons goes to waste. Need another reason?

How Does It Work?

If you have any food left in in your dabba, all you need to do is put a Share sticker on it. The sticker allows the dabbawalas to identify these from the empty ones. These are in turn passed on to volunteers that distribute the food amongst the children.

Intrigued by the concept, we asked some of Mumbai's coolest chefs and dabba put-togethers what they would make, if they had to share their dabbas.

Chef Gresham Fernandes, Executive Chef at Impresario and Co-Founder of Gypsy Kitchen
If I had to share my dabba with street children, I would concentrate on making it healthy, wholesome and nutritious. A meal packed with starch, fibre and protein, while still being comfort food. I would recommend a potato cauliflower bhaji, dal khichdi with mutton or chicken stock and salad.

Shilarna Vaze, Le Cordon Bleu Chef and Founder at Gaia Home Chef

I would pack Mexican chicken, mango jalapeno salsa, refried beans and soft tortillas as these are easy to eat as much as you want and share the rest. Plus, it’s a treat!

Sai Gundewar, CEO, Foodizm

If you’re looking for something healthy and economical, I would suggest a tossed fig salad made with fresh iceberg lettuce and figs, nuts of your choice, cottage cheese or feta cheese, olive oil, fresh lemon juice and pepper. Chop up the ingredients and mix together for a wholesome meal.

Shonali Sabherwal , Macrobiotic counselor and Chef

I would recommend a moong salad and here’s a quick recipe: cook the moong and set aside. Once cooled add carrot, apple, bell pepper, lemon juice and ginger. Heat oil and add mustard seeds, green chili to the green moong mixture. Add in coriander leaves and salt.

Getting there: Share My Dabba, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject Share My Dabba for more details, view the Facebook page here, view the video here.

In this weekly column, filmmaker Danish Aslam will be your purveyor of the finest quality random facts, useless trivia and other esoterica from the world wide web. He lives mostly behind a keyboard and may or may not be a wizened old green man who speaks in grammatically incorrect aphorisms. You can find more on his home page http://pictually.me/dontpanic

First off, apologues in advance as there will be no column next week. But I'll be back the week after. So, see you on the other side....

A Boy And His Atom

Stop-motion movies seem to be the rage these days. So when IBM decides to venture into the field for an ad, you know it's going to be special. And 'A Boy & His Atom' can definitely be called that. It's been certified by the Guinness Book Of World Records as the smallest movie ever made. And the reason for that is that the entire movie has been made by moving actual atoms, frame by frame. Yup, you heard me: atoms. Created using technology developed by scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Lab, this ad shows atoms magnified to about 100 million times their original size and manipulated using needles that would draw within one nanometer of individual atoms to move them into place for the next frame. Apparently, this is IBM's way of predicting a future where an individual bit of data can be stored on no more than 12 atoms (compared to a million now). Which means that every movie in the world can be carried around on your iPhone. Show me where to sign up!

Spock vs Spock

And since we are on the topic of great ads and all things science, here's my nerdgasm pick of the week. The new ad for the 2013 Audi S7 is every Star Trek fan’s dream come true. All I want to tell you is this: 2 Spocks in a brutal race to the finish, 3D chess and Vulcan Neck Pinches. Live long….and prosper!

City Of Anarchy

The Kowloon Walled City - probably one of the most famous slums in the world. And not to take anything away from the 'slumdogs' and guided tours of Dharavi, but this Chinese oddity wins simply on the strength of its architecture alone. Surrounded by a stone wall (duh!), the alleys in this 6.5 acre plot were around 6 feet wide on average and the dense network of interconnected staircases and passageways meant that you could apparently go from the north end to the south without ever touching the ground. Think Hogwarts without the magic. Or space. Or big-budget movie adaptations. With very poor lighting. It was finally demolished in 1993 and a park now occupies the spot. But on the 20th anniversary of this event, the South China Morning Post has created an interesting infographic that shows you a cross-section of life inside the Walled City.