Foreshadowing change
Restoration work in progress on the iconic Flora Fountain at Hutatma Chowk.
When grief is inspiration
Snehasadan children at the event
After losing one of his brightest students, 21-year-old Tanishq, to suicide on October 14, 2024, football coach Clayton D’Souza turned grief into purpose. The founder of D’Souza Foundation Academy (DFA), which trains underprivileged children on BMC grounds, started the Tanu Cares for You Foundation in his memory. Through it, D’Souza works to support children’s rehabilitation and promote education through sports.
This year, on October 14, the foundation marked Tanishq’s first death anniversary by feeding 210 children at Snehasadan orphanage. With the help from DFA parents and well-wishers, they also donated 90 pairs of football studs, groceries worth Rs 70,000, toiletries, and clothes.
“Tanishq was not just a player. He was a mentor to the younger kids. I wanted his spirit of care and leadership to live on,” says D’Souza. “Apart from me, he had a connection with the parents and the kids at the academy. I want to raise awareness about children’s mental health with this initiative.”
For him, football remains a way to teach discipline, build confidence, and heal.
How to ‘Rr’ in Marathi
Manas Bhide
“I’m basically a guy who teaches Marathi in a funny way,” says Manas Bhide, who has people on Instagram hooked with his lesssons.
Known online as Bhide Bhau, his short, witty clips in the reel series Learn Marathi With Bhide Bhau turn the quirks of the Marathi language into laugh-out-loud moments of learning. “This Learn Marathi idea had been on my mind for over a year,” says Bhide. “I have partially studied in the Marathi medium, and I’m a huge fan of comedy. So I thought of combining these two things, and it worked.”
The charm of his videos lies in their relatability. Whether it’s wrestling with the rolling ‘r’ or multiple ‘t’s, Bhide delivers with spot-on expressions and comic timing. Bhide’s DMs now have people asking if he would professionally teach Marathi. Follow him on Instagram @bhidejokes to learn a word or two, or just for a laugh.
Back to our roots
We need to understand forests better. Representational Pic/iStock
If you feel overwhelmed by climate change and environmental destruction, perhaps the answer is to go back to our non-urban roots. The Centre for Science and Environment has two films available on DVD, which help us understand how forests and villages are an intrinsic part of the earth’s ecology
One film (23 minutes) tells us about sacred groves, whose purpose is to manage and protect forests in the name of God. If they are to remain, two things need to be practiced — local community control must be strengthened and not weakened; secondly we have to rebuild faith in the wealth that our forests provide.
The second film we liked, a little longer at 50 minutes, is about village residents who have taken control of their environment to change their economic fate. These village republics show that environmental management, in rural India, is a matter of giving power to the people to manage their natural resources.
The DVDs are available at cse.org.in.
Risk-o-meter at a high
Safety nets are much-needed
It is beware and watch out for all those cutting across the Azad Maidan these days. The cricket players are bowling, batting, chasing the ball — but pedestrians walking across are in some danger. A terrific shot or throw may send the ball towards a passerby. These spaces need nets or a full fencing, now that cricket season is back at the maidans, post monsoon. The shopping hordes are out at Fashion Street, too, and many shoppers are crossing over here, keeping an eye out for the ball that can cause serious injury. We need a steel fence or at least nets as a safety barrier. We cannot expect the citizenry to walk with helmets and safety gear!
An Ashes in the middle
England captain Ben Stokes (right) with his Australian counterpart Pat Cummins during the 2023 Ashes at Leeds. Pic/Getty Images
Our in-house cricket nut can’t wait for the 2025-26 Ashes series to unfold on November 21 in Perth. Before he gets into naming his favourite for cricket’s sacred urn, he tells us that it’s rare for an Australia-hosted Ashes series to held in the middle of a decade. In fact, he says there is only such instance among 40 previous Ashes series held Down Under — in the Australian summer of 1965-66. Only two of those five Tests ended in results — one each for both teams. But the player who fascinated one and all was 19-year-old Doug Walters, who smashed hundreds in his first two Tests. Our man doesn’t predict a drawn series like it happened in 1965-66. Australia will take the honours eventually, but they need their batters to rise. England’s last three Ashes series in Australia ended 0-5, 0-4, 04 but an improvement from the tourists is on the cards.
