Jane Borges
Mumbai
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Articles by Jane Borges
Naseeruddin Shah to bring Salman Rushdie memoir after assassination bid to stage
Twenty-seven seconds: On the clock, it is less than half of a minute, and a little more than a quarter of one. Nothing exceptional can possibly occur in such a short passage of time. Unless, of course, you enjoy poetry — “you could read aloud one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, the one about the summer’s day,” novelist Salman Rushdie wrote in his memoir, ‘Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder’.
Done playing the bad guy, Vijay Varma is finally out to play
At 40, the chameleonic actor is happy with an image change. After years of portraying the messy outlier, the prolific actor is embracing powerful roles that show his range—whether it’s the lead or the sidekick A conversation can drift as quickly as it begins. I realise this soon after settling into the drawing room of actor Vijay Varma’s sunlit Juhu apartment, which overlooks a sprawling expanse of emerald green. The view, I tell him, is an anomaly in Mumbai.
New glossary offers vibrant vocabulary to appreciate city’s colonial buildings
MUMBAI: Very few books about Mumbai will make you look at a building and observe its tiny details: the slatted ventilators of a timber-framed bungalow, the different columns that support a Neo-Classical structure, or the inner ribbed dome decorating the historic CSMT.
Nisha da Cunha, writer and beloved literature professor, dies at 92
MUMBAI: Veteran author and educator Nisha da Cunha passed away at her residence on Tuesday evening at the age of 92, leaving behind a literary legacy as rich as her fiction. Remembered for her short story collections, Nisha also inspired an entire generation to fall in love with books as a professor of literature.
Mumbai is in a purposeless hurry; only greed is driving the city
Posted On: 2026-07-19 Posted By: Jane Borges Health & Lifestyle Travel Education Technology Cities Real Estate & Construction Hindustan Times Columnists India, July 19 -- It's been less than 24 hours since VB Gandhi Marg in Kala Ghoda, where architect-urbanist-educator Rahul Mehrotra's studio is located, was cordoned off. Just the previous day, the street and the connecting by-lanes had been emptied out and vehicles barred from entry.
Mumbai is in a purposeless hurry; only greed is driving the city
Inauguration of Mumbai’s Pedestrian District MUMBAI: It’s been less than 24 hours since VB Gandhi Marg in Kala Ghoda, where architect-urbanist-educator Rahul Mehrotra’s studio is located, was cordoned off. Just the previous day, the street and the connecting by-lanes had been emptied out and vehicles barred from entry. A stretch along the road was converted into a cozy alfresco dining space with shade sails to complete the look, and somewhere else, a pottery-maker had set up a stall on the ground.
Kala Ghoda’s long walk to becoming pedestrian district
MUMBAI: On Tuesday, Mumbai officially got its first pedestrian-friendly district with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurating the beautification project of the Kala Ghoda Art Avenue, giving a fresh lease of life to the heritage precinct. For a city that is becoming increasingly motorized, the development is heartening, raising hopes for more such walkable zones across the city.
Home / Sunday-mid-day / Article / Discovering Bombay on a plate: Meher Mirza's debut book dives into the history of how Mumbai eats
Writer-editor Meher Mirza’s ambitious debut tells the history of a city through what it grew and served at its dinner tables There are always a hundred different ways to read a city, and understand its gradual evolution, expanding cultures, transitory built heritage and the zeitgeist of its spirited population.
It’s written in the stars: AI Chatbots are taking over astrology
Shivi Bhalla has been getting her charts read since she was in her 20s. The 36-year-old resident of West Delhi believes in astrology because “it helps me accept that some things are beyond my control, and makes it easier to move on”. She has tried many astrologers in the past. But if she could afford it, she’d have turned to Telugu astrologer Dr Komarraju Bharadwaj Sharma, whom she discovered on YouTube and whose horoscope predictions she swears by.
Verse city: Mumbai all shaken up by rhyme and rhythm
Jane Borges MUMBAI: “It takes real narcissists to find themselves at the centre of a city so swollen with people even at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 5.47 a.m. …” writes Saranya Subramanian in her chromatic Bombay poem that's part of her debut collection, ‘Absent People, Absent Places'. One wonders what would happen if all the poets replaced these narcissists. The simple, uncomplicated answer is that there would never be a dearth of verse about the city.
Seeing Mumbai beyond skyline and landmarks
India, June 7 -- For a city like Mumbai whose contours twist and change with routine frequency, documenting its evolution can be daunting.
Seeing Mumbai beyond skyline and landmarks
MUMBAI: For a city like Mumbai whose contours twist and change with routine frequency, documenting its evolution can be daunting. iiMumbai, India - June 04, 2026: Writer Shormistha Mukherjee pose for the photos at Bazar Road, Bandra in Mumbai, India, on Thursday, June 04, 2026.
Capturing the heart and soul of Mahalaxmi Racecourse
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Home / Sunday-mid-day / Article / A race against time: Capturing the heart and soul of Mahalaxmi Racecourse in Mumbai
Ten years in the making, photographer Sunhil Sippy’s new book offers a rare glimpse into the inner world of the Mahalaxmi Racecourse, which may soon be lost to the city’s aggressive push for development Sunhil Sippy. Pic/Rane Ashish In Mumbai, remaining static is a luxury afforded either by circumstance, chance, or apathy.
Home / Mumbai / Mumbai News / Article / Six-hour nightmare: BKC commuter ditches bike amid Chembur–Vashi gridlock
A late-night commute from BKC to Kamothe turned into a six-hour ordeal after a crane collapse brought traffic to a standstill between Chembur and Vashi toll naka. With no on-ground updates from authorities, a commuter was forced to abandon his motorcycle at Tilak Nagar and switch to a local train Traffic between Mankhurd and Vashi on Wednesday. Pic/X/@mid_day Getting out of Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) is a painstaking ordeal on any given day, but Wednesday night descended into chaos.
Walk, wait, wonder: Commuter recounts 10-hour ordeal on Mumbai-Pune stretch
A commuter travelling from Mumbai to Pune described a night of chaos as a routine five-hour journey stretched to nearly 11 hours due to severe traffic congestion. With no access to basic facilities and people forced to walk along the bridge, the experience exposed serious gaps in infrastructure and emergency preparedness Screen grab of actor Sonali Kulkarni’s viral video describing the hours-long traffic gridlock and lack of basic facilities on the Mumbai-Pune route.
From “Chalo Dilli” to “Bharat Chhodo”—How words shaped revolutions and literary brilliance in India | શબ્દ ચિનગારી જેવો જ હોય છે
હોમ > કૉલમ > Published : 27 October, 2025 03:39 PM | IST | Mumbai Jane Borges | jane.borges@mid-day.com શબ્દો તો સૌની પાસે છે. તમારી પાસે છે, મારી પાસે છે, કમ્પોઝિટર પાસે છે, કવિ પાસે છે, સંત પાસે છે, પ્રિયતમ પાસે છે, પ્રેમિકા પાસે છે, નેતા પાસે છે; પણ એ બધા શબ્દોમાં કેટલો ફેર છે? શબ્દકોશ શબ્દોનું મ્યુઝિયમ છે. કવિતા (સારી કવિતા) શબ્દોની આર્ટ ગૅલરી છે. ભારત છોડો આંદોલન (તસવીર: મિડ-ડે) શબ્દોની શક્તિનો કોઈ પાર નથી. શબ્દ ચિનગારી જેવો છે, એ પ્રજ્વલિત થાય તો મોટી ક્રાન્તિ થઈ જાય.
‘Wayel Kati’: Linthoi Chanu’s book proves that conflict is not the narrative of Manipur
In Manipur, the Goddess Panthoibi symbolises love and peace. But she is also the shakti that fights “evil”, said Manipuri novelist Linthoi Chanu. The author discovered Panthoibi, a Meitei deity, as a child, through an elderly man – a friend of the family – whom she called “Pupu” or grandfather. “There’s a story that Pupu told me, in which Panthoibi is enraged with a monster that was destroying the world made by the ‘Creator’.
India’s Bene Israel Food Creates a Fusion of Coconut and Kosher
In the western part of India, a fast-diminishing Jewish community holds on to its coastal roots through food and memory Until some years ago, Nora Solomon Sherry Chandgavkar would spend hours toiling in her kitchen preparing chik-cha halwa. Halwa is a chewy, gelatinous sweet popular in India, and different cultures have their own recipes.
‘Not my job as author to tell you what truth is’
For siblings Amish Tripathi and Bhavna Roy, home was the place that expanded their worldview. “Our childhood was an interesting amalgam of the East and West,” says Bhavna, who is older to Amish and his twin Ashish by eight years, and brother Anish by two. While the four siblings grew up in Mumbai, and studied at several prestigious schools across India, their western education was supplemented with learnings from the ancient Indian philosophies.
How we became India
The Internet today has a surplus of videos and stories that claim Indian history needs redressal, rewriting and revision. A staunch group of historians, pandering to agendas of higher powers, have already managed to inject and infuse newer narratives into our social and historical fabric to support their argument. But beyond the Right, Left, and Nehruvian-Communist driven histories is scientific rigour that has shaped histories since time immemorial.
Naseeruddin Shah returns with a new film on relationships and happiness
In the early noughties, when filmmakers were successfully experimenting with ensemble casts and multiple plot threads, Naseeruddin Shah, with a reputation for being sagacious in his choice of films, joined the fray with his directorial debut, Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota (2006), a 9/11 hijack drama that was a collage of four inter-twined stories. We meet the 73-year-old at his Bandra West residence, on a day when the sun and rain clouds are playing hide-and-seek.
This culinary book draws upon memories and recipes from the matriarch`s kitchen
In Mamalassery, a quaint southern village in Kerala, a home on the banks of the Muvattupuzha river, capped by red tiles with walls painted in white and tangerine, has for nearly a century preserved an adukkala, a kitchen, where food is not just cooked, it is nurtured. “Within this home, the first matriarch presided over her family of ten...
Tracing the evolution of Rahul Gandhi`s political conduct
What is the politics of Rahul Gandhi? It’s a question that has confounded both, his supporters and detractors for some time. He has questioned the “greed for power” within his own party, and continues to trade barbs with the Opposition. Last year, when Gandhi pulled off the colossal Bharat Jodo Yatra, there were murmurs of course, not as much about its scale, but about the traction it would receive.
This new book delves into the friendship of women and queer folk from South Asia
Before they became friends, Shilpa Phadke and Nithila Kanagasabai shared a “working relationship”. The two met over a decade ago, “sitting across a desk in an academic office, where one of us was the interviewer and prospective teacher and the other the interviewee and potential student”. Phadke, dean of School of Media and Cultural Studies at TISS, who co-authored the critically-acclaimed and revelatory non-fiction, Why Loiter?
‘Why is the sink in the drawing room!’
This is Dhruv Aditya Dave’s second innings in Mumbai. The first time the fashion stylist came here was over a decade ago, fresh out of college, wide-eyed with child-like excitement and dreams of conquering the Bollywood industry. “B**ls, none of that happened!” he says over a phone call. Dave tried, but felt a bit disillusioned—it was too expensive for a young person in his 20s who was trying to find his footing.
Take a dive into Mumbai`s evolving social fabric over the years with this novel
Lindsay Pereira’s second novel has been in the making for nearly 15 years. “I kept thinking about it in some form or another. But, I would keep putting it off, because it was really easy for it to tip over into cliché,” he tells us over a call from the US.
Cyrus Mistry on his journey as a playwright over the years
We will begin from the end, because if there’s anything we’ve learnt after a 30-minute interview with author-playwright Cyrus Mistry, it is patience. Mistry, who grew up and lived in Mumbai, and now resides in the cool confines of Kodaikanal, tells us matter-of-factly that he “waited”. And for a very long time. This was when he was in his 20s—a time when his mind was single-mindedly focussed on becoming a playwright, and the validation came sooner than he had expected.
This Mumbai rap duo is dishing feel-good, yesteryear, fusion nostalgia
This is not the first time that we’ve heard Karan Kapadia rap. A year ago, we chanced upon an Instagram Reel of the actor, who is the son of late actress Simple Kapadia and nephew to Dimple Kapadia. Our fleeting attention span must have led us to the next Reel, because, when we meet Karan at a Juhu studio to discuss his latest single Tere Bina, we have little memory of the song.
Is there a natural miracle goli for fertility?
Rachana and husband Vishal Gupta say that they discovered the “miraculous results” of Ayurveda almost a decade ago. Vishal, she says, was battling psoriasis—a skin disease that causes a rash with itchy and scaly patches, often on the knees, elbows and scalp. He has struggled with it since he was 20. After pumping money into medication that yielded very little result, Vishal, despite being a sceptic, tried Ayurveda.
How AI bots are emulating Gods to provide answers to life and its problems
For this writer, the Bible has meant different things at different points. As a child, we read the children’s version—on the insistence of parents—to learn through its stories, about right and wrong, good and evil. Growing up, we turned to it, often in desperate times. An elderly relative had once claimed that if there was something bothering us, we would find a resolution in the Psalms, a book in the Old Testament, composed of sacred songs and poems.
How this Mumbaikar is winning hearts with his chalk, clay, lead mini sculptures
It was on the insistence of his artist and sculptor friend Arzan Khambatta that Dadar Parsi Colony resident Rusi Bharucha first began his journey with sculpting around 12 years ago. “This one time, when I was at Arzan’s studio, I noticed a few pieces of chalk lying on the table—Arzan had very deftly sculpted on them. When I enquired, he said he did it to pass his time, and asked me to give it a shot as well,” Bharucha remembers, adding, “I thought Arzan was joking...
Resilient Mumbai: Innovators and hustlers share practical and reliable advice to navigate difficult situations in 2023
Breaking News 3 new articles notifications Get Your Mid-Day Gold Yearly Subscription now at Rs 899 Rs 499! Updated on: 01 January,2023 08:12 AM IST  |  Mumbai Team SMD | With the global economy headed for a possible recession in the new year, innovators and never-say-die hustlers give us practical fixes and reliable advice to negotiate the rough weather Pranay Mathur By Aastha Atray Banan, Jane Borges, Yusra Husain, Heena Khandelwal and Nidhi Lodaya Learn to raise funds for harsh...
Dream Mumbai: Dreamers and believers reimagine the blueprint of the city
Breaking News 3 new articles notifications Get Your Mid-Day Gold Yearly Subscription now at Rs 899 Rs 499! Updated on: 01 January,2023 07:59 AM IST  |  Mumbai Team SMD | While ‘ideal Bambai’ might seem like a myth, we got the dreamers and believers to imagine a fresh blueprint for the city they call home, thinking up revitalising solutions that can make it more liveable and loveable Images Courtesy/Prathima Manohar By Mitali Parekh, Jane Borges, Yusra Husain, Heena Khandelwal and...
Writer Jane Borges on how she celebrated her first Christmas in Bombay after returning from Muscat
Of the 34 Christmases I have celebrated, 15 were in Muscat, the home of my childhood. The remaining in Bombay, a city after my own heart. My family moved back from the Gulf in 2003, a time of great change and uncertainty in my own life. 16 as I was – fighting obesity, hormones, and the vacuum that came with the loss of old friends – there was also so much newness to embrace.
Twitterati dissect effects of the social media application changing
Updated on: 27 November,2022 07:32 AM IST  |  Mumbai Team SMD | Five of the microblogging site’s most effective account holders regale us with stories of using it to influence snowballing change and what they’ll do if Musk leaves it unrecognisable James Wilson Engineer, Data analyst; Atul Khatri, Standup comedian; Sandhya Fernandes, Digital marketer; Shivendra Singh Chauhan, Co-founder-India Against Corruption Movement and Padmapriya Janakiraman Actor-dancer, Co-founder-The Women in...
Shireen Isal: The Parisian impresario from Bombay
Meet the one-woman army who became the force behind some of Indian classical arts’ heavyweights who performed in Europe in the 1980s and ’90s In the Bombay Parsi home that London-based writer and former impresario Shireen Isal grew up in, it was Western music that prevailed. She was brought up on, and extensively studied, the piano.
When Don Bradman was hiding inside a sugar packet
© Provided by Mid-Day Prakash Mungekar was only four, when cricket came into his life. Then residing in the IIT-Bombay campus in Powai where his father worked, Mungekar, now 61, remembers how he first heard the game on the radio, on the afternoon of October 10, 1964. At the time, he couldn’t make sense of the “loud noise” coming out of the system, initially confusing it for a war report. “I asked my mother and she told me that it was live cricket commentary,” he recalls.
Back to the basics
© Provided by Mid-Day Rarely ever are we reminded that technology is a bane than a boon, especially in the hands of a toddler. Too busy sometimes, parents get Alexa to do the job of playing a nursery rhyme or a Bollywood number to keep them busy. Their new toys are not clay, dough or blocks, but tablets and smartphones.
Kyunki Ekta Kapoor is on audio too
© Provided by Mid-Day We have to admit, and right at the beginning, that audio is not our most favourite format. We’d rather read than listen to books, and watch instead of consuming audio shows or podcasts. Yet, in the pandemic, with the silence so overbearing, we’ve found ourselves plugged in, more often than not. Sometimes while on a long stroll, or just before falling asleep. Perhaps, we’ve begun to like the sound of it. Perhaps, there are many more like us taking a shine to it.
In sync with her rage
© Provided by Mid-Day Rage is both, a powerful and painful thing. Smriti Zubin Irani, the Minister of Women and Child Development in the Union Cabinet of India, will also tell you that it can be channelised into something more constructive. A book, perhaps. The politician and former actor’s just released fiction title, Lal Salaam (Westland), is the result of that, she says, when we connect with her on a weekday afternoon.
Why the Arabs practice modern-day slavery
© Provided by Mid-Day Rejimon Kuttappan’s journalism is what countries, especially those where democracy is conspicuous by its absence, worry about. Among the handful of journalists in the Sultanate of Oman, who reported about the local protests during the Arab Spring in 2011, Kuttappan has been on the radar of authorities once too many.
Kayomi Engineer: Want to have every single building in Parsi Colony sketched for archival value
A Dadar Parsi Colony resident’s four-year-old attempt at using photos, anecdotes, municipal records, memories and sketches to the iconic neighbourhood in a book speaks of public participation in conserving the cityscape. The houses in the enclave, says Engineer, comprise an interesting mix of cottage-style villas and apartments to accommodate more families. Some structures also have visible Art Deco elements Article by Jane Borges | Sunday Mid-Day At 9 am, Kayomi Engineer is already out and about.
'Not Muhammad Mir Khan; it's Shah Jahan'
As a horse instinctively and blindly runs to his stable, our eyes invariably travel to the textile and pattern seen in a work of art—be it the Indus Valley priest dressed in the trefoil pattern garment, or a Chola bronze with a floral meander on the lower garment, or in Mughal, Deccani, Rajasthani or Pahadi miniatures," says veteran collector Shilpa Shah about the love for textiles she shares with husband Praful Shah. "We immediately ask ourselves, 'Could this pattern depict an embroidery?
AIR's feminist voice
Some stories are meant to be told, even if it takes forever. Like Saeeda Bano's. Bano (1913-2001) was the first Indian woman to work as radio newsreader at the All India Radio. She is the heroine we all needed, but whose legacy somehow got lost.
Why Mumbai hospitals are opening post-COVID rehab centres for survivors
After 18 days in the hospital, a week of which was spent battling for life in the ICU, Santosh Kumar, 43, found himself spiralling into depression. Surviving the Coronavirus, he realised, was just the beginning. Obesity and diabetes had led to severe health complications, reducing him to an invalid. He could no longer stand on his feet. He spent his days lying on the bed in the COVID-19 ward of Hyderabad's Apollo Hospital—the oxygen cylinder, a permanent fixture by his side.
Sports fever! As IPL 2020 goes virtual, you become key selector
If not for the lockdown, being at work during the Indian Premier League season would have had its own charm, says Prince Duggal, a Mumbai-based creative director. There was a time when office gossip, a staple during lunch and chai breaks, would suddenly be replaced with serious strategising and planning.
Suburban tales! How love for a Bandra garden inpired a book
Two roads away from where children's author Nandita da Cunha lives in Bandra West, a fascinating community project has been long underway. Every week, since the last two years, a group of volunteers meet at an 800 sq ft park, in the middle of the busy D'Monte Park Road, to nurture an organic farm they have created inside.
Exclusive - Mumbai: Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Worli Samshan Bhumi to get Rs. 40cr facelift
How do you say goodbye to the departed? The question has been at the heart of the work of Mumbai-based siblings, Dr Ramnik and Dr Bharat Parekh. It began 38 years ago, when they lost their father, Hiralal Parekh, in a tragic accident. "His body was taken for a post-mortem. When it was handed over to us, we had to find a sheet to cover it since it was returned without clothes on," remembers Bharat, a senior radiologist.
Instagram Anniversary: Nine years, and still hooked
In the last few years, there has been a systematic campaign against Instagram, the photo and video sharing app, which turned 10 this week. It has been criticised for everything from polluting to diluting content. But I think that's unfair. I find it to be a completely democratic platform, and the very fact that it continues to be relevant even a decade on, is a big deal. In fact, I owe a lot to Instagram.
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