for 2.9 crore doses of hydroxychloroquine MUMBAI FIRM ALL ... · Day after Modi fulfils Trump’s...

Day after Modi fulfils Trump’s ‘request’ for 2.9 crore doses of hydroxychloroquine

MUMBAI FIRM ALL SET TO MEET GLOBAL

DEMAND FOR HCQ

MORE HOSPITALS FALL VICTIMTO COVID-19

PAGE 3

IPCA Labs, India’s largest manufacturer of the drug, says it can easily meet the country’s - and the world’s - requirements but needs some time to step up production

Spandan Hospital in Mulund shuts down, no new admissions at Bhatia,

Breach Candy and Hinduja Khar after patients, staffers test positive

But it was too late for a 38-yr-old veggie vendor

Following heart-wrenching stories of patients of renal failure

Jogeshwari’sshut dialysiscentre reopens

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 »

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Inside P3-11

IN MMR TODAY

PAGE 9

NEW CASESDEATHS

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The Indian cricketers are facing a pay cut as a direct fallout of the Indian Pre-mier League (IPL) not go-

ing ahead as per schedule. The tournament, which was to begin on March 29, has been officially pushed back till April 15. The IPL is now looking increasingly unlikely till at least May considering the Covid-19 crisis in the country. Sen-ior BCCI officials said a final deci-sion will be taken only after there is clarity on the IPL.

Sources in the BCCI said the board is staring at a revenue loss of nearly Rs 2,000 crore if the IPL is called off and international cricket remains suspended, forc-ing it to pass on a portion of the financial hit to the players. The revenue and payment structure

Millat Nagar Hospital’s dialysis centre shuts down after two patients test positive for Covid-19. Now 257 patients – all

requiring dialysis twice or thrice a week – have nowhere to go

Covlateral DamageHospitals around the city are turning them away fearing they could be carrying the virus; a few ready to help are charging up to Rs 7,000 for a single dialysis session

IPL in limbo,Indian starsface pay cutsKohli, Rohit, Bumrah’s annual retainership is worth Rs 7 cr; BCCI hopes a truncated IPL will salvage the situation

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 » CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 »

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Aussies ‘sucked up to Kohli’ for IPL deals: Clarke: Pg 12

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Fears about the Covid-19 lock-down and the sense of dread surrounding the virus making life difficult for people suf-fering from serious ailments

requiring frequent medical attention are coming true.

After two patients registered for dialysis at Millat Nagar Hospital test-ed positive for coronavirus, the hos-pital has been shut down. This has left 257 people -- most of them requir-ing dialysis twice or thrice a week -- looking for alternative dialysis cen-tres, which are not only much more expensive but also far from their homes.

Mumbai Mirror has written about cancer patients’ chemotherapies being postponed and HIV patients finding it difficult to access medi-cines, but this Millat Nagar crisis pre-sents a more immediate danger because missing even a single dialysis can lead to a rise in toxicity in a patient’s blood with potentially fatal consequences.

A lot of patients, after they reveal they were receiving dialysis at Millat Nagar Hospital all this while, are being turned away by other hospitals or being asked to get a certificate that they are free of Covid-19 infection.

Some patients, who have now reg-istered with Lifeline Hospital in Malad, are being charged up to Rs 7000 per dialysis session.

(Clockwise from top) Millat Nagar Hospital that has been shut down; Malad’s Lifeline Hospital; a patient at Lifeline Hospital on Tuesday

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 »

Health workers take throat swab of a patient registered for dialysis at Millat Hospital

The BMC on Wednesday allowed the dialysis centre attached to Millat Hospital at Jogeshwari to reopen follow-

ing Mumbai Mirror’s report on the plight of over 250 patients of renal failure registered with it.

The hospital, which was shut down on Monday after two of the patients who underwent regular dialy-sis sessions at the centre tested posi-tive for Covid-19, will remain closed.

However, it was a case of too little too late for Najeer Shaikh, a 38-year-old vegetable vendor who died on Wednesday after missing his dialysis session scheduled for Monday.

His brother-in-law Aslam Khan said the family tried to get his dialy-sis done at at least half-a-dozen cen-tres, but were turned away at every place. “At every centre we were told

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Mumbai Mirror’s report

Aday after India agreed to export to the US 2.9 crore doses of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an anti-malaria

drug believed to be effective in the treatment of Covid-19, the largest manufacturer of the drug in India told Mirror that it can “easily” tide over the current shortage of HCQ India and meet the country’s and the world’s needs. IPCA Labo-ratories - which has a 60% market share in HCQ - and Ahmedabad-based pharma company Zydus Cadila have, at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s request, agreed to manufacture at least 10 crore tablets to meet India’s require-ments. But IPCA said that given time, it could make that many tablets on its own in a single month.

“[It takes time as] there are many protocols to follow, but we have already supplied a large number of tablets to both the Centre and vari-

ous states, and there is enough of a buffer,” says Ajit Kumar Jain, joint managing director of IPCA, which is valued at Rs 3,137 crore. “After President Trump first mentioned the drug, people all over India rushed to buy HCQ in large quanti-ties and chemists began selling it without prescriptions. The shortage today is because people are hoard-ing, not because supply has

reduced.” Jain says IPCA will easily be able to meet its target of six crore tablets and much more, if called upon to do so.

“ICMR has published certain guidelines, but by my estimates, we have some 3,000 healthcare professionals across India and they only need 18 tablets over three months,” says Jain. “Either one 400 mg tablet in a week, or 200 mg

twice a week. We have more than 20 metric tonnes of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), which can help us manufacture at least 10 crore tablets of 200 mg strength every month. There is more than enough, in terms of supply.” A Zydus spokesperson adds: “This shortage could be a temporary phase which should get

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Ajit Kumar Jain, joint managing director of IPCA Labs, which has a 60% share of the market for HCQ in India

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 2 Page: VKMMIRFP User: amit.khosla Time: 04-08-2020 23:49 Color: CMYK

Hinduja, the younger daughter of indus-trialist Ashok Hinduja, lives in New York

but is currently at her Mumbai home. Earlier this week, she hosted a digital session with global thought leader and wellness advocate Poonacha Machaiah. Better known as Warrior Monk, Poonacha has co-founded a wellbeing plat-form along with internationally renowned physician and author Deepak Chopra. On Tuesday, at the request of Satya, Poonacha engaged with her social media followers (pro bono, of course) and shared an all-immersive cosmic sound energy session. The Hindujas from across the world, including London, UAE, Switzerland and the US were logged in as were thousands of other solace seekers.

2Thursday, April 9, 2020City MumbaiMirror

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@MumbaiMirrorINFORMERPAGE THAT’s wearing a maskThink you’ve got a story? Write to us

at [email protected]

THE

A SOFT SPOT Ileana D’Cruz, who is a known dog lover, in a throwback picture at a suburban studio

well-known textile maven Sunita Namjoshi and her

actor-turned-psychoanalyst daugh-ter Yamini have started a campaign to raise funds for rations for over six lakh daily-waged power loom work-ers in Bhiwandi. The Namjoshis have joined hands with Rhodes Fellow Anish Gawande who is working with Youth Feed India. “Our aim was to collect Rs 15 lakh, but we have just over Rs 9 lakh today,” Yamini tells your dia-rist. “But this is still

just the tip of the iceberg.” The Namjoshis reached out to 600 exporters of power loom textiles, but mostly their personal friends chipped in. “People like to employ daily wage workers as they

don’t have to give them prov-ident fund, any benefits or commit to their safety,” Yamini says. We can only hope for social inequities to change.

THE

RAJU SHELAR

YORK-based author Diksha Basu has some

great news to share. She has been invited by her alma mater, Columbia University, to teach a course in the Master of Fine Arts program. “I don’t know what the world will look like this fall but I’m extremely happy to tell you that I cannot wait to return to the place that made me a writer,” she shares. Diksha, the daughter of Kaushik Basu, formerly the Chief Economist at the World Bank, lives in New York with her husband and daughter. She has authored two books, both set in India, and her third novel, ‘Destination Wedding’, is set to release this June.

NEWA new job and a new book Equal measures

SATYASounds that soothe

@SatpathyLive If anyone coughs near me, won’t hesitate to tell them — ‘Far cough’!

CORNERED Morparia

of Art Night Thursday, the monthly gallery trawl of SoBo art spaces, will still have

their fill of culture and art. They may not be able to walk about the Colaba galleries but the galleries have decided to come to them, virtually of course. Chemould Prescott Road, Chatterjee & Lal, Project 88, Jhaveri Contemporary, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Galerie Isa, Akara Art and Tarq are providing a virtual walkthrough – hosted by art consultant Natasha Jeyasingh’s Carpe Art – this evening on various social media platforms. Sree Banerjee Goswami (whose Project 88 opened artist Prajakta Potnis’s show ‘A Body Without Organs’ only last month), shares, “All the gallerists were wondering what to do to keep the momentum going. And Tara Lal (of Chatterjee & Lal) suggested let’s take the Art Night Thursday online and we thought it is a wonderful idea.”

FANS Art ‘net’ Thursday

Poonacha Machaiah

Satya Hinduja

Diksha Basu

Yamini NamjoshiSunita Namjoshi

Tailpiecethe world thinks this

handsome actor is doing rath-er well for himself with his good-boy image, those who work closely with him have another take on him. They say his constant humble act is just a façade and he is rather ambi-tious and arrogant. Especially since he doesn’t want to be spoken of in the same breath as his one-time mentor, now a flop star. The young man also doesn’t want to be positioned in the same bracket as other young stars, but insists on being spoken of as a mass action hero like Salman Khan.

WHILE

Natasha Jeyasingh

Sree Banerjee Goswami

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City 3Thursday, April 9, 2020MumbaiMirror

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

Spandan Hospital in Mulund shuts down

With three patients and a nurse getting infected by coro-navirus, Mulund’s Spandan Hospital

has become the latest hospital in the city to shut down temporarily. The first case at the private hos-pital was of a Ghatkopar woman who had been admitted there. Now, 65 doctors, nurses and other staffers at the hospital have been put in quarantine and their sam-ples have been sent for testing.

With almost the entire staff in quarantine, the 30-bed hospital has shut down its OPD and there are no new admissions, BMC officials said.

The BMC has already marked Wockhardt Hospital and Jaslok Hospital as containment zones. The two hospitals were designat-ed as treatment centres for coro-navirus patients but the BMC is not referring any new Covid-19 patients there for treatment. Over the last week, 26 nurses and three doctors have tested positive for Covid-19 at Wockhardt, but that number grew to 52 on Monday. Swabs of over 270 hos-pital staff and some patients have been sent for tests from Wockhardt Hospital.

According to BMC officials, a senior citizen from Ghatkopar was detected to be Covid-19 posi-tive at Spandan Hospital, from where she was moved to a pri-vate hospital in Powai, where she died. Days later, another 80-year-old Badlapur woman was infect-ed by coronavirus at the hospital and she also succumbed. Meanwhile a nurse of the hospi-tal tested positive too.

On Wednesday, another patient who was at Spandan Hospital but was moved to another private hospital in Mulund tested positive.

“We have taken samples of 65 doctors, nurses and staffers at

Spandan Hospital. All of them are in quarantine and so the hos-pital is not taking any new patients. But the hospital is shut down at the moment,” said Kishore Gandhi, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, T Ward. Deputy Municipal Commissioner Vijay Balamwar said that the BMC will take a call on putting the hospital in a con-tainment zone if there are more positive cases.

BMC officials said that the patient who tested positive on Wednesday was moved to anoth-er hospital when Spandan Hospital shut down. “Doctors and nurses at Spandan Hospital didn’t have PPEs and other pro-tective gear while handing Covid-19 patients. They may have been exposed to the infec-tion and one nurse tested posi-tive. But the other hospital where this patient was moved was pre-pared to deal with Covid-19 patients. We are assessing the risk there too,” Gandhi said.

So far, 10 Covid-19 cases have been reported from Mulund, which has large residential pock-ets. Based on the index cases, 118 high-risk patients have been identified, said local BJP MLA Mihir Kotecha. “The last three positive cases were people who were already marked as high risk. The BMC is doing a good job and we are cooperating with them in contact tracing and tracking. We have asked people to maintain strict lockdown. If they do that, the spread of the virus in Mulund will not happen.”

Spandan Hospital manage-ment said that no new staff members have tested positive. “Only 1 nurse had tested posi-tive. All the other staff have test-ed negative. All the staff mem-bers were quarantined. Some of them have completed their quar-antine. We have stopped new admissions and the hospital is shut for now,” said Dr Shashi Adsul, head of hospital adminis-tration at Spandan Hospital.

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More hospitals fall victimAuthorities are not taking any chances after health care workers and patients test positive at hospitals

BHATIA HOSPITAL SHUTS DOWN OPD, NEW ADMISSIONSThree patients have tested positive, including a man who had earlier tested negative at Wockhardt

93 staffers including doctors, nurses and technicians will be tested

Bhatia Hospital in Tardeo will not accept any new admissions after three patients tested positive for Covid-19. The OPD

has also been shut.The infected patients includes

a 65-year-old man who had been transferred to Bhatia after Wockhardt was declared a con-tainment zone. He had been admitted for cardiac ailment but tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday.

According to hospital authori-ties, there were three emergency patients at Bhatia Hospital whose swab samples were sent to Kasturba Hospital between Monday and Tuesday. All three tested positive for Covid-19.

Hospital authorities said that at the time of admission, Covid-19 protocol was strictly adhered to. As a precautionary measure, the BMC officials have taken the swab of around 70 staff at Bhatia hospital. The test results of the staff are still awaited.

A source from the hospital said that the relatives of the 65-year-old had showed them a report from Wockhardt which showed him to be corona nega-tive, which is why they did not treat him as an infected case and kept him in the ICU.

Three days later he developed breathing difficulties and persis-tent cough. The hospital sent his swab samples for testing again, and this time he tested positive.

“As he had a negative report initially, the doctors, nurses and other para medics were treating this case as non-Covid patient, so they were not using PPE,” said a source from the hospital.

As a protocol, the hospital has informed the civic body. All the staff who came in touch with the patient will be tested. All 70 staff have been sent for quarantine. Their reports are awaited.

Healthcare workers are at high risk of contracting the novel coronavirus. Earlier 52 staff from Wockhardt and 15 from Jaslok hospital have tested positive and the BMC has declared both hospitals as con-tainment zones. Both the hospi-tals are shut now.

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Admissions restricted at Khar Hinduja after patient tests +ve

No new admissions at Breach Candy after nurse, technician test positive

After a 76-year-old female patient tested positive for Covid-19 at Hinduja Hospital in Khar on Wednesday, the BMC asked the hospital to restrict admission.

A hospital spokesperson said that the patient was being shifted to Seven Hills hospital in Andheri, a designated Covid-19 treatment centre.

The lady, a resident of Pali Mala naka, was admitted in the intensive care unit and was not symptomatic. She was admitted for neurological problems. Her son had recently returned from Dubai.

The assistant commissioner of H West ward Vinayak Vispute said that the hospital has been asked to restrict admission and 14 of her relatives and close contacts had been identified as high-risk contacts and were being tested in a private lab.

The staff of the hospital will be tested on Thursday. The BMC has sanitised the premises.

The patient was in isolation unit of ICU. The ICU has 14 beds and has seven patients now. The swabs of the other patients will also be taken, officials said.

The officials said that she had been put in iso-lation as she suffered from some neurological problems. The BMC also examined the isolation facility.

Officials said that they are not allowing fresh admissions as they didn’t want to put other patients at risk.

After a nurse and a technician from Breach Candy Hospital tested positive for the virus, the BMC on Wednesday asked the hospital not to admit any new patients.

A cook from the hospital who lives in Worli’s Jijamata Nagar had also tested positive last week.

BMC officials said that 93 staffers including doctors, nurses and technicians will be tested as they might have come in contact with the three staffers who have tested positive. Until the test results come back, BMC has asked the hospital not to admit new patients.

The nurse’s samples were taken at least two days ago and by the time the positive report came on Monday night, she had reached her hostel in Mahim.

Around six more staffers have been quaran-tined and their swabs will be taken. Previously, a technician from Breach Candy had tested posi-tive. He had been on duty the day the cardiac sur-geon from Saifee Hospital, who was infected, had operated on a patient. The hospital’s cardiac facil-ity that had shut on March 27 is admitting only emergency cases.

“We will take a call on putting the hospital in a containment zone if more samples test positive. So far we have not decided on it,” said a senior civic official. —Chaitanya Marpakwar

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Umasankar


BMC seals off Worli Naka and BBD Chawl


The BMC on Wednesday sealed off Worli Naka and Worli BBD Chawl after three Covid-19 cases were re-ported from the chawl and the total number of cases in the G-South

Ward rose to 133.Neighbouring areas like Worli Koliwada,

Jijamata Nagar, Janata Colony, Adarsh Nagar have already been declared contain-ment zones and completely sealed off. With the addition off Worli Naka and Worli BBD Chawl, the area is now one of the city’s biggest containment zones, home to around two lakh people.

The BMC also acquired the dome at NSCI in Worli where high-risk contacts will be put in quarantine. BMC officials said

500 beds will be set up at the dome and high-risk contacts of Covid-19 patients will be brought here.

The BMC has marked 17 locations as containment zones across the ward. A total of over 400 samples have been collected. Asymptomatic positive patients have been moved to institutional isolation centres set up by the BMC. Of the total samples tested, 133 have tested positive.

At Worli Koliwada, which emerged as a coronavirus hotspot, the BMC has surveyed 14,000 homes covering 40,000 individuals.

The containment zones of World BBD Chawl, Worli Naka, Worli Koliwada, Janata Colony and Adarsh Nagar are all linked to one another.

“We are carrying out a detailed medical survey of all residents where we have index cases. The number of cases has risen because we are carrying out an exhaustive contact tracing exercise. From dense pock-ets like Worli Koliwada, we have shifted 135 high-risk contacts to institutional quar-antine at Podar Hospital. We have also acquired Koli Bhavan where 70 people can be quarantined,” said Sharad Ughade, assis-tant municipal commissioner, G-South Ward. Ughade said that containment zones were working. “After sealing off the Worli Koliwada the number of cases there have dropped. We moved out all the high-risk contacts there. Even in Prabhadevi, ever since we sealed a chawl where we had found 18 cases, no new case has been reported for over a week. We urge people to follow the containment zone norms and not step out of their homes. We are provid-ing them with all essential supplies,” Ughade said.

On Tuesday, 24 of the those put in quar-antine at Podar Hospital tested positive. All of them were from Worli Koliwada and the

neighbour Janata Colony. The total num-ber of positive cases in Worli Koliwada is now 51.

Ughade said the BMC was not leaving out low-risk contacts. “We have served all low-risk contacts as well. We have sealed several buildings and set up containment zones.”

“The state and BMC are working with the greatest of coordination. Micro plan-ning and the resolve of our frontline warri-ors is the key,” Worli MLA and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray said “We have the highest number of cases, and that’s because we adopted the strategy to take this head on. We haven’t remained satisfied with index cases. Over the last three weeks, we’ve done multiple door-to-door surveys, contact tracing and tests. We’ve found people who would have never known they were infected. The idea is to get as many such cases as possible, test, iso-late and contain the spread.”

that only registered patients were allowed. He began experiencing difficulty in breathing on Wednesday morning and died on his way to Millat Hospital,” he said.

Sheikh is survived by a wife and five children, includ-ing a two-month-old baby.

Khan welcomed the BMC’s decision to reopen the dialysis centre and said he hoped no more lives will be lost. “I understand Millat Hospital’s limitations. But the civic authorities must take into account how critical dial-ysis for a patient of renal failure is,” he said.

On Monday, BMC begun collecting swab samples of every patient arriving for dialysis at the centre. Sheikh too had undergone a Covid-19 test on Tuesday because several dialysis centres had begun turning away patients from Millat Hospital fearing they could be carrying the virus. He tested negative.

Assistant Municipal Commissioner, K-west ward, Vishwas Mote, said Millat Hospital’s dialysis facility has been allowed to resume operations on humanitarian grounds. “It would be catastrophic to deny such a large number of patients their regular dialysis. What happened was just unfortunate – the BMC had no option but to shut down the hospital after two patients tested posi-tive,” said another official who did not wish to be identi-fied.

The Millat Nagar Hospital dialysis centre is one of the biggest in the city with 48 machines and it caters mainly to patients from economically poor background.

Mote said the hospital has been asked to comply with all precautionary measures. The hospital was sanitised after assistant health officer visited the site on Wednesday morning.

Three new cases reported from chawl; G-South Ward cases rise to 133

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The BMC has acquired the NSCI dome in Worli, where 500 beds will be set up

Patients gather at the hospital for dialysis.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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The BMC has marked 17 locations as containment zones across the ward

Broadcasters’ outfit warns against suspending govt TV advertisements

Jogeshwari’s shut dialysis centre reopens

The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) on Wednesday issued a statement cautioning against the suspension of government television advertise-

ments.The IBF’s statement follows Congress President Sonia

Gandhi’s letter to the government recommending the suspension of all state government and PSU advertise-ments for two years. She had listed the suspension among suggestions to help the government reduce the economic impact of the lockdown.

The group warned that such a decision could lead to the end of the industry.

“In these testing times, any decision by the govern-ment to curtail budgetary allocation to advertisements carried out by various channels in lieu of government advertising will sound the death knell for the sector,” the IBF statement said while adding that regional channels will be particularly affected.

The IBF stressed the sector’s dependence on govern-ment advertisements. “With the closure of cinemas, the complete cessation of production of films and television shows, cancellations of live sporting events and sched-uled advertisements, the Indian media and entertain-ment sector is already facing the brunt of the slowdown. Advertisement bookings have nosedived by 50%.”

It said that many government advertisements relate to social messages concerning health, education, etc and that television still remains the primary mode of dissem-inating these messages to the citizens. “Stopping these ads is not in public interest,” the statement said.

OBSERVATION ZONEDome Entertainment has converted its venue Dome, NSCI into a special observation zone for individuals believed to have come in contact with Covid-19 patients.“In a bid to fight the virus, we have already set up over 300 beds with standardised facilities in line with the BMC guidelines and NSCI has also offered rooms for the same. We are consistently working along with health authorities to render our support and help manage the existing cases of the outbreak,” Mazhar Na-diadwala, managing director, Dome Entertainment, said in a statement.

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With the city recording over 100 new cases per day for two consecutive days, the BMC on Wednesday made

wearing masks compulsory for all who step outside their homes. The civic body clarified that hand-kerchiefs and scarfs would not be allowed.

Those not wearing masks can be booked under Section 188 (for diso-bedience) of the Indian Penal Code and may even be arrested. An order issued by Municipal Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi states that those stepping out of home must wear either a 3-ply mask or cloth mask

made at home. The order also applies to those who are commut-ing to work in a personal or com-pany vehicle.

Pardeshi said that such measures need to be strictly enforced as stud-ies have revealed that wearing face masks can substantially reduce the

spread of coronavirus.“The masks can be the regular

three-layer masks or cloth masks, available with pharmacies or home-made, which can be washed and disinfected for reuse,” the order signed by Pardeshi stated.

People wearing scarfs and hand-kerchiefs as masks tend to take them off once they reach their destination. There is also the risk of these strips of cloth falling off from the face since they are not properly fastened. So, BMC officials made wearing proper masks mandatory.

BMC officials said that the civiv body had taken cue from Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Earlier in the day, CM Thackeray had asked people to start using mask if coming out to buy essentials and

said that the people will have to use them for some period to be safe from infection. Soon after Pardeshi’sorder, Thane Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar also issued similar orders for the city, which falls under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Even CM Uddhav Thackeray, while regretting the inconvenience caused by the lockdown, said that people should wear masks when they venture out of homes. He also appealed to people, especially those in the high-risk category with ailments like heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, to maintain dietary restrictions.

With 106 new cases being recorded on Wednesday, the total number of Covid-19 cases in the city went up to 696.


BMC makes masks mandatory in Mumbai3-ply mask or cloth masks made at home are allowed; those flouting the rule will be booked for disobedience and may even face arrest

Cops in Worli naka on Wednesday urged people to wear masks

Bhima-Koregaon violence

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‘The peak will come in another 3 to 4 days’

BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi is at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In his capacity as the municipality chief, he is also the

disaster management chief for Mumbai. In an interview with Mumbai Mirror, the commissioner says Mumbai will see the peak of the pandemic in the next three to four days, with positive cases reaching around 3,500. Excerpts:

Critics say the situation in Mumbai is getting out of hand.

The numbers will increase but the situ-ation will not get out of hand. It is my prediction that we will reach 300 [cases] per million; the global average is around 100 to 150 per million, but countries like France and Italy have an aver-age 1,200 per million. We may have around 3,000 to 3,500 cases in Mumbai.

Should the lockdown be extended?

That is for the Hon’ble CM to decide. But the lockdown is help-ing us a lot. Had there been no lockdown, we would have reached nearly 600 to 700 cases per million.

Why does Mumbai have so many cases? Delhi receives a high number of international trav-ellers and the Markaz was held there…

The population of Delhi is 15 million and they have done 5,500 tests. We have done 12,000 tests so far – 884 tests per million. Delhi has done 192. The more tests you do, the more cases you find.

Is the BMC equipped to deal with a rise in cases?

We have requisitioned all the lodges so that they can be used for quarantine. We have around 10,000 people in quaran-tine. We expect this number to triple.

When are the cases expected to peak?

We are calculating 300 cases per million. Hopefully, because of the lockdown, the peak will come in another three to four days.

BMC officials claim they do not have enough personal protective equip-ment…

We initially had shortage of PPE. Now the Jindals and Reliance are starting production of PPE. They have prom-ised us one lakh pieces per week. If that happens, we will cover the shortage. At

present, we have just 20,000 PPE and we are rationing

them.

People are com-plaining there are not enough food

and essentials in the isolation facilities.That’s not true. We

are focussing on giv-ing individual toilets,

independent linen and disposable

cutlery so that

infection does not spread.

Was the BMC caught off guard?It is unfair to say that the BMC was caught napping. The laboratory at Kasturba Hospital is not funded by the central or state government, but by the BMC. We have improved the testing capacity at Kasturba to 300 tests per day. The rest of Maharashtra is not testing as much as we are – that too in a municipal laboratory. All the people coming for testing from Thane, Kalyan, Panvel and MMR are being paid for by taxpayers of Mumbai for facilities in Kasturba and KEM Hospital.

You visited Dharavi. What was your impression of the situation there?

The people were very cooperative. They all agreed to stay in and not go out. We have attached a new hospital called Sai Hospital so that people who are posi-tive can be kept there. As long as we can confine the problem to Baliga Nagar, the larger area will remain unaffected.

Many people from MMR are coming to BMC-run facilities. Should mu-nicipal corporations in MMR and the state public health department have done something earlier?

We are trying to accommodate people from other corporations. Both the chief minister and chief secretary have given directions to corporations of Thane, Bhiwandi and Navi Mumbai to start treatment facilities.

As the collector of Latur, you played a key role in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the district follow-ing the 1993 earthquake. What les-sons has the Covid-19 crisis taught you?

In Latur, I was certain there wouldn’t be a second earthquake. In the case of Covid-19, people are getting affected in large numbers. Uncertainty is high. We don’t know how to live with uncertainty.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed activists Anil Teltumbde and Gautam Navlakha to

surrender before jail authorities in Mumbai within a week, in connection with the Bhima Ko-regaon case that was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) earlier this year.

The decision comes weeks after the apex court refused to grant them anticipatory bail on March 16 and asked them to surrender within three weeks, or April 6. Teltumbde and Navlakha had moved the SC for pre-arrest bail after a Pune sessions court and the Bombay High Court rejected their applications.

Teltumbde and Navlakha are both over 65 years of age and have pre-existing medical conditions, including cardiac problems. Their lawyers Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi had submitted that going to jail during the pandemic was “virtually a death sentence” and sought further exten-sion. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had opposed the application stating the activists were attempting to “buy time” and they were facing serious charges.

The order, passed by Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee, stated that the activists were expected to surrender in accordance with the court’s previous order denying them anticipatory bail. “It would have been appropriate for the accused to surrender as the courts (in Mumbai) are not totally closed,” the court stated.

The apex court, however, granted them a week’s time to surrender, stating, “However, since the peti-tioners have enjoyed protection for long, by last opportunity, we extended the time granted to sur-render... We make it clear that there shall not be any further extensions.”

A lawyer associated with the case expressed doubts over the activists getting any relief from Mumbai courts during the pandemic.

Though the state has begun releasing undertrials and convicts from prison amid the corona scare, the courts have refused bail to activists Shoma Sen, 62, and Varavara Rao, 80, as they have been charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Teltumbde and Navlakha too have been charged under the same act. — MMB

SC tells Teltumbde and Navlakha to surrender in a week

Gautam Navlakha

Anand Teltumbde

| [email protected]

TWEETS @yogeshMIRROR

PRAVEEN PARDESHI, BMC CHIEFiNTERVIEW

RAJU SHELAR

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As the country reported anunprecedented spike of 773fresh Covid-19 cases onWednesday, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi called the

situation akin to a ‘social emergency’which necessitated tough decisions.

Modi appeared trying to build con-sensus over an extension of the nation-wide lockdown during his interactionwith floor leaders of Opposition parties.After video conferences with chief min-isters of non-NDA states and otherstakeholders, Modi on Wednesday alsoreached out to Opposition leaders fromboth Houses and explained to themthat an extension of the lockdownseemed inevitable.

The prime minister said that thecountry ‘has been forced to take toughdecisions’ and ‘must continue to re-main vigilant.’ He said that several stategovernments, district administrationsand experts have asked for an extensionof the lockdown. As the governmentlooks at a longer lockdown period andwill recommend work from home op-tions in its staggered exit from the lock-down, Modi maintained that ‘in these

changing circumstances the countryshould simultaneously try to bringabout a change in its work culture andworking style.’

“The priority of the government issaving each and every life,” he added.

Modi pointed out that the countryis facing serious economic challenges asa result of the lockdown in the wake ofCovid-19. During the video conference,

top officials of the government gave de-tailed presentations on the steps beingtaken to meet the emerging challengesin dealing with the containment of thevirus, implementation of relief mea-sures, status of distribution of benefitsunder PM Garib Kalyan Yojana amongother things.

Over 15 Opposition parties withmore than five members in both

Houses of Parliament were invited forthe online interaction. One memberfrom each party was given an opportu-nity to raise their concerns and offerfeedback . Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ad-hir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress),Sharad Pawar (NCP), Ram Gopal Yadav(Samajwadi Party), Satish Misra (Bahu-jan Samaj Party), Chirag Paswan (LokJanshakti Party), T R Baalu (DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam), Sukhbir SinghBadal (ShiromanI Akali Dal), Rajiv Ran-jan Singh (Janata Dal-United), PinakiMishra (Biju Janata Dal) and SanjayRaut (Shiv Sena) were some of the at-tendees at the virtual meet.

In addition to reiterating the Con-gress party’s concerns on relief mea-sures and assistance to daily wage work-ers, construction workers, healthcareprofessionals over which the partychief Sonia Gandhi had written to thePM, Azad suggested setting up of aworking committee comprising mem-bers of Opposition leaders to help withfeedback on Covid-19 related issues.

Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Ban-dyopadhyay raised concerns over thesuspension of Member of ParliamentLocal Area Development (MPLAD)funds. He said that it would take a toll onlocal issues that need to be taken care ofindependently by parliamentarians

and sought the government to recon-sider the decision.

Pawar bats for ‘safe’ relaxationsStating that the fight against the pan-demic will be a long one which will haveabearing on the Indian economy, NCPchief Sharad Pawar urged Modi to con-sider relaxing lockdown in certain areasafter ensuring there is no compromiseon health and lives of the people.

Observing that industries and farm-ers are hit hard by the crisis, Pawar askedthe PM to ensure relief for them.

Pawar also said that “it is beingheard” that governors in some states aredirectly issuing orders to the executive.Though he did not take any names, it isbelieved that he was referring to Maha-rashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshi-yari who apparently himself contacteddivisional commissioners and districtcollectors and issued certain directionson measures to fight the pandemic.This particular has reportedly irked par-ties in power.

He said governors should first con-sult with their respective chief minis-ters and chief secretaries to ensure thattwo power centres don’t emerge. Whencontacted, Koshiyari’s office refusedcomment.

INPUTS BY MAKARAND GADGIL

Lockdown extension seems inevitable: PMIn a video conference with 15 Opposition parties, Modi also termed the current situation a ‘social emergency’

Sweta [email protected]


PM Modi interacts with Oppn leaders during the video conference

sorted out very soon. From our end,the aim is to ensure that patientswho need the drug are able to get it.We have already ramped up ourproduction from three to 30 metrictonnes per month, which is about150 million tablets. We can in-crease this further by 50 MT if needbe… the drug will be available to allthose who need it in the comingdays.”

Hydroxychloroquine is primar-ily used to treat rheumatoid arthri-tis and autoimmune ailments suchas lupus and certain kinds of dia-betes. In the absence of clinicaltrials, it’s hard to tell why it’s beensuccessful against Covid-19. But it’santi-viral properties along with itsability to keep a marauding im-mune system in check may be thereason, according to the manufac-turers. Apart from India, IPCA alsoexports HCQ to Europe, Australia,New Zeland, Canada, Africa and La-tin America as arthritis medication.

Ironically, the USFDA, whichhas now cleared the use of HCQ,had refused approval for the drugsome years ago. IPCA had even setup two plants in Indore and Pipari-ya in Madhya Pradesh to meet theanticipated demand from the US,but the approval never camethrough. “The plants that havebeen lying idle for all these yearswill now help us to meet the highdemand for hydroxychloroquine,”says Dr Ashok Kumar, president,R&D (chemical) at IPCA. Evidenceof its efficacy is still anecdotal: Doc-tors in China and France prescribedHCQ and found that it worked. Adoctor in the US used this (besidestwo other drugs) on over 700 pa-tients – with no fatalities -- and re-ported his findings to the US gov-ernment.

Asked about the lack of trials,Jain says: “Covid-19 is something

totally new. So when a patientcomes to a doctor seeking urgenttreatment, the doctor must weighthe risks and rewards before pre-scribing medication. Many of themhave recommended hydroxychlo-roquine and the patients have had agood recovery, which is why regu-lators like the USFDA or ICMR havesaid this drug could be used to treatCovid-19 as well.” IPCA’s biggestadvantage, adds Dr Kumar, is that itis capable of creating both formula-tions as well as the APIs needed tomanufacture hydroxychloro-quine. “We do not need any exter-nal support to do this,” says Dr Ku-mar. Most countries around theglobe import APIs from China, andrumours that it is withholdingthese only makes an India supplychain more precious.

IPCA has an interesting historyas well. It started out as a small sin-gle-building company that madewater injectibles. In 1975, it wasbought by actor Amitabh Bach-chan and current founder-chair-man Premchand Godha, who hadapparently been Bachchan’s char-tered accountant. There was also athird partner and the actor’s broth-er Ajitabh had been chairman of thecompany for a few years around themid-1990s. In 1999, when Bach-chan’s company ABCL was on theverge of bankruptcy, he apparentlysold his holding in the companyand the brothers disassociatedthemselves from IPCA.

Today, the company is a marketleader in pain management, anti-malaria, cardio-vascular and dia-betes treatment. Though it initiallysold HCQ as anti-malarial, it ceasedto do so after its effects on the dis-ease were found to be too weak.“The company later turned to chlo-roquine and decided to positionhydroxychloroquine as a rheuma-toid arthritis and lupus drug,” addsDr Kumar.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Of the 117 new coronaviruscases reported in the stateon Wednesday, 28 are re-lated to the Tablighi Ja-maat event that took place

in Delhi’s Nizamuddin last month,sources said.

According to government offi-cials, out of the 28, six are foreigners.And with more and more cases emerg-ing from the event, the state policehave also ramped up efforts to crack-down on those spreading hatred anddiscord among communities as well asmisinformation on COVID-19.

Dr Balsing Rajput. Superintendentof Police (Cyber), Maharashtra Police,told Mirror that ever since the imple-mentation of the 21-day lockdown, atotal of 132 cases have been registeredin Maharashtra and 35 persons havebeen arrested on charges of spreadingfake news, rumours and making hatespeech on social media and other on-

line channels. Of these, 20 were regis-tered in the last 24 hours alone.

“A few social media accounts havealso been disabled to prevent themfrom sending frequently-forwardedmessages to multiple users. The Maha-rashtra Cyber Cell has also issued anadvisory to WhatsApp users and ad-ministrators regarding do’s and don’tsin the current scenario,” an officialtold Mirror.

Visited by thousands last month,the Tablighi Jamaat’s Nizamudddincentre has turned out to be a hotspotfor spread of coronavirus not only inthe capital but also across the country.

The Maharashtra police, alongwith civic and health authorities, had

begun a comprehensive drive to“identify, locate and quarantine” in-dividuals who had supposedly takenpart in the congregation.

Sources told Mirror that in all,around 3, 000 people whose mobilephones were active at or around Niza-muddin Markaz are being verified. Ofthese, 1,270 have already been locat-ed, assessed and apprised of the neces-sary medical protocols. At least 420 ofthem have confirmed that they at-tended the markaz.

The police have also registered 15cases against foreigners, who attendedthe markaz, for flouting visa condi-tions. They have been booked underthe Passport Act.

28 more Tablighi memberstest positive in statePolice crack down on those making hate speeches, spreading rumours online;35 people arrested across the state; a few social media accounts disabled

[email protected]


Of the 28 who tested positive, six are foreigners

Maharashtra PoliceCyber Cell has alsoissued an advisory toWhatsApp users andadministrators regarding dos and don’ts in the current scenario

FILE

PH

OTO

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAKCity 6MumbaiMirror Thursday, April 9, 2020

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 1 Page: VKMMRP6 User: mahak.jain Time: 04-08-2020 22:53 Color: CMYK


Passengers also had to passtemperatures checks and show

green “healthcodes” on theirphone, which arecalculated in part

by whether their neighbourhoodshave been declared virus-free.

Trump criticises WHO, ChinaMeanwhile, US President DonaldTrump lashed out at the WHO, ac-cusing it of a pro-Beijing bias as hethreatened to cut funding. The USpresident has criticised China'shandling of the pandemic. YetTrump himself has also come un-der fire for initially downplayingthe virus. AGENCIES

After 76 days in lock-down, the Chinese cityat the heart of the glob-al pandemic reopenedWednesday and tens of

thousands immediately hoppedon trains and planes to leave.

Yet health experts stressed it istoo early to loosen restrictionsthat could accelerate the spread ofa disease that has infiltrated everylayer of society.

In Wuhan, the Chinese city of11million where the pandemic be-gan, residents waved flags and thecity staged alight show withskyscrapers andbridges radiat-ing images of health workers aid-ing patients.

Restrictions in the city wheremost of China’s more than 82,000virus cases and over 3,300 deathswere reported have been gradual-ly eased in recent weeks as newcases declined.

Yet not all is back to normal,with schools still closed and traveldiscouraged. At the train station arobot whirred through crowds tospray their feet with disinfectant.

Wuhan reopensafter 76 days of lockdownThousands leave for their hometowns

Medical staff bid goodbyeto each other before leaving Wuhan

WORLD

T he novel coronavirus tollacross the world crossed80,000 on Wednesday, ac-

cording to the data releasedJohns Hopkins University's Cor-onavirus Resource Centre.

A total of 82,145 people havedied so far, with 14,31,375 infec-tions recorded globally. Besides,3,01,385 people diagnosed withthe virus around the world have

recovered so far.Italy, Spain, UK and France

continue to be the countries fac-ing the most fatalities, while theUS has the largest number of pos-itive cases with more than3,83,000.

Spain, Italy and France followthe US in the number of cases,with over 1,40,000, 1,35,000 and1,10,00, respectively.

Global toll rises to 80,000

T he Supreme Court on Wednesday di-rected that Covid-19 tests in ap-proved government labs and private

laboratories should be conducted free ofcost and the Centre should immediatelyissue directions in this regard.

The top court said the private hospitals,including laboratories, have an importantrole to play in containing the scale of thepandemic by extending philanthropicservices in the hour of national crisis.

A bench, which heard the matter viavideo conferencing, said that tests relatingto coronavirus must be car-ried out in labs accredited bythe National AccreditationBoard for Testing and Calibra-tion Laboratories (NABL) or any agenciesapproved by WHO or the Indian Councilof Medical Research (ICMR).

“We issue following interim direc-tions: (a) The tests relating to Covid-19,

whether in approved government labora-tories or approved private laboratories,

shall be free of cost.The respondents(Centre and other au-thorities) shall issue

necessary direction in this regard immedi-ately. (b) Tests relating to Covid-19 must becarried out in NABL accredited labs or anyagencies approved by WHO or ICMR,” thebench said.

Covid-19 tests must be free of cost: SCThe Supreme Court asks the government to issue directions immediately

NATION

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 1 Page: VKMMRP7 User: tonella.coutinho Time: 04-08-2020 20:32 Color: CMYK

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR LOCAL BODIES(TOLL TAX DEPARTMENT)

14TH FLOOR, DR. SPM CIVIC CENTREMINTO ROAD, JLN MARG , NEW DELHI-02

E-mail ID: tolitaxsdmc @gmail.com(PH- 011-23226422)

No: ADC/TT/HO/2020/D-1412 Dated : 04.04.2020PUBLIC NOTICE

NOW: Engagement of a contractor by SDMC (Lead Corporationacting on behalf of all three Municipal Corporations ofDelhi) for Toll and Environment Compensation Charges(ECC) collection at border points from specified commercialvehicles entering Delhi.

SUB: Annulment of NIT No. ADC/TT/HO/2020/D-1330 dated16.03.2020.Considering the current scenario of National Lockdown, the tender

issued for above work vides NIT dated 16.03.2020 has been annulled bythe Competent Authority.

The SDMC shall invite fresh tender on online mode. The NIT,RFP document alongwith the bidding schedule shall be uploaded on w ,tenderwizard .com/SOUTHDMCETENDER . For participation , onlineregistration is required by the prospective bidders to avail user ID andPassword. For detail please visit the facility available on above websiteat "Register with us " . In case of any assistance regarding registration ,please contact Sh. Irshad Ahmed - 8800900129 and Sh. Mohit Kumar -9560095958 & through email [email protected]. Theprospective bidders are also free to contact Sh. Khazan Bhardwaj, AO(TT) on his mobile no. 8929143252 in case of any Scll-

Addl. Dy. CommissionerR.O. No. 0l/DPI/S/2020-21 (Toll Tax Department)

COVID -19HAS SHOWN USTHAT

Ai uc+c+i ir

It seems fake news on social media isspreading faster than the virus itself. Andanswers are harder than ever to come by.Now we aren 't medical experts, but we knowhow to get to the truth. By thoroug hlyresearching and verifying every word before

i t s actually printed . So in these uncertaintimes, might we ask you to wait. Wait beforeyou share something you have no way ofconfirming . Wait until the truth in printmakes its way to your doorstep.

PRINT IS PROOF.

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lunrd by India i leading nemr pen

THE TIMES OF INDIA Dainik Bhaskor hindustantimes THESIaatHINDL VIJA®'ANI

'lam + { ] Mra e Ti>EPrxikieacTmtF.v I Mun Mirror alqIXtt2M

[?Caenasa f 8mr& I BusineSsl,inc INIV midday

Market associations panic; demand strict implementation of social distancing rules and other safety measures



State manages to earn only Rs 17,000 cr in March

Desperate times call for desperate measures. With its finances severely hit by the lockdown, the state govern-

ment is considering amending the Charitable and Religious Trusts Act to allow institutions to make dona-tions to the government.

Such a proposal was tabled dur-ing Tuesday’s cabinet meeting but was postponed until next meeting due to technical issues with the plan.

Just for an idea how badly the state government’s finances are affected: In March 2019,

Maharashtra’s total revenue, which includes its own taxes, share in cen-tral taxes, grants from the central government and other sources, was Rs 42,000 crore. In March this year,

it has dropped to around Rs17,000 crore.

Last week, deputy chief minister and finance minister Ajit Pawar wrote a letter to Union finance min-

ister Nirmala Sitharaman asking her to immediately release the state gov-ernment’s share in GST and other taxes and grants amounting to Rs 16,654 crore. He also sought a spe-cial package of Rs 25,000 to over-come the state’s revenue shortfall.

Phone calls and text messages to Union finance secretary AB Pandey remained unanswered at the time of going to press.

The state has already announced staggered payments of March salary for its employees who will get only 50 per cent of their pay for the time being. The remaining part will be paid once the cash flow improves. The government expects to save around Rs4, 000 crore through this move.

A senior official from the state

finance department said, “In a letter to the FM, we have asked for Rs 25,000 crore to fight the virus. It includes expenditure on health sec-tor, especially on items such as 3-ply masks, N95 masks, personal protec-tive equipment, testing kits and ven-tilators. We will also have to create isolation wards. Additionally, a huge amount will be spent on feeding people.”

He further said that the state’s finances are already stretched due to a loan waiver of Rs 22,000 crore to farmers. As on April 2, the govern-ment has spent Rs 11, 969.14 crore on the scheme. It will also buy milk worth Rs 200 crore from dairy farm-ers as demand from hotels, restau-rants and sweet shops has complete-ly dropped.

MVA govt wants to modify the Charitable and Religious Trusts Act to get donations as revenue shrinks from Rs 42,000 cr in March 2019 | Makarand Gadgil & Alka [email protected]


Finance minister Ajit Pawar (right) has sought the Centre’s help

Spice trader at wholesale market contracts virus

Lockdown leads to huge pile-up of cargo at Mumbai airportPile-up leads to space constraints; importers, customs brokers unable to clear goods

The lockdown in Mumbai has re-sulted in piling up of 4,500 tonnes of cargo at Mumbai airport as im-porters and customs brokers have

not been able to clear their goods.India shut down international passen-

ger traffic on March 23, and all domestic passenger flights on March 24, in an attempt to restrict the spread of Covid-19. However, scheduled cargo operations and any special flights for repatriation and rescue operations were allowed to continue.

Sources said on average four to five freighters were operating daily transport-ing export cargo of around 200 tonnes and import cargo of around 250 tonnes. “Initially exports were very less due to restrictions on non-essential commodi-ties and stoppage of manufacturing activ-ity, but now the volumes are picking up in - terms of pharmaceuticals, perishable and a few engineering commodities. In imports, in addition to the essential phar-ma cargo, we are receiving all non-essen-tial commodities like engineering goods and electronics, resulting in huge vol-umes,” said an official at the Sahar air cargo complex.

Though Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), which handles logistics and customs, and which is the custodian of the goods as a regulator, deployed manpower 24x7 despite the lockdown constraints, the severe trans-port restrictions and clampdown on movement across Maharashtra has led to a huge cargo backlog as importers are clearing their consignments at a slower pace. MIAL officials also tried to facilitate road transport by obtaining approvals

from the police authorities, but despite that freight forwarders and customs bro-kers are reporting in very less numbers. Despite the round-the-clock clearance facilities, the pile up of non-essential cargo has led to space constraints at the airport, which has the capacity to handle about 3,000 tonnes.

Sensing that the lockdown could lead to a backlog at air cargo terminals, the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued a circu-lar on April 1 to waive 50 per cent demur-rage charges on the export-import con-signments. Demurrage charges are penal-ties that importers have to pay to the air cargo terminal operators for delays in clearing their shipments and are charged on per kilogram basis depending on the size of the shipment. However, the import trade associations wanted the government to waive the demurrage charges by 100 per cent.

Vijay Singh Chauhan, commissioner of customs, confirmed there was a back-log, but said the scenario had improved in the last two days with importers and customers brokers coming in to clear shipments. “Customs is working 24/7 and is committed to facilitating speedy clearance of all essential and non-essen-tial imported cargo,” he said.

| [email protected]

TWEETS @satishMIRRORK C SINGH

Aspice trader at the Mumbai Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) tested positive at Saifee Hospital on Wednesday. His son is also admitted to the same hospital and his test result is

awaited.The 50-year-old patient has a shop at the

Vashi-based APMC, which has five wholesale markets selling vegetables; fruit; spices and dry fruit; and potatoes, onions, pulses and grains.

The family, which has been asked to self-quar-antine, live in a housing society in Chunabhatti, near the railway station; three other traders live in the same society.

The patient was running a fever and his physi-cian asked him to undergo the test on Monday; on Wednesday the results came positive.

Dr Vernon Desa, medical director at Saifee, did not confirm the development, although Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) offi-cials did, and said they were in touch with the patient and his son.

According to an official, the patient attended the cremation of one of his acquaintances on March 22, and the family suspect he may have contracted the virus from someone there.

The officials also said the patient and his son had not visited the wholesale market since March 21. But other traders suspect the man visited the shop for some bank-related work or to collect cash, and called for an investigation.

“I have requested the Mumbai APMC secretary to take full precaution and thoroughly disinfect our market,” Vijay Bhuta, director of the spice market and president of the Dry Fruits Traders’ Association, told Mumbai Mirror.

Sanjay Pansare, director of the fruit market, said the state government should “seriously con-

sider” closing down the Vashi APMC “until this risk is over”. “However much one tries, social dis-tancing norms cannot be properly followed inside the market,” he said.

“If the infection spreads, tracing the trail is going to be difficult. Not only traders, but matha-di workers, farmers, drivers – everyone is at risk.”

In the first week of April, the government had promised to disinfect vehicles arriving at the mar-ket and put some restrictions on their movement. Before that traders were unwilling to open the market. The marketing and agriculture commis-sioner held a meeting with the associations and discussed plans to keep the market open.

The traders are still not satisfied with the safe-ty measures taken by the APMC administration. “Inside the APMC nobody wears masks. Social distancing is impossible when it comes to unload-ing and loading of goods,” mathadi workers’ lead-er Narendra Patil said.

The APMC has around 50,000 footfall at any given time.

The five markets at APMC have a minimumof 50,000 people at any given time

| Alka [email protected]

TWEETS @alka_MIRROR

4,500 tonnes of cargo is lying at the airport

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On Wednesday, 117 newcoronavirus cases andeight deaths were reportedfrom across the state, tak-ing the total number of ac-

tive cases to 1,135. Maharashtra re-mains the worst-affected state in thecountry. In Mumbai alone, 106 newcases and five deaths were reported.Two other patients died in Pune andone succumbed in the Kalyan-Dom-bivali area.

Of the five deaths in Mumbai,three happened at the KEM Hospital,one at Kasturba Hospital and anotherat Babu Jagjeevan Ram Hospital. Allthe deceased were over the age of 50and had co-morbid conditions likediabetes, hypertension, chronic lungdisease or asthma.

With 45 people succumbing to Co-vid-19, Mumbai is still one of the hot-spots in the country. The latest info-graphic released by the BMC onWednesday (see map and box) sug-gested that wards D, E, G-South and K-West are the worst-hit. Until April 7,282 cases were detected in these fourwards. The city has 24 administrativewards.

The highest number of 133 posi-tive cases in the city have been from G-South ward, which witnessed almost71per cent rise on a single day (on April7) as there were only 78 cases till April 6.

The BMC infographic also pointsout that the G-South ward is followedby D, E and K-West wards, where 59, 46and 43 patients tested positive untilApril 7.

According to the data, four otherwards – H-East, P- North, K-East and M-West – had 33, 32, 27 and 23 patientsuntil Tuesday. The infographic alsopoints out that A, B and C wards in

South Mumbai and T ward in NorthEast Mumbai had less than seven caseseach, while B ward had the lowest fivecases. According to a BMC statement,the civic body has created as many as241containment zones in the city.

Meanwhile, the Centre’s responseand preparedness in coordinationwith the states is being intensified ac-cordingly, Joint Secretary in the healthministry Lav Agarwal said while ad-dressing the daily briefing at 4 pm onWednesday.

Talking about strategies initiatedin Maharashtra, Agarwal said a door-todoor survey is being conducted in a 35

sq km area in Pune Central andKondhwa region. As part of the cam-paign, teams of health workers arechecking on persons with co-morbidi-ties like diabetes and hypertensionand asking if they have come into con-tact with an infected patient or withhistory of travel abroad.

In Maharashtra, 27,090 tests hadbeen conducted until yesterday. Ofthese, 25,753 tests turned out nega-tive. While 34,904 people are in homequarantine, 4,444 people are in insti-tutional quarantine. Of those whohave tested positive, 117 have reco-vered completely.

117 new cases in state,with 106 in Mumbai alone

Lata [email protected]


The Bombay High court onWednesday asked legal ser-vice authorities at the districtand taluka levels in the stateto step up their efforts and fa-

cilitate aid to migrant workers stuck atdifferent locations due to the lock-down.

Justice Amjad Sayyed was hearinga petition filed by Sarva Hara Jan An-dolan and Ang Mehnati KashtakariSangarsh Samiti. The two unorga-nised sector unions based in Raigadand Pune have claimed that migrantworkers stuck across the state, includ-ing its borders with other states, arenot receiving help from the govern-ment.

“We have judges and paralegal per-sonnel who will co-ordinate with you,but implementation is your job,” Jus-tice Sayyed said while directing thestate government to file an affidavitbefore April 15 detailing all the stepstaken.

While the State Legal Services Au-thority gives effect to the policies anddirections of the central authority, theDistrict Legal Services Authority andthe Taluka Legal Services Committeeprovide free and competent legal aidin the nature of counselling and legaladvice as well as free legal services inthe conduct of cases before smallercourts and tribunals. Among severalother endeavours these bodies under-take, the most important is providinglegal aid to the under-privileged.

In a note to the court on Wednes-day, senior counsel Gayatri Singh, rep-resenting the unorganised sector

unions, stated that in districts likePune, Kolhaphur and Sangli, rationswere being denied to migrants. Shesaid essentials were being given onlyto yellow card holders in many cases.While shelters have been provided inmarriage halls, she said they are veryunhygienic, especially in Nandurbar,Dhule and Jalgaon. She also pointedout that no free cooking cylinderswere being given under the UjjwalaScheme in any of the districts in Maha-rashtra.

Singh further claimed that peopleare only dependent on wells, handpumps and rivers for water in rural ar-eas. She also said a large number of dai-ly wage workers like APMC cart-pull-ers, street vendors, autorickshaw driv-ers and transport workers are not be-ing provided protective gear. Theunions also said that a helpline num-ber is being circulated but it’s notworking efficiently.

Assistant government pleaderBhupesh Samant told the court thatthey were working with five per centstaff and yet 4,871camps have been setup for over five lakh migrant workers.He said the helpline number is com-mon for all districts. The court has di-rected the state to file an affidavit andsaid the other issues could be lookedinto later, but most important rightnow is to provide food, shelter andmedicines to those stranded.

‘Provide food, shelterand medicines tomigrant workers’Hearing a PIL by workers’ unions, Bombay HCasks state to facilitate help at the earliest

Sharmeen [email protected]


REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE

The superintendent of NaviMumbai’s Taloja Central Jail,the only facility where newprisoners are being sent sincethe lockdown, has requested

for the safety of around 3,200 prison-ers lodged here. One of the requests isregarding a mandatory 14-day quar-antine for incoming prisoners to makesure they are not Covid-19 positive.

Recently, several undertrials weresent to Taloja Jail in a bid to decongestother over-crowded prisons. As a re-sult, the Taloja jail has already over-shot its capacity by 1,000 inmates.

In a letter sent to various districtcourts on April 7, Taloja jail superin-tendent Kaustubh Kurlekar requestedquarantining the incoming prisoners

at either the prison ward of JJ Hospitalor in a nearby BMC school.

He said this measure can be adopt-ed if the prisoners cannot be grantedbail.

Kurlekar has sent the letter to thecity civil and sessions court and theDindoshi sessions court in Mumbai,district courts in Thane, Raigad, Ail-baug and Palghar, with a copy to se-nior prison officials and the state’s Lawand Judiciary Department. He quotedthe chief medical officer (prisons) onMaharashtra, especially Mumbai, fastreaching the community transmis-sion stage, and said it could be a healthhazard from the point of safety of in-mates.

He clarified that currently newinmates are being lodged separately,in keeping with the suo motu PIL of theSupreme Court (see box) and direc-tions from the high-power committeeformed by the government of Maha-

rashtra.“I therefore request that those ar-

rested be released on a cash bond or

semi-government school be acquiredas a quarantine facility,” the lettersays.

temporary bail, and if they have to besent to prison then the JJ group of hos-pitals prison ward or a government or

Taloja jail requests quarantine facility for new prisonersSharmeen Hakim

@timesgroup.com


Recently, several undertrials were sent to Taloja Jail in a bid todecongest other over-crowded prisons

Ward-wise numbers till April 7

Nearly 50 per cent of the total Covid-19 positive cases in Mumbai haveemerged from just four wards – G-South, E, D, K-West. Three of thesewards are in south central Mumbai, while K-West ward includes Andheriand Vile Parle. The infographic released by the BMC on Wednesday saidthat 282 of the 590 positive cases were detected in these wards. TheG-South ward includes Haji Ali, Mahalaxmi, Worli, Lower Parel, CurreyRoad, Elphinstone Road and Saat Rasta. Majority of Covid-19 cases in thisward have been found in Elphinstone Road and Worli Koliwada.

Safe transit forprisoners on bailWhile hearing the suo motu PILto decongest prisons, theSupreme Court on Tuesdayordered that all the states,through the Director General ofPolice, should provide safetransit to prisoners released onbail. The court further directedthat prisoners be given theoption of staying in temporaryshelter homes during the lock-down. In its edition on Wednes-day, Mirror had highlighted theproblems they face in reachinghome after being granted bail.

Jail superintendent says unchecked imprisonment could be a health hazard for around 3,200 inmates; the facility has already overshot its capacity by 1,000 inmates

Eight people, including five in Mumbai, died in Maharashtra on Wednesday

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THE SECRET DIARY OF T.A.K.He’s been there, done that

Loved/loathed this column? Write to us at [email protected]

Dear diary,Fifteen down. Six to go. I’m sure you’ve been playing this game with your friends as well (and if you don’t have friends you’ve been playing it in your head). It’s called ‘what’s the first thing you’ll do when the lockdown ends’.

Basically, I sent WhatsApp messages to all my buddies asking them what was the first thing they’d do once the lockdown was over. Here are some of the replies I got:

Amitabh: Hello Tim. The first thing I’ll do is step out on to my terrace and wave at my fans. Three weeks of waving at empty streets has been pretty boring.

KJo: Simple answer. I am going to hand my kids over to the nanny. That’s it. And increase her salary. And sleep.

Shah Rukh: P-P-P-P-P-PARTY!

Sallu: Kaisa question yaar Tim… obviously I’ll start shooting for Dabanngggg 4.

Aamir: I have been thinking long and hard, Tim… about how things will change when we come out on the other side of this… how society and human interactions itself will change… you read that Arundati Roy piece? Really makes you think… I don’t think I have all the answers… but the first thing I’ll do -- and I believe it’s the right thing to do -- is order pizza.

Mummy: Girls night out with my crew. And no beta, I am not taking you along.

Abba: Ok Tim, you can’t tell anyone this… but you know how much I love my books na? Well, I’ve been keeping two metres distance from them so that they don’t get infected. To answer your question… I’m going to read.

Virat: Super stressed bro… I’ll head straight to the stadium of course. You never know when the IPL will suddenly start.

Ranveer: Lockdown? What lockdown? I just assumed that by chance Deepika and I were out of

work at the same time.

Akshay: Hi Taimur beta. What do you mean by ‘what are you going to do when the lockdown ends?’ How can you ask such a question? Dekho beta, whole country needs to understand one thing… once the lockdown ends, PM will tell us what to do.

And me? I’ll go out and hug my paparazzi friends... wait a second, they will come back, right? They’ve not forgotten me, no? Sniff… I haven’t been this stressed since the lockdown began.

First thing I’ll do when this ends...


T he Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) onWednesday announced the introductionof three new subjects, namely Design

Thinking, Physical Activity Trainer and Artifi-cial Intelligence (AI) at class XI from the nextacademic year 2020-21.

With much of the school pedagogy nowshifting away from textbook-based and rotelearning format to skill-based courses, theboard’s move is aimed at making the new gener-ation more creative, innovative and physicallyfit. The New Education Police 2019 has recom-mended “no hard separation” among curricu-lar, co-curricular and extra-curricular subjects.

“The Indian system is entrenched in ready-made or rote learning and that’s why we haveless innovation. This is an initiative to intro-duce problem solving, foster innovativenessfrom the beginning. We won’t just teach 2+2 is4 and the child will repeat it, but we will makehim/her think why is it not three or five. It aboutchanging the way you think about learning,”Deepshikha Srivastava, principal of Rajhans Vi-dyalaya, Andheri, told Mirror. RAHI GAIKWAD

CBSE introduces 3new subjects from new academic year

When Khushroo Poacha’s phonerang at 10.52 am on April 7, hethought it was a call from his fam-ily or colleagues. But to his sur-prise, the caller was Chief Minister

Uddhav Thackeray. Thackeray had called to ap-preciate the yeoman’s service Poacha was ren-dering to the poor during the nation-wide lock-down to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Poacha, a superintendent with the CentralRailway’s commercial department inNagpur, has single-handedly man-aged to collect food and aid mate-rial worth more than Rs 40lakh, which has benefitedmore than 6,000 families. Be-sides, he has donated twotonnes of rice to NGOs tofeed the poor.

“One can’t believe thatthe chief minister himself callsyou to enquire how you are ableto do the good work without anysupport from the government,” Poa-cha told Mirror on Wednesday.

The CM also asked Poacha if he needed anyhelp. “You are doing a good job, keep it up. If youneed any assistance from the government, feelfree to contact the state secretariat,” Poachaquoted Thackeray as telling him.

The Parsi with a charitable soul uses his good-will, personal and professional contactsthrough the social media to collect food and do-nations from people all over the world. He hasbeen helping the poor since 1999 when helaunched a website indianblooddonors.com forthose in need of blood and through 21 SevaKitchens run by him in several cities of the coun-try. The kitchens feed about 3,000 people daily.The Seva Kitchens have tied up with donatekart-.com, an online donation platform, to ensurethe poor get the meals even during the lock-down.

Anyone who wants to donate can purchase akit costing Rs 616 by clicking on a link on donate-

cart.com. The packet will be de-livered to Seva Kitchens for dis-

tribution among the poor.Thekit contains 5 kg rice, 5 kg atta, 1kg

tur dal half-a-kg sugar, 750 ml oil, atea packet salt, spices and pickle.

At present, these kits are being distrib-uted in the slum areas to daily wage labourers,who are stuck in the lockdown, the homelessand other people who do not have a source of in-come. More than 300 families of brick kiln work-ers near Nagpur are also being provided foodpackets since the lockdown began. Five-hundred-and-fifty such kits were distributed inthe villages in Yavatmal district to the widows ofthe farmers who committed suicide.

“Luckily, I had the material ready. Depend-ing on the situation, we shall send more aid ifneeded,” he said.

For the ongoing pandemic relief work, Poa-cha deploys help requests through a series ofWhatsApp groups, and his websites, www.seva-kitchen.org and www.indianblooddonors.comand apps, which in turn are supported bywww.donatekart.com which assist him tosource all his needs. “Requests go throughwww.donatekart.com and donors make their

contributions which are routed to my supplierfrom where I pick up the stuff required. There isno monetary involvement at any stage,” he said.

“During lockdown, my volunteers reachpeople with food packets, cooked meals or re-plenishments for the Neki Ka Pitara round-the-clock,” Poacha said.

Social media helped a lot in increasing the re-ach of the group. In 2016, he started another inti-tiative, Neki Ka Pitara (Fridge of Kindness) tohelp the poor. Under this initiative, a fridge iskept in a hospital and items such as fruits, milk,lassi bread and eggs are kept inside to be used bythe patients. When the stock gets over, thegroup associated with that area refills the fridgeie the pitaara. Presently, there are 20 such pita-raas in several citites of the country, includingone each in Signal Shala, Thane and Shree SatyaSai Sanjeevani Hospital, Navi Mumbai.

Poacha gives credit of all this good work tothe people who donate for the noble cause andwho have faith in him. His family which sup-ports him all the time is his strength.

“He is silent warrior in the fight against Co-vid-19. A real hero. A big salute to such heroes,”said Shivaji Sutar ,chief public relations officer ofCentral Railway.

Railway official feeds 6,000 families during lockdownSeva Kitchens run by him in several cities separately serve meais to 3,000 people daily

[email protected]

TWEETS @MumbaiMIRROR

More than 300 families of brick kiln workers near Nagpur are also beingprovided food packets during the lockdown by Khushroo Poacha (inset)

In other news

S enator Bernie Sanders, who saw his oncestrong lead in the Democratic primaryevaporate as the party's establishment

lined swiftly up behind rivalJoe Biden, ended his presiden-tial bid on Wednesday, an ac-knowledgment that the for-mer vice president is too farahead for him to have any rea-

sonable hope of catching up.The Vermont senator's announcement

makes Biden the presumptive Democraticnominee to challenge President DonaldTrump in November. Sanders plans to talk tohis supporters later Wednesday. Sanders ini-tially exceeded sky-high expectations abouthis ability to recreate the magic of his 2016presidential bid, and even overcame a heart at-tack last October on the campaign trail. But hefound himself unable to convert unwaveringsupport from progressives into a viable path tothe nomination. AGENCIES

Sanders drops out ofUS presidential race

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Under treatment for cancer, she says she needed alcohol to get sound sleep; man persuaded her to pass on credit card details and OTPs

A33-year-old blood cancer pa-

tient was duped of Rs 60,000 af-ter she unwittingly gave awayher credit card details and one-

time passwords (OTPs) to a caller whopromised to deliver wine to her home inGamdevi last weekend.

The woman has been undergoing

cancer treatment for the last 18 months.She told the police that pain wracks herbody for long stretches of the day and tohave a restful sleep, she drinks somewine just before going to bed.

With liquor retail stores shut duringthe lockdown, she reached out to somefriends in the hope of getting somewine delivered at home.

A friend passed on the phone num-ber of a man she claimed would be ableto help her. “On the night of April 4, the

33-year-old called up the man, who re-fused to reveal his identity,” said a po-lice officer. The man agreed to make ahome delivery but demanded paymentfirst.

He induced her to share details ofher credit card and then an OTP that thebank sent to her phone to process thetransaction. The police complaint didnot elaborate on how he managed toconvince her to part with her credit carddetails and how much payment

amount they had agreed to. “As soon as she shared the OTP with

him, she got an SMS alert that Rs 19,000was charged to her credit card,” said theofficer.

When she confronted the man overanother call, he blamed a glitch andasked her to share a second OTP in orderto process a refund. After she complied,she received another alert that Rs41,000 was charged to her credit card.

He again blamed a glitch and asked

her to share a third OTP. By this time sherealised that she had been cheated andtold her husband about it. The coupleapproached the police the next day.

The Gamdevi police registered anFIR under section 420 (cheating) of theIPC and sections 66C (identity theft)and 66D (cheating by impersonationby using computer resource) of the ITAct. The officer said they are probinghow the woman’s friend came uponthe fraudster’s number.

33-year-old woman loses Rs 60,000 to wine delivererSomendranath.Sharma

@timesgroup.com



Desperate to get to their vil-lage 380 km away in Rat-nagiri, two Bandra resi-dents set off on their bikelast week under the pre-

text of attending an aunt’s funeral.Through half the distance, they man-aged to fool all police personnel atcheckpoints. They were busted aftersome police personnel grew suspi-cious and did a home check—not on-ly was the aunt found hale andhearty, but was also part of the con.

The police said the two men cameup with this plan since movementacross districts has been curtailedduring the lockdown. They let theirfamily in on the plot and asked themto play along if asked for proof duringthe course of the journey.

The two then headed for Rajapur

village in Ratnagiri, around 380 kmfrom Mumbai, on a bike. At eachcheckpoint, they told the police thatthey were trying to make it to theiraunt’s funeral. Moved by their claimof tragedy, the police let them pro-ceed.

When they were just 160 km fromhome, they were stopped at a check-point at Bharna Naka near Khed.

The men rattled off the same sobstory, but police inspector Sujit Ga-

dade wasn’t convinced. He askedthem to make a video call to a familymember.

Since the family had already pre-pared for such a scenario, theyshowed the aunt lying on the floor,wrapped up in a shroud.

The police still didn’t buy it andasked a policeman in the village topay a visit to the house.

The con was exposed after the po-liceman reached the family’s resi-dence.

Pravin Patil, sub-divisional policeofficer of Khed division, said the menwere detained and their vehicle con-fiscated. During questioning, theyrevealed that it had become impossi-ble to practise social distancing intheir tiny Bandra home and they justwanted to get to their family in thistime of crisis.

Another police officer said theyhave now been placed under quaran-tine for 14 days.

Bikers ‘kill’ auntto get home, copsbring her to lifeYearning to get to their families in Ratnagiri district, the two setoff from Bandra, tell police personnel at checkpoints that theyare trying to make it to aunt’s funeral; cops find her alive at home

Vallabh Ozarkar and Raju [email protected]


A south Mumbai-based senior ci-tizen’s attempt to buy brandyduring the lockdown led to him

losing Rs 27,000 to a cyber-criminal.The 65-year-old nutrition consultanttold the VP Marg police that he has a re-spiratory ailment and consumes thealcohol to get a good night’s sleep.

He told the police that he searchedfor the phone number of his neigh-bourhood liquor store on Google tofind out if they could deliver the alco-hol as liquor stores are shut during thelockdown. The man who received thecall under the listing of Sai Wine Shoptold the victim that he could deliverthe brandy order to his home.

When the victim offered to pay incash, the man insisted on being paid

online. He asked the victim to sharehis bank account details and a onetime password (OTP) he would re-ceive. When the victim told him thathe had not received any OTP, thefraudster asked him to make the pay-ment via a mobile wallet app. He con-vinced the senior citizen to scan theQR code three times by claiming thathe had not received the payment.

When the victim realised howmuch was debited from the account,he called the fraudster and asked himto return the extra money and to deliv-er the brandy. He contacted the policewhen he realised he had been duped.“We have registered an FIR under rele-vant sections of Indian Penal Code,” apolice official said.

The police official added that thedelivery of liquor is currently illegal inthe state and urged citizens againstfalling prey to such scams.

SoBo resident’s quest forbrandy costs him Rs 27,00065-yr-old nutrition consultant says he has a respiratoryailment and relies on alcohol to get a good night’s sleep

[email protected]


A fter looting liquor shops andbar, thieves have started target-ing stalls selling cigarette and

chewing tobacco.Over the past week, at least three

such incidents have been reported inthe city. The police said that thievessell these products at exorbitant ratesin the black market. A packet of ciga-rettes with a printed price of Rs 160 isnow being sold for up to Rs 470. Simi-larly, the already banned gutkha is be-ing sold for Rs 50-60 a packet.

Police said goods worth Rs 65,100have been stolen from a shop on Ghat-kopar-Andheri link road. The com-plainant Sitaram Gujar said that hecame to know of the theft on Mondaywhen his mother found a part of theshop damaged. According to him, 450cigarette packets and 100 tobaccopouches are missing.

Sandip Pan Shop in Prabhadeviwas looted by the three bike-bornemen. The incident came to light onTuesday when a local found the shopopen and contacted the owner Sada-

nand Kondvilkar. He found that themain lock of his stall was broken and45 cigarette packets of differentbrands and cash mainly in changeamounting to Rs 7,000 were stolen.

“After scanning the CCTV footageof that area, cops spotted three menplundering my shop. Their faces were,however, covered,” said Kondvilkar. Ashop in Malad’s Jijamata nagar toowas plundered and tobacco productsworth Rs 4500 were stolen.

Thieves target pan shopsfor tobacco productsCigarettes, gutkha pouches are fetching high rates in black market

[email protected]


Sandip Pan Shop in Prabhadeviwas looted of 45 cigarette packets and Rs 7,000 in cash

They said it had become impossible to practise social distancing in their tiny Bandra home andthey wanted to get totheir family in this timeof crisis —A police officer

The two men were caught at Bharna Naka near Khed and placed under quarantine for 14 days

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Jose admits holding training session was a mistake

Switzerland players decline paymentsSport 13

Thursday, April 9, 2020MumbaiMirror


@MumbaiMirror

…junior isn’t too impressed with Papa, says hitting Shoaib Akhtar must be easy since there is pace in his bowling. Kids today I tell you...phew

— Mohammad Kaif tweets on how his son Kabir isn’t convinced about the threat Akhtar posed

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has accepted he was in the wrong for holding a one-on-one training session with Tanguy Ndombele in a public park. “...my actions were not in line with government protocol,” he said.

The players and coach of Switzerland’s national soccer team have declined to take more than 1 million Swiss francs of payments that were due from their federation

R oger Federer offered stuck-at-home amateurs the ultimateonline fantasy camp of sorts,a chance to get tennis tips

from a guy many consider the great-est of all time.

While people all over the worldare cooped up because of the new cor-onavirus — social distancing whiletrying to stay healthy and help oth-ers do the same — a bunch of athleteshave been posting workouts anddrills on social media with suggesti-ons for staying in shape.

Federer did that sort of thing, too,with what he called “a helpful solodrill,’’ but he also took it a step fur-ther: he encouraged folks to tweet tohim their own videos mimicking thevolleying exercise he displayed. Andthen he replied to some, even dis-pensing a little advice.

Not a bad instructor, eh?The owner of a men’s-record 20

Grand Slam singles titles previouslyposted clips of himself hittingagainst a wall in the snow, includingaround-the-back or through-the-leg-’tweener trick shots.

This time, the 38-year-old Feder-er donned an all-white outfit — per-haps a nod to Wimbledon, the grass-court tournament he’s won eighttimes, which was canceled for 2020last week? — replete with a whitepanama hat with black band, stoodnear the green wall and volleyedagainst it.

He tapped the ball more than 200times during the test of reflex andform in the 59-second video.

Within six hours, Federer’s clipgarnered more than 1million views,and his post drew more than 1,300 re-plies. True to his word, he answeredsome.

“Don’t lean back, strong in thewrist,’’ Federer wrote to one person.“Keep up the great work.’’

To another, in which a man hit atennis ball against an indoor wallwhile a dog appeared to nap under-neath, Federer answered: “Love theconfidence not to drop the (tennisball emoji) on the (dog emoji).’’

To others, he sent verbal pats onthe back, such as, “Good job’’ or“Nice work’’ or “Love the effort.’’

Federer, who had arthroscopicsurgery on his right knee in February,is waiting along with everyone elsefor competitive tennis to return. Themen’s and women’s professionaltours are suspended until at leastmid-July because of the COVID-19pandemic.

The US Tennis Association issuedadvice last week to avoid playing thesport with anyone else right now,calling it “in the best interest of socie-ty to take a collective pause.’’

The USTA noted that there is “thepossibility’’ that germs could betransferred among people via shar-ing and touching of tennis balls, netposts, court surfaces, benches or gatehandles.

More than 1.3 million peoplehave been confirmed infected by thecoronavirus around the globe, andmore than 75,000 have died, accord-ing to Johns Hopkins University. Thetrue numbers are almost certainlymuch higher, because of limited test-ing, different rules for counting thedead and deliberate under-reportingby some governments.

For most people, the virus causesmild to moderate symptoms such asfever and cough. But for some, espe-cially older adults and the infirm, itcan cause pneumonia.

Want to learn how tovolley? Federer isavailable to teach...

The next cycle of global cricket eventshas been of extreme contentionamong the members what with manyboards, including the three powerfulones – Board of Control for Cricket inIndia (BCCI), England and WalesCricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Aus-tralia (CA) – opposing the number ofevents in the period between 2023-31.But yesterday Mirror learnt that theinitial response to staging the globalevents was ‘encouraging’.

This paper has information thatover 90 offers from 18 member boardshave been received by the world bodyto stage the 28 global events in thateight-year period. Among the mem-bers submitting the Expressions of In-terest (EOI) are those who have hither-to been steadfastly opposing the num-

bers of tournaments. One could not confirm if England

and Australia have actually submittedEOI, but what Mirror gathered wasthat some important boards haveshown interest without being specificabout the events they are interested tohost. A CA spokesperson did not re-spond to a query till the time of goingto print while the ECB said the matteris confidential.

“(The) correspondence and com-munications between ourselves andthe ICC on this topic will need to re-main behind closed doors at thisstage,” an ECB spokesperson wrote toMirror, neither confirming nor deny-ing its interest. The BCCI though hastold to this paper that it did not submitan EOI.

Mid-March was the deadline forthe initial show of interest. The fullprocess of hosting will be rolled outlater. Among the 28 global events aremen’s, women’s and under-19 teams,including the events for the associatecountries. The most critical ones arethe eight global men’s competitions --2 T20 Champions Cup, 2 ODI Cham-pions Cup, 2 T20 World Cups and 2ODI World Cups -- in almost everyyear between 2023 and 2031.

When contacted, the ICC has con-firmed that there were EOIs from 18boards. “ICC confirms 18 membershave expressed an interest in hostingthe future ICC events,” the worldbody said yesterday.

ICC says 18boards keen tohost futureglobal events

There are few cricketers who haveearned as much respect as Wasim Jaff-er has, or remained relevant on thefield for as long as he did. Having start-ed out in the mid-90s, Jaffer finally de-

cided to stop adding to his 19,410 first-classruns last month. The 42-year old spoke to Mir-ror on his career ranging from Test cricket toEnglish club cricket and also on what ails his be-loved Mumbai team.

In the 2017-18 Ranji final, Delhi teara-way Navdeep Saini was bowling to youat full pelt. At 40, how could you facehim with such surety?

That’s experience. If you’re playing consis-tently and are in fine touch, handling expresspace then becomes a little easier. It wasn’tthat I had a specific preparation for that final.I’ve faced such pace throughout my career.And I had been playing without a break, so Ididn’t lack in rhythm even though reflexesare expected to wane as you age. Don’t forget Iwas facing Umesh (Yadav) too in the nets reg-ularly.

In your long stint in English club crick-et, your team-mates have been pureamateurs. How was that experience? ATest cricketer playing with people fromall walks of life…

It was in 1998 that I had my first experiencewith an English club. A full English seasonteaches you so much – you learn to take care ofyourself…you cook…arrange for your ownpractice sessions since the club’s practice ses-sions are either on Tuesday or Thursday eve-nings. For more nets, you align with otherprofessionals or friends who might be play-ing in the same leagues or are around that ar-ea. Don’t forget you play matches only onweekends. If you’re dismissed early, you waitanother week to get a match. That’s why youvalue your wicket dearly.

You can’t give it away after reaching per-sonal milestones. Also, your outlook chang-es. I started off as a defensive batsman but mystroke-making ability improved after honingmy skills in England. I can’t miss another im-portant aspect that you develop there, com-munication.

How did you manage your physical

workload especially during the laststretch of your career?

When I started off, all that was required wascricketing fitness. When Andrew Leipuscame in 1999-00 as a physio-cum-trainer, Icould sense a holistic fitness culture seepinginto players’ psyche. Cricketers started topush themselves off the field. After 29-30you’ve to look after yourself in any case sinceyour recovery slows down. Even though I hadminor injuries in the knee and shoulder,nothing had been career-threatening. Play-ing for Vidarbha I had to take care of myselfeven more, for I was a professional with them.The passion in me never died. I knew my daysas an India cricketer were long over, but I nev-er could experience drop in motivation. Nev-er ever. Each season I aspired to better mygame, improve my batting to what it was theprevious day. I was the motivator too for Vi-darbha cricketers. I had to set an example.

But 300-plus innings when you’re sup-posed to be well past your prime? Whatwas the source of that hunger?

Three-hundred-plus knocks when I was inmy 40s? That’s my Mumbai upbringing.We’re always told to convert the 100s into200s and the 200s into 300s. Daddy hundredsfollow when you put in hard work and yourpreparation is intense. It’s ingrained in mymind that batsmen need only one ball to getout. We’re trained to cash in when we’re play-ing well.

Do you think you underachieved inTests?

Definitely. I wouldhave loved to playmore Tests. Maybe, Iwas not consistent.I’ve nobody but my-self to blame. My de-cline as an India crick-eter coincided withthe rise of some aston-ishing opening bat-smen India started toproduce. Gradually, Ireceded into the back-ground. The 2007-08Test series in Australiakind of hastened myexit. Mentally, I wasnot there. The condi-tions were good forbatting, but I wasn’t

national cap are judged mostly on theirshowing in India ‘A’ matches or IPL perform-ances.

To what extent do Mumbai’s Ranji per-formances hurt you?

It pains me for sure. They’re not delivering de-spite having players of high calibre. Do otherstates churn out batsmen such as SarfarazKhan or Yashasvi Jaiswal? Not all of them areproducts of the system, right?

I’m not singling out anyone, but the deci-sion-makers must make Mumbai crickettheir priority. If we’re not doing it, things will

not change. It’s terribly sad when you havethe likes of Ajinkya (Rahane), Iyer (Shreyas),Prithvi (Shaw) and Shardul (Thakur) in themix and yet don’t make the knockouts.

We need to revive club cricket in Mumbaiat the earliest. I feel the knockout system inour club cricket doesn’t give ample opportu-nities to youngsters. It must be restructured.There are only three-four clubs who make thesemi-finals regularly because they have mostof the good players turning up for them. If aquality youngster plays for a weak club whichloses in the first round, then he spends three-four weekends without any match. And bythen we’re well into the third or fourth roundof the Ranji season. What’s the incentive forhim?

What’s the need of having Kanga Leaguewhen we don’t play on uncovered wicketsanymore? Instead, we could start the Police orPurshottam Shield in September and play onaleague basis.

Give talent a platform. I remember the 90swhen the Mafatlal Pace Foundation had beenset up. All of a sudden Mumbai witnessed aninflux of quality bowlers. Paras (Mhambrey),Abey (Kuruvilla), Manish (Patel), Salil (Anko-la), Sairaj (Bahutule) and Nilesh (Kulkarni)burst into the scene. Not that they came intothe reckoning suddenly. They were verymuch in Mumbai, but found an outlet to ex-press themselves.

If you were to single out one Wasim Jaff-er innings that’s closest to your heart,which would that be?

If you’re putting me at gunpoint, then Iwould pick the double hundred against Pa-kistan in the 2007 Kolkata Test. Those weregood batting conditions, but everything washitting the middle of the bat. The ball wastravelling exactly where I wanted it to. I felt somuch in control against a high-quality Pakis-tan attack.

The whole experience — the touch andsound of the bat, the heave and roar of theEden Gardens crowd — was kind of sensorial.On the first day I was batting on 192 despitegetting about 85 overs of play. Later, YounisKhan and Mohammad Yousuf had nicethings to say about me. I played a lot of cricketwith Inzamam-ul-Haq and Saqlain Mushtaqfor Lashings in the UK. They too believe Ishould have played more for India.

These words are a cricketer’s true wealth.But I’ve no regrets – God only gives you somuch that you can handle. My mantra was al-ways to prepare really well, work very hardand then leave the rest to the Almighty. Andend of the day be content with what he hasgiven you.

playing well at all. Brett Lee had my number.He was bowling really well, but I should havedone something more to counter him. Istrongly believe in destiny. Some things arenot meant to happen.

The general perception was you were sopre-dominantly on the back foot that itwould impede your front-foot game. In2002 in England, you struggled againstMatthew Hoggard & Co who pitched itup…

I agree I could have countered them betterwith a full, forward stride. Pace doesn’t unset-tle you much in England, it’s the sidewaysmovement that troubles you. I was yet to ma-ture as a batsman back then. I understood mygame quite late in my career.

How has opening the batting changedover the years?

Now it’s about getting a minimum 300-plusscore on the first day. It’s the era of David War-ner and Rohit Sharma. If someone like Rohitbats the entire day, he will easily race to a dou-ble hundred. This is life in the fast lane. Spec-tators’ sensibilities have changed too — theirpatience has diminished, for they don’t liketo see batsmen defending throughout theday. My generation would get applauded fordemonstrating the same virtue. Now, the fo-cus is on result.

Is flamboyance in batting killing theart of leaving deliveries outside off?

It’s a dying art, no doubt. When I started off,bowlers could bowl all day long outside theoff stump and we would shoulder arms tothose deliveries till they would bowl to ourstrengths. This generation of cricketers playsdifferently. If bowlers bowl on the sixthstump over after over, batsmen will find waysto counter them and score runs, makingthem deviate from their plans. This genera-tion doesn’t want to wait that long.

Also, we must factor in how wickets havechanged world over. Australia used to havesporting wickets with a lot of pace andbounce back in the 90s and till the 2000s, butnow drop-in wickets have changed it all. It ex-plains why teams are getting such highscores.

We don’t see an out-and-out brilliantbatting side on the Ranji scene. India’ssupposedly best domestic unit, Karna-taka, couldn’t post 200 against Bengalin either innings in this year’s Ranjisemi-final…

That’s what happens when you start the sea-son with white-ball cricket. We commencedwith Vijay Hazare, then Syed Mushtaq Aliand instantly switched to playing the RanjiTrophy in the next seven-eight days. Howquickly can cricketers prepare themselveswith the red cherry or re-orient their minds todefend and leave the ball? This time the red-ball season started in December. In cold con-ditions where there’s excessive swing, it isn’teasy for batsmen to cope. Bowlers in the EliteGroup have sharpened their skills too —they’re agonizingly accurate. That’s why wehaven’t seen the kind of tall scores we wit-nessed last year.

Players start their pre-season preparationwith Buchi Babu, KSCA or Bapuna etc, allthree-day or four-day tournaments.

We should start the season with Ranji Tro-phy and then the Irani Cup to have a level-playing field between batters and bowlers.Around January we could have the SyedMushtaq Ali tourney that serves as screeningfor the IPL auction. Vijay Hazare ought to beyour year-ending event for continuity.

We’ve been changing the order of formatsevery season: Syed Mushtaq Ali one year,Ranji another year or Vijay Hazare first ifthere’s a World Cup…it doesn’t make sense.We don’t even select players for the Indianteam on the basis of Vijay Hazare perform-ances. Eventually, those in reckoning for the

‘300-plusknocks in my40s? That’s my Mumbaiupbringing’

It’s (leaving the ball outside off-stump) a dy-ing art, no doubt. When Istarted off, bowlerscould bowl all day longoutside the off stump andwe would shoulder armsto those deliveries tillthey would bowl to ourstrengths. But thisgeneration of cricketersplays differently

-

We need to revive clubcricket in Mumbai at the earliest. I feel the knockout system in ourclub cricket doesn’t giveample opportunities toyoungsters. It must berestructured

Deba Prasad Dhar & Abhishek [email protected]


Vijay [email protected]

TWEETS @vijaymirror

CORONACORNER

Italy’s former indoorchamp Sabia deadItaly’s twice Olympic 800 me-ters finalist and the formerEuropean indoor championDonato Sabia has died fromcoronavirus aged 56, the ItalianOlympic Committee (CONI) saidon Wednesday. Sabia had beenin theICU of the San Carlohospital on Potenza.

F1staff on furlough,pay cuts for execsWith nearly half of the seasonalready altered by the coro-navirus pandemic, FormulaOne said Wednesday it willfurlough half of its staff untilthe end of May and seniorexecutives will take pay cuts. F1called off last month’s Austra-lian Grand Prix.

ICC chiefShashankManohar

iNTERVIEWWASIM JAFFER,FORMER INDIA OPENER, MUMBAI CAPTAIN AND VIDARBHA BATSMAN

(below) With his former Mumbai colleague,run-machine Amol Muzumdar

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 2 Page: VKMMRP12 User: pratik.ghosh Time: 04-08-2020 23:52 Color: CMYK

SUPRIYANAIRDog-eared: Onbooks, ideasand joining thedots

In Deoli,Rajasthan,Nehru’sIndiare-opened abarreninternmentfacility toimprisonthousandsof Chinese-Indians, ina campwhere Nehruhimself hadonce beenjailed

Write to Supriya Nair [email protected]

Joy Ma and Dilip D’Souza’s TheDeoliwallahs is so timely that itseems fated. A book about howthe Union of India rounded upand incarcerated one group of

people in the name of national security,just as a nationwide National Register ofCitizens began to create fear and suspi-cion amongst large numbers of Indianstoday? It feels uncanny. A story aboutracism against Indians of Chineseorigin, in a time when migrants fromnorth-eastern states are being assaulted,evicted and spat on in public as “Coro-na”-carriers?

There’s certainly something damn-ing about Ma and D’Souza’s book,which chronicles the stories of a few ofthe thousands of Chinese-Indians whowere detained, put in an intermentcamp, and deported in the wake of the1962 war. But it’s the times that producebooks like these, not the other wayaround.

Some readers will tear through thebook looking for parallels to be drawnbetween the tragedy of those citizensfrom fifty years ago, and the Assameseresidents jailed in camps today thanksto a notoriously leaky NRC process. Thisconnection is stark and tragic, but theauthors step lightly around it: perhapsto avoid finding themselves behind thenews, and to train our focus on thespecific tragedy of what transpired afterthe brief and brutal war of 1962.

In Deoli, Rajasthan, JawaharlalNehru’s India re-opened a barren in-ternment facility to imprison thousands

of Chinese-Indians, in a camp whereNehru himself had once been jailed.This was Joy Ma’s birthplace. Her par-ents, Jack and Effa Ma, were internedthere for four-and-a-half years, purelyon the basis of an ordinance that author-ised extraordinary powers in dealingwith perceived threats to nationalsecurity. The Deoliwallahs doesn’t dwellon whether any Chinese-Indians, wholived in small communities throughoutWest Bengal and Assam, ever actuallyspied on India on behalf of Mao’s China.

They were a varied group. Some weredescended from Chinese workers whohad arrived on India’s eastern coastcenturies earlier; others from morerecently migrated families. They workedon plantations, in factories, as shop-keepers and restaurateurs. They spokeHindi, Bengali, Oraoni, and Nepali,among other languages. They suffered,celebrated and made ends meet muchlike their fellow Indians did. They gavered envelopes to their children’s friends

who came visiting them at Chinese NewYear.

What happens when a governmentdecides to un-see a segment of its pop-ulation? Modern forgetfulness aboutthe Deoli camp has its reasons. Indiansnever learn about it at school, and thepolitical and military establishment stillthinks of this mass detention as anacceptable act of self-defence. Chinaitself is presumably uninterested incasting an eye on other countries put-ting people in camps. And then, therearen't many Chinese-Indians around toremind their countrymen of those days.India sent many of them away on de-portment ships from China. Others,returning from Deoli to find that theirlives and property were destroyed, hadno resources to begin again in India, andmigrated to other countries.

What struck me about The Deoliwal-lahs is how quickly these Chinese-Indians were erased from their ownsociety. Ma presents the testimonies she

collects from Deoli’s internees in re-strained and unadorned language. Butbetween the lines is a whole, bewilder-ing sense of betrayal. An entire history ofChinese life in India is uprooted: sud-denly their fellow citizens are bewil-dered by this community. One Deoli-wallah tells Ma, years later, of the day anIndian soldier spots their family outsidethe camp and rushes up to know whatthey are doing in that place. “But the warwas over five years ago,” the soldier says,bewildered, on learning of their plight.The soldier, who fought on the fron-tlines in November 1962, was a Chineseprisoner of war. They returned him toIndia in six months’ time.

The Deoliwallahs is brief in lengthand subdued in its narrative, almost as asymptom of the plight of its subjects.Most internees lost everything: not justhomes, jobs and citizenships, but eventhe right to grieve for themselves, andseek justice. It was a small community;many sought to rebuild their livesquietly; and Deoli was not a site ofethnic cleansing or extermination,which many mass camps in the twen-tieth century were.

So why did India round up thou-sands of innocents and suspend theirlives for years at all? The Deoliwallahsdoesn’t get into the why of the affair. Butit succinctly connects the dots betweenwhat happened then, and why India isthe way it is now. For every shrug whengovernments openly threaten to makeIndian citizenship an ethno-religiouscategory; every ethnic slur; ever hatecrime being committed on the streetsright now against people from thenorth-eastern states on the pretext of“Corona”, one historical erasure plays akey role. Forgetfulness is its own kind ofepidemic.

Internal displacementsHow the Union of Indiarounded up and incarceratedone group of people in thename of national security

The Deoliwallahs – so timely that it seems fated; VK Krishna Menon was India’sdefence minister during the 1962 war

TALKBACK

Dialysis shouldnot be stoppedResponding to the cover storyCovlateral damage, April 8, RajuIyerwrote, “Dialysis patients arein urgent need of treatment inthese trying times. All dialysiscentres should be provided withtesting booths, which will bemanned by healthcare workerswho are covered from head to toe inprotective gear. That way, corona-positive patients can be isolatedand others can get regular treat-ment. All hospitals should have aseparate screening area so thatCovid-19 patients can be identifiedand sent to designated hospitals.” Maya Hemant Bhatkarwrote,“Dialysis is a life-saving treatmentand patients need such sessionsregularly. Any disruption in thatroutine can be harmful for thatperson. So, closing down a dialysisfacility is inhuman. Such centresshould first examine patients forcoronavirus regularly and then dodialysis. They can also ask patientsto get screened or tested at reliablecentres and carry a health certif-icate as proof. We shouldn’t suc-cumb to fears about the virus. Thatdoesn’t mean we won’t take ade-quate precautions.”

Trump is no friendof PM ModiIn response to the article AfterTrump’s threat, India lifts ban on drugexport, April 8, Iqbal Gilani Mansuri wrote, “US PresidentDonald Trump has finally shownhis true colours. He is no friend ofIndia and has arm-twisted PMNarendra Modi into sending a hugeconsignment of the antimalarialdrug that is being touted as a ‘game-changer’ in the fight against thepandemic. All the countries knowhow Trump, a bully, has beentreating the so-called weak anddesperate countries. US’s policieshave destroyed many countriesand killed millions of people. It’s aneye-opener how US, which is inneed of aid, is threatening India topart with resources that the latterneeds to battle the virus. PM Modihas relented on humanitariangrounds. As an Indian, one is proudto learn about his country’s criticalrole in this battle to save humanity.”Bhagwan Thadaniwrote, “PMModi had no choice but accede toUS’s demand. The antimalarialdrug is important for the US andPresident Trump has resorted tothreats to get his way. Only the late

PM Indira Gandhi had the nerves ofsteel to stand up to America. Modimay go around telling the worldthat Trump is his friend, in realitythat is hardly the case. There is justno comparison between Ms Gand-hi and Modi.”

Govt must make itsintentions clearIn response to the article Govt mullsextending lockdown beyond April 14,April 8, Varun Dambalwrote,“Despite prior announcement of a21-day lockdown, many states aredemanding an extension to controlthe spread of virus. The lockdownhas affected the economy badly byslowing down growth, triggeringmigration and giving rise to unem-ployment. Since the world is goingthrough a recession, the Indiangovernment should take a quickdecision to either lift the lockdownor extend it. There is already a lot ofconfusion over the lockdownperiod, thanks to fake news. Anearly decision by the governmentwill not only help citizens preparefor the near future but also allowagencies to stock up on PPE kits,ventilators and medical supplies.These are indeed difficult times forthe human race.”

give the editor a piece of your mind | [email protected] Ninan

WEBHITS3most-read articles on the Mirror site

Covlateral Damage

How 11cases became 113 in city’s biggest virus hotspot

Lockdown may end in divorce formany, say lawyers

Edit Page Now is not the time to relax measures. It is thetime to again double and triple our collectiveefforts to drive towards suppression—Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe

MumbaiMirror 14Thursday, April 9, 2020


@MumbaiMirror

MIRRORONTWITTER

@ VipulParmar01@PritishNandyClapping is anappreciation fordoctors, etc;lighting diya wasto create a posi-tive energy. Thenyou will ask whyLokmanya Tilakorganized GaneshChaturthi; don’tyou know what itdid for fightingBritish. (The art ofevent manage-ment, MM, April 8)

@ GmaGdm@myBESTBusWhich bus routedid the conductortake? It will bevery important totrack essentialservice goersusing that route.(BEST staff quar-ters sealed afterconductor’s familytests positive, MM,April 8)

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 1 Page: VKMMRP14 User: c-ajmer.chauhan Time: 04-08-2020 21:34 Color: CMYK

When India went into a 21-day lockdown on March 25 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, athletes’

fi tness routines went for a toss. Staying at home meant no more gymming, jogging or outdoor sports. More than a week into the lock-down, however, India’s sports stars have fi gured out at-home workout routines that let them stay physi-cally and mentally fi t. Whether by focusing on yoga or squats, sportspersons are fi nding ways to keep their fi tness routines interest-ing at home.

ASK THESEXPERTDR MAHINDER WATSA

My wife had her last period on February

24, and it lasted for fi ve days. We had sex on February 17. We used protection, but suddenly the condom leaked after ejaculation. I gave my wife a contraceptive pill the next day, but she has not had her period since. Could she be pregnant?The contraceptive pill is the most eff ective when taken within 24 hours after unprotected sex. If vomiting happens within one hour of taking the pill, you need to take another dose. If her cycle is regular and she hasn’t yet got her period then let her do a home pregnancy test. Even after taking the pill, there is a one per cent chance that she could be pregnant.

2 I am 21 years old and my girlfriend is 18. We

had unprotected sex four weeks ago and she hasn’t had her period since. For the the last couple of days, she has been feeling very nauseous. Could she be pregnant? What can we do?Having sex without a condom is asking for trouble. Both of you are very young and you need to be careful. Please ask her to perform a home pregnancy test and consult a gynaecologist as soon as possible.

3 My wife is not interested in having

sex with me at all. The few times we have had sex, she didn’t seem satisfi ed. Is this recent? Speak to your wife and address the problem. Communication is the key. More information about your relationship and other matters aff ecting your sexual lives would be required to understand your wife’s behaviour. Consult a counsellor for help and guidance, if required.

1

SEND YOUR QUERIES TO Ask the Sexpert, Mumbai Mirror, Times Of India Building, Dr D N Road, Mumbai 400001 or email at [email protected]. Contact Dr Watsa, send an email to [email protected]

| Asha [email protected]


15Thursday, April 9, 2020You MumbaiMirror


@MumbaiMirror

#HEALTH TIP: Cashew nuts are rich in zinc, which is an immunity-boosting compound

Oranges are made up of carbs and water. They’re a good source of fi bre, which supports digestive health

STAY HOME, STAY FIT

Virdhawal Khade was training intensely for the Tokyo Olympics when the lockdown came into effect. “Before the lock-down, I used to train by swimming and exercising at the gym,” he says. “Now, I do yoga in the mornings for 60 to 90 minutes and in the even-ing, I do either bodyweight exercises or high intensity workouts. Nowadays, I do squats with the spare tyre of my car.”

His wife and fellow swim-mer, Rujuta, joins him in this routine. “The tyre weighs 15 kg, so it is neither too light, nor too heavy,” she explains. “Our goal is to stay fit and consume fewer calories so that when the lockdown ends, we don’t have to worry about losing weight and can just continue to push ourselves to swim.”

Before the lockdown, the Padma Shri awardee would spend two hours in the morning at the gym and in the evening he would play sports for another 90 minutes. That had to stop when Sharath was told to self-isolate, after he returned from Oman on March 16.

“At the start of the quarantine, I was planning hard and pushing myself to go through the plan. But

it was diffi-

cult to stay moti-vated,” he says. Then he changed his outlook about the situation. “I accepted the fact that I cannot do much during this period and I found peace,” he says.

Now he does yoga and TheraBand exercis-es, and skips rope. He does high intensity exercises such as squats, lunges, push-ups and mountain climbers for 20 to 30 seconds each, before switching

to the next exercise. He completes three to four such sets, two to three times a week.

Prior to the lockdown, Shashwat, who set a new world record in 15 km barefoot running last year, used to run for more than three hours in the morning and do core-focused workouts in the evening. These days, he still wakes up at 5 am but the rest of the day is different. “I play the flute as it improves my breathing ability,” he says. “I take my cup of tea or black coffee, and then, walk on my terrace for 60 to 90 minutes. The sun-light helps with the Vitamin D production. Exercise also releases endor-phins which reduce frustration levels and pro-mote positive thoughts.”

In the evening, he walks on the terrace. He follows it up with a core workout that includes 200 push-ups, 100 crunches and 200 squats.

Sanjeev Rajput, who represented India at the men’s 50 m rifle prone event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, had a strict fit-ness routine before the lockdown: yoga, medi-

tation and then five hours of shoot-ing practice, followed by two hours of physical exercises.

“I have relaxed my routine now, rather than changing it,”

he says. “I wake up at 6:30 or 7 am, do my yoga and medita-tion. I do suryanamaskar, and asanas that focus on improv-

ing my balance. Then, in the evenings, I work out for one hour to focus on strengthening my core by doing planks, sit-ups, leg raises and other such exercises.”

Ghorpade’s two-hour-long session on court would begin at 6:30 am and was fol-lowed by 2.5 hours at the gym. In the eve-nings, she would train again on court for another two hours. “After the lockdown, I have been running on the treadmill. I do a lot of stretching to warm up. I am also exploring yoga by looking at videos online,” she says. She is able to hold the vajrasana pose for one-and-a-half minutes now, which she considers an achievement since she has undergone sur-gery on both knees. She also uses a TheraBand to do whole body exercises, squats and abdominal and shoulder exercises.

Swimmers

Shashwat Shukla Track and fi eld

Table Tennis

Virdhawal and Rujuta Khade

BadmintonSanyogita Ghorpade

Achanta Sharath Kamal

How sportspersons are reworking their fi tness routines to keep in top shape

Sanjeev Rajput Shooting

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 1 Page: VKMMRP15 User: kunal.kadam Time: 04-08-2020 20:35 Color: CMYK

Living like HrithikHere’s what the actor’s day looks like, with reading, playing indoor games, working out in the home gym and yes, learning to play the piano

On March 25, Hrithik Roshan shared a personal note about co-parenting on Instagram, announcing that his ex-wife, Sussanne Khan, had temporarily

moved in with him so that their children are not disconnected indefinitely from

either of them during the lockdown brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Even after

their divorce, on November 1, 2014, that followed almost

a year of separation, the former couple has remained close friends and co-parent sons Hrehaan and Hridaan.

Like the entire country, the actor, too,

is in lockdown with family at his Juhu

apartment. “Hrithik has been reading a lot—from self-help

books and daily news to fiction. Right now, he is reading The 4-Hour

Workweek. He was always inclined towards learning the piano and is using

this time to develop the hobby,” revealed a source close to the actor.

Hrithik is also following a rigorous workout routine on a daily basis. “He works

out twice a day, once early in the morning

and again in the evening, with his

kids. He is

spending extra time in his house gym, stretching, doing yoga and cardio, along with regular weight-training,” the source added. Evenings are reserved for board games. Hrithik loves chess and plays with his sons. “Movie screenings with the kids and being with his dog, Zane, also form a part of his routine.”

The 46-year-old actor, who completed 20 years in the industry in January this year, was seen last year on the big screen with Super 30, the biopic of maths whiz Anand Kumar, and the action-thriller War.Ever since, all eyes are on his 25th film. “Hrithik is in the process of finalising his slate of releases. He has been reading a lot of scripts in the last six months and has liked some ideas. He is in constant touch with the directors and writers, who are developing them, over the phone,” the source shared.

Apart from his acting assignments, Hrithik also plans to get into film production and has been reading scripts for

that, too. While interacting with Mirror earlier (December 26, 2019), he had said, “The idea is to produce content-driven films, triumph of life stories, something that can leave an impact on the audience.”

He is also over-seeing the prep of his superhero franchise, Krrish 4, which is currently being scripted. “There has been a huge leap in technology since the release of Krrish 3 in 2013. And Rakeshji (his filmmaker-father Rakesh Roshan) and he are constantly discussing the scale, visuals and other aspects of film. It should hopefully take off next year,” the source added.

Mirror had earlier reported that Hrithik Roshan’s tour to the US had got cancelled owing to the pandemic. It will be rescheduled for a future date once people get back to their normal lives. Meanwhile, Hrithik was one of the first Bollywood actors to come to the aid of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. He extended support to BMC staff working round the block to contain the virus spread on March 26. To ensure the safety of the most fundamental caretakers of the city and society, he also procured N95 and FFP3 masks. Hrithik has also tied up with an NGO to facilitate 1.2 lakh nutritious cooked meals to old age homes, daily wage labourers, and low income groups across India. He continues to be in touch with government officials and NGOs, keeping a close eye on the needs of the ones suffering on ground.

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16Thursday, April 9, 2020Movies MumbaiMirror

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Dharmendra remembers Suchitra Sen on her 89th birth anniversary

20Entertainment Industry Promotion

Apart from his acting assignments, Hrithik also plans to get into production and has been reading scripts

Hrithik works out twice a day, once

early in the morning and again in the evening, with his two kids

An upscale residential complex behind a Malad mall, where Beyhadh 2 actor Shivin Narang

resides with his parents, was recently sealed off after one of its residents tested positive for Covid-19. “About a week ago, a lady from the BMC (Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation) turned up, enquiring about every-one’s health and travel history, and informed that they were sealing off the complex. She shared the contact of a doctor for emergencies. There’s police security outside since and we can only go till the gate to pick up

delivery of essentials like grocery and medicines. We aren’t allowed to go to even another wing of the complex,” he informs.

Incidentally, quite a few actors reside in the complex. Sakshi

Tanwar and Ankita Lokhande live in the same wing as Shivin, though he doesn’t know them personally.

The actor doesn’t know the patient but has heard that the person had trav-

elled to Spain. He has been hospital-ised and his family is in quarantine.

Shivin had stocked up on supplies, including medicines for his parents. “A couple of medicines were not avail-able at the local chemist. I ordered them online and it took two weeks to get delivery,” he informs, conceding

that the situation is difficult, but there’s no option but to fol-low guidelines since a vaccine isn’t likely to be available till a year. He admits that though his apartment is a long walk from the main gate, he can manage. But he doesn’t let his parents venture out. “It’s tough for the elderly who don’t have younger family members to help out. Medical shops and stores running out of supplies and not delivering has hit them hard,” he sighs.

‘My complex is sealed’| [email protected]

TWEETS @HirenK_Mirror

Varun extends help, Morani tests positive

After pledging Rs 30 lakh to PM-CARES and Rs 25 lakh to the Maharashtra Chief

Minister Relief Fund, Varun Dha-wan has joined forces with Tata Trusts to provide meals to city’s healthcare professionals. The meals will be provided by the Taj Public Service Welfare Trust, and the support will also extend to the poor who have lost jobs and have been rendered homeless by the outbreak. “During a crisis like this, every step counts and I will continue to do the best for the society,” asserted the actor.

Meanwhile, after his daugh-ters, Shaza and actress Zoa, film producer Karim Morani has test-ed positive for Covid-19 as well. The family is currently hospital-ised in the city. Karim has backed Hindi films like Ra.One, Chennai Express, Happy New Year and Dilwale, among others. —MMB


Shivin Narang living in containment zone after a fellow resident tested positive for Covid-19

Ankita Lokhande, Sakshi Tanwar live in the same wing as Shivin

Sussanne Khan Hrehaan and Hridaan

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 1 Page: VKMMRP16 User: ganesh.pawar1 Time: 04-08-2020 20:15 Color: CMYK

About 40 shows, scheduled to be staged at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) as well as all their

teaching activities in the months of March and April, have been cancelled. The NCPA, like several other institutions across the world, has had to bear the cost of the lockdown. In light of the recent global pandemic, NCPA’s chairperson, Khushroo N Suntook, shares his views on the future of the arts.

Due to the lockdown, several shows at the NCPA has been cancelled. What has been the plan of refund of ticket sales?

For all the shows we had opened at the box office, we have ensured that patrons receive refund for tickets purchased at the box office soon after we resume operation. For tickets purchased online, the amount will be credited to their method of payment.

How has the lockdown impacted NCPA economically?

The thrust of NCPA’s programming

is our own curation of events, which form a major part of the NCPA calendar and are staged at our venues. However, to further

our objective to promote the performing arts, whenever

feasible, depending on the facilities requested and at deferring costs, we make our venues

available to the artist community, too. The

cancellation or rescheduling of performances does come at

a cost, but more than the

economics, it is culture that has had to take a back seat. However, these are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures. We are concerned about our staff, our extended artistic community and the public at large. Our priority is their well-being and safety.

What’s the way forward for the performance arts centre in terms of the venue’s sanitation facilities and policies?

The NCPA has always maintained the highest standards of

hygiene and sanitation in its office premises and venues. The process of

deep cleaning of the venues is an integral part of our operations,

something we will continue to adhere to

by employing the best available technology and

practices. The NCPA was among the first organisations in the city to cancel its shows and facilitate work-from-home arrangement for its employees in the wake of the current situation, prior to the general lockdown ordered by the government and other institutions. The larger interest

of the community remains our concern, and at

the same time, the NCPA is

steadfastly committed to the cultural health of the city.

And how does NCPA plan to stay connected to its audience?

While we can’t bring you live performances at the moment, we are doing the next best thing — bringing you YouTube premieres of our well-received shows every evening through the NCPA@Home initiative. Glimpses of earlier performances, presentations, lecture-demonstrations are being updated on social media and all our curators are planning for the future.

Do you see the future of arts moving to online platforms, where local goes global?

The online platform has been there for a long time. The digital presence of NT Live, Bolshoi Theatre and The Met being a fine example, yet the theatres are full. The online medium is helpful as a tool of introduction to an art form, artist or a piece of music as well as a great facilitator of making local global, particularly in times like these. However, the joy of watching a live performance in a theatre is irreplaceable. For art lovers, the ultimate culmination of cultural knowledge acquired online or offline is to see it come alive on stage.

To view full-length concerts and performances, visit: www.

youtube.com/user/TheNCPAMumbai1

A performance of Siryahby Nrityagram at NCPA ADD ART Festival is now available to view for free on NCPA’s YouTube channel

17Thursday, April 9, 2020Unwind MumbaiMirror


@MumbaiMirror

FROM STAGE TO SCREENThe chairperson of NCPA on staying committed to the city’s cultural health, despite the lockdown

Quarancharity

From a food entrepreneurship session with Pooja Dhingra

to a boot camp class by SOHFIT to private interior consultation with Ashiesh Shah — Quarancharity has brought together noted experts from various fields in a bid to raise funds for three NGOs doing important work during the corona crisis. These are Goonj, Habitat for Humanity and AAC (Animal Adoption & Care). All the proceeds from these sessions will go towards these NGOs, you can also donate without taking any of the classes as well. Visit: www.quarancharity.ketto.org

OUTCHECK| Reema.Gehi

@timesgroup.com

TWEETS @reemagehiMIRROR

To feature an event on this page, send the details and photographs to Vijayeta Basu on [email protected]

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 1 Page: VKMMRP17 User: sachin.bhandalkar Time: 04-08-2020 20:54 Color: CMYK

In a house party at night, suddenly the light goes off. A scream isheard and when the lights come back, a guy is dead on the floor.

His five friends namely Aman, Anurag, Ajay, Alex and Aditya are shocked to findhis dead body in front of them.The victim before dying managed to write four numbers on the floor with hisblood smeared fingers. The numbers are 4, 5, 8 and 11.Can you tell who killed him?

Riddler

Medium

Hard

The numbers in the greysquares refer to thesums of the digits thatyou must fill into theempty spaces directlybelow or to the right of the grey square containing thenumber. For instance, in thegiven example, the 3 boxeshorizontally next to 15 mustcontain 3 digits that add up to 15,

whereas for 9, it is the 2boxes placed verticallyunder it that must add up to9. No zeros are used here,only the digits 1through 9.

Note: A digit cannot appearmore than once in any particular digit combination.For instance, in the example, we cannot have the combination of 4+7+4 for 15.

Kakuro159

(Fig A)

LOOPRules»Connect adjacent dots with verticalor horizontal lines, creating a singleloop (Fig A). »Crossovers or branches are notallowed (As shown by dotted lines in FigB). »Numbers in the puzzle indicate thenumber of lines that should surroundit, while empty cells may besurrounded by any number of lines. »You can’t draw lines around zeros. »Each puzzle has just one uniquesolution.

How to begin:Example (Fig A) – Begin with the zeronext to 3. Since no lines can be drawn around zero, markcrosses around it, as shown. Nowthere is a cross in one space around 3.So we know the three lines of 3 can onlybe drawn in the remaining threespaces. Next, these lines can only beextended in one direction each.Continue, using the same logic.Hints: Keep eliminating possibilities bymarking crosses in spaces betweendots where a line isn’t possible, i.e, ifyou have already completed requiredlines or where a line extension maycreate a branch or cause a dead-end (Fig B)

Sudo

kuch

allen

ge

To solve a Sudoku puzzle, every digit from one to nine must appear in each of the nine vertical columns, in eachof the nine horizontal rows and in each of the nine boxes.

GofigurePlace the four numbers in the first, third, fifth, and seventh boxes and whatever operators you care to use in the second,fourth, and sixth boxes in the correct order to get the answer. Use the numbers only once.

Easy

2 4 7 7

= 6

2 4 8 9

= 9

2 5 9 9

= 38

The operators

Quick

This crossword has no clues and answer is therewaiting for you. All you have to do is find it in eachsquare. You have a choice of two letters, one of whichyou must strike out. If you choose correctly, you will beleft with a grid that contains real words.

Strikeout

Not allowed

Hocu

sfoc

usFastfiveHow long do you think itwill take you to unscram-ble the ten words shownbelow and fit them cor-rectly into the grid in theorder given? One letterhas already been enteredto get you started. Onyour marks, get set…

Across Down1Corps6Paler7True I8Me inc9Bahts

1Mr Cub2Irate3Lento4Car PH5Is esp

Differences: 1. Paper is longer. 2.Plant is taller.3.Back of chair is higher. 4.Picture frame isthinner. 5.Chair is missing. 6.Finger is moved.

Quoteuncode Mensapuzzle Bull’seye AlphatriangleThis puzzle is a substitu-tion cipher in which one letter stands for anoth-er. If you think that Qequals C, it will equal Cthroughout the puzzle.Single letters, shortwords and words usingan apostrophe give youclues to locating vowels.Solution is by trial anderror.

Which number replacesthe question mark andcompletes the wheel?

TODAY’S CLUE:KEQUALS T.

KRP QHKHBPVPFJCDE KJ KRJEPORJ VPFXPYP XC KRPVPNHKI JQ KRPXBLBPNZE.

Across Down

How many words of four or more letters can youmake from the lettersshown? Every wordmust contain the cen-tral letter. There shouldbe one seven-letterword. British EnglishDictionary is used as areference.

Beginning at the top move towards the bottom seven-letter word by adding a letter at each step and rearranging. A correct and different word must bemade at each step answering to the clue given.1Universal gas constant in physics 2Conjunction3Fishing implement 4Way in 5Giver 6Large S. American vulture 7Seperates with a line of police

11Average;13 Good;15 Outstanding

T

N

A

S

G

C

I

R

R

R

R

R

R

R

DIFFICULT TO SOLVE? FIND THESE SOLUTIONS ON THE NEXT PAGE»

MINDCHOWOnce you choose hope, anything’spossible

JOKE OF THE DAYI’ve always thought my neighborswere quite nice people. But thenthey put a password on their Wi-Fi.

(Fig B)

1All-rounder ____ Jadeja (8)5 Con (4)8 Rain heavily (4)9 Rockers Led ____ (8)10 Butt in (7)12 Thigh bone (5)13 American Indian tribe (6)15 Small dome on roof (6)17 Opposite of "chaos" (5)18 River mouth (7)22 Music director of Aradhana(1,1,6)23 You too in Latin (2,2)24 Observed (4)25 Ill-health (8)

1Exact copy (7)2 Secure room for keepingvaluables (5)3 Snoozed (5)4 Nile snakes? (4)6 Sri Lankan capital (7)7 Squire's demesne (5)11Theatre attendant (5)12 Mistake (5)14 Able to be heard (7)16 Lunatic ____ : mentalhomes or hospitals? (7)17 Fertile desert spot (5)19 To do with sound (5)20 Former Kiwi batsmanNathan ___ (5)21Australian birds (4)

Chai-Time MumbaiMirror 18Thursday, April 9, 2020


@MumbaiMirror


4. The numerical value of theletter in the upper left segmentof the central circle equals thesum of the numbers in the lefthalf of the left hand circle, andthe letter in the lower left equalsthe sum of the numbers in theright half of the left hand circle.

There is a strong need for security and responsibility in life and decisions andactions are in tandem with these thoughts. Business/ career is heading in the rightdirection, though this may be a slightly slow phase that lasts two months. Newwork/ business comes in regularly after sometime and daily stress levelsare less eventually. Relationships are good and bring so much happiness.Health is good.

COMICS Ferd”nand

Frank and earnest by bob thaves

Bizarro by Dan Piraro

Jumpstart

Pearls before swine by Stephan Pastis

Redeye by Mel Casson

If it’s your birthday today

LINEMAROHello, I’m a thief, and I’m here tosteal your heart.

SOLUTIONS

KAKURO LOOP ALPHA TRIANGLER, Or, Rod, Door,Donor, Condor,Cordons.

GO FIGUREEasy2 - 7 + 4 + 7 = 6Medium2 x 4 - 8 + 9 = 9Hard 9 - 5 x 9 + 2 = 38

SU DOKU

QUOTE UNCODE

MENSA PUZZLE QUICK STRIKE OUT FAST FIVE

BULL’S EYE

RIDDLER

The future belongs to thosewho believe in the beauty oftheir dreams.

AMAN

acting, antic,casing,CASTING,gain, gait,giant, gist,saint, satin,sating, sign,sing, stain,sting

Volume No 15, Issue No 265 REGD. NO. MAHENG/2005/16272 Published for the proprietors, Metropolitan Media Company Limited, by R Krishnamurthy at The Times of India Building, Dr D N Road, Mumbai 400 001and printed by him at (1) The Times of India Suburban Press, Akurli Road, Western Express Highway, Kandivli (E),Mumbai 400 101. Tel. Nos. 66353535, 22733535 and (2) The Times of India Print City, Plot No. 4, T.T.C. Industrial Area, Thane Belapur Road, Airoli, Navi Mumbai-400 708. Tel. No. (022) 2760 9999; Fax: (022) 2760 5275, Response - 66353636, 22733636,Email - [email protected], Fax - 22731160. Editor: Pankaj Upadhyaya (Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act). Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of the Publisher is prohibited.

Shirley BoseSIGN POST

Following a safeset of rules iswhat keeps yousane and peaceful inlife.Karmic tip: Consider what isworkable and what is unreal-istic before making a decision.Colours: salmon/ grey.

Aquarius

One or two delayedprojects begin tomove ahead finally.Do regularly getenough sleep.Karmic tip: Being there forfamily and friends is somethingso essential for survival.Colours: orange/ grey.

CapricornConsider alloptions if wantingajob change. Tau-reans like to be surebefore taking action.Karmic tip: Think about what ismissing from a friendship.Resolve it if possible.Colours:green/ peach.

TaurusWork may be slow,but it is regular.Good news is receivedafter some initial nego-tiations. Karmic tip: Thiskarmic cycle is auspicious forclearing any misunderstand-ing or doubts.Colours: beige/ white.

Virgo

Retaining focus isextra important asone business meetingslides into the next onewithout a break.Karmic tip: An expense isunavoidable. You manage itwithout any problem.Colours:green/ mustard.

Pisces

Students need togive more time tostudies and revi-sions. Relocation requires livingwith a relative (temporarily).Karmic tip: Following intuitionabout a financial situationworks to your advantage.Colours: yellow/ white.

Aries

Astrong reactionreveals the truthfinally. Deal with it inamature manner.Karmic tip: Problems andissues are worked out as helparrives from an unexpectedquarter.Colours:brown/ cream.

GeminiThere is an im-provement in mostareas of life. Workingthrough past karmasbrings desired changes. Do followanutritious diet.Karmic tip: A strained relation-ship/ friendship improves gradu-ally. Colours: maroon/ bronze.

Libra

Some may beconsidering fur-ther studies. Today isagood day for onlinebusiness meetings/ negotia-tions. Karmic tip: Deal withemotions by opening yourheart to people you love.Colours: yellow/ lilac.

CancerTrust might be anissue with somepeople. Think aboutit, asking yourself whythis is so.Karmic tip: Be careful whendriving, even if there is lesstraffic.Colours:blue/ tan.

Scorpio

The mindset is oneof happiness whichis compounded dueto excellent under-standing in a relation-ship. Karmic tip: Do get enoughsleep and rest, especially ifworking long hours.Colours: pink/ mustard.

LeoMany immediatedeadlines ap-proach and there isso much left tocomplete. Health is good.Karmic tip: Being emotionallyopen with loved ones keepscommunication at a greatlevel. Colours: lemon/ red.

Sagittarius

KIDZONE WHATZIT

Kimaya Karkera,7years, AndheriMumbai Mirror, Timesof India Bldg, Dr D NRoad, Mumbai– 1oremail us [email protected]

Please send hardcopies of your artworkin A4 size only.

SOLUTION:Up the creek without a paddle

ChaiTime 19MumbaiMirror Thursday, April 9, 2020


Write to her at [email protected]

Iwas just a schoolgirl when I saw Bimal Roy’s 1955 tragic love story, Devdas, for the first time on Doordarshan. And like so

many others, was mesmerised by his Parvati. Even in black and white, Suchitra Sen’s luminous beauty shone through, lighting up the frame when Dilip Kumar as Devdas, livid at being rejected by his Paro for a letter he’s long since regretted writing, says through gritted teeth, “Yeh roop tumhara... itna roop achcha nahin hai.” Then, to put a chand-like daag on her chiselled features to dent her haughty pride, he lashes out with his stick, “Aao tumhare chehre pe aisa hi daag bana de.” As it catches her on the forehead, spilling blood, his face reflects not just his anger, but also his pain and torment.

This scene has stayed with me for decades and it didn’t come as a sur-prise to learn that Tollygunge’s Mrs Sen had landed the role on the rebound, after Meena Kumari had reluctantly turned it down. She gave her nod because it was the first Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay story offered to her and for its director. It is said that when they were shoot-ing in Mumbai, visitors crowded into Mohan Studio to catch a glimpse of the famous beauty and Bengal’s ris-ing star. No one went away disappointed even though the lady herself stayed aloof and untouched by the adora-tion.

On Suchitra Sen’s 89th birth anniversary (she entered the world on April 6, 1931), I reached out to Dharmendra, who is at his farm, following the coronavirus out-break. The duo had worked together in Asit Sen’s 1966 film Mamta. A Hindi remake of his 1963 Bengali film, Uttar Falguni,it featured her in a double role, as the beautiful Devyani who, after a hellish marriage, becomes the dancing girl Panna Bai, and her lookalike daughter Suparna, whom she is ready to protect with her life. Ashok Kumar played Monish Rai, the man the mother has always loved even after she lost him, while Dharamji was cast as the barrister, Indraneel, who woos the daughter.

“Suchitra was a picture of beauty and after seeing her in Devdas, I had been dreaming of working with her. It is said that when you want something dil se,

the universe conspires to give it to you,” Dharamji informs over the wire, and one can almost picture him smile.

They shot the film in New Theatres, a Kolkata studio, and in Darjeeling. Dharamji shares that when they were in the hill sta-tion, after ‘pack-up’ he would sometimes go for a drive with his leading lady and her sister. “In the darkness, I couldn’t see the ravines flanking the narrow mountain roads on either side. But the next morning, she would point them out to me, saying, ‘Look Dharam, you were zooming down this road like a racing car driver last night,’ and we would laugh. We had some good times together on that film. Mamta, for all its intensity on screen, was so

much fun, like a picnic,” he laughs, recalling that his heroine had always told him that she loved his smile.

Dharamji’s recollections of the desi Garbo are very different from public perception of Suchitra Sen, as a lady who always stood apart in the studios, and after she stepped out of the spotlight, was consciously never seen in public again. “She was a lovely lady and a very mature actress,” he avers.

Prod him on his favourite scene and he zeroes in on the one where Ashok Kumar, from afar, points him out to the older Suchitra as the man he has picked for her daughter. “It was a roman-tic moment between the younger couple where we are unaware of being watched. However, I knew, I had to somehow convey to the mother that I am in love with Suparna. Suchitra was wearing a sari, the blouse cut low at the back, and as the camera rolled, I bent down and spontaneously dropped a kiss on her back. It

wasn’t in the script, but when we saw the shot later, everyone agreed that my unrehearsed gesture added a lot to the scene and it was retained,” Dharam-ji reminisces, adding that he had hoped to do many more films with one of his favourite her-oines, but she preferred to anchor herself to Bengali cinema and the only other Hindi film she did was Gulzar’s Aandhi in 1975 with Sanjeev Kumar.

However, Dharamji stayed in touch and they often spoke on the phone. And once, when he was in the City of Joy for the opening of a lab, he dropped by her resi-dence. “Hema (Malini) was with me on the occasion and it was wonderful meeting her again. For me, Kolkata will always be associated with Rabindranath Tagore… and Suchitra

Sen,” he says emotionally, admit-ting that they had lost touch in the last few years of her life. “I had heard that she wasn’t keep-ing well and I wondered about her, wishing I could go visit. But, by then, she wasn’t keen on hav-ing visitors and I respected her need for privacy. When I learnt that she was gone, I was shat-tered. It was like I had lost a fami-ly member.”

For me, Dharamji is as much a talented actor as he is a brilliant poet. Every time we chat, he leaves me with one of his cou-plets. Does he have a piece of poetry he’d like to dedicate to her on her birth anniversary, I won-der. Pat comes the reply, “Padte hi unpar, Jhuk jaati thi meri nazar, Iss darr se ki nazar na lag jaaye unhe meri nazar se…”

THIS WEEK, THAT YEARROSHMILA BHATTACHARYA

Tracing steps to cinematic history

It (kiss pictured above) wasn’t in

the script, but everyone agreed that my spontaneous gesture added a lot to the scene –Dharmendra

Movies 20MumbaiMirror Entertainment Industry Promotion

Driving Mrs Sen the Dharam way

Dharmendra and Suchitra Sen in a still from Mamta

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Naomi Watts is one of the many Hol-

lywood celebrities adjusting to life with-out housekeeping staff in the wake of the out-break. The actress reached breaking point on Tuesday after her printer, vaccuum cleaner and dishwasher all broke down. The King Kong star, who has been self-isolating inside her Los Angeles mansion since three weeks, shared her anguish with a slow-motion video of herself screaming hysterically and flinging her head as the sound of a lion’s roar played in the background. “Quarantine Day #756: When your printer, vacuum cleaner and dishwasher all break in the same day.... #ffs,”she wrote with the social media post. Julianne Moore commented, “Bad news”, while Marsha Stephanie Blake said, “I’m feeling this pain! Sending love (and a fixit person in a hazmat suit?)” —Agencies

Naomi suffers meltdown


RKelly will have to stay trapped

in the lockup while he awaits trials on charges of racketeering, sex-trafficking and child pornography, a judge ruled Tuesday. The 53-year-old R&B singer filed requests with federal judges to spring him from Chi-cago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, arguing that both his age and his recent hernia surgery put him at high risk for catching the coronavirus. However, Brooklyn federal judge Ann Donnelly disa-greed in a ruling issued Tuesday, stating, “While I am sympathet-ic to the defendant’s understand-able anxiety about COVID-19, he has not established compelling reasons warranting his release.”

—Agencies

John Prine, the country-folk singer and songwriter behind classics such as “Angel from

Montgomery,” died Tuesday. The 73-year-old musician died as a result of complications from coro-navirus at the Vanderbilt Univer-sity Medical Center in Nashville. John was hospitalised on March 26 with a “sudden onset” of Covid-19

symptoms. His wife of 23 years, Fiona Whelan Prine, was also diagnosed with Covid-19 earlier in March and had been keeping fans updated about John’s condition while he was in the hospital.

On April 2, Fiona shared on the ‘gram that she was unable to be by her husband’s side in the hospital-to remain safe herself, which she said, “makes this nightmare all the more distressing for me.” With songs that spanned from poignant to political to rollickingly humor-ous, John earned the admiration of musical icons such as Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. He was hon-oured at January’s Grammys with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

—Agencies

Cardi B is feeling the heat of social distancing in Los Angeles. In a post on Insta-

gram, the isolated singer-rapper confided in followers that she’s unable to “get it on” with her husband, Offset, lately. She also added, “I miss my family and I miss my friends… I’ve never been so alone… I just watch

documentaries and movies.” Cardi also teased fans with a new mu-sical snippet, but collabora-tor Brooklyn Johnny said

it was prema-ture and talked her out of it. -Agencies

R Kelly to stay behind bars

Musician John Prine dies

Cardi B: Never been so alone

NG 3.7 PubDate: 09-04-2020 Zone: VKMumbai Edition: 2 Page: VKMMRBP User: pratik.ghosh Time: 04-08-2020 23:53 Color: CMYK

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