Mumbai beatbox championship, NIF book prize shortlist, Bengal Biennale and Rutuja Sonawane's scholarship

This round-up carries news from Mumbai's art and culture scene: beatboxing, books, an art exhibition and an artist's scholarship.

Mumbai Beatbox Hub and The Dharavi Dream Project are jointly starting a championship this December. Whether it is a full drum kit, a musical bassline or electronic sound effects, the organisers say the aim is to bring out the artist in everyone. Ramon Bakuri and Benjamin Arokiaraj, organisers at Mumbai Beatbox Hub, had been discussing the championship for some time. Performers from the after-school programme have also held friendly beatbox battles among themselves.

Dolly Rateshwar, co-founder of The Dharavi Dream Project, gave more details. "When we started, the idea was to make it an after-school programme that would also include rap/lyrics, breaking (b-boying), beatboxing, DJing, graffiti, skateboarding and music production," she said.

"Beatboxing has not got the recognition it deserves. That is why this next step felt right. I think we last saw something like this at the Waves International Festival in Goa last year, where TDDP shared a performance with the Korean beatbox co-ed and a cappella group Beatpella House." More information is available at @tddp_in.

On books, the shortlist for the 2026 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize has just been announced. Five books have been chosen. They include Narayani Basu's A Man for All Seasons: The Life of K.M. Panikkar and William Dalrymple's Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia. The winners will be known on December 1. Until then, jury member Srinath Raghavan offered a glimpse behind the scenes. "Together, these five books help us understand the breaking up of an empire, the making of nation-states, the public's participation in making our Constitution, and India's own distinctive path of development. They remind us that the story of modern India is far more contested than any single narrative can contain," he said.

Art lovers should note the dates of the Bengal Biennale. Its second edition will run in Kolkata and Santiniketan from November 25 to January 2, 2027. This year's focus is Banalata, drawn from Jibanananda Das's 1942 poem Banalata Sen. In Bengali, banalata also means a forest creeper or vine. The edition will feature shows by big names from the city such as Atul Dodiya and Jitish Kallat, art collectives and some of Bengal's finest artists.

Co-curator Ritika Biswas described it as a "slightly strange, slightly discordant, slightly dark ecology" that weaves together poetry and politics. Jeet and Malvika Banerjee, trustees of the organiser, the Gameplan Foundation, said: "The more divided our world appears, the more necessary it becomes to accept the lessons of resilience that nature offers."

Finally, news of the artist Rutuja Sonawane. She has been selected for the Raja-Students' Biennale Scholarship 2026 at the Beaux-Arts de Marseille in France. Her installation People's Orchestra, shown at the Students' Biennale in Kochi, drew praise for its focus on the Swar Samrat Brass Band. Her father, Bhagwan Sonawane, founded the band about 50 years ago in Satana in Nashik. Its original compositions speak of education, equality and social empowerment.

Her semester in Marseille will run until January 29, 2027. Sonawane wants to experiment there with new materials and new forms of installation. "I would like to explore how sound, music, archives and collective memory can be shaped into today's visual and spatial forms," she said.