Firstpost Editor's Picks: Iconic blue synagogue in Mumbai, Gully Boy review, VR Naren Kumar looks back; today's must-read stories

Mumbai’s iconic ‘blue’ Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue open to public, after year-long restoration

Kala Ghoda is the sort of neighbourhood that inspires Mumbai-centric prose. Art galleries, a museum, warmly-lit cafes and street art define its ethos. And yet, the building that seems to rouse the most intrigue in tourists and locals is the Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue. Its blue-coloured exterior would make it seem like it is merging with the sky above, or it would make the building stand out against adjacent structures, depending on the time of the day.

But the synagogue is blue no more. Following year-long restoration work, it now wears the colours indigo and white, and is open for the public.

Sitharaman claims PMO only made ‘periodic enquiries’ into Rafale talks, but Parrikar’s note proves otherwise

The report on the Rafale deal  carried by The Hindu  on Friday has unsurprisingly raised the political temperature both inside and outside the Lok Sabha. There is no question that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government is furiously back-pedalling now. But it should know that it has been exposed, and its rhetoric, however brave, isn’t washing particularly well.

A fictionalised retelling of the lives of Mumbai rappers Naezy and Divine, Gully Boy is as much a portrait of a struggling artist as it is about a study of the lives of Mumbai’s disenfranchised. It is also the story of people on the sidelines of the city who, nevertheless, keep the city well-oiled and running with their hard labour. In telling the story of an aspiring rapper, Akhtar trains her lenses into the soot laden single-roomed houses, trash-filled sewer canals and the narrow streets and cul-de-sacs of Mumbai’s Dharavi. Yet, here the anger and frustration of the protagonist are personal and not directed towards some corrupt political actors or a state.

Down memory lane: VR Naren Kumar, India’s most successful rally driver, talks about good old days of sport in India

In the world of rallying in India, the foremost name is VR Naren Kumar, the country’s most successful rally car driver. Naren, who has won seven national titles (the highest for any Indian till date) has been an icon in the world of Indian rallying during the 1990s and 2000s. He was the first Indian ever to race in the prestigious Production World Rally Championship when he drove for Team SIDVIN India in 2008 – a feat that could sort of be equalled to Narain Karthikeyan being the first Indian to race in Formula 1. In fact, motorsport fans back then often enjoyed ‘Naren and Narain’ discussions (similar to the Sania and Saina discussions that would follow some decades later). What added to the delight was that both the racing prodigies hailed from Coimbatore.

PUBG has turned one-year-old: The mad video game’s journey from then to now

In February 2018, while the Fortnite fever was soaring across many countries in the world, Tencent games launched a new PC video game called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds aka PUBG. A year later, that’s all that the gamers are talking about (most of them anyway). Take a look at what PUBG was like in February 2018, and what has it come to be 365 days later.