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By:

Prithvi Asthana

20 August 2025 at 5:20:30 pm

Employee says the fire alarm did not go off

Many officials could not use fire extinguishers Mumbai: In a tragic incident a large fire broke out in the basement of Aaykar Bhavan, the Income Tax office located on Maharshi Karve Road at Churchgate in Mumbai on Monday. According to the sources, the fire broke out at 1:30 pm, but the Mumbai Fire Brigade received the initial call at 2:01 pm and officially declared it as Level-I fire around 2:15 pm. No casualties were reported in the incident and all the employees were rescued from the...

Employee says the fire alarm did not go off

Many officials could not use fire extinguishers Mumbai: In a tragic incident a large fire broke out in the basement of Aaykar Bhavan, the Income Tax office located on Maharshi Karve Road at Churchgate in Mumbai on Monday. According to the sources, the fire broke out at 1:30 pm, but the Mumbai Fire Brigade received the initial call at 2:01 pm and officially declared it as Level-I fire around 2:15 pm. No casualties were reported in the incident and all the employees were rescued from the building. As the building has a centralised air conditioning system and all the windows were closed the smoke from the fire spread rapidly throughout the building. The thick smoke also spread to the surrounding areas pf the building. Around 23 vehicles of the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) were engaged under the intense operation to extinguish the fire from different gates at the building. Backup ambulances police officials, and the BEST staff, were also seen at the site. The MFB deployed a DFO, ADFO, three Senior Station Officers and two Station Officers, along with three fire engines, one CFF, three jet units, one AWTT, one MWT, one WQRV, one TTL and one ALP. Specialised equipment including aerial ladder platform was deployed to evacuate people from the upper floors. Two people, a male and a female were rescued from the Guest House at the seventh floor of the building. Firefighters were successful in rescuing the staff on the lower floors as well. According to an employee, who requested anonymity said, “The fire broke out at 1:30 pm when the staff was having lunch, but the fire alarms did not go off.” “We were not allowed to exit from the main gate,” he added. The employee said, “The fire was confined to the basement and the smoke went up to all the floors of building.” Asked about the loss, the employee said, “As the fire broke out in the godown no person was injured. But the records kept in godown that are mostly old records have been burnt.” When asked about the fire drill protocol, the employee said, “The office staff did not know how to use the extinguishers, a possible reason why the fire’s intensity kept increasing.” Officials did not confirm the cause of the fire and or damage caused in the basement area. The Aaykar Bhavan, Income Tax office is multi-storey government building that serves as a workplace for a large number of Income Tax officials.

Malhar:  Where Talent Meets Tradition

Mumbai’s most-awaited ‘Malhar’ fest returned on August 13 drawing Gen Z into a festival of celebration and fierce competition. While the first day contained a lot of events the audience looked forward to the much-anticipated ‘Conclave Session’ that brought together voices from activism, politics, sports acting and entrepreneurship.


The theme for this year was, ‘Iridescence: The Spectrum of Expression,’ a topic that describes how many individuals express, challenge  and shape the world around them, and the theme for the conclave session was, ‘Pratibimb’.


The three-fay Malhar fest is conducted by the St. Xavier’s College and entered its 47th year in 2026 leaving a stronger mark than before. The atmosphere was brimming with the highly-energetic students present in the campus.


This year’s fest was all about expressing the power of the youth. A fest where the theme deeply resonated with today’s generation that is fearless and never stops from expressing.


Students from different courses came across to conduct the whole fest. Around 19 departments including Fine Arts, Admin, Logistics, and Conclave teamed up to execute the fest. Malhar fest is always an opportunity for students to lead and learn at the same time.


The first day line-up consisted of an Indian Activist, Trisha Shetty, entrepreneurs, Namrata Soni, Karishma Kewalaramani, and Anish Gawande, National Spokesperson of National Congress Party (Sharad Pawar).


The session began with the encouraging keynote address by the Indian Activist and Lawyer, Trisha Shetty. Trisha Shetty is also the founder of the organisation SheSays, an NGO that is working to promote gender equality and further rights of women.

 

Memes as Dissent

Motivating the youth, she said, “There is a need for society to speak up especially the today’s youth that clearly showed us how to speak up and protest to express dissent.” Highlighting the power of Gen Z, she said, “When the Gen Z was reduced to mere cockroaches, they replied with memes. Memes became form to express dissent, youth showed the courage and made the revolution happened. Today, when I look at Gen Z, I see faces of courage.”


She thanked the youth and said, “The Gen Z inherently know what is right and wrong. I want to thank the youth because when youth voices came together, it showed us the real power of democracy.”


Anish Gawande, Xavier’s Alumnus, National Spokesperson of NCP (SP), and also the first openly ‘queer’ politician also applauded how the Gen Z during the CJP protest changed the whole grammar of protest, he said, “There were memes circulating around everywhere, memes which I could not talk about here. Memes have now become a spirit of resistance. It has created a new language of protest and every generation has got their opportunity to make their own language of dissent. Today’s Gen Z chose this and I am proud of what they did.”


Mentioning about the responsibility of youth, he said, “Youth are the ones who should question everyone, even myself, because without questioning the people in power, the government gets arrogant even I might, so asking questions is vital for a democracy to function.”


Connecting with Youth

When he was asked about his connection with Gen Z, he said, “One has to be chronically online to connect with the youth, I got the invite for this event on Instagram not on e-mail. This describes the importance of being chronically online, being accessible to the public and listening to their concerns.”


He said another way to connect with Gen Z is ‘doomsday scrolling’. Elaborating on the topic, he said, “Doomsday scrolling made me aware about the content the youth watches and I am able to connect with them more through this.” Furthermore, he said, “When one breaks out of the silos of your feed, that is when one knows what other people are watching online.”

Speaking about his journey during the session, he described the mental challenges he faced while admitting that he is a part of the LGBTQ+ community. He said, “When I was studying in New York, the therapy sessions with Campus Therapist helped me to come out of the closet and express my feelings to the world. It was very hard at first but I did break out of the closet.”


When asked how he felt about being a queer politician, he said, “I did not realise it that I was the first one, it was much later that I had this realisation. But, due to this there are a lot of people from queer community in rural areas that express their problems to me. This gives an opportunity to them to be the change in their society, express themselves and speak-up for people.”


Apart from the conclave session, the fest also witnessed the ‘Novacore’ performing hip-hop, break-dancing and country-western music. To add to that ‘Taal Se Taal Mila’ combined classical dance, storytelling and rasa.


To add more entertainment, ‘No Captions Needed’ and ‘Shakespeare in the Dark’ brought theatre, mime, music and arts to the festival.


Day one set the tone for a power-packed day two that had the most awaited conclave session of Tukaram Munde, and the Malhar Pro Night.


Future Leaders

The conclave started with Divyendu Sharma, an actor, who took part in an interactive session with the audience. Following him the keynote address was delivered by Priyanshi Sharma, a journalist and co-founder of Peek TV.


Post the session it was time for the Actor Richa Chadha’s session where it was all about how acting has shaped her life. She also describes the challenges involved in motherhood and being an actor at the same time. She said, “I have to change my roles quickly, as soon as I am off from the set, I become a mother. This is the reason why I don’t do method acting.”


Taking forward her fearless spirit, the hall then welcomed IAS officer, Tukaram Mundhe, currently serving as the Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Maharashtra.


Tukaram Mundhe briefly spoke about the leadership qualities and how the youth can become the leaders of tomorrow. He also applauded the Gen Z’s skills of multitasking and the way they diagnose problems but could do much better than that.


Another inspiring figure that was part of the conclave line-up was Saina Nehwal, a sports figure that continues to inspire people. She advised the students to keep a fearless attitude in life and overcome the challenges one faces.


The second day had a lot more going on in terms of the interactive session at the stalls, where the audience were tapping to the tunes of the DJ. The stalls had interesting games and prices that attracted the students.


When ‘The Perfect Voice’ asked students, they were not behind in expressing themselves. A first-year student of St Xavier’s college, Tanvi mentioned about experiencing the fest for the first time, she said, “It is my first time being here and I have never seen this kind of fest. I really want to be a part of this fest next year.”


Another student, Joseph coming from a different college said,  “This year’s energy is electrifying, and I am loving it here.” He said, “ Every year I look forward to this fest and the college always tries to do new things every year, which keeps me hooked-up to this fest.”


The fest ended with the Malhar Pro Night concert by Aditi Sharma, followed by the prize distribution ceremony leaving students with more expectation for the next year.

 

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