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Sanity Break #1
SANITY BREAK Here’s some prep for your weekend streaming: Check out for Netflix horror flick, ‘Bulbbul’—produced by Anushka Sharma and releasing on June 24. Don’t want your scares in Hindi—or perhaps you prefer monstrous humans over supernatural chudails? Check out the Keerthy Suresh-starrer ‘’, which released June 19 on Amazon. But just so you know: the reviews are .
Headlines that matter
HEADLINES THAT MATTER CHINA, INDIA MEET IN MOSCOW Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar are headed —where they will meet not just senior Russian officials, but also their Chinese counterparts. What will come of this no one knows. The Russian Foreign Minister insists there will be no bilateral talk at these meetings. * reports on the ongoing buildup at Lake Pangong in the midst of all this talking. And if you need it: on what the Chinese are doing in different parts of the Ladakh border. * Also holding : senior military commanders from both sides. * has a good explainer on the role of Russia as a mediator. APPLE UNVEILS A NEW OPERATING SYSTEM And it’s called Big Sur. The release is being dubbed as the biggest redesign in 20 years. The end-result is that your MacBook will look and behave a lot more like your iPhone. Others say that it now has a lot of the same functionalities as Android. Also getting a major reboot: Safari, which is now 50% faster than Chrome. has more on its functionalities on a laptop. looks at how the operating system works on your iPhone—making it easier to organize and faster to access your apps. Plus: here’s of MacBooks compatible with Big Sur. THE INDIAN PANDEMIC: AN UPDATE The number of cases: 440,215. Number of deaths: 14,011. The number added in one day: 14,933. * Watch that explains why coronavirus deaths are under-reported in India. * shows how Tamil Nadu keeps its Covid count low by heavily testing districts that have fewer cases—and steering clear of areas where the numbers are climbing. * has the horror story of how Delhi hospitals refused to admit a pregnant woman in labour. She later died, as did her baby. This is an essential read and a reminder of the wider toll of Covid on all of us. * explains in five charts why India stands to lose much more than China in a trade war. * rounds up reports that China is altering the course of the Galwan river. * Nepal meanwhile has made on its border with Bihar. * reports on the hidden lockdown effect: new development projects fast-tracked in protected forest reserves in Assam, Uttarakhand and Goa. * 57 girls at a in Uttar Pradesh have tested positive for COVID-19—and five of them are heavily pregnant. Officials claim that they were pregnant when they arrived at the shelter. Related read: report on sexual abuse in shelter homes. * Two Indian companies—Cipla and Hetero Labs—will roll out of Remdesivir—which is now widely used to treat serious infections. Price per vial: Rs 5,000-6,000—which isn’t cheap but certainly more affordable than the original. With three other companies poised to enter the fray, the prices could fall further. THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC: AN UPDATE Global cases have raced past 9 million thanks to a huge surge in India and Brazil. reports: "The first case was reported in China in early January and it took until mid-May to reach 4.5 million cases. It has taken just five weeks to double to 9 million cases.” : Grigor Dimitrov became the first top-ranking tennis player to announce that he has tested positive—followed soon after who played a match against Dimitrov over the weekend at an exhibition tournament in Croatia. The tournament was organised by Novak Djokovic—who, as notes, has totally lost the plot on virus, often peddling wild theories. Point to note: “Throughout the weekend, Djokovic, Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem and other players were pictured hugging, shaking hands and dancing together at a club.” : is losing an entire generation of indigenous leaders, elders and traditional healers to Covid-19—many of whom are too afraid to go to a hospital. The pandemic is likely to inflict irreparable damage on tribal knowledge of history, culture and natural medicine. One leader puts it bluntly: “We are facing extermination.” The country’s death toll has soared past 50,000. : The country’s R number—which indicates how many people one Covid case will infect—has soared from 1.79 on Saturday to 2.88. In order to contain the spread, countries must get their R number down to one. The likely culprit: “an outbreak at a meat processing plant infected hundreds of workers.” : meanwhile has reopened with a vengeance. Outside seating at restaurants and cafes was expanded at the end of the lockdown to ensure social distancing. This is what it looks like now. A FLURRY OF METOO ALLEGATIONS * Justin Bieber denied one allegation of rape by producing —but has not commented on another charge of sexual assault. has details of both cases. * Cole Sprouse—along with other members of the Riverdale cast—has also been accused of groping a woman at a party. He too has issued . * Ansel Elgort—the star of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’—was accused of sexual assault by a Twitter user named Gaby, who said he attacked her when she was 17. Elgort they had "a brief, legal and entirely consensual relationship." * Also making news: Late night host Jimmy Kimmel for being a complete d**k in this with Megan Fox. Watch his reaction when she talks about being sexualised by director Michael Bay on a movie set—as a 15-year old! has more details. A NEW KIND OF HOLLYWOOD RATING UK broadcaster Sky has found a way to flag movies for offensive content—without taking them down a la ‘Gone With the Wind’. : a disclaimer that reads, “This film has outdated attitudes, language and cultural depictions which may cause offence today.” Movies that get this special treatment: 'Jungle Book', 'Breakfast at Tiffany’s' and 'The Last Samurai'. In related-BLM news: There are in Fortnite any more. DEEPIKA TAKES A STANCE Padukone is one of the rare Bollywood stars who never issued a statement on Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. But she took a stance in her own quiet way on the Insta account of a Bollywood photographer—who posted a photo of Rajput’s body being carried from the hospital to the crematorium. The caption read: “Please note my images and videos cannot be posted on any platforms without my written consent.” Deepika response in the comments section: “Right. But it is OK for you to take this video and not only post it but also probably monetise it without his or his family’s written consent?” The post appears to have been deleted, but you can see a . RGV STRIKES AGAIN Ram Gopal Varma is talking up his upcoming flick 'Murder’—which tells the story of a gruesome caste killing in Telangana. Pranay Perumalla was by henchmen hired by his father-in-law. The reason: Perumalla was a Dalit. RGV is as “a heart wrenching story based on the Amrutha and Maruthi Rao saga of the DANGERS of a father LOVING a daughter too much…” And when he was called out on Twitter, he just : > “MURDER film meanders between 3 moral dilemmas 1. on limit of a father’s control over his child 2. should a daughter be ignored > even if she’s presumably ignorant about what’s good for her? 3. Can it be justified to take someone’s life in order to better > someone else’s life?”
Sanity Break #2
SANITY BREAK Artist Greg Fernandes created that reimagine Raja Ravi Varma’s, ‘A Galaxy of Musicians’—painted back in 1889 for the Maharaja of Mysore. This one features iconic Hollywood actresses—Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe etc.—while others have Bollywood legends, ranging from Madhubala to Manisha Koirala. These were created back in 2015, but we think their quirky charm endures.
Smart & Curious
SMART & CURIOUS A LIST OF INTRIGUING THINGS right now is Cooper Black—best known for its appearance in Garfield comics. And it’s having a moment again. This Vox vid on its history is for design junkies everywhere:) is a Victorian-era contraption designed to carry one person at a time. A group of London architects are pitching it as a pandemic-perfect solution for hotels. And they work kinda like this: are exactly the same—as in the same colour. But why do we see them so differently? The answer lies not in our brain but within our eye—as proved by a study involving a group of congenitally blind children in India. Depixelize yourself—or anybody else! A new tool can take highly pixelated images and recreate the original using—what else?—AI. There are amusing possibilities if you are playing around with gaming characters . Or scary implications for privacy and surveillance—unless, of course, you’re black (or likely brown)! Behold what it did to Obama below. Plus: take a spin on the . A SHORT LIST OF GOOD READS * Haruki Murakami has just published a short story in the . Enuf said. * asks: Will sex scenes survive the pandemic? We certainly hope so! * has the story of one Kerala family that spent their entire savings on a Vande Bharat flight back home. * Do you know about Alt Tik Tok? Not likely, if you are straight. Let tell you all about it. One of its most popular videos (below)—This is what I would look like if I was straight—sparked a deluge of similar videos.
Weekend advisory
LIFE ADVISORY PANDEMIC KE SIDE EFFECTS EDITION Lockdown and your waistline: A new AIIMS study of 100 non-diabetic patients found that 40% had gained weight since March—and 16% had put on between 2.1 - 5 kg. This puts them at an increased risk for diabetes. The better news: the weight of 41% remained unchanged. Point to note: 59% of the participants were under 40 years of age. () WFH workaholism: Time saved on those lengthy commutes is now spent working more than ever—and attending far too many virtual meetings. And these are burning us out, and fast: > “Findings showed a full week of virtual meetings leaves 38% of employees feeling exhausted while 30% felt stressed. And > employees said performance anxiety and business pressures is pushing them into competitive mode with 63% saying they were likely > to record and re-watch their virtual meetings to become better presenters and strengthen their client relationships.” has a quiz that helps you detect signs of work addiction—and tips on how to deal with the red flags. Symptoms of pandemic stress: Have you been getting more headaches? Or rashes or zits, perhaps? Are your periods becoming irregular? explains how chronic stress—the kind that goes on for months—can send our biological response system into overdrive.
Feel Good Place
THE FEEL GOOD PLACE WARNING: THE CUTE ANIMAL EDITION ! How about we lean waaaay back… ok maybe not. you weigh a Koala. Enuf said. at every dinner thrown by vegetarian friends—and, to be fair, vice versa:) : Pratik Bandyopadhya was once the sports editor at Times of India’s Kolkata edition. He decided to resign rather than lay off one of his team members as instructed by the powers-that-be.
