New Strings Attached
On the left is one of the of the 20th century: Arshile Gorky’s ‘The Artist with His Mother’. It is inspired by the —of Gorky as a child with his mother, a few years before she died of starvation soon after the . He painted variations of this same painting throughout his life. Notice the hands, and now watch this short film titled —which is derived from the movie ‘Ararat’ written and directed by Oscar-nominated director Atom Egoyan. The images above is just context so you can appreciate this tribute to the power of a child’s love, memory and loss that will likely make you cry.
EIGHT KILLED IN POSSIBLE HATE CRIME * A 21-year-old man entered three separate massage spas in Atlanta and shot eight people—of whom six were Asian American. in the Cherokee massage parlor shooting is 30-year-old Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz. * Robert Aaron Long has since been captured and is in custody. Long walked into a store and just hours before he went on a rampage. And he may have been headed to Florida next. * He told the cops the attacks were : "He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate." * And in case you are thinking what many may be thinking, Atlanta’s mayor made clear: "These are legally operating businesses that have not been on our radar," and added that the city would not engage in "victim shaming, victim blaming.” * Then again, the county sheriff's deputy held a , where he explained Long’s actions: “He was pretty much fed up and had been kind of at the end of his rope..Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.” Also: this particular cop may be an anti-China Trump lover. * Asian American groups have called it “an unspeakable tragedy—for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the Asian American community, which has been reeling from high levels of racist attacks over the course of the past year.” * Point to note: There have been nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents targeting the community in the US since last March. * has details of the attacks. has the response. has the best non-paywall overview. THE GOVERNMENT’S GOT BIG PLANS One: A single law to rule air, water and earth. That’s the big vision being put forward by officials—which is to get rid of the Air Act 1981, Water Act 1974, and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and set up one overarching ‘environment management’ law to govern all environmental issues. Part of this big move will be changing how violators are punished: > “For violators, we currently have provisions to close the industry or imprisonment but there is no provision for environmental > compensation which courts have been pronouncing through judgements. The purpose (of the new law) is to make them (violators) > fall in line rather than take extreme steps such as shutting down industries or imprisonment.” Hmm, wonder what could go wrong with that? Of course, leading environmental lawyers think this is a terrible idea. has more on that. Two: Our very own . The government is also “mulling” recruiting an “independent Indian think tank” to put out a “world democracy report” as well as a “global press freedom index.” Hmm, the , perchance? Also, please note: This is not a knee-jerk reaction to Freedom House from ‘free’ to ‘partly free’. It was a considered response to the Swedish V-Dem Institute describing us as an “electoral autocracy. ” Three: Selling ‘bundled’ airports. The plan is to club together loss-making airports with the profitable kind to make them attractive. For example: Adani-ji, you wanna buy the very lucrative one in Amritsar? Great, we will throw in the white elephant in Jharusuguda with that. () Also making big plans: Dubai, which expects its population to surge by 76% over the next 20 years thanks to its alluring incentives to expats: > "Under the plan, the government envisages that more than half of the population will live within 800 meters (0.5 miles) of > public transport and 60% of the desert emirate’s land will be protected as a natural reserve. A new urban planning law will be > issued to support sustainable development at a time the government is looking to provide better housing for citizens." What? No ‘environmental management’ plan? () THE GREAT PANDEMIC: A SHORT UPDATE * As many as 70 districts a 150% increase in the number of cases over the past few weeks. * Doctors found signs of infection in of three-quarters of those who died of Covid—indicating that the virus had travelled to the heart. Most of those infected were immune cells. * A US airline forced autistic child off the plane because he refused to wear a mask—despite guidelines that make an exception for people with disabilities. The staff said: "No no no. Autism's not a disability." * Good read: explains how getting enough sleep may help you build up immunity after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. THE AMBANI-RELATED CASE: A LATEST UPDATE The Shiv Sena government is scrambling to distance itself from the entire mess—specifically, the bada cop accused of orchestrating the bomb scare outside Mukesh Ambani’s home (which we explained ). The problem: Sachin Vaze had been suspended due to his involvement in an encounter killing in the Ghatkopar bomb blast case—but was reinstated by the Shiv Sena government after they took power in 2019. : blame it all on the current police commissioner—Param Bir Singh—and remove him from his post. The new guy who inherits Singh’s headache: Hemant Nagrale—who is profiled in . Kamala Harris’ bomb scare: Police have arrested a man outside Kamala Harris’ official residence in Washington DC. They recovered an “AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, 113 rounds of unregistered ammunition, and five 30 round magazines.” The good news: none of the Harrises were home at the time. And the best we can do is a bunch of unassembled gelatin sticks. () ELLIOT PAGE MAKES MAGAZINE HISTORY The Oscar-nominated actor has become the first transgender man to grace the cover of Time magazine. And it (we love the quote!): Speaking of tolerance: A Japanese court has ruled that the country’s ban on same sex marriages is unconstitutional. A lot of this is about phrasing: > “Japan's constitution, put in place after the end of World War Two, defines marriage as one of ‘mutual consent between both > sexes’. The government has said this means same-sex marriage was not ‘foreseen’ at the time. But lawyers for the plaintiffs said > the phrasing was actually meant to prevent forced marriages, and that there is nothing in the constitution that explicitly > prohibits gay marriage.” That said, this doesn’t mean that legalisation is a given, but just the use of the word “unconstitutional” is a big victory in the long road ahead. () AN ALARMING ‘SKINNY FAD’ Some Chinese women are having a hard time embracing their adult bodies. The latest fad on social media has women photographing themselves trying on clothes in the children’s section of Uniqlo stores—to show how thin they are. Also this: It's reportedly stretched out t-shirts and clothes stained with makeup. Point to note: China has a serious : In a 2019 global survey of 27 countries, it was #1 in “believing that body weight and shape are important attributes in making a woman beautiful.” Also as bad, Japan: Tokyo Olympics creative head Hiroshi Sasaki has thanks to unbelievably derogatory remarks about a popular entertainer and plus-size icon Naomi Watanabe. Here’s Sasaki’s own account of what he did: > “I tend to joke often, so I said it just as something that slipped out of my mouth…(the idea of Watanabe) wearing a cute pink > costume and sticking her tongue out as an ‘Olympig’. I thought that would make her look charming, but I was immediately > reprimanded by male staff. I feel remorse.” We have no words. () US COLLEGE ADMISSION CHAOS This year, many top institutions including Ivy League schools have waived SAT and ACT test requirements. The result is a massive surge in applications: > “Harvard University received more than 57,000 freshman applications for next fall’s entering class, a 42% year-over-year jump. > Yale, Columbia and Stanford universities were so overwhelmed they also pushed back the date to announce admission decisions. The > University of Southern California’s applications pool beat the prior record by 7%. And New York University topped 100,000 > applications, up 17% from last year.” A possible upside: It may result in a more diverse incoming class than usual. But some college counselors are sceptical: > “But I don’t think it’s tipping the scale on access and equity… More than anything else it’s just making these applicant pools > disturbingly big. It’s by and large just making more kids for them to reject.” has more on the implications. SONG BIRD FORGETS ITS SONG The regent honeyeater in Australia is a critically endangered species—with just 300 of them left in the world. The reason: the bird has lost about 90% of its habitat. And with such a sparse population distributed across a very large area, male birds face a new challenge: "They don't get the chance to hang around with other honeyeaters and learn what they're supposed to sound like." As a result, they are "singing weird songs"—and often end up learning songs of other species:( And then the females may not be willing to mate with them… which is catastrophic for a species already in great peril. has more on how scientists are trying to teach captive-bred birds to sing. Feeling a lot less lonely: Chimpanzees in two Czech zoos who can watch each other hanging out on Zoom ‘video conferences’—streamed on giant screens. According to : > “At the beginning they approached the screen with defensive or threatening gestures, there was interaction… It has since moved > into the mode of ‘I am in the movies’ or ‘I am watching TV’. When they see some tense situations, it gets them up off the couch, > like us when we watch a live sport event.” Also, it :
Church singing, done right When you’re a great musician like Xavier Lozano, everything looks like a flute. Power naani! (h/t subscriber Sowmya Swaminathan)
READING HABIT BOOK EDITOR’S NOTE Varud Gupta is the author of ‘’, which explores the intersection of food and faith in India; and the graphic novel ‘’, a coming-of-age story set in 1947 Chandni Chowk. He's been a NY cheesemonger, an Argentine asador, a Peruvian bartender, and a spy in countless household kitchens. When not writing or traveling, he's usually eating, collecting Instant Noodles, teaching Storytelling, or playing Dungeons and Dragons. Unsurprisingly, he was our go-to choice for our fiendishly fun Book Addict’s Quiz. What is your most powerful and/or cherished childhood memory of a book? There are a couple of memories that lean into the most ‘powerful’ category. I remember standing in line all night for the release of the back when extravagant launch parties used to take place. We’d all dress up and play as wizards for the evening. Hours after, celebrations came to a close, my copy was safe in hands and a smile upon my face leaving the bookstore. Only to hear commotion from the outside. There was a car driving by with someone yelling SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE. The event was in the news the next day. And this was in the early days of viral videos. I unfortunately experienced it first-hand. Another ‘powerful’ memory: I loved reading the’ series. Recently stumbled upon a Reddit-borne controversy regarding the spelling of the title which involves parallel universes and the Mandela Effect. I might even be a believer. (Read more —although I do feel strange linking to an article on Seventeen). <Ah the literary equivalent of a driveby shooting...> What line of literature or poetry can you quote ad nauseam? Brownie points if you can tell us when and where you quoted it most recently. My eighth grade English teacher probably left behind the most profound reading legacy for me. In particular, everything Shakespeare—such as the opening lines to ‘’ (“Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”) often silently flutter into my mind whenever I see or experience household drama. More notably, we also watched the musical version of ‘’ that year and we used to be the type of geeks to run about school singing the songs. I’m a bit rusty, but ‘’ and ‘’ easily come to mind—though I’ll probably never admit to it outside of this interview. <Shakespearean tragedies, Indian families. Eh, same difference.> An author you adored as a child but haven’t thought about in years? Not an author, but were a staple prop of our bathroom growing up. We’d always smuggle copies from my aunt’s house to restock our toilet-adjacent collection. Which book would you gift to your new best friend, and which to your worst enemy? I’ve gifted many copies of ‘’ by Italo Calvino. Partly because it is one of my favourite books. And partly because I once read a story of two people falling in love over the book—and my inner went into overdrive. My enemy? I’d drop a copy of ‘’ on them. <Dropping a copy of IJ on people is bound to kill them in more ways than one 😉> I would love to see a movie/series adaptation of ___________ starring ____ as _____ The children’s series’ with starring as Amelia Bedelia. <A foul-mouthed Amelia? Every parent’s horror and child’s delight! > A book review that was better than the book? Any positive review of ‘’, ever. <Oh look, we dug up one for your reading pleasure—and in the circa 1943, no less!> Which book do you pretend to have read? ‘’ by Neil Strauss which touts the ability to teach one how to (from an Amazon reviewer) “hook up with women.” I got the original version (before the re-print apparently changed it from pick-up guide to more of a storybook) from a friend and it made me feel so gross to read. So, I feigned interest although going to bars to ‘meet’ people gives me extreme anxiety. <Men like Strauss may have many things—’game’ is not one of them.> What is the first “forbidden” book you read in secret? Not forbidden as in hidden-from-my-mother forbidden, but forbidden as in probably-best-for-the-world-not-to-know would have to be ‘’—the Harry Potter fan-fic series. It’s so bad, but priceless—more so when you dare a friend into doing a dramatic reading of it. <“Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way and I have long ebony black hair (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Amy Lee... I’m not related to Gerard Way but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin.” CANNOT STOP READING> What’s one of the funniest books you’ve ever read? Something apart from Wodehouse, Adams, Durrell et al would be even better. Hate to bring up the same book twice, but ‘’ is probably the book that I vividly recall smiling and snickering to myself while reading. It’s a hoot. Honourable mentions: ‘’, '’ graphic novels, and ‘’. <The Adventure Zone… colour us intrigued.> Send us a photo of your tsundoku pile. Room is currently under construction because of major water leakage during our lovely Covid year. So book piles are now boxes, of which the largest section is '’ collection. Just couldn’t seem to find the time to get through it all. Now eagerly awaiting the TV adaptation. <120/100 for ambition and the epic-sized binge-reading #fail> Note: Reading Habit is curated by our books editor Anushree Kaushal. Want to send along recommendations, feedback or just say hi? Email her at Church singing, done right When you’re a great musician like Xavier Lozano, everything looks like a flute. Power naani! (h/t subscriber Sowmya Swaminathan)
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