Researched & collated by: Vagda Galhotra & Nivedita Bobal
An amazing AMA with Kalki Koechlin & Sabiha Sumar
Pakistani documentary filmmaker Sabiha Sumar and actor Kalki Koechlin came together to make ‘Azmaish: A Journey Through the Subcontinent’. The thought-provoking film captures their journey across Pakistan and India as they look for answers for a big question: How did religious fundamentalism bring Pakistan and India to the same dangerous threshold?
The event: Our next AMA—in partnership with the video-hosting platform Eventscape—offers a great opportunity to speak with both Koechlin and Sumar about the film, its provocative themes—and their past work. FYI: Sumar is also highly regarded for her previous film ‘Dinner with the President’—which centred on a fascinating conversation with then leader Pervez Musharaff.
Date/Time: 7:30 pm on Monday, March 7. Be sure to sign up for your slot here.
Watch the movie: As a big bonus, you can also watch ‘Azmaish’ over at Eventscape—get a 20% discount on the Rs 99 rental by typing in SPLAINER. Check out the trailer below:
Air India loses its CEO
Last month, Tatas announced that Ilker Ayci will be the CEO of its newly acquired airline. The choice soon became controversial. The RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagaran Manch raised “national security” concerns—citing Ayci’s close ties to Turkish President Recep Erdogan. The Home Ministry signalled its intent to “scrupulously” carry out a thorough background check—required for approval of a foreign national who heads a key Indian company. Maybe that spooked Ayci because he has now declined the job—citing attempts “to colour my appointment with undesirable colours” in some sections of the Indian media. We can’t recall any critical reporting, TBH, other than this Morning Context piece on his dictatorial approach to leadership. Also see: our explainer on the Air India sale. (Reuters)
Adani X Quint ki jodi
The media company owned by Raghav Bahl announced that the Adani Group will acquire a minority stake in its business—though the size of the stake remains unspecified. The deal is limited to Quintillion Business Media—its biz news platform—and does not include other properties owned by Quint Digital—The Quint, Quintype Technologies, The News Minute and Youthkiawaaz. Adani recently launched Adani Media Ventures to make a big play in the space—and its CEO Sanjay Pugalia (also ex-President of Quint Digital) called it a “strong beginning” of that expansion.
Media reports frame this as a move to compete with Reliance-owned Network18 (which owns CNN18, Moneycontrol etc)—failing to mention the fact that Network18 was, in fact, founded by Bahl. He took huge loans from Ambani to fund his media empire—and lost its ownership when Reliance called in its chits in 2014. So it’s a little bit ironic, to rephrase Alanis Morissette. (Economic Times)
Full disclosure: Our founder Lakshmi Chaudhry was the co-founder of Firstpost—a Network18 property—which she quit a year after the Reliance takeover.
Is that really a tyrant lizard king?
A new study argues that the Tyrannosaurus rex should be split into three separate species: T rex or ‘tyrant lizard king’ plus two sibling species called Tyrannosaurus imperator, or the ‘tyrant lizard emperor’, and Tyrannosaurus regina, the ‘tyrant lizard queen’. The researchers claim we have been wrongfully clubbing their remains together. In fact, they are as different as a lion and a tiger which belong to the same genus panthera. The claim has thrown palaeontologists into a tizzy—some of whom call the evidence “vanishingly weak.” One of them said:
“It's hard to define a species, even for animals today, and these fossils have no genetic evidence that can test whether there were truly separate populations. Until I see much stronger evidence, these are all still T rex to me, and that's what I'll be calling them.”
Deutsche Welle and New York Times have more details.
Speaking of ancient remains: New evidence shows that humans kept getting their heads knocked in. Scientists in Spain found that 17 of 20 skulls of our ancestor Homo heidelbergensis—who lived 350,000 years ago—showed signs of a type of injury called a depressed skull fracture caused by bone-breaking blows to the head. What’s interesting: the vast majority of the fractures were old and had healed long before death. And some of the skulls had at least 10 such healed fractures “suggesting that their former inhabitants were either very violent or very clumsy (or possibly both).” So the next time things look bad, thank your lucky stars that you’re not an early hominin. (Ars Technica)
TikTok vids go long
The platform has extended the length of videos on its platform from three to 10 minutes—so users can turn it into another YouTube and share their makeup tutorials, cooking demos etc. Google must not be happy. (TechCrunch)
Muscle strengthening can save your life
A new study shows that exercises that strengthen your muscles significantly reduce the risk of dying. Examples: squats, push ups, lifting weights, and even some serious gardening (digging and shovelling). Ok, we always knew these activities were healthy, but here’s what is new: Spending just 30-60 minutes a week—even with no extra cardio exercise like running or cycling—is associated with a 10-20% lower risk of death from all causes, especially cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, and cancer. Now that’s an exercise regimen even we can embrace. (Science Alert)
Three things to see
One: Australian officials have put the adorable-looking Gang-gang cockatoo on the list of endangered species. Its numbers had already declined before the devastating wildfires of 2019-20—which resulted in a further drop of 21%. (ABC News)
Two: Giorgio Armani switched off the music to hold his Milan fashion show in a gesture of support for Ukraine. Watch the models strut down the runway in eerie silence. (CNN)
Three: NFTs are a gag gift that never stops giving. Pixelmon raised a whopping $70 million promising “the largest and highest quality game the NFT space has ever seen.” Then the company revealed the artwork—which was so hilariously bad that even the founders had to call it a “horrible mistake.” We, however, appreciate their total 80s kitsch value—then again we didn’t pay $9,200 per mint for them. (Yahoo Finance)
Good stuff to check out!
On the latest episode of the splainer podcast ‘Press Decode’, the splainer team looks at the big debate over representation—how do we “see” religion or race? Be sure to head over to the IVM website, Spotify or Apple Podcasts to listen to it.
