Ahead of her first trip to India, biker Leslie Porterfield, the world's fastest woman on two wheels, relives her record, worst crash and the growing number of Indian women on the riding circuit

At 16, Texas-based Leslie Porterfield bought a Yamaha Virago 1000, her first motorcycle, as an inexpensive mode of transport. It arrived in a box, and most people told her she wouldn't be able to get it running. However, she bought a manual, sought the advice of local mechanics, and put it together.

Leslie Porterfield

In fact, Porterfield loved riding it so much that just a year later, she went on to buy a sports bike (Honda CBR600). This was in the early '90s. "That's when my interest in racing began," recalls the 41-year-old mother of twins. She holds the Guinness World Record for being the fastest woman in the world on a motorcycle, which she set in 2008 with a speed of 232.522mph at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA.

On November 24 and 25, Porterfield will be in Goa for the fifth edition of India Bike Week, a fest that will witness a gathering of over 20,000 bikers to celebrate all things riding. Here, she will host a motorcycle stand and present awards for various achievements. Excerpts from an email interview:

Tell us about your most interesting motorcycle journeys.
Motorcycles gave me a sense of freedom and connection with nature while riding. One of my favourite trips was to the Baja 1000 (off-road race in Mexico's Baja California Peninsula) in 2005. I was on a dirt bike for the first time, and realised how difficult the race is. I went through 20 miles of deep sand whoops and fell 20 times. I have never been so sore. Another one is from the time I was 17, when I rode for 1,500 miles from Dallas to Los Angeles. On my way back, I was tired. I was riding at about 120mph. Unfortunately, I passed a police car and didn't see it. They set up a roadblock on the highway. When I stopped, I realised there were four police cars behind me. They were mad after chasing me for so long. I was lucky; the officer let me go without a citation. This prompted me to hit the racetrack.

What challenges have you faced in your racing career?
During my first year [2007] in Land Speed Racing [at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah], the salt was in poor condition - wet, sludgy and hard to get traction. My bike got into a speed wobble at over 200mph. I tried to save it, but ended up coming off the bike at over 100mph. It was the worst wreck I've been in. I was unconscious, with seven broken ribs and a punctured lung. Fortunately, I recovered and made a point of testing different set-ups for the bike. I didn't push myself to make runs when conditions were bad. Racing comes with risks, which I try to minimise.

How did you crack the world record in Utah in 2008?
I had to make an effort to not think about what could go wrong, and put the accident out of my mind. I focused solely on what I needed to do to achieve my record. To set a land speed record, you have to make two runs — one in each direction - holding your top speed for a mile. My bike's engine was hot and as I entered the measured mile at full throttle, it started to sound rough. By the end, I had set the record but blown my engine, and there was oil everywhere!

What's your take on Indian motorcycle culture?
It's fascinating. The selection of motorcycles is vast, and I love that more women in India are riding motorcycles now. When I started in the '90s, men dominated the speed and racing scene; it was difficult for women to break into it.

Is Mumbai part of your itinerary?
I hope to see it during my visit. It is such a diverse city with much history. I've wanted to visit India for some time. I can't wait to experience its architecture, art, culture and beauty. I love Indian food, but have tried it only in America.

What kind of bikes do you ride now?
I have a Honda CBR1000, and several classic bikes from the '60s. I enjoy restoring old bikes. They aren't very fast, but they are a lot of fun.

Tips
>> Invest in proper motorcycle gear.
>> Never quit learning. Take up rider courses. Even if you have no desire to race, a day on the track with guidance will make you a better and safer rider.

Nick Seluk, the American artist behind the popular The Awkward Yeti comics, on his ingenious organ characters and more

What made you pick a blue yeti as the central character?
I imagine the blue yeti [Lars] as a misfit among the attractive, extroverted white yetis. He looks, acts and thinks differently than the average yeti, and for that reason, feels disconnected. To me, it was a funny way of exaggerating my own awkwardness and introversion.

Nick Seluk

What is the key to creating intelligent comics for kids?
The key is that I don't make them for kids. I make them for adults, but I simplify the information to the extent that people of all ages can enjoy them.

Why did you decide to study psychology?
I have been very introspective, and psychology was an interesting way to learn about myself and others, like how we differ and relate. Much of what I learned reinforced what I already knew through observation, and gave me the confidence to use those concepts (albeit abstractly) later on in comics.

Pic courtesy/theawkwardyeti.com

If turned into a film, who do you think should voice Lars?
There are so many great options. I imagine a sort of deep, awkward voice for Lars, perhaps a John C Reilly or Brian Posehn.

What's your favourite organ character?
I love Heart because it represents my desire to be myself, be weird and try new things (not always successfully). My favourite character to write for is Tongue, because the character takes impulse to a new level.

A new organ character that you would want to introduce?
Most organs have made an appearance at some point, but the one I still want to make into a character is the mesentery, because it's sort of a bizarre grotesque shape that would be fun. I don't know if it would make regular appearances, but I hope it will show up some day.

Do you run your comics by your family for critique?
I used to do that a lot, but now I usually post the comic on Twitter first. It's my smallest social media audience, so I kind of use it to test it out. If it does well enough, I share it with my larger audiences on Instagram and Facebook.

Which artists inspire you?
I grew up reading and gaining great inspiration from Calvin and Hobbes, The Far Side, and The Simpsons. In the past few years, I have found a lot of inspiration from artists whom I meet while travelling.

Are you familiar with the works of Indian artists?
I am not, but I'm excited to be at Mumbai Comic Con because what better way could there be to start learning about them?

On: November 11 and 12 (11 am to 8 pm), Seluk's special session on 12, 4.30 pm
At: Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon East
Log on to : comicconmumbai.com
Entry: Rs 499 (day pass)

When we meet them on a windy November afternoon, the quartet that calls itself Sanam (named after lead singer/composer Sanam Puri) is comfortable taking questions on, and dealing with fame. They could be the biggest band in India, say insiders. Their YouTube channel has 208 million subscribers and enjoys 14 million views per month. And they have fans across South Africa, Trinidad, Netherlands, Bangladesh, England, Nigeria, and even Suriname. "We just realised the other day that there isn't a country in the world that hasn't visited our channel," says Keshav Dhanraj, drummer. Thank God Indians are everywhere, we say, and he laughs, "Yes! Bangladesh is the biggest consumer of our music!" And they admit that they are drawing in more women than men. "It's quite a tough fight," says bass guitarist Venkat Subramaniyam, who is scrolling through figures as we talk over watermelon juice at the clubhouse of their plush residential complex in Madh-Marve. "It's 50:50," he adds, "women are more active on social media, I mean they comment more, but otherwise the gender ratio is roughly equal."

Pic/Nimesh Dave

It has taken them a while to get here. Brothers Sanam and guitarist Samar Puri, from Delhi, Subramaniyam, from Bengaluru and Dhanraj, from Chennai won a contest called SUPASTARS hosted by a recording label in 2010. Free gigs, great for exposure, but not of particular value, followed, until they met their manager Ben Thomas. "Under Ben's guidance, we started making videos and music of all types [originals and Hindi, English covers], says Dhanraj. Their first song, Hawa Hawa, saw a decent traction. But then, a cover of Lata Mangeshkar's Lag Jaa Gale got them almost 36 million views (and counting).

But their success is also a product of consistency. The first-time visitors on their channel often discover other songs, which they may not have done as well when they released, but gradually gained popularity. "So, our song, Dua [23 million views] which is an original, got popular after people had already discovered us through perhaps a cover version of some song, and wanted to listen to other stuff," says Sanam. They do remember the time that they tried first to get their songs heard. "I have been banned by Facebook so many times because I have spammed so many people [in an attempt to get them to hear our music]!" laughs Dhanraj. "I remember tagging people in the comments section of our videos. Facebook only allows 10 mentions per comment. So, you can imagine how many comments I posted!" smiles Sanam.

Today, they have the numbers, but they won't take their success for granted. They try and put up at least one new video every month (original or cover), update their social media accounts every few hours, and tour the country and outside. They now have a team that handles the logistics, including mixing and editing of videos, so they can "concentrate on the music". "We used to do it all ourselves. Now, it's about making music we are proud of so that you, the listener, likes it."

Ask them if they will ever ditch covers for originals only, and they have a smart, sorted reply. "In India, originals are respected more. We get that, and we aim to make more and more of them. But in many countries we visit, our fans are into the classics, like Mohammed Rafi's songs, and we want to give them what they want. They are our unique versions, they carry our stamp, in any case," says Subramaniyam.

As we leave them, they tell us about their musical influences, and there are some surprising answers. Sanam doesn't listen to much else because he doesn't wish to influenced, but if he must, he will pick, "strings and background music". Subramaniyam loves funk and blues, and Dhanraj and Samar like Arabic tunes. As Samar says, "We sing in all languages, and with our success and fan base, we now get that music really does have no language."

On the stage at the majestic Royal Opera House, artistes take their seat in a semicircle for what is an unusual gathering. At the centre is British radio and television presenter Nikki Bedi, who, along with familiarising her guests with the flow of the show is also breaking the ice between participants. They are here to record The Arts Hour, a BBC radio production that goes on a tour once a month to capture the best in arts across the world. The Mumbai edition airs today.

Actor Bhumi Pednekar (with Nikki Bedi to her right) calls out the boors behind Padmavati protests. Pics/Pic/Bipin Kokate

In the city on the evening of November 22, the researchers have picked six artistes who they feel best represent the dynamic cultural scene of the city. Flanking Bedi are film critic and director of the Mumbai Film Festival Anupama Chopra, and actor Bhumi Pednekar. Seated next to them are stand-up comedian, screenwriter and novelist Anuvab Pal, and Shamir Reuben, head of content and social media at the spoken word collective, Kommune. On either side of the stage, fine-tuning their arrangements are the popular Hindi rock ensemble Anand Bhaskar Collective and pop duo from Kolkata — with a big fan following in Mumbai — Parekh & Singh in signature fruity suits. "The show is a way of seeing a people and their culture, and understanding their politics and issues through the prism of art. Stand-up comedy and spoken word are burgeoning fields in Mumbai. There is also a sea change in the kind of subjects that Indian cinema is choosing. Issues like sanitation, erectile dysfunction and fat shaming are not just making it to film, they are also managing to attract audiences into theatres," says Bedi about why it was a good time to come to Mumbai.

Nischay Parekh readies to perform the band's hit song

For this edition's research, Bedi, who was born a Moolgaokar and has roots in Mumbai, played the fact checker for producer Nicki Paxman along with providing other insider inputs. A regular feature of the show, The Culture Cab, involves the presenter hailing a cab with an artiste who then takes her around the city to explore it like a local. Though her Mumbai guide was Pal, with whom she explored the splash of global colours at the ongoing Sassoon Docks art project and the murals of Bandra, Bedi shared her favourite part of the city with him, too — Walkeshwar's Banganga.

Throughout the recording that lasted two and a half hours, the team's homework kept the conversation alive and relevant. Bedi, a natural at hosting, puts her guests at ease. It comes across in Pednekar's candour, who minces no words when asked about the ongoing controversy around Padmavati. "You know, these are people who don't give a s**t about history," she says, a word Paxman gets politely replaced at the end of the show with the milder "damn". Bedi then moves on to ask Pal and Reuben if comedy and spoken word have become popular for similar reasons and how social media has played a part. With artistes as guests, each segment packs in a performance. While Pal's jibes about SoBo residents have the audience in splits, Reuben's poetry moves many to tears. Vocalist Nischay Parekh of Parekh & Singh shares the inspiration behind their music video with a million hits, I Love You Baby, I Love You Doll, before performing it, and Anand Bhaskar shares why all his compositions are in Hindi before segueing the show to its end with a rendition of Fanaa.

An audience member comments about the need to see more everyday people in films

Rahul Baswani, who came to know of the show through Pal's tweet, is happy to have made it in the audience. "I listen to a lot of podcasts. So, the most fascinating bit for me was towards the end when they did the retakes," he says. In the green room, mutual understanding and fandom fill the air. "At the end of the day, we are all artistes, and we could feel the synergy and a shared language throughout," says Parekh, who has just promised Pal that he'll be there for his Kolkata gig the next day, even as Pal admits that the music duo is everything he would have wanted to be as a 27-year-old.

The sound engineers at work

Chopra, on the other hand, is happy that the show recognises the power of Indian cinema and how it is evolving. "Outside India, there is a fixed notion of what Bollywood is. But there is a different language [spoken] now, which most people don't know of. I am hoping that the show will communicate that." For Reuben, it has been a platform for artistic exchange. "The beauty of tonight was people might have come to watch comedy and they learnt a bit about spoken word. Or that they wanted to hear a poem and they left with music," he says. "For the BBC to say that there is something stirring in Mumbai is a statement."

It's painfully humiliating for a 12-year-old to stand before his class during an extempore speech and fumble over words. The derision that one might invite can cripple an adolescent's confidence. But, it can also teach the child to face his demons, participate again in the same competition the next year, and then go on to win the district finals for three straight years representing his institution, which, in Siddhant Sharma's case, was a boarding school in Kurseong.

Siddhant Sharma

Ten years after that incident, Sharma has emerged as this season's winner of The Stage, a reality show that promotes western musical talent in India. This, though, was his second shot at the title, after he was unable to get past the auditions last year. Failure, in other words, seems to have been the singer's constant companion, only for him to climb every mountain that crops up in his path. "I am actually a man made of failure, so it doesn't scare me," he tells us over the phone, having just landed in Mumbai from Kolkata. He adds, "Even in life, a lot of things that I have expected haven't happened. Not all of us grow up in the greatest of situations, but the worst thing a rocker can do is give up. [Rock music] is about fighting failures. So, if I can do it in life, music and competitions are nothing for me to handle."

Those are strong words for a 22-year-old to utter. But Sharma comes across as someone who has truly internalised the rock 'n' roll philosophy of facing adversity with a show-me-what-you've-got swagger. He gives us an example of what that means when he says, "I have a friend who would party all the time and only listen to electronic music. She would never attend live concerts. After a bad phase, she started listening to Pink Floyd, and now she is more of a rocker [in persona] than I am, with all her locks chopped off. I mean, there was a guy who cheated on her, and she's like, 'You think I am going to cry? No. I don't give a f*ck about you or your existence.' That's rock."

One of the biggest adversities that Sharma himself faced was when his parents separated over a decade ago, a fact he had revealed in one of the later episodes of the competition. Talking about that difficult phase, he says, "I'm not a guy who speaks a lot and I anyway didn't want to trouble my mother with all of that. So, I ended up keeping things inside me, which wasn't a good thing since I developed serious anger issues. But art has always helped me. I was a painter and then I got into music, and that just let me be who I am."

Who he is now, having won the show, involves signing a contract with MTV and being flown around the country for concerts. The limelight is well and truly on him and yet, he keeps emphasising how failure is the clay that moulds a person's character. "Do you consider the people who have not got the trophy to be losers?" he asks us, before answering, "No, they are not. You never know, tomorrow they might be working in much bigger places and doing way better stuff than I am. The thing is, you have to be satisfied with doing what you're doing and yet keep trying to be better than who you are. That's really all."

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So far, 70 Indian words have made their entry into the Oxford dictionary, including jugaad, natak and chup along with desi delicacies such as gulab jamun and keema. Last month, the Oxford Dictionaries decided to go ahead and announce its decision to include another Hindi word, this time something that resonates with 2017. It can be a word or a phrase that reflects the mood and preoccupations of the year. It called on Hindi speakers across the country to help in the task. Following suggestions from the people, the word will be chosen by the Hindi Dictionaries team at Oxford University Press (OUP) along with an advisory panel of language experts, next month. We, at Sunday mid-day, decided to do our bit, by reaching out to people connected to the language to share their top nominations.

AADHAAR
Picked by: Varun Grover,
comedian and writer of Masaan
A word that was supposed to instill faith in the citizens, has become an irritant at best, given the constant threats by banks and phone companies [to link bankc accounts,etc. to Aadhaar]. It gets worse because of the impending invasion of privacy it so arrogantly wants. What's left is us waiting for it to be linked to the atmosphere so that oxygen supply to non-complying citizens can also be cut off.

MAST
Picked by: Ishita Moitra,
dialogue writer for Noor, Half Girlfriend
I looked up the meaning of 'mast' in the Oxford dictionary and it said, a tall upright post, spar, or other structure on a ship or boat, in sailing vessels generally carrying a sail or sails. Certainly not, what Akshay Kumar had in mind when he sang to Raveena Tandon in Mohra. So I decided that mast would be my submission. It's an pan-India word. It simultaneously means cool, awesome, sexy, entertaining, and indicates a state of happiness and ecstasy. It can also be used to describe everything from Virat Kohli's shot, to the new Varun Dhawan film or a spirited aunty at a sangeet function. Originally a Persian word that means intoxicated, mast was usually used to denote a state of spiritual euphoria. Now, it is often used to signify someone who is high on life. The slowdown of the economy, censorship, the rise of extremism - 2017 has been dark, and we are in dire need of some mast-ness.

DHAAKAD
Picked by: Ian Ibex,
Hindi rapper
Dhaakad is used for someone who is powerful and strong, someone people are afraid of even. This year we have seen hordes of women take on sexual offenders. Whether it was through a Facebook or Twitter post or the #metoo campaign, there was a certain fearlessness associated with responding to sexual harassment. This bravado was the highlight of 2017.

SAAL GAYA EK, SHABD GAYE ANEK
Picked by: Dr Madan Meena,
folklorist and editor of The People's Linguistic Survey of India
I pick this phrase because I believe language dies gradually with the death of its vocabulary. Due to the imposition of dominant languages of commercial or political importance, minor languages die a lonely death. This year has witnessed growing support for Hindi to be scheduled as a national language. In contrast, I remember people like Shamshuddin Neelgar of Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan), the dyer who passed away this year at the age of 95. With him, the names of more than two dozen colour shades and the technical words associated with his profession, in the Talheti language, are gone forever. Neither Hindi, nor any other dominant language can substitute them.

GST
Picked by: Kumud Chaware,
former political editor
Nobody, not even Hindi publications and regional newspapers, refer to it as 'vastu evam seva kar' which is the Hindi word for GST. If I look back, GST set the mood for 2017, and people began talking about it like it was a hurricane set to rip us apart. For instance, it was common to hear people say, “GST aane wala hai, yeh khareed lo; GST aane wala hai, wahan chale jao”, irrespective of whether you were aware of what it entailed. Funnily, most of us still haven't been able to wrap our head around whether this tax is beneficial or not.

TANASHAHI, ZULM AUR MANMANI
Picked by: Nadira Babbar,
theatre actor and producer of Hindi theatre This year, we saw so many arbitrary decisions taken by the government. While demonestisation was announced at the end of 2016, its effects were experienced right until now. If that wasn't enough, they rolled out GST which has disrupted the common man's life. Milk, which you earlier got for Rs 17, now costs Rs 28. We are suffering, because somebody in power has taken decisions without thinking through their consequences. This amounts to tanashahi, manmani.

JHUNJNA
Picked by: Qais Jaunpuri,
Writer and man behind popular storytelling show Aao Kahein Dil Ki Baat
The people of this country were already facing trouble because of the effects of demonetisation, but like a cherry on the cake, the government launched GST. It disrupted our lives. Moroever, cow politics took its worst form. We continue to see innocent people live in fear of violence. You never know what is coming your way, so you have be prepared for the worse and we must all be prepared to 'tackle'.

JUNOON
Picked by: Prateek Kuhad,
singer-songwriter known for bilingual lyrics
People around the world are uniting to fight racial segregation, gender inequality and support refugee rehabilitation. We still have a long way to go to entirely uproot these problems, and we find enough people on the other side of the fence disagreeing with what we say. Yet, it's inspiring to see a sizeable section of the people, of various genders, cultures, nationalities and race, come together to voice their opinion, and strive for a more evolved value system. These people are not driven by individual leaders, but by mass empathy for a cause. So, I pick the word junoon.

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Ginni Mahi must have been in Std VIII or IX when she first became aware of the divisive nature of the caste system. A girl in her class had asked her which caste she belonged to and Mahi did not know what to say. The Mahis constitute nearly 40 per cent of the scheduled caste population of Jalandhar, her hometown. The 19-year-old grew up on stories about Dr BR Ambedkar, the founder of the Indian Constitution and the teachings of Guru Ravidas, who led the Bhakti movement in Punjab in the 15th century. Theirs is, as her father Rakesh Chandra Mahi calls it, an "Ambedkarite family". It's no surprise, therefore, that both Ambedkar and Guru Ravidas have become a mainstay in Mahi's songs, which, over the past year has catapulted her into a bestselling Punjabi rapper, even earning her the tag of a "Punjabi Dalit rapper".

Ginni Mahi

The tag, however, doesn't agree with Mahi. Even though in her videos the singer wears a definite rapper swag, be it in a leather jacket or a patiala suit, she says her genre cannot be called that. "It is definitely a fusion between Western beats and Punjabi style, but I am not sure if you can call it rap," says the singer who performed in Mumbai for the first time yesterday at a congregation of women speakers. Mahi, who did her first live show when she was 12, knew from a very early age that she wanted to do "something to fight inequality in society". "Since I could sing, I had all these dreams, of doing live and reality shows. I was very little but I was already shooting for the stars," she smiles. While she has brought in a unique style to talk of the life and times of Dr Ambedkar, she was sure that it would work, even though no one had tried it before. "We have a team of lyricists who work hard to figure what should go, and more importantly, what should be dropped from a song. Addressing sensitive subjects like inequality and untouchability is always tricky territory. There has been an overwhelming amount of support, and some negative feedback too. But if there is no criticism, there can be no improvement," says the singer who performed in Mumbai for the first time yesterday at 'We The Women', a congregation of women speakers.

Ginni with her father Rakesh Chandra Mahi

Even though this is her first visit to Mumbai, Mahi could barely make time to look around. "My second year finals are on, I have an exam on Monday," says the singer who is pursuing graduation in music, from HMV College in Jalandhar. "Studies are my priority, I want to do my masters, and then my dream is to do my PhD in music. A doctor heals people with his knowledge in medicine. I want to know music so well, that one day I am able to heal people with music," she says. In terms of her singing career, Bollywood, of course is the dream. "I want to be a playback singer here, much like my idols Lata Mangeshkar, Shreya Ghoshal and Sunidhi Chauhan."

A still from her hit song, Fan Baba Sahib Di

While Mahi's music wants to break the shackles of inequality, that she herself has earned the tag of a Dalit rapper is an irony she just might have to live with. "My message is humanity, to erase caste politics. No one, especially artists, should be bound by class or caste. Such a tag, even though it has earned me fame, beats the purpose. But then, that is how the world works, in labels. We have entwined ourselves in all kinds of borders that separate us from each other."

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On a Wednesday morning, the cottages that line St Roques Road in Bandra bask in the winter sun. The lane is quiet, except for the occasional bark of a pet or scooters zooming off into the nearby Ranwar village. As a taxi driver wipes the dust off his kaali peeli, Jay Weinstein approaches him with a camera in tow. He doesn't ask for his name, ethnicity or life story; only for a couple of photographs. Seeing him puzzled, the Australian-origin photographer breaks into crisp Hindi, "Main kahin bhi jaata hoon, anjaane logon ki tasveer banata hoon [Wherever I go, I make images of strangers]."

Hearing the familiar language, the driver is game to play the subject. First, he's asked to wipe the expression off his face and stand next to his cab. Satisfied with the shot, Weinstein tells him, "Ab muskuraiye [now smile]," and captures his wide grin on camera. The interaction lasts only for a few minutes but we spot the driver smiling even after Weinstein's DSLR is back in his bag.

Jay Weinstein documents  the smile of a taxi driver in Bandra. Pics/Bipin Kokate

This connection forms the essence of the 38-year-old's ongoing photography project, So I Asked Them to Smile (SIATS). Over the last two years, Weinstein has shared 250 portrait pairs - non-smiling and smiling frames of kids and adults from all walks of life - on digital platforms. Next week, he will display 30 most compelling frames for the first time at an exhibition.

The photographer shows the images he takes to each subject

The backstory
It was a trip to Bikaner in 2013 that gave birth to this project. When Weinstein raised the camera to photograph a man with a wispy beard, he was greeted with a stern look. Miffed, he turned away, only to hear the man urging him to take his picture. "We make judgments about strangers in binaries as friendly-unfriendly or good-bad. These are rarely accurate. The idea is to change the way we view a stranger, and see how their smile changes our assumptions," says the US-born photographer, who spent his growing up years in Vrindavan, studied recreational sports coaching in Australia and returned to Mumbai in 2004 to pursue acting.

"He was jumping around in the water with a friend one afternoon, as I wandered down Juhu Beach," says the photographer

Soon, he ventured into advertising, and rekindled his love for travel and photography. "It gave me a reason to notice things that we walk past, and start conversations with strangers," says Weinstein, who considers the art meditative. "The calmer you are, the more of the outside world you notice."

"She was exploring the stunningly restored Kaiyuan temple complex one evening, with her daughter in Quanzhou, Fujian, China"

Say cheese
For the last few years, he has turned a full-time traveller and spends most of his time in India. "I love Mumbai but when you step out, you realise how different the rest of India is," shares Weinstein, who has visited Meghalaya, the interiors of Maharashtra, Orchha in Madhya Pradesh and the coast of Kerala, where he found his subjects to be camera-shy. "In rural areas, I also had to translate 'smile' as 'daat dikhaao' since they don't understand the meaning of muskurana."

Language also poses a barrier in non-English speaking countries. "In China, instead of 'say cheese', they say 'chetz', which means eggplant," he laughs. What's the next country on his wishlist? "Pakistan. The project's initial followers were Pakistanis. I assumed they wouldn't be happy seeing these photographs but realised where else would they have seen images of Indians as humans, without an agenda. Indians don't get to see their photographs this way either."

From: December 20 to 26, 11 am to 7 pm
At: Jehangir Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda
Call: 8828472412

Go click-happy here
>> Homi Modi Street in Fort
>> Industrial estates in Lower Parel 
>> Village neighbourhoods like Chuim and Chimbai in Bandra West

Portrait-making tips
While there is enough information about how to get your technique right, I'd suggest you interact with your subjects and treat them with dignity

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Studies in Form-Akbar Bhavan-20 from a series of cyanotype prints by artist Seher Shah and photographer Randhir Singh

A Summit can be anything you want it to mean, and we re-define it every time. Just when you think you have figured it out, we alter our course. You might think you know what the 2020 Dhaka Art Summit might look like, but we hope to add further surprise," says Diana Campbell Betancourt. At the age of 33, Betancourt is the third time artistic director of one of Asia's most important art events, the Dhaka Art Summit, set to open on February 2. Betancourt, who used to be based out of Mumbai, has been at the fore of bringing contemporary voices in art from Asia to the biennial event, which is now in its fourth edition. Joined by guest curators, Betancourt has brought over 300 artists across 10 curated exhibitions. We ask her what's different this time. Edited excerpts from the interview:

Bangladesh as centre
2017 was an important year as it marked 70 years of independence for both India and Pakistan. In 1947, however, what is now Bangladesh was still effectively a colony of Pakistan. Usually viewed as the poorer younger brother of these two countries, we saw the need to put Bangladesh back at the centre of its cartography. We want to shift the narrative away from India-Pakistan. We are looking at the trade and cultural connections that Bangladesh had with the Middle East and Southeast Asia, rather than only looking at South Asia. There are fewer Indian artists this time around, and we have more artists from Thailand and Myanmar and Singapore as we've shifted our focus further east. The Summit is not a nationalist exercise, so we are able to address the slippages across borders. We are also exhibiting one of Mrinalini Mukherjee's hemp sculptures in Bangladesh for the first time, through the support of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and the Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation, which draws connections to Bangladesh via the jute and textile trades which interlink its history with the rest of the world.

Diana Campbell Betancourt. Pic/Noor Photoface

Making more room
This time we have extended the Summit from four days to nine. There was a lot of local demand the last time. We saw 1,38,000 visitors in 2016. This year, we have split the weekends for different kinds of crowds.

Special focus on Sri Lanka
We believe that just as Bangladesh is left out of global dialogue, Sri Lanka is even more excluded. The show, titled One Hundred Thousand Small Tales, is curated by Sharmini Pereira, and has 40 artists right from the 1940s to the present.

Headed in the right direction
The Solo Projects section, which used to invite commissions from leading artists in the region, is replaced by Bearing Points. I felt that the Solo Projects didn't intellectually tie together everything we do in the Summit. The exhibition is curated by me, and the title refers to a compass, to a map that helps you orient yourself to lesser explored transcultural histories of the region.

Going back to school
The Summit has always been known for its workshops. This edition will have a free art school, with sessions conducted by artists such as Rashid Rana and Dayanita Singh, among others. It will be right at the middle of the summit, emphasising that culture is a key part to keeping people secular.

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Moshe Holtzberg praying with the Rabbi at Chabad House on Wednesday. Oren Rosenfeld, Israeli documentary maker, who flew with the family to Mumbai from Tel Aviv on Tuesday says the 11-year-old is aware of his past and what it represents. Pic Courtesy/Oren Rosenfeld

It's nearing 4.30 pm, and there's much activity at the Magen David Synagogue in Byculla. Carpets are being laid out and guests who will probably have to wait long are being offered tea and coffee. There's a lawn outside where - with the sun not at its shiniest best thanks to Mumbai's faux winter - a few tables and chairs have been laid out with white satin sheets that the brain registers as celebratory. In the midst of the activity, avoiding the scaffolds that still line the freshly painted blue walls of the 154-year-old synagogue, stands Devina Sankar, a Los Angeles resident who is in Mumbai on a three-week vacation. Looking into a Sony PXW-X70 handycam, she reminisces her school days spent next-door, where as a naughty student she'd often have her ears twisted. It elicits a sound of surprise from the man behind the camera, Oren Rosenfeld. An Israeli filmmaker, in India to document Mumbai's Jewish community, Rosenfeld is collecting several such accounts of the Jewish community's India experience.

In between interviews with his subjects, primarily Eddna Samuel (a Parel resident who Rosenfeld poetically calls the needle through which he will thread the narrative of his feature-length documentary), he points out that the synagogue, which is currently being prepped for the launch of a monthly magazine celebrating India-Israel ties and the Jewish community here titled, Namaste Shalom, is a Baghdadi-Jew synagogue. It's a community that most recall for its best-known Mumbai member, David Sassoon. "What's interesting here is that the Baghdadi Jews and Bene-Israelis [Jewish settlers in India who trace their history to the Lost Tribes] have come together. There are certain prayers in Judaism that cannot be conducted if there are less than 10 men. So, to fulfill that requirement, the Bene-Israelis come over to Baghdadi synagogues to up numbers," he adds.

Rosenfeld meets Baby Moshe's uncle Moshe Holtzberg at the Nariman Point home of common friend Suril Desai, also executive producer of the Mumbai Jews documentary. Moshe Senior, a Rabbi, lives in New York, and has flown in for the three-day visit of the family to Chabad House which he worked to ensure was not shut down. Rosenfeld says that while members of the Chabad House usually don’t mingle with other Jewish communities, the 26/11 attacks changed that in Mumbai, achieving the opposite. Pics/Atul Kamble

The timing of the magazine's launch, admits Rosenfeld, couldn't have been better. While the media seems to have almost given this a miss, just a few kilometres away Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu are setting the stage for better economic and strategic ties between the two countries at Colaba's Hotel Taj Mahal Palace. "But, I don't think they planned it that way."

Almost as if answering a question unasked, Rosenfeld, who runs the Jerusalem-based Holy Land Productions and has worked on projects for the BBC and National Geographic, says "I don't need to be there [i.e. Colaba]. I already have great shots from yesterday." What Rosenfeld refers to is the almost exclusive access he enjoyed as a journalist to Baby Moshe, 11, whose parents Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and Rivka Holtzberg were killed during the terror attacks at Chabad House on November 26, 2008. Baby Moshe (referred to as such because he shares his first name with his uncle) made his first visit to Mumbai post 26/11 on Tuesday amidst much media frenzy. Rosenfeld was invited by the Holtzberg family (Gavriel and Rivka's parents) to travel with them on the flight from Tel Aviv to Mumbai last week, and later Baby Moshe's first steps into Nariman House after the time his parents were killed along with four others.

Devina Sankar, a Los Angeles resident in Mumbai on a three-week vacation, speaks to Rosenfeld outside the Magen David Synagogue in Byculla where the Namaste Shalom magazine was launched on Thursday. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

On putting the boy through this, Rosenfeld says, "Baby Moshe always has his four grandparents around him. Plus, there's a psychologist who travels with him. He is showing signs of awareness of his past." Rosenfeld, who has a young son the same age as Moshe, says, "In Judaisim, a boy is said to become an adult at the age of 13, which is when the Bar Mitzvah is held. Moshe is almost that age now."

Initially, shy, Baby Moshe soon became comfortable with Rosenfeld's presence. A photograph the filmmaker picks from his iOS gallery is of the child standing before a luggage conveyor belt at Mumbai T2 alone. "He stepped away from his grandparents and waited at the carousel to pick up his heavy bag," he says, about a symbolic scene.

Chabad House, says the 41-year-old filmmaker, across the world has represented a community that has stood away from local communities. "They are more traditional and have stricter kosher rules." What the Mumbai attacks did, however, was to bring all of the city's Jews together. "On Tuesday, at a local Jewish community event, Moshe's grandparents were invited to speak. This [members of a Chabad House mingling] doesn't happen anywhere. If the idea of the terror attack was to shake the community, it did the opposite. It only made them stronger."

Yet, this might only inform a small part of the documentary. Had it not been for the connection between the communities forged after the attacks, the two would have been separate entities. What he is looking for is a Mumbai Jew's life in the city. "In Israel you have a lot of Jews who have come from different countries. However, the ones from India still share a deep connect with the country. They are in touch with their families and return here for vacations."

The travel back and forth is important. Samuel, when the camera is turned away from her, expresses how a multi-entry visa would help everyone. But that's for the PMs' ears. For Rosenfeld's camera, she talks about the excitement of seeing an article, on her life and her community, appearing in Namaste Shalom. And, when that's done, Rosenfeld disappears into the sidelines and records the rest of the evening. A coffee he was drinking is hastily put to rest on the floor as a BJP dignitary he probably doesn't recognise makes a late entry.

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The cast rehearsing at The Cuckoo Club

If you ask anyone, which part of the wedding they enjoy the most, chances are that the 'sangeet' would be a popular choice. Especially, in a city like Delhi that is known for their great Indian weddings. Prerna Chawla and Shikha Talsania's upcoming play Dekh Behen takes on this larger-than-life grandeur of a wedding that is taking place at a plush Chhattarpur farmhouse.

What makes this Akvarious production extra special is that this play has been put together by an all-girl team. Talsania says, "Dekh Behen is a kitschy, light-hearted story of five bridesmaids catching up hours before they are to put up a rehearsed item number at the Sangeet ceremony, in a big fat Delhi wedding. It's a bittersweet comedy about daughters, girlfriends, mothers, sisters, wives, and getting through one bloody 'shaadi ka function'." Playing the lead character, the bride's brattish sister, is YouTube superstar Mithila Palkar who used to be an active member of Thespo. While she always wanted to act on stage, she found her space backstage doing play readings. Speaking about her role Palkar says, "Riya belongs to a rich Punjabi family from Delhi. She's intelligent but inevitably a brat. But, she is also trying to figure out life as it happens to her and is battling a perpetual conflict of principles and emotions, like most of us, in our early 20s, do. So, 'rich brat' aside, I can relate to Riya."

The play has been written by Dilshad Edibam Khurana and Tahira Nath Krishnan. Khurana says, "Dekh Behen is a fun story that also touches upon a lot of issues that are common among friends or siblings. Through the course of the story, these issues get discussed and ironed out. But at the end of the play, you will go will go back home with a smile on your face." One can easily relate to the title and the poster of the play, thanks to the popular 'dekh behen' memes. So, is that the connect, we ask Talsania. She says, "The title came up during a coffee break conversation, while we were doing another play. Come and watch the play, you'll see why it's an apt title."

When: February, 1-4, 8 PM
Where: The Cuckoo Club, 5AA Pali Hill, Bandra West
Entry: Rs 400
Call: 9619962969

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Nupur Dhingra Paiva with daughters Tara, 9, and Isabelle, 6. Pic/Shadab Khan

When five-year-old Armaan walked into child psychotherapist Nupur Dhingra Paiva's clinic, her impression about the kid, whose shoulders were hunched over, was that he was "weighed down by something significant". Armaan's mother would later tell her how he felt unloved, wanted to run away from home and even shoot himself. But, it wasn't until Armaan's father joined the therapist and his wife for chat, an hour later, that Paiva noticed something alter in the child. The kid slowly crawled into his father's lap, and curled up there like a little prawn, Paiva recounted. That the child was craving for his dad's attention was a given.

Vignettes like these form the crux of Paiva's new book, Love and Rage: The Inner Worlds of Children (Yoda Press), where she breaks down conversations she has had in her healing room with both parents and children, to reiterate how love and affection is central to influencing a child's personality. "I felt an urgent need to communicate with the world that what comes into our consulting room is not crazy or bizarre -it is the stuff of ordinary life - ordinary conflicts, struggles and joys. And that mental health distress in adolescence and adulthood is almost entirely based on early life experience, from conception onwards," says the Delhi-based clinical psychologist, of why she wrote the book. "Adults who are interacting with children, as parents, teachers or carers, are sometimes far removed from the lived experience of the child. They become task focussed and outcome oriented - it becomes a lot about achievement, growth and the end result of happiness," she adds. In doing so, Paiva says that people forget "that the growth of the personality is a complex, slow process that needs nurturing".

Here, Paiva, who is also mother to two daughters, offers an "only love-not rage" guide.

>> It takes two
When a child is angry with one parent, it helps to have an available alternative. I have to add that I am not necessarily talking about the heteronormative two parents - male-female couple. Children need a diversity of responsible caregivers, someone who will take it upon themselves to keep the child's emotional needs in mind. The role of mother and father is about a mental attitude, the function they play for the child. It does not have to be a biological parent.

>> We need daddy
Often women find it difficult to let men get involved in caregiving tasks like feeding, bathing and putting to sleep. When a child has emotional access to their fathers, the diversity of experience offers them a wider range of seeing how to live in the world, because men and women live in the world quite differently. Just as an involved father gives a son a sense of someone to look up to, he gives a daughter an experience of being loved and valued - something she will carry with herself into future relationships with men.

>> Prep for school
The first couple of years of kindergarten are not about learning shapes or the alphabet, it is about learning to separate from home. It is a physical/emotional wrench, leaving safety and going to another space - one that can be fun and engaging, provided we can get over the fear of separating from the people we feel safe around. Once children are helped to adapt to this huge change, they can get on with learning. Otherwise, anxiety hampers learning for years afterwards.

Start early with picture story-books or perhaps even a visit to the school for the child to see what it looks like a month or so before the emotional temperature rises in April. Be prepared for repetition for as every parent of a young child knows, once is never enough. Stories that matter the most must be repeated endlessly, without variation so that they can sink in. The story of how everyone leaves home and goes to school is of central emotional import. In fact, it is a rite of passage.

>> Play hard
Using our bodies is a release for everything - anger, anxiety and other feelings - that get stuck in our muscles. In the emphasis on growing children's minds [or getting them to finish homework and projects], we forget about how important it is to be using their bodies. Children are calmer and more attentive, when they have had an experience of using their muscles in activity, especially free play.

>> It's okay to cry
Never tell a child not to cry. All children cry, for all sorts of things, so it is important to first figure out what the crying is trying to communicate. Simply telling a child to stop crying without first trying to understand what is under it, will damage their relationship with you. If the crying is because of sadness, then telling them to stop crying is plain selfish. We do it because we can't bear their expression of sadness. It is far healthier to accept that they are sad, and give them a hug. This kind of acceptance lets them know that while nothing can be done about it, at least their experience is being validated and acknowledged.

>> Don't ignore
Ignoring feelings teaches your child that you don't particularly care for his feelings, just his actions or his/her compliance. This only ensures that the feelings will reappear in a form that is harder to link to its source. In other words, the child will use a defence in order to deal with a feeling, and the anxiety its presence creates.

>> Keep it real
I am not advising that people deny that they also can get angry with their children. "Only love" is not a reality. My aim is to be real with my relationships, including my children. So, I freely express affection - lots of hugs and physical warmth, an hour at bedtime talking about their day and their worries. I also freely express disapproval or annoyance. I explain, and negotiate. As a result, I have very opinionated children who are expressive and open, including about their anger with me or their father. We accept it as real and engage with it as much as is possible at the time.

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If you have played your favourite Kishore Kumar song or a Beatles classic umpteen times but do not know why you forget to press the stop button for some particular numbers, new research offers some clues. Listeners often engage and develop a "deep connection" with some of their favourite songs, said the study published in the journal Psychology of Music.

The study involved more than 200 participants who completed an online questionnaire about their experience listening to their favourite song, including how it made them feel and the frequency with which they played the song. The participants reported listening to their favourite song hundreds of times.

The mean among the sample was more than 300 times and this number was even larger for listeners who had a deep connection to the song -- something that was particularly likely if they had mixed emotions, such as "bittersweet," while listening. Certain features of the song were particularly important reasons why respondents listened many times, said Jason Corey, Associate Professor of Music at the University of Michigan in the US and a co-author of the study.

The most important features were the song's "melody," "beat/rhythm" and "lyrics", the study found. For songs that made listeners happy, beat/rhythm was especially important for relistening. Finally, the more times people listened to their favourite song, the more the listeners could hear it internally, the researchers said.

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Shawna Pandya

While the world is already counting Dr Shawna Pandya in the league of Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams, the lady in question feels it's all "a bit premature".

Canadian scientist and astronaut, Dr Pandya, is known for her work as part of Citizen Science Astronaut (CSA) candidate with project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) and PHEnOM (Physiology, Health and Environmental Observations and Microgravity) that she has been pursuing for two years now to understand several aspects of outer space, ranging from cloud formation to physiology and microgravity. She was one of the two candidates to be shortlisted from 3,200 people enrolled in the CSA programme.

While she has been working extensively in the field of outer space, and has in the past even worked with NASA, she clarifies that there has been "no announcement, flight assignment or selection of missions" [scheduled to take flight] yet. They will soon head off to a Mars simulation for two weeks though, that will help them prepare better for the mission, as and when it happens.

In a telephonic interview from Canada, where Dr Pandya is based, she tells us, "We are still developing our science and our mission. Our programme has done a phenomenal job of recruiting great candidates regardless of gender, ethnicity and country of origin. In fact, India has better representation in PoSSUM now. It is interesting that there is so much international representation in space programmes. It's not a competition to say, 'I will be the first such and such...' It's only about working with the passion and excitement."

Pandya is now part of a show on Sony BBC Earth titled Astronauts — Toughest Job In The Universe. Ask her what makes her job the toughest and she says, "I think everyone is serious and passionate about their job and consider it the toughest in the universe. This job, however, requires a tremendous amount of dedication and time. It's team-based and there is much risk involved. You cannot afford to let anyone down and that really raises the stakes."

Ever since she was a child, Pandya had been fascinated by space. "I remember when I was in grade seven, I'd read books on astronomy and the universe. I think that's where it all began for me," says the 33-year-old, who works as a general physician. When it comes to the areas that she has dabbled in, it's an extensive laundry list. From a black belt in Taekwondo to baseball, to motivational speaking, to walking the ramp and crooning as an opera singer, Pandya seems to have done it all. Ask her how does she pack in so much, and she says, "When I am asked this, I tell people, 'relax, I'm not doing all this in the same 24-hour period'. The trick is to prioritise what you do with your time, line up goals, set deadlines for yourself and act accordingly."

Pandya shares a deep connect with Mumbai and tries to visit the city once every five years. The last time she was here was last February. "I have most of my extended family here, my uncles, cousins and up until recently, my grandmother. There's no other city in the world like Mumbai, for me. There's so much going on here all the time but there's always something that comes out of the constant commotion. This city is always home away from home for me."

Also Read: Virender Sehwag Pays Heartwarming Tribute To Astronaut Kaplana Chawla

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(Left to right) Vidhi Legal members Namrata Mukherjee, Nitika Khaitan and Nivedita Saksena. Pic/Ajay Gautam

The legal framework in India has often posed many a problem for members of the LGBTQ community. Some regulations are being changed, and certain implementations are underway. But, taking into account the slow pace of change, a new manual helps members of the queer community navigate the lacking legal regime, as it exists currently.

The manual deals with identity documents, violence, education, health and personal finances. It is the brainchild of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, a Delhi-based think-tank conducting legal research assisting the government to make better laws. Namrata Mukherjee, a core member of the team explains, "Legal change will only come slowly; meanwhile, it is important to spread awareness on how queer community can access its rights, working around the law that's already in place." Pallav Patankar, former director of programmes at Mumbai's The Humsafar Trust, India's oldest LGBTQ organisation, scrutinised the 112-page manual. While he's appreciative of the initiative, he outlined certain critical insights to us which we got Vidhi Legal to respond to.

Pallav Patankar. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

Trans women having two PAN cards - male and female - which is illegal
"This is because of the (hitherto) missing option of transgender, on the PAN card application," says Nitika Khaitan, another core member. "As of three weeks ago, that option has been introduced. Now you can reapply with the gender of your choice."

The manual seems to be critical about the concept of Aadhaar...
"Aadhaar has been at the centre of controversy mainly due to privacy concerns. Because privacy is intrinsic to this community, it's important to flag this. We are in no way influencing the debate," says Mukherjee. The manual states clearly that Aadhaar does not require people to verify their gender. "You are supposed to be able to put the gender of your choice. The implementation of this, of course, depends on the concerned on-ground officer," she adds.

Discrimination in school addresses the transgender issue and not sexuality
"There's very little by way of government policies that addresses the issue of discrimination at the school level. While UGC guidelines for trans students are there, there is no such thing with regards to sexuality," says Khaitan. The manual is addressed entirely to those above 18 years of age. "Underage boys and girls often face problems related to violence, healthcare, emotional abuse and discrimination in educational institutions. This is one area where we have not been able to find a solution," she adds.

The listed steps while procuring a voter ID are not followed by officials
Mukherjee says, "We have heard several complaints related to this. One tactic could be to take a copy of the NALSA judgment (National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India) that recognises the fundamental and civil rights of transgender persons, and present your case to the officials on ground. Another option is to approach your local MP and get him to write a letter on your behalf which you can take to the electoral photo ID centre and then mark the gender of your choice. You must also carry the gazette notification that says you've changed your name and gender. But, the success of these tactics depends entirely on the attitude of on-ground officials."

The chapter on health is from an academic perspective on health, gender dysphoria and gender affirmative therapy. What is the legal connect with India?
"There isn't a connect. There is nothing in our legal framework that regulates gender dysphoria or gender therapy. Because the queer community always encounters discrimination or harassment when they approach healthcare service providers, we have outlined general remedies that would be available to them under medical negligence laws, HIV Act; specific provisions that address discrimination that not many know of," says Khaitan.

Some suggestions in the manual seem to apply only to the digitally literate
Mukherjee says, "We are cognisant of the fact that access is determined by class. The idea of the manual is to reach grassroot LGBTQ organisations that will be able to disseminate the manual more effectively. This could be a tool that they can hopefully rely on while trying to access justice. We are also getting the manual translated into five regional languages." Add to this, the first chapter on identity documents is being recorded as a Hindi podcast. "We hope to publish it on social media, so that people can easily access it on WhatsApp etc."

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Amitabh Bachchan campaigns for the 1984 elections in Allahabad

Fans across the world celebrated acting legend Amitabh Bachchan's 75th birthday last October. And if you wish to extend the festivities, visit Frames 75, an exhibition of rare photographs and framed memorabilia that celebrate Bachchan's oeuvre.

The exhibition has been curated by film historian and archivist SMM Ausaja and photo journalist Pradeep Chandra. "There were no big commemorative events for his 75th birthday. But we realised that his 75th year is not yet over, so we should celebrate it with a visual journey in his platinum year," says Ausaja.

A photo by Pradeep Chandra of the legend at RK Studios

The duo worked over three months to curate the list of exhibits and even commissioned artwork for the exhibition. "We wanted something rare that's not on the Internet. You will see a photo from his first photo session, a pamphlet from his Allahabad election campaign, and artist Sonu Gupta's recreation of a painting by MF Husain that depicts the three phases of Bachchan's life," Ausaja says.

An original poster of Yaarana

"I did a similar show on his 61st birthday. So, for this exhibition we wanted to do something different. You will see some never-seen-before images by me, including a photo of Bachchan and Rajiv Gandhi at Indira Gandhi's funeral; a frame of him sitting with Bal Thackeray's shadow in the background; a photo with his daughter, with Dilip Kumar, and one with Rajkumar and Sanjay Dutt in the same frame," adds Chandra.

SMM Ausaja and Pradeep Chandra at Bachchan's residence

Also on display will be original posters, vinyl covers and fake notes used for shoots, many of which have Bachchan's image on them. "We wanted a wide variety of media to break monotony and sustain interest across all frames," Ausaja signs off.

FROM: May 11 to 25, 10 am to 6 pm
AT: Whistling Woods, Goregaon East.
CALL: 30916070

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My friend wants me to decide whether or not the boy she is dating is someone she should get into a relationship with. I don't want to make that kind of decision because I don't want to be blamed later if it doesn't work out. What do I tell her?
Why can't you tell her what you just said? That you don't want to be blamed if it doesn't work out? She's your friend, so why can't you just be honest about how you feel?

I detect a pattern of constant negativity in my boyfriend. He is never really happy about anything, no matter what happens. If he has a great birthday party, some little thing will ruin it for him. If we watch a great movie, he will be upset at the end of it because there's a traffic jam. If I get him something nice to surprise him, he will find some fault in it and wonder why I didn't get him something else. This is a constant habit and it's really getting on my nerves because I am a very positive person. His behaviour constantly drags me down and I don't want to turn into someone like him. How can I get him to change?
Negativity is a powerful force that can drag someone down, along with everyone in his or her orbit. It's great that you're a positive person, because it means you are probably helping to keep him afloat. I suggest you get him to speak to a professional, because someone needs to evaluate where this negativity comes from. Is it a sign of depression, for instance? Also, try and understand why he feels the way he does. It's obvious that you care about him, but it's also important for him to know that you have to deal with his negativity and that it affects you, too. He should be aware of the consequences of his actions, especially if he assumes they don't affect anyone but himself.

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Mangoes can be used for skin and hair in several ways as they are loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, all of which are good for the skin. Here are some amazing skin and hair benefits of mangoes.

Helps get a glowing skin: Mangoes are loaded with beta-carotene and Vitamin A. For a glowing skin, smear mango pulp on your face and leave it on for 30 minutes. Beta-carotene and Vitamin A present in mango help to revive the dull skin and turn your skin into a radiant one.

Helps fight acne: The beta-carotene in mango helps fight acne. The best time to apply mango pulp is at night. Apply a handful of mango pulp at night and keep it for an hour. Wash your face before going off to sleep. Alternately, boil a raw mango until the water is reduced to half. Use this water as facial astringent for drying up acne naturally. Use the mango astringent regularly on your face to get rid of acne, pimples and scars.

Helps get a fair skin: Beta-carotene in mangoes has a strong anti aging effect. In addition, Vitamin C in mangoes helps rest down collagen. Mangoes are a great way to reduce dark spots, freckles, acne scars and pigmentation. Apply mango pulp during summer to get a clear and fair skin that is free of blemishes, wrinkles, scars and acne.

Acts as a great exfoliating agent: Mango pulp when applied on skin along with glycerine or honey, helps to exfoliate dead skin cells. This, in turn, results in a smooth and glowing skin. Mix one spoon of mango pulp with one spoon of raw milk and two spoons of honey. Rub the paste on your face gently to remove blackheads and whiteheads. You can use mango scrub for removing dead skin cells and bring back the natural glow.

Acts as a natural peel off mask: We are aware of chemical peel off masks available in the market and their benefits on skin. Raw mango pulp is high in AHA (alpha hydroxyl acid) and Vitamin C, both of which are excellent peeling agents. Vitamin A does wonders to your skin and its deficiency can cause dullness, result in open pores as well as lead to eruptions on the arms, elbows and knees.

It is beneficial for hair: The seed of mango (soft part after breaking the outer hard seed) when kept in oil (any) for few days, and then applied, helps you to get rid of grey hair and prevents hair loss. When the same is mixed with fenugreek and yogurt, it serves as an excellent home remedy for dandruff.

Helps to form happy hormone: Mangoes contain a lot of tryptophan, which helps in the formation of the ‘happiness-hormone’ serotonin. A rise in happy hormone automatically cheers you up and brings back the natural glow on your face. Mango is thus called a happy fruit.
With inputs from Dr Apratim Goel, of Cutis Skincare Studio

Also Read: Mumbai Food: 8 Delicious Mango Dishes You Must Try During Summer

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A bottle gourd or dudhi as we call it is one of the healthiest vegetables. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh. Doodhi is about 92 percent of water and minerals which keeps your body hydrated. The bottle gourd or doodhi has a long list of health benefits. Dr. Manoj Kutteri, Wellness Director at Atmantan Wellness Director lists some of them

• Cooked bottle gourd aids for better digestion. It is cooling, calming, diuretic and anti-bilious (reduces bile and stops indigestion). The B vitamins assist in increasing the body’s metabolic rate to better digest fats, proteins, sugar and carbohydrate.
• Like cranberries, bottle gourd supports the kidneys and the urinary system of our body by reducing burning sensation from high acidic urination. It also reduces the chances of urinary infection because it is alkalizing and has a diuretic effect. Consume if you have high creatine and uric acid.
• A nutritious vegetable for the female reproductive system.
• It is extremely popular for weight loss especially the bottle gourd juice.
• Bottle gourd is extremely popular for reducing high blood pressure and bad cholesterol in some people.
• Bottle gourd is known to combat excessive thirst in diabetic patients.
• The fiber and the minerals in the bottle gourd support healthy digestion and combats constipation, colic pain and ulcer.
• Helps to prevent premature greying and improve hair growth.
• The Vitamin C and Zinc in lauki prevent pre mature aging and wrinkles as well.
• Bottle gourd is recommended for reducing liver inflammation.
• Lauki juice taken with ginger or black pepper can help with respiratory health.
• Bottle gourd is over 90% water therefore it is easy to digest
• The vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre in lauki keep the body well-nourished and curb unnecessary appetite, especially if you drink its juice in the morning on an empty stomach.
• It also contains sodium, potassium, essential minerals and trace elements, which regulate blood pressure and prevent the risk of heart ailments.
• High in sodium and potassium, bottle gourd is also an excellent vegetable for people with hypertension.
• Mixing the juice with sesame oil provides an effective medicine for insomnia. Massage the scalp with this preparation every night.

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Turns out, autism is not linked to consuming fish in pregnancy.

Scientists at the University of Bristol looked at the assumption that mercury exposure during pregnancy is a major cause of autism using evidence from nearly 4500 women who took part in the Children of the 90s study.

Using analysis of blood samples, reported fish consumption and information on autism and autistic traits from one of the largest longitudinal studies to date, researchers found no links between levels of mercury in the mothers and autism or autistic traits in their children. The only adverse effect of mercury found was poor social cognition if mothers ate no fish at all, especially for girls.

Lead author Jean Golding commented, "Our findings further endorse the safety of eating fish during pregnancy. Importantly we've found no evidence at all to support claims that mercury is involved in the development of autism or autistic traits.

"This adds to a body of work that endorses the eating of fish during pregnancy for a good nutritional start to life with at least two fish meals a week."

Dr Caroline Taylor said, "All species of fish contain traces of mercury, which can harm brain development, but we've found that the health benefits of fish, probably from nutrients such as vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium and iodine, outweigh the risks from mercury.¿

"The advice on eating fish when pregnant is complicated and overwhelming. There is now a body of evidence to support a simpler and clearer approach that maximises the health benefits of fish.¿

The study appears in the journal Molecular Autism.

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Food tends to spoil more quickly during the summer. It is important to pay extra attention to your food and look for unusual odour and mould before consuming it, say experts. Indrayani Pawar, team leader, dietitian team, Hinduja Healthcare Surgical and Varsha Gorey, clinical nutritionist, Apollo Hospitals, Navi Mumbai, suggest some tips:

1. Which foods spoil quickly
Foods with high moisture content and protein-based foods are easy targets for micro-organisms. Milk and milk products, raw and cooked meats and vegetables are more prone to spoilage compared to dry food items. Foods that are high in sugar, or salt or with high fat or oil content in contrast don't spoil quickly because these act as preservative agents.

Storage becomes important here - low temperatures serve to preserve these food items. One must ensure food is not kept outside for long periods of time.

2. How to identify bad food?
Spoilt food has a telling smell. Quite often, food items that look fine on the outside have mould or fungus growing inside which people don't notice. It is always better to check the food for any unusual odours and open the food item to check for unusual signs, such as stringy threadlike growth. Dairy based Indian sweets are more likely to spoil quickly compared to dry fruit and nuts based, pulse and flour based or dry coconut based sweets.

3. Eating well during the summer
Seasonal fruits and vegetables are always the best option in their respective seasons. In order to quench thirst in summer, fresh fruits and vegetables should be consumed (as they are also good in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals). Smoothies with curds, or simple buttermilk are better options than fizzy or cold drinks. Curd will help to soothe the stomach by providing probiotics and easy to digest proteins.

4. Eat safe while traveling this summer
If you're travelling long distances during the summer, it is best to carry dry foods. Nuts and oil seeds, roasted chiwdas, roasted makhana, multigrain khakaras and chikki are some examples. Kokum sherbet, aam panha, nimbu pani, buttermilk and lassi are also great for the summer.

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Gestational diabetes -- high blood sugar condition during pregnancy -- may cause early-stage kidney damage that can later lead to chronic kidney diseases among women, reported a study.

The study showed that women with gestational diabetes were more likely to have a high glomerular filtration rate (GFR) -- an estimate of how much blood per minute passes through the glomeruli, the tiny filters within kidneys that extract waste from the blood.

Women with gestational diabetes had more than triple the risk of an elevated GFR, which may precede the early kidney damage that accompanies pre-diabetes -- a condition with higher blood sugar levels but not high enough to be classified as diabetes.

"Our findings suggest that women who have had gestational diabetes may benefit from periodic checkups to detect early-stage kidney damage and receive subsequent treatment," said Cuilin Zhang from National Institutes of Health's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in Maryland, US.

The study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, included data from 601 Danish women having gestational diabetes and 613 non-diabetic women.

The results showed that women who had gestational diabetes and later developed diabetes were approximately nine times more likely to have an elevated GFR later in life, compared to women who did not have gestational diabetes.

They were also likely to have an elevated urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR), which is an indicator of kidney disease.

The study could not prove that gestational diabetes causes kidney damage, and the authors noted that more research is needed to confirm their findings.

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On the issue of missing emoji characters on Twitter, the micro-blogging platform has rolled out updated versions of its Twemoji designs for its Android users. This update appears to target users using the Twitter app on Android 4.4 KitKat to Android 7.1 Nougat, tech website Emojipedia reported late on Monday.

Over one-third of the users were reported to be still using Android versions dating back to 2014 or earlier leading to the lack of new emoji support.

The emoji implementation has been done using Google-owned "EmojiCompat library" that was created in 2017 to allow apps to support new emojis even on old systems, giving the app developers a choice of not having to choose Google's own emojis.

"At least 50 per cent of eligible Twitter users should now see this change, with the feature being enabled for more users over the course of this week," Emojipedia quoted Bryan Haggerty, Twitter Design Lead, as saying.

Users, however, would have an option to choose between the native and Twitter emoji set. This feature was being tested on select users since March before being officially rolled out.

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Consuming Mediterranean diet rich in antioxidants could reduce the adverse effects of air pollution on health. A diet which includes antioxidants present in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, olive oils, fish and poultry over red meat and processed foods, can weaken the adverse effects of exposure to high levels of air pollution, says researchers.

The study showed that people who least adhered to these antioxidant-rich foods had 17 per cent higher risk of cardiovascular disease related deaths for every 10 micrograms per cubic meter increase in long-term average PM2.5 exposure, compared to 5 per cent in those who consumed such diet.

"Given the benefits we found of a diet high in antioxidants, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that particle air pollution caused by fossil fuel combustion adversely affects health by inducing oxidative stress and inflammation," said George Thurston from Department of Environmental Medicine at the New York University.

The study, presented at the American Thoracic Society 2018 International Conference in San Diego, included data from 548,699 participants for over a period of 17 years. They were linked to estimates of long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3) based on census tract information.

Deaths from all causes increased by 5 per cent for every 10 parts per billion (ppb) increase in long-term average NO2 exposure in those with least consumption of the diet as compared to 2 per cent among the people with higher consumption.

"However the diet did not appear to protect against the harmful effects of long-term exposure to O3...the ozone effect was not significantly blunted by a Mediterranean diet, so ozone apparently affects cardiac health through a different mechanism", said Thurston.

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Did you know losing too much weight too fast can be harmful for your health? Losing weight is not always a euphoria moment, sometimes it can be bad for health. Thus, it is important is to understand the relationship between health and the correct body weight.

The market is flooded with options to lose weight - crash diets, supplements, pills etc. - all promising a rapid weight transformation. But are these quick fixes the right choice?

"Losing weight too fast means putting your health at risk. A slow and steady weight loss plan is always a good idea. This way you can lose the unwanted weight without any side effects. A lot of us get tempted with the lucrative promises of quick weight loss and end up harming our health drastically. This issue needs attention and a lot of emphasis should be put on this problem," said Dr. Pooja Chaudhary, wellness consultant, Healthians.

It is important to understand the concept of rapid weight loss. Losing weight around 0.45 kg-0.9 kg per week is a safe bet. But, losing more than that can be considered as rapid weight loss which can have an impact on the health.

The common ways by which people try to lose weight are:

1. Starvation Diets

2. Consumption of diet pills or supplements

3. Opting for very-low-calorie diets

4. Over-exercising

At the start of exercise plan or diet plan, people witness a sudden weight loss of 2-3 kg. This is actually the water weight. The initial sudden weight loss is normal. But after this initial loss, anything more than 0.45 kg-0.9 kg per week could brew trouble for you in the long run.

Here are various health problems, as suggested by Dr. Angeli Misra (Co- Founder of Lifeline Laboratory), that sudden weight loss can trigger.

Disturbing the Body's Equilibrium: Our bodies can adjust to the minor dietary changes and run smoothly but rapid and drastic changes can wreak havoc. Sudden weight loss causes electrolyte imbalance in the body. A sudden decrease in the food intake (by following crash diets) will lead to an unexpected reduction in the electrolytes level, particularly potassium and magnesium.

Heart Problems: Sudden weight loss can damage the blood vessels which further leads to fluctuations in heart rate, blood pressure, irregular heart rhythm, thus increases the risk of heart failure. Although exercises aid in weight loss, they are really dangerous for heart health.

Gallstones: The quick weight loss can cause the cholesterol in the liver to seep in the bile which can lead to the formation of stones. It is always wiser to lose weight slowly and follow a proper weight loss plan. Completely avoid those crash course diets and severe fasting as the greed of losing weight quickly can seriously affect our health.

Can indicate diseases like diabetes, cancer: If you are losing weight quickly without even trying, it can be an indication of serious diseases like cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, celiac diseases, COPD, etc. Sudden and unexplained weight loss needs immediate and proper attention. It is extremely important to seek medical advice. Therefore, the key to a healthy weight -loss is maintaining a balance and losing weight slowly and steadily!¿ concluded Chaudhary.

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Should I end my relationship just because my girlfriend thinks it's not working out? I don't really see any serious problems, so I don't know what she's talking about. Why can't she see it the way I am?
If she's not making this up, it's obvious that the two of you aren't on the same page here. The only thing you can do is try and understand why her view of this is so radically different from your own, and ask if she is willing to try and make it work.

My boyfriend and I ended our relationship a year-and-a-half ago because of logistics. He was living in another city and we simply couldn't spend enough time together. We tried to make the long distance thing work, but decided to stop after a point because it was too difficult to manage. We haven't been in touch since it ended. I just found out through a common friend that he has been offered a job in my city and is moving here in a month. I have been thinking about calling him and going out just to see if there is still any spark, and to try and give it another chance. Is this a bad idea though, considering we couldn't pull it off the first time?
I suggest you take it one step at a time because, to begin with, you haven't been in touch for over a year-and-a-half. People and circumstances can both change dramatically over time, so you don't know what to expect. If your relationship ended simply because the two of you couldn't meet often, and there were no other reasons, you may be able to make it work, provided he wants it to as much as you do. At the moment though, everything about this is speculative. Try calling him, get a sense of whether he wants to meet, and then see how that first date goes before jumping to conclusions.

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Raorchestes charius, Coorg

Looking for new subjects to shoot? Try dropping to the ground. That's where you will find the best true-life models for macro photography, suggests wildlife photographer Dr Caesar Sengupta. "Macro photography, which is producing larger than life images of small objects, is oriented around reptiles, amphibians and insects. While some insects and amphibians can be found in our backyards, reptiles aren't that common in an urban set-up," says Dr Sengupta.

He says the best times to shoot are before, during and immediately after the monsoon. "That's the time reptiles and amphibians come out. India has two biological hotspots - the Western Ghats, and the sub and eastern Himalayan region," says the expert, adding that, the quality of output from a dedicated macro lens cannot be compared to that achieved with a regular lens. Here's your guide to clicking small wonders.

Insectivorous plant, Kaas plateau

The macro checklist
* Take care of your gear and yourself in the rains, where the forest floor can be treacherous. Carry high ankle shoes or
gumboots.
* Macro photography is mostly done in low-light conditions - in the evening or at night. You need to have an external flash; organisms won't be bothered by it as their retina is not the same as ours.
* There are no venomous frogs in India, but you need to be careful with insects as they may bite or cause allergies. Personal protection is always important when entering a jungle. For reptiles, you need to know your subject well. You must know the striking distance of the reptile. It helps to travel with a biological or field expert.

Saw scaled viper, Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary, Goa. Pics Courtesy/Dr Caesar Sengupta

Top spots for hot shots
* Agumbe Rainforest Research Station in Karnataka is famous for king cobras and other species of reptiles and frogs. While the cobras aren't easily sighted, you can get permission to be a part of a rescue operation when the reptile has strayed into human territory. Dandeli and Coorg in Karnataka are also great spots.
* Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa is famous for various snakes such as Indian rock python, Russell's viper, as well as butterflies.

Indian Violet Tarantula, Goa

* Matheran is great for spotting green vine snakes, bamboo pit vipers, tarantulas and frogs.
* Within Mumbai, head to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (including Yeoor in Thane) and Maharashtra Nature Park in Mahim. Phansad, Bhimashankar and Amboli are must-visits, too. From September to October, head to Kaas plateau in Maharashtra to photograph insects and flowers.
* Thar desert is home to the Keeled rock, Sind sand, Persian micro and other geckos.

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Now days, a gluten-free lifestyle has become one of the most popular diet trends in the market. Every shop/ mall has set of foods stating 'gluten free food'. The demand for these gluten-free foods is increasing. In order to understand the gluten free food trends taking place in the market it is important to understand gluten.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, oats and their derivatives. Some people are found to be sensitive to gluten and show mild symptoms of intolerance such as chronic diarrhea and vomiting. Celiac disease is associated with an allergic reaction within the inner lining of the small intestine. The linings of the small intestine are destroyed by inflammations caused by the immunological reaction with gluten.

Dr Pradeep Gadge, Diabetologist, Gadge Diabetes Centre, says, "Gluten free products have been around for years suffering from celiac disease. However, the demand has now widened beyond medical needs. The food market started to grow beyond people who were just needs based and into a lifestyle choice. As many people think gluten-free diets are healthier and are giving up gluten to lose weight. It’s basically a fashion. Another common belief that gluten-free diets are healthier (and a growing availability of alternative breads and grain products) are also driving the trend. Gluten-free products have turned from being medicated products for gluten intolerant people to a lifestyle choice. Gluten-free foods are gaining popularity partly because manufacturers and marketers are aligning new product developments with other emerging trends in the food market. These trends include use of plant proteins and grains like quinoa."

There are many celebrities who follows fad diets for weight loss and people are just following them without knowing the medically reason. People want quick fixes, and diets are frequently used as a quick fix for issues. There are many restaurants and café where gluten free foods/dishes are available, and people are following that thinking it’s a low fat and healthier. But that is not true a gluten-free dish may contain a lot more butter or oil, and that is not healthier. It is always better to consult a qualified dietician or nutritionist before starting a diet.

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It may sound audacious to some but Facebook thinks that sharing with a trained employee of the company the intimate images that you fear might go viral in the social networking platforms can help it stop their spread, thereby protecting your privacy.

The social networking giant on Tuesday said it was testing a reporting tool so that people who worry that someone might want to harm them by sharing an intimate image can proactively upload it, which will eventually help Facebook to block anyone else from sharing it on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger.

Facebook said it entered into partnership with safety organisations on a way for people to securely submit photos they fear will be shared without their consent -- images that are also referred to as "revenge porn" or "non-consensual pornography".

"This pilot programme, starting in Australia, Canada, the UK and US, expands on existing tools for people to report this content to us if it's already been shared," Antigone Davis, Facebook's Global Head of Safety, wrote in a Facebook post.

From anxiety and depression to the loss of a personal relationship or a job, the result of having most intimate moments shared without permission can be devastating for a person.

And while these images harm people of all genders, ages and sexual-orientations, women are nearly twice as likely as men to be targeted, Davis said.

"This week, Facebook is testing a proactive reporting tool in partnership with an international working group of safety organisations, survivors and victim advocates, including the Australian Office of the eSafety Commissioner, the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and The National Network to End Domestic Violence in the US, the UK Revenge Porn Helpline and YWCA Canada," Davis added.

As part of this initiative, anyone who fears an intimate image of them will be shared can contact one of Facebook's partners to submit a form.

After submitting the form, the victim receives an email containing a secure, one-time upload link. The victim can use the link to upload images they fear will be shared.

Thereafter, one of a handful of specifically trained members of Facebook's Community Operations Safety Team will review the report and create a unique fingerprint, or hash, that allows the social network to identify future uploads of the images without keeping copies of them on its servers.

Facebook said once it creates these hashes, it will notify the victim via email and delete the images from its servers within seven days.

"We store the hashes so any time someone tries to upload an image with the same fingerprint, we can block it from appearing on Facebook, Instagram or Messenger," Davis added.

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After killing off apps used by a minority of its userbase including the "Twitter for Mac", the micro-blogging site is shutting down its TV apps on Roku, Android TV and Xbox from May 24.

"On Thursday, May 24, Twitter for Roku, Twitter for Android TV and Twitter for Xbox will no longer be available. To get the full Twitter experience, visit https://twitter.com on your device or desktop," the microblogging website tweeted.

This is due to the dismal feedback that users gave because these Twitter apps did not allow them to tweet from their account or fully interact with the Twittersphere in general, The Verge reported.

A report in Tech Crunch, however, said that Twitter has made the decision to kill off these apps as the micro-blogging platform works towards GDPR compliance.

"In addition, neither Xbox or Roku support a standard regularly supported video player, which made them more difficult to maintain. That also came into play with this decision," the report said.

As compared to other TV apps like Netflix, Twitter lacked on the "exclusive video content" front as well.

Twitter for tvOS (Apple TV) and Twitter for Amazon Fire TV will continue to be available.

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While Google Duplex, which lets AI mimic a human voice to make appointments and book tables through phone calls, has mesmerised people with its capabilities and attracted flak on ethical grounds at the same time, Microsoft has showcased a similar technology it has been testing in China.

At an AI event in London on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that the company's Xiaoice social chatbot has 500 million "friends" and more than 16 channels for Chinese users to interact with it through WeChat and other popular messaging services.

"Microsoft has turned Xiaoice, which is Chinese for 'little Bing', into a friendly bot that has convinced some of its users that the bot is a friend or a human being. Xiaoice has her own TV show, it writes poetry and it does many interesting things," The Verge quoted Nadella as saying.

Xiaoice interacts in text conversations but now the company has started allowing the chat bot to call people on their phones.

The bot does not work exactly like Google Duplex, which uses the Assistant to make calls on a user's behalf but it holds a phone conversation with the user.

"One of the things we started doing earlier this year is having full duplex conversations. So now Xiaoice can be conversing with you in WeChat and stop and call you. Then you can just talk to it using voice," Nadella was quoted as saying.

Humans will be humans and the latest victim of humankind was Microsoft.

Two years ago, Microsoft launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered bot on Twitter, named Tay, for a playful chat with people, only to silence it within 24 hours as users started sharing racist and offensive comments with the bot.

Launched as an experiment in "conversational understanding" and to engage people through "casual and playful conversation", Tay was soon bombarded with racial comments and the innocent bot repeated those comments back with her commentary to users.

Some of the tweets had Tay referring to Hitler, denying the Holocaust, and supporting Donald Trump's immigration plans, among others.

Later, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is taking Tay off Twitter as people were posting abusive comments to her.

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How do I convince my mother that my girlfriend is perfect for me? She keeps thinking I will find someone better, just because she doesn't understand her very well. I want the two of them to get along, because they are both important to me. How do I make this happen?
She won't understand her until the two of them spend some time together and make an attempt to. To begin with, ask your mother if she wants to understand your girlfriend, and explain to her why she must try. You can't understand another person until you are open enough to give another point of view an opportunity. Speak to them both and tell them why this is important to you.

My boyfriend was great during the first year we were together, but something has changed over the past couple of months. He is now openly abusive, which came as a shock to me because he was always polite and well-behaved before. He now abuses me the minute we have an argument and, when I ask him to stop saying stuff like that and behave himself, he abuses me even more. A week ago, he almost slapped me. I saw him raise his hand and then pull back, because he must have seen my reaction. He apologised the next day, but it didn't seem like a genuine apology. I am afraid of him now, because his temper is out of control. I don't want to be with someone abusive, who doesn't respect me and actually threatens me with physical violence. Is this reason enough for me to end this relationship?
It is. End it today. Don't spend a minute with anyone who doesn't respect you. If he threatens you with violence again, please walk into the nearest police station and file a complaint against him. Don't allow anyone to get away with this sort of behaviour. Relationships work only when there is mutual respect, and you deserve to be with someone who understands that.

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Bariatric surgery, a weight loss operation, is associated with a 61 percent decrease in the risk of developing malignant skin cancer, according to a study.

Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer, most closely associated with excessive sun exposure. Obesity is an established risk factor for cancer and some studies indicate that intentional weight loss sometimes reduces the risk.

However, evidence for a link between obesity, weight loss and malignant melanoma is limited.

The new findings showed that bariatric surgery led to a 42 percent reduced risk of skin cancer in general compared to controls given usual obesity care.

The study "supports the idea that obesity is a melanoma risk factor and indicates that weight loss in individuals with obesity can reduce the risk of bariatric surgery that has increased steadily in many countries over several decades", said lead author Magdalena Taube from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

The results were presented at the 2018 European Congress on Obesity in Vienna, Austria.

The protective effect of bariatric surgery on skin cancer was observed in a group of 2,007 obese participants who were then followed for a median of 18 years.

These were compared with a control group consisting of 2,040 individuals who matched with the participants who underwent surgery on sex, age, anthropometric measurements, cardiovascular risk factors, psychosocial variables and personality traits.

To analyse malignant melanoma incidence, statistical tests were used to compare time to first melanoma cancer diagnosis between the surgery and control groups.

In additional analyses, risk ratios between the surgery and control groups were compared.

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To stop false news from spreading on its platform, Facebook has said it put in place a three-pronged strategy that constitutes removing accounts and content that violate its policies, reducing the distribution of inauthentic content and informing people by giving them more context on the posts they see.

Another part of its strategy in some countries is partnering with third-party fact-checkers to review and rate the accuracy of articles and posts on Facebook, Tessa Lyons, a Facebook product manager on News Feed focused on false news, said in a statement on Thursday.

The social media giant is facing criticism for its role in enabling political manipulation in several countries around the world. It has also come under the scanner for allegedly fuelling ethnic conflicts owing to its failure to stop the deluge of hate-filled posts against the disenfranchised Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.

"False news is bad for people and bad for Facebook. We're making significant investments to stop it from spreading and to promote high-quality journalism and news literacy," Lyons said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday told the European Parliament leaders that the social networking giant is trying to plug loopholes across its services, including curbing fake news and political interference on its platform in the wake of upcoming elections globally, including in India.

Lyons said Facebook's three-pronged strategy roots out the bad actors that frequently spread fake stories.

"It dramatically decreases the reach of those stories. And it helps people stay informed without stifling public discourse," Lyons added.

Although false news does not violate Facebook's Community Standards, it often violates the social network's polices in other categories, such as spam, hate speech or fake accounts, which it removes remove.

"For example, if we find a Facebook Page pretending to be run by Americans that's actually operating out of Macedonia, that violates our requirement that people use their real identities and not impersonate others. So we'll take down that whole Page, immediately eliminating any posts they made that might have been false," Lyons explained.

Apart from this, Facebook is also using machine learning to help its teams detect fraud and enforce its policies against spam.

"We now block millions of fake accounts every day when they try to register," Lyons added.

A lot of the misinformation that spreads on Facebook is financially motivated, much like email spam in the 90s, the social network said.

If spammers can get enough people to click on fake stories and visit their sites, they will make money off the ads they show.

"We're figuring out spammers' common tactics and reducing the distribution of those kinds of stories in News Feed. We've started penalizing clickbait, links shared more frequently by spammers, and links to low-quality web pages, also known as 'ad farms'," Lyons said.

"We also take action against entire Pages and websites that repeatedly share false news, reducing their overall News Feed distribution," Lyons said.

Facebook said it does not want to make money off of misinformation or help those who create it profit, and so such publishers are not allowed to run ads or use its monetisation features like Instant Articles.

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I want to find a way of telling my girlfriend to wear better perfume without hurting her feelings. She smells like a florist's shop, which is irritating and hard to ignore. How do I do it in a subtle manner?
If you believe her perfume doesn't suit her, you should talk about it while giving her the prerogative of continuing to wear it if she likes it. Being honest is an important part of building trust, and she should trust you enough to know that you mean well. Also get another person's opinion though. You may be the only one who thinks it excessive. Maybe you have an over-sensitive nose and everyone else thinks she smells great.

My boyfriend refuses to take anything I say seriously. He loves me a lot, but anything I say is treated with amusement, whether it is my opinion about a restaurant or anything to do with his career. He assumes only the things he and his friends say matter. I don't know if he believes I am genuinely incapable of thinking, because I sometimes feel like a child when I am around him and his friends. This affects me to such an extent that I now simply clam up when I am out with them and speak only when I am spoken to. I don't even bother contributing to any discussion or argument because they don't acknowledge my perspective. How do I get him to take me seriously?
This isn't about him taking you seriously; it's about respect. If he thinks you are incapable of thinking, or that your opinion is of no importance to him in any way, why is he with you? If he doesn't respect your perspective, why does he want a relationship with you? If this is a one-sided affair with no exchange of opinions, thoughts, likes and dislikes, what makes you think this is a substantial relationship worth wasting time on? I suggest you ask yourself, and him, these questions first.

The inbox is now open to take your most carnal and amorous queries. Send your questions on email to lovedoc@mid-day.com

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Ameya Davda and Devak Davda at the Sewri facility. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

If there is one problem that most of us perennially face in our daily lives, it is the lack of storage space. But, one man's problem could well be another man's opportunity. Entrepreneurs Ameya Davda and Devak Davda's startup, Space Valet, is a case in point. Their recently launched service aims to be a one-stop storage solution that offers private, lockable and secure self-storage units of various sizes to stash your belongings.

Home away from home
"Think of it as the sophisticated spare closet or stock room you've always longed for in Mumbai," says Davda who along with his cousin Devak came up with this idea when they returned to India after completing their studies abroad. "I was in California and Devak in London, and while we were there, we learnt how popular cell storage is among people. It's a 60-year- old concept and almost a 40-billion dollar industry," he adds. On returning to Mumbai, Davda teamed up with his cousin to launch the startup which they felt would be a good fit in an overcrowded city. They then conducted a survey to find out if people would avail of a service like this. "People are always on the lookout for additional storage space, more so in Mumbai," he says. The top reasons for self-storage rental, he observed, was the lack of storage space at home, temporary storage while moving, and storing things people don't want or need. The most popular things being stored are wedding outfits and furniture.

A walk-in closet

How it works
The process is simple. You either call up the facility or browse the website and find a suitable storage plan. You then order as many boxes as you need, and then pack and label your belongings. "You don't need to move a finger. Our tie up with Movers and Packers ensures a pick-up facility. When you want your stuff back, go online and click on the tab to recall the boxes," he explains. The plan starts from R299 a month and goes up to R11,000. Storage options range from boxes to a large store room. The key to the storage lies with the customer only. Cleanliness and security are common concerns among customers, according to the results of their survey. The facility, therefore, has a designated person to solely look after the cleanliness of the storage space. There's also a 24x7 security and surveillance to keep the goods safe. "We maintain the right kind of environment so that your possessions don't deteriorate over time," he says. Now, the big challenge for the duo is to popularise the concept. "We want to educate people that this is a viable solution to your space crunch."

Where: www.spacevalet.in
Price: Rs 299 onward
Call: 9930832832

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Mujahid Jameel With music director Vivek Prakash. Pics/Datta Kumbhar

As a child growing up in Kanpur's Chaman Ganj locality, poet Mujahid Jameel would often be a regular at kirtans organised by the area's bhajan mandalis. He'd sit in the front row, entranced by the sound of cymbals and bells, as the group sang songs in praise of Lord Krishna. Son of a clothes designer who worked at a mill, a young Jameel never saw  himself as an oddity at these events held in temple premises.

"I would tag along with my friends to nearby temples. At no point was I made to feel like I wasn't supposed to be there," says Jameel, now 85 years old. It helped to hail from a literary background — his father Nayab Dehlvi was also a poet and his grandfather Habib was a peer (Sufi spiritual guide) — which made straddling both worlds fairly easy. "My family never interfered with my religious leaning. When I look back, I think my small Kanpur neighbourhood was also quite liberal," he recalls.

Reviving a decade old song
It doesn't come as a surprise, then, that the octogenarian who now lives in Malad with his family, has written over 250 bhajans, apart from several other Urdu shai'rs. His latest single in Braj Bhāshā, a Hindi dialect from Mathura, titled Radha Rani Rooth Gayi, celebrates the delightful camaraderie between Krishna and Radha. An out-and-out bhajan, it released earlier this week on YouTube and is produced by music director Vivek Prakash and sung by Anoop Jalota and Roli Prakash. It's a piece he had penned 10 years ago on a whim. The book in which he had jotted it down was relegated to the shelf, until a chance encounter with music director Vivek Prakash at an event gave the song a second life. "We got talking about songs, and I mentioned this bhajan that I'd written a decade ago. When Prakash heard it, he felt there was potential in the lyrics," he says.

Mujahid Jameel

It was in 1953 that Jameel moved to Mumbai to become a poet. After much struggle, he landed a job with a leading music production company for which he wrote several songs. Of this, few were devotional. What catapulted him to fame was a Pankaj Udhas song, Chupke Chupke Woh Sakhiyon Se, which released in 1999, featuring a fresh-faced John Abraham and model Rajlaxmi Roy. "All this while I continued writing devotional songs in both Hindi and Urdu dedicated to Lord Krishna," he says. When we quiz him about his unusual fascination with bhajans, Jameel finds it both amusing and puzzling. "I was born in Uttar Pradesh which is home to some important places where Lord Krishna was born and spent a major part of his life. So, according to me, it's not strange to find a Muslim man who is inspired by Krishna," he remarks.

A call for goodness  
The love for bhajans also stems from his fixation with theology. He remembers the time in Kanpur when he would visit local libraries and devour religious texts. But for Jameel, his love for Krishna bhajans is more innate. "It comes naturally to me. There's a certain mystical charm that I see in him," he adds. Jameel usually has a pen and notebook at hand to jot down lyrics in moments of inspirations.

In all these years, Jameel has travelled to Mathura, Vrindavan, Barsana  and Dwarka — places linked to Lord Krishna's life. He has even trekked to the Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and driven to Swaminarayan Akshardham at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. "It's a magnificent temple. I felt so inspired while I sat there, that I ended up writing 108 bhajans," he says. Jameel says his fixation with Krishna doesn't make him any less Muslim. In  fact, he considers himself a humanist. "I am a proud Muslim but I believe all religions point towards a common universal truth. All I want to tell people through my shayari and bhajans is to be a good human being."

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Kashmiri filmmaker Rahat Kazmi is best known for his film Mantostaan

When Rahat Kazmi first shared the idea of making a film on Lihaaf with Tannishtha Chatterjee and Sonal Sehgal, they asked him if he would really dare to do such a thing. After all, Lihaaf has been fodder for controversy ever since Ismat Chughtai wrote it. It has been an uphill road for this Kashmiri filmmaker, who is best known for his film Mantostaan, that was based on four short stories by Saadat Hassan Manto. Kazmi's Lihaaf, that recently unveiled its first look at the Cannes Film Festival, has the world's attention now, especially, since Marc Baschet, Academy Award-winning producer came on board. Things are looking much more grand than Kazmi had imagined a year ago.

"I read Lihaaf for the first time as a teenager. I have always been drawn towards Urdu literature, having grown up in Kashmir. Stories of Chughtai and Manto are always fascinating. When you read them at a young age, they seem obscene, but as you grow older, you know better. My friends and I experienced something similar too. And I would keep going back to Lihaaf," says the 36-year-old. Having read it in English, Kazmi hunted down the Urdu version too, which was not easy given the controversy surrounding it. After it was published in 1942 in Urdu literary journal Adab-i-Latif, Chughtai had to defend herself in Lahore Court having being charged with obscenity. Kazmi's film, in fact, starts at the point where the police comes to Chughtai's house in [then] Bombay to summon her.

A still from the film

"The film has two parallel tracks — that of Lihaaf, the story, and that of the trial which is the outcome of the story. It's interesting that the story itself is a true account. Ismat's family confirmed to me that she indeed knew a begum on whom the story was based. And later, a grown up Ismat met her when she had remarried, and had children too," Kazmi says. It was not easy for him to convince Chughtai's family to grant him permission to make the film. "It's difficult for them to trust anyone. I met her daughter Sabrina and her grandson, Ashish Sawhny. When they got to know about Mantostaan, and the recognition it got internationally, they saw in me someone they could trust," he says.

In the film, Chatterjee plays Chughtai while Sehgal, Begum Jaan. Interestlingly, Baschet wanted to associate with the film after he saw the first cut. Until then, it was an independent production shot in three months. Lihaaf, Kazmi stresses, is not as much about homosexuality as it is about alternate sexuality. "This is a common misconception. Begum Jaan falls for her masseuse Rabbo only after she fails to find love in her husband. It's more about love and the need for physical affection." The visuals are a mix of risqué and suggestive. "The best thing about Chughtai and Manto is that they don't judge their characters. I have tried to do the same," he says. Now, as the film prepares for a world premiere — the choice is between Toronto and Venice — we ask Kazmi if he's concerned about reactions on home ground. "For me, it was cathartic to make it. As far as controversies are concerned, let's cross that bridge when we come to it," he says.

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A still from the short film Ahalya (2015)

We have all done it at some point in our lives. Watched a film or a documentary and played detective with it. Why does Anakin Skywalker get seduced by the dark side to become Darth Vader? Or, what is that makes Kareena Kapoor's character so confident and self-assured in Jab We Met? Or, what's the allure of the amoral Ma Anand Sheela in Wild Wild Country?

We love deducing human behaviour and motivations, especially those characters that seem to suggest one thing on the surface, and something else if you dig deeper. Which is why a recent screening of Ahalya, a short Bengali film made by Sujoy Ghosh, found nearly 120 takers at G5A Foundation in Mahalaxmi. A free screening by the Psychoanalytic Therapy and Research Centre (PTRC), the film was followed by a discussion through the lens of psychoanalysis.

Instead of looking at the film-making aspects, the psychological and emotional motives of the characters were the focus. Leading the discussion were psychoanalysts Nuzhat Khan and Micky Bhatia, faculty members at PTRC. "A great deal of our work and training, right from our students days, has got to do with mental illnesses, but there is a lot that we do which is not related to this. At seminars, we watched films, gaining a much deeper understanding of the characters," says Khan, recounting sessions where they have broken down films such as Black Swan, known for their obvious psychological depth, and also those such as Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas.

PTRC's monthly screening followed by a psychoanalytic discussion. Pic/PTRC

Ghosh's film made headlines when it was streamed on YouTube in 2015, for its gripping plot that revisits the tale in The Ramayana. While you can look up the film online, Khan says that the discussion after the screening showed that there were several layers to the characters. One reading took on the young police inspector Indra's 'castration anxiety', one of Sigmund Freud's earliest psychoanalytic theories. Fearing punishment by Ahalya's husband, old enough to be his father, Indra tries to restrain his evident interest in Ahalya.

However, after he gets intimate with Ahalya, he is turned into a figurine — that's castration, symbolically, by the elderly husband showing the younger man who's boss. And, for that matter, Ahalya pretends to be an ingénue, while in fact she is a seductress. Once you explore these layers, says Khan, you will realise that there are no true villains in the film. "Had the filmmaker been there, he would have been aghast hearing our analysis," she laughs, adding, "Filmmakers, like other artists, express their subconscious or unconscious through their works. They are only semi-conscious of what they are doing. If they fully knew why, they may never make a film or any work of art.

"PTRC, a charitable trust, has been working in Mumbai for more than 40 years, almost quietly, to provide mental health services and also train professionals in the area. Given the rising interest in mental well-being, we use terms such as "repress" and "Oedipus complex" in our day-to-day lives. Banu Ismail, a child analyst and psychoanalyst with PTRC, says that at their film screenings, they open up discussions with the public to encourage different perspectives. "Psychoanalysis doesn't happen only in the consultation room. That said, there are several misconceptions about the area, and these events help clarify those," says Ismail, who will helm the next discussion of Gautam Vaze's Marathi short film, Aai Shapat on June 6 at G5A, focusing on anxiety guilt. The free screenings are followed by a lecture on another day, for which there is a registration charge.

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A German team practises mallakhamb with coach Uday Deshpande

In a TEDx Gateway talk held in 2017, 65-year-old Uday Deshpande talks of how he started learning mallakhamb at Shivaji Park's Samarth Vyayam Mandir (SVM) at the age of three. The passion for the sport, which has its origins in Maharashtra, gripped him so much, he says, that he even stuck to his daily regime on the day of his wedding. As the audience laughs, Deshpande moves on to talk about what he returned to the sport — spreading its awareness not just to other Indian cities across 29 states, but globally as well. He rattles off a statistic: in the last 25 years more than 2,500 foreigners from 52 countries have learnt mallakhamb.

His passport — which thanks to the several added visa pages has increasing so much in girth that it is a candidate for bariatric surgery — bears signs of his visits to countries like USA, Singapore, Nepal, Germany, France, Austria, Hong Kong. And now, says Deshpande, the director at SVM who also coaches there, all this effort is going to culminate into the first mallakhamb world championship to be held at Shivaji Park, next February. Speaking to mid-day from his Shivaji Park office, keeping a stern eye on the practice sessions on the grounds, Deshpande announces proudly," Mallakhamb is ready to go the next mile. France and Germany in fact, have mallakhamb federations in their countries. We need to now harness that exposure into a competition." The championships — to be held under the auspices of the newly-formed Vishwa Mallakhamb Federation (VMF) — will be held between February 16-17 2019. Deshpande, the secretary of VFM, says all the details of the organisation of the event are being taken care of by SVM officials.

Uday Deshpande

And 15 countries have already announced their participation. Dr (PhD) Neeta Tatke, administrative secretary, SVM, whose thesis was on the mental benefits of the sport, says, "A competition is one way to kindle curiosity, sustain the sport and watch it grow. We also need to increase participation at home." For Tatke, GenNext will take a shine to the rope and pole, "if we have national and world champions here, nurtured and made in our backyard. For instance, see the boost tennis and badminton got in India. This is because with the Saina Nehwals, Sania Mirzas and P V Sindhus, young Indians have role models to look up to. We need to create that in mallakhamb. Competition is one way to do so."

A couple of years ago, when Deutschland came to Dadar, the German mallakhamb team given an Indian experience by Samarth volunteers. After their morning mallakhamb practice, Samarth members taught the Germans, Lezim (a Maharashtrian folk) dance, they learnt to play the flute and even dabbled in Warli painting. This time, organisers say that at the World Championships, there will be a food court at the venue and an exhibition centre outlining the history of mallakhamb.

Ruth Azenberger, German mallakhamb coach — who started learning mallakhamb when she was eight years old, in 2004, and then received the Mallakhamb Trainers Certificate in 2012 from the University of Mumbai and Mallakhamb Federation of India — says, "We are thrilled to be a part of the competition and show what we have learned for the last 15 years." Azenberger adds that the final mallakhamb team will be selected in September.

Shreyas Mhaskar, trustee, SVM and former national Mallakhamb champion adds, "Mallakhamb's origins are Indian, so it is natural that India hosts the debut World Championship." Officials say that, "we also have plans of how to make this a more equitable field for all nations. We are going to negate the obvious advantage India will have, with its long tradition of mallakhamb with a few surprises in rules that we will not divulge now." Ambition is expensive. The committee says they are earmarking R2 crore expense overall and are now hunting for sponsors. Yet, to zero in on that elusive one with deep pockets, the organizers are holding on to their dream because they have the courage of conviction, or when it comes to mallakhamb, like the practitioners that should be courage of their contortions.

Nidhi Tiwari (in orange) with her crew

I have always felt that mobility is key to empowerment — especially where women are concerned," says Nidhi Tiwari, an extreme terrain driver. Let us explain her job profile by outlining a few of her achievements — she is the first Indian woman to drive from Delhi to London in 2015, and became the first Indian to drive to the Pole of Cold in North Eastern Siberia in 2016. She also founded Women Beyond Boundaries (WBB) in 2015, which focuses on undertaking extreme overland journeys. Recently, Tiwari led a crew of five female drivers to Upper Mustang in Northern Nepal, and they became the first crew of women drivers to reach Lo Manthang (the erstwhile capital of the Kingdom of Mustang).

With an average height of around 13,000 feet, the area hosts two of the higher peaks in the Greater Himalayas that stand above 8,000 metres — the Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. "No women drivers from anywhere in the world had ever driven up the treacherous road to Lo Manthang. But then, every journey is about pushing boundaries," says the 37-year-old, who has been now driving for 13 years. The women drove from Delhi and entered Nepal via Gorakhpur to reach Pokhara in two days, from where started the off-road section into the Mustang Valley. Mustang is infamous for its non-existent and challenging roads punctuated by numerous streams and nallah crossings. A particular section between Muktinath and Tsarang, though only 36 km, took them eight hours. And then they headed to Lo Manthang, which is located just 50 km short of the Chinese border.

Five women drove the cars to Mustang

Delhi-based Tiwari may have been be well equipped with what such a journey entails but as they drove, major challenges cropped up. Most of the crew were city drivers and they were all learning on the go. "It was a very steep terrain, with plenty of blind corners," she describes. For example, one had to be very careful where they placed the wheel — there were instances where the road had a gorge on one side, and a river bed on the other. "But the way they adapted to the terrain — that transformation was a very big high for me," says Tiwari of her team. This could do with the kind of training Tiwari is known to provide. Her WBB workshops aim to make women self-sufficient as far as driving goes. "It's all about self-maintenance. A woman has to be ready to fix tyres."

Tiwari also chose her crew with care, making sure she had a varied bunch on the trip. There was an academician, a physiotherapist, an IT professional, and an e-commerce expert. "Extreme terrain is seen as a man's forte. We have broken that misconception. It threw the spotlight on some critical gender questions that have hovered around driving, expeditioning and the extreme terrain overlanding space. Along with being the first women to get there, we are also the second set of Indian vehicles to get there. Isn't that something?"

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Pic Courtesy/Saffron and Pearls, Harpercollins India

As a 20-year-old, when Sarina Kamini first learnt that her Australian mother was suffering from Parkinson's, a part of her own Indianness, which her mother had so devotedly brought to the kitchen table at their home in Torquay, died. In a new book, titled Spirits in a Spice Jar (Westland Books, Amazon), Kamini says, it's possibly then that she had "stopped eating Indian food". It's ironic that while she attributes her Indian heritage to her father — he was Kashmiri — it was through her mum that she learnt the traditional family recipes, who in turn learnt how to cook Indian food from her mother-in-law, fondly known as ammi. Cooking these recipes would eventually be a way to heal, helping her make sense of the resentment she felt towards her mother's condition.

If Spirits in a Spice Jar traces the arc of a woman, coming to terms with the illness, another book, Saffron and Pearls: A Memoir of Family, Friendship and Heirloom (HarperCollins India) by Delhi-based Doreen Hassan, recounts how the author, who belonged to a Goan Catholic family, warmed up to her Hyderabadi husband's family and his rich food legacy. Last year, US-based Pakistani writer Bisma Tirmizi revisited her favourite dishes from the subcontinent through a journey of self-discovery of a young, obese girl, in the novel, Feast: With A Taste of Amir Khusro (Rupa Publications).

Doreen Hassan. Pic Courtesy/Saffron and Pearls, Harpercollins India

More writers are now exploring narratives around food, while showing how recipes too, are important to great storytelling. "I set out to tell the story of me, because I was so confused about who I was. I quickly realised that I couldn't understand mum unless I understood her connection to India. From my point of view, the connection was a mix of the material and the mystic [she loves the fashion as much as she appreciates the stories of faith], and food within our family is a real representation of that. Food ties my family to Hinduism through offerings and stories. So I had to write about Kashmiri food. Spices, for me, became the axis point where I could draw all of these thoughts together," says Australia-based Kamini.

Doreen says she started writing the book, with the intention of sharing heirloom recipes she had inherited after marrying her husband, Peter Toghrille Hassan, who is honorary Counsel General for the Russian Federation in Hyderabad. But, as she started work on the book, she "thought it might be interesting for people to know where the recipes came from". "That's how it turned into a memoir along the way," she says. Doreen believes that Hassan family's history is deeply influenced by food, and hence, it was crucial to the memoir too. "When people marry into a family, they often bring their own food traditions with them. It's fascinating to understand it," she says.

Sarina Kamini. Pic Courtesy/Kristy Jane Hoghton

In the book, she writes about the time she struggled with learning to cook, after she and her husband moved to Delhi from Hyderabad, with their two children. She, eventually went back to Hyderabad, and "met Peter's aunt, Zehra Alambardar, whom we called Phuppu Jani, and said, 'Please teach me how to make a few dishes.' She told me that she cooked by andaaz, or instinct. 'Beta, you have to watch and learn. I will make the dishes in front of you, and you write them down.'" That was how Hassan was indoctrinated into cooking.

She remembers the time when her husband invited the famous Pakistani singer Mehdi Hasan, to their home for dinner. "He was to sing at our home, and there would be 100 guests in attendance. I decided to make a Salim bakra, which is an entire goat, stuffed with eggs," she writes. Kamini says her fondest food memory is associated with paneer. "I'd always make sure I was close by when mum or dad began chopping the fresh paneer into pieces; I became adept at stealing bites," she says. Adding, "When I began cooking it for my own two boys, I, too, would have to shoo them away from the chopping block as they made attempts to sneak away with it. This kind of emotional continuity around food is what cements recipes into our hearts."

The Salim Bakra stuffed with chicken and eggs, and served with rice, which Doreen prepared for ghazal singer Mehdi Hasan

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Detroit: Become Human is driven by a melodramatic story set in the US city of Detroit in 2038. The story is told through exploring the day-to-day lives of three androids Kara, Markus and Conrad. How the story unfolds and where it progresses to is all determined by the choices you make while playing these characters. Actions performed affect the people around you and, in turn, affect your interaction with them. There are no wrong or right choices in the game. No matter what you choose, there are people who are going to get disappointed in you.

The story is divided into tiny slices where you play one of the three characters. At the end of the slice you get a story-tree where you can see where the choices you made changes the story and multiple branches where the story could have ended up. The good news is you can replay the game and explore all the different choices. The characters are all-player by actual actors and, needless to say, this game looks amazing, its as close to a real human as a game can probably be right now. The facial movements in the game are well constructed. The world too is carefully crafted with elements of the past integrated with something modern.

It's the way things are now modern integrated with older structures. The three characters you play are also very distinctive and come from different strata of society, giving you a peek of how life might be in the future. Kara for example is an android owned by a violent unemployed man who is bitter about the way his life has turned out, while Markus starts out with a well caring owner that treats him as an equal and Conner is an employee of Cyberlife, the company that makes and sells the Androids and is investigating why the androids are turning into deviants.

The plot is the oldest in the book, which is sad. But the way it plays out and the options you have to make along the way make it more than intriguing. Your choices at times will hurt your soul and that is the object of the game, to make you connect and feel for the choices you make and its consequences. Even the menu narrator doesn't spare you from the emotional drama.

When you start the game, you are greeted by a Cyberlife android that is constantly on screen talking to you. It will make you fill a survey and will slowly and steadily make you feel for it. As mentioned, the core of the game is the story, but there are a few puzzles, some timed single button combat situations also thrown in. But most of the time, especially at the start, you are doing menial tasks: press this to open the door, twist this to wash the dishes and more boring instructions. Even though it was slow and boring, it gave us a window in the life of a robot slave. We wish, however, along with the upgrade in the emotional status they were allowed to do more than just walking to places and activating things.

If we really had to complain about anything, it would probably be the dialogue. It's not bad by any standard, but if it was better, this game could have been something else. Most of the dialogue and reactions are what you would expect someone who just got in to script writing to write. The lines are not crisp and fail to provide a punch, you couldn't or rather wouldn't want to quote any of the characters in the game. If you are looking for a movie experience like no other, Detroit Become Human is perfect for you. It is jam packed with twists turns and is an emotional roller-coaster. Much like a binge worthy series you will want to play this in one go and then repeat till you have explored all options and it doesn't hurt that it looks so good.

Detroit: Become Human
Rating: 4.5/5
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PlayStation 4
Price: Rs 3,999

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

Enjoy a traditional roast lunch

12 PM - 4 PM: Spend your Sunday enjoying a traditional English roast lunch at British Brewing Company. The Sunday roast is a tradition in the UK where families sit down to enjoy roast beef accompanied by Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and baked vegetables. In the absence of the B-word, you can treat yourself to grilled lamb chop in cranberry demiglaze sauce, chermoula fish steak, wasabi chicken wings and eggplant parmigiana accompanied by offers
on beer.
Where: British Brewing Company, Times Square building, Andheri East
Call: 39698190

Head to a film fest
9.30 AM - 10 PM: It's the last day of Kashish, South Asia's biggest LGBTQ film festival, now in its ninth edition with a strong jury selection of films. Held at an iconic theatre in South Mumbai, the festival's line-up today includes short films, feature films (Evening Shadows and Fathers), and also a panel discussion with filmmakers. Refer to the website for the full schedule.
Where: Liberty Carnival Cinema, Marine Lines
Free
Visit: www.mumbaiqueerfest.com/kashish-2018-film-schedule/

Rock to Parvaaz
9.30 PM: Parvaaz is a Bengaluru-based rock group who sing mostly in Kashmiri and Urdu. If this rocks your boat, attend their gig this evening. Featuring, Khalid Ahamed (vocals), Mir Kashif Iqbal (guitars), Sachin Banandur (drums) and Fidel D'Souza (bass), the members have assimilated several psychedelic rock influences while keeping their roots intact.
Where: Todi Mill Social, Lower Parel
Entry: Rs 400
Call: 7506394240

Laugh out in Gujarati
7.30 PM: So laughter may not have a language, but jokes certainly do. Attend, Hass Ne Baka, a one-of-its-kind Gujarati stand-up comedy event. If you have been in Mumbai for a few years at least, you probably would have picked some words from the language. If not, this is a good chance to learn.
Where: The Cuckoo Club, Bandra West
Entry: Rs 250
Call: 9619962969

Savour the T20 finale
7 PM: The T20 draws to a close today with the big final match this evening. Nurse your cricket fever with unlimited beer, meant to keep you company till the last over. So, whether you are supporting Chennai or Hyderabad, round up your friends for an evening of fun.
Where: Drinkery 51, opposite Trident Hotel, BKC
Price: Rs 999 per head
Call: 40141100

Recall funny instances
8 PM: Embarrassing instances make for good stories in subsequent years. Attend an event where comedian Sumit Anand and his like-minded friends will regale you with hilarious stories from their personal lives. The edition will feature Vaibhav Sethia and Deep Chhabria, among others.
Where: The Square, Powai
Price: Rs 250
Log on to: insider.in

Shop organic from a farmer's market
8 AM – 1 PM: How about making it a 'fruitful' morning in South Mumbai? Head to an organic market organised by Better Foods and Harshita Narwekar, trustee of My Dream Colaba, for a chance to pick from stalls offering chemical-free produce to lead a healthier life. Think you can't make it this Sunday? The market will pop up again every Sunday until July 1, so mark your calendars.
Where: Lane behind Taj President, next to Mehr Naz, Cuffe Parade
Free
Call: 9010143322

Enjoy a evening of ghazals
7 PM: Don't relegate ghazals to the past. The night for the genre is still young. This evening head to Sun Beach Resort, to get mesmerised in this form of poetry that originated in 7th century Arabia. Your singer tonight is Ranjan Debnath. There's a special kids' zone too.
Where: Sun Beach Resort, Manori
Entry: Rs 1,000-Rs 1,500
Call: 8108750767

Relish a picnic platter
Gateway Taproom has curated an indoor experience to recreate the feel of a picnic. Three special craft beers will be on offer along with freshly baked flatbreads with a variety of toppings. The Valencia Orange Wheat comes with citrusy notes while the 'Mangonificent Flatbread' is made of mango, arugula pesto and feta, while the 'Appley Ever After' is a sum of apple, goat cheese, jaggery and walnut candy. Try pepper pig, a topping which is a mix of chorizo, mozzarella and red bell peppers. There's also a blend of grilled eggplant, pomegranate, feta and pine nuts.
When: 12 pm to 1.30 am, till May 30
Where: Gateway Taproom, Godrej BKC Building, Bandra East
Call: 26534748

Watch Farhan rock the stage
Farhan Akhtar, who has time again made himself heard on various social causes, has joined hands with the Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA), for a special concert. The aim of the concert is to raise awareness about the ill-effects of tobacco, to mark the occasion of World No-Tobacco Day. The show is titled Love for Life Begins with Music. CPAA is a registered charitable organisation working towards the cause of cancer patients for 49 years.
When: 7 pm, May 31
Where: Rangsharda Auditorium, Bandra Reclamation, Bandra West
Free
Call: 9821078882

Join a jashn
Go for a panel discussion on Urdu culture and how the Internet is helping the revival of the language. Urdu Culture Now, an initiative by Godrej Culture Labs, seeks to explore the state of Urdu culture in Mumbai. There will be art exhibits by Zeenat Kulavoor and Nasheet Shadani and a Soundzone with a specially curated playlist. Actor and storyteller Danish Husain will take centrestage with a Quissebaazi performance and Winit Tikoo will be performing a set of Urdu tunes. There will also be a pop-up bookstore and some authentic Lucknowi and Hyderabadi cuisine.
When: 5.30 pm, June 8
Where: Auditorium, 1st floor, Godrej One, Vikhroli East
Free
Call: 9167077830

Experience Indo-Greek art
Rekha Rana's exhibition Indus Streams and Delphi Hills has been in the making for nearly four years. The works give viewers a glimpse into the Indo-Greek era, drawing parallels between European and Indian art. The technique she has used for this show is mixed media on canvas. She has re-imagined Greek goddess Athena, wearing the headgear of Hippolyta, the queen of the tribe of the Amazons in Greek mythology. Rana has studied closely the influence of Western art on India and selected certain elements in her works.
When: 11 am to 7 pm, May 29 to June 4
Where: Jehangir Art Gallery, MG Road, Kala Ghoda
Call: 9930300064

A love story, or a game of manipulation?
Vrushali Telang's new fiction, Prime Time Crime (Vishwakarma Publications), has all the makings of a fast-paced, sensational thriller. Set against the backdrop of the Mumbai Underworld in 1999, Prime Time Crime tells the story of a young intern reporter, Ritika Khanolker and a gritty gangster, AT Pradhan. It all begins when Ritika wins his unwavering attention at the sessions courts after she asks him a strange question. Soon enough, she lands an exclusive TV interview with him. What follows is a torrid chemistry with both finding it difficult to stay away from each other. But, is the gangster manipulating circumstances and using her as a pawn, or is Ritika playing along so that she can catapult her career and become a star reporter. This love story gets only murkier, as you turn the pages of Telang's book. Telang's well etched out characters, racy plot and lucid writing, makes this one a brilliant page turner.

Pedal into the week
10.30 pm onwards: Want to cycle but the Mumbai summers won't let you? Try cruising on the roads on a midnight
electric cycle ride. Also, if you have been contemplating buying an electric cycle, this ride can serve as a trial. The trail covers 35 kilometres starting at Shivaji Park, on to Worli Seaface, Peddar Road, Girgaon Chowpatty, Nariman Point, before ending at Gateway of India, with a bite at Bade Miya.
28 Monday
Where: Meet at Shivaji Park Gymkhana, Dadar West
Entry: Rs 750
Log on to: instamojo.com

Learn some magic
1 pm onwards: You may have watched enough Penn and Teller and now you want to try and master a few tricks of your own. This session should get you started. Magic is not just about sleight of hand, there's also the fine art of performance that goes along with it. This workshop will teach you a few magic tricks, and along with it, the art of theatre that will add the final flourish.
29 Tuesday
Where: Quistic Learning Centre, opposite Oshiwara Police Station, Andheri West
Entry: Rs 5,000
Log on to: eventshigh.com

Watch Indian Ocean live
9 pm onwards: Formed in the early 90s, the Indian Ocean is one rock band that has managed to stand the test of time. Not only have they spearheaded rock music in the country, they have also held their own in an industry rife with remixes and fusion. Their sound has stayed consistently inimitable despite shuffles in the band lineup. From Sufism, politics, philosophy to religion, the words are as deep as their tune haunting.
30 Wednesday
Where: Flyp at MTV, Kamala Mills, Lower Parel
Entry: Rs 499
Log on to: insider.in

Meet a French Cinderella
6 pm onwards: Massenet's enchanting opera Cendrillon, based on the Cinderella story, had premiered at the MET. It features Joyce DiDonato as Cinderella, Kathleen Kim as the fairy godmother, Alice Coote as Prince Charming, Stephanie Blythe as evil stepmother Madame de la Haltiere, and Laurent Naouri as Pandolfe. This production was first performed at Santa Fe in 2006. The screening will provide English subtitles.
31 Thursday
Where: Dance Theatre Godrej, NCPA, Nariman Point
Entry: Rs 768
Log on to: bookmyshow.com

See a rare kind of jewellery
6 pm to 9 pm: Patola jewellery designed under the guidance of art revivalist Bela Shanghvi is a step towards bringing alive, the lost forms of Indian art. Her Nana Chowk store has been devoted towards preserving the craft heritage across 28 states and villages. While Patola saris are well known, this time one will get to see some rare jewellery from the region that would strike a perfect match with the elegant weaves.
1 Friday
Where: True Tramm Trunk, VL Mehta Road, JVPD Scheme, Juhu
Call: 7738993360

Learn to style your food
3 pm: Step into the world of food photography and food styling in an interactive workshop with the renowned food photographer Assad Daddan and food stylist Amrita Kaur. The hands-on session will include training on lighting, composition, exposure triangle, food styling and post processing. The styling session will involve learning finer nuances of food styling.
2 Saturday
Where: Palate Culinary Academy, Saffron Building, Linking Road,
Khar West
Entry: Rs 5,000-Rs 10,000
Log on to: insider.in

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

Timut
At: The Clearing House, Ballard Estate

Pastry chef Husna Jumani sources timut from the Northeast. Pic/Bipin Kokate

It's not often that you come across a dessert with pepper. It's for this reason that Husna Jumani, head pastry chef at The Clearing House, decided to experiment with the timut, the popular Nepalese pepper, in their Greek yoghurt pannacota. "I had already tried using other varieties of pepper, so I thought timut would be a great addition because the flavour is pronounced. It is spicy, with hints of grapefruit," says Jumani, who sources it from the Northeast.

However, it's an ingredient that can work either way, she warns. "If used with the right combinations, it can elevate the dish like no other. Else, it will overpower the other ingredients." Apart from being a tricky ingredient, it's also an acquired flavour. "When people eat it, they might not recognise it or might not realise it's a spice. It has a spicy yet fruity undertone."

Green peppercorn and krachai
At: Izaya, Nariman Point

When restaurateur Farrokh Khambata launched Izaya last November, it wasn't just a new fine-dining address he was looking to introduce. What he also wanted to do was offer the diner an innovative range of spices. "It gets boring to cook with basil and bird eye chilies, when you are talking Thai food. I wanted to give things an overhaul," he says. He sought recourse in the aromatic, fresh green peppercorn, plucked from the Piper Nigrum vine, and the krachai or Chinese ginger, both found in Southeast Asia.

The green peppercorn is added at the end

At the restaurant, krachai finds its way into a sauce that accompanies the Australian barramundi or sea bass fillet, and the green peppercorn makes an appearance in the yakitori style-grilled chicken. Both are crushed on stone and added to the dish at the end.

Thai ginger. Pic/Bipin Kokate

"Certain spices like kadi patta require oil to bring out their essence, but not these," Khambatta adds. What gives these flavouring agents an edge is their freshness. "When it's in season, we use it fresh, which means that they have a short shelf life. But our dishes won't be the same without them."

Ajamoda
At: Olive Bar and Kitchen, Bandra

The lifecycle of the ajmoda plantsown at the restaurant. Pics/Ashish Raje

A couple of months ago, one of the chefs at Olive Bar and Kitchen, stumbled upon ajamoda or wild celery seeds on a trip to Kolkata. Curious, he decided to plant it and see what comes of it.

"It's only been four weeks since we decided to use it as a brine for the tuna jerky, because of its intense flavour," says head chef Rishim Sachdeva. A well-known Ayurvedic medicinal herb, the ajamoda belongs to the ajwain family and is native to West Bengal. The restaurant sources it from Vrindavan Farms in Palghar.

"We braise it and add it when the brine goes from warm to cold," he says. Interestingly, the guests have taken note. "Those who have tasted the dish have made it a point to tell us that there's something unique about the taste."

Pasilla Oaxaca
At: Xico, Kamala Mills

Chef Jason Hudanish with a range of spices at Xico. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Chef Jason Hudanish wanted to introduce the pasilla Oaxaca at Lower Parel's Xico for more reasons than one. "It's a dark red chill — smokey and fruity with a heat level that is sharp but not overwhelming. Also, it can be used in just about anything — soup, stew, rice or salad," he says. What works against it though, is that it's fairly expensive and not readily available unlike the more common pasilla pepper, a dried chili used in traditional Mexican mole sauces.

The pasilla Oaxaca is produced only in the hilly Oaxaca region of southern Mexico. Here, it is used to make the hearty tortilla soup and borracho salsa, their table side sauce. Apart from pasilla Oaxaca, you'll also find that the achiote, a red paste made from grinding Annatto seeds with oregano, cumin, cloves, allspice berries, black pepper and salt. "It's powerful and pungent. We use it in the slow roasted pork, but warn people before serving it," he says.

Peela Masala
At: All Elements, Khar

The peela masala has been concocted using 12 different spices. Pic/Bipin Kokate

All Elements might be a young, two-month old café, but the cooking techniques it employs are age old. In fact, the peela masala used to spice up the seafood and vegetarian appetisers, is a legacy dating back three generations.

"My grandmother, Harbans Bedi, created this spice mix using 12 ingredients that she would source from local shops in Mazgaon. For me, she's the real mistress of spices," laughs proprietor Gudiya Chadha. The ingredients include star anise, coriander seeds and clove, among others. Understandably, the flavour is strong and hits you the moment you open the lid of the container. "A pinch is all you need. Else, it will overpower the dish."

Gudiya Chadha

Sassafras powder
At: Toast and Tonic, BKC

Pic/Ashish Raje

At Toast and Tonic, most marinades and mixes are prepared in house, using indigenous ingredients. The sassafras powder, therefore, is an exception. Also called a Gumbo filé powder, it comes from a sturdy tree in Louisiana.

At the restaurant, you'll find the powder stored in glass jars. "It is popular for creole and cajun cooking. We use it for both, flavour and texture in traditional gumbo, because it not only thickens the broth, but also lends it an earthy flavour," says sous chef Chirag Makwana. Filé powder is generally added at the end of cooking, or stirred into hot gumbo right before serving. They also sprinkle a pinch on their prawn flatbread for flavour.

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

Anand Ahuja and Sonam Kapoor

Remember when a "candid" photograph at a wedding meant pictures of the couple and guests stuffing their faces with food? Well, thank God, that seems to have changed. If the recent celebrity weddings — Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja's, or Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma's, or even Meghan Markle's with Prince Harry — are anything to go by, awww-inducing candids are here to stay. Did we all not drool on those candids from #everydayphenomenal, as the Kapoor-Ahuja wedding was branded on Instagram? We spoke to three photographers who explain the art behind the perfect candid.

'Never doctor a moment'
Anand Rathi, who along with his team at Reels & Frames, is the one who showed us perfect moments from #Sonamkishaadi. Rathi has won several awards globally, and is seen as one of the pioneers of 360-degree wedding films. He says that the photographer has to learn the art of being invisible, and still be omnipresent. "The toughest part is to not stand out but still roam around freely. So we stick to the dress code of the wedding," he tells us, adding that he never likes to over-dose on flash.

Anand Rathi

"You can't doctor a moment. If you missed that perfect moment when the bride smiled at the groom, it's okay. Just be ready to capture the next one." His favourite moment from the Kapoor-Ahuja wedding was when Anand kissed Sonam on the cheek. "Nobody asked them to do that!" In the end, Rathi says that photographer needs to be ready with his equipment, but also a smile. "People always respond to friendly faces."

Log on to reelsandframes.in

'It's not our job to gather people'
THE most important thing to do is get comfortable with the bride and groom. You need to understand them, but even they should know that when they are hiring me, they will get an artistic style, and they need to be okay with that," says Monisha Ajgaonkar, founder and director, The Photo Diary.

The photographer, who has been popular on the on the wedding circuit for a while now, is known for her edgy and different pictures. The JJ graduate started out by shooting a concert she attended to impress a girl she had a crush on, and then diversified when she photographed a friend's wedding.

Monisha Ajgaonkar

"We get all the main shots as candids; we don't really do the 'posey' pictures — a we are not there to gather people around. That's not candid!" Her favourite shot in recent times was when she shot a bride dressed in a Cindrella gown in Kodaikanal. "She was just walking, and I said stop. And, it was perfect!"

Log on to thephotodiary.net

'It's like catching a fish — A hit or miss'
Nikhil B of Tell-A-Tale Studios feels that a good candid is a culmination of many points. "You need to know fashion photography, and also be well-versed with a documentary style. You need to have knowledge of product shots, and how light works. It all looks effortless but a lot of work goes behind it."

Tell-A-Tale was founded by Nikhil and photographer Mamta Kalambe, both visual artists who specialise in wedding photography along with making food videos. Nikhil says that taking the perfect candid is like going fishing — you may get a great picture or you may end up with nothing.

Nikhil B

"It's a hit or miss. The main thing is to remain aware at all times, keep watching without intruding. It's like ice hockey terminology — always have your sticks on the ice. Be ready." His favourite shots are taken usually during the time of varmala, because as he says, he loves "capturing the emotion and excitement that comes when the garlands
are exchanged."

Log on to tell-a-tale.in

Representational Image

Scientists have developed the first ultrasound-firewall that can prevent hackers from eavesdropping on hidden data transmission between smartphones and other mobile devices. The permanent networking of mobile devices can endanger the privacy of users and lead to new forms of monitoring.

New technologies such as Google Nearby and Silverpush use ultrasonic sounds to exchange information between devices via loudspeakers and microphones. More and more of our devices communicate via this inaudible communication channel. Ultrasonic communication allows devices to be paired and information to be exchanged.

It also makes it possible to track users and their behaviour over a number of devices, much like cookies on the Web. Almost every device with a microphone and a loudspeaker can send and receive ultrasonic sounds. Users are usually unaware of this inaudible and hidden data transmission.

Researchers from the St Polten University of Applied Sciences in Austria has developed a mobile application that detects acoustic cookies, brings them to the attention of users and if desired, blocks the tracking.

The app is, in a sense, the first available ultrasound-firewall for smartphones and tablets "The most challenging part of developing the app was to devise a method that can detect different existing ultrasound-transmission techniques reliably and in real time," said Matthias Zeppelzauer, who led the project.

Such ultrasonic signals can be used for so-called "cross-device tracking". This makes it possible to track the user's behaviour across multiple devices, and relevant user profiles can be merged with one other. In this way, more accurate user profiles can be created for targeted advertising and filtering of internet content.

Unlike their electronic counterparts when visiting web pages, up to now it has not been possible to block acoustic cookies.

"In order to accept voice commands, the mobile phone microphone is often permanently active. Every mobile application that has access to the microphone, as well as the operating system itself, can at any time without notice: activate the microphone of a mobile device, listen to it, detect acoustic cookies and synchronise it over the Internet," said Zeppelzauer.

Users are often not informed of this information transmission during ongoing operation. Only a permanent deactivation of the microphone would help, whereby the device as a telephone would become unusable. Researchers developed a procedure to expose the cookies and inform device users. For masking and blocking the ultrasonic data transfer, interference signals are transmitted via the loudspeaker of the mobile device.

Thus, acoustic cookies can be neutralised before operating systems or mobile applications can access them. Users can selectively block cookies without affecting the functionality of the smartphone. The masking of the cookies occurs by means of ultrasound, which is inaudible to humans.

"There is currently no technology on the market that can detect and block acoustic cookies. The application developed in this project represents the first approach that gives people control over this type of tracking," said Zeppelzauer.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

Twitter became unavailable for many users after the site stopped working at about 3.20 p.m. EST on Saturday, media reported. According to Down Detector, the outages were mostly reported along the East Coast of the US and in western Europe. The Twitter outage map showed very little outages on the West Coast of the US, Newsweek reported on Saturday.

When users visited Twitter on Saturday, they were greeted with an error message -- "something is technically wrong. Thanks for noticing-we're going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon", the report said.

"Twitter doesn't work on the tablet either have to do this from my phone. Won't load my tweets but is logged into my account," one Down Detector user wrote.

"Omg why are my twitter notifications not working," another said.

Twitter appeared to be down across platforms; both for iOS and android as well as desktop and third-party sites like Tweetdeck.

Around 3.40 p.m., many users reported that Twitter started working again, the report said.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

Representational Image

Google has rewarded an Uruguayan teenager a "bug bounty" of more than $36,000 for disclosing a severe security flaw. Ezequiel Pereira's sporadic poking around has finally paid off in a big way: Google just awarded the Uruguayan teenager $36,337 for finding a vulnerability that would have allowed him to make changes to internal company systems, CNBC reported on Saturday.

"I found something almost immediately that was worth $500 and it just felt so amazing. So I decided to just keep trying ever since then," Pereira was quoted as saying by CNBC.

"It feels really good - I'm glad that I found something that was so important," he added.

Although, Pereira found the bug earlier this year, he only just got permission to write about how he discovered it this week, after Google confirmed that it had fixed the issue, the report said.

It marks Pereira's fifth accepted bug, but it's by far his most lucrative.

Pereira was about a month shy of 17 when he first got paid for exposing a Google security flaw through its bug bounty programme.

Pereira got his first computer when he was 10, took an initial programming class when he was 11 and then spent years teaching himself different coding languages and techniques.

In 2016, Google flew him to its California headquarters after he won a coding contest.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates