Opinion

Mixed Shots

Passing through: A chuckle here, a teardrop there

Advertisement

Mixed Shots
info_icon
info_icon

The Golden Sheep

I t won’t be hard to separate this sheep from the flock—a purebred Madgyal, a ruminant with a prominent brown ring around the eyes, a convex head, a typical Roman nose, and its ears are pendulous, leaf-like, long and drooping. The breed got the name from its stomping ground: Madgyal village in Maharashtra’s Sangli district. They are taller and bigger and the meat, the passionate gastronome says, has no match. Before you cast a sheep’s eye, there’s Sarja aka Modi—shepherd Babu Metkari’s king sheep in a flock over 200. A buyer at a fair offered Rs 70 lakh for Modi (renamed after people likened Sarja’s dominance at livestock fairs to the PM’s electoral wins). But he is not selling his family lucky charm and to deter potential bids, he upped the price to Rs 1.5 crore.

Advertisement

info_icon

Productive Pyjama

Oxford Dictionary should rethink its definition of pyjama day, an US informal noun that means “a day when you wear pyjamas at home during the day in order to relax and enjoy yourself”. And the Americans should celebrate “National Wear Your Pajamas To Work Day” each working day, instead of April 16. Here’s why. Australian researchers have found that millions of people across the world are working remotely from home in their pajamas since the COVID-19 pandemic blew up on humanity. Also, 41 per cent of respondents said the comfy piece of casual/relax-wear had increased their efficiency and output.

Advertisement

info_icon

Dragons Can Wait

This is one ageless gig that doesn’t allow any participant without a mask. But when the whole world has been masked this year, the traditional Khagyad Chaam mask dance of Sikkim won’t be held. It’s a first since the 1800s. The dance of the monks from Buddhist monasteries of Nynmapa and Khagyu sects was held every year during the Bhutia New Year festival of Losoong and thousands of devotees and tourists gather to see the performance. In the wake of the COVID-19, festivities have been curtailed in the Himalayan state.

info_icon

AI Finds the Boy

A boy disappeared from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh on October 7, 2010—much like Saroo Brierley whose memoir A Long Way Home was adapted into a biographical movie, Lion, starring Dev Patel. The BOY landed in Howrah and cops put him in a shelter home. But unlike Saroo, he wasn’t adopted by an Australian couple and taken Down Under. A decade later, Telangana police were trying out their new facial recognition tool, DARPAN, to match photographs of missing kids with those found in children’s homes across India. Artificial intelligence (AI) traced the BOY to Howrah this March, but COVID-19 delayed the reunion with his family. He was handed to his father on December 12.

It’s a cross between triumph, relief and disapprobation; a signing off on the crosses we all bear: Time magazine, in 93 years, have used its cross sparingly. This pestilential year of 2020 needed the iconic ‘X’-cover to signal a good riddance…in league with Hitler’s death (1945), the defeat over a militaristic Japan (1945), an ill-advised invasion of Iraq (2003), the death of al-Qaeda leader Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi (2006) and Bin Laden’s liquidation (2011).

info_icon

Zombie Jolie

Body dysmorphia is the psychological state of people unhappy with their looks. This leads to artificial alterations—often surgery and sometimes “ugly make-up”, the zombie look is an instance. A better example to sum up such extreme behaviour is Iranian Sahar Tabar, a 19-year-old Instagram influencer and pathological Angelina Jolie fan. She became Zombie Angelina Jolie after she posted a series of photos in October last year of her face altered through 50 cosmetic surgeries, which resembled a spooky version of the Hollywood actress. Iran’s religious police didn’t “upvote” her new looks. She was arrested on blasphemy charges and sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Advertisement

Brevis

info_icon

Illustrations: Saahil, Text curated by Alka Gupta

Tags

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement

    Advertisement