Mixed Shots

Sanitised Mary

With alcohol shops opening in many states, tipplers are throwing social isolation to the winds, ostensibly to enrich state coffers and revive the economy. But the efforts of a man in Raisen district to raise the spirits of the exchequer did not impress the Madhya Pradesh government much. The man was trying to concoct a cocktail from hand sanitiser, whose primary constituent is alcohol. Considering how many were trying to make sanitiser at home from intoxicating brews, this innovative reverse engineering was only to be expected.

Shimla, Too Hot To Handle

Getting trapped in a sheep pen in Spiti turned out rather disastrous for a snow leopard. The government is transporting the highly endangered creature to Shimla, 350 km away, where it will event-u­al­ly stay in a rehabilitation centre-cum-zoo on the city’s outskirts. But this unprecedented translocation has annoyed wildlife experts. The reason? Shimla is too warm for the cat habituated to high altitudes. The zoo in Shimla, however, has been home to snow leopards before as it runs a breeding programme to conserve the species.

Taste The Delectable Doctor

Banging pots, candle lights, flower showers…the government has been inspiring people to thank ‘corona warriors’ in unusual ways, but none of these gestures was enough for Haji Kalimullah. So, to express his profound gratitude, he developed a new variety of mango known as ‘doctor mango’. A variant of the Dusshehri cultivar, it is supposedly sweeter and has a longer shelf life. But the doctor variety is just another bud on Kalimullah’s fecund branch. The enterprising horticulturist, a Padma Shri awardee, has grown more than 300 varieties of mangoes, including ‘Narendra Modi’, ‘Aishwarya Rai’, ‘Amit Shah’ and ‘Sachin Tendulkar’.

Pedal To Safety, Safely

Those crowding despite the government advisory could learn some lessons from Tripura’s Partha Saha. The man takes social distancing so seriously that he even invented a bicycle for it! The two-seater bike is unique because the distance between the seats is more than a metre. And if you’d rather not exert your lungs during the pandemic, worry not. The bicycle uses a lithium-ion battery, which on full charge, can propel it for 80 km in three hours. However, this is not a new feat for Saha. For the past five years, the enterprising automobile mechanic has been using his savings to make electric bikes and promote green energy and the ‘Make in India’ campaign.

Madras HC Blue-Ticks WhatsApp

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh of Madras High Court settled 23 insurance claim petitions with a single order. What makes the case special, however, is that he accepted the insurer’s evidence of the petitioners’ digital consent to its offer for settlement via WhatsApp messages. “These are unusual times. This is an unusual order,” he observed. But WhatsApp and the judiciary have not always had such rosy encounters. A judge in Gujarat High Court pulled up a municipal corporation commissioner for sending him a message on WhatsApp and asked him why a contempt of court case should not be initiated against him. In Pakistan, a judge stopped proceedings after he received a transfer order on WhatsApp!

Brevis

Illustrations: Saahil, Text by Alka Gupta, Saad Ahmed and G.C. Shekhar