Mixed Shots

Comet Neowise is streaking past Earth, providing a stunning nighttime show after buzzing the sun and expanding its tail. Its nucleus has material dating back to our solar system’s origin 4.6 billion years ago.

Delicious, Flaky, Airy…Mask

If you are bored of Malabar, chilly, kothu and Ceylon parottas, there is a new culinary creation to keep you sated—mask parottas. K.L. Kumar of Madurai, famous as a ‘parotta master’, has created one in the shape of a mask! As only takeaway orders are allowed, he displays the ‘mask’ to customers before packing it. He makes it like a Ceylon parotta—a soft, sticky dough is thinly rolled and then folded in layers to form many air pockets. With the dish, Kumar hopes to encourage the use of masks and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Now if only somebody would invent a mask burger to cajole the people in the US protesting against protection. 

Biscuits For The Lord

The pandemic played havoc with the cash flow of Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati, one of the wealthiest shrines in the world. But if the latest offering retrieved from its donation box is any indication, those times might soon be far behind. An unidentified devotee donated 20 gold biscuits, weighing a total of 2 kg, to the temple. But that is just a drop in the shrine’s monetary ocean. Since it opened in June 11 after the lockdown, about 2.5 lakh people have visited the temple and lavished cash offerings of Rs 16.7 crore on its famously insolvent lord.

I do, I do...We do

IT is a dilemma that many an Indian youth continues to face—to marry the one you love or someone your parents chose for you. But the people of Keria village in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul have chanced upon the perfect solution to this age-old dilemma. Why not marry both, suggested the panchayat to Sandeep Uike, who faced such a quandary. He had fallen in love with someone he met while studying in Bhopal, but his family had decided to marry him off to another girl. The three families went to the panchayat, which decided that if the women consented, he could marry both of them. He must have been some prize catch, for both agreed.

Speeding Swindlers

Yogesh Poddar’s car was stolen on June 6 from near his in-laws’ house. If that wasn’t bad enough, the Delhi resident also received a ticket for speeding more than three weeks after the theft! Although quite the shock, it also gave him hope that his car had not been dismantled and sold off part by part. His isn’t the only case though. The husband of a Delhi court judge received a challan for speeding in July—two months after the car was stolen. As traffic remains thin during the lockdown, looks like even thieves can’t resist a joyride.

I Spy, With My Big Eye

That fancy iPhone you bought might have misbehaved a little lately. Many apps like Tinder, Spotify and Pinterest crashed when users tried to open them. However, neither these apps, nor Apple is to blame—Facebook is the culprit. Like the neighbourhood gossip snooping on everyone’s affairs, login through Facebook has been integrated with these apps. A bug in its software development kit led to the apps crashing, even for users who were not logged in through Facebook. This also highlights the extent of Facebook’s tracking—it uses the data various apps send to it to monitor what people do on these apps. So, you don’t even have to browse the social media network to be under its prying gaze!.

Illustrations: saahil, Text by Alka Gupta and Syed Saad Ahmed