Mixed Shots

By Leaps And Bounds

She took a leap of faith and a nation starved of champions jumped for joy. That was in the 2003 World Athletics Championship in Paris and Anju Bobby George won a historic bronze. And almost two decades on, India could not appreciate more—she did all that with one kidney. The 43-year-old long jumper, a gold medallist in the 2005 IAAF World Athletics Finals in Monaco, tweeted: “Believe it or not, I’m one of the fortunate, among very few who reached the world top with a single KIDNEY…” Besides, she’s allergic to painkillers and had “a dead takeoff leg”. She credits husband-coach Robert Bobby George for her feats.

Mahabali And Bengaluru

When it comes to frogs, most people jump to conclusions. Yet, this important marker of an ecosystem’s health gets its moments in the sun one hop at a time. Take the purple or pignose frog (for an unusually pointed snout). This rare species endemic to the Western Ghats would be declared as Kerala’s official amphibian. It is called “Mahabali frog” as well since it emerges from the dirt for one day, like the mythological King Mahabali who was banished to the underworld and allowed to meet his subjects only once. Then there’s Sphaerotheca Bengaluru, named after Bangalore, another species of borrowing frog discovered recently.

His God In Gold

He more than waxes eloquent about his “good friend” and hero Diego Armando Maradona—Kerala jeweller Boby Chemmanur plans to build a museum in his idol’s memory, with a life-size ‘Hand of God’ sculpture in gold. The CMD of the 157-year-old Boby Chemmanur Group, headquartered in Thrissur, was instrumental in bringing the Argentine star to Kerala eight years ago. The “friendship” dates back to 2011 when Maradona inaugurated a Chemmanur showroom in Dubai and was gifted a small gold statue. He asked Boby if there could be a bigger one and the fan couldn’t oblige more, now that he’s gone.

A Historic Harvest

Remember Matt Damon using his green thumb to grow potatoes on the Red Planet in The Martian—survival spuds on a bed of astronaut poop? The film simply ingeminates the idea of growing food in space for inter-galactic travel, but NASA astronaut Kate Rubins opened that mysterious frontier when she harvested on November 30 the first radish crop at a growth chamber for plant research onboard the International Space Station. Why radish? It reaches maturity in just 27 days. Or let’s say fresh salads for the first Mars colonisers travelling from earth—which at current cattle cart speed of our crafts will take between six and eight months.

Brevis

Illustrations: Saahil, Text curated by Alka Gupta