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Svengali
A controlling, manipulative person who tries to persuade or coerce other people to do his bidding. Based on the hypnotist-musician in George du Maurier’s Trilby.

Quixotic
Absurdly chivalric; prone to pursue unreasonable goals. In other words, similar to Miguel de Cervantes’ windmill-tilter Don Quixote.

Faustian
One who takes dangerous risks with his moral and spiritual well-being in pursuing material and physical knowledge and power. Goethe’s Dr Faustus is the prototype for this noble breed.

Malapropism
The hilarious Mrs Malaprop in R.B. Sheridan’s The Rivals was the source for this word, which indicates a tendency to use the wrong words to describe something, using, instead, words which sound similar.

Heidi who? She didn’t yodel, she was no goatherd. She was a wholesome Swiss lass high on a hill—the Alps—best played by Shirley Temple in 1937.

So? This is an 1880 children’s classic about an orphan sent to live with her grumpy grandfather.

Why read? Less annoying than Pollyanna, less exhausting than Alice, less hyperactive than Anne of Green Gables.

The baby-faced actress has grown up, thinks life’s a lemon and has sued her parents.

A. Worked in financial company, Khanwala Estates, as well as pa’s cassette business.

B. Her lesser known films include Telugu film ‘Badri’ and ‘Puthiya Geethai’, a Tamil flick

C. Won a gold medal for an Economics paper at Tufts University, Boston.

D. Was offered the starring role in ‘Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’ (2000) by family friend Rakesh Roshan over lunch.

E. Granddaughter of barrister/politician Rajani Patel; her mother Asha played her mother in ‘Kaho Na...’

Answer E. Her mother played Hrithik’s mother.

Mozart took his inspiration where he found it. As with the traditional French lullaby, ‘Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman’ (Would I tell you, Mother?). We know this piece as ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’, now reduced by technology to another annoying mobile ringtone.