Ice Ice Immunity
The world may have discovered the virtues of turmeric latte a couple of centuries late, but India has moved far beyond the humble haldi doodh. If a shot of immunity boost is what you’re craving, you’re now spoilt for choice. Karnataka-based Dairy Day has haldi ice cream, made with turmeric, pepper and honey. Even that nightmare of sickly children—chyawanprash—has been turned into an ice cream flavour. Amul, too, has jumped into the creamy fray. Should you be feeling particularly indulgent, you can have its haldi icecream redolent with the richness of almonds, cashews and dates. To wash it down, Amul offers milk flavoured with haldi, tulsi, ginger and ashwagandha.
Glow and Chirpy
THE call of the colourful Bugun Liocichla might soon light up screens in Paris. Arunachal Pradesh’s Bugun tribe’s efforts to conserve the endangered bird are the subject of Naresh Glow’s 29-minute documentary Wildlife Our Lifeblood. The movie has been nominated for best film and best director at the 15th International Wildlife Conservation Documentary Film Festival, scheduled to be held in December in Paris. Glow earlier made a documentary on how the tribe was protecting wildlife by setting up a community reserve in West Kameng district. But those are not the only feathers in his cap—he is also a three-time MLA!
‘Murder’ On The Dowry Express
A husband and his family pressurising the wife for dowry in Bulandshahr, a missing wife and a body stuffed in a suitcase in Sahibabad. All the pieces of the puzzle fit, until the wife heard the news of her ‘death’. After her husband and in-laws beat up Varisha for dowry, she ran away to Noida. After the police found a corpse in a bag, Varisha’s mother and brother wrongly identified the body as hers. Then, the police arrested her husband and in-laws. When Varisha found out, she went to a police station in Aligarh and informed the cops about what had happened. The charge of dowry death has now been dropped from the FIR against her husband and in-laws.
Frodo, Find Corona
Dogs are experts at finding drugs, explosives and smelly socks under the sofa. Now, they are sniffing out a new threat—coronavirus. Chilean cops are training Labradors and golden retrievers to detect coronavirus in people’s sweat after a trial in the UK showed promising results. They are appropriately attired too—in green ‘bio-detector’ jackets. Considering that dogs have already been trained to detect malaria, cancer and Parkinson’s, they might just pass the COVID-19 olfactory test.
Ponzi Producer
With $160,000 in earnings, Shiva C.R. Thudi was seemingly living the American dream. That is until the 26-year-old’s con job came to light. Between 2015-2017, when he was in college in New Hampshire, he defrauded many people by claiming to be a film producer and got them to invest in his ‘venture’. As he scammed more people for money, he used the cash to pay back earlier investors. But as anybody who has tried to run a Ponzi scheme can attest, you eventually run out of investors and they all eventually come claiming their pound of flesh. Thudi now has to serve a year in prison, after which he might be sent back to India.
Brevis
Illustrations: Saahil, Text by Alka Gupta and Syed Saad Ahmed
