DISCOVER TIPS | Knowledge Magazine

By Preethi Ramamoorthy There is something about the dour, monosyllabic Andy Murray that makes you want to root for him. Perhaps because of — rather than despite — his poor luck at Grand Slam finals. It was July 7, 2012. On Henman Hill outside Centre Court at Wimbledon, umbrellas were shared, doritos were passed around, fists were pumped, strangers were hugged. And hearts were collectively broken. It was the day when Roger Federer defeated Andy Murray and the whole of Britain to win his 7 th  Wimbledon title. Before 2012, I had always been a Roger Federer fan. While I did like Murray, the prospect of watching Federer play in the finals was more exciting. As I made my way through the queue trudging up the hill before the match, I couldn’t help but wonder how Murray would cope with that moment. It was the biggest moment in his career, but also the greatest in many years of British men’s tennis. No British man had managed to advance this far in Wimbledon since 1938 when Henry ‘Bunny’

By Tishani Doshi When in Cuba, guess whom Tishani ran into. Kim, scion of the reality-star Kardashian family. Safe to say, the clash was more than one of culture. This May I finally got to Cuba. It’s always had an allure. Partly because of Fidel Castro — something about a cigar-smoking, tracksuit-wearing president (now past), who crawled through jungles and has been telling the Americans where to stick it for sixty years, appealed. Plus, Buena Vista Social Club. Plus, rumba and mojitos. Plus, all-round sexiness evoked by a capital like Havana (which, to be annoying, I sometimes pronounce Habana, even though this is pushing the limits of my Spanish). If you’ve seen any footage of Havana you’ll know to expect 1950s American convertibles (running on Russian parts), crumbling Spanish colonial buildings and other signs of Technicolor communism. What you don’t expect is to feel like you’re walking around a film set, also circa 1950s. It’s all very glamorous and on the cusp, what with the t

To take a critic's views to heart and allow it to erode your confidence is foolish. Instead, recognise them as one opinion among billion others and use it to improve yourself. If it's a comedian, though, what they say in their joke need not even be their actual opinion. “I don’t know if I want to go on being a director after this,” 27-year-old  Xavier Dolan told a Times journalist  after his film  It’s Only The End Of The World  didn’t go down well with critics at Cannes. Whoa! What? The film won the Grand Prix. Dolan was peeved at a Playlist critic who wrote : “It’s simply impossible to believe that a story this stridently self-pitying could not refer, more or less explicitly, to writer/director Dolan himself… It suggests a level of martyred self-involvement on Dolan’s part that is tantamount to a persecution complex.” “Who the ... does this person thinks she is? How does a person think they know what my personal life is? This is not journalism. It’s gossip. It’s pretendin

By Lavanya Narayan For a woman... an Indian woman... a south Indian woman from a ‘traditional’ family, shaving her's head is a no-no, unless under religious sanction. So, naturally, it's recommended. I remember being in the ninth grade (January 2007) when Britney Spears, one of my entertainment idols growing up, shaved her head during her widely-publicised meltdown. To give you some context, Britney had then recently filed for divorce from her ex-husband Kevin Federline, had admitted herself to various treatment facilities (for drug abuse, most likely), and lost her aunt to a terminal illness. I assume that the majority of society (and the members of a coven we call the Internet) is in agreement that nearly a decade ago, a woman shaving her head out of the blue would be characteristic of a mental breakdown. However, it would currently agree — from the perspective it has gained from all the diverse domains of knowledge it brings together — that all human beings are free to al

By Tishani Doshi Bangladeshi writer Abeer Y. Hoque talks about her obsession with memory, continental and cultural shifts, and walking the straight path. Abeer Y. Hoque is a photographer, poet and writer with rare spreadsheet skills. Born in Nigeria, of Bangladeshi ascent, and currently living in Brooklyn, NY, she carries at least three countries inside her. Her most recent book, The Olive Witch (HarperCollins), is a memoir. You talk of how swimming was your first way of honouring the body — you also practise yoga and are known to bust out the dance moves anywhere, anytime. Is the body a sacred space for you? How does this relate to writing? I'm not sure I think anything is sacred, except for sleep and kindness. My own body, on the other hand, I've often had trouble respecting let alone giving it space. I think it's hard for women and girls, given how much pressure there is to look a certain way, or how dangerous/creepy/vulnerable it is to be female in the world. I gre

Lana and Lilly Wachowski felt misfits in their assigned gender identity, and made a clean break. As did Neo when he took the red pill. No one should continue to live in a skin they don't feel like they belong in. If the first Matrix movie ended with Neo (“Know Thyself”) accepting who he really was , the sequels were all about the uphill battle against the system of the binary. We know that most of the world operates with two choices against gender — Male or Female. The biggest battle the LGBT community faces is from within. They want to deny themselves their identity and love because it would lead to the end of their world as they know it. But choosing their safe haven over love IS denial. Matrix Reloaded begins with Neo’s biggest fear i.e. losing Trinity to the binary universe. Neo awakens from a bad dream (a premonition of Trinity falling to her death), we find Zion under threat from sentinels — the army of machines. If the first film was about the “the world that has been pu

By Sriram Sriraman Politicians are experts in narrativising. If we are to genuinely gauge their true intentions, we could do well to study their body language. As they say, actions betray truth so much better than words. In an age when most of what we hear from or read about the political class is carefully worded with a specific outcome in mind, the reading of body language remains a key tool in understanding attitudes and subtle biases. It is strange that the media, involved in reporting events and forming public opinion, hasn’t explored the possibility of taking advantage of this aspect of psychology. Many governments have a functioning team that is involved in understanding and reading body languages of top leaders.  The U.S . spends $300,000 a year to study the body languages of top politicians , including that of Russian President Vladimir Putin. While this may be a pittance when compared to what countries spend on key budgetary elements such as Defence or Education, it nonethe

By Samarth Bansal Aam Aadmi Party began its journey as a symbol of hope and inspiration for the people seeking a real and substantive change in politics and governance. Nearly half a decade on, the hope has been crushed by theatrics, rhetoric and politicking. When I left Delhi in 2011 for pursuing my undergraduate education, I didn’t realise that I would miss witnessing one of the largest citizen movements in our country, the anti-corruption movement, which would eventually lead to a (supposedly) ‘political revolution’ — the establishment and rise of the Aam Aadmi Party. The idealist in me got a new life when Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi after conquering the 2013 Assembly Elections. The victory was an answer to every cynic who disbelieved in the power of a common man. AAP, for me, was a symbol of hope and change. The charismatic victory in 2015 elections, after 2014 Lok Sabha elections debacle, reaffirmed my belief that Kejriwal and team meant serious business.

By Aparna Karthikeyan With medical advancements extending the lives of the elderly and materialistic aspirations forcing working parents to have kids later in their lives, the sandwich generation is busy caring for everybody. Ever since my parents turned 60, their lives became very, very busy. Except, it wasn’t the sort of busy they might have imagined — reclining and reading, visiting and vacationing. Instead their time is entirely spent ‘caring’. Between themselves, they care full-time for a 91-year-old man, an 87-year-old woman, and part-time for a 17-year-old girl and a one-year-old baby. They plan meals for two mostly toothless people (one who has an old, artificial set, and another that has two barely-there teeth), one who baulks at south-Indian food, and another who will eat only south-Indian food. Then, they plan their meals around the infant’s vaccination appointments, the teenager’s shopping trips, and the elderly people’s eye-doctor visits. Their holidays, if any, depend en