JULY 2020 `100

TAM I N G TH E
‘W H S’
A T t
I F
ural but
r ying is na
Wor
you can stop
The Woman
Who Won A
Pot of Gold!

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

‘Scammed By
My Best
Friend’

TALK TO AN EXPERT How To

New Rules of Sound
the Job Game Smarter
 Reader ’s Digest

CONTENTS

Features
42 64
Cover story
TAMING THE 74
‘WHAT IFs’ 58 kindness of strangers
We can’t run from health
our worries, but we What Goes In, Night Without End
can keep them from Must Come Out A narrow escape from
running our lives. Healthy bowel campus violence at a
Here’s how. movements mean Delhi university.
a healthy you. by sanskriti rajkhowa
by jiLL buchner with
ishani nandi by Lisa bendaLL

78
with naorem anuja

54 bonus read
other lives 64 Tracking the
photo by joLeen Zubek

The Woman Who Won drama in real life Tiger Butcher

a Pot of Gold ‘I Was Scammed Tigers are being farmed,
A serial contest winner By My Best Friend’ killed and trafficked in
shares her secret to An expert con artist Laos. One man hunts
hitting the jackpot. is brought to justice. down those responsible.
by indu baLachandran by johnathan waLton by terrence mccoy

ReadeRsdigest.in 3
Reader ’s Digest

9 Dear Reader good news news from

26 Period Leave for tHe world
10 Over to You of medicine
everyday Heroes Men and Women, 34 Breast Cancer
14 There’s Always Churu’s Waterman in Men, Games
Room for Kindness and more to Beat Stress
By V. kumara swamy
By V. kumara swamy and the Best
points to ponder Way to Get the
28 Jhumpa Lahiri, Right Sleep
Conversations Hanif Kureishi
and Mitch Albom money
18 A Doctor’s Duty 36 An Insurance
in Today’s World Cover for
By Dr Prof. k. sriNath reDDy Better Living COVID-19
tHat’s outrageous By amit chhaBra
HealtH
22 We Threw Our
30 Never Miss How to
Workers under 38 Sound
Breakfast Again!
the Bus By Naorem aNuja Smarter,
By maitreesh Ghatak
food with Expert
talk to an expert Help
32 Drink to Beat Back
24 Rules of the Job By lisa fielDs aND
Summer Heat
Game: Learn By mohiNi mehrotra
BraNDoN sPecktor
and Upskill

shutterstock
By aBhijit BhaDuri

32

4 july 2020
Reader ’s Digest

Culturescape The Genius

interview with
Jaideep ahlawat
Section
96 A Hell of an Actor 106 Surfing for
by AnnA M. M. VetticAd Brainpower
by dAniel t.
rd recommends WillinghAM
98 Films, Watchlist, 110 Brainteasers
Books, Throwback 112 Sudoku
and Funny People 113 Word Power
115 Quiz
review
102 A Worthy Follow-Up 116 Quotable Quotes Humour
by shougAt dAsguptA 12
studio All in a Day’s Work
103 Louis Pasteur by 21
Albert Edelfelt Humour in Uniform
by sAptAkk choudhury
50
me and my shelf Laughter, The Best
104 Manjula Medicine
Padmanabhan’s
Top-10 Reads 73
As Kids See It
94
Life’s Like That

96 left: prAVin tAlAn, top: life on White/getty iMAges

On the Cover
cover design by Nilanjan Das

Taming The ‘What Ifs’ ��������������������������������������������������������������� 42

The Woman Who Won a Pot of Gold! ������������������������������������� 54
‘Scammed By My Best Friend’ ������������������������������������������������ 64
How to Sound Smarter ������������������������������������������������������������� 38
New Rules of the Job Game ������������������������������������������������������ 24

6 july 2020
 VOL. 61 NO. 7
JULY 2020
Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie
Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa

editor Sanghamitra Chakraborty IMPACT (ADVERTISING)

group creative editor Nilanjan Das
group photo editor Bandeep Singh
senior assistant editor Ishani Nandi
assistant editors V. Kumara Swamy,
Kritika Banerjee
consulting editors Naorem Anuja,
Saptak Choudhury
editorial coordinator Khushboo Thakur
senior art director
assistant art director
chief of production
assistant manager
SALES AND OPERATIONS
senior gm, national sales Deepak Bhatt
gm, operations Vipin Bagga
publishing director Manoj Sharma
associate publisher Anil Fernandes
mumbai: senior gm (west) Jitendra Lad
bengaluru: gm Upendra Singh
kolkata: general manager (east) Kaushiky Gangulie
BUSINESS
group chief marketing officer Vivek Malhotra
gm, marketing & circulation Ajay Mishra
deputy gm, operations G. L. Ravik Kumar
Sadhana Moolchandani
agm, marketing Kunal Bag
Keshav Kapil
manager, marketing Anuj Kumar Jamdegni
Harish Aggarwal
Narendra Singh
Reader’s Digest in India is published by: Living Media India Limited (Regd.
Office: K9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi) under a licence granted by the
TMB Inc. (formerly RDA Inc.), proprietor of the Reader’s Digest trademark.
Published in 46 editions and 17 languages, Reader’s Digest
is the world’s largest-selling magazine.
It is also India’s largest-selling magazine in English.

TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS, INC. (formerly RDA Inc.)

President and Chief Executive Officer Bonnie Kintzer
VP, Chief Operating Officer, International Brian Kennedy
Editor-in-Chief, International Magazines Raimo Moysa
Founders: DeWitt Wallace, 1889–1981; Lila Acheson Wallace, 1889–1984

HOW TO REACH US
MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS/CUSTOMER CARE: Email subscription.rd@intoday.com Mail Subscriptions Reader’s Digest,
C-9, Sector 10, Noida, UP—201301. Tel: 0120-2469900 Toll-free No 1800 1800 001 (BSNL customers can call toll free on this
number) For bulk subscriptions 0120-4807100, Ext. 4361 For change of address, enclose the addressed portion of your
magazine wrapper. ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: Phones Mumbai: 022-66063355 Chennai: 044-28478525 Bengaluru:
080-22212448 Delhi: 0120-4807100 Kolkata: 033-22825398 Fax: 022-66063226 Email rd4business@intoday.com
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Email editor.india@rd.com CORPORATE/EDITORIAL: Address Reader’s Digest, India Today
Group, 3rd Floor, Film City 8, Sector 16A, Noida, UP—201301; Phone: 0120-4807100. We edit and fact-check letters. Please
provide your telephone number and postal address in all cases.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ReadersDigest.co.in Instagram: @readersdigestindia Twitter: @ReadersDigestIN
Website: https://www.readersdigest.in/

© 2016 Trusted Media Brands, Inc. (Reader’s Digest editorial material). © 2016 Living Media India Ltd. (Living Media editorial material). All rights reserved
throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or part, in English or other languages, is prohibited. Printed and published by Manoj Sharma
on behalf of Living Media India Limited. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited, 18–35 Milestone, Delhi–Mathura Road, Faridabad–121007, (Haryana).
Published at K–9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi–110001. Editor: Sanghamitra Chakraborty (responsible for selection of news).

8 july 2020
 DEAR READER Sanghamitra Chakraborty
Taking Your Naorem Anuja
Leave Keshav Kapil
W
hen I came to work for the
India Today Group,14 years
ago, as the editor of a health
magazine, my son was an infant—
today he is all set to fly the nest. Even
when I took over at Reader’s Digest,
he was a middle-school boy. Where
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANAND GOGOI , HA IR & M AKE-UP BY ROLIKA PRA KAS H; SHU TTE RSTOCK
did the years go?
Working with RD, and serving you,
has been an incredible privilege. I have
had the opportunity to shape the ‘little
magazine that is a big read’, to make it
worthy of you. I often got teased about
how I should learn to relax and treat it
more like a job. My brother would
say, “Quit, come back home (to
Calcutta), we will grow old
together.” I wish he was around
to see this day. After serving as
editor of this wonderful maga-
zine for almost five years, I am
finally moving on.
Above all, I am grateful to
you, dear reader, for every-
thing. You invited me into
the RD family, shared your
ideas and feedback, your
w a r mt h a n d g o o d
w is h es and al s o
some frank disap-
proval, some-
V. kumara Swamy Sadhana Moolchandani Saptak Choudhury
Khushboo Thakur Ishani Nandi Aindrisha Mitra
Kririka Banerjee
times, as is normal in most families.
With a wonderful team and amazing
support from the India Today Group
and RD International, we have been
able to bring RD into the 2020s—fresh
columns, new voices, a bold new
design and all. I can say with a bit of
pride now, my job is done.
I leave behind a team that I love,
whom I will miss sorely. But they will
be around, to work with the brilliant
Kai Freise—a friend and journalist I
look up to—who will take over as the
new editor, to keep the RD flag flying!
As I take your leave, I must also thank
all my seniors and colleagues in the
group, not to mention our contribu-
tors, columnists and experts, I have
had the opportunity to work with
and learn from.
Let’s all wish Kai and the
team well, and keep reading
the Digest.
Goodbye for now!
Sanghamitra Chakraborty
editor
Send an email to
editor.india@rd.com
ReadeRsdigest.in 9
 needing the money for
himself, had the heart

OVER TO to help a family in need.

These stories remind

YOU
Notes on the
us that one does not need
to be rich, or of a certain
age to be charitable and
April issue strong-willed—it is just
what people are made
of. Selfless and unsung
heroes like them are
The Man with a Heart of Gold rare but restore our
The courage and conviction demonstrated by faith in humanity.
Dinesh Talapada in refusing to press charges Moushumi Bhagawati,
against a young boy involved in an accident, via email
which resulted in the loss of life of his beloved
Dear Reader
cousin, proves that such kindness requires not only
The coronavirus
a generous heart but, perhaps, one that has been pandemic has revealed
shaped by the experience of living with hardship. that most countries
Most people, finding themselves in a similar situa- around the world
tion, would have resorted to legal action against have focused far too
the boy. Talapada’s extraordinary act of kindness— much of their efforts
giving away a large sum of money to a needy family, developing and building
who were almost strangers, is quite remarkable. It a large arsenal of arms,
makes one wonder if one must be born in poverty while paying scant
to understand giving and the joy of receiving. attention towards
—M. Rajeswari, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh improving infrastructure
for health care and the
M. Rajeswari gets this month’s ‘Write & Win’ prize of ₹1,000. —EDs delivery of medical
services. Even a global
Good News and generosity in the power such as the US
The stories of Caroline world. Caroline not is feeling the pinch,
Malsawmtluangi and only displayed bravery with a large number
Dinesh Talapada (in and saved a kidnapped of COVID-19 causalities.
‘The Man with a Heart minor, but generously One is tempted to
of Gold’) are much- shared her award money argue that nature is
needed reminders of with her as well. getting back at us,
the existence of goodness And Dinesh, despite and our only solution

10 july 2020

is to hide away in our regardless of wealth,
homes in fear and worry. the poor are the most
However, these testing affected due to long-
times have also brought standing problems
along some positive such as segregation by
changes—our environ- income, race and gender,
ment is much cleaner, reduced economic
we can hear birds chir- mobility and the high
ping again, we have cost of medical care.
been compelled to It is undeniable that
adopt healthy habits, low-income communi-
we are back to eating ties are far more likely to
home-cooked meals be exposed to the virus,
and spending time sur- face a greater mortality
rounded by our families. rate and suffer financially
Perhaps this is a good as well. In times of an
time to make a resolution economic crisis, these
to continue these positive vulnerabilities become
habits, keep the healthy even more pronounced
choices going and refrain for marginal groups.
from harming the planet The government
any further. needs to engineer a
—Manjeet Singh Ishar, response that prevents
Mohali people from having
to choose between a
Corona Takes missed pay cheque
the Crown and risking their own
The COVID-19 out- health as well as their
break in India has put family’s. The govern-
a spotlight on economic ment should also
inequalities and drawn target its economic
our attention to our stimulus packages to
fragile social safety net communities that
that leaves vulnerable will be hit first and
communities to bear hardest, and ensure
the economic brunt of an adequate standard
this national crisis. of living for all.
While the virus —Sanjay Chopra,
blindly infects people Mohali
Reader ’s Digest
Wake Up Your Brain
Boredom causes exhaus-
tion or impatience in
many of us because one
is resigned to performing
dull tasks or being stuck
with nothing to do.
Here are some more
suggestions on how to
avoid such a situation:
Try to find new things
to do. Start small—for
example, pick a different
genre of books from what
you usually choose to
read. Small changes can
add up to make signifi-
cant transformations.
Be in touch with your
emotions—identify your
state of being and try to
get to the root of negative
feelings and work on re-
solving them.
Boredom can grow
into a problem, if we
don’t actively work on
fixing it. If nothing else
works, talk to a friend
who can cheer you up
with their company.
Beena Mathur, Pune
Write in at editor.india@
rd.com. The best letters
discuss RD articles, offer
criticism, share ideas.
Do include your phone
number and postal address.
ReadeRsdigest.in 11
 All
in a Day’s

WORK
Teachers shared with
reddit.com the most
questionable questions
they’d ever been asked:
è“How old was the
average 18-year-old
in 1942?”
è“What are those
pyramid-shaped things
in Egypt called?”
è“If the patient has
a brain haemorrhage, “Before you tell me about your diet, I should
can we tie a tourniquet warn you—I follow you on Facebook.”
around the neck to
stop it?” that requires getting to the best in the news
an airport before 7 a.m. business. Here, they
Cashier: I think I know — @tressiemcphd point out the not-so-best:
you from somewhere. CorreCtion: “In yester-
Customer: I have a big Marriage vows should day’s jazz albums
following on Instagram. be rewritten as “to have column, we incorrectly
Cashier: Don’t you and to hold and to listen referred to Don Rendell
work at the car wash to stories about your as a ‘terrorist’ when
on Third [street]? workplace drama until it clearly should have
Customer: Yes. It could death do us part.” been ‘tenorist’.”
also be from there. — @copymama Advertisement: “One
— @realoverheardla of the greatest gifts
The Columbia Univer- you’ll ever give
I’ve never wanted to be sity School of Journa- your family may
the kind of successful lism often points out be your funeral.”

Cartoon by Scott Masear

12 july 2020
 Reader ’s Digest

HeAdlines: I asked the kids in my nursery school

✦ “City Manager class what they needed in order to
Tapes Head to
District Attorney”
grow up nice and strong. One little
✦ “Netflix Misses girl answered, “Birthdays!”
Subscriber Mark” —Abigail George

As a brainwave
technologist, I often WHAT’S UP WITH THESE 911 CALLS?
ask post-operative Not all emergency calls to the
patients to smile to police are real emergencies.
make sure their facial
èAn Oregonian came
nerves are intact. It
home, heard rustling
always struck me sounds from inside a
as odd to be asking bathroom and could
this question right see a shadowy figure
after brain surgery, moving about under-
so a colleague sugges- neath the closed door.
ted I ask patients to The resident called chances. She called 911
show me their teeth. police. They arrived, after opening an Amazon
Armed with this drew their guns and package at home that
new phrase, I said ordered the prowler to was filled with peanuts—
to my next patient, come out with hands packing peanuts.
“Mr Smith, show me up. Receiving no res- —People.com

your teeth.” ponse, they burst into èEscape rooms are a

He shook his head, the bathroom, where, popular craze where
according to a deputy, participants solve puzzles
in staunch refusal.
“We encountered a and clues to free them-
“The nurse has them,” very thorough vacuu- selves from a locked room.
he explained. ming job being done Many people find them
Stefano Spicca/ShutterStock

—Emily Murphy by a Roomba robotic fun, but not one burglar

vacuum cleaner.” in Vancouver, Washington.
Reader’s Digest will pay —5newsonline.com He broke into an escape
for your funny anecdote èPeanut allergies are room after hours and be-
or photo in any of our nothing to sneeze at, came trapped. He even-
humour sections. Post it tually figured out how to
to the editorial address, and one mother whose
or email: editor.india@ son is highly allergic leave. He called 911.
rd.com wasn’t taking any —ravemobilesafety.com

ReadeRsdigest.in 13
 EVERYDAY HEROES
When the nationwide lockdown left thousands in
despair, these conscientious people showed that ...

There’s Always Room

for Kindness
By V. Kumara Swamy

R
esidents of three buildings owned
by 41-year-old businessman
Koduri Bala Lingam, from
Hyderabad’s Balanagar, were in trouble.
Most of them contractual labourers,
they were neither in a position to
pay their rents, nor certain how they
would feed their families, as factories
and commercial establishments
started shutting down, following the
nationwide lockdown.
When one of the tenants approached
Bala Lingam with a request that their
rent be deferred until their earnings
resumed, the landlord decided to
go one step further: “I told 70 of my
renters that they did not have to pay for
that month or the next,” Lingam told
Reader’s Digest. That was in early April.
Bala Lingam came to Hyderabad
from Sircilla, in Telangana, in search
of a job in 1995. “Only 16 at the time, I
came to Hyderabad to escape poverty.
I started with odd jobs, including that
of a table-cleaner in a bar,” he says,
recalling his early days of struggle. To-
day, he runs a welding company that
employs scores of people. “I now lead
a comfortable life, but I cannot forget
my past. I understand that these people
are going through what I experienced
when I lived hand to mouth,” he says.
Driven by the desire to put his
hard-earned prosperity to good use,
Bala Lingam waived nearly ₹3.5 lakhs
worth of rent. “Money does not matter

14 july 2020

Koduri Bala Lingam
in times like these. I had to stand by
them—and that’s all I did,” he says.
Many of his tenants are from Bihar
and currently without jobs. They would
have tried to return home, as thousands
of other migrant labourers across
the country had done, with tragic
consequences, when the lockdown
Photo Courtesy: Koduri Bala lingam
was announced.
“I was horrified by the images of mi-
grants struggling to reach their homes
and assured my tenants that they need
not worry about their rent or food. My
only condition was that they stay in-
doors and maintain social distancing
to defeat the coronavirus,” he says.
Without doubt, Bala L ingam
succeeded in his mission. Each one of
Reader ’s Digest
his tenants followed the rules, even as
he, the landlord, assumed responsibility
for their needs. Some have started
paying their rents as they have
returned to work, with the easing of the
lockdown. “Many tenants are yet to get
their jobs back. I have told them not to
worry. I am happy that I could do my
bit and will do more if I need to,” says
this Good Samaritan.
Stepping Up for
the Needy
W hen you have a heart and want to
give, all it takes is a bit of empa-
thy and the will to be selfless. That is all
Vikas Kumar Jaiswal did.
It all started when Jaiswal, deputy
superintendent and circle officer of the
Sadar area of Agra, was put in charge
of monitoring the movement of mi-
grant labourers along the highways
under his jurisdiction. “Our job was
to maintain law and order and ensure
that the migrants followed social-dis-
tancing norms,” says Jaiswal. He saw
thousands of exhausted men, women
and children, walking, in the absence
of any other means of travel, to reach
their villages. Heartbroken by their
predicament, Jaiswal felt compelled
to help and urged his colleagues to join
him in the effort. “I noticed many of the
women and children were either bare-
foot or in worn-out footwear, walking
on the metalled roads in the scorching
ReadeRsdigest.in 15
ReadeRsdigest.in 00
Reader ’s Digest
Vikas Kumar Jaiswal
WHEN YOU WANT TO
GIVE, ALL IT TAKES IS
EMPATHY AND THE
WILL TO BE SELFLESS.
heat. They were clearly in pain, but had
to continue their journey. That’s when
we thought of providing them with
decent footwear,” says Jaiswal.
The department could offer little
help to support the cause, so Jaiswal
and his colleagues pooled in money
from their own pockets. Their generous
donations went a long way in procuring
necessary supplies that could sustain
the poor migrants on their long trek.
Jaiswal and his team then set up
stalls along the roads in Gwalior,
16 july 2020
Fatehabad and Shamsabad, where
the travellers stopped over. Volunteers
manning the tents invited the migrants
to try on and find shoes that fit them.
Soon, around 3,000 pairs were distri-
buted. Each migrant paused, picked a
pair, thanked the police personnel and
moved on, smiling in relief. Besides
footwear, this group also distributed
masks, food, water and other essentials.
“This is the least we could do for them.
Their smiles were the biggest blessings
we got,” Jaiswal says.
The Ant That
Moved Mountains
Sbefore
aisri Akondi from Pune was visiting
a friend in Manipal, Karnataka, just
Photos Courtesy: (left) Vikas kumar jaiswal; (right) saisri akondi
the lockdown. Trapped by the
travel ban, the 23-year-old researcher
found herself frustrated at not being
able to help during a national emer-
gency. Back home, her colleagues at the
National Chemical Laboratory worked
on innovative methods to deal with the
pandemic, and she itched to contri-
bute in her own way. Soon, she spotted
another opportunity to be useful.
On the evening of 11 May, she came
across a group of 50 migrants be-
ing stopped and questioned by the
police. Akondi learnt that they were
railway construction workers, aban-
doned by their contractor after the
lockdown, and were making their way
to Mahabubabad in Telangana, more
than 680 kilometres away. “I instantly
thought of helping them, noticing there
were 10 children and a pregnant lady
among them,” recalls Akondi.
Her first task was to register the
group on a government portal to help
them get movement passes within the
state. Then, with the help of a group
called the Humanitarian Relief Soci-
ety, Akondi arranged for food and con-
vinced the railway authorities to let the
migrants stay at the Udupi station until
their transport was arranged.
Akondi next turned her attention
to the women, arranging for folic acid
and vitamins for the pregnant woman
as well as sanitary pads and UTI medi-
cation for the others. Alongside the
arrangements, she continued to make
frequent posts to the social media
handles of the Telangana chief minis-
ter’s office, the Karnataka government
and others, seeking their attention and
help for the migrants. There was no re-
sponse for days, but she did not give up.
Her relentless efforts paid off—
Akondi was able to secure funding
from the Telangana government and,
Saisri Akondi
through crowdfunding, pay for the mi-
grants’ travel back to their hometowns.
On 19 May, just seven days since they
were intercepted, the happy group of
migrants were bidding a tearful good-
bye to Akondi, and, happily, by 20 May,
they reached their homes. “Some of
them still send me pictures of them-
selves and their families,” she tells us.
Afterwards, instead of leaving Mani-
pal once the lockdown eased, Akondi
stayed to help other stranded mi-
grants—around 3,000, in fact—reach
their homes in Assam, Jharkhand, Uttar
Pradesh, West Bengal and other states.
Even as the world came to a standstill,
this large-hearted woman became the
ant that moved mountains.

What Are the Chances?

In Belgium’s St. Symphorien Military Cemetery, the grave belonging
to the first British soldier killed in World War I directly faces
the grave of the last British soldier killed in World War I.
The placement was completely accidental.
THE MIRROR

ReadeRsdigest.in 17
 CONVERSATIONS

A Doctor’s Duty
in Today’s World
Compassion, courtesy and information sharing are some of the
key attributes of a physician, even in a tech-intensive world

by Dr Professor K. Srinath Reddy

‘To cure sometimes, Good clinical assessment is essential

to relieve often and
comfort always’ is an
aphorism of uncer-
tain attribution by
Hippocrates. It has
been quoted widely,
with variations, since
the 15th century. This
description of a physician’s mandate
is valid even in this era of technology-
intensive medical care, where pictures
of beeping screens, organ scans and
‘miracle’ pills have replaced the kindly
doctor everywhere.
Technology supports but cannot
substitute a competent and
compassionate health-care provider.
for interpreting a diagnostic-test result
or in choosing between treatment
options. That is because context
matters in analyzing and applying
evidence from research to individual
patients. Proven treatments may
still need consideration for patients
who have contraindications or are
non-responders. Tests can yield false
positive and false negative results.
A well-proven mathematical model
called Bayes’ Theorem explains that
a post-test probability is the product
of the test result and pre-test (prior)
probability, and not of the test result
alone. Clinical acumen comes into
play while estimating prior probability.

18 july 2020

A good doctor must
also be an ethical and
empathetic caregiver.
Knowledge of quantitative and quali-
tative research methods is essential, to
conduct, analyze or apply products
of research. A good clinician should
be able to assess scientific publica-
tions—both for valid research metho-
dology and applicability of the result
to a specific patient. Even as artificial
intelligence is racing to develop diag-
nostic and treatment algorithms, their
application in specific situations will be
context-dependent, requiring the lens
of human intelligence to be interposed.
For this, a doctor has to be a lifelong
shutterstock
learner and keen observer.
Beyond scientific astuteness, a good
doctor must also be an ethical and
empathetic caregiver. Patients and their
Reader ’s Digest
families seeking care are vulnerable—
as the asymmetry of domain
knowledge makes them dependent
on the doctor’s decisions. Information
sharing, to enable patients and families
to participate in some key decisions, is
a doctor’s duty. A good physician must
possess the attributes of care, concern,
compassion and courtesy, while
dealing with patients or their families.
Communication skills, which enable
information sharing and providing
comfort, are essential for a doctor, who
must maintain human contact and not
hide behind a machine.
Health care, in most settings, is
delivered by teams rather than as a
solo effort. Fellow doctors, nurses,
ReadeRsdigest.in
ReadeRsdigest.co.in 19
33
Reader ’s Digest Conversations

technicians and other people are also health

allied health professio- issues. As the 19th-cen-
nals are involved in tury pathologist, anthro-
collectively delivering care pologist and statesman
in a hospital setting. In Rudolf Virchow said,
primary health care, non- “Physicians are natural
physician health-care pro- attorneys of the poor.”
viders are an important Universal health
part of the team. Dismant- coverage is a health
ling false hierarchies and
building congenial wor-
A DOCTOR MUST system issue that is ad-
dressed through political
king relations among BE BOTH THE priorities and financial
team members is an PROPONENT AND commitments. Who else
essential requirement, for PROPELLANT OF can make the case better
increasing efficient deli-
HEALTH AT THE than a doctor who sees
very and quality of care. people being denied
A doctor is a teacher INDIVIDUAL, treatment or driven to
too. Not only for medical COMMUNITY, poverty by costly care?
students, but also layper- NATIONAL AND In my view, a health pro-
sons, family caregivers,
GLOBAL LEVELS. fessional has to perform
the general public, media many roles: alleviator,
and even policymakers. caregiver, teacher, elu-
Demystification of knowledge, through cidator, researcher, advocate, policy
jargon-free communication, boosts the enabler and—if need be—agitator, as a
ability of the whole community to pro- concerned citizen for essential reforms
tect, preserve and promote health at in- in health and social systems.
dividual and population levels. As fake Health is the best summative in-
news floods sloppy social media, this dicator of sustainable global deve-
role becomes even more important. lopment. A doctor must be both the
Since many of the determinants of proponent and propellant of health
health are social, economic, environ- at the individual, community, na-
mental and commercial, a public spi- tional and global levels. I have tried to
rited doctor must also argue for poli- live up to that ideal in my life. I hope
cies that enable health and oppose young doctors will do so as well, with
those that erode health. Tobacco, junk greater vigour and success.
shutterstock

food and polluting industries are ob-

vious examples, but climate change and Dr Prof. K. Srinath Reddy is President of
economic inequities that dispropor- the Public Health Foundation of India.
tionately heap illness on disadvantaged The views expressed here are personal.

20 july 2020
 Reader ’s Digest

injured man with a carbine for my first shot.

steering wheel embed- “Good news and bad
Humour in
ded in his chest?” news,” my instructor
UNIFORM Nervous and unsure,
I blurted out, “Drive
said. “The good news:
You got a bullseye.”
him to the hospital?” Before my head could
For some reason, swell too much, he
During a combat medi- the rest of the room added, “But it was in
cal training class, the found this hilarious. somebody else’s target.”
topic was blast injuries. —Greg White —Gene Newman
At one point, our very
intimidating instructor It was our first day on
Gustavo RodRiGuez

pointed at me and the rifle range at Lack- Reader’s Digest will pay
said, “There’s been land Air Force Base. for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our hu-
a jeep explosion. I felt confident as I mour sections. Post it to the
What would you do aimed and squeezed editorial address, or email
if you came upon an the trigger of my us at editor.india@rd.com

ReadeRsdigest.in 21
 THAT’s
OUTRAGEOUS
We Threw Our
Workers under
the Bus
The injustice against our
migrant workforce will linger
in our collective conscience
By Maitreesh Ghatak
T
here was blood on the tracks—a
few rotis and personal belongings
strewn around. Sixteen migrant
labourers were sleeping on the rails,
exhausted from walking for hours on
their journey home in the gruelling
heat, assuming trains were not running.
They were run over by a freight train on
8 May near Maharashtra’s Aurangabad.
Then there was the child trying to wake
his mother, lying dead on Muzaffarpur
railway station, on 25 May. She had
reportedly died from extreme heat,
exhaustion and lack of food and water.
These searing images will linger in
our collective memory in a way that
no statistical analysis or reportage
can. While the COVID -19 toll has
crossed 24,000, the reported deaths
due to the lockdown—caused by
accidents, starvation or financial
22 july 2020
distress and intolerable hardship—
approaches the 1,000 mark (according
to a public database).
At a time when the entire country
was at a standstill, our migrants had
to do the moving—not in hope but
in desperation. A survey of 5,000 self-
employed, casual and regular wage
workers across 12 Indian states, con-
ducted between 13 April and 23 May
by researchers of the Azim Premji Uni-
versity, found that two-thirds of those
surveyed lost work, and those who
didn’t had their earnings drop by more
than half. Nearly 80 per cent of them
were eating less food than before.
Also, nearly two-thirds of the respon-
dents in urban areas did not receive
any of the cash transfers announced
by central and state governments. No
wonder the migrant workers decided
to head home. They grabbed a few per-
sonal items and some dry food for the
journey—rotis and biscuits (the only in-
shutterstock
dustry where sales peaked during April
and May). Ironically, the government’s
economic package, that did very little
for them but was grandiosely called

Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, provided
the perfect title for their odyssey.
Migration is all about mobility, and
yet, when they desperately needed to
move, our migrant workers were left
stranded, without access to transpor-
tation. And, some of them didn’t make
it. Such as those 16 who were run
down by a speeding train—a symbol of
movement and progress and ‘India
shining’—like a ritual sacrifice.
At the heart of migration is the de-
cision of people to move from villages
and towns in search of work and a bet-
ter life, in order to support their fami-
lies back home. In the dry language of
economics, economic activity occurs
when factors of production—land, la-
bour and capital—combine to produce
goods and services. But it is labour that
does most of the physical moving—
from sectors where productivity is low,
such as agriculture, to those where it
is higher, such as manufacturing and
services, in urban or semi-urban areas.
Of our total workforce estimated at
about 500 million, a whopping three-
quarters are self-employed or casual
Reader ’s Digest
labourers, with no security of income
or employment and no benefits such
as paid leave, health care or social se-
curity that are a given in ‘proper’ jobs.
The number of casual workers in urban
areas is around 19 million, according to
government labour-force studies. Con-
servative estimates place the number of
migrant workers who were part of the
first wave of reverse migration from ci-
ties during lockdown at 5 to 10 million.
THE ECONOMY ENGINE
RUNS ON THE FUEL OF
MIGRANT LABOUR. IT
CANNOT BE SWITCHED
ON AND OFF AT WILL.
Perhaps the human tragedy in-
volved here and its scale will not move
everyone equally. But the engine of
the economy runs on the fuel of mi-
grant labour and cannot be switched
on and off at will. Migrants will make a
choice once again when things norma-
lize a bit. The scarring experience du-
ring the lockdown may mean that they
will not be in any rush to return to the
cities that threw them under the bus at
a time when they were most vulnerable.
It will take time for the bloodstains
on the tracks to be washed away.
Maitreesh Ghatak is professor of
economics at the London School of
Economics and an elected Fellow
of the British Academy.
ReadeRsdigest.in 23
Reader ’s Digest

Talk to an
EXPERT

Rules of the Job Game:

Learn and Upskill
In a changing job market, adapt by building skills the
marketplace needs—don’t wait for another similar role

By Abhijit Bhaduri

H
industani classical music
has ragas designated for each
hour of the day. There are ragas
that are sung at dawn and dusk—the
twilight zones when darkness and light
wrestle with each other. When the sun
wins this battle, it signals a new day.
When the darkness takes over, night
comes. We are going through a similar
twilight zone in the world of work.
A Time of Churn
The world of work had a Before
Corona (BC) era and what we will
now see is the After Disruption or
Destruction (AD) era. We are going
through a time of churn. Any industry
that brought people together has
collapsed—aviation, car rentals, hotels,
restaurants, conference providers,
entertainment and event managers.
Businesses that have lived for more
than a century such as J. C. Penney
(1902) and The Hertz Corporation
(1918) have filed for bankruptcy.
Millions have lost jobs, taken salary
cuts and seen their savings disappear
within weeks.
The world of work will never go
back to the Before Corona days and
it is time you look at your skills port-
folio. Continuous learning, risk-tak-
ing and living with ambiguity will be
standard features now.
How to Plan Ahead
1
Think skills, not jobs : Hiring
across sectors will be muted for a
while, but there is a high demand for
several cutting-edge skills in every
sector, especially tech. If you have been
impacted by the recent slowdown, stop

24 july 2020
 waiting for another job to replace the
one you lost. Think of your skills and
who can benefit from them. Talking to
a career coach can help you identify
possibilities. Recraft your LinkedIn
2
profile to appeal to those employers.
Invest in learning new skills:
Talk to search firms and head-
hunters and ask them about the skills
in high demand. They can also tell
you which sectors are hiring for skills
that you have. Educational degrees
and previous experience are beco-
ming less valuable than the ability to
learn. There are online courses for
just about any skill that you wish to
build. Invest in skills that the mar-
ketplace needs. Be prepared to step
out of your comfort zone and change
cities or sectors, or take a pay cut if that
helps you get started on a new path.
3
shutterstock
Become a freelancer: Think of
your hobbies and all those plans
you made over the years. Maybe you
wanted to start a YouTube channel
or teach someone a skill. Create a
marketing plan to launch brand ‘You’.
Build a personal brand that tells po-
tential buyers about your unique-
ness. I know of a recruiter who left a
stagnant career in a large IT firm to
become a stand-up comedian. And a
doctor, who is now a famous singer. A
martial-arts sensation left a thriving
career as a marketing head of a large
firm to pursue her passion. You could
be the owner of a boutique café or a
dance studio or become a fitness guru.
Each one of us is now in the twilight
zone of our careers. We can choose to
see it as the dusk when the sun begins
to set. Or, a dawn when the darkness
starts to fade as the eastern sky signals
the beginning of a new day.
Abhijit Bhaduri is a life coach and
author of the upcoming book
Dreamers and Unicorns.
ReadeRsdigest.in 25
 GOODforNEWS
a
Better Planet
Beyond the
Call of Duty
service It’s not only those front-line
health workers facing COVID-19 who
should be hailed as heroes. Listen to
this story: The staff at Bengaluru’s Vic-
toria Hospital found that blood banks
were running low since they could
not function amidst coronavirus fears
during the lockdown. With only six
bags of blood left in their bank, the
doctors at Victoria Hospital realized
they had to find a solution—and fast.
There was a dire need for safe blood
for thalassemia and anaemia patients
as well as pregnant women all over
the state. So, the resident doctors
26 july 2020
along with some undergraduate
and postgraduate medical students,
who were not in direct contact with
COVID-19 patients, came forward to
donate blood themselves. Within a
week, the hospital bank collected
about 35 to 40 pints of blood with
over 20 doctors donating. When
times are tough, every bit counts.
The Waterman of Churu
top left: the better IndIa
kindness Sujangarh in Churu,
Rajasthan, is one of the hottest
spots in the world. Despite the
terrible weather, Mohammad Aabad
has taken it upon himself to quench
the thirst of this town. He is seen
going around on his auto, modelled

as a hut, inviting people to come and
drink his refrigerated water. He makes
it clear that the water is entirely safe,
as he buys it directly from an RO wa-
ter-processing plant. Aabad started
this service to honour his brother
Mohammed Seth, who passed away
Sources: Service: The Indian Express, 15.06.20; Kindness:ew Dainik Bhaskar 03.06.20; Equality: National Herald, 17.06.20; Heroes: Matrubhumi.com, 16.06.20
in a road accident. This extraordinary
man provides his water-service
through the summer and it costs him
₹2,000 per day. Barring the occasional
donations he receives, most of the ex-
penses are borne by him. We doff our
hats to this kind soul.
Period Leave
equality A Bengaluru-based media
production house, Horses Stable,
HEROES
The Benevolent Businessman
Mumbai-based businessman, Shah-
nawaz Shaikh has sold his SUV to buy
oxygen cylinders to be distributed
among coronavirus patients. A lover
of fast cars, Shaikh took this decision
after his business partner’s pregnant
sister succumbed to COVID-19 out-
side a city hospital. Apparently the
young woman could have been saved
had she received oxygen in time. This
tragic incident prompted Shaikh to
sell his Ford Endeavour (with a special
number plate—007) and with the
proceeds of the sale, he distributed
Reader ’s Digest
has launched a unique initiative. It has
decided to offer menstrual leave, not
only to its women employees, but also
to their married partners in case they
need care and support. The two-day,
paid menstrual leave for women (one
day for men) has been welcomed by
many, with multiple people wishing
other organizations would follow
suit. Horses Stable is clearly an equal-
opportunity employer. The scheme,
‘Nay to Yay’, is reflective of an organi-
zation that is not only sensitive to-
wards women, who may need time
off to manage their pain and discom-
fort, they are encouraging men to be
supportive to their partners during
this stressful period.
—COMPILED BY V. KUMARA SWAMY
oxygen cylinders to hundreds of fami-
lies. We can only hope there are more
such heroes, who will stand up and be
counted, in these difficult times.
ReadeRsdigest.in 27
 POINTS TO PONDER

What a quality of innocence people have when they

don’t expect to be harmed.
Hanif Kureishi, author

Families are like pieces of art—you can make them

from almost anything, any kind of material. Sometimes
they look like you and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes
they come from your DNA and sometimes they don’t.

from left: shutterstock (2), alamy

The only ingredient you need to make a family
is unconditional love.
Mitch Albom, author

... never think that war, no matter how necessary,

nor how justified, is not a crime.
Ernest Hemingway, author

Hanif Kureishi Mitch Albom Ernest Hemingway

28 july 2020
 Reader ’s Digest

If you go through life without connecting to people,

how much could you call that a life?
Tom Hiddleston, actor

Do yourself a favour. Before it’s too late,

without thinking too much about it first, pack
a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the
from left: shutterstock (2), rohit chawla

world as you can. You will not regret it.

One day, it will be too late.
Jhumpa Lahiri, author

Now that ‘woke’ Indian celebrities and the

middle class stand in solidarity with fighting
systemic racism in America, perhaps they’d see
how it manifests in their own backyard?
Abhay Deol, actor

Tom Hiddleston Jhumpa Lahiri Abhay Deol

ReadeRsdigest.in 29
 BETTER LIVING

Never Miss
Breakfast
Again!
To kick your day off to a
healthy start, try these
easy options

By Naorem Anuja

B
reakfast is widely considered
the most important meal of the
day, but it is also the one we are
most likely to miss. Morning nutrition
is vital as it replenishes your glucose
levels and boosts energy levels, so you
can start your day right. Here are some
quick, nutritious breakfast ideas for
your busiest mornings.

Eggs This superfood, packed with

disease-fighting nutrients such as
lutein and zeaxanthin, is a power-
packed breakfast companion. Offering
seven grams of high-quality protein, a
single egg is 75 calories, which makes
it a great choice for those looking to
eat right. Whether you whip them

30 juLy 2020

into a veggie-loaded omelette, or
bake them into muffins, eggs are a
smart and versatile choice to fuel your
jam-packed day.
Quick tip: For easy scrambled eggs,
coat a microwave-safe mug with some
cooking oil or spray and crack two eggs
in it. Add salt and pepper to taste and
scramble with a fork. Microwave for 45
seconds, flip the partially cooked eggs,
cook for another 45 seconds and serve.
Oats This health hero is packed with
fibre, helping you stay full longer. Oats
also help lower cholesterol levels
and keep your heart fighting fit. This
nutrient-dense grain is gluten-free,
making it a great option for those
with gluten intolerance. You can cook
them into a porridge or add into the
batter for traditional Indian breakfast
favourites like chillas, dosas, idlis
or uttapams. While choosing oats,
remember that the less-processed
varieties are more nutritionally dense,
although this doesn’t mean that
instant oats are a poor choice.
Quick tip: For a power breakfast that
you can prepare in advance and take
it to go, the night before serving, put
the oats in a jar and pour in milk/water
and soak all night. Next morning, add
ALL IMAGES: ShuttErStock
in fruits of your choice, a dash of cin-
namon and top off with honey.
Fruit and yogurt bowl Both
fruit and yogurt are understood as
components of a healthy diet. Fruits
are an abundant source of anti-
Reader ’s Digest
oxidants, which scavenge free radicals
from the body, as well as prebiotic
fibres and polyphenols, which promote
digestion. Yogurt is an excellent source
of protein and, as a fermented food,
contains more added benefits than
milk. Ease your mornings by stocking
up on these natural, no-fuss, nutrient-
dense foods.
Quick tip: Blend a fruit of your choice
along with yogurt for a quick and deli-
cious breakfast fix. Add in a spoonful
of flaxseeds or chia seeds to pack in
omega-3 fats into your smoothie.
Southern comfort Traditional
South Indian foods like dosas and
idlis are a great breakfast option,
delivering a punch of carbohydrates
and proteins. Made from fermented
cereal- and legume-based batter, the
lactic acid bacteria and yeasts add to
the nutritional profile of these breakfast
meals. The fermentation process makes
these foods rich in probiotics, aids
easy digestion and boosts the immune
system. What’s not to love?
Quick tip: If you are pressed for time,
opt for ready-made batter. This can
considerably cut down prep time.
ReadeRsdigest.in 31
 FOOD

Drink to Beat Back

Summer Heat
These 5 easy-to-make healthy refresheners will keep
you hydrated when you need to cool off

By Mohini Mehrotra

32 july 2020

I
t’s that time of the year when step-
ping out even for a few minutes is
punishing—you come back dripping
with sweat, craving something cool to
quench your thirst. Be it aam panna
or thandai or a glass of cold coffee, a
refreshing beverage can get you back
on your feet almost immediately. And if
you are pressed for time or too tired to
make them from scratch, you can stock
up on instant versions too.
SYRUPS
Concentrated fruit juice or syrups
are a quick and easy option that is
both flavourful and energy boosting.
Add a spoonful or two of the syrup
to cold water or chilled milk and you
are done. And there are plenty of
flavours to choose from: orange, lemon,
pineapple, rose—the list is endless.
AAM PANNA
Made with raw green mangoes, aam
panna is a delicious and nutritious old
favourite. Other than helping you fight
dehydration, this sweet and tangy drink
is packed with vitamins B1, B2 and C, as
well as essential minerals such as po-
tassium, magnesium and calcium. You
can stock ready-to-drink bottles or use
an instant aam panna mix to make
All IMAGES: ShuttErStock
yourself a quick refreshing drink any
time of the day.
THANDAI
While you may associate thandai with
Holi, this drink is a super-nutritious
cooler that’s perfect for a hot day too.
Reader ’s Digest
Literally meaning ‘cold’, thandai is
prepared using a mixture of almonds,
pepper, rose petals, cardamom,
vetiver seeds, saffron, milk, fennel
seeds and sugar.
COCONUT WATER
High in water con-
tent and packed
with vitamins and
minerals, coconut
water should be your
go-to drink before
you step out on a hot day or right after
you are back indoors. It instantly reple-
nishes fluids lost through sweat without
adding many calories. This also makes
it the ideal post-workout drink. Coco-
nut water is also great for your skin.
ICED TEA
Many tea enthusiasts prefer switching
to the iced version of this perennial
favourite during the hot months. Brew
yourself a cuppa using flavoured tea
leaves or go for an instant mix. Iced-
tea mixes are made by drying the tea
leaves and then powdering them. You
can make a strong or a mild cold brew
based on your preference.
COLD COFFEE
Switch over from your regular mug of
cappuccino to a tall, frothy glass of cold
coffee. Besides making it the traditional
way, you can also keep a few packs of
cold-brew mix in your kitchen—all you
need to do is add milk and ice and your
chilled beverage is ready.
ReadeRsdigest.in 33
 Stressed Out?
Fire Up a Game on
Your Smartphone
The Internet is
filled with programs
designed to help ease
your mind—mindful-
ness meditation apps,
they’re called. But a
British study suggests
that playing an enjoy-
able game on your
phone will help relieve
work-related stress just
News From the as well. Participants
in the study spent
WORLD OF 10 minutes a day over
MEDICINE five days with either
a shape-fitting game
(similar to Tetris) or a
meditation app. Their
BREAST CANCER recovery from work

MORE DEADLY FOR strain was measured by

how relaxed, detached
MEN THAN FOR WOMEN from work, capable
and in control they felt.
Of the approximately 2,79,000 breast The meditation app pro-
cancer diagnoses in the United States each duced more relaxation
year, fewer than 1 per cent are in men. But on day one, but the
game offered increasing
in a study of more than 1.8 million subjects, benefits over time, per-
male patients had a 19 per cent higher death haps because players
rate than female patients. Researchers believe were getting better at
that undertreatment of the disease in men, it, which added to their
shutterstock

enjoyment. So spend a
along with differences in clinical characteris- few minutes with your
tics between male and female patients, favourite game—it’s
accounted for the higher mortality rate. good for you!

34 july 2020
 Reader ’s Digest

Hypertension Help The Most

Is a Group Effort Hydrating Drink?
It’s a Surprise
Most hypertension
patients get treatment Researchers at
from only one person: the University of
their doctor. In an ex- St Andrews, Scotland,
periment conducted studied 13 common
in Colombia and
Malaysia, more people SHIFTING beverages to see
how much water
were added to the
support team. Half
SLEEP the body retained
two hours after they
the patients received CYCLES had been ingested.
traditional one-on-one Surprisingly, plain
care. For the other half, Night owls taking part in water (still and spark-
doctors shared some a trial published in the ling) was near the
tasks (e.g., counselling journal Sleep Medicine bottom of the list.
patients, monitoring were able to adjust their The winner: skimmed
treatments) with non- cycles by an average of milk. Its sugar, protein
physician health wor- two hours within three and fat slow down the
kers. The researchers weeks. Each day, they emptying of fluid from
also recruited ‘treat- got up earlier than the stomach, and its
ment supporters’— usual, had breakfast, sodium acts as a
friends or relatives took in as much outdoor sponge, keeping
to accompany these morning light as possi- water in the body.
patients to health ble, ate lunch at a set Oral rehydration
appointments and time, avoided caffeine solutions are effective
encourage them to and napping from late in keeping water in
take their medication afternoon onwards, the body as well. Colas
and follow lifestyle ate dinner before 7 p.m., and juices, with their
advice. After a year, limited light in the eve- higher concentration
tatiana Magoyan/getty iMages

the patients who ning and went to bed of sugars, also empty
worked with a team early. This routine saw more slowly from the
saw their overall them performing better stomach than water.
cardiovascular risk and feeling less sleepy, However, the body
score decrease almost less stressed and less pulls water into the
twice as much as depressed. A similar small intestine to dilute
those who saw schedule can help the sugars, making
only their doctor. avoid jet lag. them less hydrating.

ReadeRsdigest.in 35
Reader ’s Digest
MONEY
An Insurance Cover
for COVID-19
With the pandemic still raging, there are new guidelines in
health insurance to keep you and your family covered
By Amit Chhabra
O
ne of the rare positive outcomes
of the ongoing pandemic has
been the rising awareness
about health and how to stay safe.
The galloping infection rate has led
to worries about treatment costs, in
addition to the escalating medical costs
in general. The importance of keeping
yourself safe with an insurance cover
at the earliest cannot be overstated.
Also, that health insurance can be
the best possible means for financing
any future health-care expenses is the
writing on the wall.
Besides the rise in demand for
health insurance plans, the COVID-19
outbreak has boosted a demand for
such plans with higher sums insured.
However, for salaried individuals who
have experienced lay-offs or salary cuts,
it is best is to buy a basic health-insu-
rance cover, with sufficient sum insured
to stay protected against COVID-19,
36 july 2020
with a plan to upgrade the policy later,
when financial situations improve.
New IRDAI Regulations
In light of the prevailing conditions,
the Insurance Regulatory and Deve-
lopment Authority of India ( IRDAI)
has drawn up several new regulations.
Keeping consumer welfare in mind, the
IRDAI has directed insurers to process
health-insurance claims within two
hours from the time of receipt of an
authorization request. What’s more,
they have allowed coverage for health-
insurance policies for medical consul-
tations via telemedicine. Also included
in the regulations are guidelines for
introducing a standard COVID -19-
specific health-insurance plan—a
fixed-benefit one, where the insurer
will be liable to pay the entire sum
insured, if the insured person tests
positive for COVID-19.

Buying a COVID-19 Plan
While choosing a health insurance
polic y covering COVID -19, it is
important to be aware of the following
key factors. It has been observed that
several COVID-19 patients only need a
diagnostic test and basic medication
at the outpatient department (OPD)
instead of a hospital admission.
Before buying a health plan, ensure
the policy has an OPD cover so that
these expenses are taken care of. Most
insurance policies will cover expenses
if hospital admission is necessary.
According to reports, the average
claim by a COVID-19 patient under-
going in-patient treatment is expected
to cost between ₹2 lakhs to ₹5 lakhs.
Moreover, due to its highly infectious
nature, chances are that more than
one person in the same family may
contract the virus. If you are a senior
shutterstock
citizen or are buying insurance for
one, keep in mind that they are more
susceptible to COVID-19 and treatment
costs are significantly higher for them.
A BASIC HEALTH
INSURANCE COVER,
WITH A PLAN TO
UPGRADE THE
POLICY LATER,
WHEN FINANCIAL
SITUATIONS
IMPROVE, IS THE
RIGHT WAY TO GO.
Therefore, it is important to have
insurance coverage with an adequate
sum insured. Do check if your policy
has a co-pay clause and the quantum
required for it.
In COVID -19 cases, a large part
of the treatment cost is the hospital
room rent, especially if the insured
person is treated at a private hospital.
Ask your insurer questions regarding
any room rent sub-limits that the
policy may have, since those could
result in large out-of-pocket expenses.
Make sure that your health insurance
covers the cost of consumables too—
items that are intended for one-time
use—largely due to reasons of sterility
and infection prevention. You should
remember, most health insurance
products do not cover consumables,
whereas they could make for a
major part of the hospital bill during
COVID-19 treatment.
Amit Chhabra is head of the health
insurance division at Policybazaar.com.
ReadeRsdigest.in 37
 HOW TO

Sound Smarter,
with Expert Help
Trying to impress the boss, the kids—or a date?
We looked at scientific studies and boiled down
the best insights into these quick tips

By Lisa Fields
and Brandon Specktor

42
38 july
december
2020 2019

S
heepishly, Kevin Adkins
admits that when he’s insecure,
he uses big words to appear
smarter. “Only when I need
to impress the person,” says
the 45-year-old. “Dates with women?
Definitely. At the grocery store? Not so
much.” A few years ago, when flirting
with a stylist, he asked her to give him
a “symmetric” haircut instead of just
asking for an even trim. And when he
gave an attractive woman directions, he
made a point of telling her that the two
options they’d discussed were “equi-
distant” rather than saying that both
were the same distance.
Adkins is among the myriad
Homo sapiens who suffer from
periphrasis. Translation—many
of us use longer words in place of
shorter ones. Because folks know,
consciously or unconsciously,
that others form impressions of
them after a glance or a short
conversation, and they work
harder to give the ‘right’ impres-
sion. “People think, if I can show that
I have a good vocabulary, I’ll sound
smarter,” says Daniel Oppenheimer,
PhD, a professor of psychology at
Carnegie Mellon University.
The problem with this plan is that
it can easily go wrong. “It’s almost a
game that two people are playing,” says
Eric R. Igou, PhD, a social psychologist
at Ireland’s University of Limerick. “If
the observer, person B, doesn’t have
the same theory, it can backfire.” Per-
son A may be perceived as pretentious
Reader ’s Digest
instead of intelligent. Using big words
may also confuse listeners. “People
associate intelligence with clarity of
expression,” says Oppenheimer. That’s
especially true when it comes to the
written word. A study in Applied Cog-
nitive Psychology found a negative rela-
tionship between complexity of writing
and judged intelligence: The more
writers tried to sound smart, the less
intelligent they were perceived to be.
Why should we believe that experts
are correct in recommending simpli-
city in writing? One theory that predicts
the effectiveness of straightforward
writing is that of processing fluency.
Simpler writing is easier to process,
and studies have demonstrated that
processing fluency is associated with
a variety of positive dimensions, accor-
ding to research from Princeton Uni-
versity in New Jersey. So what can you
do to sound smarter? Speak clearly and
directly. Leave the dictionary and the-
saurus at your desk. And follow these
tips from behavioural psychologists
(and other very bright people).
1
Plan Ahead
Whether you’re in a private conver-
sation or at a company-wide town
hall, the most important thing you can
do is make yourself heard, loud and
clear. This can be daunting for an in-
trovert—and for the rest of us. The key
is preparation. If you’re interviewing
for a job, review the posting and take
advantage of the whole googleplex of
information about your prospective
ReadeRsdigest.in 39
 Reader ’s Digest
company. If you’re attending a staff
meeting, check the agenda. Going on a
date? Plan some talking points, even if
they’re just about favourite TV shows or
movies. Feeling prepared will put you
at ease and boost your confidence.
2
Make Eye Contact
If someone looks at you while
you’re talking, you’re more likely
to think he or she is smart. “Good eye
contact means the other person is
responsive to what you are doing or
saying,” says Bogdan Wojciszke, a
professor of social psychology at the
University of Social Sciences and Hu-
manities in Poland. “If he is not respon-
sive, this means that either you are dull
or he is dumb. With such a choice, most
of us prefer to think that he is dumb.”
Researchers at Brandeis University in
Massachusetts, USA, found that con-
versationalists who maintained eye
contact scored higher on IQ tests than
those who avoided someone’s gaze.
3
Strike a Power Pose
Here’s a telling bit of business
science: Researchers at Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology Media
Lab concluded that they could accu-
rately predict the outcome of any ne-
gotiation, sales call or business pitch 87
per cent of the time without hearing the
conversation. How? By observing the
speaking–listening ratio, interruption
patterns and body language. How open
or closed your posture is conveys how
open or closed you are to the physical,
40 july 2020
mental and emotional advances of oth-
ers. Openness can convey confidence.
To project self-assurance in a meeting,
adapt an open, expansive pose. Sit up
straight and leave your arms widely
spread on the table or at your sides.
(This also works if you’re trying to at-
tract someone’s eye.) If you’re wor-
ried about projecting confidence, run
through a couple of power poses—such
as standing with your hands on your
hips or using them to lean on your
desk—in private beforehand. Research
from social psychologist Amy Cuddy
has shown that holding these postures
for just two minutes can lower stress
Previous sPread: luis Molinero/shutterstock (Man), viPMan/shutterstock (Books)
and increase feelings of power.
4
Eliminate Pauses
Confidence is as perceptible in
your voice as it is in your body
language. As you have probably no-
ticed from watching any political
panel show or business meeting with
multiple speakers, the ‘winner’ of the
talk is usually the person who speaks
most energetically and fluidly. Too
many pauses make you sound unsure
of yourself. If you are unconvinced by
your own ideas, why should the rest of
the room be convinced? Theoretical
physicist Leonard Mlodinow points out
the impact of this bias: “If two speakers
utter exactly the same words but one
speaks a little faster and louder and
with fewer pauses and greater variation
in volume, that speaker will be judged
to be more energetic, knowledgeable
and intelligent.”

5
Restate Others’
Smart Points
Because of one
of those unfair-but-
true mental quirks,
the person in a
meeting who sim-
ply summarizes the
good points made
by everyone else will
often be better re-
membered than the
people who came up
with the ideas in the
first place. If you are
struggling to get a word in at your next
staff gathering, take notes on the best
comments your co-workers deliver.
Near the end of the meeting, restate
these ideas in a concise, matter-of-fact
way. Even when giving credit to your
studiovin/shutterstock (Books), jocic/shutterstock (MegaPhone)
co-workers, you will sound smarter.
6
Tell Some Jokes
A French study published in the
journal Psychological Reports
found that women find men they over-
hear telling funny jokes to be smarter
and more attractive than those heard
talking about mundane topics. Other
studies have shown that funny women
similarly appear smarter to others.
There may be some validity to this,
because a certain level of intellect is
required to consistently make clever
remarks. According to an article pub-
lished in The Conversation by Lowri
Dowthwaite, lecturer in Psychological
Interventions, University of Central
How to
Lancashire, UK, evolutio-
nary psychologists describe
humour as a “heritable trait”
that signals mental fitness and
intellectual agility to prospec-
tive mates. In studies of attrac-
tiveness, both men and women
rate funny people as more at-
tractive, and cite having a good
sense of humour as being one
of the most important traits in
a long-term partner.
So you can use humour
as a hard-to-fake cue to your
intelligence. Just don’t forget
the punchline!
7
Curb Your Content
While some believe that it is best
to provide multiple perspectives
and cover more content, there might
be benefits in keeping it simple, and
in delivering a single-focused mes-
sage. Says Dr Varsha Singh, associate
professor of psychology, humanities
and social sciences, Indian Institute
of Technology, Delhi, “In a 2012 study,
we observed that the participants who
received a singular-focus direction
were better at making long-term deci-
sions than those who received a dual-
focused direction. Also, findings from
a 2013 study showed that single focus
was less demanding on attention and
cognitive resources. Therefore, keeping
a conversation focused on a simple and
single agenda might elicit greater atten-
tion and deliver a stronger impact.”
—WITH INPUTS BY MOHINI MEHROTRA
ReadeRsdigest.in 41
 Reader
Reader ’s’sDigest
Digest

42 july 2020
 COVER STORY

Taming
the
‘What
Ifs’
We may not be able to run away from our
worries, but how do we keep them from
running our lives? We asked a handful of
experts for tips on how to get a grip in
these challenging times

By Jill Buchner with Ishani Nandi

illustrations by Josh Holinaty ReadeRsdigest.in 43

Reader ’s Digest

Defining Distress will come from future events or

W
e often use the terms
‘worry’, ‘stress’, and
‘anxiety’ interchan-
geably, but they aren’t
the same. Each has unique qualities,
and identifying which one is pla-
guing us will help us better address
it. Psychologist Kristin Buhr, co-
author of The Worry Workbook,
breaks down the differences.
✦✦ Worry is a negative thought
you have about an uncertainty in
life. Worries tend to focus on the
assumption that something negative
from the outcomes of occurrences
that happened in the past.
✦✦ Stress involves your reaction
to pressures placed on you. You
feel spread thin or are overwhelmed
because life is demanding too much
of your limited time, energy or
some other personal resource.
While worries are thoughts,
stress is a feeling.
✦✦ Anxiety is your mental and
physiological response to a perceived
threat. It’s like the body’s smoke
detector—it senses danger and
signals your body to rev up to deal

THE WORRY METER

Are you cool and collected or a total worrywart? Find out if your
concerns might be exerting too much control over you
When you have a big You regularly worry You go about your day
meeting at the office, you about everything from without consistently
get so worked up that forgetting to take your thinking ahead, but you
you often have trouble medication to meeting still get nervous when
sleeping or you might deadlines to being late for a key event comes
even call in sick. When a date—but that will drive along. When you do
something’s uncertain in you to set reminders for think about the future,
your life, you usually jump yourself and be proactive you usually believe it
to a worst-case scenario.* about your to-do list. will turn out okay.

SE CH
CA ILL
NIC ED
RO OU
CH T

*When your worries are interfering with your life, it’s time to talk to a doctor.

44 july 2020

with it. While worry takes place
only in the mind, anxiety can have
physical effects, such as speeding up
your heart rate. Worry can, however,
Why Worrying Can Be Worth It
1 It protects you
“If you’re not at all con-
cerned there could be
danger, you’re not going
to take precautions,” says
Buhr. That voice of worry
can remind you to put on
your seat belt or check
that you turned off the
stove. It keeps you safe.
2 It motivates you
Whether you have a
speech to deliver or a
home renovation to
tackle, thinking about
what could go wrong
can spur you to get to
work. “A little bit of
worry lets you know
Cover Story
trigger anxiety when your mind
perceives imagined ‘what ifs’ as
real threats.
While worry, stress and anxiety
are normal, intense and frequent
anxiety can become a problem.
You might have an anxiety disorder
if, for instance, you have recurring
sleep issues or you’re skipping out
on your customary activities.
Excessive anxiety can be focused
on a fear of something specific,
such as social gatherings (known
as social anxiety) or a host of
experiences (known as genera-
lized anxiety disorder).
what’s important and
might actually move you
to prepare,” says Buhr.
& Coping tracked the
worries of university
students and found that
they were often solving
3 It promotes
problem solving
A 2006 study published in
problems while they were
agonizing. So, while it
feels unpleasant, worry
the journal Anxiety, Stress can be productive.
ReadeRsdigest.in 45
Reader ’s Digest

Ditch ‘What If ’ trouble is, you can’t avoid uncertainty

entirely, and the more you try to, the

I
f you’re an excessive worrier,
you probably have trouble dealing
with uncertainty because you’re
concerned it will lead to a negative
result. What’s more, you likely believe
that you won’t be able to manage
that outcome.
Buhr says that’s why most worriers
develop generally negative “safety
behaviours” to help them avoid risks,
such as opting out of situations that
scare them or asking for affirmation
from others when they’re unsure. The
scarier it will seem. Fortunately, most
of the time things turn out just fine,
but telling a worrier this is unlikely to
calm their nerves.
The best way to get comfortable
with uncertainty is to expose your-
self to it and see that those imagined
worst-case scenarios rarely happen.
Even when something does go
wrong, you can handle it.
So, if you tend to worry about
being late for appointments and
always leave 30 minutes earlier than

What Are Indians Most Worried About?

A ccording to the May
2020 edition of the
monthly global study
What Worries The World
conducted by the multi-
national market research
company Ipsos, the top
three sources of worry
among Indians include
the current coronavirus
pandemic, which leads
the list at 65 per cent;
unemployment, cited by
49 per cent; poverty and
social inequality—31 per
cent. Each of these saw an
uptick from the April poll
with unemployment
online among adults
between 16 and 74 years
of age in 27 countries
country we are headed
in the right direction, a
seven per cent surge
around the world. from the previous month.
However, certain wor- Another pan-India
ries, such as those regar- study titled Understan-
ding corruption—finan- ding Public Sentiment
cial and political—and During Lockdown by IIM-
crime and violence have Lucknow’s Centre for
each seen a five per cent Marketing in Emerging
decline compared to the Economies found that
April 2020 survey. Also, while 79 per cent of the
the majority of surveyed respondents were worried
Indians—72 per cent— and feeling fear (40 per
feel optimistic that as a cent) and sadness (22 per
cent), 60 per cent felt con-
fident in India’s ability to
emerge from the current
shutterstock

showing the biggest crisis citing government

rise of the three at 11 per measures and individual
cent. The survey was held safety protocols.

46 july 2020

necessary, Buhr suggests doing
away with that buffer. You’ll see that
you do make it in time or, if you don’t,
the person you’re meeting will likely
be understanding.
After starting with simple changes,
work your way up to bigger risks—
such as a career shift.
How To Tackle Worry
Learn to let go
We all multitask but when job lists
run long, it can overwhelm you.
“Worrying about how to manage
five or six things perfectly at the
same time, and trying to do so, will
only lead to frustration or burnout.
Be honest and reasonable about
what absolutely must be done and
prioritize those. Learn to let go of,
or at least postpone, the rest,” says
clinical psychologist Dr Vandita
Dubey, who runs online emotional
well-being workshops. “If you have
the option to delegate responsibility
and tasks, do so,” she adds. “People
have a hard time with this because
they like to do things a certain way,
but letting go and allowing others to
do things their way will leave you
more capable of focusing on your
own tasks.” Bottom line: It’s more
important that some jobs get done,
rather than how.
Reset goals and expectations
Setting the bar too high can make
you feel like you are chasing an
unattainable goal and that you are
Cover Story
compromising or failing to succeed.
“Re-examine and, where possible,
scale down expectations. Acknow-
ledge and accept the new normal,
and until things change, create new
definitions that align with the new
reality. A pristine house could mean
a once-a-week instead of a daily deep-
clean; family dinners can be a quick
soup and sandwich, instead of a
three-course feast, for instance,”
Dubey suggests.
Try to unplug
When chaos and turmoil surrounds
us, our natural reaction is hypervigi-
lance. We pore over every news up-
date and scroll incessantly looking
for the latest tweet or post, regardless
of whether it affects us directly or not.
While it’s important to stay informed,
the resulting information overload
can lead to what experts call ‘crisis
fatigue’ and escalate our worries.
“Stay informed but steer clear of
dwelling on events and circumstances
that are not under your control. Draw
up a list of things you can be on top of
and take charge,” says Dr Jai Ranjan
Ram, senior consultant psychiatrist
and co-founder of Mental Health
Foundation, Kolkata.
ReadeRsdigest.in 47
Reader ’s Digest

Look within focus, prioritize and keep the fight

When stresses accumulate, it’s easy
to lose sight of the ‘why’ in your daily
life. “Every person, whether con-
sciously or not, has something they
deeply value,” says Dubey. “Whether
it’s financial independence, being a
good parent, taking care of elderly
relatives or rising up the ranks pro-
fessionally—certain goals are prime
motivators. Knowing and remembe-
ring those goals can allow you to
going, because you’ll be tapping
into your deeper motivations, your
reason to get up and go every day,
and micro-tasks will feel less frus-
trating,” she adds.
Stay present
All of us have certain triggers that
set us on the worry spiral—an im-
pending job loss, negative feedback,
or a health scare. “Once that cycle

How Mindfulness Meditation

Can Be An Antidote To Worry
E mily Thring, founder
of the Quiet Company,
a meditation studio in
grounds you in the mo-
ment, reducing that anxiety
of what’s to come so you
Toronto, Canada, that can be more present with
seeks to foster mindful what’s happening now.
experiences, shares the
basics of mindfulness and How should one get
how it can counter worry. started?
Meditation isn’t something Thring recommends a
What is mindfulness you do once and then feel a simple breathing exercise
meditation? tremendous change in called box breathing to slow
It’s focusing on your your life. It takes consis- down your mind and help
breathing in the present tency and commitment. you feel more in control.
moment and connecting Begin with a few minutes Here’s how: Inhale for a
with how you’re feeling at the same time every day, count of four, hold for four
and what you’re experien- and joining a local group seconds, then exhale for
cing, without judgment. can help you face potential four and hold again for four
challenges as you practise seconds before starting
How does it target more frequently. again. Repeat this for
worry? two minutes, working
Worrying is about future Exhale your worries your way up to longer
scenarios. Mindfulness When you’re overwhelmed, spans of time as needed.

48 july 2020

begins,” says Ram, “We catastrophize
it, imagining disasters about the
future that may not be real at all.”
Break the cycle by focusing only
on the present, on what actions can
be taken here and now to manage an
existing problem. Living mindfully,
which means staying rooted in the
present moment and doing as well
as you can, is key. “Solutions are un-
likely to emerge from overthinking
about what could happen three or
six months down the road—there
are too many unpredictable events
that might happen. What you can
control is the now,” Ram adds.
Seek joy
“Identify and list out the things that
make you happy. Do one thing from
that list every day within, of course,
the limits of what is possible. Con-
sciously thinking about the things
that bring you joy will allow you to
notice the positives amidst the
doom and gloom, be grateful for
things you may have taken for
granted and ensure you appreciate
what you have,” Dubey says.
Get it all out
Telling a friend or family member
what’s worrying you, or even saying it
aloud to yourself or writing it down,
can allow you to gain some perspec-
tive. “It’s a little easier to challenge
worries when your worries are on
paper or said out loud rather than
floating around in your head,” says
Cover Story
Buhr. Adds Ram, “Even if a trusted
confidant cannot offer solutions,
there is still great value in simply
sharing what we feel, because in the
process, we are also, in a way, talking
to ourselves.” Speaking out the worry
or expressing the fear out loud allows
you to perceive it objectively. Some of
them may turn out to be less severe
than it seemed in your mind.
Shift perspective
Worries can compound to the point
where one feels isolated and alone,
adrift in a sea of problems. “Never
forget that anything you may be fee-
ling—anger, resignation, disappoint-
ment—are all very natural reactions
to a complex and unpredictable
world. This not only means that there
is nothing wrong with you, but also
that you are not alone, others feel the
same way too,” says Dubey. “Ask your-
self, ‘Five years from now, how impor-
tant will this be? What impact will it
have?’ In the larger scheme of time,
some things are not worth worrying
about,” she explains.
ReadeRsdigest.in 49
 LAUGHTER
The best Medicine

danny shanahan/EvEryonE ’ s a CritiC/CourtEsy PrinCEton arChitECtural PrEss

A garden gnome is busy I just love mischief! he went to check it
destroying some plants And what, may I ask, out. The horse’s owner
when suddenly a house creature are you?” said, “It’s easy to ride
cat appears. The cat thinks for him. Just say ‘Praise
“What are you?” a moment and says, the Lord!’ to make
asks the cat. “I guess I’m a gnome.” him go and ‘Amen!’
“I’m a gnome. I steal —newbloggycat.com to make him stop.”
food from humans, I Bill got on the horse
kill their plants and I A Christian guy named and said, “Praise the
raise a ruckus at night Bill saw an ad online Lord!” Sure enough,
to drive them crazy. for a Christian horse, so the horse started to
50 july 2020
➸
 Reader ’s Digest

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst— A nurse noticed a golfer
for they are sticking to their diets. pacing up and down the
— FoodrEFErEnCE.Com hall outside an operating
room where another
walk. “Praise the A North Korean judge
golfer, who had a golf
Lord!” he said again, leaves the courtroom, ball lodged in his throat,
and the horse began laughing hysterically. was being treated.
to trot. “Praise the “What’s so funny?” “Is he your relative?”
Lord! Praise the asks his friend outside. the nurse asked.
Lord!” he yelled, “Oh, I just heard the “No,” said the golfer.
and the horse broke funniest political joke,” “It’s my ball.”
into a gallop. Bill was replies the judge. —swingbyswing.com
enjoying his ride so “Tell me!” 
much that he almost “I can’t—I just Reader’s Digest will pay
didn’t notice the cliff gave someone life for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our
he and the horse were in prison for it!”
humour sections. Post it
about to go over. Bill —TheCountyJudge to the editorial address, or
shouted “AMEN!” at on reddit.com email: editor.india@rd.com
the top of his lungs,
and the horse stopped
right at the edge of
the cliff. Relieved, SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Bill said, “Phew!
Praise the Lord!”
—Z.S. via rd.com

Consider this ...

... Mac and cheese
implies the existence
of PC and cheese.
— @glamoureptile

... Baby Yoda implies

the existence of a
Sporty Yoda, Scary
jolEEn ZubEk

Yoda, Ginger Yoda

and Posh Yoda. The book I ordered from IKEA arrived.
— @HireMeImFunny — @DitzMcGeee
ReadeRsdigest.in 53
Reader ’s Digest OTHER LIVES
The
Woman
Who Won a
Pot of Gold
A serial winner of consumer contests tells
her amazing story
BEFORE me was a blank entry form
for a slogan contest: “I love shopping at
Vivek’s because ...”
I filled in the empty space with an
off-the-cuff rhyme:
Every time I watch TV,
Grind, cook, clean or bake,
I keep saying, secretly,
“Thank you, Vivek!”
My daughter counted out the words.
“Make ‘every time’ one word, Ma, and
it’s 15 words exactly!”
This was in September 1997. Two
months later, we jostled for space in
a packed hall of excited families in
54 july 2020
By Indu Balachandran
illustration by Keshav Kapil
Chennai. The letter from the popular
household retailer simply said “You
have won one of the top 15 prizes in
Vivek’s Diwali Mela”. A grand line-up
of household appliances greeted us.
We wondered excitedly which prize
our slogan won. My daughter had set
her sights on a mini Solidaire TV; a VIP
Strolly suitcase was my big hope.
With each drum roll, the prizes went
out—crockery sets, gleaming TV sets
and washing machines. Once a family of
eight rushed to the stage when a name
came up. The audience whooped—
perhaps ours would come next!
ReadeRsdigest.in 55
Reader ’s Digest
Over 400 prizes were handed out. Time
for the Big Three: all of them gold—yes,
real 22-carat gold.
Two women wheeled in a grand
display: chains, bangles, earrings.
The cheering was deafening as the
judges announced the prizes: for
3rd place—250 grams of gold jewel-
lery; 2nd place—500 grams of gold.
My daughter and I nearly stopped
breathing. “This is like the Miss World
Contest,” she whispered, when you
pray your name is not announced—
who wants to be a runner-up?
Finally, first prize. Who in this vast
hall of shrieking people would it be?
And then we heard it. My name. We
won! We actually won one kilo of gold!
The beaming organizers even had a
man, carrying a huge gun, escort us all
the way home with our winnings. We
drove home in an advanced state of
lunacy, and ironically, only one thing
registered clearly: I got my trolley bag.
Vivek’s had packed our shiny loot in a
big (and free!) VIP suitcase.
25 WINS, AND
COUNTING
Some people win at beauty pageants.
Others, in politics. I am happy to say I
win consumer contests. In the course
of pursuing my entirely middle-class,
dream pastime, I’ve nabbed 25 prizes
so far, including a crash helmet, a mi-
crowave oven, gift hampers, light fix-
tures, air tickets, a backpack, flasks,
cash for a shopping spree ... even two
tickets to the movie Iron Lady. And no,
56 july 2020
not one of them involved any luck or
lottery (much as everyone says, “Oh but
you have such luck at contests!”). Sure,
I may have been ‘lucky’ to have had a
Dad who encouraged us three sisters
to write Ogden Nash-type nonsense
rhymes as kids. He also sang this witty
TV jingle he’d heard in England in the
’60s: Clean your teeth with Pepsodent/
You’ll wonder where the yellow went!
I was only about seven then, but I was
hooked. A lifelong pursuit of finding
fun with words began. Small wonder
then that I made a career in advertising.
My earliest ever win for writing was
in college. A hilarious typo about our
faculty members in our graduation
invitation—‘Address by faulty mem-
bers’—got me ₹150 from Reader’s Di-
gest for the humour column College
Rags. When I joined an ad agency, I be-
came suddenly aware of contests and
prizes and sent in entries, usually in my
children’s names (for ‘luck’!). Picnic or
hike/ Go anywhere you like/ With your
BSA Champ bike! would’ve been re-
jected as too cheesy by my own clients,
but it won my happy daughter, then 10,
her first two-wheeler. When Health &
Glow launched their stores, I sent in
four entries (all rhyming, of course).
The 2nd prize was free air tickets for
two to the Maldives. My son and hus-
band were off to Malé that very month.
Soon, I was everybody’s favourite
relative. Aunts and cousins badgered
me to “please just write me a line”. One
aunt was particularly annoyed that my
slogan for a department store won her

only a dozen teaspoons. But not my
sister Bhanu: She called frantically
from Bengaluru, at the start of a Vir Das
stand-up show—to “quickly send any
one-liner” to put in a box. Off went this
by SMS: I was offered a job as a babysit-
ter. But who wants to sit on babies? At
the show’s end, Vir Das declared the
big winner: my ecstatic sister. And she
got her first iPad.
A MIDDLE-CLASS
ADDICTION
Last year, my son and I were at Vivek’s,
looking for a new TV set. A poster
caught my eye: Contest! Well, lightning
never strikes the same place twice, but
hey, that gold win was 20 years ago.
I secretly wrote out my entry, but
sent it in under my unsuspecting son
Kanishkaa’s name this time.
One day in April, the bell rang. Two
beaming executives from Vivek’s were
shaking the hand of a bewildered
Kanishkaa at the door, with an invita-
tion for winning ‘one of the top prizes’.
On prize day, the suspense nearly killed
us. Ok, the first prize—a flat worth
₹25 lakhs—went to a farmer from
Photo Courtesy: Indu BalaChandran
Chinglepet. When my son’s name was
announced for 2nd prize, our hearts
stopped altogether—a Maruti car!
Panicking, my son grabbed my
hand dragging me on to the stage. The
crowd stopped roaring temporarily.
Terrified of being asked what he wrote,
my son blurted: “Actually it’s my Mom
here who wrote a slogan, not me ...”
The applause went several decibels
Inspiration
The author (right) with her son
Kanishkaa after their Maruti-car win
higher—a mother wrote for her son!
That seemed totally in line with good
Indian family norms.
Which brings me to why I never let a
contest go without trying. Most people
who hear of my wins exclaim, “I never
win anything”, but that’s probably be-
cause they never sent an entry in the
first place, certain that it’s all fake, it’s
too much work or that they’re just not
‘lucky’. I’m not a lucky person either—
I’ve never won at housie in my life. I
have a trick or two since I write for a
living, but many of them don’t work.
But, the adrenaline rush of wishing for
the results is indescribable. In that hall
of excited families, I saw what every
one of us had in common—a middle-
class delight in seeing the word ‘free’, an
abiding trust in a family store and the
enormous optimism of ‘I can win this
too!’—as the drums roll and we wait for
our names over hopeful cheers.
ReadeRsdigest.in 57
Reader ’s Digest

What Goes In
Must
Come
OutHealthy bowel movements mean
a healthy you. Here's how
to avoid or fix problems
by Lisa Bendall with Naorem Anuja

58 july 2020
HEALTH

ReadeRsdigest.in 59
 T
Reader ’s Digest
here are many good
reasons to improve your
bowel movements. For
starters, maintaining a
healthy bowel routine
keeps your pelvic
muscles fit and your
time on the toilet brief.
It helps prevent chronic
constipation and diarrhoea, along with
secondary problems like haemorrhoids,
tissue tears and unpredictable stools.
Many of the lifestyle changes that
promote defecation, such as eating
fibre and getting exercise, also reduce
your risk of colorectal cancer.
Is there such a thing as too many
number twos? What about movements
that make only rare appearances?
“There’s a huge range of what’s
considered normal,” says Dr Dina Kao, a
University of Alberta gastroenterologist.
Some of us are on the throne three
times a day, while others poop once
every few days. There’s no need to
worry about the frequency of your
bowel movements if your stool appears
normal and you feel well.
“In India, most people visit a doctor
for what they consider is constipation
or a feeling of incomplete evacuation,”
says Dr Ashwini Setya, a gastroentero-
logist and programme director at
Delhi’s Max Super Speciality Hospital.
While not all changes are cause
for worry, there are some red flags
you should not dismiss. “The first
is if someone experiences a recent
change or alteration in bowel habits.
60 july 2020
Second, if there is blood in your stool.
Third, if there is a loss of appetite and
consequently an appreciable loss in
weight. Under all these circumstances,
you must go to a doctor and get your
problem investigated,” says Setya.
Don’t ignore symptoms like fever, pain
or dehydration either. Use our guide
below to make your bowel movements
the best they can be.
Foods That Help Regularity
The high sorbitol content in dried
fruits such as prunes, figs and dates
acts as a natural laxative. So does flax-
seed. Fresh pears and apples some-
times do the trick. Eating breakfast
can increase your colon activity and
trigger a bowel movement. Dietary
fibre is important for your bowel
movements. Because it isn’t digested,
it bulks up and softens stool, making it
easier to pass. Most of us get just half
of the fibre that we require.
You can also choose cereals with
added fibre. Psyllium is a popular
supplement, but watch out for inulin
which triggers a sore stomach in some
people. Whitney Hussain, a registered
dietician in Vancouver, Canada, who
specializes in gastrointestinal disorders,
suggests adding fibre to your diet
illustration by sam island
gradually to prevent gas and bloating.
“Just have one serving of a higher-fibre
food, and slowly increase it each day.
Spread the fibre throughout the day,
rather than having it all at once.”
Says Delhi-based clinical nutritionist
Lovneet Batra, “Ensure that you eat five
servings of different kinds of vegetables.
This dietary requirement is fairly easy
to achieve for us, as traditional Indian
meals usually include 2 to 3 servings
of vegetables. Also, make sure you
incorporate two servings of fruits in
your daily diet.” Stressing on the need
to eat wholegrains and healthy fats,
Batra says, “To delete calories from
our diets, most people tend to cut
out carbohydrates and fat, and resort
to protein-heavy meals and low-fat
dressings. But, to avoid constipation
and boost gut health you need to eat
whole grains and incorporate healthy
fats such as ghee and coconut oil.”

Liquid Intake
Without enough fluid, your stool will
be dry and hard. Other signs that
you probably need more water—or
other sources of fluid, such as milk,
juice, soup and tea—include dry lips
and mouth, dark urine and urinat-
ing fewer than four times a day. The
ideal amount of hydration is different
for everyone and depends on factors
like your body size and activity level.
Many people report urgent bathroom
visits after their morning brew, but both
regular and decaffeinated coffee appear
to have the same effect. The warmth
could be playing a role in speeding up
the system. Coffee also contains about
100 different compounds, one or more
of which may trigger the production of
stomach acid and the release of diges-
tive hormones, and increase activity in
the large intestine.
GET YOUR BODY
MOVING TO KEEP YOUR
BOWELS MOVING.
Foods and Drinks to Forsake
Processed foods containing refined
grain, such as white flour, may have a
longer shelf life, but they won’t do you
any favours in the fibre department.
They’re also often higher in unhealthy
fats, a common constipation
trigger. White rice, as opposed to
its wholegrain brown counterpart,
can be another culprit. Carbonated
beverages may give you gas and
bloating, as can certain foods like
cabbage, onions and lentils.
“While alcohol may or may not affect
your bowel movement, it definitely af-
fects your digestion and impacts your
liver. Non-vegetarian food, bereft of

ReadeRsdigest.in 61
Reader ’s Digest

fibre, may also lead to constipation,”

says Setya.
Candies and diet drinks sweetened
with sorbitol and other sugar alcohols,
such as xylitol, can also have you run-
ning for the bathroom.

Mindful Eating Helps

How you eat is just as important as what
you eat. Batra suggests that our food eat-
ing patterns could be adding to our gut
issues. “Most of us do not put food first
or practise mindful eating. Our hectic
lifestyle means that we often push meal-
times back, to accommodate work and
deadlines.” Her advice: Chew your food
properly, take time to savour your food
and avoid erratic meal timings. Post-
poning a meal or snack can lead to bloa-
ting. Avoid gulping your food or drinking
through a straw, which can cause you to
swallow air and make you gassy. Same
with talking a lot during a meal.
Get Active
You need to keep your body moving in
order to keep your bowels moving.
Regular physical activity, such as a
daily brisk walk, can help prevent
constipation. Bengaluru-based Dr Issac
Mathai, founder and medical director,
SOUKYA International Holistic Health
Centre, recommends the same. “Mild
to moderate exercise increases blood
flow towards the muscles and digestive
tract, which can help move food
through it. Exercise also raises the heart
rate, which reduces intestinal
sluggishness by stimulating the
HORMONAL SHIFTS
CAN AFFECT YOUR
BOWELS AS YOU AGE.
muscles. This helps push digestive
waste through the body.”
Overtraining is thought to cause
bowel symptoms like flatulence and
loose poops in some people, especially
if they’re exercising intensely in a hot
environment, but that’s rare. Want to
reduce the risk of ‘runner’s diarrhoea’,
possibly caused by alterations in
intestinal hormone levels and blood
flow, and the bouncing of internal
organs? Avoid ibuprofen, energy bars
and coffee before running, and wear
loose clothing that doesn’t constrict
your abdomen.
Stay Calm
Anxiety and stress have an impact on
your poops. The gut literally has a mind

62 july 2020

of its own—it’s lined with millions of
nerve cells that make up what’s known
as the enteric nervous system—and it
sends signals to the brain, and vice versa.
That’s why your feelings of anxiety can
produce cramping and diarrhoea. Con-
versely, research has found that psycho-
logical strategies to reduce stress can
improve these bowel symptoms in peo-
ple who have functional disorders like
irritable bowel syndrome. Their brains
are more sensitive to gut discomfort, and
it’s heightened under stress.
Our Bodies’ Chemistry
Hormone fluctuations also seem to affect
your gut. About half of premenopausal
women who aren’t on birth control get
constipation or diarrhoea depending on
where they are in their monthly cycle.
Hormones during pregnancy serve to
relax muscle contractions. “It may be a
factor in why a lot of women get consti-
pation in their third trimester,” says
Dr Geoffrey Turnbull, a gastroenterolo-
gist at Dalhousie University in Halifax,
Canada. Both men and women experi-
ence hormonal shifts as we get older, and
these are thought to be a potential in-
fluence on the decreasing diversity and
robustness of our microbiome (the
microorganisms that live inside the
human body) as we age.
Try to Keep It Natural
If you are having trouble with bowel
movements, natural laxatives can get you
back on track. “Try natural laxatives
such as triphala choornam—take one
Health
teaspoon at bedtime with warm water.
This remedy helps improve vision,
immunity and has anti-ageing benefits
too,” says Mathai. “Castor oil can also
help treat constipation—one teaspoon
of pure castor oil, or processed with
herbs, taken at bedtime, normally helps
solve constipation troubles,” he adds.
Before resorting to drugstore laxatives
to relieve constipation, consider lifestyle
improvements such as increasing your
fluid and fibre intake, getting more
exercise and avoiding foods that plug
you up. “If this doesn’t work, laxatives,
such as psyllium supplementation, stool
softeners or polyethylene glycol, may be
necessary,” says Dr Carlo Fallone, a
gastroenterologist at McGill University
Health Centre in Montreal. “In general,
one wants to avoid prolonged use of
agents that can damage the colon, such
as senna products.” Senna, made from
the leaves and fruit of a plant, stimulates
bowel activity. But eventually it can
prevent your system from doing its job
naturally and shouldn’t be used for more
than a few days.
Understand Adverse Effects
All kinds of drugs, from antidepressants
to narcotics to blood pressure pills,
list diarrhoea or constipation among
potential side effects.
Setya advises against using strong
purgatives (which completely purge
your system). Laxatives such as isabgul
are better alternatives that should help
with normal stool.
—WITH INPUTS FROM KRITIKA BANERJEE
ReadeRsdigest.in 63
Reader ’s Digest

64 july 2020 Photograph by Joleen Zubek

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

I WAS
SCAMMED
BY MY
BEST
FRIEND
She swindled me out of $92,000,
forcing me into bankruptcy and
destroying my once sunny outlook.
But I finally got justice

By Johnathan Walton
From HUFFPOST.COM

ReadeRsdigest.in 65
Reader ’s Digest

I
f ell hard for one of the oldest cons
in the book. But this scheme wasn’t
cooked up by some fictional Nigerian
prince soliciting me through a sketchy
email. I fell under the spell of an
immensely lovable woman who
inserted herself into my life and
became my best friend. She was also
an international con artist on the run.
She snared me in an age-old con
called the Inheritance Scam, ultimately
bilking me out of nearly $1,00,000. She
simultaneously destroyed my sense of Today, she’s in jail, probably won-

Previous sPread (inset) and this Page: courtesy johnathanwalton . com

self and darkened my once joyful out-
look. As she was ruining my life, she
was also scamming dozens of others
around the world by impersonating
psychics, mortgage brokers, psycholo-
gists, lawyers and travel agents and
even pretending to be a cancer victim.
She was a true queen of the con,
using disguises and plastic surgery to
alter her appearance. I was a reality
TV producer, working on shows such
as American Ninja Warrior and Shark
Tank, and I never saw through her
masterful performances. She might
have gotten away with cheating many
more people if she hadn’t turned me
into a vigilante. I started my own in-
vestigation, uncovered other victims
and helped bring her to justice.
dering how on earth she became the
victim of one of her own victims.
Allow me to explain.
She introduced herself to me as
Mair Smyth in May 2013, when she
joined a group of angry neighbours in
my living room to discuss what to do
about losing access to our building’s
swimming pool because of a legal spat
with a neighbouring building.
“I can help,” she told us. “My
boyfriend is a lawyer who can get the
pool back!”
I liked her immediately. We all did.
She was brash. Funny. Intelligent and
outspoken. Ironically, for someone
who turned out to be a liar and a con
artist, she came across as a woman
who would always ‘tell it like it is’.

66 july 2020

She also came across as extremely
wealthy. She wore expensive Jimmy
Choo shoes and once showed me her
closet filled with more than 250 pairs.
I later discovered they were all fake.
After our initial meeting in my
apartment that night, Mair invited
my husband, Pablito, and me to din-
ner. Over the next year, she frequently
wined and dined us at fancy restau-
rants and always insisted on picking
up the bill. “I have a lot of money—let
me pay!” she’d plead convincingly.
We’d hang out almost every evening
in our barbecue area, exchanging in-
timacies under the cool Los Angeles
sky. Mair told us she was originally
from Ireland. One night she pointed
to a framed document hanging in
her living room. “This is the Irish
Drama in Real Life
Soon Mair became more than just a
neighbour or even a close friend. She,
my husband (right) and I were like family.
Constitution,” she said. “See that sig-
nature at the bottom? That’s my great-
uncle’s.” I had no idea that, like her
shoes, that tale was fake.
Mair brought me Irish tea and pas-
tries and regaled me with stories of
how when she was a young girl, her
OVER SEVERAL MONTHS,
I LENT MAIR $15,000.
I WASN’T WORRIED.
SHE WAS MY BEST FRIEND.
grandmother, who was supposedly in
the Irish Republican Army, would take
her to the top of a bridge and teach
her how to hurl Molotov cocktails
down on British soldiers. I was capti-
vated and horrified.
When I tearfully confided in her
that part of my family had disowned
me for being gay, she pounced. “My
family disowned me, too!” she said as
she fought back tears. “They’re trying
to get me disinherited.”
Mair told me that an uncle, the
patriarch of her family, had recently
died, and her cousins were divid-
ing up an estate worth 25 million
euros. She said she was supposed to
receive 5 million euros as her share
of the inheritance and showed me
angry text messages and emails
ReadeRsdigest.in 67
Reader ’s Digest
from her cousins threatening that
she wouldn’t get a dime.
Mair told me she had taken a lot of
family money with her when she left
Ireland many years ago, so she never
needed to work. But she claimed she
enjoyed working, so she got hired at a
travel agency where her family did a
lot of business.
Fourteen months into our friend-
ship, Mair and I were like sister and
brother, even ending our phone calls
with “I love you.” She told me that her
barristers (I had to look up the word
to learn that it means ‘lawyers’) were
having trouble trying to secure her
inheritance and that they had warned
her about a clause in her uncle’s
will stating that if any family mem-
ber were convicted of a felony, the
68 july 2020
person would forfeit his or her share.
“You’d better be careful!” I cau-
tioned her. “One of your disgruntled
cousins might try and set you up!”
Many of her family members certainly
appeared to hate her. Why wouldn’t
they set her up? I thought.
On 8 July, 2014, my phone rang.
“You have a collect call from an in-
mate at the Century Regional Deten-
tion Facility. Press one to accept,” the
computerized voice instructed me.
Courtesy johnathanwalton . com
It was Mair. I quickly pressed one.
“You were right!” she sobbed. “I was
arrested today. My family set me up
to make it look like I stole $2,00,000
from my job.”
“I told you this would happen!”
I yelled. I was distraught. I found a
bail bondsman and paid him $4,200

to get her out of jail. That’s when I
first learnt that her legal name was
Marianne Smyth, not Mair Smyth. But
she paid me back the next day, when
she was released from jail. Or, rather,
the married man she was dating at the
time paid me back. Little did I (or he)
know, she was scamming him too.
As the months passed, Mair showed
me emails from her lawyers assuring
her that the case against her was falling
apart. I had no idea those emails
were from fake accounts she had
created herself, just like the messages
she claimed were from her cousins.
Then, almost three years into our
friendship, she told me that the dis-
trict attorney [DA] prosecuting her
case had frozen her bank accounts.
So I started lending her money. She
Drama in Real Life
A queen of the con, Mair took
on dozens of personas, using
disguises and even plastic
surgery to change her look.
had immediately paid back
the $4,200 I used to bail her
out of jail, so I felt confident
she’d pay me back any other
money I loaned her.
But that’s the thing: The
term ‘con artist’ is short for
‘confidence artist’ because
these individuals are skilled
at gaining your confidence
and then using it to scam
you out of your money.
Over the course of several
months, I lent Mair nearly
$15,000. You’d think I’d be worried
about giving her that much money,
but I wasn’t. Not only was she my best
friend, but she also claimed she was
about to inherit millions of dollars. I
never even considered that anything
sinister could be taking place.
One day, Mair called me and said
the DA was demanding $50,000 to
dismiss the case against her. I didn’t
have $50,000 in cash. But I did have
an 840 credit score. So I let her charge
the $50,000 on my credit cards to get
the criminal case against her dropped.
A few months later, Mair was arrested
again. She said the judge had charged
her with money laundering, something
to do with her using my credit cards,
and punished her with 30 days in jail—
a ‘slap on the wrist’. She assured me,
ReadeRsdigest.in 69
Reader ’s Digest
I was a TV producer, not
a detective. But I was
determined to get justice.
once again, that as soon
as she got out and re-
ceived her inheritance,
she would pay me back.
Mair called me collect
from jail every day. When
I said I wanted to come
visit her, she begged me
not to. “I don’t want you
to see me like this,” she
said. But I insisted. So I logged on to
the jail’s website to schedule a visit.
That’s when the true devastation
she had wrought on my life started
to reveal itself.
The website showed that Mair was
serving time for felony grand theft.
This was no slap on the wrist.
I took the day off and rushed to a
Los Angeles courthouse. With trem-
bling hands, I reviewed every record
I could find from Mair’s case. I disco-
vered she had lied to me about every-
thing. I suddenly couldn’t breathe.
I learnt that the $50,000 I let her
charge on my credit cards had gone
to pay $40,000 as part of a plea agree-
ment to a felony grand theft charge she
faced for stealing more than $2,00,000
from the travel agency she worked for.
Had she not been able to come up
with that $40,000, she would have re-
ceived a five-year jail sentence, not the
measly 30 days she actually served.
Her bank accounts had never been
70 july 2020
frozen. There was no wealthy Irish
family or inheritance. She’s not even
Irish! Those were all lies she used
to entrap me.
I went home and collapsed in my
husband’s arms. “How could I let this
happen to us?” I sobbed.
Eventually, my pain was replaced
by breathtaking anger and the deter-
mination to do something.
The day Mair was released from
jail, I confronted her in the parking lot
outside our apartment building. She
denied everything. “That’s not true,
Johnathan! That’s not true!” she pro-
tested as tears streamed down her face.
But I was done believing anything
she had to say. I balled up my fists,
clenched my jaw and walked away.
We never spoke again.
I went to the police days later, in
sally Peterson
March 2017, and filed a report. The of-
ficer interviewing me seemed skepti-
cal that there was anything they could
do. “Don’t give strangers your money,”

were his parting words. So I started
my own investigation.
I dug up Mair Smyth’s high school
yearbook and learnt that she was born
Marianne Andle in Maine and gra-
duated from Bangor High in 1987. She
later moved to Tennessee, where, ac-
cording to estranged family members
I spoke with, she claimed she had
breast cancer and allegedly scammed
friends and neighbours out of thou-
sands for ‘treatments’. They told me
Mair was oddly obsessed with wanting
to be Irish. In 2000, she went to Ire-
land on vacation. She ended up mar-
rying a local and stayed for nine years.
In the same way that wooden
stakes kill vampires and silver bullets
kill werewolves, publicity kills con
artists. I began turning my pain
into a profound sense of purpose. I
started a blog, johnathanwalton.com,
detailing how Mair had scammed me.
Soon, other victims of hers from all
over the world started reaching out.
I heard from one who claimed Mair
had scammed her out of $10,000 by
impersonating a psychologist. She
allegedly tricked our landlord out of
$12,000 in rent by pretending to have
cancer. Mair had iron- deficiency
anaemia and would purposely avoid
iron-rich foods so she could get
admitted into hospitals for iron in-
fusions. While sitting in a hospital
bed, she’d ask a nurse to take her pic-
ture and then email that photo to her
victims to better sell her cancer story.
She used this particular scam a lot.
Drama in Real Life
A police detective in Northern
Ireland told me that authorities in
Belfast had been looking for Marianne
Smyth for years. The detective said she
had worked as a mortgage broker in
2008 and had scammed many people
and then vanished.
All in all, Mair Smyth used at least
23 different aliases and has been
charged with fraud and grand theft in
Florida and Tennessee. I was deter-
mined to get justice and called the Los
Angeles police department every day.
A year after I’d last seen her, Mair
THE PROSECUTOR WENT
OVER IN EXTREME DETAIL
EVERY DOLLAR MAIR HAD
SCAMMED FROM ME.
was arrested and charged with grand
theft for scamming me. She was re-
leased on her own recognizance. I
never went near her, but one month
before trial, Mair filed for a restraining
order against me, asserting that I was
threatening her with violence. It cost
me $1,500 to hire an attorney to fight
her bogus claim. “If a judge grants
the restraining order, you would
be prevented from testifying
against her at her criminal trial,” my
lawyer explained.
Could this be her checkmate move? I
wondered. I was apoplectic.
Thankfully, the judge refused to
ReadeRsdigest.in 71
 Reader ’s Digest Drama in Real Life

grant the restraining order, and Mair’s
trial proceeded. The prosecution
presented a mountain of irrefutable
evidence. Though she was charged
with scamming only me, the judge
allowed testimony from three other
victims to demonstrate a pattern.
Mair did not testify in her own
defence. As witnesses described how
she had scammed them, she just sat
there with an emotionless look on
her face. That was probably her big-
gest tell to the jury. She was a brilliant
actress while she was conning people,
but remarkably, she didn’t know how
to act innocent. The only defence her
attorney had was that I was making
the whole story up. Supposedly, I had
persuaded all of the other witnesses—
people I didn’t even know before Mair
scammed me—to lie under oath. He
was terrifyingly convincing.
The prosecutor went over in ex-
treme detail each dollar Mair had
scammed from me. Reliving that
experience in front of a roomful of
strangers ignited fury and embarrass-
ment and regret in a new, painful way.
I spent two years pursuing Marianne
Smyth. I had to file for bankruptcy
because of what she had done to
1 euro was `85.24 and US$1 was `75.20 at the time of going to press.
me. And the 24 court appearances
I made even before the trial—for
continuances, pretrial motions and
hearings—meant I missed a lot of
work and lost even more money. Not
to mention the cost of hiring private
investigators in multiple states and
countries to ferret out all her scams.
But it was worth it.
On 9 January 2019, Marianne Smyth
was found guilty of conning me
out of $91,784—the money she had
borrowed plus thousands of dollars of
interest that had accrued on my credit
cards. She was sentenced to five years
behind bars.
Besides me, only two of Mair’s other
marks reported her to the police. That
enabled her to continue scamming
people for years. Most of her victims,
like most victims of any con artist,
were too ashamed to tell anyone what
had happened to them.
I am now suspicious of everyone
and everything. Making new friends is
not something I’m good at anymore.
And I’m ashamed too. But my desire
to stop her from hurting other people
is much stronger than my shame.
HUFFPOST.COM (16 August 2019), Copyright © 2019
by johnAthAn WAlton.

The Fast and the Furious

The speed limit is the maximum speed you can go by law and also basically
the minimum speed you can go without ticking everybody else off.
lordpounCe on reddit . com

72 july 2020
 Reader ’s Digest

AS KIDS SEE IT

“We can speak freely now. I’ve secured the line.”

My sister was out for nephew.] correct her, but

a walk with her three- Nephew: It’s a turch! definitely not today.
year-old son. On the Me: No, that’s a church. — @MOMTRANSPARENT1
walk, she pointed out It starts with C.
an empty nest, telling Nephew: Then why is Me: Mommy just needs
her son, “That’s a bird’s there a T on it? a little space right now.
nest. The birds keep — CHRISTINE HOOVER Child [perched on top
their eggs in there.” of my head]: Why?
Her son looked My four-year-old has — @LURKATHOMEMOM
up at her and asked been carrying a small
innocently, “And notebook around all
where do they keep day. She opens it,
Reader’s Digest will pay
their pancakes?” writes small scribbles for your funny anecdote
Conan de Vries

— ASIYAH BAKSH and quickly closes it or photo in any of our

back up. She’s calling it humour sections. Post it
[Driving by a church her ‘secret diarrhoea’. to the editorial address, or
with my six-year-old Maybe someday I’ll email: editor.india@rd.com

ReadeRsdigest.in 73
 KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

NIGHT
WITHOUT
END
Two students escaped campus violence in Jamia, after being
saved by some good people they met by chance

By Sanskriti Rajkhowa

Illustration By Siddhant Jumde

D
ecember 2019 is etched in the
minds of students across the
country. India was erupting
in sp ontane ou s pro te sts,
against the newly constituted
Citizenship Amendment Act, with
young students leading the charge.
Assam, my home state, was under
curfew too. A group of us—students
from the Northeast—had gathered at
Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on the morning
*NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED ON REQUEST.
of 15 December, with an appeal
for peace.
On what was to be Jamia Millia
Islamia’s unending night, I decided
to visit my friends there, along with
Sakshi*, a friend from JNU (Jawaharlal
Nehru University), where I had moved
after my master’s at Jamia.
As the cab dropped us at Sarai
Jullena, we could see clouds of
billowing black smoke—the road

74 july 2020
 Reader
Reader ’s’sDigest
Digest

ReadeRsdigest.in 75
Reader ’s Digest
leading to the Jamia campus was
packed with locals and students. It was
past 5 p.m. now. We walked towards
Gate No. 7, where we met our friends
and found that one of them was injured
in a stampede. Apparently there had
been a police lathi charge less than
an hour ago. Before we could begin
to discuss it, the guards at the gate,
otherwise very strict about student IDs,
pushed us into the campus. The police
were approaching the campus, we were
told. Without a word, we rushed in and
the guards locked the gate behind us.
I felt a surge of relief on being able to
enter, as I had forgotten my wallet and
identification card.
Sakshi and I stopped and looked
through the iron gates, as crowds
gathered on the road outside. Then,
we hastily decided to retreat to the
Central Canteen for some tea. It was
exam season and we noticed groups of
students in huddles, discussing their
post-paper blues.
S
uddenly, a commotion broke out
in the lane outside the canteen:
We could see students running
away from what appeared to be
an approaching troop. We heard
explosions in the distance—they
sounded like low-intensity bombs,
the sound of which we were so familiar
with in Assam during the agitations of
the ’90s, when we were growing up.
Then, off went a loud blast—this one
seemed much closer. A tear gas shell
had gone off right next to the canteen.
76 july 2020
Everyone around was scrambling to
escape, coughing and trying to cover
their faces somehow.
We found a large assembly of
people around the Central Library—
the explosions were getting louder
and more frequent by the minute
now. This meant that the police were
drawing closer too. Until it actually
happened, and the scenes streamed
across TV screens since that night, we
had believed that a library could never
be attacked. By now, all the campus
exits were blocked—in panic we
started making calls. Just then, a tear
gas shell landed at our feet. I stepped
over it and within a few seconds I was
choking and gasping for air, every part
of my skin, exposed to the chemical-
laced air, felt ablaze.
It all seemed never-ending—only
later did we realize our escape had
been a matter of about 20 minutes.
After being tear-gassed, we had
rushed towards the narrow exit gate
ahead of the library and next to
the Jama Masjid. We had pleaded
with the guards to let us out. Four
men, complete strangers, formed a
chain around us, and led us to the
safety of the mosque. From here, we
crossed over to a school next to it
and entered one of the narrow back
lanes of Batla House.
A
s we moved in frantic steps,
voices called out to us from the
dimly lit lanes, asking, “Where are
you taking these girls?” The protective

“It all seemed never-ending,” says
Sanskriti Rajkhowa.
men occasionally answered, assuring
them we were students looking
for refuge, as the university was
photo courtesy: sanskriti rajkhowa
being ransacked.
The police had closed all the entry
points and metro stations in the area.
From Batla House we crossed some
tense but bustling roads, a graveyard
and reached the other end of Tikona
Park. Our male friends left us there
to attend to the injured in Al-Shifa
Hospital. At Johri Farm, two kind
strangers—Naaz* and Ameera*—who
Kindness of Strangers
TWO KIND STRANGERS—
NAAZ AND AMEERA—WHO
WE STILL REMAIN IN
TOUCH WITH—OFFERED
US FOOD AND SHELTER
FOR THE NIGHT.
we still remain in touch with—offered
us food and shelter for the night.
Looking back, the generosity of these
young women kept us safe and helped
us heal through the trauma of having
witnessed the brutality on the Jamia
students. As videos of that night
surfaced, we realized how lucky we
had been. The nearby hospitals were
swamped with the bloodied bodies
of young students.
N
ext morning, on our way to the
metro station, we saw the campus
street strewn with wreckage, which
shocked us beyond words. A rickshaw
driver dropped us off at Sukhdev Vihar
and said, “Apunaluk dujon axomor
neki?” (Are you both from Assam?).
Introducing himself as Mustafa Amin*
from Kokrajhar, he told us that there
were around 50 families from Assam
who lived nearby. “All our homes are
open for you, should anything like this
ever happen again,” he said.
May nothing like this ever happen
again, I thought. He still calls to check
if we are alright.
ReadeRsdigest.in 77
Reader ’s Digest

78 july 2020
 BONUS READ

Large numbers of
tigers are being
farmed, killed
and trafficked in
Laos. Karl Ammann
pursues those
responsible

TRACKING
THE TIGER
BUTCHER
By Terrence McCoy
From The WashingTon PosT

ReadeRsdigest.in 79
Reader ’s Digest
H
e was up there some-
where, at the top of
the hill, the man Karl
Ammann had come to
see. It would soon be
night. The forest was all
shadows and sounds.
Ammann had driven across Laos to
reach Tha Bak, a remote river village,
to confront the person he believed
had murdered more tigers than any-
one in the country. In the distance, he
could hear dozens of tigers roaring.
For nearly five years, Ammann, 71, a
Swiss counter-trafficking conservatio-
nist, had tracked Nikhom Keovised. He
had placed hidden cameras inside what
THE TIGER IS ON THE VERGE OF BECOMING
A FULLY INDUSTRIALIZED COMMODITY.
had once been the largest tiger farm in
South East Asia, an illegal operation
where tigers had been raised to one
end—slaughter. And he had listened
to the man doing the slaughtering de-
scribe it in his own words: “Use the
anaesthetic,” Keovised had said. “Then
just cut the neck.” Then “peel its skin.”
Now Keovised had just opened here
in Tha Bak what his boss—considered
one of the nation’s biggest wildlife
traffickers—described as a zoo, but
what Ammann suspected was a front
for selling tigers.
Ammann knew the risks. He was
in the country without permission
80 july 2020
to investigate its wildlife practices.
He was unarmed. Neither Keovised
nor his boss had ever been charged
with anything, let alone arrested. If
discovered, the equipment Ammann
had with him—the drone, the hidden
cameras, the satellite images of the
country’s tiger farms—would imme-
diately unravel his cover story: that
he was a tourist.
But he could already feel the
familiar intensity. It had driven
him to undertake dozens of risky,
self-funded investigations, pushed
him to the fringes of the conservation
community and caused even friends
to describe him as obsessive, if
by Terrence mccoy/The WashingTon PosT via geTTy images
not a little craz y. He couldn’t
stop. Those responsible had to be
held to account.
For 10 days in late 2018, I joined
Ammann on an undercover journey
to determine whether Laos, a global
PhoTo, Previous sPread and This one:
hub of wildlife trafficking, had
fulfilled its promises since 2016 to
stamp out the wildlife trade. Now
we’d arrived at this hill, where, above,
the tigers were becoming louder.
Th e y w e re hu ng r y , A m ma n n
announced. It would soon be time to
feed them. He slung his camera over
his shoulder and started up the hill,
in search of tigers and their warden.

During his investigation of tiger trafficking, Ammann drove hour after hour to remote
locations around Laos.
A RISK TAKER
The tiger, whose captive population
now dwarfs its numbers in the wild,
is on the verge of becoming a fully
industrialized commodity. Over the
past century or so, the population
in the wild has plunged from an
estimated 1,00,000 to fewer than
4,000, while the number in captivity
had exploded to more than 12,500.
Nowhere else was the animal’s
commodification more complete than
in tiger farming, where it is raised,
butchered for parts and sold for tens
of thousands of dollars. And nowhere
else had these farms operated with
greater impunity than in Laos, a
nation whose own wild tigers have
Health & Medicine
nearly all been killed. Ammann was
one of the few people who’d seen
inside the country’s farms.
When I’d first spoken to him
in June 2018, I’d expected to find
someone who was, if not optimistic,
then at least hopeful. Since 2016,
international authorities and some
conservationists had applauded Laos,
home to some of Asia’s biggest wildlife
traffickers, as it announced overhauls
to clean up the trade.
Shops trading in bones and wildlife
merchandise were to cease. All three
of the country’s illegal tiger farms,
which stored 700 tigers, were ordered
to stop farming and convert into zoos
and conservation centres. No new
facilities breeding endangered wildlife
ReadeRsdigest.in 81
Reader ’s Digest

for commercial purposes

would open.
But Ammann was nei-
ther optimistic nor hopeful.
He cited operational tiger
farms in Laos and how we
were being taken for “bloody
fools”. “They all want hope
and happy endings,” he said
of producers and audiences
who ignored his documen-
taries. “And I don’t see any
happy endings.”
Almost every conservatio-
nist I asked said Ammann’s
findings were sound. He could
be trusted—but ...
But what?
“He takes a lot of risks,”
Steve Galster, a counter-
trafficking expert in Bangkok,
said after a long pause.
He had been kicked out of Amman's combative exterior hides a deep
an international conserva- regard for the animals he is trying to help.
tion meeting for aggressively He is pictured here in the mid-1990s with
confronting officials. a gorilla orphan he found in Gabon.
“A bit of a kook who gets
results,” a law-enforcement consultant he’d dispatched to CITES , the UN
in Laos called him. commission charged with regulating
Ammann sent me some of those the wildlife trade, accusing it of being
Photo courtesy of Karl ammann

results, photographs of a diseased “a big part of the problem.” He’d sent

tiger in a claustrophobic cage— the same letter to a European Parlia-
mangy, eyes desperate. The next ment official, attaching this comment:
showed seven tigers in cramped cages “So you cannot say you did not know.
eating raw chicken off the ground and, My motto for doing this.”
from high above, drone images of I called Ammann at his estate at
two massive tiger farms, showing the the base of Mount Kenya. He was
animal in cage after cage. going to Laos again, before year’s
He included a 3,700-word missive end, he said. This time, he hoped to

82 july 2020

personally meet those who’d profited
from the death of the tiger. “Why
don’t you come,” he asked, “and see
for yourself?”
So, for 10 days in late 2018, I joined
Ammann on an undercover journey to
determine whether Laos had fulfilled
its promises since 2016 to stamp out
the wildlife trade.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
I arrived at my hotel in northern
Thailand past midnight. We’d planned
to meet at 8 a.m. but a note waiting
for me from Ammann said we had to
meet at 7 a.m. A long day was ahead.
After a handshake and a few quick
CHINA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH IGNITED
A MARKET FOR TIGER PRODUCTS.
words, we were inside a van, bumping
towards the Laos border.
Ammann wanted to cross into the
country by nightfall, where he said the
real journey would begin. Landlocked
and mountainous, Laos has nearly
2,575 kilometres of borders with Viet-
nam and China, whose appetite for
illicit wildlife products had both deci-
mated numerous species and trans-
formed Laos into a global epicentre of
wildlife trade. A 2017 CITES report was
blunt: “Everyone can buy everything
and cross the border.”
Over the next 10 days, Ammann
planned to traverse much of the
Bonus Read
countr y, investigating rumours
of a never-before-identified tiger
enclosure, buying tiger products
from merchants and flying drones
over tiger farms. Lastly, he’d venture
to a new resort and ‘zoo’ named
Say Namthurn at Tha Bak, where
Ammann hoped to finally meet
Keovised, the tiger butcher, and his
boss, Sakhone Keosouvanh, who
helped bring tiger farming to Laos.
Inside the van, along with Am-
mann were his cameraman, Phil Hat-
tingh, a towering South African, and a
young Hong Kong Chinese woman
named Grace Chan.
“They’ll think you’re a customer,”
Ammann said to Chan, explaining
that his plan for her on this trip
was to visit shops while wearing a
hidden camera to buy tiger products.
Ammann met Chan in 2017 after
she’d contacted him to discuss
elephant trafficking.
To bolster her expertise on the
tiger economy, Ammann handed her
a tattered book. It showed pictures of
a tiger skull, femur, tibia and hip, and
described the bones as a ‘precious
crude medicine’, whose medicinal
use in China traced back more than
1,400 years. As China’s economy grew,
the animal’s mythical qualities—none
ReadeRsdigest.in 83
Reader ’s Digest
o f w h i ch a re su b st a nt iate d by
modern medicine—ignited a market
for tiger products.
With only a few dozen tigers left,
the Chinese government banned
killing endangered species in the wild
while encouraging their ‘domestica-
tion’ and breeding to sate demand
for tiger products while protecting
those in the wild. Instead, demand
exploded further, said Vanda Felbab-
Brown, a Brookings Institution senior
fellow who’s studied the industry, in-
citing rampant poaching of wild tigers
all over Asia.
Chinese officials in 1993 prohibited
domestic trade in tiger bone but
didn’t close the country’s many
AT AN OPEN-AIR STORE, A CHINESE
SALESMAN SAID HE HAD TIGER PARTS TO SELL.
farms. That year, CITES , which has
few enforcement tools, banned tiger
farming for commercial purposes.
China chafed against the restrictions
then, and now. In 2018, it legalized
trade in tiger parts for medicinal
purposes but, under international
pressure, quickly reinstated its ban.
To by p a s s i t , s o m e C h i n e s e
customers flock to border towns in
the Golden Triangle area, where
the countries of Myanmar, Laos and
Thailand converge.
That was exactly what Ammann
wanted to investigate first.
84 july 2020
CONSUMED BY OUTRAGE
We drove into the night until a city
sprang out of the blackness. Lexuses
and Mercedes wheeled down its
streets with Chinese licence plates.
People swarmed around a large
casino at the town’s centre.
Known as the Golden Triangle
Special Economic Zone, this sliver
of Bokeo Province is controlled by a
transnational criminal operation that
“engages in an array of horrendous il-
licit activities,” including child prosti-
tution and human, drug and wildlife
trafficking, according to the US Trea-
sury Department, which imposed
sanctions on the network.
On our first morning here, Ammann
was already exasperated. His driver was
not going fast enough, his computer
had stopped working, and the hotel
where we’d spent the night before—the
only one that still took Western guests
following the US sanctions—had just
told us to clear out.
Ammann knew how he sometimes
sounded, but there was no time for
niceties. In conversations, he frequently
brought up environmental studies
he’d just read, all of them apparently
grim. The planet could soon lose
60 per cent of primate species,

Ammann believes this ‘zoo’ in the eastern Lao town of Tha Bak, which he visited in
December 2018, is really a front for selling tigers.
according to the peer-reviewed journal,
Science Advances, noting how bush-
meat hunting had sped their demise—a
revelation that, to Ammann, wasn’t a
revelation at all. It was his origin story.
photo: © Washington post/by terrence Mccoy
In 1988, Ammann was in a longboat
chugging up the Congo River in what
was then Zaire. By then, he’d already
spent two decades in Africa, where
he had worked as a hotelier and
photographer, eventually becoming
wealthy opening and selling an eco-
tourism camp in Kenya’s Maasai Mara
National Reserve. But along the river’s
banks, he saw hundreds of slaughtered
primates awaiting transport to nearby
markets. Deforestation had provided
hunters with access to animals
Health & Medicine
previously protected by dense jungle.
The outrage he’d felt soon consumed
him. In the early 1990s, he went
to remote merchants and logging
encampments and returned with
gruesome images. Decapitated gorillas.
Charbroiled monkeys. Butchered
chimpanzees. He published books,
lobbied governments, led international
petitions against wildlife slaughter.
He described it all graphically,
hoping to shock people into action.
“Up to their elbows in blood,” he said
of bushmeat hunters in one 1995
newspaper interview. “Maybe I’ve
become too extreme,” he confessed in
another, and many conservationists
then agreed.
ReadeRsdigest.in 85
Reader ’s Digest

Jane Goodall, the

renowned chim-
panzee conserva-
tionist, said he was
too aggressive, and
he said she wasn’t
aggressive enough.
Other conser va-
tionists accused
him of “cultural
imperialism”, and
he countered that
they worried more Ammann's team found these tiger fangs selling for
about fundraising $1,340 (₹1,02,707) in a Lao border market.
than truth.
“He won’t stop,” “MR HE SENT US”
says his wife, Kathy, even after he She was dressed in black. Black hat.
was named a Time magazine Hero of Black sunglasses. Black blouse, the
the Environment in 2007 for “almost top button of which concealed the
single-handedly raising awareness of camera. Ammann wanted us to keep
the issue of bushmeat,” and was told our distance from her at first. Sellers
to slow down. these days store their jewellery and
Two personalities jostle inside medicine in back rooms and hidden
him, said Dale Peterson, a former drawers that open only for wealthy
collaborator. He was one person Chinese customers—which was how
around people—combative, cynical, Ammann hoped Chan would appear.

photo: © Washington post/by terrence Mccoy

“miserable”, as Peterson put it—and We met her at the counter of an
another around animals. That was the open-air store named Exotic Family.
Ammann who’d stop and discuss even There, a thin Chinese salesman was
a small bird, he said, “in the most saying, yes, he had tiger parts to sell.
affectionate way.” He was “driven by Out came a small, hollowed tiger bone
something larger.” with intricate carvings: $223 [₹16,759].
That intensity building within, Also a tiger claw: $223. And two tiger
he pulled up to the market along the fangs: $1,340 [₹1,02,707].
Mekong River, straddling the Lao- Ammann asked to see more. The
Thai border. The door opened, out man pulled out his phone and sent a
Chan went, and from the market contact request on the messaging app
entrance, Ammann watched her WeChat to Chan. All she needed to
disappear into the stalls. do was enter a few keywords—‘jelly’

86 july 2020

for ivory, ‘king’ for tiger products—
to thwart a blanket prohibition on
t h e t r a d e o n C h i n a’s l e a d i n g
commerce sites.
But one rare product didn’t appear
on the seller’s WeChat profile. Did he
have any tiger skin for sale?
“No tiger skins anymore,” he
said in Chinese. “Tigers in Laos are
now protected.”
Ammann knew Laos had vowed to
stop the trade in wildlife products,
and yet here this merchant was doing
just that. So how likely was it that
much had changed?
A promised ‘full audit’ and phase-
out plan by the government of the
EVEN AFTER ALL THIS TIME, SEEING
TIGERS UP CLOSE STUNNED AMMANN.
country’s captive tigers had faced
numerous delays. The same tiger
breeders were still involved in the
operations, where the tiger population
has been fluctuating dramatically,
indicating possible trade.
A farm called Vinasakhone—where
Keovised had worked—reported
a sudden loss of 300 tigers in 2017
without ever explaining how that hap-
pened. Then a new and massive farm
was disclosed by a Vietnamese news
outlet in April 2017 in the central Laos
town of Lak Sao and as of last year
housed 106 tigers.
Ammann, walking away from the
Bonus Read
stall and the market, believed there
were even more tiger enclosures now
in Laos, which hadn’t yet been iden-
tified. One was rumoured to be right
here in the Golden Triangle: He had
to find out whether it was true.
We drove several miles, coming to
a stop on a desolate dirt road wedged
between thatched-roof huts and jun-
gle. Ammann got out, reached for his
camera and approached the walls,
from which hung signs praising the
facility’s supposed role in conserva-
tion. “Caring rare animals, protect the
blue planet,” said one in English.
“This must be it,” he said, walking
up to the metal gates of a compound
said to be controlled by the local cri-
minal syndicate. He started banging.
A young shirtless man came to see
what was going on. Ammann decided
to bluff his way in.
“Tell him Mr He sent us here,”
Ammann directed Chan, who had no
idea what he was talking about, but
decided to do it anyway.
The gate was slightly ajar. Ammann
vanished beyond the wall. Chan and
I followed. A sound of joy and won-
der came into Ammann’s voice. In
the darkness of one of the structures,
stripes were moving. Even after all this
time, seeing tigers up close stunned
ReadeRsdigest.in 87
Reader ’s Digest
him. They were so big, moving with
the latent energy of coiled springs.
The worker wanted us out. He was
staring at Ammann, who continued
to film. He was calling his boss again.
One more look, and Ammann was in
the car, and it was pulling away, and
he couldn’t help but shake his head.
“Yeah, but Laos is closing down the
tiger farms, isn’t it?” he said.
ANOTHER NEW FARM
Days later, after Chan had bought and
filmed tiger parts being sold in shops
all over Laos, and after we’d left her in
the capital of Vientiane with her job
complete, we headed across the coun-
try to the Vietnam border.
Ammann was in a darker mood
than usual. “It’s frustrating to care
about something this much,” he said.
“Am I wasting my time?”
Several times during the trip, I’d
asked him why continue if he thought
the work was futile. “The real chal-
lenge starts when you know, ‘I’m
88 july 2020
never going to win,’ but you keep
going,” he answered once. “If I’ve had
a few bad nights’ sleep over what I’ve
seen, well, let me give a few others a
bad night’s sleep.”
The van now crossed a muddy river,
continuing along Highway 8. The
town of Lak Sao soon came into view.
We bounced off the main highway,
forked into a quiet village and rolled
onto an unmarked dirt path.
“This is it,” Ammann said. Just
down this road was the Lak Sao tiger
farm, with around 100 tigers inside, if
not more. Hattingh, the cameraman,
was reaching into his bag. Out came
the drone. They had five minutes—
10 tops—to get what they needed
and get out.
“If you see people running, bring it
home and get out of there,” Ammann
said. “If they catch you with a drone
and no licence, they can throw the
book at you.”
Hattingh climbed out. He stepped
into the bush behind the back of the
compound’s tall concrete walls. The
drone, the size of a hawk and buzzing
like the world’s loudest cicada,
levitated into the air. The video was
beamed back into a hand-held screen,
showing tigers pacing in their cages,
appearing as small as insects.
This operation wasn’t like the last
one, not another small tiger enclosure
shuTTersTocK
hidden away in the hills. This was in-
dustrial. The drone came down. Hat-
tingh hurried back. We got in the van,
and Ammann told the driver to hit it.

ARRIVING IN THA BAK
Deeper into the countryside we went,
until there came the river village of
Tha Bak. A sign announced the resort
of Say Namthurn, listing its offerings:
golf course, drinking water, zoo. Tigers
roared atop a hill shrouded by forest.
Ammann reached for his camera.
That is where he hoped to
find Keovised.
Ammann first heard that name
in early 2014. His investigation had
brought him to central Laos, where
Vinasakhone, the country’s biggest
farm, stored hundreds of tigers behind
concrete walls.
THE VINASAKHONE FARM SAID IT WAS
HELPING TO PRESERVE THE TIGER POPULATION.
Its co-owner at the time was a short
man named Sakhone Keosouvanh.
Equipped with government connec-
tions, he helped craft Laos’s failed
plan to save the country’s last tigers
and represented tiger farmers at an
international tiger preservation mee-
ting. His farm promoted itself as hel-
ping to preserve the tiger population.
Meanwhile, tiger breeding, killing
and selling were going on inside those
walls, according to Laos government
reports, and the man who oversaw
much of it was Keovised. (Neither
Keosouvanh nor Keovised responded
to numerous requests for comment.)
Bonus Read
Keovised was the one who met with
an investigator Ammann had sent
into the farm equipped with a hidden
camera and the cover story that he
was there to inquire about four tigers
for a farm that his ‘millionaire’ Chi-
nese boss wanted to build.
Over months, the two men deve-
loped a friendship. The investigator
would take Keovised out for drinks,
then secretly record their conversa-
tions. Soon Keovised was delving into
how tigers were illegally bred, killed
and harvested for parts at a level that
staggered Ammann.
During the first 10 months of 2014
alone, Vinasakhone and another
farm traded nearly eight tons of lion
and tiger bone, the former of which
is sometimes passed off as tiger
bone, according to one government
document by the Lao Division of
Forest Inspection that I obtained. The
report, first reported by the Guardian,
a c c u s e d t h e f a r m o f b re a k i n g
international and local law.
But no action could be taken against
it. The farm had “approval from
government,” which imposed an extra
tax of 2 per cent on all wildlife exports,
according to a 2003 Laos customs
document. A 2016 confidential
survey of the country’s wildlife farms
ReadeRsdigest.in 89
Reader ’s Digest
by the Lao Department of Forest
Resource Management said the farm
wasn’t breeding tigers for “scientific
research”—as its permit stated—but
for slaughter. One corpse was believed
to go for $30,000 [₹22,54,630].
“We use this anaesthetic” was how
Keovised described the process in a
conversation with Ammann’s investi-
gator. “They fall down.”
“How do you kill it?” the investi-
gator asked.
Some have their throats cut. But
many clients refuse to buy pierced
BEHIND TWO LINES OF FENCING WERE
FLASHES OF TEETH AND SLATE GREEN EYES.
skin, so “we use the elastic string to
tighten its neck … until it died.”
Some buyers want the meat, others
the bones, and others only want a
dense block of hardened resin known
as tiger glue made by boiling the bones.
In 2016, a new Lao administration,
yielding to international demands, an-
nounced that the farms would close,
accusing them of illegally “trading
tiger products to international buyers.”
Soon after, 300 of Vinasakhone’s 400
tigers vanished.
Then Keosouvanh, the co-owner,
abandoned the farm, beginning a new
tiger operation out here. And with
him, Ammann heard from his inves-
tigator, he had brought along his farm
manager, Keovised.
90 july 2020
MEETING THE BOSS
“If Sakhone is here, we have to be care-
ful,” Ammann said. The tiger farmer
had been so well protected that he’d
never faced charges. Ammann worried
about that power. Our intentions for
being there couldn’t be discovered.
We walked through a tourist attrac-
tion bereft of tourists to the restau-
rant patio along the river. “There he
is,” Ammann said softly. Keosouvanh
was coming our way across the patio,
wearing a blue button-down, gold ring
and watch, with a Toyota Hilux key
dangling from his belt loop.
For so long, Ammann had known
Keosouvanh only as a name on
investigative reports and translated
transcripts. But now he was gripping
Ammann’s hand and smiling broadly.
Keosouvanh took a seat at our table
and looked us over. Beers arrived.
Ammann, playing the role of tourist,
did the talking. Through an inter-
preter, he asked Keosouvanh how he’d
made his money.
“An import–export company,”
Keosouvanh said.
Ammann asked what he exported.
“Mainly coal,” Keosouvanh said.
Ammann later told me he’d had the
urge to turn on his camera and confront

Nikhom Keovised at Vinasakhone, once the largest tiger farm in South East Asia
him. He wanted to tell him that he’d
actually exported tigers—and accuse
him of still doing it. “We breed them to
get their babies” to sell, Keovised had
recently told Ammann’s investigator,
illegal trade an investigative Vietna-
mese agency has discovered as well.
photo: © Washington post/by terrence Mccoy
Then there was something else: Am-
mann had learnt what he believed was
the truth of the missing 300 tigers from
Keosouvanh’s farm. Many had been
killed, frozen and trafficked, accor-
ding to Keovised and interviews I’ve
had with two other people with knowl-
edge of the missing tigers. But Ammann
could say none of this, not here.
Instead, Ammann glanced out into
the forests on the other side of the river.
They looked so dense. So dark. Surely
anything could be out there.
Health & Medicine
“What animals are left in this forest?”
he asked, waving a hand towards the
trees. “Are there any tigers left?”
Keosouvanh looked at him for a
moment, his face blank.
“No,” he finally said. “None of those.”
THE FARM MANAGER
The tigers weren’t in the forest, but
up the hill, on the other side of the
resort. The next afternoon, Ammann
went past the gates, the river far be-
low him. He kept his gaze fixed on
the ramshackle structure—chain-
link fencing, anchored by poles and
patched with blue tarp. The sound of
groaning tigers was all around.
He went inside. Behind two lines of
fencing, on either side of the narrow
hallway, were flashes of teeth and slate
ReadeRsdigest.in 91
Reader ’s Digest
green eyes. Thirty-five tigers, some
weighing over 180 kilos, stalked back
and forth, housed separately in 9 x 12-
foot cages.
Every now and then, a worker
would pull open a side door connec-
ting the cages, and in would come
another tiger. The two would mate,
then separate, an act that Ammann
and I witnessed three times in less
than an hour. Standing here, I realized,
the existence of the tiger had been
reduced to this: endless pacing, speed
breeding and a meal of raw chicken
KEOVISED HAD SEEMED IMPOVERISHED,
DOING WHAT HE HAD TO DO TO SURVIVE.
hurled into its cage at 5 p.m.
“You couldn’t licence a zoo like
this anywhere in the world,” Ammann
said. After spending hours here—
during which we saw only one group
of local tourists pay the admission fee
of $2 [₹150]—he turned to leave. Then,
just outside the front entrance, on the
gravel, he saw him.
Keovised.
He was sitting at a table strewn
with beer bottles—a short man with
yellowing teeth, wearing dusty black
pants and flip-flops.
Ammann walked over to him.
How many hours had he listened
to the farm manager in the recordings
describe the most macabre of details
in the most perfunctory of ways? And
92 july 2020
now here Keovised was, sitting outside
a small concrete house, doing nothing
more than drinking and smoking
after a day of work. Ammann and I
took seats at his table. Keovised smiled
at the unexpected guests, pouring us
beers. This time, however, Ammann
did flip on his camera.
Then, as his Lao guide interpreted,
he started in with it:
“What is going to happen to
these tigers?”
“So how often do they get tourists?”
“We saw three tiger pairs mating,
so in three and a half months, how
many babies?”
Keovised laughed and offered
Ammann more beer. He said he’d
worked with tigers since 2007, and this
enclosure, which he’d taken over seven
months before, was just getting started.
These tigers would never leave. Few
tourists came, but soon there would be
more cages filled with tiger cubs. What
he didn’t tell Ammann now, but what
he’d told Ammann’s informant: The ti-
gers were profoundly inbred, and few
cubs were surviving, only 18 so far.
“So, much work needs to be done?”
Ammann said, motioning towards the
construction, where more cages were
being built. Keovised only laughed
again. Ammann took one last look

at him. Then he finished his drink,
turned off his camera and got up from
the table. He’d had enough.
He descended the hill, as the day’s
last light bloomed orange and red
above the mountains.
“THIS IS OUR SYSTEM”
Then it was morning. Ammann di-
rected his driver to take him to the
capital to present his findings to the
local office of CITES. He stared out the
window and thought of Keovised. He’d
always pictured him as powerful and
menacing, but he hadn’t been that at
all. He’d seemed impoverished, doing
what he had to do to survive. At least
Keovised was who he presented him-
self to be, Ammann realized, and the
self-congratulatory networkers at the
wildlife conferences were not.
Soon he was walking inside an
expansive building carrying a briefcase
where he’d stored evidence of his
findings. Two new tiger enclosures that
didn’t look to him like conservation
shuTTersTocK
Bonus Read
parks or zoos. Ongoing illegal trade in
tiger parts. Signs of expansion at several
farms. Allegations that many of the
missing 300 tigers had been killed. And
proof that the same people who had
illegally butchered and sold tigers were
still acting as keepers of the animals.
Then he was in a barren conference
room, facing a CITES bureaucrat. I sat
at the end of the table, watching as
Ammann’s anger began to build.
“We know there are two more tiger
farms,” Ammann said. “Two new tiger
farms! You said you’re closing them
down?” On and on he went—but it
was no use. Take it up with the bosses
in Geneva, he was told. There wasn’t
anything the office could do with infor-
mation brought in like this.
“This is our system,” the official said.
Ammann took down the official’s
email address. He thanked him for his
time. He picked up his briefcase with
the proof he’d never been asked to
show and walked out.
At the entrance of the building, he
stopped for a moment. On either side
of the doorway was a statue of a tiger.
Stripes had been etched into their
wooden bodies. Their expressions
were frozen in garish snarls. Ammann
reached down to touch the head of one
of the tigers—an animal once defined
by ferocity, now an ornament, lifeless
and commodified.
Then he quickly lifted his hand and
walked away.
From WashingTon PosT (9 may 2019), coPyrighT ©
2019 by WashingTon PosT
ReadeRsdigest.in 93
 “I see my kids’ laundry.”

session, going on would be dangerous

about this, that and to drink and drive,”
LIFE’S
Like That
the other. When she
finally paused to come
she said. “The straw
could go up your nose.”
up for air, she had one —Marlene L.
question: “Who am I Banwart
talking to?”
—Christine Hohman It always irked my
My husband and his single mother that
sister are notorious A few of us were dis- her grocery store
yakkers. They can hold cussing the perils of didn’t carry eggs in
court on any subject. drinking and driving packages of six—just
One day, he called her. when my five-year-old by the dozen. Then
All he had to say was granddaughter threw one day, her wish
“Hi,” and that launched in her two cents. came true. She walked
her into a marathon “I can see why it into the grocery and

Cartoon by Harley Schwadron

94 july 2020
 Reader ’s Digest

My favourite thing about watching a your hair done?”

new movie with my five-year-old is “Why, yes. Thank
you for noticing,” said
probably watching it 17 times a day
Denise, flattered.
for the next three months. “I thought so,”
— @thebabylady7 the doctor replied.
“Because your
found fresh eggs in friend Denise made scalp looks red
cartons of six. an appointment with and irritated.”
“I was so excited,” a dermatologist who —Sandy Hagglund
she told us later, “that happened to be very
I bought two!” attractive. After a full Reader’s Digest will pay
—Thomas Hassmann examination, the for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our
doctor cocked his humour sections. Post it
Suffering from an un- head and asked, to the editorial address, or
sightly scaly rash, my “Denise, did you get email: editor.india@rd.com

GEE, THANKS, MOM è“I’m leaving for the weekend, so I

Mothers always know just what to say
when you’re feeling lost, confused or just
downright sad. These razor-sharp mums
Ryan Mcvay/Getty iMaGes (photo), Mae landeR (doodle)
hid $100 in your room for food. Clean
your room and you will find it.”
— wattpad.coM

may not have got that memo though:

èIf I ever voiced disapproval
of a photo of myself, my
mother always had a ready
reply: “Want a better picture?
Get a better face.”
— Maria Zagorski
èME: Mom, you’re invading
my personal space.
MOM: Well, you came out
of my personal space. That
makes us even.
— @WVandertie
èOn my wedding day, my mom
told my bride, “No refunds, no
exchanges on sale items.”
—Glen Zeider
è“Be nice to your brother.
You might need one of his
kidneys one day.”
— @cocogurl86
èI told my mom I expected a boyfriend
and a new car for my birthday. She said,
“A Ken doll and a Hot Wheels. Got it.”
— @jordanmei

ReadeRsdigest.in 95
 CULTURESCAPE
Books, Arts and Entertainment

A Hell of an Actor
’’ Feted for his performance in Pataal Lok, Jaideep Ahlawat
has grabbed a long-awaited and well-deserved spotlight

by Anna M. M. Vetticad

Is it true you wanted to be an of Wasseypur]] was being praised?

Army officer?
I did. That was the environment in my
hometown in Haryana—most students
prepared for the Indian Army exams. A
bunch of my friends and I tried to get
into the Army as officers too.
How did you end up in films?
After two or three failures with the
Combined Defence Services exam, I got
messed up in my head. After gradua-
tion I didn’t do anything for a year be-
cause I was so angry with myself, and
so frustrated. I started theatre that year,
which helped. Then I joined a master’s
course in English, because being in a
university meant I could be in univer-
sity plays and inter-university contests.
After that, I applied to the Film and
Television Institute of India (FTII).
How did you feel when you realized
your role as Shahid Khan [in Gangs
(Laughs) At the time, Facebook was the
biggest social media platform, and I
used to get messages and see posts with
articles in which I was being praised. I
didn’t realize it’s a big step. I was just in
a happy zone that I had done an Anurag
Kashyap film with great actors. Then,
maybe a week or month later, I realized
people had started recognizing me on
the road. That is the moment it got real.
It felt amazing.
Before Gangs of Wasseypur,
did you feel like giving up
at any point?
Never, because this is the only thing
I like to do. I have a diploma in
education—I am eligible to teach
students under class 5—but I never
gave myself that option. Especially
because of FTII, I knew it’s a matter
of time, and it’s not like if you go
to Bombay they will serve you

96 july 2020

everything on a platter. So I was just
trying to get better projects.
Critics have been praising you for
a while, but the scale of audience
recognition for Paatal Lok has been
unprecedented. How do you think
this happened?
Not just critics—the audience also
watched Gangs of Wasseypur, Raazi,
Vishwaroopam—but when they found
me featured as the protagonist and
my performance was good, they were
pravin talan
Reader ’s Digest
WITH PAATAL LOK,
MY PERFORMANCE
REACHED MORE
PEOPLE’S HEARTS
AND MINDS.
much more favourable towards me. It’s
actually quite normal.
In Paatal Lok,, my role also had
the length of the entire series, so my
performance reached more people’s
hearts and minds.
Do you prefer today’s world with its
massive social media presence and
immediate response to Paatal Lok
or an earlier, quieter world?
Even if I prefer the earlier world,
I can’t do anything to change things.
Some people don’t have
social media accounts at all.
I am hardly on social me me-
dia. When I do go online
it’s only to talk about
my work or something
I feel strongly about.
For me, it is social
media, not my-
personal-life media. I
’’
restrict myself online
because that suits
me. I don’t post what
I’m eating or
reading. I don’t
do that.
ReadeRsdigest.in
Reade 97
 Lin-Manuel Miranda (second
from left) in Hamilton

RD RECOMMENDS

Films
Alexander Hamilton, one of the
United States’ founding fathers. The
film sheds light on Hamilton’s role as
ENGLISH: Based on the multi-award aide of George Washington during the
winning Broadway musical of the American Revolution and his work
same name, HAMILTON is a musical as the first US Secretary of the Trea-
drama film charting the life of sury in the post-war years. It is writ-
ten, produced and composed by
Poster for the supremely talented Lin-Manuel
the Charlize Miranda, who also plays the role
Theron-starrer,
of Hamilton. The film streams on
OLD GUARD
Disney+Hotstar from 3 July.
The Charlize Theron-starrer,
OLD GUARD, premieres on Netflix from
10 July. The film follows a secret group
of immortal mercenaries who have
been guarding the mortal world for
centuries. But, immortality comes
with its own burden, besides the risk
of being exposed. It falls to the group’s
leader, Andy, and its newest recruit,

98 july 2020
 Reader ’s Digest

Nile, to protect their secret from being monetized

and abused. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood,
it also features KiKi Layne and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
In what’s being considered one of the first
movies to be released in theatres in the wake
of the coronavirus crisis, the psychological
thriller UNHINGED is scheduled for release on
31 July. The film depicts a road-rage incident
that turns ugly and has severe repercussions
for a divorced, single mother who comes to
be stalked, harrowed and tormented by a
mentally unstable stranger in the aftermath
of the incident. Directed by Derrick Borte,
A still from
the film stars Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorius UNHINGED
and Gabriel Bateman.

#WATCHLIST: this timely series siblings land them

0N OUR RADAR streaming from in hot water: While
8 July on Netflix. some end up in the
past, others find
Stateless: The lives of The Umbrella Academy themselves in the
four strangers clash in Season 2: In this sea- middle of a nuclear
an immigration centre son, the time-disrup- apocalypse. Strea-
in the middle of an ting activities of the ming from 31 July
Australian desert in superpowered on Netflix.

Japan Sinks: 2020:

This animated series
sees Japan being ra-
vaged by catastrophic
earthquakes, and the
efforts of several fa-
milies to escape and
A scene survive this annihila-
from Japan tion. Streaming from
Sinks: 2020 9AJuly
still on Netflix.
from Space Force

ReadeRsdigest.in 99
Reader ’s Digest

Books
Shaheen Bagh and the Idea of India, edited by
Seema Mustafa, Speaking Tiger Books
In December 2019,
Shaheen Bagh was not
just a protest venue, in
a corner of south Delhi, Scope Out
against the Citizenship COVID-19: The
Amendment Act, it Pandemic that Never
became a symbol of Should Have Happened,
resistance for the entire and How to Stop the
nation. As the protest Next One (Hachette):
gained momentum, Debora MacKenzie
the backlash was also tells the story of how
swift and brutal. important questions: the pandemic un-
This anthology, Can the Shaheen Bagh folded, and how to
featuring ground movement undo the prevent future ones.
reports, essays and damage done to Indian
interviews of some democracy? How did The Pull of the Stars
(Pan Macmillan India):

Book covers courtesy: speaking tiger Books, hachette india (2)

of the brave women the non-violent move-
of Shaheen Bagh, by ment sustain itself? Set in 1918 Dublin,
journalists, authors, Will the movement Emma Donaghue tells
social activists and continue to inspire the story of three
scholars, is essential more such solidarities health-care workers
reading. It raises in future? who come together
in a hospital.
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
(Hachette India): Set against the The Peppermint Tea
backdrop of a psychedelic London Chronicles (Hachette):
in 1967, Utopia Avenue depicts a In Alexander McCall
band’s brief blaze of glory, before Smith’s latest book,
they embark on a journey to Stuart revives an old
America, where psychedelia was friendship, while Ber-
morphing into something more tie and his friend have
sinister, stimulated by drugs. It is an unexpected adven-
a celebration of music and a swan- ture in the circus.
song to a vibrant era on the wane.

100 july 2020

 Culturescape

Funny People
speeches during
the lockdown, to
the US ban on H-1B
Danish Sait visas. Sait’s revolving
cast of characters,

A bsurdity is what
Bengaluru-based
Danish Sait draws
His sketches
draw upon a bunch
of contemporary
developed from his
radio-jockey days, is
funny and memorable.
upon for his comedy. themes—from Though they are
The 33-year-old’s on- the Prime mostly parodies of
line videos have been Minister’s common, working-
a laughter riot—cap- class people of
turing the eccentrici- Bengaluru, they
ties, obsessions and hold true for other
frustrations of these Indian cities too,
times. Little won- capturing audiences
der then that many in Chennai, Mumbai
of Sait’s sketches or Delhi.
on Twitter and Given how
TikTok have prolific he is, and
gone viral, how popular his
winning sketches are, his
him instant phenomenal
fame and following is har-
fandom. dly surprising.

Historic milestones motion and gravita- Norfolk, England.

THROWBACK

in politics, science tion, is published in

and publishing Latin on 5 July 1867. èThe Catcher In
the Rye published:
èLaws of motion èPrincess Diana The beloved work
and gravitation born: Diana, by J. D. Salinger
courtesy: youtuBe

come to light: Isaac Princess of Wales, is published

Newton’s Principia, is born Diana as a novel by
containing his foun- Frances Spencer Little, Brown
dational laws of on 1 July 1961, in on 16 July 1951.

—COMPILED BY SAPTAK CHOUDHURY

ReadeRsdigest.in 101
Reader ’s Digest

REVIEW

A Worthy
Follow-Up
Articulate and
insightful, though not
as powerful as Nanette,
Hannah Gadsby’s
Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby
Douglas is still a
treat to watch
world now appears her show before
to be reminded of the going on to expertly
By Shougat Dasgupta iniquities of racism). deliver it nonetheless.
Gadsby’s Netflix The show is named
AUSTRALIAN comedian show was cathartic, after the rectouterine
Hannah Gadsby’s ex- eye-opening, emo- pouch, a feature of
traordinary Sydney tional—taking a flame- the female body, laid
Opera House perfor- thrower, for instance, claim to by Scottish
mance of Nanette—her to society’s reverence anatomist James Doug-
intense concoction of of Picasso as a transfor- las—a typical example,
comedy, drama, story- mative artist while Gadsby says, of patriar-
telling, art history, ignoring his history chal entitlement.
social commentary of violent misogyny. Douglas lacks the
and feminist, outsider But Nanette was not coruscating originality
anger—became an about cancel culture of Nanette, but it re-
international Netflix so much as a viscerally mains a treat to watch
hit. Articulate, intelli- expressed plea to be Gadsby, particularly
gent, insightful and heard, for the right to her excursions into
provocative, Gadsby be heard. In Douglas, art history, her mock
tapped into a post- her Netflix follow-up, despair at what great
#MeToo vein, her Gadsby is less perfor- art reveals about the
Netflix special airing matively angry, less predilections of men
just as the world ap- abrasive but also less and her very real des-
peared to be waking up interesting. Her stylish pair about who gets to
to the iniquities of the opening gambit is to make art and who gets
patriarchy (just as the set up the structure of to tell their story.

102 july 2020

 Culturescape

STUDIO

Louis Pasteur
by Albert Edelfelt
Oil on canvas,
60 X 50 inches, 1885

LOUIS PASTEUR
was among the
medical luminaries,
alongside Robert
Koch, Pierre-Paul-
Émile Roux and
Ferdinand Cohn,
who changed micro-
biology forever, with
their important con-
tributions. Not only
did Pasteur’s findings
lend overwhelming
support to the germ
theory of disease, there and set up the delicate use of light co-
he also discovered scene with Pasteur’s ming through from an
pasteurization, a consent)—his labora- unseen window—with
technique to treat tory in the rue d’Ulm, a touch of the tech-
bacterial contami- Paris, amidst his nique of chiaroscuro—
nation in milk and equipment. realistically highlights
wine, and the first It captures a signifi- Pasteur’s grace, poise
vaccine for rabies. cant moment—the and thoughtful expres-
In the lifelike por- scientist holding a jar sion, while conducting
trait of Pasteur, the containing the nerve this experiment.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Finnish artist Albert tissue of a rabbit in- The popular portrait

Edelfelt pictures the fected with rabies, is currently housed in
scientist in his natural which he would use the Musée d'Orsay
habitat (Edelfelt to develop and test the museum in Paris.
himself was present rabies vaccine. The —BY SAPTAK CHOUDHURY

ReadeRsdigest.in 103
 ME & MY SHELF

Manjula Padmanabhan is an
author, playwright, artist and
cartoonist. She won the 1997
Onassis Award for Theatre, in
Greece, for her play Harvest. Her
comic strip Sukiyaki appears in
Chennai’s BusinessLine. Her books
include The Island of Lost Girls and
two collections of plays, Blood And
Laughter and Laughter And Blood.

Alice’s Adventures animals. This visual device heightens

in Wonderland and
Through the Looking Glass
BY LEWIS CARROLL, Penguin Classics, `250
These two small books contain a vast
universe of ideas—about a child’s limit-
less imagination of finding friends and
battling fears. About the games that rule
all our lives, the mirrors that distort
reality and the delights of fantasy.
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale
BY ART SPIEGELMAN,
the pathos and suspense, whilst also
providing a soft, self-deprecating hu-
mour: The Jews are mice, for instance,
while the Nazis are cats.
The Gormenghast Trilogy
BY MERVYN PEAKE, Vintage Classics,
`1,099 The name Gormenghast belongs
to a vast, stony castle. The trilogy, begin-
ning with the birth of Titus Groan, the
77th Earl of Gormenghast, follows Groan,
the castle’s rituals and its unforgettable
photo: Manjula padManabhan

Penguin UK, `999 denizens. The language has a mind-al-

A searing representa- tering quality, with elements of humour
tion, told through and horror, sweetness and tragedy.
drawings, of Jews living
through the horror- The Sea of Fertility
years of Nazi Germany. BY YUKIO MISHIMA, Penguin Modern
Most of the characters Classics, `17,365 The four novels in this
are represented as tetralogy combine extreme beauty with

104 july 2020


exquisite pain through the life of its pro-
tagonist, Shigekuni Honda. He follows
a thread of love that spans four different
lives, in successive reincarnations. It is
a breathtaking exploration of human
longing, desire and loss.
Gödel, Escher, Bach:
An Eternal Golden Braid
BY DOUGLAS HOFSTADTER, Basic Books,
`999 It has been described as a gymna-
sium for the intellect—and it is! The
author dissects human intelligence
with dazzling wordplay, puzzles of
logic and mathematical riddles.
The Night
Circus
BY ERIN
MORGENSTERN,
Vintage, `399
A magical tale, set in
the US and Europe,
about two powerful
sorcerers and their battle for supre-
macy. The story spans several decades,
starting in the early 20th century, skip-
ping back and forth in time. It is centred
on the circus—a thrilling, dream-
inspiring confection.
The Alexandria Quartet
BY LAWRENCE DURRELL, Faber, `1,876
This story weaves through the lives of a
dozen characters, in Egypt just before
and after World War II. The book is as
much about the philosophical confron-
tation between the East and the West
as it is about love, power and betrayal.
Book prices are subject to change.
Reader ’s Digest
Cuckold
BY KIRAN NAGARKAR,
HarperCollins Publishers,
`599 Set in 16th-century
Mewar, the story follows the
life of Maharaj Kumar. He is
based on a historical char-
acter, Bhoj Raj, but he speaks to us
in the familiar voice of a modern man.
He is warm and charming, but his wife
is the legendary Meerabai, in love
forever with Lord Krishna. A story
of impossible, immortal love.
The Watchmen
BY ALAN MOORE AND DAVID GIBBONS,
DC Comics, `1,199 It’s a novel, told via
comic-book imagery, about a group of
retired superheroes. When one of the
group’s members is mysteriously mur-
dered, another member, Rorschach,
attempts to expose what he believes is
a monstrous government conspiracy.
Densely plotted, with multilayered
storylines, it is as clever as it is prophetic:
[spoiler alert] New York is almost des-
troyed in a monstrous attack.
The Magus
BY JOHN FOWLES, Vintage Classics, `499
The novel unfolds like a beautiful,
maddening puzzle. Nicholas Urfe,
a young Englishman, visits the Greek
island of Phraxos and becomes
enmeshed in an elaborate psycho-
logical game of truth and deception,
love and death. It is intense, surreal
and deeply disturbing.
—COMPILED BY SAPTAK CHOUDHURY
ReadeRsdigest.in 105
 THE
GENIUS
SECTION
11 Pages to sharpen
Your Mind

SURFING for
BRAINPOWER
How to avoid being clickbaited by your own brain

By Daniel T. Willingham
AdApted from THE NEW YORK TIMES

106 july 2020 Photograph by Joleen Zubek


Y
ou can learn anything on the
internet, so why do I so often
learn things I don’t want to
know? When I’m surfing the web, I
want to be drawn in by articles on
Europe’s political history or the
nature of quasars, but I end up
reading trivia such as a menu
from Alcatraz prison. Why am
I not curious about the things
I want to be curious about?
Curiosity feels as if it’s
outside your control, and
trying to direct it sounds as ill-
conceived as forcing yourself
to find a joke funny. But if
you understand what prompts
curiosity, you may be able to
channel it a little better.
Across evolutionary time, cu-
rious animals were more likely to
Reader ’s Digest
survive because they learnt about their
environments; a forager that occa-
sionally skipped a reliable feeding
ground to explore might find an even
better place to eat.
Humans, too, will forgo a known
pay-off to investigate the unknown.
In one experiment, subjects were
asked to choose one of four photos,
each carrying some chance of paying
a cash prize. Photos repeated, so sub-
jects learnt to pick the best-paying, but
when a novel photo popped up, they
chose it more often than the odds
dictated they should. This preference
for novelty is, of course, the reason
manufacturers periodically tweak
product packaging and advertising.
But it’s good to know about your
environment even if it doesn’t pro-
mise a reward right now; knowledge
may be useless today but vital next
week. Therefore, evolution has left
us with a brain that can reward itself;
satisfying curiosity feels pleasurable,
so you explore the environment even
when you don’t expect any concrete
pay-off. Infants prefer to look at novel
pictures compared with familiar
ones. Preschoolers play longer with a
mechanical toy if it’s difficult to
deduce how it works.
What’s more, curiosity doesn’t
just ensure new opportunities for
learning; it enhances learning itself.
In a recent experiment, subjects
read trivia questions and rated how
curious each made them feel. Later,
they saw the questions again, each
ReadeRsdigest.in 107
Reader ’s Digest
I WANT TO BE DRAWN
IN BY ARTICLES ON THE
NATURE OF QUASARS,
BUT I END UP READING A
MENU FROM ALCATRAZ.
followed by a photograph of a face,
and judged whether that person
looked as if he or she would know the
answer. In a surprise final memory
test for the faces, subjects better
remembered those appearing after
trivia questions that made them
curious. Curiosity causes a brain
state that amplifies learning.
This function of curiosity—to
heighten memory—is the key to
understanding why we’re curious
about some things and not others.
We feel most curious when explo-
ration will yield the most learning.
Suppose I ask you, “What’s the
most common type of star in the
Milky Way?” You’ll obviously feel no
curiosity if you already know the an-
swer. But you’ll also feel little interest
if you know nothing about stars; if you
learnt the answer, you couldn’t con-
nect it to other knowledge, so it would
seem nearly meaningless, an isolated
108 july 2020
factoid. We’re maximally curious
when we sense that the environment
offers new information in the right
proportion to complement what we
already know.
Note that your brain calculates
what you might learn in the short
term—your long-term interests aren’t
a factor. That’s why a cardiac surgeon
who is passionate about her job will
nevertheless find a conference pre-
sentation on the subject boring if her
brain decides that the talk won’t add
to her knowledge. Conversely, when
her friend persuades her to watch a
tawatchai Prakobkit/getty images
documentary on type fonts, her brain
may calculate that this will be a rich
source of information—and she finds
herself fascinated.
It’s that disconnect between long-
and short-term interests that makes
frothy internet articles so frustrating.
The feeling of curiosity promised you’d
learn something and, admittedly, you
 The Genius Section

did—now you know French citizens’
favourite macaron flavour—but you’re
disappointed because your new know-
ledge doesn’t contribute to your long-
term interests. You’ve been clickbaited
by your own brain.
If following curiosity results in
disappointment, maybe it shouldn’t
be allowed to take the lead. Why not
just search for topics you truly want
to learn about? That sounds logical,
but a search for ‘quasars’ will yield
thousands of hits and no way of
knowing which offers the just-right
match to your current knowledge that
will maintain your curiosity. You’ll
probably end up like the surgeon at
the boring conference talk.
If you wish for more serious rea-
ding when you surf the Web, the op-
portunistic approach is actually fine.
You just need to frequent better
foraging grounds.
Many websites that snare your time
feature scores of stories on the front
page, banking that one will strike each
reader’s sweet spot of knowledge.
So visit websites that use the same
strategy but offer richer content: for
example, JSTOR Daily, Arts & Letters
Daily and ScienceDaily.
And pay more attention to by-
lines. Curiosity arises from the right
balance of the familiar and the novel.
Naturally, writers vary in what they
assume their audience already knows
and wants to know; when you find an
author who tends to have your num-
ber, stick with her.
Albert Einstein famously advised
a young student to “never lose a holy
curiosity.” Given our evolutionary
history, there’s little danger any of
us will. The challenge is changing its
focus from the momentary to some-
thing more enduring.
The New York Times (18 october 2019), coPyright
©New York Times, nytimes.com.

Deep Thoughts from the Readers of Reddit.com

Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone was absolutely useless
until he made his second one.
greencaPtain
When I was a kid, my parents taught me to not believe
everything I saw on TV. Now I have to teach them to not believe
everything they see on Facebook.
snicksound

Humans are really bad at recharging; it takes them about

8 hours to charge for 16 hours of use.
tallerken

ReadeRsdigest.in 109
 BRAINTEASERS

Path Puzzle
Difficult Draw a path that 2
leads from one of the maze’s
openings to the other. As the 3
path winds from one cell to
the next, it can move up, 4
down, left or right but not
diagonally. It cannot pass
through any cell more than
once. A black number tells
you how many cells the
path passes through in
the corresponding row 5

(PATH PUZZLE) RODERICK KIMBALL; (GO FORTH, SUBTRACT AND MULTIPLY) DARREN RIGBY
or column. A red number
indicates the total number
of cells the path passes 5
through in the corresponding
row and column. Can you
trace the path?
6 3 4

14 Go Forth, Subtract and Multiply

Moderately difficult Fill the whole
numbers from 1 to 9 into the cells, using
4 each number once. If the three numbers
in any given row, from left to right, and the
three numbers in any column, from top to
25 bottom, are A, B and C, then the number
provided for that row or column is equal to
45 20 25 (A − B) × C.

110 july 2020

 reader’s digest

Dominoes
Easy A standard double-six set of 28 dominoes has been arranged into the rectangle
on the right. Can you draw in the lines to show the placement of the dominoes?
We’ve shown each one on the left so you can cross them off as you find them.

True Blue
Moderately difficult Noah, Esmé,
Shubham and Olivia are wearing solid-
colour shirts. The colours of their four
shirts are red, yellow, green and blue. Only
(DOMINOES; TRUE BLUE) FRASER SIMPSON

the person in the blue shirt tells the truth,

while the other three people lie. They make
the following statements:
Noah: “Shubham is wearing a red shirt.”
Esmé: “Noah is not wearing a yellow shirt.” Can you determine each person’s
Shubham: “Esmé is wearing a blue shirt.” shirt colour, and whether or not we
Olivia: “I’m going to wear a blue shirt can expect to see Olivia in a blue
tomorrow.” shirt tomorrow?

For answers, turn to PAGE 112

ReadeRsdigest.in 111
reader’s digest

BRAINTEASERS
ANSWERS JIGSAW SUDOKU

FROM PAGES 110 & 111 by Jeff Widderich

Path Puzzle
2
3
4 3 4 7 8 9
5
9 8 3
5
4 8 9
6 3 4

Go Forth, Subtract
and Multiply 6 1 8
8 6 7 14
3 1 2 4
1 4
9 4 5 25 7 6 2 5 4
45 20 25
6
Dominoes
To Solve This Puzzle

Put a number from 1 to 9 in

each empty square so that:

F every horizontal row and SOLUTION

vertical column contains all 5 2 7 9 6 1 3 4 8
nine numbers (1-9) without 1 8 9 4 5 2 6 7 3
repeating any of them; 7 4 3 6 8 5 9 2 1
True Blue 8 5 4 1 7 9 2 3 6
Esmé is wearing red, Noah F each outlined, irregularly
6 1 2 3 9 4 8 5 7
is in yellow, Shubham is in shaped zone has all nine
9 7 6 2 3 8 5 1 4

green and Olivia is in blue.

3 6 1 5 2 7 4 8 9
numbers, none repeated. 9 8 7 4 3 1 6
Olivia will wear a blue shirt
2 5
4 3 5 8 1 6 7 9 2
again tomorrow.

112 july 2020

 The Genius Section

9. unorthodox adj.
WORD POWER (un-’or-thoh-doks)
A not conventional.
B Eastern.
C beneath the surface.
At first glance, this month’s words might
10. welkin n.
not seem like birds of a feather. But each
(‘wel-kin)
has an animal name (or two!) nested A fleece vest.
inside, the way ‘menagerie’ contains B sky.
C accordion.
‘nag’. So make a beeline to the quiz,
try to spot the critters, then vamoose 11. epigram n.
to the next page for all the answers. (‘eh-pee-gram)
A long farewell.
B witty saying.
C ghostly presence.
By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
12. malevolent adj.
1. dogma n. 5. forbear v. (muh-’leh-vuh-lent)
(‘dog-mah) (for-’bair) A masculine.
A false belief. A hold back. B spiteful.
B perseverance. B go before. C good-hearted.
C established opinion. C carry off.
13. papeterie n.
2. cataract n. 6. simoleon n. (‘pap-eh-tree)
(‘cat-uh-rakt) (sih-’moh-lee-on) A poetic meter.
A waterfall. A lookalike. B letter jumble.
B tomb. B dollar. C fancy stationery.
C eyeshade. C coincidence.
3. toponym n. 7. execrable adj. 14. demur v.
(‘taw-puh-nim) (‘ek-sih-krih-bull) (dih-’mer)
A misprint. A discarded. A shy away from.
B place name. B immortal. B take exception.
C opposite. C horrible. C strongly imply.

4. escrow n. 8. camellia n. 15. clamour v.

(‘eh-skroh) (kuh-’mee-lee-yuh) (‘klam-er)
A money held in trust. A flowering shrub. A shine brightly.
B gross exaggeration. B horned lizard. B demand loudly.
C eviction notice. C love song. C leave speechless.

ReadeRsdigest.in 113
Reader ’s Digest

The Canine Islands

You might think the Canary Islands were named for canaries—after
all, the yellow finches are indigenous to the Spanish archipelago.
But ‘Canary’ here actually refers to another animal: the dog. In
Spanish, the islands are called Islas Canarias, derived from the
Latin word for dog, a moniker bestowed by ancient explorers
who reported seeing large canines there. The native songbirds
were named, in essence, after dogs!

Word Power 6. simoleon (b) dollar. 12. malevolent (b)

ANSWERS
1. dogma (c) established
opinion. Galileo’s ideas
challenged the religious
and scientific dogmas
of the time.
2. cataract (a) waterfall.
“Canoeing over that
cataract would be very
unwise,” warned the
park ranger.
3. toponym (b) place
name. “Half the topo-
nyms on this map are
unpronounceable,”
Farzana grumbled.
4. escrow (a) money held
in trust. “I’m afraid there’s
not enough in escrow
to cover the taxes,” said
the lawyer.
Ravi was down to his
last simoleon when
spiteful. Cinderella
wondered why her
Lady Luck arrived. stepsisters looked
so malevolent.
7. execrable (c)
horrible. We had 13. papeterie (c)
execrable weather fancy stationery. Soniya
last week: five rainy sent her wedding guests
days in a row! handwritten thank-you
notes on beautiful
8. camellia (a) papeterie.
flowering shrub. Many
people don’t realize 14. demur (b) take
that tea is made from exception. You say
camellia leaves. there’s no chance
of winning this game—
9. unorthodox (a) well, I demur!
Fernando Trabanco FoTograFía/geTTy Images
not conventional. Kari’s
unorthodox approach to 15. clamour (b)
investing paid off when demand loudly. The
she retired early. protesters clamoured for
the jailed activist to be
10. welkin (b) sky. released immediately.
A faint rainbow stretched
across the welkin.

5. forbear (a) hold back. 11. epigram (b) witty Vocabulary Ratings
If you’re offering my saying. The poet Dorothy 9 & below: moderate
favourite cookies, how Parker was known for her 10–12: swanky
can I forbear? biting epigrams. 13–15: shrewd

114 july 2020

 The Genius Section

10. The record for the

QUIZ fastest non-tornado wind
gust was set during tro-
pical cyclone Olivia in
by Samantha Rideout which country?

1. Swahili, one of the most
widely-spoken languages
in Central and East Africa,
is the official language of
which country?
2. Now very rare, thanks
to vaccines, what infec-
tious disease is the reason
why Spain remembers
1613 as ‘the year of the
strangulations’?
3. Before humans risked
flying in a hot-air balloon
themselves, they sent up
which three animals?
4. Late blight, the plant
disease that caused
Ireland’s Great Famine,
no longer threatens potato
crops. True or false?
ANDERS HELLBERG/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
6. What actor topped
the 2019 Forbes list of
the most influential
Chinese celebrities?
7. In what resort can one
race in a Star Wars-themed
half-marathon?
8. Who wrote the follo-
wing? “Is there meaning
to music? ... Yes. And
can you state in so many
words what the meaning
is? ... No.”
9. How old was Greta
Thunberg when she first
became an activist?
11. In 2019, Italian artist
Maurizio Cattelan taped
what item of fruit to a wall
and sold it for US$1,20,000
(₹90,63,480)?
12. What kills more
people worldwide:
road accidents or homi-
cide (including war and
capital punishment)?
13. The person who was
born Princess Anne-Marie
of Denmark would now be
the queen of which country
had it not abolished its
monarchy in 1973?
14. What sport, invented
in Amsterdam in 1901,
requires four men and four
women on each team?

5. Acclaimed humorist, 15. The ancient Egyptian

Sir P. G. Wodehouse, god Khepri was portrayed
was a big fan of which as what insect, or some-
sport in the early days times, as a man with that
of his career? insect for a head?
blame for around one in 40 human deaths. 13. Greece. 14. Korfball. 15. A scarab beetle.
Aaron Copland. 9. 15 years old. 10. Australia. 11. A banana. 12. Road accidents, which are to
4. False. 5. Cricket. 6. Actor Wu Jing, star of The Wandering Earth. 7. Disney World. 8. The composer
Answers: 1. Tanzania. 2. Diphtheria. 3. A sheep, a rooster and a duck. They landed safely.

ReadeRsdigest.in 115
Reader ’s Digest

QUOTABLE QUOTES

I want to tell [girls] that they have the right to feel beautiful
in spite of what society thinks of them.
Laxmi Agarwal, acid-attack survivor and activist

Two armies at death-grips—that is one great army

committing suicide.
Henri Barbusse, novelist

Horror is the removal of masks.

alamy
Robert Bloch, author

Laxmi Agarwal Henri Barbusse Robert Bloch

Doubtful about training?

In brand building, train and
gain.
JAGDEEP KAPOOR, brand guru
Call or WhatsApp on 8291100591 • enquiry@samsika.com • www.samsika.com
Copyright © 1995. Jagdeep Kapoor