Intriguing Life Experiences
While casually scrolling streaming platforms, the web series ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ caught my attention. I was one of those religiously downing a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of warm water first thing every morning. Although little scientific evidence supports its extravagant health claims, the concoction has become a full-scale fad – the ‘magic potion’ often peddled by social media wellness gurus.
Continue reading “Beware of social media’s wellness minefield”
The evolving ‘Mrs’: Women across different generations
Sometime back, I watched a much-talked-about Hindi film ‘Mrs’. It’s a poignant story of a bubbly young woman Richa who marries into an educated family of doctors, only to find herself trapped in the relentless drudgery of domestic chores. She learns to cook elaborate meals to meet her husband’s and his family’s expectations, but she quickly loses all her enthusiasm as her labour goes unnoticed and her efforts remain unappreciated. Richa is a talented dancer who yearns to venture out and work, but she is constantly dissuaded. Instead, she’s urged to follow in the footsteps of her doctorate mother-in-law, who gave up her own career to raise her children decades ago. The starry-eyed bride slowly transforms into a shell of her former self when she realizes that no one cares for her life or her dreams.
An extraordinary scene was orchestrated in the White House. Lights in the Oval Office were dimmed to show video clippings of purported genocide against whites to South African President Ramaphosa. Right in front of the television cameras, unfounded accusations were hurled at the visiting dignitary. The shameful spectacle was reminiscent of Ukrainian President Zelensky’s February visit, when he was humiliated in a similar fashion in the full glare of TV cameras.
There is a bombardment of all kinds of forwarded messages on WhatsApp—fake and real. While many forwards may be dismissed as downright silly, there are some that leave a deep impact on you. While meandering around a plethora of WhatsApp messages, I came across a post that haunted me: “War is where young people who don’t know each other and don’t hate each other but kill each other, by the decision of old people who know each other and hate each other but don’t kill each other.”
Thanks to predictive and auto-correct features in smart phones, texting is much easier and faster. While the former assists by suggesting words that you may intend typing, the latter takes command in its own hand to automatically correct a supposed typing error. However, auto- correct doesn’t always work as intended. There are goofups when phone’s software decides to change a normal text into something very different .You may get ‘corrections’ that are incorrect. While some autocorrect blunders, like changing ‘desert’ into ‘dessert’ can be amusing, others, such as turning ‘meeting’ into ‘mating’ and substituting ‘therapist’ with ‘the rapist’ are appalling.
