Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Reader 27 S Digest India
Reader 27 S Digest India
TRAVEL
Horse-Riding
LIVE
LIFE
In Patagonia
PAGE 90
Features
40
cover story
HOW TO LIVE
LIFE MORE FULLY
Happiness experts and
palliative-care doctors
share their strategies.
by lisa fields
52 68 86
health drama in real life words of lasting interest
When Music Into the Flames The Memories Remain
is Medicine There was little heroic A revered storyteller reflects
This therapy is fast about Nick Bostic’s life. on how the power to
gaining credibility as He was troubled. Then remember builds, shapes,
it shows real results. everything changed. and rescues who we are.
by anicka quin by nicholas hune-brown by ruskin bond
60 78 90
my story environment travel
A Life in Books Hunting with Dolphins A Wild Ride
In this father’s day How environmental in Patagonia
tribute, a daughter neglect endangers My unforgettable horse-
discovers how stories more than just our non- back trip in Argentina put
created her world. human neighbours. me on top of the world.
by farah naaz by arati kumar-rao by liz beatty
cover illustration: Jeff Kulak
(THIS PAGE) PHOTO COURTESY OF LIZ BEATTY
readersdigest.in 3
Reader ’s Digest
22
it happens health
Departments only in india 26 Good Vibes
66 Runaway Groom, Grow on Trees
10 Over to You the Sink and the by lauren david
Drain, and Musk
a world of good home
Men Unite
13 Have Chair, by naorem anuja 30 At the Heart of
Will Travel Every Home
quotable quotes by kohelika kohli
everyday heroes
105 Siddhartha
14 Made in Afghanistan 13 things
by diane peters Mukherjee,
Twinkle Khanna, 34 A Bouquet of
smile Anand Mahindra Facts about
(top) illustration by chelsea charles
16 Good News About and More Flowers
by samantha rideout
Housework
by richard glover trusted friend
news from the
116 Lost and Found world of medicine
good news by Deshi Deng 38 A Blood Test
18 Fighting Mosquito- for Alzheimer’s,
Borne Diseases, Better Living Skip Surgery for
Bringing Trees Back life lessons Breast Cancer,
to Life, a Community 22 To Do or Reverse Sleep
Rescue and More Not To Do Apnoea and More
by patricia karounos by christina palassio by samantha rideout
4 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
102
Humour
12
Humour in Uniform
20
All in a Day’s Work
37
As Kids See it
50
Life’s Like That
98
book review:
Culturescape the light at the Laughter,
The Best Medicine
end of the world
rd recommends
108 Breaking
102 Films, Watchlist, New Ground
and Books by aditya mani jha
studio
110 Brain Teasers
106 Amit Pasricha’s
112 Sudoku
the Broken
113 Word Power
Chola Temple 115 Trivia
by priya pathiyan
(top) indiapicture; (box) thumb/getty images
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6 june 2023
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8 june 2023
Day—a ffittingg tribute
OVER TO to all mothers. While
YOU
all children may not
achieve the success of
Notes on the Goodall and Bennett,
April issue all the mothers share
something in com-
mon—wanting their
children to achieve
THE SWEET USES OF SOLITUDE the best in their lives!
The essay reminded me of Blaise Pascal’s quote: Arvind Arya, Mumbai
“All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit
quietly in a room alone”. We wake up every morning The Night the
to the chaos of news on our devices; we have turned Stars Fell
into experts at creating and seeking out noise. But I am the same age
there is one person with whom you should seek as Mr Gordon’s son,
solitude and that is you! Solitude allows the mind to and therefore the
stay energetic and fresh—this is the very purpose of story took me back
meditation, as the sages have taught us. Solitude isn’t to my own childhood.
loneliness. It is a short, yet essential break from our But the childhood of
everyday lives. Let us not miss out on that sweetness. yore is a distant past.
Laxman G., Mysore Technology has so
Laxman G gets this month’s ‘Write & Win’ prize of `1,000. —EDs overwhelmingly taken
over our lives that the
Wise Animals I have Known pleasure of enjoying
Alan Davoe’s story brought back memories of our the wonders of nature
beloved Kuppamma (meaning ‘one from the dust- is lost on us. But, it is
bin’), the loveable stray dog who would hang around also true that it is now
our home. He saved my three-year-old from a possi- difficult to look at the
ble snakebite by relentlessly barking at a krait trying starlit sky as the bright
to slither in through a window. He would resist city lights have made
empty gas cylinders being taken out from the house it redundant! Where
and prevent waylaid garments from being pilfered. are the ponds or riv-
By the end he was part of the family. ers, where one could
K. V. Dharmarajan, Pune jump in for a swim,
or the flora and fauna,
Personal Glimpses amongst which one
I ended up reading the heartwarming stories of Jane can lose oneself in
Goodall and Tony Bennett on the eve of Mother’s the beauty of nature?
10 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
readersdigest.in 11
Hum
mour in
UNIFORM
World of
GOOD
Reasons to Smile
F
or 33-year-old American travel blogger Cory Lee, it used to be easier to
explore Antarctica than some of the nearby parks and beaches in his home
state of Georgia. Using a wheelchair once meant that rugged hiking trails
were off-limits, but that’s no longer the case. All-terrain power wheelchairs are
now available at state parks in Georgia, as well as in Colorado and Michigan.
The wheels and treads on each Action Trackchair allow people with mobility
issues to traverse rocky trails, sandy beaches and uneven terrain. They’re even
powerful enough to make steep uphill climbs. As Lee told CNN, “It’ll open up a
whole new world for me and for other wheelchair users.”
COURTESY OF CURB FREE WITH CORY LEE
readersdigest.in 13
EVERYDAY HEROES
O
N A JULY day in 2021, Nasrat
Made in Khalid was on the phone to his
native Afghanistan when he got
Afghanistan some awful news: “This whole city has
turned into a refugee camp,” Kabul-
based Mohammed Nasir told him.
Nasrat Khalid turned Nasir is the chief of operations for
Khalid’s company, Aseel, which posi-
his artisan website into tions itself as the Etsy of Afghanistan. It
a grassroots disaster- allows artisans making things like blan-
kets and jewellery to sell their products
relief organization around the world via its app and web-
site. Artisans may also receive training
mostafa bassim
14
4 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
from Afghanistan and city after city fell packages helped me survive the
to the Taliban. His Afghan-based team worst days of my life,” she told Reader’s
struggled to ship products to buyers, Digest through a translator.
while local artisans saw their incomes Before she and her sister received
dry up. Plus, many of them were fleeing Aseel’s packages, they had been going
the increasingly dangerous provinces. without enough food in order to pro-
Khalid knew he had to help his peo- vide for their kids and send them to
ple. He used some of the company’s school. “I remember the first day I
savings to buy food, and Nasir delivered received a food package. My kids played
it to a refugee camp in Kabul. Hungry music and danced for the whole day.”
people attacked the truck, tearing Nasir’s Fatima joined an Aseel apprenticeship
clothes in their desperation. program; after she completes it, she
It was clear that they needed to take will be able to find employment with
a more systematic approach. Every aid a local handicraft company.
recipient got an identification number, In November 2022, the Society for
and Aseel’s tech infrastructure tracked International Development gave Khalid
every drop-off. “We created a whole a leadership and innovation award.
new distribution system,” says Khalid. Jason Criss Howk, director of the US
An emergency-response page was advocacy group Global Friends of
added to the company’s website, allow- Afghanistan, lauds what Khalid has
ing donors to give money or buy emer- done with both the charitable func-
gency packages of food or supplies. tions of Aseel and its for-profit arm.
They can even select a specific recipi- “Aseel has become a vital tool to get
ent, so that expat Afghans can send directed aid to certain places in the
money and aid to family members. country,” he says. “They buy and dis-
Later, Khalid created a GoFundMe- tribute locally, which is sparking the
style page on Aseel’s website that allows economy.” He thinks Khalid could help
people to run fundraising campaigns people in other nations, too, while
for, say, giving food to people in a par- keeping overhead low—something
ticular province or funding a vocational large aid organizations struggle to do.
program for girls. As of early 2023, Aseel Next, Khalid would like to work more
had raised more than US$7,50,000 in Turkey’s Afghan refugee camps, and
[`6.2 crores] from donors and helped he has plans for further expansion and
some half a million people, in part collaborations with aid groups.
through a partnership with the “When Afghanistan collapsed,
US-based Women for Afghan Women. initially I felt very powerless,” says
Recipients include Fatima, a single Khalid. “When my country went
mother in Kabul who lives with 12 peo- through this disaster, Aseel became a
ple in a one-room house. “Aseel’s food lifeline to people in need.”
readersdigest.in 15
SMILE
ABOUT
cover often leaves me entirely sub-
merged in the thing, my hands holding
its corners inside the cover, wondering
HOUSEWORK
what to do next. I’m pretty sure the
widespread belief in ghosts stems
from people becoming permanently
entangled in their duvet covers.
By Richard Glover Stacking the dishwasher is worse,
with a hundred possible solutions
a 2021 study from Singapore found to the problem of fitting everything
that people who do housework are in, only one of which is judged as
fitter than those who don’t. Tackling correct by other household members.
‘high intensity’ tasks such as cleaning Has a dishwasher ever been stacked
windows helps improve physical without someone saying: “Not that way,
health and mental faculties, especially you’ve got it all wrong!”?
among the elderly. The bathroom leads to more disputes.
It’s my belief that every time you have a plete was the coverage of motorcycle
shower, the shower has a shower and is parts, pizza boxes and general filth.
therefore self-cleaning. But my wife, I remember the moment someone
Jocasta, believes the shower recess moved a pizza box and exclaimed: “Hey,
needs to be cleaned separately, a task I there’s a carpet under here!” Nature
achieve by stripping naked and attac- abhors a vacuum and so did these
king it on my knees with a scrubbing young men. Was it a coincidence that
brush, my backside waggling from side they were all out of shape? I think not.
to side as I work away at the grime. The bathroom was worse. Every time
Jocasta enjoys the sparkling results I hazarded a visit, I remember optimi-
but remains uncertain about whether stically wondering if ‘Putrid Black’ was
it’s worth the flashbacks. Apparently, just another colour in the range
there are some things that, once seen, of bathroom fittings.
cannot be unseen. I hope my housemates eventually
As for cleaning windows, it’s impos- realized one of life’s great truths:
sible to achieve a good result. I work Romantic partners find people who
hard at it, spraying on the fluid and perform their share of the housework
scrubbing the glass with a crumpled more arousing. Jocasta’s erogenous
sheet of newsprint. Everything looks zones, I’ve learned, include the kitchen
spotless until the sun hits the windows floor, the bathroom and the lint filter
the next morning, upon which they in the clothes dryer.
resemble a Jackson Pollock painting. What other housework can we throw
I then wash them again, which only ourselves into and make ourselves fitter
moves the swirls from one place to at the same time? I have found that
another. Maybe I’m using the wrong organizing the Tupperware drawer is a
section of the newspaper. good start, as it tends to involve a lot of
Next in my housework/workout crouching, standing and then crouc-
regimen, I sweep up, which creates hing again. There’s also the moral and
a pile of dog hair so unfeasibly large intellectual tussle of whether to throw
that I wonder if there’s anything left of out the lids that have no bottoms and
the dog. Maybe I could sell his hair the bottoms that have no lids, or wait
for wigs and turn a profit. to see if missing parts turn up.
The late British writer and eccentric And by never having the lawn mower
Quentin Crisp famously claimed that if serviced, I have cleverly created a system
you don’t do housework, dirt will stop in which starting it involves two hours of
accumulating after four years. I don’t sweat-inducing cord-pulling.
know if this is entirely true. I have mem- That’s the thing about housework. As
ories of student houses in which the the Singaporeans discovered, you’ve got
type of flooring was uncertain, so com- to use your body and d your brains.
readersdigest.in 17
GOOD NEWS
from around the world
BY Patricia Karounos
Children in Campo
Grande, Brazil, participate
in a school programme
to reduce disease.
18 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
WILDLIFE Linda Groocock was out run- INNOVATION Project Lifesaver, founded
ning errands in Digby, Nova Scotia, last in the US state of Virginia in 1999, is a
November when she spotted an unusual non-profit organization that helps find
sight off the coast: 16 Atlantic white- wandering individuals, such as those
sided dolphins had become beached. with dementia or other cognitive con-
Figuring they didn’t have a lot of time— ditions. Participants wear frequency-
dolphins can survive out of water for only emitting wristbands—a technology
about six hours—Groocock quickly got often more reliable than GPS.
in touch with the Halifax-based Marine Earlier this year, the program made
Animal Response Society (MARS), as its 4,000th rescue, quickly finding a
well as some friends who individually seven-year-old boy with autism who
contacted the local fisheries depart- had wandered away from his Indiana
ment and posted about the dolphins home during the winter.
on a community Facebook page. Today, there are more than 1,700 Proj-
MARS personnel were too far away to ect Lifesaver–certified agencies in the
get to the dolphins in time, so they US and Canada that can locate wander-
enlisted Digby’s volunteer fire depart- ers in an average of 30 minutes.
ment to help coordinate the response.
Soon, about 40 locals who had seen the Bringing a Nation’s
news online arrived on the scene and Trees Back to Life
waded into the mud flats. Then they
carefully moved the dolphins to tarps ENVIRONMENT Although Iraq was once
or sleds and gently hauled them back the world’s leading producer of dates,
to the water. It wasn’t long before each years of war and drought resulted in
dolphin was safely back in the sea, the destruction of half of the country’s
swimming with its podmates. roughly 30 million date-palm trees.
Labeeb Kashif Al-Gitta, co-founder
of agri-tech company Nakhla, is work- k
ing to revive the iconic tree. For an
ross edmond/getty images
readersdigest.in 19
All
in a Day’s
WORK
My wife was teaching
our four-year-old the
importance of earning
money by paying him
to perform chores
around the house.
The first week, when
he was finished, she
gave him a crisp $1 bill. “Toilet or Tap?”
The following week,
she presented him with and I was surprised that Ê Have you ever seen
another dollar bill, but the apartment was a ghost?
he pushed it away. super nice but also Ê Do you think
“No, thanks,” he said. relatively normal. Then I’m ugly?
“I already have one we found out it was Ê If you were starving
of those.” the dog’s apartment. to death on a desert
—Phillip Brown — @melissapetro island, would you eat
a human being?
For no reason, I just “Uhm … How am I Ê How would you hide
thought of the time a supposed to answer a dead body?
guy I was dating got that?” These are actual — coburgbanks.co.uk
hired to dog-sit for a interview questions
well-known filmmaker. meant to stump: “I like work. It fasci-
My then-BF took me Ê Why is it OK to eat nates me. I can sit and
VAUGHAN TOMLINSON
along with him once, chicken, but not cat? look at it for hourss.”
—Jerome K. Jerom m e,
author, from Three
Men in a Boat
“Sculpture is something you bump into
when you back up to look at a painting.” My 86-year-old fatther
—
—adolph “ad ” Reinhardt, painter was trudging up thhe
20 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
would have been com- —Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life Not a Memoir
pleted two years earlier.”
—Joseph J. Rotman, “What can I say about “This book is dedicated
An Introduction to a man who knows how to my father, Joseph Hill
Algebraic Topology I think and still sleeps Evans, with love. Actually,
E
next to me with the Dad doesn’t read fiction,
D
lights off?” sso if someone doesn’t
—Gillian Flynn, ttell him about this, he’ll
Dark Places never know.”
n
—Tad Williams,
—
Otherland, Vol. I
O
readersdigest.in 21
Reader ’s Digest
22 june 2023
BETTER LIVING
Wellness for Body & Mind
To Do or
Not To Do
Why we procrastinate and how to stop
BY Christina Palassio
ILLUSTRATION BY Chelsea Charles
TRACE MacKAY PUTS the pro in procras- “I’ll do just about anything to procras-
tination. As a pre-teen, she entered a tinate. I’ll play sudoku on my phone. I’ll
speaking competition and only started strike up a conversation with some-
writing her speech the night before. In body,” says MacKay. “Especially right
veterinary school, she pulled all-night- now, working from home, I’ll do some
ers to cram for exams. Now 48 years old laundry, or go in the garden to water or
and living outside of Sauble Beach, weed, or take longer reading the paper
Ontario, she works part-time as a vet in the morning than I should—all just
and part-time as a consultant. But she to delay starting my workday.”
still procrastinates on everything from MacKay has developed strategies to
her taxes to work projects. beat her procrastination. She sets
readersdigest.in 23
Reader ’s Digest
early deadlines at work and asks her over feeling good in the long term.
accountant to book her a personal cut- “Procrastination is as old as the
off a month before taxes are due. But human condition,” says Tim Pychyl,
because her procrastination has never head of the Procrastination Research
gotten her into hot water, MacKay says Group at Carleton University. “Wanting
she’s never been forced to address it. to feel good now is basically a human
So she keeps delaying. need.” Unfortunately, delaying the nec-
Even if you’re not a serial procrasti- essary often creates feelings of guilt and
nator, chances are there are many shame. The more we procrastinate, the
times you’ve put off a must-do task in more this cycle becomes entrenched
favour of doing another, more fun one. and the worse we actually feel.
In its more harmless forms, procrasti- Pychyl suggests taking three steps to
nating can lead us to let our homes get get your procrastination habits under
messier than we’d like, or delay a control. First, learn how to tell the dif-
much-needed vacation. ference between procrastination and
In its more pernicious forms, it can purposeful delay. Whereas procrastina-
keep us from having important conver- tion is often irrational (you put off filing
sations with loved ones or delay your taxes even though it will make you
addressing health issues. And it can more stressed), purposeful delay tends
take its toll on our self-confidence, to be rational (you complete an assign-
health and happiness. ment the night before because the pres-
Luckily, there are easy and practical sure helps you perform). Second, realize
steps we can take to tame the procras- that when you’re procrastinating,
tination beast and start living the lives you’re acting against your own self-
we want to. interest. And lastly, learn to forgive
yourself for messing up.
RECOGNIZE
PROCRASTINATION IDENTIFY THE
The biggest misconception we have FIRST STEP
about procrastination is that it’s a time The next time you’re tempted to pro-
management problem. If we make crastinate, Pychyl says to ask yourself:
more lists or get a time management “What’s the next action I would take on
app, the thinking goes, we’ll solve all this task if I were to get started on it
our problems. But such methods rarely now?” Have an important project at
work. That’s because procrastination is work you’re not sure how to get started
all about emotional regulation: we pro- on? Set a meeting with your boss to
crastinate because we’re hard-wired clarify expectations. Want to finally
to choose feeling good in the moment tackle that home renovation project?
24 june 2023
Better Living
Make a list of the tools and materials maximize your power hours.
you’ll need to do the job. Setting a Setting cues and intentions is all
manageable and realistic first step about making it as easy as possible to
shifts your attention from feelings of follow through on a task or goal. Say
uncertainty or fear on to a low-stress, you’re struggling to establish an exercise
easily achievable action, and it also routine in the mornings. Try setting
gives you a sense of agency. “Our your gym clothes out the night before
research and lived experience show and putting your shoes by the door.
very clearly that once we get started, Keep forgetting or putting off doing
we’re typically able to keep going,” says breast self-exams? Set an intention to do
Pychyl. “Getting started is everything.” one every time you’re in the shower.
Dr Piers Steel is a professor of orga- Making the most of your power
nizational dynamics and human hours, meanwhile, is all about schedul-
resources at the University of Calgary ing tasks for the time (or times) of day
who began studying procrastination when you’re at your most productive
because of his own struggles with it. and motivated. Want to train for a 10K
“These are not exactly difficult lessons run? Assess when you have the most
to learn,” he says. “But we never got energy to exercise. Need to pull
cc’d on the instruction manual for our together a family savings plan? Figure
own brains.” Steel suggests that fram- out when you and your partner have
ing actions in terms of time can also the most brain space for what could be
be helpful: what can you do in the next a stressful conversation.
10 minutes, or before lunch? This approach has worked for
For example, say you want to ‘Marie MacKay, whose most productive hours
Kondo’ your basement, but the thought tend to be right before lunch. Con-
of tackling your piles of stuff makes you versely, she’s learnt not to bank on her
want to slam the door shut and run in afternoons: “That’s prime napping
the other direction. Instead, try dividing time,” she says, laughing. “I know then
your basement into sections that can be I’ll think, Oh, I have so much to do. I
tackled in 30-minute increments. Set a should probably go have a nap.”
goal to do one per day, and get started Pychyl stresses that conquering your
on the first one immediately. procrastination isn’t just about feeling
better in the moment—it’s about
having more agency over your life.
USE YOUR “Time is a non-renewable resource,”
POWER HOURS he says. “We just don’t know how much
Give yourself an even better chance of we’re going to get of it. We need to
succeeding by setting cues and inten- stop playing around at the edges
tions for yourself, and learning how to and get on with it.”
readersdigest.in 25
HEALTH
Good Vibes
Grow on
Trees
Science shows that our
plants take care of us too
By Lauren David
illustrations by James Steinberg
R
esearch has revealed many
benefits to being in the pres-
ence of nature, whether
that’s walking in a forest, having a
small garden or keeping a few house-
hold plants.
“One study showed that patients
at a hospital who had plants in their
rooms reported less pain, lower
blood pressure, less fatigue and less
anxiety than patients without plants
in their rooms,” says Jenny Seham,
PhD, founder and director of AIM
(Arts and Integrated Medicine) at
Montefiore Health Systems in Bronx,
New York. She explains: “Cortisol, the
from Thehealthy.com
26 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
stress hormone, has been shown to and allow themselves time to learn
lower with plant interaction, lowering the basics, leaving room for a little
fatigue, irritability and blood pres- trial and error.
sure. Gardening and caring for plants Here are eight plants that experts
can help turn people away from nega- recommend for conferring mental
tive thoughts or emotions.” health benefits:
Hou s e p l a nt c o l l e c t i o n s hav e
become a popular social media SNAKE PLANT
trend. Jamie Keaton Jones, PhD, a These popular indoor plants have a
psychotherapist in Washington, D.C., striking appearance, with dark green
says that for many people, tending sword-shaped leaves that often have
to plants has surfaced as a hobby mustard yellow or white stripes. “Also
that enables them to experience known as ‘mother-in-law’s tongue’,
greater comfort and beauty from the snake plant is a great first plant,”
the presence of living things sharing says Jones. “It is very easy to care for,
their space. thrives in spaces with low sunlight,
“Plants and exposure to green- has visual appeal and filters the air.”
ery have been found to have mul-
tiple mental health benefits, such as SPIDER PLANTS
lowering stress, decreasing feelings With light green foliage and plenty
of depression, increasing sociability, of leaves, spider plants are another
restoring focus, improving cognitive low-maintenance selection. “They
performance, improving mood and do well with humidity, and actually
increasing self-esteem,” says Jones. can handle varying forms of light,
Studies have also shown that plants but do best with medium light,” says
and gardening increase productivity Tyler Keith, a social worker and avid
and levels of serotonin, the neuro- gardener in Wilmington, North Caro-
transmitter responsible for uplift- lina. “Sometimes individuals will put
ing mood. “Rather than dwelling spider plants in their bathrooms to
on the past or worrying about the have a warmer, cozier feeling in the
future, plant care helps one focus on space that helps a relaxing bath feel
t h e p re s e nt m o m e nt a n d p ro - that much more relaxing,” he says.
vides a feeling of accomplishment,”
says Gayle Weill, a therapist in New ALOE VERA
York and Connecticut. Drought-resistant and easy to grow,
Like any new skill or hobby, “aloe vera is low maintenance—you
taking care of houseplants comes can just water it monthly—and it pro-
with a learning curve. Anyone starting duces a healing gel that you can use
to care for plants should be patient straight from the leaf,” says Seham.
readersdigest.in 27
reader’s digest
POTHOS LAVENDER
If you want to go bright green, try Well known for its relaxing scent,
pothos, with its chartreuse heart- lavender “has a calming effect, aids
shaped waxy leaves. Commonly in reducing stress, promotes sleep
known as money plants, these low- and has anti-inflammatory proper-
maintenance plants can grow in both ties when used as a topical for skin,”
a water or soil medium, and do well Weill says. You can clip and dry the
indoors or outdoors. They grow long leaves and put them in a bowl or even
vines that can trail or hang from a pot sprinkle them into your bath.
and grow downward, or the vines can
climb and be supported with a trellis BASIL
to grow upward. Jones likes pothos “The experience of growing, pick-
plants because “they are also easy to ing and using herbs you’ve grown
care for, filter the air and look beautiful yourself has a positive impact on
cascading down a bookcase or shelf.” your mental health, creating positive
28 june 2023
Health
Security Ensured
Since 1970
Scan me
Mortise Handle
M Door Closer Pad Lock Rim Lock Furniture Lock
At the
Heart
of Every
Home
Innovative ideas for
kitchens that enjoy
pride of place
By Kohelika Kohli
F
ood is a central aspect of good seen a transformation in our rela-
living. For centuries, mealtimes tionship with food: home cooks and
have brought people together budding chefs boomed during the
and with every generation our en- lockdown years, and mindful choices
gagement with food evolves. We have for nutritious eating became a staple
gone from cooking on coal or wood, in every household.
to multiple electrical appliances that With more and more people de-
enable us to cook in different ways. veloping a hands-on approach to
The last few years in particular has cooking, kitchens have found a new
30 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
avatar in Indian homes and new-age into a space that’s both practical and
designs have adapted to allow for this a source of pride:
reignited relationship. But it’s not
enough for our spaces to accommo- Spaces that Work
courtesy hacker
date the bare essentials. While func- Many urban residents accommodate
tion is a must, it cannot be the only in smaller spaces and therefore kitch-
thing on offer. ens have had to become compact. To
Here are some clever features that maximize the potential of the available
can turn any modern-day kitchen area, opt for sliding or folding table
readersdigest.in 31
Reader ’s Digest
32 june 2023
13 THINGS
A Bouquet of Facts
About Flowers
By Samantha Rideout
1
According to the ‘language of
flowers,’ known as floriography,
each month can be symbolized by
a flower. June has the rose, symboli-
zzing affection, and the honeysuckle,
which represents devotion in love.
w
The trend of using flowers to
eexpress emotions, which popularized
tthe idea that red roses mean love, is
ccredited to Lady Mary Wortley Mon-
ttagu, an 18th-century English poet
aand the wife of a British ambassador
tto Turkey. Interest in the concept of
floriography grew across Europe and
fl
eeventually led to a French book, pub-
llished in 1819, called Le langage des
fl
fleurs by Charlotte de Latour.
2
The messages that flowers
were used to convey weren’t
always about love and happi-
ness: Marigolds meant contempt,
n
aaccording to some manuals, and
yyellow roses could mean jealousy.
((Florists now market yellow roses
aas a symbol of friendship.)
34
4 june 2023 illustration by Serge Bloch
3 6
Flowers can also have religious You can preserve cut flowers
significance. For example, the by drying them. Simply tie a
Lilium longiflorum (Easter lily) string around their stems and
is mentioned in the Bible as a symbol hang them upside down somewhere
of purity and rebirth and is associated dark and dry, like in a cupboard or a
with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. closet. You could also press them be-
The lotus flower signifies enlighten- tween the pages of a heavy book or
ment for Buddhists because it grows iron them between two sheets of wax
in the mud but remains clean, thanks paper. Air drying tends to work well
to its naturally water-repellent leaves. for smaller flowers, while pressing
is easiest with flat ones. With big,
4
Blooms are big business: The round blooms, burying them in silica
industry’s leading auction com- gel crystals might get the best results.
pany, Royal FloraHolland, sells
7
more than 20 million flowers and Flowers look and smell lovely
plants each day. The Netherlands has because they need to attract the
dominated exports for decades, but birds and the bees—literally. The
the market is growing in Kenya, Ethio- creatures carry pollen from stamens (a
pia, Ecuador and Colombia. There’s male flower part) to the eggs in a pistil
even a dedicated cargo area for flow- (a female flower part), allowing seeds
ers at the international airport in Nai- to develop. Some flowers have only
robi, Kenya. The Indian floriculture pistils, some have only stamens and
market size reached `231.7 billion in some have both. Does this mean some
2022. Altogether, the global flower in- plants pollinate themselves? Yes!
dustry earns more than US$30 billion.
8
Certain flowers rely on the
5
Keep a bouquet looking healthy wind to carry their pollen around,
for longer by placing it in water which is unfortunate for people
with the stems cut at an angle. To with allergies. Pollens can restrict the
keep bacteria at bay, pluck off all human respiratory system and are
leaves below the water line. Do add major outdoor airborne allergens
flower food to your vase; many bou- responsible for allergic rhinitis or hay
quets come with a packet. They typi- fever, asthma and atopic dermatitis in
cally contain sugars to supplement the humans. In India about 20 to 30 per
blooms’ nutrition, citric acid to reach cent of the population suffers from
an optimal pH level and bleach to hay fever and about 15 per cent of
fight bacteria. To make your own, mix the population develops asthma as a
30 ml of lime juice, 15 ml of sugar and result of seasonal pollen. Chandigarh
seven ml of bleach into a litre of water. was the first Indian city to create a
readersdigest.in 35
reader’s digest
pollen calender in 2011, which can flowers that bloom on the southern
help the population identify poten- hills once every 12 years.
tial allergy triggers and limit their
11
exposure during pollen season. Flowers are a favourite sub-
ject for many artists. Iconic
9
Thanks to the alluring aroma of examples include Monet’s
flowers, it’s no surprise that we’ve Water Lilies, Andy Warhol’s Flowers,
bottled their scents. During the featuring hibiscus with an almost
19th century, perfumes were often psychedelic look, and street artist
derived from the fragrance of a single Banksy’s Flower Thrower on a wall
flower, but as the industry evolved, in a small town near Jerusalem. It
the scent profiles became more com- depicts what looks like a rioter about
plex, made up of several natural and to throw not a weapon but a bouquet.
synthetic chemicals. Chanel No. 5, Not to forget Van Gogh’s Sunflowers,
which Coco Chanel famously in- which made headlines when activists
sisted should make the wearer threw tomato soup at it to protest
“smell like a woman, not a rose,” against the use of fossil fuels.
has the concentrated oil of around
12
12 roses and a 1000 jasmine flowers In 2012, American astronaut
in every 30-millilitre bottle. Don Pettit planted a few
seeds in plastic bags and
10
All over the world, there are grew them in space. As a result, a
flower festivals for aficiona- yellow zucchini blossom and a lop-
dos to enjoy, from Califor- sided, yet cheery, sunflower became
nia’s lively Rose Parade to Ottawa’s the first flowers to bloom on the
beautiful Tulip Festival. Another International Space Station.
popular event is the Bloemencorso
13
(‘flower parade’) Bollenstreek, which Flowers play a role in many
takes place in the Netherlands. More important life moments, and
than a million people celebrate it using flowers to honour the
each spring. The main event is a dead is not new. In Mount Carmel,
42-km parade of flower-sculpture Israel, archeologists discovered skel-
floats covered in bulb blossoms etons dating back some 13,000 years
such as hyacinths, daffodils and, of that had been lovingly placed on
course, tulips. In India, Bangalore’s a bed of blooms. The deceased had
Lalbagh Flower Show, Chandigarh’s been buried on a layer of mud that
Rose Festival and Srinagar’s tulip had preserved impressions of sages
festival draw large crowds, as do the and figworts.
fields of purple-blue Neelakurinji —WITH INPUTS BY NAOREM ANUJA
36 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
AS KIDS SEE IT
“Much better! I swapped our bowls so they match the shape of our faces.”
My son is arguing with containers and I asked the facilities. “You need
my husband about a her which one would to go,” I heard her plead.
math problem. My be more dangerous if “It’s been two days!”
husband is an engi- it fell on the tile floor. The toddler responded,
neer. My son is in She said, “The glass “But my poop wants
Grade 4. His confi- one because then we’d to stay home.”
dence is strong. have no more jam!” — RITA HICKEY
— @BUNANDLEGGINGS — ASHLEY ASHFIELD
MEDICINE
By Samanttha Riideout
By
Patients with breast
cancer who respond
well to chemotherapy
may now be able to
skip surgery altoge-
ther. Improvements
REVERSING made to chemo drugs
SLEEP APNOEA have rendered them
so effective that they
Roughly one billion of the world’s adults can sometimes eradi-
live with obstructive sleep apnoea. This cate the cancer all
on their own. For
common disorder contributes to prob- instance, in a Texas-
lems ranging from daytime fatigue and based trial, 31 out of
irritability, to heart disease. The go-to 50 women with early-
treatment, a continuous positive airway stage HER2-positive
or triple-negative
pressure (CPAP) machine, controls sleep tumours had no signs
apnoea by delivering pressurized air of cancer after being
through a mask while the person sleeps. treated with chemo-
However, the machine doesn’t address therapy. So instead
of an operating room,
the underlying causes, which are often these patients pro-
lifestyle related. Researchers in Spain ceeded to radiother-
recruited sleep apnoea patients and apy—and after two
helped half of them adopt healthier years, none of them
saw their cancers re-
habits: to eat and sleep better, exercise turn. Larger trials will
PHOTOGRAPH BY THE VOORHES
38 june 2023
reader’s digest
instructions and gently wipe the exterior with a recent study from the
household disinfecting wipe or one containing University of Sydney in
70 per cent isopropyl alcohol. Australia, participants
who got less than the
recommended propor-
A Blood Test confirms that a newer tion of their energy
for Alzheimer’s method, measuring the from protein in their
amount of beta-amyloid loid morning meal went
When someone has in the blood, is almost on to eat more food
cognitive issues, a as accurate. It’s also throughout the day.
doctor might order a faster, less expensivee
PET scan or spinal tap and radiation-free. This
Th
to look for a buildup test is now available in
of a protein called the US and Europe, but
beta-amyloid in the it isn’t yet covered byy
brain, which is one sign most health plans. That
Th
of Alzheimer’s disease. might change, so askk
However, a recent inter- your doctor about it if
national study pub- you or a loved one arre
lished in Neurology discussing options.
readersdigest.in 39
COVER STORY
How to
Live
Life
More
Fully Happiness experts and palliative-care
doctors share their strategies
By Lisa Fields
ILLUSTRATIONS by Jeff Kulak
40 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
readersdigest.in 41
Reader ’s Digest
42
2 june 2023
Cover Story
PEOPLE WHO FELT YOUNGER time remains for them. When these
people accept uncertainty, then
THAN THEIR ACTUAL AGES plan for possible scenarios while still
EXPERIENCED FAR FEWER living in the present, it helps im-
readersdigest.in 43
Reader ’s Digest
FEELINGS OF GRATITUDE
there is a progressive trajectory of
events. And people should ask about
LEAD TO A BROADENED that rather than just focus on the
LIFE PERSPECTIVE, MORE word ‘prognosis.’”
44 june 2023
Cover Story
readersdigest.in 45
Reader ’s Digest
46 june 2023
Cover Story
Forgiveness doesn’t require recon- you. Thank you. And I love you,’” says
ciliation. You can forgive in your heart Dr Byock, the California-based author
without telling the person concerned. of The Four Things That Matter Most.
This is helpful if someone has died, if “So, why wait to say these things?”
the person you’re forgiving was abu- For his part, Dr Byock relishes
sive, or if a relationship has run its the way he feels after apologizing,
course. Dezutter used this technique forgiving, and sharing gratitude with,
with an old friend. “The painful situ- or expressing feelings of love toward,
ations became so extreme that I de- the important people in his life.
cided forgiveness was necessary but “When nothing critically important
that continuing to invest in the rela- is left unsaid between two people
tionship wasn’t wise,” she says. who care about each other, the qual-
“It’s not so much forgetting about ity of the relationship changes,” Byock
the relationship as it is taking a says. “You’re more aware of the intrin-
more distant position,” continues sic value of the relationship, which for
Dezutter. “Accepting that we are me, defines celebration.”
all human with our own faults and
mistakes can bring a sense of relief.
It can also open up new opportuni-
THERE ARE ONLY FOUR
ties to engage further in relationships THINGS WE REALLY NEED
and in friendships.” TO SAY TO PEOPLE:
Tie Up Loose Ends ‘PLEASE FORGIVE ME’.
As a palliative-care physician who ‘I FORGIVE YOU’. ‘THANK
treated hospice patients for many YOU’, AND ‘I LOVE YOU’.
years, Dr Ira Byock helps people with
life-limiting diagnoses find closure Mending and nurturing rela-
through meaningful conversation. tionships helps to increase happi-
And his lessons can be applied to ness because people value friends
anyone who wants to live a happier and relatives more than possessions.
life—starting right now. “This is as close to universally true
Imagine, he says, that you were in as almost anything I know about
a car accident and knew you were human beings : When you really
about to die. What would be the get down to what matters most, it’s
things that you wished you had said not things, it’s always other people,”
to your loved ones while you had Byock says.
the chance? “There are only four “The exercise here, as we age, is to
things we really need to say to keep asking ourselves, ‘What really
people: ‘Please forgive me. I forgive matters most?’”
readersdigest.in 47
Reader ’s Digest
A ‘HAPPINESS JOURNAL’
CAN HELP YOU FIND
PLEASURE IN LIFE
By Sarah Garone
from the washington post
48 june 2023
Cover Story
readersdigest.in 49
LIFE’S
Like That
5-year-old. She ran him. Soon after, my said, “my other leg is
around, laughing and son called saying the the same age, and it
giggling. Unable to family wanted to thank don’t hurt.”
control her happiness, me for my kind letter, —Linda Perkins
she shrieked, “This not to mention the
is so much fun, Dad! 25-cent coupon for I don’t say “ohhh
How did you come Ragu spaghetti sauce. big stretch,” to my
up with it?” —Barbara Porter dog. I say “ooooh
—Dinah Rodgers good stretch,” because
My uncle was in his 90s I want him to know I
When our son went away when he saw a doctor appreciate his form.
to college, a friend of his about his bum leg. After — @ cottoncandaddy
often invited him to din- examining him, the doc-
ner at his family’s lavish tor said with a shrug,
home. One day, I took “You know, Mr Whitney,
Reader’s Digest will pay
time out from sorting at your age you have to for your funny anecdote
coupons to write the expect things like this.” or photo in any of our
humour sections. Post it
family a letter thanking Uncle Charlie wasn’t to the editorial address, or
them for taking care of buying it. “Doc,” he email: [email protected]
This therapy is
gaining credibility as
it shows real results
When Music
Is
Medicine By Anicka Quin
readersdigest.in 53
Reader ’s Digest
Black isn’t a doctor or a nurse. Since “He shared with me afterward that he’d
2013 she has played an important role been holding in so much and had been
for patients as Princess Margaret’s unable to talk about anything—but the
on-staff music therapist. On any given music showed up at a moment when
day, she might see one person who’s it felt like a hug.”
anxious about an upcoming procedure, Anyone who has felt that spark of joy
another who’s undergoing chemo and when a favourite song comes on the
in need of a soothing moment. Or, like radio at just the right moment—or
the man in the palliative care unit, it wept along with a singer who is
might be someone who doesn’t yet expressing heartache—will understand
know they need her. the emotional resonance of music. But
So, on a wintery Wednesday after- now, a growing body of scientific evi-
noon, Black approached the patient’s dence is actually demonstrating that
room and introduced herself. She music can be medicine, too.
asked if she could sit, and offered to In a review of 400 research papers
play some music. In an effort to con- looking into the neurochemistry of
vince him, she said, “If you don’t like it, music, Daniel Levitin, a psychologist
you can tell me to leave,’” she recalls. and neuroscientist at McGill University
After some gentle urging, the in Montreal, found that playing and
70-something man, who had lung can- listening to music had clear mental and
cer, told her a few classical composers physical health benefits, including
he liked and then turned away to look improving our immune systems and
out the window. But as she started to reducing stress levels.
play one of his favourites, Bach, on her One 2007 study from a team of Spa-
portable keyboard, a change came over nish researchers found that listening to
him. He unfolded his arms, turned music before surgery had the same
toward Black and started to cry. effect in reducing preoperative anxiety
She stopped playing. “Do you want as taking Valium—an important fin-
me to continue?” she asked. ding, as anxiety before a major surgery
“Absolutely,” he said through tears. can affect post-operative pain and
“It was as if the music went places recovery time. Another Spanish study,
that nothing else could,” recalls Black. conducted in 2018 in the palliative care
54 june 2023
Health
readersdigest.in 55
Reader ’s Digest
56 june 2023
Health
One study from the Center for Music centre’s senior music therapist and
and Medicine followed a choir runs an online support group for
composed of Parkinson’s patients people with a broad range of neuro-
(called the ‘Parkinsonics’) to learn how logical disorders, along with their care
singing might impact the speaking voice partners—those people in patients’
of those patients. After 12 weeks, the lives, usually loved ones, who are sup-
singers’ speaking volumes—which porting them through their illness.
often fade as Parkinson’s progresses— “There can be folks who are experi-
grew demonstrably stronger. The encing really intensive symptoms, like
Rx 4 Rhythm drumming circle, mean- a decline in their ability to verbally
while, came out of a 2015 study that communicate,” says Devlin. Music, she
showed that Parkinson’s patients had notes, can sometimes help such
improved their ability to walk after patients find ways to respond again.
six weeks of drumming practice. “I’ve had the honour of making music
The centre’s blueprint is to continue with people, and all of a sudden they’re
readersdigest.in 57
Reader ’s Digest
the impact that a diagnosis is having your child there,” she says. “What’s
on their lives.” really lovely is when you go
Music can have a profound effect in and you start to make music, and
on helping sick children, too. Ruth the children invite their parents to join.
Hunston is a music therapist in the There’s this beautiful interaction
“play department” at the Great between everyone, and sometimes I get
Ormond Street Hospital in London, to step back and just watch them play—
England. As the UK’s oldest children’s to really laugh and have fun.”
hospital, it sees more than 69,000
patients a year. AT THE DR BOB Kemp Hospice in Ham-
“When children are in the hospital, ilton, Ont., music therapy has become an
their worlds get much smaller,” says integral part of patient care in residential
Hunston, who explains that her pro- end-of-life settings. “The palliative jour-
gram, introduced in 2019, helps give ney isn’t really about someone dying,”
young patients back some sense of says Doug Mattina, director of the hos-
control. “They’re having so many pice’s pediatric unit. “It’s about bringing
things done to them and around them, the most joy. It’s providing the wrap-
but this allows them to create some- around care not only for the individual
thing themselves.” but for those impacted by it.”
Extended time in pediatric care can Mattina himself experienced the
also affect a child’s development, says music-therapy program when his father
Hunston. In light of that, much of her spent his last days at the hospice. “I
program is designed to help them prog- remember when the music therapist
ress. “I’ve had lots of infants who have said to him, ‘Bill, what kind of mood are
sat up for the first time at the drums, we in today?’ And he said, ‘Today is time
because they’re just so motivated to to dance,’” says Mattina.
play,” she says. “Or they start making He was so moved by the whole experi-
sounds because I’m singing to them, ence that he left a career in the foreign
and they want more.” service to work full-time for the hospice.
The parents also become part of the “Even though my father was feeling like
therapeutic process. “It’s not easy being crap, and we knew that we had days or
in a hospital, and it’s not easy to leave hours left, me, my sister, my brother
58 june 2023
Health
and my mom would dance around his She brought in the instrument and
bed. His favourite song for this was ‘Ras- laid it on his lap in bed. “He was able to
putin,’ and he would request high kicks put his hands on the strings and inter-
from us as he clapped along. Sometimes act with them; often I moved the guitar,
he’d fall asleep as we danced.” as well.” This music experience was
Sara Klinck directs the music- something his family felt would be very
therapy program at the hospice, where, meaningful to him.
at a patient’s bedside, she might impro- Finding those moments is the skilled
vise a call-and-response song to help therapist’s role, but as SarahRose Black
them open up about how they’re feel- notes, people have been connecting
ing that day, or help a resident write a with music for their whole lives—she is
song as a legacy for their family. just helping them access it again at a
“We might also revisit songs that have time when they need it most.
personal significance for residents and “We have a heartbeat, so we have a
families, as a way to communicate drum inside us; we are wired to be
emotion to one another,” she says. “It musical people,” she says. She smiles
can feel like a whole choir as visitors softly as she reflects back on one
and family members join in. For some patient, a man in his late 30s with late-
people, sometimes what’s hard to say is stage brain cancer.
easier to sing.” “He said, ‘SarahRose, I have a lot
It could also mean fulfilling a lifelong of friends, and they’re great. They
goal before a patient passes away, as show up and they’re helpful, but
she did for someone with late-stage they don’t really understand what’s
ALS. “He had very limited movement in going on here,’” she says. “He told
his hands but had always wanted to me that the music is like a friend
play guitar,” says Klinck. who ‘gets it.’”
Animal Speak
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged
by the way its animals are treated.
M A H AT M A G A N D H I
readersdigest.in 59
MY STORY
A Life
in
A daughter learns
how stories have
shaped her world
By Farah Naaz
60 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
readersdigest.in 61
Reader ’s Digest
62
2 june 2023
My Story
cooing into his first-born daughter’s father sought and learnt from books,
ear, his eyes shining—welcoming her how deeply he relied on them to build
into the world. Soon, I am back in my his life, design its contents, and teach
childhood bungalow in Asansol. A us—his three kids—about the brave
home filled with love and laughter, new world he wanted us to inherit. As I
and rows and rows of books. Comforts flip through the rest of the edition (it is
too, all of which were missing from his one from the year of my birth), two ad-
own childhood. vertisements catch my eye: ‘Train her
As I sit surrounded by reams of pa- to be a housewife’ is Usha sewing ma-
per, filled with stories of all shapes chine’s war cry; the other says ‘The
and sizes, I cannot help but marvel at world is her oyster.’ I am grateful my
his life. At the journey of a village parents decided to buy into the latter.
boy, who didn’t have enough to buy My father passed away in October
shoes, or a bag to go to school, but 2022. As I gently pulled out book after
started a library in his mud-tiled book, I felt the weight of the dreams
and lessons these stories had brought
AS I REVISTED THE into his life—and through his world,
MEMORIES OF MY seeped into mine. A few that took deep-
est roots are as follows:
FATHER, I COULDN’T
HELP BUT MARVEL Dream big and never give up These oft-
AT THE JOURNEY repeated words still ring in my ears.
And he led by example. In 1961, my fa-
OF HIS LIFE. ther had passed the prestigious Indian
School of Mines exam and he was jubi-
house in Jitwarpur, Bihar, at the age lant—he was going to make something
of 20. In 1962, India was at war with of his life. But little did he know then
China, and yet here was this fellow, that he would fail to clear his 12th-stan-
just out of his teens, writing to vari- dard physics practicals. Life was bitter-
ous embassies for free English jour- sweet that year. But determined as he
nals. They responded to his requests was, he retook both exams the next
with donations of pamphlets and year—he didn’t even know about com-
books. I wished I had asked him, partment exams—and cleared them
‘Where did you get the confidence to with distinction. He would tell this
write to embassies?’ story to his grandkids when they were
I eagerly scan more pages of the dealing with the stress of competition.
magazine in my hands, and find an
underlined word in it : family. It Read voraciously This was his mantra
dawned on me just how much my for us. We were encouraged to nurture
readersdigest.in 63
Reader ’s Digest
The value of a hug “I had no one in my took the trouble or who was going to
family who hugged me except my eat the harvest, he would repeat: the
mother,” he once told me. Growing up birds, the bees and the butterflies. On
my father would envelop us in bear the day of his funeral, I remember the
hugs, freely and often, no excuse sight of countless butterflies and birds
needed, although his young grandchil- d e s c e n d i n g o n o u r ga rd e n , a s
dren often sought to escape them. The if they knew that it was their friend’s
same grandchild, at age 18, hugged final farewell.
him tight when he heard this story. I shake myself out of my reverie,
carry the books out of his study, and
Plant trees “Farah do you know lay them carefully on the chowki in
that the smell of fruit trees attracts our aangan. The March sun beams
butterflies and so do the vibrant overhead. I spy a copy of Ibn-e-Safi’s
photo credit: author
colours of flowers?” I could hear his Jasoosi Duniya, and know that I am
joy over this factoid crackling through ready to go on an adventure with
the telephone line from Bihar, all the Inspector Faridi and Sergeant Hameed.
way to Delhi, where I lived. He had Maybe John Donne had the right idea—
planted numerous fruit trees back that death was an ascension to a better
home. Whenever I asked him why he library. Maybe life could be too.
64 june 2023
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It Happens
ONLY IN INDIA
The Sink and The Drain his phone into the He ordered a diesel
As so many things do dam’s watery depths. pump, ran it for days
these days, this tale too Beleaguered Mr Vish- and drained roughly 41
starts with a pic for the was couldn’t stand the lakh litres of water out
CARTOON BY RA JU EPURI
‘gram’. Food inspector loss and buoyed both of the reservoir, all to
Rajesh Vishwas was by bureaucratic privi- allow retrieval of his
taking a selfie along the lege and the dear mis- phone. Vishwas alleges
beauteous Kherkatta fortune staring him in he had ‘verbal permis-
reservoir in Chhattis- the face, he took mat- sion’ for the act and
garh, when splash went ters into the deep end. that the water he
66 june 2023
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DRAMA IN REAL LIFE
68 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
By Nicholas Hune-Brown
AT FIRST, IT WAS
ALMOST IMPERCEPTIBLE—
at the edge of his vision as Nick Bostic If you’d asked his friends to describe
drove down the streets of Lafayette, Indi- him as a kid, Bostic says, they’d proba-
ana, on a warm night last July. Bostic bly have said “a fool.” He got into
rolled past the two-storey house before trouble, acted like an idiot, tried to use
he could process what he was seeing. humour to make friends but never quite
Then he slammed on the brakes. Oh my got it right.
god, he thought. That house is on fire. As he got older, his troubles became
It hadn’t been Bostic’s best night, but more serious. Bostic began using
it hadn’t been his worst either. The methamphetamines. He lost friends to
25-year-old—burly and six-foot-three, suicide. At times, his own life didn’t
with a messy beard that often framed a feel worth living. But over the past few
mischievous grin—was still figuring out years, he had started to turn things
how to make his way through a life that around. He’d quit hard drugs. He had a
hadn’t always been easy. girlfriend, Kara, and was working at a
Bostic had spent his childhood shut- Papa Johns making pizzas. If people
tling back and forth between his mom around Lafayette had to describe him
in Lafayette and his dad in Arkansas, now, they might say he was a guy with a
with neither home providing the love big heart who maybe didn’t know
and safety he needed. exactly what to do with it.
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Drama in Real Life
That night, 11 July 2022, Bostic had assistant principal at Tecumseh Junior
had a petty squabble with Kara and he’d High School, and his wife, Tiera, went
stormed out of their apartment, leaving out to play darts down the street.
his phone behind so she couldn’t con- Seionna, their 18-year-old daughter, was
tact him. He filled up her car with gas, in charge. She was taking care of Kaleia,
then smoked some weed in an auto- her one-and-a-half-year-old sister. Shay-
parts store parking lot; he liked to go lee, 13, was in the house with a friend.
there when he needed to be alone. He And Kaylani, the family’s six-year-old,
looked up at the stars and sat in silence was roaming from room to room, look-
for 15 minutes or so. Then he decided ing for someone to fall asleep with.
to head home. He was on the road back Kaylani hated sleeping alone. The ani-
to the apartment just after midnight mated little girl was so curious and trust-
when he saw the house on fire.
Bostic threw the car into reverse and
whipped it into the driveway. Flames
were climbing up the front porch, lap-
ping at the home’s walls. Hurrying out
of the vehicle, he immediately regretted
not having his phone. “Hey, help, the
house is on fire!” he yelled into the night.
A car drove past and Bostic tried to flag
it down, to no avail.
He ran around to the back door, sure ing that David was always worried she’d
it would be locked. To his amazement, just run off with a stranger. That night
it swung open. Without pausing for a she walked into Seionna’s bedroom on
moment to think about the danger, the ground floor asking if she could
Bostic ran into the burning building. climb into bed with her big sister. But
Seionna wasn’t feeling well, and she had
it was date night for the Barretts, and in to work in the morning. So she told her
a large family, date night was important. sister to go to her own room, that they
The Barrett family was a lively bunch. could sleep together tomorrow.
They went to church on Sundays, and The next thing Seionna remembered
the five-bedroom, two-storey house they was waking to what sounded like an
rented was always full of yelling and explosion. Later, officials would find that
laughter, with friends and family coming the fire had started on the porch and
by for cookouts and sleepovers and then caused a propane tank next to their
volleyball games out back. grill to explode. But in the moment,
That night, four of the six Barrett kids Seionna only knew that there was
were at home when David, a 39-year-old smoke in her room. The living room
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next door was on fire, and she could The girls came pouring down the
feel the flames’ heat on her skin. Is this stairs, Bostic hurrying them along. They
a dream? she thought. Then she started all rushed out into the fresh air where
to run. I have to get the kids. they huddled in a circle. “Is there any-
Seionna sprinted up the stairs, body else in there?” Bostic asked.
grabbed Kaleia out of her crib and hur- “There’s a baby in there!” Seionna
ried to the next door, where Shaylee screamed, referring to Kaylani. But nei-
and her friend were still sound asleep. ther she nor any of the kids knew where
“Wake up, wake up!” she yelled. the six-year-old was. Without hesitating,
When she got to Kaylani’s room, how- Bostic ran back inside.
ever, the bed was empty. The six-year- By now, the whole side of the house
was in flames. The smell was foul and
intense, like nothing he’d ever encoun-
tered. Black smoke was gathering at the
ceiling, then billowing down towards
him. The temperature was intense, a
whoosh of pure heat that hit him like a
physical object.
Bostic went upstairs. Everything
looked eerily normal, with no sign there
was a fire raging so near. He searched
old was nowhere to be found. A horrible under the bunk bed and in the closet. No
realization hit Seionna. Kaylani some- kid. He searched the other upstairs bed-
times liked to sleep in the living room. rooms and listened intently, surprised
And the living room was on fire. he couldn’t hear a single cry.
Kaylani didn’t seem to be on the sec-
the curtains were melting. That was ond floor, so Bostic prepared to head
just one of the surreal things Nick back down. But the smoke was thick
Bostic noticed as he ran through the now—black and opaque, a curtain of
hallway of the burning house, peering poison that had climbed all the way
into rooms that were in flames and to the top of the stairs. He lifted his
searching to see if anyone was home. Papa Johns T-shirt, doubling it up and
With the ground floor seemingly clear, trying to cover his mouth and nose, as
Bostic headed for the staircase. He had he hesitated at the top of the stairs. Then
just started climbing when he looked up he heard the sound of crying, from the
and saw four faces emerge from a room dark smoke below.
at the top of the stairs and peer down Bostic stumbled down the stairs and
at him, their eyes wide. “Your house is into the blackness, choking on smoke.
on fire, you need to go!” Bostic yelled. He was on a search and rescue mission,
72 june 2023
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his ears alert as he tried his best to move between this house and the next
toward the sound, arm outstretched. one’s wooden fence. The girl peered
Then suddenly Kaylani was in front of down. “I don’t want to jump out the
him. Bostic quickly lifted the girl into his window,” she said. He was thinking the
arms and looked for the door. exact same thing.
But in the smoke and heat, he was all But they had little choice. The flames
turned around. He stumbled through were inching ever closer, and the heat
the burning house, trying to find the was intensifying. Bostic took a few steps
exit. Where is the front door?! Disori- backwards. Then, without letting him-
ented, the only things he could see self think much about what awaited
through the haze were the lights leading them, he ran forward and threw himself
upstairs, like lanterns in a fog. out of the window.
Bostic climbed back up. At the top, he And as he flew headlong through the
tripped and fell. With the fire all around air, holding Kaylani tightly in one arm,
them, he thought: We’re goners. But he
managed to pull himself up, Kaylani still
in his arms. Bostic remembered seeing
a window on the side of the house
where the fire hadn’t reached, and that’s
where he headed.
He made it to the room and immedi-
ately tried tearing down the curtains
and blinds from the window. Kaylani’s
ankle became entangled in a curtain
cord, so he forced himself to slow down. he twisted and contorted his body so as
Finally he got the curtains and blinds to land on the other shoulder and cush-
off so that clean air was just one win- ion her fall. Then they hit the ground.
dowpane away. Still holding the little
girl, Bostic punched the glass with his outside, meanwhile, the firefighters had
right hand. His fist bounced off. For his arrived on the scene. They hurried
next punch, he reached back with Seionna and the rest of the kids away
everything he had. His fist smashed from the house—which was now
through the window, cutting up his arm entirely engulfed in flames.
as a gust of glorious fresh air filled the “Six-year-old female and 23-year-old
room. Then he quickly knocked some male, possibly inside,” a firefighter
shards out of the frame. called out as they rushed to put on
As the flames advanced behind them, their equipment.
Bostic and Kaylani looked at the open Then Bostic came stumbling out from
space. Below, a strip of grass lay the side of the house, Kaylani in his
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Clockwise from
top left: A fire-
fighter’s body
camera showing
Bostic and Kaylani;
the destroyed
house; Kaylani
(red bow) and
her family; Bostic
recovering.
arms. “Take her,” he yelled, the moment ambulance, but he doesn’t remember
captured by the firefighters’ body cam- being transferred to the hospital, where
eras. He handed over the girl—crying, he was treated for smoke inhalation
but miraculously uninjured apart from and first-degree burns to his ankle,
a cut on her arm—before collapsing on leg and arm.
the sidewalk calling for oxygen. When Bostic woke up, it was with a
Gasping for air, the house crumbling tube down his throat and his girlfriend
behind him, there was only one thing on by his side. In bed, he thought about
his mind. “Is the baby okay?” he asked. what had happened. He felt like he’d just
“Please tell me the baby’s okay.” done what anyone would have done in
The minutes, hours and days that that situation. But outside the hospital,
followed are a blur for Bostic. He the story of Nick Bostic was already
remembers the paramedics pulling the spreading. He was a hero—the pizza
tourniquet tight around the arm he’d cut man who had run into a burning build-
punching through the window. He ing not once, but twice.
remembers being wheeled into the A few days later, after Bostic had
76 june 2023
Drama in Real Life
been released from the hospital, the Bostic’s burns have mostly healed,
Barretts invited him and Kara to dinner though he finds his eyes have been
at the house where they were staying. sensitive to light since the fire. The
David wanted to thank the man who other changes have been far greater.
had saved his family in person. Bostic and Kara are expecting a child.
The moment David saw Nick Bostic, And as news about his heroism spread,
he started crying. “He walked up to a GoFundMe account for his hospital
me with his arms open and held me bills exploded, reaching some
tightly and thanked me,” says Bostic. $6,00,000 [`4.9 crores]—a life-changing
“All he could say was thank you, amount of money.
thank you.” Bostic offered the Barrett family
(OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) COURTESY OF LAFAYETTE POLICE DEPARTMENT;
That week they asked Bostic to come some of it to help them get their
to church with them. And then they life back on track, but David was firm.
had him back to dinner, again and again. That was Bostic’s money. He should
“I feel like God used him as a tool,” says support his child, and use that gift to
WXIN FOX59 NEWS; COURTESY OF THE BARRETT FAMILY; DAVE BANGERT
David. “And I feel like God is using me spend time with his family. Then he
as a tool to help him as well.” introduced the now 26-year-old to a
The Barretts are still pulling their financial advisor.
lives together after losing everything When Bostic thinks about what hap-
they owned. The fire has brought them pened, it somehow feels like both a
even closer as a family and closer to near-death experience and a rebirth.
their community, which came together Even though he was the one who ran
to shelter and feed them while they into a burning building, it’s like he was
looked for a new home. the one who was rescued.
Kaylani, who emerged from the fire “I feel like a different person. Like I
with nothing more than a minor cut on got a second chance,” he says. If in the
her arm, has become delirious with a past he’d sometimes felt like a fool, that
sense of fame and bravado. “She thinks wasn’t how he saw himself now. Life
of herself as a hero,” says David. “The hadn’t been easy. He knew the future,
first thing she says when she meets too, would be difficult. “But I’m starting
someone is: ‘I was in a fire and I to find my purpose,” he says. For the
jumped out a window.’” first time, he’s sure he’ll figure it out.
Economy Class
Thrift is that habit of character that prompts one to work for what he gets,
to earn what is paid him; to invest a part of his earnings; to spend
wisely and well; to save, but not hoard.
NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
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ENVIRONMENT
Hunting
with
Dolphins
An extraordinary encounter reveals how environmental
neglect endangers more than just our non-human neighbours
78 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
An endangered Indus
dolphin comes up for air in
the Beas Conservation Area.
I
t is the final week of February 2017, the last of the dark nights in the hunting
season on the Brahmaputra. The sun is down, leaving behind a rose-pink sky
that fades to purple, then indigo, which ultimately turns an inky black. We
can’t see a thing. Not the horizon, nor the moon, the stars, not even a hand
held in front of our faces. It is as if the world were doused in Japanese ink.
My friend and I are inching up the massive river with two fishermen, Lekhu
and Ranjan, in their long, low-slung dinghy. It is the dry season; the river’s shal-
low course here is braided with sandy shoals.
Lekhu and Ranjan are among the last of their tribe in Assam—handheld
harpoon fishermen who fish on the blackest nights of the dry season, when the
river runs clear and low. What makes them special is that they fish alongside
the Gangetic dolphins.
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Now the boat bumps up against “We will set out at 9 p.m., after
something and runs aground. We step dinner,” says Lekhu, the senior of the
onto a silt island—a chapori. It is two fishermen. “It will be cold; wear
neither land nor water, neither predict- something warm.”
able nor permanent. It rises as the silt The men fill a kettle-shape d lamp
piles up and submerges as the river with kerosene and poke a wick into its
current erodes it, carrying the silt away; spout. With clay collected from the
it gives, it takes back. riverbank, they fix the lamp onto the
These fertile chaporis come in vary- front of the boat, just beneath the prow.
ing degrees of robustness, depending A wind starts up as a whisper that soon
on the amount of silt accreted and the turns into a howl, raising small waves
vegetation anchoring the outcropping that lap furiously at the sandbank. The
to the bed. Adventurous risk-takers set- fire goes out; flying sand enters our
tle on the larger, more robust ones. A tents, stinging our faces. High wind
chapori belongs to no government or means no fishing, Lekhu warns us.
80 june 2023
Environment
making sloshing sounds. Still nothing. another. The impaled fish come up
Ranjan guides the boat downstream, squealing and yapping.
zigging from right bank to left and zag- The sounds surprise me at first.
ging around shoals. Lekhu dunks the Catfish, prawns, crabs and river puffers
harpoon in the water and raises it all make sounds, but this is the first
quickly, causing a soft plop. He agitates time I’ve heard a fish squeal. It thrashes
the water, sending ripples out wide, but for a while at the bottom of the boat,
to no avail. The two fishermen exchange fighting for air, and then falls silent.
comments in hushed voices. I gather “Fish are scarce,” Lekhu tells us.
that the season is drawing to a close. “When there’s plenty, the dolphins get
Time passes, and then, out of the excited. They come close enough to rock
pitch black of the night, there is a the boat and even slap its sides.” The dol-
‘whooooosh’ off to our right. The flash- phins today are just 10 yards ahead of us.
light beam lights up the dorsal fin of a I put my camera down. We are bobbing
Gangetic dolphin. As the first one dis- and swaying in this thin, long boat on
appears, another arcs out of the water, the mighty Brahmaputra, in total dark-
ghostly white in the glow. A mother ness and silence, with a river dolphin
and her calf have joined us. mum and calf for company.
I switch off my light and listen to the A shiver runs down my spine, and I
swoosh of their breath through the hug myself and smile at the ghostly
blowholes. They stay with us; Lekhu is grey arcs beside us. If meeting an
alert now for signs of fish fleeing ahead endangered wild creature in its space,
of the dolphins. He harpoons one, then with its offspring in tow, far away from
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any protected area was not in itself pur, and I have jumped into our car at
special, we are witnessing a human the urging of the driver in order to
collaborating with a wild animal—a return to the town. This is ‘elephant
way of life that is also endangered. hour’ and, in an area famous for ‘angry
I bowed my head and exhaled long rogue elephants at twilight’, our driver is
and slow. Fish populations in the Brah- scared. The professor, a scientist, has no
maputra have been dwindling, reports such apprehensions. As we crest a
indicate, by as much as 80–85 per cent bridge over a stream, he motions for our
in some places. Many small species of driver to halt. Jumping out of the car, he
indigenous fish, neither studied nor runs down the bank. I follow suit.
named, are likely lost forever. As no We rush across the soft sand, past
baseline study was ever conducted, massive elephant footprints, to an area
there is not enough data to quantify with a smudge of water. He crouches at
this loss. All we have is the oral evi- its edge and carefully moves a small
dence of fishermen who live on these river rock. Two baleful eyes stare back
waters and tell tales of what once was. at us—a snakehead fish, about as long
as my index finger, heavy with eggs.
T
hree years earlier in Upper “This is an endangered species,” the
Assam: winter has long vanished, professor explains. Small indigenous
leaving behind only a hint of nip fish like the snakehead find refuge
in the fierce pink of the gloaming. The around river rocks and fallen logs, in
Subansiri river makes its way down from the nooks and crannies of soft-flowing
Tibet to join the Brahmaputra, flowing streams, and in coves. These are prime
fat and placid across the plains. Orchid- habitats for the fish—they breed under
swathed forests with clumps of fern rise the rocks and submerged logs, or near
black and feathery against a salmon sky. the roots of trees along the tiny streams
From the far bank, a boatman in a dug- that flow down from the eastern Hima-
out ferries seven people across using a layas. Those streams and rivers are now
bamboo pole as an oar. being mined for rocks and boulders,
Trucks wheeze and grumble along depriving the fish of their safe spaces.
raw roads of scree, carrying towering “If you take those ‘obstacles’ away, you
piles of smooth, round rock. The grey destroy vital fish-breeding habitats.”
dust of their passing obscures small- With the supply of small indigenous
scale factories pulverizing great fish declining by 85 to 90 per cent over
quantities of rock into cement for the past decade, fishermen are sliding
dams, roads, buildings. into poverty. They cannot find enough
The light is fading fast. Professor fish in the river to sell, much less to
Lakhi Hazarika, who teaches fish eat. In the markets of Dibrugarh, 90
zoology at the local college in Lakhim- per cent of the fish consumed in the
82 june 2023
Environment
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Reader ’s Digest
by the cetacean’s speed, grace and further stressed, and the fisherfolk—
power, too rapt to even break out my their lives and livelihoods—will suffer
camera. And then, as suddenly as it had the cumulative impact’s worst effect.
started, the hunt is over, the fish have Not so long ago, fish markets along
scattered and the dolphin moves away. the banks of the Brahmaputra bustled
The river settles back into its natural with dozens of fish varieties. Now
rhythms, the currents making soft most of these shops are shuttered;
sounds again as they churn silty waters. the few that remain open sell those
Lekhu starts a fire for the morning ice-box fish brought in from the fish
tea. He and Ranjan make plans to farms of Andhra Pradesh, thousands
move camp further upstream in the of kilometers away.
hope of better fishing. We pack up and Lekhu and Ranjan know that their
load the dinghy. As we row upstream, special skill, hunting alongside dol-
Lekhu lowers a fishing net into the phins, has reached its use-by date. They
water. A raucous flock of the endan- may not return next year. Lekhu has
gered greater adjutant stork lifts off some knowledge of masonry; Ranjan
into the leaden skies. A melancholic will find some odd job. The dolphin’s
song wafts from downriver; in the dis- fate, too, is uncertain.
tance, we spot a lone fisherman in a
boat. Our fishermen guides know him; THREE YEARS PRIOR, in 2014, on a river
he is called ‘the mad one’ for his inces- to the southwest of Dhaka one monsoon
sant singing. Lekhu hauls up his net day, we had been calling out to every
with two fish in it, and we disembark fishing boat we encountered: “Any fish?
on another chapori. This one is a size- How many you got?” Usually, the answer
able strip with a jetty at the far end, and was a shake of the head, a moan that
there are signs of human presence. floated over the waters: “No fish. There
We gather around yet another cook- are no fish in the river.” But once came
ing fire. The two freshly caught fish are this reply: “Shushuk!” Dolphin. Caught
on the menu. “Seven or eight years ago, in a net not cast for it.
we’d make about `12,000 in a week of This is one way dolphins die—espe-
hunting,” Lekhu says, as he fillets the cially the young ones. Either they go to
fish. “Now we hunt all months of the dry feed on fish trapped in fishing nets or,
season and still don’t make that much.” worse, they swim right into nets strung
The rivers that feed the Brahmaputra across the width of a river. The nets
are changing constantly, and there are weave themselves in and out of the white
rumours that the Brahmaputra itself parabolic curve of the dolphins’ sharp,
will be turned into a national waterway. clean teeth, snapping the snouts shut.
The wetlands, already under assault Adult dolphins are strong enough to
from all kinds of development, will be cut through the mesh, but the babies,
84 june 2023
Environment
N
Eventually, they suffocate and perish. ight falls quickly in northeast
I remember touching the lifeless cet- India. There is no wind to delay
acean. Its skin had felt smooth, almost us. We set off from the chapori
like the rubber of a scuba diver’s outfit. for the last hunt of the season. The
It was cold too, with white chalk-like blackness closes in on us; the only
gashes on its back and fins—the marks sound is that of Lekhu teasing the wat-
of its fruitless struggle with the net. Its ers with his harpoon. Two dolphins
near-blind eyes were like tiny beads. I materialize ahead of us, then another,
knew the theory—the silty waters of followed by a mother and her calf.
these rivers meant that they had They whoosh and arc and dip and
adapted to the murkiness by relin- sigh. There are no fish for them or us.
quishing sight for a keen hearing, using Whichever side of the net you are on,
echolocation to navigate. Their eyes there is only loss.
could not see anything but, maybe, the from marginlands: indian landscapes on the
brink by arati kumar-rao (pan macmillan, 2023).
direction of light. Even so, I was aston- copyright ©arati kumar-rao 2023
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86 june 2023
WORDS OF LASTING INTEREST
Words of Lasting Interest
The
Memories
Remain
A revered storyteller reflects on how the power to
remember builds, shapes, and even rescues, who we are
BY Ruskin Bond
ILLUSTRATION by Titas Panda
readersdigest.in 87
I
Reader ’s Digest
88 june 2023
Words of Lasting Interest
broom, the small hand-broom, sweep- that took place between my parents,
ing the steps of the veranda, takes me usually in my presence. I hated these
back to that distant but vivid childhood, quarrels and I was helpless to stop
and the thin dark woman who swept the them. Eventually they led to my parents’
bungalow’s rooms. I loved watching her separation. And all my life I have felt
at work. It seemed like a game to me, profoundly disturbed if I see or hear a
and sometimes I would take the broom husband and wife quarreling bitterly. I
from her and sweep so vigorously that look around to see if a child is present.
the dust rose and settled on the furni- And then I realize I am that child.
ture. “Aunty will be angry,” she’d say and Fortunately the most lasting impres-
take the broom away from me. But she’d sions are the simple, harmonious ones.
let me borrow it from time to time, when Why do I still prefer homemade butter
my parents weren’t around. to factory-made butter? Because, when
The other day, seeing my steps cov- I was five or six, I would watch my father
ered with dead leaves, I picked up the beating up a bowl of cream and then
small jharoo, the broom lying on the spreading a generous amount of creamy
veranda, and began white butter on my
clearing away the LITTLE THINGS toast. Now Beena
leaves. A local shop- knows why I am
keeper on his way to STAY WITH US, always demanding
the market saw me AND TURN UP creamy white butter
sweeping away and UNEXPECTEDLY, with my breakfast.
called out: “Sir, what And you will have
are you doing? That’s TO REMIND US OF similar impressions
not your job. Give the A PRECIOUS to carry with you all
jharoo to the sweeper.” MOMENT IN TIME. your days. That first
Absorbed in my day at school, maybe
childhood hobby, all an agonizing parting
I could say was, “Yes, Aunty,” while from your parents. The face of a loved
sending up a flurry of dead leaves. one gone. A pullover knitted by your
He continued on his way, muttering granny. A favourite toy. A doll, perhaps.
something about the poor old writer A familiar melody. A book of rhymes,
having lost his balance at last. tattered and worn. Someone who gave
you a flower, a kiss on the forehead.
H
uman beings are blessed with To the end of your days you will carry
the power to remember. But that kiss with you. And may it protect
not all our early impressions are you from all harm.
of a pleasant nature. They linger on from the golden years: the many joys of living a
just the same. Like the frequent quarrels good long life by ruskin bond (harpercollins, 2023).
readersdigest.in 89
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90 june 2023
TRAVEL Travel
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Some journeys leave a mark. That was her hard-working hands will look
the case with my ride into the last ves- clean. Suddenly, my white shirt feels
tiges of authentic gaucho culture in conspicuously laundered.
northern Patagonia. Though it’s been It’s time to mount up. Simon double-
more than two years since my trip, the checks each cinch (the strap that holds
transformative powers of this experi- the saddle in place). “We have just
ence linger with me even now. enough daylight,” says Young, swinging
her leg over the sheepskin-covered
S
omewhere past the town saddle. The three-hour trail ride is the
of Loncopué in western final leg of a long day that’s drawn us
Argentina, the paved road five women to this remote trailhead.
turns to dirt. Another hour One more will arrive tomorrow.
beyond that, the car I’m We are from four countries—one Brit,
riding in rattles and heaves over what one Australian, two Americans and two
has devolved into a track. Finally, my Canadians (including me)—and range
vehicle and the one following cross a in age from 30 to 60-something. While it
grassy expanse surrounding the seems most of us feel at home in the
Andean mountain Buta Mallin. This saddle, our comfort ends there.
tiny outpost in far northern Patagonia Our guides, on the other hand, so
is the end of the road for the drivers, clearly belong here, with their worn
but for their women passengers, it’s hats, their veneer of well-earned
where the real journey begins. grime, and their bone-handled knives
With dark locks flowing from belted to their hips. They are wholly
beneath her hat brim, 26-year-old adapted to these arid, sweeping valleys,
guide Lara Simon, who hails from free-running horses and springs
Germany, greets us with a broad smile pouring out of the ground with
and a sing-songy “Helloooo.” In con- surprising regularity.
trast, the piercing gaze of head wran- I marvel at Simon as she trots up
gler Alyssa Young evokes 1970s Clint beside me, a dirty black scarf covering
Eastwood—if Eastwood were a her face against the thick dust kicked
24-year-old woman with long auburn up from the horses ahead. She is so
hair. A veteran horsewoman from loose in the saddle, so at ease in her
California, she is Zen, a bit fierce and skin. Experiencing that in-the-bone
completely in charge. sense of belonging in such an untamed,
Young’s welcome talk is all business: rugged landscape is why I’m here.
horse care, trail rules, staying hydrated. Wild Women Expeditions, based in
She then washes in the stream. Despite Canada, is one of the world’s biggest
the scrubbing, it’s clear that it will all-women tour companies, serving a
take weeks back in civilization before market that grew 230 per cent from 2014
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than 40,000-hectare ranch—horticul- lane. The mules and an extra horse walk
turists, veterinarians, massage thera- free. There are hoots and cheers from
pists, master masons and chefs. All the men and women staying behind.
bring their creative vision to the ranch’s Jen Billock, from Chicago and the
circle of sustainability. only novice rider, is a little nervous
Drinking glasses, someone realized, about what’s ahead—the first major
could be made from the bottom of descent. It’s a narrow scree and
empty wine bottles (of which there boulder-filled slope dropping about
are many). Horseshoes could be 120 metres. A line snakes down the
reshaped as hinges or to secure sup- middle. It doesn’t look like a trail.
port beams cut in the ranch’s own Navigating this is all about trust,
sawmill. Virtually all their food is letting the hardy native Criollo horses
grown or raised on the property. do what they do.
And for the most part, it’s eaten on a Waks and Young offer Billock calm,
stone terrace with a long harvest table spare instructions: “Lean back. Give him
and yet another impossible view. In the his head.” That means loosen the reins;
distance, high, arid grasslands, valleys, let him see where he’s going. There’s no
meadows and jagged peaks extend deep time for pondering. Billock is near the
into the heart of the Argentine Andes. bottom by the time I reach the top edge.
No roads, no fence lines. Way to go, Jen! I think. Even though I’ve
“This place could not exist without ridden all my life, I had no idea horses
so many hard-working, creative hands,” could do what we’re doing.
says Waks, sipping coffee the next By mid-afternoon, persistent winds
morning and surveying the horizon. Her blow in cloud cover and eventually
reverence for the community here is thunderheads. Fork lightning strikes
palpable, but what she loves most is with a shuddering bang one valley
riding out into this magnificent vista. over. Waks takes her time assessing the
Tomorrow, we’ll go with her. situation. “It looks far enough away and
is moving in the other direction,” she
ROLO THE MULE STANDS compliantly says finally. “Let’s keep going.”
under the towering poplars shading Later, we muddle through our first
Ranquilco’s main courtyard. Simon, evening setting up camp, then peel off
Waks, Manterola and Young are expert hot, dirty riding gear. We lie flat, looking
packers, balancing the load and secu- up at clear skies and luxuriating in the
ring the cinches. Next, the other mules— sound of the river’s flow.
Ragnar, Ruby and Roberta—take their
loads. Finally, four women guides, six THE NEXT MORNING I find my horse,
women guests, four mules and 10 Angus, where I left him, still tethered.
horses head off down Ranquilco’s treed He’s such a handsome black gelding,
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energetic, or ‘forward’ in horse speak. I explains Young. “Horses and mules have
enjoy his flashy gaits. But the deeper into a clear social hierarchy with horses at
this landscape we ride, the deeper grows the top. But it’s a love-hate thing for
my affection for the mules. Their labour mules. They want to be part of the group.
makes all this possible, but also, they But every once in a while, they have to
are fascinating characters. assert themselves with a not-so-gentle
“Heads up—Ragnar coming through!” reminder, ‘Don’t take me for granted.’”
Young bellows from above. I spin Angus I wonder if perhaps I was a mule in
around as Ragnar’s wide load blows by a previous life.
down the hill. At the bottom, the mule We follow a canyon trail that opens
falls in line near the front. She won’t to a wide plateau. There are peaks to
let anyone pass. each side and expanses so enormous
“It’s just what they do sometimes,” that the hundreds of angora goats
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along the river below seem like we’ll camp for the night. Still, he and
bleating white ants. Waks agree—we’re probably safe.
Waks asks if I want to take the lead. I
do. For a moment, my gaze fixed SIMON HANDS ME COFFEE as I pull out
straight on, I pretend I’m all alone in tent pegs the next morning. Each day,
this stunning panorama. It might be my these rituals get faster, more second
favourite stretch of the ride. nature. Homemade bread is toasting
As the valley narrows, a gaucho over an open fire—a piece of which I’ll
appears, seemingly out of nowhere. soon smother in a caramel spread called
With a magnificent grey stallion dulce de leche. Soon we’re climbing the
valley bowl beyond the vegetation line
toward the next pass.
THE DESCENT BEGINS Single file, the descent begins
DOWN THE MASSIVE down the massive scree slope to the
SLOPE. I STRUGGLE TO Desecho Valley floor. My brain strug-
gles to cope with the precipitous
COPE WITH THE drop to my left. Eventually, I look
PRECIPITOUS DROP. only straight out or up.
At the bottom, we untack the
animals and for the first time let them
and a thick moustache under a go free. Young insists they will be safe,
flat-brimmed hat, Tono looks straight and happier to tackle what’s coming
out of central casting. At first, his the next day. Soon Angus, Brian,
warmth and familiarity feel surprising Bandero and the others, mules
in a landscape we thought we had to included, trot gleefully a good kilometer
ourselves. But then I’m reminded down the valley. I’m shocked that my
of what someone said back at control issues aren’t, well, out of
Ranquilco. This is no wilderness; it’s control. Instead, it’s liberating to
one gigantic neighbourhood. release these wondrous creatures and
This meet-up is the Northern trust that they will return.
Cordillera equivalent of chatting At sunset, we stretch out around
over the back fence. Tono describes the fire. Some of us have washed up
a bad fall from his horse. Waks gives in the nearby spring, while others
him Tylenol. Then he escorts us still proudly sport the day’s dust.
through a dense thicket and on to Manterola passes a dried gourd filled
where a lightning strike the day with matee tea. Each of us takes our turn
before sparked a brush fire. A large sipping from the metal straw called
swath of charred hillside still a bombilla. One by one, we ponder the
smoulders, pretty close to where things in our lives that brought us
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to this campfire deep in the Patagonian we stand on what feels like the top
Andes—10 grateful specks under a of the universe.
dazzling starry sky.
Young rises early to round up FOUR DAYS LATER, our last, three-hour
the animals, now many kilometers ride begins early from Ranquilco’s
down the valley. From the elevation of courtyard. Dirt covers every inch of
our campsite, I watch this show of my clothes and gear. It will take a week
horsemanship unfold. of scrubbing before my hands look
When they’re back, we break camp anywhere near clean. Jen Billock,
quickly, tack up and ride out. Halfway who trailed behind tentatively when
across the meadow, Waks raises her all this began, has her horse trot up
hand. We halt and gather round her. to the lead.
“Over the next two hours, we Over the final kilometers, Waks, Young
will climb to almost 8,000 feet [more and I ride at the back of the group,
than 2,400 metres], the highest point savouring this last stretch of trail. Before
on the trail,” she says. “And we’ll the final rise, before the grassy expanse
start turning back toward the estancia. surrounding Buta Mallin appears, Waks
It is our tradition to ride this section suggests we three hold back even
in silence. farther. “How about one final run?” she
“We want you to absorb this moment says with a smile.
and to be fully present for a trail that “Yip, yip, yeeow!” We push our
will command your full attention.” horses into the lovely three-beat rhythm
Over the next two hours we pass of a canter. We sit deeply in our
a massive scree slope and go over sheepskin-covered saddles, shoulders
the spine of another high pass, then back. Our bodies are loose, at ease in
cross a trail that is half the width our own skin, just three badass gauchas
of Rolo’s load. It drops off on one side in northern Patagonia.
farther down than I care to imagine. © 2021, Liz Beatty. From ‘A wild ride through northern
Patagonia, Argentina,’ Canadian Geographic (19 February
Finally, after one last brutal climb, 2021), cangeotravel.ca
readersdigest.in 97
LAUGHTER
The best Medicine
“The good news is that “Mark Twain... because Two mafia hit-men are
KFC is donating $100 he said, ‘Wagner’s mu- walking in the woods
million to the Vatican. sic is much better than at night. One turns to
The bad news is, we have it sounds,’ which I think the other and says,
to give up the Wonder is the greatest joke “It’s really dark in here.
Bread account.” ever made.” I’m scared.” “You’re
—planet proctor newsletter scared?” says the other
My kid asked if he mobster. “I have to walk
The Merriam-Webster should leave something out of here alone.”
dictionary produces a for the tooth fairy, so I —Robert Love
word of the day, and need everyone to back
the folks at Fark help- me up that the tradi-
Reader’s Digest will pay
fully show us how to tional offering is a for your funny anecdote
use it in a sentence: bottle of wine or photo in any of our
M-W word of the — @deloisivete humour sections. Post it
to the editorial address, or
day: gainsay email: [email protected]
Helpful Fark: “I’m going
to eat way too much
over the holidays and SARTORIAL SPLENDOUR
gainsay 3 to 5 kilos.” If it’s true that clothes make the man, then artist
M-W word: abandon Helga Stentzel proves they also make the animal.
Helpful Fark: “Paul
McCartney and
Wings’ biggest hit
was abandon the run.”
M-W word:
countenance
Helpful Fark: “We
were curious how
many insects were
in the colony, so we
COURTESY HELGASTENTZEL.COM
Films
ENGLISH Veteran actor
Harrison Ford reprises
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Jones in INDIANA
A still from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
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PHOTO: (TOP) INDIAPICTURE
102
2 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
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reader
reade r sdigest.in 103
Reader ’s Digest
Books
A Lost People’s Archive: A Novel
by Rimli Sengupta, Aleph
Based on the tales while Shishu becomes
and records found a revolutionary—and Scope Out
in her grandmother’s cataclysmic events— Epicurious by Sreelata
notebook, author Partition, a refugee Menon (Hachette):
Rimli Sengupta’s latest exodus, communism Using drama and
book weaves the story as well as political humour that engages
of two neigh- and social young readers, Menon
bours, Shishu unrest in Bengal. breathes new life into
and Noni, who Told through an ancient epics from
meet as children artful fusion of cultures and countries
and develop a imagination with around the world.
deep friendship history, both
strengthened by personal and Varavara Rao: A Life In
their shared love national, Sengupta Poetry (Vintage): Edited
of stories and poetry. brings alive the story by N. Venugopal and
Soon however their of Bangals—the dis- Meena Kandasamy, this
paths diverge under placed East Bengalis— is Varavara Rao’s first
the dark shadow of and the narrative of book of poetry to be
circumstance—Noni their fractured land published in English.
is married off at 16, and lives.
Dreams, Illusion and
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE ... Other Realities by Wendy
India’s Secret War: BSF And Nine Doniger (Speaking Tiger):
Months To The Birth Of Bangladesh Scholar and indologist,
by Ushinor Majumdar (Penguin): Wendy Doniger analy-
Through exhaustive interviews ses stories from the
with surviving veterans, Ushinor Puranas, Mahabharata,
Majumdar brings his award-win- Ramayana and other
ning investigative reportage to texts to explore the role
this first comprehensive historical account of dreams and illusions
of the role of the BSF, an elite Indian force, in Indian myth
in the Bangladesh liberation war, which and philosophy.
changed the course of South Asian history.
—COMPILED BY ISHANI NANDI
QUOTABLE QUOTES
Nothing in the future exists yet.
But anything is possible right now.
Including the thing you think
you cannot do.
—Laura McKowen, author,
in the book We are the luckiest:
the surprising magic of a sober life
History
reppeats, but You have to use your voice,
science even if it shakes. There are
reveerberates. times when you will ask for
—Siddhartha change, and there are times
Mukherjee,
physician and when you’ll create it.
author —Allyson Felix, sprinter, to graduates of
the University of Southern California
readersdigest.in 105
Reader ’s Digest
106
6 june 2023
Culturescape
called Tranquebar)
but in this composite
shot, the focus is on
the continuum be-
tween the broken
Chola empire of yore
and the sea as it lives
and breathes today.
On purpose, the
textured grittiness
of his photograph
almost brings you
the taste of the salt
in the air and the
sounds of the crash-
ing waves on the age-
old temple rocks. It’s
Pasricha’s way of re-
inforcing one’s re-
spect for nature as a
universe, that looking shikhara reminds one monumental force.
far out into the cosmos of the greatness of And yet, at the
gives the astronomer. the empire that once same, time, he re-
It seems to transcend existed in Tarangam- minds you of its
not only space but badi and beyond, sev- fragility through his
time too, transporting eral centuries ago. frame, as thoughts
photograph by amit pasricha; image courtesy:
you to an age when The wind from the of rising sea levels
Tamil Nadu was a hub stormy skies above and the impact of
gallery under the mango tree, berlin
readersdigest.in 107
REVIEW
Breaking
New
Ground
Original, entertaining
and epic, Siddharth Deb’s
first novel in 15 years
will not disappoint
gettable picture of India we meet an assassin hot rebel army isn’t what
perpetually under siege on the trail of his target, it appears to be.
but also perpetually a whistle-blower threat- There are common
rebelling to free itself, ening to expose security themes across all four
whether the adversaries vulnerabilities at the sections—quests, out-
readersdigest.in 109
BRAIN TEASERS
Number Maze
medium In this maze, start at the 5 in the top- 5 5 4 2 3 4
left corner and move horizontally or vertically
(but never diagonally) to reach the star in the 3 3 1 4 1 1
bottom-right corner. At each move, travel
in only one direction the same number of 2 3 2 1 2 2
squares as the number in the cell you are
currently on. Since you are starting on a cell 4 4 4 3 4 2
containing 5, your next move is either 5
squares to the right or 5 squares down. The 5 1 2 3 4 5
next move will be based on your new cell’s
number. Can you find the path? 4 5 4 5 2
110 june 2023
Reader ’s Digest
Good Luck
difficult
1 1 C
3 9 C B
5 7
C A
7 ?
GOOD LUCK BY DARREN RIGBY; SET FREE BY FRASER SIMPSON; ALTERATIONS WHILE YOU WAIT BY DARREN RIGBY
9 9
A
Set Free
11 4 difficult Place an A, B or C in each
empty cell of this grid. No three
Using two simple calculations, each consecutive cells in a horizontal,
number on the left is transformed to vertical or diagonal line may contain
the one on the right. What is the a set of identical letters (such as
missing number for 7? Hint: If you B-B-B) or a set of three different
start with a low number, the second letters (such as C-A-B). Can you
step doesn’t do anything much. ensure a set-free grid?
readersdigest.in 111
Reader ’s Digest
BRAIN TEASERS
SUDOKU ANSWERS
BY Louis-Luc Beaudoin From pages 110 and 111
9. biome n.
WORD POWER (‘by-ohm)
a biogeographic unit
b group of stars
You don’t have to play Wordle to do well on c couples yoga
this quiz, which features past answers to 10. whelp n.
the popular online game that gives players (welp)
six guesses to identify a five-letter word. a scar
b puppy
Will you share your success on social media c slap
or erase your stats? When you’re done, turn
the page to find the answers. Ready? Begin! 11. abase v.
(uh-’bais)
a defend
By Rob Lutes b remove
c humiliate
1. aphid n. 5. tapir n. (‘tay-pr)
(‘ay-fuhd) a Velcro-like fastener 12. epoxy y n.
a sap-sucking insect b nocturnal mammal (i-’pahk-see)
b algae-eating fish c ceramic cookware a class of adhesive
c flowering shrub b type of viral disease
6. duchy n. c period of history
2. egret n. (‘duh-chee)
(‘ee-greht) a land of duke 13. grimy adj.
a bad decision or duchess (‘gry-mee)
b small cove b savoury puff pastry a uninviting
c white heron c motorized bicycle b covered with dirt
c pained
3. smite v. 7. tilde n.
(smyt) (‘tihl-duh) 14. agate n.
a strike sharply a whirlpool (‘a-guht)
b secure with rope b accent mark a arched doorway
c ascend in Spanish b sour berry
c tiered fountain c ornamental stone
4. leery adj.
(‘lihr-ree) 8. axiom n. 15. rebus n.
a intoxicated (‘ak-see-uhm) (‘ree-buhs)
b wary a bridge support beam a riddle made of pictures
c poorly made b sub-atomic particle b twin
c established truism c male crow
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Reader ’s Digest
114
4 june 2023
race reach on 15 Novem-
TRIVIA ber 2022?
ity. 14. Emeralds. 15. Alexander McCall Smith (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency).
billion. 11. A tooth. 12. Honey (its high sugar content kills micro-organisms). 13. Augmented real-
tern. 6. Garbage. 7. Ready to sail, all aboard. 8. Brazil. 9. A real potato. 10. A population of eight
Answers: 1. Most wishes granted (650). 2. Paint public murals. 3. Polocrosse. 4. Kit Kat. 5. Arctic
readersdigest.in 115
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