The Leap Year Baby's Birthday Budget | #194
+ Hrithik Roshan's superstardom 😱😱
Once every four years, the Earth gets slightly lazy and takes an extra day to make the trip around the sun. This is the first occurrence since the inception of this newsletter, so we’ve leapt at the chance to give you fun facts about events that happened on Feb 29th. Here are your interesting Leap Day stories
Things we learnt this week 🤓
Morarji Desai is probably the most famous Indian who was born on February 29th. He was born on Feb 29th 1896 and passed away in 1995 at a young age of 24 years. Once, on a trip to the USA, he appeared on 60 Minutes and proudly answered the host’s question about the secret to his longevity - drinking his own urine. Moving a wee bit away from the topic, Morarji Desai also holds the record for presenting the most number of budgets - 10. But what makes it more unique, is that in 1964 and in 1968, he presented the budgets on his birthday - making him the only Finance Minister to present the budget on their birthday. Talk about hosting a fiscal party on your birthday.
Since it’s also Oscar season here’s a fun fact - Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar for best supporting actress for the movie ‘Gone with the Wind’ and she won the award on Feb 29th, 1940. McDaniel was criticised for portraying a role that enforced stereotypes about African American women, but many critics point out that her portrayal of Mammy in the film is very close to the description in Margaret Mitchell’s novel. The award ceremony itself is symbolic of the times in America - Hattie McDaniel had to sit at a segregated table far away from the rest and was only allowed inside the hotel as she was a nominee. Post the ceremony, her white co-stars went to a “No Blacks” club to celebrate and McDaniel simply had to head home. Despite winning the award, her face was not shown on any movie posters in the Southern states of the USA. Hattie McDaniel broke through one barrier just to bump into another at the after-party
Talking of breaking barriers, one of sport’s greatest upsets happened on Feb 29th 1996. Two-time World Champions West Indies took on world cup debutants Kenya at the Nehru Stadium in Pune. The first half of the game pretty much went as per script - West Indian bowling was too strong for the Kenyans and Kenya were bowled out for 166. Kenya though got the West Indian openers out cheaply. In walked Brian Charles Lara, the owner of the highest test and first class score in cricket, who proceeded to bat like a millionaire he was. In a loss of concentration, he slashed at one outside off stump and was caught by the portly bespectacled wicketkeeper Tariq Iqbal, who expressed the most shock himself. West Indies later disintegrated to 93 all out giving the Kenyans the shock leap day win.
From IWTK, with love 💌
Hrithik Roshan was probably the last star to experience true stardom. Relive the days of his debut release.
Another Hrithik Roshan classic turns 20. More about Lakhsya.
Only In India 🇮🇳
Things went whey out of control here. And to end in a fight like this is too cheesy.
Be cool,
❤️ IWTK
Please remove died at young age of 24