India’s first woman war correspondent, and the magical reason Owls disappeared | #28
By magical, we mean Harry Potter Fans did it...
“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper.
Half never voted for President.
One hopes it is the same half.” - Gore Vidal
While the world was enthralled by what was happening in the United States of America, we were thinking local and going vocal about it. The Kannada Talkies quiz - a quiz on Kannada cinema was a fabulous experience for all involved. Many thanks to our panelists - Hemanth Rao, Thejaswi Udupa and our host Meghavi Manjunath for enthralling all of us with facts and fun anecdotes.
Where else would you come across this as a response to a question involving Chris Gayle and Kannada film industry as ‘Seriganadam Gayle-ge’
Next up is a Bollywood Quiz hosted by Mayank Shekar, with panelists Aseem Chabbra and Karishma Upadhyay. Register for a fun 90 minutes filled with stories and gossip from authorities on Bollywood.
Three things we learnt this week:
November 4th, 2001 saw the premier of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (feel old yet?) Here is our thread about interesting things about the movie that you might have missed:
Talking of Harry Potter, Jairam Ramesh once blamed Harry Potter fans about the decline in the owl population in India. Due to the success of the films and the books, families in India wanted to buy owls from illegal traders leading to a decline. He might have a point.
India’s first woman war correspondent was Dutt, not Barkha, but her mother Prabha. When the war broke out in 1965, she asked for an opportunity to report from the front lines. But wasn’t allowed to go. She then asked for a vacation to visit her family in Punjab but used the time to go to the frontlines and send dispatches, which Hindustan Times found too good not to publish. Check out these photos shared by Barkha.
Things we’re reading / watching / listening to:
Lessons Learnt with the Greats is a podcast by former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson. What makes this cricketing podcast different from others is that each episode contains an interview with a cricketing great, which is divided into four parts - their career, the tactical aspect, the mental aspect, and the financial aspect. Also, enjoy your retirement Shane!
Written by Salim-Javed is a fascinating book by Diptakirti Chaudhari chronicling the rise of the star-scriptwriter duo. How they challenged the establishment, how they told people that their names would be the biggest draw on the poster and how they did it. Featuring plenty of trivia, that might be the syllabus of the Bollywood Quiz.
Bonus - An interesting art project on censorship and sensitivity from our Great India Quiz!
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❤️ IWTK