The unknown Olympic medalist, & Tank Man | #162
Also, Elon’s pop culture cameos 🎬
“Nothing remains constant except change itself.” ~Unknown
We received this particular quote in one of these annoying ‘Gud Mrng’ messages on WhatsApp and the unknown author bitbcaught our attention. We realised there are so many impactful people who’s identities, names and stories aren’t known to everyone
This week, we try to shine a light on a few unknown heroes.
Things we learnt this week 🤓
If you scroll through the list of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential persons of the 20th century, you will see a lot of prominent names - Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King etc. But one of the entries is the unknown Tiananmen Square Rebel, often known as the Tank Man. He stood in front of a column of Tanks leaving Tiananmen Square after the Chinese government’s brutal crackdown on the protesters. As the lead tank manoeuvred to pass by the man, he repeatedly shifted his position to obstruct the tank's attempted path around him. The full video shows 2 men in blue, pulling the man away and disappearing into the nearby crowd. No reliable information has been found about the identity of the man. A foundation dedicated to memorialising victims of communism marked the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre by unveiling a statue of the iconic "Tank Man" during a rally in Washington, D.C. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but it seems the tank is no match for a man determined to make a stand.
Q: Who is the youngest gold medal winner at the Olympics?
A: Nobody knows 🤷🏽♂️
Back in the 1900 Olympics in Paris, the Coxless Pairs rowing event was won as per official records by “Mixed Team”. The team consisted of rowers François Brandt and Roelof Klein, and coxswain Hermanus Brockmann - all from Netherlands. During the semifinals against the French team they realised something interesting. The French team had young boys as coxswains, who were much lighter than Brockmann. These boys weighed around 25 kg, while Brockmann weighed 60 kg. It's easier to move someone lighter through the water, so Brandt and Klein decided to replace Brockmann with a local French boy as their coxswain. And with this new team, they ended up winning the gold medal. Nobody knows who that boy is. The search for the French coxswain could be the title of an interesting book.
Gold medal winners of the 1900 Coxless pairs event
Time Magazine releases a list of most influential persons every year. Each person is accompanied with a nice photograph. In 2016, Time magazine considered author Elena Ferrante as one of the most influential people but only included a picture of her books instead of a person. The reason? Nobody* knows who she is. In interviews, Elena has claimed to be from Naples and has 3 sisters. But that is about what we know about her.
Closer home, one of the plotlines of the Kannada blockbuster ‘Rangitaranga’ is to try and discover the identity of an author who goes by the name Anashku. The word Anashku itself was to indicate Anamadheya(one with no name) Ashok Kumar, where Ashok Kumar refers to the name given to unidentified males in India. Who needs a face, when you can make an impact with a name..
From IWTK, with love 💌
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Hardly a week goes by without any news from Elon Musk. We look at some of his cameos in movies and TV shows.
Quiz Update 🔎
The Ultimate Business Quiz at NIPM Kerala was hosted by IWTK Quiz. Top 4 corporate teams along with top 4 college teams were selected from an online prelims and the finals held in Kochi. The team comprising Jayakanthan R from TCS and B Naveen Kumar from Sai-Mitra Constructions won the first prize and were awarded Rs 40,000 for their efforts. In all prizes worth 1 lakh were given to the top 4 teams.
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