THE ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

FEBRUARY 2025 `125

IR A C LE S

!
E RY M

D
C O V

E
& R E

V
HEALTH SCARES

I SURVI PAGE 32

BETTER LIVING

Dancing into
EVERYDAY HEROES
Middle Age
PAGE 18
A Former
Convict’s NATURE

Run for The Great

Redemption Serengeti
PAGE 12 Migration
PAGE 92
HEALTH

Do Detox DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

Regimens Life after

Really a 14,000-
Work? foot Fall
PAGE 48 PAGE 54
 Reader ’s Digest

CONTENTS
Features 66
inspiration
84
photo essay

32
cover story
Calendar Girls
After Molly Baker’s
husband died suddenly,
Frozen in Time
The life and work of
mountain-photography
her friends organized a
I SURVIVED! year’s worth of support
pioneer, Vittorio Sella.
By HugH tHoMson
Three medical emergen- By sArAH cHAssé
cies, as told by those who 92
(THIS PAGE) PHOTOSTOCK-ISRAEL/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY IMAGES

nearly died from them. 72 natUre

48 the Unforgettable
Soumitra Chatterjee’s
The Great Wilde-
beest Migration
health
Tryst with Destiny It’s a spectacular
Should You Try a
The encounter that led sight when countless
Detox Treatment?
a budding actor to a ruminants cross the
Find out if science backs legendary filmmaker. Serengeti in search
this new-year health habit. By sAngHAMitrA cHAkrABorty of greener pastures.
By Adrienne MAtel By Vincent noyoux
76
54 travel
cover photograph
Drama in real life Music in the Air by Emiko Franzen
14,000-Foot Miracle Cuba is bursting with
How a skydiver survived sound, and each region
after a parachute fail. moves to its own rhythm.
By ryAn HockensMitH By sHAnnon siMs

92

ReadeRsdigest.in 3
Reader ’s Digest

Humour
31
Humour in Uniform
46
All in a Day’s Work
64
Life’s Like That
98
Laughter,
The Best Medicine

100
Departments Better Living Culturescape
life Well lived rd recommends
8 Over to You
18 Dancing into 100 The Brutalist, The
A World of Good Middle Age Blaft Book of Anti-
11 Giving Folks by Julia Zarankin Caste SF, Fin vs
Their Flowers heAlth History and More
by aditya mani Jha
22 How Much Should
everydAy heroes You Weigh, Really? studio
12 Running for by beth weinhouSe 104 Sohrab Hura’s Still
Redemption from Bittersweet
by Claire Sibonney neWs from the by Zeenat nagree
World of medicine
mirAcles 26 Dancing Mole- me And my shelf
14 Ringing True cules for Osteo- 106 Santanu Bhatta-
by Jonathan edwardS arthritis and More charya’s All-Time
by beth weinhouSe Favourite Reads
quotAble quotes 13 thinGs
105 Brian Cox, Payal 28 Birth Order Brain Games
Kapadia, and More Facts to Spark
PHOTO: IMDB

Sibling Rivalry 108 Brain Teasers

Where oh Where 111 Word Power
by Charlotte
114 Northern Lights hilton anderSen 113 Trivia

4 february
January 2024
2025
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6 february 2025
 He Slimed Me
OVER TO When my grand-
daughter Meenakshi,
YOU
Notes on the
then three years old,
started ‘kneading’
December issue store-bought plastic
clay, I weaned her
away from it with my
homemade ‘edible’
A Hug to Stop a Bank Robber slime with wheat
flour, ghee, and
That some frequent offenders get so conditioned
sugar—slimy in ap-
by their time in prison that they are unable to adjust
pearance and texture
to life after release and even seek another term, is a
but tasty. For variety
strange—though not uncommon—phenomenon. On
I would throw in milk
the other hand, another ex-convict risking his life to
powder, protein, co-
prevent a potential crime through compassion rather
coa and instant cof-
than weapons or violence is indeed rare. Truly the
fee. It soon caught
milk of human kindness is not restricted only to the
on and she started to
virtuous. Its potential to change lives reminds me of
make her own edible
Norman McKinnel’s book The Bishop’s Candlesticks
slimes with whatever
in which a jail-escapee steals a pair of silver candle-
the kitchen offered,
sticks from a bishop’s house and is caught by the po-
while the ‘other’
lice, but when brought to face his victim, the bishop
commercial option
says that he gave them to the man himself, a lie that
was totally forgotten!
restores the convict’s faith in humanity.
Dr N. Gopalakrishnan,
PROF. MOHAN SINGH, Amritsar
Coimbatore
Prof. Mohan Singh wins this month’s ‘Write & Win’ prize of `1,000. —EDs
How Risky are those
This article beautifully shows how a few encoura- Holiday Cocktails?
ging words, and a simple act of compassion in the As the holiday sea-
form of a hug can do wonders to transform a bad son brings festive
situation into a peaceful one. I’m a Special Educator cheer, many of us
for dyslexic children and can attest to how the power are tempted to in-
of gentle communication and patient listening can dulge ourselves in
help even the most adamant child turn calm, co- food, drink and
operative and open to learning. This is an important merriment. But high
skill that every person should learn to succeed in life. alcohol content, exces-
Preetha Rengaswamy, Mylapore sive sugars, and large

8 february 2025
Reader ’s Digest

servings leads to over- But for Zuber’s sharp the night of the 23rd
consumption, dehy- instincts, hawk-eyed so Santa would know
dration, impaired vision and persever- what presents we
judgment and a stop ance, Steger would wanted for Christmas.
to feel-good moments. have surely perished One day we told our
The combination of al- and been lost forever. young house-help all
cohol with medications The world owes a about Santa, who lis-
or heavy drinking in a lot to such heroes. tened starry-eyed. Very
social setting can have Krishan Kalra, shyly she wrote a note
serious health conse- Gurugram and left it under the
quences. Enjoying a tree before she went
few drinks in modera- Home for home after work. The
tion, staying hydrated, the Holidays next day she ran to the
and being mindful of Every family reunion is tree and let out a joy-
personal limits can unique in its own way ous scream upon find-
help prevent the hid- which adds meaning ing a bundle of gifts
den dangers of holiday to special days such as waiting for her. She
cocktails. Let’s cele- Christmas, Ramzan, asked only for gifts for
brate responsibly and Navarathri and other her family so her pack-
prioritize our well-be- festivals that have reli- ages had name tags of
ing for the benefit of all. gious underpinnings. all her family members.
SANJAY CHOPRA, Mohali Family bonds are You made it a Christ-
strengthened during mas to remember,
Buried in a such occasions and of- Santa, thank you!
Snow Tomb fer a chance to rebuild Preeti Aranha,
Tom Hallman Jr.’s story strained relationships. Mangalore
is a truly bone-chilling The four stories in this
account. Scary as it is, cover story speak to the Write in at editor.india@
the beautiful narrative insatiable longing in rd.com. The best letters
discuss RD articles, offer
also elegantly reflects all of us to give, take
criticism, share ideas.
on (a) meticulously and share with our Do include your phone
detailed instructions, nearest and dearest! number and postal address.
precautions and rec- Ayyasseri Raveendra-
NOTE TO OUR READERS
ommendations for nath, Aranmula, Kerala You may see pages titled ‘An
skiers and (b) Francis Impact Feature’ or ‘Focus’ in
Zuber’s out-of-the-box Every December, we Reader’s Digest. This is no
different from an advertisement
thinking and commit- would keep our wish- and the magazine’s editorial
ment to help other lists ready and placed staff is not involved in its
creation in any way.
adventure-enthusiasts. under our pillows on

10 february 2025
 A World of

GOOD
Reasons to Smile

Giving Folks Their Flowers

A
t some point, maybe after a birthday or the loss of a loved one, you’ve
ended up with more flowers than you knew what to do with. So did
friends Rebecca Shelly and Laura Ruth of Harrisonburg, Virginia, after
they both lost their fathers in 2023. But it gave them the idea for their
non-profit, Friendly City Florals. The friends reuse flowers after weddings
and funerals, delivering new arrangements to nursing homes and hospitals,
where the blooms brighten spirits. “When we drop off the flowers, everybody
oohs and aahs over them,” Ruth told the Washington Post. “One woman
kept saying, ‘Really? These are for me?’”
Laura ruth, co-founder friendLy city fLoraLs

ReadeRsdigest.in 11
Reader ’s Digest

EVERYDAY HEROES

John McAvoy, (left),

leads a group of
young people
on a trail run.

Running for O
N A BRIGHT September day in
the French Alps in 2022, John

Redemption McAvoy was 38 kilometres into

a gruelling ultramarathon through rug-
ged mountain paths. Battling fatigue,
he pushed his body and mind through
Once imprisoned, John the final stretch of the race. With the
McAvoy found a new life finish arch in the famous resort town
of Chamonix just four kilometres away
through the power of and the soaring cloud-topped peak of
sport—and he’s helping Mont Blanc hovering over him, McA-
voy welled up with emotion. In that
disadvantaged youth moment, he felt so free and alive.
do the same It was quite the opposite from where
MATT KYNASTON

his life had been a decade before. He

had just been released from prison
BY Claire Sibonney in the United Kingdom after serving
a 10-year sentence for armed robbery.

12 february 2025
 Reader ’s Digest

Now 40 years old, McAvoy has spent When McAvoy was released in 2012,
the last 10 years rebuilding his life from he dedicated himself to being a profes-
one of crime to one with purpose. After sional athlete—he’s now a Nike-
his release, he began speaking at schools sponsored endurance triathlete and an
and young offenders’ institutions. But Ironman—and an advocate for prison
it was on this day, while running the reform and youth in sport.
Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, that he real- With the help of Youth Beyond Bor-
ized how impactful conquering this ders, McAvoy started the Alpine Run
mountain run could be for inner-city Project, which recently led 12 disad-
kids. After all, sport had helped him vantaged British young people through
rehabilitate and open up his world. It their own Mont Blanc races. The par-
could do the same for others. ticipants, from refugees to young
There were reasons why McAvoy had offenders and those who grew up in
lost his way. His father died before he foster care, were matched with
was born, and the closest male figure in coaches, counsellors and physiothera-
his life was his stepfather, Billy Tobin, pists. After a six-month training pro-
who, like his uncle Mick ‘the Nutter’ gram, the youth travelled to the Alps to
McAvoy, was an infamous bank robber. meet up with McAvoy for their race.
Tobin came into McAvoy’s life when With former prison officer Davis
he was eight years old, and eventually (now a schoolteacher) still by his
McAvoy started helping with the fam- side, McAvoy says the pinnacle of
ily’s criminal business. During his first this inaugural project for him was
stint in jail, at 19 years old, he spent 365 watching Yasmin Mahamud, a 20-year-
days in solitary confinement. “It’s like old refugee from Syria who had
you are locked in a concrete coffin,” he escaped family abuse and homeless-
says. By his early 20s, he was locked up ness, run through the finish arch
for the second time. (last, but not least) and into the arms
McAvoy’s turning point came when of her new friends. It was a life-
his best friend, Aaron, died in a police changing high for Mahamud, too—
chase following a heist gone wrong. He inspiring her to keep running, take up
vowed to distance himself from bad martial arts and go to university to
influences and threw himself into train- study physiotherapy.
ing in the prison gym. A prison officer, “It changed my point of view on life,”
Darren Davis, noticed McAvoy’s speed says Mahamud. Pushing herself to
on the rowing machine and saw a young complete the race gave her a glimpse
man who needed a chance. Under his of her own potential through hard work
coaching, Davis led McAvoy to best a and dedication. “I will always be thank-
string of British and world rowing ful to John for giving me this opportu-
records, all from jail. nity and guidance.”

ReadeRsdigest.in 13
Reader ’s Digest

14 february 2025
 MIRACLE

Ringing True
He thought his late parents’
wedding bands were gone forever

by Jonathan Edwards
from the washington post

G
ary guadagno had lost hope they held sentimental value for
of ever finding his parents’ someone, and they thought the rings
wedding rings. While sell- should be returned.
ing his childhood home in Reading, Anthony and Rosemarie Guad-
Pennsylvania, in 2011, just before his agno exchanged the rings when they
mother’s passing, Guadagno searched got married in 1947. They moved
high and low for the rings. He didn’t into their two-bedroom house in the
find them. early 1950s. They raised Gary, their
He figured his mother, who had only child, while Anthony worked as
Alzheimer’s, had thrown them out. He a mechanic and Rosemarie as a stay-
was devastated, but didn’t know what at-home parent.
else to do besides move on. “They were just two very hardwork-
“They’re keepsakes and part of my ing people and loved each other very
family legacy,” he says. much,” Guadagno says.
A decade passed and the rings In 1978, when Gary was 15, An-
never turned up. Then, last Septem- thony died of a heart attack. Rose-
ber, Guadagno got a Facebook mes- marie started a 20-year career in the
sage from Hannah Keuscher, who patient transport and supply depart-
had bought his mother’s house back ment of the hospital that had em-
in 2011. Her husband, Josh Martin, ployed her husband as a maintenance
had discovered a jewelry box with two mechanic at the time of his death. She
rings inside a kitchen light fixture. retired in 1998 as her Alzheimer’s pro-
Keuscher and Martin suspected gressed, and sometime before 2011,

illustration by Nadia Radic ReadeRsdigest.in 15

Reader ’s Digest

she stashed the wedding rings inside

the kitchen light.
Keuscher knew little of that history.
But years earlier, out of curiosity, she
had searched the name on the home’s
bill of sale, which led to Rosemarie
Guadagno’s obituary. Last Septem-
ber, she found it again, located Gary
on Facebook and sent a message with
news of the discovery. Guadagno (right) holding his parents’
Guadagno was shocked that the wedding rings, with Martin and Keuscher
rings had been found—and that
someone had taken the time to track the couple scoured the house but
him down. found no one.
“I just sat there for two or three As she told the story, Guadagno
minutes blinking into space,” he says. noted the date of Keuscher and Mar-
Guadagno was ready to drive tin’s mysterious visitor: Nov. 23, 2012.
40 miles from his home in Phoenix- That was the night his mother died.
ville, Pennsylvania, to Reading. But When she passed, a nurse opened a
Keuscher and Martin offered to bring window to let her spirit escape.
the rings to him. “I think she was just coming
A few weeks later, the three were by to say goodbye to her home,”
c hatt i ng at Gu a d ag n o’s h o m e. Keuscher says.
Keuscher told Guadagno of an inci- Nearly 11 years later, Guadagno’s
dent that had happened 16 months mother said another hello and good-
after they bought the house, when bye of sorts. Someone had finally
Guadagno’s mother would have been found her wedding rings. And those
in assisted living. One night, Keuscher mementos are back in the family. LEONORA LEACOCK VIA THE WASHINGTON POST
saw a bathroom light turn on, and “It means the world to me that I
then a shadow came in the bedroom. have this,” Guadagno says.
Then it vanished. Neither Keuscher nor Martin ever
Keuscher called to her husband. thought of keeping the rings.
When he didn’t answer, she looked all “They belonged to somebody,”
through the house, eventually finding Keuscher says. “They had a history.”
him in the basement. She asked why Plus, Keuscher remembered the
he’d darted in and out of the bed- night that Rosemarie died. “I felt if I
room. He said he hadn’t been in the didn’t return these rings,” Keuscher
bedroom at all. Keuscher’s legs gave says with a laugh, “she was going to
out, and she fell to the floor. Fearful, haunt me the rest of my life.”

16 february 2025
Reader ’s Digest

18 february 2025
 BETTER LIVING
Wellness for Body & Mind

Dancing into
Middle Age
A surprising new hobby taught me there’s more than
one way to be flexible

By Julia Zarankin
from cbc canada

B
y my early 40s, I had exhausted Also, my track record for committing
all the hobbies that were sup- to physical activity wasn’t great: Be-
posed to make me feel bet- tween short stints on the recreational
ter about entering middle age. I had badminton court, a brief flirtation with
taken an improv class, started learn- cycling, an on-and-off relationship
ing a new language, launched myself with swimming, and near-total aban-
into an unsuccessful pursuit of a craft donment of my dumbbell-lifting regi-
only to amass a collection of unevenly men, I could see how I didn’t exactly
stitched handmade books, and given look like prospective ballerina material.
yoga a second chance. I’d even bought But I was determined to give it a try.
a recliner to help alleviate the malaise. I needed confirmation that my body
And then, at the height of my low- was capable of movement and grace.
grade desperation, I decided to sign Before leaving the house for my first
up for a ballet class. intro class for adults at the National
“But you’re not very flexible,” my Ballet School in Toronto, Canada, I
husband gently reminded me. He grabbed a rhinestone headband that
wasn’t wrong. I nearly injured myself had been languishing in my drawer for
the one time I tried to lift my leg on years. I figured that if I would be stand-
to our bathroom vanity in an attempt ing in front of a mirror, in front of a
to stretch. group of strangers, with all my postural

illustration by Helena Garcia Perez ReadeRsdigest.in 19

Reader ’s Digest

Julia Zarankin (second from the left), wearing her rhinestone headband, joined a ballet
programme for adults and learnt to love what her middle-aged body could do.

infelicities exposed, I might as well do that my every move invited my teach-

it in a rhinestone headband. er’s critical dissection.
I hadn’t expected any of it to stick. And though I’d expected my classes
After all, this wasn’t my first time in to be physically demanding and my

PHOTO COURTESY OF CANADA’S NATIONAL BALLET SCHOOL

a ballet studio. But this time around, calf muscles to ache, I hadn’t antici-
pated that my teacher’s command to
MY TEACHER “take up more space” would change
my way of being in the world.
REMINDED ME THAT When I lamented my lack of grace
BALLET ISN’T ABOUT in the deceptively simple act of point-
PERFECTION. ing and extending my foot to the side
in a tendu, my teacher reminded me
that ballet isn’t about perfection.
the exact same things that had made Rather, he said, it’s about striving for
me flee the studio as a 10-year-old perfection. As a writer who wrangles
now brought a certain joy. The repet- sentences all day with the hope that
itive nature of exercises at the barre. they will approximate the beautiful,
The sheer physical exertion. The fact perfect construct in her mind (reader,

20 february 2025
 Life Well Lived

they rarely do, if ever!), this felt like Eight years into my ballet classes,
the best, most searing writing advice I’m what you would call a lifelong
I’d ever received. advanced beginner. At the tender age
Slowly, I started becoming more of 50, I am finally a ballerina, though
comfortable with the body I saw star- not the kind that anybody would
ing back at me in the mirror. My pos- pay money to see on stage. Why do I
ture still needs finessing, my jumps continue? Because when I do my (al-
are never as high as they feel, my hips most) daily ballet class, I focus on my
wobble during my rond de jambe, and breathing and move my body in ways
my pirouette is still lopsided on the that always challenge me and remind
best of days. me of everything that is possible.
But the idea that my body hasn’t os- Recently, my teacher taught us a
sified and that it’s still a work in prog- watered-down, beginner-appropriate
ress encourages me. If anything, ballet version of the Rose Adagio choreogra-
is forcing me to rethink my relationship phy from Sleeping Beauty. As I stood
with my body, and instead of noticing in my living room, balancing in a
only the beginnings of older age de- shaky cou-de-pied in relevé and
scending upon me, I now marvel at bedecked in a rhinestone headband,
what my body is capable of and the dancing for nobody but myself, I felt
incremental changes I’ve seen as I’ve every inch a ballerina.
learnt to stand with more confidence
and courage. As for the imperfections? adapted from cdc.ca (18 march 2022)
They’re part of being alive. © 2024 Julia Zarankin.

Beware the Benihana Bandit

A whopping 25 per cent of all US bank robberies in the early 1970s took place in Los
Angeles—so many that the FBI began using nicknames to keep them organized:
The man who disguised himself with surgical gauze became
the Mummy Bandit.
The man who wore a single glove became the Michael Jackson Bandit.
A two-man team who wore fake mustaches were the Marx Brothers.
A guy who waved a knife was the Benihana Bandit.
And a group who robbed in threes—one dressed as a biker, another as a cop and
a third as a construction worker—was known as the Village People.
malcom Gladwell, in the book revenGe of the tippinG point

ReadeRsdigest.in 21
 HEALTH

How Much
Should You
Weigh,
Really?
The advice has moved
beyond the old BMI (body
mass index) measure

By Beth Weinhouse

I
t’s the number we all want to
know: the magic number on the
scale that would make us look
great in clothes (or out of them!) and
keep us healthy. Often, we set a goal
for ourselves based on a feeling. Or
a weight we remember being happy
with when we were in high school. Or
maybe we consult one of the many dif-
ferent charts and formulas to help us
calculate that number. Unfortunately,
none of these methods on its own
can prescribe a number that’s healthy
and—just as important—possible to

22 february 2025 illustrations by Kate Traynor

 Reader ’s Digest

attain and maintain. So how can you director of the Comprehensive Program
determine your ‘best’ weight? It’s on Obesity at NYU Grossman School of
more complicated—and simpler— Medicine. “But you can’t just look at a
than you think. number and say that’s what you want
to weigh. That’s not the way the charts
The Problem with are supposed to be used.”
Charts and Formulas A problem with BMI is that the chart
Formulas for determining a healthy lists the same healthy (or unhealthy)
weight range can easily be found weight range for men and women, and
online. But none can accurately recom- for older and younger adults.
mend a healthy weight for everyone, “It doesn’t take into consideration a
since formulas can’t take more than a lot of differences among people, like
few factors (like height and weight, for muscle and bone mass,” says Dr. Jay. It
example) into account. can mistakenly classify muscular ath-
“These formulas can be useful in a letes as overweight or obese, and can
doctor’s office as screening tools to help miss health risks for older people or
consider health risks,” says Yoni Freed- others who have lost muscle. It can’t
hoff, MD, associate professor of family take things like existing health condi-
medicine at the University of Ottawa tions and medications into account.
and the founder and medical director The BMI chart, she explains, was
of the Bariatric Medical Institute. But, intended to be one among many screen-
he adds, they’re not really useful at giv- ing tools for doctors to use as part of an
ing individuals a target weight. assessment of a person’s health risks.
For decades, we’ve been told that The Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
Body Mass Index (BMI) is the standard. vention says that “for individuals, BMI
To calculate BMI, you plug in your should be considered with other factors,
height and weight, and then a formula such as blood pressure, cholesterol lev-
spits out a number that falls on a scale els and physical examination.”
from underweight to healthy to over- More recently, some doctors have
weight to obese, based on an estimated begun using the BRI, or body round-
percentage of body fat. ness index.
Simple, right? Too simple. And so the “This formula doesn’t take weight
latest thinking is that we need to con- into consideration at all—just waist cir-
sider more than this number. cumference,” explains Dr. Jay. The
“Some patients use the chart and thinking behind this chart is that where
come in saying, ‘I want to be in the nor- you accumulate fat can be even more
mal range,’” says Melanie Jay, MD, asso- important than how much you weigh.
ciate professor in the departments of Excess fat around the middle can be
medicine and population health, and especially problematic because the fat

ReadeRsdigest.in 23
Reader ’s Digest

surrounds the abdominal organs, lead- that may be exacerbated by excess

ing to a higher risk of heart disease and weight, doctors tend to look at percent-
other conditions. ages, not pounds. “A doctor shouldn’t
Again, though, there are caveats. say you should be X weight. But they
How unhealthy abdominal fat may be might say that if you lose 5 per cent to
depends on its composition. And there 10 per cent of your body weight you
are different health conditions that can would be healthier,” says Dr. Jay.
affect abdominal size. The best weight is one you can com-
“I wouldn’t use this chart to supply a fortably maintain by eating as healthy
number of what someone should as possible and exercising. For people
weigh,” says Dr. Jay. “How are they feel- who can’t achieve a healthy weight this
ing, how are they doing? What’s their way, there are new medications and
blood pressure, blood sugar? How surgical techniques that can help. The
well are they sleeping? All these need goal, though, probably isn’t the magic
to be considered.” number you’ve been fixating on.
“Ask yourself ‘Could I be living a
So What’s Your Ideal Weight? healthier lifestyle?’ and aspire to that,”
Confused? It’s hard not to be. For peo- Dr. Freedhoff says. “Whatever weight the
ple who are already dealing with health body settles at and maintains when we
problems like heart disease or diabetes live this way is the best weight for us.”

I tried it ...
Craving-Curbing Probiotics
I needed a jump start to trim down but wasn’t comfort-
able using one of the popular injectable drugs like
Ozempic. I decided to try the Pendulum GLP-1 Probiotic
instead. According to the product description, it’s for-
mulated to train the gut to produce hormones that help
manage metabolism, blood sugar and hunger. Within
the first week of taking it, I was noticeably less hungry,
indulging my afternoon sugar craving became a choice,
and I was sleeping better. After a couple of months, let’s
just say that body parts that had started to rub together
or limit my mobility had trimmed down again. Another
big bonus: For the first time in memory, I didn’t feel as if I needed a nap by mid-after-
noon. Pendulum’s chief medical officer, Adam Perlman, MD, says the probiotic helps
our bodies better metabolize sugars and carbohydrates, which “may prevent sugar
crashes and, yes, may lead to sustained energy levels.” —Kristine Gasbarre

24 february 2025
 Health

looked at how bedtime and wake-up

variability and total sleep time affect
health markers and body weight. It
also assessed whether exercise and an
active lifestyle could help improve the
negative health metrics associated with
poor sleep.
The study of nearly 4,000 people
aged 46 and over wore activity moni-
tors to track their wake and sleep habits
over two weeks. They were assessed for
average blood pressure, level of
abdominal fat, glucose and insulin lev-
els, and cholesterol to see how sleep
affected these metrics. Researchers
discovered that irregular sleep habits
resulted in several poor health metrics,
especially for people who didn’t move
much during the day.
But there was some good news for
troubled sleepers: if someone misses a

How Sleep few hours of sleep here and there,

boosting exercise could help mitigate

Affects Your some of the adverse health effects.

If one of your priorities is weight loss,

Weight
it seems you can’t out-exercise poor
sleep habits, especially as you age.
People who varied their bedtime sig-
nificantly had higher waist circumfer-
BY Meaghan Cameron ences, even with additional exercise or
daily movement factored in.

G
etting seven to nine hours of “Higher bedtime variability was
sleep every night sets your body associated with higher waist circumfer-
up for a slew of positive benefits. ence regardless of time in bed, chrono-
PHOTO: SHUT TERS TOCK

But the time you go to bed and get up type, and sedentary time or total phys-
can also have significant effects on your ical activity,” wrote researchers.
health—even your weight. So if you want to maintain a healthy
A study published in the Journal of weight as you age, be sure to prioritize
Activity, Sedentary, and Sleep Behaviors your sleep.

ReadeRsdigest.in 25
 the study, published in the jour-
news from the nal Psychology Research and

WORLD OF Behavior Management, points

to the importance of participa-
MEDICINE ting in social activities. People
in rural areas were less likely to
By Beth Weinhouse
do so very often, but those who
played cards or mahjong at least
once a week, or participated in
other organized social activities
at least once a month, were at
less risk of depression.

‘Dancing Molecules’
for Osteoarthritis

Dancing might be the last thing

that comes to mind when you
think about treatments for osteo-
porosis. But researchers at North-
western University in Illinois
have created a gooey substance
made from special molecules,

ARE YOU A nicknamed ‘dancing molecules’,

which could be the key to boost-
CITY MOUSE ing cartilage production and

OR A COUNTRY helping to reverse the osteo-

porosis that so often causes
MOUSE? painful joints as people age.
The researchers designed the
People can be lonely and depressed molecules to ‘dance’, because
no matter where they live. But a the motion incites them to pro-
study of more than 5,000 older duce more of the cartilage com-
adults in China found that the rate ponents. So far the molecules
of depressive symptoms among have shown promise when tested
ADAM VOORHES

those who lived in rural areas was on human cells in the lab, and on
1.37 times higher than in the city live sheep. The scientists are hop-
dwellers. Of course the solution isn’t ing that clinical trials with people
for everyone to move to the city, but will happen soon.

26 february 2025 Research by Meaghan Cameron, MS, and Patricia Varacallo, DO

 Reader ’s Digest

An Easier OB-GYN the results of this test- damage by regenerat-

Appointment ing method are compa- ing myelin, the insulat-
rable to the Pap smear ing layer that protects
Women now have for preventing cervical nerves. Multiple scle-
an alternative to the cancer. The next step: rosis (MS) occurs when
dreaded Pap smear. The FDA is currently the body’s immune
Your gynaecologist reviewing data to see system mistakenly at-
can just hand you a if an at-home test can tacks this fatty, protec-
swab that you can use be approved. tive substance. The
yourself in the doctor’s new drug, called PIPE-
office to screen for SOS for MS 307, was developed at
cervical cancer. The the University of Cali-
swab will collect cells An experimental new fornia, San Francisco,
from the vaginal wall treatment for multiple and has shown prom-
that will then be sent sclerosis can stop and ise but must be studied
to a lab for testing. even potentially re- in clinical trials on
Research shows that verse some nerve people with MS.

The Best Diet for Losing Weight?

The Mediterranean diet is touted as one of the healthiest ways to eat, as it
is associated with greater health and longevity. But when it comes to losing
FCAFOTODIGITAL/GETTY IMAGES

weight, a low-fat vegan diet gets better results, while still being a great way to
maintain metabolic health. The research, headed by the Physicians Commit-
tee for Responsible Medicine, looked at data collected from people who were
divided into two groups. Each group ate either a Mediterranean or low-fat
vegan diet for 16 weeks, then switched to the other. The researchers found
that the low-fat vegan diet resulted in more weight loss and had a better
cardiometabolic health outcome—meaning protection against conditions
such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes and fatty liver disease.

ReadeRsdigest.in 27
 13 THINGS

Birth Order Facts to Spark

Sibling Rivalry
By Charlotte Hilton Andersen

1 2
First proposed it does offer insights Eldest daughter
by psychiatrist that seem to reaffirm syndrome refers
Alfred Adler in conventional wisdom to the parent-like
the 1920s, birth order about sibling dyna- responsibility first-born
theory is the idea that mics. Even when girls often feel toward
where you fall in your it doesn’t describe their younger siblings.
family can determine you all that well, It can make them over-
major aspects of your it’s still fun to dis- achievers—but also
personality. While it’s cuss—especially anxious, guilt-ridden
not exactly a science, with your family. people pleasers. Think

28 february 2025 illustration by Serge Bloch

 reader’s digest

7
about Katniss Everdeen, king), while Harry Contrary to the
from The Hunger Games was able to step away stereotype, only
series, who risks her life from his royal duties. children aren’t
to save her little sister’s. selfish or maladjusted.

5
Harry Potter author J. K. The comedians In fact, the American
Rowling (also an eldest Jim Carrey, Billy Psychological Associa-
daughter), has said the Crystal, Kevin tion found that only
studious, rule-abiding Hart, Martin Short, kids measured similarly
Hermione is an ampli- Sarah Silverman and to kids with siblings on
fied version of herself. Ali Wong are all the tests for sociability and
youngest of their sib- emotional adjustment.

3
Many CEOs and lings. Coincidence?

8
moguls are eldest Maybe, but youngest only children
children. Among children are the ones are often high
them: Andrew Carne- most often described achievers like
gie, Sheryl Sandberg as the “funniest family first-borns and also
and Oprah Winfrey. member,” according to highly imaginative—
Firstborns also tend to a YouGov survey. perhaps from having
get better grades and to amuse themselves

6
often have higher IQs Did you think without any siblings
than their siblings, but we forgot middle around. Think Natalie
researchers link this to children? Appar- Portman, who went to
the fact that eldest kids ently, everyone does. Harvard but also excels
are more likely to get It’s so common that as an actress. Ringo
extra attention and it has a name: middle- Starr, of Beatles fame,
resources from parents, child syndrome. is another example.
giving them a leg up. There’s debate as to

9
whether this is a real Do you like dark

4
Younger siblings phenomenon or just chocolate? How
are often painted a feeling that many about cilantro? If
as carefree and middle children experi- so, you are more likely
lighthearted, maybe ence. Ironically, there to be a first- or second-
because they don’t face aren’t many studies on born child. Eldest (and
the same expectations it. Case in point: That second-eldest) children
their older siblings do. YouGov survey cited are more likely to enjoy
Take Princes William above asked only about these flavours, accord-
and Harry: William is the oldest and young- ing to a survey done
more straight-laced est, completely ignor- by genetics testing
(and poised to become ing middles. company 23andMe.

ReadeRsdigest.in 29
reader’s digest

One theory: Parents becoming elite athletes. may decrease the risk
have more time (and Their advantage seems of cancer later in life.
patience) to encourage to stem from playing A study published in
their first kids to try dif- with their big siblings the International Jour-
ferent foods, but they as children. A 2010 nal of Cancer found
have less of both with study compared 700 that each increase in
each consecutive child. sets of brothers who birth order brought
played Major League with it a 13 per cent

10
birth order Baseball. For the most lower risk of developing
may impact part, the younger a type of potentially
what motivates brothers had better deadly brain tumour.
you—or, at least, what batting averages.

13
did when you were a Another classic case: While birth
kid. A study published Tennis legend Serena order doesn’t
in the Journal of Re- Williams enjoyed a define us, it
search in Personality more decorated career can provide compelling
found that most eldest than big sister Venus. explanations for some
children approach tasks of our behaviours. Are

12
wanting to develop mas- Later-borns you an only child who
tery, while younger ones also tend to eats slowly because
care more about out- have stronger you never had to fight
performing others, es- immune systems, for seconds, or an el-
pecially—you guessed thanks to their older dest child who always
it—their older siblings. siblings exposing them picks where the group
to more germs as kids. eats because you’re

11
‘Little sibling Jeanne Calment, who used to assuming
effect’ describes made it to age 122 and a leadership role?
a phenomenon was the oldest person to What does your status
observed across many ever live, was a youngest explain about you?
sports: Younger siblings child. Being exposed to If you don’t know,
have a better chance of more illnesses as a kid call your sibling.

Learn as You Sleep

Nine Hours, a chain of 13 hotels across Japan, has an unusual by-product: sleep
data. In two of their brances, guests can sign up for a ‘9h sleep fitscan’ service,
where sensors detect everything from breathing to facial expressions to gener-
ate a sleep report that tracks their heart rate, sleep apnea and even snoring.
BBC.COM

30 february 2025
 Reader ’s Digest

Humour in

UNIFORM

In 1972, when I was

commissioned as a
second lieutenant
in the Air Force, my
father gave me this
“Looks easy ... until they start firing live ammo.”
advice: Be specific
when communica-
ting with the military. Marines get no resp- Canada staked its claim
Then he told me why. ect. When I was in the by planting a flag and
“In 1942, the Army Corps, I attended a a bottle of Canadian
asked me where I multiservice class. We whisky on the island.
would like to be sta- took our seats and had Denmark retaliated by
tioned,” he said. our pens and paper planting its flag and a
“Since your mother ready for notes. The bottle of schnapps. This
was pregnant and Army instructor asked: back-and-forth lasted
living in New York “Any Marines here?” for decades. Finally, the
City, I answered that I raised my hand. He ‘Whisky Wars’ ended
anywhere along the walked over, took away in 2022 when the two
Atlantic coast would my pen and handed countries simply deci-
be wonderful. me a crayon, with in- ded to split the island.
“Six months later, structions not to eat it. —BBC
I was in London listen- —Steven Fox
ing to buzz bombs and
nighttime bombing. I Canada and Denmark Reader’s Digest will pay
had failed to tell them both claimed a small for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our hu-
which side of the island off the coast of
mour sections. Post it to the
Atlantic I wanted.” Greenland. Rather than editorial address, or email
— Robert Tepfer firing shots, in 1984, us at [email protected]

cartoon by Van Scott ReadeRsdigest.in 31

Reader ’s Digest

32 february 2025
I SUR
 COVER STORY

THREE UNUSUAL
MEDICAL EMERGENCIES,
AS TOLD BY THE PEOPLE WHO
NEARLY DIED FROM THEM

VIVED!
photography by Emiko Franzen

ReadeRsdigest.in 33
Reader ’s Digest

few hours of routine tests, she told me

I’d had a “migraine,” and I was dis-
charged with instructions to return in
48 hours if there was no change.
… A RUPTURED There was no change. And after a day
and a half of agonizing pain, I told my
BRAIN ANEURYSM husband, “Something is really wrong
By Melody Wren with my head.” I didn’t care that we
hadn’t waited the prescribed 48 hours;
in order for me to be taken seriously
and not fobbed off as a migraine vic-

H
ere’s a little-known but disturbing tim, we returned to the hospital.
fact: According to the Brain Aneu- I was seen by a different doctor and
rysm Foundation, about 50 per got a CT scan. It showed dark residue
cent of people who have ruptured brain below my brain, which was the iron
aneurysms die, and 66 per cent of the from the haemoglobin of the blood that
survivors have major cognitive deficien- had leaked to that spot. I’d had an
cies from brain damage. Luckily, it is aneurysm, and it had burst. This was
extremely rare for aneurysms to rup- beyond my doctor’s scope of care. “We
ture—only 1 in 100 do. Unfortunately for need to get you to a hospital special-
me, mine did. izing in neurology,” he said.
What happened? A decade ago, when I was medevaced to a new hospital,
I was 59, I woke up at our cottage on the where a neurosurgeon explained that
Bruce Peninsula in Ontario, Canada, they needed to stop the bleeding in a
had a shower, made tea and got back small vessel at the front of my brain. He
into bed. Nestled in my happy place would go in through my groin and pass
next to my sleeping husband, I read a thin tube through my arteries and up
magazines and made notes for some into my head. If that didn’t stop the
travel writing I was doing. Suddenly, I bleeding, he would do “windowpane
felt a severe jolt of intense pain in my surgery,” drilling a hole in my head.
head. That was the last thing I remem- “No, absolutely not! No one is drill-
ber before I lost consciousness. My hus- ing a hole in my head,” I insisted. I then
band woke beside me as I made “weird turned to my husband and my brother,
noises,” as he said later. He tried to who had joined us: “If things go wrong
rouse me with no luck and called 911. and it looks like I’m going to be a veg-
By the time I arrived at our small etable, DO NOT go to any extraordinary
TMB S TUDIO

local hospital, I had regained con- measures to keep me alive.”

sciousness. I was seen by a resident, My brother said, “You are going to be
who consulted her supervisor. After a absolutely fine.”

34 february 2025
ReadeRsdigest.in 35
Reader ’s Digest

I wasn’t having it. I pointed my finger intensive care. It turned out my sodium
at them and said, “Tell me you have level had plummeted and I’d suffered
heard what I just said.” a mild seizure. My body was processing
Fortunately, going through the groin sodium correctly, but the damaged
worked. Once the tube was in place, part of my brain was unable to keep the
thin platinum wires were threaded sodium levels in my blood at the cor-
through it until they coiled into the rect range. My husband and adult chil-
bubble-shaped aneurysm, allowing the dren were told to rush over to the hos-
blood to coagulate in it and stop the pital, as the doctors didn’t expect me
bleeding. The coiled wires will be in my to survive. Revved up on morphine and
skull permanently. I seem to be in low on salt, my mind was swimming.
famous company. The aneurysm sur- As my kids came rushing into my room,
vivors club include Emilia Clarke from all I could think to say was, “Did you
Game of Thrones, Sharon Stone, Quincy bring fruit? I’m craving fruit.”
Jones and Neil Young. I didn’t die, but I did end up in inten-
sive care again less than a week later.
During one of my cognitive tests, a

A NURSE PICKED UP A nurse held up a pen and asked me what

it was. I said it was a pen. She then
SPOON AND ASKED ME picked up a spoon, and I said it was a
WHAT IT WAS. I SAID pen. A notebook was a pen. Four or five

IT WAS A PEN. different items, I referred to as pens. My

sodium level had plummeted again.
A month after paramedics had
I spent my post-surgery days resting loaded me into an ambulance, I was
and getting tested. To make sure that I back home. Weak and unable to walk
hadn’t lost brain functionality, my sur- more than a few steps, I spent most of
geon would come into my hospital the day in bed.
room every day with a group of medical My recovery was not easy. I had sev-
residents and ask me the same ques- eral different types of headaches,
tions: “What is the date? Where are including knife-like stabbing, numbing
you? Does a stone sink in water? Do pain, painful bristling and one that was
you peel a banana before you eat it?” just a steady ache. Through it all, I
All of which I answered. experienced a constant clicking sound
Things seemed to be going well. in my head. Later I discovered that it
Then one day, while sitting upright in a wasn’t something that I was hearing
chair, I started sliding off sideways and but was part of the repair response
couldn’t stop. My roommate called for itself. If I got overtired, flashing images,
a nurse, and I ended up in neurological like a Rolodex flipping too fast,

36 february 2025
 Cover Story

Melody Wren and

her husband on the
high seas, after her
aneurysm scare

by Norman Doidge, which

taught me tricks to recover
faster. I took walks around
the block with my husband
that gradually went from
slow to less slow. I was
pushing myself. At one
point, my brother said, “It’s
not a race to recover.” But
when dealing with a brain
injury, I felt it was impera-
tive that I do as much as
possible, and I did.
Six months after sur-
gery, the brain fog lifted,
went through my brain. The images and I felt a huge sense of relief. But I
moved so fast I couldn’t tell what they didn’t just return to who I was. A friend
were, as if someone were pushing a of mine says that I put my foot on the
fast-forward button. gas pedal after my ruptured aneurysm
Apparently, all this is quite common and haven’t stopped since. It’s true. I’m
after neurosurgery, as was the fact that more active now, traveling often, seek-
my brain was in a complete fog, pre- ing adventures and keeping in touch
venting me from understanding ideas with friends and family.
or comprehending words. I’m a chat- Recently I had a check-in with my
terbox who loves spending time with neurosurgeon. He asked if he could
my husband, kids and grandkids. But continue to track my progress yearly. I
my brain fog made following conversa- asked if he does that with his other
COURTESY OF MELODY WREN

tions nearly impossible. patients who are in the same situation.

Because of the low rate of survival He told me that with the low survival
without brain damage, there were few rate, there weren’t many of us. “We will
guidelines for recovery, so I designed celebrate your 10 years of survival
my own. I watched foreign films and together,” he added.
read novels to try to exercise my brain. I And we will, this coming July. I am
tore through The Brain’s Way of Healing, one of the lucky ones.

ReadeRsdigest.in 37
Reader ’s Digest

workout. It was then I realized my car

keys were missing. I turned around to
see my husband holding them.
“What are you doing?” he asked,
... EXERCISE clearly worried. He didn’t know I had
fainted. All he knew was that I’d been
ADDICTION working out since 4 a.m. But that was
enough to set off alarm bells for him.
By Charlotte Hilton Andersen
I was furious. And terrified.
“I have to finish my workout,” I said,
and started crying.

I
had been up since 4 a.m., running “Or what?” he asked. I didn’t know
43 km in the dark, in training for an what, but I knew something bad would
upcoming marathon. When I com- happen. That’s because I was in the
pleted my run in just over four hours, I grips of a severe exercise addiction—a
jumped into my car, bypassed my cross between an eating disorder and
house and headed to the gym for my obsessive-compulsive disorder. For
regular workout of high-intensity kick- me, exercising was the primary way I
boxing. I would do that for an hour and coped with stress, depression and anx-
follow it up by lifting weights. iety … and I had a lot of all three.
I made it most of the way through my It was normal for me to exercise, vig-
kickboxing class before passing out. orously, six to eight hours a day. I had
A friend carried me downstairs, and four children and a full-time job work-
I lay down on the dirty gym couch. I ing in education, and even then, my
stayed like that until I could sit up with- workouts were non-negotiable. I sacri-
out the room spinning. Even then, I ficed my sleep, set up a tiny stair-
tried to head to the weight room, but stepper under my standing desk, and
my friend insisted that I go home, any time I took my children to the park,
packing me into my car with a stern I’d do pullups and squats while they
look. I thought he was being overly played. I hiked with my husband, went
cautious. I was a little lightheaded, to fitness workshops with my fitness
sure—I hadn’t eaten anything since the friends, and did martial arts with my
night before. I wasn’t trying to lose MMA friends.
weight by not eating; I just couldn’t fit If I’d ever stopped long enough to
eating in between workouts. think about it, I would have realized
I drove myself home, showered that my ‘passion’ for fitness had
quickly, threw on a different set of crossed the line into obsession, and all
workout clothes and went to my car so my ‘healthy’ habits were making me ill.
I could go back to the gym to finish my But it wasn’t until the day my husband

38 february 2025
ReadeRsdigest.in 39
Reader ’s Digest

took my keys and forced me to stop for I had to do this for eight weeks, and
a moment that I actually thought about through it all I cried and raged against
the physical toll it was taking. I had loved ones who were making sure I
stress fractures in my right shin and my didn’t sneak in a pushup.
left toes. I couldn’t remember the last I attended individual and group ther-
time I’d menstruated. My hair was fall- apy, saw doctors and learnt coping
ing out. I was underweight. I couldn’t skills. I learnt why the endorphins
sleep. I was freezing cold all the time— released through exercise can be so
my body fat percentage was an alarm- addictive: They reduce anxiety, even
ing 9 per cent. (As a reference point, more than prescription medications do.
female athletes generally don’t go So I practised other ways to cope with
below 14 per cent.) I had terrifying anxiety and depression, like meditation
bouts of heart palpitations. My blood and journalling. I also studied the seri-
pressure was incredibly low. Oh, and I’d ous long-term consequences of over-
just fainted in front of a whole roomful exercising—which include death—and
of people. In short, my body was no lon- forced myself to acknowledge the signs
ger able to properly maintain the most already happening in my own body.
basic functions.
“You have a problem,” my husband
said. “You need help. That’s not a sug-
gestion.” He walked back into the house,
PART OF TREATMENT
and something inside me snapped. I WAS CONFRONTING
was so broken, literally and figuratively. THE ‘WHY’ BEHIND
I collapsed on the garage floor and
sobbed. Partly because I was upset but
MY ADDICTION.
also because I knew that if I had my
keys, I would still go back to the gym. While exercising builds and main-
The following Monday, I started tains bone density, going to extremes
intensive treatment. can destroy tissues, including heart
Exercise addiction is more common muscle, and lead to loss of bone den-
than you might think. According to the sity. I was barely 30 years old, yet I had
scientific journal Frontiers, it affects the bone density of a 60-year-old. Com-
3 per cent to 14 per cent of the general bine overexercising with undereating,
exercising population. The first rule of and it’s a perfect recipe for stress frac-
my treatment programme, through a tures. As a result, I had multiple stress
local eating disorder centre, was zero fractures in my legs and feet.
exercise. I wasn’t even allowed to walk The most difficult part of treatment
around the block. I went from exercis- was confronting the ‘why’ behind my
ing for hours every day to nothing. addiction. Addictions, at their core, are

40 february 2025
 Cover Story

often a way to deal with pain that feels

overwhelming. In individual therapy, I
finally had to start dealing with my
why. When I was 18 years old, I was
violently sexually assaulted and, like
many victims, felt as if it was my fault
and didn’t tell anyone. Six years later,
married, with a toddler, and pregnant,
I had police show up at my door to tell
me that my attacker had been arrested
after assaulting at least three other
women. The guilt I felt was overwhelm-
ing. If I’d reported it when it had hap-
pened to me, those women wouldn’t
have been hurt.
The court case went on for nine gru-
elling months. By the end, I was utterly
destroyed. Ultimately, my assaulter was Charlotte Hilton Andersen still
sentenced to one year in prison. The exercises, but she has learned
to manage her obsession.
next day, I gave birth to my baby.
Being a new mom gave me no time relationship with exercise. That was
to process the trauma from the assault 15 years ago. Today I walk a fine line: I
and the court case. So instead, I took teach fitness classes part time at a gym,
up running. I put my kids in a jogging but I also attend weekly therapy meet-
stroller and tackled the hills around ings. I still exercise every day, but I limit
my Seattle home while my children it to two hours max. The injuries that
napped. Then once the baby was sleep- resulted from my years of overexercis-
ing through the night, in the early ing have made it so I can no longer run,
hours of the morning I started running so I mainly dance, lift weights and do
to a gym, where I took up weightlifting. barre, Pilates and yoga. I have regular
I didn’t realize it at the time, but exer- checkups at the doctor, and my physi-
cise became a way of regaining the con- cal and mental health are good.
CHARLOT TE HILTON ANDERSEN

trol over my body that had been taken I have found a kind of peace with my
from me. I was literally trying to run body. Now my goal is to educate others.
away from my trauma. And it worked Because when I tell people I am in
remarkably well … until it didn’t. recovery for an exercise addiction, the
When I finished the treatment most common response I get is “I wish
programme, I felt fragile and scared, I had that problem, ha ha.”
yet hopeful that I could create a new Trust me, you don’t.

ReadeRsdigest.in 41
42 february 2025
 Reader ’s Digest

I wasn’t surprised that gallstones

were responsible, because eight years
earlier I’d had a gallstone attack that
had caused excruciating abdominal
... HALLUCINATIONS pain. At the time, I’d been a busy med-
ical resident, and I’d decided to focus
By Rishi Dhir, on my career instead of taking time off
as told to Lisa Fields to have my gallbladder removed, which
doctors had recommended.

T
here was a monkey perched on the So when I learnt that I had necrotiz-
IV drip stand to the right of my ing pancreatitis, I assumed that I’d be
hospital bed. It scowled at me, but prescribed painkillers, have my gall-
I wasn’t afraid: A brief simian visit was bladder removed and be sent home
part of my daily routine. I never ques- within a few days. Instead, I was admit-
tioned why there was a monkey in ted to the hospital. A septic infection
the hospital. I wasn’t lucid enough to had spread from the dead pancreatic
recognize that my mind was playing tissue to my bloodstream, and my
tricks on me.
On 24 October 2020, I visited the
emergency room at the London hospi-
tal where I worked as an orthopaedic
I’D ROLL OVER IN
surgeon. An hour earlier, I had devel- BED AND DISCOVER A
oped such severe abdominal pain that DECOMPOSING BODY
I dropped to the floor in agony while
teaching a medical education class
LYING NEXT TO ME.
over Zoom. I couldn’t catch my breath
because of the searing pain in my mid- organs were shutting down. The doctors
section. It felt like a knife stabbing me. didn’t tell me how poorly I was doing,
I had intense waves of nausea, and but I was reading my own charts, and I
then I started vomiting over and over. could see that I was dying. For six
After the first several heaves, the only weeks, I was confined to a hospital bed,
thing coming up was green bile. I vom- so weak and sick that I couldn’t eat or
ited all the way to the hospital. go to the toilet. I was delirious. And
ER doctors diagnosed me with necro- then came the hallucinations.
tizing pancreatitis, an inflammation of Evil-looking monkeys stopped by to
the pancreas that causes tissue death. A see me every day, but they weren’t my
gallstone had blocked my pancreatic only imagined visitors. Sometimes, I’d
duct, causing my pancreas to become roll over in bed and discover a decom-
so inflamed that part of it was dying. posing body lying next to me. Being so

ReadeRsdigest.in 43
Reader ’s Digest

close to a dead body should have been health, I recorded a video diary on my
frightening, but my mind wasn’t func- phone. Every day, I’d talk to the camera
tioning properly. I saw it so often that about the way I was feeling. Sometimes,
it became a familiar fixture in my life. I’d have a brief side conversation with
My roommate. the monkey in my room, or I’d complain
The hallucinations that I couldn’t see that some disembodied voice had
were most alarming. Often, when I was woken me up by shouting “Rishi!”
lying in bed, I’d feel a sharp, sudden tug My sisters Reena and Ruchi called
on one of my legs, as if someone was me often. Sometimes during our Face-
pulling me down the bed, yet I was by Time chats, I’d see something rising up
myself. I’d freeze in a panic, my heart behind one of them and I’d say, “There’s
racing. Sometimes when I was asleep, a swan behind you.” Other times, I’d
I’d hear a man or a woman calling out matter-of-factly describe the dead
my name, trying to get my attention. It body lying next to me, or I’d reach out
would startle me awake, but there was to pet the monkey dangling from my IV
never anyone there. drip stand. My sisters always played
To pass the time and to document my along. They didn’t want to alarm me by

44 february 2025
 Cover Story

telling me that I was seeing things. I Instead of dwelling on what I

had no clue that none of it was real— have endured, I choose to acknowledge
the swans, monkeys, dead bodies, how my life has changed for the better.
voices or the tugs on my leg. Being a patient—surviving the pain,
About six weeks into my hospital stay, fear and hallucinations—taught me
my health stabilized enough for doctors the importance of being heard. So
to begin the next phase of treatment: when I meet with my own patients, I’m
They inserted drains into my pancreas a better listener now, more empathetic
to remove the dead, septic tissue. That’s than before.
when I started feeling more like myself. I’m not ashamed to talk about what
I was able to eat and walk the corridors. happened during my illness—not even
I began regaining the weight that I’d lost, the hallucinations. Everything was dif-
and I felt stronger. My delirium faded ficult to endure, but the experience
away, and the monkeys and dead bod- shaped me into a person who’s more
ies stopped dropping by. A month later, appreciative of what I have.
I was discharged from the hospital, and I tell people that surviving a life-
a few months after that I had my gall- threatening experience is the best men-
bladder removed. tal health therapy you could have.

For Real
Using the word literally non-literally grates at the grammar police.
But the word has been used as hyperbole for centuries,
as in the following famous works:
Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre: “Literally, I was (what he
often called me) the apple of his eye.”
Charles Dickens in David Copperfield: “Perhaps you know, Miss Trotwood,
that there is never a candle lighted in this house, until one’s eyes are
literally falling out of one’s head with being stretched to read the paper.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby: “But there was a change
in Gatsby that was simply confounding. He literally glowed.”
Mark Twain in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: “And when the
middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken
boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth.”
MENTAL FLOSS

ReadeRsdigest.in 45
Reader ’s Digest

All
in a Day’s
WORK
An artist friend gra-
ciously agreed to place
several of her works in
an assisted-living facility
for a few months. On the
day she took the artwork
down, she noticed a resi-
“That one’s a selfie.”
dent watching her.
“So,” said my friend, Since my wife and I That shut her up
“how did you like worked in the same for a moment, then
my paintings?” building, we commuted she said, “Hey, work
Smiling kindly, the together. One evening buddy, let me tell you
elderly woman replied, at home, we got into a what my jerk of hus-
“Oh, we got used big argument that re- band did last night!”
to them.” sulted in us going to —Michael Pritchard
—David Elton bed angry. The next
morning, while driving Actor Richard Harris,
Devastating to realize to work in silence, my known for playing
that the way to finish wife started up again. Dumbledore in the first
work you don’t want “Whoa,” I said. couple of Harry Potter
to do is to just sit down “When we are home, movies, was staying in
and do it and then it we are ‘married.’ But London’s Savoy Hotel
will be done. during the day, we when he became gravely
— @svershbow are ‘work buddies.’ ” ill, a result of Hodgkin’s
disease. An ambulance
was called, then he was
My boss accidentally muted himself on placed on a stretcher
and carried out through
this Zoom meeting 20 minutes ago the hotel lobby. Accord-
and none of us have told him. ing to Cracked, he
— @marshall__scott couldn’t resist one
46 february 2025 cartoon by Scott Masear
 Reader ’s Digest
parting gag, yelling to During a break, one of I no longer dislike
the guests what turned my first-grade students Mondays. I’m mature
out to be the last words ran up to me very upset now. I dislike the
he would speak outside and said, “James called whole week.
of the hospital: “It was me stupid!” I found — @soidoona
the food!” James and asked him
if he had, indeed, called
My clients are required Melanie stupid.
to fill out medical forms “I didn’t call her Reader’s Digest will pay
to get their disability stupid!” he insisted. for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our
checks. But sometimes “I said, ‘Why are you humour sections. Post it
the official terms escape so stupid?’” to the editorial address, or
them. For example, one —Sandy Hicks email: [email protected]
patient explained that a
doctor operated on him
using a ‘scaffold’. They NUTTY PROFESSORS
meant ‘scalpel’. Here are Some scientists look to advance medicine or
a few more entries that peace and are awarded a Nobel Prize. Others win
needed translation: an Ig Nobel Prize—a tongue-in-cheek award for
trivial studies, bestowed by the Harvard periodical
• Flea bites = Phlebitis
Annals of Improbable Research. Here are some
• Fecal pherpy =
of the latest recipients:
Physical therapy
• Grandma Caesars = For Physics For Physiology
Grand mal seizures To a researcher in the To scientists in Japan
• New money fever = United States for demon- and the United States
Pneumonia strating and explaining for discovering that
• Castration = the swimming abilities many mammals are
Catheterization of a dead trout. capable of breathing
through their anuses.
—Vicki Easterly
For Anatomy
To researchers in France For Chemistry
My employee and I To researchers in the
and Chile for studying
LISA KYLE YOUNG/GETTY IMAGES

were chatting about Netherlands and France

whether the hair on the
music when she ex- heads of most people in for using a particular lab-
plained the difference the Northern Hemisphere oratory technique called
between a violin and a swirls in the same direc- chromatography to sepa-
fiddle. “The first,” she tion (clockwise or counter- rate drunk and
said, “has strings. The clockwise?) as hair on the sober worms.
second ... has strangs.” heads of most people in
—Mary Blye Kramer the Southern Hemisphere.
ReadeRsdigest.in 47
Reader ’s Digest

48 february 2025
 HEALTH

SHOULD YOU TRY A

DETOX
TREATMENT?
It’s a popular new-year health habit.
But science doesn’t support it

By Adrienne Matel from the guardian

T
his past April, at a TED conference Plasmapheresis can effectively
in Vancouver, Canada, I watched remove contaminants, such as some
a woman pull a variety of mush- heavy metals, from the blood of people
room powders from her purse, scoop with specific health conditions, includ-
them into a thermos and add hot water ing autoimmune diseases, blood disor-
from a nearby tea station to make an ders and organ failure, and those who
earthy beverage. Intrigued, I asked have recently undergone organ trans-
about her favourite health practices, plants. However, for healthy individuals,
and she started describing a recent trip plasmapheresis cannot improve on the
to Costa Rica to get plasmapheresis. body’s natural detoxification processes,
ELENABS/ALAMY STOCK VECTOR

“It’s when they take your old plasma which are efficiently handled by the kid-
out, and they replace it with new, fresh neys, liver, skin, lungs and other organs.
plasma,” she explained. Plus, most heavy metals of concern
“Donated plasma?” I asked. She said accumulate in our organs, and only trace
it was synthetic plasma, as a detox amounts can be removed from blood.
treatment intended to manage an auto- Elective plasmapheresis for healthy
immune disease. people represents one manifestation of

ReadeRsdigest.in 49
Reader ’s Digest

the myth of detoxing. Private clinics good, have a place in someone’s per-
with varying degrees of oversight offer sonal routine, lead to weight loss or
it, attracting rich medical tourists, even create a placebo effect, but experts
healthy ones. have repeatedly debunked claims that
In an April 2023 Instagram post they meaningfully remove toxins from
about her plasma detox treatment, the our bodies. In fact, in some cases, they
former professional race-car driver may do the opposite by harming our
Danica Patrick described the $10,000 built-in detoxification systems. Nutri-
[`8.6 lakh] treatment as one that tional supplements account for 20 per
“cleans a vast majority of the blood,” cent of toxic liver damage in the US.
and can “get rid of metals and mould.” Aside from medical interventions
prescribed for specific conditions,
there’s almost nothing we can do to help
IT CAN BE HARD our bodies detox more effectively,
because they’re already built to do just
TO OVERRIDE THE IDEA that. Instead, it’s good practice to stay

THAT CLEARING OUT hydrated, exercise, get adequate rest

and maintain good nutrition with a bal-
OUR BODIES IS anced diet high in vitamin-rich plants—
all of which support the functions of our
A GOOD THING. kidneys, liver and other organs.

IT CAN BE HARD to override the idea

To illustrate, she held up a sack of that clearing out our bodies is a good
dark amber liquid. “The dark bag is my thing, as the notion has captivated the
old plasma,” she wrote. public imagination for millennia.
Healthy plasma has the colour of “We’ve been doing some version of
dark urine, and that’s perfectly normal. detoxing since antiquity,” says cardiolo-
Patrick’s admittedly startling post per- gist and epidemiologist Christopher
petuates the misconception that toxins Labos, the author of Does Coffee Cause
in our body manifest as muck that we Cancer? And 8 More Myths About the
could cut through, like grease in a dish Food We Eat. Only with the development
detergent commercial, if only we had of modern medicine and germ theory—
the right tool. the notion that germs invade our bodies
The notion that methods such as and cause disease—have we realized
cleanses, juice fasts, supplements and “that much of that rationale of detoxing
sauna sessions can detoxify the body is doesn’t actually hold true,” he says.
among the most misleading wellness And yet we may be talking about,
claims. ‘Detox’ practices might feel believing in and spending more money

50 february 2025
 Health

on detoxing than ever. Research esti- sharing health ‘hacks’ that span from
mates the global market for detox well- pointless to harmful, broadcasting
ness products will rise from $49 billion their beliefs that lemon water revolu-
in 2019 to $80.4 billion by 2030. And tionized their health or that most peo-
with ‘detox’ on the label, even basic ple have a stomach full of parasites.
products are sold at a premium. Why are we so susceptible to detox
ELENABS/ALAMY STOCK VECTOR

On TikTok, more than 132 million claims? It doesn’t help that most detox
posts use the hashtag #detox, detailing hacks bear a sheen of logic, making
how to fill your belly button with castor them psychologically appealing even
oil or drink dangerous borax highballs. when spurious. I once bought liquid
Influencers can earn income through chlorophyll because it seemed correct
affiliate links to dubious detox prod- that drinking pure green plant essence
ucts. Users can grow their audience by would bolster my health. And people

ReadeRsdigest.in 51
Reader ’s Digest

stated, and it’s true

that online searches
for “detox” reliably
surge in January,
after weeks of holi-
day indulgence.
It’s easy to dismiss
hungover hordes
desperate for a quick
fix, wellness fanatics
who appropriate
cultural traditions or
those whose health-
consciousness has
tipped over into con-
spiratorial mania.
But for the most part,
people who are
interested in detox-
ing seem to just
want to treat their
bodies well.
This is a reason-
able desire, espe-
cially in light of our
who feel dismissed by mainstream growing understanding about the
medical institutions find themselves many contaminants in our environ-
receptive to unverified health advice. ments and our bodies. Recent research
A decade ago in the Guardian, the on microplastics, chemicals in con-
German physician Edzard Ernst sumer products such as per- and poly-
described commercial detox products, fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), persis-
such as prefab cleanses and tinctures, tent organic pollutants ( POP s),
ELENABS/ALAMY STOCK VECTOR

as a “criminal exploitation of the gull- endocrine disruptors and air pollution

ible,” claiming they promised “a simple paints a disturbing picture of how con-
remedy that frees us of our sins.” tact with everyday products and pollut-
“When most of us utter the word ants may harm us.
‘detox,’ it’s usually when we’re bleary- Even traditionally virtuous behaviors
eyed and stumbling out of the wrong may cause health problems. Last year,
end of a heavy weekend,” the article researchers found PFAS in most Amer-

52 february 2025
 Health

ican kale; organic kale harboured even Buying a detox supplement at the
more of the chemicals than its conven- pharmacy is “obviously much more
tionally grown counterparts. And a appealing and easier to grasp on to than
recent study by researchers at Ocean the real solution” to environmental pol-
Conservancy and the University of lution that affects us, says Labos. Yet, by
Toronto found microplastic particles in hyperfixating on mostly futile attempts
88 per cent of protein sources, includ- to purify our individual bodies, we allow
ing seafood, beef, chicken and tofu. industry to shift the burden of detoxifi-
A growing body of research is explor- cation onto us, rather than addressing
ing how we may be absorbing harmful the root cause of contamination.
chemicals through our skin from syn- “The real solution to environmental
thetic clothing such as yoga pants, pollution is we stop polluting the air,
especially when we work out and the water,” he says. “We need to pass
legislation to address these issues in
the same way that we addressed the
“THE REAL SOLUTION depletion of the ozone layer. We have
TO ENVIRONMENTAL fixed similar problems before. We just
have to do it again.”
POLLUTION IS WE STOP If we started thinking about detoxi-
fication as prevention at the source, we
POLLUTING THE AIR, could reroute the energy and emotion
THE WATER.” we expend on buying and trying prod-
ucts and treatments toward collective
demands for harm mitigation. We
sweat. Even flossing our teeth carries could stop trying to cleanse our colons
the risk of harmful chemical exposure, and focus on forcing stricter regula-
since certain types of floss contain tions on corporations that treat our
chemicals found to be harmful. And so environment like a toilet. We could
the question of how to do the right save money on liquid chlorophyll and
thing feels impossible to answer. support government spending on PFAS
Labos emphasizes that people need elimination in waterways instead.
access to quality medical care above all Our willingness to embrace wishful
else so their medical questions can be thinking and wellness trends isn’t crimi-
answered by trustworthy experts, and nal; it’s understandable. Nevertheless, if
that the role of a strong scientific edu- we want to purge pollution, our efforts
cation is paramount when it comes to must extend beyond the body—that’s
helping people understand why detox our bitter pill to swallow.
products often don’t work the way their
marketing suggests. Copyright guardian news & Media Ltd 2024

ReadeRsdigest.in 53
 DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

14,000-FOOT
MIRACLE
The skydiver fully
expected to die
when her parachute
failed to open.
Instead, she’s
writing the next
chapter of her life

By Ryan Hockensmith
from espn
illustration by Mark Smith

54 february 2025 illustrations by Jonathan Carlson

ReadeRsdigest.in 55
 EMMA CAREY IS FLYING,
and she is so happy. She is 14,000 feet sky. Each was latched to an experi-
above the earth, gripping the straps of enced skydiver for a tandem dive. The
her parachute pack like an excited kid helicopter was so loud that they
on the way to her first day of school. couldn’t speak to each other, and it was
Oh my God, I’m going to become a sky- so cloudy they could hardly see outside
diver, she thinks, not knowing that just the chopper.
about the most terrifying thing a At some point, sensing Jemma’s ner-
human being can experience is about vousness, Emma gave her what they
to happen to her. call ‘The Face’. It’s the kind of look that
She’s 20, an Australian kid travelling two longtime friends share that makes
around Europe with her best friend, perfect sense to them and maybe only
Jemma Mrdak. It is 9 June 2013, and them. The Face involves smushing your
Emma has no plans for what she’ll do upper lip underneath itself so that the
when she returns home. It would over- absolute maximum amount of top
simplify things to say her life was an teeth is showing.
Supapixx/alamy Stock photo

open road because there was no road. Emma gave The Face to Jemma, and
Not yet, anyway. Jemma gave it back, and they both had
Earlier that morning, in Lauterbrun- to smile. This was a good reflection of
nen, Switzerland, she and Jemma their friendship: Jemma, the meticu-
climbed into the back of a helicopter to lous organizer, and Emma, the free-
ascend more than 4 kilometers into the spirited adrenaline junkie. If you had a

56 february 2025
 Reader ’s Digest

party, Jemma would help plan it and she’s not going to live when she lands
Emma would be the life of it. in the cow pasture below.
About 20 minutes in, it’s go time. Right before she hits the ground, she
Emma looks at Jemma, says “I love you” has two overwhelming thoughts. The
and then jumps out of her side of the first is that she doesn’t want to die. She
helicopter with her instructor. Thirty doesn’t want to give in to the inevitabil-
seconds later, Jemma jumps from the ity of her situation. She doesn’t know
other side. Jemma closes her eyes for what she wants to do with her life, but
the duration of her jump—she hates she wants to have one. She will fight
every second of it. Emma, on the other this, even though nobody beats gravity.
hand, loves it. She soars for the first The second, the one that breaks her
half-minute, soaking in her first sky- heart the most, is: Jemma will be the
dive. About 30 seconds in, she feels a person who finds her body.
tap on her shoulder, the signal from her
instructor to cross her arms to brace for When she hits the ground, Emma can’t
the jolt of their chute going off. believe she is still conscious. She asks
She crosses her arms and then ... her legs to move but gets no response.
nothing. She tries over and over again. Nothing.
She’s not slowing down. She feels a The equipment is so heavy, and her
tug on her hair, and she tries to see instructor is still out cold and strapped
what the instructor is doing behind her. to her. She feels tremendous pain, the
He’s out cold. The ropes attached to the kind of pain that is so overwhelming
chutes had wrapped around his neck, you can’t even tell exactly where it’s
causing him to pass out. She can see coming from. It isn’t a signal from her
the chutes, giant chunks of red fabric, body; it is a siren.
flailing around in bunched-up bun- As she lies there, she can only muster
dles. They’re not supposed to be the strength to yell Jemma’s name.
bunched-up bundles. Jemma can’t hear her yet. Her trajec-
Panic hits her. She realizes she’s now tory from the opposite side of the heli-
in the middle of a situation that is such copter had taken her off in another
a nightmare that it has been a night- direction far enough that she had lost
mare since the beginning of time—the sight of Emma for most of the dive.
feeling of falling, and falling, and fall- Just minutes before, at a little over
ing. That’s when most of us wake up. 5,000 feet, Jemma’s instructor pulls
But this is real life for Emma. She thinks their chute. If something goes hay-
about dying, about what she could wire—a rare occurrence—an emer-
have done and said and been. She gency chute is supposed to automati-
eventually comes to grips with the fact cally deploy at 5,000 feet above the
that she is not slowing down and that earth. The leading theory on what hap-

ReadeRsdigest.in 57
Reader ’s Digest

pened with Emma’s chutes is that her First responders are also preparing to
instructor forgot his altimeter to tell separately transport Emma’s instructor,
him their height and that he somehow who also survived the fall, to a hospital.
pulled the regular chute at the exact Under the thunderous roar of the
second the emergency chute went off, chopper, Emma lays her head back. The
causing them to tangle. The odds, say pain medication kicking in. She later
experts, are astronomical. finds out the extent of her injuries. She
When Jemma lands, she stands up suffered a catastrophic series of injuries
and can just make out Emma on the to her midsection: a broken sternum,
ground about 800 meters away. She pelvis, sacrum and L1 vertebra, as well
desperately tries to disconnect from as a crushed spinal cord. She hadn’t
her chute so she can run. And then defeated gravity ... but she hadn’t lost,
she takes off. either. She feels the strangest combina-
From a distance, Jemma can’t quite tion of crushed and grateful.
tell what she is looking at, whether Jemma, seated close by, makes eye
Emma is crouched or lying down. contact. Emma is strapped down on
Emma’s instructor isn’t moving, and her back, barely able to turn her head
Jemma has a sinking feeling that to look at Jemma. They’re both somber.
he is dead. Confused. Devastated. But at least
But throughout her five-minute they’re devastated together.
sprint, the picture slowly comes into Then Jemma watches Emma do a
focus: Emma, on the ground, moaning ridiculous thing that she never needed
in agony, yelling “Jemma!” The instruc- more. As they fly over the Alps to a
tor, lying there motionless. Jemma trauma centre 14,000 kilometers away
grabs a phone from a couple passing by from anybody they know, Emma
and calls for help. pinches her lip small and makes her
“Jemma, I can’t feel my legs!” Emma teeth big.
says. “Help me get up.” “She did The Face,” Jemma says, “and
“You’re badly hurt,” Jemma says. “I that’s when I knew she was going
think you should stay where you are to be okay.”
until help arrives.”
Emma listens to her friend, and Emma is takEn into surgEry for about
Jemma stays beside her for about an eight hours. When she wakes up, she is,
hour as they wait for help. An emer- somehow, pretty much the same old
gency medical team arrives and Emma. She has always been impossibly
instantly determines that Emma’s inju- optimistic, with an easy smile. But
ries are so severe that she needs to be Emma is not optimistic because happi-
transported by helicopter to a hospital ness knocks on her door every morning.
in Bern, about 55 kilometers away. She’s one of those people who wakes up

58 february 2025
 Lauterbrunnen,
Switzerland,
where Emma Carey
went skydiving.

every day with a desire to drive toward planned to visit Spain, where Jemma
happiness, through the fog of everything would complete an exchange pro-
else. Happiness isn’t a feeling for her; it gramme for university credits. But she
is a mission statement. didn’t want to leave her friend.
She tried to remember this during “Absolutely not,” Emma said. “I will
what became the toughest month of be fine. You’ll see me again soon.”
her life. Jemma packed up her stuff and
Massachusetts Institute of Technol- begrudgingly left the hospital a few
ogy engineering professor Peko Hosoi days later.
estimates that Emma likely fell at a rate In the trauma ward, Emma’s doctors
of 50 to 100 kilometers per hour said she was paralyzed from the waist
because the massive amounts of fabric down and she would likely never walk
slowed her descent from peak speeds again. She began toggling between
of 200 kilometers per hour or more. But moments of tremendous gratitude that
even that slower speed is the equiva- she was alive, and tremendous anger at
Grant farquhar/alamy Stock Photo

lent of jumping off the 10th or 11th floor the accident, at the world, at her body,
of a building. “It’s amazing for some- at everything. Sometimes she had a
one to survive,” says Chazi Rutz, a good morning and a bad afternoon.
member of the US skydiving team. Other times it was a bad 1:52 p.m. and
Emma’s mom and sister soon arrived a good 1:53, then a bad 1:54. She just
from Australia to support her recovery. tried to keep getting to 1:55.
Emma and Jemma had originally At some point, Emma found out that

ReadeRsdigest.in 59
Reader ’s Digest

her skydiving instructor not only But she realized that walking again
had survived but was in the same couldn’t become the be-all, end-all of
wing of the hospital that she was in and her recovery. Because what if she
was being treated for horrific lower didn’t? What if the likely diagnosis, that
body injuries. she would never get feeling below the
Emma decided that no matter how waist again, was the final verdict? Being
hard it was going to be—and it was fixated on that goal would attach her to
going to be hard—she had to forgive a specific definition of success that
him. Sure, she occasionally felt mad at might be beyond any amount of hard
him, mad at the parachutes, mad at work, surgery or physical therapy. So
skydiving, mad at everything. But she she decided to put in the effort but let
pushed back hard against those feel- go of the outcome. “There’s a whole
ings, and it mostly worked. She’s not world out there to see, and none of it
exactly sure how it happened, but one depends on if I can walk well,” she says.
day she looked up from her bed and
there he was, in a wheelchair as he
recovered from significant leg injuries.
They talked for a while, and the con-
EMMA TOGGLED
versation changed the course of
Emma’s next 10 years. He was so apol-
BETWEEN TREMENDOUS
ogetic, so despondent at what had hap- GRATITUDE THAT
pened, that forgiveness poured into
her. “I felt bad for him,” she says. “I saw SHE WAS ALIVE AND
how much guilt he felt. I wanted him to
see me and see that I am okay.” TREMENDOUS ANGER.
After a few weeks, Emma started
using crutches to prop herself up.
Would she walk again? She still wasn’t
sure. But she knew she was getting a
little closer every day. Around that time, she wrote in her
She began to develop a complicated journal a phrase that sticks with her to
relationship with the idea of walking, this day: “If you can, you must.” She’s
though. She had recently heard another not quite sure where it came from, but
patient say, “I won’t be happy until I it has become her motto—the idea that
walk again.” It was a thought she’d had these lives we’re given are so fragile
ever since she hit the ground, and that that if something is possible, you must
thought was reinforced in a hospital full go for it.
of well-meaning doctors and nurses For her, that meant trying to walk
who were trying to fix her body. again. Healing up any anger and

60 february 2025
 Drama in Real Life

resentment she had. And most of all, Along the way, she hit some set-
getting back to everybody and every- backs. At one point, she cut her ankle
thing she cared about in Australia. She without even knowing it, and the
needed to get home to try to become wound didn’t properly heal, putting
whole again. her in bed for almost an entire year.
And then, a month later, Emma got Another time, she was sitting on a
the good news: She could go back to bench and noticed a bright red spot on
Australia and continue to recover her leg—she’d burned her leg severely
there. It would cost north of $1,25,000, on something, again without realizing
[`1.08 cr] paid for by the travellers it was happening.
insurance that she bought at the But she’s walking, albeit with a slight
very last minute before the trip. She limp. She’s okay with that. Life goes on.
needed an ambulance to take her to She’s made a living telling her come-
and from the plane. Several rows of back story. Her book, The Girl Who Fell
seats had to be removed to accommo- From the Sky, was published in 2022.
date her bed, and a doctor and nurse She designed and started selling a
had to be at her side for what was about necklace that says “If you can, you
a 20-hour flight. must.” She’s been working on her pub-
Once in Australia, she was trans- lic speaking skills, and in December
ferred to a hospital in Sydney. She got 2023, she delivered a TED Talk.
her sister, Tara, to take her out to the As the 10th anniversary of the acci-
beach one day. She’d always loved the dent approached in the summer of
feel of her feet in the ocean. As she sat 2023, Emma had an idea: What if she
in the water that day, she couldn’t and Jemma went back and did the
physically feel it hitting her legs. But actual trip they’d planned to do as
the water seemed to wash over her 20-year-olds? Go to the same towns,
spirit. This was where she needed to be. hike in the same spots, stay in the same
The minute she got discharged from places. Finish what they started. Just at
the hospital, she moved to the Gold age 30 instead of 20.
Coast, a nine-hour drive to the north. She floated it to Jemma, who has
She kept rehabbing, kept grinding, kept built a busy life for herself. Now mar-
hopeful. Each step she took was a mir- ried, she owns a boutique public rela-
acle. She had no feeling in her legs, no tions and event planning company in
sense of when her feet would land or Canberra, called Dak & Co.
whether they were in the air. That But as sweet as the trip seemed on
meant her legs gave her brain zero paper, Emma thought maybe that was
feedback, so she had to think about all it was—a nice idea. Maybe a return
where her legs were going but never trip to Europe was just a half-baked
felt where they were. passing thought.

ReadeRsdigest.in 61
Reader ’s Digest

But when she ran it by her friend, that pasture said the cows who lived
Jemma answered: “Let’s do it.” there were so aggressive that if he
hadn’t moved them that morning, they
In June 2023, Emma stood in the middle might have stampeded Emma after she
of the same Swiss field she fell into. hit the ground.
This time, wearing a white dress, “I remember how it felt to land on
she raised her arms in triumph, and the ground,” Emma says. “How dra-
she held the hand of her best friend matic it all was. And then I picture lying
in joy, rather than in desperation there realizing I’m paralyzed, and then
while waiting for an emergency heli- I see a cow walking toward me and
copter to arrive. They didn’t realize stepping on me. What a way to go—the
how much this trip would help them girl who got trod on by a cow.”
until they left Australia. Before the trip, Emma had fallen into
a funk. She was fine. Her life was fine.
But something was off. At times she
EMMA STOOD IN THE would get into a rut about what had
happened to her.
SAME SWISS FIELD SHE “I kind of used to think that when
you get through it, when I walk again or
FELL INTO. THIS TIME, get out of the hospital, I’ll never be sad
again and I’ll be so grateful and happy,”
SHE RAISED HER ARMS she says. “For a while, it’s easy to live

IN TRIUMPH. on that plane of gratitude and appre-

ciation. But as time goes on and life
starts to happen again, that can fade
from view a bit. I didn’t used to need to
remind myself. But now I kind of have
to stop and actively get myself in that
They mostly retraced their steps, frame of my mind again.”
including staying in the same cabins She feels she is coming out of that
the night before they went to the field funk now, though.
where they had landed. The field was It’s human nature to make a story
green and lush, which probably had about you into the story of you, and
provided at least a little bit of cushion most of the time it feels harmless.
when Emma had landed. Everybody has a friend whose marriage
As Emma and Jemma walked around falls apart and he suddenly becomes
the field, they both had a good laugh Divorced Dave, or a cousin who has
thinking about something they’d been borrowed money from everybody in
told years ago: The farmer who worked the family and therefore is Broke

62 february 2025
 Drama in Real Life

A field not far from where Carey had her accident and, ten years later, made her return.

Brooke. We connect people with one of want to be Skydiving Survivor Emma.

their stories, and a chapter about them Her story is incredible. People are
becomes the book on them. inspired by it. They are amazed by it.
But who wants to be simplified down But she is more than it. Sometimes she
to one thing about themselves? This is feels as though ‘IT’—her story—is in
especially problematic for people with capital letters, swallowing up ‘her’, in
trauma and disabilities. Most of us lower-case letters. She’s 31 years old
have said something along the lines of now, and her skydiving accident hap-
“Heather is paralyzed” or “Mike is pened 11½ years ago. Since then, she’s
autistic” without thinking twice, with accomplished so many cool things and
no ill will. But there’s a reason that learnt other life lessons. The skydiving
graNt farquhar/alamy StoCk Photo

those affected often prefer person-first story is just a story.

language—Mike isn’t just autistic, he is When asked what she wants from
a person with autism. He also has a life, she contemplates the question in
dog, a job, a guitar and an on-again, silence for a few seconds, then says, “to
off-again relationship. Nobody says, enjoy it,” and she means it in the most
“Mike is a guitar.” lower-case kind of way.
For Emma, that means she doesn’t © eSPN (25 JuNe 2024), CoPyright © 2024 eSPN.

ReadeRsdigest.in 63
 LIFE’S
Like That

“Honestly, Greg, we’re all tired of hearing

about your trip to Japan.”

My friend’s 6-year-old the unhappy news Alone for Valentine’s

niece, Danielle, had to Danielle. “I hate to Day? You won’t mind
an ant farm that she tell you this, but all after reading these date
loved. Every morning your ants died last tales, seen on Reddit:
she’d sit in front of it night,” she said. A dude invited me
and watch its inhabit- Danielle was dis- to his place for dinner
ants scurry about. traught. “All of them?” and said he’d make
Sadly, one day, her “Yes, honey. All scallops. I love seafood,
mother discovered of them.” so heck yeah! That boy
the ants had all died. “Even Aunt Lorena?” made Betty Crocker
That night, she broke —Kay Trumble Scalloped Potatoes.
Yeah, from a box.
My date said that
It’s OK not to have a valentine on the temperature in her
house never changed,
Valentine’s Day. I didn’t have a
so she couldn’t under-
groundhog on Groundhog Day. stand why she was al-
— @abbyhiggs ways hot/cold. Turns
64 february 2025 cartoon by Bill DeMain
 Reader ’s Digest

out she had never the memorial a few weren’t playing all
taken the packaging hours so he could that well, anyway.”
off the digital ther- catch the game. After —WilLiam Craft
mometer, so she was the game, Corey
looking at a sticker showed up and was
that read 22 degrees. greeted by my wife.
I gave my date two “I am so sorry Reader’s Digest will pay
options for dinner: an for your loss,” she for your funny anecdote
Italian restaurant or a said somberly. or photo in any of our
humour sections. Post it
restaurant where they “Oh, that’s OK,” he to the editorial address, or
served all kinds of stuff. answered. “The Eagles email: [email protected]
She said she hated Ital-
ian food, so we went
to the other restau- I ORDERED … WHAT?
rant … where she The staff working in diners have a language of
ordered a lasagna. their own. See how fluent you are—take the quiz
and try to match the slang with the order.
A 90-year-old friend of
SLANG ORDER
mine had an effective
way of making sure he’d 1. Shingle with a A) Banana splits
go to bed at his regular Shimmy and Shake B) Chocolate malt with
time. When night owls 2. Cowboy with Spurs an egg
asked him to stay up 3. Houseboat C) Buttered toast with jam
late, he’d say, “Sure, 4. Drag One Through D) Add cheese
I could do that. But at Wisconsin E) Hot dog with ketchup
10 o’clock, no matter 5. Adam and Eve on a Raft F) Apple pie topped with
where I am, these pants
6. Twist It, Choke It and cheese
are coming off.” Make It Cackle G) Two eggs on toast
—Bill Spencer
7. Eve with a Moldy Lid H) Western omelet with
When my stepfather
8. Paint a Bow-Wow Red french fries
— TasTe of Home
passed away, a few
family members de-
cided to gather for a 7-F; 8-E

memorial. My stepfa-
4-D; 5-G; 6-B;

ther’s grandson, Corey,

1-C; 2-H; 3-A;
TMB STUDIO

ANSWERS
is a devoted Philadel-
phia Eagles fan, and
he asked that we delay
ReadeRsdigest.in 65
Reader ’s Digest

66 february 2025
 INSPIRATION

Calendar Girls
After Molly Baker’s husband died suddenly,
her friends organized a year’s worth of support

By Sarah Chassé

T
he date was 24 March 2018, and In that moment, Molly remembers
though Molly Baker didn’t know falling to her knees and just screaming.
it yet, her world was about to “My life was completely turned
change forever. On that cloudy Satur- upside down. Everything that I knew,
day morning, she’d just returned to her that I counted on, was just blown
home in Sammamish, Washington, apart,” she says. They’d been married
after a chilly trail run. Her husband, almost 20 years; he was 59. “What do I
Marlin Baker, an avid skier, had set out do?” she remembers saying aloud, in
early for a day on the slopes of Crystal total shock. “What do I do?”
Mountain, about two hours away. Their
14-year-old son, Samuel, was at a WHEN CARLA VAIL, one of Molly’s clos-
friend’s house. est friends, heard the awful news about
Molly, then 52, was catching up on Marlin, she knew right away that she
her work as an accountant when her wanted to help. Carla and Molly had
cellphone rang. She didn’t recognize met 10 years earlier in the pickup line
the number, so she ignored it. Then at their sons’ preschool.
came a voicemail from the Crystal “I’d been hearing non-stop about
Mountain Volunteer Ski Patrol: Marlin this boy named Samuel, and Molly had
had been in a skiing accident. Her been hearing non-stop about this boy
heart fluttering, she immediately called named Jake. And we were like, ‘Oh my
back. Her husband had been killed. gosh, you’re the mother of the child

illustrations by Amelia Flower ReadeRsdigest.in 67

Reader ’s Digest

I hear about every single day!’ ” Carla Kathy O’Brien, who had come to stay
remembers. “We just hit it off.” with her. But what if Carla could har-
They had a lot in common—they ness this initial wave of love from well-
both volunteered in the community wishers into something more lasting
and loved cooking and hiking. Their and structured, something that would
two boys already got along, and their brighten Molly’s days through the dif-
husbands became friendly too. ficult year ahead? She looked at the
“We had a lot of threads in our lives dozen names she had already.
that brought us together and kept us
together over the years,” Molly says.
The first week after Marlin’s acci-
dent, Carla was at Molly’s house every
day. She helped plan the funeral and,
person
in an effort to organize the outpouring
c h d a y , a new ha
Ea h out wit
of support from friends, neighbours
ld r e a c n,
and their close-knit church commu- wou n invitatio
r d , a
nity, created a sign-up sheet so people kind wo pick up
milk.
f f e r t o
could drop off meals. The initial sched- an o
ule quickly filled, Carla remembers.
“I was getting emails saying, ‘All the
meal days are taken care of, and I want
to do something. What can I do?’ So I
had this little card, and I would write
each name down and say ‘Can I keep “I thought, what if I found a few
your name, and I’ll call you?’ And even- more people and created a rolling cal-
tually I had a list going.” endar, where every day of the month,
The roster of names got Carla think- there would be someone committed to
ing about her own experiences with checking on her?” Carla says. “That
loss. In her 30s, she’d cared for her dying way, nobody would be overtaxed,
parents, and she’d walked the same because you only had to do it 12 times
path with her in-laws and an aunt. in a year.”
“One thing I learnt is that the flurry She brought the idea to Molly to
of activity when someone dies lasts make sure she was comfortable with it,
about two weeks. That’s when your and to make it clear that none of the
table is full of flowers and your freezer women wanted Molly to feel pressure
is full of casserole,” she says. “But then, to socialize every day. “One thing I said
naturally, everybody has to go back to was, ‘This isn’t anyone knocking at your
real life.” She knew Molly already had door,” Carla explains. “No one’s going
crucial daily support from her sister, to show up demanding something. And

68 february 2025
 xxxxxxxx
Inspiration

if someone does show up with flowers The girls in action: Carla (left) and Nichole
on their day, you don’t have to answer (center) were determined to keep the
the door.’ ” With Molly’s blessing, Carla support going for Molly (right).
took the names she had, brainstormed
a few more contacts to add, then crafted sary in July, Marlin’s birthday in August.
COURTESY OF MOLLY BAKER AND CARLA VAIL. TMB STUDIO (FRAME)

an email to 31 women—and the ‘calen- She herself took the 24th of the month,
dar girls’ were born. the day that Marlin passed. She
included a note about Molly’s favourite
CARLA’S PITCH to the calendar girls was candy and favorite colour, too, in case
simple: Perform a small gesture for someone wanted to send a small gift.
Molly—think “a card, a call or a coffee,” “But the understanding I had with
she says—on the same assigned date everyone was: This isn’t about mone-
monthly, for one whole year. So if some- tary things; it’s about emotional sup-
one chose the first of the month, each port,” Carla says.
time that day rolled around, she might As the weeks and months went by,
walk Molly’s dog, offer to run an errand Molly’s calendar girls showed up for her,
for her, or even simply text her a prayer. day in and day out. Nichole, who lived
Carla made sure to note which dates three houses away, brought by a deli-
might be especially hard—Samuel’s cious hot meal, along with flowers and
birthday in April, the couple’s anniver- a card. Toni, who also lived in the neigh-

ReadeRsdigest.in 69
 bourhood, would often meet Molly for For Molly’s first Valentine’s Day with-
a walk. Her friend Rachel liked to leave out Marlin, almost a year after he’d
a little something on the Bakers’ porch died, Carla wanted to do something
bench—chocolates, a handmade gift, a extra special. She created three festive
handwritten note. Janna, from church, Valentine’s ‘mailboxes’—shoeboxes
met her for lunch and was always send- decorated with hearts and glitter, one
ing prayers. Each day, a new person each for Molly, Samuel and Kathy.
would reach out with a kind word, an Then she left them on the porch and
invitation to have coffee, an offer to pick emailed the calendar girls so they
up a gallon of milk—Loren one morn- could drop off valentines. “People
ing, Tiffanie the next afternoon. And as brought cookies and flowers and plants
each month came to a close, the calen- and cards, and the bench was over-
dar girls geared up to start the rotation flowing with pink and red stuff. It was
over again. really lovely,” Carla says.

70 february 2025
 Reader ’s Digest

WHEN MOLLY LOOKS BACK on the year 2022, Carla set up another group of cal-
after Marlin died, it is with both deep endar girls, which included Molly.
sadness and deep gratitude. “I hadn’t “They carried me through the dark
had any really huge losses before, so I winter nights, through those first holi-
don’t think I knew the value of having days,” Janna says of her supportive
that much support,” she reflects. Though friends. And in early 2024, Molly
she and Samuel struggled with the loss helped start yet another calendar, for a
in different ways, they’re doing well friend whose husband died of a heart
attack. Carla also recently helped Janna
organize one for a friend’s mother.
It doesn’t surprise Molly that Carla
continues to show up for her friends in
times of need.
on “She’s one of those people who is
n y e a rs later,
Ev e h, always thinking about others, and she
h o f e a ch mont just has a really huge heart,” Molly says.
the 24t es
a r la s t ill reach Even years later, on the 24th of each
C olly. month, Carla still reaches out to Molly
out to M to remember Marlin.
That ongoing support made all the
difference for Molly. “When someone
dies, a lot of times people don’t know
what to do or say, and so they do noth-
now—he’s in college, and she’s back in ing,” she says. “So I always tell people:
school herself, studying for a master’s ‘Do something. Don’t do nothing.
in counselling and psychology, work- Do something.’ ”
ing toward supporting others through Carla agrees: “You don’t always have
life’s tough times as a therapist. to exchange any words when some-
Carla’s calendar idea has continued one’s grieving,” she says. “It’s OK just
to spread: After Janna Kach, one of to sit with them or walk a dog. It’s just
Molly’s original calendar girls, lost her that companionship of knowing you’re
husband, John Kach, to lung cancer in not alone.”

News from the Heart

You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality
is finally better than your dreams.
—D R. S E U S S

ReadeRsdigest.in 71
 Reader ’s Digest
Photo: IMDB

Actor Soumitra Chatterjee as

Apu in a still from him debut film
Apu’r Sansar (The World of Apu),
1959, directed by Satyajit Ray

72 feBruary
february2025
2025
 THE UNFORGETTABLE

Soumitra
Chatterjee’s
Tryst with
Destiny
The encounter that led a budding actor
to a legendary filmmaker, and sparked an
iconic creative partnership during the
golden age of Bengali cinema

BY Sanghamitra Chakraborty

ReadeRsdigest.in
readersdigest.in 65
73
 N
Reader ’s Digest

able to say something like this. It only

meant that he was looking for Apu
everywhere, all the time.”
At five feet eleven, Soumitra looked
considerably older than Smaran
Ghoshal, whom Ray eventually cast in
Apu’s role in Aparajito. Yet, for Soumi-
tra, that first meeting was unforgettable.
He had been in awe of the great director
Nityananda Dutta, Satyajit Ray’s already, but Ray’s graciousness was a
assistant, was waiting on the pavement genuine surprise. Soumitra was a
across the street from Soumitra Chat- nobody at that stage, and he definitely
terjee’s house. Once they got past the had not expected Ray to spend so much
pleasantries, Netai, as he was called by time with him. He fondly remembered
Ray’s unit, came straight to the point: the conversation they had that day. The
Mr Ray was planning to start filming big man took his time speaking to the
Aparajito (The Unvanquished), the young actor on a variety of subjects,
sequel to Pather Panchali (Song of the even though he had known right away
Road) [the film adaptation of Bibhutib- that he was not right for the role.
hushan Bandyopadhyay’s acclaimed Soumitra found out later that Ray
novel by the same name], and had would evaluate actors for certain spe-
launched a hunt for an actor to play cific abilities in the course of his first
Apu. Would Soumitra be willing to conversation with them, subtly observ-
come along to see Ray for that role? ing their manner of speaking, the tim-
Next, Soumitra was on a bus with bre of their voice, their enunciation
Ray’s assistant to his home in south Cal- skills and so on. For Ray, it was crucial
cutta. On the bus, Netai sized him up that his actors spoke fluent Bengali,
with a piercing gaze. Soumitra had and so he observed their choice of
started wearing glasses at the time. Mid- phrases and expressions during their
way, Netai asked him to get rid of them. everyday speech. “He asked me two
Ray was seated in his room in his specific questions that day: whether I
signature white kurta pajama when really loved acting, and whether I was
Soumitra arrived at his Lake Avenue ready to act in films, if necessary ...
flat. “The moment I entered, he said, Given my immense fascination with
‘Oh dear, you’ve turned out to be much Pather Panchali and with the person
too tall.’ Restraining himself immedi- asking the questions, my response was
Photo: alamy

ately, he added, ‘Please come in, take exactly as it ought to have been.”
a seat.’ I was shaken. How engrossed Ray seemed pleased with their chat;
he must have been in his work to be he spoke freely, taking a genuine inter-

74 fEbruary 2025
est in the conversation. With
his 6-foot-4.5-inch frame, he
towered over most people.
Most people who met him for
the first time were inevitably
overwhelmed by his large pres-
ence and his baritone. With his
Brahmo reserve, Ray normally
appeared somewhat distant
and sombre. But even as he
grew in stature, achieving a cult
status, he remained unfailingly
polite, particularly while speak-
ing with newcomers and chil-
dren. But in this case, it wasn’t just that. Soumitra (left) and Ray on the sets of
He had definitely spotted in Soumitra a Ghaire–Baire (Home and the World)
certain spark, something of a promise
that prompted him to say, “Do come Chowdhury’s grandson—beyond this,
again, keep in touch.” Soumitra had he had no identity of his own. He appar-
reckoned then that Ray was just being ently had a family legacy, but he was still
polite; but he was to realize much later a novice. Could he possibly do justice to
that Ray’s invitation was genuine. And this literary masterpiece?
that it was entirely out of character for For many, it seemed like an auda-
him to slip in a hollow remark, no mat- cious venture destined for failure. Ray,
ter what the circumstance. by then, had become only slightly
Soumitra and his friends had been known as a graphic artist among the
attached to Bibhutibhushan’s Pather cultured circles in the city. His cover
Panchali for long. Since 1929, when the design of Aam Aantir Bhepu, the
novel was first serialized in the maga- young-adult version of Pather Panchali
zine Bichitra, it had secured a place as a published by Signet Press, was noticed
literary classic in the Bengali imagina- for its artistic excellence. Soumitra and
tion with its profound compassion for his friends had certainly noticed his
the human condition. Not surprisingly, cover art. Those who saw this work
there had been a great deal of curiosity waited eagerly to see how the young
about the director who would make a Satyajit Ray would cinematically inter-
film adaptation of it: Who was this new pret Bibhutibhushan’s tour de force.
filmmaker? A commercial artist by pro- EditEd and rEProducEd with PErmissions from
soumitra chattErjEE and his world , PublishEd by
fession, Ray was known mainly as Suku- VintagE, PEnguin rnadom housE, coPyright ©
mar Ray’s son and Upendrakishore Roy sanghamitra chakraborty 2025

ReadeRsdigest.in 75
Reader ’s Digest

Dancing on trova night at El Mejunje in

Santa Clara. Opposite: Intoxicatingly
rhythmic music can be found in
every corner of Cuba, including
76 february 2025 the coastal town of Gibara.
 TRAVEL

Music in the Air

Cuba is bursting with sound, and each region
moves to its own defining rhythm
By Shannon Sims
AdApted from New York times

ReadeRsdigest.in 77
Reader ’s Digest

“T
he show starts at 10,” For 12 days, Todd and I travelled
Claudio told us the night we east from Havana toward Santiago
arrived in the beachfront de Cuba, in search of Cuba’s musical
town of Gibara in south- roots. It was not an easy trip. The taxis
eastern Cuba. We were on will make you woozy with exhaust;
the hunt for Cuban music, and for a accommodations advertising Wi-Fi
week, we’d been told a show would and air conditioning often have nei-
start at a certain time, only to spend ther; and supermarket shelves can be
hours in empty venues, waiting for the close to bare. But the island boasts a
band to arrive. So I asked Claudio if perfect cure for any traveller’s woes:
10 actually meant midnight. Claudio, irresistible live music.
a friend of the band, hesitated and
smiled: “Let’s say 11.” An Interactivo show in Havana is
It was 2:11 a.m. when nine musi- a good place to start a tour of the is-
cians finally took the stage. Within land’s many sounds. Interactivo is a
seconds, we were enveloped by 12-piece band, but it’s also a uniquely
sound—bongos, scrapers, shakers, Cuban collective of artists—young
trumpets, sax and the falsetto of the and old, black and white, men and
singer, Cimafunk. With his four-inch- women—pursuing their own projects.
tall flat-top hair, swagger and Hawaiian Cimafunk is one of its alumni.
shirt open and flapping in the breeze, The low ceilings and round stage

photos, previous spread: (left)©todd heisler/the New york times. (right) ©getty images
he was the centre of attention. Hun- of the band’s regular spot, the Cen-
dreds danced with their arms in the tro Cultural Bertolt Brecht, make it
air. It was a magical moment, one that feel small and intimate. The night
the photographer Todd Heisler and I we went, young couples swayed to
had been chasing across the island. the music while tourists twirled each
Cuba is drenched in music; you other in the front row.
hear it everywhere. For many visi- Interactivo’s sound defies any par-
tors, Cuban music is defined by the ticular genre, though an easy label
traditional sounds of the Buena Vista would be “Cuban jazz fusion,” with
Social Club or Celia Cruz. But it bright horns, conga drums and elec-
stretches far beyond those sounds; its tric keyboards.
roots draw on Africa and Haiti, France The story of Cimafunk, whose real
and Spain. Genres come together name is Erik Iglesias Rodríguez, is
and break apart, endlessly forming typical of the musicians who come
new sounds. And as Cubans dive to Havana to try and make it. After
into the possibilities provided by moving from western Cuba in 2011,
the internet, styles are shifting with he washed cars and slept on friends’
increasing speed. couches. “Sometimes I’d play music

78 february 2025
 Cimafunk, seen here performing in Gibara, has found a global audience for his music .

in the park from 8 at night until 6 in Billboard, a US music industry maga-

the morning and then sleep on the zine, named him one of the “10 Latin
Malecón,” he told me, referring to Ha- Artists to Watch in 2019.”
vana’s famed waterfront esplanade. In The artist shrugged when I asked
2014 he landed a spot in Interactivo, him about his rocketing success. “I
and sang with them before forming guess I’m just a lucky guy,” he said.
his own band. To really discover Cuban music, Ci-
The response was almost immedi- mafunk said, head to the countryside.
photo: ©todd heisler/the New york times

ate. Cimafunk’s 2017 album, Terapia, “In Havana you can see a lot of people
won the biggest music awards on the from a lot of places in Cuba making
island. Ned Sublette, a Cuban music interesting stuff, but what you miss
scholar, says the singer had “the hit of are the roots.”
the year in Havana” with ‘Me Voy’: “It
was just an absolutely irresistible song We left Havana the next morning,
and inescapable.” driving an hour and a half east to
Cimafunk has found a global au- Matanzas, an easily overlooked port
dience by streaming his music. town known for rumba music.

ReadeRsdigest.in 79
Reader ’s Digest

We headed to the home of the lead- length of carrots. It sets the pace and
ing rumba band in town. Los Muñequi- tone of all other instruments.
tos, which means ‘the little comics’, are Other percussion elements are usu-
a band, but also a family: Many of the ally added into a rumba composition.
18 members are related, and the band With multiple rhythms happening at
is now on its third generation. the same time, to an outsider it can
During the 18th and 19th centuries, sound cacophonous and disorganized.
Matanzas was a hub of the slave trade. But if you let your mind give up trying
The slaves who had been transported to single out the rhythm, you have a
from West Africa to Cuba to work in better chance of actually finding it.
the sugar plantations and ports de- The lyrics of rumba songs shout out
vised methods to carry on their African to orishas, the gods of Yoruba culture
that govern natural elements. But
they also explore the emotional reali-
ties of enslaved people finding light
in darkness. “It’s about overcoming,”
explains Diosdado Ramos Cruz, Fig-
urín’s 73-year-old father.
For most members of Los Muñequi-
tos, rumba isn’t their primary occupa-
tion. They take the bus to Havana to
play in hotel lobbies and smoky bars
because they don’t have a regular
venue in Matanzas. In the port town,
rumba retains an air of the clandes-
Yaima Orozco performs in Santa Clara.
She describes trova music as “always one
tine, not unlike its origins: You might
person, one guitar and a personal story.” catch its sound in a passing street pro-
cession, or when you’re walking by
religions in secret. Rumba was devel- Los Muñequitos’ house and overhear
oped by the dockworkers in Matanzas. a practice session.
“They’d play with anything they had “The idea of Los Muñequitos is to
around,” explained Diosdado Enier keep the seed of this sound, to keep
photo: ©yaima orozco/facebook

Ramos Aldazábal, 36, the Muñequi- this essence,” Figurín explained.

tos musician better known as Figurín. “Havana is all about change, but
“They’d grab forks, rum bottles, load- rumba is about staying the same.”
ing crates and just play,” he said.
The core of rumba is the claves, By the time Yaíma Orozco took the
an instrument that looks like two stage, the central courtyard of El Me-
wooden sticks about the width and junje in the town of Santa Clara was

80 february 2025
 Children practise for the Carnaval Infantil on the streets of Santiago de Cuba.

filled with 20-somethings wedging delightful exception. She described

themselves together on the bleach- her entry into trova as almost invol-
ers. Behind Orozco a drummer and untary. “I was shot through the heart
upright bassist settled in, but all eyes when I heard this type of music,” she
were on her in her bright red dress. told me.
The genre trova is about exploring Trova songs can be about experi-
the dark corners of heartache. It’s a ences in love and life. Although they
stripped down, intensely passionate can draw from rhythms like cha-cha-
and yearning sound. Listeners might chá or bossa nova, ultimately it is
photo: ©todd heisler/the New york times

stay seated, they might dance, they “always one person, one guitar and a
might cry. That’s especially true when personal story,” as Orozco put it.
Orozco is performing. Santa Clara, a university town, is
“I want to be in the shade of an al- the home of artists, intellectuals and
mond tree flowering, in the water of poets. In 1958 Che Guevara liberated
your waterfall,” she sang, before div- Santa Clara, precipitating the Batista
ing into a guitar solo. regime’s collapse.
Across Cuba, most professional In keeping with the revolutionary
musicians are male. Orozco, 38, is one spirit, El Mejunje was the first venue

ReadeRsdigest.in 81
Reader ’s Digest

in Cuba that opened its doors to Conga groups train all year for Car-
gay people; its drag shows are legend- naval, often as part of musical ensem-
ary. Owner Ramón Silverio explained, bles that can include dancers. The
“I wanted one place where every- groups represent neighbourhoods. We
one is invited and where we don’t planned to meet Conga Los Hoyos, the
accept intolerance.” most famous conga group in Santiago,
Orozco is part of a collective calledat their rehearsal spot, but when we
La Trovuntivitis, which includes ac- got there the electricity was out and
claimed trova artists like Roly Berrío rehearsal had been postponed.
Outside, we detected the sound
of drums in the distance. We raced
havana MatanzaS through traffic and discovered
Conga Los Hoyos Infantil, the
Santa Clara
children’s band of Conga
Los Hoyos, rehearsing in
gibara neighbourhood streets.
C U BA Nine- and 10-year-old
boys banged on tire
irons with sticks and
Santiago de Cuba beat drums with their
palms, while young
girls practised a cho-
and Migue de la Rosa. These trouba- reographed dance. The conga band
dours may spend most of their time was making last-minute adjustments
away from Santa Clara, but when they for its biggest event of the year: Carna-
return, they return to El Mejunje. val Infantil, or the Children’s Carnaval.
The sound of conga is predomi-
From Santa Clara, the city of Santiago nantly percussive: Drums of all kinds
de Cuba is a long, 11-and-a-half hour are gathered, but there is usually a
drive. On the road we dodged cows higher-pitched quinto drum in the
and potholes, and slowed for donkey- mix. The earsplitting bang of conga
drawn buggies and cowboys on horses. is made by hitting metal sticks on
Santiago felt like another country. doughnut-shaped motorcycle brakes.
Shiny classic cars competed with And then there’s the Chinese
buzzing motorcycles flying up and cornet. The instrument is played by
down the city’s hills. Known as the a person walking backward in front
birthplace of Bacardi rum, Santiago of the band, and the people follow-
is a party town. Carnaval celebrations ing the cornet throw their arms in the
happen in July. air and dance.

82 february 2025
 Travel

The next day, just after sunset, the scratcher—sound like rain drops, fall-
streets around Santiago’s port were ing in different tones and at different
packed with groups of children in speeds, ultimately crescendoing to
costume—some in blue colonial-style form a rolling storm.
dresses, some dressed like fisher- But the instrument that makes
men with straw hats. The main event changüí unique is the marímbula. The
was a parade. The young performers marímbula looks like a big box. On
marched and played, seeming to ride the front, a row of metal teeth bridge
a wave of giddy adrenaline. over holes carved into the wood. The
player sits on the box, and reaches
Unlike other genres of Cuban mu- between his or her legs to pluck the
sic, changüí stands by itself, both sty- metal teeth, whose vibration exits the
listically and geographically. “You holes with a deep bass note.
would only hear changüí in the east,”
Sublette said. So we journeyed into the LIFE WAS ABOUT
hilly, tropical heat of the southeast.
Changüí Guantánamo, one of the
SURVIVAL, AND THE
leading changüí groups, was recording LYRICS OF CHANGÜÍ
an album in the government’s slick re- MUSIC REFLECT THAT.
cording studio and invited us to sit in.
Changüí does not use the clave We could feel the sounds in the bot-
rhythm pattern that drives the other toms of our feet first, a buzzing vibra-
genres. “Honestly, a lot of people don’t tion almost demanding them to lift up
like the way changüí sounds, they don’t and dance. Yolexi Rodríguez Macarro,
get it,” said Benjamin Lapidus, who the marímbula player for Changüí
wrote the first book about the genre. Guantánamo, explained to me, “This
Across the rural hills of eastern is the heart of changüí.”
Cuba, life was about farming and sur-
vival, and the lyrics of changüí music Over the course of our journey, our
reflect that. While we were in the stu- understanding of Cuban music had
dio, Changüí Guantánamo recorded deepened to include instruments and
‘Yo Soy Campesino’, or, ‘I am Coun- genres we’d never heard of. It made
try’, and about halfway through the me wonder about all the sounds we
recording the lead singer broke out in still didn’t know. As Cimafunk told
animal sounds—he woofed and me- me: “You can always have a greater
owed and neighed with conviction. understanding of Cuban music, the
Together the instruments—the more you search.”
six-stringed tres, the conga drums,
This arTicle was condensed by reader’s digesT. copyrighT
and the cheese-grater-like guayo © 2019 by new york Times.

ReadeRsdigest.in 83
Reader ’s Digest

Frozen
in Time
The life and work of Vittorio Sella, a pioneer of
early mountain photography and the man behind
some of the very first images of the Himalayas

BY Hugh Thomson
PHOTO GRAPHS by Vittorio Sella

84 february
february2025
2025
PHOTO ESSAY

View of Baltoro Towers

(including Trango),
Karakoram Range, 1909

ReadeRsdigest.in
readersdigest.in 65
85
T
Reader ’s Digest

The city of Biella—although it is easy to think of

it as a large town—is surrounded by the snowy
foothills of the Italian Alps. The main square is
overlooked by a branch of the Sella bank; while in
its centre stands the imposing statue of Quintino
Sella, the man credited with putting the newly
independent and united Italy of the 19th century
on a solid financial footing.
In 1879, his young nephew Vittorio trade in Italy, into a prosperous family
was attending a performance of a Verdi who had owned textile mills for centu-
opera in the theatre to one side of the ries. His father, Guiseppe Venanzio, had
square. Emerging towards midnight, his written an acclaimed treatise on the pro-
head ringing with the music that was to duction of wool and another—more
be a lifelong passion, he realized the sky germane to his son’s career—on the
overhead was cloudless and that condi- then new art of photography.
tions would be perfect for photography Sella’s background was cultured and
the following morning. enquiring. He grew up with a father who
He made an impetuous decision. encouraged him to develop his own
Dressed in full formal evening wear for skills in photography and could support
the opera, he left his companion and him financially to do so. Vittorio’s
departed immediately for the moun- brother, Erminio, was also a fine photog-
tains, where he had set up a tent for just rapher. Vittorio’s uncle, Quintino Sella,
such an eventuality, and which was was not only a well-known politician at
all photographs: courtesy of Dag

sheltering an extremely large camera. the national level but a founder of the
He walked through the night in his tail- Italian Alpine Club. He frequently took
coats to get there. The resulting picture his nephew up to the mountains and
from Mount Mars was one of his first encouraged him to make his first ascent
outstanding panoramas and the true when Sella was just a precocious fif-
beginning of one of the most remarkable teen—a prelude to his future exploits.
careers in photography. Vittorio took his first photographs
Vittorio Sella was born in 1859 in from the clocktower of the old monas-
Biella, a well-known centre for the wool tery above the family wool mills, which

86 february 2025
 Photo Essay

Bridge over the Praig-chu,

Prek Chu River, between
Dzongri and Yuksom,
Sikkim, 1899.

they had bought from

the proceeds of their
business. He later set
up a darkroom on the
roof of the nearby
coach house to make
contact-exposures
from his plates, as he
preferred natural day-
light to do so.
Throughout his
career, Sella made
use of his skills in
engineering and
chemistry that the
wool-mills and his
father had taught
him. Just as the textile
industry, he, too, was
able to adapt to con-
stantly changing
technologies—from
the huge Dallmeyer
camera with its 30 x
40 cm plates he had
ordered from Lon-
don, with which he began his career, to family’s wool business. His passion,
the steadfast Ross & Co cameras after however, was photography, and there
1893, and finally to the ease of one of were other brothers to carry on the busi-
the first handheld Kodaks. ness, so he would often head to the
After the death of his father in 1876, mountains with his camera.
Sella completed his schooling and Sella also became well known for his
national service in the Italian army, numerous first winter ascents, like that
before returning to Biella to help in the of Monte Rosa; these being far harder to

ReadeRsdigest.in 87
 Reader ’s Digest

ciate their beauties… I can

see fixed on paper the vision
of a lost instant. I recognise
scenes I had not been able to
admire on the spot. And in
such details I sometimes find
the elements of beauty. The
toil and accidents of a climb
often blind our eyes to the
beauty of the highest regions.
Our mind cannot retain a
true notion of the views we
admired. We know we felt up
there the strongest emotions;
we remember but dimly the
truth of the sights which fas-
cinated our senses.”
In 1889–90, aged 30, he
made the first of two self-
financed excursions to the
Caucasus. His photographs
from both the Alps and the
Caucasus reveal how adept
Siniolchum, 22,570 ft., telephoto-
graph from Zemu Valley, Himalayas, he was becoming at using the human
Base of Kangchenjunga, 1899 figure to give scale to his vast land-
scape compositions. He also recorded
achieve than in the summer season. The the people he met and who gave him
diminutive Sella—only 5’6” in his hospitality. By the end of the century,
mountaineering socks—was gaining a he was ready for the Himalaya. He
reputation for being extraordinarily joined the British explorer Douglas
tough. Often climbing with family and Freshfield for a circumnavigation of
friends, he crisscrossed the Alps at Kangchenjunga, the 3rd-highest peak
bewildering speed, even with the in the world, and one that remained
unwieldy photographic apparatus he unclimbed until 1955.
was carrying. Kangchenjunga is a great mountain
He wrote in one of his notebooks not only in height but in presence, and
that: “[T]aking photographs in the Alps the excited Sella responded with an
has greatly increased my love for exemplary set of prints, helped by the
mountains. I learn how better to appre- way a recent snowfall had dusted the

88 february 2025
West Spur of Gusherbrum
from Upper Baltoro Glacier,
Karakoram Mountain
Range, 1909

ReadeRsdigest.in 65
 Buddhist Temple at Tumlong Sikkim, 1899

mountains with the Himalayan equiva- and even more importantly as the pho-
lent of make-up. tographer of record.
This was a superb introduction to the He was documenting the scientific
highest abodes of the world, as the aims of the expedition in a thorough and
mountain lies between India, Nepal conscientious way, one that he
and Tibet, so vistas opened up into enhanced with his aesthetic apprecia-
every country. tion. It could be said of Sella that he was
By far the most important connection incapable of framing a poor composi-
for Sella was his early friendship with the tion, whether it be a mountain, person
Duke of the Abruzzi, the grandson of the or tree; and that he had the quality of
Italian king. A decade or so younger than facilità which was so praised in Renais-
Sella, the Duke was likewise a man of sance Italy, of producing pictures which
extraordinary energies with interests in appear complete but are not overfin-
exploring the Arctic as well as the moun- ished—that are at ease with themselves.
tains. In 1897, he effectively became Sella’s final journey with the Duke
Sella’s patron and went on to fund three was the most spectacular and ambitious.
important expeditions in which Sella In 1909, they travelled to the Karakoram
would take part both as a mountaineer beyond the western Himalaya to attempt

90 february 2025
 Reader ’s Digest

K2 from the West

(Western Wall of
K2 from Savoia
Glacier), 1909

record for altitude at the

time. Aged fifty at the
time, Sella was an expe-
rienced and accom-
plished photographer in
his prime. The images he
captured on and around
the virgin landscape of
K2 are some of his finest.
He continued to climb
in Europe and photo-
graph almost right up to
his death in 1943 at the
age of eighty-four.
Sella’s photographs
are, in some ways,
becoming as much an
elegy as a celebration.
Perhaps the last word
should be left to [the
famous mountaineer–
the second-highest mountain in the photographer], Ansel Adams: “His was
world, one which has since achieved a a rich and productive life, and one of
fearsome reputation—K2. Well led and the happiest as well. Few have looked
organized, the expedition did not suffer upon an equal wealth of the world
some of the terrible deaths of subse- splendours; fewer still have enjoyed
quent ones and has a place in moun- the opportunity to interpret and
taineering history as one of the first express them; and the period of his life
attempts at climbing the most extreme encompasses the golden age of moun-
peak of Asia. They managed to get as taineering and exploration.”
high as 19,685 ft on the ridge to the the author hugh thomson is an award-winning
travel writer, filmmaker and explorer. edited excerpt
southeast (now known as the Abruzzi reproduced with permissions from the book vittorio
Ridge); the Duke himself continued sella: photographer in the himalaya, ©2025 dag pvt ltd.,
new delhi, a publication accompanying the dag exhi-
even higher on to nearby Chogolisa bition vittorio sella: photographer in the himalaya,
on view at bikaner house, new delhi from 31 January
(Bride Peak) at 24,600 ft to set a world till 14 february 2025.

ReadeRsdigest.in 91
 NATURE

GREAT THE
WILDEBEEST
MIGRATION
92 february 2025
 Reader ’s Digest

It’s a spectacular sight when countless

ruminants cross the Serengeti
in search of greener pastures
By Vincent Noyoux FROM LE FIG ARO MAG A ZIN E

ReadeRsdigest.in 93
Reader ’s Digest

subject to massive fluctuations depend-

It starts like
a scene from Out of Africa. Leaving
ing on rainfall upriver, their migration
would be smooth sailing. Rising on the
Kenyan side of the Great Rift Valley and
Mount Kilimanjaro behind, the bush flowing into Lake Victoria, it’s the longest
plane flies over the gaping Ngorongoro and only perennial river in the Serengeti.
Crater, casting its shadow over tawny It’s also the most dangerous to cross.
land that resembles lion skins sewn
together with the rivers’ green thread. THE LAND CRUISER we’re travelling in
We’re in the Serengeti in Tanzania, crosses an acacia savannah, and there’s
in the northern part of the national a parade of animals: elephants, giraffes,
park, near the Kenyan border. We’ve warthogs, buffaloes, ostriches, ante-
yet to set foot on the ground, but the lopes and topis. Crocodiles and hip-
safari is underway. Herds of elephants popotamuses soak in the water as vul-
bathe in the Mara River. Half- tures fly overhead. All of the actors are
submerged crocodiles come into sight, in place: On the opposite bank, a black
and on the bank sit masses darker line forms at a spot at the river’s edge,
than boulders, the hippopotamuses. and the growing horde congregates.
It’s all wonderful, but we’re here to The wildebeests are about to cross,
see something else: the blue wilde- but they seem to hesitate. And who

(PRE VIOUS PAGES) PHOTOS TOCK-ISR AEL/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBR ARY/GE T T Y IMAGES
beest. With its spindly legs, grey-blue could blame them? The waters are
coat, wild mane and a long, bumpy face crawling with crocs and hippos. When
that gives it a stubborn air, this rumi- one wildebeest makes its move, the
nant is not the elite of the African safari. entire group follows. “Their best strategy
Wildebeests live in herds of about 30 is to cross in a line rather than head-on,”
that assemble in huge numbers during Macha says. “In a compact group, the
the great annual migration. young wildebeests would inevitably end
“The cycle starts early in the year in up crushed and then drown.”
the southern Serengeti and moves Several hundred thousand zebras fol-
west, then north to the Masai Mara low them, he says, but the more cautious
(Kenya), east and back south,” explains zebras never cross first. “One theory is
our guide, Erasto Macha. “Wildebeests they remember dangerous places. But
follow the rain, which provides green what we do know is they share the grass:
grasslands. They remain in the north- zebras graze the top of the grass and
ern Serengeti from July to early Octo- wildebeests eat the rest.”
ber, but August and September are The group at the edge of the Mara
when we see the most.” He estimates still hesitates. Will they or won’t they?
there are 1.5 million here. We place our bets. The wait can take
If it weren’t for the Mara, which is hours. Sometimes, the wildebeests turn

94 february 2025
 Wildebeests set out
to cross the Mara River.

back. That’s what happens today. As the illuminate a myriad of wildebeest eyes,
light shifts from gold to glowing red, glimmering dots.
they scatter sheepishly in the bush. At dawn, we take to the sky in a hot-
Defeat in such a glorious setting. air balloon. Like the sun, we slowly rise.
We head back to Sayari Camp, the The basket skims the tops of the acacias
first of its kind in the northern Seren- and glides low over impalas, antelopes
geti. Unlike other lodges, it’s just a and zebras. The spitting burner sends
stone’s throw from the Mara River, large herds of wildebeests into a panic,
which is very practical when a river- and they gallop off into the vast
crossing alert goes up. The decor yellowish-green plain. In a few weeks
blends South African design and Tan- they’ll have reached the Masai Mara,
zanian handicrafts that distill into a whose hills peek out in the distance.
subtle safari-chic atmosphere, and it We watch as the hyenas’ limping run
isn’t uncommon to see zebras and clashes with the graceful leaps of the
wildebeests roaming between the tents. oribis—the ballerinas of the savannah.
AY ZENS TAYN/GE T T Y IMAGES

To come and go after dark, guests have From the sky, the wild wonder calls to
to call a staff member by walkie-talkie. mind an earthly paradise, but the ani-
The nighttime savannah rustles with mal bones that litter the ground tell the
a thousand sounds. A hyena’s high- story of the struggle to survive. Here,
pitched call sends shivers down your there are the hunters and the hunted.
spine as you lay in bed. Step out onto A lioness lurks in the bushes. Wilde-
the terrace, and your flashlight will beests graze a few dozen metres away,

ReadeRsdigest.in 95
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unaware. A more alert zebra catches its topaz eyes on us in an imperial gaze.
sight of the large cat and remains on Leopards often pounce on their prey,
the lookout, ready to flee. The lioness usually an antelope or an impala, in
stalks them. What is she waiting for? one bound. They’re powerful enough
But animals are on their own time. to haul it into a tree so they don’t have
The Serengeti teems with life. On the to share with other carnivores. This one
banks of the Mara, mongooses leapfrog will wait until night to attack, some-
the rocks. Standing in the water, Masai thing its eyesight and patience permit.
giraffes nibble acacia leaves. “They spot
danger first, and the zebras understand
that,” Macha says. SAFARIS START
Further on, there’s a group of chubby- IN THE EARLY
cheeked hippos with bulging eyes. But
we aren’t fooled by their aura of serenity.
MORNING, WHEN
These territorial animals charge without THE WILDLIFE IS
warning, killing nearly 500 people a year MOST ACTIVE.
in Africa—far more than all the big cats
combined. Two teenagers quarrel and
growl, opening their mouths wide to SAFARIS START IN the early morning,
bare their frightening teeth. when the wildlife is most active, and as
The radio crackles: Wildebeests have the Land Cruiser crosses the savannah
been spotted a few kilometres away. under a sky dotted with clouds, we
The SUV sets off down the track. On the watch lion cubs play under their moth-
other side of the river, lines of wilde- er’s watchful eye. Then they quickly dis-
beests arrive from all over as the group appear into the tall grass. “The wilde-
swells. But no one wants to go first. beests are going to cross,” Macha says
Their hesitation forces them to post- with certainty. Soon enough, an epic
pone, and they disperse. scene unfolds right before our eyes.
The unexpected occurs elsewhere. As Thousands of wildebeests stamp on
we observe a group of impalas, one of the bank of the river, the depth of which
them makes a loud whistling noise. can fluctuate quickly. The most danger-
“Something alerted it,” says Macha. We ous 100 metres of their lives lie ahead.
all turn our heads. Lying on a branch, Pressured by the group, one decides to
hidden among the leaves, a leopard cross. And then the flow is unstoppable.
looks on. It coolly unfurls its tail beyond Water sprays as the wildebeests jump in.
the foliage, betraying its presence; if it It’s a dark and nervous army, an ava-
hadn’t been for the impala’s warning, lanche of horns on the Mara River.
we’d never have seen it. Crocodiles are ready to attack as the
The leopard climbs higher and sets hippos fiercely guard their territory. The

96 february 2025
 Nature

smaller wildebeests are the easiest prey, with their trunks. This is the way of the
but the mass of moving legs complicates wild: from fear to tenderness.
any assault; a crocodile slowly moves
forward and propels itself in a flash, its THE SUN SETS on our final outing, and
jaws just missing the target. we’re on foot for the first time. A ranger
The wildebeests that make it to the armed with a .458 Winchester Magnum
other side climb out dripping wet. A is with us. And that’s a good thing. As
youngster stands alone, a few metres simple bipeds without fangs or claws,
behind them. Crocodiles loom, and we we’re more vulnerable than a baby ante-
bury our eyes in our binoculars and lope. We tread cautiously, quietly, in an
hold our breath. The safari becomes a eerily deserted savannah.
thriller—a cruel and fascinating death Suddenly, Macha freezes: “Behind the
scene that plays out right in front of us. rock, 30 metres away...” And we see the
But the little wildebeest survives, wisps of a lion’s mane behind granite.
barely, and we think back to one we We feel a quiver of fear, but we don’t
saw yesterday whose flanks had been run or the lion will assume we’re prey. In
slashed. “A crocodile attack,” Macha any case, we’d be too slow. “Stay together
had confirmed. “A hyena will finish it and walk away slowly,” Macha says. The
off when it gets too weak to run.” lion sticks its head out and follows us
Yet the biggest threat to the wilde- with its eyes. What is it thinking?
beests is drowning. Sometimes hun- “You never know what an animal was
dreds of carcasses float in the river. “In doing 30 minutes ago,” our guide adds
just 15 minutes, 3,000 to 4,000 wilde- in a low voice. “Maybe it ate, maybe it
beests cross it,” says our guide. had an unfortunate encounter, maybe
Drowned wildebeests are a feast for it was injured.”
scavengers. Bare-necked and wrapped In the evening, before dinner, as is
in their sinister cloak, vultures perch the custom at the lodge, we sit around
on the branches of a dead tree. These a blazing campfire and talk about our
gravediggers play a vital role in the eco- day, just as Ernest Hemingway, who
system. By removing remains, they help wrote extensively about hunting and
prevent the spread of diseases and pre- fishing, might have done. About leop-
serve the savannah’s ecological balance. ards perched in trees, lions ready to
Afterwards, we park under a clump pounce, crocodiles on the attack. Our
of trees among the impalas and set stories sound like tall tales, except
breakfast on the hood. The sun splat- they’re absolutely true. The sky over the
ters warm colours over the Serengeti. Serengeti witnessed them all.
A zebra foal nudges its mother. Ele- © 2022, Le figaro Magazine . froM en Tanzanie, La
phants silently cross the landscape in grande épopée de La MigraTion des gnous , by
VincenT noyoux, Le figaro Magazine (10 ocTobre
single file as their calves play games 2022). Lefigaro.fr

ReadeRsdigest.in 97
 LAUGHTER
The best Medicine

A man approaches
a priest with a huge
grin. “Bless me, father,
for I have sinned,” he
says. “I’ve spent the
week with seven
beautiful women.”
“Do not fret, my
son,” says the priest.
“Just squeeze seven
lemons into a glass
and drink.”
“Will that cleanse
me from my sin?” Finish your haggis I’ve been taking salsa
“No, but it’ll wipe and down your scotch, lessons for months,
that stupid smile then enjoy these jokes but I don’t feel like I’m
off your face.” from the recent Edin- progressing. It’s just
— glanmireparish.ie burgh Festival Fringe one step forward ...
in Scotland. two steps back.
Whenever I try to My dad used to —Alec Snook
eat healthy, a choco- say to me “Pints, My partner told me
late bar looks at gallons, liters,” that she’d never seen
me and Snickers. which, I think, the film Gaslight.
—Submitted by speaks volumes. I told her that she
joyce kaluscak —Olaf Falafel definitely had.
—Zoë Coombs Marr
I’m an extremely
The expression “When one door closes, emotionally needy
another opens” is about the complete non-binary person:
My pronouns are
lack of privacy living with kids. there, there.
— @ihidefrommykids —Sarah Keyworth
98 february 2025 cartoon by Dave Coverly
 Reader ’s Digest

A snowstorm is raging across the street. The just leave the car in
outside, and Fred and second day of the storm, the garage tonight.”
Sharon are glued to the the weatherman tells —Submitted by
local weather report. everyone to park their Lyle Gruen
“Tonight,” says the cars on the odd side of
weatherman, “you’ll the street. Fred bundles
need to park your car up again and moves the
Reader’s Digest will pay
on the even side of the car. The third night, the for your funny anecdote
street.” Fred puts on his power goes out. “What or photo in any of our
boots, coat and scarf do we do?” Fred asks. humour sections. Post it
to the editorial address, or
and moves their car Sharon shrugs, “Let’s email: [email protected]

IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY PROSE

Lots of us write lousy opening sentences. In the case of the annual
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, they’re doing it on purpose:

✦ He was an old man office, showing off all her each of the three
who fished alone in a skiff curves, and I knew then I main cities in which
in the Gulf Stream, and was in for a weekend of the Mafia operated—
he had gone 84 days trouble because Dave’s Reykjavik, Akureyri
now without taking a fish, Reptile Emporium next and Middelf—threaten-
but as fish tend to live in door, from which the ball ing to lock him away for
the sea rather than in a python had escaped, was life if he didn’t, but he
skiff, he really had only closed until Monday. knew that if he ratted
himself to blame. —Douglas Purdy out the Reykvikingur
ronstik/getty images

—Sam Wallington or the Akureyringur, the

✦ Magnus was in a Mob would kill him for
✦ That sweltering Friday tough spot ... the Icelan- sure—so he just gave
evening she not so much dic Police were pressing them the Middelfingur.
walked but slithered into him to cough up the —Mark Meiches
my shabby strip mall P.I. name of the top capo in

ReadeRsdigest.in 99
 RD RECOMMENDS
By Aditya Mani Jha

FILMS/TV

THE BRUTALIST
In theatres, from 28 February
Perhaps the most ambitious mainstream Hollywood film since
Oppenheimer, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist is an uncompromising
three-and-a-half-hour epic about creativity, addiction, obsession
and the American immigrant experience. The Hungarian–Jewish
architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth (played by Adrien
Brody, who won a Golden Globe for his performance) is separated
from his wife and his orphaned niece after he is sent to the notori-
ous Buchenwald concentration camp. Soon, he immigrates to the
United States and immerses himself in a large-scale project, even as
heroin, family troubles and his own artistic hubris threaten to derail
Photos: IMDB

everything he has worked so hard to preserve. Brody’s towering

performance may well nab him a second Academy Award for Best
Actor after his memorable turn in The Pianist all those years ago.

100 february 2025

 Reader ’s Digest

SOOKSHMADARSHINI
on Disney+Hotstar, from 11 January
Another small-movie gem from the Malay-
alam film industry, M.C. Jithin’s Sookshma-
darshini applies a black comedy filter on
the private investigator genre. The intelligent
and resourceful Priyadarshini (Nazriya Na-
zim) is happily married but resents the fact
that she doesn’t have a job of her own. Soon,
the small, tightly-knit coastal Kerala commu-
nity she is a part of is thrown into a tizzy at
the re-arrival of shadowy baker Manuel
(Basil Joseph) and his mother. Where were they all these years
and what agendas might they have upon re-entry? Priyadarshini
and her band of feisty friends set about discovering the truth
in this very enjoyable, Miss Marple-esque mystery.

SEVERANCE (S2)
On Apple TV+, until March 21
SERIES Quite simply, Severance is the
best sci-fi show in recent years
and one of the finest thrillers streaming right
now. The narrative follows the hapless em-
ployees of the dystopian Lumon Industries,
where high-value employees are subjected to
a failsafe measure called the ‘severance chip’.
Once this chip is implanted, the employees
(‘innies’) can finish work on top-secret proj-
ects, with no memory of their lives outside
office. And once they leave the office and are outside (‘outies’), they
will have no memory of what they worked on while inside. Severance
is the logical extrapolation of every ‘work/life balance’ article you
have ever come across. It is wickedly scary and a whole lot of fun.

readersdigest.in 101
Reader ’s Digest

Unknown City
BOOKS by Amitabha Bagchi (HarperCollins)
It’s been nearly Average, and Arindam
two decades since is now a near-50 novel-
Amitabha Bagchi re- ist and professor look-
leased his debut novel ing back at a string of The Blaft Book
Above Average, about failed relationships. of Anti-Caste SF,
an IIT Delhi gradu- Could it be that, Edited by R. T. Samuel,
ate named Arin- despite his ‘pro- Rakesh K. and Rashmi
dam who harbours gressive’ instincts R.D. (Blaft Publications)
writerly ambitions. and sensitivity, A beautiful, wide-
In the intervening he was actually ranging anthology
years, Bagchi has an arrogant, un- of short stories, trans-
grown into one of thinking chauvin- lations and graphic
the most acclaimed ist all along? A unique narratives, The Blaft
Indian English novel- and immersive story Book of Anti-Caste
ists. His latest book about one man’s re-ap- SF brings together re-
Unknown City is a praisal of his personal nowned writers such
‘jump sequel’ to Above and professional lives. as Dalit activist Gogu
Shyamala and veteran
I Am On the Hit List: Tamil author, Bama (in
Murder and Myth- translation by Meena
Making in South India Kandasamy) alongside
new names like Mimi
By Rollo Romig (Context)
Mondal—nominated
The September 2017 murder of jour-
nalist Gauri Lankesh outside her home for the prestigious
in Bangalore shocked the conscience of a nation. 2023 Nebula Award—
It wasn’t just the brazenness of the killing but also and Sumit Kumar, cre-
the fact that a scribe had been targeted for her be- ator of the very funny
liefs and writings. Journalist Rollo Romig breaks Bakarmax Comics.
down the complex interplay of individuals and in- The book’s impressive
stitutions that led up to the moment—mysterious production values and
religious organizations, hired muscle, rationalist a stunning ‘cybernetic
publications, the IT firms that fund leaders and Ambedkar’ cover illus-
parties and so on. In doing so, a scary picture of tration by artist
rising political and social polarization emerges Priyanka Paul make
out of South India. A very engaging mixture of this book a legitimate
old-school reportage and sociological discourse. collector’s edition.

102 febRuaRy 2025

 RD Recommends

MISMATCHED SEASON 3 OST

In December, the third season of Netflix’s hit romance-
MUSIC
drama Mismatched premiered. The show has been distin-
guished for its consistently popular songs and the third
season’s soundtrack is no different—as many as three
tracks from the OST are in the Spotify India top 20 for
the month. Anurag Saikia and Raj Shekhar excel on
vocals for the former’s ‘Ishq Hai’, an old-school Bollywood Sufi-infused
love ballad. Sagar Verma sounds uncannily like Prateek Kuhad on the genteel
acoustic guitar song ‘Khaamiyan’. The absurdist, Europop-influenced ‘Heart-
break Disco’ will resonate with fans of Kylie Minogue and Lady Gaga, while
the tear-jerking ‘Gumshuda’ has a convincing ‘Pehla Nasha’ vibe going for it.

FIN vs HISTORY BY FIN TAYLOR

AND HORATIO GOULD
PODCASTS In line with the popular tradition of comedians adopting
confidently inept, ignorant personas to interview domain
experts—see Zack Galifianakis’s Between Two Ferns or the
Philomena Cunk ‘mockumentaries’ on Netflix—comedian
Fin Taylor shot to viral fame with his ‘Fin vs the Internet’ videos, where he spoke
to online celebrities about the absurdity of their social media fame. Taylor and his
partner-in-crime Horatio Gould are now back with ‘Fin vs History’, to incorrectly
explain “every war, revolution, assassination and movement that has ever ex-
isted.” Was the British civil war ‘the most pointless war in modern times’? and
was JFK the ‘horniest president ever’? Find out with this witty, irreverent podcast.

HAVE YOU HEARD GEORGE’S PODCAST?

BY GEORGE MPANGA (BBC)
Another unique, immersive gem from the BBC stable, Have
You Heard George’s Podcast? features George Mpanga, bet-
ter known as George the Poet, a British spoken-word artist
and rapper widely heard in both the UK and America. The
USP of this podcast is that it is delivered almost entirely in
verse, often in rhyming couplets. Mpanga’s verses cover everything from the
minutiae of inner-city life in London, to the history of imperialism in Ghana to the
very sweet story of how he met his wife. This is an unusually sensitive and versa-
tile artist who’s found the medium he is perfectly suited for; Mpanga’s earnest,
velvety voice and impeccable sense of rhythm will quickly have you hooked.

ReadeRsdigest.in 103
 STUDIO

Still from
Bittersweet
by Sohrab Hura,
Single-Channel
Video, Two-
Channel Audio,
13:38 minutes,
2019

W ithin Sohrab
Hura’s varied
photography practice,
a photographer meant
attempting to negotiate
the place of the photog-
Elsa. They are set
to music generated
by a programme
we often find ourselves rapher in the world. “To converting the tonali-
faced with flashes of photograph my own life, ties of the images into
intimacy. In each image I needed to put myself sound. Throughout the
there is a spark of a in a vulnerable place … 14-minute piece, we
moment that gets to One of the motivations return to the confines

Image courtesy: courtesy of sohrab hura & experImenter

the murky centre of to look inwards was of the bedroom, and
things. We may not also to earn my right witness moments of
get to know the subject to look outwards,” Hura rest and play, malaise
in their entirety but a has said in an interview and recovery—all of
frisson is certainly felt. referring to the process which Hura once tried
Hura hasn’t looked at of showing how their to escape by becoming
anyone with such inten- lives came to be shaped a photographer but
sity as his own mother, by his mother’s paranoid eventually returned
around whom he has schizophrenia and con- to in order to contend
made two photobooks, fronting the shame and with the power a
a video, a sound work, anger that came with it. photographer holds.
and more. In some ways, In Bittersweet, Hura Beyond these negotia-
she is the closest ‘other’ uses images from a tions, Bittersweet is
to the photographer. 10-year period that also tender and taut and
Entering the orbit documents his mother’s tinged with grief.
of their family home as relationship to their dog, —BY ZEENAT NAGREE

104 february 2025

 QUOTABLE QUOTES
If we understood the
power of our thoughts, we
would guard them more
closely. If we understood the
awesome power of our words,
we would prefer silence to
almost anything negative.
—Betty Eadie, author
Science is not a priesthood
I do not think we have a ‘right’ passing down wisdom. It
to happiness. If happiness is the only human pursuit
happens, say thanks. that succeeds because it is
—Marlene Dietrich, actor uncertain ... It challenges
itself. That’s the key
REAL LIFE IS MORE to its success.
—Professor Brian Cox, physicist
INTERESTING THAN
CINEMA CAN BE. WE
It is more fun to talk
JUST HAVE TO PICK with someone who doesn’t
ITS FRUITS. use long, difficult words but
—Payal Kapadia, filmmaker rather short, easy words like
“What about lunch?”
—A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Never be ashamed to admit

you were wrong. You’re only
Photos: alamy

saying that you’re wiser today

than you were yesterday.
—Quoted by DAVE GILPIN

ReadeRsdigest.in 105
 ME & MY SHELF

Santanu Bhattacharya is the

author of One Small Voice, which
won the Observer Best Debut Novel
in 2023. He also won the Desmond
Elliott Prize Residency in the same
year, and the Mo Siewcharran and
Life Writing Prizes in 2021. His sec-
ond novel, Deviants, releasing this
month, explores India’s changing
attitudes towards homosexuality.

Friends in Small mirrored my youth—a rebellious

Places BY RUSKIN BOND, phase when I was acerbic about
Penguin, `399 everything around me, impervious to
I read avidly as a child, my own shortcomings, and was grad-
but looking back, this ually coming to terms with real life.
is the book that stands
out. It is a collection of Trying to Grow
vignettes, each about a character who BY FIRDAUS KANGA, Penguin, `350
has left a lasting impression on the au- Another teenage read that shaped
thor. It beautifully evokes the sense of me. Brit is a young boy with a phy-
a small Himalayan town, of friendships sical condition. He lives with his
forged with strangers along the path of mother in 1970s Bombay, and all is
life. As with Bond, the writing is sim- well until an attractive young man
ple, but the relationships hardly are. moves in next door. Way ahead of
its time, this book explores desire,
photo credit: behrin ismailov

English, August BY UPAMANYU sexuality and disability in the most

CHATTERJEE, Faber & Faber, `375 sassy and raucous ways.
Agastya Sen is from the privileged
circles of Delhi. When he cracks The Imperfectionists
the civil service and is posted in a BY TOM RACHMAN, Dial Press, `1,235
provincial town, he undergoes a jour- Another collection of vignettes,
ney of self-discovery and reckoning this time the stories of staffers of
with his surroundings. This book a newspaper in Rome. From the

106 february 2025

 Reader ’s Digest

ageing proprietor to the remote Goodbye to Berlin

stringer, every character is an integral BY CHRISTOPER ISHERWOOD,
part of the publication but still feels Vintage Classics, `699
out of place in a world struggling to A young man turns
hold up a dying business and its eth- up in 1930s Berlin with
ics. This book, to me, is the absolute dreams of writing a novel,
opposite of its name—pure perfection! and so unfold the stories
of a delectable cast of characters
Out of Place around him. But the world they live in
BY EDWARD SAID, Vintage, `1,527 is changing, and the Nazis are showing
I read this memoir when still quite their true colours. Will their city sur-
young, and it was my awakening to vive, and, if so, at what cost? Insightful,
the Palestine issue. Said, who was forensic and lots of fun, this novel also
an intellectual and is widely read has one of my most favourite charac-
for his academic texts, writes elo- ters in literature—Sally Bowles!
quently about his childhood, family,
home, then the loss of it, and the My Brilliant Friend quartet
despair of living in exile. BY ELENA FERRANTE, PRH, `1049
Elena Greco is a young girl in work-
The Years BY ANNIE ERNAUX, ing-class Naples. Her best friend is
Seven Stories Press `1,666 Lila, but they couldn’t be more differ-
Another autobiography, but this time ent from each other. Tracing their
not of a person but of the world she lives and friendship and the commu-
grew up in. Written in the collective nity around them over six decades,
first person ‘we’, Ernaux traces major this magnum opus fleshes out each
events and milestones of her life character so well that I still think of
and the world over the last several them as real people I know.
decades in prose that is expertly
concise and unrelentingly truthful. The Friend BY SIGRID NUNEZ,
Riverhead Books, `950
Cleanness A middle-aged professor loses her
BY GARTH GREENWELL, Picador, `550 friend to suicide, and inherits his
In this collection of loosely-connected dog. Woman and beast are now stuck
stories, a young, gay, American pro- in a small New York apartment, trying
fessor is trying to find love, sex and to coexist reluctantly, both steeped in
community in faraway Sofia, Bulgaria. the memory of their dead dear one. A
In feather-light prose, Greenwell de- meditation on grief, loss and unlikely
livers the most hard-hitting punches companionships, this book is on top
of this alienating existence. of my ‘forever’ reading list.

Book prices are subject to change. ReadeRsdigest.in 107

 Brain

GAMES
Sharpen Your Mind

Don’t Get Out Over Your Skis

Easy Which set of skis pictured here is not like the others?

EMILY GOODMAN (DON’T GET OUT OVER YOUR SKIS). FRASER SIMPSON (GIMME FIVE)

Gimme Five
Easy Divide this grid into five sections A E D A C
of five letters—each containing the let-
ters A, B, C, D and E only once. (Hint: E C E B E
The regions will not all have
the same shape.) A D B E B
D C D B C
B A C D A

108 february 2025

 Reader ’s Digest

Spreading the Love

MEDIUM On Valentine’s Day, young
Harrison brings candy bars to hand
out to his classmates. But in looking
around the room, he spots a problem:
If he tries to give one candy bar to
each classmate, four classmates
won’t get one. So he decides to
give one chocolate bar to each pair
EMILY GOODMAN (SPREADING THE LOVE). BORTONIA/GETTY IMAGES (CHOCOLATE BAR) .DARREN RIGBY (SNOWFLAKES)

of classmates. This way, there will

be one chocolate bar left over.

How many classmates does Harrison have,

and how many chocolate bars did he bring?

Snowflakes
MEDIUM You can make a paper snowflake by starting with a round
piece of paper, folding it in half, then folding that semicircle into a
wedge shape, and cutting shapes into the folded sides. With this
method, which of the three snowflakes shown are possible to make?

For answers, turn to page 110

ReadeRsdigest.in 109
 february 2025 110
ANSWERS
Brain Games Spreading the Love Crisscross Math
(from pages 108 and 109) He has 10 classmates
and brought six chocolate 9 – 1 – 2 =6
Get Out Over Your Skis
bars to share with them. + + x
The middle skis are the
only ones with the right Snowflakes 3 x 8 ÷ 4 =6
ski crossed over the left. All three designs are possi- ÷ – –
(The others all cross the
FRASER SIMPSON (CRISS-CROSS MATH).

ble. For the purple snow-

left over the right.) flake, simply cut a semi- 6 + 7 – 5 =8
circle from both sides. For =2 =2 =3
Gimme Five
the green one, cut a semi-
A E D A C circle from one side and a Where Oh Where?
V-shaped notch from the (from page 114)
E C E B E
other. The yellow snow- A. Priest Lake, Idaho
A D B E B flake requires one extra
D C D B C fold (to get 12 layers of pa-
per instead of six), then cut
B A C D A a half-teardrop in the edge.
order of operations.
ignoring the standard =3 =2 =2
right and top to bottom,
performed from left to
numbers and should be
involve only positive whole
=8 – +
ments. All six calculations
correct arithmetic state-
the three columns form
– – ÷
that the three rows and
into the empty cells so
digits 1 to 9, once each,
=6 ÷ x
Difficult Place the
Crisscross Math x + +
=6 – –
Reader ’s Digest
 WORD POWER

What’s up? Can you understand today’s

10. salty adj.
tweens and teens, aka Generation Alpha? (‘sawl-tee)
They were born around 2010, so a lot A resentful
B relaxed
of their lingo originated online. If you’re C ridiculous
ready to find out if you’re sigma or mid,
turn the page for the receipts. 11. opp n.
(op)
By Sarah Chassé A gamer
B enemy
1. rizz n. (riz) 6. Fanum tax n. C crush
A charisma (‘fa-nuhm taks)
B insult A bite of a friend’s food 12. sigma adj.
C friend group B rideshare fee (‘sig-muh)
C weekly allowance A basic
B under the radar
2. bussin’ adj. (‘buh-sin)
C supercool
A sluggish 7. delulu adj.
B excellent (duh-’loo-loo)
C far away A deluxe 13. ate v.
(ayt)
B delusional
A fell down
3. yeet v. (yeet) C deleted
B kept quiet
A bump fists C did well
B dance on TikTok 8. stand on
C throw forcefully business v. 14. fit n.
(stand on ‘biz-nes) (fit)
4. bet interj. (bet) A break the ice A workout
A yes B cut corners B outfit
B maybe C walk the walk C hack
C no
9. no cap interj. 15. sus adj.
5. mid adj. (mid) (noh kap) (suhs)
A tiny A that’s the truth A suspended
B so-so B oh well B sustained
C dark C no big deal C suspicious

ReadeRsdigest.in 111
Reader ’s Digest
fake
Not Just a Fluke cahoo
ts
Some slang words fall out of fashion
relatively quickly, while others stand the jamboree
test of time and make their way into Standard
English. After all, these now-legit words were
all considered slang about 100 years ago:
bootleg, bouncer, cahoots, coed, fake,
fluke, grouchy, holdup, hunch, jamboree, fluke
jinx, leery and measly. y
easl
m

Word Power 6. Fanum tax (A) stolen to defeat his sworn opp,
ANSWERS bite of a friend’s food
Head’s up: If you order
Lord Voldemort.

french fries around Jake, 12. sigma (C) supercool

1. rizz (A) charisma he’ll take a Fanum tax. Our gym teacher likes
Mia’s natural rizz helped to think he’s sigma, but
her win the election for 7. delulu (B) delusional he’s kind of a dork.
student body president. Would it be totally delulu
for me to invite Taylor 13. ate (C) did well on
2. bussin’ (B) excellent Swift to the prom? Dude, you ate that math
This pizza is so bussin’,
I may eat the whole quiz! Can you help me
pie myself. 8. stand on business study for the next one?
(C) walk the walk
3. yeet (C) throw forcefully Don’t just talk about get- 14. fit (B) outfit
I’m so frustrated with my ting healthier—stand on My sister’s favourite week-
business and join a gym. end fit is a hoodie, black
phone, I want to yeet it leggings and Crocs.
right out the window!
9. no cap
(A) that’s the truth 15. sus (C) suspicious
4. bet (A) yes The message says I need
When her crush asked her My dog really did eat my
to reset my password,
to the school dance, Delia homework—no cap! but the sender’s email
didn’t take two seconds to address looks a little sus.
PHOTOMELON/GETTY IMAGES

respond, “Bet.” 10. salty (A) resentful

Addison was salty after
Vocabulary Ratings
she finished the group
5. mid (B) so-so 9 & below: negative
project all by herself. aura points
Honestly, the new Marvel
movie looks mid, so my 10-12: main-charac-
friends and I are planning 11. opp (B) enemy ter energy
to skip it. It takes Harry Potter years 13-15: Ws in the chat

112 february 2025

 6. The original 1976
TRIVIA Apple logo depicted which
famous scientist reading a
book under a tree?
BY Ishani Nandi 7. The Trung sisters
were first-century military
1. Which African country leaders who led a rebellion
has more pyramids than against the Chinese Han
Egypt does? dynasty rulers to liberate
which country?
2. Cartilage is one of only
two parts of the human 8. Gifted to him by his 12. What popular make
body that lacks any blood mother, Queen Elizabeth II, of car shares its name
vessels. Which is the other? Prince Charles III owns an with a Persian god?
Aston Martin that runs on
3. Born in Motihari, India what unusual fuel? 13. Which ISRO mission
in 1903, Eric Arthur Blair made history as the first to
became an author better 9. In 2024, a new species land on the Moon’s south
known by what pen name? of plant-eating piranhas pole region?
from the Amazon was
4. The coat of arms of named after which Lord 14. Name the founder
Mauritius features of the Rings character? of the iconic Indian
which extinct animal? publishing house that
10. Snap, snow and produces the children’s
5. What technique is pigeon are varieties of magazine Tinkle.
common to both the art of which foodstuff?
pysanky (decorating Easter 15. Is a euphonium
eggs) and the art of batik 11. How many bones a brass, percussion or
(a method of dyeing cloth)? does a shark have? woodwind instrument?
15. Brass 11. Zero. Like rays, production. 3. George Orwell
14. Anant Pai 10. Peas as waste in cheese the pupil and iris.
Photo Credit: iStoCK.CoM/SteP2626

13. Chandrayan-3 ron in the books. wine and whey left the eye covering
light, Ahura Mazda of the Eye of Sau- from surplus white transparent part of
the Persian god of Tolkien’s depiction bioethanol, made 2. The cornea, the
12. Mazda, after 8. 85 per cent around 255.
resembles J. R. R.
nous tissues. along its body that 7. Vietnam Sudan boasts
made of cartilagi- tical black stripe 6. Isaac Newton vered in Egypt,
their skeletons are ron due to the ver- their designs. have been disco-
branchs, meaning fish Myloplus sau- wax to delineate 138 pyramids
sharks are elasmo- tists dubbed the 5. The use of 1. Sudan. While
and chimeras, 9. Sauron. Scien- 4. The dodo Answers:

ReadeRsdigest.in 113
reader ’s digest

WHERE, OH WHERE

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT: Boat, camp, hike, ski

or snowmobile at this scenic spot beneath
A Priest Lake, Idaho
the Selkirk Mountains, located in the Pan-
handle National Forest, and you’ll find your- B Katahdin Woods, Maine
Craig goodwin

self in one of the best places to see the aurora C Cook County, Minnesota
borealis in the Lower 48. Where is it? D Cascade Pass, Washington
(Answer on page 112.)

114 february 2025