GBUF - 16Jan22

 

Happy New Year! Happy Pongal/Sankranti!

Here is our latest edition of Good/Bad/Ugly/Fun of what happened over the last week around us.

CYA: Views are mine 😊

#sriGINthoughts #GBUF

 

#Good 💚

·       Next time you take a bus at the bus stop near Fu Lu Shou complex in Bencoolen Street, look carefully at the green advertisement box there. And don’t be surprised to see some kalian or cabbage or lettuce growing there. #GIC has embarked on this initiative to raise the profile of urban farming in Singapore by having these boxes in seven bus stops across the island. Well, the wife has a mini farm in our block from which we get a frequent supply of bananas, curry leaves, flowers etc. Where is that next piece of land? #SuperbanFarming

·       Next time when people buy coffee from one of the ~37000 Café Coffee Day vending machines in India, spare a thought to an entrepreneur VG Siddhartha, who took away his life unable to take the burden of mounting debts. 18 months later, his wife Malavika Hegde helming the affairs at the beleaguered company has managed to reduce the debts by over 75% (from about USD 1Bn). Granted she has sold most of the non-core businesses; maybe she had help from her politically-connected family. But got to say, she ensured the coffee #SmellsGood

#Bad 💔

·       King Kohli, the fire behind India’s many wins over the last seven years has stepped down from captaincy. His aggression, energy and in-your-face attitude burnt down many an opponent; at the same time, they affected people who weren’t seeing eye-to-eye in his own dressing room, as Ashwin-supporters will vouch for. But do not take away the fact that Kohli was the main man behind building an India team which these days enters most of the contests as favourites, domestic or overseas. There in lies his legacy. #LongLiveKing

·       We spoke about their predicament a few weeks back. Now Sri Lanka’s problems seem to have been exacerbated more. If debt obligations of USD 29 Bn are not met, the country of 22 million will go bankrupt this year. That is less than 10% of Elon Musk’s net worth, to put things in perspective. A country caught in between the machinations of an indifferent northern neighbour and an ambitious far-off economic giant. Hope they survive this and comeback good. #TroubledEmerald

 

 #Ugly 😡

·       Kollywood and Tollywood have taken a few extra(!) regressive steps recently. First it was actor Siddharth (who?) baiting India’s ace badminton champion Saina Nehwal with a sexist, innuendo-filled tweet, just because she supported Modi. Then the latest Telugu hit Pushpa has gone onto ensure that the female characters (including a O-Oo so ‘philosophical’ Samantha) do stuff for money, all the while spouting mother sentiments. #ThaggedeLe 

·       World is suffocating under the stress of omicron. Governments world over, are struggling hard to ensure normalcy returns based on vaccination of its populace. Then you have someone like Novak Djokovic upping the ante in the reverse direction. He tries to enter Australia with NoVac, claims his agent made a mistake, says he got Covid in December, probably broke his own country’s isolation rules. All for what? To risk hundreds, perhaps thousands? #ChampionJoker

#Fun 😆

·       World has so far revelled in spewing four-letter words right, left and centre. Enter Joseph Wardle, a software engineer (who else?). He created a simple, addictive game called #Wordle where you are expected to know ‘good’ five-letter words. Like I said, the game is quite simple. You can play it only once a day. You get six tries to guess the word with some clues. It probably takes about five minutes to indulge in some mental calisthenics. Play it. #PowerWordle

·       While Darwinism proposed that humans evolved from monkeys, science has found that the pig organs are remarkably less likely to be attacked by human immune systems. It took a significant forward step when a team lead by Dr Muhammad Mohiuddin from University of Maryland transplanted a genetically modified pig’s heart to a terminally ill David Bennett, (who is well), the health frontiers have opened up. Imagine David being ribbed for being pig-hearted instead of being pig-headed! #HeartFullOfVaraha

 

Sources: The Straits Times, Lowy Institute – The Interpreter, The Nature, ESPN Cricinfo, Amazon Prime, powerlanguage.co.uk, Tamil Murasu