9 by 9: Who's Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia?
And why counting elephants is a great way to get a good night's sleep
1 by 9: Babu, not Baba
When will India’s COVID score hit the 10 lakh mark, i.e. one million?
May seem like a morbid question to ask when the microbial “Mahabharat” should have ended in 21 days, which was 50 days ago.
Health economist Rijo M. John says in another 44 days: July 22.
“Public health physician” JayEnAar predicts it will be much earlier: July 8.
Which politician reacted first to COVID when it broke four months ago?
The surprising answer is N. Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) who reacted on the very day India recorded its first death: January 30.
Congressmen Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor did so the following day.
BJP folk Narendra Modi and Amit Shah took 33 days, says How India Lives in this excellent compilation for the Mint newspaper.
2 by 9: Baba, not black sheep
Rahul Gandhi ostensibly gave up the Congress presidentship after the 2019 debacle.
Yet everything he does (sitting with migrant workers or talking to Rajiv Bajaj) gets his political rivals and their pals in the media all worked up.
The author Arundhati Roy can clearly see why, as Tariq Ali nods in agreement.
3 by 9: Obey!
Tamed by six years of obedience training, devout media watchdogs have meekly accepted the master’s order to stop barking questions on China’s incursion in Ladakh.
Col Ajai Shukla, who used to be NDTV’s defence editor and now writes for the Business Standard newspaper, is still to be reined in.
But Col Shukla’s NDTV predecessor Nitin A. Gokhale finds the “models” ready.
4 by 9: 我敌人的敌人
How successful has India been in winning over friends in the neighbourhood?
In Pakistan, English newspapers run advertisements in Chinese.
In Nepal, Chinese has been introduced as a language in schools.
And in Sri Lanka.
Indeed, in more proof that the right hand doesn’t know what the Right hand is doing, at the height of the “Boycott Chinese” firman, a government app is on TikTok.
5 by 9: Khan, Khan or Khan?
In seven of Bollywood’s 11 distribution circuits in India, Aamir Khan’s Dangal is the highest all-time grosser which, of course, is also a major grosser in China.
6 by 9: A meteor never rises
Ever seen a meteor?
Prasenjeet Yadav did by accident, in Mettupalyam in Tamil Nadu, in 2017.
The molecular biologist had set up his camera on a hilltop and gone to sleep when a bright green meteor exploded into his time-lapse rig.
IFS officer Parveen Kaswan retweets the story and the image.
7 by 9: “Jaya, let’s do khara baath”
In these sad “contactless” times, Rohin Dharmakumar, CEO of The Ken, salutes Dunzo for illustrating what a tip fetches its “partner”.
The only quibble can be that, in the land of baath and gobi manchuri, a chocolate or a sandwich may be the last thing on the Dunzo man’s mind.
Then again, the visual aid is for the giver, not the receiver.
8 by 9: What’s in a surname?
Modi hand sanitiser.
Manufactured by Modi distillery.
A unit of Modi industries Ltd.
Modi Nagar.
(presumably via Modi colony)
9 by 9: Cut, tear and curl up
Not getting sleep lately?
Try counting the elephants in this video.
From an eponymous part of the country that used to send a shiver.
And then some more.
And finally, today, Canteen Quarantine learnt that the real name of rapper Badshah is Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia.
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