IN THIS SUNDAY’S NEWSLETTER, I TALK ABOUT MY MYANMAR ADVENTURES, INDIA’S FALLING GDP BUT RISING COVID FIGURES, AKSHAY KUMAR’S VIDEO GAME CONNECTION, ARNAB’S ADDICTION, JAPANESE BODYBUILDERS AND FEMINISM.
I was in Myanmar for two weeks in Feb, on a film-making assignment. When I was not shooting the actual stories, I was Vlogging.
If you have never been to Myanmar, the above fast-paced BTS Vlog will give you a short and sweet peekaboo. What were the stories that I was there to shoot? See the video na? I will release the three remaining parts in the next two weeks.
None of my Myanmar Vlog videos will match the coolness of the video below, though (randomly came across it while browsing YouTube).
How much more time, before the above will be another addition to the banana ride adventure packages sold at Goan beaches?
This flying human almost looks like he is from a video-game, isn’t it? And talking about video-games, of course the news of the week has been FAU-G!
While Akshay Kumar pitched FAU-G as a nation building game, I discovered that it has a weird China connection in itself. Highlighting some irony and some plagiarism, I think my blog on the topic has turned out juicer than a typical mango. You tell me! By the way, guess what Akshay Kumar was trying out in April, this year? The same flying suit from the company you saw above (Gravity Industries). I wouldn’t be surprised if someday he launches his own atmanirbhar (but copied) version of flying suits under the name “Khiladi Industries”.
The mango season may have ended, but the Covid season is going to last a lot longer.
My updated projections on Covid deaths in India are out, as usual. We are at 70k deaths now – of which 30k died in just one month. We will cross 1 lakh deaths in a month (i.e. by early October). You can check out my full analysis for details.
Also, we are at 4 million total positive cases, of which half the figure was recorded in just a month!
Other than India, this week I also specifically looked at Goa (where I live). At the present growth rate of cases and deaths in the state, it looks like the growth could flatten (peak) in October after about 450 more people die (death toll till last week was around 200).
Now, we always knew that the lockdown imposed to control the growth of Covid was hurting our economy. But finally, we know exactly by how much. But do we?
Can we really make sense of the 23.9% decline in the Apr-May-June quarter GDP?
Some are saying it’s a global phenomena. Others are pointing out that comparing different countries is like comparing apples with oranges. I have tried making sense of all the GDP related noise that you may have heard this week.
Now, every industry is trying to come up with creative ways to bounce back to normalcy. But what one restaurant in Japan is doing, is, well, in a league of its own! Just watch the video below.
Most Indian mainstream TV news channels, as expected, continued to discuss Rhea more than the economy or Covid. So, I created some music and made a funny video to salute one such anchor in particular. Hope you like it.
Given that I don’t watch TV at all, such nuisance doesn’t affect me much, personally. All the relevant news that I need to consume, reaches me via my paid subscriptions and Twitter / Insta. And sometimes, from what friends want me to read.
Prachi (also there in the Myanmar Vlog), shared with me a link to this fab comic that explains “benevolent sexism”. I think everyone should check it out (even though it’s a bit of a struggle to read the font-size on the phone; letting you know in advance).
Now that we are on the topic of sexism, let me also touch upon another feminist topic. Some of you may be aware of the Samyuktha Hegde fiasco that happened in a park in Bangalore on Friday. If you are not sure what happened, this NewsMinute article does a good job of summing it up (also has the embedded IGTV video of Samyuktha – which is how I came to know about the incident first).
At the heart of the fiasco is the notion of moral policing. This reminded me of my first viral 3MinuteStory – “Because Rape Is Not Always About Sex”. I had made it six yeas ago, in Bangalore. It has over 1 million views (60% of which were achieved in the first week of the video being published, if my memory serves me right).
This 3MS is more about gender policing than moral policing but I am pretty sure the point made by the girls in the video remains as valid today, as it was then.
That will be all for this Sunday’s newsletter. If you have been liking what I put together for you every Sunday, do ask your friends who you think may like it as much (or more), to subscribe? Here is the subscription link.
Cyao.