`100

SEPTEMBER 2023

FOUND!
HOW DNA TESTING IS BRINGING
FAMILIES TOGETHER
PAGE 100
BONUS READ

He Risked
Everything
to Save
Thousands
PAGE 162
HEALTH

Turn Anxiety to
Your Advantage
PAGE 108
WHO KNEW?

Wacky Birthday
Traditions
PAGE 154
13 THINGS

Whirlwind
Facts about
Extreme Weather
PAGE 50

DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

Alligator
Attack!
PAGE 120
LIFE LESSON

6 Ways to
Embrace
Anticipation
PAGE 26

Reader ’s Digest

CONTENTS
Features
cover story

REUNITED

How DNA
A testing is
helping to bring
families together.

department of wit

who knew?

For Sale: My Catalog
of Dad Jokes

Wacky Birthday
Traditions

Once your kid stops
laughing at your quips
it’s time to move on.

It’s not always about
cakes and candles!

by gary rudoren

bonus read

by sarah treleaven

health

culture

Portugal’s Schindler

The Beat Goes On

Like Oskar Schindler,
diplomat Aristides de
Sousa Mendes helped
save thousands from
the Nazi regime.

How to worry well.

Meet the custodians
saving recordings from
destruction—or oblivion.

by patricia pearson

by simon button

The Upside of Anxiety

by stéphanie verge

PHOTO: DALE MAY

by chanan tigay

my story

heart

Around the World
in 1,000 Mammals

Bedtime Stories at
the Hunting Camp

A conservationist looks
back on his favourite
animal encounters.

Even grown-ups love
to be read to when
the lights go out.

by vivek menon

by l.k. oakley

drama in real life

travel

The Deadly Swamp

Floating Life

An alligator attack was
just the start of a hiker’s
three-day ordeal.

This community shows
how cities can prepare
for rising sea levels.

by derek burnett

by shira rubin

cover illustration by Nilanjan Das

readersdigest.in

3

10 Over to You
a world of good

13 Below the Surface
everyday heroes

14 The Sea Protector
by lam lye ching

smile

16 Bitten by the
Dance Bug
by richard glover

good news

18 An Innovative Bike
Helmet, Tractors
that Run on Manure,
Ozone Layer is
Recovering and More
by samantha rideout

4 september 2023

42 A Powerful
Row-mance,
Framed by Fan
Art and more
by naorem anuja

quotable quotes

97 Masaba Gupta,
Raghuram Rajan,
Hannah Arendt
and More
trusted friend

196 Lakeside by
Jeannie Phan

Better Living
life lessons

26 It’s Worth
Waiting For
by holly burns

health

32 Just in Case
by anna-kaiser walker

news from the
world of medicine

36 The Upside
of Commuting,
Antidepressants
and Pain, Purple
Power and More
by samantha rideout

food

38 Simply Souvlaki
by lucy wildman

13 things

50 All About
Extreme Weather
by caitlin stall-paquet

(top) courtesy of kathy xu; (bottom) nathan bla
l ney/getty images

Departments

it happens
only in india

36

Reader ’s Digest

Humour
40
As Kids See It
98
All in a Day’s Work
152
Life’s Like That
178
Laughter,
The Best Medicine

188

185
Humour in Uniform
book review:
history’s angel

Culturescape
rd recommends

182 Films, Watchlist,
and Books

(top) lekha naidu; (box) tim macpherson/getty images

studio

186 Abanindranath
Tagore’s Hunchback
of the Fishbone
by soumitra das

188 A Tale of
Our Times
by jai arjun singh

Brain Games
190
192
193
195

Brain Teasers
Sudoku
Word Power
Trivia

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6 september 2023

A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World
Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie
Vice Chairperson Kalli Purie
Group Chief Executive Officer Dinesh Bhatia
Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa
Chief Executive Officer Manoj Sharma
editor Kai Jabir Friese
group creative editor Nilanjan Das
group photo editor Bandeep Singh

IMPACT (ADVERTISING)
sr associate publisher Suparna Kumar
associate publisher Vidya Menon
sr general managers Mayur Rastogi (North & East)
Jitendra Lad (West)
general managers Syed Naveed (Chennai)
Arup Chaudhuri (Bangalore)
chief manager Pushpa Hn (Delhi)

senior associate editor Ishani Nandi
features editor Naorem Anuja
editorial coordinator Jacob K. Eapen
senior art director Angshuman De
associate art directors Chandramohan Jyoti,
Praveen Kumar Singh

chief of production Harish Aggarwal
assistant manager Narendra Singh
SALES AND OPERATIONS
senior gm, national sales Deepak Bhatt
gm, operations Vipin Bagga

SEPTEMBER 2023

BUSINESS

grp chief marketing officer
gm, marketing & circulation
deputy gm, operations
agm, marketing
manager, marketing

Vivek Malhotra
Ajay Mishra
G. L. Ravik Kumar
Kunal Bag
Anuj Kumar Jamdegni

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Published at F-26, First Floor, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001. Editor: Kai Jabir Friese (responsible for selection of news).

8 september 2023

OVER TO
YOU
Notes on the
July issue

A DREAM OF HEALTH FOR ALL
Our public healthcare system is inadequately funded
and inefficiently executed, leading to a very large
population in far-flung places unable to access key
facilities. With her experience as a member of the
planning commission, Ms Hameed is obviously aware
of the ground realities and, as such, her assessment of
the ‘boat clinics’ and remote hospitals run by people
like the Regis gives us a true picture of the National
Rural Health Mission. The experiment needs to be
replicated across the country. She has rightly pointed
out that most doctors avoid rural postings. One reason is the large ‘capitation fee’ paid by students to get
into medical colleges and their desire to make up for
the same quickly! Governments must abolish this
menace of private medical colleges raking in crores.
Secondly, we must create decent infrastructure in the
far off places for the young doctors to live there.
Harsh, Gurgaon
Harsh wins this month’s ‘Write & Win’ prize of `1,000. —EDs

by contributing
cash and other
daily necessities.
Richard Kharpuri,
Mumbai

Let’s be Friends
Touch is important
T
for us, humans.
While it is true that
technology has
helped many of us
reunite with lost
friends, it is a doubleedged sword. It offers
the power to connect,
but at the same time,
it keeps us entangled
in the infinite web of
the Internet, thus
wasting our precious
moments. For a lasting friendship, we
must invest real time
with friends. They
can’t be taken for
granted by simply
sending messages
on social media.

Rachel’s Winning Ticket

Bhushan Chander
Jindal, Noida

Lapierre’s courageous step of quitting her nursing
job and dedicatingg her life to reaching out to needy
persons is an edifying act. Her story reminded me
of the group of men and women in my native town
who build a concrete home for a family of six orphans, three months ago. The men willingly provided both financial help as well as their labour
to construct the house. The women aided the family

For persons beyond
80 years, without a
spouse, and declining
health that results in
restricted mobility, it’s
tough to find ways to
meet and share

10 september 2023

Reader ’s Digest
intimate moments
with someone, even
briefly, to ward off
loneliness. Leaving
aside close friends we
have had for ages,
same-age acquaintances are a dwindling
species, leaving little
opportunity for new,
meaningful human
interactions.

sense of community. A
mentoring culture is a
networkofstrongcommunication, multiple connections and a community built around
learning. This creates
an sense of belonging
in employees, thus
building social capital.

Prafull Chandra
Sockey, Hazaribagh,
Jharkhand

“I Have No Idea How
to Fly this Plane!”

Pass It On
Mentoring is often
overlooked as a means
of building social capital. When an organization invests in mentorship programmes it
nurtures four characteristics that grow social capital: conversation, connection,
community and culture. Good mentoring
begets good conversation. Through connection, mentors and
mentees gain broader
perspective within an
organization. Research
shows that mentorship
improves results in organizational citizenship creating a better

12 september 2023

Pradeep Kumar, Surat

During my career in
the Indian Air Force, I
was involved in flying a
fighter aircraft; so this
article kept me captivated. No words of
praise are enough for
the courage, determination, and never-saydie attitude demonstrated by Darren. He
had never been trained
to fly a plane but managed to land the craft
successfully, without
the aid of an instrument panel. Kudos to
the air traffic control
and ground staff too!
The message of the
story is clear: Never
ever give up.
Group Captain Dev
Dutta Roy (retired),
Greater Noida

Rise Above Pain
Antony Chuter’s
story inspired me
and lifted me out of
depression. I suffer
from chronic neck
pain and in the last
few months I had
begun to believe
that I was the most
unlucky person in
the world, as I was
suffering acute pain
at the age of 67. The
article has assured
me that I am only
one among many
suffering individuals
worldwide. The several ways to counter
chronic pain using
medical and nonmedical interventions covered in
great detail in this
article has served
as a comprehensive
guide which has
helped me deal with
my pain effectively.
Aparna Mansabdar ,
Pune

Write in at editor.india@
rd.com. The best letters
discuss RD articles, offer
criticism, share ideas.
Do include your phone
number and postal address.

Reader ’s Digest

A World of

GOOD
Reasons to Smile

Below the Surface

D

COURTESY OF JASON DECAIRES TAYLOR

ive into the sapphire-blue waters off the coast of Cancun, Mexico and
you may find yourself finning past more than 400 life-size statues standing in defence of their oceans. Titled The Silent Evolution, it’s the work of
British eco-artist Jason deCaires Taylor and calls attention to a startling fact:
more than 75 per cent of the world’s reefs are threatened. His sculptures are
crafted from sustainable, marine-grade cement and serve as an artificial habitat
for aquatic life while drawing tourists away from overstressed natural-reef areas.
“I incorporated as many references to climate change, habitat loss and pollution
as I could; those are the defining issues of our era,” Taylor told CNN Travel.

readersdigest.in

13

EVERYDAY HEROES

Kathy Xu teaches a group
of young students about
shark conservation.

An innovative ecotourism
venture is helping combat
shark fishing
BY

14
4

Lam Lye Ching

september 2023

K

in Singapore, had always wanted
to see a shark in the wild. The
opportunity finally came in 2011, when
she went on a snorkelling trip to the Ningaloo Reef, off the coast of Western Australia. Not only was she not scared of the
whale shark, the then 29-year-old was
so inspired by its beauty and grace that
tears sprang to her eyes inside her snorkel mask. “I was screaming with excitement inside, while still trying to keep
calm and enjoy the moment,” she says.
After returning home to Singapore,
Xu learnt about the shark trade taking
place at one of Indonesia’s largest fish
markets. In the village of Tanjung Luar,

courtesy of kathy xu

The Sea
Protector

ATHY XU, A high school teacher

Reader ’s Digest
on the island of Lombok, shark parts
including meat, cartilage and teeth are
cut up for export. Most prized are the
fins, which fetch high prices because of
the popularity of shark-fin soup.
Curious, Xu packed her bags and
headed to Tanjung Luar. There, she
spoke with several fishermen. Shark
fishing is risky and involves hard physical work, but it is one of few ways for
them to provide for their families.
The fishermen were knowledgeable
and felt a great sense of pride for the
local sea life. Once they heard that Xu
liked to snorkel, they urged her to visit
the coral reefs near the fish market. The
reefs were stunning, teeming with life
and colour. Xu was confident that ecotourism was the solution—a way the
fishermen could make a living without
having to catch sharks.
“I told them I’d pay them to take tourists out to see these snorkelling
havens,” she says.
Together, Xu and the fishermen came
up with the idea of snorkelling boat
trips, and a deal was struck.
In late 2012, Xu quit her full-time
teaching job to focus on building The
Dorsal Effect, an ecotourism business
she hoped would help save the declining
shark population in Lombok’s waters.
Initially, Xu struggled to find investors, but in 2013 she won the Young
Social Entrepreneurs competition
funded by the Singapore International
Foundation and was awarded the
equivalent of `6.2 lakh. She purchased
snorkel gear, life vests and equipment

and paid for boat repairs and refurbishments for the fishermen.
In late 2013, The Dorsal Effect
launched its first boat trip. Snorkellers
paid US$120 [around `10,000] for a oneday excursion to explore places the local
fishermen know about but could not be
found on a Google search. It provides a
much more reliable income for the fishermen than the precarious, and often
dangerous, job of shark fishing.
In 2019, while working on a research
project, Xu and Singapore-based shark
scientist Naomi Clark-Shen found a
female Rhynchobatus cooki, or clown
wedgefish, at Jurong Fishery Port in Singapore. A relative of the shark, the
species had not been seen for more
than 20 years and was believed to be
extinct. The discovery gave scientists
hope, and it could be grounds for an
in-depth conservation study.
For now, Xu, 41, is proud of the small
changes she sees happening on Lombok, from the fishermen who now have
a new way to earn an income to the
school children who learn about sharks
on tours with The Dorsal Effect. In the
past decade, global demand for shark
fins has declined—a promising result of
conservation campaigns—but stricter
government regulation is needed.
“I love the grace of sharks and decided
that I wanted to change the negative
opinion people have of them,” Xu says.
“By encountering a shark respectfully,
in its natural habitat, maybe there
could be more compassion and empathy toward marine wildlife.”
readersdigest.in

15

SMILE

Bitten by
the Dance
Bug
By Richard Glover

16
6

september 2023

my exercise regimen now includes
40 minutes of vigorous dance in the
kitchen just before bedtime. I leap into
the air like a youthful Nureyev, performing a grand jeté to the left and then
one to the right. Next it’s tap work,
madly stamping the ground like a frenzied Fred Astaire.
The cause is a double insect infestation. Pantry moths fill the air; cockroaches scurry across every surface.
Both are common here in Australia,
particularly during summer. I’m
determined to win my battle.
I say the cockroaches ‘scurry’, but
that’s not the right word. Rather, it’s a
brisk, purposeful walk. They have no
fear; they own this place. From the dignified manner of their perambulation,
illustration by Sam Island

Reader ’s Digest
I assume they’ve already contacted my
bank and taken over the mortgage.
I have tried traps, of course, which
the cockroaches regard as mobile
housing, dotted around the place for
their convenience. I have tried insecticide, which has a worse effect on me
than on them. There are so many cockk
roaches, I wonder if they’d mind fetching my asthma puffer from my bedroom drawer before I spray.
More recently, I’ve considered contacting Kim Jong-Un and arranging a
nuclear strike, but I’ve heard cockroaches can survive that, as well.
The pantry moths are also oblivious
to products that promise their eradication. Chief among them is the moth
trap—essentially a sheet of sticky paper
impregnated with female pheromones.
It’s like an insect version of a nightclub.
The problem: While it works on 95
per cent of the males, the ones that survive and breed with the females are, of
course, the strongest ones. My pantry is
now home to accelerated evolution.
Wait three weeks and the moths will be
the size of bats. Wait three months and
you’ll open the door to be greeted by
the dragons from Game of Thrones.
And so I’m left with my dance routine. I pluck the pantry moths from the
air with my hands; the cockroaches I
dispatch with my feet.
For reasons that are unclear, the
insect infestation is my fault. Or at least
my responsibility. “It’s repulsive,” says
my wife, Jocasta. “When are you going
to do something about it?”

She means: “When are you going to
hire a real man to solve the problem?”
In fact, I’ve already called a real man,
a professional pest controller, only to be
told a visit will cost $365. It’s a figure
that instantly brought new energy to my
dance moves. I’m now more like Mikhail
Baryshnikov with a side order of Jackie
Chan, leaping from one side of the
kitchen to another, a flying machine of
death. I go to bed each night panting
with exhaustion and calculating the
bugs’ nightly losses against the breeding that will inevitably occur overnight.
Female cockroaches can produce
eight egg capsules in a lifetime, each
holding as many as 40 eggs. How many
is that? Just multiply eight and 40 and
you’ll get the answer: Eww!
Actually, that’s nothing compared to
a female pantry moth, which lays 400
eggs at a time. They take as little as
seven days to hatch. This is too much,
even for Baryshnikov. I’ll need a whole
corps de ballet.
Apparently the pantry moth smuggles itself into your home through your
shopping, so by freezing all your dry
goods, you can kill off the eggs. Not so
practical, though. Worse, who knew
that flour, rice, almond meal and the
rest of it are full of moth eggs? I never
want to eat anything ever again.
The only thing I can do is wait. Maybe
Kim Jong-Un will destroy all life on the
planet, proving science wrong by killing
the cockroaches, too. Or maybe I’ll get
over my reluctance to spend $365.
That’s unlikely. So wish me luck.
readersdigest.in

17

GOOD
NEWS
from around the world
BY

Samantha Rideout

Tina Singh,
founder of
Bold Helmets.

INCLUSIVITY In her work as an occupational therapist, Tina Singh has seen
how devastating a brain injury can be.
Singh also knows that a bicycle helmet reduces the risk of brain injury by
up to 69 per cent. But until recently,
none of her three active school-aged
sons had a helmet that fit properly.
That’s because, as a sign of their Sikh
identity, they wear their long hair tied
in a top knot under a patka, or small
head covering.
Taking matters into her own hands,
Singh, of Ontario, Canada, spent
several years developing child-sized
helmets with space for a patka on

18

september 2023

top. Earlier this year, she launched
Bold Helmets, as she has branded
them. They were a labour of love for
Singh, who wanted to promote greater
diversity in sport by ensuring Sikh children could safely participate. Singh’s
helmets are safety certified for bicycling, inline skating, kick scootering
and skateboarding.
“There are many other groups of
people who lack the appropriate safety
gear for their needs,” she says. “I hope
my initiative provides inspiration for
others. Just because something hasn’t
been done before doesn’t mean we
can’t find a way now.”

gagan singh, courtesy of tina singh

AN INNOVATIVE BIKE HELMET

Reader ’s Digest

These Tractors Run
on Manure
INNOVATION Most tractors burn diesel,
but global manufacturer New Holland
Agriculture is tapping into an energy
source that’s already found on farms:
animal dung. Using a covered slurry pit
and a processing unit, farmers can collect and purify the methane gas coming
off waste as it decomposes. Normally,
this methane would have floated into
the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas.
Instead, it can power tractors, and the
leftover material can fertilize the soil
for growing animal feed.
This virtuous cycle reduces a farm’s
carbon footprint and shields it from
fluctuating fuel prices. The manufacturer unveiled the prototype for the
world’s first fully methane-powered
tractor back in 2013, but it’s only since
2021 that these machines have been
commercially available for farmers in
Europe and North America.

westend61/g
westend61/
g etty
e
images

Finishing Crafts for Loved Ones
COMMUNITY When somebody passes
away before completing a thoughtful
handicraft, such as a knitted blanket or
needlepoint piece, their expression of
love could get discarded or stored away
rather than cherished. Knowing this,
American knitters Jennifer Simonic and

Masey Kaplan launched Loose Ends, a
not-for-profit that connects skilled
volunteers with handwork projects that
were started but not finished by people
who have died.
The two match families with volunteers based on geography, the skills
required and types of projects the volunteers enjoy. So far, some 8,000 crafters from around the world have signed
up to complete meaningful mementoes
and return them to the bereaved loved
ones of those who started them.

Ozone Layer is Recovering
ENVIRONMENT In 1987, delegates from
all over the globe met and agreed to
regulate the human-made chemicals
that were depleting the ozone layer. The
layer protects life on earth by absorbing
most of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation.
Their efforts produced the Montreal
Protocol, which not only prevented a
radiation disaster but also mitigated
climate change, since some of the
ozone-depleting substances it phased
out are also greenhouse gases.
The progress report released in 2022
is promising: If current policies, such
as banning chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
in air conditioners, continue, much
of the layer will return to its overall
1980 levels by 2040.
“This is an encouraging example of
wha
at the world can achieve when we
worrk together for the sake of our planet
and
d its people,” tweeted UN SecretaryGen
neral António Guterres.
readersdigest.in

19

BETTER
LIVING
Wellness for Body & Mind

S
’
T
I
H
T
R
O
W
G
N
I
T
I
WA
R
O
F
To enjoy life more, embrace anticipation
BY

Holly Burns

from The New York Times

ALLE PIERCE KNOWS how to plan a vacation. A few
months ahead of time, she “goes on a crazy Google
spree,” constructing a spreadsheet of all the things
she wants to do and see. She scrutinizes the menus
of restaurants she is planning to visit. She uses a picture of the destination as her phone’s locked screen
image and downloads a countdown app.

26
6

september 2023

illustrations by Alexei Vella

reader’s digest

eadersdigest.in

27

reader’s digest
“What’s so exciting about a trip is
the anticipation before it,” says Pierce,
founder of a luxury travel company
called Gals Abroad Getaways, which
plans group trips for women. Experts
say she is probably right. Numerous
studies suggest that having something
to look forward to boosts your mood
and lowers your stress.
“Imagining good things ahead of
us makes us feel better in the current
moment,” says Simon A. Rego, chief
psychologist at Montefiore Medical

28

september 2023

Center and Albert Einstein College of
Medicine in Bronx, New York. “It can
increase motivation, optimism and
patience and decrease irritability.”
Of course we can’t just book a flight
every time we need a little cheering
up. But there are ways to harness and
incorporate the power of anticipation
into your everyday life.

GET EXCITED ABOUT A LOT
OF LITTLE THINGS
Anticipating a smattering of small,
delighful experiences
can be as enjoyable
as looking forward to
one big event, says
Carrie L. Wyland, a
social psychologist at
Tulane University in
New Orleans.
“At the end of every
day, write down one
thing you’re excited
for tomor row,” she
says. “Maybe it’s a
new book, or getting
pastries, or a package
you’re expecting.”
The accumulation
of these mini thrills
means you will still
reap the benefits of
looking for ward to
something, even if
it’s not a big-ticket
reward, says Christian
E. Waugh, a psycholo g y p ro f e s s o r w h o

studies anticipation at
Wake Forest University
i n W i n s t o n -S a l e m ,
North Carolina.
“Plus, with the
nearer stuff, there’s
more of a sense it’s
going to happen for
sure,” he says. “You’ve
got more control over
a small gathering this
evening than a vacation in six months.”

CONNECT WITH YOUR
FUTURE SELF
Research has shown
that feeling as if you
are on a path to your
future self can have
a positive effect on
your well-being by
snapping you out of
s h o r t - t e r m t h i n king. Thinking ahead
may help you prioritize your health and maybe even act
more ethically.
While it’s fun to daydream about
your future self, the steps you need to
take to get there can be intimidating,
so start with clarifying the things in life
you value the most, Rego says. Then
set goals around them.
If your priority is staying fit as you
age, maybe your goal is to run a fiveklilometer race. But don’t wait to
feel motivated before you take that
first step. Instead, when you do

something towards your goal, “focus
on how motivated you feel afterward,
not before,” he says.
As you start seeing progress, it will
get easier: You will look forward to
doing the things that get you closer to
your future self.

CONSIDER A GENTLE BRIBE
Anyone who has taken a child to get
a flu shot and then ice cream afterward knows the power of building
anticipation for a thing you don’t
readersdigest.in

29

clients detailed packing lists a month in
advance. “I get equally
as excited about the
clothes I’m going to
wear on the trip as I do
about the trip itself,”
she says.
But the promise of a
new shirt works just as
well for things you are
nott so excited about.
“Let’s say you’ve got
a work presentation
you’re nervous about,”
she says. “If you’ve also
got a new outfit that
you can’t wait to wear,
you’re going to look
forward to it more.”

FOCUS ON EXPERIENCES

want to do by pairing it with a thing
you do. In a study on “temptation
bundling,” participants who were
given an iPod loaded with audiobooks that they could listen to only
at the gym worked out 51 per cent
more than those who weren’t. It was
so incentivizing that, when the study
ended, 61 per cent of subjects said
they would pay to have gym-only access to the audiobooks.
To build anticipation for the group
vacations she leads, Pierce sends

30

september 2023

Several studies have
also suggested that
we get more happiness from anticipating
experiential purchases than material
goods. Ramping up anticipation is
an important trick of the trade for
Lydia Fenet, a charity auctioneer. If
it’s dinner with a celebrity, for example, she will envision all the ways
that dinner could turn out. Maybe you
and the celebrity become buddies.
Maybe they become a godparent
to your kid.
“And right as I’m about to hammer
down the gavel and sell the lot,” says
Fenet, “I’ll turn to the audience and

reader’s digest
say, ‘So they’ll be dining with their
new best friend, George Clooney, and
you’ll be sitting at home eating pizza.’”
Dinner with Clooney aside, you can
still maximize anticipation before an
experience, such as a date. Choose an
activity that is meaningful to you or a
place you want to show the other person, says Erika Kaplan, vice president
of membership for the matchmaking
service Three Day Rule. “Then you’re
looking forward to two things: the
date itself but also introducing the
other person to your world and seeing how they react,” she explains.

REMEMBER THAT ANXIETY AND
ANTICIPATION CAN COEXIST
The flip side of positive anticipation
is anticipatory anxiety—and the fascinating thing, Waugh says, is that they
often happen together.
“Anxiety and excitement are sister
emotions,” he says. “Think about when
you’re getting married or you’re having
your first kid. It’s a jumble of both.”
But it is detrimental only “when
you just focus on the anxiety part
and neglect the excitement part,” he
adds. The key is acknowledging the

happy, positive aspect of what you are
doing along with the nervous feelings.
Waugh says that research suggests
“when you reappraise anxious things
as exciting, it actually makes you feel
better about them.”

CREATE SOMETHING NEW
If parties are something you look
forward to, don’t wait for a holiday
to celebrate—just invent an occasion. Throw a birthday party for the
dog, or host a breakfast for all the kids
on your street.
Whether it is a party or a bribe or
a nightly list, anticipation can be a
powerful tool in manipulating our
emotions. When TV writer Anna Beth
Chao tries to look forward to something she is dreading, such as the
four-day drive she just made from Los
Angeles to her home in New Orleans,
she uses this trick:
“I basically tell myself a little story
about what might happen,” she says.
“If you frame it within ‘Well, what if
it’s an adventure?,’ it’s easier to get excited about it.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES (7 JUNE 2022), COPYRIGHT © 2022
BY THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

Life Lessons
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage,
you can’t practise any other virtue consistently.
M AYA A N G E LO U

If there’s a single lesson that life teaches us, it’s that wishing doesn’t make it so.
LEV GROSSMAN

readersdigest.in

31

HEALTH

Just In Case
Does your first-aid kit
have all the essentials?
By Anna-Kaisa Walker

T

he last time I cracked open
my home’s first-aid kit, I had
one thumb swaddled in
bloody paper towels after I’d accidentally nicked it while chopping
onions. Fumbling through the zippered compartments as my thumb
throbbed, I discovered nothing but a
few yellowed bandages, dried-out
antiseptic wipes, some gauze, tape
and a pair of scissors like the kind
kids use in kindergarten.
Luckily I managed to stem the
bleeding with the gauze and went on
to cook a decent spaghetti Bolognese.
But I’d come to the sober realization
that my cheap, neglected first-aid kit

32
2 september 2023

illustrations by Kate Traynor

Reader ’s Digest
would do my family no good in an
honest-to-goodness emergency.
“First-aid kits are most commonly
used for minor injuries like cuts, but
they can also help you in less-common
emergency situations, such as heart
attacks or life-threatening bleeding,”
says Nathan Charlton, an emergency
physician in Charlottesville, Virginia,
who serves on the Scientific Advisory
Council for the American Red Cross.
That’s why our list is so comprehensive.
Build yourself a good kit, then keep one
at home and one in the car and be sure
to take one along if you go camping.
To help you make sure your kits contain all the right things, we spoke to
experts in emergency medicine. These
are the items they recommend:
Aspirin Two 81-milligram tablets
of chewable aspirin can be lifesaving
if taken within the first hour of a suspected heart attack. But call a doctor
first and await instructions; it’s not safe
for everyone (for example, those on
other blood thinners).
Disposable non-latex gloves When
helping another person, put these
on first.
Hand sanitizer If you can’t wash your
hands, use this before treating any
wounds. Wash or sanitize hands before
putting on gloves.
Antiseptic wipes If you don’t have
access to clean running water, use
these to clean and disinfect cuts before
applying a bandage or ointment.
Antibacterial ointment This helps prevent infection by stopping the growth

of bacteria in minor wounds.
For a cut or wound, clean the area first,
then use this—not hydrogen peroxide,
which is not on our list because it can
cause the skin to dry out and might prevent the area from healing correctly.
Hydrocortisone cream It relieves itching and irritation from insect bites or
poisonous plants.
Abdominal dressings These large dressings can help control heavy bleeding
from major wounds. Keep firm pressure
on the dressed wound until help arrives.
Gauze It comes in small squares and
rolls; both are good for packing and
dressing wounds and stabilizing protruding objects (which you should
never pull out).
Waterproof adhesive tape Use this to
firmly secure the dressing on a wound.
Self- adhesive bandages Ideally, keep a
variety of sizes in your kit, for minor
cuts and scrapes.
Triangular bandage This can be used as
an arm sling.
Instant cold packs These work just as
well as ice and are ready when you
need them; just squeeze to activate.
Use to help reduce pain and swelling
for muscle sprains or bruises.
Tweezers Pointed tips are best for
removing ticks or splinters and for
cleaning debris from a wound.
Scissors It’s worth having a quality pair
so you can quickly and easily cut thick
bandages or clothing. A special kind
called trauma shears, which have
sharp, serrated blades are especially
good in a first-aid kit.
readersdigest.in

33

CPR face shield If you need to perform
rescue breaths, these shields, with a
one-way valve, provide a good barrier
against bacteria and viruses.
Burn hydrogel Gel-saturated burn pads
cool and soothe damaged skin; they’re
ideal when it’s not possible to run skin
under cool water.
Mylar blanket These ‘space blankets’
help maintain a person’s core temperature after a severe injury or shock.
Tourniquet If bleeding from an extremity is so severe that direct pressure can’t
stop it, a tourniquet can help. You can
improvise one using a minimum twoinch-wide strip of cloth and a small
tree branch, but a commercially made

34
4 september 2023

tourniquet is better. The latest models
consist of a wide nylon strap with a
turn crank and a locking mechanism to
hold it in place.
IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP your kit acces-

sible because you never know when
you’ll need it. More medically reported
injuries happen at home than in public
places, at the workplace and on the
road combined. Here are the important
basics to be as prepared as you can be
for any emergency.

Buy the Right Container
Your first-aid items should be kept in a
waterproof bag or an airtight container

Reader ’s Digest
with clear compartments that allow
you to quickly see what’s inside. That
way you won’t have to dig around
or dump things out of the kit to find
what you need.
A good quality ready-made first-aid
kit should have most, if not all, of the
things we’ve suggested. Look for one
created by a reputable organization
such as the Red Cross, which are sold
at major retailers, then buy any missing
items separately.

They also publish manuals, some
in pocket size that you can keep in
your kit. These guides can steer you
through a range of scenarios—from
panic attacks to spinal injuries—with
pictograms. To be even better prepared, you can download the First
Aid app, free from the Red Cross. It
has step-by-step instructions, videos
and more.
The Red Cross also offers an online
course on how to recognize signs of an
opioid overdose and administer the
lifesaving medication naloxone (Narcan). Learn more or sign up at redcross.
org/take-a-class/opioidoverdose.

MORE MEDICALLY
REPORTED INJURIES
HAPPEN AT HOME THAN
Be Ready on the Road
IN PUBLIC PLACES,
In addition to keeping a first-aid kit
AT THE WORKPLACE
in your car, also keep a reflective
AND ON THE ROAD
vest and a warning triangle to put
beside the vehicle in case you have
COMBINED.
Check Expiration Dates
Add notifications to your calendar to
remind you to check and make sure
any medications in the kit are up to
date. “That also reminds you why
you have a first-aid kit, and it may also
help you recall any training you’ve
had,” Dr Charlton says.

Get Some Training
There’s no better way to prepare yourself
for emergencies than by taking a course.
Organizations like the Red Cross offer
basic first aid and CPR certifications that
can be completed over a weekend.

to pull over, to make sure that other
drivers (including an ambulance
driver, should you need to call for help)
can see you.

Know When to Get Help
Any cut longer than 1 inch will need
stitches, says Lyle Karasiuk, volunteer
chair of the Canadian Council for First
Aid Education. If a wound is large or
deep, or doesn’t stop bleeding after 10
minutes of pressure, head to the nearest hospital emergency room. Also
seek help if you or someone else has
trouble breathing, or experiences sudden or severe pain or any other potential medical emergency.
readersdigest.in

35

WORLD OF
MEDICINE
By Samanttha Rideout
By

CRAVING CAFFEINE?
TRY DECAF
If you love your coffee but worry about
consuming too much caffeine, you will be
reassured to know that research indicates
that regular coffee is a low-risk stimulant.
It might even offer some protection against
type 2 diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
But it can also cause heartburn, jitters or
insomnia. So if you are trying to quit or cut
back on caffeine, try decaf. An Australian
study shows that drinking decaffeinated
coffee can alleviate withdrawal symptoms
such as headaches, fatigue and irritability.
This surprising result probably tapped into
the placebo effect: Even when people knew
they were drinking decaf, it looked, smelled
and tasted like the real thing, which they
associated with feeling alert and well.
36
6

september 2023

More than just a lazy
habit, procrastination
can be bad for your
health, suggests a
study of more than
3,500 students in
Sweden. Over nine
months, those who
habitually delayed
important tasks experienced more anxiety
and depression, poor
sleep and pain in the
neck, shoulders and
back. Fortunately,
cognitive behavioural
therapy, either in person or through books
and websites, can help.
Strategies include
learning to break down
big goals into smaller
ones and managing
distractions—for
example, turning off
your smartphone until
you’ve finished a task.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ADAM VOORHES, PROP STYLIST: ROBIN FINLAY (PILLS). -SLAV-/GETTY IMAGES (DATEBOOK)

news from the
he

The Price of
Procrastination

reader ’s digest

The Upside
of Commuting
People who work from
home know the rub: For
all that it costs in time
and money, commuting
to and from a job provides an opportunity
to disengage from work
before jumping into the
responsibilities of home
life. This ‘in-between’
time can help prevent
burnout, according to a
report in Organizational
Psychology Review. Obviously, this works best
if you can take public
transit or opt for an easy
drive instead of a busy
road, and if you use the
time well, perhaps to
do something fun and
relaxing such as listening to music.

NATHAN BLANEY/GETTY IMAGES

Chronic Pain and
Antidepressants
For more than two
decades, doctors
have been prescribing
depression medications
for ongoing pain, which
is notoriously hard to
treat. In fact, data from
a cross-section of countries—the US, Canada,

Taiwan and the UK—
shows that among
seniors, antidepressants
are used for pain more
often than for depression. Most of these prescriptions are ‘off-label’
(meaning they are not
officially approved
for this purpose). And
this treatment isn’t as
strange as it may sound:
Antidepressants affect
neurotransmitters,
including those that
send pain signals to
the brain. A new BMJ
review synthesized
156 trials involving
about 25,000 participants to get an overview
of what we’ve learnt
so far about treating
chronic pain with antidepressants. Although
tricyclics are the most
commonly used antidepressant drug class
for pain, it’s unclear if
they really help. But the
review did find evidence
that SNRI (serotonin
and norepinephrine
reuptake inhibitors)
antidepressants can
help relieve people with
fibromyalgia, nerve pain,
post-operative pain and
chronic back pain.

Purple Power
For an extra boost of
good health, reach for
vegetables that are red
or purple in colour.
Radishes, purple potatoes, red cabbages, purple carrots, eggplants,
purple cauliflowers and
red onions all contain
anthocyanins, a type
of antioxidant that can
help lower blood pressure and may slow cancer growth. A new study
review from Finland
says these veggies also
reduce the risk of type 2
diabetes by affecting
energy metabolism, gut
microbiota (tiny organisms including bacteria)
and inflammation. Reddish fruits such as blueberries, strawberries
and blackberries contain anthocyanins too,
but the research shows
that the kind found in
vegetables are particularly powerful.

reade
aderr sdigest.in

37

FOOD

Simply Souvlaki
Over millennia, this sizzling skewer
has conquered the world
By Lucy Wildman
photographs by K. Synold

C

tmb studio

ity street corners, village marketplaces and beaches across Greece
have something in common: the scent of sizzling meat. Sold in restaurants and takeaways called souvlatzidikos, this staple of Greek cuisine
is more ancient than the country’s classical buildings.
The word souvlaki is from the Greek word souvla, meaning spit (although
in Athens and southern Greece the dish is called kalamaki, which means
‘little reed’). It’s wonderfully simple: small cubes of pork that have marinated

38

september 2023

Reader ’s Digest
overnight in olive oil, oregano,
lemon juice, salt and pepper. The
cubes are threaded onto wooden
skewers and cooked over charcoal.
Souvlaki can be enjoyed piping
hot direct from the grill or wrapped
in soft pita bread along with tomatoes, parsley, onions and the garlicky
yogurt sauce tzatziki.
“The earliest references to meat
cooked on a skewer are found
in Homer’s epic poems ‘The Iliad’
and ‘The Odyssey,’” says Mariana
Kavroulaki, author of The Language of Taste: A Dictionary of
Greek Gastronomy.
But cooking meat in this way
is even more ancient than Homer’s time in the 7 th century B.C.
Excavations a few years ago of
Bronze Age settlements on Sant o r i n i , a G re e k i s l a n d i n t h e
Aegean Sea, sent the history of
souvlaki back another 3,600 years.
Archaeologists found evidence of
skewer cooking, according to Lara
Gonzalez Carretero, a lecturer in
Bioarchaeology at the University of
York in the United Kingdom.
Much more recently, souvlaki
gained popularity as a street food
in Athens in the 1960s after vendors
from Boeotia, a region of central
Greece, introduced it to the capital.
The dish also became a global hit.
Throughout the 20th century, waves
of Greek migrants, fleeing civil war
in the 1940s and the military dictatorship that seized power in 1967,

took souvlaki all over the world, with
large numbers of immigrants settling in Germany, the United States,
Canada and Australia. Today, more
than five million people of Greek
origin live in 140 countries across
the globe. No wonder so many of us
are familiar with arguably its most
famous dish.
New York alone claims more
than 200 souvlaki outlets. In Paris,

COOKING MEAT THIS
WAY IS EVEN MORE
ANCIENT THAN
HOMER’S TIME IN THE
7 TH CENTURY B.C.
souvlaki on a pita is known as un
sandwich Grec. And while pork is
considered the classic souvlaki meat,
in sheep-farming Australia, lamb
souvlaki is very popular—especially
in Melbourne, home to 400,000 people with Greek heritage (more than
in any city outside of Greece).
Can’t get enough souvlaki? Neither could the people of Livadia,
a town in Boeotia. Using 300 kilograms of pork and 150 kilograms
of charcoal, 30 volunteers created
a 201-metre long souvlaki running
through the town square in 2018. It
won the Guinness World Record for
the longest skewer of meat.
Sounds like a feast fit for all of
the Greek Gods.
readersdigest.in

39

AS KIDS SEE IT

“I’ll have the spaghetti with meatballs but don’t let the meat, sauce or noodles touch.”

My husband was a professional violinist and
once performed at our
son’s school. Some of
the students sent him
letters of appreciation.
One eight-year-old
wrote, “Dear Mr. Violinist, thank you so much
for coming to play for
our school when you

40

september 2023

could have been doing
something more useful.”
—Margaret Growcott
My son walked into the
kitchen and said, “I bet
you don’t know what
47 divided by 4 is.” I
told him it was 11,
remainder 3. He said
thanks and walked

back to the room in
which he was doing
his homework.
— @DevonESawa

Reader’s Digest will pay
for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our
humour sections. Post it
to the editorial address, or
email: editor.india@rd.com

cartoon by Susan Camilleri Konar

It Happens

A Powerful Row-mance
Roses are red. Violets
are blue. If you climb a
high tower, I will follow
too! This rhyme succinctly surmises the
spat between a young
couple in Chhattisgarh
that went viral on social media. The girl, a
minor, was annoyed
with her boyfriend and
decided to climb a

42
2 september 2023

80-feet-tall high-tension power tower in the
Gaurela Pendra Marwahi district. The boy,
perhaps at a loss of
how to defuse this
high-voltage situation
decided to follow her to
the ends of the electric
tower. Ah! To be young,
in love, and dumb!
This lovers’ tiff playing out at dizzying

heights was noticed by
the locals, who alerted
the police and their respective families. As
the police spent hours
negotiating with the
two, a large crowd of
spectators milled
about, one of whom
captured the whole ordeal on camera making
the lover’s quarrel internet famous. No

CARTOON BY RA JU EPURI

ONLY IN INDIA

Reader ’s Digest
official complaint has
been filed against the
couple, but stern warnings were issued to the
younglings that no
amount of love or lack
thereof necessitates
risking life and limb.
source: INDIATODAY.COM

Framed by Fan Art
Two thieves, Vijay Yadav
and Sonu Yadav, broke
into the house of corporator Anwar Kadri in Indore. The job was to
steal and sneak away
with their ill-begotten
gains, but their best laid
plans were waylaid because Vijay couldn’t
ignore his heart’s calling. Staring at the
house’s bare walls, a
canvas flashed before
his eyes and voila! He
transformed into
artist extraordinaire.
Abandoning his role
as a larcenist, he located
a few sketch pens and
started doodling on the
walls. As he stood engrossed playing muralist—he even paid
homage to his favourite
actor Amitabh Bachchan in his doodle—he

stumbled and crashed
into a glass pane, wakk
ing the house’s inhabitants. His co-burglar
avoided the law by disappearing as soon as he
had rid the house of its
valuables. But Vijay,
who decided to take a
crack at wall graffiti
couldn’t draw enough
patronage for his art,
and was quickly handed
over to the police.
source: INDIATODAY.COM

Ghosts of fines past
It was 30 August 1997,
and railway ticketing
clerk Rajesh Verma
working at the Kurla
Terminus Junction,
Mumbai, was going
through his working
day. Missing a magic
crystal with powers to
predict the future,
Verma presumably did
what he always did—
overcharge passengers.
But, that day his luck
went off track: a decoy
check was being carried
out and a Railway Protection Force constable
posing as a passenger
requested a ticket from
to Ara. Verma who was

supposed to return `286
in change after accepting a `500 note for the
`214 fare, returned only
`280—a full sum of `6
missing. A vigilance
team check followed
and `58 was found
missing from Verma’s
railway cash. They also
recovered `450 from
a cupboard which the
team believed was
used to hide more such
skimps. A disciplinary
inquiry followed, which
led to Verma’s dismissal
in January 2002. Since
then, Verma has resorted to several unsuccessful departmental
remedies to get himself
reinstated, even taking
his plea to the Bombay
high court, which in
August 2023—a whopping 26 years after the
incident—rejected his
plea, bringing his gravy
train to a stop.
source: INDIATODAY.COM
—COMPILED BY NAOREM ANUJA

Reader’s Digest will pay
for contributions to this
column. Post your suggestions with the source to the
editorial address, or email:
editor.india@rd.com

readersdigest.in

43

13 THINGS

All About Extreme Weather
By Caitlin Stall-Paquet

1

What’s in a name?
Plenty, when meteorologists assign them
to hurricanes and typhoons. It’s a practice
that began in the 19th
century, when a British
meteorologist living in
Australia started naming
storms after politicians
he disliked, as well as
Polynesian women. Using female names caught
on with American meteorologists in the 1950s;
weather reports included

50

september 2023

sexist cliches about
‘temperamental’ storms
‘flirting’ with coastlines.
Male names were finally
included by 1979.

2

The association
with destruction
tends to make
some storm names
unpopular baby names,
which is what happened
to Katrina after a Category 5 storm with that
name devastated the US
state of Louisiana in

2005. A very damaging
storm may have its name
retired, and some years
there are enough storms
to run through the 21
alphabetical names (Q,
U, X, Y and Z are not
used). The World Meteorological Organization
keeps a list of backup
names prepared for
that eventuality.

3

From cows lying
down when rain is
on the horizon to

ILLUSTRATION by Serge Bloch

Reader ’s Digest
birds that fly lower prior
to a storm, there are
plenty of theories that
animals can predict
the weather. One that’s
proven is that coastal
sharks swim deeper
during the drop in
barometric pressure
that precedes tropical
storms. Sometimes animals are the weather:
Waterspouts or tornadoes can pick up critters and carry them
long distances, leading
to accounts of frogs or
fish falling from the sky,
like the anchovies that
rained down on San
Francisco in 2022.

4

When ice forms
on trees, the
weight of branches
can increase 30-fold. In
1998, the freezing rain
of a devastating ice
storm in eastern North
America brought down
millions of trees. The
ice layers also collapsed
enough electrical wires
and cables to go around
the world three times.
Power outages left more
than five million people
in the dark—some for
as long as 30 days.

5

Blizzards can be
equally destructive, especially
when they happen in
unlikely places, like
Iran’s 1972 blizzard—
called the worst in
history. Almost eight
metres of snow fell
over nearly a week,
covering 200 villages
and killing a reported
4,000 people. But ‘oncein-a-generation’ storms
are happening more off
ten as polar winds meet
warmer-than-usual
winters. Cold snaps and
record daily snowfalls
could become more
norm than outlier.

6

After bursting
onto the scene
in the 1970s, the
disaster-movie genre—
with hits like The
Swarm and The Poseidon Adventure—really
hit its stride in the
1990s. (Twisterr grossed
nearly US$500 million
in theatres). Since then,
disaster movies have
stagnated, possibly
because we feel ever
closer to life imitating
fiction. The 2021 film
Don’t Look Up served

as an apt commentary
on climate change and
society’s collective
reluctance to act.

7

rising average
temperatures are
contributing to
more heat waves and
larger storms. Earlier
this year, Cyclone
Freddy hit parts of Aff
rica and lasted a record
34 days. Human activity
is known to compound
the disastrous effects
of extreme weather directly, too, like in western Canada when the
torrential rains of 2021
in areas that had been
clear-cut led to deadly
mudslides. Major flooding in Germany and
Belgium in 2021, and
Australia’s unprecedented bush fires of
2020, were also caused
by climate change.

8

When forest fires
follow drought,
bark beetles can
make the fires even
worse by turning
wooded areas into fields
of tinder. An infestation
along the west coast of
North America, from
readersdigest.in

51

reader’s digest
the Yukon to Mexico,
killed more than 102
million trees in California alone. To make matters worse, trees can
secrete chemicals called
terpenes—which are
highly flammable—as
a defence mechanism
against insect invasion.

apocalyptic-seeming
‘blood rain’, a rare event
that occurred in Spanish skies in 2022. This
red precipitation was
caused by dark sand
being carried from the
Sahara Desert and mixing with water before
falling back to earth.

9

11

Lightning sprites
make the skies
glow with jellyfish-like shapes during
thunderstorms, from
the Chilean Andes to
Israel’s Negev Desert.
The crimson lights are
produced by electric
discharges in the mesosphere and their
name is thought to
be inspired by Shakespeare’s mischievous
fairies in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.

10

Sandstorms
occur when
strong winds
sweep across dry desert
landscapes. In 2021,
Mongolia’s southern
province of Dornogovi
experienced a record
20-hour sandstorm.
These storms can
sometimes trigger an

52

september 2023

Intense heat
waves have a
way of making
society go off the rails.
They can melt power
lines and buckle railway
tracks, which happened
during the United Kingdom’s 2022 heat wave.
People also tend to lose
their cool: Studies show
that violence spikes as
our bodies heat up, possibly due to a drop in
serotonin and an increase in testosterone,
which can make us
more aggressive.

12

The US experiences 75 per
cent of the
world’s tornadoes, with
about 1,200 reported
every year. And ‘Tornado Alley’, which runs
vertically through the
middle of the country

from South Dakota to
Texas, gets the brunt
of it. In 2013, a record
4.2-kilometre-wide
tornado hit El Reno,
Oklahoma, with neverbefore-seen ground
speeds: 476 kph!

13

Thanks to
computer
technology
and global data sharing, weather forecasts
are improving in accuracy, giving residents
more time to seek
safety. But some people still run toward
danger: Amateur and
professional storm
chasers track highimpact weather and
gather invaluable meteorological data—and
perhaps a viral video
or two. An episode of
the 2021 documentary
series Wild Canadian
Weather followed the
adventures of Prairie
Storm Chasers. And
DutchTReX, a stormchasing group based
in the Netherlands,
travels to the US each
year during tornado
season in search of
the perfect storm.

WINNERS
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Winners fo r 1 0 ye a rs a n d a b ove

Winners for 1 - 9 ye a rs

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Trusted Brand Special Supplement
INTRODUCTION

The Brands We Trust
eader’s Digest launched the
Trusted Brand award in 1998, as an
exploration into the brands that have
earned consumer confidence and
loyalty. In a world brimming with
choices, where products and services
clamour for attention, there emerge
brands that stand tall as beacons of
trustworthiness and quality. Reader’s
Digest dives deep into the realm of
consumer experiences, where the
consumer vote shapes the landscape of
brand reputation.
For years, Reader’s Digestt has been
synonymous with authenticity and
reliability, making it the perfect
platform to seek consumer insights
about their favourite brands across
segments and categories, sharing with
us the factors that influence their
purchases, including value for money,
consistent quality, innovation and
excellent customer service. From
household names that have been
around for generations to newcomers
that have swiftly risen through the
ranks, the award unveils the brands

R

that measure up to the yardstick of
consumer approval and satisfaction.
The Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand
awards is an opportunity to celebrate
these brands that have consistently,
delivered on their promises and
secured a special place in our lives. It is
a reflection of consumer preferences,
making it the perfect guide for
discovering the brands that have stood
the test of time and scrutiny.
The following pages contain the
brands that have earned consumer
trust and love through the years. Our
winners continue to embody the
values of consistency, quality, and
authenticity that have allowed them to
become success stories. „

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METHODOLOGY

How We Conducted the Survey
or the past 25 years, the Reader’s
Digestt Trusted Brands survey has
uncovered India’s most trustworthy
brands. The Trusted Brand survey has
established its reputation as a premier
consumer-based and international
measure of brand preference.
Conducted in collaboration with
Marketing and Development Research
Associates, the survey shows
which brands consistently fulfil their
promises to satisfy consumer needs and
deliver quality.
A representative sample of 4,076
people across 20 cities geographically
spread across India were surveyed.
Respondents were asked to name five
of their most trusted brands across 41
product categories via quantitative Face
to Face and Telephonic interviews. For
statistical accuracy the weights were
derived for each product category and
accordingly were used to arrive at the
final weighted score. The participants
were then requested to further rate
their choice of a trusted brand on a list
of four attributes: Reliability and

F

Quality, Value Proposition, Usability
and/or need fulfillment and
Recommend & Repurchase, on a scale
of 1 to 10. A Trust Score was arrived at
by taking the weighted mean of the
rating on all 4 parameters. In addition,
brand trust based on awareness level
and usage experience was given higher
weightage than those based solely on
perception or little knowledge.
Awareness level scores were multiplied
by the final weighted trust scores to
arrive at Brand Trust, revealing the
2023 winners.
We are pleased to unveil the Reader’s
Digest 2023 Trusted Brand winners.
Congratulations to all our winners. „
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AUTOMOBILES
CAT E G O RY

BRAND
AUDI
BM W

E LE C TR IC C A R S

HYUN DAI
M AHIN DRA
TATA M OTORS
ATHER EN ERGY
BAJAJ

E LE C TR IC
S C OOTE R S

HERO EL ECTRIC
OL A
TVS
HYUN DAI
M AHIN DRA

FOU R W HE E LE RS

M ARUTI SUZUK I
TATA M OTORS
TOYOTA

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AUTOMOBILES
CAT E G O RY

BRAND
BAJAJ
HERO

TW O W HE E LE R S

HON DA
ROYAL EN FIEL D
TVS
BHARAT
PETROL EUM -M AK
CASTROL

LU B R IC A NTS

GUL F OIL
HP L UBRICAN TS
IN DIAN OIL SERV O

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Trusted Brand Special Supplement

SERVO: For The Smoothest Ride
ith a turnover of nearly
`13,000 crore, SERVO is India’s
biggest lubricant brand and enjoys a
market share of more than 25% in the
Finished Lubes segment. Launched by
IndianOil in 1972, the brand has
developed an extensive marketing
infrastructure, supported by one of
Asia’s most advanced Research and
Development centres.
The size of the Indian lubricant
market is estimated to be around
`40,000 crore and automotive lubricants
constitute 65% of the
t o t a l f i n i s h ed lub e
market. With more
than 5,200 formulations and 1,600 grades of lubricants
available in more than 1,700 active
SKUs, SERVO is India’s single largest
oils & lubes brand by way of volumes
as well as value. Over the years, it
has established its authority and has
built exceptional relationships with
automobiles and speciality engine

W

manufacturers. With recommendations from leading companies such
as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Kia,
Tata Motors, M&M, Ashok Leyland,
Volvo-Eicher (VECV), Renault-Nissan,
Hero Motors, etc., it is the brand of
choice and an original equipment supplier to most of them. In the field of
industrial lubricants too, SERVO is the
undisputed leader. It offers a wide
range of lubricants for use in all core
industries such as the railways, defence sector, state
transport undertakings, power, coal and
mining, automobile,
steel and cement
amongst others.
Having achieved distinction
in India, SERVO has also established
its footprint in more than 40 global
destinations such as Bangladesh,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, UAE,
Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Indonesia,
Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, South
America and the African continent. „

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AUTOMOBILES
CAT E G O RY

BRAND
BHARAT PETROL EUM
HIN DUSTAN
PETROL EUM

PE TR OL S TATION

IN DIAN OIL
JIO-BP
N AYARA
APOL L O TYRES
BRIDGESTON E

TYR E S

CEAT
JK TYRES
M RF TYRES

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CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
CAT E G O RY

BRAND
HITACHI
LG
SAM SUN G

ACs

V OLTAS
WHIRL POOL
AQUAGUARD–
EUREK A FORBES
BL UE STAR
WATE R PU R IFIE R S

K EN T
PUREIT
V-GUARD

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IndianOil: Fulfilling
India’s Energy Needs
T
he saga of IndianOil is the remarkable story of achieving self-sufficiency in the petroleum sector. It was
the foresight of the founding fathers of
the oil industry in India that led to the
formation of this integrated refining
and marketing behemoth.
Over the last six decades, lndianOil
has provided energy access to millions
of people through its ever-expanding
network of over 60,000+ customer
touchpoints. Today, IndianOil is
India’s highest ranked energy PSU in
Fortune ‘Global 500’ list (rank 94) and
the flagship national oil major. With
a 31,095 workforce and extensive
refining, distribution & marketing infrastructure, lndianOil plays a significant role in fulfilling the energy needs
of the country.
With a finger on the pulse of the
market, IndianOil has pioneered several revolutionary products such as
XP100 & XP95 (India’s first 100 Octane

and 95 Octane petrol respectively),
ClearBlue (Diesel Exhaust Fluid), composite LPG cylinders (new-age, polymer-wrapped cylinders), to name a
few. IndianOil also spearheaded
India’s remarkable transition from
BS-IV to BS-VI grade motor fuels, much
ahead of the 1st April 2020 deadline.

Since its inception, IndianOil has
constantly challenged the status quo.
Its vision to be the ‘Energy of India’
and to emerge as a ‘Globally Admired
Company’ are mere milestones in this
glorious journey. And despite six
eventful decades in the heart and
mind of every Indian, the fire to light
up the life of a lonely driver on a dark
highway still burns within! Visit
www.iocl.com „

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FINANCIAL SERVICES
C AT E G O RY

BRAND
BAN K OF BARODA
BAN K OF IN DIA

B A NKS
(NATIONA LIZE D)

CAN ARA BAN K
PUN JAB N ATION AL BAN K
STATE BAN K OF IN DIA
AX IS BAN K
HDFC BAN K

B A NKS
(PR IVATE )

ICICI B AN K
IN DUSIN D BAN K
K OTAK M AHIN DRA BAN K
AX IS BAN K

C R E DIT C A R DS

HDFC BAN K
ICICI BAN K
SB I CARD

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SBI Card: Celebrating 25 Years
of ‘Making Life Simple’
BI Card started its journey in 1998
with a commitment to transform
the payments experience of modern India. Today, SBI Card is the largest pureplay credit card issuer in the country
with over 17 million cards in force. Over
the years, SBI Card has achieved several
milestones with the latest being completion of 25 successful years in the
industry in 2023.
SBI Card continues to design innovative products and services that address
the evolving needs of varied consumer
segments. It has an extensive product
portfolio catering to a wide category of
cardholders, from new-to-credit to
mass to super premium. For instance,
the brand offers AURUM, a super-pre-

S

mium card, catering to CXOs and HNIs;
and also has SimplyCLICK SBI Card for
online shopping savvy consumers.
SBI Card’s strong technology focus is
an extension of its customer-centric approach. Its technology infrastructure
and various tech-enabled solutions are
aimed at enriching the payments experience of its customers. So, whether it is
its comprehensive digital payments
suite or end-to-end digital card enrollment experience through SBI Card
SPRINT, SBI Card continuously leverages new technological solutions to enhance its customers’ convenience.
With ‘Make life simple’ as its motto,
SBI Card has evolved as a trusted brand
over the years. According to Mr. Abhijit
Chakravorty, MD & CEO, SBI Card, “We
are humbled to be honoured with this
recognition once again. This is a testimony to our strong relationship with
our customers, which is defined by the
values of trust and transparency. We
will continue with our customer-first
approach while delivering them a
worldclass experience.” „

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FINANCIAL SERVICES
C AT E G O RY

BRAND
BAJAJ AL L IAN Z
GEN ERAL IN SURAN CE
HDFC ERGO GEN ERAL
IN SURAN CE

INS U R A NC E
(G E NE R A L)

ICICI L OM BARD
GEN ERAL IN SURAN CE
SBI GEN ERAL
IN SURAN CE
TATA AIG GEN ERAL
IN SURAN CE
HDFC L IFE

INS U R A NC E
(LIFE )

ICICI PRUDEN TIAL
L IFE IN SURAN CE
L IC
M AX L IFE IN SURAN CE
SBI L IFE

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N
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MU TU A L FU NDS

ICICI PRUDEN TIAL
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CAT E G O RY

BRAND
DHARA
FORTUN E

C OOKING OILS

PATAN JAL I
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EVEREST

MA S A LA S

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FOOD & BEVERAGE
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BRAND
FROOTI

PA C KA G E D J U IC E

M AAZA
REAL
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K ISSAN

PIC KLE S A ND
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M AGGI
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CAT E G O RY

BRAND
BAIDYAN ATH
DABUR

HE A LTH
S U PPLE ME NTS

HIM AL AYA
PATAN JAL I
ZAN DU
CL OSE-UP
COL GATE

OR A L C A R E

DAB UR RED
PEPSODEN T
SEN SODYN E
COAL CLEAN BEAUTY

OR G A NIC C OS ME TICS
(PR E MIU M)

FOREST ESSEN TIAL S
K AM A AYURVEDA
SOULTREE

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HEALTH & PERSONAL CARE
C AT E G O RY

BRAND
BIOTIQUE
K HADI N ATURAL

O R G A NIC C OS ME TIC S
(R E G U LA R )

L OTUS ORGAN ICS
PL UM GOODN ESS
RADICO ORGAN
AN
N IC
I
HAIR COL OR
SK IN YOGA
AM RUTAN JAN
IODEX

PA IN R E LIE F
OINTME NTS

M OOV
VOL IN I
ZAN DU BAL M

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HOME IMPROVEMENT
C AT E G O RY

BRAND
CERA
HIN DWARE

B ATH FITTING S

JAQUAR
J OHN SON
B ATHROOMS
K OHL ER
AN CHOR
FIN OL EX

E LE C TR IC A L
S W ITC HE S

HAVEL L S
PHIL IPS
V-GUARD
D'DECOR
GODREJ IN TERIO

FU R NIS HING S

HOM ETOWN
N IL K AM AL
PEPPERFRY

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Trusted Brand Special Supplement

Johnson Bathrooms: Come
Alive With Luxury
stablished in 1958, H & R Johnson
(India), is the pioneer in ceramic
tiles in India. While Johnson is synonymous with tiles, in all categories and
sizes—its Bathroom Division has been
making inroads into Indian homes for
the last 25 years. The Johnson Bath Division started operations in 1998 with
the brand Milano. Milano was the first
in India to introduce instant showers,
shower panels and
shower enclosures. It
then expanded its
product range to include sanitary ware,
faucets and accessories. This led to a
change in the brand’s positioning and it
was renamed Johnson Bathrooms—a
complete bathroom solutions provider.
Foremost in offering innovative solutions to customers, Johnson introduced
germ-free sanitaryware. Another
unique feature of Johnson Bathrooms
products is its water-saving technology.
By incorporating efficient flushing sys-

E

tems that use 3/ 4.5 litres, it ensures
water-saving in every flush. Another
innovation is their 360-degree flushing
mechanism which creates a powerful
swirl for efficient flushing coupled with
100% surface cleaning. Rim-free WCs of
Johnson are easy to clean and prevent
germ build-up. The smooth zircon
opacified glaze resists the build-up of
stains. Johnson faucets come with high
grade aerators that reduce water consumption. Faucets with tilting
aerators enable control
of water flow by adjusting the aerator and the Durashine
chrome plating ensures a long-lasting
dazzle finish.
Johnson Bathrooms has introduced
the Johnson International range in the
luxury segment and Johnson Elite, in
the premium segment. Both these
product ranges include both sanitaryware and faucets, designed and developed for the discerning customer. „

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G OLD (W in n e rs f o r 1-9 y ea rs)

ALL BRANDS LISTED HERE ARE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

HOME IMPROVEMENT
C AT E G O RY

BRAND
EL ICA
FAB ER

KITC HE N
C HIMNE YS

HIN DWARE
SUN FL AM E
WHIRL POOL
GODREJ
K URL ON

MATTR E S S E S

SL EEPWEL L
GODREJ IN TERIO
HAFEL E
MODU LA R
KITC HE NS

IFB
K OHL ER
SL EEK

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Trusted Brand Special Supplement
PLATINU M (W inners f o r 10 y ea rs a nd a bo v e)
G OLD (W in n e rs f o r 1-9 y ea rs)

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HOME IMPROVEMENT
C AT E G O RY

BRAND
FEN ESTA

MODU LA R W INDOWS
A ND DOOR S

PROM IN AN CE
WIN DOW M AGIC
HOM ETOWN
PEPPERFRY

ONLINE FU R NITU R E
C OMPA NIE S

THE HOM E DEK OR
URBAN L ADDER
WOODEN STREET
CERA
HIN DWARE

TILE S

J OHN SON TIL ES
K AJARIA
SOM AN Y

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PERSONAL PRODUCTS
C AT E G O RY

BRAND
ADIDAS
B ATA

FOOTW E A R

N IK E
PUM A
REEBOK
AM UL
DOL L AR

HOS IE RY

JOCK EY
L UX
RUPA
CEL L O
CL ASSM ATE

PE NS

FL AIR
PARK ER
REYN OL DS

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Trusted Brand Special Supplement

Johnson Tiles: Not Just
Tiles, Lifestyles
ohnson Tiles began in England in 1901
and came to India in 1958. Its journey
began with a single plant in Thane and
now H& R Johnson (India), a division of
Prism Johnson Limited, is one of India’s
leading names in providing solutions
that include tiles, sanitaryware, bath fittings and engineered marble & quartz.
Focusing on the hygiene, environmental sustainability and safety, Johnson is transforming the way consumers
choose tiles with their offerings of Smart
Tiles. Durability and aesthetics are expected of a good tile but Johnson defines
“smart” by going beyond these fundamental attributes to provide additional
value propositions to the products,
which includes a mix of durability, aesthetics and functionality. Tiles from H &
R Johnson (India) have a whole gamut of
features that makes them a trusted
choice. The tiles in the SMART category
include X-ray radiation shielding tiles
that protects from the harmful x-ray radiations, Solar reflective tiles that brings

J

down the temperature of the exteriors
surface thereby improving indoor comfort. Other innovations include the patented Anti-static technology, these tiles
ground static electricity and prevents the
risk of fire or explosion, Tactile-warning
and directional tiles for the visually impaired and MaxGrip, superior slip resistant tiles that ensures safety from
slipping. Another interesting addition to
the portfolio is Stepping Stone, a range
of ready-to-use staircase solutions.
Many of the tile collections from Johnson are Green Pro certified, which is a
product certification that helps customers make an informed choice to buy ecofriendly products. Johnson’s relentless
focus on innovation and customer aspirations has earned it several awards including the Superbrand title, the Golden
Peacock Innovative Product Awards,
Brand of the Decade, to name a few. „

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G OLD (W in n e rs f o r 1-9 y ea rs)

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SERVICES
CAT E G O RY

BRAND
B L UE DART
DHL SHIPPIN G
COM PAN Y
DTDC COURIER
COM PAN Y

FR E IG HT A ND
C OU R IE R

FEDEX COURIER
PARTN ER
IN DIAN POSTAL
SERVICES
AM AZON FRESH
BIGBASK ET
I NS TA NT DE LIV E RY
PLATFOR MS

BL IN K IT
SWIGGY IN STAM ART
ZEPTO

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SERVICES
CAT E G O RY

BRAND
CARDEK HO
CARS24

PLATFOR MS S E LLING
PR E OW NE D C A R S

CARWAL E
QUIK RCARS
SPIN N Y
CL EARTRIP
GOIBIBO

TR AV E L PORTA LS

M AK EM YTRIP
TRIVAGO
YATRA

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Trusted Brand Special Supplement

Blue Dart: The Trusted Brand
Shaping India’s Logistics Landscape
outh Asia’s premier express air and
integrated transportation & distribution company, offers secure and reliable delivery of consignments to over
55,000+ locations in India. At Blue Dart,
the foundation has always been built on
customer-centricity. The company’s
fleet comprises 6 Boeing 757 freighters,
2 Boeing 737 aircraft, and a vast network of 12,000+ on-ground vehicles
with 2200+ facilities across the nation
and a diverse team of industry stalwarts, to bridge the supply chain gap,
&serve as the trade facilitor for the nation. As part of DHL Group’s DHL
eCommerce division, Blue Dart has access to a global express and logistics
network spanning 220+ countries.
Acting as a catalyst for operational eff
ficiency, Blue Dart facilitates business
for various sectors, including eCommerce, Pharmaceuticals & Medical de-

BALFOUR
MANUEL,

S

Managing
Director,
Blue Dart

vices, BFSI, Consumer Electronics, and
Automotive, among others.Aligned with
green logistics and ESG principles under
its Strategy 2025, Blue Dart continues to
deliver as the Provider, Employer, and
Investment of Choice.
Balfour Manuel, Managing Director,
Blue Dart says, “Blue Dart’s 17th consecutive recognition as the Trusted
Brand fills us with profound pride. The
entrusted faith placed on us plays a pivotal role in charting our path to success.
Having served as the nation’s Trade Facilitator for nearly four decades, Blue
Dart’s standing as aTrusted Brand is
well-deserved.” „

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Trusted Brand Special Supplement
CONCLUSION

Fostering Relationships
Built On Trust
brand’s success isn’t built
overnight. It hinges on
understanding customer needs and
aspirations, then delivering consistent
quality and experiences that align
with their target audience. To ensure
that a brand keeps its consumer base
happy and continues to stay relevant in
a dynamic market, effective marketing
and innovation are key. In a marketplace
where trust can be fragile, earning
strong customer relationships can
ensure that the brand fosters loyalty. In
the end, a successful brand transcends
the realm of a single good or service to
become a dependable friend in
customers’ lives, forging bonds that last
the test of time.
The Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand
award winners have gone beyond simply
achieving brand sales. They have won
consumer trust by consistently
delivering on their brand promises,
ensuring quality products and deep
commitment to brand responsibility.

A

They have maintained transparency in
business practices, pricing and fostered
a culture of responsiveness to consumer
feedback, deepening accountability.
Placing the consumer at the centre of
their practices, has allowed these brands
to earn lasting loyalty over time.
The Readers Digest Trusted Brand
awards celebrate the brands that
exemplify a dedication to quality,
dependability and consumer trust.
Through the years these winners have
consistently made a genuine difference
in the lives of consumers. These awards
celebrate these enduring relationships
between brands and their consumers.
Congratulations to all the trusted
brands, and may the legacy of trust and
excellence continue to shine brightly in
the years to come. „

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QUOTABLE QUOTES
Whether it’s beauty
or fashion, there’s an
obsession with youth.
But if we’re lucky, we’re
all going to get old.
—Lauren Hutton, model and
actor, in Byrdie

Evil comes from a failure
to think. It defies thought
for as soon as thought
tries to engage itself with
evil and examine the
premises and principles
from which it originates,
it is frustrated because it
finds nothing there. That
is the banality of evil.

from left: hardik chhabra, yasir iqbal

—Hannah Arendt, academic

Anxiety is a
trap; it’s not a
trend to be
followed. It’s no
ot
supposed to bee
cool, it’s meantt
to be fixed.
—Masaba Gupta,
designer and
actor

Autobiographies are always
written as if the author had
it all mapped out with
perfect foresight, ignoring
the risks and uncertainties
at that time. This misleads,
as much as those beautiful
photographs of a past
holiday abstract from the
heat, the mosquitoes and
the lack of connectivity.
—Raghuram G. Rajan, economist

I always hated the
expression ‘being the
voice of the victims’. They
have voices; what they
need is a megaphone.
—Louise Arbour, former Supreme
Court justice and United Nations high
commissioner for human rights,
in Maclean’s
readersdigest.in

97

All
in a Day’s

WORK

On the first day of
school, I asked each
of the kids in my first
grade class to say what
they wanted to be when
they grew up. One boy
said “artist.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” I gushed.
“What kind?”
He replied, “Con.”
—Sara Lidtke

I was walking near New
York’s Wall Street and
popped into a deli. I
ordered a sandwich and
chatted with the owner.
I asked whether being
in the financial district
ever led to his getting
valuable tips from his
informed customers.
He paused his
sandwich-making.

My 12-year-old cousin asked my
boyfriend, a teacher, how he sleeps at night
knowing he’s giving kids homework.
— @lemonmombley

98 september 2023

“Every day, those brokers come in here,” he
said. “They get their
bagels, sandwiches,
doughnuts, coffee …”
He pointed toward the
door of his shop. “And
every day, they’re out
there on the sidewalk,
pushing and shoving
on a door that is clearly
marked ‘pull’. ”
—Steven Scharff,
in the New York Times
Before creating the
private detective Sam
Spade, author Dashiell
cartoon by Terry Colon

TIM MACPHERSON/GETTY IMAGES

Reader ’s Digest
Hammett was himself a
Pinkerton detective. The
Sunday Long Read website ran a listicle Hammett wrote in 1923 for
the magazine The Smart
Set detailing some of the
odd things he encountered on the job:
ÊA man whom I was
shadowing went out
into the country for a
walk one Sunday afternoon and lost his bearings completely. I had
to direct him back
to the city.
ÊI know an operative who, while looking for pickpockets at
a race track, had his
wallet stolen.
ÊA chief of police once
gave me a description
of a man, complete even
to the mole on his neck,
but neglected to mention that he had only
one arm.
When our pastor was
in graduate school,
the dorm cafeteria
was not known for its
culinary excellence.
One evening, as he
finished saying grace,

his friend pointed to
his dish and said,
“Sorry, Steve, it didn’t
work; it’s still there.”
—Gordon Houston
Three of us peppered
the job candidate with
questions regarding an
opening in our department. We were pleased
with his answers until
we got to the end of the
interview. When we

asked the candidate
whether he had any
questions for us, he
replied, “Yes, I have.
What job am I interviewing for?”
—Karin Green

Reader’s Digest will pay
for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our
humour sections. Post it
to the editorial address, or
email: editor.india@rd.com

FLY THE CHATTY SKIES

Flight crews offer up safe travels and ad-libs:

Ê “Hi, I’m Captain
Amanda Smith. Yes, I’m a
female pilot and, as a benefit, if we get lost on the way
I won’t be afraid to stop
and ask for directions.”
Ê “Please refrain from
smoking until you reach
a designated smoking
area, which, for California, is Las Vegas.”
Ê “I’ve just been informed that my motherin-law has passed through
security and will be boarding this flight shortly.
If you all sit down fast,
we should be able to
get out of here before
she arrives.”

Ê “Most of you already
have your seat belts
fastened. Now we will
demonstrate how
you did that.”
Ê “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to share
some words with you
that my father shared
with me when I turned
18:: Pack your bags
and
d get out.”
Ê “Please return
you
ur seats to
theeir upright
and
d most uncom
mfortable
possition.”
— bo
o redpanda
.com

readersdigest.in

99

Reader ’s Digest

100

september 2023

COVER STORY

Cover Story

Reunited
How DNA
testing is
bringing
families
together
By Sarah Treleaven

illustration by Nikki Ernst

in 2018, jeff highsmith of texas started a Facebook
page on behalf of his family. The page had one
objective: to find Melissa Suzanne Highsmith, Jeff’s
sister. At just 21 months, she had been abducted
from Fort Worth by her babysitter 51 years earlier
and the family was desperate for answers.
In addition to the Facebook page, they made
flyers with baby Melissa’s face and age-progression
photos that indicated what she might look like
now, in her 50s. Remarkably, they were convinced
she was still alive all these years later and determined to be reunited with her.
They knew that more tools were now available
to help locate missing persons—such as genealogy
kits with DNA tests. And so, the family bought kits
from 23andMe, and then uploaded the results to a
public database called GEDmatch.
readersdigest.in

101

Reader ’s Digest
sisters—one in the United Kingdom, the
other in the Netherlands—met for the
first time in 75 years after learning that
they have the same father.
There are countless stories. In Spain,
a DNA database has been set up to identify the ‘stolen babies’ of the Franco
dictatorship. Black Americans are using
DNA tests to learn about family lineages
disrupted by slavery. And stories about
recent tragedies—including the devastating February earthquake in Syria and
Turkey—have included details about
how DNA was being used to reunite
children with their parents.
Much of the news coverage of DNA
technology advances has focused on
capturing a killer or identifying a longdead victim. But there’s another, equally
compelling possibility: solving cold
cases involving a living victim or missing person. In other words, someone

Melissa Highsmith as a
baby; and today, after
being reunited with her
mother and father.

102

september 2023

courtesy of jeff highsmith

It seemed like a shot in the dark, but
it worked. In November 2022, the Highsmith family found Melissa through a
key DNA match: Melissa’s daughter. By
pulling the threads of DNA matches, triangulating connections on a much
bigger family tree, they zeroed in on
the baby snatched so long ago. The family reunion was a joyful one. Melissa
described being found as “the most
wonderful feeling in the world.”
The story of Melissa Highsmith and
her family got global news coverage. But
it’s only one of many cases of people
being connected by DNA analysis. In
Canada, siblings separately adopted
from Romania when they were babies
were reunited in their 50s when both
took a DNA test to learn more about
their biological health; turns out they
had spent much of their lives within a
30-minute drive of each other. And two

Cover Story
out in the world, location and identity
unknown, who can be made aware of
who they really are only through DNA.
Law enforcement agencies have
stepped up efforts to utilize it, and private businesses have also hopped on
board, creating databases and putting
the tools for DNA collection into the
hands of consumers. Crucially, there’s
also been a rise in citizen sleuths and
investigative genetic genealogists, perhaps bolstered by our insatiable love
for true crime, who are helping to bring
ordinary families together again.
According to Michael Marciano,
director of research for the Forensic and
National Security Sciences Institute
(FNSSI) at Syracuse University’s College
of Arts and Sciences in New York, there
have been major advances in recent
decades in how forensic DNA analysis
is done. One has to do with sensitivity:
our ability to detect lower amounts of
DNA than ever before. That means
researchers can now identify the DNA
that’s deposited from someone touching an object or a person.
It also means that mixed DNA samples (samples that include more than
one person’s DNA) can be disentangled. “For example, a perpetrator enters
a bank, picks up the pen where you fill
out your deposit slips, writes a note and
gives it to the teller,” says Marciano. “We
know the perpetrator picked up the
pen, but how many other people did?
Their DNA might be on it too.” Now, it’s
much easier to isolate the perpetrator’s
genetic material.

The second major development has
to do with how results are analyzed.
Software and computing power have
improved sufficiently that we can create better models and more accurate
statistics that help analysts interpret
the samples they’ve collected.
But still, to get a match, researchers
must be able to link a sample to a DNA
profile. “Forensics is about comparisons,” says Marciano. “If I have a fingerprint or DNA profile but nothing to compare it to, I can’t determine whose it is.”

CONSUMERS ARE
BUYING THE PROMISE
TO UNCOVER THEIR
HERITAGE AND MAKE
CONNECTIONS.
This is where databases of DNA profiles come in. Sometimes, those profiles
are derived from court-mandated samples or samples collected from crime
scenes or missing persons cases. Dean
Hildebrand runs a forensics lab at B.C.
Institute of Technology in Canada, and
for decades he has done work for the
government coroner service, running
DNA samples that primarily come from
missing persons or their families. Some
are from remains found at scenes. Other
times, he runs samples from the belongings of a missing person—a blanket the
person couldn’t sleep without, or a pair
of broken glasses left behind.
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103

Reader ’s Digest
“We have an avalanche of those samples coming through all the time,” says
Hildebrand. Many are attached to longcold cases. More than a decade ago,
Hildebrand helped develop a missing
persons database so law enforcement
officials can log unidentified remains
and the samples from missing persons.
But lately, DNA searching has had
little to do with foul play. Companies
such as Ancestry.com, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage have sold
consumers on the idea of uncovering
their heritage and making connections.
It’s DNA analysis as a party game for the
whole family.

TWENTY YEARS AGO,
WE COULDN’T SIMPLY
SPIT IN A TUBE
AND GET A REPORT
ON OUR LINEAGE.
And it’s very popular. By the start of
2019, according to MIT Technology
Review, more than 26 million people
had sent their DNA to one of four commercial ancestry and health databases.
These products and their analysis are
the result of technological advancement; 20 years ago, it wouldn’t have
been possible for you and your family
to spit in tubes, put them in the mail,
then receive a report on your lineage.
But they also reflect a growing social
phenomenon: a fascination with draw-

104

september 2023

ing connections and insights into the
self through the use of genetic material.
“When you have a lot of good quality
DNA, you can capture a lot of information about an individual,” says Nicole
Novroski, assistant professor in the
department of anthropology at the University of Toronto. She says that the databases of private ancestry or genealogy
kit companies really grew, and then
came the option to put your DNA sample on public databases allowing people to make additional connections.
GEDmatch is one such public database. It allows users to compare samples across a broader spectrum than a
single site, looking for matches with
overlapping genetic material. The bigger the overlap, the more likely the
match is a close relative such as a parent, child, grandparent or first cousin.
“Sometimes, it’s a dead end,” says
Novroski. “But the more people in the
database, the more potential there is to
make a connection, even if it’s a far-out
one. Then it’s the genealogists’ and the
investigators’ job to kind of rebuild all
that missing information for these big
family trees or kinship determinations.”
Novroski says that the work of armchair detectives, uploading samples
and combing through DNA matches,
can yield a mixed bag of implications.
“It’s doing a lot of good by solving cold
cases,” she says. “But some people don’t
like the information they find, especially when there’s been infidelity and
things of that nature that were previously not known or discussed.”

china daily via reuters

Cover Story
The number of public and private databases for genetic identification is growing. In China, authorities keep a database that includes
the DNA of parents of missing children, and of any children found by
police. The system was thrust into
the spotlight in 2021 when a family
was reunited with their kidnapped
son after 24 years—a case that also
drew attention to the devastation
of living with the uncertainty of a
loved one’s disappearance.
Before the family was reunited,
the son’s father, Guo Gangtang, Guo Xinzhen was reunited with his family
spent years criss-crossing the mas- 24 years after he was abducted at age 2.
sive country in his determination to
find his son, Guo Xinzhen, often sleep- investigators are now working in tandem
ing outdoors and travelling by motor- with families and law enforcement to
bike with flyers and a flag displaying his find missing persons and solve longson’s image. Without the help of DNA, standing mysteries. One famous recent
he likely would never have found his example is when an IGG investigator, a
son. According to Chinese media, thou- retired attorney with a PhD in biology
sands of missing children have been named Barbara Rae-Venter, helped
found thanks to the database.
police track down California’s ‘Golden
The desire to connect with family State Killer’, who had eluded authorimembers, missing or not yet discovered, ties for decades, by combing through
has given rise to another phenomenon: DNA of the killer’s distant relatives.
Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG).
But IGGs are also being consulted to
IGG takes all the newly public DNA infor- help families find long-lost relatives. In
mation being uploaded to genealogy March 2022, Christa Hastie of Califorwebsites and combines it with other nia decided to help her mother, Vera,
sources of public and private data— age 80, solve a family mystery: What
such as Facebook profiles, marriage had happened to Vera’s sister, Rosemarecords and even worn paper copies of rie, when she vanished from the streets
family trees—to infer relationships and of Montreal one winter day in 1954 at
build out networks of people.
the age of 14? Over six months, Vera
It’s as much a social phenomenon as and Christa dedicated themselves to
a technological one, and a wave of IGG searching for any and all information
readersdigest.in

105

Reader ’s Digest

related to Rosemarie’s disappearance.
Christa already had a DNA profile on
Ancestry, and now she added profiles
to other major sites. She also got an
investigative genealogist to help her
zero in on the maternal matches. They
found a DNA match close enough to
be Rosemarie’s grandchild, but when
Christa reached out to the person, they
claimed not to know Rosemarie.
Since Vera had been born in Germany, she and Christa enlisted the help
of a genealogist with experience in DNA
testing in that country. Carolin Becker
put Vera’s grandmother’s surname into
a database she had constructed, and
her software found nine generations of

106

september 2023

ancestors. “A whopping 34 pages of tiny
text,” says Christa.
Becker cross-referenced the data with
matches from DNA sites, ruling out
anyone who wasn’t both a maternal and
paternal match to Vera. And she helped
Christa and Vera reach out to long-lost
relatives, adding their DNA to the family tree and bolstering the search.
Ultimately, more than 900 people
fleshed out that family tree, dating to
the 17th century. Using DNA Painter, a
website with geneology research tools,
Christa was able to re-confirm the specific match: Rosemarie’s granddaughter, who had been identified before.
Christa reached out again, this time

courtesy of christa hastie

Vera (left, at age
11) with her sister,
Rosemarie (at 13).

Cover Story
with proof, and Christa and Vera connected with Rosemarie’s whole family.
The truth was astonishing: Rosemarie
had died years earlier, but her life hadn’t
ended when she disappeared all those
decades ago; she went on to have children and grandchildren. So while there
would be no reunion, no explanation
for Rosemarie’s disappearance, knowing she had not been murdered was a
huge comfort to Vera.
There was another upside to their
search: Because the IGG helped them
map out a comprehensive family tree,
they were united with or introduced
to relatives they now keep in touch
with. Christa and Vera emerged from
this exercise with an expanded sense
of family.
That’s exactly the promise of commercial DNA sites. And it’s easy to imagine any number of positive outcomes.
We now have the capability to reunite
lost family members separated by war
or other circumstances. We can pinpoint the ancestral homes of adoptees
or others whose biological connections
have been severed.
But now imagine a less rosy scenario: A family tries DNA kits as a fun
activity, swabbing the inside of their
cheeks while standing around the dinner table, and then eagerly awaits the
results—only to have those kits show,
unexpectedly, that one of the kids is not
a biological match. “The more information we’re collecting from our DNA, the
more we open this Pandora’s box of
ethical considerations,” says Hildeb-

rand. “Because there can be big surprises awaiting—some of them really
great, and some shocking.”
The privacy implications can also be
astounding. At least one consumer site
(GEDmatch) now has an opt-in clause
allowing what you upload to be
searched by law enforcement and the
public. Since DNA is shared between
biological family members, if a relative
uploads theirs to one of these sites,
they are potentially implicating you,
because their DNA is linked to yours. So
anyone who wants to, say, anonymously donate sperm or give up a baby
for adoption could one day be identified—even if they never provide their
own DNA sample.
“I think it’s a very powerful thing,”
says Hildebrand, adding that if only
around 10 per cent of people add their
DNA samples into one of these public or
private databases, we would be able to
identify every human on earth.
And that comes with benefits and
drawbacks. “As people get more into
this, we’ll be closer to the point where
you pretty much can’t hide,” he says.
“It’ll be possible to link every family
in the world.”
For the Highsmith family, who were
happily reunited in Texas after decades
apart, DNA was the link. “Our finding
Melissa was purely because of DNA, not
because of any police/FBI involvement,
podcast involvement, or even our family’s own private investigations or speculations,” notes one Facebook update.
“DNA WINS THIS SEARCH!”
readersdigest.in

107

HEALTH

The

Upsideof

Anxiety
How to worry well
By Patricia Pearson
i am an anxious traveller. I arrive at
airports and train stations extra early. I
triple-check all of my documents, feel
a tightness in my jaw and a slight
clench in my stomach until I’ve arrived
where I’m going. Non-anxious people

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tease me for being a ‘nervous nelly’.
I used to feel bad about it, seeing
it as irrational, weak. Not anymore.
I could write a book on this subject—
actually, I did: A Brief History of Anxiety
(Yours and Mine). I’ve learnt to respect
my tendency to be hypervigilant.
Recently, I was driving along a rural
road at the start of a long trip that
would mainly be on a large highway. I
began feeling that something could go
illustrations by Taryn Gee

Health
Health
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wrong. What if I run out of gas? I worried, even though I still had plenty. So
when I spied a gas station just before
the on-ramp I was going to take onto
the highway, I gave in to my angst and
decided to fill up. Just in case.
And that’s when I discovered that
one of my front tires was badly deflated.
If I’d overpowered my unease, talked
down my anxiety, the tire would have
blown at speed on the highway. My
urge to plan ahead even though it
wasn’t strictly necessary saved me from
a potentially catastrophic scenario.
a growing number of psychologists
and neuroscientists are getting the
message out that anxiety and other
negative feelings have a role to play
in our lives. Tracy Dennis-Tiwary,
who recently published Future Tense:
Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even
Though It Feels Bad), thinks our
culture goes overboard in demonizing
difficult emotions.
She knows what it’s like to get
swamped by anxiety. “I remember a
period at work when there was a lot
going on,” says the professor of psychology and neuroscience at the City University of New York’s Hunter College.
Worries kept waking her up at 4 a.m. “It
was like a yucky cloud of free-floating
anxiety,” she says, and it kept her from
falling back to much-needed sleep.
Instead of trying to suppress this disconcerting feeling, however, DennisTiwary leaned into it. “If you sit with
the anxiety, you have an opportunity

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to glean information,” she says. “For
me, this one important ball I’d dropped
at work finally rose to the surface of my
mind. When I recognized this niggling
thing, and gave it space, I learnt from
it. I wrote down two or three things I
could do to address it.” The next morning, she felt calmer.
Psychologist Todd Kashdan, director
of the Well-Being Lab at George Mason
University in Virginia and co-author of
The Upside of Your Dark Side, is a critic
of what he calls “gung-ho happy-ology.”
We don’t always have to be smiley and
serene, or worry that there’s something
wrong with us. Sometimes, he says, it’s
right to worry. Fear heights? Good,

WE CAN EXPERIENCE
PERIODS OF DISTRESS
WITHOUT BEING
CATEGORIZED AS
MENTALLY ILL.
because you won’t be the person who
falls off a cliff while taking a selfie.
These experts wonder if the natural
role that anxiety plays in our lives is
being forgotten. For example, the
World Health Organization ( WHO)
announced in March 2022 that the
prevalence of anxiety and depression
had increased globally by 25 per cent
over the year before (which was the
earlier part of the pandemic). It called
the finding “a wake-up call to all

Health

countries to step up mental health services and support.” Do we know for
certain this data represents a publichealth crisis? Or could it mean that millions of folks are quite rightly feeling
uncertain, stressed out and afraid?
The difference is important. For
example, the US Department of
Health and Human Services now recommends that family doctors do routine screenings for anxiety. It’s a positive development in that it recognizes
the impact that anxiety disorders can
have on those at risk. But what if initiatives like this funnel some of us into
unnecessary treatments and medications? Could it make us lose sight of the
benefits of our doubts and ‘what ifs’?
We can experience healthy, often
completely valid, periods of distress
without being categorized as mentally

ill, according to behavioural
psychologists. Anxiety is an
adaptive strategy in human
evolution. It helps us to prepare for the uncertain future,
“to remain vigilant,” DennisTiwary says. Anxiety prompts
us to resolve projected
unknowns by planning and
imagining, by plotting out
possible scenarios.
“From an evolutionary
point of view, anxiety is the
best emotion to help us manage uncertainty because it
forces us to run those ‘what-if’
simulations,” she says. “That’s
what it’s good for.”
Likewise, neuroscientist Wendy
Suzuki of New York University (NYU)
points out in her book Good Anxiety:
Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion that “if we simply
approach anxiety as something to avoid,
get rid of or dampen, we not only don’t
solve the problem it’s alerting us to, but
actually miss an opportunity to leverage
the generative power of anxiety.” By generative, she means that it can prompt us
to move out of a situation that’s no longer working, to find the energy we need
to get unstuck.
When we’re in an anxious state, the
amount of dopamine in our brains
increases, which prompts us to take
action. In evolutionary terms, millions
of years ago that might have meant
looking for shelter to evade predatory
animals. Today, it might mean leaving
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a job because of a predatory boss.
By not facing our anxiety, we lose its
benefits and can make things worse.
Case in point for me: hiding unopened
envelopes from the tax department in
a drawer—even if they could be just the
routine updates that self-employed
people like me receive—until I’ve
turned it into a full-blown phobia.
Says Alice Boyes, who has a PhD in
clinical psychology and wrote The
Anxiety Toolkit,
t coping with unpleasant feelings by avoiding them just
reinforces your insecurity, because
you’re not getting better at solving the
problem: “Over time, you will feel less
and less competent.”
the key is to manage unease before it
overtakes us, like tending a garden so the

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weeds don’t spread. But
how? According to NYU’s
Suzuki, solutions include
meditation, exercise,
compassionate connection such as volunteering, access to nature and
mentally reframing what
we’re experiencing.
For example, in her
book Suzuki writes about
a start-up entrepreneur
who was beginning to
feel daunted by everything that could go
wrong in his high-stakes
venture. This generated
all kinds of “what if?”
anxiety that kept him sleepless.
He was, in psychological parlance,
catastrophizing. After talking to a mentor, he found a new tool: a ‘reframe’.
He turned ‘what ifs?’ into a goaldirected to-do list: “If this were to
happen, then what could I do? Well, I
could do X.”
Dennis-Tiwary agrees that reframing
is crucial. She points to a 2013 Harvard
study in which socially anxious people
were asked to speak in public. The
researchers told some of them that
having sweaty palms and a dry mouth
or shaky knees was a good sign, a
“positive coping tool” that optimizes
the body for performance. The nervous
speakers who heard this message
had lower blood pressure and a
slower heart rate. In other words, they
shifted to that sweet spot where

Health
they were ready for the challenge, but
not distracted and alarmed by their
own nervousness.
That’s a pretty remarkable discovery.
What it says is that we can reframe our
fears so that they help us.
Several years ago, I was the last in
a long queue of speakers at a TEDx
event. The theatre was over-airconditioned. I sat there shivering and
growing tense, worrying that I would
forget my speech about a book I’d
recently written about death and dying.
The longer this mind-body feedback
loop of physical tension and mental
anxiety went on, the worse it got, until

SPENDING TIME
IN GREEN SPACES
CAN HELP RESTORE
PSYCHOLOGICAL
BALANCE.
my legs felt so rubbery that I feared I
would fall off the stage. It’s a miracle I
made it through my talk.
Knowing what I do now, I would
have paced and stretched in the hallway to keep my body warmed up and
my breathing calm while I waited, not
unlike an athlete before an event. I still
would have been nervous, but I would
have been taking steps to manage it.
“One of the key problems is that our
perceptions about anxiety stop us from
believing we can manage it,” says

Dennis-Tiwary. She argues that anxiety
isn’t the problem. “It is the messenger
that tells us we’re facing uncertainty
and need to rise to the challenge. Or it’s
pointing us to ways that our life needs
to change, or that we need support.”
We can manage anxiety by “worrying
well,” in Suzuki’s words. This includes
meditation. It has been shown to calm
the amygdala, the gland in our brain
responsible for sending out alarm
signals related to fear and anxiety.
Exercise helps, too. Suzuki experimented with some of her students and
found that even just a 10-minute workk
out helped them feel less anxious
before an exam. So, hit the gym, enjoy
the dance floor or go for a hike. Just
spending time in natural light and in
green spaces, what the Japanese call
‘forest bathing’, can restore our sense of
psychological balance. After all, we
evolved in companionship with nature.
Because humour increases oxytocin,
a hormone that enhances social bonding and relatedness, I sometimes listen
to stand-up comedy to calm down.
Social connection, touch and a grounding perspective on others’ suffering
can also soothe us, which is why volunteer and community involvement helps.
These are all well-founded techniques that can keep us from spiralling.
The trick, as Dennis-Tiwary says, is to
listen to anxiety, then leverage it to
make changes—just like I did that day
I set off on my road trip.
“Then,” she advises, “let it go. It’s a
wave that you need to learn to ride.”
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114 september 2023

MY STORY

Around the

World in
1,000
Mammals
Having met nearly one-fifth of all the warmblooded species on earth, a wildlife conservationist
looks back on six of his most memorable encounters
By Vivek Menon

A sea otter swims belly-up
while eating a mollusc
in California, USA.
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U

nlike birdwatching,
which has become
fashionable and almost ubiquitous, mammal-watching is yet
to achieve large-scale
popularity. Most countries have their
twitchers, tickers, photographers and
voyeurs of the avian world. Mammalwatching, on the other hand, usually means going on safari and there
are not too many people who travel
with the intention of seeing all the
world’s mammals.
I am one of the lucky few to have
met some of the most fascinating fauna
inhabiting our planet, on and off, for
over 35 years. Not that I was trying to
hit a particular tally, but looking back,
I’ve been fortunate enough to have encountered 1,000 mammal species and
3,500 species of birds. That’s nearly a
fifth of all the mammals and almost a
third of all the birds that exist!
Given those numbers, and the fact
that I am the author of Indian Mammals—the field guide first published
nearly a decade ago, which is now out
in a brand-new edition—I’ve often
been asked what my favourite mammal is. But that’s like asking a parent
to name their favourite child. Instead,
for you, my reader, I’ll pick six experiences I’ve had on six different continents of our amazing planet.
In my homeland of Asia nothing
can compete with the Asian elephant,
that gentle behemoth that I have
worked to conserve for so many years.

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Watching a herd of elephants shredding a bamboo grove with great relish
on the shores of the Kabini reservoir
in Nagerhole, Karnataka can be a lifealtering experience. And the calves
are delightful on quite another level.
I remember a youngster who was rescued from a tea garden through which
his family was traversing to reach the
hills of Karbi Anglong. The little fellow had fallen into a ditch that had
been dug to irrigate the shrubs. The
herd must have tried rescuing him for
several hours before moving on; its
mother and relatives must have undergone terrible trauma. We brought
the ‘orphan’ in, treated it for external
wounds, de-stressed it with a sedative
and then took him back in our ambulance to where our trackers had found
the wild herd. Whether the infant,
after being handled by humans,
would be taken back into the fold was
the big question.
To boost his chances, the team
attempted a never-tried-before tactic. They smeared elephant dung
from the same family on the youngster, so that our human smells would
not scare them off, before letting him
down onto the forest floor. His frantic
screams found an instant response:
mighty rumbles could be heard from
the matriarch and excited elephantine cheers from the rest of the family. Within moments the herd had
encircled the vehicle, welcoming the
lost calf back with reassuring trunk
taps and strokes all over its body. One

PHOTO: (THIS AND PREVIOUS SPREAD) VIVEK MENON

An adolescent mountain gorilla takes a moment off its life to contemplate the author in
Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda.

wonders if any other experience can
rival the joy and relief of an elephant
family reunited.
In Africa, I would choose the mountain gorilla in Rwanda and Uganda. In
2008, I spent an hour with a group of
these majestic apes and although we
were told never to touch one, there was
no stopping the gorillas. A young adolescent bounded up to me, pawed me
lightly on the chest and then sunk to
the ground, chin upon hand, contemplating this mysterious taxon he had
just seen. I took a few quick photos,
placed my camera on the ground and
sank to a mimic pose. We sat there under the whirling mists of the Virunga,
gazing at each other—close relatives
of another kind, ruminating together. I

thought of evolution, human progress
and the inordinately gargantuan impact that the human footprint had on
all life on earth, including this thoughtful mountain gorilla.
In Europe, I would vote for the
vast migrating herds of caribou that
plough through the snow across the
northern tundra with bands of nomadic Inuits in their wake. In Svalbard, the northern Arctic island off
Norway that has been kept aside for
research and conservation by the
world community, I watched wild
caribou grazing on the dwarf arctic
flora proliferating along its slopes,
which would all but disappear with
the advent of fall. The massive ungulates were bent on their bellies, some
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down on their knees, blissfully gorging on the momentary manna. Their
domesticated cousins, the reindeer,
are probably the most familiar cervid among children, thanks to Santa
Claus. I wondered how many youngsters even knew of the sparse and
ice-laden northern climes that the
caribou wandered.
Down Under, I have seen a platypus,
that conundrum of a creature, swimming happily in a waterbody. Neither
mammal nor bird, it lays eggs but also
suckles its young; it has a bill but fur
instead of feathers—what a curiosity!
I have also seen kangaroos of several
species, as well as the rat-like quokka.
However, nothing beats the time my
wife and I encountered koalas in
Kangaroo Island. What an enigmatic

118 september 2023

teddy-bear lookalike is this amazing
marsupial. One of them slowly, in an
almost comical, wobbly, clockwork
fashion, wound its way down a eucalyptus tree, on which they spend much
of their lives asleep, as we watched in
astonishment. It came rather close
to our heads, posed for a few photographs and then stuffed one large
eucalyptus leaf slowly into its mouth
and began to chew. When forest fires
ravaged Kangaroo Island and its koala
population plunged to critical levels,
we prayed that our friendly individual
had survived the flames and that its serene habitat would soon be restored to
support its kith and kin.
Sea otters would be my pick for
the North American continent. I
have seen bison and moose, a puma

PHOTO: VIVEK MENON

Caribou are large temperate zone deer that migrate long distances in the tundra to
keep pace with changing climate and food sources. These deer were foraging in
Svaalbad near the Arctic circle in Norway.

PHOTO: ASTER ZHANG LI

My Story
wandering just outside a
large city in California, and
wolves roaming in Yellowstone. However, watching
a pod of otters swimming
around clutching at crayfish, as we would a T-bone
steak, and chewing meditatively as they lolled in
the ocean was almost a
spiritual experience. Otters are friendly and inquisitive and come up to
the boat if you are in their
vicinity, watching you
with their large liquid eyes
while going about their
lives. I have seen them in Alaska and
I have seen them in California. I have
seen them play with molluscs before
eating them and just as often with
human debris that we scatter so carelessly in the sea—once, it was a scuba
diver’s mask that the otter seemed to
be contemplating putting on!
In Latin America, my most memorable encounter was with a lowland
tapir, a rhino-sized beast with a
wiggly nose that I helped radio collar
in the Pantanal. I was the photographer nominated to capture it waking
up from the sedative we had administered. And wake up it did, rather
suddenly and anxiously, as it tested
what we had put on its neck by shaking itself a few times and stamping
its foot in anger, sending a cloud of
dust into my face. The next thing I
knew, he was charging towards me.

The author at Xishuangbanna Reserve in
Yunnan, China

I cowered behind a small excuse of
a tree as it bore down, slapped me
heavily on my left shoulder and ran
into the overgrowth. For my excruciating bravery or silliness, the team
named the animal after me, creating a
terribly confused Brazilian tapir with
an Indian name.
That rounds up the six continents
that I have been to and the amazing
mammals that I have had the privilege
of seeing up close. I have not been to
Antarctica yet, so the seals will just
have to wait for now!
vivek menon is an award-winning wildlife conservationist and the founder of five environmental and
nature conservation organizations. he spearheads
the wildlife trust of india as its founder and executive director since 1998 and is the author of 10
wildlife books including the bestselling indian
mammals: a field guide.

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DRAMA IN REAL LIFE

The Deadly Swamp
Losing his arm to an alligator was just
the start of a hiker’s three-day ordeal
By Derek Burnett
illustrations by Mark Smith

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T

he stars burn brilliant over Lake Manatee as the man backstrokes through the dark water. He’s exhausted and frustrated
by his lack of progress, but he believes he can swim all night if
he must. Then a bristling intuition creeps upon him and he sits up in the
water and peers to his left. Just two feet away lurks the unmistakable
shape of an alligator’s snout, the slitted eye yellowy in the starlight.
The man whirls onto his stomach and flings out his hands to swim, but
the gator strikes, seizing his right forearm in its teeth. The predator
twists its powerful body, snapping the man’s arm back at the elbow.
For a moment the man’s world goes black, as if lightning has struck
inside his head. Then, still firmly holding its prey, the reptile dives,
looking to drown its victim in the silent midnight depths of the lake.

the way eric merda saw it, the past
two weeks had been one long, crazy
battle with God. The 43-year-old
father of seven had always had his
struggles—addiction, street fights,
run-ins with the law—but things had
recently become clear. For one thing,
he’d come to accept that his relationship with the mother of five of his
children was over. For another, he’d
begun to realize he was running with a
dangerous crowd. Intelligent, creative
and spiritual, a self-described weirdo,
Merda knew he’d been on the wrong
track. God was telling him to clean up
his act and live up to his gifts.
So he’d been on a sort of ascetic
quest. By day, he’d toil beneath the
Florida sun in and around his home
base of Bradenton, installing and repairing sprinkler systems as he’d done
for 25 years. By evening, he’d wander
and explore. For the first time, he had
no woman or children to come home
to. He spent much of his surplus time

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on Siesta Key Beach, where he gave
himself daring challenges: How far
out into the ocean can I go at night?
How long can I float face-up with my
head tipped back so far that my eyes
stay in the saltwater? For a while now,
there had been a thin line between
embracing life and courting death.
Which was it going to be?
Sometimes he slept unsheltered on
the sand of Siesta Key. One morning
he awoke to see litter scattered along
the beach, and felt God telling him
that he ought to clean it up. He began
collecting trash. It felt good, so he
made a habit of picking up litter wherever he saw it, not just on the beach.
It became a kind of compulsion.
On Monday, 18 July 2022, he had a
job up in the rural portions of Manatee County. He was finished by late
afternoon. Time to explore. Near an
intersection of two country byways,
he spotted a dirt road with a sign that
read Lake Manatee Fish Camp. He

Drama in Real Life

nosed his old white work van down
into the area, past a little country
store and some folks pitching horseshoes, and followed the road. It ended
at a boat ramp onto Lake Manatee, a
man-made reservoir covering about
10 square kilometers, ringed by wild
swampland. Trash lay strewn along
the roadside. Merda jumped out of
his van, leaving his phone and keys
inside, and started collecting the garbage into piles.
After a while, a thought occurred to
him—I’ve been working all day. Nobody’s forcing me to pick up trash. I’m
going to see what’s in these woods.
With the abandon of a schoolboy,
he ran off into the trees. Before long,

he encountered a seemingly impenetrable thicket of brush, thorns and
vines. Seemingly impenetrable: a
nice challenge. He charged into it
and did battle for many long minutes. It was exhausting, but he pushed
on. When at last he emerged into
a grove of scrawny orange trees,
he was sweaty, cut up, and tired. He
had no idea where he was in relation
to the lake. He’d been pushing through
the thicket for hours, and now all
he wanted was to get back to his
van and go home.
He spent another couple of hours
wandering among the orange trees,
which were laid out in an endless grid.
No sign of civilization. The lake and
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his van certainly weren’t out here in
an orange grove, so he reentered the
woods and soon found himself mucking around in swamp water. There
seemed no way out of this bog. He
laboured for hours as the sun sank.
Tall, thick grasses and thorns clogged
his way; mud and water filled his
boots. His feet hurt so badly that he
took his boots off and carried them—
but the twigs and brambles lacerated

THE ALLIGATOR SANK
ITS TEETH INTO HIS
ARM AND DRAGGED
HIM UNDERWATER.
his soles, so he stopped and pulled the
boots back on. He tried to navigate by
the sun but kept losing it. Each time
he picked out a landmark or chose a
beeline course, he became hopelessly
lost again after just a few minutes.
Darkness was falling when at last he
reemerged onto the shore of the lake.
There across the water stood the boat
launch, now empty, and a little highway bridge, just about 400 metres away
as the crow flies—or as the duck swims.
He was beaten, sore and thirsty. Reenter the swamp? Out of the question.
Who knew where he’d end up? He’d
have to swim for it across the lake.
The water was surprisingly cold,
especially as it deepened. He started
out paddling strongly for the opposite

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bank, drinking lake water to quench
his awful thirst. After a few minutes
he realized he’d never make it with
his clothes on. He shed every stitch,
letting his work duds sink to the bottom of the dark lake.
He swam on, but some strange current prevented his progress. He was a
good swimmer, yet he somehow kept
diverging from his goal. He’d point
himself at the boat launch, swim a few
strokes, lift his head and find that he
was way off course. It was maddening,
but he refused to surrender to emotion. In a fistfight, the guy who comes
into it panicking, with no self-control,
he’s the one who gets whooped. The
sun disappeared and the stars came
out, and still he struggled, alternating
between a backstroke and a crawl.
And that’s when he saw the alligator. Before he could swim a stroke,
before he could save himself, before
he could let out a scream, the creature
struck like a snake. It sank its teeth into
Merda’s forearm, breaking it at the
elbow and dragged him underwater.
Merda went into fight mode. He
flung his other arm around the gator’s
middle, clutching at its heaving belly
as he kicked his feet to keep from going to the bottom. Man and beast resurfaced and Merda gulped air—but
just as quickly the gator yanked him
under again. The third time, the alligator did what alligators do: It barrelrolled its entire body in a vicious coup
de grâce, and Merda felt the flesh of
his arm tearing away as the limb was

Drama in Real Life

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severed. The creature disappeared
into the darkness, carrying Merda’s
forearm with it.
No pain yet, only terror. His one
thought was to get out of the water.
He swam furiously, paddling with the
stump, and came to rest at the lake’s
edge not far from where he had entered. He paused for a time, heaving,
in the partially submerged grasses.
Nearby stood an enormous tree on
drier ground. He dragged himself over
to it and stood screaming for help
across the desolate lake.
Then he realized, I’m the only one
who can get myself out of this. Just
like I’m the only one who can fix
every other part of my life. He posted
up next to the trunk of the tree and
waited for dawn.
When the pain arrived, it
was exquisite.

sudden drop-offs stymied his progress. He howled in pain when he
blundered into a stick that poked
into the exposed muscle of his right
arm. Chest-deep in the murky water,
he looked behind him, and there, 100
feet away, stared the bumpy eyes of
the alligator—or anyway an alligator—silently following him. He moved
to shallower water and the gator eyes
sank beneath the surface. All through
the long day, as he struggled along,
the creature dogged him. Maddeningly, thanks to the meandering

in the morning, he spotted two airplanes. Each time, he climbed up the
tree and waved and hollered, which
did him no good. He was stark naked
in the wilderness, bereft of his right
forearm and with nothing to use for
a signal. Again, he started pushing
through the tall grasses and immediately became lost anew, wandering
in circles. He decided the best course
was to reenter the water and wade the
lake’s edge, following its 400 metre
curve until it reached the boat launch.
But that proved nearly impossible
too. Submerged logs, tallgrasses,
saw grasses, overhanging brush and

shoreline, the boat launch appeared
farther away than ever.
As night fell, he happened upon a
concrete structure at the lake’s edge,
no doubt part of the reservoir system.
Hungry, thirsty and in agony, he haltingly climbed onto it, stretched out
and slept. He awoke in darkness with
the horrifying awareness that he was
only a couple of feet above the swamp
water with his left arm dangling off
the structure like a second proffered
morsel. That was enough. He wanted
out of the swamp. He wanted dry land.
Up till then, Merda had been ambivalent about life and death. Now he

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HUNGRY, THIRSTY
AND IN AGONY, HE
STRETCHED OUT
AND SLEPT.

Drama in Real Life
could hear God telling him, “All right.
After this, I don’t want to hear any
more. If you choose to die, you choose
to die. If you choose to live, then good
luck to you, because it’s not going to
be easy.” He’d always figured his concept of God would get him kicked out
of most churches: By his philosophy,
since we’re all made in God’s image,
God is part of each of us, and each
of us is part of God. Thus, to have
faith in God is to have faith in oneself,
and to quarrel with God is to quarrel
with oneself. And he was done quarrelling with himself.
In the dark, he
blundered his way
through an eternity
of 10-foot-tall grasses
whose roots lay beneath knee-deep water. Disoriented again.
The sun dawned on
a new day, his third
out here, and before
long the Florida heat
set the swampland to
broiling. Green horseflies swarmed his
injury where the naked muscle twitched
and the bare bone
gleamed. The land
was so soggy that even
when he wasn’t standing in water, he could
scoop at the earth with
his good hand and a
little puddle of filthy

drinking water would fill the depression
he’d made. He nibbled at some tiny
purple flowers growing throughout
the swamplands.
He began to fade, utterly spent
and bloodied. But he’d made his
decision. He’d chosen life, even if
it meant the pain and frustration of
endless struggle. Whenever his fatigue overwhelmed him, he pushed
over the tall grasses to make a mat on
which to sleep.
His quest was dry land, and at
last he found it—only to discover it
overwhelmingly choked with thorny

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vines. It was either the swamp or this
endless wall of thorns—no getting
around it, over it or under it. He must
push through. It’s just a little pain,
he told himself. You aren’t even going to remember it once it’s gone. So
he dragged himself into the bramble,
crab-walking at times, getting sliced
and punctured, pausing periodically
to psych himself up for more pain.
in late afternoon, he came across a
brown quart beer bottle lying in the
mud like a signal from civilization.
He knew now that he was saved. How

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far can somebody throw a beer bottle—40 feet? That meant just 40 feet to
the road. You can go another 40 feet.
He did, and when he exited the
thorns he found that he was staggering alongside the road near the turnaround spot for the boat launch. On
the other side of a wire fence, a man
stood beside a red car.
“Hey! Hey!” Merda yelled.
The man goggled at the stranger,
naked save for the blood and mud
that covered his body. “What are you
doing back there?” he said.
“A gator got me!” Merda answered,

Drama in Real Life
waving his stump.
“You got any water?”
“Holy … ! I don’t
have any water, but
I’ll get you some,
for sure.”
The fence was the
final obstacle between him and civilization. Merda had
had enough. He lay
down in the weeds on
the swamp side of the
divider and waited for
the EMTs, who would
cut the fence wire and
carry him over to the
helicopter that would
whisk him away to the
rest of his life.
merda spent nearly
three weeks in a Sarasota hospital. His
wound had become infected in the
swamp, so surgeons removed considerably more than the alligator had
taken, leaving him with only about
six inches of arm past the shoulder.
It’s incredible that he didn’t bleed to
death—but, by some miracle, he says,

the wound barely bled.
He ate like a machine in the
hospital, and sent a buddy out for
one entree not on the kitchen’s menu:
gator bites.
On his release, he tried to return to
work. “I can still dig a hole,” he says.
“But it’s with one hand, very slowly.”
It wasn’t practical to take up his
old trade. So now he’s casting about
for some way to make a living while
sharing the things he’s learnt. Consult? Teach? Write a children’s book?
Take up public speaking? Try to become a comedian?
He says he wants to inspire people
to think: If a skinny little dude from
Sarasota, Florida, can fight a gator
and walk out of the swamp, why am
I afraid to open my own business, go
to college or get a contractor’s licence?
The road ahead won’t be easy. But
then again, that was part of the deal
with God. Sometimes he feels at a
loss, as if his dreams sound too ambitious, too ridiculous.
But, Merda says with the wisdom of
a man who has done battle with the
divine, “It sounded pretty ridiculous
that I was going to make it out of that
swamp alive too.”

A Real Head-Scratcher
Scientists recently discovered the oldest written sentence in the world’s first alphabet—and it describes an issue that still plagues us today. The message, carved into
a tiny ivory comb, reads, “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”
smithsonian magazine

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DEPARTMENT OF WIT

g
o
l
a
t
a
My C
s
e
k
o
J
d
a
D
of
Once your kid stops laughing at
“W hy didn’t Han S olo enjoy his
steak dinner? It was C he wie!”
it’s time to move on

By Gary Rudoren
from MCSWEENEYS.NET
Photographs by Dale May

I

still remember the first time I told my then-six-year-old
son, Lev, that a clam makes calls with its ‘shell phone’. The
laugh of recognition when he first got the joke was a moment I won’t ever forget. When I told it a second time in
front of his friends Henry and Amir, I could see how proud he
was that I had made his friends laugh. Excuse the bragging,
but I was the cool dad.

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By Lev’s ninth birthday party,
things had begun to change. After the
seventh or eighth time I asked him
“What do you call someone with no
body and no nose?” he dismissively
rolled his eyes. “I get it, Dad ...”
“... Nobody knows!”
“Stop it, Dad!”
I immediately shifted gears into
food puns, reminding him and his
friends that melons have weddings
because they ‘cantaloupe’, but I got

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september 2023

nothing except head shakes and
averted eyes. I’m pretty sure I heard
him say “Sorry about my dad” to his
friends as they all ran off to play on
their phones together.
I used to be the life of every kids
party. When I was only an uncle, all the
toddlers loved my ‘got your nose’ bit.
I was the one who always had a knockknock joke at the ready. (“‘Knock,
knock.’ ‘Who’s there?’ ‘Nobel.’ ‘Nobel
who?’ ‘Nobel, so I knock-knocked.’”)

robynmac/getty images (3)

Department of Wit
Other parents loved that I could show
up at any event and distract their kids
with age-appropriate, groan-worthy
wordplay, such as the ever-popular
“Did you hear about the guy who froze
to death at the drive-in? He went to
see Closed for the Winter.”
Sure, there were other dads with
their bits, but I felt as if no one ever
stole my crown. My wife long ago
tuned me out, but she knew that my
never-ending quest for laughter from
kids, no matter how unashamedly,
was in my blood. I believe as the kids
got older, they took their cues to be
embarrassed by me from their mom’s
head-shaking disdain. We’re working
through the issue.
I tell you all this because after a lot
of soul-searching, I believe it’s time.
My kids aren’t grown and out of the
house, but I’ve come to realize that
I’ll never be able to compete with my
past success. I need our relationship
to grow. I need to be able to talk to my
children about topics other than how
a witch’s car goes ‘broom, broom’.
Thus, I’m offering my entire catalogue of jokes for sale on the open
market. Puns, threatening tickling bits,
knock-knock jokes, goofy faces, fart
noises not from my butt, double takes
and even borderline inappropriate

spit-take lines. I’m done with them all,
and it feels like the right time to sell
my legacy to some deserving new dad.
The catalogue
g includes my most

P U NS , K N O C K- K N O C K
J O K E S , G O O F Y FAC E S ,
D O U B L E TA K E S .. .
I’ M D O N E W IT H
THEM ALL.
famous work—including my killer
aside at my days-old nephew’s bris,
“After my bris, I couldn’t walk for like
a year!” and my faux indignant kindergarten graduation routine, “Well,
now he better get himself a job!”
I could go on.
As with all great works of art,
my collection is priceless. But I can
tell you that the first time you get
your toddler to laugh at the line “I
don’t trust stairs. They’re always up
to something,” you’ll feel it’s worth
any price tag.
from MCSWEENEYS.NET. WHY I’M SELLING MY CATALOG OF DAD JOKES by
gary rudoren © 2021.

And for My Next Act ...
Did the person who invented the phrase “one-hit wonder”
invent any other popular phrases?
@honeycuttart

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133

CULTURE

Meet
the music
custodians
working
to save
recordings
from
destruction—
or oblivion

E
B
A
T
E
H
T

By Simon Button

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september 2023

Reader ’s Digest

ILLUSTRATION BY EVA BEE

GO E S O N
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135

D

eep in the vaults of the
British Library lies a veritable treasure trove for
lovers of popular music.
Housed across two sites
in London and Yorkshire
are more than 3,50,000
CDs and 2,50,000 vinyl LPs, around
a quarter of a million 78 RPM discs,
and some 2,00,000 reel-to-reel and
cassette tapes. All genres and eras
are covered, from jazz to heavy metal,
from the 1920s to the 2020s.
Throw in an array of wax cylinders—
the first commercially available medium for music—along with old issues
of music magazines, books, newspaper
clippings, catalogues and recorded interviews, and you have a vast collection that Andy Linehan, the library’s
former Curator of Popular Music Collections, is understandably proud of.
The Popular Music Collections team
is not only preserving music but also
honouring history. “One of the British
Library’s functions is to be the cultural
memory of the nation,” Linehan says.
“We do that with books, journals and
newspapers, and it’s absolutely right
that we should also do it with music.”
The collection relies on donations
from record labels, distributors, artists and members of the public. As
Linehan notes: “If you publish a book,

“ I F A N YO N E C A N
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E
G
S A LVA

newspaper, or magazine in the UK,
you’re legally obliged to send a copy
to the British Library. But that law
does not apply to sound recordings.”
Among the treasures are an 1890
recording of a fundraising appeal by
pioneering nurse Florence Nightingale
and a cassette tape that was sold at gigs
in the 1980s by a British high-school
band called On A Friday, whose members eventually formed Radiohead.
There are also old blues 78s, rare
LPs from the 1950s with covers designed by a pre-fame Andy Warhol,
and promotional copies of Beatles’
singles that had only a couple of hundred pressings. Music fans can listen
to much of the collection at the British
Library’s Reading Rooms, and some
selections have been posted online
(sounds.bl.uk).
To preserve the collection, the team
works tirelessly digitizing music. “So
long as it is stored correctly, most media remains stable, but certain types of
tape can deteriorate faster than others,” Linehan explains. “But if anyone
can salvage anything from a battered
old tape, it’s our engineers. They have
the know-how as well as the equipment to play back almost everything.”
Private companies and specialist record labels are also doing their
part to ensure music is safe-guarded

E
D
R
E
O
T
L D TA
T
A
B
A
P

E,

IT ’S OUR E N G I N E E

”
.
RS

ALL PHOTOS: @BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD

Reader ’s Digest

From top: Part of the British
Library’s vast collection
of records; Kelly Pribble
preserves music at Iron
Mountain Entertainment
Services; Alan Wilson, Cliff
Cooper, and Iain McNay lead
Cherry Red Records’ musical
“rescue and recovery.”

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for generations to come. One of them
is Iron Mountain Entertainment Services (IMES), which has branches in
London, Paris, Belfast and several
cities in the United States. It does digital transfer and preservation of music
and other media.
Kelly Pribble leads the company’s
Media Recovery Technology Program.
Projects he has worked on include
a partnership with the Bob Dylan
Archive to save more than 60 of the
singer’s recordings that suffered from
so-called adhesion syndrome.
“With this problem the tape is in a
state of decay or degradation and starts
binding to itself,” Pribble explains. “If
you don’t know this is happening, you
can permanently damage the tape the
moment you try to rewind or play it.”
Having already developed a way to
safely unbind affected tapes, he was
able to apply the process to the Dylan
tapes and archive the entire collection.
Pribble also helped Mariah Carey
with her 2020 album The Rarities,
going through countless master tapes
of unreleased songs from the last
three decades. And IMES partnered
with Prince’s estate to preserve and
digitize all the unreleased music from
the prolific artist’s vault.

“IT ’S ALL ABOUT

G
N
I
LO O K

AND LET

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september 2023

Over at Cherry Red Records in
London, chairman Iain McNay describes the record label’s efforts to
preserve and release music as “historical rescue and recovery.”
“When we buy the tapes there is an
initial process of discovery because we
know roughly what we’re going to get,
but there are all kinds of things that
aren’t listed,” he says. “Then it’s about
looking after all that material and letting it see the light of day. We’re music
fans who are also custodians.”
Musicians are often involved in
the process. Mark King, of the British
dance-rock group Level 42, recently
helped promote a 10-CD boxset that
included four of the band’s albums,
singles remixes, B-sides and bonus
tracks. And the sets are handled with
great care. “We try and use experts in
the field who are really engaged and
want the releases to best reflect what
a real fan would like,” McNay says.
Mastering engineer Alan Wilson
from British music label Western Star
Records recently went through nearly
2,000 items from legendary English
producer Joe Meek, which were acquired by Cherry Red. They included
songs Meek worked on with Tom
Jones and Ray Davies of The Kinks.

E
H
T
M
A
R
T
E
E
T
RIA
F
A

H
T
E
TING IT SE

L

F
O
D
T
A
H
Y
.
G
”
I
L
E

Culture
The tapes, which date back more
than 50 years, had been carefully
stored, otherwise they might have
deteriorated too much to be usable.
But they were dirty and had mould
on them, so they had to be painstakingly cleaned before they could
be transferred from analogue tape
to digital files. Selected tracks were
then restored, remastered and released commercially.
It was a mammoth task, but Wilson
was thrilled with the assignment. “It’s
a massive chunk of British rock-androll history and important in so many
ways because Joe Meek was such an
innovative engineer and producer.
He beat the music industry at its own
game on a shoestring budget in a flat
above a leather-goods shop.”
Another British company that curates and reissues carefully restored
recordings is Demon Music Group.
“I’m a big music fan and I’m disappointed when things are reissued and
they don’t sound or look up to scratch,”
says head of product and marketing
Ben Stanley. “We’re all about creating
premium, definitive versions.”

Casual purchases of CDs may be
on the decline, possibly because buyers have switched to streaming music
services. “But then you have a person
who wants to own a 33-CD Donna
Summer boxset,” Stanley adds, referring to Encore, an epic collection from
the ‘Queen of Disco’ that was released
by the company’s Driven By The Music label and took more than three
years to compile.
“There are huge challenges in bringing these things to market, whether it’s
dealing with estates, record companies,
licensing issues, publishers, etc.,” he
says. “But the heritage and history of
popular music is so important. People
will still be playing The Beatles’ Revolverr and David Bowie’s Station to
Station in 50 or 100 years and it’s important they’re taken care of.”
Pribble at IMES agrees: “We can go to
a museum and see a book or painting
that is 500 years old and is in amazing
shape, but we have music recorded on
formats 40 years ago that is rapidly degrading. It keeps me up at night pondering how I can help ensure that all of
this recorded history is saved.”

For the Love of a Laugh
Men will confess to treason, murder, arson, false teeth, or a wig.
How many of them will own up to a lack of humour?
F R A N K M O O R E C O L BY, E N C YC LO PA E D I A E D I TO R A N D E S S AY I S T

I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown.
It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
C H A R L I E C H A P L I N , A C TO R , F I L M M A K E R , C O M P O S E R

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R EA DER’ S DIGE ST

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HEART

Bedtime Stories
at the

HUNTING
CAMP
Even grown men
in the wilderness
love to be read to
when the lights
go out
by L.W. Oakley
from the globe and mail

Illustration by Cristian Fowlie

AT NIGHT AFTER everyone climbs into

their bunks and the lights are turned
off, something unusual occurs at our
hunting camp—something that I
believe never happens in any other
hunting camp anywhere: I read a bedtime story by flashlight to grown men
until everyone falls asleep.
This ritual began about five years
ago on a moose-hunting trip. One
night while we lay on our army cots in
the tent that we used back then and

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talked quietly in the dark, I raised my
voice slightly and asked, “Does anyone
want to hear a bedtime story?”
To this day, whether we’re there to
hunt, fish, work or just relax, I tell a
story every night we’re at our camp
at Mitten Lake, about 60 kilometers
northwest of Kingston, Ontario. The
ritual is always the same: everyone
must be in bed and all lights must be
off except my flashlight.

MY FIRST BEDTIME
STORY WAS ONE
OF THE GREATEST
SURVIVAL TALES
OF ALL TIME: ERNEST
SHACKLETON’S
EXPEDITION TO
ANTARCTICA.
I tell one story per night in a
small room with three sets of double
bunks. I read from one of the top bunks
in the corner while resting my back
on a pillow propped up against the
wall. These days, I use a headlamp,
which I put on before I climb up my
ladder in the dark. The light allows me
to hold my book with both hands
while reading.
But when I started out, there was no
book. My first bedtime story was one of
the greatest survival tales of all time:
Ernest Shackleton’s 1914–16 expedition

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to Antarctica. When his ship,
Endurance, was destroyed after
becoming trapped in the ice, the
British explorer led his crew of 27 men
to Elephant Island. Facing imminent
starvation, Shackleton and a smaller
group sailed a tiny whaling boat across
the open ocean in search of help.
Eventually, everyone was rescued.
Another night I asked everyone if
they wanted to hear the story of how
Satan ended up in Hell. Then I told the
tale of Paradise Lost, the epic poem
written by the English poet John
Milton. It’s the story of man’s first
disobedience, the battle for Heaven,
the creation of Hell, the temptation of
Adam and Eve, the eating of the fruit
from the Tree of Knowledge and, of
course, the loss of paradise.
Sometimes while telling a story like
Paradise Lost I can’t remember exactly
what happened, what was said or who
said it. So like any good storyteller, I
make it up as I go along.
On yet another night I started by
saying, “I’m going to tell what may be
the greatest story ever told, because
storytellers have been sharing this one
for more than 3,000 years.”
Then I recounted the ancient Greek
myth of Helen of Troy, the woman with
a face that launched a thousand ships.
It begins with a golden apple and ends
with a wooden horse, and includes
great warriors like Ajax, Achilles and
Hector, who join the fight after Helen
is carried away by a Trojan prince.
Eventually, I ran out of stories. So one

Heart
night I asked if I could read the next bedtime story from a book. I asked because
you don’t just bring a book to a hunting
camp and start reading it out loud.
I knew the first story from a book had
to be a good one, so I chose the short
story To Build a Fire by Jack London, an
adventure that pits a man against the
wilderness. They liked it so much that I
later read from two of London’s novels,
The Call of the Wild and White Fang.
Each night, I read for five-minute
intervals. Then I stop and ask the same
question every time: “Is anyone still
awake?” By then some people are snoring, but usually at least one person
answers: “I’m still listening.”

ALL GOOD STORIES
LIVE ON FOREVER.
THEY BECOME A PART
OF THE PEOPLE WHO
HEAR THEM.
I’ve read stories like The Short Happy
Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest
Hemingway and The Bear by William
Faulkner. Not because both men won
the Nobel Prize in literature, but
because they wrote about hunting and
wild animals.
We usually discuss the story the next
morning while preparing and eating
breakfast. People recount what they
remember and what they liked.
Someone usually recalls at what part

of the story he fell asleep. A person who
stayed awake longer may say something like, “You missed the good part
about how he panicked and froze to
death after he couldn’t start the fire.”
Today, storytelling for adults is gradually disappearing, like the wild
animals that inspired early hunters
to tell stories around the warmth
of open fires. Sadly, screens have
replaced the storyteller.
I shouldn’t have been surprised the
bedtime stories were so well-liked by
my hunting friends, now all in their 60s.
Maybe the tales reminded them of the
stories their mothers and fathers read
to them when they were children.
All good stories, like the ones I read
at our hunting camp, will live on
forever because they become a part of
the people who hear them. They
remain in your memory because as you
listen you use your imagination to
bring the tales to life. You feel the
emotions and experience the
adventures like the characters in the
stories. From time to time, you retell
them to others and even to yourself.
They become real to you; it’s as if you
were in the stories too.
On those storytelling nights, sitting
upright in the dark in my bunk, I keep
reading until no one answers when I
ask if anyone is still awake. Then I mark
the page, put away my book, turn off
my headlamp and go to sleep.
© 2022, LARRY OAKLEY. FROM EVEN GROWN MEN ON A HUNTING TRIP LOVE A BEDTIME STORY WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT, THE
GLOBE AND MAIL (3 NOVEMBER 2022), THEGLOBEANDMAIL.COM

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ENVIRONMENT

For the residents of
Schoonschip, the chance
to go swimming is just a
few steps from home.

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Reader ’s Digest

FLOATING LIFE
A unique Dutch neighbourhood is showing
how cities can prepare for rising sea levels
By Shira Rubin
from the washington post

Photos by Ilvy Njiokiktjien

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M

their steel foundational poles with the
movement of the water below.
“It feels like living at the beach,
with the water, the saltiness of the
air and the seagulls,” she says. “But
it also feels special because, initially,
we were told that building your own
neighbourhood, it’s just impossible.”
A long list of European lawmakers,
urban planners, entrepreneurs and
citizens have visited Schoonschip to
see the real-life manifestation of a
once science-fiction idea. De Blok, a
Dutch reality-TV director, has shown
them Schoonschip’s patchwork of environmentally focused social projects:
lush floating gardens beloved by
the water birds; a community
Marjan de Blok with
centre featuring floating archiher family in her
tecture diagrams; and a nearby
floating home.
on-land vegetable patch. But the
homes’ industrial-chic design
and their immediate proximity
to the city, she says, are what
surprise visitors most.
Schoonschip can serve as
a prototype for the more than
600 million people—close to 10
per cent of the world’s population—who live near the coast
and less than 10 metres above
sea level. As the effects of climate change intensify, sea levels
are forecast to rise somewhere
between 30 and 240 centimetres
this century, and storms are expected to increase in frequency
and intensity. In the summer of
2021, at least 220 people died in

arjan de Blok readjusts
her body weight as she
treads along the jetty
linking a floating community on a canal off
the River IJ. Through the whipping
winds, she shouts greetings to many
of her neighbours.
On the day I visited in autumn
2021, heavy rains and 80 kilometeran-hour winds put Amsterdam, just
a short ferry ride away, on alert. But
in the northern neighborhood of
Schoonschip, life carried on mostly as
usual. De Blok visited with neighbours
while the homes glided up and down

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Schoonschip is
setting an example for
communities coming
to grips with rising sea
levels around the world.

Germany and Belgium from a oncein-400-year rain event. In Zhengzhou,
China, 630 millimetres of rain fell in
one day, killing nearly 300 people.
By the end of this century, the
kind of intense precipitation events
that would typically occur two times
per century will happen twice as often, and more extreme events that
would occur once every 200 years
would become up to four times as
frequent, according to a study published last year by a team at the University of Freiburg.

T

he Netherl ands has long
contended with water—nearly
a third of the country is below
sea level and close to two-thirds is
flood-prone. Since the Middle Ages,
Dutch farmer collectives have drained
water to make room for agricultural

Dummy Dummy

land. The groups evolved into regional water boards that keep the land
dry using canals, dikes, dams and sea
gates. Water management is such a
normal part of Dutch discourse that
many citizens are surprised to be
asked about it, assuming it is common in every country.
The Dutch have historically lived
on water. As international commerce
flourished in the 17th century, foreign
tradespeople moored their boats to
the land to sell their goods. In the
1970s, people started converting
boats into homes.
And over the past decade, Dutch
water management strategists have
sought to embrace, rather than resist,
the rising sea levels brought on by
climate change, with floating communities emerging in Amsterdam,
Rotterdam and Utrecht.
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These homes are relatively low-tech,
constructed off-site and weighted
by basins filled with recycled, waterresistant concrete, then pulled across
the water by tugboats and moored in
place. Heavy pieces such as pianos are
counterweighed with bricks on the
opposite side of the house, and interior design is carried out in line with
the Dutch principle of gezelligheid, or
‘coziness’. Many rooms are outfitted
with modular furniture that can be
easily disassembled or reassembled
to accommodate life changes such as
the birth of children.
“It ’s evident that sea waters
will rise, and that many big cities
are really close to that water,” says
Schoonschip resident Sascha Glasl,
Eelke Kingma helped
design Schoonschip’s
renewable-energy grid.

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september 2023

whose architectural firm, Space &
Matter, designed several of the community’s homes. “It’s amazing that not
more of this innovation and building
on water is being executed.”
De Blok, who has no engineering,
architecture, or hydrological training, says that she never intended to
spearhead a movement in floating
urban development. In 2009, she had
become disenchanted with her life in
Amsterdam. She worked all the time,
bought things she rarely used and had
little time to see friends.
On a cold winter day, she visited
a solar-paneled floating event venue
called GeWoonboot as part of a series
of short documentaries she was shooting on sustainable living. She was
stunned by its contemporary feel, its
immediacy to the water and the city,
and its use of experimental sustainability practices.
“Before I visited that boat, I wasn’t
really conscious that I didn’t like the
way I was living,” she says.
When she asked friends if they had
interest in building a floating community, she was unprepared for the
deluge of responses. She cut off the
list at 120 people.
She scouted waters around Buiksloterham, a 100-hectare, postindustrial area that had been largely
abandoned after manufacturers—including Shell and the Fokker airplane
factory—left the city for lower-wage
countries in the second part of the
20 th century. When she learnt that

Schoonschip
has created
Dummy
Dummya
strong sense of community.
Here, residents hang decorative
lights among the houses.

the city was planning to develop
tens of thousands of housing units
in the area, she realized, We could be
pioneers here.
In Buiksloterham, the 22-storey
Shell tower has been rebranded as
the Amsterdam Dance and Music
Tower, with dance clubs, a revolving restaurant and an observation
deck. The grassy Overhoeks Promenade, which served as a gallows from
the 15th to 18th century, hosts the hulking, modernistic Eye Film Museum.
The NDSM wharf is peppered with
artist collectives, vintage shops and a
luxury hotel.
When ‘Schoonschip’ is made into
a verb, ‘to do schoonschip’, it means
‘to cleanse’. Looking to make a different kind of community, De Blok had

all residents sign a manifesto committing them to constructing, insulating and finishing their homes with
eco-friendly materials such as straw,
burlap and bamboo. They also informally signed up for eating together,
swimming together and conducting
their lives largely in common view of
one another, with curtains only rarely
drawn. They use a vibrant WhatsApp
group to request almost any service or
borrow virtually any item from neighbours, including bikes and cars.
The neighbourhood feels like an
extended block party mostly because
many of the residents are actually De
Blok’s friends, or friends of friends,
including colleagues from the TV and
entertainment industry. Most of them
joined the project in their 20s and 30s,
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149

Reader ’s Digest
when they had no kids and ample
time to invest in building a community. Twelve years later, those young
couples have young families.
During the summer months, their
children jump out of their bedroom
windows directly into the water below.
On clear winter nights, the neighborhood gleams with soft lighting and
buzzes with the hum of chattering
residents on their top-floor porches.
“When it’s dark and all the lights in
the houses are on, it feels like a set
from a film,” De Blok says.

sell any surplus to each other, as well
as to the national grid.
An AI-automated program under
development will use the homes’
smart meters to inform residents
when they can earn the most from
selling their electricity, based on the
fluctuations in energy market prices.
This would make Schoonschip the
first residential neighborhood in the
country to turn a profit from generating energy, Kingma says.
The program is being monitored in
collaboration with 15 European com-

“LIVING ON WATER DOES SOMETHING TO YOU,”
SAYS DE BLOK. “THERE’S SOME MAGIC TO IT.”
To realize Schoonschip’s sustainability goals, De Blok drew on the
residents themselves. Siti Boelen, a
Dutch television producer, mediated
between the Schoonschip representative committee and the local municipality. Glasl, the architect, helped
design the jetty that connects the
houses to each other and to the land.
Eelke Kingma, a resident and renewable tech expert, joined a community task force that co-designed
the neighborhood’s smart grid system. Residents collect energy from
more than 500 solar panels—placed
on roughly a third of the community’s roofs—and from 30 efficient
heat pumps that draw from the water
below. They then store it in enormous batteries below the homes and

150

september 2023

panies, universities and institutions,
organized by the European Commission, which supports renewable
energy experiments in the hopes of
scaling them up across the continent.
Over the past decade, the floatinghouse movement has been gaining
momentum in the Netherlands. The
Dutch government is amending legislation to redefine floating homes
as “immovable homes” rather than
“boats,” to simplify the process of obtaining permits.
Amsterdam and Rotterdam are reporting a sharp uptick in requests for
permits to build on the water. The
trend is coinciding with a national
water awareness campaign for an era
in which climate change is already a

Environment
fact of life. The government launched
an app called Overstroom Ik?, or Will I
Flood?, that allows residents to check
if their area is at risk of flooding. And
the Room for the River program has
run more than 30 projects to manage
high water levels in flood-prone districts over the past 15 years.
The people behind Schoonschip
and other floating neighborhoods, off
fice buildings and event spaces across
the Netherlands are increasingly being
consulted for projects across the world.
In 2013, the architectural firm Waterstudio, which designed several of
the houses in Schoonschip, sent a
floating, internet-connected converted
cargo container, called City App, to
the Korail Bosti slum of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Children attended remote
classes in it during the day, and adults
used it to develop business projects
at night. In 2019, the vessel was relocated to a slum near Alexandria, Egypt,
where it remains stationed.
“We want to upgrade cities near
the water,” says Koen Olthuis, a
Waterstudio architect. “Now we’re
at a tipping point where it’s actually

happening. We’re getting requests
from all over the world.”
After two decades of planning, his
firm along with Dutch Docklands,
which specializes in floating developments, will oversee construction on a
200-hectare lagoon off Malé, the capital of the Maldives. The city sits less
than three feet above sea level, making
it vulnerable to even the slightest rise.
The small, simply designed complex
will house 20,000 people. Pumps will
draw energy from deep-sea water and
the homes’ artificial coral-clad hulls
will encourage marine life.
Dutch and international projects
are showing that “we can cope with
the challenges of sea-level rises,”
Olthuis says.
In Schoonschip, De Blok hopes that
one day everyone will be able to live
in communities built in harmony with
the natural environment. “Living on
water does something to you, being
aware that under your house everything is moving,” she says. “There’s
some magic to it.”
the washington postt (17 december 2021), copyright
© 2021 by the washington post

Say Again?
Words that mean the same thing usually sound completely different across
languages. A possible exception is the word ‘Huh?’ This word is used to express
confusion in 31 languages from 16 language families, pointing to the likelihood
that the word is universal. In fact, the particular vowels that ‘Huh?’ is restricted
to in all languages happen to be the vowels that are most easily pronounced
when a person’s tongue is in a relaxed position.
S O U R C E: A M E R I C A N S C I E N T I S T.O R G

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151

LIFE’S
Like That
As we boarded an
airplane some years
back, the two women
behind me were voicing their anxiety about
flying. That is, until
they peeked into the
cockpit and got a
glimpse of our pilots.
“Whoa,” one said.
“They’re both
good-looking.”
Her friend sounded
relieved. “Good,”
she said. “They have
more to live for.”
—Paula Davis

to get high”
— outsideonline.com

Ê “Why You Should
Think Twice Before
Getting Your Nose
Hair Waxed”
— healthdigest.com

During a bus tour in
Canada, our guide
pointed out all the
points of interest. “And
over there,” he said,
indicating the golden
arches of the local
McDonald’s, “is the
American Embassy.”
—Patricia Wood
Headlines we thought
we’d never have
to see:
Ê “Stop licking toads

152
2 september 2023

Following the funeral
service for my grandmother, my family
drove to the cemetery.
When we arrived, my
3-year-old asked where
we were.
“This is where we’re
going to bury Oma,” I
said gently.
He let out a deep
sigh. “It’s sad, isn’t it?”
I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I

didn’t bring my shovel.”
—Traci Paglio
A greeter welcomed
my friend and me when
we walked into a Bass
Pro Shops store. Pointing to the canes my
friend and I use, I
joked, “We really don’t
need the canes. We just
use them to beat off
the women.”
She shot back, “And
you’ll need the other
end of the cane to
hook them.”
—George Berrien
The moment I realized
I wasn’t as smart as
I thought:
Ê When someone
cartoon by Jim Benton

Reader ’s Digest
told me they had the
same name as me, I
said “Really? What’s
your name?”
Ê I was shopping
for clothes when I
spotted someone I
recognized. We made
eye contact and smiled
at each other. It was
just then I realized I
was walking toward
a full-length mirror.
Ê After this conversation with my boss: “I
will be in late tomorrow. I have a doctor’s
appointment.” “Is everything OK?” “Yes, why
do you ask?”
Ê I said, “I’m consistent, just not all the
time.” And it really had
to be pointed out to me.
— reddit.com

lumenst/getty images

Instead of ‘emotional’
support, my son said
“mimosational” support and I want that
a lot more.
— @FatherWithTwins

Reader’s Digest will pay
for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our
humour sections. Post it
to the editorial address, or
email: editor.india@rd.com

Marriage can be difficult but rewarding.
Like this morning, I told my husband, “I love
you.” And he looked deep into my eyes and
said, “Do you know where my keys are?”
— @traciebreaux

BACK TO SCHOOL
I asked my grand-daughter how her first day of
first grade went. “Well,”
she said, “I don’t know
how to read yet.”
—Susan Weston

the process.
“What’s wrong?”
I asked.
He answered, “That’s
all I know.”
—Judy Pugliese

A freshman at a Catholic
high school, I was attending our first Friday mass,
so naturally I sang my
heart out. Suddenly, the
principal, Sister Matilda,
appeared by my side.
She leaned over and
said, “Mr Godfrey, the
Lord will not mind if you
mouth the words.”
—Don Godfrey

In high school, a classmate responded to
a teacher’s question
with a ‘yo mama’ joke.
Without missing a beat,
the teacher said, “Leave
my mother out of this. I
don’t make fun of your
parents and look what
they produced.”
— reddit.com

My 10-year-old grandson
Sam was so excited. He
had just gotten a saxophone, which he was
learning to play for the
school band. I watched
proudly as he took the
instrument out of the
case, assembled it and
positioned it around his
neck. He played one note,
then carefully reversed
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153

WHO KNEW?

y
k
c
a
W
Birt

rthday

s
n
o
i
t
i
d
a
Tr
Around the world, it’s not always
about cakes and candles

by Stéphanie Verge

154
4

september 2023

a rousing rendition of the ‘Happy Birthday’ song,
the blowing out of candles on a cake and the giving
of gifts are common in many places across the
globe—from the United States to Spain and from
France to Australia. But some countries go above
and beyond to celebrate their loved ones in unique
ways. Here, the editors of our international editions
share some unique traditions reserved for counting yourself one year older.`
Illustrations by Graham Roumieu

’s Digest

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Reader ’s Digest

MEXICO
An emblematic Mexican birthdayparty tradition—one that has spread
across the globe—is the smashing of a
piñata. Blindfolded, stick-wielding celebrants whack a brightly coloured container hanging from a string until it
bursts open, raining down candy.
Though now often made from papier
mâché and in a range of forms that
includes animals and celebrities, piñatas are traditionally composed of
clay and spherical in shape (with protruding spikes).
In lieu of ‘Happy Birthday’, Mexicans
belt out ‘Las Mañanitas’ (‘Little Mornings’), a song believed to have origi-

156

september 2023

nated in Spain in the 16th or 17th century. “It is sometimes sung in the
morning to wake up the person whose
birthday it is,” says Carlos Díaz, who is
the editor of the Mexican edition of
Reader’s Digest, “but mostly we sing it
around the cake before the candles
are blown out.”

AUSTRALIA AND
NEW ZEALAND
Down Under, birthdays usually involve
firing up your barbecue and having
family and friends over for celebratory
food and drink.
“A child’s first birthday is often
celebrated with what we call ‘fairy

Who Knew?
bread’—slices of white bread spread
with butter and adorned with coloured
candy sprinkles—and balloons,” says
editor Diane Godley.
That fairy bread is replaced with beer
and bubbly on a person’s 18th birthday,
when they are allowed to drink legally
for the first time. Because people used
to officially become adults at the age of
21, some families in New Zealand and
Australia mark that birthday with a
keepsake ‘key to the door’, representing
the child’s privilege to come and go
from the family home as they please.

THE CHINESE DIASPORA
Birthday traditions vary quite a bit
across the regions and countries with
significant Chinese populations.
In China’s southern Fujian province
and in parts of Taiwan, for example, a
person’s 16th birthday marks their passage into adulthood. This belief harkens
back to the Qing Dynasty and the age at
which a labourer went from having a
half-wage to a full one.
In Singapore, younger people in the
Chinese community celebrate their big
day according to the Western calendar,
and the older generation opts to mark it
according to the lunar calendar. There
is one thing everyone can agree on,
however: a bowl of ‘longevity noodles’.
Sometimes made as a single strand, this
is a common birthday food in Chinese
communities, says editor Simon Li.
“Noodles are supposed to bring
health and a long life, which is why it’s
wise to keep them as intact as possible

on your birthday,” Li explains. “Care
should be taken not to break them while
eating with chopsticks.”
There are other taboos to keep in
mind. For example, don’t even think
about splitting the cake in half. Chinese
culture values connection and harmony, says Li, so it’s best to avoid slicing
all the way through to the opposite side
of the cake when dividing it into pieces
for guests. Instead, the dessert is cut
one piece at a time.

NETHERLANDS
The ‘circle party’ is a typical birthday
gathering in the Netherlands. The
extended family gets together and sits
in a circle to talk and eat cake, followed
by drinks and a buffet-style dinner. It
can be a lengthy process for anyone
entering the room at these gatherings,
says editor Paul Robert.
“People congratulate not only the
person whose birthday it is but also
everyone else in attendance by going
around the circle and shaking each person’s hand,” he says. “The fastest
method is to walk in, wave at the whole
circle and shout, ‘Congratulations, all!’
But that’s not considered very polite.”
When someone turns 50, friends or
relatives will place a large doll in the
birthday person’s garden or by their
front door; men have an ‘Abraham’
doll, women a ‘Sarah.’ The dolls refer
to a Bible passage from the Book of
John in which Jesus is asked how he
could have seen Abraham when he’s
not yet 50 years old; it also refers to the
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Reader ’s Digest

advanced age at which Sarah,
Abraham’s wife, had their child Isaac.

JAPAN
Celebrating a person’s birthday on the
anniversary of the day they were actually born became a tradition only in the
last century; in the past, everyone celebrated on the new year. In Japan,
regardless of when birthdays took
place, there have long been milestone
celebrations, ranging from a first birthday to a 60th.
When a child turns one in Japan,
they take part in a ritual called erabitori, where the birthday child chooses
from a selection of items spread out
around them that represent their
potential future. If a baby opts for a calculator, they could succeed in busi-

158

september 2023

ness; if they grab a pen, they might
become a prolific writer.
On November 15th of the year
children turn three, five and seven, their
parents dress them in traditional clothing and take them to a shrine. This celebration is shichi-go-san, which literally
means 7-5-3—all lucky numbers in
Japanese culture. Parents often wish for
their children’s continued health and
longevity by offering them a long string
of soft chitose ame (‘thousand-year
candy’) in a bag adorned with images of
a turtle, a crane and bamboo—all harbingers of good luck.
While a Japanese person officially
becomes an adult when they turn 20
(with a coming-of-age celebration held
on the second Monday in January), pivotal birthdays don’t end there. A 60th

Who Knew?
birthday marks the completion of
the zodiac cycle (which restarts every
60 years) and is a powerful symbol of
rebirth. Known as the kanreki, this
festive celebration is hosted by the
family; a special cushion, red sleeveless
vest and fan may be part of the birthday
guest’s attire.

BRAZIL
In South America’s biggest country, after
blowing out the candles and making a
wish, the guest of honour slices off a
piece of cake and offers it to someone
who is important to them—for children,
that’s often a parent. But for adults, this
time-honoured tradition can rate high
on the awkward scale. Says editor
Raquel Zampil, “It’s often uncomfortable, since you have to choose one person and disappoint others.”
If the birthday person is single,
another funny—or, depending on who
you’re asking, uncomfortable—tradition takes place. Before the candles are
blown out, the guests will sing a song
speculating on the guest of honour’s
future marital status. “Who will Maria
marry?” they first sing, followed by, “It
will depend on whether [name of
Maria’s crush] wants to.”

CANADA
Depending on how vindictive a
Canadian’s family and friends are, the
‘birthday bumps’ can be a dreaded
ritual or a gentle joke. Here’s how the
tradition works: The guest of honour
lays on their back, and partygoers

grab them by the arms and legs.
The guests lift and then lower the
birthday person to the ground until
their bum lightly ‘bumps’ against it.
Alternatively, a guest grabs the birthday person by the shoulders and
‘bumps’ them on the backside with one
knee, up to the number corresponding
with the person’s age … plus an extra
bump for good luck. (There is a reason
this tradition is usually carried out on
children—40 bumps would be exhausting for all concerned.)
There are regional particularities
when it comes to celebrating someone’s birthday, as well. In parts of the
country’s east coast, kids get surprised
by someone dabbing butter or grease
on their nose, a tradition reputed to
help them ‘slip away’ from bad luck.
And in French-speaking Quebec,
says editor Hervé Juste, guests sing the
chorus from ‘Gens du Pays’ (which
translates as ‘people of the country’), a
song that legendary folk singer and
poet Gilles Vigneault created as an
alternative to ‘Happy Birthday’. It was
also adopted by Quebec’s sovereignty
movement and has become the province’s unofficial anthem.

MALAYSIA
Approximately 60 per cent of Malaysians are adherents of Islam, a religion
within which birthdays aren’t generally
celebrated. However, some Malaysians
do mark their birthdays with a family
gathering over lunch or dinner the night
before the big day and wrap up the celreadersdigest.in

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Reader ’s Digest
ebration by taking stock of their blessings and thanking Allah for giving them
life and good health.

receive a message from the country’s
president on their 100th birthday.

GERMANY

Birthday parties are very popular in
Britain and when children are
involved there is almost always a game
of ‘pass the parcel’. The rules: A birthday present that has been wrapped
multiple times is passed in a circle
from child to child until the music
stops. When that happens, whomever
is holding the parcel must unwrap a
layer and complete whatever ‘forfeit’,
or request, has been written on a piece
of paper inside the wrapping.
“Forfeits can range from ‘show off
your best dance move’ to ‘do your best
impression of the birthday kid,’” says
former editor Anna Walker. The child
who reaches the final layer of the parcel,
which is usually sweets or a toy, gets
to keep the gift.
Much older Brits receive their
own special present: When they hit 100,
the ruling monarch sends along a letter
of congratulations.

According to editor Michael Kallinger,
the country’s most notable birthday tradition involves sweeping stairs. “In Bremen, when unmarried men turn 30, it is
customary for them to sweep the stairs
of the local church or town hall,” he says.
“Women have to clean the door handle.”
This public act of sanitation is meant to
embarrass the person and motivate
them to marry.

UNITED KINGDOM

LITHUANIA
In other northern regions, if a man is
still single on his 25th birthday, his front
door gets decorated with a garland
made of socks, labelling him as an ‘old
sock’. An unmarried woman turning 25
gets a garland of boxes, because she is
now considered an ‘old box’ (like ‘old
sock’, it’s an ironic term for the elderly).
Germans who actually are elderly

160

september 2023

“In my native country, it is customary
for the person whose birthday it is to sit
in a decorated chair that is then lifted up
by the party guests,” says editor Eva
Mackevic. “How many times the chair
is raised will correspond with the age of
the guest of honour.”
Another frequently observed tradition: The person whose birthday it is will
be responsible for paying for their

Who Knew?
guests, whether that means footing the
bill for drinks, dinner or a big party.

FINLAND
“When a Finn turns 18, they can get
their driver’s license and go to restaurants unaccompanied,” says editor Ilkka
Virtanen. It is therefore common for
18-year-olds to mark their entry into
adulthood by heading to a restaurant
with friends or having a big, boozy party
at home. This is the one birthday where
attendees are expected to pay their own
way; on other birthdays, the guest of
honour takes on the cost.
Fifty is another big milestone in
Finland, with the birthday person typically hosting a reception featuring coff
fee, cake and sparkling wine, and guests
offering the celebrant gift cards for a
spa, a restaurant or, for the more
intrepid, a parachute jump.

PHILIPPINES
For Filipinos, birthdays aren’t just
about celebrating the big day—they’re
about spending time with family. Traditionally, anyone living within a day’s
travel must be invited, or involved in
the planning, and each guest is
assigned a dish to bring. Central to the
celebration are ‘longevity noodles’

(symbolizing a long, healthy life), a
cake ideally made from taro or purple
yam and karaoke.
Pivotal birthdays in the Philippines
include ages one, seven, 18 and 21. A
child’s seventh birthday marks the year
the child can be held more accountable
for their actions, while a person’s
coming of age is celebrated on their 18th
(for women) or 21stt (for men).

INDIA
For many Indians, the majority of whom
are Hindu, birthdays involve religious
rituals. The day usually starts with a visit
to the temple, where prayers are offered
and blessings are received. The person
celebrating also seeks the blessings of
their family’s elders by bowing down
and touching their feet.
“Some people also perform charitable acts or make donations to help those
less fortunate than themselves,” says
editor Ishani Nandi.
A birthday is also an occasion to wear
new clothes and to enjoy one’s favourite
dishes, prepared by family members. In
return, the guest of honour gives the first
piece of their cake to the oldest person
in their family. Schoolchildren, for their
part, will often distribute sweets or candies to their classmates.

Quick Quips
Twenty years ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs.
Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs.
Please don’t let Kevin Bacon die.
bill murray, comedian

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161

Reader ’s Digest

This page: Aristides de Sousa
Mendes in 1940. Opposite:
French refugees escaping the
Nazi onslaught in 1941.

PORTUGAL’S
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september 2023

BONUS READ

Like Oskar Schindler, Portuguese diplomat
Aristides de Sousa Mendes helped save, at great
personal risk, thousands from the Nazi regime
By Chanan Tigay
from smithsonian magazine

SCHINDLER
readersdigest.in

163

Reader ’s Digest

An aristocrat and bon vivant, Sousa
Mendes deeply loved his family. He
loved wine. He loved Portugal and
wrote a book extolling it as a “land of
dreams and poetry.” He loved belting
out popular French tunes, especially
Rina Ketty’s ‘J’attendrai,’ a tender love
song that in the shifting context of war
was becoming an anthem for peace.
And Sousa Mendes loved his mistress,
who was five months pregnant with
his 15th child.
He usually found something to
laugh about even in the worst of
times. But now, faced with the most

consequential decision of his life,
he had shut down. He refused to
leave his room even to eat. “Here the
situation is horrible,” the 54-year-old
diplomat wrote to his brother-inlaw, “and I am in bed with a severe
nervous breakdown.”
The seeds of Sousa Mendes’s collapse were planted on 10 May 1940,
when Hitler launched his invasion of
France and the Low Countries. Within
weeks, millions of civilians were
driven from their homes, desperate to
outpace the advancing German army.

AS GERMAN SOLDIERS RAISED THE
SWASTIKA AT THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE,
REFUGEES SCOURED FRANCE FOR EXIT VISAS.
164
4

september 2023

photos, previous spread: (left) courtesy of sousa mendes
foundation (right) © keystone/getty images

It was the second week
Aristides de Sousa Me
out of his room. Portu
in Bordeaux, in south
Mendes lived in a lar
Garonne River with
of their 14 children—all of whom
becoming increasingly concerned.

photo: courtesy sousa mendes foundation

Aristides de Sousa Mendes and his wife, Angelina, with nine of their children in 1929.

A representative
presentative of the
th Red
R d Cross in
Paris called it the “greatest civilian reff
ugee problem in French history.”
Exhausted drivers lost control of
their vehicles. Women harnessed
themselves to carts built for horses,
dragging children and goats. “Dog
owners killed their pets so they would
not have to feed them,” recalled MarieMadeleine Fourcade, a leader of the
French Resistance. “Weeping women
pushed old people who had been
squashed into prams.”
New York Times correspondent
Lansing Warren, who was later arrested
by the Nazis, wrote, “In a country already packed with evacuees from the
war zones, half the population of the
Paris region, a large part of Belgium
and 10 to 12 departments of France,
somewhere between six million and
10 million persons in all, are straggling

along roads in private cars, in auto
trucks, on bicycles and afoot.”
The refugees were “plodding
steadily southward day after day, going they know not where,” he reported.
“How far they will get depends on circumstances, but it is safe to say that all
in the end will be stranded.”
As the French government fled
Paris, and German soldiers raised
the swastika at the Arc de Triomphe,
refugees scoured the country for exit
visas. Many hugged the coast in the
hope they might secure passage on a
ship off the continent. Others flocked
to cities along the Spanish border,
desperate to cross.
In Bordeaux, the population more
than doubled, swelling with refugees
for whom only one option remained:
a visa from neutral Portugal, allowing
them passage through Spain to Lisbon.
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Reader ’s Digest
There they might secure tickets on a
ship or plane out of Europe.
Thousands massed outside 14 Quai
Louis XVIII—the five-storey waterfront
building that housed the Portuguese
consulate and, upstairs, the Sousa
Mendes family. Two blocks away,
in the Place des Quinconces, one of
the largest city squares in Europe, refugees set up camp in automobiles and
boxes and tents.
Sousa Mendes later informed the
Portuguese Foreign Ministry that

He spent the night of 17 June in his
car and was awakened when the
lights in the square shut off unexpectedly. “And then we heard them—the
bombs,” Bagger recalled. “We counted
eight, in quick succession. … Then the
sirens began to shrill, far away too,
then nearer and nearer.”
Sousa Mendes, a devout Catholic who suspected he descended
from conversos—Jews who had been
forced to convert centuries earlier
during the Spanish Inquisition—was

AS THE SITUATION DETERIORATED, SOUSA
MENDES INVITED ELDERLY, ILL, AND PREGNANT
REFUGEES TO SHELTER IN HIS FLAT.
among them were “statesmen, ambassadors and ministers, generals
and other high officers, professors,
men of letters, academics, famous artists, journalists … university students,
people from Red Cross organizations,
members of ruling families … soldiers
of all ranks and posts, industrialists
and businessmen, priests and nuns,
women and children in need of protection.” And, he added, many of
them were “Jews who were already
persecuted and sought to escape the
horror of further persecution.”
As the Nazis closed in, the vast encampment grew frantic. “The centre of the town was bedlam,” wrote
American journalist Eugene Bagger,
who had been stranded in France.

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september 2023

appalled by the suffering. Some had
lost their spouses, while others had no
news of missing children or had seen
their loved ones succumb to the daily
German bombings.
What many refugees did not know
was that seven months earlier, Portugal’s austere dictator, President António
de Oliveira Salazar, had issued a missive known as Circular 14, effectively
forbidding his diplomats from offering
visas to most refugees—especially Jews,
ethnic Russians, and anybody else rendered a “stateless person.”
Although Salazar had, technically,
remained neutral, in reality Portugal’s
‘neutrality’ was fluid, depending on
events. Now, with Nazi forces tearing
through Europe, Salazar was reluctant

photo courtesy of sousa mendes foundation

Bonus Read
to provoke Hitler or Francisco Franco,
Spain’s fascist leader.
As the situation beneath his window
deteriorated, Sousa Mendes invited
elderly, ill and pregnant refugees to
shelter in his flat, where they slept on
chairs, blankets and the rugs covering
the floors. “Even the consul’s offices
were crowded with dozens of refugees
who were dead tired because they
had waited for days and nights on the
street, on the stairways, and finally in
the offices,” Sousa Mendes’s nephew,
Cesar, recounted in testimony to Yad
Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial.
“Most of them had nothing but the
clothes they were wearing.”
One evening, Sousa Mendes ducked
into a chauffeured car to survey the
scene outside, where French soldiers
with steel helmets and bayonets maintained order. Approaching Bordeaux’s
Great Synagogue, Sousa Mendes spotted a man in a dark, double-breasted
caftan—a Polish rabbi named Chaim
Kruger, who had served in a village in
Belgium but fled with his wife, Cilla,
and their five young children. Sousa
Mendes invited him back to the consulate. He took Kruger and his family
into his home, but he immediately declared that no Jews may receive a visa.
Quietly, however, Sousa Mendes did
request permission from Lisbon to issue the visas, and on 13 June the Foreign Ministry responded: “Recusados
vistos.” Visas denied. Flouting his superior, Sousa Mendes offered Kruger the
papers anyway. Kruger declined them.

The building at 14 Quai Louis XVIII
in Bordeaux housed the Portuguese
consulate and was the Sousa Mendes
family residence.

“It is not just me who needs help,” he
told Sousa Mendes, “but all my fellow
Jews who are in danger of their lives.”
Suddenly, Sousa Mendes’s selfless
effort to help a new friend, to aid a
single Jewish family, was revealed for
what it truly was: A choice between
saving himself or saving thousands;
between obeying his government or
obeying his conscience.
The dilemma was so destabilizing
that Sousa Mendes stumbled into his
bedroom and stayed there for three
days. When he finally emerged, he
announced, “I am going to issue a
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167

Reader ’s Digest
visa to anyone who asks for it. Even
if I am discharged, I can only act as a
Christian, as my conscience tells me.”
Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer
called what ensued “perhaps the largest rescue action by a single individual
during the Holocaust.”

Opening the Door
Aristides de Sousa Mendes was
not born to suffer. A member of the
landed gentry, he owned a lavish estate in Cabanas de Viriato, the central

before enlisting in the foreign service.
By the early 1930s, Cesar had
reached the top of the profession as
Portugal’s foreign minister. Aristides,
meanwhile, held a series of diplomatic
posts—Brazil, Spain, British Guyana,
San Francisco. In Belgium, he hosted
Spanish king Alfonso XIII and Albert
Einstein. In Zanzibar, the sultan himself was named godfather to Sousa
Mendes’s son Geraldo.
In September 1938, Angelina and
Aristides and several of their 12

AS THE GERMAN ARMY RUMBLED TOWARD
BORDEAUX, SOUSA MENDES SCARCELY SLEPT.
HE RUSHED TO ATTEND TO EVERYONE.
Portuguese village of his birth. The
house featured two dining rooms, a
billiards salon and a mezzanine hung
with the flags of nations where Sousa
Mendes had served. Each Thursday, in
the shadow of a Christ the Redeemer
statue he had commissioned, he and
his wife, Angelina, welcomed village
poor into their home for a meal prepared by their household staff.
Sousa Mendes was bad with money,
and often had to borrow from his twin
brother, Cesar. Whereas Aristides was
outgoing and spontaneous, Cesar was
serious and studious. Both entered
the law school at Coimbra, Portugal’s
most prestigious university, graduating in 1907 and practising briefly

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september 2023

remaining children—a son, 22, had
died of a ruptured spleen and an infant daughter of meningitis—arrived
in Bordeaux. Soon art and music
instructors were visiting the flat on
Quai Louis XVIII.
Sousa Mendes struck up a relationship with a musician named
Andrée Cibial, who was 23 years his
junior. Known around town for her
ostentatious hats, Cibial amused Sousa
Mendes with her freethinking temperament, and they became lovers.
By this time, the French government, anxious about an influx of
Jewish refugees from Germany and
anti-Fascist Republicans escaping
the Spanish Civil War, had set up a

Bonus Read

photos, clockwise from top left: ©gamma-keystone/getty; corbis historical/
getty; courtesy of sousa mendes foundation; moviepix/getty

The thousands of people who received visas
from Sousa Mendes included: (clockwise
from top) artist Salvador Dalí and his wife,
Gala; politician and philanthropist Maurice
de Rothschild; children’s authors H. A. and
Margret Rey; and actress Madeleine LeBeau.

number of detention and internment
camps to house them. In November
1939, 10 days after Salazar posted
Circular 14, Sousa Mendes issued an
unauthorized visa to one such person,
the Jewish historian Arnold Wiznitzer.
The following March, he signed another, this one for Spanish Republican Eduardo Neira Laporte, formerly
a professor in Barcelona.
Both men faced imminent

imprisonment in French camps. Nevertheless, Sousa Mendes earned a
strong rebuke from the Foreign Ministry. “Any new transgression or violation on this issue will be considered
disobedience and will entail a disciplinary procedure where it will not
be possible to overlook that you have
repeatedly committed acts which have
entailed warnings and reprimands,”
his superior wrote.
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169

Recounting the censure to
his brother, Cesar, then Portugal’s ambassador in Warsaw, Sousa Mendes groused
that “the Portuguese Stalin
decided to pounce on me like
a wild beast.”
With bombs in the near distance proclaiming the imminent arrival of the Germans,
and with his government holding firm in its refusal to grant
the unlucky refugees safe passage, Sousa Mendes must have
understood the likely consequences when, in June 1940,
he threw open his doors and
began to sign visas en masse.
And once he started he
didn’t stop. He signed visas for
refugees who had passports
Sousa Mendes issued countless visas to fleeing
and those who did not. They
refugees. This one was dated June 19, 1940.
lined up by the thousands at
his desk, down the stairs and into
Each day new people arrived, desthe street. “Add to this spectacle hundreds of children who were with their perate for documents. The banking
parents and shared their suffering and magnates Edward, Eugene, Henri and
anguish,” Sousa Mendes said several Maurice de Rothschild came seekmonths later. “All this could not fail to ing papers. Gala Dalí requested visas
for herself and her artist husband,
impress me vividly.”
As the Nazis rumbled toward Bor- Salvador; he was busy building a
deaux, Sousa Mendes scarcely slept. bomb shelter in the garden of their
In the rush to attend to everyone, his rented house near Bordeaux.
To speed up his operation, Sousa
signature grew shorter: from Aristides
de Sousa Mendes to Sousa Mendes to, Mendes enlisted help from his son
finally, Mendes. Frightened to lose Pedro Nuno, his nephew Cesar and
their places in line, refugees would José de Seabra, his consular secrenot move even to eat or drink. Fist- tary. One man would stamp the passport, Sousa Mendes would sign it, and
fights erupted.

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september 2023

photo courtesy of sousa mendes foundation

Reader ’s Digest

Bonus Read
Seabra would issue a visa number
before everything was recorded in a
ledger. Rabbi Kruger circulated among
the crowd, gathering passports, taking them upstairs for Sousa Mendes’s
signature, and delivering them when
they were complete.
Among those seeking papers were
Israel and Madeleine Blauschild—better known by their screen names, Marcel Dalio and Madeleine LeBeau—who
were on the run after the Nazis plastered Dalio’s image around France to
help people identify the “typical Jew.”
(Two years later, the couple would

Cheers—and Threats
On 19 June, word reached President
Salazar of “irregularities” emanating
from his consulate in Bordeaux. That
night Germany bombed the city. With
Hitler’s inexorable advance, and a
collaborationist regime taking form
in France, Sousa Mendes’s position
was becoming untenable. At some
point, Spain would cease honouring
any visa bearing his signature, and
Salazar would have him recalled,
arrested—or worse.
At this time, about nine days into
his visa operation, Sousa Mendes had

IN BAYONNE, SOUSA MENDES DEVISED
A ROGUE ASSEMBLY LINE AND SIGNED
EVERY PASSPORT HE COULD.
appear in Casablanca, a film about
refugees seeking letters of transit to
Portugal; he played the croupier Emil
and she the young Yvonne, who famously sang ‘La Marseillaise’ while
tears ran down her face.)
On the night of 17 June, a man in a
finely cut suit and a trimmed moustache approached the consulate—the
private secretary to Archduke Otto von
Habsburg, pretender to the Austrian
throne. The secretary handed over 19
passports. Sousa Mendes stamped and
signed each one. The next day the former royals crossed into Spain, travelling in five cars trailed by two trucks
stuffed with their belongings.

already saved thousands of lives. But,
though the Quai XVIII was now largely
empty, thanks to him, the diplomat
received word that desperate scenes
were unfolding farther south.
Sousa Mendes spoke by phone
with Portugal’s vice consul in Toulouse, a city southeast of Bordeaux,
and instructed him to begin issuing visas there. Then he raced more
than 150 kilometers south to Bayonne,
not far from the Spanish border. “On
my arrival there were so many thousands of people, about 5,000 in the
street, day and night, without moving, waiting their turn,” Sousa Mendes
later recalled.
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Reader ’s Digest
As he made his way across the city
square, a group of refugees spotted
him and began to cheer. Inside, he
found that the consulate’s old wooden
staircase was straining under the
weight of visa seekers, so he set up a
table outside.
Then, as he had done in Bordeaux,
he devised a rogue assembly line
and signed every passport he could.
Among those waiting were H. A.

Pereira ordered him back to Bordeaux. Instead Sousa Mendes headed
farther south, to Hendaye, a French
seaside town along the Spanish border. As he pulled up to the crossing
there, he found hundreds of refugees
unable to pass into Spain. Pereira had
cabled ahead to insist Spain treat visas
issued by Sousa Mendes as “null and
void.” The New York Times estimated
that shuttering the Spanish border

“ THE VOICE OF MY CONSCIENCE … NEVER FAILED
TO GUIDE ME IN THE FULFILLMENT OF MY
DUTIES,” SOUSA MENDES LATER WROTE.
and Margret Rey, who had escaped
Paris on a homemade bicycle with
an illustrated manuscript of Curious
George, their masterpiece of children’s literature. Sousa Mendes struck
Manuel Vieira Braga, vice consul in
Bayonne, “as both elated and aware
of the situation.”
On 22 June, Salazar cabled Sousa
Mendes directly. “You are strictly
forbidden to grant anyone a visa for
entry to Portugal,” he wrote. Then he
dispatched Pedro Teotónio Pereira, the
ambassador to Spain, to investigate.
He met Sousa Mendes and asked
him to explain his behaviour. The
reply, coupled with his dishevelled
aspect, gave Pereira the impression
that Sousa Mendes was “not in his
right mind.”

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september 2023

stranded 10,000 refugees in Nazioccupied France.
As Sousa Mendes parked his car
near the crossing, a group of refugees
was trying unsuccessfully to pass.
Amazingly, Sousa Mendes spotted
Rabbi Kruger and his family speaking
with border guards. Sousa Mendes intervened, negotiating with the guards
for over an hour. At last, Sousa Mendes
opened the gate himself and waved
Kruger and his fellow exiles across the
border and into Spain.
On 24 June 1940, Salazar recalled Sousa
Mendes to Portugal. On 4 July, he initiated a disciplinary proceeding, a trial
conducted through written testimony
submitted by many of those involved,
and adjudicated by a committee.

Bonus Read

photo courtesy of sousa mendes foundation

After Andrée Cibial married Sousa
Mendes in 1949, they lived in poverty.

Sousa Mendes acknowledged that
some of the 15 charges levied against
him were true. “I may have erred,” he
wrote, “but if so, I did it unintentionally, having followed the voice of my
conscience, which—despite the nervous breakdown I am still experiencing due to the workload, during which
I spent weeks with practically no
sleep—never failed to guide me in the
fulfillment of my duties, in full awareness of my responsibilities.”
Before the verdict was handed
down, Salazar was already informing
his ambassadors that Sousa Mendes
had been dismissed. When the decision was delivered in October, Salazar
deemed the official punishment—demotion—insufficiently harsh. Instead,

he forced Sousa Mendes’s retirement.
Sousa Mendes responded with
characteristic equanimity. “I would
rather stand with God against man,”
he said, “than with man against God.”
He was promised a pension but never
received it. Salazar did not disbar
him, but he didn’t need to—who
would hire the consul whom Salazar
had effectively blacklisted? For good
measure, Salazar took the written
record of the disciplinary proceedings
and sealed it shut.
That same month, in Lisbon, Cibial
gave birth to Sousa Mendes’s daughter, who was sent to live with relatives
back in France. After Salazar’s punishment came down, some of Sousa
Mendes’s other children, fearful of
retribution, dispersed. His daughter
Clotilde moved to Mozambique. Two
sons, Carlos and Sebastiaõ, both born
in California, enlisted in the US Army.
(Sebastiaõ later took part in the landing at Normandy.) Two other sons
eventually immigrated, Luis-Filipe to
Canada and Jean-Paul to California.
By 1942, Sousa Mendes was taking
meals at a Jewish community soup
kitchen in Lisbon. One day, Isaac
‘Ike’ Bitton, who worked in the dining
room for refugees, noticed the Sousa
Mendes family speaking Portuguese.
“I approached the head of the family
and told him in Portuguese that this
dining room was only for refugees,”
Bitton later recalled. “To my great
surprise, this good man’s answer was,
‘We too are refugees.’”
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those saved by Sousa Mendes ultimately settled all over the globe: in the
United States, Britain, Argentina, South
Africa, Uruguay, Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic. And many, including
Rabbi Chaim Kruger, ended up in Israel.
In February 2020, I visited his son,
Rabbi Jacob Kruger, now 90, in an ultra-

This photograph of Sousa Mendes
(right) and Rabbi Chaim Kruger is
thought to have been taken at the
French border with Spain in 1940.

174
4

septe mber 2023

photo courtesy of sousa mendes foundation

COURAGE REMEMBERED

Orthodox enclave in northwest Jerusalem, about three kilometers from a
public square named after Sousa
Mendes. When I asked what he remembered about his father’s role in the Sousa
Mendes affair, he brought out a number
of keepsakes—ship tickets, letters—that
told the story of the family’s ordeal.
After escaping France and making
their way through Spain, the Krugers
spent a year in Portugal. On 3 June 1941,
the family boarded the Nyassa, a ship full
of refugees bound for New York. Eventually, Chaim Kruger moved to Israel, and
two of his children joined him there. Two
others remained in the United States.
One returned to France.
During my visit, Kruger called over
his son-in-law, Avrohom, who, along
with his wife, Feiga, publishes a comic
book that tells stories from Jewish lore.
Avrohom opened an issue and pointed
me to a10-page section titled ‘The Courage to Refuse’. In it, Sousa Mendes tells
Chaim Kruger, “I can give you and your
family visas.”
“Just for me?” Kruger responds. “How
can I take care of just myself? How can I
leave my fellow Jews behind?”
“You know what, Rabbi Kruger?” says
Sousa Mendes. “You win!”
In this unexpected way, Chaim Kruger’s grandchildren had commemorated
both their grandfather and Sousa
Mendes. And so, in another way, had
Jacob Kruger himself, in a Portuguese
documentary from the early 1990s
(which was posted to YouTube in 2019).
In it, he says, “God brought these two
people together.”
—Chanan Tigay

Bonus Read

A Profound Injustice
Over the next several years, as his
financial situation cratered, Sousa
Mendes campaigned for reinstatement
to his former position and access to his
pension. He petitioned Salazar and the
head of Portugal’s National Assembly.
He wrote to Pope Pius XII.
Cesar, too, sought his brother’s rehabilitation, writing to Salazar on his
behalf. But, as his son Luis-Filipe wrote
later, “the rock was unshakable, and
our hope fades away.”

partially paralyzed. He could no longer
write letters seeking help on his own,
and enlisted his son to pen them for
him. Former colleagues and friends
ignored Sousa Mendes in the street.
Said Luis-Filipe, “Blame and sarcasm
were not uncommon, sometimes from
close relatives.”
Angelina’s health, too, declined, and
she died in August 1948. The following year Sousa Mendes married Cibial. The couple lived together in abject
poverty. He rarely left home and his

IN 2020, PORTUGAL GRANTED SOUSA MENDES
ONE OF ITS HIGHEST HONOURS: A CENOTAPH IN
THE NATIONAL PANTHEON IN LISBON.
Compounding the injustice, Salazar’s regime, less concerned about
a German attack as the war went
on and aware that the Allies valued
humanitarian action, began to take
credit for what Sousa Mendes had
done. Pereira, the ambassador who
had chased Sousa Mendes down at
the border, claimed that he had visited France to assist “in every way that
I had at my disposal.”
In a speech to the National Assembly, Salazar himself lamented the
sad plight of the war’s dispossessed.
“What a pity,” he said, “that we could
not do more.”
In the summer of 1945, Sousa
Mendes suffered a stroke, leaving him

estate fell into disrepair. Eventually
it was repossessed and sold off to
cover debts.
In the spring of 1954, Sousa Mendes
suffered another stroke, and on
3 April of that year he died at the age
of 68. Confiding in his nephew from
his deathbed, Sousa Mendes took solace in the knowledge that although he
had nothing but his name to leave his
family, the name was “clean.”
He was buried in Cabanas de
Viriato in the robes of the Third Order of St Francis, a religious fraternity whose adherents, Sousa Mendes
among them, live by the example of
its patron, who preached that God
lives in every man.
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Reader ’s Digest
After Sousa Mendes died, the regime ‘disappeared’ his memory.
“Nobody in Portugal knew about the
refugees who had come through the
country—not even historians,” says
Irene Pimentel, a researcher at the
New University of Lisbon. “Salazar
succeeded in making Aristides de
Sousa Mendes forgotten.”
Yet Sousa Mendes’s children urged
Jewish leaders in Portugal, Israel and
the United States to recognize their
late father. In 1961, Israel’s prime
minster, David Ben-Gurion, ordered
20 trees planted in Sousa Mendes’s
name. In 1966, Yad Vashem honoured
him as one of the Righteous Among
the Nations.
In the mid-1970s, after Salazar died
and the authoritarian regime that followed him was overthrown, the new
government commissioned a report
about Sousa Mendes. The document
was scathing, calling Portugal’s treatment of him “a new Inquisition.” But
the new administration, still populated
by remnants of the old regime, buried
the report for a decade.
“He was their skeleton in the closet,
and nobody wanted his name to be
known,” said Robert Jacobvitz, an
American who in the 1980s advocated
on the Sousa Mendes family’s behalf.
In 1986, 70 members of the United
States Congress signed a letter to
Portugal’s president, Mário Soares,
urging him to recognize Sousa
Mendes. At a ceremony the following year at the Embassy of Portugal

176
6

september 2023

in Washington, D.C., Soares apologized to the Sousa Mendes family on
behalf of his government.
On 18 March 1988, Portugal’s Parliament voted unanimously to admit
Sousa Mendes back into the consular
service and promote him to the rank
of ambassador. “The time has come to
grant … Sousa Mendes the visa that he
himself could not refuse,” one member of Parliament proclaimed to the
assembly, “and in so doing to repair a
profound injustice.”
In 2020, Portugal bestowed on Sousa
Mendes one of its highest posthumous
honours: a cenotaph in the national
Pantheon in Lisbon. “Aristides de
Sousa Mendes put ethics above the
legal dictates of a fascist state,” said Joacine Katar Moreira, the legislator who
sponsored the initiative. “His active
dissent saved thousands of people from
the Nazi regime’s legalized murder,
persecution and culture of violence.”

“He Embraced Me”
The actual number of people Sousa
Mendes rescued isn’t known with certainty. In 1964, the magazine Jewish
Life estimated it was 30,000, including 10,000 Jews. The Sousa Mendes
Foundation, formed by Olivia Mattis,
a New York-based musicologist whose
family was saved by Sousa Mendes,
and others including two of Sousa
Mendes’s grandchildren, have definitively documented 3,912 visa recipients. Mattis believes the true figure is
significantly higher.

Bonus Read
The number is difficult to ascertain
because so much time has passed,
so many refugees refused to discuss the war, and only one of Sousa
Mendes’s two lists of visas from the
period has survived—and because
Portugal’s dictatorship so successfully
suppressed the facts.
For decades not even S ousa
Mendes’s daughter with Cibial, Marie-Rose Faure, knew what her father
had done. Now 81, Faure is Sousa
Mendes’s last surviving offspring.
She lives in a simple two-level home
in the French castle town of Pau, on
the edge of the Pyrenees. Recently,
Faure—diminutive, bespectacled and
warm—recalled the first time she met
her father. She was 11 years old, and
living with a great-uncle and greataunt in France.
“I had been waiting for this moment
to meet him for a really, really long
time,” Faure told me. The delay, she
said, was Salazar’s doing: He would
not let Sousa Mendes leave Portugal. When at last Sousa Mendes was
allowed to visit, “he took me in his
arms. He embraced me.”

Afterwards, he returned for twomonth holidays and accompanied
her to and from school each day.
“He came regularly and my friends
saw him—that was important to me,”
Faure said.
When she was 23, Faure learned
what her father had done in Bordeaux. A colleague at Mutual Insurance, where she worked as a secretary,
had spotted a short article about Sousa
Mendes and said, “Hey, that’s not
someone from your family, is it?”
When I asked her how she felt
reading that story, Faure paused. “It
was a shock,” she said. “They spoke
about the number of people who had
been saved. They said it was 10,000,
20,000 Jews.”
It’s likely that we’ll never know the
precise number, but in the end that is
of far less significance than what we
do know. In Jewish tradition, it is said
that saving a single life is akin to saving “an entire world.” Sousa Mendes
saved many lives, and because of him
many more lived.
Smithsonian Magazine (November 2021), Copyright © 2021
by Chanan Tigay

Life Lessons
Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is
when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don’t.
PETE SEEGER, SINGER

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come.
We have only today. Let us begin.
M OT H E R T E R E S A , R O M A N C AT H O L I C S A I N T A N D N O B E L L A U R E AT E

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177

LAUGHTER
The best Medicine
Kevin walks into a bar
in Boston and orders
three shots of Scotch.
He solemnly downs
each one, pays up, then
leaves. The next day,
he does the same. On
the third day, the bartender asks, “Why the
three shots?”
“Well,” says Kevin,
“it’s one for me and one
each for my brothers:
Dennis in Seattle and
Hank in Dallas. It makes
me feel like we’re still
drinking together.”
But a month later,
Kevin orders only two
shots of Scotch. “I hate
to ask,” says the bartender, “but did one of
your brothers die?”
“No, no,” says Kevin.
“I’ve just decided to
stop drinking.”

Once there was a
man named Odd. All
his life, he was teased
and mocked because
of his strange name.
It got so bad that on
his deathbed, he insisted that his headstone be blank, lest
he live with that name
for all eternity. He got

— bartendersbusiness.com

No one in the history of the English
language has ever said anything respectful
following “With all due respect ...”
—Dave Konig, comedian on Dry Bar Comedy

178 september 2023

his wish. The day of his
funeral, the gravedigger
arrived looking for the
correct plot. When he
spotted the blank headstone, he scratched his
head and thought,
That’s odd.
—Brenda Pipp
I’m a positive person.
To me, going bald is
not about hair loss,
it’s about face gain.
It’s not a receding hairline, it’s an advancing
facial frontier. It’s exciting. One day, I’ll have
cartoon by Jon Carter

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Reader ’s Digest

© BY THECOFFEEMONSTERS™ – EXPLORE THE MONSTERLICIOUS CREATIVITY AT THECOFFEEMONSTERS.COM

—Sheng Wang,
comedian
Yiddish curses are famously detailed and
nasty. Case in point:
‘May you be so rich
your widow’s husband
has to never work a
day.’ Here are three
for modern times from
the book Schmegoogle,
by Daniel Klein
(Chronicle Books).
Ê ‘After walking 12
blocks with your thighs
squeezed together in a
desperate search for a
public restroom, may
you find one at a fancy
restaurant but be barred
from entering because
you aren’t wearing a tie!’
Ê ‘May your health insurance provider decide
that constipation is a
pre-existing condition!’
Ê ‘You should emerge
from the desert scorched and parched
to find before you a
luxury hotel with 1,000
empty rooms, but they
don’t accept AmEx
extra points!’
A reporter, interviewing a man celebrating

his 110 th birthday, asks,
“What’s the secret to
your longevity?”
“No matter what,
I never ever argue
with anyone,” says
the elderly man.
“Surely there must
be more to it than
that,” insists the reporter. “What about
factors like genetics,
diet, exercise?”
The old man shrugs.
“Maybe you’re right.”
—Gary Katz

COFFEE DOODLES
German artist Stefan
Kuhnigk turns coffee
spills into coffee art on
his Instagram page,
@thecoffeemonsters

“What’s a couple?” I
asked my mom. She
said, “Two or three.”
Which probably explains why her marriage collapsed.
—Josie Long, comedian
The guy
y who cut me off
then slammed on his
brakes just got pulled
over and I wasn’t expecting this level of
joy today person.
— @BrickMahoney

Reader’s Digest will pay
for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our
humour sections. Post it
to the editorial address, or
email: editor.india@rd.com

readersdigest.in

181

RD RECOMMENDS

Films
ENGLISH The sequel
to 2018’s The Nun,
THE NUN III marks
the return of Taissa
Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet and Bonnie
Aarons. Set four
years after the first
part, the Michael
Chaves directorial
follows Sister Irene,
who is tasked with
bringing down the
insidious demon
Valak, the hellish
entity spreading
terror on religious
figures across Europe. The film releases in theatres
on 7 September.
Directed byAcademy-Awardwinning director
Roger Ross Williams, CASSANDRO,
coming to Amazon
Prime Video on 22
September, centres
on the success of
the iconic gay amateur wrestler, who

182
2

september 2023

Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene in a still from The Nun II

rises to international
fame by creating an exotic character that flips
the script on the stereotypes and over-the-top
machismo in the world
of Lucha Libre.
HINDI After the
massive success of
Pathaan, Shah Rukh

Shah Rukh Khan in the
poster forr Jawan

Khan returns to the
big screen in the widely
anticipated blockbuster
film JAWAN
N releasing in
theatres on 7 September. A high-octane action thriller directed by
Tamil writer-director
Atlee Kumar (the creator of Bigil,
l Marshal
and Theri), the film
takes on the burning
topic of farmer suicides over non repayment of bank loans.
The protagonist,
driven by a personal
vendetta, is bent on
rectifying social ills in
an attempt to get even
with his past. The cast
also stars Vijay Sethupathi, Sanya Malhotra
and Nayanthara.

Reader ’s Digest
Vicky Kaushal stars in the
comedy THE GREAT INDIAN
FAMILY
Y helmed by Vijay Krishna
Acharya. A tongue-in-cheek entertainer, this film explores the
idiosyncrasies of a typical Indian
family. Set in the small town of
Balrampur, popular resident
Bhajan Kumar’s world upends
when his family receives word
about the truth of his birth and
identity, news that transforms
his life and how others treat him
forever. The film will release in
theatres on 22 September.

#WATCHLIST:
0N OUR RADAR
In this captivating nature documentary series narrated
by Academy-Award
nominee Tom Hardy,
five predator species
around the world work

to survive in their environments. Experience
life through the eyes of
cheetahs, polar bears,
wild dogs and more of
the planet’s most powerful hunters as they
fight to maintain their
dominance. Coming to
Netflix on 6 September.
BAMBAI MERI JAAN

Poster for Predators

Produced by Farhan
Akhtar, this 10-part
gangster thriller series
is set in post-independence India and chronicles the birth of the
underworld in Mumbai. The story follows a
young man, Dara Kadri

Vicky
Kaushal
and the cast
of The Great
Indian Family.

Poster for Bambai
Meri Jaan

(Avinash Tiwary)
who finds himself
torn between upholding his father’s law
enforcement legacy
(portrayed by Kay Kay
Menon) and his own
inevitable descent into
the criminal underworld. Releasing on
Amazon Prime Video
on 14 September.

readersdigest.in

183

Reader ’s Digest

Books
Sakina’s Kiss by Vivek Shanbhag, Translated
by Srinath Perur, Penguin

Vivek Shanbhag returns with his new
novel, Sakina’s Kiss,
originally published
in Kannada in 2021
as Sakinala Muttu.
The story sees its
protagonist, Venkat, surprised by
a sudden urgent
knock on the
door one evening. He finds
two insolent young
men claiming to have
business with his
daughter Rekha. He
deals with them
shortly, only to find his
quiet, middle-class life

upended by a bewildering set of events
over the next few
days. Even as Venkat is
hurled into a world of
street gangs and murky
journalism, we
see a parallel narrative unfold, of a
betrayal and disappearance from
long ago. Translated by Srinath
Perur, the novel is a
delicate meditation on
the persistence of old
biases and a rattled
masculinity in India’s
changing social and
political landscape.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE ...
The Perfume Project by
Divrina Dhingra, (Westland):

For years, Indians have concerned
themselves with making their environs, and themselves, smell good, a
preoccupation that has led to a sophisticated culture of fragrance aesthetics. In this
vivid narrative that blends the science of aromatics with travel writing, history and insights, journalist Divrina Dhingra investigates the idea of
scent as a trigger for memories and emotions,
as well as a mode of self-expression and identity.

184

september 2023

Scope Out
Silk: A History in Three
Metamorphoses by
Aarathi Prasad (HarperCollins): An intoxicating

mix of biography, history
and science writing that
brings to life the human
obsession with a unique
and coveted material.
Roman Stories by Jhumpa
Lahiri (Knopf): This col-

lection by the Pulitzer
Prize–winning author
sees the city of Rome as
its protagonist, not the
setting, of these nine
short stories.
The Less You Preach,
the More You Learn:
Aphorisms for Our Age
by Shashi Tharoor and
Joseph Zacharias (Aleph):

A collection of over
200 wise, witty, and
memorable aphorisms
intended to provoke,
stimulate and entertain.

—COMPILED BY ISHANI NANDI

Reader ’s Digest
Humour in

UNIFORM

CARTOON: SHUTTERSTOCK

“We’re a great source for local info
info.
All Harold does all day is watch the neighbours.”

My unit was boarding
a ship headed for
post-war Germany
when a sergeant holding a clipboard ordered us to sign up for
kitchen duty. I’d had
my share of scrubbing
pots and pans in basic
training, so I avoided
the task by signing the
name of an old friend,
Alvin Harris. Three
times a day for eight
days, the ship’s loudspeaker blared: “Alvin
Harris, report to the

kitchen!” My ruse was
never discovered, but
life eventually got
even. After my Army
service, I got married
and have been washing dishes every
day for 70 years.
—Wayne White
When our son came
home on leave from
Keesler Air Force Base
in Biloxi, Mississippi,
his thrilled little sister
followed him everywhere, even into the

bathroom to watch
him shave. That’s
when she noticed a
star tattoo on his shoulder. A few minutes later,
she excitedly told me
the news: Her brother
got a star on his shoulder, “probably for making his bed every day.”
—Marie Chenard Fritz
Reader’s Digest will pay
for your funny anecdote
or photo in any of our humour sections. Post it to the
editorial address, or email
us at editor.india@rd.com

readersdigest.in

185

Hunchback of
the Fishbone
Abanindranath
Tagore 1930
10 ½” x 9 ½”
Water colour
186

september 2023

Abanindranath Tagore
(1871–1951) had a genius
for appropriating stories
set in foreign climes and
transmogrifying them
into his personal creations by immersing the

narrative into the ethos
of Bengal. Occasionally,
he transported readers
to his familiar grounds
at Jorasanko in Chitpur,
Calcutta, where he grew
up along with his elder

photo credit: courtesy of victoria memorial hall, kolkata

STUDIO

’s Digest
brother Gaganendranath (1867–1938), with
their uncle Rabindranath (1861–1941) as
their neighbour. Abanindranath accomplished
this in Budo Angla, Raj
Kahinii and other muchloved classics.
What Abanindranath
did in his stories, he did
in his paintings too. His
Arabian Nights series of
paintings brilliantly testifies to this talent of his.
Abanindranath reimagined it with great breadth
of vision and wit as a
melting pot of time,
geography and culture.
It was as if Abanindranath was adumbrating
what Rabindranath wrote
later in his song about
the liberating power of
imagination: Kothao
amar hariye jawar nei
mana, mane mone.
(Nothing impedes my
wanderlust)
The Arabian Nights
series and other works
of the three Tagores are
part of an augmented
reality exhibition titled
Modernity, Nationhood
and the Unconscious:
Abanindranath Tagore
and the Garden House in

Konnagar launched on 25
August. The Victoria
Memorial Hall (VMH),
University of Liverpool,
and Konnagar Municipality collaborated to present the exhibition curated
by Soumyen Bandyopadhyay, who holds the Sir
James Stirling Chair in
Architecture at the University of Liverpool.
Konnagar in the
Hooghly district is
on Calcutta’s outskirts.
Abanindranath spent
many happy days of his
childhood with his family
in this single-storeyed
house constructed in the
1830s in the middle of a
sprawling garden overlooking the Hooghly river.
Now the exhibition site,
it was rescued from the
developers and repaired.
The virtual exhibition
is also hosted on the
VMH website and can
be viewed at the garden
house using QR codes.
Speaking online, art
historian Partha Mitter
described it as an “innovative and completely
new project” particularly
in a country with small
museum resources.
Often accused of being

a revivalist, Abanindranath was far from being
so. As the artist and
scholar, K. G. Subramanyan, had written:
“But Abanindranath
is not overawed by its
[the past’s] presence;
he plays around with
whatever he finds without undue reverence
or reserve.”
Adding: “The intriguing interweave is most
abundantly evident
in his Arabian Nights
paintings … And they
are eclectic in more
senses than one. He
peoples the scene
with the facts of the
Calcutta street.”
In this painting, the
focus is on the Muslim
seamster, his wife and
the hunchback depicted
inside a typical Chitpur
tailoring establishment.
In a smaller panel above
on the right hand, the
artist himself dines with
sahibs. Beneath them
is the signboard Kerr
Tagore & Co., his grandfather Dwarkanath’s
failed enterprise. Abanindranath is cocking
a snook at the past.
— BY SOUMITRA DAS

readersdigest.in

187

REVIEW

A Tale of
Our Times
With an unflinching eye
and a nose for the truth,
Anjum Hasan’s History’s
Angel explores the many
layers of India’s turbulent
present and the shadows
of its storied past

A

mong other things,
Anjum Hasan’s elegant and thoughtful new
novel is a Delhi book.
Its protagonist Alif, a
history teacher in his
forties, lives in the city
with his wife Tahi and
adolescent son Salim;
so do his parents and a
few friends. Delhi in its
many forms—from medieval Shahjahanabad to
modern Vasant Kunj—
informs Alif’s wanderings, his thoughts and
the narrative. We follow
him as he travels from
old Delhi (where he

188

september 2023

Author Anjum Hasan

lives) to a swanky Nehru
Place mall for a meeting
with an old acquaintance, and to the Humayun’s Tomb, where he
takes his students on a
field trip; from visiting
an aunt in busy and
cluttered Mehrauli to
meeting a landlord in
gated-community Noida.
One soon realizes
what an appropriate
setting Delhi is for this
story. As an old and
multi-layered city of
ruins, with the ghosts
of many pasts and many
kingdoms jostling to-

gether, the capital is a reminder of how pluralistic
this country has been.
But as Hasan tells us, this
is also a city made “so
insistently, so noisily,
of now”—full of lessons
if you care to look, but
ignored by people who
are caught up with the
chaotic present.
And so it is with history in general too. Alif
frets that most people
have only a superficial
interest in his subject,
and that the modern age
has created a rift from
the past. He wants to

photo credit: lekha naidu

By Jai Arjun Singh

Reader ’s Digest
make history surprising,
non-linear—to show
a dynamic India, not
a monolith with one
destiny (which, though
the book only touches
lightly on this, is what
the Hindu Rashtra is
geared towards). But Alif
can’t afford to look away
from his own ‘now’, for
he has just got into trouble because of a student
who has provoked and
insulted him.
If you read the jacket
synopsis of History’s
Angel,
l you might think
this is a straightforward
dramatic narrative:
about a Muslim teacher
who twists a boy’s ear,
rendering himself vulnerable since the new
school principal has a
barely buried prejudice
against his community.
And this iss the anchoring incident of a story
that is also set against
the background of the
Citizenship Amendment
Act controversy. But History’s Angel is a subtler,
more searching book
than can be described in
such terms—less interested in being politically
‘relevant’, more inter-

ested in the inner life
and circumstances of a
specific man. The reader
may be primed for an
unpleasant confrontation when Alif decides
to visit the schoolboy’s
(presumably bigoted) father—instead we end up
in an unexpected space.
There are other things
happening around Alif,
other vignettes that add
up to reveal a good deal:
a puja in school not long
after the principal cautioned Alif not to bring

religion into education;
a passage where Alif and
Tahi go flat-hunting and
mildly uncomfortable
banter grows into something menacing. And
paralleling complicated
national histories, there
are complicated personal histories too—as

in Alif’s friendship with
a man named Ganesh,
and an incident in their
past involving a woman
who now reappears.
History’s Angel is a
very interior work, since
we are privy to Alif’s
thoughts as well as his
conflicted conversations
with others (such as his
one friend in school, a
teacher named Miss
Moloy). This means it
isn’t always an easy
read—it can feel weighed
down in places, which is
perhaps understandable
since it is about someone
who feels oppressed,
sometimes even by his
own thoughts—Alif
spends much time arguing with himself. And yet,
despite this, the book not
only casts a quiet spell
through its chronicling of
his days and encounters,
it also demonstrates how
‘othering’ can happen in
a gradual, insidious,
rather than dramatic,
way. It leaves us with the
question of whether any
of us—including this angel—can fully understand
the workings of history,
and how it pertains to
us and our lives.
readersdigest.in

189

Brain

GAMES
Sharpen Your Mind

Four-Part Harmony
medium Can you divide this
shape into four identical
pieces by cutting on the dotted lines? The resulting pieces
can be rotated but not flipped.

medium Cami, Jai, Sonya and Tariq are walking single file through the jungle along a
narrow path. Each hopes to spot a particular animal (iguana, monkey, sloth, toucan)
and is carrying a specific item (binoculars, camera, compass, sketchpad). Using
the following clues, what order are they walking in, what is Tariq carrying
and what animal does Sonya hope to see?
so she’s looking for
1. The person who is first is
something else.
looking for a toucan with
5. Sonya is right behind
their binoculars.
the leader with her sketch2. The person who wants a
pad ready.
picture of a monkey for Ins6. Jai thinks toucans are
tagram is not in the middle.
amazing but is hoping to
3. The person who wants to
see a different animal.
see an iguana cannot draw.
7. Tariq is using his compass
4. Cami has already seen
so they don’t get lost.
lots of iguanas and sloths

Divide and Conquer

What’s Cooking?

easy Remove one of these five digits so
that the sum of the remaining four can be
evenly divided by the eliminated digit.

medium
Dolly and Ria are
writing a cookbook together. Dolly provides 70 per cent of the recipes and Ria
contributes the rest. If Dolly has 20
more recipes in the cookbook than Ria,
how many recipes are there in total?

3 4 5 6 7
190

september 2023

FOUR-PART HARMONY BY DARREN RIGBY; JUNGLE WALK BY BETH SHILLIBEER

Jungle Walk

Reader ’s Digest

DIVIDE AND CONQUER BY PETER DOCKRILL; WHAT’S COOKING? BY
FRASER SIMPSON; WELL CONNECTED BY DARREN RIGBY

Well Connected
difficult Starting on
any hexagon, visit all
the other hexagons and
get back where you
started without reusing
a bridge in this diagram.
You can only use three
different types of
bridges to complete
your task. Which three
types do you need? (The
bridge types are colourcoded and given distinct
ends to assist you.)

For answers, turn to PAGE 192

Reader ’s Digest

BRAIN GAMES
ANSWERS

SUDOKU

FROM PAGES 190 & 191

Louis-Luc Beaudoin

6
Jungle Walk

6

6
4
2 3
1
6
5
3 5
9 8

8
2
1

8
7
4
1
2
6
3
9
5

9
5
3
4
7
8
2
1
6

6
2
1
3
9
5
4
8
7

september 2023

2
3
9
8
5
1
7
6
4

192

1
4
8
6
3
7
9
5
2

boxes has all nine numbers,
none repeated.

What’s Cooking?
50 recipes. Dolly provides
70 per cent of the recipes
and Ria provides 30 per
cent. The difference is 40
per cent, which is 20 recipes. If 40 per cent is 20
recipes, then 100 per
cent is 50 recipes.

SOLUTION
7
6
5
2
4
9
1
3
8

Ê each of the outlined 3 x 3

5.

3
8
6
7
1
4
5
2
9

vertical column contains all
nine numbers (1-9) without
repeating any of them;

Divide and Conquer

7

To Solve This Puzzle
Put a number from 1 to 9 in
each empty square so that:
Ê every horizontal row and

Walking order, first to
last: Cami, Sonya, Tariq,
Jai. Tariq is carrying a
compass and Sonya
wants to see a sloth.

3

4
9
2
5
6
3
8
7
1

7

8
7
9 4

5
1
7
9
8
2
6
4
3

5
7
1 9 8
4

Four-Part Harmony

Well Connected

Reader ’s Digest

WORD POWER
This fall, we’re heading back to school
with words related to education. After all,
learning is a lifelong pursuit! Master these
terms and you’ll go to the head of the class.
Ace this quiz like the star pupil you are,
then continue your studies by checking
the answers on the next page.
By Mary-Liz Shaw

9. polytechnic adj.
(pah-lee-’tek-nik)
a related to chemistry
b many-sided
c teaching applied science
10. elucidate v.
(eh-’loo-si-dayt)
a lecture incessantly
b grade strictly
c make clear
11. philistine n.
(‘fi-luh-steen)
a agile debater
b biblical scholar
c ignorant person

1. pedagogy n.
(‘ped-uh-goh-j
- ee)
a education principles
b logical progression
c controversial teaching

5. pedantic adj.
(pe-’dan-tik)
a suddenly realizing
b concerning all students
c overly formal

2. syllabus n.
(‘sil-uh-buhss)
a tool for counting
b outline of a course
c place to study

6. polymath n.
(‘pah-lee-math)
a wide-ranging scholar
b scientific genius
c enthusiastic teacher

3. didactic adj.
(dy-’dak-tik)
a related to Greek myth
b morally instructive
c imaginative

7. innumerate adj.
(i-’noo-mer-uht)
a ill-prepared
b unskilled at numbers
c infinitely wise

14. percipient adj.
(per-’sip-ee-uhnt)
a unsolvable
b witty
c discerning

4. audit v.
(‘ah-dit)
a serve detention
b attend without credit
c experiment

8. sophomore n.
(‘sahf-mor)
a teacher’s aide
b measure of brain waves
c second-year student

15. erudite adj.
(‘ehr-uh-dyt)
a scholarly
b newly published
c intuitive

12. rubric n.
(‘roo-brik)
a study of circles
b grading guide
c visual learner
13. tutelage n.
(‘too-tuh-luhj)
a individual instruction
b musical notation
c full understanding

readersdigest.in

193

Reader ’s Digest

The Mother of All School Mottos
Graduates everywhere praise their alma mater,
but the term originated with one institution of
higher learning believed to be the oldest in the
Western world: the University of Bologna in Italy.
Established around 1088, it became known as Alma Mater Studiorum, Latin
for ‘nourishing mother of studies’. Today, it has about 93,000 students.

ANSWERS
1. pedagogy
(a) education principles
The new kindergarten
teacher is an expert in
elementary pedagogy.
2. syllabus
(b) outline of a course
As a World War I expert,
Ms Sinha extended
her class syllabus
past 1900.
3. didactic
(b) morally instructive
Dr Seuss’s stories
are both didactic
and entertaining.
4. audit
(b) attend without credit
Auditing an art class let
me be creative without
the fear of being graded.
5. pedantic
(c) overly formal
Gunjan explained her
theory in simple terms,
avoiding pedantic detail.

194 september 2023

6. polymath
(a) wide-ranging scholar
Leonardo da Vinci and
W.E.B. Du Bois are
two of history’s most
famous polymaths.
7. innumerate
(b) unskilled at numbers
The innumerate cashier
relied on his register to
give the right change.
8. sophomore
(c) second-year student
Sia transferred to a
big state university
as a sophomore.
9. polytechnic (c)
teaching applied science
An aspiring engineer,
Anu attended the nearby
polytechnic college.
10. elucidate
(c) make clear
In his book report, Arif
tried to elucidate the
novel’s complex themes.
11. philistine
(c) ignorant person
The politician was a

philistine when it came
to supporting the arts.
12. rubric
(b) grading guide
Ms Priya devised a different rubric for her ESL
students’ essays.
13. tutelage
(a) individual instruction
Abhi learned about cars
under the tutelage of a
master mechanic.
14. percipient
(c) discerning
The percipient detective
saw clues others missed.
15. erudite
(a) scholarly
Now that all her children
completed post-graduate
degrees, Maria has quite
an erudite family.

Vocabulary Ratings
9 & below: Bookish
10-12: Scholarly
13-15: Professorial

MICHAEL BURRELL/GETTY IMAGES

Word Power

Reader ’s Digest

TRIVIA
BY

Beth Shillibeer

1. Flooding in Bangladesh
led a non-profit to design
schools in what vehicles
that can reach cut off areas?
2. How many known millipede species actually live
up to their name and have
1,000 feet?
3. Starting this year, anyone born after 2008 will
be banned for life from
buying what product
in New Zealand?
4. Padparadscha sapphires,
a rare gem mainly found in
Sri Lanka, come in shades
of what two colours?
5. What part of a dog is
as unique as a human
n fingerprint, according to
oa
2021 study?

7. What clinging nuisance
inspired the invention
of Velcro in 1955 by
Swiss engineer George
de Mestral?
8. What mammal joined
the American bald eagle
to become a national
animal of the United
States in 2016?
0 6?

10. The world’s firstever webcam was set
up at Cambridge Univerr
sity in 1993 to monitor
what important piece
of equipment?
11. What profession
did the alarm clock
make redundant upon
its invention in the
1930s and ’40s?
12. What trait do languages Kus‚ Dili, Silbo
and Tuparí have in
common? (Hint: The
first is also known as
‘bird language’.)
’
13. What species of cactus-like succulent, native
to tropical Asia and also
known as Euphorbia lactea, can grow to about
4.5 metres tall?

Answers: 1. Boats.2. One (female Eumillipes persephone). 3. Tobacco. 4. Pinks and oranges.
5. Its nose print. 6. William Lyon Mackenzie King. 7. Burdock burrs. 8. American bison. 9. Aconcagua, Argentina. 10. A coffee pot. 11. Knocker upper. 12. They are whistled languages.
13. Candelabra cactus.

PHOTO: ©GETTY IMAGES

6. What eccentric, lon
ngserving Canadian prim
me

minister owned three Irish
terriers and named them
all Pat, sought the advice
of fortune tellers and read
tea leaves?

9. What tallest peak in
South America, nearly
7,000 metres tall, did
wingsuit BASE jumper
Tim Howell become
the first to jump off
of in 2022?

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195

Reader ’s Digest

A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World

Lakeside by Jeannie Phan, exclusively for Reader’s Digest

196

september 2023