readersdigest.in 149 Dummy Dummy 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, Schoonschip has created a strong sense of community. Here, residents hang decorative lights among the houses.
150 september 2023 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. 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 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 companies, 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 “LIVING ON WATER DOES SOMETHING TO YOU,” SAYS DE BLOK. “THERE’S SOME MAGIC TO IT.”
readersdigest.in 151 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, office 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 post (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. SOURCE: A M E R I C A N S C I E N T I S T.O R G
152 september 2023 LIFE’S Like That 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 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 to get high” —outsideonline.com Ê “Why You Should Think Twice Before Getting Your Nose Hair Waxed” —healthdigest.com 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
readersdigest.in 153 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 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: [email protected] 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 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 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 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 the process. “What’s wrong?” I asked. He answered, “That’s all I know.” —Judy Pugliese 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 BACK TO SCHOOL lumenst/getty images
Around the world, it’s not always about cakes and candles Wacky Traditions Traditions Wacky Birthday Birthday 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.` by Stéphanie Verge Illustrations by Graham Roumieu WHO KNEW? 154 september 2023
readersdigest.in 155 ’s Digest
156 september 2023 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 originated 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 Reader’s Digest
readersdigest.in 157 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 Who Knew?
158 september 2023 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 business; 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 Reader’s Digest
readersdigest.in 159 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 celWho Knew?
160 september 2023 ebration by taking stock of their blessings and thanking Allah for giving them life and good health. GERMANY 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. 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 receive a message from the country’s president on their 100th birthday. UNITED KINGDOM 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. LITHUANIA “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 Reader’s Digest
readersdigest.in 161 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 coffee, 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 21st (for men). t 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. Who Knew? 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
PORTUGAL’S This page: Aristides de Sousa Mendes in 1940. Opposite: French refugees escaping the Nazi onslaught in 1941. 162 september 2023 Reader’s Digest
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 BONUS READ
164 september 2023 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. AS GERMAN SOLDIERS RAISED THE SWASTIKA AT THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE, REFUGEES SCOURED FRANCE FOR EXIT VISAS. 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. photos, previous spread: (left) courtesy of sousa mendes foundation (right) © keystone/getty images Reader’s Digest
readersdigest.in 165 Aristides de Sousa Mendes and his wife, Angelina, with nine of their children in 1929. A representative of th R d presentative of the Red Cross in Paris called it the “greatest civilian refugee 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 photo: courtesy sousa mendes foundation them passage through Spain to Lisbon.
166 september 2023 Reader’s Digest AS THE SITUATION DETERIORATED, SOUSA MENDES INVITED ELDERLY, ILL, AND PREGNANT REFUGEES TO SHELTER IN HIS FLAT. 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 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. 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 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
readersdigest.in 167 Bonus Read The building at 14 Quai Louis XVIII in Bordeaux housed the Portuguese consulate and was the Sousa Mendes family residence. 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. “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 photo courtesy of sousa mendes foundation announced, “I am going to issue a
168 september 2023 Reader’s Digest AS THE GERMAN ARMY RUMBLED TOWARD BORDEAUX, SOUSA MENDES SCARCELY SLEPT. HE RUSHED TO ATTEND TO EVERYONE. 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 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 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 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
readersdigest.in 169 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. B o t h m e n f a c e d i m m i n e n t 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.
170 september 2023 Reader’s Digest photo courtesy of sousa mendes foundation Sousa Mendes issued countless visas to fleeing refugees. This one was dated June 19, 1940. 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 and those who did not. They lined up by the thousands at his desk, down the stairs and into the street. “Add to this spectacle hundreds of children who were with their parents and shared their suffering and anguish,” Sousa Mendes said several months later. “All this could not fail to impress me vividly.” As the Nazis rumbled toward Bordeaux, Sousa Mendes scarcely slept. In the rush to attend to everyone, his signature grew shorter: from Aristides de Sousa Mendes to Sousa Mendes to, finally, Mendes. Frightened to lose their places in line, refugees would not move even to eat or drink. Fistfights erupted. Each day new people arrived, desperate for documents. The banking magnates Edward, Eugene, Henri and Maurice de Rothschild came seeking papers. Gala Dalí requested visas for herself and her artist husband, Salvador; he was busy building a bomb shelter in the garden of their rented house near Bordeaux. To speed up his operation, Sousa Mendes enlisted help from his son Pedro Nuno, his nephew Cesar and José de Seabra, his consular secretary. One man would stamp the passport, Sousa Mendes would sign it, and
readersdigest.in 171 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 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. 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 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. IN BAYONNE, SOUSA MENDES DEVISED A ROGUE ASSEMBLY LINE AND SIGNED EVERY PASSPORT HE COULD.
172 september 2023 Reader’s Digest “THE VOICE OF MY CONSCIENCE … NEVER FAILED TO GUIDE ME IN THE FULFILLMENT OF MY DUTIES,” SOUSA MENDES LATER WROTE. 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. 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.” 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 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.
readersdigest.in 173 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.’”
COURAGE REMEMBERED 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 ultraThis photograph of Sousa Mendes (right) and Rabbi Chaim Kruger is thought to have been taken at the French border with Spain in 1940. photo courtesy of sousa mendes foundation 174 september 2023 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
readersdigest.in 175 Bonus Read IN 2020, PORTUGAL GRANTED SOUSA MENDES ONE OF ITS HIGHEST HONOURS: A CENOTAPH IN THE NATIONAL PANTHEON IN LISBON. 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.” 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 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 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.
176 september 2023 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 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.
readersdigest.in 177 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. MOTHER TERESA, ROMAN CATHOLIC SAINT AND NOBEL LAUREATE
178 september 2023 LAUGHTER The best Medicine 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 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.” —bartendersbusiness.com 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 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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readersdigest.in 181 Reader’s Digest —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 110th 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 “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 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: [email protected] COFFEE DOODLES German artist Stefan Kuhnigk turns coffee spills into coffee art on his Instagram page, @thecoffeemonsters © BY THECOFFEEMONSTERS™ – EXPLORE THE MONSTERLICIOUS CREATIVITY AT THECOFFEEMONSTERS.COM
182 september 2023 ENGLISH The sequel to 2018’s The Nun, THE NUN II 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 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 Khan returns to the big screen in the widely anticipated blockbuster film JAWAN releasing in theatres on 7 September. A high-octane action thriller directed by Tamil writer-director Atlee Kumar (the creator of Bigil 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. Films RD RECOMMENDS Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene in a still from The Nun II Shah Rukh Khan in the poster forJawan
readersdigest.in 183 Vicky Kaushal stars in the comedy THE GREAT INDIAN FAMILY 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. Vicky Kaushal and the cast of The Great Indian Family. 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 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 #WATCHLIST: 0N OUR RADAR (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. Poster for Predators Poster for Bambai Meri Jaan Reader’s Digest
184 september 2023 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. Sakina’s Kiss by Vivek Shanbhag, Translated by Srinath Perur, Penguin 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 collection 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. Books Reader’s Digest —COMPILED BY ISHANI NANDI
readersdigest.in 185 Reader’s Digest 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 CARTOON: SHUTTERSTOCK us at [email protected] Humour in UNIFORM “We’re a great source for local info. “We’re a great source for local info All Harold does all day is watch the neighbours.”
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 Hunchback of the Fishbone Abanindranath Tagore 1930 10 ½” x 9 ½” Water colour STUDIO
readersdigest.in 187 brother Gaganendranath (1867–1938), with their uncle Rabindranath (1861–1941) as their neighbour. Abanindranath accomplished this in Budo Angla, Raj Kahini 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 ’s Digest
188 september 2023 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 REVIEW Among 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 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 together, 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 A Tale of Our Times By Jai Arjun Singh Author Anjum Hasan photo credit: lekha naidu
Reader’s Digest readersdigest.in 189 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, 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 is 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 interested 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.
190 september 2023 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. Jungle Walk 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? 1. The person who is first is looking for a toucan with their binoculars. 2. The person who wants a picture of a monkey for Instagram is not in the middle. 3. The person who wants to see an iguana cannot draw. 4. Cami has already seen lots of iguanas and sloths so she’s looking for something else. 5. Sonya is right behind the leader with her sketchpad ready. 6. Jai thinks toucans are amazing but is hoping to see a different animal. 7. Tariq is using his compass so they don’t get lost. 3 4 5 6 7 Divide and Conquer easy Remove one of these five digits so that the sum of the remaining four can be evenly divided by the eliminated digit. What’s Cooking? 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? FOUR-PART HARMONY BY DARREN RIGBY; JUNGLE WALK BY BETH SHILLIBEER Brain GAMES Sharpen Your Mind
Reader’s Digest 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.) DIVIDE AND CONQUER BY PETER DOCKRILL; WHAT’S COOKING? BY FRASER SIMPSON; WELL CONNECTED BY DARREN RIGBY For answers, turn to PAGE 192
192 september 2023 Reader’s Digest 5 7 86 198 4 7 9 4 76 3 6 4 23 1 8 65 2 35 1 98 7 543712896 198643752 726589431 957268143 861435279 234971685 685197324 472356918 319824567 SOLUTION Louis-Luc Beaudoin To Solve This Puzzle Put a number from 1 to 9 in each empty square so that: Ê every horizontal row and vertical column contains all nine numbers (1-9) without repeating any of them; Ê each of the outlined 3 x 3 boxes has all nine numbers, none repeated. BRAIN GAMES ANSWERS FROM PAGES 190 & 191 SUDOKU Four-Part Harmony Jungle Walk Walking order, first to last: Cami, Sonya, Tariq, Jai. Tariq is carrying a compass and Sonya wants to see a sloth. Divide and Conquer 5. 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. Well Connected
readersdigest.in 193 1. pedagogy n. (‘ped-uh-goh-j ee) a education principles b logical progression c controversial teaching 2. syllabus n. (‘sil-uh-buhss) a tool for counting b outline of a course c place to study 3. didactic adj. (dy-’dak-tik) a related to Greek myth b morally instructive c imaginative 4. audit v. (‘ah-dit) a serve detention b attend without credit c experiment WORD POWER 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 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 14. percipient adj. (per-’sip-ee-uhnt) a unsolvable b witty c discerning 15. erudite adj. (‘ehr-uh-dyt) a scholarly b newly published c intuitive 5. pedantic adj. (pe-’dan-tik) a suddenly realizing b concerning all students c overly formal 6. polymath n. (‘pah-lee-math) a wide-ranging scholar b scientific genius c enthusiastic teacher 7. innumerate adj. (i-’noo-mer-uht) a ill-prepared b unskilled at numbers c infinitely wise 8. sophomore n. (‘sahf-mor) a teacher’s aide b measure of brain waves c second-year student 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 Reader’s Digest
Reader’s Digest 194 september 2023 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. 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. Word Power ANSWERS Vocabulary Ratings 9 & below: Bookish 10-12: Scholarly 13-15: Professorial MICHAEL BURRELL/GETTY IMAGES 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.
readersdigest.in 195 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 fingerprint, according to a 2021 study? 6. What eccentric, longserving Canadian prime minister owned three Irish terriers and named them all Pat, sought the advice of fortune tellers and read tea leaves? 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? States 0 6? 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? 10. The world’s firstever webcam was set up at Cambridge University 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? TRIVIA Pinks and oranges. 4. Tobacco. 3. One (female Eumillipes persephone). 2. . Boats. Answers: 1 Acon- 9. American bison. 8. Burdock burrs. 7. William Lyon Mackenzie King. 6. Its nose print. 5. They are whistled languages. 12. Knocker upper. 11. A coffee pot. 10. cagua, Argentina. Candelabra cactus. 13. BY Beth Shillibeer PHOTO: ©GETTY IMAGES Reader’s Digest
196 september 2023 Reader’s Digest A Trusted Friend in a Complicated World Lakeside by Jeannie Phan, exclusively for Reader’s Digest