The opening stretch of Sundar’s latest film, Action, looks promising. Diya (Tamannaah) is captured by a bunch of burly men in Istanbul, who threaten to kill her unless she tells them where Subhash (Vishal) is. But Diya isn’t too fazed by the possibility as, like in any decent masala movie, she knows the hero will swoop down and save the day. It’s the perfect set-up for a movie named Action. There are plenty of opportunities for fight sequences from the beginning itself, with some reasonably engrossing chase scenes thrown in between.

The locations are easy on the eye, and the surroundings are so calm as to make the action scenes seem even more thrilling. Not bad, you think, settling into your seat. But then, the fun stops abruptly and you have to sit through some dull romance scenes featuring Subhash and Meera (Aishwarya Lekshmi, the movie has two heroines), the latter’s role reduced to serving tea and kisses to the hero, and smiling coyly. This may not feel so out of place in a teenage love story, but Subhash is in the Indian Army. Why is this man who looks like he’s at least in his 30s acting like a high school student in the presence of a woman? And the jokes cracked by the character of his brother-in-law (played by Sha Ra) seem like leftovers from the films that starred Santhanam as a full-fledged comedian. 

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Once we move on from here, the movie picks up some pace again. Subhash is the son of Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister (played by Pala. Karuppiah), and his older brother (played by Ramki) takes the chair of the Deputy CM, and the scenes with them, especially their speeches, are great to watch. These stretches that reflect the current political situation in the state work the best (though I’m not too sure about a politician’s son developing an interest in parkour).

Action’s USP, in its inception stages, must have been to make sure that the audience holds their breath during the crucial scenes that bring Subhash and his nemesis face-to-face. And Sundar partially gets it right by lining up the twists one after another. But the pathetic use of visual effects negates the work put in by the actors.

For instance, the entire pre-interval action scene involving Subhash, an assassin and a henchman, which could have become the defining moment of the movie, goes down the drain because of the poor quality of the special effects.

The movie also has many logical loopholes, something one could try and ignore in a more stylish movie. In London, Subhash takes the help of Jack (Yogi Babu), a hacker, in one scene to trace some phone calls, and, sometime later in Istanbul, he works on the digital machines himself and transfers money from one bank account to another without anybody’s assistance. When he can do all the heavy lifting himself, what’s the need for a sidekick? Neither of the women get meaty roles, and Diya is also almost a sidekick to Subhash.

With better writing and execution, Action could have have been much more entertaining. This, unfortunately, is a Mad Max Mediocre Road.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — Sabarimala is not a place for activism and the LDF government would not support those who make announcements about entering the hill shrine for the sake of publicity, Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said on Friday.

Dismissing reports that police would provide security to women activists who attempt to enter the Lord Ayyappa shrine, he said there were “some confusion” over the latest Supreme Court order and women desirous of visiting Sabarimala should get a “court order”.

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Surendran was replying to questions from reporters here in the backdrop of Thursday’s apex court decision to set up a larger bench to re-examine religious issues including those arising out of its earlier verdict that lifted a centuries-old ban on women in menstrual age visiting the Sabarimala shrine.

“Sabarimala is not a place for activists to show their activism. There are some people who call press meet and declare they will enter the shrine. They are doing it just for publicity. Government will not support such trends,” the Minister said.

When asked about certain activists who said they will visit the shrine as there was no stay on the September 28, 2018 order of the Supreme Court allowing women of all age group to enter the shrine, the minister said, “they can approach the apex court, procure an order and come”.

“Some confusions are still there in the order. The government will consult the legal experts,” he said.

Incidentally, Justice R F Nariman, who had penned a dissent order on behalf of himself and Justice D Y Chandrachud in the judgement, on Friday said the government must read the “extremely important dissent” verdict in the 3:2 majority verdict.

“Please tell your government to read the dissent judgment delivered in the Sabaimala case yesterday, which is extremely important.... Inform your authority and the government to read it,” the Judge told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in the court.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has said a larger bench will re-examine various religious issues, including the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple and mosques and the practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.

By a 3:2 verdict, it decided to keep pending the pleas seeking a review of its decision regarding the entry of women into the shrine, and said restrictions on women in religious places was not restricted to Sabarimala alone and was prevalent in other religions as well.

Around 65 petitions, including 56 review petitions and four fresh petitions, had been moved in the apex court against its last year verdict.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had on Thursday said the Left front government would consult legal experts to get more clarity on the apex court verdict.

He also said the government was always ready to implement the court order, whatsoever it may be.

Reacting to the verdict, Bindhu, who along with Kanakadurga had trekked the holy hills and offered prayers at the shrine, scripting history on January 2, said the positive aspect of the apex court’s latest order was that it had not stayed the September 28 verdict.

“The Sangh Parivar which welcomed the Ayodhya verdict is bound to accept the SC verdict in this case also. The government and the police are also bound to help and protect those who want to visit the shrine,” she had told reporters.

Kanakadurga has said should would like to go to Sabarimala again if there was no stay on the earlier order.

The famous temple will open on November 16 a day ahead of the commencement of the annual two-month-long pilgrimage season.

NEW DELHI—The Supreme Court’s review judgement has “paved the way for further investigation” by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the controversia Rafale aircraft deal, said senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan and former Bharatiya Janata Party member Arun Shourie on Friday afternoon. 

Speaking at the Press Club of India in New Delhi, Bhushan and Shourie cited the concurring judgement of Justice K M Joseph to argue that though the Supreme Court had dismissed their petition, it had opened the door for a CBI inquiry into the Rafale aircraft deal—something they have been demanding for the past year. 

Bhushan cited three specific paragraphs from Justice Joseph’s minority judgement to argue that, even if it is a minority judgement and the main judgement authored by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the review petition, the CBI is now legally bound to investigate the controversial Rafale aircraft deal. 

“You see, there is a misconception. Some people feel that this judgement is only of one judge, Justice Joseph. And the majority consisting of Justice Kaul and Chief Justice Gogoi dismissed the review. Yes, they have dismissed the review but Justice Kaul and Justice Gogoi have not said anything to the contrary to what Justice Joseph has said about the legal necessity of an FIR being registered and the matter being investigated by the CBI; of the imperative legal need and the command of the constitution bench in the Lalita Kumari case,” explained Bhushan while speaking with reporters. 

The senior lawyer was pointing to the fact that in Lalita Kumari v. Government of Uttar Pradesh and others case, the Supreme Court mandated the registration of a First Investigation Report if a police officer receives information regarding a cognizable offence. 

In the majority judgement, the SC had said that it found no merit in the review petitions and dismissed them. 

While agreeing with this, in his judgement, Justice Joseph went further and wrote that the CBI “is expected to act completely independent of the government of the day” and stated that the premier investigation agency should “take a decision in terms of what is laid down” in the Lalita Kumari case. The Judge also noted that the offences mentioned in Bhushan’s complaint are “cognizable offences”.  

The Congress party had also quoted from these observations on Thursday to demand an investigation into the Rafale deal. The ruling BJP, though, had focused on the SC’s observations about former Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s statements relating to the Rafale aircraft deal.

On Friday, however, Bhushan latched on to Justice Joseph’s observations and said, “We hope and expect that the CBI will now move in view of this judgement, which is binding on the CBI.”  

Further he also said that the CBI director should move to seek permission from the union government to probe the deal as mandated in the recently amended Prevention of Corruption Act by the introduction of section 17A.

“We are now asking the CBI Director to move in this matter, seek permission of the government, and now we call upon the government to grant permission to the CBI. After all, if they have done nothing wrong, if they are totally clean and above board, why should they have any difficulty in having the matter investigated especially by an agency which is considered to be a caged parrot of the government?” he said. 

On his part, former cabinet minister Arun Shourie criticised the “self restraint” of the Supreme Court while adjudicating their petitions and also not declaring section 17A unconstitutional. 

NAGPUR, Maharashtra: Despite having four major political parties, Maharashtra has mostly witnessed clearly marked out “secular versus Hindutva” politics since the formation of Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party in 1999.

Pawar had left the Congress on the eve of the 1999 assembly elections in Maharashtra over the issue of Sonia Gandhi’s nationality. The separation was short, though. Within months, the two parties formed an alliance that went on to rule Maharashtra for 15 years. 

Then there was the other storied partnership, Shiv Sena-BJP, which was formed in 1989 and weathered all challenges until last week. 

Through the last five assembly terms, the two alliances took on each other without thinking twice, firing verbal volleys and mocking opponents over their politics.

Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray would often disparage Sonia Gandhi over her Italian heritage while Congress leaders would term Thackeray a “tiger who needs 150 security men around him to roar”.

But Maharashtrians have been watching with some disbelief as the state witnesses political realignments no one could have predicted until October 24, when the results of the Maharashtra assembly elections were declared.

With Shiv Sena snapping ties with BJP over the issue of rotational chief ministership, former foes Congress-NCP and Shiv Sena are in talks to form the government while the state remains under President’s Rule.

On Thursday, the leaders of these three parties met for the first time in Mumbai to chalk out a common minimum programme.

In a rare sight, former Maharashtra deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal was seen talking to Shiv Sena legislative party leader Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai in this meeting. The meeting also included Congress’s Vijay Waddetiwar and Prithviraj Chavan and NCP’s Jayant Patil and Nawab Malik but it was Bhujbal’s presence that showed just how serious the three parties are: just before the election, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had reiterated how Bhujbal was responsible for his father’s arrest in 2000.

But the road ahead isn’t smooth. The Shiv Sena has always praised Vinayak Sawarkar and continues to demand a Bharat Ratna for him, while the Congress has taken the opposite position.

Shiv Sena has also proudly held on to its anti-Muslim stance since the demolition of the Babri Masjid and takes pride in the fact that it was involved in the 1993 anti-Muslim riots in Mumbai. Congress-NCP, on the other hand, in 2014 granted 5% reservation to Muslims in government jobs and reservations which the Shiv Sena approved of only 2018.

“It’s an alliance of contradictions and I don’t see it lasting long. Even Shiv Sena and BJP alliance saw intense friction despite having similar ideologies. Here, the ideologies are the opposite. I think we will need the Minimum Conflict Programme than a Common Minimum Programme. This alliance will last as long as the leaders of these three parties keep patience and silence. If they go on expressing themselves, this government won’t last long,” a newly elected Congress MLA from Vidarbha told HuffPost India on condition of anonymity.

It is these contradictions that the BJP hopes will bring down the uneasy alliance, if it goes through, very soon. 

While the BJP publicly is portraying a “wait and watch policy” critics say the Income Tax department’s raids on Shiv Sena-ruled BMC contractors suggest this isn’t the case.

Some BJP MLAs have already asked their workers to begin preparing for midterm polls.

Sensing the growing unease over the alliance of unnatural allies, Pawar has been assuring everyone that there won’t be midterm polls.

“A stable government will be formed soon and it will last for five years,” Pawar told reporters in Nagpur on Friday.

The common minimum programme may be less of a challenge than a deal over power-sharing. It is unclear if Shiv Sena, which ditched its 30-year-old ally over the post of CM, will agree to share the post with NCP. 

Since Shiv Sena is more dependant on the support of NCP-Congress, the two parties are likely to demand key portfolios such as home, finance, and revenue. The Congress leadership is yet to endorse the alliance with Shiv Sena publically.

Even if Shiv Sena is able to reach an agreement and form a government with NCP-Congress, the polity of Maharashtra is set to witness instability due to the nature of the alliance. 

From the Moraraji Desai government of 1977 to the Kumaraswami government of 2019, history shows that political realignments for convenience don’t last long.

The White House released a summary of a short, unclassified phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which took place on April 21.

The call primarily consisted of Trump congratulating Zelensky for his presidential election win.

“I think you will do a great job. I have many friends in Ukraine who know you and like you,” Trump told Zelensky, according to the White House memo summarizing the call.

The release of the summary comes as the White House continues to stymie lawmakers’ demands for documents and witnesses related to the impeachment inquiry. The White House has continued to stonewall the inquiry and has tried to delegitimize Democrats’ efforts.

The April call was the first between the two presidents, preceding the July 25 conversation in which Trump asked Ukraine’s newly elected leader to investigate Trump’s presidential rival Joe Biden. The White House released a summary of that call in September.

Trump mentioned his first call with the newly elected Ukrainian leader at a news conference on Sept. 25. “I spoke to [Zelensky] previous to the call that we released, which was a very innocent call,” Trump said. “Very, very innocent, very nice call.”

The April 21 call is also referenced in a whistleblower complaint, the redacted version of which was released on Sept. 26.

Liza Hearon contributed reporting.

Despite a high-profile campaign that included Gul Panag and Swara Bhasker, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won just one seat in the Lok Sabha elections. It failed to emerge even as the second largest party and finished in third place. This led some to believe that AAP’s support base in Delhi had declined and the party needed to course correct. (see here and here) 

Party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s dreams of country-wide success, in the last few assembly polls and the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, have largely remained unfulfilled. It has failed to get the kind of support it has found in Delhi in other parts of India. In the Punjab bypolls, AAP’s vote share was down to 5% and its candidates lost their security deposits. Even in the recently-concluded Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections, the party got less votes than even the NOTA option. Apart from Delhi, AAP has one MP and 20 MLAs in Punjab.

The party has also seen many well known faces leave and public spats among party leaders since the 2013 Assembly Elections. Atishi lost to BJP’s Gautam Gambhir in the Lok Sabha elections and even Panag, who had contested 2014 parliamentary polls as AAP candidate, had lost in Chandigarh. 

As the 2020 Delhi assembly polls approach, AAP leader and Delhi cabinet minister Satyendar Jain seems unperturbed by any of this. He told Huffpost India in an interview that Delhi had already chosen its chief minister, and there was no candidate better than Kejriwal.  

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As Delhi continues to grapple with “severe” air quality, pollution has already become a poll issue. While the AAP continues to blame the Centre for not taking concrete steps, the BJP has jumped at the opportunity with Manoj Tiwari promising to make Delhi pollution-free if voted to power. 

Responding to criticism (see here and here) that his government hasn’t done much to resolve Delhi’s severe air pollution problem, Jain — who holds the portfolios of Health, Home, Power, and Urban Development — said the laser show on Diwali and the ban on open waste burning were all part of steps the AAP government took to curb air pollution. 

In an interview with Huffpost India, Jain elaborated on what the Delhi government had done to check air pollution, AAP’s campaign strategy for the 2020 assembly polls and the freebies (free bus rides and free electricity up to 200 units) that the government has rolled out. 

Edited excerpts: 

What steps has the Delhi government taken throughout the year to combat air pollution? The air quality has again reached “severe” category and one of the criticisms of the party has been that the steps only begin in October-November. 

The Delhi government has, in the last four-five years, taken a lot of measures. Generators, run using fossil fuels — gasoline and diesel — which are known for releasing pollutants, have been shut down because we made electricity available to the public 24*7. We have also made it mandatory for construction sites and materials to be covered by tarpaulin. We have banned open [waste] burning and the four-day laser show on Diwali was also part of the efforts to reduce pollution and convey to the public that Diwali can be celebrated without crackers. 

Ten power plants near Delhi are set to miss their pollution control deadlines Is your government seeking cooperation from other states to ensure pollution control devices are installed in these plants?  

We have closed both the power plants in Delhi — Rajghat and Badarpur. Delhi is the only state in the country with no power plant. Central government is more equipped to answer questions about power plants in other states. In my opinion, the Dadri power plant (which is in Uttar Pradesh) should definitely be closed and that would significantly improve Delhi’s air quality. That is a major contributor to Delhi’s pollution.  

Arvind Kejriwal has said that the odd-even scheme may be extended if required. But a lot of studies have shown that it has actually done nothing to better the air quality. (see here and here)

Some say the pollution comes down by 20% when the scheme is in place, others say the impact is just about 2%. It may be a small step but it’s a step in the right direction. Reducing all sources of pollution becomes necessary when AQI is at its peak.   

Around 1 November, hospitals reported a surge in patients with breathing problems. Are your mohalla clinics equipped to handle these cases?

We [mohalla clinics] handle the basic cases, but refer the serious ones to the hospitals.  

How did the idea of mohalla clinics come up and how was it executed?

The concept of a mohalla clinic is a clinic in your neighbourhood. Even if Delhi government has a free hospital, the problem is accessibility. People would need a vehicle to travel. Mohalla clinics aim to make healthcare accessible to people near their homes. Health for all and accessible to all. 

How did you manage to get the land (which Centre controls) for the clinics?

Apart from land, we have no other problems. We are trying to rent places now and open clinics. It takes about five to six years to make a dispensary in Delhi and, before we came to power, only about one or two dispensaries were opened in Delhi on an average in a year. We cannot work at this speed and decided to instead use porta cabins. It only takes two-three months now and the cost is also significantly less. We used our knowledge as architects and bureaucrats to save public resources.  

What will be the focus areas of the party’s campaign for the Assembly elections? 

Till now, elections have been fought on politics. We want to fight these elections only and only on the strength of our work. If they vote for work, they will get even more work in the next five years. People voted for politics in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi elections and are suffering the consequences of having to wait months for their work to get done.

Could you specify the areas of work or the departments that the party will put on the forefront in the polls?  

The public knows what work we have done. The issue is, do they want to vote for work or for politics? We have made mohalla clinics and brought in the farishtey [Farishte Delhi Ke] scheme. We also get all the MRI and CT scans done for free. Our government has made 24 hours electricity a reality.

[Ed — Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched the ‘Farishte Dilli Ke’ scheme in October this year. Under the scheme, the government will incur the treatment expenditure of eligible road accident victims and also give incentives to those who take them to the hospital.]

Certain reports have suggested that BJP may attack AAP on freebies — free bus rides, metro rides and power among others.How will you counter them? 

Political parties are fooling the people. Today, every MP gets 4,000 units of electricity free every month — and they are opposing free electricity for the drivers and maids who work at their homes. They have a problem if their driver gets even 200 units free? Why are they not opposing the free 4,000 units they have been getting all these years. These are the double standards. In their opinion, tax payers’ money is for their netas and not for the people. 

We have neither imposed any new tax on the public nor taken a loan. We have only returned the public’s money back to them. Nothing is free, everything is prepaid. You have paid for all the schemes through the taxes. 

BJP is mainly opposed to two things — buses and power. Even water. Actually there are five things — free medicine, education, power, water and bus rides. If developed countries can have free education and healthcare, why can’t we?

Gujarat’s chief minister just bought a private jet for Rs 191 crore and our free bus rides scheme costs Rs 140 crore. Should we buy a jet for the chief minister or make the bus travel free? What is a freebie? Is the jet a freebie or free rides for the public?

Will the party change its election strategy? AAP finished third in the Lok Sabha elections.  

It’s usually said that the people of Delhi make the Central and state government. Most people in Delhi say they choose who the prime minister should be. It’s a matter of pride for them — whoever they will choose will form the government at the Centre. 

The BJP or Congress were in the race for the prime minister’s post, we were on the sidelines. The public did not vote for us because we weren’t in the race. But for Assembly elections, it’s clear that there is no candidate better than Arvind Kejriwal for the chief minister’s post. 

Who came up with the ‘I love Kejriwal’ campaign?

The people started it. Two-three auto drivers started it and then it just spread organically. This is a people-led campaign. 

The cases of dengue have increased in the last two weeks. 230 cases were reported in one week. 

This is the fag end. This is almost finished. This is the end of the dengue season. 

But what steps has the government taken?

In 2016, the Delhi government established a dedicated dengue control cell to conduct dengue prevention related activities. High-risk areas were identified and shared with local bodies to take necessary preventive measures in those areas. Compared to 2015, there’s been an 80% decline in the cases.

Me-wow.

Taylor Swift released a showstopping new song for the “Cats” movie late Thursday. It’s called “Beautiful Ghosts” and it’s hauntingly gorgeous.

In a number about love, loneliness and loss with just the London skyline as the background of the lyric video, Swift sings in the chorus:

All that I wanted was to be wanted
Too young to wander London streets, alone and haunted
Born into nothing
At least you have something, something to cling to
Visions of dazzling rooms I’ll never get let into
And the memories were lost long ago
But at least you have beautiful ghosts

The “Shake It Off” performer also showed hints of an English accent in “Beautiful Ghosts,” which she co-wrote with “Cats” composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

It should be noted that Swift’s character, Bombalurina, won’t be singing the song in the film. That honor will go to Francesca Hayward’s Victoria and Judi Dench’s Old Deuteronomy, Vulture reported. Swift will be heard over the credits.

The movie opens Dec. 20.

While Swift’s continued feud with ex-label boss Scott Borchetta and music manager Scooter Braun made headlines on Thursday, her breathtaking contribution to a classic musical won lots of deserved attention Friday. (She also took a ribbing for the accent.)

“Do we smell an Oscar in her future?!” MTV News tweeted.

We’re not quite sure what kind of pill SpongeBob is on when he meets Keanu Reeves in the new trailer for “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run,” but it certainly isn’t blue or red.

The “Matrix” star has an extremely weird cameo in the trailer for the third SpongeBob movie that dropped on Thursday. In it, he plays a character named Sage who appears to be … a floating head inside of a tumbleweed?

When Reeves’ character meets SpongeBob and his buddy Patrick in the trailer, the two oceanic pals have quite a natural reaction to Sage. And by natural, we mean they’re straight-up terrified.

Yet Reeves uses his innate coolness to somehow soothe the disturbed duo and delivers some truly oddball lines:

“Call me Sage,” Reeves says in the trailer. “I’m made out of sage and I am a sage, so it works out pretty well.”

Whatever Reeves’ character may be, we’re pretty sure whoever conceived of it was probably inspired by something else from nature.

At times it seems there’s no limit to the ways smartphones can make our lives more convenient. We have access to all the information the internet can offer in the palms of our hands, we can easily reach people around the world, and as the saying goes, “There’s an app for everything.”

But people have also become incredibly attached to and dependent on smartphones. Wasting hours mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or Twitter is not a unique experience, and many people have reported feeling anxious when they aren’t checking their devices. Studies have even shown that smartphone usage can alter our brain chemistry in ways that severely harm our mental health, diminish productivity, and hamper relationships and the ability to connect with others. 

Needless to say, there are many reasons to consider cutting back on your usage. But this task may feel daunting.

“Going ‘cold turkey’ is rarely effective because our iPhones are literally tied into our everyday lives,” Joshua Klapow, a clinical psychologist and adjunct associate professor of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told HuffPost. “While some see unplugging for days at a time or long stretches at a time as the way to go, behaviorally it poses too much of a challenge against a daily, hourly, sometimes minute-by-minute habit.”

But fear not: There are small ways to change your habits. HuffPost spoke to Klapow and other experts to identify ways to cut back on smartphone usage.  

Take Stock Of Your Screen Time

The iPhone’s “Screen Time” feature shows users how much time they’re currently spending on different functions so they can make changes based on actual use, instead of guesses.

Research has suggested that people spend an average of at least three hours on their smartphones each day. “If you think these numbers don’t apply to you, it’s a simple thing to check,” said Liza Kindred, an author, speaker and founder of Mindful Technology, which offers executive education and workshops in meditation and mindfulness for individuals and businesses. “I’m willing to bet that your numbers will surprise you.”

If you have an iPhone, you can go to “Screen Time” under “Settings” and see how much time you’re using your phone for calls, texts, emails, social media, music, movies, etc. The feature also breaks down the specific categories and apps that take up your time, your number of notifications per week, number of pickups, and the functions you use first when you check your phone. Other smartphones have similar features, like Android’s “Digital Wellbeing” tools. 

Do A Notification Cleanse

“People have way too many notifications on,” said productivity expert Mark Struczewski, who recommends turning off the majority of them ― especially for social media.

Things like text messages, calendar reminders and credit card fraud alerts can be OK, but other notifications generally interrupt productivity and distract people from forming connections with others in real life.   

There are also studies suggesting that notifications add to those dopamine boosts that make us so attached to our phones. “Don’t become a Pavlov’s dog and respond viscerally to every notification,” said Larry Rosen, professor emeritus and past chair of the psychology department at California State University Dominguez Hills. Minimizing notifications helps to break that feedback loop.  

Put Your Phone In Grayscale Mode

Most things about smartphones are meant to draw you in and keep you engaged. That includes how they look. Many people have found that switching their phones to grayscale mode tempers the temptation check them. 

“Turn the color off on your screen. It instantly makes the phone a lot less appealing,” David Greenfield, founder and medical director of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, told HuffPost. “You’re not going to be as intrigued by what you see on the screen and scrolling through.”

Rearrange Your Apps 

Another way to take power over the visual allure of your phone is to do some rearranging. 

“Limit what’s on your home screen and hide tempting apps in folders,” Kindred said. This tactic diminishes the convenience of distractions.

Christopher K. Lee, founder of the career consulting firm PurposeRedeemed.com, said a friend of his combined those tips by putting all of his social media apps into a folder on the second page. 

“Even though he could still access the apps, adding a few steps create a bit of psychological distance,” Lee said. “It discourages him from going through the trouble to open an app he had no real purpose for opening at that time. He is less tempted to needlessly spend time on his phone, since they are ‘out of sight, out of mind.’”

You can also fully delete the apps that you’re more likely to check incessantly and pledge to only do certain digital activities ― like checking social media ― on a computer. 

Don’t Use Vibrations

“Vibration mode is a productivity killer,” Struczewski said. “People think they’re doing the right thing by putting their phones facedown and turning the sound off. But what happens when it vibrates?”

Smartphone users can minimize the temptation to check their phones by choosing the specific kinds of alerts that will cause vibrations and keeping everything else on full silence. 

Keep Your Phone Out Of Sight

“People out together commonly put their phones face down on a table as a deliberate show of respect,” said Catherine Price, a journalist and author of “How to Break Up with Your Phone.” “But in my view, that supposed gesture of respect is actually kind of middle finger to the other person because what you’ve done is place your phone between you and the person you’re supposedly connecting with.”

Research has shown that having your phone in front of you ― even if it’s face-down or off ― is associated with worse performance on mentally challenging tasks and a reduction in the perceived quality of conversation and connection between two people. 

“If you actually want to have intimacy and connection with people or get any sort of work done, your phone cannot be within sight or earshot,” Price said. “Put your phone in your bag on silent and don’t check it during the duration of your time with the person or work. And if you have to check it, treat it like you’re taking a bathroom or cigarette break. Ask permission to excuse yourself and leave the table to do it.” 

Buy An Alarm Clock

Keeping your phone in the bedroom increases the urge to check it, especially in the evening, so it may be best to stop using it as an alarm. 

“Don’t use your screen one to two hours before bedtime. Studies show that using a device before bed leads to later bedtimes, disrupts the circadian rhythm, increases morning sleepiness and suppresses the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin,” said Pamela Hurst-Della Pietra, the founder of the nonprofit Children and Screens. She recommends charging your phone outside your bedroom overnight and instead putting a digital alarm clock on your bedside table. 

“When you awaken in the morning, give yourself some screen-free time before you unlock your phone and check your emails, texts or social media,” she added. “Wait until you’re in the office or your kids are off at school before fully engaging in answering emails, texts or calls.” 

Set Small, Gradual Goals

Klapow believes the most effective way to curb smartphone use is to make small, gradual cuts. Fortunately, the Screen Time feature allows iPhone users to set “App Limits” and tracks their progress. 

“The more reachable the goal, the better,” he said, noting that you may want to go from three hours a day on social media to two and a half, or four hours a day on texting to three and a half. “Make a list of what is priority and what is less priority ― phone, text, email vs. social media apps ― and set a reachable daily goal for curbing your time in specific areas. You can literally limit yourself by choosing how much time you want to spend in each category before your iPhone will cut you off.”

It’s important not to feel like you’re depriving yourself. “The more the changes feel restrictive and the more they create distress, the less likely you are to stick with them,” said Klapow, who added that setting gradual goals will help users find a “comfort zone of reduction” without totally denying themselves. “This is about evolving how you use the phone more so than not using it at all.” 

Find Accountability Partners

Cutting back on your smartphone usage doesn’t have to be a solo endeavor. 

“You can involve others to limit your phone use,” Lee said. “Ask a close friend to keep you accountable, checking up each week to see how you’re tracking with your goal. You can also commit with your friends or significant other not to use your phones when you’re together.”

Stop Trying To Multitask

You may think you’re able to check your phone while simultaneously catching up with friends or listening to a podcast, but according to Greenfield, this is simply not true. 

“There’s no such thing as multitasking,” he said. “We have to attend to one stream of information at a time, and the more inputs we are monitoring, the longer it takes to accomplish the tasks at hand.”

The sooner you can accept this reality, the easier it will be to put your phone down and focus on the person or task in front of you. 

Designate Phone-Free Times

As you work to spend less time on your smartphone, it may be helpful to designate specific phone-free times during the day or week. You could start by choosing a time for a weekly phone-free walk, for example. 

“Shoot for the ability to set a ‘do not disturb’ for 30 minutes at a time with one-minute tech breaks,” Rosen recommended. “Alert your friends and others that you are doing this, so they don’t get upset that you are no longer responding immediately. Take 10-15 minute breaks every 60-90 minutes of tech use and do something that we know from neuroscience calms your brain, such as visiting a natural environment, exercising or talking to a person live.”

You can also designate tech-free zones like your desk or the dinner table. On the flip side, it may be helpful to set aside times specifically for your phone.

“Giving yourself specific hours and times throughout the day to really check your messages, scroll through social media, and digest content on your phone is key,” said John Furneaux, CEO and co-founder of Hive, a productivity platform for high-performing teams. “If you’re doing this every hour, it’s costing you in a big way. Block off a few designated times during the workday to check your non-work related notifications.”

Focus On Other Activities And Hobbies

“People fiddle with their phone when they have nothing to do intentionally,” Lee said. “Having a hobby or other activity adds meaning and structure to your schedule.”

Instead of scrolling through your phone, try to spend time outdoors, dive into a new book, volunteer for a cause you support, talk to friends and family or cultivate a new hobby like playing a sport or a musical instrument. 

“The key ... is to identify what need your phone use fulfills ― like relaxation or socializing ― and replace it with an activity that satisfies that same need,” Lee said, crediting a friend for the idea.

“Often people default to checking their phones when they have five or 10 minutes to spare ― as they wait for a friend or the bus or class or an appointment. Many people feel uncomfortable with doing nothing,” he continued. “You could find a new way to fill these in-between times. For example, you could commit to reading or talking with the people around you.”

Understand That It’s Supposed To Tempt You

Shifting your mindset can help make these small changes easier to accomplish.

“The number one thing that I want people to know is that your phone and the apps on it are intentionally designed to be addictive,” Kindred explained. “It’s not a neutral technology. There are people studying how to make you spend more time staring into your screen to your detriment and their benefit.”

Understanding this reality can foster a philosophical shift and help you realize your smartphone fixation is not a character flaw or failure. And it may motivate you to reclaim your time. 

“You have a finite amount of time on earth. Your phone is designed to steal as much of your time and attention as possible because that is how app-makers make money,” Price said. “It’s a daily battle to not let that happen. Realize that every moment you’re spending on that is a moment you’re not spending on something else ― not spending on your friends, family, children, work or anything else that brings you meaning or joy. The opportunity costs are enormous.”

Many people check their smartphones due to a fear of missing out on information or experiences — FOMO — because looking at your phone can give you a dopamine boost. But Price encourages people to focus instead on the joy of missing out.

“Think of the good things we get from not being on our phones ― the conversations, the emotional connections with others, the intimacy, the experiences,” she said. “Have a moment of JOMO where you leave your phone at your desk while you go to lunch, go for a walk without your phone or take your dog out without your phone. Break free from the shackles that we have allowed to be put onto ourselves.”

NEW DELHI — Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government intends to address the concerns of the crisis-ridden telecom companies which are facing billions of dollars of fresh statutory liability following a recent Supreme Court ruling.

“I want no company to shut operations. I want everyone to be up and running. We want the economy to have good number of companies in business and flourish in their business.

“Not just telecom sector, my wish is all companies in all sector(s) be able to do business, service their market customer and survive. So with that approach, the finance ministry has always been talking and in telecom too that’s the approach we have taken,” the minister said in reply to a query regarding stress in the telecom sector. 

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While announcing its financial results on Thursday, telecom major Vodafone Idea (VIL) had said its ability to continue is dependent on obtaining relief from the government and positive outcome of the legal remedy post the apex court ruling on the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) issue.

The Supreme Court last month ruled in favour of the government and directed telecom companies to pay as much as Rs 1.42 lakh crore in past statutory dues to the government.

Days after the Supreme Court verdict, the government had set up a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) under the Cabinet Secretary to suggest measures to mitigate financial stress in the sector.

Sitharaman said “it is the intention” to address concerns of all those who have approached the government with serious concerns post the court’s decision.

“We are also conscious that there is a Supreme Court order that the government has won and therefore, the department concerned has to take a call that would be a collective call, taking into account... understanding implication for the sector and finances of the government,” she said.

Regarding CoS, the minister said “it is yet to take a call”.

Sitharaman also said that no bank has approached the finance ministry raising concern over their exposure to the telecom sector.

VIL posted a loss of Rs 50,921 crore — the highest-ever quarterly loss by any corporate in India, mainly on account of provisioning for paying the statutory dues.

VIL said it is in the process of filing a review petition on the AGR matter.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel too reported a loss to the tune of Rs 23,045 crore for the September quarter.

Future brides and grooms have now been warned: Invite Lilly Singh to perform the pre-wedding turmeric scrub ritual known as Haldi at your own risk.

Singh, host of “A Little Late,” told James Corden on “The Late Late Show” Thursday that she got up close and aggressively personal with singer Nick Jonas at his December wedding to actor Priyanka Chopra in India.

Singh, who met Jonas and Chopra separately through projects, was invited to do the skin-revitalizing rub on Jonas. She said she asked Chopra if she could “go to town on this,” and the bride told her to “destroy him.”

“So I ripped his shirt open, put my hand all the way down, definitely ripped out some of his nipple hair like for sure, and I went to town with the turmeric,” Singh recalled. “And you can see it all over his face. He’s having a great time.”

Corden showed the photographic evidence, and noted that at least the bride and Nick’s brother Kevin Jonas certainly had fun. As for the groom, you be the judge from the clip above.

The days are getting darker and the end of the decade is inching closer. If you’re already ahead of the game, and have read the big books of the year—Madhuri Vijay’s JCB Prize-winning The Far Field, Bernardine Evaristo’s Booker Prize-baggingGirl, Woman, Other, and Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport, which took home the Goldsmiths Prize this week—here are some smaller gems to finish the year with. And if you’re struggling to meet your reading goals for 2019, HuffPost India has your back—and some single-sitting books for you. Easier on the wrist, but no less stimulating, these 10 small and short books also make for friendly travel companions and fun presents.

As a bonus, and because we truly believe you will love these little books, we’ve also recommended book pairings—or what we think you should read next. Don’t say you weren’t spoilt for choice. And happy reading!

1. Exquisite Cadavers by Meena Kandasamy (Atlantic Books; 100 pages) 

Palimpsest-like, playful, polemical, provocative and at its most powerful in the peripheries of its pages—Kandasamy’s latest is a response to the reactions to When I Hit You. The experience, for me, felt closest to reading JM Coetzee’s Diary of a Bad Year, which I similarly read multiple times, in multiple ways. Do you read the main narrative first, or the margins? Do you somehow read them simultaneously, or separately? Exquisite Cadavers has fun with form, fact, and fiction—a “literary hall of mirrors”—and is not unlike a choose-your-own-story-style book. Kandasamy interrogates how we read and invites new ways of reading and being read. In her preface, she says that she has embarked on an experiment—which she pulls off successfully, of course—and this positively ambitious and audacious work may just be my book of the year.

What next? In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado or The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy 

2. A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar (Viking; 118 pages)

If, like me, you too were suffering from a three-year hangover from Matar’s magnificent and masterful memoir, The Return—which won him a Pulitzer and a Rathbones Folio Prize—A Month in Siena is your cure. Part art history and criticism, part memoir, part philosophical meditation and part travelogue, this book is beautiful both inside and out. Interspersed with images and dedicated to his wife, Diana, it is an ode to a city long “worshipped from afar” (“Siena began to occupy the sort of uneasy reverence the devout might feel towards Mecca or Rome or Jerusalem”) and an elegy for a lost father and a lost fatherland—spectres of which still soak these pages. I use “ode” and “elegy” as descriptors for the book because Matar’s fiction and non-fiction writing have always felt closer to poetry. Sample this from this latest: ‘Isn’t this at least one definition of happiness, I thought, to be anticipated?’ A gorgeous and glorious book you can dip into and return to time and again. 

What next?Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza, translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead 

3. We Are Made Of Diamond Stuff by Isabel Waidner (Dostoyevsky Wannabe; 105 pages)

A summarization can’t do justice to this utterly unputdownable and uber-cool novella shortlisted for this year’s edition of the Goldsmiths Prize. At just over a hundred pages, this is Waidner’s second literary outing after Gaudy Bauble—also published by the Manchester-based indie press—and immediately made me want to seek out more of their work. Brace yourself for the innovation, intertextuality and metatextuality at work here—you are not ready—and the simultaneous seriousness and playfulness of it all. Soak in the space-clearing, canon-shifting, rewriting of “national” identity—dealing as it, and Waidner, does with Empire (2.0) and Brexit, queer migrant experiences and working class cultures—set in the Isle of Wight. Only in Waidner’s wondrous, weird and wild fiction can ice-skater Tonya Harding, polar bears, Reebok Classics, and a protagonist who looks like Eleven from Stranger Things share space.

What next? Crimson by Niviaq Korneliussen, translated from Danish by Anna Halager

4. Europa by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith (Strangers Press; 33 pages)

One-of-eight in the YEOYU: New Voices Korea chapbook series, Europa is, as its protagonist In-ah sings: “So many colours, like funeral ribbons.” If you read the Korean writer’s last book in English, The White Book, the sheer number of colours in contrast here will immediately strike you. This short story is about friendship, love and longing—for another, but also to be another. It’s also about pain, peril, and violence—although this is almost always on the peripheries of the page—as well as depression and death. “(It’s like there’s some kind of toxic black liquid trickling into my skull. When it happens, I can’t move, I can’t sleep.)”—she writes, in parenthesis, at one point. In-ah suffers nightmares “of fish bones, fractals, and a marriage that ended”. And although the love here is written in a style closer to The White Book—tender, soft to the touch, fragile, may break easily—the violence, hunger, and desire is reminiscent of The Vegetarian. I have said too much already; go seek this gem out for yourself.

What next? Complete the YEOYU series for your coffee table

5. My Father’s Garden by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (Speaking Tiger; 200 pages)

I recommend you read My Father’s Garden, which is structured in three sections (short stories? novellas?) which are told and titled via the protagonists’ relationship with three men—‘Lover’, ‘Friend’, and ‘Father’—in one or two sittings at the most. Shekhar’s latest, shortlisted for the 2019 JCB Prize for Literature, engages with big, bold, brave matters (homosexuality in a homophobic society; political ambition and exploitation; and environmental issues, to name but a few) with ease, earnestness and economical prose. The book is that perfect blend of the personal and political, as it archives the young life of a queer, Santhal doctor, his disappointments and disillusionments. What stood out to me was the use of language(s)—the on-the-page translations—which transformed words and dialogues on paper, and pages in a book, into places in Jharkhand: dorm rooms, rented flats, demolished houses, gardens, ponds.  

What next? Turn to Shekhar’s short story collection, The Adivasi Will Not Dance

6. The Half God of Rainfall by Inua Ellams (Fourth Estate; 96 pages)

It’s the season of Greek myth retellings, but I can assure you that this one is not like the others. From the award-winning poet and playwright behind Barber Shop Chronicles comes this deeply feminist story of bravery, danger and defiance—and which Ellams also adapted for the stage. Mixing Greek and Nigerian mythology, basketball and issues of the body, motherhood and #MeToo, pride and power, fury and female revenge, this book may not be epic in size, but is in genre and ambition. Behold young Demi’s mother, the brave Modupe—alongside other mothers, daughters and goddesses—assemble like Avengers, fight for what’s right, and face Zeus’s lightning bolt.

What next? The 2019 Forward Prize-winning Vertigo & Ghost by Fiona Benson or Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi 

7. I Remain in Darkness by Annie Ernaux, translated from French by Tanya Leslie (Fitzcarraldo Editions; 79 pages)

Titled after Ernaux’s mother’s words in her final fully coherent phrase, this memoir and diary-entry-style meditation at just under 80 pages is incredibly moving, poignant and powerful. An account of a mother-daughter duo, mothers becoming daughters and daughters becoming mothers, health and sickness, role reversals and remembering, forgetting, coping, witnessing, and (anticipating) mourning, it looks at a kind of loss that cannot be fully fathomed or understood or explained, only told in fragments. Anxiety, ageing, Alzheimer’s disease, loss of agency and one’s sense of self and the world around them, I Remain in Darkness is about the darkest moments of life.

What next? Girl in White Cotton by Avni Doshi 

8. This Is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill (Serpent’s Tail; 96 pages)

A small but mighty fictional companion to two recent, non-fiction heavyweights—Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill and She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey—Gaitskill’s latest shakes up the nascent genre of #MeToo novels we’ve seen in recent years—especially those set in the workplace. Told through alternate, shifting perspectives—from the point of view of friends Quin and Margot—this is at times, an uncomfortable read. When does flirting go too far? Where do the limits and loyalties of friendship lie? Human relationships are messy—and Gaitskill wants you to make up your own mind, question, and then question again, your own moral compass. This small book packs a punch and aims straight for your gut. When you turn the final page, which side of the fence do you find yourself on?

What next? Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

9. Childhood by Tove Ditlevsen, translated by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman (Penguin Classics; 99 pages)

“In the morning there was hope”—thus opens this trilogy (including Youth and Dependency) by Tove Ditlevsen, one of Denmark’s “most famous and extravagantly tortured writers”—and whose autobiographical work is of the re-discovered “lost classic” variety. Its opening chapter is full of the most painful and perfect passages I’ve ever read. A bildungsroman, the portrait of a young, female, working-classic artist, it’s no surprise the writer’s work has been compared to Annie Ernaux and Elena Ferrante (I would hasten to name the greats—Tolstoy and Coetzee—here, too). At the end, the book, like life, comes full circle: it looks forward to Youth but also backwards, over its shoulder to the bygone childhood days (“childhood is long and narrow like a coffin”). You simply cannot stop at one.

What next? Complete The Copenhagen Trilogy (PS: her final memoir was titled Gift, which in Danish means both married and poison)

10. There’s Gunpowder in the Air by Manoranjan Byapari, translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha (EKA, Westland; 178 pages)

There’s gunpowder in the air… and a pungent smell soaks the prose and pages of Byapari’s second work in translation. Shortlisted for both the 2019 JCB Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, its cast of characters, its comic tragedy, its compelling account of corruption, cruelty, poverty, and prison life, and the climax towards which the central plot travels, has struck a chord with several readers. Unsentimental, yet searing, and refreshing, this is a remarkable literary achievement—and resurrection of the Naxalbari movement and Bengal in the 1970s.

What next? The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner

SABARIMALA — Amid tight security, the Lord Ayyappa temple would open for the two-month long pilgrim season Saturday evening, with the CPI(M)-led LDF government making all preparations to make it a hassle free pilgrimage.

Kandararu Mahesh Mohanararu would open the sanctum sanctorum and perform the pujas.

AK Sudheer Namboodiri would take charge as the Sabarimala Melsanthi and MS Parameshwaran Namboodiri as Malikapuram Melsanthi.

The pilgrims would be allowed to climb the 18 holy steps after the padi puja and have darshan.

The portals of the hill shrine, located in a reserve forest in Western Ghats in Pathanamthitta district of the state, would be opened for the two-month-long Mandalam Makaravilakku season this evening around 5 pm. 

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Devotees have started arriving at Nilackal and Pamba from various parts of Kerala and neighbouring states, but would be allowed to leave for the shrine only by 2 pm.

The state and temple precincts had witnessed frenzied protests by right outfits and BJP workers last year after the LDF government had decided to implement the Supreme court’s verdict of 28 September, 2018 allowing women of all age groups to offer prayers at the shrine.

For centuries women in the menstruating age group of 10-50 years were barred from entering the temple.

However, this year, even though the top court has not stayed its verdict on entry of young women into the shrine while posting various petitions on the matter to a larger bench, the government was excercising caution.

It has decided not to give police protection to women in 10-50 age group to trek the holy hills to reach the temple.

Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has made it clear on Friday that Sabarimala was not a place for activists to display their activism and said the government would not encourage such women who want to visit the shrine for publicity.

Those who want to visit the temple can procure a court order to enter the temple, he said.

Social activist and Bhumata bridge leader, Trupti Desai, who was not allowed to offer prayers last year and had to return from Kochi airport due to protests from devotees, said in Mumbai that she would be visiting Sabarimala on Sunday.

“If women need protection to trek the hills, police should provide the same. Whether government gives protection or not we will be reaching on 17 November to offer prayers”, she said.

People like Trupti Desai should not make use of the opportunity to exhibit their strength, the minister said adding that “Sabarimala is not a place for such dramas”.

Maintaining that this pilgrim season would be peaceful, Law Minister AK Balan said if anyone tries to hamper the darshan of the devotees, the government would take strong action.

Attempts by around a dozen women, including activists and journalists in the 10-50 years age group, to climb the sacred hills had come to nought last year as frenzied devotees of Lord Ayyappa heckled and hassled them and forced them to retreat.

However, defying protesters, two women, in their 40s―Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga, had entered the Ayyappa temple in January this year and offered prayers scripting history.

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which is managing the Ayyappa shrine, has also sought legal opinion on the apex court directive.

The board has made elaborate arrangements to provide maximum amenities to the devotees.

The unprecedented floods during August last year had also played havoc with the pilgrimage season with most of the facilities for the devotees being destroyed.

The resting places for the devotees at Nilackal, Pamba and Sannidhanam have already been set up along with medical, water and toilet facilities.

Over 10,000 police personnel would be posted in phases in and around the Lord Ayyappa temple for security purposes during the pilgrim season.

The five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday said a larger bench will re-examine various religious issues, including the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple and mosques and the practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.

Nandita Das is a busy woman. When she isn’t moderating masterclasses with celebrated filmmakers (she recently did one with Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad at MAMI), she is delivering talks at IITs or film schools, using her celebrity and knowledge to guide young filmmakers clueless about negotiating the Hindi film industry.

“Some of the questions I get are so simple, it hurts me. They talk to me because they find me accessible but I really wish I had the infrastructure to take their stories forward,” she said in an interview.

In her capacity, she does what she can, like making phone calls and putting a talented young filmmaker in touch with someone who could potentially help them.

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Last year, Das wrote and directed the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Manto, which premiered at Cannes but didn’t do that well at the Indian box-office, partly due to the hasty manner in which it was distributed. “Thankfully, it’s now on Netflix but you still feel sad. After spending so much of yourself in honing the last detail, if it ends up on mobile screens, it’s just sad,” she said.

Other than being an outspoken critic, Das has also continued her anti-colourism crusade, with her latest video titled, ‘India’s Got Colour.’ In the past, she has called out fairness cream companies and those who endorse them. 

In this interview, conducted during the Mumbai Film Festival, she spoke about using art to tackle intolerance, the complexities of freedom of speech and where she looks for solidarity in troubled times.

You’ve been a champion of freedom of expression and you have also spoken about the need for it to be absolute. But then how do we deal with something like a propaganda film?

I honestly don’t know what the solution to that is. Because banning and censoring is a double-edged sword. I can’t say ‘censor and ban that but don’t touch my films’. What you can do is hope that people become more discerning. Like the internet. Whatever you can imagine probably exists. But you filter it out, don’t you? So I believe the good will last. The best judge of art is time. Whatever we see today is because it survived the test of time. It’s not that there wasn’t bad art back then but it didn’t last. 

Unless you look at it in an ironic manner.

Sure. For instance, when we talk about great actors, a Naseeruddin Shah instantly comes to mind. Now he’s done over 100 films and some of them are quite bad, but you remember the 15-20 good films that he’s exceptional in. You have to hope for the good to survive. Because I honestly don’t think there can be a mechanism. We can’t just form a body and say that ‘hey, my taste is really good, so I will decide what people will watch’. That’s what the Censor Board is doing. There are 5-6 random people who decide what 1.3 billion people will watch.

And the minute you invoke morality, you’ve kind of self-sabotaged the demand for free speech.

Oh, of course. Manto also wrote about that. He said morality is the rust on a blade that eats up the society. 

So then, when something likes a Kabir Singh comes, a film that was deeply polarising, what would your argument be?

Whether it’s a propaganda film or a regressive film like Kabir Singh, there are two ways. One, where we look inwards: can we become more discerning? Can we choose not to watch it and enable more of the same? If I don’t like a Kabir Singh, I will talk about how misogynistic that film is. I will express dissent. But at the same time, cinema is also a reflection of society. If such a film is being made and it does well, what does that say about us? The audience is complicit. Even politically, there’s a complicity in all of us if we’re letting it—whatever that is going on—happen. It’s a scary, slippery slope: in the name of freedom, we don’t want hate speeches, we don’t want propaganda, we don’t want misogyny. 

What do you think is the middle ground?

It’s a crazy parallel to make but I’ll make it nonetheless. As a mother, one of the things we’re facing now is the over-reliance of our children on gadgets. Now, if I keep telling him, ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it,’ he’d want to do it even more. So you’ve got to give them alternatives that broadens their taste. So I’ve a pottery wheel he’s gotten interested in. We go to the museum. We’ll take a walk in the park. So in terms of cinema, we ought to create alternative narratives. Give people more options. That’s how you cultivate a discerning culture. When people have the ability and the choice to weigh a misogynistic film with something that isn’t, a film that shakes you up and makes you ask questions. If nothing, maybe they’ll have debate. 

In a culture that sorely lacks such alternatives, what does the commercial success of a Kabir Singh tells us about ourselves? 

The success is, in straightforward terms, indicative of societal numbness, apathy and brutal celebration of misogyny. The success just validates a certain male narrative where you’re okay being violent towards women. 

And by conflating abuse with affection, it romanticises that violence and sells it as an expression of love.

Absolutely. As if the existing violence isn’t bad enough. Violence manifesting itself through trolls and WhatsApp messages and Twitter attacks and worst of all, conscious misinformation. All of is are one step away from turning physical. But I often think ― even those that are lying are at least invested in the truth because they are going to a great extent to hide it. You are acknowledging the truth.

This is also perhaps the most politicised Bollywood has ever been. While art often becomes a vehicle of dissent in countries where freedom of expression finds itself under threat, the same cannot be said about our film industries. 

I sometimes wonder, what is wrong with us? How did we get here? In every place, there are enough people resisting. In US, there’s Trump, but Hollywood is resisting as is the media there. The actors, the filmmakers, everyone is taking a stand. Why is it not happening here? How did we get so co-opted by the system that there’s just so few of us left? We need more people to dissent so those of us who do don’t feel this lonely. 

In times like these, when the regime feels more and more authoritarian, where do you look for solidarity?

For one, I don’t have a television. That takes away half of the negativity. I have Twitter but I use it quite judiciously, mostly to catch up on articles and sharing those that I enjoy. I don’t believe that we need to talk in a way that polarises people. So the liberals also need to do a bit of soul-searching and find the right vocabulary to champion their cause. I was very glad to see that people banded together and wrote a letter to PM Modi about the rising cases of lynchings. I was quite happy to see names that weren’t there before. I’m an optimist. 

You think this gets better?

I am an optimist. Some of us will continue to tell stories of our times. As Bertolt Brecht said, “In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.”

With Christmas party season on the horizon, you’d be forgiven for feeling apprehensive about the onslaught of hangovers. So, is there any way to avoid an absolute killer of a headache (or worse) while boozing through December?

You have some obvious options: steer clear of alcohol altogether, drink less, eat to try and absorb some of the alcohol, and have a glass of water between your bevvies (your mum wasn’t wrong!). But there might also be a scientifically-backed way to avoid an even worse hangover – and, interestingly, it’s all to do with the colour of your drink.

While research around hangovers is rather limited, we do know the higher the count of congeners in your booze, the worse your hangover is likely to be. Congeners are a byproduct of fermentation and distillation during the alcohol production process. Some types of booze have far higher concentrations of congeners than others – and this tends to correlate with the colour of your drink.

Researchers at Brown University followed 95 people aged 21 to 33 years old, who were all classed as “healthy, heavy drinkers” across two nights of drinking.

The first night, participants in the study drank either bourbon (which has a higher number of congeners) or vodka (which has a lower count). On the second night they had a placebo. The study revealed that hangover severity was associated with a high congener count – bourbon was more likely to cause the mother of all hangovers compared to vodka.

If you apply this to a wider number of drinks, it’ll probably go some way to explaining why darker beverages like red wine, bourbon, brandy, beer and whiskey can leave you with a banging head, compared to lighter (or clear) beverages like gin, vodka and white wine.

The research did not show links between congener levels and different types of hangover – the ‘feeling sick’ type, the banging headache one, or the hangover where you’re just more tired than you’ve ever been in your life.

It’s probably a good idea to shun darker boozy beverages at the work party and hope for the best. But Alexis Willett, who is the author of Drinkology: The Science of What We Drink and What It Does to Us, says there are actually many factors at play when it comes to hangovers – and we need to be mindful of them all.

“You’ve got quite a lot of individual variations,” she explains. “You’ve got people who don’t metabolise alcohol very well – people who flush and go very red after drinking – and often those people have very bad hangovers the next day. You’ve got people who are very sensitive to alcohol, and people who aren’t at all.” Not to mention the fact that hangovers do get worse as you get older.

This isn’t even getting into different types of drinks, says Willett, who references the Brown University study only to say the jury’s still out: “Some people feel that these [congeners] may be in some way responsible for hangovers, but the results are really inconsistent and other people don’t think this is the case.”

There are other chemicals present in alcohol such as histamines – and different types of alcohol contain varying amounts of them. “They can cause headaches as well as a runny nose and itchy eyes,” explains Willett. “You get quite a few of those in red wine and Champagne, but less in other types of drinks – so there might be something going on there.”

Histamines are common in a lot of foods we eat – cheese, processed foods, tomatoes – so you might have eaten those in the day and then your histamine levels have been building up, and alcohol is what tips the scales, causing you a banging head.

Sulphites, which are used as a preservative, could also be to blame. Sulphite sensitivity can cause symptoms such as dizziness, wheezing, itching or an upset stomach within minutes of drinking wine or beer. It might also explain why some people get worse hangovers the next day – however there’s no concrete proof just yet.

The Institute of Alcohol Studies estimates that hangovers cost the economy up to £1.4bn a year – which is reason enough for a sore head. With as many as 89,000 people in the UK turning up to work hungover or under the influence of alcohol every day, more research is clearly needed. “At this point, we still don’t know what exactly causes hangovers,” Willett adds. “So there’s a lot we need to find out about.” 

Former Friends guest star Freddie Prinze Jr has revealed he wasn’t actually the first choice to play male nanny Sandy in his famous episode.

Back in 2002, the actor had the distinction of guest starring in the 200th episode of the sitcom, which saw him playing the nanny of Ross and Rachel’s daughter Emma (much to the annoyance of Ross).

However, in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Freddie admitted the role wasn’t actually written with him in mind, as two-time Oscar-winner Tom Hanks was offered the part first.

“I wasn’t even supposed to be [Sandy], that was originally offered to Tom Hanks but he wasn’t gonna make it back from his film on time,” he recalled.

Following this he was offered the role at the very last minute, adding: “My agent called me and said, ‘Do you want to be on Friends?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do an episode of Friends. That’ll be great.’ He said, ‘Yeah, it shoots tomorrow’ and I was like, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Yes, tomorrow so I’ll send you the script’.”

Freddie went on to say he had a great time on set, adding: “I went in and I was totally nervous because it was on the day of shooting. I didn’t even get to do a read-through. And David Schwimmer walked into my dressing room and he was so cool and so passionate and he had so much energy.

“He came into the room and was like, ‘You’re going to love this, man. It’s like a little two-act play and the crowd is so engaged, and so into it. You’ll have a ton of fun, don’t worry about a thing’.”

Freddie’s experience differs somewhat from other actors who guest starred in the hit sitcom, including Kathleen Turner, who admitted last year she wasn’t exactly made to feel welcome during her two-episode stint as Chandler’s dad.

NEW DELHI  Senior journalist Rajat Sharma on Saturday resigned from the post of president of Delhi & Districts Cricket Association (DDCA), citing his inability to continue amidst “various pulls and pressures” within the organisation.

Sharma’s nearly 20-month tenure was a tumultuous one with his public differences with general secretary Vinod Tihara, who enjoys a fair amount of support base in the organisation.

“The cricket administration here is full of pulls and pressures all the time. I feel that vested interests are always actively working against the interest of cricket,” Sharma said in a statement.

“It seems that it may not be possible to carry on in DDCA with my principles of integrity, honesty and transparency, which I am not willing to compromise at any cost,” he added.

Within hours of Sharma’s resignation, CEO Ravi Chopra also put in his papers. The two member Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) comprising Sunil Valson and Yashpal Sharma also tendered resignation.

It will be interesting to see whether the Atul Wasan-led selection committee and coach KP Bhaskar will continue for the Ranji Trophy team or not.

Sharma had joined cricket administration after receiving active backing from former finance minister late Arun Jaitley.

Many DDCA insiders believe that Sharma lost ground once Jaitley was no more as the late former finance minister was the binding force for all the different factions.

“In my endeavour though I faced many road blocks, opposition and oppression, just to keep me from discharging my duties in fair and transparent,” Sharma said. 

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“That’s why I have decided to call it a day and hereby tender my resignation to the Apex Council from the post of President, DDCA with immediate effect,” he added.

With Sharma’s resignation, Tihara’s suspension is expected to be revoked. That will pave the way for him to become DDCA’s representative at the 1 December BCCI AGM in Mumbai.

“It is a good decision by Rajat ji to tender his resignation. Yesterday, eight of the directors had signed in favour of withdrawing all powers from the president,” Tihara told PTI.

The signed resolution is in possession of PTI.

“I am not interested to be the president. In any case as the general secretary, I will have a lot of work,” Tihara said, indicating that he will certainly be the BCCI pointsman in the DDCA.

“We will now have to call an emergent meeting to accept Rajat ji’s resignation which won’t be a problem. Next, we need to fix the date of the general body meeting to elect a new president.”

Tihara won the DDCA elections contesting for the Sharma group, but fell foul with the president within the first few months on various cricket and administrative related issues. It included allegations of trying to control recruitment without following protocol and not following due diligence.

Tihara was then suspended by the executive committee on disciplinary grounds which he subsequently challenged in the court of law.

The planet Mercury is seen in silhouette (low center) as it transits across the face of the sun on Nov. 11, 2019. Mercury’s last transit was in 2016; the next won’t occur until 2032.

Dancers from Tokyo wearing traditional costumes perform during a celebration event on Nov. 9, 2019, a day before Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako’s royal parade in front of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

A taxi cab passenger looks out the driver’s side window while passing through Times Square, following the Veterans Day Parade in Manhattan on Nov. 11, 2019. 

Protesters sleep on a barricaded street outside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Nov. 15, 2019.

Workers maintain an animatronic dinosaur at the Gengu Dinosaurs Science and Technology company on Nov. 13, 2019, in Zigong, Sichuan Province, China. There are hundreds of simulated-dinosaur manufacturers in Zigong, accounting for 85% of the world’s production.

Silke Lohmann poses beside a wooly rhinoceros skull during a press preview at Summers Place Auctions on Nov. 14, 2019, in Billingshurst, England. The piece makes up part of a collection, including taxidermy and dinosaur skeletons, that will go up for sale on Nov. 19.

A man crosses the flooded St. Mark’s Square in Venice on Nov. 13, 2019, after an exceptional overnight “alta acqua” high tide water level.

A supporter of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro fights with a supporter of opposition leader Juan Guaidó outside the Venezuelan Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, on Nov. 13, 2019.

A father hugs his daughter after being reunited at a park near Saugus High School, where a shooter killed two students and wounded three more on Nov. 14, 2019, in Santa Clarita, California. 

People take photos of Pope Francis with their smartphones as he arrives for an audience at the Vatican with students and teachers of Rome’s LUMSA Catholic university on Nov. 14, 2019.

A man walks a dog as the sun rises in Hanover, northern Germany, on Nov. 14, 2019. 

Actor Reese Witherspoon turned down a return to “Friends” because of her fear of performing in front of a live studio audience.

“Did you know they asked me back and I said ‘no, I can’t do it.’ I was too scared,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press this week.

“I got scared. I got scared,” she added. “Yeah, they asked me to come back and I was like ‘I’m too nervous.’”

Witherspoon had a cameo as Jennifer Aniston’s on-screen sister Jill Green in two episodes of the hit NBC sitcom.

She explained her reason for never reprising the popular role to Aniston during the promotion of their new Apple TV Plus dramedy “The Morning Show.”

Check out the clip here:

 On 12 January 2018, four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, including Justice Ranjan Gogoi, held a historic press conference. The judges informed the nation that the integrity of the Apex Court, and thereby the survival of democracy itself, was in danger and that they were speaking out publicly since their efforts to resolve the issues internally with then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had failed. Poignantly, Justice Gogoi stated that it was a “discharge of a debt to the nation” that motivated them to address the public. 

The press conference and a letter written by the four judges to the then Chief Justice raised concerns regarding the administrative role discharged by the latter in reassignment of cases and finalisation of the Memorandum of Procedure relating to the appointment of judges.  Justice Misra’s tenure showed that the seemingly benign administrative power of the Chief Justice to allocate cases had the potential of being abused. Justice Misra’s tenure ended with allegations of him cherry-picking judges to hear politically sensitive cases so as to influence the outcome, and listing cases in a manner that led to him being a judge in his own cause. When Justice Gogoi took over as the Chief Justice of India, there was widespread optimism that the institutional credibility of the SC would be restored since he was one of the four judges who spoke out at that historic press conference expressing concerns about the hallowed institution’s integrity. 

But on April 20 this year, reports emerged that a complaint alleging sexual harassment by Chief Justice Gogoi had been sent on a sworn affidavit along with supporting evidence to all the sitting judges of India’s top court. Despite it being a Saturday, a notice was issued on the SC website stating that a three judge ‘special bench’, which included CJI Gogoi, was being constituted to hold court on that day itself—allegedly on the ‘mentioning’ by the Solicitor General. During this ‘special hearing’ the Chief Justice protested his innocence against the allegations made against him in open court and instituted a suo-motu writ petition declaring that the allegations against him were an attempt to threaten the independence of the judiciary. The Attorney General and Solicitor General were also present in court, and immediately aligned themselves with the CJI and reportedly made disparaging comments about the complainant. Curiously, the order passed after the hearing did not carry the Chief Justice’s name or note his presence on the bench. 

Public demands to inquire into these allegations led to the constitution of an internal committee comprising three sitting SC judges for this purpose. Subsequently, reports emerged that the complainant had decided not to participate in the inquiry due to several legal issues with the functioning of this Committee. Justice Chandrachud reportedly wrote a letter to the committee, urging it to accommodate the demands of the complainant. Despite this, the committee proceeded ex parte and within a matter of 5 days, held the Chief Justice to be innocent. 

Parallelly, to protect the ‘independence of the judiciary’, the SC entertained ever-changing conspiracy theories by a lawyer who alleged falsity of the sexual harassment complaint and set up an external inquiry under Retired Justice A K Patnaik. The committee submitted its report in September 2019, but till date neither has it been published nor any action been taken on its basis. 

The treatment of the sexual harassment allegations by CJI Gogoi raised several doubts regarding his commitment to the institutional integrity of the Supreme Court. Several uncomfortable patterns of conduct including being a judge in one’s own cause, constitution of a special bench of select judges to hear a matter out of turn and opaqueness in internal functioning of the court had once again reared their head. Other administrative issues in the Apex court including the tenets of allocation, prioritisation and accountability in functioning persisted and remained unresolved during the tenure of CJI Gogoi. 

Assignment and prioritisation of cases

From August 6 this year, a Constitution bench of the SC heard the land dispute in relation to the Ayodhya Case on a day to day basis. Constitution benches with five or more judges decide questions of constitutional ramifications. But there was no question of constitutional interpretation that arose in the land dispute in Ayodhya that necessitated the setting up of a five judge bench by CJI Gogoi, instead of the earlier bench of three judges that was to hear the dispute. When the constitution of this bench was objected to, the Supreme Court responded that this was a matter of the Chief Justice’s prerogative. 

When hearings for the Ayodhya case commenced, a slew of petitions were filed at the same time before the Apex Court in relation to the constitutional and fundamental rights crises facing the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir after the events of 5 August 2019. The SC under Chief Justice Gogoi faced strongcriticism for the discomfortinglack of urgency in hearing the petitions – challenging the communication lockdown, detention of persons, abrogation of the ‘special status’ and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state - particularly those dealing with blatant fundamental rights restrictions. 

The law on fundamental rights demands that the greater the restriction, the higher the need for strict and immediate scrutiny by the Court to determine if the restriction is provided by law, proportional and necessary. The writ(s) for habeas corpus were rendered meaningless when the bench presided over by Chief Justice Gogoi  failed to direct the State to either immediately produce the persons detained before the Court, or to prove the legality of the detention. Similarly, the SC neither demanded the State to show the legal basis for the communication blackout, nor did it pass any substantive interim orders that may have ameliorated the restrictions on the rights of the citizens in Kashmir. Once, as this report shows, the bench presided over by Chief Justice Gogoi expressed inability to hear the Kashmir petitions expeditiously as it was busy hearing the Ayodhya matter.

The indication has been somewhat clear that multiple factors go into expeditiously hearing matters and constituting benches, and issues of violations of fundamental rights of an entire population of a state may not be sufficient to merit urgency of hearing or mandating hard timelines from the State to be answerable to Court. 

However, in relation to the case concerning the National Register Of Citizens for Assam, a bench presided by CJI Gogoi on 13 August 2019 directed that it would not extend the deadline for the mammoth project of creating the ‘final NRC’ list beyond 31 August 2019. Even the government’s request for extending the timeline was rejected. The urgency demonstrated by the bench presided over by the CJI Gogoi is questionable because in the same order, the court noted that the implementation of NRC is subject to the outcome of a separate constitutional bench decision dealing with the definition of ‘citizen’ under the Citizenship Act. 

The question of whether “every person born in India” constitutes a citizen, irrespective of the nationality of the parents, a question that is at the fulcrum of the NRC process, is yet to be decided. The implementation of NRC is also subject to a constitutional challenge to the separate cut-off date for Assam as compared to the date of 1951 for the rest of India. It is unclear as to where the pressing need to determine illegal foreigners comes from—particularly since the entire basis of the NRC process is subject to two pending constitutional challenges. 

The CJI recently said at a book launch that the NRC was a ‘base document’ for the future and that there is an “urgent need to ascertain with some degree of certainty, the number of illegal migrants”. As per the ‘Restatement of Values of Judicial Life’ adopted by the SC in its full Court meeting on May 7, 1997, a judge shall not enter into a public debate or express his views in public on political matters or on matters that are pending or are likely to arise for judicial determination. By making public comments on the urgent need for the NRC Project, while deciding cases on the implementation of the same project, the CJI has risked shaking public confidence in the idea of an unbiased judiciary that is unbridled by any political motivations.

The situation of ‘constitutional evasion’ by the SC during the tenure of CJI Gogoi was particularly noticeable in the case of electoral bonds. Despite the controversial nature of the amendments relating to electoral bonds, and the fact that the Election Commission itself had opposed these amendments in court stating that they would cause a blow to transparency in political funding and allow circumvention of mandatory provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951, the SC refused to stay the scheme and the related amendments before the general election in 2019. Although the top court noted that the issues at play would have “a tremendous bearing on the sanctity of the electoral process in the country”, it stated that it did not have time to hear the issue in detail and  directed political parties to submit the details of the donor of each electoral bond to the Election Commission in ‘sealed cover’ for the time being. As explained here, in such cases the evasiveness about deciding the constitutionality of the issue results in effectively upholding constitutionality since any subsequent judgment would be an exercise in futility. Even if the court subsequently found the amendments to be unconstitutional, it would be powerless to change the results of the elections. 

Appointments & Transfers of Judges

Within the first few months of Chief Justice Gogoi’s tenure, controversies regarding the appointment of Supreme Court judges erupted. In December, the collegium had recommended the appointment of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Rajendra Menon to the Supreme Court. However, in January these recommendations were dropped and the collegium proceeded with recommending the appointment of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjiv Khanna instead, superseding 30 judges senior to Justice Sanjiv Khanna. Both sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts raised objections to this change in the collegium’s recommendation. 

More recently, controversies have emerged against the transfer of well-regarded High Court judges, Justice Akil Kureshi of the Gujarat High Court and Justice Tahilramani of the Madras High Court to smaller High Courts of Tripura and Meghalaya respectively. Due to the lack of transparency in these appointments, there has been speculation that these judges were transferred to the smaller courts as they had previously passed orders that were not favourable to the ruling dispensation. 

Previously the collegium had recommended the elevation of Justice Kureshi as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on two occasions, however the recommendation was kept in a stalemate  by the central government. The Gujarat High Court Advocates Association (GHCAA) challenged the inaction by the government to confirm the recommendation of Justice Kureshi as Chief Justice of MP High Court. While this petition was pending, the collegium modified its recommendation and transferred Justice Kureshi to the Tripura High Court. This was soon approved by the Centre, thereby rendering the GHCAA petition infructuous. In a unique scenario, the decision to change the recommendation made by the CJI as part of the collegium on the administrative side, had a direct bearing on the GHCAA petition that the Chief Justice was hearing on the judicial side. 

In its order dated September 23 regarding the GHCAA petition, the bench presided over by the Chief Justice observed that interference in matters of appointment, transfer and posting of judges affects the system of administration of justice and, therefore, does not augur well for the institution. 

The inaction on the inquiry report submitted by Justice Patnaik pursuant to the sexual harassment allegations and the order in the Kureshi case shows that the terms ‘judicial independence’ and ‘administration of justice’ are often invoked to avoid uncomfortable questions raised.

Way forward

The top court last week confirmed that the office of the CJI is a public authority under the RTI Act. It reiterated that judicial independence is a matter of public interest and clarified that the purpose of judicial independence is not to “undermine and avoid accountability.” The court clarified thatthe independence of the judiciary is not preserved by denial of access to information and that independence in a given case may well demand openness and transparency by furnishing information. 

At a time when the goings-on in courts are under immediate, constant, live-updated vigil, retaining public confidence in an unprejudiced and independent Supreme Court is even more crucial. Chief Justice Gogoi has left the top court after having been part of a bench that re-emphasised in its judgement in the RTI case that, “Judicial independence and accountability go hand in hand as accountability ensures, and is a facet of, judicial independence.” 

There is a greater need for accountability on the procedural and administrative dealings of the Apex court, since these decisions involve a wider latitude of discretion and are thus open to a higher level of public speculation unlike substantive judgments which are based on settled principles of law. As the Supreme Court enters the tenure of its next administrative head, the office of the CJI will need to  be consistently answerable to the people of the nation and to no one else—something Justice Gogoi himself highlighted at the unprecedented press conference held on 12 January 2018. 

The authors are Delhi-based advocates and members of the Women in Criminal Law Association.