We're still recovering from the smoggy aftermath of Diwali and trying to wrap our heads around the long-term damage we all have done to the air in Delhi. And if this isn't the time to get yourself an anti-pollution air-mask, I don't know when it'll be.
Well, Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi has answered this very call in their most recent launch. They have brought us what may well be, by far, the most affordable, and most efficient anti-pollution mask you and I can find - the Cloth Pear Fresh Air Mask.
The Cloth Pear mask comes with a detachable and rechargeable air filter, and uses hand-woven, high-quality polyester fabric to offer a comfortable and secure fit.
Its air filter is lightweight, has an ultra thin fan with three speed levels and has a lithium-ion battery that takes about 3-4 hours to fully charge.
The filter is equipped to achieve PM2.5 filtration efficiency of up to 99 percent. But it's been priced at CNY89, which converts to about ₹900. With this mask, Xiaomi is giving us a more affordable alternative to masks that offer such protection for significantly more money.
Alas, Xiaomi's Cloth Pear Fresh Air Mask isn't available in Indian stores just yet. They're currently being sold only on the Chinese crowdfunding site Mi. Here's hoping that they'll come to our rescue soon enough, though.
We're waiting for them with bated breath. LITERALLY
One lesson that Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots taught us is that we don't have to follow the rat race to achieve our dreams. That lesson was substantiated in Phunsuk Wangdu, the scientist who had 400 patents to his name and was even sought by the Japanese!
What we didn't know was that the character of Phunsukh Wangdu was actually inspired by an engineer from Leh.
Sonam Wangchuk, a 50-year-old mechanical engineer from Ladakh, is the man who inspired Wangdu's character.
Wangchuk builds Ice Stupas to facilitate irrigation in the desert areas of the western Himalayas. These brilliant pieces of engineering are actually conical ice mounds that act like mini-glaciers and slowly release the water for agriculture. The term Ice Stupa was coined by him.
He also shared a picture of an Ice Stupa on Twitter:
Wangchuk primarily works in the Ladakh region situated at a 3,500-metre altitude. This area faces acute shortage of water during the crop-growing season and his efforts towards making agriculture possible in this area have been recognized internationally.
And now, Sonam Wangchuk has been honoured with the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise 2016. The awards were presented on Tuesday in Los Angeles to those "who have reshaped the world with their innovative thinking and dynamism".
The dynamic engineer has also founded a school called SECMOL- the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh. His aim is to make learning fun and practical rather than being about cramming textbooks. The school is for kids who are deemed as a failure by societal standards. He believes that memorizing kills learning and, in turn, the confidence of a student. As reported by Flame Buzz, he said:
If failures can achieve what toppers dream of, then there is something wrong in the system.
You've probably heard that with age comes experience and it stands very true when you make a transition from your 20s to your 30s.
The maturity level at 20 is starkly different from the maturity level at 30. In fact, you may laugh at yourself when you think about all the crazy things you did back in the day. Starting from your fashion sense to your idea of fun, everything seems to have changed by the time you hit 30. The kind of decisions you took at 20 seem to have belonged to another person.
Here are some illustrations that perfectly sum up what this crossover from 20s to the 30s looks like:
India is a land of immense talent and there are many people whose contribution to their respective fields has earned them recognition both nationally and internationally. With their excellence and expertise in areas such as literature, cinema, science and politics, these Indians are as popular abroad as they are in their homeland. Celebrating & honouring their talent, there are several places abroad that are named after them.
Here are 11 such places outside India that have been named after Indians:
1. A.R Rahman Street, Canada
A R Rahman's music transcends all boundaries, and we know that the Oscar winning music composer is not only popular in India but also abroad. Canada showed its love for the Mozart of Madras by naming a street after him, called the 'Allah-Rakha Rahman st',in Ontario.
2. Gavaskar Place, New Zealand
Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, honoured little master Sunil Gavaskar by naming a street after him, calling it 'Gavaskar Place'. Interestingly, the name of the locality where this street lies is called Khandala. Seems like New Zealand is quite smitten with India!
3. Mahatma Gandhi Road, Netherlands
We have a Mahatma Gandhi road in almost every city in India and with his popularity as the leader who propagated non-violence, he's revered in many other countries too. There are many roads named after him in Netherlands, USA, Germany, Philippines, Iran, Canada and several other countries.
4. Swami Vivekananda Way, Chicago, USA
Who can forget the historic speech given by Swami Vivekananda in 1893 at the Parliament of Religions, in Chicago, which still fills us with pride? In his honour, a street was named after him in Chicago, which is called the Swami Vivekananda Way.
5. Indira Gandhi Street, Tanzania
India's high commission in Nicosia, the only Indian representation in Cyprus, is located on the street named after India's first woman Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. There's also an Indira Gandhi street in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
6. Rabindranath Tagore Street, Berlin, Germany
Profound Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore visited Germany thrice, where he met one of the brilliant scientific minds of 20th century, Albert Einstein, at his Berlin home in 1926. Commemorating Tagore's 100th birth anniversary in 1961, a street was named after him in the city of Tel Aviv. Interestingly, the street intersects with the one named after Einstein.
7. Jawaharlal Nehru Square, Moscow, Russia
India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru admired USSR and it's a known fact that he's quite popular in that country. There is a Jawaharlal Nehru square in Moscow’s Vernardsky Prospekt. The square is know as 'Ja square', as it's difficult for Russians to pronounce Nehru’s first name.
8. Bhagat Singh Chowk, Lahore, Pakistan
The place where Bhagat Singh was executed, now known as Shadman chowk, was officially named as 'Bhagat Singh Chowk', after the revolutionary leader. However, due to the opposition met by some Islamic jihadists, the court stayed the decision.
9. Raj Kapoor Crescent, Canada
Legendary film actor and India's ultimate showman has a street named after him in the city of Brampton, Canada. It's called the Raj Kapoor Crescent.
10. Mt. Sinha, Antarctica
The United States named a mountain in Antarctica honouring Akhouri Sinha, the Indian-American scientist, who pioneered biological research expedition providing important data about animal populations.
11. Dwarkanath Kotnis Statue, Shijiazhuang, China
Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis was one of the 5 Indian physicians who was sent to China by the Indian government to provide medical assistance during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938. He is widely respected by the Chinese. Which is why an entire south side of the Martyr's Memorial park in Shijiazhuang city, one of the major tourist attractions, is dedicated to Dr Kotnis. A statue has also been erected in his honour.
Hollywood has been churning out numerous sequels in recent past but 2016 is going to see the mother of all sequel sprees. In fact, it has pretty much become customary to follow up a hit movie with a sequel. Interestingly, such has been the craze of these movies in India that Hollywood movies are beginning to threaten the collections of domestic movies. And with the alarming success of Deadpool and Spectre, Bollywood has the writing on the wall - Get your act together.
Meanwhile, here are 18 sequels of Hollywood movies that will be releasing in India this year:
1. Jason Bourne (US release date: July 29)
This action spy thriller is the fifth installment in the Bourne franchise and the sequel to The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). The film stars Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Alicia Vikander, Tommy Lee Jones, and Vincent Cassel. Bourne escaped unscathed in the previous one and is all geared up for the next adventure.
This horror film is the sequel to the 2013 film, The Conjuring. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson will reprise their roles as Lorraine and Ed Warren. The first one was quite scary so we can only hope that this installment will be even better.
3. London Has Fallen (India release date: March 4)
Gerard Butler! Need I say more? This is a sequel to Antoine Fuqua's 2013 film, Olympus Has Fallen. Directed by Babak Najafi, also stars Aaron Eckhart, and Morgan Freeman. The secret service team has to save the American President after several world leaders are attacked in London. By the way, that release date is tomorrow.
It is the sequel to Now You See Me (2013) and stars Mark Ruffalo, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Sanaa Lathan, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Jay Chou, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Lizzy Caplan. The Four Horsemen resurface for a comeback performance in the hope of exposing the unethical practices of a tech-magnate. Their only hope is to perform one last unprecedented stunt to clear their names and reveal the mastermind behind it all.
It is the sequel to Finding Nemo (2003) and will be about Dory trying to re-unite with her family. It has also been confirmed that characters from the first film will appear in the sequel, including Dory, Nemo, Marlin and the Tank Gang. The film will take place six months after the events of Finding Nemo and will be set off the coast of California.
6. Alice Through the Looking Glass (US release date: May 27)
Johnny Depp will reprise his role as the Mad Hatter in the sequel of Alice in Wonderland(2010). The Mad Hatter has to be saved in this one and only Time (a peculiar creature who is part human, part clock) can do that. The sequel is based on the novel, 'Through the Looking-Glass' by Lewis Carroll. The film stars Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Rhys Ifans, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen and features the voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Timothy Spall.
7. The Purge: Election Year (US release date: July 1)
This is a sequel to The Purge: Anarchy (2014) and the third installment in The Purge series. The Purge event is an annual event in which all crime is legal and all police, fire, and medical emergency services remain unavailable for 12 hours. Although, it is thought to be used as an act of catharsis for the U.S. populace, it is in reality used as a method of artificial population control as the unemployed poor in slum neighborhoods are usually the main targets. Frank Grillo will reprise his role in the film but will have to survive the final purge event before the new anti-purge government comes into place.
8. Underworld: Next Generation (US release date: October 14)
It is the fifth installment in the Underworld film series and the sequel to Underworld: Awakening (2012), with Kate Beckinsale reprising her role as Selene. In the last film, Selene was determined to reunite with Michael and take back the world from the humans and lycans, which will probably be the plot of this film.
9. Ice Age: Collision Course (US release date: July 22)
This is the fifth installment in the Ice Age film series and a sequel to 2012's Ice Age: Continental Drift. Denis Leary, Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, Keke Palmer, Jennifer Lopez and Chris Wedge are set to reprise their roles from the previous installment. Scrat's adventure into space sets off a series of events that threaten Manny and the rest of the herd down on Earth, forcing them to leave behind their home. On their journey, they discover an exotic place, led by its spiritual leader Shangri Llama.
10. Independence Day: Resurgence (US release date: June 22)
This is a sequel to the 1996 film, Independence Day. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. The aliens were able to send a distress signal to their other battalions before their final defeat while others went into hiding elsewhere around the world. The aliens in deep space receive the signal and send a larger battle fleet, threatening the human race once more.
11. Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (US release date: May 20)
It is a sequel to the 2014 film Neighbors. Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne will reprise their roles in this film. Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) are expecting their second child. They soon reunite with Teddy (Zac Efron) to help battle the sorority sisters of Kappa Kappa Nu led by Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz) who moved in to their neighboring house after they branched off from Phi Lamba Phi led by Madison (Selena Gomez).
12. Mechanic: Resurrection (US release date: August 26)
This film is the sequel to the 2011 film The Mechanic. After the demise of his partner-turned-enemy, Steve McKenna; Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) retires his status as a contract killer. But when his most formidable foe kidnaps the love of his life, he is forced to travel the globe to complete three impossible assassinations, and do what he does best, make them look like accidents.
13. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (US release date: October 21)
It is a sequel to 2012 film Jack Reacher. Tom Cruise will be reprising his role as Jack Reacher, a former U.S. Army Military Police Corps officer, in the film. The films also stars Cobie Smulders, Danika Yarosh, Aldis Hodge, Patrick Heusinger, and Holt McCallany.
14. The Huntsman: Winter's War (US release date: April 22)
This film is a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). As two evil sisters prepare to conquer the land; two renegades - Eric the Huntsman - who previously aided Snow White in defeating Ravenna, and his forbidden lover, Sara set out to stop them. Chris Hemsworth and Charlize Theron will be reprising their roles as Eric and Ravenna.
It is the sequel to the 2003 film Bad Santa. The con men from the first film will probably reprise their roles in this one too and Brett Kelly will be back in this one as Thurman. The film also stars Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Kathy Bates, and Christina Hendricks.
16. Barbershop: The Next Cut (US release date: April 15)
It is a direct sequel to the 2004 film Barbershop 2: Back in Business and the fourth film in the Barbershop film series. The gang must work together to save the shop and the neighborhood from gang members that roam the streets. Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer will be reprising their roles from the previous one in this film.
17. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (US release date: March 25)
It is the sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was released in 2002. The big, crazy Greek family is back and there's another wedding. Nia Vardalos is back as Toula and John Corbett will be back playing Ian.
The film is the sequel to Angels & Demons, and stars Tom Hanks, reprising his role as Robert Langdon. It is the third film of the series. In this one, Robert Langdon awakens in a hospital room in Florence, Italy, with no memory as to what has transpired over the last few days. He suddenly finds himself, again, the target of a major manhunt. Inferno also stars Irrfan Khan.
