Reader’s Digest India | June 2012 Issue | Magazine Reviews

Do you know that in India actually 3% of jobs are reserved for the people with physical disabilities. An activist from Ladakh named Mohammed Iqbal and his efforts to bring awareness in disable people and of course fight with the bureaucracy is quite inspiring. He rightfully speaks his heart that sometimes the disable people makes themselves even more disable when they close themselves in a mental shelter. If you have something missing in your body (or not functioning well) then don’t let it affect your head at all. I personally feel that the people with physical challenges doesn’t need the sympathy from the society but needs the opportunities, some little genuine help in proving themselves, and that is it.

The main article of the issue is about the Alzheimer’s – the disease that robs people from themselves. There are several medical advancements which brings the new hopes for the people suffering form the same and the article by Anita Bartholomew discusses them. There are several movies which made people aware with Alzhemier’s; for example, the character played by Amitabh Bachchan developed the disease in the critically acclaimed movie “Black” by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the female protagonists of the Hollywood movie “50 first dates” and Hindi film “You, Me or Hum” are also the patient of the same – to name a few. The article is having several sections like…

• How do you know if it’s Alzheimer’s?
• Treating the symptoms
• Research failures may lead to success
• Discovered: How Alzheimer’s soreads
• Some real people who are living with Alzeimers

A tale of two Eco-Warriors is about Licy Siegle and Bittu Sahgal, who both lives continent apart. They believe that in addition to the awareness activities, some simply habits in the day to day life, makes a big difference in terms of environment and preservence of the same; but only when actually a very very large number of people implement those good habits. Some simple yet effective tips given in the article are:

• Buy less stuff: It not only saves the money but also the energy created to produce those stuff (when you will not actually using the stuff you bought)
• Take the lift sparingly: This is the most easily implemented stuff, it helps you keeping healthy too.
• Get a bicycle (and a helmet): Short trips are not only harder to you when made in car (like the traffic jams, chaos, finding parking place, paying for that… ah, a lot of hurdles) and harder on the environment too.
• Go vegeterian. Meat production is highly resource intensive.
• Maintain your vehicle so it gives you the best value for the money and produce less carbon and other environment harming stuff.
• Plant trees.

Power to the people is the article about alternative energy sources which uses human efforts to generate energy.
Human Dynamos and Solar Energy are the two sources discussed mainly.

The Hunt For Flight 447 is the article about a mishap in the air. On may 31, 2009 Air France Flight 447 took off from Rio with 216 passengers on board, bound for Paris. Somewhere over the Atlantic it fell from the sky with all lives lost. So began a two year operation by underwater investigation unit headed by Oliver Ferrante to find the plane’s black boxes and find the cause of one of the most baffling crashes of the aviation history.

Cheer Up : 17 reasons to be alive, is the article which was adopted from the UK edition of Reader’s Digest and it covers the facts about the current time including:

• Poverty is nose diving
• The important stuff cost less
• The environment is better than you think
• Global trade enriches our lives
• Oil is not running out
• Great ideas keep coming

The current age is the cyber age and it have its benefits. Where there is light, there is dark too. Cyber crime is one of the major threat now a days. Though sometimes it may happen that you did something out of curiosity or did innocently which could be a cyber crime! So its your responsibility to beware of the stuff and watch your actions. Some of the things which can turn you into a cyber criminal includes (but not limited to) – as mentioned in the article are…

• Your Wi-Fi network is used by someone else to download illegal material including child port, pirated movies, music, books and more…
• Hanging out with cyber terrorists unknowingly
• Defaming (or trying to defame) someone via social networks, email campaigns and other ways
• Receiving illegal goods for someone else
• Someone commits a criminal offense in your name

Of course there are precautions you can take, which you better read from the article itself.

“For Better, For Worse” is the story which was first published in 1997. It was about Kim and Krickitt Carpenter’s love story which seems taken from a book. Recently the Hollywood film “The Vow” and an autobiography made people to remember it again. RD publishes this as a worth to tell, classic in the issue. Also the current whereabouts for the couple is mentioned at the end of the article as “Today the Carpenters live in Farmington, New Mexico , Kim’s hometown with their two children. In thier autobiography, Kim wrote that Krickitt has never regained memory of meeting, dating or marrying him the first time“. It is a classic indeed and you gotta read it to believe that despite from looking filmy, this is a tale based on real incidents.

What your genes can tell you is about DNA analysis. Medical writer Anne Mullens had her DNA analyzed and shared what she learnt.

Mohan Sivanand’s “French Windows” is about France. The essence of the article is, the masterpieces are not only found in the galleries, you can look behind the window glass and you can find a masterpiece there too!

Family is all about supporting each other and be there for the one when he needs you. The article “How to get Husband to help at home” is about the family life and arrangements. The article is written by keeping the thought Traditionally, most Indian men never did any housework and the women didn’t work in the office. But all that’s changed, and it’s good for the family’s health and happiness if men shared the house work. in center.

Carrara Turning art history into toothpaste is the article about the mountains which provided marbles for the masterpieces like Michelangelo’s David; and its current situation.

In the bonus read section you can read a small nice thriller cum mystery based at somewhere in New Zealand.

And of course other regular sections like humor, health etc are there.

Final verdict: You can surely go for it. As it covers a wide spectrum of subjects to read about at the affordable price. Rather spending them in the gossip magazines it is worth investing in good reads.