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

Have you heard about Ashok Rathod? He is teaching or more properly say coaching football. Well, you might think what is the big deal there, there are a number of remarkable football coaches with excellent skills, does he coach a world cup team or what? No he is not. But he is doing something even more responsible work towards the society. He started his voyage by offering to teach football to a few kids he knew. In return, the children have to promise him to not to miss classes. His football group is named as OSCAR (Organization for Social Change, Awareness and Responsibility. It is the tale about Ashok’s journey from a boy who was at the edge to drop-out from school to a youth insisting kids to not to bunk the classes. You gotta read it.

Angry birds are famous all over. A couple of years ago Rovio Mobile Ltd. (a Finnish game development company) developed a new game for mobile and computers and named it “Angry Birds”. The game was a phenomenon hit. And is much popular these days also. The Chief Marketing Officer of the company Peter Vesterbacka is interviewed by Reino Rasilainen in this issue of RD, bringing some interesting stuff about the same to us.

Word power brings “Meet And Greet” stuff in this issue.

As we have mentioned in the beginning of the article that all the human beings have some of the limitations. And probably those made us just human. It happens at many times that by seeing a place, an object, a person etc. we think that we know the name or stuff about the same but unable to recall. Its quite normal that after a certain age the ability to remember names and recalling them, gets affected. Even having some strange dreams when taking a nap is quite human. So don’t worry too much and do not take the things too seriously. Enjoy the life. And of course read this article about such strange things we are likely to get affected at certain stage of our life. Spoiler: there are several other strange habits and behavior also mentioned in the article. Mainly the following (or related to them) syndromes are discussed (along with their positive effects).

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder You are more likely to be hardworking and deligent
• Anxiety You are more likely to be compassionate
• Mild Bipolar Disorder You are more likely to be creative
• Asperger Syndrome You are more likely to be a problem solver
• Depression You are more likely to be insightful

But be wise in analyzing, if the symptoms are remarkably high or not reflect the positive stuff mentioned, consulting a doctor (at least once, for satisfaction) is the better alternative. A nice and must read article we can say.

As the Mother’s day is approaching (actually, everyday we live is the mother’s gift to us, so we can say every day is the mother’s day, but nonetheless on this day we at least remember all her sacrifice and at least care to say her thanks by various ways!); an article dedicated to the mother is expected and it is there. The best mom advice. The article’s cover illustration in different and superb. Here is list of some of the best advice by mom, to get details about each of them, we insist you to read the article.

• A soothing prayer
• Never give up
• Be there for others
• All for the best
• Stay focused on the reward of your journey and the routes shall become pleasant
• Never postpone expressing appreciation of others
• No favours
• Have a heart
• Improve your argument
• Let go
• Talk about this
• Respect yourself
• Forgive and forget

And when your mother is no more, even her absence is a lesson in itself, isn’t it?! Well, I believe so.

James Corbett is a self-taught sculptor from Australia. He is getting noticed slowly but steadily. He actually uses something considered of no use to built the figure he intended to create. Eg. to create an Orangutan, he used 1983 De soto grille, old headlights are used to create toucan and so on. There are even fox and goat created from the machine waste. So he has the vision and art to convert some waste into a good showpiece. Read the article to see the figures of sculptures made by him.

Real life drama brings us the story of six climbers, who were trapped high on a deadly mountain. Rescue them was possible only though a mission which was very risky. The mission was accomplished though. There were causalities as well, but challenging such bad circumstances and rescue as many as possible is really a brave work. Appreciated!

A study article about Olympic and the stuff associated with it, by David Thomas, with added illustrations by Maggie Li is found in the magazine. It is about to discuss the ideas to see if we can find something different to make some of the sports of Olympic even more interesting, otherwise over the time it will be something which may not fascinate us. For example take cricket. With too much of 20-20 we used to see Sixes as the common shot. There were days, when a boundary or Six made all watching the match, joyous and delightful, now the charm of the same is decreasing slowly and steadily.
The following stuff is discussed in the article:

• Dressage
• Modern Pentathlon
• Greco-Roman Wrestling
• Synchronized Swimming
• Soccer
• Track Cycling
• Boxing
• Shooting
• Tennis

Quite analytical stuff. You may or may not agree with the stuff mentioned there, of course. But then represent your views and reviews here, via comments 🙂

The stuff about Titanic is yet there! There are several facts about the unsinkable ship which sunk on its maiden voyage which are coming to the front over the time. There are several myths or unanswered questions, which are tried to explore in the article by Nigel Stafford-Clark. Which includes the following

• The class that was fated to die
• Whose fault was it?
• A Misguided Hero
• Shaggy-dog tale
• The last waltz
• The movie mistake that wasn’t

A quite different approach to represent the facts about the Titanic.

Edward Lucas comes with the article Those Funny Europeans! It is actually about some funny jokes or sayings based of the perceptions about a group of people. The article is spread over 4 pages but I personally doesn’t found it much interesting.

Look, see the world differently. Have a nice photo influenced with blue color. where you see several cars from the top view. You will come to know by seeing the photograph of the Astronauts that the previous photo was of… well, just visit it and enjoy it.

Before a few years Ashok Mahadevan then editor of RD India have tried meeting Baba Amte. He was given 15 minutes time to cover his interview. He was disappointed by feeling that it is not possible to cover the actual stuff in that short time span, however he understood that Baba’s health doesn’t permit him more time. He have once even decided to drop the idea to meet him. But somehow he met him. And Baba spoke for around an hour enthusiastically, at the end Ashok and his team mate have to conclude the interview for the sake of Baba’s health. This tells all about the persona Baba Amte have, he was always willing to do something for others. Anandwan is the place (or homage) for people suffering from leprosy (and being considered as almost untouchables by the society), mentored by Baba Amte and it is homage for such people since six decades. In this inspiring article you will find the less known fact that Baba Amte became a criminal lawyer in 1936 and practiced too. Don’t miss it.

In addition, the regular segments are there to enrich the reader’s experience. In this issue we find comparatively more stuff to read. A good read. Go for it.