Fascinating science, Pulwasha Cooks show and more

For the love of science

Over the past couple of years, as my love for physics has grown, I’ve taken to devouring all I can on the subject, be it books, documentaries, podcasts or YouTube videos. I am especially fascinated by cosmology and quantum theory, and I’ve found that there is no better guide to such mind-bending subjects than the astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Although he is renowned for his popular science books, I’m a fan of his podcast/YouTube video channel, Star Talk. In it—alongside his brilliantly hilarious everyman foil, the comedian Chuck Nice—Tyson explores such diverse subjects as String Theory or the visual geometry of watches, with great wit, erudition and clarity. Star Talk’s guests are stars too, whether they be scientists like Brian Greene or pop culture people like George Takei or Christopher Nolan. Can’t get enough of it!

—Bibek Bhattacharya

The earthiness of Nadia Saleem

She takes a pressure cooker, chucks in meat, oil, onions, tomatoes, water, spices and closes the lid. In the meantime, she chops up a cauliflower to add to the meat. While it’s cooking, she makes rotis. When it’s all done, she ladles the food on a plate for herself. This is Berkshire, UK, based Nadia Saleem’s YouTube channel, Pulwasha Cooks Official, which has 596,000 followers (her Insta account has one million followers). She mostly speaks in Punjabi, cooks desi food, and is dressed in suits with dupattas. The cooking is simple, but what makes it interesting is her earthiness and how she weaves everyday life, memories of home and food together. The best part: when she says “sutt do”, or chuck it in (into the pot).

—Nipa Charagi

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Run Lola run

It was the bright sunflower colour of this pair that stopped me in my tracks during a marathon scroll session on Instagram. Getting up for a morning walk would become way easier if only I had yellow shoes, I convinced myself as I clicked “buy”. Happily, the Lola walking shoes from Happenstance are not just supremely easy on the eyes (available in a staggering 40 colours) but also super comfy, with soft knit fabric uppers and the brand’s trademark fluffium sole, which is neither too flat nor too chunky. It’s a flexible pair in every way—not just physically (you can actually wring it in your hands, as the eye-catching ad shows) but also something you can wear on a walk, to a lunch/coffee meeting, or even a casual dinner with a cute dress.

—Shrabonti Bagchi

Beyond time’s bounds

My video game experience is limited to Mario Kart, but Rusty Lake’s The Past Within piqued my curiosity. The story is reasonably cohesive: scientist Albert Vanderboom is dead, but has devised a mind-bending plan to resurrect himself through his daughter Rose. In this two-player game, one player takes on the past, the other the future, and we must communicate to solve each puzzle in the game. A friend and I played together over a few days, each on our own phones, solving clever pattern-matching puzzles and operating a mysterious cubical machine that bridges the past and the future. It’s like a digital escape room, where we unravelled mysteries and messages Albert had left behind. The game’s mildly disturbing atmosphere kept us on the edge, but sharing the experience made it memorable.

— Ghazal Chengappa

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