Saturday Feeling: Do you “really” love reading?

Mary Beard has been popping up on social media feeds this past week saying she “cannot bear the phrase ‘I love reading’.” She contextualises it to explain that such frivolous lines undermine an act of learning to think about the world and see it differently, and that if we “relegate it to the wellbeing section of our lives, we’re really underestimating it”. I’d disagree to an extent—because you can love something that’s hard and complicated, and wellness is also about attempting to become a better version of oneself—but I do understand where she’s coming from.

Her annoyance comes from radio hosts’ light-hearted questions to authors. Social media has turned reading into showboating—performing what one is “reading now” or alternately declaring anxiety and grief over tsundoku. It’s also what leads to silly, annoying questions like “have you read all these books?” when people see shelves in a house, or worse, “how many books do you read in a year” as if it’s a shoe collection that must be rotated periodically or a productivity list to prove one deserves the year’s raise. Reading is an intensely personal and private pursuit, and we each take something different away from it. Books are bought lovingly and painstakingly over years but one doesn’t always have to read them immediately, or finish an entire book in a sitting. There’s the joy of thinking about something you read a while ago and hunting for the book to enjoy those words again. There’s dipping into books when you’re bored to read just a few paragraphs, a chapter or a story. And then there’s tearing through a book because you’ve given your heart to the characters and the story and can’t wait to see where they are going. Yet, there’s less time and patience for this kind of meandering and immersion in words and pages. I often hear people saying they spend more time on reels and don’t read as much as they used to before. For them, Aravinda Anantharaman’s essay on finding her way back to reading by reorganizing her home library would be heartening. Pair it with Somak Ghoshal’s interview with Shanta Gokhale about a lifetime of reading, buying, losing and returning to books. Whether you love to read or love the idea of reading, they’re pieces we hope will make you think about your own relationship with books.

The quiet grief of losing a job

Reports of job loss are rampant; barely a month goes by without one company or another announcing layoffs. What’s often forgotten in all the corporatized rationalization is that real people are affected when a career ends overnight, and that there is a sudden erasure of an identity built over decades. The immediate concern is to rebuild their lives and pay the bills, but that leaves little room to actually mourn what was lost. Underneath the anxiety, writes Sandhya Soman, is an intense, shapeless grief for the sudden loss of identity, income, and the daily camaraderie of colleagues. The instinct summarily to dismiss our grief and move on is described as “disenfranchised grief”, and covers unacknowledged relationships, miscarriage, pet death, and crucially, job loss. Read more.

Welcoming Michelin with a pinch of salt

The world-famous Michelin Guides are likely to come to India by the end of the year. Michelin stars are coveted in the restaurant world as anonymous inspectors make multiple visits to rank fine-dining establishments on consistency, quality, technique, flavour mastery and the chef’s creativity. It seems like a good system for a Eurocentric world where food diversity is limited, but in India, every region, district and village has its own variations on each dish. Can a rating system with such strict criteria do justice to India’s wide variety of food and drink, asks Jahnabee Borah. Read more.

‘Hunkkaar’: An overcrowded but determined series

Hunkkaar: The Roar, a six-episode series on JioHotstar about a young woman who accuses a powerful godman of rape, isn’t always dynamic or artistically bold, but it’s always purposeful. Daayra, released the week before, showed the difficulties in registering a rape case in a timely manner so that the perpetrators might be brought to justice (the film, unfortunately, also suggests that custodial killings are often the only way justice can be achieved). Hunkkaar, created by Karan Darius Kapadia and Nitya Mehra, has a more nuanced argument to make, writes Uday Bhatia. It quietly shows how the justice apparatus (and society at large) makes it extremely difficult for anyone, but especially women, to raise their voice against the powerful in India. Read more.

Sponsors override style at fashion week

It’s that time of year when fashion feeds are filled with runway shows in New York, London and Milan, and Indian designers aren’t just on these runways but are also a significant part of conversations with editors, buyers and those watching the next generation of talent, Sujata Assomull observes. Much of that is down to an increasingly confident contemporary Indian fashion language, with designers recognising that creativity and commerce have to work together. Yet, at home, fashion week hasn’t kept pace, and in fact, it remains a marketing vehicle instead of a showcase of fashion as a serious business. When cars appear on runways and hair-styling tools become as prominent as the clothes, it is fair to ask where the balance lies. Read more.

Make the most of the chest fly machine

It might seem that the chest fly machine is meant to work the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor, the two main chest muscles it targets. But like every other piece of gym equipment, this one has some unique variations and uses as well. It’s little known but the chest fly machine can also work your obliques or the serratus anterior. It can also teach you some things about your body, like exposing certain weaknesses in form and strength. Pulasta Dhar explains how to use this machine, while also pointing out what other exercises it can be used for. So the next time you see this particular machine, don’t just use it to rep out some flys, because it has way more potential. Read more.