MUMBAI STUDENT APURVA PANDEY HAS SCRAWLED UP A NEW DICTIONARY TO REDEFINE WOMEN
A for alluring, B for buxom, C for curvylicious -twenty-one year-old artist Apurva Pandey's body shaming dictionary redefines women and how! Drawing from her personal experiences, Apurva's project, `She Talks Buxom' highlights issues faced by Indian women on the `heavier side'. “I've been through a lot of body shaming as I weighed around 80 kilos when I was a teenager. I always wanted to lose weight, which I did when I moved out of home for further studies,“ she recounts. “I was told that I looked `prettier'. It made me think -does fat mean ugly?
The association of beauty with body weight has always been beyond my understanding,“ adds the artist.

A student of architecture, Apurva's hobby of sketching and drawing led to the birth of the project. Armed with markers and fashion magazines, she started drawing voluptuous women over ideal models' figures. “It was a travel pas time activity , where I ended up learning anatomy in the process,“ she says.

Giving details on how she started working on the project, the artist says, “I began with doodling. Then I started adding colours and fancy drapery -a swimsuit, to be precise. Later, I drew nudes and added more details. Since I belong to a typical Indian family , wearing short skirts and dresses was prohibited, as I wasn't thin. So, I took revenge and made sure that my women wore short dresses.“

And what's her folks' reaction to that?
“There is no artist in my family -only doctors and engineers. But my father has always been supportive of me.Even when he saw my sketches, which were mostly nudes, he was pretty chill about it. In fact, just a while ago, he bought me a canvas.My mom wasn't so okay with it initially -she was awkward -but has made peace with it,“ says Apurva.

During a talk to a bunch of students from Ramnarain Ruia College, the project connected in a big way with the young girls there. “The experience has been empowering and changed me as a person. I have stopped complaining about my body and am more comfortable in my skin,“ says Apurva, adding that even men have written to her about the proj ect. While she's pondering over the offer to come up with her own merchan dise, she also hopes that body shaming gets the attention it needs. “It's a sensitive topic.

But the current situation in India is so terrible that it's not even considered an issue as we h a v e many oth er problems that need to be addressed,“ she concurs.

With summer on in full swing, there's no better time to add some whites to your wardrobe. The colour is a staple for the season. For a dinner night, a lazy Sunday brunch or a fun day on a beach, a white dress is a versatile option for these outings. Designer Nandita Mahtani's new collection ‘White Wash' has been designed keeping this in mind. The collection incorporates easy breathable fabrics like cottons and cheesecloth which let your skin breathe in this scorching heat. “Whites being my favourite shade this season, I would recommend a feminine white dress to every woman in a style silhouette which is complimentary to her body. An off shoulder dress is great for a dinner night with minimal use of mirror work that adds the correct amount of bling to the outfit. Kaftan and flowy dresses are the kind of silhouettes which keeps one's look simple, yet chic and fresh for a beach or brunch look,” says Nandita. Head to the designer's store Ananya at Bandra for more such looks.



Create a healthy environment at home by choosing eco-friendly flooring.
This sort of flooring can add beauty to your house without the addition of harmful chemicals. In addition, these floorings are processed without harming the environment. The options are broad enough that regardless of what type of floor you are interested in, there is an eco-friendly flooring solution that will meet your needs.

Opting for eco-friendly flooring may not only help improve the health of your family by keeping harsh chemicals out of your house but also makes sure that you are not depleting natural resources.

Another advantage which makes the choice of eco-friendly flooring popular is the fact that wood can be reused for different purposes such as energy production or making furniture. Reclaimed wood has been harvested years before so it is more stable and durable than a new one, which comes from a far younger tree.

Unlike engineered flooring which has just a thin wear layer, eco-friendly flooring can be sanded and refinished, if needed, after many years of use.

Eco-friendly flooring is an innovative hardwood flooring product that can either be nailed to a traditional wood sub floor or, in most cases, can be glued to an aged concrete slab.

Avoid products that are built of foam and opt for wool or cotton instead.You can also check with the store to find out if any flame retardants have been used and if you are looking for savings in the long run, then eco-friendly products are a good way to go.



Silk saris are special to Indian women. They spend a lot on them and wear it on special occasions like weddings. Also, saris are passed on from one generation to another. In such a scenario, letting go off an old, expensive silk sari is quite difficult. Even though you might not wear these saris regularly, you might not wish to give it away . The next best option is to convert these saris into a dress, home decor, accessories or stoles. Here are a few options that you can try ...
Home decor:

Curtains, cushion covers, lamp shades and patch work frames -there is so much you can do with that old sari that is left unused in your wardrobe.“I had an old silk sari that is a little damaged. I didn't want to give it away and wanted to make something out of it. A friend helped me convert that sari into cushion covers“ says Selvi, a homemaker. You can also use these old saris to decorate your house. Try framing them and put it on a plain wall.This will give your house a royal look.Another option is to convert them into covers for your favourite books and journals.

Dresses and accessories:

Old silk saris can be converted into dresses which will make you look fabulous. They can be stitched into anarkalis, long kurtas, gowns, dresses, or can also be used to make pavadai-satai for children. For the trendy ones, silk palazzos or skirts can be a good option, too. They will look trendy, chic and ethnic. In case of accessories, old saris can be reused and made into bangles and footwear. Get an expert to get that done! “One of the main reason why I prefer using old saris to make dresses is because they are economical and give a grand look to almost anything and everything,“ says Kalai Priya, a budding stylist. In fact Kalai recently made an Indo-western outfit with an old silk sari for a fashion show.

Dupatta and overcoats:

Dupattas, scarves and overcoats can be paired with almost anything. And what better than making them out of old silk saris? Silk dupattas can give kurtas and anarkalis an elegant and traditional look. “I tried to use my mom's old sari as a dupatta with my anarkali suit and it was so glamorous,“ says Varsha Alizar, a college student. Silk overcoats with a little bit of embroidery or de signing can turn a simple dress into something sizzling. Pair a plain black T-shirt with a bright coloured silk scarf and you will sure make a fashion statement.

Purses and bags:

Old saris can also be turned into beautiful bucket purses, wal lets, sling bags, tote bags, mobile pouch es, and more. If you are stepping out for a family function, we suggest you take one of these silk-made purses with you, that will sure be a conversationstarter. Make use of the border of the saris to convert them into a pouch or a jhola that is quite the trend now. Stylist Shruthi Balu uses old saris from temples for designing bags. “I get cheap silk saris from temples and then convert them into pouches that is quite a hit among my customers,“ she says. Another stylist, Sumathi Reddy , also makes outfits out of old silk saris. She says, “The fact that a sari is not going waste and is being remade into something nicer is very exciting for our customers. I have done several of these projects and got the idea when I was working on my own line.“

In the city of Makassar on Sulawesi island, police raided convenience stores and seized condoms that were readily available in most parts of Indonesia, a secular country whose state ideology enshrines religious diversity.

In other parts of the country, students were banned from celebrating Valentine's Day, saying the romantic tradition encourages casual sex and is against their cultural norms.

“These raids were doneafter we received reports from residents that the minimarts were selling condoms in an unregulated way, especially on Valentine's Day,” Makassar police official Jufri was quoted as saying in a local media report.

He added employees of the minimarts were told not to sell contraceptives to teenagers, the report said.

Growing restrictions Indonesia's highest Islamic clerical council declared Valentine's Day forbidden by Islamic law in 2012, saying it was contradictory to Muslim culture and teachings. But the vast majority of Indonesia's more than 220 million Muslims follow a moderate form of Islam in a country with sizeable Christian and Hindu minorities.

Rights groups have expressed concerns over the growing influence of Islamist groups, who have targeted how people lead their lives. A hardline group went around malls in East Java late last year to check whether outlets had ordered Muslim staff to wear Christmas apparel such as Santa hats.

In Indonesia's second largest city, Surabaya, government officials ordered schools to ban students from celebrating Valentine's Day “in or outside of school” because it ran counter to “cultural and social norms”, according to a copy of the letter on the city's official website.

Under Indonesia's decentralised system of government, regional authorities are allowed to issue bylaws without approval from the central government.

The expanse of endless space and the relative lack of other humans in space is no comfort when the astronauts begin seeing strange lights. That's exactly what happened to astronaut Don Pettit in 2012, who described seeing flashing lights in space. He claimed to have seen blue flashes as he was dozing off at his sleep station, saying they were “like luminous dancing fairies”.

Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen on board the ISS in 2015 captured an incredible light show on Earth that could explain the strange blue lights. The culprit, scientists believe, is a weather phenomenon that is obstructed from view on Earth but is visible from space. “I am very pleased with the result and that researchers will be able to investigate these intriguing thunderstorms in more detail soon,” Mogensen said.

The thunderstorms supposedly generated opposing charges in the atmosphere, which caused giant columns of brilliant blue electricity to discharge over seven miles above the clouds, into space. Ranging between 83 to 125 milliseconds, Mogensen needed a high-speed camera to capture images of the lightning columns, easily explaining why astronauts could barely catch a glimpse of the phenomenon. Even though the source of the “fairy lights” has been identified, scientists still can't explain it.

 Researchers are experimenting with social dilemma to see how AI agents interact
Google is pitting AI against AI to see if they work together


With the advancements researchers have made so far in the field of artificial intelligence, it's not hard to imagine a future where large swathes, if not all of human society, is managed by AI systems. So it's only prudent that, if we're planning to hand over day-to-day functionality to multiple different AI, we ensure they're capable of working together for the greater good.

Google subsidiary DeepMind is doing just that, by essentially locking two AI systems into a social situation, to see whether they cooperate or instead resort to sabotaging each other to further their individual goals. These social experiments involve rules where individuals can profit from selfishness but if everyone is selfish, they all lose. Both experiments the researchers attempted were framed as basic video games that the AI agents played. In the first situation, called ‘Gathering', both AI agents were given a task to gather virtual apples from a slowly replenishing central pile. Additionally, they also have the option to “tag” the other player and temporarily take them out of the game, in which case the first player would have a precious few moments to collect more apples.

In the second situation, ‘Wolfpack', two players have to hunt a third in an arena filled with obstacles. In this case, points are gained not only by the player doing the capturing, but by all players near the prey when it's caught.

The researchers found that both AI systems decided at different times to work together, and at other times to cooperate, depending on the situation. For instance, in the apple gathering game, both AI started out collecting apples and essentially ignored the other. However, the more stocks dwindled, the more the AI took to tagging each other out of the game in order to get more apples. Additionally, when a more powerful AI was introduced into the situation, it began zapping the other players regardless of the stockpile size available.

So, does that mean the smarter AI thought that going on the offensive was the best strategy? The researchers suggest that since the tagging required more computations, taking up valuable apple-gathering time, the smarter AI was likely first to fire as it knew it was capable of the task without falling behind on resource gathering. The lesser AI were instead happy to cooperate when it was easier to do so.

Conversely, in the Wolfpack scenario, the smarter an AI, the more likely it was to cooperate with other players, as learning to work together to capture the prey also required more compute power.

These experiments cast light on the unique challenge AI developers will face in the years to come. It shows that AI can change their behaviour based on rules they face. If an AI is rewarded for being aggressive towards other systems (zap another player to get more apples for yourself) it will adopt that as early as possible. If it is rewarded for cooperating (everyone gets equal points when the prey is captured), it will attempt to work together with other systems. That means developers have to keep these rules in mind. An unchecked AI, faced with a situation involving limited resources, might be prone to prioritising itself above other systems, no matter the overall consequences. And if multiple AI are working together to handle things like a country's electric grid, economy, or traffic systems, in-fighting could have disastrous consequences.



Worried about your adolescent child's heavy video game addiction? Take heart, he or she may be playing games together with friends or chatting with them online while playing.

A new study suggests that while playing video games for more than four hours a day may lead to symptoms of depression, but if children are socially engaged with friends and play together, they may not develop addiction-like problems.

“While playing video games for four hours a day can be worrisome behaviour, not everyone who does so is at risk of developing symptoms of addiction or depression,“ said lead author Michelle Colder Carras, post-doctoral researcher in US.

The findings showed that some of the downsides of gaming may be balanced out in those who are socially engaged either online or in real life with friends.

For the study , the team examined the friendship bonds and time spent in playing video games in nearly 10,000 teenagers.

The results showed that boys who were not very social online showed more loneliness and anxiety, regardless of the quality of their friendships.

On the other hand, girls who gamed extensively but were also very active in online social settings showed less loneliness and social anxiety but had lower self-esteem.

However, it should not be assumed that all adolescents can have a gamingrelated disorder.

Instead, parents and clinicians need to focus on those who lack a social life or have other problems, the Carras noted.

The study is forthcoming in a journal on human behaviour.



Pranks make for amazing trending videos and pictures, right? Well, sometimes it can be taken too far. As the people of South Africa seem to have done. The newest social media trend blowing up from South Africa is people pretending to be dead, and posting those photos online.Unnerving? Tell us about it! The brain behind this macabre trend is that of a high school student Karabo Mnisi, all of 19 years! There's a barrage of pictures online of people trying out the dead pose. While initially it was just people posing as lifeless bodies, as the trend gained momentum, people started experimenting. And now, it has escalated to a point where people are staging elaborate situations such as grisly murders and sexual assault! One can only gape at the commitment level! It sent a chill down our spine, too.

The latest video of this trend shows a toddler trying desperately to `revive' his `dead aunt', while his mother films the prank. After the heart-wrenching video went viral, outrage has poured in from all over, giving rise to the counter hashtag #deadposemustfall. However, the boy's mother dismissed the backlash by claiming that the little boy was in on the prank.


The ace cricketers unveil the latest trendy and sturdy collection of luggage and backpacks from Aristocrat
The latest collection of Aristocrat bags and backpacks is a range of modern, functional and stylish products crafted to suit the ambitious and aspiring youth of the country. Leading the pack with more space and durability, the brand has a bag for every occasion. Brand ambassadors Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin advocate the bags highly. “After hours of travel, I am usually worried about the state of my luggage. But these bags are quite durable. The quality and lightweight factors have really impressed me,” says ‘Cricketer of the Year’ Ashwin. Rohit admits he is impressed with the extra space. “These bags have extra space, which is very important. It’s helpful especially because you always have something to pack at the last minute. It’s also light, durable and definitely good-looking,” he adds. The collection comprises many variants and features, with extra space topping the list. Big enough to carry essentials for business trips or holidays, the bags also offer 3-inch expanders and up to five years international warranty. The high quality and durable material is an addon. The backpack collection is equally extensive, with bags for every purpose, be it office, outdoor or college. Constructed with high quality material, the backpacks come with compartments and organisers for all essentials. These trendy bags are strong and spacious. Despite the many features, they are available at attractive price points. The luggage bags are available from `2,500 onwards, while backpacks start at `599. Talking about the partnership, Radhika Piramal (Managing Director, VIP Industries Ltd) says, “We are extremely happy to have two cricket champions as our ambassadors. The brand’s philosophy of ‘Unpack Your Dreams’ connects well with them. We all have dreams which evolve with every milestone. Aristocrat wants to be by your side as an enabler to realise these dreams.” Sudip Ghose (Vice President, Sales & Marketing, VIP Industries Ltd) adds, “As a brand, we have always catered to the demands of the frequent traveller and have evolved according to the changing times. The new luggage collection now comes with extra space and larger expanders, while the backpacks have more style, comfort and space. We believe our new brand ideology and ambassadors will resonate with a younger audience who are passionate about their dreams and follow them, no matter what.” The products are available across leading VIP World outlets, multi-brand stores and hyper markets. They are also available online on Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart, Paytm, Jabong and Snapdeal. http:www.amazon.inaristocrat Connect with Aristocrat to stay updated with the latest trends Twitter: @Aristocratbags Instagram: https:http:www.instagram. comaristocratbags YouTube: https:http:www.youtube.comchannel UCg6ucvxjitdihF4RPMCdCw Facebook: https:http:www.facebook.com AristocratBags interna and up to five years tional warranty . The high quality and durable material is an addha on. The backpack collection is ch with bags for co equally extensive, it office, outsp every purpose, be Constructed with th door or college. backco quality material, the high come with compartments n packs for all essentials. d and organisers strong and a These trendy bags are the many feaa . spacious. Despite tures, they are available at attract points. The luggage y tive price a available from `2,500 e bags are while backpacks start tonwards, y at `599.

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