What to know about the real Pocahontas

An interesting read. I didn’t even know Pocahontas was a real historical character and how the Disney movie was totally inaccurate about her life and the “romance” angle. A good read in the light of the Padmavati circus in India, it shows how far we have to go to compete with democracies around the world.

This is a recommendation from @AbhinandanSekhr

How America lost its mind

A long read for the weekend. Why? Because, well, America might have lost its mind back in the 60s (or at least had begun then) but we are losing our heads right now. And, Kurt Anderson’s piece clearly lists out the “mind-sets” that led to its current status —  a nation surviving the post-truth phenomenon — several of which India has begun exemplifying in recent days.

This is a recommendation by @QuilledWords

One Rohingya’s struggle to empower women in Malaysia

The piece is about a 24-year-old woman Sharifah Husain and her remarkable mission to educate dozens of Rohingya refugee women and children in Malaysia. Husain hails from Myanmar and was smuggled to Malaysia 20 years ago when a local mob attacked her village.

This is a recommendation by Sahla Nechiyil @sahlanechiyil

Nimona

Dead ball situation

With football/soccer becoming ever-present entertainment in the European big leagues and on the telly, as opposed to the rarer playing-for-the-nation bit of the Seventies, here’s a riveting, and long, review of Simon Critchley’s What We Think About When We Think About Soccer.

Mark Twain’s disturbing passion for collecting young girls

The creator of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer had a strange habit in his 70s. He spent time collecting what he called “pets”. Twain died in 1910.

This is a recommendation by Vikram Kilpady @kilpady