Inside the luxury dining experience at Loya; A parent-approved teenage flick

Hello,

ISRO, we have lift off!

Now that we conquered the Moon with the Chandrayaan-3 mission, it is time to reach for the Sun.

ISRO launched its first-ever solar mission Aditya L-1, which is expected to travel for about 125 days to reach the Halo orbit around the Lagrangian Point L1, considered closest to the Sun.  

Weighing about 1,480.7 kg, it is the first space-based observatory class to study the sun, including the study of the coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, coronal mass ejections, dynamics of the solar atmosphere, and temperature anisotropy.

In other news, BYJU'S-owned Aakash Educational Services has put together an executive council to find and appoint a new CEO and CFO after the exit of Abhishek Maheshwari and Vipan Joshi recently, The Economic Times reported. 

CEO Byju Raveendran, group CFO Ajay Goel, Akash CBO Anup Kumar Agrawal, and the chief human resources officer of Aakash are part of the executive council, the report said, citing an internal note sent by Raveendran to employees.

Meanwhile, Uday Kotak has stepped down as the Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer with effect from September 1. He will, however, continue as a non-executive director of the bank. 

As an interim arrangement, Dipak Gupta, the Joint Managing Director, will carry out the duties of the MD and CEO until December 31, subject to the approval of the RBI and the members of the bank.

ICYMI: Is it a ghost or a fish? This photograph, taken by Pietro Formis from Italy, is among several to be highly commended in this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

We don’t want to give anything away. You have to see it to believe it.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Inside the luxury dining experience at Loya
• Musicians’ lives: on and off the stage
• A parent-approved teenage flick

Here’s your trivia for today: What is measured in "Mickeys"?

Wine and Food

Inside the luxury dining experience at Loya

Walking through the elaborate set-up at Loya at Taj West End in Bengaluru feels like a deep dive into the diversity of North Indian cuisine. Right from the bazaar-themed decor—an ode to old traditional spice markets—to the table placements featuring the channi (strainer) and traditional oil lamps, the flavour of the North is unmissable.

North meets South:

• The drinks on Loya’s menu are a unique mix of forward, progressive cocktails, coupled with indigenous ingredients, thus making them unlike any other cocktails you would find in the city.
• The unique selling point at Loya is its philosophy of restoration and keeping traditions alive. One can witness this in its open kitchen, featuring long-forgotten cooking tools and culinary techniques from the hinterlands of the North.
• In many ways, Loya is a great fit for Bengaluru, which is desperately seeking to explore beyond paneer butter masala and dal makhani.

Upbeat

Musicians’ lives: on and off the stage

Music documentaries are like little time capsules—capturing not just the artist but also a slice of the music industry of the time. From Amy (2015) by Asif Kapadia, Searching for Sugarman (2012) by Malik Bendjelloul to the classic Don’t Look Back (1967) by D.A. Pennebaker, these elaborate audio-visual tributes show the person beneath the fame and fortune. 

With the explosion in OTT content, filmmakers have become bolder with the kind of stories they tell. And while some of these documentaries are captivating from beginning to end, others are not so much. 

A piece of life:

• There are multiple music documentaries on OTT, with some becoming near-licensed celebrations of the stars while others focus on a sensational side of their lives. A few also stand out for honest treatment and engaging narrative.
• In Miss Americana, Taylor Swift’s control over her emotions contrasts with her loneliness, as she says to herself, “Shouldn’t I have someone to call right now?” Surrounded by ‘besties’ and groupies, no one is around her when she is at the top.
• In AP Dhillon-First Of Its Kind, when the narrative moves towards his preparation for a packed concert, it slackens in interest and insight as it barely offers much information about Dhillon as an artist or the actual making of his live concerts. 

YS Reviews

A parent-approved teenage flick

Netflix, no doubt, tasted success with a slew of teenage drama movies and coming-of-age series like Elite, Class, Heartstopper, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Do Revenge, and many more. It’s understandable why the streaming service chooses this demographic—teenagers will jump to subscribe, and if they’re out of pocket money, get their parents to do it.

Amid this rush to churn out coming-of-age stories can turn the distribution company into a teenage drama factory. Unfortunately, this might be the case for Friday Night Plan, starring Babil Khan.

A dud party?:

• The movie follows two brothers becoming the talk of their school to brushing with the law—all in the name of being ‘cool’ and asking out a girl for prom. 
• Such an Americanisation of Indian teenagers just feels like Friday Night Plan is solely packaged for those who binge on coming-of-age series. However, even this attempt is more of an afterthought as the movie doesn’t really have a plot that stands out.
• The party in Friday Night Plan—which is what the movie is supposed to be about—is like a flat beer. Kids drink but don’t get drunk. And Khan tries his hand at dancing, which may be good but miles away from Pappu Can’t Dance.

News & updates

• Stakes: Walmart has spent $3.5 billion this year to acquire shares from certain Flipkart stakeholders and resolve liabilities with some PhonePe shareholders, illustrating just how aggressively it’s betting on India at a time when its chief global rival Amazon is scaling back on its expenditures in the South Asian market.
• New dawn: BMW is once again turning to the "Neue Klasse" brand—this time as an electric vehicle—as the German automaker seeks to replicate past successes to catch up with Tesla. BMW debuted at the Munich auto show a prototype roughly the size of the current 3-series, the company's best-selling model line.
• Reveal: As Texas, US, baked in record-breaking heat this summer and a growing drought pushed water levels down, a group of volunteers uncovered something sort of magnificent: new giant dinosaur tracks that are believed to be from around 110 million years ago.

What is measured in "Mickeys"?

Answer: The speed of a computer mouse. Used by computer scientists and programmers, 1 mickey is the smallest measurable movement of a computer mouse, typically equal to 1/200th of an inch, or just over 0.1mm

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