Saba Azad: Jack of all trades; Lounging around Landour

Hello,

Happy Diwali!

As the entire country celebrates the triumph of good over evil on this auspicious day, festivities aren’t complete without a serving of sweets. Mithais or sweets like kaju ki katli, gulab jamun, soan papdi, or boondi ke ladoo fly off the shelves in no time.

Take a look at seven sweets that are traditionally eaten across India.

Also, with the holiday season just around the corner, YS Life has curated a list of island destinations for every kind of traveller. 

Meanwhile, cities across India are seeing a surge in economic activity. While Pune saw a surge in cab and autorickshaw registrations on Dhanteras, Chandigarh has witnessed a boom in deliveries of new vehicles. Also, Vijayawada has recorded an estimated 15-20% of its annual sale of gold during this festive season.

ICYMI: Can AI be pets? Meet Molfin’s ‘AI pet’ that makes cute sounds when you pet it.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Saba Azad: Jack of all trades
• Lounging around Landour
• Travelling solo on a wheelchair

Here’s your trivia for today: Which city hosts the biggest Diwali celebration outside India?

Interview

Meet Saba Azad: Jack of all trades

For Saba Grewal, more popularly known by her stage name Saba Azad, acting and music came at the same time. Popular for her electro-funk music band Madboy/Mink, Azad debuted in Bollywood with Dil Kabbadi (2008). More recently, Azad made headlines for her role as Parvana Irani in Rocket Boys. 

"Choosing between the two is like having to pick an arm or a leg. I love doing both, they nourish my soul in different ways," she tells YS Life.

Many hats:

• Azad recently starred in the short film Man Woman Man Woman, is working with her band, Madboy/Mink, and is also working on another season of a show.
• The artist has been directing plays for a while and recently directed a music video for the first time.
• "I’m very sufficiently entertained between the things that I do whether it's playback, voiceover, theatre, cinema, music, directing, dancing, and choreographing!" she says. 

Travel

Landour charms with treks and trails

Ruskin Bond holds true love for Landour—a charming cantonment hill town in Uttarakhand that is contiguous with the ever-crowded Mussoorie, also known as the ‘Queen of Hills’. Named after a village called Llanddowror in South West Wales, Landour is dotted with colonial-era structures shaded by the lush canopies of deodar trees.

Walking tour:

• The Upper Chukkar trail, a three-kilometre walk, is the perfect introduction to this hill town and forms an infinity or number eight, giving it the name ‘chukkar’. 
• Landour remains untouched by commercialisation that haunts other hill towns, largely because there are stringent rules around the construction of any new structures.
• Another must-visit place is the house of the first Surveyor General of India, Sir George Everest. Built in 1832, the structure is set amid a spectacular location with the Doon Valley on one side and the Aglar river valley on the other. 

Travel

Travelling solo on a wheelchair

Parvinder Chawla, lovingly called ‘Pammu’, has an undying passion for exploring new places. However, what differentiates this Mumbaikar from the multitudes of globe trotters is that she does it in a wheelchair. So far, she has visited 59 countries, including Dubai and China, and six continents.

Unbound:

• Chawla was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when she was 15. By 22, she could hardly walk, and soon she found herself bound to the wheelchair. 
• In 2010, she went to Vaishno Devi with her friends. “At that moment, I felt like the world had opened up for me. This trip gave me the push to step out despite my condition,” she explains. 
• The 54-year-old globe trotter says all places should be made more accessible for old people and people with injuries, alongside the specially-abled.

News & updates

• Downshift: Moody’s Investors Service lowered its ratings outlook on the United States government to negative from stable, pointing to rising risks to the nation’s fiscal strength. The ratings agency has affirmed the long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings of the US at Aaa.
• AI investment: Alphabet's Google is reportedly in discussions to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Character.AI, the rapidly growing AI chatbot startup. The move comes as Character.AI seeks capital to train models and meet the increasing demand from users, according to sources familiar with the matter.
• Solid growth: Goldman Sachs Research expects the global economy to outperform expectations in 2024. Worldwide GDP is forecast to expand 2.6% next year on an annual average basis, making the forecast more optimistic than the consensus for eight of the world’s nine largest economies.

Which city hosts the biggest Diwali celebration outside India?

Answer: Leicester, UK. The city hosts 'Diwali Leicester' programme which is attended by more than 40,000 people from across the UK.

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