Best of Weekender: Top 10 books of the year and a tete-a-tete with singer-song writer Prateek Kuhad

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” – Carl Sagan

It has never been more important to able to do that than in this time – amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Books have the power to transport us to new worlds and different times, and they didn’t disappoint us this year.

With the phrase “much-anticipated” becoming the war cry of publishers, 2021 saw a spate of marquee names and newbie writers releasing their newest offerings. We loved a few, and a few more than the others, and realised that these books – novels that upended old thoughts and traditions, and were by authors who jumped out of the box – were what kept us going.

Here’s our pick of the top 10 books of 2021:

Singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad catapulted to fame when his single, Cold/Mess, made it to former US President Barack Obama’s 2019 music list.

He also has many firsts to his credit – the first Indian artist to sign with Cut Craft Music, the first to open for Mike Posner, most streamed artist on Spotify when the platform launched in India, Best India Act at MTV Europe Music Awards, when his song Kasoor was streamed eight million times in 24 hours of release, and more.

In an interview with YSWeekender, he talks about being part of Barack Obama’s preferred playlist, Bollywood music, and more.

Delhi-based patisserie chain Honey & Dough, founded by Utsav and Aavika Chhawchharia in 2016, is known for its freshly-baked goodies, winsome hot cuppas, and the wide variety of nibbles. This bakery and patisserie chain began with a single outlet in Defence Colony Market, Delhi, and has grown to eight different outlets in Delhi-NCR in the run up to its pan-India expansion.

The surge in popularity has pushed the brand to expand its presence pan-India over the next few years. The company plans to be present in multiple cities with over 30 outlets by 2022.

Thanks to the advent of technology, gone are the days of children playing outdoors and expending their immense energy. This unspent energy results in an unhealthy body from an alarmingly young age.

Mumbai-based Kleinetics, co-founded by Dr Tejal Kanwar in 2017, is addressing this problem. Described as ‘India’s leading kids’ fitness system’, the key mission of this platform is to place fitness alongside reading, writing, and arithmetic as a critical life skill in Indian education, ensuring preventive intervention at a mass scale from an early age.

Intermittent fasting is hugely popular today. But are you practising it the right way? The reason to know this is several people face challenges with intermittent fasting.

While going through their intake and assessment, a health expert realised that they were in fact not doing so. What were they doing that was not actually intermittent fasting? What were the other aspects that did not support their endeavour towards intermittent fasting? Take a look at this article.