Although Chinese companies like OnePlus and Xiaomi have been steadily taking over Samsung’s budget segment, the Korean giant is starting to fight back. Things changed with the M-series in 2019, and a reinvigorated Samsung is back to doing what it does best – peppering a segment with phones at practically every imaginable price point.

And so, where the Samsung Galaxy M10 and Galaxy M20 are filling in the entry level, with the recently launched Galaxy M30, Galaxy A30 and Galaxy A50 it steps up the budget a notch.

The three phones are in the Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 bracket, with the M30 starting at Rs. 14,990 joined by the A30 at Rs. 16,990 and the A50 at Rs. 19,990.

They look similar, carry somewhat similar specs and are only barely differentiated on pricing, so if you’re looking to tell them apart, here’s our quick primer on how to pick one of the three that suits you best.

Samsung Galaxy M30, A30, and A50 look and feel

It’s easy to mistake one for the other, since all three models sport a now-familiar Samsung look—blame the large, 6.4-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED panel with the teardrop notch and that noticeable chin that all three share—but it’s really when you start using them that the not insignificant differences are evident.

The Samsung Galaxy M30 takes the M10 and M20 design a step forward with an understated gradient finish on the rear, while the Galaxy A30 and the A50 get a tapering ultra-glossy finish that looks like glass but really is highly reflective plastic, a finish that looks slick but is highly prone to smudges.

The Galaxy A50 unit we had was a black variant, but Samsung’s given it an iridescent rainbow-like effect which shows off different colors depending on the angle of light falling on it, very S10-inspired. The M30 and the A30 get a fingerprint scanner on the rear, albeit one that is placed a bit too high for our liking, while the A50 gets an in-display fingerprint scanner.

It’s not the ultrasonic variety that we’ve seen on the flagship S10-series, but a slower variant that takes a couple of seconds to unlock—face unlock is faster.

Samsung Galaxy M30, A30, and A50 performance

If performance is your primary consideration, the Galaxy A50 sets itself apart with its new octa-core Exynos 9610 chipset, which is a class above the Exynos 7904 that the other two use courtesy its four Cortex-A73 cores, four Cortex-A53 cores, and the higher performing Mali G72-3 GPU. That said, you should be happy with the performance of any of the three, as they perform capably on a day-to-day basis. The Galaxy A50 however allows you to run games like Asphalt and PUBG Mobile on their ‘High’ settings.

Both the Galaxy M30 and the Galaxy A50 get a 6GB memory variant, but only the higher specced M30 variant gets you 128GB of built-in storage. You’re still limited to 64GB storage on the 6GB RAM variant of the Galaxy A50. It’s worth noting that the A-series models differentiate themselves by including the latest One UI based on Android 9 Pie, while the Galaxy M30 gets older Samsung Experience 9.5 UI based on Android Oreo 8.1.

Samsung’s problem with spammy lock screen ads continues on all these devices, but the A-series models let you disable “lock screen stories” during the initial setup. 

Samsung Galaxy M30, A30, and A50 battery life

Muddling the waters is the battery discussion, where the Galaxy M30 pulls ahead of it’s A-series cousins by packing in a 5000mAh battery (as compared to the 4000mAh unit on the Galaxy A30 and A50).

With our usage, which included watching stream videos, the usual everyday banter on Whatsapp groups and the occasional GPS navigation, the M30 gives you an additional half a day of use, typically 1.5-2 days to the A series’ full day of use.

Samsung Galaxy M30, A30, and A50 cameras

This is where things get interesting, so let’s take a look at how each unit is kitted out in the camera department. The Galaxy M30 has a 13MP f/1.9 primary with a 5MP f/2.2 depth sensor and a 5MP ultra-wide-angle 123-degree field of view camera, whereas the Galaxy A50 ups the ante by offering a 25MP f/1.7 primary with the same secondary 5MP depth sensor and an 8MP ultra-wide.

The Galaxy A30 makes do with only a 16MP f/1.7 primary and a secondary 5MP ultra-wide, and it shares the 16MP f/2.0 selfie camera with the M30 while the A50 gets a higher resolution 25MP f/2.0 selfie shooter.

Daytime shooting on all three were sharp and offered good details, and the wide-angle camera gives you a lot of flexibility while shooting landscapes and groups, if you’re willing to live with the reduced quality and barrel distortion that isn’t just limited to the far edges of the frame (ergo: use it sparingly).

Low-light performance on the Galaxy M30 and the Galaxy A30 was about average despite their wide apertures, and the A50 just about edged ahead of the other two with its slightly better low-light performance… even though objectively speaking, it’s nothing that would blow you away.

Samsung Galaxy M30, A30, and A50 verdict

With three phones with different strengths, it comes down to price points and what you want from your phone. The M30 is a big step up from the M10 and M20, and justifies the price bump on account of the better display and the capacious battery (no One UI though).

The Galaxy A30 on the other hand is stuck in the middle, with its better build quality not really justifying the marginal difference between itself and the higher specced Galaxy M30 (with more RAM, more storage and a bigger battery).

The Galaxy A50 does redeem itself with the better cameras and slicker design, but it starts venturing into the Poco F1 territory, where the Snapdragon 845 blows it out of the water on pure performance. As a result, it’s the Galaxy M30 that really comes out on top—it offers much of the same experience as the other two, and in some departments a wee bit more…for much, much less money.

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday filed his nomination papers from the Mainpuri seat for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. 

He represented Mainpuri in the Lok Sabha in 1996, 2004 and 2009. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Mulayam Yadav contested from Azamgarh and Mainpuri and won both.

In Mainpuri, his victory margin was a massive 3.64 lakh votes.

NEW DELHI — Facebook Inc said on Monday it was removing 687 pages and accounts linked to Congress party, just days before voting begins for the general election, because of “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” on the social media platform.

The announcement marks a rare action from Facebook against a prominent political party in a country where it has more than 300 million users, the highest in the world.

Facebook said its investigation found that individuals used fake accounts and joined various groups to disseminate their content and increase engagement. Their posts included local news and criticism of political opponents such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Facebook said.

“While the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review found that it was connected to individuals associated with an INC (Indian National Congress) IT Cell,” Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook, said in a statement.

Gleicher added that Facebook was removing accounts based on their behavior, not the content they posted.

India’s staggered election, scheduled to begin on 11 April, will end on 19 May.

Two of the samples shared by Facebook were of posts that criticised Modi’s initiatives and called for supporting the Congress party and its president, Rahul Gandhi.

The social media giant also said it was removing 103 pages, groups and accounts, also for inauthentic behavior, as part of a network which originated in Pakistan and was linked to employees of the Inter-Service Public Relations department of the Pakistani military.

Facebook has faced increasing pressure from authorities around the world, including the Indian government, to ensure its platform is not abused for political gains or to spread misinformation, especially ahead of elections.

Facebook has toughened up its rules governing political advertisements in India and many other countries to increase transparency.

Last week, Facebook removed a social media network in the Philippines and took the unusual step of linking it to a businessman who said he had managed the president’s online election campaign in 2016. It has taken similar actions recently against accounts in Russia and Iran.

Separately, Facebook said it had also removed another 227 pages and 94 accounts in India for violating its policies against spam and misrepresentation.

Ahead of the release of Avengers: Endgame, the Hollywood tentpole touted to be the year’s biggest pop culture event, director Joe Russo arrived in Mumbai to kickstart the film’s Asia-Pacific promotions. 

Russo who, along with his brother Anthony, has directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, landed in Mumbai on Saturday morning and is expected to be present at a fan event organised by Marvel later on Monday.

Oscar-winning musician AR Rahman has composed the Avengers anthem for the Indian audience, which will be unveiled this evening. The Cleveland native is enduring the Mumbai heat as he prepares himself for an array of press, because indie features such as Avengers needallthe press they can get. 

Russo smiles. “I love travelling for press tours, it’s good to hear from people from all across,” he says, greeting me at the ballroom of the Taj Lands End in Bandra, an upscale Mumbai suburb which is home to several Bollywood A-listers.

Over a cup of tea, the Avengers co-director answers questions about embedding social commentary in a vehicle of pop culture, retaining his sanity, and the possibility of a queer superhero movie.

Making a film such as the Avengers probably goes beyond making just a movie as you are essentially crafting a gigantic pop-culture event. The burden of expectations must be enormous. How do you keep yourself creatively functional while not losing your mind?

Meditation. It’s helped me greatly. I ensure that whatever I am doing, wherever I am at, I take at least 20 minutes out to meditate. You’ve to shut stuff out. Helming these films is essentially about two things: focus and discipline. We’ve made four movies in the past six years and that’s quite unprecedented given the scale if you leave aside the Lord of the Rings movies.

So yeah, meditation helps.

The fan base is huge and they’ve several expectations but if we go by that, we will end up taking really poor decisions. Because that’s what fear does. It helps that there’s the two of us (brother Anthony is co-director). We lean on each other and test the story and only when both of us are pleased with the material do we go ahead. We’ve grown up on this stuff, we’re fans. So we put on screen what we would want to see. And of course, we’ve great team of writers. 

While it’s obvious that the movie is going to make a bunch of billions, is that really your ultimate high as a filmmaker? What’s your personal form of artistic validation?

When I travel and hear people respond emotionally to the movies. Doing press tours around the world is a great way of knowing what the audience is feeling. Like, sometimes, I feel that this experience — of making these four movies — is something I am not going to get to relive again, right. It’s very rare for films to cross all boundaries and make people connect on a global level and it’s going to be hard, if not impossible, for such a phenomenon to be replicated. 

In an interview with Deadline during Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu called Hollywood’s obsession with superhero movies ‘cultural genocide,’ saying ‘the audience is so overexposed to plot and explosions and shit that doesn’t mean nothing about the experience of being human...’

... Then I don’t think Iñárritu has seen any of the superhero movies. The thematics of these movies can be significant. Every movie we’ve done with Marvel, we have imbued it with relevant, contextual and modern thematics. For example, our film, Captain America: Civil War released concurrently with Snowden. The entire film was about government secrets and about the game of trust. Can you trust the government? Without a question, it’s a very political movie. And these themes continue and find their way in subsequent films. The Avengers are meant to represent the US military in a sense and the film questions the ramifications of America policing the world.

As the movies have gotten bigger so has the polarisation crippling America. Do you think about foregrounding sociopolitical events, say the rise of Trump, white nationalism, gun violence to make a statement through the Marvel movies?

Absolutely, for instance, Captain America has a line that says the enemy is hiding within. Or as you can see in Infinity War, sometimes the bad guy wins.

We’ve been very conscious about it because Anthony, our writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus and me are very politically-minded people and if something is bothering us it’s very easy for us to agree upon it and infuse it into the films. 

Both Infinity War and Endgame also have profound thematics that point to the surge in nationalism engulfing not only America but also the world. The movies ask the question: what does it mean to be a hero today, what does it mean to stand up? Is it even worth the cost? And the answer is a resounding yes.

Because these movies are about a collective of diverse people, who come from different cultures and background, and how each is essential for the other’s survival. You can look at the world in two ways: isolationism which is you just watching out for yourself or a collective: where a global community watches out for everyone. The Avengers is the latter because we don’t connect to the idea of isolationism. At all.

These ideas are at the core of the film so Iñárritu’s comment that the films are all explosions is simplistic and reductionist. If you don’t relate to a movie, that’s okay, you can have that point of view. But I don’t think you should denigrate other artistes based on the choices they make. These movies have the kind of global reach that is unprecedented and people do go back thinking about its core messages.

That in itself is quite invaluable. 

While the conversation around inclusivity has ensured that we see women superhero/Black superhero get their own films, any possibility of a queer superhero movie?

Well, I can assure you that you will hear about something very soon!

The night before my wedding, the symptoms started to creep in: A dull throbbing behind my eye turned into a piercing pain in my temple and slowly started to move to the other side of my head. I had worried for months that one of my frequent migraines would show up on the special day ― and that fear was slowly becoming a reality.

Fortunately I was able to ward off the symptoms for most of the day with medicine, but that night they returned worse than before. The next morning, I woke up with one of the most severe migraines I’d ever had, feeling like my head was being crushed on either side. It was accompanied by dizziness, nausea and vomiting. I was grateful that the migraine had stayed away for most of the ceremony and the reception, but I ultimately had to miss our wedding brunch the morning after and didn’t get to say goodbye to out-of-town guests.

Not only was I in tears because of the intense pain, but I was worried about what everyone thought. What if I was coming off as unappreciative or rude? What if everyone thought I was being dramatic for missing this because of inconvenient head pain?

“It’s difficult to understand what a migraine is truly like without having one,” Kevin Weber, an assistant professor of neurology in the headache division of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told me.

Migraines are debilitating; they’re not just little headaches. But people often misunderstand this and assume that a migraine isn’t a big deal. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

About 12 percent of the American population experiences migraines (18 percent of women and 6 percent of men), according to the Migraine Research Foundation. And more than 90 percent of sufferers aren’t able to function normally when they have an attack.

A “migraine is subject to the same prejudices that all pain patients experience. It is hard for people to understand why you are unable to fulfill your regular activities of daily living when they can’t see anything physically wrong with you,” said Meredith Barad, a clinical associate professor of anesthesia and neurology at Stanford Hospital and Clinics.

A migraine is usually longer and more severe than other headaches. It can last between four and 72 hours and may include sensitivity to light and sound; nausea; or vomiting, according to Barad. Neck pain, cognitive disruptions and sensitivity to smell may also occur.

The first time I had a migraine was in college, and I had no idea what I was experiencing. I was in so much pain that my mom came to visit me and drove me to the doctor. The doctor gave me pain medication, and I slept for two days straight until it went away. Though I had many headaches after that, I didn’t start having migraines again until a few years ago ― and they were more severe than the first one and became a frequent occurrence. 

Weber said that migraines are most common in women during their childbearing years and in men from late childhood to their 50s. Both genetic and environmental factors can determine when someone starts getting migraines and how often they get them. For me personally, genetics play the biggest factor. My grandfather used to suffer from migraines, and a cousin who is my age started experiencing them around the same time as I did.

Migraines are also often prompted by lifestyle-related triggers. I’ve learned what my triggers are, from stress to alcohol to not enough sleep.

“Many patients have different triggers,” Weber said in an email. “The most common ones I hear are weather changes/barometric pressure change, dehydration, lack of food, lack of sleep, stress, smells (perfumes, car fumes, etc.), foods (red wine, MSG, processed foods, aged cheeses, caffeine or lack of caffeine), sounds and lights.”

After dealing with frequent migraines for a few years now, I’ve changed my daily habits and behavior. If I’m leaving somewhere early or canceling plans, it’s probably because I have a migraine. If I’m turning down a drink, it’s because I don’t want to trigger the debilitating pain. I’m always carrying around a water bottle and snacks in my purse. I sleep a LOT (usually 9-10 hours a night). I don’t wear perfume or use air fresheners in the house. If I seem particularly tired or out of it, it’s likely because my brain is foggy from a migraine or the medicine used to treat it. I don’t cry often, but when I do, it’s usually because I’m having a painful migraine.

My husband has seen me suffer through enough migraines that he can tell when I’m starting to get one. He’ll heat up an eye mask for me, turn off the lights, give me a head massage, and do whatever he can to help because he knows how paralyzing they can be. It’s these little things and the understanding from loved ones that has helped me get through them.

For people who suffer from migraines or for those who want to understand them more, Barad suggested looking at resources from the American Migraine Foundation and the National Headache Foundation.

And if you have a loved one who experiences migraines, “ask them what they’re going through and experiencing with an open mind,” Weber said. “It’s not ‘just a headache.’”

“Living With” is a guide to navigating conditions that affect your mind and body. Each month, HuffPost Life will tackle very real issues people live with by offering different stories, advice and ways to connect with others who understand what it’s like. In April, we’re covering migraines and headaches. Got an experience you’d like to share? Email wellness@huffpost.com.

Quinoa is a nutty member of the grain family that gets a bad rap, and it’s time to fix that. Pronounced keen-wah, it’s actually a seed that originates from South America and was a staple in the diet of the Inca people, who often referred to it as “mother grain.” It’s gluten-free, high in fiber and a rare complete protein (meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids), making it a great plant-based protein source for vegetarians and vegans.

So why do its haters refer to it as tasteless, sad, soggy mess? Probably because they’re cooking it wrong. Here are a few tips to turn you into a quinoa enthusiast.

Toast it to release more flavor.

The first step to perfect quinoa is toasting it. Just like nuts and grains, quinoa tastes better when it has been roasted. Toast it in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for 5 to 7 minutes until it turns a light golden color and smells nutty.

Rinse it before you cook it.

After it’s nice and toasty, it’s time to rinse it. Quinoa has a natural coating of saponins that leaves a bitter, soapy taste in your mouth if it’s not washed away, which is a huge reason a lot of people think they don’t like quinoa. Place the quinoa in fine mesh strainer and run it under cold water for a minute or two to remove the coating.

Try cooking it like pasta.

There are so many theories on how to cook quinoa ― use a 2:1 ratio of water to grains, cover it, don’t cover it, steam it, boil it, simmer it, use a rice cooker ― the list goes on. Throw all that nonsense away. The key to fluffy, tender quinoa is about not following the rules.

Perhaps the easiest way is to cook it just like pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, dump in your quinoa and cook it, uncovered, at a low boil for about 12 minutes. Before you drain it, taste the quinoa to see if it’s done ― it should be tender but still have a bite. It should also have a little white ring around the outside to indicate it’s ready.

Drain the cooked quinoa back into the fine mesh strainer and let sit for at least 15 minutes to release any excess water or moisture. Then fluff it with a fork, just like couscous.

Add aromatics.

While you’re bringing the water to a boil, throw in some aromatics to bump up the flavor. Onions, garlic, bay leaves and a few thyme sprigs are always a good place to start, but feel free to adjust based on the flavor profile you’re looking for in your finished dish. If you’re using the quinoa in a Mexican dish, throw in some toasted cumin. If you’re using it in an Indian dish, throw in some turmeric, or some fresh ginger for a Thai dish. You get the idea.

Use it in more than salads.

Now that you know how to cook quinoa, let’s talk about different ways you can use it. It’s so much more versatile than you may think and goes way beyond a simple quinoa salad.

Stir cooked quinoa into soup or stews to add body, mix it with breadcrumbs to create a healthier alternative to baked chicken or fish, use it as a gluten-free binder in veggie burgers, or crisp it up to use as a crunchy salad topping. When in doubt, you can always add cheese and turn it into a cheese casserole situation. No one will say no to that.

Go sweet.

Think outside the box and use quinoa in sweet dishes, too. Stir it into your morning oatmeal, add it to granola bars, use it to replace traditional flour in cakes, bake it into breakfast cookies, mix it into your Sunday pancake batter or even turn it into chocolate bark.

The next time you seed this tiny but mighty seed at the grocery store, give it another chance. You’ll thank yourself later.

The Duchess of Sussex’s maternity style has been anything but basic. 

The former Meghan Markle has stepped out in a number of covetable looks since she and Harry, Duke of Sussex, announced her pregnancy last October. Over and over again, the 37-year-old royal showed us that she’s not afraid to take fashion risks. She’s worn mini dresses, sequins, bold colors, an array of silhouettes and even a tulle dress covered in birds. 

As the world gears up for the arrival of the new royal baby, let’s take a look back at the duchess’ stunning maternity style moments: 

NEW DELHI — A Delhi court Monday granted anticipatory bail to Robert Vadra in a money laundering case.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar granted the relief to Vadra on furnishing a personal bond of Rs five lakh and a surety of like amount.

The court said Vadra will not leave the country without prior permission.

It also imposed certain conditions on him and said he shall not tamper with any evidence, influence any witness in the case.

Vadra, brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, is facing allegations of money laundering in purchase of a London-based property at 12, Bryanston Square worth 1.9 million pounds.

Hi, has the world stopped burning? No? Okay, I’ll be under my blanket, curled up in my bed, thank you very much.

Breaking news!

Important events are happening, you say?

☝🏽This is not an uncommon feeling anymore. As our screens and browser tabs multiply with links to news website, social media pages and channels flashing dire headlines, there seems to be no escape from the news, never mind negative stories.

It would not be unusual to feel overwhelmed, sad or distressed.

Not all news acts as a trigger. But for some of us, consuming certain kinds of news can feel debilitating.

It’s not easy to escape news either. Therapists say they witnessed a surge of clients as the #MeToo movement raged in India.

So, how does one wade through a world overflowing with news? Can you protect your mind? Should you stop reading news? We asked experts for some answers.

Identifying a trigger

Counselling psychologist Ishita Gupta describes a trigger as “some event or thought that sets off a cascade of overwhelming negative emotion”.

“Dysfunctional emotions are of various kinds — anxiety, depression, anger, guilt, jealousy. Anything which induces that kind of feeling, that feels unpleasant is a trigger,” Gupta says.

Triggers are of various kinds and various intensities. “It could trigger you for days, months or years, or induce a panic attack for just three minutes,” she says.

How a person reacts to this depends on how the body has assimilated and responds to stress, says psychotherapist Rizwana Nulwala. “If as a child I have responded to stress by crying, as an adult that may come easier to me than other things. Only then I will think of other options,” she says.

Questions to ask yourself

Experts suggest checking in with yourself about your response to the trigger.

1. Does this bring up anything unresolved in me or from my past?

2. Does this discomfort that I am experiencing come from my life or my experience?

3. Has this feeling persisted beyond a day or two?

4. How am I doing emotionally? Am I tired, feeling like — “I’m done”?

What are the signs?

While experts agree that everyone responds differently to stress and triggers, there are a few signs you can look out for.

1. Feeling anxious or keyed up
2. A general sense of tension looming over moods
3. Depression — an overwhelming sadness, feeling like life is not worth living and there is nothing to look forward to.
4. Feeling overwhelmed, defeated
5. Body pains like headache
6. Not feeling hungry
7. Not being able to sleep
8. Not being able to concentrate — Earlie,r if you could read a book and now you can’t even read two pages. Lack of concentration comes up immediately when you are disturbed.
9. If you can’t do something you use to enjoy
10. Feeling like running away from home
11. Feeling suicidal 

In case you feel suicidal, you must definitely seek help. We may not always be able to help ourselves. “In fact, family or people around must make sure they go see a therapist,” says Nulwala.

8 things you can do

 It’s tricky to give general advice for triggers by news, says Gupta. “A hundred people reading the same article are not going to be triggered the exact same way.”

1. HALT

Nulwala suggests a technique called the HALT, which stands for hungry, angry, lonely, tired.

“If you’re hungry, eat something. If you’re angry, find ways to calm down, perhaps meditation.  If you’re lonely, call a friend or go out. If you’re tired, take rest.”

2. Get off social media

One of the sustainable things is to recognise the need for a break and take time off social media, says counselling psychologist Sneha Janaki.

“It feels good and it’s OKAY. We’re not built to be overstimulated. In the world we are in right now, we are constantly stimulated with information — personal, political, every kind.

Our brains are not built for that kind of stimulation. Then we feel overwhelmed because news is so fast, we are not able to keep up, which is why we need the downtime” she says.

3. Connect

Reaching out and connecting with close friends and people you trust helps in recognising there is hope and goodness in the world, says Janaki.

Janaki also recommends activities like volunteering. “It makes me believe that the world is not such a terrible place. That there is possibility of joy, there is the possibility of genuine connection, whatever it is that we seek.”

4. Move

Therapists recommend physical movement to relieve the tension you feel in the body. It could be as simple as taking a walk or doing some breathing exercises or yoga. Different people may find different things therapeutic, says Janaki, but the idea is to do anything that helps you connect with your body.

5. Pre-empt the feeling

Ask yourself – is it important enough or worth it to read this piece of news? “If you say yes, then you will need to preempt the anxiety or anger you feel,” advises Gupta.

“Make sure to do a bunch of other things that will, if not overshadow at least compete with the horrible you see. It’s not like — ‘Oh, I had a good day and then I read this and my whole day is ruined.’ If you know it’s going to be bad, you need to have a safety net in terms of self care.

Fill your day or the time before and after reading news with things that will please you, make you feel relaxed and happy.”

6. Look for other kinds of news

 In the face of triggering news, Janaki suggests looking for other kinds of news. “I will reach for other positive stories also. Or I’ll read something that does not affect me this much. I’ll look at alternative media. Once I feel better, stocked up on, then I will take this as I can.”

7. Work towards building self-awareness

 A long-term goal must be to build self-awareness. This reflective practice helps in knowing the difference in how you feel normally versus when you are triggered, says Janaki.

“For example, ‘This movie made me feel happy. This is how I feel in my heart. My stomach feels good. I’m eating properly.’ 

But if I see something bothersome, there’s a pit in my stomach, I don’t want to connect with the world, I want to withdraw, I don’t want to cope, I want to escape from it in ways that not be healthy in the long run, like substance abuse.”

Gupta say it is important to identify the step in the middle — the reason behind the emotion. “Why do you feel the way you feel and how can we work on that?”

8. Be mindful

As friends or family of an affected person, we must take care not to trivialise the issue or minimise the mental health concern.  “We need to be mindful about suggestions when a person is disturbed,” says Nulwala.

Can you still read the news?

We don’t live in times when one can afford to avoid the news completely. Often, it may be critical for us to remain informed about what is going on around us.

“If I’m going to avoid every bit of negative news, I’m not going to be well informed,” says Gupta.

Nulwala, who has worked with those affected in the 26/11 attack and the 13/7 Zaveri Bazaar blast, says, “You can read news (about it) with the therapist in a safe environment, but you can’t be reading it first thing in the morning when you open the paper with your breakfast.”

So, how do we find a balance?

One of the ways they work in therapy is not to read anymore news, Nulwala says. “It (a news item) may be a very important dialogue to have (in public discourse) but am I ready to have it? This is an important conversation to have,” she says.

“Something we say about trauma is — retelling is re-traumatising,” says Janaki.

Going back to #MeToo, she says, “After a point even I couldn’t look at the news, because all that I was consuming in therapy sessions was only that and even in the news was only that.”

Is it, however, possible to cut yourself off from news events that feel like pivotal moments in time, or even in history?

In Janaki’s view, participation and the work towards social justice is important, but she stresses on looking at the fatigue caused by this — whether it is from active involvement or vicarious.

“We’re bearing the cost of these stories. Whether they are our stories or not, they impact us — as therapists or as ordinary people. It reminds of what humanity can be and its worst side, the  really dark side. It’s very difficult to reconcile that with how we want to see the world. All of us want to see a brighter world in whatever vision we have.”

As we consume news daily, the question to ask becomes — what is the impact of this on me?

Janaki says we must ask this from a stance of reflection and curiosity, not judgement. 

“If I’m depleted as a clinician or as a person, then I can’t contribute to any movement in my true potential. And the more I take away from my potential because of how overwhelmed I’m feeling, I’m also going to judge myself harsher. That’s not really self serving in any way.”

This is not to be confused with escapism, she says. “Take some time off and build up resources.” 

I’ll round this off with something writer Anthony Oliviera tweets every day:

The way you feel is important. Take care of yourself.

If you or someone you know needs help, mail icall@tiss.edu or dial 022-25521111 (Monday-Saturday, 8am to 10pm) to reach iCall, a psychosocial helpline set up by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who is contesting the 2019 polls from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala and Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi, will take on Thushar Vellappally in Wayanad.

BJP president Amit Shah on Monday announced that Thushar Vellappally of Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), an ally of the saffron party in Kerala, will be the ruling NDA’s candidate against Gandhi in Wayanad.

Who will Rahul Gandhi take on in Wayanad?

Vellappally is the son of Vellappally Natesan, who is the general secretary of the influential Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, which works for the welfare of Ezhava community, a backward caste with sizeable population in the state.

Some initial reports said that Vellappally would contest from the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency. According to a report in The New Indian Express Vellappally had said there could be a change in the party candidate from Wayanad if Gandhi fights polls from the constituency.

Vellappally is the vice-president of SNDP and according to The News Minute, he said that he will not resign from the post. “My candidature will not be a hindrance is discharging my role in the organisation,” he was quoted as saying in the report. 

The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala has fielded CPI’s PP Suneer in the segment. CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said the Left Front would make all efforts to defeat Gandhi. 

Wayanad district is in the north eastern part of Kerala and houses various tribal groups of the state. The area was badly affected during last year’s floods.

(With PTI inputs)

Your first time having sex is almost always going to be a letdown: You’ll fumble with the condom or underestimate the need for lube. Or maybe your partner will starfish their way through the whole thing ― all 10 seconds of it. 

You’re a clean slate, sexually speaking ― anything and everything can go wrong. Below, comedians, entertainers and other funny people on the web share the funniest things that happened during their first time.

An Assist from Adam Sandler 

“I was 16 years old, had zero knowledge of porn, zero knowledge of sex. I was in my boyfriend’s mom’s basement and we used his mom’s strawberry scented body butter as lube (please for your genital health, do not try this at home). The radio was playing Adam Sandler’s ‘Lunch Lady Land.’ Have you ever tried to have your first non-solo orgasm while listening to the lyrics ‘Sloppy Joe. Slop-Sloppy Joe’? Not good” ―Kyra Kane, the host of the Sex Work BB podcas

Mistaken Identity

“I was in college and determined to lose my virginity so I just grabbed a guy at a party and started making out with him. We went to his dorm, I got my cherry popped, it was fine, mission accomplished. Leaving his dorm the next morning I realized I had no idea what his name was and had to try to find it using the campus directory for that building. He had a roommate so I guessed at which one it was.

I ended up telling my friends I’d banged the wrong guy. I was eventually corrected when I was confronted by the guy’s roommate’s girlfriend who’d heard through the small-liberal-arts-college grapevine that I had sex with her boyfriend. I explained and she and I laughed about it and are still Facebook acquaintances to this day.” ―Allison Mick, a comedian in Oakland, California

MacGyvering the Lube

“There are classes in school that give straight people a decent idea of how it’s supposed to go but there are some key things that differ from straight sex versus gay sex, especially when preparing yourself for what’s to come. Being the brilliant person that I am, I just chose to eat one light meal at breakfast because I definitely, totally planned to have sex that night.

When we were getting down to it, I was so frustrated because it wasn’t working (mostly due to the lack of lube which NO ONE WARNS YOU ABOUT). Once again, being the brilliant person I am and a former Boy Scout, I knew to think on my feet so spit became the next best option. Despite the hiccups along the way, it was a successful but challenging experience and it has taught me that I can conquer any feat put in front of me.” ― Miss Toto, a drag queen in Miami, Florida 

The Sunglasses Stay On

The Slip 

“I thought my first time would be romantic. That’s the image I had fantasied over since I found out what a ‘first time’ was. For the most part, it was fun: the basic cute kissing, gentle fingering, PG foreplay. But the grand finale really wasn’t all that grand: After several attempts trying to get it in, his elbow slipped, launching him all the way in and that’s when I heard it ‘pop’. I froze and screamed, ‘DID YOU HEAR THAT, YOU JUST BROKE MY HYMEN!’ It’s fair to stay we stopped shortly after that.” ― Georgette Olaiya, co-host of the Just The Tip podcast

The Cheesy Puff Incident

“All I can tell you about my first time was that it was another trashy prom night tale of intrigue, disgust, and getting caught in an RV after vomiting in his lap. It was my senior prom in the middle of nowhere Texas. My boyfriend and I went to prom in a group but left pretty early to sneak away to a pool party. There I consumed my weight in sprite and cheesy puffs. We decided to drive to the campgrounds in his parents’ RV to enter into manhood together.

Things were going great until those cheesy puffs came back up and I threw up in his lap. He went and hosed off. We weren’t ready to call it quits so we continued until all of a sudden a spotlight flashed through the window and we heard the WOOP WOOP of a police car. Over the loudspeaker, we heard, ‘please exit the park.’ We left, showered and had regular, bad-first-time sex later that night, but I haven’t eaten a cheesy puff since.” ― Meatball, a drag queen in Los Angeles, California

An Awkward Playlist

″‘Sex and Candy’ by Marcy Playground was on the radio. She laughed but I’m not sure it was from the irony. Now every time I hear that song I think of Skittles and disappointment.” ― Jamie Arrington, a comedian in Hattiesburg, Mississippi 

The Tampon Disagreement

“The night I lost my virginity I had a tampon in but completely forgot about it because we had been drinking. When the much older loser I decided to sleep with tried to put his penis inside me, he said, ‘Wait, do you have a tampon in?’

I laughed in his face because what a crazy thing to ask during my first time. I said ‘Ew, no.’ He tried again and exclaimed, ‘No, I’m pretty sure you have a tampon in’ so I rolled my eyes and said, ‘There’s literally no way ―’ then felt the tampon. I uncorked myself like a bottle of wine (red, obviously) threw it across the room like I had just drawn a sword and hacked it toward my worst enemy. Neither of us came, and we haven’t spoken since.” ―Lili Michelle, a comedian in New York City

An ‘Experienced’ Virgin

“At the end of sophomore year of college, I was hooking up with someone but I was still a virgin. I felt ashamed by my lack of experience, so I decided to keep this little secret to myself. One night, things were heating up and we decided to go all the way. This first time could best be described as ‘fleeting.’ A mere two pumps. Somehow, she caught on to my secret because she immediately asked, ‘Wait a minute, are you a virgin?’ I told her the truth: ‘Not anymore.’” ― Cam Poter, a comedian and co-host of the Sex Talk With My Mom podcast

The DVDs Stay in the Picture  

“I was in China as a teenager, summer between high school and college. My first time was with another tourist, outdoors, at a construction site at night, because neither of us had empty rooms we could use. An hour earlier, I’d bought this whole Martin Scorsese DVD box set for like $7, which, I mean, great deal. Anyway, I was holding onto the Scorsese DVDs for most of the first time, because I didn’t want it to get scratched. Eventually, I set it down, but I kept it close. That’s something you don’t want to lose.” ―  Dan Perlman, a comedian in New York City 

The Family Affair 

“I lost my virginity when I was 24 years old (I was an un-fuckable dork for most of my life) to a short, stout, blonde Irish girl named Patty after we met backstage at a U2 concert. We hooked up in her parents’ bedroom because she said, ‘I prefer sex on larger-sized mattresses.’ I had so much horniness built up after all those years, I would’ve said yes to doing it on the N train during morning rush hour on top of a homeless man’s corpse. Location was the least of my concerns...or so I thought. We entered the master bedroom and as she disrobed, I noticed family photos sprinkled about everywhere: Disney vacations, Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruises to the Caribbean, birthday party at Chucky Cheese. Chucky...Goddamn...Cheese.” ―Allan Fuk, comedian and co-host of The Week In Sex and Judges of History 

NEW DELHI — Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo samples failed quality tests conducted by Rajasthan, according to a public notice from the state’s drugs watchdog, findings that were rejected by the US drugmaker.

This comes just a few months after Indian authorities launched an investigation into J&J’s baby powder to see if it contains cancer-causing asbestos. J&J said in late February that it had resumed production of baby talc after government tests found no asbestos in the product.

The Rajasthan Drugs Control Organisation’s notice dated 5 March said that the samples of J&J’s baby shampoo taken from two batches had failed the quality test as they contained “harmful ingredients”. It did not elaborate.

A J&J spokeswoman said that the results it received from the watchdog indicated that formaldehyde had been discovered in the samples. Formaldehyde, used in making building materials, is a known carcinogen.

“We do not accept the interim results given to us, which mentioned samples to ‘contain harmful ingredients — identification positive for formaldehyde,’” she told Reuters.

“We unequivocally maintain that our products are safe and our assurance process is amongst the most rigorous in the world,” the J&J spokeswoman said, adding that the company has contested the interim test results of the government analysis that were based on “unknown and unspecified methods”.

The two batches of the baby shampoo tested are due to expire in September 2021 and were manufactured at the company’s plant in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, according to the watchdog’s notice.

“We have confirmed to the Indian authorities that we do not add formaldehyde as an ingredient in our shampoo nor does Johnson’s baby shampoo contain any ingredient that can release formaldehyde over time,” the company spokeswoman said.

The Rajasthan Drugs Control Organisation and India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) were not immediately available to comment.

The federal regulator and its counterparts in Indian states launched an investigation into J&J’s Baby Powder following a Reuters report in December that the firm knew for decades that cancer-causing asbestos could be found in the product.

J&J has described the Reuters article as “one-sided, false and inflammatory”.

J&J’s Baby Powder is one of the most recognised foreign brands in the country. The company leads sales in the Indian baby and child toiletries market, according to market research provider Euromonitor.

NEW DELHI — Congress leader Hardik Patel on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Gujarat High Court order rejecting his plea to stay his conviction in the 2015 Vispur rioting case.

His petition is likely to be mentioned Tuesday for urgent hearing and his lawyers would seek stay of the 29 March order of the High Court which is coming in the way of his contesting the Lok Sabha election.

Patel, 25, had started preparations to contest from Jamnagar on a Congress ticket after joining the party on 12 March and the last date for filing of nominations is 4 April.

Polling for 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be held on 23 April.

The Sessions Court at Visnagar in Mehsana district sentenced Patel to two years’ imprisonment last July for rioting and arson in Visnagar town in 2015 during the Patidar quota stir which he led.

The high court in August 2018 suspended the sentence but not the conviction.

Under the Election Law — Representation of the People Act and a related Supreme Court ruling — a convict facing a jail term of two years or more cannot stand for election unless the conviction is stayed.

In the high court, the state government had submitted that there were 17 FIRs including two sedition complaints against Patel who is known for making inflammatory speeches.

The high court had declined the contention of Patel’s lawyers that if the conviction was not stayed, it will cause “irreparable damage” as he intended to contest the Lok Sabha election.

In the order, the high court noted that a conviction can be stayed only in rare and exceptional cases, and the case did not fall into that category.

With just days left for the first phase of voting for the 2019 general elections, over 200 Indian writers have appealed to the people to “vote against hate politics”.

The signatories on the letter published on the Indian Cultural Forum include Anand Teltumbde, Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad, Nayantara Sahgal, TM Krishna and Romila Thapar. 

The writers say that “hate politics has been used to divide the country, create fear, and exclude more and more people from living as full-fledged citizens”.

Anyone who “questions the powers-that-be”, adds the writers, is in danger of being harassed or arrested on “false and ridiculous charges”.

The writers have asked people to vote out inequality and vote against violence, intimidation and censorship. They don’t want rationalists, writers and activists to be “hounded or assassinated”, the appeal says.

Teltumbde has been accused of being a member of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) and associated with a Dalit platform Elgar, which the police believe, triggered violence in the Bhima Koregaon area of Maharashtra last year.

The appeal has been issued in several languages, including Gujarati, Bangla, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu.

This comes just days after around 100 filmmakers issued a letter, asking people to vote the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power. The filmmakers who signed the appeal include Anand Patwardhan, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, Sudevan, Q, Deepa Dhanraj and Gurvinder Singh.

The filmmakers said that ever since the BJP came to power, things have changed only for the worse. The statement also said that giving the BJP another term will be a “grave blunder”.

INDORE, Madhya Pradesh — Last September, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organised a party workers’ conclave in Bhopal that it claimed would be the biggest in the world. The line-up at the event, which it called Karyakarta Mahakumbh, included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah and then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. As the date approached, the news reports flew thick and fast: nearly 10 lakh BJP workers were expected to attend; the party had booked nine special trains to bring them to the venue; Madhya Pradesh wasstarting to run out of rental chairs.

On the day of the event, the BJP claimed a full house, even as the Congresscirculated videos showing empty chairs and bored party workers reading newspapers during Modi’s speech. By the end of the evening, the BJP had put all rumours to rest by issuing a press release saying the event had been certified as the “world’s largest cadre based convention of any political party” by the World Book of Records (WBR). Several leading news outlets unquestioningly published a wire story that quoted a BJP spokesperson as saying that 15 teams from the “London-based” body had surveyed the conclave on several parameters before conferring the honour on the same evening.

On its website, WBR calls itself “one of the mammoth organisations that catalogues and verifies a huge number of world records across the world with authentic certification”. It is registered in India, Australia, the US and the UK, and itspatrons include Virendra Sharma, a British Labour Party MP of Indian origin, and Congress leader Rajeev Shukla.

But an investigation by this correspondent reveals that an organisation that promotes itself as “London-based” is mainly run by a motley six-member team from a two-storied office in Indore. Its founder president Santosh Shukla, a 46-year-old former Supreme Court advocate, told this writer that he is eyeing a Rajya Sabha seat and eventually, the United Nations.

“The World Book of Records,” he said, “is a medium to get there.”

He seems to be on the right path—a few weeks ago, claimsWBR’s website, PM Modi met Santosh andappreciated the organisation’s work. After the election, said Santosh, the BJP has promised to give him an office in “North Block”—where the Cabinet Secretariat is located in New Delhi.

BJP spokespersons Meenakshi Lekhi and Sambit Patra did not respond to emails from this writer.

“60% of my work for the UN is now done,” said Santosh.

In the two years since WBR was established, it has awarded records to over a dozen BJP leaders, initiatives and allies.

The tale of WBR and Shukla may sound like a made-for-Bollywood story starring a lawyer-entrepreneur who may just succeed in hustling his way to a UN position. But it’s also a reminder that India’s largest political party yearns to be validated by international (sounding) organisations (remember the Philip Kotler award fiasco?).

“Hindutva forces like RSS and the BJP are often known to hanker for international repute due to want of intellectual rigour and calibre,” says political scientist Suhas Palshikar. “Given the choice of the WBR’s ‘records’, there’s no question of their politics. But in it, you can also find a typical route for many right-wing organisations to gain acceptability, one that goes beyond attempts at intellectual intervention... It’s a sad comment on how the cultural universe operates in India.”

The creation, acceptance and promotion of the World Book of Records thus lead to two conclusions, neither too flattering for the BJP.At best, it reveals its lack of diligence on the people and organisations it associates with. At worst, it shows that India’s ruling party has been peddling the honours and certificates of a body with dubious antecedents to exaggerate and amplify its initiatives.

Creative categories

At first glance, the WBR record for the world’s largest party conclave reads much like a BJP press release.

On itswebsite, the WBR did not mention how many people attended the BJP meeting, nor did it explain who previously held this record. Instead, itsaid that “BJP workers from 65,000 polling booths spread across the 230 Assembly seats in the state” took part in the “mega congregation”.

A simple Google search would have shown that 10 lakh may not be that big a number— former Pakistan PM Benazir Bhutto wrote in her memoir that around 30 lakh party supporters greeted her on her return from exile in 1986.

Exaggeration? Maybe. Worth checking out before announcing a record? Definitely.

A look at WBR’s awards shows that it excels in coming up with tailormade categories that ensure a low entry bar.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan was honoured for ‘anointing the statue of Hindu spiritual guru Adi Shankaracharya with soil of 51 districts of Madhya Pradesh’; MP governor and former Gujarat chief ministerAnandiben Patel accepted a certificate for ‘largest simultaneous book reading programme’ and Rajya Sabha memberSonal Mansingh (nominated by the BJP to the upper house last year) for being an ‘iconic cultural personality who has mastered multiple Indian classical dance forms’.

There are also a number of ‘records’ for organisations promoting so-called Hindu culture and sensibilities, a pet project of the ruling party’s parent organisation, the RSS. These include the records created by a Bangalore-based priest for “distinct deity adornment and worship” and a Pune-based brahmin organization for “socio-economic development of the country”.

From coconuts to certificates

The past five years have brought home the BJP’s instinct to use scale and spectacle to grab eyeballs. Modi has led from the front, participating in carefully curated events designed to dominate headlines, from leading World Yoga Day celebrations to hosting rallies and interactions that jostle for a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. Like Modi, his party members have also been busy attempting records on a global scale: building the tallest statue in the world, constructing the largest party office in the world, even cooking the most khichdi in the world.

The World Book of Records seems to fit right in here. As Rajeev Shrivastav, vice-president of the WBR, put it, “Our work, straightforward, is motivating people. Earlier, it would be done with a shawl and shrifal (coconut). Now, it’s a certificate.”  

I met Santosh Shukla in the third week of March at his office in the nondescript Pardeshipura area of Indore. The WBR staff work out of the top floor, which has three rooms with multiple work-stations. Visitors waiting outside Santosh’s chambers on the ground floor can spend their time looking at a large pinboard covered in letters from politicians from both the BJP and the Congress, acknowledging Santosh’s postal correspondence or wishing him luck in his professional endeavours. Among the names that stand out are BJP president Amit Shah and senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi.

A black-and-white board outside the office identifies Santosh as a Madhya Pradesh High Court advocate (he told this writer he was a Supreme Court lawyer, and his social media profiles also identify him as such), although he stopped practising in 2003. His dimly-lit chamberis lined with the latest issues of legal journals and books on Indian jurisprudence, some still in their plastic covers.

Over the course of our two-hour conversation, Santosh was warm, soft-spoken and unflappable, offering me tea thrice, saying at one point that he was “having fun” with my “cross-questioning”.

So how did a lawyer born in a farmers’ village in Ahmedabad end up founding an “international” organisation that validates anything from “largest number of innovative objects created by eco friendly corrugated boards” to “Most Double under Rope Skipping in a minute”?

The answer seems to lie in caste networks and political patronage.

When Santosh came to Indore after finishing Class XI, he wanted to work with Vishnuprasad Shukla, a BJP leader from the city.

“I had heard that he helps brahmins and gives them employment,” said Santosh.

But working for the politician, whom Santosh described as a “bit of a don”, meant roaming around with a danda and hurling abuses. Within a month, he realized that he wasn’t cut out to be a henchman.

“I wasn’t satisfied. I took babuji’s leave.”

As he studied further—a degree in science followed by two in law—Santosh kept in touch with his politician “patron”. In the early 2000s, when he launched Alma Limited, which claims to provide diplomas and degrees in IT services, he made Vishnuprasad Shukla its chairman. When Santosh launched WBR in 2017, he made the politician’s son Sanjay Shukla, now a Congress MP from Indore, a board member.

“That’s how [political] contacts happened,” he said.

According to Alma’s website, its “national patrons” include senior BJP leader Joshi, Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Congress’s Rajeev Shukla (whom it identifies as “Minister, Govt of India”) and Sandeep Dikshit.

Joshi, Mahajan and Rajeev Shukla did not respond to emailed queries about their association with WBR.

Santosh says Alma’s success played a major role in the rapid rise of WBR. The ‘IT education and training institute’, Santosh said, was launched “19 years ago” and has “five lakh students over 650 centres” across the country now.

But for an organisation claiming to be this large, it has little online presence. The company’s profile on the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs lists it as having been launched in 2006 with a capital of Rs 5 lakh. Its last balance sheet was filed in 2009. On the weekday afternoon that I visited Santosh’s office, which doubles up as Alma’s headquarters, there were no trainees to be seen.

Nevertheless, the Alma brand is associated with a slew of companies: Alma News, Alma Foundation, an online journal called Alma Today and Alma Kidz, a children’s school. There’s little evidence of any of these firms running flourishing operations as their respective websites claim. Their patrons, however, include many recognizable Indian politicians. The website of Alma Today, for example, lists Joshi and Rajeev Shukla again, along with former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit and Congress leaders Manish Tiwari and Shobha Oza.

Whose record is it anyway?

Santosh has no qualms in admitting to WBR’s dubious origins.

Sometime in 2017, said Santosh, his associate MP Sanjay Shukla, had organised a thread ceremony for hundreds of brahmin children. “He told me, let’s make a record out of this.” Over the next few days, Santosh wrote to many record-recognition organisations he found on the internet: Guinness Book of Records, Limca Book of Records, Golden Book of World Records and India Book of Records. Guinness never responded. Others, Santosh found, either charged high processing fees or lacked credibility.

The night before the ceremony, Santosh designed a certificate under the fictitious name ‘World Book of Records’. The next day, it was presented to the organisers.

“I was scared,” said Santosh. “I had done something wrong. It had even received media coverage.”

But nothing happened.

Over the next two weeks, Santosh studied the functioning of record-certifying organisations. He already had a name, so he planned the design, sketched out organisational details and wrote emails to a London-based acquaintance, Dr Diwakar Sukul, and British-Indian MP Virendra Sharma, soliciting their help.

“I said, I want it to be like Guinness... I want it to be all legal and would like [supporting] letters from six or seven MPs. If I go by the normal process, they won’t give it at all. They responded. I had six letters... I went to London and processed it. It took three days to register it. Now, I have this,” said Santosh, handing me a framed copy of the registration certificate from London.

Why London? Did he consider registering it in India?

“If I give you a certificate from London and one from New Delhi, which one would you take?” he quipped.

The WBR certificates also include signatures from Dr Sukul, its chairman, and British MP Sharma, who is also a board member.

In an email, Sharma said that Shukla had contacted him through Dr Diwakar Sukul soliciting support for the WBR.

“I have supported the World Book of Records in their aspiration to found a competitor to the Guinness Book of Records,” he wrote, adding that he had “no knowledge of the other issues raised”—the disproportionate representation of BJP-affiliates among the record creators—“and do not believe I have signed a letter for WBR.”

After London, the WBR was registered in India, the US and Australia. Santosh handed me the registration certificate from each country as proof of authenticity. In India, he claimed, he even had an endorsement from the office of Sushma Swaraj, the minister of external affairs. Swaraj did not respond to emailed queries from this writer.

Soon, the WBR had a global presence, a team of patrons from Santosh’s social and political network and a website. Today, one can even find the record-making thread ceremony among its early recognitions.

To bolster WBR’s credibility, Santosh created four more firms in the past two years: the Asiatic Liberal Multifarious Association to recommend people and events for WBR records, Aufait International Law LLP to deal with legal matters for the WBR, Cyber TV and Social Media Broadcasting to look after WBR’s publicity and South Asian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to raise revenue and facilitate record attempts.

In each of these firms, according to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Santosh or his family members—wifeSanchita Shukla and mother Manorama Shukla—are listed as directors.

You get an award, and you get an award

Although modelled after Guinness, most of WBR’s records and their holders are of Indian origin. Shrivastav, WBR’s VP, said that in most cases, the organisation approaches the people in question. While it often asks for supporting documents, it doesn’t follow a standard verification procedure to recognise someone or deem an event worthy of merit.

“Sometimes, it’s only two of us, sometimes it’s only bhaiyya [Santosh Shukla],” he said. “A lot of it is based on faith and trust. It’s not a jury like the court.”

While Santosh often takes the initiative to confer awards, at times BJP leaders inform him about their events. Shrivastav told me that “the Madhya Pradesh mahasachiv [general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya], a close friend of bhaiyya”, had invited the WBR to the BJP conclave last September.

“We verified it, said the numbers were correct and felicitated them,” said Shrivastava.

It wasn’t an independent verification, however, and largely relied on estimates provided by BJP members. Contrary to the BJP’s claims that there were 15 teams from the WBR at the conclave, Santosh said there were only five staffers there.

“You can’t possibly count 10 lakh people. No one can,” he said.

Some record-seekers contact the WBR themselves.In June last year, 18-year-old Ankit Verma, author of a self-published psychology book, posted a screenshot of an invoice for Rs 35,000 from the WBR on a crowdfunding website.

“I have applied for a world record and get selected but they are asking for money but don’t have a money to pay so, can you please help,” he wrote.

Verma’s bid received no funds, but his parents eventually paid up, he told me over the phone. A few months later, the WBR honoured him for writing the ’The Fastest Revised Book Edition’.

WBR claims to have felicitated over130 people so far. These recognition ceremonies are held at high-profile public events—at the venue of an ongoing record attempt or the organisation’s annual award function at a five-star hotel. Most of the honours are made on Santosh’s recommendation and handed out by Bollywood personalities—actor Raza Murad, singer Bappi Lahiri (who joined the BJP in 2014)—or politicians. There are also photographs of Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan releasing WBR publications.

Santosh has no misgivings about the disproportionate number of BJP cadre, initiatives or allies making it to the WBR. The honour is for their work, he explains. And they can work because they are in power. It’s as much a business consideration: more felicitations mean better visibility for his brand.

“If it was the Congress which was in power, they would’ve received the awards too,” he said.

Next on the list, says Santosh, is home minister Rajnath Singh, who will be felicitated for the successful completion of Kumbh. Singh was chosen because the office of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath didn’t get back in time. Santosh said that when he met Singh on the sidelines of the Padma award function in New Delhi in March, the minister asked him to wait until after the elections because of concerns about the ongoing model code of conduct.

Santosh is not unaware that he is being unusually candid about his organisation. But he also seems confident about his position and the WBR’s legal standing: “Today I can work confidently because I have done everything in the last two years,” he said.

It’s an effort, he says, by an ambitious Indian—one who rose from a village with no electricity, sold his wife’s jewellery for capital and travelled the country to build networks and garner goodwill—to recognise others like him.

“If you go to the Madhya Pradesh governor’s house [Anandiben Patel] today, you’ll see three of WBR’s certificates hung prominently in its waiting room,” says Santosh. “It’s a matter of pride for us. They’ve now even started recommending others for our honours. It shows that they’ve accepted us.

“Now my next target is the PMO. The day they start telling us to make records for them, we’ll know we’ve made it.”

Another woman has publicly accused Joe Biden of inappropriately touching her when he was vice president, drawing further scrutiny of his interactions with women over the years.

Amy Lappos of Milford, Connecticut, told The Hartford Courant on Monday that Biden grabbed her by the head and rubbed noses with her during a 2009 political fundraiser in Greenwich, an affluent town located in the southwest corner of the state.

The allegation comes after former Nevada Assemblywoman Lucy Flores published an op-ed in New York Magazine’s The Cut on Friday, alleging that Biden touched and kissed her without her consent in 2014.

Lappos, 43, said the alleged interaction occurred while she was volunteering at a fundraising luncheon for Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), whom she worked for as a congressional aide at the time. 

“It wasn’t sexual, but he did grab me by the head,” Lappos told the Courant. “He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.”

Himes wasn’t in the room at the time, she told the Courant.

Neither Lappos nor a representative for Biden immediately responded to HuffPost’s requests for comment.

Flores, in her op-ed on Friday, alleged the vice president approached her from behind, put his hands on her shoulders, smelled her hair and kissed the back of her head during a Las Vegas campaign rally. She was running for Nevada lieutenant governor at the time.

Biden said in a statement Sunday that he “never” once believed he was acting inappropriately during his many years as a public figure.

“If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention,” he said in his statement, which did not offer an apology for his alleged actions.

Allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women have dogged the former vice president in recent weeks as he’s expected to enter the 2020 presidential race.

Several Democrats have spoken up in Biden’s defense since Flores first came forward. Stephanie Carter, whose husband is former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, denied that a 2015 photo recently circulated on social media portrayed inappropriate behavior on Biden’s part. The photo shows Biden with his hands on Carter’s shoulders and his face in her hair.

In an essay published on Medium on Sunday, Carter said the photo was “misleadingly extracted” from a video.

“I absolutely support her right to speak her truth and she should be, like all women, believed,” Carter wrote of Flores’ claim. “But her story is not mine. The Joe Biden in my picture is a close friend helping someone get through a big day, for which I will always be grateful.”

Actor Sophie Turner recently revealed that her “Game of Thrones” co-star Kit Harington makes more money than her ― and she’s OK with that.

“Kit [Harington, who plays her brother Jon Snow, the King in the North] got more money than me,” Turner told Harper’s Bazaar UK in the magazine’s April issue.

“But he had a bigger storyline,” she continued. “And for the last series, he had something crazy like 70 night shoots, and I didn’t have that many. I was like, ‘You know what... you keep that money.’”

It’s not clear whether Turner meant Harington has always made more money than her ― “Game of Thrones” is about to start its eighth season, and both actors have been cast members since the beginning ― or if she was referring to a specific period in the HBO show’s run.

Turner told Harper’s Bazaar that demanding equal pay can get “a little tricky,” simply because actors don’t always all do the same job. Historically, however, the gender pay gap in Hollywood and media has been and remains a real issue, one that has come up repeatedly over the past few years. Actors including “The Crown’s” Claire Foy and “American Hustle’s” Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were paid less than their male co-stars for the same work (or sometimes even more work).

Although Turner doesn’t see an issue with the pay gap between her and Harington, she said she is working to improve diversity on set. For each job Turner takes, she said, she insists on an inclusion rider that ensures 50/50 gender parity in the workforce.

“Now, you see women in the camera departments, producing, directing,” she said. “It’s exciting.”

Head over to Harper’s Bazaar UK to read Turner’s full interview.

For the second time in two weeks, a whale has washed up dead with plastic packed inside its stomach, wildlife officials said.

In the latest grisly discovery, off the coast of Sardinia, Italy, late last week, there were roughly 49 pounds of plastic inside the female sperm whale, along with a dead fetus.

“She was pregnant and had almost certainly aborted before (she) beached,” Luca Bittau, president of the Italian environmental group SeaMe, told CNN of the whale. “The fetus was in an advanced state of [de]composition.”

The trash included garbage bags, fishing nets and lines, tubes, and a bag of washing machine liquid, Bittau said.

On March 16, people in the Philippines made a similar discovery, finding a dead whale that had 88 pounds of plastic inside its stomach. The whale had died from starvation and dehydration from all the junk it had swallowed, a marine biologist who participated in the necropsy told HuffPost at the time.

These two recent discoveries mirror similar whale deaths in Indonesia in November, in Thailand last June, and in Spain last April.

Italy’s environmental minister, Sergio Costa, shared photos of the latest dead whale on his Facebook page over the weekend, calling for a “war on disposable plastic” that begins with local bans.

“We’ve used the ‘comfort’ of disposable objects in a lighthearted way in the past years and now we are paying the consequences. Indeed the animals, above all, are the ones paying them,” he stated.

The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) also stressed the need for the world to take action.

“This is yet another painful reminder of the devastating impact that plastic pollution is having on our oceans and the terrible damage it is causing to marine life,” WWF said in a statement on Monday. “This is a global crisis that can only be solved if countries and businesses come together and accelerate progress towards a global and legally binding agreement on marine plastic pollution. We expect the EU and other progressive governments to take the lead on this.”

In a report published this year, WWF predicted that the amount of discarded plastic garbage will double by 2030 if we don’t take action. Nine million metric tons of plastic leak into the ocean each year because of waste mismanagement alone, according to WWF.

Last week, the European Parliament voted to ban single-use plastics, including plastic cutlery, straws, stirrers and lids.

In the U.S., lawmakers in New York are working to ban single-use plastic bags, mirroring a ban passed in California in 2016. All of Hawaii’s counties have also instituted anti-plastic-bag policies. Hawaii is also considering banning many disposable products from its restaurants, including styrofoam containers. Individual U.S. cities have also instituted plastic bag and utensil bans.

This story has been updated with a statement from WWF.

Lucy Flores, the former Nevada assemblywoman who on Friday said she felt uncomfortable during an encounter with then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2014, is not satisfied with Biden’s response to her allegations.

“He should apologise and acknowledge the way his behaviour makes people feel ― makes women feel,” Flores told HuffPost on Sunday, the same day Biden said he would “listen respectfully” to her story. 

“In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort,” Biden said. “And not once ― never ― did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.”

Flores told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Biden’s statement, his first on the matter, was better than that issued Friday by his spokesman Bill Russo. That statement focused on the fact that Biden and his staff had no “inkling” that Flores had been “at any time uncomfortable, nor do they recall what she describes.”

Still, Flores said she found Biden’s statement inadequate.

“Whether he thought it was appropriate or not, or he intended to be inappropriate, he needs to acknowledge that it was inappropriate and that it’s not about his motive,” she said. “It’s about the recipient ― the person on the receiving end of that behaviour.”

Flores, who now runs the Los Angeles-based digital media company Luz Collective, wrote last week in an essay for The Cut that she met Biden when he spoke at a rally in support of her 2014 bid for lieutenant governor of Nevada. She alleges that Biden came up behind her, put his hands on her shoulders, smelled her hair and kissed her head.

“He made me feel uneasy, gross, and confused,” she wrote. “The vice-president of the United States of America had just touched me in an intimate way reserved for close friends, family, or romantic partners — and I felt powerless to do anything about it.”

Biden has been documented over the years touching women at political events in ways that seem cringeworthy to many observers. Flores was the first woman to publicly describe how she felt about being touched by him; another woman on Monday accused Biden of inappropriately touching her in 2009.

Flores has already faced skepticism over her accusations.

Henry Muñoz, a founder of the Latino Victory Fund who now serves as finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement that he had “thoroughly reviewed” available evidence about the Nevada campaign rally and concluded that the interaction Flores described did not take place because Biden and Flores were never alone together.

Flores responded by saying she never alleged that she and Biden had been alone together when the incident occurred. Muñoz and others who believe the lack of alone time exonerates Biden “clearly didn’t read my essay,” she said.

Flores has also withstood some skepticism because of her support for the 2016 presidential run of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders tapped Flores to serve as one of his appointees to the Democratic National Committee’s Unity and Reform Commission, which produced recommendations for reforming the party’s presidential nominating process.

“I just hope it’s not true that Flores was prompted to write her essay because of her work with Bernie campaign,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers labor union, wrote Sunday in tweet that has since been deleted. 

Flores said her loyalty to another candidate had nothing to do with her decision to speak up about Biden, and Sanders’ campaign told HuffPost it had no role in encouraging her to come forward.

Flores said she simply needed time to muster the courage to speak, and that she was also disturbed by the lack of a serious discussion about Biden’s tendency to touch women. 

“There are so many conversations occurring about his potential candidacy, but this very important aspect of his behavior is not being discussed,” she said.

Flores called Biden’s conduct “disqualifying.” She said she was also “disappointed” by his ongoing unwillingness to take responsibility for failing to give an adequate hearing to law professor Anita Hill, who in 1991 accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. 

A host of 2020 presidential candidates have spoken up in support of Flores. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro both said Saturday before a HuffPost forum in Iowa that they believed Flores. Sanders, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) were among those who said Sunday that they were confident in the veracity of Flores’ comments, but they stopped short of saying Biden shouldn’t enter the race.

Flores has not yet endorsed any candidate and has no plans to do so in the immediate future.

Although she credits Sanders for catapulting issues like “Medicare for all,” free college and the corrupting effect of money in politics into the party’s mainstream, she doesn’t plan to return to his side at this stage of the process. She also publicly broke with former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a co-chair of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, last year when she resigned from the board of Our Revolution, a nonprofit run by Turner.  

“Four years later, the field is just different. There are qualified women who are really exciting,” she said. “There’s Elizabeth Warren. Kamala Harris has built a very impressive campaign and is very, very diverse.”

Flores said she wholeheartedly supported forming unions to combat inappropriate sexual conduct toward political staff. But she said there was no substitute for male politicians engaging in introspection.

“Other than men being aware of themselves, and powerful men being aware of the power differential there, I don’t know what other way something like that can be avoided,” Flores said. “As a candidate, where should I submit my complaint against the vice president of the United States? ... There has to be a culture shift.”

MUMBAI — At least seven vehicles were damaged when a speeding car,  driven by a TV actor, hit them at Santacruz, police said.

The incident took place in the early hours of Monday when Ruhi Shaileshkumar Singh, 30, who was allegedly in an inebriated state, dashed her car with other vehicles, a police official said. 

Singh was served a notice by the police, while two of her friends were arrested in the case, Times of Indiareported.

Four two-wheelers and three cars were damaged, but no one was injured, an official said. 

A video of the incident has gone viral where Singh can be seen arguing with people who had gathered around her car.  She is also seen accusing police of assaulting her.

According to the ToI report, the actor and her friends had stopped at a mall in Bandra on the way back from a pub. They got into a fight with workers at the mall after they were not allowed to use a toilet.

“When Ruhi and her two friends were leaving, she got behind the wheel and rammed the car into a few parked vehicles in Santacruz as she was under the influence of alcohol. The Santacruz police station has booked her for rash driving also,” deputy commissioner of police (zone IX) Paramjit Singh Dahia told ToI.

The Khar police has booked the actors and two other for assault while the Santacruz police has booked her for rash driving and drunk driving, the report said.

(With PTI inputs)