Reader’s Digest has been the world’s biggest-selling magazine for nearly nine decades. It is also India’s largest-selling magazine in English. Beneath the fun and excitement of its pages, the Digest is, above all else, a serious magazine that never loses sight of the fact that, each day, all of us confront a tough, challenging world. To the millions who read the Digest, it is not a luxury—it is a necessity. Deep within its widely varied package of humour, real-life dramas and helpful information, there is in every issue of the Digest a subtle power that guides people in every aspect of their lives.
Reader’s Digest India
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN TURN 75 • The five success stories of the 1947 generation were inspiring. The 1947 generation also includes thousands of pre-Partition refugees, who were forced to leave their homes in undivided India and struggled for years to make good in their new homelands. Many of them, like me, are still longing to visit their birthplace before it is too late. As a homage to this dwindling generation, in this 75th year of our separation, both India and Pakistan should allow them to visit their ancestral homes on either side. The opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor in 2019, is a positive start and it would be a great goodwill gesture on the part of both countries to extend the facility for visiting one’s birth place, preferably through the Wagah border, where the necessary infrastructure already exists.
HUMOUR in UNIFORM
My Dad and I, Rebuilt • Working on a home repair project with my father showed me I had more to learn about him than I thought
What’s Your Weird Phobia?
YOUR TRUE STORIES IN 100 Words
It Happens ONLY IN INDIA
POINTS TO PONDER • Colonialism. The enforced spread of the rule of reason. But who is going to spread it among the colonizers?
Immune System Supercharger • Vitamin D appears to help prevent many illnesses, including COVID
Visiting a Rage Room
Five a Day • Eating two fruits and three veggies daily can help you live longer
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE
WE FOUND A FIX • HELP, HACKS AND HOW TO
GOOD NEIGHBOURS • A heartwarming collection of stories about community and kindness
THE SUNSHINE MAYOR
LESSONS FROM A LOAF OF BREAD
OUT ON A LIMB
FRIENDS, INDEED
LIFE’S Like That
GET THE CHECKED • HERE ARE 17 SYMPTOMS TO NEVER IGNORE
Swimming with Orcas • A plunge into forbidding waters off Norway leads to an extraordinary encounter
Meet The Ghostbusters • While some dismiss it completely out of hand, others believe inexplicably in the spirit world. We ask the experts to weigh in
5 SPOOKY SPOTS TO VISIT – OR AVOID AT ALL COSTS
ALL in a Day’s WORK
THAT’S THE JOB FOR ME! • For some, naming a newborn is a personal decision. For others, it’s a business opportunity. Meet Taylor A. Humphrey, professional baby namer. After parents fill out a questionnaire, she supplies them with a bespoke list heavy on names like Florian and Balthazar with nary a Larry or Mary among them. Humphrey’s fee starts at $1,500, says the New Yorker, but not every suggestion is a winner. One client nixed ‘Stellan’ because “it sounds a lot like Stalin.” As for ‘Adler’—it’s the name of the bar down the street. If baby naming isn’t for you, here are start-ups the Twittersphere is considering:
When She Was Princess • A 1945 perspective of the woman who became Queen Elizabeth II
TRAPPED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA • His air-supply cord severed, commercial diver Chris Lemons had minutes to live
GOING WITH HER GUT • Nandita Das describes Zwigato—her third directorial outing—as a “story of new urban India and the relentlessness of life”. Speaking to Reader’s Digest, the 52-year-old actor—director–writer...