Read Our Minds: March

This month’s trivia question comes from our entralling collection of stories about survival against the odds, When Disaster Strikes. Comprising Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado, Tracy by Gary McKay, The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger and 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, this collection will make you appreciate your comfy chair in the lounge room a whole lot more.

Question: What year did the devastating storm, Tracy, hit Darwin on Christmas Day?

 

Word Puzzles

Keep your brain in shape with these puzzles from the Reader’s Digest Giant Puzzle Book. It is jam packed with an enormous variety of puzzles, from crosswords to trivia to spot-the-difference.
 

Take a Letter 38

Take a Letter 85

Take a Letter 88

Why?

Have you ever wondered why dinner plates are round? Why bats roost upside-down? Why lightning has a zigzag pattern? Find out the ­answers to the most astonishing array of whys and wherefors in the Reader’s Digest book, Imponderables.

Why is the colour blue associated with baby boys? Why is pink ­associated with baby girls?

The association of colours with babies undoubtedly started as an ­attempt to identify the gender of that one group of humans to whom the cliché ‘they all look alike’ often applies.

But why blue for boys? In ancient times, it was believed that evil spirits lingered over nurseries and that certain colours possessed the capability to combat evil. Blue was considered the most powerful colour, possibly because of its association with the sky, and thus, ­heavenly spirits. Since boys were then considered the most valuable natural resource to parents, blue clothing was a cheap form of insurance.

Evil spirits apparently couldn’t be bothered with pestering baby girls. Not only were girls not dressed in blue, they had no colour to call their own until centuries later. Our association of pink with girls stems from European legend, which professes that baby girls are born inside pink roses.

European legend also holds that baby boys are born in blue cabbage patches.

This Month's Giveaway

Click here to reda an extract from One Night at a Call Centre

Have you been truly inspired by a story? Did the inspiration you found lead you to do something you may not otherwise have done? Write in and tell us for a chance to win a copy of Select Editions.

With close to a million copies sold of each of Chetan Bhagat’s first three books, many young Indians are being ­inspired by this young fiction writer, one of the stars at the recent Jaipur Literary Festival. Bhagat is often criticised by the more conservative members of the Indian ­literary community, for a perceived lack of literary quality in his writing. Bhagat dismisses this outright, declaring that, ‘Indian style is the style of the people, the country, and if some don’t like it: tough.’ ­At Jaipur, a round of applause ­followed this statement, indicating that his sentiment is shared.

One Night at the Call Centre, published in our Select Editions Vol 281, deals in very straightforward manner with issues of central importance to India and its youth: the conflict between traditional values and modern culture, pride in India’s achievements and a resentment of foreigners who take advantage of India’s ­educated workers, and, of course, how to win the girl of your dreams. With all this going for it, along with the humorous and self-deprecating style of the narrator, it’s not hard to see why Chetan Bhagat is so popular.