When East meets West

Mashup is a word I associate boiled potatoes and desi ghee with. As a Bengali, I have revelled in pouring copious amounts of ghee (sourced from a sweetmeat shop in Kolkata, no industrial-type ghee will work here) onto mashed boiled potatoes, and then mashing it some more. It's delicious, when had with rice and a dollop of salt. But these days, mashups are about blending music. Vidya Vox (originally Iyer) blends East-meets-West soundtracks and creates her own magic. She's had an interesting life: wasn't comfortable in her Indian skin when she moved to the US at the age of nine, and then did a U-turn and embraced her cultural roots. Her experiments with remixing Hindi/Tamil/Malayalam with American English tracks - with her own creative spins obviously - has turned her into a YouTube singing sensation. Her fan base is formidable, even though she's had to deal with a fair bit of trolling - but then, everybody's fair game on the social media platform, right? WKND caught up with Vidya to get her version of going viral.   
We love doing what our favourite celebrities do; we become emulators. Recently, we've been witnessing how "influencers" have been influencing our decisions: what dress should I buy? Which is the best hair-dryer in store? Which bistro serves the best cheese platter? Then, it gets serious. When Angelina Jolie had a breast cancer "scare", and she went public with it, undergoing a double mastectomy, a legion of women across the world went for breast screening. Jolie achieved with them what doctors, family members and friends could not: convincing them that they need to be checked out for cancer markers. Read about the fascinating cognitive brain function that enables this.
In Travel, an amazing piece on a battle royale between the author and a giant marlin fish off a coast in Senegal. In Bollywood, a tribute to the very beautiful Leela Naidu on her eighth death anniversary. Netflix's Lisa Nishimura on what goes into the making of a documentary. All this and much more.
Enjoy reading WKND and have a great weekend.