IN & AROUND
THE SUBCONTINENTAL MENU
UP IN THE AIR
IT may be time for cricket ’ s coin toss to go out of the window as the ICC seriously considers abolishing the practice for the Test Championship , which will start with 2019 ’ s Ashes series . This follows increasing complaints about conditions being manipulated by home boards to give their team a lopsided advantage over the visiting side . The briefing notes circulated ahead of the ICC committee meeting in Mumbai state that “ more than one committee member believes that the toss should be automatically awarded to the visiting team in each match ”, although some on the committee do not share that view . A kind of precedent was set when the toss was made optional in the English County Championship in 2016 , with the visitors being given the opt ion to bowl first and the toss only occurring if they declined .
A NEW MONKEY MURTI
AFTER Chunmun died at the age of 15 , her parents left all their property to a trust in her name , started a clinic where the poor get free treatment , and installed a statue of her in the family temple . Placed with the pre-existing idols of Ram , Sita and Lakshman , the statue looks like Bal Hanuman — because Chunmun was a monkey . When childless Rae Bareli housewife Sabista saw a monkey being harassed by locals in 2002 , she bought it , and she and her husband Brijesh Srivastava looked after it like their own child . They were grief-stricken when it died weeks later , but Sabista bought a baby monkey and named her Chunmun . Chunmun lived with the couple in an air-conditioned room , was made their legal heir and was even “ married off ” before her death last November .
BAGHEERA ON CAMERA
black panther is stalking
A the forests of Odisha — one of the Bagheera kind rather than the Wakandan monarch variety . The animal , a melanistic colour variant of the Indian leopard , was recently photographed several times by camera traps set up in Garjanpahad Reserve Forest , which sprawls across 10,000 hectares of the Hemgir and Gopalpur forest ranges and is linked to the tiger landscape of central India . This is the first confirmed sighting in the state — although there were reports of such a creature in the same area 26 years ago , no evidence could be obtained until now . The camera traps have been in place for three years but have only borne fruit now , as the black panther is a shy and elusive animal , just like ordinary leopards . Odisha thus becomes the ninth state where the black panther has been sighted in the wild .
CROWDFUNDED COLLEGE
vision can take many forms
A before becoming reality . When Amitabh Bachchan visited Daulatpur village in UP ’ s Barabanki district in 2008 , he announced plans to build a college in honour of his daughter-inlaw ( the ‘ Aishwarya Bachchan Degree College ’), and laid the foundation stone with great pomp . The Nishtha Foundation of actress Jaya Prada was put in charge — but this was defunct within two years and was replaced by another body . In 2012 , the ‘ degree college ’ became an ‘ inter college ’ for higher secondary students and Rs 5 lakh was advanced for construction , but no progress was made . Eventually , a schoolteacher ’ s father donated 10,000 sqm of land , and the construction was completed with contributions from villagers .
12 OUTLOOK 11 June 2018
Illustrations by SAJITH KUMAR