Tag: SpaceX

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2023-16

About-the world this week, 16 April to 22 April 2023: Revenge arrests; a stampede for food; lots of gunfire; a rapid unscheduled disassembly; and a ‘kota’ beauty.

Everywhere

Tit-for-Tat

This week a Russian Judge ruled that American Journalist Evan Gershkovich, 32, must remain in jail-at least till 29th May-on espionage charges, in a case that is part of Russia’s crackdown on dissent and press freedom. This is happening in the background of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting war. If convicted, it would be 20 years in a cold Russian jail.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that Evan Gershkovich, who is based in the capital Moscow, had been trying to steal State secrets. This is the first time, since the Cold War, that a United States (US) news correspondent has been detained in Russia.

Evan works for the Wall Street Journal, which is published by US company, Dow Jones. He was born in a jewish family, to parents who fled the then Soviet Union during a period of mass emigration amidst rumours that Jews would be exiled in Serbia. His parents ended up in the US in 1979. And Russian is a language spoken at home.

The arrest of Evan Gershkovich comes on the heels of the US announcing charges, about a week ago, against a Russian national, Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov accusing him of being a Russian spy.

Tit-for-tat?

Dying for Food

This week, a stampede in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, left over 80 people dead and dozens seriously injured. Hundreds of people crowded at a School in Sanaa to receive alms, which amounted to 5,000 Yemeni Riyals or about USD 9 per person of people, waiting to receive donations during the last days of the Muslim Festival Eid al-Fitr, Ramadan. Houthi fighters- who’ve been running the city since 2015- had shot into the air to disperse and control the crowd, striking an electrical wire that sparked an explosion. The series of events spooked the crowd, leading to a deadly stampede. Two organisers of the event have been arrested, and it seems there wasn’t any coordination with local authorities. Now, there’s an investigation underway. The stampede happened right before the Muslim Festival holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.

Yemen has been stuck in the deep pit of an eight-year conflict that pits a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia against the Iran-aligned Houthi group. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis, months after the group ousted the internationally recognised government from Sanaa. The conflict is seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, wrecked the economy and pushed millions into hunger. The United Nation’s World Food Programme feeds 13 million in Yemen, but funding shortfalls have curtailed its activities.

The stampede shows the plight of the people in a war-torn country, fighting (and dying) for food, in Yemen.

The Guns of Africa

Late last week clashes broke out across Sudan, mainly in the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region, between rival factions of the country’s military government. Into this week, almost 330 people have been killed and about 3,200 injured. The clashes erupted amid an apparent power struggle between the two main factions of Sudan’s military regime.

The Sudanese armed forces are broadly loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s de facto ruler, while the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a collection of militia, follow the former warlord Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The power struggle has its roots in the years before a 2019 uprising that ousted the dictatorial ruler Omar al-Bashir, who built up formidable security forces that he deliberately set against one another.

When an effort to transition to a democratic civilian-led government faltered after Bashir’s fall, an eventual showdown appeared inevitable, with diplomats warning, in early 2022, that they feared such an outbreak of violence. In recent weeks, tensions have risen further.

Sudan is in a volatile region bordering the Red Sea, the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa. Its strategic location and agricultural wealth have attracted regional power plays, complicating the chances of a successful transition to a civilian-led government.

Several of Sudan’s neighbours – including Ethiopia, Chad, and South Sudan – have been affected by political upheavals and conflict, and Sudan’s relationship with Ethiopia, in particular, has been strained over issues including disputed farmland along their border.

The history of conflicts in Sudan has consisted of ethnic tensions, religious disputes, and competition over resources. In its modern history, two civil wars between the central government and the southern regions killed 1.5 million people, and a continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur has displaced 2 million people and killed more than 200,000 people. Since independence in 1956, Sudan has had more than fifteen military coups and has been ruled by the military for the majority of the republic’s existence, with only brief periods of democratic civilian parliamentary rule. That’s a tinderbox situation in Africa.

The Guns of India

One of India’s rowdiest states fires into the news, this week too, with gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother being shot dead while being escorted by the police for a medical check-up. In a brazen act, the killers, seemingly unmindful of the police being everywhere, ‘gate-crashed the party’, simply pulled out a gun and shot dead the gangsters. And then promptly surrendered to the Police.

Just last week, the gangster’s son had been killed by the Police in an encounter, while trying to escape and making deadly plans to rescue his father from jail. Now they are together in another place.

He who lives by the Gun dies by the Gun?

The Name is Gandhi

One of India’s Member of Parliament (MP), Rahul Gandhi, who was found guilty, convicted by India’s Courts, and disqualified as an MP lost an appeal to stay the conviction on criminal defamation – on the ‘Modi surname issue’. The Court said he failed to show the ‘exceptional circumstances’ to grant a stay on the conviction. Jail beckons, and the wait outside Parliament’s Gates stays.

This is only the second time since 1860 that someone has been punished with two years for jail for criminal defamation. That’s ‘rarest of rare circumstance’ – perhaps good enough reason to hand out a jail term!

A Successful Failure

The United States’ Space Agency NASA has long been in the game of Space and appears to have wisely outsourced all risk-taking to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, who grabs them by the tail-for the lessons to learn. I admire the man for such daring.

This week, SpaceX’s Starship Spacecraft and Super Heavy Rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – the largest and most powerful rocket ever built- blasted off from a SpaceX Starbase on the Gulf of Mexico in Boca Chica, Texas. However, after a successful launch, Starship blew up within minutes into the test flight that SpaceX, hoped will be the first step on a human journey to Mars.

After a cancelled launch earlier this week because of a pressurisation issue, the 120 metre Starship finally kicked off its base. It gathered speed, but then started to spin at altitude before exploding about four minutes after leaving the ground. It appeared that the two sections of the rocket system-the booster and cruise vessel -were unable to separate properly after takeoff, possibly causing the spacecraft to fail. It was not immediately clear whether the rocket exploded spontaneously or if the Flight Termination System was activated – a failsafe that destroys the spacecraft to prevent it from veering too far off course.

Starship is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It is capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable fuel. Starship leverages tanker vehicles (essentially the Starship spacecraft minus the windows) to refill the Starship spacecraft in low-Earth orbit prior to departing for Mars. Refilling on-orbit enables the transport of up to 100 tons all the way to Mars. And if the tanker ship has high reuse capability, the primary cost is just that of the oxygen and methane, which is extremely low. The Starship is designed to carry 100 people on long duration interplanetary flights.

SpaceX had cautioned that the chances of success were low and that the aim of the test flight was to gather data, regardless of whether the full mission was achieved. Employees at SpaceX cheered even after the rocket disintegrated. “As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,” SpaceX said in a statement, referring to the explosion. Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly-that’s Space equivocating at its best spin!

Indian Beauty

Miss India, or Femina Miss India, is a national beauty pageant in India that annually selects women beauties to represent India to compete in the Miss World Contest, one of the Big Four major international beauty pageants. It is organised by Femina, a women’s magazine published by The Times Group. Since 2013 to 2022, Femina also organised Miss Diva as a separate competition, with participants competing at Miss Universe.

This week India chose its Miss India-to represent India in the upcoming 71st Miss World Contest 2023, to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year. Rajasthan’s 19 years old Nandhini Gupta was crowned Miss India in the pageant held on 15th April, followed by Delhi’s Shreya Poonja as the first runner-up and Manipur’s Thounaojam Strela Luwang as second runner-up.

Manipur hosted the grand finale of Femina Miss India 2023, a first in the pageant’s history where it was held outside Mumbai. One contestant from 29 states (including Delhi) and a collective representative for all Union Territories adding up to 30 participants competed for the title.

Sini Shetty was Femina Miss India World 2022 from whom the crown passes to Nandhini Gupta.

Miss India’s official Instagram page said of Nandini Gupta, ‘magnetism, charm, endurance, and beauty’.

Nandini Gupta is 19 years old and hails from Kota, one of the biggest coaching hubs in the country for engineering and medical aspirants. Could perhaps become a coaching hub for beauty and brains too? The new Miss World India holds a Business Management degree. The Tata Group’s Ratan Tata is the most influential person in Nandini’s life. International Actor and Miss World 2000, Priyanka Chopra is one beauty queen who inspires Nandini the most.

Kota Doriya is a fabric famous for its quality manufactured in the region. And the new Miss India wants to help the artisans by promoting it on a national and international level. Time to get our quota of Kota?

Melange

In other news, India became the most populous country in the World with a head count of 1.428 billion, about 17.8% of the World’s Population. Quickly behind is China with 1.425 billion.

Meanwhile, a debate is underway in the India’s Supreme Court on same-sex marriages.

In India’s Jammu & Kashmir, five Indian soldiers were martyred when a vehicle in which they were travelling was fired upon by terrorists in the Poonch area, on Thursday. The unidentified attackers took advantage of heavy rains and low visibility, and the army truck probably caught fire due to a grenade attack. I’m sure, India will give a befitting reply in time to come.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, trigger-happy Russia accidentally bombed one of its own cities-the city of Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border. A Russian Sukhoi-34 fighter-jet was involved in the ‘special operation’. Maybe Russia itself is an accident over the past year(s)?

More cat-walking stories coming up in the weeks ahead. Make-up and stay beautiful with World Inthavaaram.

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WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-39

About: the world this week, 19 September to 25 September 2021, doing your own research, Canada Elections, moving about in disguise, population competition, Space Tourists returning home, and The Emmys.

Everywhere

With the COVID-19 pandemic appearing to slightly dim, it’s lights-on for the anti-vaccination mob who live by the now famous credo, ’I’ll Do My Own Research’ to convince themselves and those willing to lend an ear – on not getting vaccinated. If everyone was to do his own research I wonder how one would find common ground and stay on the same page on matters concerning deadly infectious diseases, which require a huge coordinated effort to contain. Often one’s work is the starting point for another: we ride on the shoulders of research done long before we came on the scene. Should each one of us independently find out why the apple fell on Newton’s head when the great Scientist had already ‘caught the apple’ and discovered gravity? And confirmed by many other Experts!

Doing your own research may lead you astray with the Google algorithm designed to help you find and confirm the negatives that you are looking for. And you ending up swallowing tons of fake information, which you are no expert to digest – and then throw up!

What do we do on decisions such as to get vaccinated or not? Just follow the Experts. Don’t do your own research and expect to find anything different from what the Experts did. And don’t trust anyone who tells you to do your own research: they’re out to bamboozle you. We need to respect learning and hard-earned knowledge, don’t we?

We have vaccines against measles, mumps, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, and others, which is mandated by most countries to take. Anti-vaxxers should realise that it is actually a good thing to get vaccinated. Kindergarten should change a person!

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau drunk on his government’s excellent performance during the pandemic gambled on a snap election hoping to win a majority in Parliament. Won he did, but fell-short of the hoped-for-majority. His Liberal Party won 158 seats to the Opposition Conservative’s 119 and the target of 170 suddenly looked higher than it did before the Elections. Well, the snap decision snapped; it backfired.

In medieval times it was not uncommon for Kings and Queens to wander about their Kingdom, in disguise, to see for themselves how ordinary folks are going about the business of their lives and to sense the mood- doing their own royal research, in a way? India’s newly-minted Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya went back in time to do exactly that, when he made a surprise visit to New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, in disguise, as a general patient. During the visit, a security guard chided him and hit him for trying to sit on a bench. He found a 75 years old woman pleading with the guards to get a stretcher for her son, as she couldn’t find one. And not one of the 1500 security guards was willing to help. How do you find a vaccine for this behaviour? Mandaviya gave up his disguise and talked to the Prime Minister about the incident and what he had uncovered, and instead of adopting a Rambo style suspension of the guard, Mandaviya decided to try improve the system and not just one person. That sure is a healthy outlook on affairs in the Kingdom.

While China and India are on a different league when it comes to population – occupying the top two positions – good old United States of America is being challenged by Nigeria, for the third position. And according to a United Nations report, Nigeria is expected to surpass the US and become the third-most populous country in the world by 2050. Planet Earth is not enough, let’s try space?

The SpaceX Tourist Mission including (other than the lift-off to the edge of Space, and landing) three days of orbiting around the Earth, and enjoying the sights, ended successfully on the 19th September, with the return of the crew of four safely to Earth. The Capsule named as Resilience, harbouring them made an automatic re-entry and then parachuted into calm seas off the coast of Florida. It was a sight to behold with four speed-breaking parachutes – first two and then another two opening up-holding Resilience to carefully touch down onto the calm waters. And after a ‘hold dip’ the Capsule buoyed and floated before being suspiciously watched, inspected – it had a visibly scorched exterior – escorted, and rigged by the recovery crew, after which it was lifted onto a Recovery Vessel. The weather was extremely friendly and gave space to the Space-returnees to enjoy the moment.

Within an hour, the four smiling crew members were seen emerging one by one from the capsule’s side hatch. Each stood on the deck for a few moments in front of the capsule to wave and a give thumbs-up before being escorted to a medical station on board for checkups at sea. Afterwards they were flown by helicopter back to Cape Canaveral for reunion with their families.

Please Yourself

What the Oscar Awards are for the Movies, and the Grammys for Music, The Emmy Awards are for Television – recognising the best that Television has produced. And what we watched – often binged – with delight in our Homes.

The Emmy Awards officially called the Primetime Emmy Awards are awards bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming.

The 73rd edition of the Emmys was held this week at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, USA. Cedric the Entertainer, actor, and standup comedian who has been a sitcom staple from ‘The Steve Harvey Show’ to ‘The Neighbourhood’, hosted the show.

Apple TV’s, ’Ted Lasso’ – a superb American football comedy, which you can enjoy without knowing anything about football- came into the night with the most nominations of 13 and could lasso only four heads. Netflix’s, ‘The Crown’ – about the story of the British Royal Family- received 11 nominations and ended up with the biggest haul of seven crowns.

Kate Winslet, who we know as the famous ‘Rose’ of Titanic-the movie – rose cleverly to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Movie, for the ‘Mare of Easttown,’ a HBO production on crime detection. Maybe we should put her on the job of finding out if it indeed was an iceberg that tippled the Titanic. Netflix’s chess based classic drama, ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ check-mated the award for the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ won the Outstanding Variety Talk Series, this week; ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ won the Outstanding Competition Program, without dragging further. ‘Saturday Night Live’ won the Outstanding Variety Sketch Series, and lived another night. I’ve mentioned the key winners to aid your navigation on Television and decide what to watch.

The over three-hour telecast squeezed in twenty-eight live awards, including one notable stretch to present the lifetime Governor’s Award to Debbie Allen, a consummate multi-skilled – dancer, choreographer, actor, director, producer, and singer – whose career spans such pop culture staples as ‘Fame’, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, and ‘The Cosby Show’. The 71 years old Allen said, “It’s taken a lot of courage to be the only woman in the room a lot of times”.

More courageous stories to sing, dance, sit or stand, and watch in the coming weeks. Stay with World Inthavaaram.

WORLD INTHAVAARAM, 2021-38

About: the world this week, 12 September to 18 September 2021, edging spacing, shape-shift evolution, US Open opens up to teenagers, India breaks vaccination records, and fashion blasts in New York.

Everywhere

Space

Flying to the edge of space is fast becoming a tourism habit. Virgin Group Boss, Richard Branson, started it and was quickly followed by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. They rushed to the edge touched it and returned home within the space of a few hours. And on returning, Jeff Bezos even pulled out a Texan hat, grabbed a horse and raced away to the edge of the desert.

Now, Elon Musk’s SpaceX was galvanised to do something better, and this Wednesday a SpaceX rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, Cape Canaveral, Florida, in a first ever mission to the Earth’s Orbit, crewed entirely by four Tourists, none of who are professional astronauts. They include a 38 years old billionaire who self-funded the mission, a 29 years old childhood cancer survivor, a 51 years old geologist and community college teacher, and a 42 years old Lockheed Martin employee-who got a ticket through an online raffle.

The Tourists will spend the entire mission aboard the special Capsule that detached from the Falcon-9 launch rocket after reaching orbital speed and successfully manoeuvred into its designated orbit. They will remain in orbit for three days strapped to their seats in the Capsule, before returning to Earth in a splashdown ending, off the coast of Florida, this Saturday. The Capsule will circle around Earth once every 90 minutes travelling at more than 17,500 miles per hour during which time the passengers experience weightlessness and will be enthralled by panoramic views of the Earth. The crew will share a special zero-gravity-friendly toilet located near the top of the Capsule and sleep in their reclining seats. They will come back with lots of stories to tell.

While other tourist spots across the world struggle to get people over to soak in their sights, the Space Tourist spot is above them all.

Shape-Shift

We have tirelessly and endlessly talked about climate change: hurricanes, landslides, incessant rain and flash floods, melting icebergs, wildfires, heat waves, and the kind, which swept through and flooded the media in recent times. While mankind knowingly or unknowingly made disastrous changes-causing climate change- in the name of development and advancement of civilisation, other animals are quietly adapting: making internal adjustments, actually shaping up to things to come. Shape-Shift!

Animals have sensed the change, in their own mysterious ways, and are growing larger wings, beaks, or legs, or ears, as Planet Earth grows warmer and races towards becoming blazing hot. Looks like increasing their appendages is a cool way to cool off. For e.g., an Australian parrot species saw its beak size increase to between 4% and 10%, on average, since 1871.

Within a species, animals in warmer climates are growing larger appendages, such as wings and beaks, with the greater surface area enabling better body temperature control and regulation. At the same time, body sizes are tending to shrink, since smaller bodies hold on to lesser heat. I reckon they can teach us Mass and Heat Balance.

Now, will mankind in turn, grow longer noses, larger ears, or even tails and wings, to balance the climate change effects? We need to closely watch these spaces (and our ‘backs’ for any signs of tail growth).

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden warned of a Code Red moment on climate change during a tour of parts of the USA affected by extreme weather in recent times: New York, New Jersey, and Louisiana that were devastated by Hurricane Ida, to California which is dealing with raging wildfires.

India

This Friday was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 71st Birthday and India gave him a stupendous birthday present of having achieved over 25 million vaccination jabs in a single day – a world record – and reaching a total of over 791 million COVID-19 inoculation shots till date. That’s more than the combined population of 78 countries, in just one day, Wow! The Prime Minister said he was humbled beyond measure…and his hair keeps growing. Happy Birthday to a very hard working Prime Minister. I wish he had a birthday haircut! Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder!

US Open Tennis

Last Saturday, eighteen years old Emma Raducanu, of Britain, won her first-ever Grand Slam US Open Tennis Title beating nineteen years old Leylah Fernandez, of Canada, without dropping a single set in the entire tournament. And in the process served many aces to set new world records. She won in straight sets of 6-4, 6-3, with some amazing, unbelievable shots, fearlessly dominating from inside the baseline. And sealed the match with a serve ace!

Emma, ranked 150 in the World, started the Tournament as a Qualifier and ended up receiving the trophy from the hands of Tennis Legend Billie Jean King. Another British tennis great, Virginia Wade, looking as beautiful as she was in her playing days, watched and cheered from the stands.

Let me take a quick detour to the phenomenal Virginia Wade who won the Women’s Singles, US Open in 1968, the Australian Open in 1972, and the Wimbledon in 1977 – in Wimbledon’s 100th Anniversary year. She was the No.1 British Player for over a decade, in her time. She had also won four Grand Slam Tennis Doubles Championships. She retired from Tennis in 1986 and has worked as a commentator on BBC and various news networks in the USA. The now 76 years old Virginia Wade has ‘remained single’ throughout her life keeping her personal life absolutely personal and secret. And has never been seriously linked or seen with another person in her entire career. That’s a singular achievement.

Back to Emma, some of the history making and records breaking stunts Emma Raducanu achieved goes likes this: First Qualifier in the open era to win a Grand Slam; First British female winner in the US Open since Virginia Wade waded to the podium in 1968; youngest women’s Grand Slam winner since Maria Sharapova’s Wimbledon win in 2002; youngest Briton to win a Grand Slam Title; First woman to win the US Open without dropping a set since Serena Williams did it 2014… The young are bouncing back with a vengeance and the old are still trying to serve with resilience.

Serbian Novak Djokovic, 34, the No. 1-ranked men’s player in the world was on the verge of making history to break a tie with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who also have 20 major titles, for the most in men’s tennis history. And also the first man to win all four majors: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open, in the same year. But, Russian Daniil Medvedev, 25, spoiled Djokovic’s party by defeating him in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, to win his first Grand Slam US Open Title. That’s as straight as it can be!

Recall that Medvedev went through two Grand Slam final defeats before this win, and somehow it seemed that this was his to take. Failure strengthens the arms and legs, and pain needs a winning outlet. Medvedev received the trophy from another Tennis great, Stan Smith (I remember Stan Smith’s Tennis Classes during ‘my’ playing days).

Please Yourself

The Met Gala

This week we saw celebrities of the world carefully strutting about in the weirdest and wildest possible, eye-catching costumes at the Met Gala Event in New York City, USA. And expanded the dimensions of Planet Earth, with imagination running riot. Well, what’s the Met Gala about?

The Met Gala, formally called the Costume Institute Gala is an annual fundraising event for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s, Costume Institute, in New York City. The event raises money for the Institute – one of the biggest fundraising nights of its kind in the City- which is the only one of the Met’s curatorial departments that has to fund itself. It also marks the opening of the Institute’s annual fashion exhibit.

Each year’s event celebrates the theme of that year’s Costume Institute Exhibition, which in turn sets the tone for the formal dress of the night. Guests are expected to choose their fashion to match the theme of the exhibit. This year’s theme was, ‘explore American Independence’.

Let’s get underneath the Gala story:

The Met Gala was established in 1948 by fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, and the first Gala started as a midnight dinner with entry tickets. Based upon the legacy left by former Vogue editor-in-chief Diana Vreeland, who was a special consultant to the Costume Institute, since 1973 the Met Gala has become well known as a luxurious, blockbuster event, ‘the jewel in New York City’s social crown’ and regarded among the most prominent and most exclusive social events in the world. Attendance is by invitation only. From 1948 to 1971, the event was held at venues including the Waldorf-Astoria, Central Park, and the Rainbow Room, and includes a cocktail hour and a formal dinner.

The Met Gala is also fashion industry’s equivalent of the Oscars, and brings fashion designers, supermodels, and Hollywood stars together to show-off the best of their bodies, awe-inspiring ideas, and the clothes adorning them.

I saw the true colours of our origins, identifying ourselves with the animal and plant kingdom in which we are the intelligent rulers, with colourful brains. We also reached out to a possible upcoming world of machines.

I saw a fully head-to-toe covering black outfit, which would put a bat to shame and give the Taliban a run for their guns; a feathered bird dress, which dare not fly; a horse, racing on a chest with its tail in hand; flowers creeping all over the body, one even had a white-yellow flower springing-up from a milky breast; iron-clad body armour; and even the back of ‘Tax the Rich’ – bright red on white, among other stunning costumes. And nearly all were worn by cats walking down the ramp. If some wore the barest minimum, others made up in kind, with miles of clothing. And it was a dazzling melange of colours in a potpourri of fashion.

I saw through Kendall Jenner’s sheer gown, embellished with glittering rhinestones inspired by Actress Audrey Hepburn’s, My Fair Lady, Givenchy dress. Her sister Kim Kardashian was the one who arrive in the all-black, making the Taliban heads turn. I liked co-host, singer and songwriter Bille Eilish’s peach gown, sweeping the carpets. Other celebrities who were decked-up to captivate the audience are supermodel Gigi Hadid, Actress Jennifer Lopez, Singer Alicia Keys, Singer Rihanna… I disliked singer Olivia Rodrigo’s skin-tight lace dress. And thought brand new US Open Winner, Emma Raducanu did justice to Tennis in her printed monochrome Chanel outfit with a pearl belt detail at the waist.

We held all of this in our minds? I’m sure the animals and plants that have been left out would demand representation.

More fashionable stories to sing in the coming weeks. Stay dressed with World Inthavaaram.