Beating summer heat and self-doubt: Indulge in these unique offerings this week

Itrsquos summer and for times you are stuck somewhere without proper ventilation this handheld fan Rs 100 is a must In Mumbai now itrsquos being sold at every traffic signalmdashwe bought ours at the one near Jack and Jones on Link Road in Santa Cruz What caught our eye was the Oriental theme and the delicate lace detailing on the corners And the best partmdashit delivers what it needs tomdasha gust of air that will freshen up your face Itrsquos also foldable and tiny and can be carried aaram se without taking too much spaceAvailable at traffic signalsA crash course on being authentic onlinePicTwitterWhat makes an influencer account stand out for you For us itrsquos authenticity But as Emily Hundrsquos book The Influencer Industry The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media tells us most influencers now are not the ones who are truly sharing their lives and art but ones who have figured out how to work the algorithm making it beneficial for them The book which has indepth interviews with leading social media influencers brand executives marketers talent managers trend forecasters reveals that most people are less ldquorealrdquo and more profitdriven Hund is a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania and tells us most creators basically study the metrics and then make their content according to that authenticity be damned In the world that we live in where we are what we consume on social media maybe reading this book will make you a more ethical consumerAmazoninAn earful of the bright sideIf yoursquore a fan of psychological thrillers and crime dramas wersquove got the perfect podcast recommendation for you The Bright Sessions is a sciencefiction podcast that follows a group of therapy patients each with a unique supernatural ability The story follows their struggles and discoveries as well as the motivations of their mysterious therapist Dr Bright performed by actress Julia Morizawa It has an unconventional yet simple narrative style each episode is a therapy session with a different recurring character Listening to it made us feel relaxed and well it was indeed therapeutic The plot is compelling and contains profound observations on the human condition apart from featuring a diverse and interesting cast of charactersthebrightsessionscomFilm from the pastSharmila Tagore is that sapno ki rani who has everyone gawking at her beauty be it back in the day or now when she is back on the OTT screen with Gulmohar In that spirit we were captivated when a black and white photo of Tagore from some 48 years ago standing gracefully by a staircase came up on our feed Some reading into the caption informed us that this was the movie poster of Shakti Samantarsquos Amanush that released on March 21 1975 with Uttam Kumar as the male lead A sepia photograph then caught our eye with filmmaker Sai Paranjpye posing with Saeed Jaffrey and Deepti Naval on the sets of the 1981 film Chashme Buddoor This Twitter page seemed to have a repository of old pictures from the Bollywood world all in one place be it a handsome Shashi Kapoor standing next to the Prithvi Theatre signage or Nargis and Meena Kumari smiling at the camera from an era gone by If you are interested in the filmy world or like us intrigued by old photographs then do check this outFilmHistoryPic TwitterAction replayThe timing is not right Irsquom too busy This seems difficult What if I failrdquo How many of us plagued by selfdoubt have found ourselves uttering these sentences when confronted with a new challenge Clinical and consulting psychologist Dr Timothy J Sharprsquos eightepisode podcast Habits for Action reminds us why these are just hackneyed excuses that prevent us from getting the job done This is not the first time that we are listening to Dr Sharp His previous podcasts Habits for Happiness and Habits For Good Sleep saw us through the difficult pandemic keeping us calm afloat and restful while we were zombieing through one lockdown after another This podcast is no different An extension of his previous work he shares why we as humans often resist even rebel and pushback a chance to live and be different because we get too comfortable Dr Sharp makes us face our biggest enemymdashus What works is how effortless his ideas aremdashsimple changes to help sift through matters that are important and urgent realign how you think and become a better risktaker Bold actions can have happy consequences but for that you need to act and nowAudibleCurated by Aastha Atray Banan Yusra Husain and Sharanya Kumar