Ruchi Tandon Nischal

Meet Kanpur Mayor Pramila Pandey. She has been the Mayor of Kanpur since 2017. Let’s see what Kanpur actually looks like under her nearly decade-long tenure. An explosive thread 🧵

It’s honestly heartbreaking. During Navratri, people wake up early, cook with devotion, prepare prasad with love for little kids who come as Kanjaks. It’s not just food… it’s faith, emotion, and respect. But what do we see now? Some children come only for the money, casually throwing away the food outside once they leave. That same prasad, made with such care, treated like it means nothing. I recently heard about a controversy in a nearby society where entry of non-Hindu kids was restricted. At first, it sounded wrong to me too. But when incidents like this happen, you begin to understand where that reaction comes from. No one should have to see their faith and sentiments disrespected like this. Maybe the real issue isn’t about who is coming but whether the values of respect are being taught at all.

This needs to be said: We are at Jim Corbett and apparently there is no restriction on loud music till 10:30pm in the night. The roads are full of cars speeding around, at least 30 jeeps plying in one area of the forest, you can see brunt land on both sides and massive tree felling. So guilty of attending a family wedding here, I cannot say. There’s one I skipped because I didn’t want to be a party to destroying the habitat of animals. But why is Uttarakhand government allowing weddings in a forest reserve? I know my tweet will have zero reaction but Please tag the concerned agencies when you read this. @ukcmo @uttrakhand24 @AniUttarakhand

India’s Growth Has a Decency Problem India is rising, and the evidence is visible everywhere. New highways, modern airports, thriving start-ups, digital payments at every corner shop — the country feels ambitious and confident. We speak openly about becoming a $5 trillion economy and a major global power. Much of this progress is real and worth celebrating. But beneath the growth story lies a quieter decline — one that doesn’t show up in GDP numbers. Everyday decency is eroding. Take our roads. India records over 1.5 lakh road deaths each year. Infrastructure plays a role, but so does behaviour. Signals are jumped. Lanes are ignored. Horns are used aggressively. Ambulances struggle to pass because no one wants to give way. Driving has become less about shared responsibility and more about individual urgency. Public spaces tell a similar story. Loud music blares late into residential neighbourhoods. Firecrackers explode in crowded streets without regard for the elderly or sick. In trains and waiting rooms, people play videos on speaker. In restaurants, conversations are conducted at full volume. In cinemas, phones light up mid-film and running commentary disrupts the experience for everyone else.Quiet spaces are no longer treated as shared spaces. Social gatherings, too, reveal a shift. Guests arrive late without apology. Hosts hover within familiar circles. Strangers stand awkwardly because no one takes the trouble to introduce them. Elders are barely acknowledged. Phones dominate attention. Events may look impressive on social media, but they often feel uncomfortable in person. The art of making others feel welcome is fading. Everyday courtesies are weakening in smaller ways as well. Youngsters often do not greet each other or elders. In buses and metros, elderly passengers stand while younger commuters remain seated, absorbed in their screens. Calls go unanswered. Messages are read and ignored. Apologies are rare. More disturbing are incidents of assaults on uniformed personnel, including off-duty military personnel. Servicemen travelling with their families or stepping in to help during disputes have been attacked. Disagreement with authority is part of democracy. Physical aggression toward those who serve reflects something deeper — a loss of respect for institutions and basic order. Politics reinforces the pattern. A significant number of elected representatives face serious criminal charges. Campaign promises are made loudly and forgotten quietly. When dishonesty carries little consequence at the top, cynicism spreads below. What ties all this together is not a lack of intelligence or ambition. It is a culture of impunity and indifference. On the road: nothing will happen.With noise: people will adjust. In politics: voters will forget. In daily life: it doesn’t matter. Adjustment has become our reflex. We adjust to chaos, to lateness, to broken promises, to public rudeness. But each adjustment lowers the standard a little further. Economic growth can build infrastructure. It cannot automatically build character. If we become wealthier but stop greeting elders, stop offering seats, stop respecting silence, stop yielding to ambulances, tolerate assaults on those who protect us, and accept dishonesty as normal, then our progress is incomplete. India’s rise is undeniable. The real question is whether we can rise in prosperity without declining in basic decency. Only then will India rise as a truly developed and civil society.

@Rahulshrivstv I live in Noida & all roads are covered with dust. In these times of high pollution, can’t the @noida_authority address this problem? Don’t we all breathe the same air?

(8) Delhi may be under GRAP Stage 3 restrictions due to bad air quality but the connecting road to the expressway is terribly dusty-bouncy. There is a steady stream of vehicles driving on the wrong side. (9) drove almost 320 kms didn’t find a single highway patrol van. Paid almost ₹550 for 320 kms to realise @NHAI_Official could well be India’s most incompetent organisation. Should learn from how @yadavakhilesh created the Agra-Lucknow expressway. Or the Yamuna Expressway by @Mayawati

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is perhaps the most expensive -worst built/managed highway in India. Travelled on it to reach Niwai. Absolutely no discipline or monitoring. (1) Sand mafia owned dumpers drive in the overtaking lane to escape non-existent cops. (2) Most have no/hidden Registration plates. So if they hit someone they can’t be tracked (3) no cops as netas & babus head sand/stone mafia or own the trucks (4) Trucks drive faster than speed limit. Most speed monitor posts not working. Keep sleeping @NHAI_Official

@Rahulshrivstv Why are the dumper trucks allowed to run with such impunity? They drive rash, cause pollution & not to mention do illegal mining. We need a civilian movement to stop this.

Endless school closures and forced online classes are robbing our children of real learning, confidence, routine, and a normal childhood. @dmgbnagar @UPGovt

You can't keep boasting about being the oldest civilization in the world and at the same time work towards destroying one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world which has been the home to this civilization for millions of years.

As the poison in the Delhi air reaches deadly levels & the AQI is five times the IQ of the average minister I look at the deterioration in the quality of life for Indians India wasn’t always like this. Things have never been as bad as they are today theprint.in/opinion/sharp-…

@kapsology @Gzbtrafficpol @Uppolice Transport of construction material without any covers is in every day site in Delhi NCR. Most of these drugs don’t even have a legible number on them. The police and administration just turns a blind eye to this.

Under GRAP 3, transport of construction materials for example sand, bricks etc is prohibited. Every day, you can see the rules are openly flaunted. No one gives a damn and India will remain a polluted country forever due to corruption. @Gzbtrafficpol @Uppolice

#Delhi doesn’t need a reactive #GRAP Every year: early November = stubble burning peaks = PM2.5 surge. Every year: Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) waits, reacts, escalates. #Delhi doesn’t need a reactive GRAP. It needs a proactive GRAP that tightens measures ahead of known pollution surges, not after the air becomes hazardous. @Sonal_MK @SauravDassss @vimlendu @jai_dhar @Warriormomsin @cleanAirBharat @kush_junglee @IpsitaTOI @VishnuNDTV @CBhattacharji @SophiyaMathew1

OPEN LETTER TO THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA 
On the Eve of the Hearing on Delhi’s Air Pollution Crisis
From the Citizens, Children & Breathless Lungs of Delhi. Hon’ble Chief Justice Gavai, Tomorrow, when you sit to hear the matter of Delhi’s unbreathable air, you do so not just as the custodian of the Constitution, but as a man in the final days of his judicial service, standing at a rare moment in history, atleast your personal history, if not that of the nation’s. This is not just another pollution petition or an open letter. Also this is not just another winter. There is a strong reason one thought to write to you, versus the previous CJIs, perhaps you know best why. May be no CJI retired on the eve of great smog, or may be one did. Or may be no CJI ever acted so ignorant and dismissive (forgive my contempt!). And perhaps no CJI lazed over the fact that air pollution monitors were brazenly manipulated. Nevertheless, respectfully speaking, this is possibly your last chance to make a stand that the nation, and especially its children, will remember you for. Sir, allow us to speak truth with respect. For nearly two decades, citizens, health experts, and environmentalists struggled to warn the courts, and the nation, that firecrackers were not a matter of “culture,” but a matter of lungs, cancer, asthma, stunted growth, and premature death. It took years - years - for the Supreme Court to finally acknowledge this, and impose the ban. Your order reversing this , allowing so-called “green crackers”, undid much of that work. It feels sad that it’s been over a month almost and you haven’t even asked for a status report on your orders violations, and you know they were flouted beyond purity. Unfortunately one gets a feeling that you know that would happened and yet you allowed Delhi to choke, under the fumes of the gaseous firecrackers. May be you didn’t know people would flout the order of the 52nd CJI, perhaps they got the number wrong and misbehaved. But now, on the brink of retirement, we ask: Please do not leave the children of Delhi gasping as your judicial farewell. Sir, this is not a demand for bans, or sweeping overnight orders, or the jailing of farmers. We do not ask you to take a drastic step, only a decisive one. Do something that: - Holds the executive to account - Forces action where there has only been optics - Protects the smallest lungs first - Prevents this annual public health. Protect children of 2025, atleast. I have always said, that this is not your job, as in job of the judiciary, it’s the job of the legislature and executive, however when your predecessors have assisted the children of this country, why deny yourself the privilege of doing the same. This was never meant to be the judiciary’s job, but it became yours because the state never performed its duty. We need that Supreme Court again, not a silent one, not a helpless one. Sir, this may be hard to say, but it must be said: In your final days, you have a choice, to serve the comfort of the current political moment, or the survival of the future Prime Ministers, future judges, future citizens of this country. Not as a political act, but as a moral one. Do not let the final breath of your tenure be indifference. And incase you are not inclined to take a stand, please sit down, so that you don’t undo the contribution of your predecessors. Regards, The stunted Lungs of India

@vimlendu There is no noise in the media, political & judicial circles & sadly in public discourse. We Indians prove our shortsightedness time & again. It’s profit over people.

It was shocking to watch today’s Supreme Court hearing on #AirPollution , the casual and lackadaisical approach of the bench, despite Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan pressing for the health emergency this pollution poses, especially for children. CJI refused to take a stand on any strong measures, yet again asking for additional affidavits for the nth time. Amicus called out the fraud around air quality monitors, that the readings are manipulated and machines outdated, and yet CJI didn’t pay much heed to it and fell for what the ASG mentioned, that the monitors are best in the world, laughable, as they keep tripping or forcefully tripped to lower down the perception of pollution. It’s been 40 years since this air pollution matter has been going on in the Supreme Court, and yet there is no sense of direction. And this year shall also pass, and this CJI will also retire in a few days. Travesty of justice for clean air!

@skjsaurabh @WeekendInvestng @ChangeOrg_India Totally flawed logic Create housing for people by being absolutely callous and cut short their lifespan - not the bargain one would want to settle for

Because you have forgotten how bad things were. Things are bad in NCR but earlier were 3x worst. Dehradun highway reminds me of that. Just Delhi people fighting pollution makes people across India feel Delhi has pollution. UP has 2x more pollution than NCR. Its a countrywide issue not Delhi NCR issue. Even a 100% lockdown in Delhi cannot save us from UPs pollution coming to Delhi

URGENCY: Declare air pollution in Delhi NCR a public health emergency - Sign the Petition! c.org/88FSq5W84C via @ChangeOrg_India We shd at least try.

@thesneha_ So well explained & demoed. Thanks!

Home workout dumbbells routine👇🏻

Guys buy a couple of pair of dumbbells or get your resistance band delivered through quick commerce and start working out at home. It starts with you and over time your family members and your kids will pick it up from you. But you have to start.🙏🏼 Attaching the links for home full-body workouts (with videos) with dumbbells and resistance band in the comment section.

@CeoNoida @noida_authority We don’t need to remind you that we are having an air emergency situation. Please do what can do.

@CeoNoida @noida_authority bringing to your attention that dry leaves & garbage are being burnt in Noida at multiple locations. This is the worst thing we could do at a time when we QY is already very high. Please take required action.

As India evolves into a "Nation of Builders" here is a very exciting summer program for young builders from 3rd grade onwards. Our former colleague @prachipawaar is launching a school grounded in the principles of innovation and entrepreneurship: identifying problems, developing solutions and taking new ideas to market. The summer program will give a sneak peak of what is to come! If you are a parent of a "budding builder" this could be super interesting! anandi.org/summer-camps