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@SenEricSchmitt Folks, never guessed it but turns out Eric believes in praying to a Hindu god. He admits it here. Do what you want with this information. Also Eric is suggesting Americans circle the altar to get a job in their own country. Love this senator from Missouri!

The "Visa Cartel" has its own “Visa Temple” in Hyderabad, which sees thousands of Indians circling altars and getting passports blessed for U.S. work visas. American workers shouldn’t have to compete against a system this gamed.

Programs like H-1B, L-1, F-1, and OPT are displacing U.S. workers, suppressing wages, and hollowing out our middle class. Fraud and abuse are rampant. American workers are losing, so who's winning? Answer: The "Visa Cartel"🧵

@Kal_Chiron Great observation! If we consider ourselves the elite, we have to accept we have let down a majority of our people. We deserve an F on this one and may be not too late to make amends

I am reminded of the english film “Agora” again and again after this Tirupati trip. The rich and fantastic Greek/roman religion became so lofty and cut off from aspirations of bottom layer of society that they did not even notice when bottom pyramid converted to a rabid abrahmic faith. And then the fanatic monotheists (Christians in this case) came to kill the remaining intellectual elite of Graeko-Roman religion and all civilisation was lost.

@Kal_Chiron Wrong on #2. No need to blame the govt, easy cop out. Those are low end jobs. Plus you people support them because they can speak in broken urdu Hindi to you. Wish you of all the people demanded a devout driver. But so easy to blame others

Concluded my Tirupati pilgrimage, 2026. Few observations since long time. Trying to articulate them. 1. The agamic and vaidik/sāmpradāyika traditions are so strong and well adhered to in temples. It is sheer pleasure to visit South Indian temples. The sanctity of deity is very well maintained. 2. Then why do I see so many Xians and Muslims in Tirupati? I understand largely due to anti Hindu state govt policies (ysr/jagan in AP, DMK in TN, Commies in Kerala). As I said yesterday, all drivers I met were ROPers. Deep (and seemingly genuine) devotion towards Balaji and Padmavathi Amma. Either taqiyya (or it’s ROL equivalent or perhaps first/second gen converts? 3. My question to ourselves is this - Where did we as a society miss out? Did we become too esoteric or distant that a section of our society is turning to other faiths (ricebag induced conversion is understood, but is money only problem? If yes then it is relatively easy problem to solve).

@prasannavishy It is not brain drain. It is weak brain riddance

Sridhar Vembu: India's brain drain isn't a statistic. It's an existential economic crisis. India's brain power runs Silicon Valley and we buy their services back at a huge mark-up. Brain drain isn't NRI pride content. It's weakening the rupee, blowing the forex deficit & killing our tech future.

@mohammadumerzia @samartoor3086 That's all you jehadis are good for. We know

India has created history by completing the Shahpur Kandi Barrage Project on the Ravi River. For the first time in decades, the river’s water has been stopped from flowing into Pakistan & diverted to the Ujh Barrage in Kathua. This will help irrigate 37,000 hectares of land.

@stellensatz I am sure they are. Wish there was a little more empathy for those needing the freebies. What's the point of rockets when 30% of fellow countrymen are starving?

I presume these numbers are correct.

@PoliticEmbarras @zeneraalstuff @ashwinravi99 Exactly. Scum bag let down his own community and fore fathers. No sense of self respect in spite of all these achievements

@ashwinravi99 He targeted you because of your caste and you instantly became apologetic and dissociated yourself from the caste. It is because of this selfish attitude of elite brahmins like you that the ordinary and poor brahmins like us have to suffer throughout the country.

Have said it once, i will say it again! Who i was born to wasn’t my choice, thankfully I was born to parents that are beyond great. Leadership is feeling empathetic towards another person’s struggles and enabling growth beyond barriers & that’s what my parents & teachers have taught me. I want to live till the day, we stop talking about lineage or caste 🙏

@Rjrasva @From_Himalaya Same in Telugu speaking states to this day. When people say Telugu they actually mean Hindu.

@From_Himalaya Syed Ahmed Khan had the same notion, in his speeches lamenting the takeover of bureaucracy by "Bengalis" he meant Hindus from Bengal. Like in this 28th Dec 1887 speech he gave in Lucknow to his fellow Mohammedans google.co.in/books/edition/…

During the Swadeshi movement, writers and leaders used "Bengali" to mean "Hindu." Bangali culture means Hindu Culture. Bengali-speaking Muslims were just called "Muslims." That usage still exists in rural Bengal today.

@IndoKatholic Exactly. And there is nothing a corpse worshipper and murderer Xavier lover like you whose best stage in life is to be a poodle for Italian Catholics can do anything about it.

If the BJP wins Bengal, it will mark the end of Bengali identity politics and instead turn the state into a Hindu-Muslim vote battle like they did in Assam. That is what they want, the BJP chief is quite ecstatic about "Hindu Polarization". It will be a sad end to WB's uniqueness

@Devon_Eriksen_ @bizlet7 Account from Canada. And their US replies clearly don't know that the people shown in the video are paki.

@bizlet7 Rednecks actually know how to fix things.

Everything that coastals accuse rednecks of doing are things that Indians actually do.

@krithikasivasw @AnanthAyyasamy Why is it sad? He should stick to his engineering. What makes you think 2 decades in the US is a good qualification?

The sad state of TN is that someone like Srinath, a comedy actor, gets elected easily, while someone like @AnanthAyyasamy who worked as an engineering director at Intel in chip design for two decades in the US trails by 6,000 votes. #tamilnadu

@Rustum_0 It used to be called pakiland and your people turned it onto a dump

We need to build tons of such Muslim townships across India for stronger community security, commerce, institutions, and a thriving religious and cultural life.

@AradhyaSntni @BhagwaanUvacha If "made to feel like" is important to you do not be confrontational and just pay up. Else stand your ground and call his bullshit out loud. Your choice.

I was sold this food on a train for ₹160… but later I found out its actual price was just ₹80. That’s when things started to feel seriously wrong. I asked the pantry staff for a proper bill of ₹160, but they couldn’t provide one. No receipt, no proof — nothing. It was clear something wasn’t right. So I decided not to ignore it. I immediately filed a complaint on Railway helpline 139. But what happened next was even more shocking. Within minutes, the vendor came straight to me — visibly angry and aggressive. He confronted me and said, “Why did you file a complaint? Do you even realize I could be fined ₹28,000 because of this?” His tone wasn’t just defensive… it felt like intimidation. All I wanted was a fair price and a proper bill — something every passenger has the right to demand. But instead, I was made to feel like I did something wrong just for speaking up. This isn’t just about ₹80 extra. It’s about honesty, accountability, and the basic rights of passengers. If this can happen so openly, how many people are being overcharged without even realizing it?

@stellensatz @kansaratva You people get paid to take online classes? In rest of the world you will probably get paid only when you teach them

@kansaratva People reading your tweet are totally polarized.

So, let me get this straight. The man took online chemistry classes and became a free radical. It's ionic, innit? What's your reaction to this?

@DealsDhamaka @svembu Some people choose to build for future generations. The builders. Some others want to live off of infra built by previous generation. The moochers. The moochers invent all kinds of reasons to tell you why they don't want to be builders : corruption, hygiene, pollution...

Sir, I don't live in the US. I made a choice to stay in India and travel 2-3 months to the US to keep my work going. As mentioned in my original post, you and I chose to stay in India. It's a choice for people who could move out to choose where they want to live. As I said the primary motivation is no more money to stay abroad. Both of us are in same path, just different views

Dear Sridhar Sir, I’m writing this from Chicago, and I have deep respect for you, but I also want to share a lived perspective from many NRIs who chose to stay abroad. For most of them, it’s not just about earning more money, not any more. That’s a very small part of the story. The real reasons are the quality of everyday life and systems that work more consistently: - lower day-to-day corruption - less dependency on “connections” for basic services - stronger safety nets during emergencies - better civic discipline - cleaner cities and better infrastructure - roads without constant stress and unpredictability These are not luxury factors, that is just daily living in very fundamental ways. What is their incentive for them to return back ? How long will we just keep pushing the narrative of the homeland? Many of them didn’t “leave India behind.” They simply built a life where the system around them allows more predictability and stability. And to be honest, those of us who stayed back in India like you and I did so by choice too. We can choose to work on improving what’s broken here, instead of framing it as something that can be solved by asking people to return. Both paths matter. Both contributions are valid.

@DealsDhamaka @BadApple864 We will deport you to Pune, one more response and you shall be moved to Chinchwad

@BadApple864 I live in India ! Where will I be deported?

@ishaantharoor Your father screwed up in India so you could do the same in the US. Good going

It’s weird times for Indians in America. But pull out the world’s smallest violin for the lobby group that seemed to welcome Trump’s bigotry in other directions, but is now crying foul when he turns, as was always going to happen, against them

@DoctorLemma @BhagwaanUvacha Liar! No train in India stops moving for 2 days. Fake story

In 1986, a five-year-old boy in India fell asleep on a bench at a train station while waiting for his older brother to come back. His brother never returned. The boy wandered onto an empty train carriage, thinking his brother might be inside. He fell asleep again. When he woke up, the doors were locked and the train was moving. It didn’t stop for nearly two days. When it finally did, he was in Kolkata, nearly 1,500 kilometres from home. He was too young to know his surname, couldn’t read, and had no idea what his hometown was called. He survived alone on the streets for weeks, sleeping under station benches and scavenging scraps of food, before eventually being taken to an orphanage and declared a lost child. No one could trace where he came from. He was adopted by a couple from Tasmania, Australia, who gave him a loving home and a new life. His name became Saroo Brierley. He grew up on the other side of the world. But he never forgot. He held onto fragments: the image of a bridge near a train station, a water tower, a neighbourhood layout, the faces of his family. In his mid-twenties, he discovered Google Earth. He calculated the rough distance the train could have covered based on how long he remembered being on it, drew a circle on a map around Kolkata, and began searching along every railway line within that radius. Some weeks he spent 30 hours scanning satellite images of towns across central India, looking for landmarks that matched his childhood memories. His family in Australia didn’t even know. They thought he was just browsing the internet. In 2011, after years of searching, he found it. A water tower. A bridge. A ravine past a station. It was a neighbourhood called Ganesh Talai in the city of Khandwa. He zoomed in and recognised the streets he had walked as a small boy. He flew to India and walked through the town until he found his family’s home. The door was chained shut and he feared the worst. Then people came out. One of them led him to a woman down the road. It was his mother. She had never stopped looking for him. After 25 years, they were standing in front of each other. What he didn’t know until that moment was that his brother Guddu, the one he’d been waiting for at the station that night, had been struck and killed by a train. His mother had spent 25 years searching for both sons. She learned what happened to one. She never stopped praying for the other. His story became the book “A Long Way Home” and was adapted into the film “Lion,” which received six Academy Award nominations.

@TejAdarkar Could you tell a little more about your bitter experiences

Not sure if related but Christians in India are increasingly publicly asserting themselves (which is good). Many people I know who were outwardly Hindu UCs have publicly started identifying as Christian (Protestant, Catholic & Orthodox). On Insta I get ads showing testimonials of Brahmins settled in America who have become Christian talking about spreading the Gospel amongst Hindus. You have Evangelicals & Catholics both suddenly targeting & being extremely aggressive against Hindu-Americans. Then news articles like this. Is there something happening that we're not aware of? I personally have always believed in individuals having the ability to choose a religion of their liking. However, these kind of things appear to be part of some larger (geo)politics & lobbies far bigger than any individual's right to practice the faith of his choosing. As a Hindu the only real way forward is working towards freeing temples et al from the clutches of the State so that the mechanisms that historically dealt with such things could do so again. Hinduism has been the most successful prosetylizing religion in world history & the claim by Indian nationalists to the contrary is what has led to this situation in the first place. This also ties in with my own spiritual journey & the politico-economic structure in India. The Indian State being the legatee of the British Raj does have a Protestant Christian demeanor about itself. Unbeknownst to most, Christianity in India has grown as a bulwark against the rise of Communist/Separatist movements. In Kerala the Church is the greatest opponent of the Communists. In Tamil Nadu against the Dravidianists. In the Telugu States, YSR & Christian churches were seen as antidotes that would end the peasant anger that drove the widespread Naxal movement in the state. Ditto for the Central Indian tribal belt & the border districts of Punjab. The Buddhist Ambedkarite movement sees Christianity as a competitor. The Gangetic basin soon if not already. The use of Christianity to quell the anger of sections of society who have been disempowered & maintain the power of the State & it's elites is a practice inherited from the British Raj (best exemplified by the life of Birsa Munda). The rise of the British Raj as well as the Hindutva movement both have led to an extreme concentration of wealth with the centralization of political & administrative structures leaving most communities feel disempowered. In both cases, Hinduism was used to justify this corrupt power grab with the result being that you had people who failed to challenge the Raj cronyism eventually attacking Hinduism itself. This was most evident in Bombay & Madras Presidency in the Raj. With the BJP/Sangh ecosystem trying to monopolize Hinduism similar reactions are bound to happen. I myself had almost left Hinduism due to disillusionment after my bitter experiences with the BJP & it's crony ecosystem. I had started identifying Hinduism (negatively) as synonymous with the BJP seeing it as the cause of my problems rather than the Indian State, it's nexus of cronies & it's misuse of my faith & heritage to formulate consent to disempower me. I explored all the sects of Judaism, Jainism (which I felt closest being a vegetarian) & Islam spending time with clerics & communities learning from them. I never felt like exploring or studying Christianity or Buddhism. However, my pride in my lineage never made me comfortable & I must credit @jyotirmathah's revolt against the Sangh for giving me an avenue to express my deep dislike of this regime while being in peace with my heritage. The demographics of India will increasingly resemble South Korea with high concentration of wealth, gender wars & state sponsored promotion of atheism & Christianity to keep the masses in control. Hindus worldwide need to focus on freeing their Sampradayas, scale them globally & abandon the project of the Indian State which has damaged them far more than any Sultanate invasion ever could.

@khoomeik @realsohamparekh RSVP for virtual

Tomorrow at Sanskrit Reading Night, a talk on Pāṇinian grammar will be given by a couple experts who have studied both under gurus in India & with Western academics. If you’re interested in the traditional study of Sanskrit linguistics, RSVP below!