DS

Let me tell you a brief story. Indulge me for a bit. After college, I wanted to see the “real India”. So I worked for a year or so for MIT Poverty Action Lab. In the slums of Delhi and in the villages of eastern Rajasthan. It was an incredible adventure. A Kolkata kid looking at his own country, with the eyes of a foreign graduate. I learnt a lot but there was something I couldn’t quite place my finger on. Later a foreign journalist requested me to accompany him to said villages for a couple of days. He knew I knew folks in that region. He was doing a piece on rural India. When it was all done and we were coming back to Delhi, he said the strangest thing looking outside of the car window. “They all look so happy.” And indeed that was it. The kids in particular looked mostly happy. People didn’t seem that different. Implied in the journalist’s sincere observation was that “they” perhaps should not be happy. But because they were not, in fact, miserable it was a moment of reflection. The poor’s poorness can after all be reassuring to even the best of the non-poor. Don’t get me wrong. Poverty is something very real. India scores relatively low on happiness indices, however dubious they are. Wealth matters. Charity (“philanthropy”) matters. I may not have done as much as you, but I did my bit too. And it is fair to say I am obsessed about seeing India become rich. But money is not the only thing in life. The rich are killing themselves too. Some instantly. Many gradually. Your life is cushy, which is great, but the “hundreds of millions” don’t need noblesse oblige attitude. They just need to be treated like you or me. With empathy and not condescension, even if unintentional. Otherwise the billionaire pitying the millionaire is also par for the course. The average Indian is an order of magnitude better off than a century ago. They will get an order of magnitude better still and this time within a generation. They will be fine. Let us do what we have to do silently. Worrying generically won’t change a thing.

@monidipadey @Reuters The aricles are so outrageous that it feels like Jameel Jamali's handiwork. Keep 'em coming.

Ancient Mughal???? Your idiotic writer doesn’t even know the time period for the term ‘ancient.’ Timurids came to India in mid 16th century, which is early modern period!! Much much later than the ‘ancient period’ which ends at late 5th century CE. Islam was not even born in the ancient era. At least study history before doing your Islamic propaganda!

Ancient Mughal tradition of pigeon-rearing thrives in India's capital reut.rs/4tok8xl reut.rs/4tok8xl

@QiaochuYuan karma is dharma (action & consequence aren't separate from natural law), and dharma is sukshma (that law operates at subtle levels). There is no dichotomy between "observable psychology" and "cosmic order" - the behavioral mechanics (karma) ARE how dharma manifests in the world.

the exoteric understanding of karma is that god punishes evil people directly with lightning bolts from the sky. this is obvious nonsense as any cursory inspection if the world reveals. the esoteric understanding of karma is that it is literally ordinary non-supernatural causality, not in the physics sense but in the sense of how the world natively responds to goodness and evil. evil is inherently destructive of goodness, it means eating the seedcorn so you starve next winter, it means taxing the peasants into oblivion so they don’t have anything you can tax anymore. evil can gain in the short term by vampirically leeching off of goodness but this structurally never works in the long term and makes you enemies in the medium term. goodness and only goodness is what produces real flourishing. that’s karma

@johnecto @BholanathDutta Yes, we have to assume isoceles, else we will end up 3 variables and 2 equations.

@BholanathDutta Not enough information but if you assume triangle to be isosceles then X equals 25

Geometry Knwolwedge IQ Test: Find the value of X ?

@GabbbarSingh Chakkawala kursi effect eh?

Life has changed since I replaced my main office chair with a recliner. I type less, and review decks & presentations more. My job is usually speaking & giving directions. So now I have a wireless keyboard & a mouse. With a 17 inch screen. And a recliner to lie in. Productivity has increased. Feels like sitting near a psychiatrist 😊

@Bhayankur Soul searching for what? We shouls focus on our economy, and de-risk from international shocks. All this mediation business is distracting for us. Pak needs it to survive. We need to aim higher and keep pushing on fundamental investments to sustainbly thrive!

Instead of acting all petty and salty, we should acknowledge that Pakistan enabled this ceasefire and do some genuine soul-searching. Where has Indian diplomacy gone wrong and why?

Few scams of Indian history that immediately come to my mind: A) Jaichand, Jagat Seths & Mir Jafar were traitors. B) Rana Sangram Singh invited Babur to Hindustan. C) Ashoka became Buddhist after Kalinga War. D) British took Delhi from Timurids (Mughals) (it was actually taken from Marathas). E) Jalaluddin was given title of “Akbar” by a Rajput (actually he gave it to himself). F) Pushyamitra destroyed 84k Buddhist stupas. G) Tipu was the first freedom fighter. H) Tipu gave us rockets. I) India was richest during Timurid (Mughal) rule. J) De di humein aazadi bina khadag bina dhal. K) Netaji was a communist. L) Ghazni destroyed Somnath thinking it was the idol of Al-Mannat and he had nothing against Hindus. M) Sufis are peaceful and they didn’t force conversions. N) Maharaja Prithviraj was taken to Ghazna as a prisoner, and blinded he killed Muhammad of Ghor. O) Cheraman mosque is the first mosque of India. P) Khilafat movement didn’t lead to massacre of Hindus; rather it was an anti-British movement. Q) Ram Mandir at Ayodhya was destroyed by Babur (in reality it was destroyed by Aurangzeb). R) Tagore wrote “Jana Gana Mana” for the British crown. S) Timurids never converted their Hindu wives. T) Taj Mahal was built from scratch by Shah Jahan. U) Savarkar is the father of “two-nation theory”. V) Nalanda University was destroyed by Brahmins and not by Khalji. W) Hindu society practiced evil traditions like sati big time, and British saved hindu women by bringing laws against it. X) Caste System is unique to Hindu society and is root of all oppression in world. Y) Marx was against British rule in India. Z) RSS & Hindu Mahasabha along with Muslim league were main reasons behind partition of India. Madani opposed partition as he believed in Hindu-Muslim unity.

@jopriyu Extending this thought to all situations / context leads to idea of "chitta shuddhi" - a critical unlearning / cleansing necessisity for spiritual growth, right?

It’s strange how easily we learn to change our outer layers, our language, our lifestyle, our preferences, but the core remains stubbornly intact. I had a small but telling moment recently. I don’t consider myself a particularly demanding parent, but I do find myself telling my son, quite often, to work hard and to have some sense of direction. It’s not philosophy, it is simply the most honest advice my journey from a chawl to a relatively comfortable corporate life allows me to give. It is lived experience, distilled...... Then I heard another mother tell her child something entirely different, don’t worry about anything, just have fun, childhood is only for that. And for a brief, very unfiltered moment, my chawl core was scandalized. Of course, I knew immediately that she wasn’t wrong. Her advice too came from a place of care, perhaps from a life where pressure arrived too early..... She was protecting something she believed was fragile and fleeting. And that’s when it clicked. What we call advice is often nothing more than memory, carefully repackaged. We don’t just teach our children what is right, we teach them what once kept us safe, what helped us survive, what we wish we had more or less of. We may upgrade our surroundings, refine our tastes, and learn new ways of being, but somewhere beneath it all, the original blueprint quietly continues to guide us. And perhaps the real work is not to erase that core, but to understand it well enough that we do not pass it on unquestioned.

@TovarischManu @AbhishBanerj Za vashe zdorov'ye to you as well! Adios!

@ds_chatter @AbhishBanerj You are a foolish upper caste spoiled boy.

Everyone thrilled to see the end of "Naxalism" in India So am I! Humble request ... don't call it "Naxalism" Naxalbari is just a place in Bengal What does "Naxalism" mean? Call it Communist terror ... take the real name of the monster so that everyone knows Down with Communism. Long live India.

@TovarischManu @AbhishBanerj Soviet economy's most important input was oil. The 1986 global oil shock killed it. They didnt have any money to pay for their subsidies. Perstroika was an half hearted attempt to open markets. They were not wrong-tried an approach but failed. We must learn lessons, not dogmas.

You’re mixing up two different things. “Equal poverty” is just a slogan. The Soviet people were amply provided for. They had different conception of wealth. If they were poor, then they wouldn't have defeated Hitler but like Sikhs & others who served in the British army for meagre dal & roti would have shifted loyalties towards Germany. The real question is: who controlled production. In the Soviet Union, there was no capitalist class living off profits. That already changes everything. Yes, some officials had privileges. But that’s not the same as a class owning factories and extracting profit. Don’t equate perks with exploitation. Even the working class had privileges & perks. Your own point defeats you. Inequality shot up after the collapse. Why? Because state property was broken up and handed over. A new rich class emerged overnight. That’s not continuity—that’s a complete shift. And saying socialism didn’t create wealth is simply wrong. A backward country became an industrial power. Built massive infrastructure like the Moscow Metro, developed regions like the Seven Sisters skyline, and even led humanity into space with Sputnik launch and Vostok 1 mission. That doesn’t happen without creating real material wealth. The difference is simple: under socialism, wealth was used for public development. After collapse, it was captured by a few. So no—your argument doesn’t hold. First read unbiased sources & then argue with me.

@TovarischManu @AbhishBanerj Being equally poor is not a virtue. In Soviet Union, the elite extracted value through non-monetary privileges. Gini index all Soviet countries shot up to > 50% in 2 years after collapse highlighting the above. Communism neither created wealth nor did it create equality

You do business apparently & yet you don't know rudimentary economics or politics. What is America's foreign policy? To exploit the world economically. America is rich because it exploits the entire world. Some crumbs are given to the Americans. Bulk is kept by the capitalist class. Earlier, the British industralised itself through exploiting the entire world. The British looted 45 trillion dollars from India. That was its foreign policy. aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/… Now stfu.

@TovarischManu @AbhishBanerj Thanks for pointing out where I live! Per capita income of Soviet Union in 1991 was $9000 vs US at $24000. Data > ancedotes Btw, you asked me to Google (American company), you are debating in X (again... you know the drill)! Dogma is good but eating your dog food is better!

I guess you live under the rock. You know nothing about either the reality of America nor about the Soviet Union. Before the October revolution Russia was a very poor agrarian nation. In less than 30 years it was in space ahead of the US. Before that, it defeated mighty beast Hitler's Germany. In Olympics & the world games it was far ahead of the US. Read Oxfam reports. The American ruling class created wealth for itself. The blacks & hispanics feed themselves in jail by committing crimes. The "whites" are not better off. Google on the Internet to see how many Americans are in jail. Every month there is a shootout.

@TovarischManu @AbhishBanerj The question you should ask is what did capitalist America do for its people. Not what its foreign policy. Primary role of a government is wealth creation for its people. Communism abjectly failed at that!

@AbhishBanerj Maoism is a travesty of Marxism. Real Marxism is not about terrorism. Capitalism is terrorism. See what capitalist America is doing now What capitalist England did to us.

Sanskrit has >2000 verb roots (dhātus). But do you really need to learn them all? I had Claude analyze 270 Sanskrit texts, and it found that with just the 192 most common dhātus, you can understand ~90% of verbs in literature. Below are those 192 dhātus, ordered by frequency:

@b67talks @SEN_Cricket @remitly Well, Bradman played 52 tests as well. That is a fair call.

@SEN_Cricket @remitly 100+ tests with Avg. <20 would be Bradmanesque

Is Jasprit Bumrah the Bradman of Bowling? Gerard Whateley & Robert Craddock dissect the T20 World Cup final. @remitly | #Cricket

A couple of days back at a cake shop in Calcutta, I had stepped in for a quick snack. The man in front of me had the look of someone who had been very careful, for a very long time, not to inconvenience anyone. White shirt, collar gone a bit yellow. He was buying a pineapple cake. The kind with the aggressively yellow icing. The girl at the counter asked whether any name needed to be written on the cake. The man shook his head. But she wasn’t done. “Kaar jonmodin (Whose birthday), Jethu?” she prodded. He pushed his glasses up. “Aamar (Mine),” he said. Quietly, trying to make it sound very matter-of-factly. She went still for a second. Exchanged glances with me and another customer. Then she turned toward the back where two boys were loading something in the fridge. “Shibu! Mondal!” What followed was not polished but more touching than any great musical performance. They all sang Happy Birthday to this man, and meant it, the way you can only mean something that wasn’t planned. The man turned red. He looked at his shoes. He looked at the cake. He looked at the girl. And I thought I saw a tiny smile. He didn’t say anything. Took his change, took the box. His shoulders sat differently as he stepped out onto the pavement and got swallowed up in the street crowd. I kept thinking about him for the rest of the day — this man who had turned up alone to buy himself a cake, and left a little less alone.

Ask Bipasha Basu. She was about to pass away while doing that in Omkar movie song.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited knowledge or competence in a specific area greatly overestimate their own abilities. Conversely, highly skilled individuals often underestimate their relative competence, assuming tasks that are easy for them are similarly easy for others.

Absolutely no AI was used in creating this. You will enjoy this reaction from Bollywood 🤣

Perfect AI age ad !! 😅😅 x.com/brahma_4u/stat…