"Who likes to fire crackers during Diwali?" asked the teacher.

About half of the nine-ten year olds in the classroom raised their hands.

"You should be ashamed," chided the teacher. "Crackers are harmful to our environment!"

The ones who did not raise their hands felt proud.

More from Kansara

It was raining heavily, and the fear of each battering raindrop erasing his memory little by little somehow breathed life into the mask.

The mask remembered the sound of a sewing machine hemming his edges, and plop! The memory got erased! The old woman selling him for...plop!

The right loop was frayed, as it was hung on one ear more often.

The top was worn out, worn below the nose, as if it held the nose from running.

The bottom was frazzled, bristled by the beard.

The specks of dust, the stains, the creases...they held memories of months. Plop!

The mask remembered being thrown away into the bushes, his loop caught in a twig as he fluttered in the winter wind like a broken wing.

A cow had sniffed him, and sensing remnants of her butchered sisters, had moved away with a start. The mask, however, was caught in her horn.

Repulsed by the perversion, the cow had charged ahead, as if trying to escape the horror on her horns.

People fled from the way, dogs yelped and disappeared, crows followed the frenzied cow like bikers slithering behind an ambulance, even as other cows grazed on the green grass.

The cow, hearing the clanging of temple bells, stopped herself outside as if calmed by the rhythmic sound. A kind old man came out, shook his head at what he saw, removed the mask from the horn, and threw it into the mud.

It was in this mud that the mask had breathed to life.

Kansara
@kansaratva

1. Which politician in the post-Independence era do you most associate with vile, sinister destruction?

(A very positive, optimistic thread on politics in the post-Independence era. You can be frivolous or serious in your replies, but in either case, think before you answer.)

2. What was the single most important reform in the post-Independence era that never happened?

3. What has been the worst foreign policy disaster in the post-Independence era?

4. If you have to pick the worst decade (47-56, 57-66, 67-76, 77-86, 87-96, 97-06, 07-16, 17-now) for politics, what would that be?

5. When defining religious minorities at the state level, which state is the worst when it comes to persecution of religious minorities?

Kansara
@kansaratva

"We are social creatures, and we don't go alone."

Somewhere inside a jungle, under the cover of lush trees, was gathered a curious collection of animals, and an old wolf was addressing the others.

"What in the whole wide world is a lone-wolf then?"

The other animals nodded.

"As if that were not enough," said another wolf, "we don't wear sheep's clothing either."

From the sheep that had gathered, a black one bleated, "What is wrong with a black sheep, eh?"

"Whoa!" exclaimed a rabbit, "say sheep of color."

They all agreed and threw the rabbit out.

The gathering was called by some animals in protest against being abused and insulted by figures of speech of humans.

Someone suggested they block roads in protest, but they did not want to stoop to that level. "We are better than Yogendra," they claimed.

So, here they were.

"When one of my pups bit our neighbors," said the wolf that had first spoken, "we justified by calling him a lone-human."

"It's funny," laughed a hyena.

"We told the other wolves," said the wolf, "that the lone-human does not represent our ideology, our beliefs, our wolfity."

"Give it back to the humans," guffawed the hyena.

"You #LLRC," tittered a monkey, at which the hyena felt insulted and there was a scuffle.

"Silence!" roared a fat lion, but the beasts had lost respect for him after he kept criticizing his own leader and supported the hyenas.

Kansara
@kansaratva

The school reopened and after the rigmarole of logging in, the first class of the first day started.

"Good morning, children," beamed Padmaja, the Science teacher for the 5th standard. "How were your vacations?"

"I wrote a letter to the PM," said one with the screen name Marky.

Padmaja wondered why Maharshi became Marky, but she let it be.

"What did you write, Maharshi?" she asked.

"I wrote to him asking why constitutional provisions for freedom of speech were violated by his ministers, vitiating the principles of democracy."

Padmaja spilled her tea.

Before she could respond, Davey piped up with the lisp of a nine-year old, "A letter? So last century, Marky."

"Devi?" asked Padmaja, peering into the screen to take a good look at the kid.

"I recorded a HD video," said the kid, "asking the PM to reduce the GST on ambulances."

Padmaja took a deep breath and wondered whether she was in some cute but sinister nightmare.

"Anyone else?" she asked mockingly.

"I set up my YouTube channel," said Robby. "In my latest episode, I talked about minority rights during COVID-19."

"Roopini too?" thought Padmaja.

"I speak for those who cannot speak up," said Robby, "like my friend Safia."

Safia had not changed her screen name. She did not speak up.

"You speak for me too?" asked a voice.

"Shut up, Dinesh Jain!"

"Enough!" said Padmaja, exasperated, and said, "What did you do, Karnika?"

Kansara
@kansaratva

The morning was glorious like no other, for the August Sun was shining on Nehru-ji as it had never done before.

Wearing his trademark jacket, not a crease or a spot, and a lusty rose in the buttonhole, Nehru-ji looked as fresh as the morning dew, and this despite the midnight.

For, at the stroke of midnight, Nehru-ji had stepped on the podium, and had eloquently orated his speech, Tryst with Destiny.

Just like his intellectual descendant, Shashi-ji, Nehru-ji had spoken in English about India because his audience, like Shashi-ji's, was elsewhere.

As Nehru-ji basked in the morning Sun, he was envisioning - a man like Nehru-ji does not think, he envisions - the audience for the day, a day dedicated to his achievements since the speech.

Nehru-ji took out his Air Pods and instructed Siri in his clipped accent to play a song.

The title song from the movie Golmaal soon vibrated into his ears - no, not the one by Kishore Kumar for that was still far into the future, but the more contemporary one by Vishal Dadlani.

Unlike the blockheaded protagonists of the movie, Nehru-ji did not dance to the song.

Later, Nehru-ji was seated on a massive throne like that king of ancient India who he admired, Great the Akbar, and was flanked on both sides by celebrities he had personally known.

A Congress worker tied a pigeon to a rocket and launched it, signaling the start of celebrations.

More from India

Sankul
@sankul333

Bollywood is just a bubble of privileged, tone-deaf hypocrites. You think criticising Modi is activism? You can't even call out a director accused of #metoo. What happened to your political correctness and feminism? Is it only limited to gaslighting Dalits? Shows your hypocrisy

Secondly, if you read history, you will find that Dalits would have a broom attached to their backs by UC rulers so that the land would not be polluted. By portraying a Dalit politician holding a broom, you are glorifying the stereotype of casteist jobs which our ancestors fought

Thirdly, using a casteist slur like untouchable is not clever wordplay by any means. It is just dehumanizing and constitutionally banned. We were outcasts who were not allowed to even touch the same places as UCs. If you don't know our history, don't misuse it. Unlearn casteism

Moreover, the director of the movie is Subhash Kapoor, a man accused of sexual assault. It baffles me how all of Bollywood has shown their casteism in targeting Dalits for criticising the misleading portrayal of themselves, but no one has pointed a finger at the sexual molestor!

Bollywood is just a bubble of privileged, tone-deaf hypocrites. You think criticising Modi is activism? You can't even call out a director accused of #MeToo . What happened to your political correctness and feminism? Is it only limited to gaslighting Dalits? Shows your hypocrisy

Tanvangi
@Tanvangi17

In his letters describing the India Mission, Carey has given us an insight into how the society functioned then, of how the minds of the people worked and what methods the missionaries used to approach and brainwash the common people.

William Carey landed on the Indian soil in the year 1793. He spent the remaining years of his life in India. He was a British missionary, a translator and a social reformer who is best known for having the practice of Sati abolished in India. https://t.co/kRiPwgjwcP pic.twitter.com/JqO3A7cCsX
— Tanvangi (@Tanvangi17) December 18, 2020

It is entirely possible that,Carey in his arrogance of being the white man and hence more civilized,his inability to under the Hindu scriptures and his natural disdain for the learned community coupled with his inherent hatred for the idolaters may have exaggerated the incidents.

In fact, considering the venom with which he has spoken about Hinduism and it's practices, it's likely that he has exaggerated these incidents. But it cannot be denied that these incidents did happen even if they may not have been on scale at which Carey has described.

One of his journal entry mentions a debate which happened in a temple in front of around 200 people. Carey describes having debated with two learned men and goes on to say when both learned men failed to answer his questions, he went on to preach the gospel to the assembled crowd

In a letter dated 30th June,1795 he goes on to gleefully narate how Hindus were unaware of their own scriptures and how an supposed expert named a grammar book when he was questioned as which scripture said that the Murti is God.

$Sur Niragas Hoe\U0001f308$

Sur Niragas Hoe🌈...
@Agabaai

This is an English translation of @Shiva__1's pinned thread in Marathi. Was thinking of doing this for sometime. Think this is the right time as events which happened the other day have been really triggering, and this is exactly how I feel. Here goes. 1/19

I've honestly had enough, so now it's about time I said this out loud.

•We as a society have routinely backstabbed our fellow citizens belonging to the Muslim community.• 2/19

When I was a kid, dad used to take me to Sambhaji Brigade and Seva Sangh meetings. It was in these meetings that we learned the real history of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

So far, the Brahminists have always distorted this history and spread falsehoods to 3/19

sow Islamophobia for their personal benefit, when the real story is completely different.

A lot of Muslims used to speak at and attend these meetings. And whenever I listened to or interacted with them, I sensed a very apologetic tone in their voice. 4/19

It was almost as if they were trying to say, "We Muslims are good people. Look at our contributions in history. Please don't misunderstand us. Please see us as your own people." 5/19

$\u0932\u0916\u094b\u092c\u093e \u0932\u094b\u0916\u0902\u0921\u0947$

लखोबा लोखंडे...
@LakhobaLokhande

Secrets of Ganapati (Author - Keshav Sitaram Thackeray)

This article is taken from Keshav Sitaram Thackeray's book 'Dharmachi Devale and Devalcha Dharma'. In it, Bal Thackeray's father is claiming how the Hindu deity of Ganesha is imaginary.
(1/20)

Buddha is Ashtavinayak and "Ganapati Bappa Morya" is "Chandragupta Morya".

In the era of democracy, the head of state is the President. But in ancient India, there was a Gana culture in the monarchy and the head of that Gana was called Ganapati
(2/20)

In ancient India, a prince named Siddharth Gautam was born in royalty. He later became the king of Shakya Gana in this Gana culture. In time, Siddhartha attained enlightenment.

Let us now understand the difference between a real Ganapati and an imaginary Ganapati.
(3/20)

Some clever Brahmin manuvadis made the real Ganapati the imaginary Ganapati.

Buddha was the king of the Shakya Gana, so people called him Ganaraja. He founded Buddhism and became the head of the Shakyas. As the head of Gana, people used to call Buddha as Ganapati.
(4/20)

But the Brahmins Brahmanized Ganapati and created a false Ganapati. When Buddha used to give the message of Dharma to the people, two words would come out of his message. Chitta and Malla.

Chitta is the body.
Malla means waste
(5/20)

Indian Muslim
@AIndianMuslim

By playing Hindutva politics, AAP is targetting Muslims!

The @AamAadmiParty is provoking violence in Delhi. Violence against Muslims. It needs to be said clearly and loudly.

It also needs to be countered strongly, says professor

An AAP spokesperson made allegations that even the Delhi Police has said are untrue!!!

He repeated the claim that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have now made folkloric: “If we cannot chant Jai Shri Ram in India, will it be chanted in Pakistan?”

He went on to claim that murder of Rinku Sharma in Delhi’s Mangol Puri area on February 10 had a communal motivation!!!

At his press conference, he said that the BJP was unable to protect Hindus in Delhi. “Hindus are not safe in Delhi under the rule of the BJP,” he asserted!!!

Delhi Police, not known for any sympathy for Muslims, made it clear that the death had its roots in a business rivalry and the people accused of killing Sharma were known to him!

The murder was a result of a fight at the birthday party of Sharma’s

It was expected, in keeping with the reality of politics that BJP would leave no stone unturned to give the murder a communal colour & incite hatred & violence against Muslims.

The murdered young man was said to be a member of the Visha Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal. BJP

Before I start, a quick disclaimer, please don't ape his portfolio.

As the entry price, horizon and risk appetite would be far different than yours.

Rather lets draw inspiration and try to learn his stock picking skills.

Now let's DIVE IN👇

1/ Started off as a trader:

- Soon, beginner’s luck started to fade out and loses started to mount, to an extent where his mother was about to sell her ornaments.

- Although he was able to dodge the situation.

- This incident taught him the biggest lesson to have a stop-loss.

2/ Punjab Tractors:

- In 1990, he made his first investment by putting in his 10-years savings of Rs 35,000 in this stock, based on a news trigger that tractor industry will witness a turnaround.

- It worked and fetched him 4-5 times which he calls it as a fluke.

3/ He believes that an investor must possess three qualities:

i. Knowledge,
ii. Courage, and
iii. Patience.

UN Watch
@UNWatch

The UN just voted to condemn Israel 9 times, and the rest of the world 0.

View the resolutions and voting results here:

The resolution titled "The occupied Syrian Golan," which condemns Israel for "repressive measures" against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, was adopted by a vote of 151 - 2 - 14.

Israel and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/HoO7oz0dwr

The resolution titled "Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people..." was adopted by a vote of 153 - 6 - 9.

Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/1Ntpi7Vqab

The resolution titled "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan" was adopted by a vote of 153 – 5 – 10.

Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/REumYgyRuF

The resolution titled "Applicability of the Geneva Convention... to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory..." was adopted by a vote of 154 - 5 - 8.

Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/xDAeS9K1kW