"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.

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.

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?"

"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.

A few thoughts on Tooter, since it's trending and being discussed.

The landing page makes the indigenous angle quite apparent: "MADE IN INDIA" under the logo and "A Swadeshi social network" as the tagline.

It only accepts a Gmail or Yahoo! email address, for whatever reasons.

Tooter has taken to heart the indigenous angle, even comparing the American Twitter India with the British East India company.

I have no problems with this, for this is a pitch that Tooter has decided to grow.

Tooter is forked from Mastodon, which, to me, has been a sore point.

Mastodon has been around for some time, and if you remember, had become temporarily popular as left-liberals had infested the place.

After some trolling Mastodon went rogue and suspended accounts (yes, mine too).

Inditoot was based on Mastodon then, but was eventually shutdown.

While I agree that Tooter is a fork, and probably not dependent on the whims of Mastodon, the wholly indigenous part becomes simply a marketing pitch.

Someone knowledgeable can explain what a fork carries over and depends on.

Even the app is based on existing Mastodon apps.

Tooter started out on the wrong toot, I mean foot, by creating and verifying accounts of Prof. Vaidya, and making people automatically follow that. In fact, newly created accounts also automatically follow the founder, Nanda.

Prof. Vaidya has now said that he is NOT on Tooter.

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.

This day was inevitable. Indian Muslims always lived in La La Land. They bad mouthed real well wishers & slept with the enemy who never considered them as part of them. In Gulf, Indian Muslims were busy with Javed Akhtar & Sonu Nigam. Never interacted with South Asian diaspora

Now when Indian Muslims are thrown to wolves it’s Pakistani & Bangladeshi Muslims with whom they kept distance are the only ones feeling their pain. None of the people who they invited for Eid Milan. Qawali & Mushaira are there for them. Such people invoke wrath upon themselves

Indian Muslims never spoke for Kashmiri Muslims. Distancing from separatist was understandable but we never even bothered to highlight their human rights violation & rapes carried out by forces. We could have sent them humanitarian help we didn’t. Our silence made us complicit.

When Sania Mirza married Shoaib Malik it was something legal. A Muslim married another Muslim. Entire Hindutva media went after her. They launched a witch-hunt for months. No Indian Muslim stood by her. All were silent. Now days come when Muslims are arrested for marrying a Hindu

Indian Muslims particularly the elite downplayed communalism in India by saying it will pass or Hindu majority is good. Fringe are bad. They misguiding others. Muslims were always others. Indians were happy to see Muslims sing & dance & eat their food but never considered as own

newly minted champion of hindus, sri sri @ncbn saar.. you might have forgotten we haven't.

your own "scheme" of Divya Darshanam i.e sending 1.3 lakh poor hindus to pilgrimage.

cost: 100 crs.

borne by - TTD & 7 major temples.

cost to tax-payer: 0. Z-E-R-O. 1+

Scheme -
RO plant at Srisailam.

Development works or Construction works at various temples across AP.

Kalyana Mantapas at various places in AP.

cost: a few hundred crores.

borne by: TTD

cost to tax-payer: 0. Z-E-R-O. 2+

Scheme -
Construction works at various temples across AP.

Kalyana Mantapas at various places in AP.

cost: a few hundred crores.

borne by: TTD

cost to tax-payer: 0. Z-E-R-O. 3+

Scheme -

Land for Bharat Electronics Ltd.

51 acres.

borne by: TTD

cost to tax-payer: 0. Z-E-R-O. 4+

Scheme -

Venkateswara Swamy temple at Amaravati. in CRDA limits.

Cost: 50 lakh per acre.

borne by; TTD

cost to tax-payer: 0. Z-E-R-O. 5+

@MEAIndia ‘s statement is full of lies.

Lie 1. The laws are not ‘reformist’ & even govt has agreed on these things which is why they sent suggested amendments. It may be noted that the laws are also violation of constitution. The laws have been made in state subject by centre.

Lie-2- Laws were not passed by majority vote in both the houses. The voice note was taken amid chaos and confusion. Govt of India passed the laws when nation was battling pandemic. Why was it done?

Govt has been running away from parliament session on the laws.

Lie 3.- The meetings with the govt ministers have been more or less a joke. Farmer Union leaders educated & schooled @nstomar about the flaws in the laws which he apparently didn’t know about or GOi never acknowledged.

Lie-4- Govt has admitted via Amit Shah in meeting on 8th Dec, that laws don’t change anything at all on the ground & that govt can do away with any changes in laws as requested by unions.

5. @MEAIndia doesn’t tell you that farmers protests were able to convince govt of india to take back two ordinances on Air pollution control & Electricity amendment bill. Not reformist those?

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