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.

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?

Since Tharoor has let the feline out of the Fendi, here are some of his daily routines that we know now.

* Perform Surya Namaskār so that the Sun has to rise
* Survey land to find out patches where not even a blade of grass grows
* Concoct new dishes by adding paneer to them

On the last one there's an adorable legend about Nehru that even Nehru would be surprised if he hears about it.

Nehru, rooted to the ground beneath his feet, was a nationalist at heart. While toying with green peas in his salad, he had an idea about national integration. Paneer.

Nehru, using his tremendous knowledge while discovering India (this was post-Independence, so no need to use _____), said that paneer could bind the nation together.

So he suggested adding paneer to dishes across India: paneer parantha, paneer pakoda, paneer idli, paneer khaman.

In an era when culinary creativity was a flatland, it was Nehru who raised the lone peak by adding paneer to biriyani, bisibele bath, basundi, uthappam, undhiyu, and sambar.

Soon, paneer began to proliferate with a culinary concupiscence (Tharoor's own words) not seen elsewhere.

Nehru, ever the international man of history, also realized the importance of paneer against the growing Chinese influence of tofu.

In a courageous display of cultural takeover through culinary conquest, Nehru added paneer to dumplings, fried rice, noodles. India 1. China 0.

The Greeks gave us democracy,
The Romans gave us numbers;
If not for their presence, you see,
We'll all be dumb-and-dumbers.

The French taught us revolution,
And gave us Left and Right;
Imagine our evolution,
Without this great divide.

The Germans gave maths and machines;
Philosophies galore;
If not for half-moustache obscene,
They would've given us more!

The British, too, gave us in spate,
They built all roads and tracks;
Without knowing their language great,
What worth our thoughts and acts?

Of course they gave us sins and priests,
To wake us up from stupor;
Before, we were uncivilized beasts;
After, we became super!

Italians, their gestures grand,
Taught us cooking and wine;
The world elsewhere was raw and bland,
We knew not how to dine.

The Spaniards, in their own way,
An inquisitive crowd;
Gave us dances and omelettes fey,
And tomatoes flung around.

The Swiss, even, from mountains cold,
Gave us chocolates and knives;
If not for them, let truth be told,
Will Hindi flicks survive?

Europe, the land of Arts and Science,
And Culture and Refinement;
If not for their exquisite lines,
We'll be in dark confinement!

Europe, they found out tail and head,
From fairy tales to bacillus;
So what in some places they spread,
A new disease like syphilis?! //

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.

"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.

NEW SCOOP from @zachsdorfman: China's Ministry of State Security has demanded that private Chinese companies, including Baidu and Alibaba, help them process stolen U.S. data, such as from the OPM hack, U.S. intelligence officials

Zach writes, "In what amounts to intelligence tasking, China’s spy services order private Chinese companies with big-data analytics capabilities to process massive sets of information that have intelligence value, according to current and former officials."

“Just imagine on any given day, if NSA and CIA are collecting information, say, on the [Chinese military], and we could bring back seven, eight, 10, 15 petabytes of data, give it to Google or Amazon or Microsoft, and say, ‘Hey, we want all these analytics," said one official.

It's hard to overestimate the significance of this intelligence assessment.

There has been speculation that Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent might have ties to China's security state. In fact, they work directly with them and for them—because they have to. According to US intel.

If you have been enjoying this series of scoops from @zachsdorfman, also take some time in your day to appreciate the skill and dedication that FP editor @BeijingPalmer has put into them.

#endsars #endpolicebrutality

Dear Friends,

On a rather deeper look at things, Police brutality is the topmost of the agitation but the anger and fury is deeper, bottled up for many years. An oppression our fathers have endured and the children now say No More, Enough is Enough!

In the context of the current scenario “SARS” has become a metaphor.

“SARS” in our society today represents all the inefficiencies, corruption, structural imbalances, faults and All the shenanigans of the Political class

If this present fury does not inspire an overhaul of the Nigerian system, then we may be headed for another restless round of 60 year of disastrous merry go round. This Nation needs a RESET NOW!!

It’s a good time to negotiate the fixing of this great Nation.

How long do we keep singing; Nigeria has great potentials? Let those potentials start working for good

If we must tell our selves the bitter truth as a people we urgently need to fix these;

* A drastic cut in cost of governance
* Federal Ministers shouldn’t be more than 10

* Remove the lofty attraction in public office
* Reduce the powers of the centre and decentralize reasonably
* Fix our defective constitution
* Reset the civil service
* Create regional economic/developmental competition
* Allow states to explore their resources/endowment

THREAD

1)
#Iran’s regime is increasing its measures aimed at interfering in U.S. elections.

@DNI_Ratcliffe shed light on this important matter.

Americans should be aware that Iran is pursuing this initiative specifically through its US-based lobby arm @NIACouncil.

If the communist party of China succeeds in their quest to take over America, and vanquish liberty from the earth, those American citizens who vote for the Democrat establishment, will deeply regret having done so, when the Chinese communists openly ridicule and disclose how

OK - now in Honduras narco-case including Prez JOH & brother Tony, now Geovanny Fuentes Ramirez has a proceeding before Judge Castel - Inner City Press will live tweet, thread below

The US Attorney's Office has asked for "Witness-1" to testimony under a pseudonym, and for jurors and "venire" (prospective jurors) be left unnamed, due to threats of retaliation and "inability of Honduran government to protect witness."
Or unwillingness?

Judge Castel: I presided over the Hernandez Alvarado trial, but this one will be different. Defense?
Defendant's counsel: I understand reading between the lines what your Honor is saying [about corruption in Honduras] and the alleged homicide...

Defense counsel: There have been public statements from the government of Honduras that this is all false. We could get that testimony even if the witnesses did not come here, using letters rogatory.

Defense lawyer: Either the jury will believe my client important tons of cocaine or not - whether he gave political campaign contributions in Honduras is a sideshow."
[To him, maybe]
Defense: The evidence should be kept out.