Tim Hopkirk

[Tim Hopkirk @HopkirkTim41290]

Monday's newspaper front pages https://t.co/4uCMs24Ddw

[Bite Bliss @Emmajhones77]

Eat or skip

[Alexandra Nikolidaki @home_alexandr]

A classic Lenten dish, full of deep flavor and aromas. Tender cuttlefish baked slowly with sweet onions, rich tomato, and potatoes that absorb all the juices. A comforting, traditional meal that brings the sea and home together.

Baking Pan size
36 X...

[Raj Malhotra @Rajmalhotrachd]

THE GOLDEN HEARTBEAT OF A FORGOTTEN WORLD: Decoding William Dalrymple’s @DalrympleWill ‘The Golden Road’ — The Ultimate UPSC Masterclass on How India Built the Mind of the World.

Welcome, the brave future guardians of the Indian Republic.

On this Sunday evening, I ask you to forget the modern world.

Forget the maps you know.

We are going to travel back in time, to an era where the world did not speak English, where the center of the earth was not Europe, and where a single, magical land poured its golden light across oceans and mountains, changing human history forever.

William Dalrymple, I bow to your magical pen.

You did not just write a book; you resurrected a buried civilization.

Look closely at the stunning image you chose for your cover.

We see a beautiful, endless circle—a mandala of intricate red, gold, and blue patterns. We see tiny, ancient figures of travelers, elephants, and ships sailing along the curved borders.

This circle represents the great wheel of time, and the title, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World, sits boldly in the center, flanked by the glowing praise of Max Hastings calling you 'an outstandingly gifted historian'.

You have proven that the famous "Silk Road" is a modern myth; the true highway of ancient human progress was the Golden Road of India.

If you are a UPSC Civil Services aspirant preparing General Studies Papers 1, 2, 3, 4, History Optional (Papers 1 & 2), and Political Science and International Relations (PSIR) Optional, this is your magical key.

Open your heart.

Let the ancient fire light up your mind.

Let us journey along the Golden Road. 👇

[Raj Malhotra @Rajmalhotrachd]

6. The Golden Shadows of Southeast Asia

Look at the map of Southeast Asia—places we now call Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Ancient Indian kings never sent a single soldier to conquer these lands.

Yet, if you go to Cambodia today, you will find Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, built to honor the Hindu God Vishnu.

If you go to Indonesia, you will find Borobudur, a massive Buddhist stupa shaped like a giant stone lotus.

How did this happen?

It happened because the kings of Southeast Asia looked at India and saw a civilization of absolute brilliance.

They voluntarily adopted the Sanskrit language, Indian mathematics, Indian gods (Shiva, Vishnu, Buddha), and Indian laws (like the Manu Smriti).

They wanted to be like India because India was the shining beacon of civilization.

This vast, peaceful, cultural empire is what historians call the "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" or the "Indosphere."

[Raj Malhotra @Rajmalhotrachd]

🌟 THE CIRCLE OF LIGHT

William Dalrymple’s @DalrympleWill breathtaking book, teaches us a truth.

From the gentle monsoon winds that blow, to the sacred rivers where the lotuses grow, a story of ancient glory unfolds, a secret that the whole world holds.

Today, as India stands as a vibrant, modern digital giant, reaching for the moon and the stars, we must remember where our deepest strength comes from.

We are the children of the mathematicians, the children of the monks, the children of the master sailors, and the children of the Golden Road.

The ancient Indians did not build walls to keep the world out; they built invisible roads of pure thought leading straight into the hearts of millions.

They gave the world its numbers, they gave the world its peace, and they gave the world its golden light.

Go forward.

Take this golden knowledge.

Drop it into the ocean of your exams, and watch the golden ripples change your destiny forever. 🇮🇳🕊️✨

[Kurt S. Altrichter, CRPS® @kurtsaltrichter]

On this day in 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, agreeing to pay 132 billion gold marks in war reparations, roughly $33 billion at the time. The burden equaled more than twice Germany's annual GDP. John Maynard Keynes resigned from the British delegation in protest and published "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," warning that the terms would destabilize all of Europe. To meet the payments, the Weimar government printed money at a catastrophic pace: by November 1923, a single U.S. dollar bought 4.2 trillion marks, and the resulting hyperinflation wiped out the savings of an entire generation of Germans. Germany didn't finish paying off the debt until October 2010, when it made a final $94 million installment, 91 years after the treaty was signed.

[WDYTYA? Magazine @wdytyamagazine]

#OnThisDay in 1858, the British Raj was established following the Indian Mutiny. Were your family among the Britons who settled in India during the colonial period? Find out how to trace them with our pick of the best websites:

https://t.co/5y2gmc27p9

[SparksN123 @SparksN123]

Wow! I mean wow!

[Raj Malhotra @Rajmalhotrachd]

🏛️ 10. For GS Paper 2 (International Relations & Soft Power)

The Master Argument: When analyzing India's "Act East Policy" or its relations with Southeast Asia today, trace the roots back to the Sanskrit Cosmopolis.

Explain that modern Indian diplomacy is not starting from scratch; it is re-awakening a deep, ancient civilizational memory.

By promoting Buddhism and shared cultural heritage, modern India is simply walking on the ancient, trusted stones of the Golden Road.

[Basil the Great @BasilTheGreat]

🚨BREAKING: There are now TWENTY THOUSAND foreign criminals in the UK awaiting deportation

- This is a record, the number has never been higher.
- More than double the number from just 5 years ago
- The appeal process means the system has effectively collapsed

[Summer's Savor @summer_food]

Seared Cod with Tomato Basil Sauce

Mediterranean Cod Delight in Aromatic Tomato Basil Broth

Ingredients:

4 cod fillets (6 ounces each)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, for dusting
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions:

Season the cod fillets with salt and pepper and lightly dust with flour.
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the cod fillets and sear until golden brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side. Remove the cod from the skillet and set aside.
In the same skillet, add the onion and garlic, and sauté until the onion is translucent.
Add the cherry tomatoes and cook until they start to break down.
Pour in the vegetable broth, bring to a simmer, and let the liquid reduce by half.
Return the cod to the skillet, cover, and simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until the cod is cooked through.
Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve.

[Raj Malhotra @Rajmalhotrachd]

🌍 13. For PSIR Optional & History Optional

The Argument: Use this book to completely destroy the "Eurocentric" view of history.

For centuries, Western historians claimed that civilization started in Greece, went to Rome, and then to Europe.

Dalrymple's @DalrympleWill The Golden Road proves this is false.

The true center of gravity of the ancient world, the beating heart of global trade, religion, and science, was always the Indian subcontinent.

[Artur Nadolny @ArturNadol7566]

JOHN SMITH WAS SET TO BEAT THE TORIES. THEN HE DIED AND BLAIR TOOK EVERYTHING

John Smith was Labour leader for less than two years. In that time he did something Tony Blair never quite managed. He made the Tories scared without changing who he was.

By May 1994 Labour was more than twenty points ahead in the polls. The week before Smith died the Conservatives had just suffered their worst council election result in over thirty years.

Smith was not some transitional figure waiting to be replaced. His biographer later worked out that on the numbers at the time, Smith could have won a majority close to the size of Blair's 1997 landslide, without rebuilding the party from scratch the way Blair did.

12 May 1994. The night before, Smith had been at a Labour fundraising dinner in London, in good spirits, fully active. The next morning he collapsed in his Barbican flat from a heart attack. He was rushed to St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was dead within the hour.

He was 55.

Official cause, heart attack. He had suffered one before, in 1988, and had supposedly changed his diet and taken up hillwalking afterward. Case closed almost instantly. No real public scrutiny of the hours in between. No real digging into who saw him last or what exactly happened that morning.

Within weeks, Tony Blair was Labour leader. Within three years he was Prime Minister with one of the biggest majorities in British history.

Here is what people keep saying in comment sections every time this comes up. Smith was the obstacle. Smith wanted the slow, careful version of Labour, not the rebrand Blair and his people were pushing. Smith resisted scrapping the things that made Labour Labour.

The moment he was gone, all of that resistance disappeared with him, and the party that emerged afterward looked nothing like the one he led.

People online have pointed at the same uncomfortable questions for years. Why does a man who reportedly changed his lifestyle after a heart scare die so suddenly with so little examination.

Why was a politician this consequential, this close to power, given no real follow up once the death certificate was signed.

Why does the man who benefited the most from his death never get asked a single hard question about it in public.

None of this proves anything. But a huge number of people genuinely believe Smith's death was too convenient to be coincidence, and they are not wrong to ask why nobody in power ever wanted that question examined properly.

Tony Blair got Downing Street. John Smith got a heart attack nobody ever really investigated and a party that stopped being his within a year.

What do you think actually happened that morning in May 1994.

SOURCES
@BBC @guardian @thetimes @independent @Telegraph and many others.

[Ginger @Ginger68237919]

🤭

[Peter Brookes @BrookesTimes]

My cartoon @thetimes Saturday. Print available to buy from
https://t.co/2Brf8C6b7P

[༺ दिव्या ༻ @Divya_0405]

बेटी के छोटे-छोटे कदम... ❤️🥹
और वर्दी में छिपा सबसे बड़ा सम्मान।

#Respect #Pride

[Rock @rock716860]

Homemade Mongolian Beef
Recipe:https://t.co/ZxAM8n8MNp