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[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

The man who created the most widely used gun on earth spent his last years wishing he had built something peaceful instead.

His name was Mikhail Kalashnikov. In the winter of 1941 he was a wounded tank sergeant in a Soviet hospital, listening to the men around him curse their rifles for jamming while the Germans fired automatics. He couldn't let it go. He had taught himself how machines worked and had no training in guns, the seventeenth of nineteen children in a poor Siberian family that got deported for owning too much land. He finished his rifle in 1947, and it carried his name and the year: Avtomat Kalashnikova. The AK-47.

The genius of it was in what he left loose. Accurate rifles are built with tiny gaps between the moving parts, and those tight gaps jam the moment dirt gets in. Kalashnikov went the other way. He left the parts loose on purpose, with a bit of slack between them, so the gun could swallow mud, sand, and ice and keep firing. The mechanism is almost crude. Gas from each shot gets pulled off the barrel and pushes a piston back, which kicks out the empty case and cocks the gun, then a spring throws everything forward and loads the next round. Few parts to break. Simple enough to pull apart and clean in the field in under a minute.

He gave up accuracy to get it. An AK hits well out to about 300 meters. The American M16 reaches closer to 500. Kalashnikov didn't mind, because most infantry fighting happens close up, and a gun that always fires beats a gun that shoots straighter and then jams. In Vietnam, American soldiers sometimes pulled AKs off dead enemy fighters when their own M16s jammed up in the wet heat.

Then it slipped out of his hands. The Soviets gave the plans to their allies for free, and around 30 countries started building their own copies. Because it was never his patent, Kalashnikov made almost nothing off the 70 to 100 million that now exist. No gun has ever been more widespread. It sits on the flag of Mozambique.

For years he said he slept fine, that he had built the thing to defend his country. That certainty cracked near the end. At 93 he said what he had wanted all along was to build something that helped people. A lawnmower, he offered. Farm equipment. He died in 2013, his name on more rifles than any designer in history, still hoping to build the one machine he never made.

[News Algebra @NewsAlgebraIND]

22 year old salesman Mayank Lohar, stabbed to death in a Mumbai local train following an argument over shutting the train door during heavy rainfall.

[Amit Malviya @amitmalviya]

The Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru contain a fascinating episode that sheds light on Nehru’s priorities in the years immediately after Independence.

On 12 December 1948, Nehru wrote to Finance Minister John Matthai regarding the enormous income-tax assessments issued against Butcher Suhrawardy, the former Premier of Bengal. Suhrawardy had complained to Nehru that he was being assessed for nearly ₹50 lakh in taxes for 1945-46 and 1946-47 and alleged that the Income Tax Department was harassing him.

Rather than leaving the matter entirely to the tax authorities, Nehru intervened. He forwarded Suhrawardy’s grievances to Matthai and cautioned that any “high-handed” action could have serious political repercussions. On the very same day, Nehru also wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Dr. B.C. Roy, describing the assessment as “extraordinary” and seeking further information.

This was not an ordinary taxpayer. Suhrawardy remains one of the most controversial figures of the pre-Independence era, remembered for his role as Premier of Bengal during Direct Action Day in Calcutta in 1946, which unleashed horrific communal violence.

Yet Nehru’s concern was not merely the tax assessment itself, but the broader political consequences that could follow from the government’s treatment of such a prominent Muslim leader.

What happened next is equally noteworthy. Suhrawardy eventually left India, disposed of his interests here, moved to Pakistan, and went on to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The episode raises an important historical question: Why was India’s Prime Minister personally intervening in a tax dispute involving a politician who would later lead a country that had been created through Partition?

The correspondence survives in the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru and offers a revealing glimpse into how political considerations often intersected with governance in the Nehru era.

Letter to Finance Minister John Matthai: https://t.co/0wJYGAzOrm

Letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Dr. B.C. Roy: https://t.co/xDMehoLfaW

[All India Trinamool Congress @AITCofficial]

Staying true to his word, Shri @abhishekaitc REFUSED TO ABANDON the grieving family of Sanju Karmakar.

Even after a vicious attack by @BJP4Bengal-backed miscreants, our National General Secretary chose not to turn back. Instead, he stood beside a family devastated by an unimaginable loss allegedly inflicted by BJP-backed hooligans.

That is the difference between politics driven by compassion and politics driven by hatred.

@SuvenduWB, today’s events have once again exposed the kind of politics you preside over - one rooted in intimidation, violence and vendetta.

[G I D E O N 🇮🇳🇮🇱 @WarLord709]

Welcome to India's own Lyari (Gulshan colony). @HMOIndia @SuvenduWB da must take action on illegal settlements here. We just can't believe in the last 20 yrs, CPIM and TMC, just for vote bank politics, allowed them to grow. #banglapokkho Fake Bengali nationalists never spoke against these illegal settlements in the heart of Kolkata.

[do'o kappa @viprabuddhi]

Bihari Muslims in Kolkata are crying after getting beaten black and blue by Kolkata Police 🪷

These people were settled en masse by Left + TMC over last 50 years, many being migrants from Bangladesh too. 🇧🇩

Kolkata's mayor's family origin is from Gaya

[Sudhanidhi Bandyopadhyay @SudhanidhiB]

Situation has become highly tensed at Park Circus 7 Point Crossing. There has been massive stone pelting. Huge Police is being mobilised immediately. People were protesting initially against the latest Govt's orders on ban on public prayers, loudspeakers & Qurbani.

[Aparna @chhuti_is]

West Bengal govt notification states that no cow, bullock, bull, buffalo, or calf may be sacrificed without a specific certificate issued by municipal chairman/ panchayat samiti head & a govt vet. Prohibits animal slaughter in public place.

[The Bong Head @TheBongHead]

Look at the conditions of a winning candidate from TMC.

If you check his Facebook page, he has 100s of songs he paid to create in his name showing him as some superstar.

He can’t even read basic bengali words during his oath ceremony.

[Sudhanidhi Bandyopadhyay @SudhanidhiB]

CPIM people had unparallel hatred towards TMC & Mamata Banerjee. They just couldn't forgive them for finishing off their 34 year rule. In Goutam Deb's own prophecy— CPIM, Congress, BJP all will stay but TMC would remain to be a hyphen in Bengal's political history.

[PunyaPrakop @PunyaPrakop_]

Look at his body language at the PC of his Fufi!
This CHOMU gave challenge to Union Government just 2 days ago by writing this bravado post. He even abused Mota bhai’s parents.

[Nats @TsByNats]

🚨: Ishowspeed Met 2 of his duplicates in Ethiopia 🇪🇹

and RECREATED this legendary MEME😭🥀

[Gopal @HiGopalHere]

TMC less west bengal was beautiful.

[ಸನಾತನ (सनातन) @sanatan_kannada]

Elephant falls down because of fear of dog!

Is this an AI-generated video or a real incident?

#Elephant #Dogs

[𝗚𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝘄𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 ⚔️ @IWilllExpoeYou]

Ex Pakistani cricketer & Captain Rashid Latif believe´s the match between India vs Pakistan on 21 September was shady(Fixing).

He thinks Pak batters in the middle overs deliberately slowed down,And also points out 2 matches from the 90s that were fixed.

🧐🤨

[🗣️ @_Biswajit__]

@Decisive_18 Ekdom e naa. Majhe majhe app ta open kori! 🙃

[cinesthetic. @TheCinesthetic]

How Buster Keaton pulled off this insane stunt in 1924—no CGI, just pure precision.

[So-cum WangchuT ladakh wale @hijibijihijibi]

Pre BANGLADESHIFICATION era of Kolkata, Circa 2004🥺

[Chemosh @Chemosh_moab]

Last few days have made it clear that India is a vassal state, but I think that is a charitable reading.

India may be finished as a country. The Marxists were right. Should never had elected these neurotic Sanghi bunch.