Aarthi D

Indian

[Erik Solheim @ErikSolheim]

In defense of Indian 🇮🇳 democracy!

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi most successful visit to Norway a minor incident happened. A Norwegian journalist demanded that the prime minister starts holding press conferences. She claimed that Indian democracy is in bad shape.

May be its time to pause? May be its time to be a bit curious to the world’s largest democracy?

Two weeks ago five Indian states and territories held elections. The turn out in the battlefield state of West Bengal was 94%. In the last local election in Norway it was 62%, in many European local elections turn out is below 50%. Can voting in massive numbers be a signal Indians trust their democratic process?

In the same election BJP won big in Assam and West Bengal. It lost even bigger in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Can this diversity be a signal that Indian democracy is reflecting the will of the people?

The journalist referred to a democracy ranking putting India at 157 in the world, behind many dictatorships and deeply troubled states. When a ranking is so obviously contrary to common sense, why not ask critical questions to those making the ranking rather than demand that leaders shall comment on nonsense? I recommend Salvatore Babones book “Dharma democracy”. The book debunks convincingly the flawed methodology of these rankings.

It was referred to a ranking claiming it’s very dangerous to be a journalist in India. Reality is that it is more dangerous to be journalist in the US and far more dangerous in the vast majority of other nations in the world.

Let’s be real. India is not perfect. Of course there are incidents. India has a population the size of North America, South America and Europe combined. But India is much more peaceful than Europe or the Americas. That’s remarkable - given the ethnic, language and religious diversity of India and the many development challenges.

Unless we consider democracy a form of government only suited for some very small, peaceful and homogeneous Western European nations, may be we should commend Indian democracy?

India is the only major former UK colony which became and has remained a democracy. Its sometimes claimed that the Brits taught India democracy. If that was the case why isn’t Myanmar or Pakistan or the Gulf kingdoms democracies??? Reality is that Indian democracy is both homegrown and extraordinary successful.

[Smriti Z Irani @smritiirani]

Satyamev Jayate!

[Savitri Mumukshu - सावित्री मुमुक्षु @MumukshuSavitri]

When we celebrate Holi today, we speak of the legend of Prahlāda and Holikā - of devotion winning over arrogance, faith surviving fire. But underneath lies a vast continuity of Hindu civilization. In Vedic symbolism, Holikā/Holaka did not represent a demoness - she personified the old year called the samvatsara - with all its accumulated impurities, imbalances, and decay. So the Holi fire was lit not as a symbol of punishment, but purification followed by renewal. It was the ritual burning away of whatever had become stale and blocked progress, so that renewal could flow again. In the Vedic context the year itself was held sacred and needed to be ritually renewed at seasonal thresholds. Therefore when we light the Holikā-dahana today, we are actually re-enacting a very ancient civilizational memory of saying farewell to the previous cycle and greeting the light of a new one.

The Vedic concept of the Āgrahāyaṇa (आग्रहायण) reinforces this- as “the first movement of the year.” In the Vedic era, Yagnas were held with Āgrahāyaṇa harvest offerings to mark the beginning of the year. Over time, our calendars shifted (Mārgaśīrṣa retaining the name Agrahāyaṇa reminds us of this), but the deeper pattern remained - the year turns, the cycle resets & the purifying sacred fire marks the passage. Holi at the full moon of Phālguna, sits precisely at that late-winter threshold when light overtakes darkness and the agricultural season awakens. The Atharva Veda Parisistas (AVP) which are later ritual appendices in the Atharva Vedic tradition, mention a rite called Holaka to be performed on the full-moon night of Phālguna. The AVP (Verse 18b:12.1) describes Holaka on Phalguna Poornima:
अथ फाल्गुन्यां पौर्णमास्यां रात्रौ होलाका ॥
महानवम्यां उक्त-प्रज्वलनं निराजनं वा ॥

The burning of Holākā thus meant the burning away of the old samvatsara, preserving in symbolic form the profound Vedic act of cosmic renewal. The Naradiya Purana retained this core by describing Holākā as the sister of Samvat (the year).

Holi as celebrated today in Krishna traditions, especially in Braj expresses the same seasonal & astronomical grammar of renewal. Rohiṇī nakshatra (Aldebaran in Taurus) was always associated with abundance and agricultural vitality and Krishna’s birth under Rohiṇī absorbs that symbolism into devotion. As late winter ends at the Phālguna full moon, Holikā-dahana burns the exhausted year, and Krishna’s playful līlā releases the stored energy of spring in an explosion of color, music, and generative joy. Fire purifies; Krishna proliferates life. What was read in the rising of Rohiṇī becomes embodied in Krishna himself as the divine face of seasonal reawakening. In the east, Dol-Yātrā also deepens this theme. Krishna placed gently on a swing mirrors the sun’s oscillation between uttarāyaṇa and dakṣiṇāyana, the great north–south movement that structures the Vedic year. The swing moves just as the sun moves; as the year turns, the divine fire burns away the old.

Similarly if we look at bhagwan Narasiṃha's symbolism beyond legend, Hiraṇyakaśipu represents domination of a frozen, rigid order that believes it has conquered time and nature. In seasonal terms, that is winter: dark, still, unmoving, holding life in suspension. Bhagwan Narasiṃha appears at twilight - neither day nor night - at a threshold. He does not simply defeat Hiraṇyakaśipu, he breaks the delusion of the ego's permanence. He erupts at the seam between two states. And what follows immediately after winter’s tyranny is destroyed by divine illumination? Spring.

This is why Holi feels so explosive. It is not just some colors thrown in the air - it is existence itself choosing renewal once more. Prahlāda’s name holds the key - from pra (intense, overflowing) and hlāda (joy, delight), he is joy that cannot be contained. He is the indestructible seed that survives every winter of the soul. When Bhagavān tears apart the rigid structures that imprison us - the inner Hiraṇyakaśipu of fear, ego, and stagnation - what remains is the Bhakta purified by fire - Prahlāda embodying the indestructible delight that cannot be burned, crushed, or silenced. The Holikā fire purifies, thresholds dissolve what has hardened and joy returns not timidly, but in a burst of color. So Holi is hlāda made visible: life surging after dormancy, warmth breaking the grip of cold, the Vedic vision of perpetual renewal unfolding within the cosmic rhythm of Ṛta

Every element of Holi proclaims a foundational Hindu insight: existence is rhythmic, not linear - and rebirth is woven into its structure. Darkness does not conclude the story - it prepares the next emergence. When we light the Holikā fire, we are not just recalling a legend - we are ritually enacting the law of renewal itself. The sacred fire consumes what has become rigid, exhausted, or imbalanced. The colors that follow announce regeneration. From ashes comes vitality; from stillness arises movement & from restraint, erupts overflowing life. Holi is therefore so much more than a festival - it is a civilizational memory of rebirth. Just as the seasons turn, just as the soul moves through death and return, just as creation itself cycles through dissolution and re-manifestation, so too does joy reappear after darkness.

No winter is final, no stagnation absolute. By divine grace, life rises again recharged with hlāda, radiant with possibility. Holi reminds us that renewal is not an exception in Hindu thought; it is the very law of our being.

[SriGuru Rohit Arya @SGRohitArya]

That is called a father....

[𑀓𑀺𑀭𑀼𑀱𑁆𑀡𑀷𑁆 🇮🇳 @tskrishnan]

A detailed rejoinder to the newspaper article, which was nothing but a distortion of Chola legacy. Facts vs Fiction https://t.co/bkgYLJZU64

[Aarthi D @aalavyn]

@arundhanapaul lol !! Why should we even reply to him …

[Tamil Labs 2.0 @labstamil]

Compiling all threads and posts from the past few days, on the TM Krishna- Music Academy saga, EVR's problematic statements cited from primary sources, at a single place.

Bookmark this for quick reference. RT this to spread the word. (1/11)

[Arun @arundhanapaul]

simply wow

[Aarti Tikoo Singh @AartiTikoo]

The 2019 US Congressional hearing on Kashmir, in Washington DC was an enlightening moment in my life—I was finally able to put faces on the criminals who had till then, hidden themselves in the plain sight, and whose truth I had long ago figured out on my own in Kashmir while working there for almost two decades. The picture was now complete and the 360 degree truth was crystal clear.

The hearing was a trap, laid against India by the highly corrupt US Democrats, in connivance with Pakistani Army and ISI and their Indian stooges— @BradSherman @Ilhan @PramilaJayapal @ChatterjiAngana @NitashaKaul & Co.

In the end, it did not really matter that it was a fight between 9 versus 1 or an assault of wolves on a deer in a jungle. What mattered was that I fought like no one else in the history of Indian media and that too on the American soil. Not only did I survive but I cracked the Matrix in that battle. The details of that significant story is for future.

What is amazing is that as I walked out of the US Congress while processing the revelations, Nitasha Kaul escorted by Pakistani and Kashmiri Muslim ISI agents in the US, followed me. After her orchestrated performance for her allies at the hearing, she looked sheepish and wanted to make peace with me. I refused to shake hands with her and told her that she should instead take a good look in the mirror. She is culpable for the very cause (human rights violations) she has been delusionally espousing. I told her to get lost. Red in her face, she left. A black limousine had come to pick up Nitasha and her aides who were holding umbrellas. I stood there, waiting for a cab in the rain, fully liberated.

Few days ago, the UK based pro-Pakistan activist Nitasha Kaul was denied entry in India and since then, she has been crying hoarse. Not sure, why! Those who are part of the Cabal funded by the corrupt Globalist Elite, the US Military Industrial Complex and the Jihadist machinery, shouldn’t be complaining. You chose your side. Long ago.

[Aarthi D @aalavyn]

@yogiraj_arun satkoti naman arun ji!!🙏🙏

[Dr Poornima 🇮🇳 @PoornimaNimo]

Felt cute❤️
Will not delete later

[Phield Martiall Jambavan @SirJambavan]

Tweets on dog ownership.

Am a dog owner. Not a pet parent. Not any of the higher plane of existence stuff that is in vogue today. I own a dog. I have owned and lost several in my life. I have grieved over them .. spent nights saving their lives from deadly diseases and even ++

[Saket Badola @Saket_Badola]

Fight for supremacy !!
#SMForward

[Krishna Kumar Murugan @ikkmurugan]

It was a 4:1 panel (Rajdeep included)

Thalaivar @annamalai_k demolishes their propaganda with details.

[Aarthi D @aalavyn]

@NatashaFatah @TarekFatah om shanthi 🙏🙏

[Aarthi D @aalavyn]

Pakka mass !

[Gokul R @rgokul]

Aboard the most non-inclusive, ticket-price-should-be-reduced, timings-to-be-ratified, non-bullet, nothing-special-stupid-coaches Vance Bharat.

[Arun @arundhanapaul]

A small contribution to Railway electrification our UTILITY VEHICLES.
Matter of pride for all at OEPL
@aalavyn
#OEPLUTV

[Aarthi D @aalavyn]

@swamy64 Welcome back sir 🙏🏿

[Aarthi D @aalavyn]

@AbhimanyuX_ Absolutely !!