Akshay Joshi

[Mike Bettes @mikebettes]

A deep analysis of what may have lead to the Nepal glacial collapse and a breakdown of how the flood overtook communities in a matter if minutes. #Nepal #flood #weather

[Swati Goel Sharma @swati_gs]

1. What's wrong with the Giva ad?

Nothing you see on TV/advertisement or/big screen, especially in big budget projects, is innocent or accidental

The Giva ad continues a broader trend in how film-entertainment and ad industries have treated cultural sensitivities of the two majority communities very differently for years - something Gems of Bollywood has exposed so clearly

Look at the way popular culture has marketed Hindu festivals for years. For instance, check any compilation for suggestions for Diwali playlist:
“Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai”
“Let’s Nacho”
“Tamma Tamma Again”

But typical suggestions for Eid playlist:
“Noor-e-Khuda”
“Maula Ali”
“Kun Faya Kun”

Typical media suggestions for Diwali outfit ideas these days: sexualised styling - cleavage, revealing blouses, familiar Bollywood glamour

Typical outfit suggestions for Eid: Rich and covered

This means that they know what cultural sensitivity looks like, what a family gathering looks like, what sanctity of a festival looks like

But they apply it only where they want

The test of their intention is simple. Look at the image attached. Imagine her holding a plate for Iftari and the text saying Eid. Will any brand ever run such an ad?

2. Are these ads really made to increase sales during Rakhi?

The primary purpose of such an advertisement is not to sell jewellery for Rakhi. Conduct a market survey. Show consumers the ad and ask them whether the imagery is prompting them to buy Giva jewellery on Rakhi for their sisters. I doubt the answer would be overwhelmingly yes

Modern advertising works at a deeper level than simply saying buy this product. It is often aimed at shaping long-term attitudes

When the same kind of imagery is repeatedly used around certain festivals, weddings and family occasions, it leads to normalisation of a particular culture

Much of it seems to be aimed at creating a society where every aspect of a woman's life is sexualised. I would say it is the same mindset that wants to legalise adult men having sex with schoolgirls

3. How should the public respond?

Stop treating these celebrities as icons and withdraw your interest from them

The same actress as in the ad did Thumkeshwari item number and then pretended to be Ma Sita on screen - until we vehemently opposed it, ran a campaign, people responded and the movie bombed

Reject them from every aspect of your life where you have a choice

[Himanta Biswa Sarma @himantabiswa]

Rahul Gandhi is NO champion of women’s rights. He is simply a Hindu baiter, using the cause of women’s empowerment as a convenient smokescreen to target and discredit Hindu Dharma.

Consider this: how many times has he spoken with the same outrage against patriarchal and medieval practices that persist under Sharia ? NEVER.

While Sharia is foundational to Islamic jurisprudence, Manusmriti has no comparable scriptural authority in Hindu Dharma. It is not even a universally binding code for Hindus.

Yet ask yourself: how many times does Rahul Gandhi attack the Manusmriti, and how many times does he attack Sharia with the same fervour?

The enduring strength of Hinduism lies in its unique ability to evolve, reform and adapt with time- as it has for millennia, and as it will for eternity.

Every Hindu must therefore ask: what is Rahul Gandhi’s real intent- championing women’s rights, or using them as a pretext to malign Hindu Dharma?

Cong rhetoric on women’s rights rings hollow when measured against its own record.

They betrayed our mothers and sisters by reversing the effect of the Shah Bano judgment.

It opposed the law against Triple Talaq. And just to cling to power in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi ensured that not a single woman found a place in the State Cabinet.

So here is a simple challenge to Rahul Gandhi:

If women’s equality truly comes before politics, will he unequivocally support a Uniform Civil Code that guarantees equal rights irrespective of religion?

Or will his idea of “women’s rights” continue to begin and end with attacking Hinduism?

[The Better India @thebetterindia]

Somewhere on Bengaluru’s roads, Sanskrit is getting a very unexpected second life — on motorcycles.

Started by Sanskrit enthusiast Samashti Gubbi, the Kimbho Sanskrit Riders’ Club brings together bikers who ride, chat, play games, eat and explore — largely in Sanskrit.

And you don’t need to know the language to join. You just need the curiosity to learn.

The idea is refreshingly simple: don’t just preserve a language. Use it.

From Bengaluru to Nandi Hills, Skandagiri, Lepakshi and beyond, their rides turn every pit stop into a chance to speak Sanskrit. Even modern expressions are finding their way into the language — with “Kimbho?” being their version of “What’s up?”

This World Sanskrit Day, here’s to the bikers putting an ancient language back on the road.❤️

Kimbho? What’s one Sanskrit word you still remember? 👇

Credits : sanskritsparrow on IG

#WorldSanskritDay #Sanskrit #Bengaluru #IndianLanguages #Kimbho

[Sanskrit, Kimbho Riders Club, Bengaluru, Indian Languages, World Sanskrit Day]

[Sai Deepak J @jsaideepak]

True. And they saw Lokmanya Tilak and other Brahmins in Bombay as taking forward the legacy of the Peshwas, and feared that they could inspire more people by drawing from the history of the Maratha Empire.

[Abhijit Majumder @abhijitmajumder]

Unbeliebable.
1. This is NOT the Gayatri Mantra. It is Shikshavalli, first chapter of Taittriya Upanishad.
2. The shlok is our civilisational Vedic code which prepares students for learning. This is not some petty religious claim that my God is better than yours.
Ignorance and bigotry in one tweet.

[Ritik @ThenNowForeve]

Dolly Chaiwala is on a show that is like MasterChef for roadside chaiwala, as a judge.

This show is pure BRAINROT at its peak 😭😭😭😭

[iMac_too @iMac_too]

If you still are not convinced @rahulgandhi is पप्पू, I have one more story of his पप्पूगिरी for you. Latest one

When there's a party-neutral mass anger against the ruling party, it eventually benefits the principal opposition party. Only if it stays out & allows it to build. Bides its time

When nationwide anger against UPA's corruption took shape under Anna movement in 2011, BJP stayed away & didn't try to hog limelight away from Kajri gang. The resentment against rulers completed the circle & in 2013 Modi entered the fray. And rest is history

What Pappu doing today is trying to gate-crash the Cockroach party by making it personal between himself & Modi-Shah. And it's not rocket science to understand who it will benefit eventually

[THE SKIN DOCTOR @theskindoctor13]

You rarely get a mic at the UNHRC, so when you do, you don't waste it on generic speeches. You make every second count.

@asuvathaman did just that by taking two vital issues to the global stage: forced religious conversions and the erosion of ancient civilizations.

He reminded the world that Hinduism is a nature-centric civilization, not just a religion. Every time an indigenous culture is converted and erased, humanity loses centuries of ecological wisdom that no modern climate policy can replace. It’s high time the world views cultural survival as environmental protection.

[The Kaipullai @thekaipullai]

On this auspicious day of Ashada Ekadashi, I am very happy to announce the launch of my humble attempt to make history interesting.

https://t.co/SGfD2ebBpO

The idea is actually very very simple

You go to the site, select a year, and It will show you who ruled which part of India at that point in time.

[Anand Ranganathan @ARanganathan72]

The right decision was made, after the wrong people were heard.

My views on the Pradhan resignation:

[Malay Krishna @Malay4Product]

What Skyroot pulled off this morning is genuinely stunning.

Most people think a rocket's job is to go up. It is not. Going up is the easy part. The hard part is going sideways fast enough that you never come down.

Let me explain this one idea in simple words.

So orbit is not a height. It is a speed.

Throw a ball. It falls. Throw it harder, it lands further away. Now imagine throwing it so hard that as it falls, the Earth curves away underneath it at exactly the same rate.

It keeps falling forever and never hits the ground. That is orbit. So a satellite is not floating up there. It is falling around the planet, endlessly, because it is moving sideways at about 28,000 kmph.

That is roughly 25 times the speed of a passenger jet.

So a rocket does two jobs. It climbs out of the thick air near the ground, then it tips over and spends most of its fuel building sideways speed.

Almost all of the energy goes into that second part.

Now let's understand what Vikram-1 has achieved.

It lifted off from Sriharikota at 12:05 pm today. The launch got held for 35 minutes at the T minus 5 minute mark because of a navigation issue.

They fixed it and went. Fifteen to sixteen minutes later, the payloads were in a 450 km orbit.

Fifteen minutes from a launch pad in Andhra to a stable orbit around Earth. :)

The rocket is 24 metres tall, about a seven storey building. It is built from carbon composite instead of steel, which makes it far lighter, since weight is everything in this game.

Every kilo of structure you save is a kilo of satellite you can carry.

Now, Vikram-1 has four sections stacked on top of each other. Three solid fuel stages named after Dr Kalam. Kalam-1200 at the bottom, then Kalam-250, then Kalam-100. On top sits a small liquid engine called the Orbital Adjustment Module.

As in most rockets, once the bottom stage has burned all its fuel, that huge empty tube is just a heavy metal shell you are dragging along.

So the rocket throws it away mid flight. Lighter rocket, same engine push, faster acceleration. Then the next stage lights up.

Think of a runner carrying three water bottles. He drinks the first one and throws it away instead of carrying an empty bottle for the rest of the race.

Today all three stages fired and separated cleanly. First stage pushed it through the thick lower atmosphere. Second stage took over higher up. Third stage, the smallest, pushed it further.

Then came the clever bit.

The top module runs on liquid fuel, and its engine is 3D printed. Liquid engines can be switched off and started again. Solid fuel cannot. Once you light a solid motor, it burns till it is done, like a firecracker. You cannot stop it or restart it.

So the liquid module is the precision tool.

It fired for about six minutes, adjusted the path, and placed the satellites exactly where they needed to go.

That start, stop, restart ability is what turns a rocket from a big firework into a delivery vehicle.

But why this is a massive deal? Rockets have been doing this for years.

See, in 2022, Skyroot flew Vikram-S. That was suborbital. It went up and came back down. Impressive, but going up is a fraction of the energy.

Reaching orbit needs roughly 30 times more energy than just touching space.

Today they crossed that line.

India is now the third country in the world where a private company has put something into orbit.

Only America and China had that before.

Skyroot is a Hyderabad startup. Founded by Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka, both ex ISRO engineers who quit to build this.

They raised $60 million in May. They have been test firing motors in Nagpur since 2020, one stage at a time, for six years.

So, six years of quiet, unglamorous testing for fifteen minutes of flight.

And they did it because ISRO opened up Sriharikota to a private company. IN-SPACe cleared the way.

A government space agency handing its national launch pad to a startup is not a small cultural shift.

Ten years ago that was unthinkable.

The payload list is lovely too.

Two cubesats, one from Skyroot and one from another Indian startup, Grahaa Space.

A lab grown diamond from a Bengaluru company.

A handwritten postcard from Modi Ji reading Vande Mataram, along with handwritten notes from the team and their families.

Somebody's handwriting is circling the Earth right now at 28,000 kmph. :)

Now, yes this was a test flight. They have said more test flights come before commercial launches, with up to two more Vikram-1 flights planned this year.

First success is the hardest, but the real business is doing this again and again, cheaply and reliably.

Still. A private Indian company built a rocket from scratch and reached orbit on the first try.

Learn the name. Skyroot. :)

[Caleb @caleb_friesen]

When I first came to India, the space industry was closed to private players.

The most well-known "startup" at that time was TeamIndus. Skyroot didn't exist.

A year later, in 2018, Skyroot was founded. Private companies in India couldn't launch rockets yet, but Pawan and Bharath forged ahead regardless, optimistic that liberalisation would happen someday.

Then, in 2020, it did. Indian companies were finally free to compete with American, Russian, European, and Chinese startups. They could build their own launch vehicles. And satellites. At an undisclosed location in the United States, Elon swallowed hard.

I was publishing videos about Indian companies on YouTube at this point. I remember thinking, "Making content about these spacetech developments is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Now, ~6 years later, Skyroot has gifted India with the biggest white pill of all time. While the world watched, a team of ~1,000+ Indian optimists (with an average age of 28) flawlessly executed an orbital rocket launch.

No private space company IN THE WORLD has ever done this on their first try. As I write this, I have goosebumps. I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to witness this firsthand. I also feel inspired by the resilience, ingenuity, and wherewithal of the entire Skyroot team.

The next chapter of India's space journey has officially begun.

[Nandini Gupta @yoursnandieni]

What the Fuck is this shit!?

[WhatsThePoint @thehouseoffootb]

🚨🗣️ Zlatan Ibrahimović on the Messi vs Ronaldo GOAT debate:

“Every week, every month, every year, somebody asks me the same question.”

🗣️ “‘Zlatan, who is the GOAT? Messi or Ronaldo?’”

🗣️ “Honestly? I get tired of hearing it.”

🗣️ “Not because they aren't great players. They are.”

🗣️ “But because people talk about football as if it is a video game.”

🗣️ “One player scores a goal and suddenly he's the GOAT.”

🗣️ “The other wins a trophy and suddenly the debate is over.”

🗣️ “Football is bigger than that.”

🗣️ “Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest athletes football has ever seen.”

🗣️ “The goals. The mentality. The discipline. The longevity.”

🗣️ “Nobody can take that away from him.”

🗣️ “Over 900 career goals.”

🗣️ “League titles in different countries.”

🗣️ “Champions Leagues.”

🗣️ “Records everywhere.”

🗣️ “Cristiano created a legacy that may never be repeated.”

🗣️ “But then there is Lionel Messi.”

🗣️ “And this is where people get angry with me.”

🗣️ “Because for me, Messi is not normal.”

🗣️ “Cristiano mastered football.”

🗣️ “Messi became football.”

🗣️ “When I watch Messi, I don't see a player following the game.”

🗣️ “I see a player creating the game.”

🗣️ “The goals.”

🗣️ “The assists.”

🗣️ “The dribbling.”

🗣️ “The vision.”

🗣️ “The intelligence.”

🗣️ “The World Cup.”

🗣️ “Everything.”

🗣️ “People ask me how I compare them.”

🗣️ “Sometimes I don't understand the comparison.”

🗣️ “It's like comparing a lion to a shark.”

🗣️ “Both are killers.”

🗣️ “But they hunt differently.”

🗣️ “Cristiano is the greatest goalscorer I have ever seen.”

🗣️ “Messi is the greatest footballer I have ever seen.”

🗣️ “There is a difference.”

🗣️ “And before Ronaldo fans get angry, listen carefully.”

🗣️ “Being second to Messi is not an insult.”

🗣️ “Most players would dream of being second.”

🗣️ “Cristiano is a legend.”

🗣️ “A football icon.”

🗣️ “A player who changed history.”

🗣️ “But if you lock me in a room and force me to choose one player...”

🗣️ “One player for one match.”

🗣️ “One player for my life.”

🗣️ “One player to represent football itself.”

🗣️ “I choose Messi.”

🗣️ “Every time.”

🗣️ “Because goals can be broken.”

🗣️ “Records can be broken.”

🗣️ “Trophies can be matched.”

🗣️ “But what Messi does with a football?”

🗣️ “That cannot be taught.”

🗣️ “That cannot be trained.”

🗣️ “That is a gift from God.”

🐐🇦🇷⚽

🗣️ “Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest players in history.”

🗣️ “Lionel Messi is history.”

[NDTV @ndtv]

We were the greatest explorers of the ancient world: Sanjeev Sanyal, Member of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council

#NDTVIgnite | @ShivAroor @sanjeevsanyal

[Aravind @aravind]

The DS identified this man as a major threat to their easy manipulation of India very early on. They desperately tried to stop him from ever leading the country.

The moment he became CM, they ignited issues, branded him with every possible label, attempted to sanction him, and even revoked his visas.

They unleashed tens of thousands of pages of propaganda reports against him, both inside India and abroad. They weaponised the opposition and the courts to flood him with cases from every direction.

Yet he overcame it all. To become the PM of the world’s largest democracy. Despite all the hit jobs, sabotage, and propaganda, he remains the most popular leader on the planet.

He has turned every adversity into an advantage. "Being Anti-fragile" is his mantra. And he has made India anti-fragile too. We have seen the nation emerge stronger from every crisis thrown at it.

I believe he will also resolve the infowar crisis. The main force behind it will be weakened and broken by him. It will be a fitting feather in his cap before he retires as not only India’s longest serving PM, but its most impactful one.

History will remember him as the one who transformed India not just in infrastructure and development, but forged a confident, self-reliant nation that stands proud on the global stage.

[Aravind @aravind]

I was thinking there was a US hand behind this. Now with Turkey, Pak, Bloomberg, FT, leftists, Soros suckers and all traditional GLISCO-DS media and parties behind this new movement, I am beginning to think both are together hitting India.

This shows nothing but the true sovereignty in which India has acted. All of them do not like India acting in its own interests. They are joining hands to try force a regime change.

So 100% everyone needs to back the govt on this one to keep India stable now and pull through the tough geopolitical & economic climate created by multiple external factors.

My message for any Gen-z or whoever thinks anarchy and political instability is good: Look around India - Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives etc - everyone is ruined economically now after regime changes. India is the one supporting them.

If you have problems with the govt, go vote in elections and vote out whoever is non-performing. Don't let foreign forces use you to meddle in India. Nothing good ever comes out of it.

[Sahana Singh @singhsahana]

I remember this argument made by a Pakistani student from UT Austin at a private event. He said "My country is Islamic so it is fine if we do not treat non-Muslims as equal to us; it's the basis of the founding of our nation but India is secular according to its constitution, therefore it must treat all citizens equally." The shamelessness is unbelievable.

[Kalinga Arya @KalingaArya]

A curious rule in academia: when evidence is ambiguous, Egypt is explained through Egyptian tradition, Greece through Greek tradition, and Scandinavia through Norse tradition.

India alone is often denied the benefit of civilizational continuity. Here, the first instinct is not continuity but an outside origin, migration, or import. The Pashupati seal controversy is just another reminder.