Santhosh Krishnan

Sports freak. Wannabe geek. Sachin | MUFC. Trying to be the change I wish to see in this world!

[Malay Krishna @Malay4Product]

I taught JEE physics for years. That paper breaks strong kids in three hours.

This exam is five hours of theory and five hours of lab work, and these five did close to perfect scores on it.

Let me tell you what actually happened.

The International Physics Olympiad is the world championship of school physics. It was the 56th edition. Held in Bucaramanga, Colombia, from July 5 to 12.

381 students. More than 85 countries. Every one of them the best physics student their country could find.

India sent five kids.

All five came back with gold.

Their names are Kanishk Jain from Pune. Riddhesh Anant Bendale from Indore. Rishit Garg from Dwarka in Delhi. Shresth Suraiya from Mumbai. Svarit Joshi from Ahmedabad.

We know a hundred cricketers by their nickname and not one of these boys. :)

That clean sweep put India at joint World Number One. Tied with China, Russia, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Those are countries that pour serious money and national pride into science education. We are standing level with them.

Now here is what the exam actually was.

Two papers. Each five hours long.

The theory paper had three problems. One on the thermodynamics of paramagnetic cooling. One on the photoionisation of ozone. One on the dynamics of electron positron pairs.

The experimental paper was another five hours in a lab, working through heat transfer and thermodynamic processes in fluids.

That means you get given equipment you have never seen, and you have to design your own experiment, take your own readings, handle the errors, and reach a real answer.

Not multiple choice. No shortcuts. No pattern recognition. You either understand physics or you sit there for five hours.

HBCSE says the Indian students were near perfect on theory and excellent on the practical too.

Now, this was India's 27th appearance at the IPhO.

Across all those years, about 44 percent of Indian students have won gold, 41 percent silver, 10 percent bronze.

In the last ten years, every single Indian student has come home with a medal. 62 percent gold, 38 percent silver.

Not one kid has gone and come back empty handed in a decade.

Five golds in one year has happened only twice. This year, and in 2018.

So who built this.

The programme is run by HBCSE, the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education. It sits under TIFR, which sits under the Department of Atomic Energy.

They run the whole funnel. A national exam, then a national olympiad, then a brutal selection and training camp, and out of everyone in the country, five kids get on a plane.

The team was led by Professor Anwesh Mazumdar of HBCSE-TIFR and Dr Leena Joshi from St Xavier's College, Mumbai.

The scientific observers were Professor Ananda Dasgupta from IISER Kolkata and Nisha Kelkar from Gogate-Joglekar College in Ratnagiri.

Yes. Ratnagiri. A college in a small coastal town in Maharashtra.

This is public education doing something the private coaching industry could never do on its own.

The coaching industry is very good at one thing. Teaching you to solve a known problem fast.

That is what JEE and NEET reward, and I say that with love because I was part of that world.

But an olympiad paper does not have a known type. There is no shortcut chapter. There is no formula sheet that saves you. You have to sit with a problem you have never seen and think.

That is a completely different muscle. And a government funded centre has been quietly building it in Indian teenagers for 27 years.

So yes, be proud. Loudly.

HBCSE also shared that around 64 percent of India's olympiad medallists go on to do a PhD.

But only about 32 percent of medallists end up settling in India.

I do not say that to spoil the moment. These kids owe the country nothing. They earned every option they have.

But it should tell us something. We are excellent at finding this talent. We are excellent at training it. We are still not great at giving it somewhere worth staying.

Congratulations Kanishk, Riddhesh, Rishit, Shresth and Svarit. This is one of the best things an Indian did this year and most of the country will never hear about it.

[Sachin Tendulkar @sachin_rt]

Some rallies never end. Our friendship is one of them.

Always a pleasure spending time with you, Roger. Until we meet again.

[Wimbledon @Wimbledon]

Cricket royalty returns to the Royal Box 👑

Welcome back to Wimbledon, Sachin Tendulkar 🏏

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

@prasannalara

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

@RaminNasibov @elonmusk

[Abhishek AB @ABsay_ek]

680 runs at strike rate of 243 with 45.3 average across 15 games sounds unreal already. But here’s how absurd Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s IPL 2026 really is:
A batter scoring 45 off 19 balls every single innings for 15 times would still strike slower & average lower than him. A team scoring 290 in 20 overs every match would still finish with a lower strike rate.
He sustained that violence across an entire tournament.

I don't think we fully understand what we're watching.

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

This is the least of your problems if you decide to book a prepaid taxi from the airport. The taxi driver will decide to drop you off at a location with the same pin code that he deems acceptable, and will demand more money to drop you at your doorstep.

[The Kaipullai @thekaipullai]

Any warmth, optimism and positivity that you have towards Chennai evaporates the moment you try catching a cab after stepping out of the airport

Because unlike most cities where you get out, open an app, book a cab and go, in Chennai you have to

Haul your luggage in the enervating heat to an overcrowded buggy stand.

Then wait for an buggy which takes an eternity to arrive.

Into which you are then stuffed like a sardine in a can and driven for 20 mins to a god forsaken "mall"

Where you again have to compete with a batallion of tired and hungry travellers and their luggage to get onto an elevator

Which will take you 3 floors up to a taxi stand where you hope there is cab available

Which will then drive you down those very three floors to take you into the city

I seriously cannot comprehend how the supposedly knowledgeable Chennai people messed up something as simple as an Airport cab pick up

All of Chennai's aspirations to be a megapolis dies in that gap between the airport arrival and that cab pickup station

[Joy Bhattacharjya @joybhattacharj]

Happy birthday @sachin_rt.
If there is ever any complaint against him, it could only be from the Health Ministry, given the number of aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents who suddenly fell ill the day he was supposed to bat.
In the early pre mobile internet days, the best boost to work productivity was a television in the office.

[Atlético de Madrid @atletienglish]

Sorry for the confusion. Thank you for your attention.

🧵 A thread:

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

@paddypower So does Amad’s instinct to not pass the ball in the final third.

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

Dear @BLACKCAPS. You guys are amazing and tonight was a moment none of us want to be in, ever! I know you guys would trade “the most loved team in the world” tag for a World Cup, but that’s life and that’s cricket. Chin up! I’ll always be a big big fan

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

Thank you God @sachin_rt 🙏🏼🔥

[Sachin Tendulkar @sachin_rt]

Winning the World Cup twice in a row, the first time any team has done so in the T20 format. Totally deserving and rightful winners of the trophy.

What a fantastic performance by our team and a special brand of cricket on display.

Well done, Team India. Jai Hind! 🇮🇳🏆

[Sachin Tendulkar Fan Club 🏏 @CrickeTendulkar]

Sanju Samson crediting Sachin Tendulkar and talking about the conversations they had.

Sanju Samson - “I reached out to Sachin sir when I wasn’t in the XI, he constantly guided me and helped me out. Even yesterday he called me and checked upon me, I’m really grateful for that”.

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

Sachinnnnn Sachin 🥁🥁🥁#T20WorldCup26 @IamSanjuSamson

[Sanjay Manjrekar @sanjaymanjrekar]

This ‘no shaking hands’ is such a silly thing that India has started. It’s unbecoming of a nation like ours. Either play properly within the spirit of the game or don’t play at all.

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

@INCKerala Nothing screams “national crisis” like tweet view counts. It sounds more like the insecure @RahulGandhi’s wannabe handles want to stay relevant by piggybacking, not king, God’s tweet. Worse, when the respectful tweet was for his child’s marriage. What a joke of a political party!

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

@CNviolations Here’s he!

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

Inspirational stuff 🫡

[SheetalArcher @ArcherSheetal]

When I started competing, I had a small dream - to one day compete alongside the able-bodied and win medals ♥️ I didn’t make it at first, but I kept going, learning from every setback.

Now, that dream is one step closer. 🌟

In the Asia Cup trials, I secured Rank 3 and will now represent India in the Asia Cup - in the able-bodied category. 🇮🇳

Dreams take time. Work. Believe. Repeat. 💫

[The Paperclip @Paperclip_In]

In the late 1920s, a young Indian woman boarded a ship bound for Germany to do her PhD. Her name was Irawati Karve. And she was about to take on one of the most dangerous ideas of her time.

Thread. 1/12

[Santhosh Krishnan @dhadiwalah]

@rishibagree