govind ram

Co-Founder, Group CEO- - Africa, dreamer, animal lover, an eternal optimist. Tyre & Car care business in Africa.

[govind ram @govindrams]

Even the smartest crow knows better… but after one mug, he still tried to ‘fly’ home! 🐦🍺
NEVER DRINK AND DRIVE.
Your wings (or wheels) deserve better!

[govind ram @govindrams]

Yes, this is exactly the right way to frame it.

This “Sharp Edge: The Ugly Indian” discussion isn’t about hating on Indians or being self-hating — it’s about honest self-reflection, calling out bad behaviour clearly, and refusing to let people hide behind excuses like “it’s our culture” or “everyone does it.”
Good tourists (of any nationality) do these things:
• Respect local rules and quiet zones
• Speak at reasonable volumes in public spaces
• Queue properly instead of pushing
• Show basic courtesy and gratitude to service staff
• Understand that they’re guests in someone else’s country
Bad behaviour — being loud and disruptive, aggressive bargaining that turns rude, littering, ignoring local customs, or acting entitled — makes everyone from your country look bad. And yes, unfortunately, in many places right now (especially parts of Southeast Asia, Europe, and tourist hotspots), Indian tourists have developed a poor reputation for exactly these things.

The important principle:
Bad behaviour should be condemned outright, no sugarcoating. Culture is not a shield for rudeness, selfishness, or lack of consideration.
• Spitting in public isn’t “culture” — it’s inconsiderate.
• Shouting across hotel lobbies or restaurants isn’t “being expressive” — it’s disrespectful to others.
• Treating service staff poorly isn’t “assertive” — it’s arrogant.
• Cutting queues or crowding people isn’t “smart” — it’s pushy and unpleasant.

We should be educating people (especially first-time travellers) on basic international etiquette. Appreciating good behaviour means celebrating and highlighting Indians who travel respectfully, who are warm, curious, and mindful. Condemning bad behaviour means calling it out directly instead of deflecting with “but Westerners also…” or “it’s just a few people.”

The truth is, many Indian travellers are wonderful — curious, family-oriented, and generous. But the loud, entitled minority is damaging the reputation for everyone else.

The solution isn’t defensiveness. It’s self-improvement and holding each other to higher standards.
When we say “this behaviour is not acceptable,” we’re not attacking Indians — we’re helping create better ambassadors for India abroad. That’s genuine care for our image and for better travel experiences overall.

You’re right to support this sharp, direct approach. Excuses protect the problem. Standards improve the behaviour.

[govind ram @govindrams]

Building Great Nations: The Hard Path of Integrity, Selflessness & the Nordic Social Contract

True righteousness and integrity aren’t about preaching or sounding virtuous — they’re about actually doing what we claim matters. If we can’t live what we argue for, maybe we shouldn’t argue at all.

Look at countries that have achieved what many of us admire — places like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Wanting our own nation to reach that level of prosperity, equality, and quality of life, but refusing to make the tough changes required… that’s the real problem. Great nations aren’t built overnight or through shortcuts. They emerge from a deep commitment to selflessness, shared responsibility, and a genuine shift in cultural values and social attitudes.

This is exactly what the Nordic social contract demonstrates. It’s an unspoken agreement between citizens, the state, businesses, and workers: people pay high taxes, but in return they receive strong universal systems — excellent healthcare, free education (including university), robust safety nets, and real support during tough times. It’s not charity for the few; it’s a system built for everyone, which creates broad buy-in.

At its core are a few key pillars:
•High trust and collective responsibility — Citizens accept contributing their fair share because they see the results working for society as a whole.
•Social corporatism — Unions, employers, and government collaborate on wages, working conditions, and policies (like Denmark’s “flexicurity” model: easier hiring/firing paired with strong retraining and support).
•Active focus on opportunity — Emphasis on getting people back to work, skills development, gender equality, and work-life balance through generous parental leave and social services.
•Cultural foundation — It grew from post-WWII ideas like Sweden’s “Folkhemmet” (the people’s home), where solidarity and individual responsibility went hand in hand.

These countries show high living standards, low poverty, strong innovation, and overall happiness. But it wasn’t easy or automatic. It required decades of discipline, cultural evolution, and a willingness to prioritize long-term collective good over short-term exceptions or quick fixes. No shortcuts. No free passes. Just consistent effort and shared values.

The journey is difficult, but that’s precisely why it works. If we truly want better outcomes — safer streets, better opportunities, stronger communities — we need the same integrity: real intention, hard cultural shifts, and a commitment to selflessness without exceptions.

[govind ram @govindrams]

It's started as a poor mans food but it has become a delicacy... I love this meal.

The real story:

🍚 Ever heard of Chatti Choru? 🔥

This Kerala classic literally means “Pot Rice” – rice and curries cooked and layered together in an earthen clay pot (chatti).
Back in the day, farmers, fishermen & laborers needed a proper, calorie-packed meal they could carry to work. Instead of packing multiple dishes, they’d just layer everything into one clay pot – rice at the bottom, spicy curries on top. Practical genius!

The magic? The manchatti (clay pot) doesn’t just keep the food fresh and moist – it gives everything a beautiful smoky, earthy flavour that steel or normal pots can’t match. Especially the fish curry… chef’s kiss! 😋

One pot. Maximum taste. Zero hassle.

Next time you eat it, you’ll know you’re tasting a piece of real Kerala food history!

[govind ram @govindrams]

@hvgoenka

Absolutely agree with you sir! Civic sense needs to be one of our topmost priorities at every level — from homes to streets to institutions.

Just like in the old days, Moral Science and Civic Sense should be made compulsory subjects in schools. Every institution must follow this, with strict penalties for violators. Zero tolerance for nonsense is the only way forward.

The “Jugaad” mentality has to go. We cannot become a developed nation while carrying a developing nation mindset. Charity begins at home — every citizen must be part of this change, either by choice or by necessary enforcement.

Let’s build a better India together! 🇮🇳

[govind ram @govindrams]

Don’t spread Fake news:
See below the real story:

The sensational claims in that article (the gay cruising rumors) are not proven true—they’re explicitly presented as unproven rumors.28
What’s actually verified:
•The arrest is real: In May 1990 (when Rubio was 18), he and two friends (including Angel Barrios) were cited/arrested for being in Alice C. Wainwright Park (in the Brickell area) after closing hours. It was a minor misdemeanor—basically trespassing after dark. They were drinking beer. No one was handcuffed, taken to jail, or went to court; the charges were dismissed.0
•The park had a reputation: At the time, it was known as a spot for various illegal activity, including drugs, prostitution, and yes, gay cruising. But police reports and interviews show no evidence of anything beyond the teens hanging out in a car drinking after hours.6
The rest is rumor/speculation:
•The article you shared (from Miami New Times) itself debunks the wilder claims. It says there was zero proof that Rubio and Barrios were there for gay sex. Barrios (the childhood friend) insisted both men are straight.45
•Angel Barrios did later have a loose connection to a gay porn operation (https://t.co/Ax96PVBN3e): He rented a house to the people running it without knowing the full details. The actual owner confirmed Barrios was just a landlord and had no involvement in the porn business.45
This story popped up heavily during Rubio’s 2016 presidential run, often pushed by political opponents (especially Trump supporters at the time) to smear him. Mainstream outlets like the Washington Post reported the basic arrest factually but found nothing more.15
Bottom line: Rubio got busted as a dumb teenager for drinking in a park after dark. Everything beyond that is unproven gossip that even the Miami New Times (the source of your screenshot) treated as such. No credible evidence has emerged since then to support the more dramatic version.

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇺🇸The Super Guppy is basically the world’s weirdest cargo plane.

It’s the only aircraft ever built that could carry the entire 58-foot-long 3rd stage of the Saturn V moon rocket in one piece.

Absolute flying whale.

[govind ram @govindrams]

This Belgian Malinois is on another level 🔥

Smartest dog I’ve seen all year! Watch him nail every crazy command — from “put out your weapon” to fetching the ball from the drawer 😂🐾

Absolute genius pup!
#BelgianMalinois #SmartDog #DogTraining

[govind ram @govindrams]

Antelope vs Crocodile in the river… this escape is next level! 🐊💨

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

Elon on natural laws: “Physics is the law and everything else is a recommendation.

Being wrong results in failure when dealing with physical objects.

Rockets blow up. Cars fail.”

No participation trophies in engineering.

@elonmusk

https://t.co/HKg5IhmKci

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇨🇳 China went from dominating chips to disrupting fashion.

A Chinese company just revealed fabric that stretches dramatically, holds its shape, and doesn't wrinkle, and it might change how everyday clothes are made.

[govind ram @govindrams]

Zhou Qunfei's story is truly inspiring. 👌👌

At this U.S. visit to China dinner banquet, the most eye-catching figure in the prime centre seat between Musk and Cook was Lens Technology founder Zhou Qunfei - from a rural factory girl to China's richest woman, with absolutely no background to rely on, building everything from scratch through her own grit. She was born in a small village in Hunan Province. At age 5, her mother passed away, and her father became disabled and blind from a work injury, leaving the family in dire poverty with nothing to their name.
At 16, unable to afford school fees, she was forced to drop out and head to Guangdong to work in a factory, grinding glass on the assembly line - working days away during the day and furiously self-studying at night, earning certifications in accounting, computer operations and other skills. That's how she spent a few years, until she scraped together 20,000 yuan from her wages, rallied eight relatives, including her brother, sister, sister-in-law, and brother-in-law, and started a small workshop in Shenzhen, doing watch glass processing. She handled machine repairs and sales runs single-handedly, grinding away like that for another four years.

By the 2000s, the mobile phone industry began booming on a massive scale. By a stroke of luck, her watch glass factory landed an order for TCL phone screens. She spotted the huge potential in the phone glass market and quickly founded Lens Technology, specialising in the production, R&D and sales of phone glass. At first, they only handled domestic phones and knockoffs, but everything changed when she went after a Motorola order - foreign companies had extremely strict quality standards. She bet nearly all her resources to meet Motorola's demands and snagged the V3 order, which sold over 100 million units worldwide, catapulting Lens Technology straight to industry leadership. From there, she smoothly secured deals with Nokia, Samsung, and other foreign giants.

The pivotal turning point came again in 2007, when Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, revolutionising phones with full-glass touchscreens. Jobs's obsessive craftsmanship demands left the whole world scrambling for a supplier that could meet them. Zhou Qunfei keenly sensed this was another massive opportunity, so she led her team in a three-month joint push with Apple engineers, breaking through key processes to mass-produce the first-generation iPhone glass panels. That locked in a long-term Apple contract, and soon after, nearly all Apple gear - from iPads to MacBooks - went to Lens Technology for production. It also propelled Lens to become the world's top player in touch glass panels.

That's why she got to sit next to Cook. But why was Musk right there beside her, too?
After dominating the global glass panel market, Lens Technology branched into a broader range of smart devices, including car cockpits and robots. In autos, they've already locked in deals with 30 carmakers, including Tesla, BMW, Mercedes, and Li Auto, for windows, centre consoles, and more. In robotics, they handle joints, sensors, and other components - areas with deep overlap in Musk's businesses.

A girl who dropped out at 15 with just a junior high diploma, emerging from rural Hunan to build an empire from nothing and become China's richest woman, forty years later, stepping into U.S-China talks, seated between Musk and Cook.

That's Zhou Qunfei's story.

[govind ram @govindrams]

🌿 Mizoram, the Jewel of Northeast India, is setting a shining example! From the lush hills of Aizawl to every village, this state boasts incredible cleanliness, community spirit & zero litter vibes.
Proud of Mizoram for showing how beautiful a clean India can be! 💚
#Mizoram #CleanIndia #NortheastIndia

[govind ram @govindrams]

🚨 Important Alert for Everyone Managing Diabetes: The HbA1c Blind Spot!

HbA1c is a common test to check average blood sugar over 2-3 months, but it’s not always reliable. Certain conditions can make the results falsely high or low, leading to wrong treatment decisions.

Key Conditions That Distort HbA1c:
•Anemia (especially iron, B12, or folate deficiency) → Red blood cells live longer → Falsely high HbA1c.
•Chronic Kidney Disease → Can cause anemia + affect glucose → Misleading readings (sometimes falsely low).
•Hemoglobin variants or conditions like hemolytic anemia, spleen removal → Red blood cells turn over faster/slower → Falsely low or high results.
•Others: Pregnancy, recent blood loss, or hemoglobinopathies.

Real Risk: You might think your sugar is controlled (or uncontrolled) when it’s not. This can delay proper care or lead to unnecessary medicines.

Expert Advice (Dr. Santosh Kumar Agrawal):
•Don’t rely on HbA1c alone.
•Always combine it with fasting/post-meal blood sugar tests or Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM).
•Tell your doctor about anemia, kidney issues, or other conditions for correct interpretation.

Takeaway Message:
HbA1c is useful but not perfect. Know its limitations and get a fuller picture of your blood sugar. Share this with friends/family managing diabetes — it could prevent serious complications! 💡

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Tesla

[govind ram @govindrams]

Why does this matter?
• High loyalty (like Tesla, Subaru, Toyota) usually means strong customer satisfaction, good ownership experience, strong brand image, or products that meet expectations well.
• Lower loyalty can indicate more switching to competitors — sometimes due to pricing, new features elsewhere, service issues, or simply because the buyer wants something different next time.

[govind ram @govindrams]

Why do South Indian languages look so curvy & artistic, while North Indian ones look straight & structured?

Even though they all come from the same ancient Brahmi script!
The surprising answer? It’s all because of plants 🌿

Watch this 👇

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Marc Andreessen on Elon Musk: "Every week he identifies the biggest problem and fixes it. That's 52 problems solved per year."

"He has an operating method that is very unusual by modern standards. I'm not aware of another current CEO who operates the way that he does.

And I think probably the single biggest question in all of business right now is... why don't more CEOs operate the way that he does?"

Andreessen explains:

"If you go back in history, you find characters more like him. The industrialists of the late 1800s, early 1900s... Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Watson who built IBM."

On what makes Musk different:

"The top-line thing is this incredible devotion from the leader of the company to fully, deeply understand what the company does. To be completely knowledgeable about every aspect of it. To be in the trenches, talking directly to the people who do the work. Deeply understanding the issues. Being the lead problem solver in the organization."

The method:

"Basically what Elon does is he shows up every week at each of his companies. He identifies the biggest problem the company is having that week... and he fixes it. Then he does that every week for 52 weeks in a row. And then each of his companies has solved the 52 biggest problems that year."

On everyone else:

"Most other large companies are still having the planning meeting for the pre-planning meeting for the board meeting for the presentation... with the compliance review and the legal review. It's this level of incredible intellectual capability coupled with incredible force of personality, moral authority, execution capability, focus on fundamentals... that is just really amazing to watch."

On why top talent wants to work with him:

"The side effect is he attracts many of the best people in the world to work with him. Because if you work with Elon... the expectations are through the roof in terms of your level of performance. He is going to know who you are. He is going to know what you've done. He is going to know what you've done this week. He is going to know if you're underperforming. And he may fire you in the meeting if you're not carrying your weight."

But for those who match his commitment:

"If you are as committed to the company as he is and working hard... many people who have worked for him say they had the best experience of their lives."

On delegation... and the bottleneck:

"Most CEOs have a problem knowing when to delegate. The Elon method is a little bit different. He actually delegates almost everything. He's not involved in most of the things his companies are doing. He's involved in the thing that is the biggest problem right now... until that thing is fixed. Then he doesn't have to be involved anymore. Then he can go focus on the next thing that's the biggest problem."

Andreessen uses a manufacturing analogy:

"In any manufacturing chain, there's always a bottleneck. Something keeping the line from running the way it's supposed to. Sometimes the bottleneck is at the beginning... we can't get enough raw material. Sometimes it's at the end... we don't have enough warehouses.

Or it might be somewhere in the middle. Whatever the bottleneck is... is holding everything up. Job number one is to remove that bottleneck and get everything flowing again."

Musk universalized this:

"He looks at every company like it's some sort of conceptual assembly line... sometimes a literal assembly line making cars and rockets. Any given week, there's guaranteed to be one main bottleneck. One thing holding people back."

The resolution:

"I'm going to micromanage the solution of that. I don't need to manage everything else... because everything else, by definition, is running better than that. So I can go focus on that."

On going directly to the source:

"When he identifies the bottleneck, he goes and talks to the line engineers who understand the technical nature of the bottleneck. If it's people on a manufacturing line, he's talking to people directly on the line. If it's a software development group, he's talking to the people actually writing the code."

What he doesn't do:

"He's not asking the VP of engineering to ask the director of engineering to ask the manager to ask the individual contributor to write a report... to be reviewed in three weeks. He doesn't do that. He goes and personally finds the engineer who actually has the knowledge about the thing. Then he sits in the room with that engineer and fixes the problem with them."

Andreessen explains why this inspires loyalty:

"The technical people who work with him are like... wow, if I'm up against a problem I don't know how to solve, freaking Elon Musk is gonna show up in his Gulfstream and sit with me overnight in front of the keyboard or in front of the manufacturing line and help me figure this out."

He asks:

"If you're a normal CEO running a normal company... how can you possibly compete with that?"

On why other CEOs don't do this:

"It's the way management is taught. Most classically in something like Harvard Business School or Stanford Business School. It's management as it was developed in the 1950s, 60s, 70s... the so-called scientific school of management."

He describes it:

"Management as a generic skill you can apply to any industry. You could manage a soup company or a car company... they're kind of all the same. There's a common set of management practices. It's process. How to manage the balance sheet. How to set the review schedule for meetings. How to do compliance. How to hire and motivate executives. How to resolve interpersonal conflicts. All these general business skills."

The problem:

"Those general business skills are very useful in lots of contexts. But that training gives you none of what you need to go do what Elon does."

Andreessen concludes:

"Elon pushes as far as he can... not doing all the stuff you're classically trained to do... so that he can spend all of his time doing the things only he can do. And it turns out that has this incredible catalytic, multiplicative effect. His companies are just incredibly amazing."

[Nic Cruz Patane @niccruzpatane]

Everyone is going to want a ~$30K Tesla Cybercab when it becomes available, they just don’t know it yet.

• Much safer than human driving.
• No steering wheel or pedals.
• Have the ability to legally sleep as it’s driving you to your destination.
• Two-seater design, with tons of legroom
• Great for elderly individuals who are no longer able to drive, as well as people with disabilities.
• Work as are you being driven, or watch movies/play games.
• Send off to run errands (pick up kids, pick up someone at the airport, etc).
• The ability to add/subtract from the Tesla Robotaxi fleet to earn passive income.
• You could buy a fleet and run your own business.
• Send to pick up groceries, or other orders.
• Have the ability to send home after getting dropped off your location, eliminating the need for parking.
• Send for service autonomously when needed.
• Autonomous Home Delivery
• Virtually Zero Maintenance
• $0.20 or less per mile operating costs
• Wireless charging capabilities with well above 90% efficiency.

This car will revolutionize the transportation industry and car ownership.