Ila ✨

Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?

[Dhanya Rajendran @dhanyarajendran]

Ask the next five people you meet if they can say ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’ in their mother tongue.

Marisha Thakur writes on World Environment Day: Why we need local Indian languages to navigate climate change

https://t.co/Ktkr0tVpdZ

[Rahul Gandhi @RahulGandhi]

Two of India's leading experts on the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dr. Manish Chandi and Dr. Vardhan Patankar sat down with me to explain what is truly at stake in Great Nicobar.

From the leatherback turtles that cross entire oceans to nest at Galathea Bay, to birds, fish and wildlife found nowhere else on Earth, to the stunning coral reels that could be wiped out completely - these islands are an ecological treasure unlike anything India has.

We also spoke about something deeply troubling: how the Forest Rights Act was bypassed, and how the Nicobarese and Shompen tribal communities were manipulated into signing away land that is rightfully theirs.

This is a podcast every Indian should hear. The more people understand what is being destroyed - and how quietly it is being done - the harder it becomes for this government to get away with it.

Tune in:

YouTube: https://t.co/SWZ4mQ5kQv

Spotify: https://t.co/zszbScrAOG

#GreenOverGreed

[Rahul Gandhi @RahulGandhi]

I visited the southernmost tip of India.

I stood at Indira Point. I walked under trees that have stood for centuries. I dove into coral reefs among the most vibrant on earth.

And I sat with the people who live there. Tribal communities, whose land is being taken away by violating the Forest Rights Act. Settlers, many of them former soldiers, placed on these islands by the Indian government, who aren’t getting fair compensation.

The Modi government and BJP tells you Great Nicobar Project is about defence. It is not.

Expand INS Baaz - we will back the government fully. The Navy has been asking for expansion for five years - it has been ignored.

They tell you it is about a transhipment port. It is not. India is already building one in Kerala, which is on the mainland.

What it actually is: 1.5 crore trees felled. Coral reefs erased from official maps. Soldiers and tribals displaced - so one businessman can build hotels and casinos on India’s most irreplaceable ecological land.

Every young Indian I have spoken to understands this. You know that no amount of profit is worth destroying what can never be recovered.

I stand for ecologically balanced development. These islands can be the most extraordinary sustainable destination the world has ever seen. That is the India worth fighting for.

#GreenOverGreed
#NicobarMatters
#WorldEnvironmentDay

[María A. @zarandillo]

"If I were the minister of culture for the world, I would make every student wiser by requiring them to travel to five continents before the age of 18."

Marjane Satrapi.

[Nilanjana Roy 📚🦊 @nilanjanaroy]

💔 "Nobody can take your freedom. I have lived in a dictatorship. There was a ban on everything! Was I less free in my mind? No, I wasn’t. Did I become a stupid person? No, I didn’t. Because no matter how much they looked at me, they could not get into my mind."
~ Marjane Satrapi

[MUBI @mubi]

Marjane Satrapi (1969 — 2026)

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

Come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed 🩵

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

It’s April and the frogs are singing 🐸

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

I’m asking you
to open so wide
you can hold all the ways
I come apart 🥰

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

@Airtel_Presence @airtelindia Please look into this @DoT_India @ArunachalCMO - is Arunachal not a part of India that we have to pay international roaming charges to @airtelindia @Airtel_Presence without even leaving the country?! Can’t imagine what locals have to put up with!

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

Still chasing @Airtel_Presence for wrongfully charging international roaming while I was traveling in Arunachal. Such bad customer service!! And every executive I speak to tells me something different. Not sure why this is a matter of debate when I never stepped out of India!!

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

Hey @Airtel_Presence I have been charged international roaming while traveling within India in Arunachal Pradesh. I am unable to get through the customer care number and the app only gives me AI responses. Kindly get a human to speak to me please!

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

Icing on the cake, according to Airtel I was in “China” while in Arunachal Pradesh. So so problematic at every level @Airtel_Presence @airtelindia

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

@Airtel_Presence This is still not resolved. I was charged 3240 roaming when I didn’t even leave the country!!!

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

Hey @Airtel_Presence I have been charged international roaming while traveling within India in Arunachal Pradesh. I am unable to get through the customer care number and the app only gives me AI responses. Kindly get a human to speak to me please!

[Sushant Singh @SushantSin]

The Indian system doesn't allow values above 500 while the US system allows values above 500. But this doesn't explain why Siri Fort was showing 272 in CPCB when IQAir was showing 2449. Imagine the level to which official AQI data is being subdued.

[The Caravan @thecaravanindia]

Archives | Why is the Indian middle class, venting furiously about inefficient governance a decade ago, largely silent on the air crisis? The answer lies in their deep ideological adherence to Hindutva. What we are seeing is a significant shift within the middle class in the Modi years: cultural boosterism and ethnonationalism have taken precedence over physical and economic well-being. The pervasive sense of resignation over Delhi’s poisonous air is a marker of how far their civic grievances have come to be anaesthetised by the opiate of Hindu nationalism.

Read the entire essay: https://t.co/mLMqdGZEhV

[Apar Gupta @apar1984]

Today as Delhi city coughs due to terrible AQI, we await for Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to own up and take responsibility. Before Diwali, she was urging the Supreme Court to permit firecrackers. Here, as many have already pointed out, "green firecrackers" are an oxymoron and the Delhi Police rarely enforced the time window of 8-10 PM.

While civic apathy has its share of blame, it does not excuse the role of the Delhi Government. The Chief Minister has over the past few months shielded accountability by taking shelter behind the cult of the Prime Minister, religious bombast and blaming the opposition or past Chief Minister.

When will the time start for the Delhi Government to be accountable? It has been in office now for 243 days. Responsibility, first and last, rests with those we elected, specially those who took active steps to encourage air pollution. They must answer.

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

“…and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.”
— Mary Oliver

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

The singular and cheerful life
of any flower
in anyone’s garden
or any still unowned field—
if there are any—
catches me
by the heart,
by its color
by its obedience
to the holiest of laws:
be alive
until you are not.

- Mary Oliver 🌼

[Ila ✨ @ilareddy]

While Tashkent buzzed with modern life, and Samarkand and Bukhara offered rich layers of culture, Khiva felt like stepping into a time capsule. Read more in my newsletter 🌸