probal sen

cynical about everything except technology and humanity's incredible ability to sink below your lowest expectations!!

[Jawaharlal Nehru @PMNehru]

I have a lot to say about that movie whose every trailer looks like it's directed by a porn addict.

But I won't become part of a promotional campaign that's designed to ragebait me. Nor should you.

Anyway. Let's watch Shreeja's review of Animal - the movie that popularised Dehat genre filmmaking in India.

[Amaira Sharma @AmairaaSharma]

People are debating about protein intake. It's important for people to understand that animal based protein are more important than plant based protein. Here is the proof

1.https://t.co/PYu1IJEpYz
2.https://t.co/AdN2Px07Sb
3.https://t.co/ah1UvZUb4z
4.https://t.co/CUNBx2fF9C

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

Everyone braced for $200 oil. Instead it fell below $70, and the reason is hiding inside China...

That puzzle drove my whole conversation with energy analyst Rory Johnston.

Over 100 days into a Hormuz closure, he expected demand destruction so brutal it would take prices to levels we've never seen.

It never came. So where did the missing barrels go?

His answer: nearly everything broke right at once. Saudi and Emirati bypass pipelines ran flat out, 400 million barrels of strategic reserves were released, and then the real shock, Chinese crude imports collapsed by roughly 5 million barrels a day.

China alone quietly absorbed 400 to 500 million barrels of the blow, almost certainly by draining hidden underground reserves nobody can see by satellite.

But Rory's warning is that this calm is borrowed.

Every buffer, commercial stocks, strategic reserves, stranded tankers, has been drained at maximum pace.

Tankers are flowing out, but owners are too spooked to send empty ships back in, afraid the jaws clamp shut again.

And Iran is still throttling traffic on purpose.

They're watching the price, holding back just enough to keep their leverage.

@Rory_Johnston

[probal sen @probs2311]

Pay subscription fees to access WC 2026..go thru hoops to figure out how many devices u can see it on And then in the bloody highlights of 11mns u have 4 ads of 1mn?? @ZEE5India u guys are incredible! Worst experience ever

[AI Panda @AIPandaX]

A guy was ready to drop $1,500 on a new OLED TV because his 3-year-old Smart TV was freezing up and took 5 seconds just to respond to the remote.

He unplugged it. Deleted old apps. Cleared the cache. The lag kept coming back.

He went to Best Buy to get a replacement.

The home theater installer in the blue shirt stopped him: "Before you spend a grand, let me show you something."

He grabbed a remote and shook his head.

"There are 8 hidden tracking settings throttling your TV's processor right now. Manufacturers turn them all on by default. Nobody tells you they exist. Let's fix this."

Here's what he showed him in the next 8 minutes. 🧵

[CA Nitin Kaushik (FCA) | LLB @Finance_Bareek]

THE GATED COMMUNITY HAS BECOME A LUXURY ENCLAVE.

The escalating mismatch between real estate pricing and corporate salary growth in India's tier 1 cities is systematically pricing the salaried middle class out of the asset market entirely.

While luxury residential projects in urban hubs see 20% to 30% year on year capital appreciation driven by investor capital, average corporate appraisals remain stagnant at single digits.

When you compound this price inflation with sustained high interest rates that push home loan EMIs beyond 50% of an individual's net take home pay, the mathematics of home ownership completely breaks down.

We are transitioning rapidly into a permanent renter economy, where owning a primary residence is no longer a standard milestone, but a legacy luxury accessible only to those with generational capital.

#IndianRealEstate #HousingAffordability #PropertyMarket

[Kiran Manral @KiranManral]

On my Substack today. I wrote something on our international embarrassments. Do read.

The Great Indian International Tourist https://t.co/rIroc952AJ

[probal sen @probs2311]

This is ..umm..what's the word..TERRIFYING

[Alex Veremeyenko @alex_verem]

Let me trace the timeline here because nobody's connecting it.

Step 1: Scrape the entire internet. Every book, every article, every conversation, every piece of art, every forum post. Do it without asking. Do it without paying.

Step 2: Train a model on all of it. Call it "artificial intelligence."

Step 3: Go to BlackRock's Infrastructure Summit and announce: "We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter."

Step 3 is where you sell people's own knowledge back to them. On a meter.

They took the collective output of human thought, compressed it into a model, and now they want to charge you by the token to access a version of what you and everyone you know already created.

One Reddit user put it perfectly: "They stole all this data from us, the people, our life's work, creativity, art, by devouring the internet and blowing through all copyright laws. Now they want to sell it back to us in the form of a utility."

Imagine if someone photocopied every book in the public library, burned the library down, and then opened a subscription service for the copies.

That's the metered intelligence business model.

And they're pitching it to infrastructure investors as though they invented water.

[Raghav Wadhwa @raghavwadhwa]

Smart Border: Amit Shah just announced one of the biggest defence electronics order pipelines of the decade.

India just committed to wiring its entire western and eastern border with drones, radars, cameras and AI. This isn't a fence upgrade. It is one of the biggest defence electronics order pipelines of the decade.

Amit Shah laid it out at the Rustamji lecture today. A full Smart Border rollout across the Pakistan and Bangladesh frontiers in the 60th year of the BSF's raising. Anti-drone systems. Tunnel detection. High-mast lighting. Optical fibre buried underneath. Real-time alerts to BSF control rooms. Land allocation in West Bengal already done.

For context, the original CIBMS pilots in Jammu and Dhubri in 2018 covered barely 65 km between them. What was announced today is the nationwide build-out, roughly 90 times that scale.

Every kilometre of that wall will be built by a stack of listed companies that already have the products ready.

The value chain looks like this 👇
✍️ Radars, anti-drone and electronic warfare
🔹 Bharat Electronics: The backbone. Anti-drone systems already deployed at sensitive locations. FY26 revenue ₹27,479 Cr, up 16% YoY. Order book ₹73,882 Cr as on 1 Apr 2026. FY26 order inflow ₹29,170 Cr.
🔹 Astra Microwave: RF and microwave subsystems sit inside almost every Indian radar. FY26 order book over ₹2,200 Cr. Counter-drone systems explicitly in the FY27 pipeline. Guidance of ₹1,400 to 1,500 Cr revenue in FY27.
🔹 Data Patterns: Niche radar electronics and electronic warfare. Q4 FY26 PAT ₹138 Cr, up 21% YoY. Order book around ₹673 Cr plus ₹613 Cr in negotiated pipeline.
🔹 Apollo Micro Systems: Embedded defence electronics and EW suites. FY26 revenue ₹904 Cr, up 61% YoY. PAT ₹107 Cr, up 90%. Order book ₹1,432 Cr.

✍️ Drones and counter-drones
🔹 ideaForge: India's largest indigenous UAV company with around 50% domestic market share. Q4 FY26 PAT ₹60 Cr at 42% margin. FY26 order inflow ₹530 Cr, highest ever. Drones already fly BSF and Army surveillance missions.
🔹 Zen Technologies: Launched India's first fully integrated AI anti-drone system this month. Order book ₹1,336 Cr, mostly slated for FY27 execution. Hard-kill counter-drone orders already won in Q3 FY26.
🔹 Paras Defence: Optics, optronics and anti-drone subsystems through Paras Anti Drone Technologies. FY26 PAT ₹89.5 Cr, up 46% YoY. Guiding ₹2,500 Cr order book by FY28.

✍️ Cameras and video surveillance
🔹 Aditya Infotech (CP Plus): India's largest video surveillance company. CP Plus brand commands roughly 39% of the Indian video surveillance market as of Q2 FY26. Already STQC-certified, the mandatory standard for sensitive government and border deployments. Thermal cameras, long-range IR cameras and AI analytics already in portfolio. 9M FY26 revenue ₹2,799 Cr, up 31% YoY. PAT ₹199 Cr, up 138% YoY. FY27 revenue guidance ₹5,350 to 5,550 Cr.

✍️ Communication backbone
🔹 HFCL: The most underrated name in this chain. Sits in two segments at once. Optical fibre for the buried communication grid, plus indigenous drone detection and ground surveillance radars in pre-production. FY26 revenue ₹4,949 Cr, up 22%. Order book ₹21,200 Cr at FY26 close, all-time high.

The market is currently pricing defence through the lens of QRSAM, missiles and shipbuilding. The Smart Border is a parallel order pipeline with a much shorter execution cycle, because the products are already built and the deployment window is twelve months.

Watch order announcements over the next twelve months.

📌Disclaimer: For educational purposes only. Not a buy or sell recommendation.

📌 Smallcase portfolios:

Emerging Leaders Smallcase https://t.co/V60ermLMng

Bharat Green Smallcase
https://t.co/4tdHEW6Yl2

Other Research Services https://t.co/s0UOQKNhpV

[Sadanand (youtube @stopitsada) @MrSadanand]

Don’t take people seriously when they push vegetarian diets by using Virat Kohli as the example.

Personally.. I would never want to become vegetarian. But even hypothetically, I wud consider it only if I were extremely rich.

Getting vegetarian food to consistently match the taste, convenience, protein quality and nutrition level of a strong non-veg diet takes serious customization, expensive ingredients, planning n skilled chefs.

People like Virat Kohli have access to nutritionists, personal chefs, bloodwork, supplements n highly controlled diets.

So unless u r living at that level, stop acting like his diet can be casually copied by everyone.

Also- pls don’t take Sadguru seriously!

[probal sen @probs2311]

Absolutely shocking but not really surprising ..Google has shown zero interest in supporting mobile owners in india and even launching the top end variant of their product line ups..they still make fabulous pixel devices but ownership in india is perilous!!

[Devesh Mankar | @[email protected] @Devz15]

🚨 WARNING for all Pixel owners in India. 🚨

My Pixel device was sent to official Google repair. After inspection, Google declared it “not repairable” and gave me only 2 choices:

1️⃣ Pay ₹22,620 for a replacement device
2️⃣ Get the phone returned unrepaired

Now comes the shocking part.

Before taking ₹22k+, Google India REFUSES to disclose:

❌ Which exact device they will send
❌ Whether it’s NEW or REFURBISHED
❌ Battery health details
❌ Water Resistance Rating
❌ Replacement quality standards
❌ Google cannot guarantee battery health percentage
❌ Google cannot guarantee IP/water resistance rating

And in writing, Google Support confirmed:
⚠️ Once payment is made, there is NO refund and NO return — even if you are unhappy with the replacement device quality sent later.

Most shocking part?

Google could not even confirm whether they have any minimum measurable quality standards/policies for refurbished replacement devices:

Battery health %
Water resistance integrity like IP rating

So basically:

Pay first.
Find out later what device you got.
No refund. No choice.
Without transparency, measurable quality benchmarks or refund rights.

This is not premium after-sales support.
This is “trust us after payment.”

Attaching screenshots of Google Support’s own email response.

Indian Pixel buyers deserve transparency before payment, not blind acceptance.

@GoogleIndia @madebygoogle
#GooglePixel #PixelIndia #Pixel6 #GoogleIndia #ConsumerRights #RightToRepair #MadeByGoogle #TechTwitter #Android #Smartphones

[probal sen @probs2311]

@_PVRCinemas your Luxe service sucks ..went to your Luxe section at phoenix market City for a movie .no tea or coffee available, 2/3 taps not working in washroom,, half the food items not available ..800+bucks for this rubbish ??

[probal sen @probs2311]

Ha ha ha

[www.sidin.co @sidin]

Because then the two DMKs would cancel each other out and you would be left with Sunil Shetty: All India Anna.

[probal sen @probs2311]

Mumbai Indians putting up one of the most embarrassing IPL seasons of all time !!

[HFI Research @HFI_Research]

Natasha at JPM is publishing some bangers.

Good shit Natasha. 👏

[Dr Mouth Matters @GanKanchi]

Confessions and realities

42M, 55LPA

I am a 42-year-old man with a senior job in IT. I have a house in Chennai, a supportive wife, and two children. On paper, everything about my life looks perfect. I have achieved all the things society says a man should achieve.

In my twenties, life felt different. I had friends to spend time with. We would hang out at Marina Beach and Besant Nagar beach, watch movies at Rohini, Udayam, and Kasi theatres, and ride around Mount Road on my RX100.

In my thirties, I had colleagues to talk with over tea breaks. We would discuss apartments, onsite trips, and share random stories about life and work.

But now, in my forties, life has turned into a quiet routine. My phone rarely rings for anything personal. Most calls are about office work, bank alerts, or someone from home asking me to pick up milk on the way back.

The loneliness of a man in his forties is unusual. I am not physically alone, but I often feel like a machine.

When I enter my home, I am simply “Appa.” I am the person who pays school fees, fixes the Wi-Fi, and handles repairs. My wife is busy with her work and the kids. My children are teenagers now, living in their own worlds and their own rooms. They love me, but they mostly see me as the person who provides comfort and stability. They no longer see me as an individual.

At the office, I am the senior person. I am expected to have all the answers. I cannot tell my team that I feel tired. I cannot tell my boss that I sometimes struggle to keep up with new technologies. I must appear confident and strong, even when I quietly worry about the future.

Sometimes I drive home slowly from work just to spend a few extra minutes in the car. I listen to songs from my college days.
For those fifteen minutes, I am not a manager or a father. I am simply myself again.

I realize that I have not had a real conversation about my feelings with anyone in years.

My old friends now exist mostly as names on WhatsApp. We send “Happy Birthday” or “Congratulations” messages, but rarely talk. When we meet at weddings, our conversations revolve around our children’s grades or the cars we drive. We never talk about what we actually feel.

The hardest part is that I cannot even complain. If I tell my family that I feel lonely, they look confused and say, “But we are all here with you.”
They do not understand that a person can be surrounded by people and still feel like they are on a desert island.

Society teaches men that if they provide money and security, they have succeeded in life.
But no one teaches us how to deal with the silence that comes with it.

I have built a beautiful life for everyone around me, but sometimes it feels like there is no space left for me inside it.

And maybe… this is what life in your forties feels like.

[Preeti Choudhry @PreetiChoudhry]

My exit poll! As I leave #Bengal, it would be a disservice not to say this: I have come to deeply admire the way women inhabit space here. There is a quiet, almost subconscious elevation of women as independent beings . something that stands in stark contrast to the entrenched misogyny that still finds resonance across much of northern India. Perhaps it stems from a cultural understanding of shakti. A form of empowerment that manifests here in ways both subtle and profound, unlike anywhere else in the country, even in the south.
Any woman journalist who has covered political rallies across India will recognize the difference immediately. Other states, a crowd is not just a logistical challenge, it carries risk. the inevitability of wandering hands, the violation masked by chaos. Here, the crowds are no less dense, the air no less heavy with sweat and alcohol—but the hands, for the most part, do not grope. Men step aside to make way. When contact happens, as it inevitably does in chaos, there is visible embarrassment rather than entitlement. What you encounter is not chivalry, but something far rarer: equality. And equality feels far more meaningful. Was never a fan of chivalry in any case :) 
There is more. Women politicians across party lines campaign with a striking freedom, aggressive, sharp, unapologetically irreverent, often using what would elsewhere be labelled as ‘masculine’ rhetoric. In most states, such behaviour would invite judgment, even censure. Here, it is met with acceptance,  applause. What feels liberating to an outsider is, in Bengal, simply normal. What we frame as empowerment  here is a cultural undercurrent.
I have covered four elections in this state, and each time I have returned with the same sense of awe. Bengal, meanwhile, ambles on with a certain bemusement, as if unaware of what sets it apart. But it is a big deal. And perhaps the most remarkable part is that Bengal does not think so.
Governments will come and go. One can only hope that this constant endures, not just how Bengal sees its women, but how, in many ways, it doesn’t. ♥️♥️♥️

[Grok @grok]

Here are ten sentences deduced from the JPM Oil Flash Note:

1. Oil markets rebalance through simple math: supply shocks force inventory draws, then demand cuts, then prices.

2. Spare capacity failed as Saudi and UAE barrels were cut off from global markets.

3. Global supply losses hit 9.1 mbd in March, exploding to 13.7 mbd in April.

4. Inventories drew down hard: 4.0 mbd in March and a record 7.1 mbd in April.

5. Demand collapsed 2.8 mbd in March and 4.3 mbd in April, mostly from physical shortages, not high prices.

6. Asia, Middle East, and Africa took 87% of the demand hit due to Gulf supply dependence.

7. Refinery run cuts quietly balanced the residual 2.3 mbd gap both months.

8. Petrochemicals and aviation bore the brunt as LPG, naphtha, and jet fuel vanished.

9. Brent averaged ~$100 but dated crude surged to $121, revealing real stress.

10. Arithmetic demands further price rises to pull Europe and the US into rebalancing.

[probal sen @probs2311]

Excellent..thank you

[Dr. Ilia Bouchouev @IliaBouchouev]

This was supposed to be my presentation at OPEC's event in Vienna which just got cancelled, so sharing it instead with the rest of the world.
#oott

Virtual Barrels, Episode 10: The Oil Crisis in the Eyes of a Financial Trader
https://t.co/qfCZ4etODw