Olivia
Online
V Shankar
@vshank16
🇮🇳
Coimbatore
Joined April 2014
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203.2K Posts
When rain falls, most of it disappears into drains.
But in one district, it began flowing back into the earth.
IAS officer Prathap M, the son of a farmer from Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, grew up understanding the value of water.
As the first graduate in his family, he once cycled kilometres to school with a dream of serving society. Years later, that dream took shape through a simple but powerful idea.
Instead of sealing abandoned borewells, his administration converted over 1,200 unused borewells into rainwater-harvesting recharge structures, allowing monsoon water to seep back into underground aquifers.
The result was visible after just one monsoon.
Groundwater levels reportedly rose by 5 to 10 feet in several areas, helping revive wells and support farming communities.
Sometimes, saving water does not require new resources. It requires reimagining what already exists.
#WaterConservation #RainwaterHarvesting #GroundwaterRecharge
[IAS officer Prathap M, rainwater harvesting, abandoned borewell conversion, water conservation, Tamil Nadu]
You would prefer Sir. You would also prefer the temple donating ₹1.00 crore per month to the secular school. But there is a TN HR&CE Act and what the misfits in
@tnhrcedept are now trying to do is not only in violation of Temple Dharma but also in violation of the provisions of the Act.
Another thing: The @tnhrcedept is administering Sri Arunachaleswarar temple by FRAUD from 13.12.1951. Can the authorities in the Department show a legally valid order by which an Executive Officer is functioning in the temple? It is but natural that FRAUDS will only violate Dharma and the law of the land.
My open request to Shri @RameshOffcl
- Please ask @tnhrcedept to show an order by which the Executive Officer is functioning in the temple and publish the copy in the Department’s website - they will not - they cannot - There is NO such order.
Shri @RameshOffcl - as a member of a Government promising complete transparency and accountability - If the Commissioner is not able to show a legally valid order of appointment (not a transfer or posting order) of Executive Officer to this temple - you should ask @tnhrcedept to GET OUT of this temple.
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏🙏 🫡
Kargil 1999
27 years of celebrating India's spectacular victory over Pakistan on the Kargil, Drass, Batalik heights.
Victory against all odds.
Privileged & honoured to have covered & chronicled the war in my book #DatelineKargil: A Correspondent's Nine Week Account from the Battlefront.
Here with 3 living legends, two PVCs: @ysyadavpvc & Sub Maj Sanjay Kumar & with Lt Gen @YkJoshi5.
Congratulations on #Kargil #VijayDivas
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏🙏 🫡
Bullets were everywhere. He never stepped back. 🇮🇳
On 24 July 2024, Naik Dilawar Khan fought terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir until the very end. In 2025, he was awarded the Kirti Chakra posthumously. Most people miss what came after,a father grieving, a 4-year-old still waiting. 💔
Some facts: about 90% of our revenue comes from outside India, won against tough global competition.
About 2% of our revenue is from the government and when we do business with the government, we always save the taxpayer money, which we have the utmost respect for. We are also among the largest tax payers in our region.
I have never asked for a favor from the government and I never will. When asked for advice, I provide it and I do it independent of political ideology - the Kerala Startup Mission, when the Left Front government was in power, wanted my advice. I told them Keralam has the potential to be a major R&D hub of India. Since then, we have invested in numerous R&D driven statups in Keralam.
In Tamil Nadu, our Chief Minister has made a great new beginning and I am happy to support his effort. It is not because of political ideology but because I want good things to happen in Tamil Nadu.
I love our nation, and I speak my mind. I will not bow down to attacks nor threats. The attacks make us stronger and help us achieve greater success.
“People used to laugh at my name. Today, it was announced from the podium with the Indian flag around me. I can’t think of a better moment in my life.”
- Jhandu Kumar to The Indian Express
BIG BIG BIGGG NEWS 🔥🔥🔥🔥
ANAHAT SINGH IS WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPION 🏆 🇮🇳
THE QUEEN FROM INDIA IS AT THE TOP OF WORLD TODAY!
Anahat defeated Ruqayya Salem 🇪🇬 3-0 to become the first Indian to win the Junior Squash World Championship 🏆
First Non Egyptian player to win Jr World Championships since Amanda Sobhy🇺🇸 (2010)
Congratulation @Anahat_Singh13
a beautiful meitei tradition, manipur 🌸
2007 : Rajdeep Sardesai airs a program on CNN IBN claiming Sohrabuddin encounter was fake
2008 : Rajdeep is awarded Padmashree by Sonia Gandhi
2010 : Amit Shah arrested in Sohrabuddin case and spends 3 months in jail. He is acquitted in 2014 as it's a fake case.
2018 : Courts declare Sohrabuddin case false. Everyone is acquitted. Many had careers ruined and spent years in jail.
2020 : Rajdeep and 10 other "journalists" apologise in court for fake reporting in 2007.
2026 : Rajdeep is glorifying CJP Ashutosh Ranka without mentioning his role as AAP spokesperson. Calls others Godi media.
Your short memory is the only reason they exist.
Share it.
👏👏👏😍
What is the finest piece of engineering in nature for you ? For me, it has to be the mangrove. Trust me, it is nothing short of space science. Standing between land and sea, mangroves filter salt, breathe through specialised aerial roots, protect coastlines, nurture fisheries, shelter tigers, golden jackals, birds, crocodiles and store extraordinary vast amounts of carbon. They truly are nature’s climate superheroes. Happy International Mangrove Day
#InternationalMangroveDay #MangroveDay #Mangroves #TNForest video P Muraleedharan #climatesuperheroes
You're the Single Malt version of Yogendra Yadav.
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏🙏 🫡
This day, 25July, in the year 1999 Maj Sudhir Walia led A team of 9 PARA SF to drive back enemies from ZULU TOP and recaptured it with able support from another team of 9 PARA SF led by Maj Dhaliwal and two platoons of C company of 3/3 Gorkha Rifles led by Capt Amit Aul.
On 12th July, Maj Sudhir had signed off from the Army House in Delhi and moved towards Kargil after a brief stay at his home in Palampur.
Though caught up with mountain sickness, as soon as he reached Kargil, he took rest for a night and was ready for his objective the next day.
9 PARA SF suffered 04 casualties but killed 13 of the enemies in this operation and recaptured Zulu Top. Soon after, Maj Sudhir made a call thru INMARSAT to the Chief's office and informed him about it. He had been recommended a Vir Chakra for this operation but fate had other plans and he did not live long enough to personally receive any gallantry award for this action in Kargil.
#amarbalidani
#Coomar
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏🙏 🫡
He joined the Army without telling his family. 💔
Agniveer Lalit Kumar hoped his salary would lift them out of poverty. On 25 July 2025, a landmine exploded during an LoC patrol in Poonch. He came home wrapped in the Tricolour. Most people miss that part. 🇮🇳
#IndianArmy
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏
BEFORE SLEEPING, KNOW THIS...
Every morning, before Bengaluru wakes up, BMTC driver Krishnamurthy, after reporting for duty at Depot-33, he carries around 10 freshly packed breakfast packets on his bus. As he drives from Uttarahalli to Majestic, he looks beyond bus stops and passengers, searching for homeless people, elderly destitute individuals, and anyone who may have slept hungry. Before his first trip ends, every packet has reached someone in need.
The money doesn't come from an NGO or a fundraiser. It comes from Krishnamurthy's own salary. He says he doesn't do it for recognition. He is doing since Covid
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏🙏 🫡👏👏👏
Happy Kargil Vijay Diwas! 🙏🙏
Beyond the raw valor & supreme sacrifices on the frozen peaks of 1999, there is an unsung chapter of the Kargil War that every engineer & technologist should know.
It is the story of a 12 day engineering miracle that shifted the course of the war. 🙏🙏
When the war broke out in May 1999, the IAF faced an unprecedented tactical nightmare: high-altitude precision bombing. Enemy forces had dug into reinforced bunkers atop steep granite peaks like Muntho Dhalo & Tiger Hill at altitudes 16000+ feet.
Conventional unguided bombs were ineffective at those altitudes, wind sheer & ballistic trajectories caused bombs to drift off target by 100s of meters, bouncing harmlessly off mountain slopes.
The IAF had advanced Israeli Litening targeting pods & Paveway Laser-Guided Bombs (LGBs), but there was a massive problem: they were never integrated into the Mirage 2000 fleet.
Under normal military procurement & defense engineering cycles, integrating a complex electro optical targeting pod with a jet's avionics, weapon bus & flight control software takes 18-24 months of design, testing & certification by the OEM.
India did not have 18 months. They had days.
A specialized team of IAF armament engineers, avionics technicians & DRDO scientists gathered at the Maharajpur AFS in Gwalior. W/o direct OEM support/factory documentation, they set out to perform an emergency integration with the help of our all weather friend Israel.
The pylons under the Mirage wing were built for French ordnance, not the mounting brackets of the LGBs & pods. Mechanics worked round the clock machining custom adapter pylons & mechanical interfaces in local workshops.
The trickiest part was getting the aircraft's computer to talk to the pod. Engineers spent sleepless nights reverse-engineering signal buses, splicing shielded wiring harnesses by hand & routing power cables through the airframe w/o compromising electromagnetic compatibility.
The team bypassed standard flight-test protocols, writing software patches to feeding laser designation telemetry directly into the pilot's HUD.
12 days of sleepless engineering culminated on 24th June, 1999. A Mirage 2000 soared high above Muntho Dhalo, locked its laser designator on the enemy's main administrative hub & dropped a 1000 pound laser-guided bomb right through the roof.
The same precision capability delivered the decisive blow on Tiger Hill, destroying the command bunkers on the peak & paving the way for the 18 Grenadiers to reclaim the summit & hoist the Tricolor.
When system specifications said impossible, Indian defense engineers rewrote the source code & rewired the hardware in 288 hours flat.
Salute to the bravehearts who fought on the peaks & to the engineers who gave them the eyes to win. Jai Hind! 🙏🙏
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏🙏 🫡
Blessings and love for #VeerPutra SHLOK on his birthday today.
5th sans his Papa,
NAIK RAJENDRA PACHARNE
SIGNALS
was immortalized in 2021.
#HappyBirthdayShlok , study hard, and wishing you all the happiness in the world.
#KnowYourHeroes
𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗔𝗚𝗘
𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗩𝗔𝗥 𝗞𝗢𝗜𝗟
𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦, 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗦 — 𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗥𝗨𝗞𝗞𝗨𝗩𝗘𝗟 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗜𝗡 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗘
Moovar Koil • Kodumbalur • Viralimalai Taluk • Pudukkottai District • Tamil Nadu
Irukkuvel foundation • Generally placed in the later 10th century CE • Exact date remains debated
Three stone shrines once stood side by side at Kodumbalur. Only Two are there now
The foundation inscription says that the Irukkuvel chief Bhuti Vikramakesari raised the three shrines in his own name and in the names of his queens Karrali and Varaguna, installing Mahesvara within them.
The northern shrine has disappeared except for its foundation. The central and southern vimanas still rise, preserving two parts of the original composition.
This three-shrine plan lies behind the name by which the monument is now known:
மூவர் கோயில்
Moovar Koil — “The Temple of the Three.”
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝗘𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦
On the south wall of the central shrine is a long Sanskrit inscription engraved in Grantha script. Its opening is damaged, but the surviving record traces nine generations of Irukkuvel chiefs before reaching Bhuti Vikramakesari.
The foundation statement is unusually clear. Bhuti caused three sacred shrines to be raised and installed Mahesvara in them. One commemorated him; the other two carried the names of Karrali and Varaguna.
Karrali is also identified as the mother of his sons Parantaka and Adityavarman. Attempts to equate these people with similarly named figures in other inscriptions remain unproved; the secure evidence is what the Kodumbalur record itself preserves.
The inscription does not use the modern name Moovar Koil. It records the threefold foundation from which that name derives.
𝗞𝗢𝗗𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗔𝗟𝗨𝗥 — 𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗥𝗨𝗞𝗞𝗨𝗩𝗘𝗟𝗦
Kodumbalur was also remembered as Kodumbai and Irukkuvelur. It stood in Konadu on the important route linking Uraiyur with Madurai—a strategic position between the Chola and Pandya regions.
The Silappadikaram remembers Kodumbai within this road landscape. Inscriptions reveal the Irukkuvels as regional chiefs, military commanders, administrators and temple patrons whose connections extended through the Kaveri region.
The Moovar Koil inscription presents their past as a royal-style prasasti—a eulogistic genealogy intended to proclaim ancestry, power and legitimacy.
It credits Paradurgamardana with conquering Vatapi. Samarabhirama is said to have defeated a Chalukya at Adhirajamangalam and married Anupama, described as a Chola princess. Bhuti Vikramakesari is praised for defeating Pallava forces on the Kaveri, overcoming Vira Pandya and killing Vanchi Vel.
These are claims made by the inscription. Some fit the wider political world of the period; not every event or personal identification can be independently confirmed.
𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗩𝗔𝗥 𝗞𝗢𝗜𝗟 𝗕𝗨𝗜𝗟𝗧?
The foundation inscription provides neither a regnal year nor an absolute calendar date.
Earlier scholarship proposed dates ranging from the 7th to the 10th century, partly because the genealogy claims that an ancestor conquered Vatapi. Architecture, sculpture, palaeography and the reference to Vira Pandya have since led many scholars to place the monument in the later 10th century, often around 950–970 CE.
That dating is persuasive and widely followed, but it remains a scholarly reconstruction—not a date engraved upon the temple.
𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗔 𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘
Bhuti Vikramakesari also established a large matha—a residential religious and teaching institution—for Mallikarjuna of Madurai.
The inscription describes Mallikarjuna as belonging to the Atreya gotra, as a pupil of Vidyasri, as learned in the Vedas and as a leader of the Kalamukhas, a medieval Shaiva ascetic tradition.
Eleven villages were endowed for this institution. Their income was intended to maintain fifty ascetics and provide food, flowers, incense, lamps and other requirements for worship.
This transforms our understanding of the monument. Moovar Koil was not simply three elegant towers. It formed part of an organised sacred institution in which endowed villages supported worship, learning and a resident ascetic community.
𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗫
The three west-facing shrines originally stood in a straight line before a common mandapa. Foundations also preserve traces of a Nandi pavilion, offering pedestal, flagstaff, enclosure and around fifteen or sixteen subsidiary shrines.
The surviving vimanas rise through two storeys. Their square, gently curving sikharas crown walls ordered by pilasters, niches, miniature shrines, makara arches, yali bands and richly animated bhutagana friezes.
Those bhutaganas deserve time. Musicians and attendants move beneath the cornice, introducing rhythm and humour into the disciplined geometry of the towers.
The central and southern shrines were once in serious danger of collapse. Their careful restoration under K. Venkataranga Raju of the Pudukkottai Museum became an important chapter in the monument’s modern history. The northern foundation reminds us what could not be recovered.
𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗔 𝗜𝗡 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗦
Moovar Koil’s sculptural programme is concentrated across its wall niches, upper storeys and tower necks.
Ardhanarishvara brings Siva and Uma into one balanced body. Gangadhara receives the descending Ganga. Vinadhara Dakshinamurti presents Siva as teacher and bearer of the veena.
Look higher for Nataraja, Harihara, Tripurantaka, Gajasamhara and other forms. Do not miss Kalarimurti—also called Kalasamhara—where Siva overcomes Yama to protect his devotee.
Several sculptures are weathered or missing, and some were transferred for protection to the Government Museums at Pudukkottai and Chennai. The surviving figures nevertheless show the extraordinary control of early Chola sculptors: powerful movement shaped within compact architectural spaces.
𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘
Begin by standing far enough away to reconstruct the original alignment. Identify the empty northern foundation beside the two surviving vimanas and imagine the three shrines rising together.
Walk to the south wall of the central shrine and locate the Grantha foundation inscription. This is the stone record that preserves Bhuti Vikramakesari, Karrali, Varaguna, the Irukkuvel genealogy, Mallikarjuna, the matha, eleven villages and fifty ascetics.
At ground level, study the principal niches and the makara arches above them. Then look upwards: some of the finest divine forms occupy the second storeys and tower necks, beyond an ordinary passing glance.
Finally, follow the surviving plinths around the monument. They restore the common hall, Nandi pavilion, subsidiary shrines and enclosure that once made Moovar Koil a complete institutional complex.
𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗠𝗢𝗢𝗩𝗔𝗥 𝗞𝗢𝗜𝗟 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦
Moovar Koil shows that the development of early Chola architecture was shaped not only by imperial kings but also by powerful regional houses such as the Irukkuvels.
Its inscription turns genealogy into political memory and three names into architecture. Its village endowment reveals the economic structure behind worship and learning. Its sculpture captures divine movement, music, teaching and protection within finely measured stone.
One shrine is lost. Two survive.
Together with the inscription and the foundations around them, they preserve the memory of three sacred establishments, an ascetic institution and an Irukkuvel centre whose importance once reached far beyond Kodumbalur.
The Kalasamaharamurthy here on the vimana itself desrves a separate post. After Kailasanathar Kanchi this is the second when it comes to potrayal emotions , experession and anger
𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦
• South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. XXIII, No. 129; ARE 129 of 1907; Inscriptions (Texts) of the Pudukkottai State, No. 14—Sanskrit foundation record, Irukkuvel genealogy, three shrines, Karrali, Varaguna, Mallikarjuna, matha and village endowment.
• K. R. Venkatarama Ayyar, A Manual of the Pudukkottai State, Vol. II, Part II, pp. 1030–1040—Kodumbalur and its historic monuments.
• S. R. Balasubrahmanyam, Early Chola Temples: Parantaka I to Rajaraja I, 1971, pp. 108–133, Plates 93–102—chronology, architecture, inscription, restoration and sculpture.
• Douglas Barrett, Early Cola Architecture and Sculpture, 866–1014 A.D., 1974, pp. 85–86, Plates 37–42—architectural sequence and iconographic programme.
• Archaeological Survey of India, Tiruchirappalli Circle—Moovar Koil protected monument documentation; Pudukkottai District Revenue Administration—current Viralimalai Taluk location.
Explore the Heritage.
#ExploreHeritage #MoovarKoil #Kodumbalur #Irukkuvels @ASIGoI @gssjodhpur @MinOfCultureGoI @jeyaseelan_vp @tntourismoffcl @incredibleindia @ChristinMP_
Bravo Pradhan Ji! For the People, For the Students, For Bharath!
Was the fight ever really about NEET, or something else? Now that Pradhan Ji has gracefully stepped down, we can expect the hiding cat to come out.
Pradhan Ji is a people leader and true patriot!
I saw the leader up close. When he visited Tenkasi last September, he stepped off the agenda - insisting on meeting villagers, young workers and students, and visiting Bharathiyar’s library in Kadayam. None of it was scripted; all of it was him.
When I met him last month and placed Tenkasi’s educational aspirations before him - a CBSE training centre, a digital learning centre, Atal Tinkering Labs and AI infrastructure for our students - he gave a patient ear amid a packed schedule and promptly referred our petition for evaluation.
His national footprint speaks for itself: architecting NEP 2020, democratising education by championing Indian languages, upgrading over 13,000 PM SHRI schools, launching the Bharatiya Bhasha Utsav, taking flagship institutions like IIT Madras global with its Zanzibar campus, and driving NIPUN Bharat for foundational literacy.
@dpradhanbjp
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏🙏 🫡
DG and all Ranks of #CRPF pay solemn tribute to Ct/GD Ashish Kumar Tiwari of 202 CoBRA Bn, who made the supreme sacrifice while bravely combating Maoists during an operation in West Medinipur, West Bengal on 26 July 2010. For his exceptional courage and conspicuous gallantry, he was posthumously awarded the Shaurya Chakra. #CRPF salutes the braveheart and pledges never to let his sacrifice go in vain.
#LestWeForget
🇮🇳 #Bharat_Ke_Veer 🇮🇳
Jai Hind! 🙏🙏🙏 🫡
“दिदी, माँ-पापा के लिए तुम्हारे पास एक घर लेना, मेरा क्या पता, आज हूँ, कल नहीं”
As if He knew his destiny….
Let’s pay Homage to
LIEUTENANT RIBHU SAXENA
22 RAJPUT
On his Balidan Diwas today.
22yrs ago 24yrs young soldier gave his all while defending the Nation in J&K #OnThisDay Jul 25, 2004.
#KnowYourHeroes
P.C Humans of Bombay
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