flyonthewall

You can leave your hat on. Personal views on this personal space.

[flyonthewall @wilsonmpaul]

Treasure our authors intellectuals and artists. They are coming for them with the tags first, and you know what happens next. Yes 'intellectual' is not a bad word believe it or not.

[BJP Karnataka @BJP4Karnataka]

Q: Who are you?
A: I am @Ram_Guha ( Ramachandra Guha).

#UrbanNaxals who operate in a Dark World are completely unknown to the Common Man.

They make their presence felt through inciting violence & organizing protests at the behest of their Masters.

They are getting exposed now.

[Anu @anushakunmittal]

INC was removed in 2014 chiefly because of reasons:
corruption, inflation &policy paralysis

But now we are witnessing unimaginable corruption, back-breaking inflation, policy disasters.
Bonus: a divided nation,fake news-laden godi media, &disastrous foreign policy.

Benefit?

[Salman Soz @SalmanSoz]

I feel bad for BJP. They keep scoring self goals. Spreading misinformation about oil bonds has been used as a cover by BJP to extort huge amounts of funds from Indian citizens. Let us get to the bottom of this.

If we take the data BJP has shared, this is what it says:

Average cost of crude oil (per barrel)
2005-2014: $86 (MMS)
2015-2025: $67 (Modi)

Average cost of petrol (Rupees per liter)
2005-2014: 54 (MMS)
2015-2025: 82 (Modi)

Crude oil was 22% cheaper under BJP, yet petrol was 52% more expensive!

What happened? Taxes are a big part of the Modi government's petroleum strategy (other factors impact prices too).

BJP will keep misleading the public about oil bonds being a reason for high fuel prices but they hope that you don't find out the full picture.

Keep reading!

BJP's oil bond figure of 3.23 lakh crore (more on that later) should be seen in the following context.

Between 2015 and 2025, the petroleum sector has generated 66 lakh crores in revenues for the exchequer. According to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (or PPAC), the Central Government collected 40 lakh crores of the total. 34 lakh crores were in taxes and duties. While 6 lakh crores were dividends.

The BJP wants you to believe that your high petrol and diesel prices are because of the 3.23 lakh crores of principal and interest payments associated with oil bonds issues by the UPA government (and the Vajpayee government). Total silence about taxes and duties!

So, you have to praise the Modi government because they spent 3.32 lakh crores out of the 40 lakh crores they collected from all of us. If you are not outraged by this, then you are only interested in supporting BJP blindly. That is your choice.

But, the story doesn't end there. There is another twist. The 3.23 lakh crore "credit card bill" that the BJP claims as UPA's legacy is a half truth:

1. The first oil bonds were issued by the NDA 1 government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee (9000 crore).

2. The UPA Government paid interest of 53,163 crores between 2009 and 2014. This interest was on the bonds issued both by the Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh governments. I bet you didn't hear Dr. Singh constantly complain about the Vajpayee government's oil bond.

3. That means the amount of interest and principal repaid by the Modi government is much less than 3.23 lakh crores.

But we paid 34 lakh crores in taxes and duties for the central government alone. Add to that taxes and duties for state governments and the dividends issued mostly for the central government and you begin to fully understand how the fleecing of the Indian consumer and taxpayer is engineered under the cover of UPA oil bonds, which are a tiny fraction of the oil sector's Rs. 66 lakh crore contribution to the government exchequer.

Don't let BJP get away with fake narratives. Time to reclaim the truth...and the country.

[rohanbabu @rohanbabu]

There is an invisible layer that affects many friendships in Bengaluru.

That layer is called urban and civic exhaustion.

Friendships don’t fade because people don’t care. They fade because the city quietly drains the energy required to sustain them.

The traffic takes an hour out of your evening. Work spills into what used to be personal time. Weekends become recovery periods rather than social ones.

You start saying things like:

“Let’s meet soon.”
“Next week for sure.”
“Once things settle down.”

Things rarely settle down.

What earlier required a 10 minute auto ride now requires planning, coordination, and stamina. You have to build stamina to be rejected by drivers on apps, to cross under constructed sites, to take long jumps over open drainages and collect dust on your face.

Friendships slowly move from physical spaces to WhatsApp reactions and Instagram replies.

The affection is still there. The intent is still there.

But the civic friction of the city sits between people.

In cities like Bengaluru, maintaining friendships has quietly become an act of effort. And sometimes, effort is the first casualty of urban and civic exhaustion.

[MAHESH KRISHNAN @MAHESH79989822]

💯 %. Let me amplify your thoughts-
I moved here from Singapore in 2023. What I have seen & observed in my own behaviour is exactly what you said.
In SG, I could put out a whatsapp message in a group of 15 on wed Saying "Let's meet on fri 6:30 at Masala bar on ECR ". And 6-10 guys would turn up. All Indian expats.

In BLR, I better make plans at least a week/ 10 days in advance, message people 1:1, campaign a bit & build up a quorum. Else, I'm going to be drinking alone..or maybe 1 other chap.

The reason is not that people in bangalore are not social or are too busy. Its what you have said. The sheer grind of the commute.
In SG, the guys would have finished work at 5:30, gone home, changed, freshened up & are at the bar at 6:30 - 7:00. You are done by 10:30 max. You are home by 11:00. I.e if you are not inclined for late night partying .

In BLR, 7:00 pm is peak traffic. NOBODY wants to spend 1:5 hrs in the bloody traffic. Their first thought when you make plans is " Where is this place& How long is it going to take me?"

So they make excuses. Can't blame them.
In 2 yrs my first thought when I have to go anywhere is - "What's the traffic going to be like?"

This applies to other kinds of social interaction as well. We hesitate to visit relatives who are more than an hour of commute away. ( 1 hr commute is like 10 km in BLR , btw).
On a weekend I don't want to spend half the day dealing with traffic.

Result: Haven't met a lot of people in years.
We don't really live in Bangalore. We only live in Bellandur & travel as far as Indiranagar on one sidev& HSR on the other. Anything beyond silk board is no no.

Sorry for the rant. Your tweet triggered traffic-trauma 😄

[Dr. Clown, PhD @DrClownPhD]

Ain’t no way I laughed at that 😭

[Deepak Bopanna @dpkBopanna]

"Just because they founded Infosys are they Brihaspati (God of Knowledge)?" : CM Siddaramaiah when asked about Narayan Murthy & Sudha Murthy refusing to participate in the socio economic & educational survey being conducted in Karnataka.
"See it's left to them, this is not a survey of only backward classes, if they don't understand this what can I say, are they brihaspati if they are founders of Infosys?. See, we have said it 20 times that this is not a survey of backward alone, it is the survey of the entire population survey. Don't the upper castes get benefits of schemes like Shakti or gruha Lakshmi?"

[sohit mishra @sohitmishra99]

Protest has always been the voice of the people.

But sadly, every time citizens raise their voices, a ready-made narrative is pushed:
"They block the roads."
"They are anti-development."
"They are anti-India."

We saw it with the Aarey protestors.
We saw it with the farmers painted as Khalistani.
And now again, with the Maratha protestors in Mumbai.

Here is the irony: The same city that stayed silent when lakhs of office-goers were asked to “work from home” for a billionaire’s wedding in BKC, suddenly finds it unbearable when farmers and villagers travel hundreds of kilometres in their own vehicles and tempos to demand their rights.

If the inconvenience is caused by the rich, it is decorated as “celebration.”
If the inconvenience is caused by the poor, it is condemned as “nuisance.”

India gained freedom through protests. Yet today, many have forgotten that protests are not a crime, they are a democratic right.

This reel is part of the full video on my YouTube channel Sohit Mishra Official.

Check out the complete story here: https://t.co/Jxz7Yw86qF

#MarathaInMumbai
#MarathaAndolan

[flyonthewall @wilsonmpaul]

If you don't believe it yet, see for yourself.

[Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده @RamAbdu]

Live on air… Israel bombs civil defense teams as they try to retrieve the body of journalist Hossam Al-Masri, killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital.
Ongoing crimes before the eyes of the entire world.

[Brandon Stanton @humansofny]

“When I entered Gaza the Israeli military had a rule: I was only allowed to bring in three kilos of food. As I was weighing out protein bars, trying to get under the limit, I said to my husband: ‘How sinister is this?’ I’m a humanitarian aid worker. Why would there even be a limit on food? I’ve worked in many places with extreme hunger, but what’s so jarring in this context is how cruel it is, how deliberate. I was in Gaza for two months; there’s no way to describe the horror of what’s happening. And I say this as a pediatric ICU doctor who sees children die as part of my work. Among our own staff we have doctors and nurses who are trying to treat patients while hungry, exhausted. They’re living in tents. Some of them have lost fifteen, twenty members of their families. In the hospital there are kids maimed by airstrikes: missing arms, missing legs, third degree burns. Often there’s not enough pain medication. But the children are not screaming about the pain, they’re screaming: ‘I’m hungry! I’m hungry!” I hate to only focus on the kids, because nobody should be starving. But the kids, it just haunts you in a different way. When my two months were finished, I didn’t want to leave. It’s a feeling I haven’t experienced in nearly twenty years of humanitarian assignments. But I felt ashamed. Ashamed to leave my Palestinian colleagues, who were some of the most beautiful and compassionate people that I’ve ever met. I was ashamed as an American, as a human being, that we’ve been unable to stop something that is so clearly a genocide. I remember when our bus pulled out of the buffer zone. Out the window on one side I could see Rafah, which was nothing but rubble. On the other side was lush, green Israel. When we exited the gate, the first thing I saw was a group of Israeli soldiers, sitting at a table, eating lunch. I’ve never felt so nauseous seeing a table full of food.”

-------------------------------------------------------

Aqsa Durrani is a pediatric doctor and board member of Doctors Without Borders USA, with nearly twenty years of experience in humanitarian projects. During our interview Aqsa repeatedly expressed a desire to center the voices of her Palestinian colleagues. To this end I’ve spent the past week collecting stories from the Palestinian staff of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. I will be sharing these stories over the next several days. I’m so grateful for the time that these people gave me; they were sleepless, hungry, traumatized, and often working 24-hour shifts. Because of the unreliable internet connection their images are sometimes grainy. Their words, however, will be crystal clear.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

John Oliver:

"Gaza is starving is objectively true. But it is also slightly misleading because it is too passive.

Gaza is being starved - by Israel."

The "Community of Nations" means nothing if you can forcibly starve a people and remain a full member.

[Satish Acharya @satishacharya]

Ethanol-Petrol mix! #EthanolScam

[Mrinal Asija @mrinaaal]

The sense of entitlement over the country and its public spaces these people have, to think they can dictate what others eat or not eat, is astounding.

12/n

[Mrinal Asija @mrinaaal]

It’s ironic how she was complaining about the state of domestic air travel at the beginning of the flight. I wonder if she acts this way on international flights and airlines. Does she create a fuss about her co-passengers consuming meat there too?

11/n

[Nehr_who? @Nher_who]

PM can ask for votes in the name of road built but he cannot be blamed for the potholes in it.

Wah re Bhakt wah !!

[👊🏻👊🏻 @an0nym0us30]

7️⃣
One was talking about jobs, education, unity.

The other was still blaming Nehru, still playing Hindu-Muslim.

I made my choice.

I voted for Rahul Gandhi.🗳️

No regrets. None.

[Johns. @CricCrazyJohns]

TEMBA BAVUMA IS POWERFUL, THIS VIDEO IS POWERFUL 🥹

The El Capitano of South Africa.

[Gajender Yadav @imYadav31]

One passport renewal experience I must share......so you don’t have to go through the same struggle.

I am writing to formally raise a serious concern regarding the deeply frustrating and poorly managed experience my wife and I recently faced at the passport office during her passport renewal process.

Let me begin by acknowledging a genuine mistake on our part...I had forgotten to sign the renewal form (though I had signed the photograph). We accept that.

[Ashwanii S Kumar @AshwaniiSKumar]

@DeepikaPNath While some may yell “war, war” from a distance, it’s the people near borders in J&K, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, etc., who face the real danger. Full support and prayers for those living under the shadow of missiles, your courage is unmatched. Stay safe!

[Rajdeep Sardesai @sardesairajdeep]

A speech for the ages by @ShayarImran in the Rajya Sabha. Agree/disagree with his party/politics but for sheer oratory and skilful presentation, a cut above. Brought back memories of the great parliamentary speakers of another era. Good to see parliament still has space for high quality speeches🙏👍